Washingtonians

[pettec63]

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Well, providing I didn't get too big, I have enough pasture to raise pastured poultry and goats. I could grow grains for them too! I was just perusing the WSU site on small farms and they have a TON of information!! Also, I think I'm going to sign up for the Women in Agriculture seminar Feb 11 2012, it's a simultaneous seminar in 15 locations in WA. One of which will be in Kennewick!!

One thing I know about pasture is that it lasts longer and feeds better if you have sufficient fences to rotate your animals off it at regular, short, intervals. I can carry 25 cow-calf pairs here with six pastures vs 15 with one. The problem of course is fences; the problem is *always* fences. Well, and watering troughs: what really killed our ability to do managed grazing was my cousin's wife insisting that her horses needed a separate acre, which cut us off from *three* watering trough positions.

Remember also that unless you have your own well or some sort of protected water-right with your property you'll be limited on irrigating your pasture, and plan accordingly. I will spare you a handful of anecdotes about showering at my aunt's house on an apple orchard in Teiton.

Although we have our own well, we do have irrigation rights, and in ground irrigation all through the pasture. I guess maybe I don't know enough about the water rights issue to give an intelligent response?? We have already fenced off part of it for rotation, we plan on splitting it up again come spring. I only have one horse now, 7 goats, so, it shouldn't be too hard to keep it fertilized and watered and rotated next year.

 

[pettec63]

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There is no well agreement as far as water usage amounts with the well users. They don't own the water beneath. This is concerning amounts set by the county. It's standard although if you need more you can always go to the county and fight for it but it's a long hard expensive fight usually not worth it. Besides, the contractor who put these houses in only put a meter on our pipe and no one elses. We were the first and only house for a while and since no one else has one they don't have a clue that we do. The fight over water here is not the water but pump useage. People think the more the pump is used the faster it wears out but what they don't realize is a pump is happiest when running constantly. It's the on and off that wears it out.

Very much not in my experience: well pumps, especially submersibles, are meant to pump a pressure tank to a specific level and then stop, and only come on when water is run; real irrigation pumps are meant to run constantly, but that's not what residential pumps do. The worst thing is when the pump is short-cycling- that burns out the electric motor really fast, unless the switch goes first. Having a residential pump run all the time increases the wear rate of parts in sandy wells (most Wetside wells have at least some sand) and kills you with the power bill: our pump bill went from $9 a month to $150 when we developed a hole in the suspension pipe.

(I've been responsible for pump replacements here for over thirty years now, and it's a set of lessons I've learned the hard way).

uh oh... Well now I know what's happening to my well pump!! I did use it for lawn and garden watering this year, cause our irrigation pump was down!! Now it's doing this pressure on, pressure off thing, you can watch the water pressure in the faucets in the sinks and in the shower!! I told my husband, we better get some one out to at least look at it and give us an estimate, before it's too late. Not that we have the money to replace it!!

 

[AriLovesChickens]

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Sounds as if it was Dana's peanut butter fudge you liked...and it was quite tasty. I wouldn't mind the recipe as well! I made the chocolate fudge (and have been eating leftovers since getting home).

 

[Stumpfarmer]

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One thing I know about pasture is that it lasts longer and feeds better if you have sufficient fences to rotate your animals off it at regular, short, intervals. I can carry 25 cow-calf pairs here with six pastures vs 15 with one. The problem of course is fences; the problem is *always* fences. Well, and watering troughs: what really killed our ability to do managed grazing was my cousin's wife insisting that her horses needed a separate acre, which cut us off from *three* watering trough positions.

Remember also that unless you have your own well or some sort of protected water-right with your property you'll be limited on irrigating your pasture, and plan accordingly. I will spare you a handful of anecdotes about showering at my aunt's house on an apple orchard in Teiton.

Although we have our own well, we do have irrigation rights, and in ground irrigation all through the pasture. I guess maybe I don't know enough about the water rights issue to give an intelligent response?? We have already fenced off part of it for rotation, we plan on splitting it up again come spring. I only have one horse now, 7 goats, so, it shouldn't be too hard to keep it fertilized and watered and rotated next year.

