Just curious who else is living super frugal

[nok13]

news for you; here in the semi desert and desert, lamb and sheep are the main meals.... they just arent new zealand type merino but assaf/assawi and give birth to three/four babies... they are an all round sheep for milk and meat.

here lamb/sheep is not cheap but it is found in most stores both muslem and jewish style... (halal and kosher)... and both religiouns prefer lamb/sheep on certain holidays. as a matter of fact, when i had the petting zoo, sheep/goat rustling was two times a year 100% and often in between (just before lambing/kdding) ; we used to say that the thieves knew when our nannies or ewes were going to give birth before us...

sheep are lifted out of the barn/yard, slaughtered a few meters away, skinned, and thats it. goats are walked a kilometer or two, loaded on to vans and driven off to cross thru borders that are fairly porous.

and here, u cant insure livestock unless it is in a garage type barn with special doors and locks and cameras. who has money for that?

but anyhow..." Awassi

The Awassi evolved as a nomadic sheep breed through centuries of natural and selective breeding to become the highest milk producing breed in the Middle East. The breed is of the Near Eastern fat-tailed type. The average Awassi ewe has single lactations over 300 liters (650 pounds) per 210-day lactation, and it is not uncommon for outstanding females to have 210 day lactations above 750 liters (1,625 lbs).

As a comparison, the lactation of the average U.S. sheep breed is about 100 to 200 pounds per lactation. The breed also has the advantage of natural hardiness and grazing ability. The males are horned and the females are usually polled. The fleece is mostly carpet type with a varying degree of hair."

they are ugly as far as sheep go btw.. but tasty. i actually found lamb that i ate in the states to be bland. here, people prefer the pastured sheep flavour so growers for the food market will pasture their lambs and mutton prior to slaughter to get rid of that 'pellet' flavour...that comes from eating pellet food.

 

[Whispering Winds]

I just totaled up my seed order for Pinetree, and have another one going into Gurney's to take advantage of their coupon, buy $50 get $50 free, before March 2 or 3 I think . . .going to get grapes and some things like that. Our asparagus bed is beautiful, really helped putting the Alpaca poop along side it to rot thruout the summer, and then want to get more strawberries, and figure out a way to keep them WEED free. . . I work and work on them, but they just get out of hand when other things happen and I have to let them go for a few days . . .want blackberries and my blueberries are a bust, really hate that, as DH LOVES them.

One thing I did try, and will try to post pictures of it, is to take your romaine out of the store, cut it off about 3"s or so up from the base and put it in water. The clear glass round ones with the fluted edges work real well from the $1 store, and I have a few of them from one thing or another . . . and root them. No kidding, in 10 days you have 4" leaves growing. I know it will take several roots to get my guinea pigs fed and happy, but its free after the initial purchase (which is terrifying!!!) and I am curious to see how long one root will last without rotting. . .

Going to grow as much as I can to freeze and can. . .worried about our food supply here in the midwest. Gas just hit under $4 so the truckers cannot keep it up that are independent and have so much overhead as it is . . .our food sources are going to be greatly compromised. . .

I coupon, buy in bulk when its a good deal, always keep food items that can be made into many different dishes, and want to find beef to buy this year, even 100#'s . . .just to have it and be comforted in that fact.

 

[Whispering Winds]

Well, I can't upload because I forgot I deleted them off of this computer, but the Romaine WORKS for growing new starts!!! Going to try garlic next.

 

[bj taylor]

I just found this thread. Has anyone tried to raise chickens totally on pasture?. I do not care how slow they grow, just want them to feed the family without using a freezer and without expensive feed. If yes, then which breed?

my little chicken flock (5 birds) is virtually on pasture (1 1/2 acre). i barely suplement. i don't know how much land you need to accomodate x number of birds. the breeds i have are barred rock, buff orp, silver laced wyandotte, and black australorp - all dual purpose breeds. they're in good shape, i just don't know how many more birds i could accomdate on this amount of land & still have well fed birds.

 

[ocap]

my little chicken flock (5 birds) is virtually on pasture (1 1/2 acre). i barely suplement. i don't know how much land you need to accomodate x number of birds. the breeds i have are barred rock, buff orp, silver laced wyandotte, and black australorp - all dual purpose breeds. they're in good shape, i just don't know how many more birds i could accomdate on this amount of land & still have well fed birds.

thanks

 

[Kikiriki]

We did bi-weekly shopping when I was in my teens. You need PLENTY of storage, and you will end up needing an extra fridge or freezer, plus storage with a controlled temp: like a cellar or basement. We used the garage and stuff went bad fast in summer, and I was always worried about getting food poisoning, even with canned stuff.

Dried stuff does have to go in the freezer, too. I recently had to throw out a well sealed plastic tub of various dried beans because of those little black borer bugs: what are they called? And let me tell you, it STUNK!

Bulk buying is not often cheaper: you really have to compare the price per unit. Watching sales is better for savings, and home depot often sells houshold items like cleaners and garbage bags and paper towels cheaper then a grocery store on sale, plus they have really big sizes.

The extra freezer costs in electricity, though, so figure out what it will cost to run versus what you save...

 

[galanie]

I just found this thread. Has anyone tried to raise chickens totally on pasture?. I do not care how slow they grow, just want them to feed the family without using a freezer and without expensive feed. If yes, then which breed?

You can have just about any breed that way. Just don't look for them to get all that big or lay very many eggs. I've heard that the best at foraging for themselves are the game types. Not cornish crosses but Asil, LF real cornish, but mostly the Asian games. The tall rangy looking ones. They are heavy and good meat birds even though they look lean.

 

[ScottnLydia]

Nok13, thanks for the info on the Awassi sheep! Very interesting!

I primarily raise Dorpers, which are a hair sheep. They are also well suited to desert conditions (I live in high plains, very dry, poor forage). They were bred from a cross of Persian Blackheaded sheep, another desert fat-tailed variety.

 

[nok13]

yep, here we cross breed with dorpor also; i had many lambs from what we call baladi /dorper... here, anyting that comes from the 'old timers' or from the arab villages or from home grown style is called baladi: we have balaladi chickens, baladi goats, baladi cucumbers (a very sweet variety but needs lots of space and water) , not sure how to describe to an american what baladi means (its actually arabic term not hebrew) but i guess 'homegrown', 'old style' are the two best terms.
anyhow, baladi are usually all purpose animals or veggies that may not be wonderful producers or fast growers but are usually hardier, easier (throw them down/out and they fend for themselves with a bit of help) and in my opinioin tastier then more speciallized breeds or varieties of things. nowadays, baladi anyhthing costs twice as mucha s it has become a gourmet term: lamb baladi, etc...

 

[Coop Cleaner]

We have just retired on mostly SS so have been forced to rethink our spending. Started raising goats and already had chickens. Started canning last summer from our garden which we intend to expand this year.