Oregon

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Hey Kathleen--I lived in Sprague River for 10 years! Commuted to Klamath Falls every day to work--that was no fun. I'm over in Grants Pass now, and have to say I don't miss that snow at all! Honey and I joke about how they close schools here for the tiniest bit of snow, it was just normal over the hill and you were expected to deal with it.

I haven't been on the Oregon thread for a while, good to see so many Southern Oregon folks here. I've thought we should start a State of Jefferson thread, just for more local chats.

I love Sprague River, but I don't have to commute! We usually go to town once a week, less if I can manage it. My youngest daughter is severely mentally handicapped, so we live on her SSI, plus the State pays me for caring for her. For a few years we've also got some income from the sale of my grandmother's house -- DD and I lived with her the last eight years of her life, so she wouldn't have to go into assisted living (that income is going to getting our housing paid off). So, we have an income without having to commute, at least until the economy crashes. God has blessed us greatly. This is a good community, a real community where people know each other and help one another. I have good neighbors here; my mother and step-father live fairly close by so I can help them out a bit; and the people here don't think I'm weird for keeping chickens and goats and having a garden and a full pantry! They most all do at least some of the same things! I also like that the property taxes are lower in this area.

We had six inches of snow on the deck this morning, about twice what I was expecting. It's supposed to get down to -14 in the morning, and is already around zero. My chickens take the cold weather just fine without any extra heat, although the Australorp rooster is going to have a frost-bitten comb. (That's why I'm trying to go to all rose-comb, pea comb, or cushion comb birds here.) I use the black rubber water pans, and just break the ice out and put hot water in. It usually stays liquid for a while, and at night it doesn't matter because they are all sleeping anyway. The old chicken house that came with the place is very small, only 8' x 8', theoretically way too small for the 24 large fowl I have. But they are outside most of the time. They use the building to sleep in, to lay their eggs, and I keep the feeder in there so it doesn't get rained in.

I've been getting one or two eggs a day, so someone has started laying again, LOL!! I'm still going to pick up another flat of eggs next time I go to town, but hopefully that will be the last store-bought eggs for a while. I'm drying the goats off, will milk one last time tomorrow morning. Hopefully they won't all wait until April or May to kid! (I've had a buck in with them constantly, but am not sure when they are getting bred -- at least three were in heat again recently. I have four does altogether.)

Kathleen

Yes, we should start a thread for the State of Jefferson. Geographically, that would make more sense than using California and Oregon.

 

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Ladies im looking at some Property up the Klamath river any advice its close to yreka

I don't really know much about that area -- we are out east of the Upper Klamath Lake about thirty miles. Look in this area, and I'll be glad to help, LOL!

Kathleen

 

[donrae]

Ladies im looking at some Property up the Klamath river any advice its close to yreka

I'm also not familiar with that area, sorry. The Klamath river's pretty darn long, and I only know the K Falls/Klamath county region.

 

[Tammy N]

Maybe you can both help me looking for 20+ acres with house i want to do organic garden and have at least 3 bedrooms

the place i found i am in love with but its a little pricey for me is 124 acres a little too much for a single women too .
but thats what i am looking for selling the place i live in if i get the 124 just to make up the extra as a cash out deal .
if i find something thats 20-30 acres that would be perfect

 

[donrae]

Maybe you can both help me looking for 20+ acres with house i want to do organic garden and have at least 3 bedrooms

the place i found i am in love with but its a little pricey for me is 124 acres a little too much for a single women too .
but thats what i am looking for selling the place i live in if i get the 124 just to make up the extra as a cash out deal .
if i find something thats 20-30 acres that would be perfect

You could find that much land fairly cheap in Klamath County--the outlying towns like Sprague River, Bonanza, Bly, etc. Thing is, I didn't have good luck growing much over there. I know it varies a lot by where you are, but my soil was rock and clay, horrible for gardening.

Over on the west side, you could look around the towns of Sunny Valley, Wolf Creek or Hugo--they're up to half an hour from Grants Pass, usually good soils, nice climate, decent prices. Course, all your neighbors are gonna be growing pot, so be prepared for your place to smell like skunk in the late summer/early fall.

 

[BrendaJ]

-10 this morning , chickens wont even come out of the coop. They hate the snow

 

[Tammy N]

Quote: Im planning on doing this for my Garden Maybe digging a 10 x5 3 ft deep if thats the case for the property

My beds would be 5 long 4 wide and see how many i can get going LOL

 

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Tammy N, why don't you look on-line at the Sprague River area? Donrae is right that it can be difficult to grow things here. Warm-climate crops like tomatoes NEED a greenhouse. It doesn't have to be huge -- I have friends who plan to build a 'walipini' greenhouse (mostly underground), and I will probably do the same on my other property if the economy holds together long enough for me to build there. Cool-climate crops can do just fine outdoors, and if you can find a parcel that includes some bottom-land you could have good garden soil already. I have a friend (and neighbor) who has a place down by the river with deep good-quality soil and she has a wonderful garden. I don't think they would have been allowed to build on that property if buying it nowadays, as it's for sure included in the flood plain maps. My other two lots, less than a mile from here, have a little bit of flood plain at the bottom, but have a building site uphill from that, so if and when we ever get moved over there, we should have some decent garden soil, too. I have friends up on the tableland, also, and they love it up there, but the soil is horrible, full of rocks. There's a herd of wild horses that goes by their place quite often, though....

It was -24 degrees F both last morning and this morning, the coldest temps by far that I've seen in eleven years living in Klamath County. Haven't hit the record cold for December, yet, though -- that was -32 degrees, sometime back in the 1960's. (And since the official temps are taken at the airport in Klamath Falls, it was probably five to ten degrees colder out here in the Sprague River area. I was raised in the Interior of Alaska and don't mind temps like that, as long as they don't last too long, but it can be quite a shock for folks from farther south!)

I've had coyotes in the yard in broad daylight several times in the 15 months we've lived in this house, at least twice they were less than thirty feet from the house. Livestock guardian dogs are a MUST. Don't necessarily have to be an 'official' LGD breed (one of mine is; the other is a Border Collie X Pit/Lab/German Shepherd, both are good dogs), but you need something to keep the predators off the property!

The other issue in this region is water. I'm blessed with good wells on both my properties. In fact, the well on the other lot almost qualifies as an artesian -- it's about 135' deep, but at least in spring (when I checked it) the water was standing above the ground level inside the well-casing. It wasn't gushing out (I wish!) but I'm told it qualifies as an artesian, AND it's down at the bottom of the property in the garden area. But we simply don't get measurable rain from mid-June until at least the end of September, often well into October. This area is classified as 'semi-arid'; the 'average' precipitation is only 17" per year. Almost all of that comes in winter and spring. So you have to work around that, grow drought-adapted stuff, stuff that matures early, and use techniques such as swales to store water in your soil. Then be prepared to irrigate.

Kathleen

 

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Tammy N, I just looked at your info on the wicking garden beds! That looks like a larger version of the earthbox I made for inside the house! I've got greens growing in it -- it works great! I had been trying to figure out how to do bigger ones for outdoors -- thank you so much for posting that!

Kathleen

ETA: I just looked at your location -- I was born in Florence!

 

[Tammy N]

Tammy N, I just looked at your info on the wicking garden beds! That looks like a larger version of the earthbox I made for inside the house! I've got greens growing in it -- it works great! I had been trying to figure out how to do bigger ones for outdoors -- thank you so much for posting that!

Kathleen

ETA: I just looked at your location -- I was born in Florence!

I wanna do them like the IBC in the water pond area i wanna grow fish and Crawdads or Mysis Shrimp