Nobody knows sufficient about water rights to make an intelligent response, including me. I just know a couple of people who've started small ag projects without finding out their irrigation rights and lost their keisters, so I thought I'd bring it up.

 

[pettec63]

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Interesting! thanks for all the info!!

 

[TheReidHomestead]

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I do have connections ya know. Do ya remember just east of Morton (that would be toward Yakima for the directionally challenged) There was an over pass well that is fern gulch (gap). Don't wanna be there after dark.

Ha ha I know where east of Morton is!! LOL Really??? hmmmm

Morton is another good name for a rooster.

 

[TheReidHomestead]

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Ohhh no! Our Pomeranian is 12 years old now and still going strong. I've made promises to DH that Dasher will be treated well for the rest of his precious little life which seems like it will go on FOREVER. And then NO MORE little dogs. At least not until we get one.

Minpins are big dogs in small bodies, and very smart and independent , no ankle biters. and you really do need a lonely little serama pullet under your tree...did I mention she is really lonely? and tame?

We have a 4-H meeting on Saturday, I can ask if anyone wants the poor lil' serama. What color legs does she/he have? Do you know yet if it's a he/she? We'd take him, but I have 18 serama eggs on order to be shipped on Jan 2nd, and we will need to cut down on what we have if we have a good hatch!

 

[Stumpfarmer]

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Very much not in my experience: well pumps, especially submersibles, are meant to pump a pressure tank to a specific level and then stop, and only come on when water is run; real irrigation pumps are meant to run constantly, but that's not what residential pumps do. The worst thing is when the pump is short-cycling- that burns out the electric motor really fast, unless the switch goes first. Having a residential pump run all the time increases the wear rate of parts in sandy wells (most Wetside wells have at least some sand) and kills you with the power bill: our pump bill went from $9 a month to $150 when we developed a hole in the suspension pipe.

(I've been responsible for pump replacements here for over thirty years now, and it's a set of lessons I've learned the hard way).

uh oh... Well now I know what's happening to my well pump!! I did use it for lawn and garden watering this year, cause our irrigation pump was down!! Now it's doing this pressure on, pressure off thing, you can watch the water pressure in the faucets in the sinks and in the shower!! I told my husband, we better get some one out to at least look at it and give us an estimate, before it's too late. Not that we have the money to replace it!!

You may just need a new pressure switch, or to adjust your pressure switch settings- that's what that kind of pressure fluctuation usually means. What happened to us this year, when the suspension pipe corroded through just above the pump, was a New Bad Thing. I wasn't in on the last pump replacement at all, because it happened while we had to go get the daughter from Montana and don't know whether they cheaped out on the pipe or what.

We got through an unusually high number of pumps, mostly because the well is in pure coarse sand and even with a sand point the abrasion gets it pretty fast.

 

[TheReidHomestead]

We had HORRIBLE issues in our last house with a community well. The actual well was on the property of a hoarder/contractor, who just dumped all his job site garbage all over his property. His next door neighbor who was in charge of getting the well maintenance done, was sooooooooooo appalled, lets just say they ended up having restraining orders against each other. My DH was the go between nice guy. We were ever so glad to get away from that mess. We bought this property partly because we had our own well already in, and it was a county road. So no private road with maintenance issues. Yuck!

 

[Rainwolf]

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It's a good thing my DH doesn't read the forum here. He was pretty taken with the Seramas and I'm afraid I'd end up with a house chicken if he knew one was available. He likes little dogs too and our Pomeranian who is NOT my favorite dog is for certain his little boy. DH is a big softie. But I like that about him. Sometimes he's a lot nicer than I am.

I happen to have a miniature pinscher pup looking for a home also lol lookie there!! 2 for 1 deal!! whats your DH's email address again??

min-pin got pics? how old and what sex?