The Old Folks Home

[perchie.girl]

Heel low:

....
And yes, Deb...you can end up with tomato like fruit tho I believe we are not suppose to really want those.

Both tomato and potato are from the Nightshade family (Solanaceae)...I recall seeing a fantastic tomatoes on top and potatoes on roots...think it was a drawing. Not sure if'n that is possible but could be...they are doing all sorts of funky things...space saver, too! I think it CAN be done by grafting...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

The very little reading I saw said the berries dont effect the Potato production they are just another form of reproduction. The Potato plants grown from the seeds will be a different variety. And take a very very long time to produce potatoes.

Just found it all very interesting.

deb

 

[bruceha2000]

Me too Deb!

And yes those are very pretty flowers, I would have NEVER EVER guessed a homely spud would generate such a show up top. I think Tara is right, I should grow some just to see the flowers.

 

[Beer can]

My father-in-law told me tomatoes have grown on his potato plants, thought he was nuts.
Two different times now I've had it happen. Just little hard green one's but definitely tomatoes. Lol!

 

[CanuckBock]

The very little reading I saw said the berries dont effect the Potato production they are just another form of reproduction. The Potato plants grown from the seeds will be a different variety. And take a very very long time to produce potatoes.

Just found it all very interesting.

deb

I read that the berries come from non-conducive conditions for growing potatoes...cold temps and/or excessive fertilizers (don't use commercial type fertilizers...composted turkey poo & oat straw bedding was this year's fortè...nummy!)

So it is quite correct that the berries do not affect the plant as you read BUT the conditions that incite them to grow...too much fertilizer and/or too much cold...those would be a sign to me that my potatoes were not thriving in the best of the best conditions.

Sheep TV - June 1, 2016
After preparing the dirt by tilling and tilling in composed bedding -
Had some of the sheep do the once over inside the plot
to mow it up tidy like ​

Remember these shots Deb...all those helpers I continue to have!

Jun 4, 2016 - the new hair sheep (black ones are the 2Katahdin/Dorper crosses, others are Dorpers)
Just had to inspect...is this food...can we eat this NOW?​

I can never complain that I do not have help...so no whining the relentless "Lil' Red Hen" chats...

Same day; planting day, eh.
Amazing these few seed potatoes planted this plot
Three rows, sixty-four feet long
​

I have another two rows of potatoes but used boring old seed potatoes from years prior...they are a good set of red and white ones...but compared to the expectations of all the colourful ones I have brought in...yeh, just boring, practical. Probably be the ones I have to keep going with because whilst not as exciting...old stand bys mean you have food you grew too.

June 7, 2016 - tilled, furrowed and ready for planting ​

Aug 2 - doing pretty nicely
Same place as the other plot but further south
It bakes in the sun here thanks to the Caragana shelterbelt being so tall...
Not had to water, not once...

​

Very wet year here...July was the wettest on record only to one with more in 1927...more rain by the fifteenth of July than most of the entire month for normals.

I know potatoes like heat...so maybe, just maybe (not this first week so far!), heat in August...or maybe like last year...heat in September...har har...heat in May and heat in September...spring and rain in the middle of the supposed summer season? Oh well...it could always hail or snow...any month of the year we get snow. So time to zip lip...snow kills potatoes tout sweet, eh!

Better not complain too loudly as Ft. Mac...it burned in May and just heard on Sunday, 73 homes flooded with a flash flood up thar...cripers...burn them out, nope then drown them out...angry Earth...very angry. Maybe we all need to sacrifice a rubber chicken or three to the weather goDs...dunno no more's.

Quote:
Originally Posted by bruceha2000

Me too Deb!

And yes those are very pretty flowers, I would have NEVER EVER guessed a homely spud would generate such a show up top. I think Tara is right, I should grow some just to see the flowers.

Aren't they just amazing...tiny and good thing I paused to notice them...stop and see the flowers...

