Utah!

[the-bird-man]

I bought 12 Corturnix today, 5 hens and 2 roos. They are 7 weeks old. I think I'm going to give breeding them for meat a try and see how it works. I need a bigger incubator to get what i need to make it worth breeding them. I'm thinking about 30-40 quail a month to eat for my family of 10. ( my oldest daughter moved back in and my girlfriends oldest son is gong to be staying with us until he turns 18 in may). We are hoping to move of the grid (not everyone is as thrilled about this as me) this spring and i need to find ways to help with our food needs. I don't want to be completely off just enough that i don't have to pay for power, heat, and food.  

i admire that you are doing that. quail can be a great food source. this is a area that is of great interest to me and something i try to do as much as possible. do you do meat rabbits?

 

[sillycmoy]

Just got on, its been super busy here with work, and of course I did a lot with Girl Scout National Convention. But now its all over. Ilvu, did your Silkie eggs not hatch? I was looking and looking but they have to be so far back. I'm so very sorry if they didn't. If you get anymore eggs, I can try my incubator. I hand rotated 10 Silkie eggs and actually got 8 to hatch to my surprise. Also, I love your new Paints. I might have to get one from you next year.

Congrats Cynthia on your son coming home. That is so awesome!

And Gary if you make it off the grid, let me know. I want to get solar panels so bad. I just wish we had a yard that I could have a garden with.

 

[the-bird-man]

hey gary have you looked at making a methane digester? could turn stuff such as chicken manure into power for your home, you can cook with the gas, heat water etc, youtube has lots of good ideas.

 

[themadchicken]

Brad, any ideas would be appreciated. I haven't looked into a methane digester but it sounds like something i need to. I do like the idea of solar panels and also wind and water power. I have been looking at rocket furnaces to heat the home and green house and barn. i do still need to still power for computers since i do plan to keep breeding chickens and making money.I will also need power for the incubators for the quail. As far as meat rabbits, yes i have looked into them. We use to raise them when i was a young boy and it was my chore to look after them.This meant breeding raising and butchering them. If i remember you keep 2 bucks and and 4 does over winter and start breeding them in early spring and dint stop until late fall. This should give us at least 60 rabbit's a year or 2-3 meals a month. I am also looking into pigs, goats, sheep , cattle, and Llamas.If i could raise one a couple each per year and sale what i don't need then we should be ok for meat. What i need to learn more about is the small things that we take for granted, toilet paper, soap, deodorant, smores.

 

[themadchicken]

I all most forgot! Momo's eggs are starting to hatch. She is sitting on 6 eggs and my Welly is sitting on 14 eggs. If anyone wants a chick or 2 please let me know. These chicks are free to any BYC members. I already have a couple buyers that are waiting for the hatch but my Friends here come first. The first hatch is tomorrow and the Wellys is Thursday.

 

[the-bird-man]

Brad, any ideas would be appreciated. I haven't looked into a methane digester but it sounds like something i need to. I do like the idea of solar panels and also wind and water power. I have been looking at rocket furnaces to heat the home and green house and barn. i do still need to still power for computers since i do plan to keep breeding chickens and making money.I will also need power for the incubators for the quail.  As far as meat rabbits, yes i have looked into them. We use to raise them when i was a young boy and it was my chore to look after them.This meant breeding raising and butchering them. If i remember you keep 2 bucks and and 4 does over winter and start breeding them in early spring and dint stop until late fall. This should give us at least 60 rabbit's a year or 2-3 meals a month. I am also looking into pigs, goats, sheep , cattle, and Llamas.If i could raise one a couple each per year and sale what i don't need then we should be ok for meat. What i need to learn more about is the small things that we take for granted, toilet paper, soap, deodorant, smores.

i have not made a methane digester my self but i have thought about it for sure. great way to reduce your waste too. rocket heaters are amazing and can be made for very cheap. for hot water you could also look at a thermo siphon aka stove pipe heater but those can be dangerous as the water can get too hot. a trio of meat rabbits can produce as much meat as a cow in a year for a fraction of the feed, you just dont want them as your only meat source as they dont have much fat. another thing to look at is aquaponics, raiseing fish, veggies and fruit on one system with veggie scraps feeding the fish depending on the type of fish and the fish waste feeding/being filtered by the plants and then you being fed on the plants and fish for toilet paper you could do what large parts of the world does and rig up one of those kitchen type sprayers to the supply line of the toilet and use that.

 

[RedIII]

Cynthia, I'm so happy you got your Austin home safe and sound! Congrats!

