Washingtonians

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
Lap Joint.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-_CS-a-DGRQ8/TfS5u3hAZzI/AAAAAAAAF6g/PWutVmMtqJw/s640/IMG_2555.JPG

*sigh*

Pretty!

I once worked for a mad inventor, whose primary project was problematic in that it was a biomass convertor in which he proposed to use every carbon atom twice as output. However, he did contrive an amazing manufactured greenhouse roof beam out of cedar. He ripped the cedar down to 12' long half-inch thick by two inch wide strips, and then made a double-compound curve by nailing and gluing the strips on shaped blocks: the lean-to greenhouse I made with those beams survived the Thanksgiving 1983 storm on the windward side of the house. I thought later when I was splitting my own boards that cedar split on-grain rather than sawn would be even stronger.

His proposal for the top header of a free-standing greenhouse involved a similar compound beam with the top block of the verticals meeting at another block, and the whole thing being an integral glue-lam joint.

Explaining this works better with a chalkboard, by the way. Also possibly with much more coffee.

 

[Chickielady]

Skunkis Maximus

How can such a beautiful animal smell sooooooooooooo baaaaaaaaaaaaad ???

DH was gagging, and could not get the skunk out of the trap.

So, I grabbed my Vicks-Vap-Rub (learned from the sheep ranch daze)
greased up my nose, gloved & out I went.
I opened the trap (YIPPEE FOR WOMAN POWER!!)
And removed skunkis by his tail, dropped in a shopping bag, tied, another bag, tied, and yet another.
Then I sent DH back out with a spray bottle of the bleach solution to clean the trap.
he is gagging...
and since I am back inside, washed my hands, I still think I have skunk on my shirt....

Like molecules floated up & got on me even though I held skunkis at arm's length......

 

[Chicken Rustler]

Well the 2 swarms we went to get this am. Turned out to be one swarm and one extraction. Seems they had been there since probably last summer. They were in a mobile home that is being demolished. We cut the comb and shewered it into frames. Got 6 1/2 frames of comb containing honey eggs and brood. And then there was a little "beekeepers reward" !!!

 

[Chicken Rustler]

Quote:
And that is why I don't like cats !! They STINK and pole cats stink the worst !!!!

 

[Chickielady]

Quote:
What are the GORGEOUS blue flowers in the foreground?!

Those be Bachelor Buttons

Link: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=bachelor+buttons&FORM=BIFD
(They come in different flavors, too)

 

[Chickielady]

I did have stink on my shirt & sweat shirt!!
How ??????????????????????
Had to change.
The rest of me is OK.

Seems skunkis went under the front of the old coop, and popped out IN the pen, where he wandered around & went back OUT and was then trapped.
The old coop is a few inches off the ground...and we saw skunkis on the wildlife cam squeezing UNDER a gate between pens...flattened out and went right under a gate that is 2" off the ground!!!!!!!!!!
He flattened out like a house cat does!!!!!!!!
Stepping up security here...he did not get in the front gate that is 1/2" from the ground.
He went under the coop that is 2" !!!!!!!!
Gak the smell is wreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeking outside....

 

[Chickielady]

Quote:
And that is why I don't like cats !! They STINK and pole cats stink the worst !!!!

You got that right!!!!!!!!!!!

And they kill chickens !!!!!!!!!!!

Amazing thing is, he had NO SMELL at all, even when I went up close & took his picture, until he was dispatched, then he blew it all.....

We could have easily heard a bump in the night IN the pens and walked out with flashlight in jamies and been squirted !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Illia]

There are cucumbers out there bred to have only females? Gosh what have commercial growers done to our food.

Just a word to people - Don't bother thinking about going with hydroponics. At least, in my opinion, it is a waste, and certainly not very natural or "organic." I never understood the hype of it. You use and waste a lot of water, you add a lot of fertilizers, often chemical and artificial, and use a lot of space just for a few plants.


Personally I find there's a much better solution - Aquaponics.

Instead of just water and fertilizer to feed your plants, you have a fish tank (or pond or whatever) there to supply food to the plants through their waste, and the water circulates from fish to plants, plants to fish, and so on. There is NO waste of water, no need to change it, and there's no need for extra fertilizers. Over time, the minerals build up, and the longer you have a system going and the older your fish get, the healthier your plants. Plus, if you use edible species like trout, perch, and/or tilapia, you get fish out of the deal too! The only "need" in the system is food for the fish, which can be provided either by growing greens in the fish tank, feeding them worms (with a worm harvester, or beetle larva and beetles through breeding) or even feeding commercial fish food. (the last I'd recommend)

We've got two large water tanks in our greenhouse that supply some Aquaponics, soon we'll have half or more of the greenhouse running on Aquaponics. We'll hook up solar panels/power to get the pump going, and that is all that is needed.

As for plant pollinization someone mentioned - My tomatoes I usually just tap the flowers with to pollinate, although if I want to save seed from some select tomatoes, I tap the pollen out onto a brush and introduce it to another plant's flower (of the same variety, of course) My melons, watermelons, and squash all get hand pollinated by either using a paintbrush or plucking a few male flowers and introducing them to the female flower. On occasion I do have bees that visit the greenhouse when the windows are open, but they don't actually pollinate much, which is fine with me. I need pure varieties, not hybrids. My peppers can produce fruit even without been shaken, but I usually like transferring the easily handled pollen from flower to flower by brush or finger anyway, just so I get plenty of good seeds from the fruit.

I know a lot of you are beekeepers, but I really don't like the idea of feeding them sugar or other sweetners, and my mom is fatally allergic to bee stings, so, that's out. Instead we'll be growing Stevia, plus there's plenty sugars from our huge variety of fruits, beets included, but I really do want to someday try Sorghum syrup, I just hear it takes a LOT of work to get. (in the old days, a mule was used to grind it up, turning cranks ALL Day) Agave is a serious must in my opinion, but I don't know if the family wants such a dangerous plant growing in the greenhouse, plus, it likes it dry.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
I'm trying to be blithely unconcerned about the state of my yard and garden this year, but the truth is there's only so much time and energy I can put out, and this year it's gone to purchasing a bull and getting the chicken thing started. And the lamb, of course, come Thursday. The weather has been very good for grass and very bad for getting rid of grass, and I've had to make the decidion to live with what I've got. Although I wish there was a nice young person with a grass weed-eater who could come before this weekend and take down the tall grass near the house, or if not that, that it would rain like heck on the 4th.

You might want to flip back a few pages and look at the framing on my hoop house: to make it tall enough for humans you'd need to double the number of PVC ribs and use one on each side of the ribs, and possibly use my original thought of socketing thinner pipe into thicker pipe sunk 18" in the ground. Also, I've decided an auger bit is a better idea than a hole saw for drilling the sockets in wood, and that all the framing would need sized up to 2X4s at least for a human-usable structure- or one exposed to much wind, as my chicken hoop house is below grade/sheltered by structures over close to 360 degrees.

 

[Chickielady]

Quote:
It is so amazing how well they build each hex, so pretty !
I like honey on bisquits & in my tea.