I am happy to see the colourful taters also throw colourful flowers...even the stems hint at the colour of the tubers...neato!

My father-in-law told me tomatoes have grown on his potato plants, thought he was nuts.
Two different times now I've had it happen. Just little hard green one's but definitely tomatoes. Lol!

These "berries" are deemed not edible having high levels of solanine (toxin). Attractive to children, we are not suppose to allow kids to be in close proximity to "fruitful" taters in case one eats some. Causes illness. Nightshade family is like that...you can make a natural insecticide with potato leaves...nasty nasty. It is one bonus tho, not like I need worry my ruminants will bust in from the adjacent pasture and EAT the potato leaves all up.

Mash the ripe berries, put in a glass of water, leave sit a few days and then remove seeds that sink to the bottom. Suppose to take a loooong time to reach potato hood...and the plants will not be like the parental ones. As said, I would not bother...but it is novel to see all the different expressions of the nightshade family.

​

One thing I enjoy doing is taking a small artist's brush and dusting plant flowers of the Christmas Cactus (Schlumbergera)...cannot be cutting produced plants (must be unrelated to each other), so like a red and a pink flowered one and if you fertilize the flowers...those otherwise kinda boring plants will produce fruit. Pink ones produce a globish pink fruit and the red ones produce a darker fruit. Then your Christmas cactus has decorations on it fur all the year long...not just during flowering time (can also be done to Easter cactus - Hatiora gaertneri ).

I guess be fruitful and multiply applies eh...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[Bunnylady]

Ah, yes, whatever we do, we must be adequately snoopervized.

But of course, sometimes they want to help . . . Sometimes I think the little red hen didn't know how good she had it.

 

[Kusanar]

Ah, yes, whatever we do, we must be adequately snoopervized.


But of course, sometimes they want to help . . . Sometimes I think the little red hen didn't know how good she had it.

lol, reminds me of my horses... one of my friends took a wheelbarrow out to the field to pull weeds, had gotten it pretty full and was pulling on one stubborn weed, when one horse dumped the wheelbarrow and another ran up and stole her weeds! Took off running across the field scattering them everywhere!

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Ah, yes, whatever we do, we must be adequately snoopervized.


But of course, sometimes they want to help . . . Sometimes I think the little red hen didn't know how good she had it.

SNOOPervise....awesome...hafta try to remember that one. Always count on you to come up with the priceless ones...

I should be old enough to be alone, but nope...forever being stalked, hunted, watched...inspected!

Dog sniffers, sniffing...for what...illicit grow operation? Dandelions, wheat and oat seeds that sprouted... ​

Always under supervision...I mighten get myself into trouble...so always surrounded, kept under wraps, watched intently... I might move unnoticed and run Benny Hill (Alfred Hawthorne Hill) some place special.

Sitting in the shade, joined by the dual wardens...duo shadow dogs...in the shade​

I guess I should be thankful...like the taste testers...I am not allowed to meander around...might lose a slipper, fall down, not get up, get rained on...or worse yet, not save enough energy to make supper.

​

Go to make sure the sheep ditch mowing are all good...but out before I arrive...

OK...yer safe to proceed...​

lol, reminds me of my horses... one of my friends took a wheelbarrow out to the field to pull weeds, had gotten it pretty full and was pulling on one stubborn weed, when one horse dumped the wheelbarrow and another ran up and stole her weeds! Took off running across the field scattering them everywhere!

Tis totally typical!

Where are the green eaters...hovering...close by​

If'n we tried to feed weeds to them first off...they would turn their noses up...but now, stolen weeds...oh yeh.

I mean the one llama thought the dogs were after his found treasures...almost came to spitting!​

Reminds me of bedding for ruminants.

Far too often I am cleaning a barn out, then put down oat straw...I go out and load up the feeders (if'n it is like winter and no forage), where are the flocks/herds? Inside the now cleaned barns eating the bedding...go in there, they look at me as if to say..."Move along, we're good!"