Ok, haven't been on for a little while but the off the grid discussion has me really interested. I wanted to chime in DH and I are aiming to go OTG at some point here, hopefully soon. We want to set up a solar room on the back of our house that utilizes lava rock to soak up the sunshine and heat our water and home. DH had a friend out in the desert who did that and it worked well. Solar panels are also of interest to us, and we're investigating making our own from aluminum cans. So far as food goes, we've been storing a plethora of heirloom seeds for planting and testing growing of new crops, like the little patch of oats we have going for the winter. Gotta have food, right? We've also got the turkeys and chickens we can breed for meat.

On the plant thing, I have been starting some trees from seed and accidentally sprouted too many orange seeds. Man, those things were fertile! If anyone wants a baby orange tree, I'll probably end up giving away a few of these. I'd rather not throw them out. Just let me know if you want one. I'll have two, maybe three seedlings to rehome. They are sweet orange type, Valencia.

Gary, I've been researching some hardcore OTG stuff, like making your own soap, lotion bars, ink, yarn/wool thread, cheese, even stuff like chocolate and peanut butter. I like luxuries, what can I say? Lol.

I've been trying to get my hands on some of the more exotic plants as I can. Still need a cacao seedling. Got a lemon and three oranges, working on walnuts and almonds. You'd be surprised how easy some trees are to start from seed. Our aim is to have an orchard to supplement food, as well as a greenhouse with the tropical plants.

Alright, I could go on, but I need to stop. I'm sure I've talked too much already. But yes, exciting stuff

 

[bitsyhorse]

Cynthia, I'm so happy you got your Austin home safe and sound! Congrats!

Ok, haven't been on for a little while but the off the grid discussion has me really interested. I wanted to chime in

DH and I are aiming to go OTG at some point here, hopefully soon. We want to set up a solar room on the back of our house that utilizes lava rock to soak up the sunshine and heat our water and home. DH had a friend out in the desert who did that and it worked well. Solar panels are also of interest to us, and we're investigating making our own from aluminum cans. So far as food goes, we've been storing a plethora of heirloom seeds for planting and testing growing of new crops, like the little patch of oats we have going for the winter. Gotta have food, right? We've also got the turkeys and chickens we can breed for meat.

On the plant thing, I have been starting some trees from seed and accidentally sprouted too many orange seeds. Man, those things were fertile! If anyone wants a baby orange tree, I'll probably end up giving away a few of these. I'd rather not throw them out. Just let me know if you want one. I'll have two, maybe three seedlings to rehome. They are sweet orange type, Valencia.

Gary, I've been researching some hardcore OTG stuff, like making your own soap, lotion bars, ink, yarn/wool thread, cheese, even stuff like chocolate and peanut butter. I like luxuries, what can I say? Lol.

I've been trying to get my hands on some of the more exotic plants as I can. Still need a cacao seedling. Got a lemon and three oranges, working on walnuts and almonds. You'd be surprised how easy some trees are to start from seed. Our aim is to have an orchard to supplement food, as well as a greenhouse with the tropical plants.

Alright, I could go on, but I need to stop. I'm sure I've talked too much already. But yes, exciting stuff

I'll take an orange tree! do you keep it inside? or plant it outside? and would I need a second one to help it produce fruit?

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

So funny---I love the OTG stuff as well. About ten years ago, I had a friend who had designed an entire community to live this way, all working together as an independent little village. He had started developing the land for it already...then sadly he passed away, I think his idea and plans would have been very well received in these times. The land he had ended up going to his brother, who subdivided and sold out to the big real estate folks...there were already windmills in place and they took them out! I would have loved to join in and live in that community. Wouldn't that be amazing to live amongst like minded hard working folks and be self sufficient? Red if I lived closer I would nab an orange start from you. I need to drop roosters off to Derald on Nov 15 is there anyway to make something work? Not sure how close you guys live together, but maybe if you are not too far off I could get it from him when I come? If its too big a pain its no problem. I have the Meyer lemon in my living room, I get a good 6-8 lemons each year after Christmas, I keep it pruned pretty small. They are delicious. We have a spot as well behind our patio we want to build a sunroom for growing tropical and indoor plants during the winter. I hope we can get that done someday soon. We have a root cellar area that keeps potatoes/onions and carrots fresh til May or so, so we almost have root veggies year round. I just need to work on some Coldframes to grow greens during the cold months. Does anyone have some of these? I have been finding a lot of plans for them on Pinterest and saving them, now to get the DH to help me build some

 

[RedIII]

I'll take an orange tree! do you keep it inside? or plant it outside? and would I need a second one to help it produce fruit?

Sold! I think you can have them outside in warm weather, but you'll need to keep it inside for the colder months. Where are you at, again? We can figure out where to meet when the seedling is ready to go home with you I don't know if they need companion trees or not :/ I need to check my research notes. I think they're self pollinating, though.

Lisa, I work in Murray. If you want a seedling, I'll hold one for you until we know if we can get it to you or not I'm so excited to have them! Where is Derald at?

Ok, that's all the trees for now. If I have more sprout, I'll say on here.