But we all KNOW, if we put oat straw in their feeders...the pathetic l00ks of utter disgust that would prevail. "She is torturing us with LOW quality foods! ABUSE...ABUSE!"


Stolen is always better...be happy "I" don't travel...I'd be a garden raider in no time flat...leap tall fences to roust out all the produce!" Giddy, staggering (having to harvest fast, eh), and drunken on the rush!

I do remember coming home late one night with a girlfriend (ladies night...eons ago!)...and raiding my own garden. Giggling and laughing, falling over in the veggies. Man those peas were good...hee hee... Hangover later, not so much fun--I don't do that no more's...old dog learned her lessons!

What a mess I had to clear up in the garden...young, foolish and no thoughts of repercussions...oh NOT to be young again...thank heavens!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[perchie.girl]

Katee LOVES oat hay Last time I gave her a flake of it she mumbled through the whole thing.... didnt even stop for a drink of water... goof ball.

Only thing she loves more is Alfalfa.... If I were living at home shed get both bermuda and alfalfa.... Bermuda free fed Alfalfa morning and evening.... No grass here... sigh.

deb

 

[Alaskan]

Just shoot me!!!

I finally screw up my courage to call the vet (haven't wanted to give myself another bill to pay).

I need him to come out, do a good check-up on my three does. I never did have them looked at after buying them. But one has disbudded horns that I think are fine, but dont look quite right so I want looked at, and one has bumps that looks like the parasite bumps that my horse had (back when I had horses) that are ignorable but I wanna be sure that is what there are, and see if he sees anything else that I need to be monitoring on them, or testing them for to male sure that their milk wont kill us (and yes, we have been drinking it for months and are not dead....dont poke at my logic, I know it isn't there, it would just make me feel better...and then also I could maybe give some extra to the neighbors... ) ...

and I need to get them tested for johnes, CAE and CL so that I can pimp them out. I need them bred in the next couple of months. I found someone with a buck that will cover them if I can prove they are clean of the above.

And... (Drum roll) the ONLY vet within a FOUR hour driving radius that does house calls and knows his stuff and will drive out to your place to see your animals (and actually charges reasonable rates..a big shocker there, good price and totally worth it) IS TOTALLY GONE!!!

As far as I know, he isn't dead, but might be, but has disconnected his phones and if not dead has something horrid wrong with him and is in the hospital in Anchorage. And has been for the last 2 to 3 weeks.

I guess I have to google how to do the blood draws myself...... and screw the rest.

 

[chickadoodles]

Just shoot me!!!

I finally screw up my courage to call the vet (haven't wanted to give myself another bill to pay).

I need him to come out, do a good check-up on my three does. I never did have them looked at after buying them. But one has disbudded horns that I think are fine, but dont look quite right so I want looked at, and one has bumps that looks like the parasite bumps that my horse had (back when I had horses) that are ignorable but I wanna be sure that is what there are, and see if he sees anything else that I need to be monitoring on them, or testing them for to male sure that their milk wont kill us (and yes, we have been drinking it for months and are not dead....dont poke at my logic, I know it isn't there, it would just make me feel better...and then also I could maybe give some extra to the neighbors... ) ...

and I need to get them tested for johnes, CAE and CL so that I can pimp them out. I need them bred in the next couple of months. I found someone with a buck that will cover them if I can prove they are clean of the above.

And... (Drum roll) the ONLY vet within a FOUR hour driving radius that does house calls and knows his stuff and will drive out to your place to see your animals (and actually charges reasonable rates..a big shocker there, good price and totally worth it) IS TOTALLY GONE!!!

As far as I know, he isn't dead, but might be, but has disconnected his phones and if not dead has something horrid wrong with him and is in the hospital in Anchorage. And has been for the last 2 to 3 weeks.

I guess I have to google how to do the blood draws myself......

and screw the rest.