What did you do in the garden today?

[Ascholten]

I bought a dozen eggs today. I really HOPE it's the last dozen I have to buy! These were the "cheap eggs" that used to be $1.88. Now they are $4.79.

Right now, I'm getting an egg every other day, sometimes 2 days out of 3. It's DH's birthday on Thursday, and I need 3 eggs to make his birthday pie, which is lemon meringue. We use 8 eggs every weekend for weekend breakfasts. I'd like to have fried rice 2-3 times a week like I do in the summer.

Come on, girls, get it in gear!

mine are not laying either, and NOT happy. even the new ones who should have started to lay, are not. down to my last dozen, been feeding them for coming on 2 months now and not an egg to show for it. NOT HAPPY.

The price of eggs, bacon, butter, everything is just sick. DC needs a megaton nuke. that is the only thing that will fix this 'problem' we currently have.

If I had the room Id have a cow. Don't need the meat but with the milk, between other neighbors growing stuff, screw that, I need about 200 acres, a dozen families willing to farm for a living and WE can live on our OWN without need of the outside plague.

Aaron

 

[Sally PB]

Maybe I should just start a commune here. We have the space.

 

[jerryse]

On mouse bait it used to warfin a blood thinner Coumadin. Mice were becoming resistant. Now it is bromalin a meat tenderizer. In a high enough dose both cause internal bleeding and death.

 

[Iluveggers]

I personally won’t get high production breeds, my girls are pets so I rather them slow down gracefully & take breaks in winter as needed. At the family farm where we sell eggs and have a mix of heritage and production birds, the favoritr production breed is the Amberlink. We have 4 and they are crazy layers and pretty tame, too.

We had a dusting of snow. It was supposed to be no snow but drop to 7 on Thurs. Instead we got a dusting and should be around 30-40 all week with some rain. I’ll take it. If DHs family & my family werent up here, I’d like to move a bit further south (Carolinas, Kentucky, WV). But too much family to happily leave. I think once we move to the farm after retirement, I won’t mind so much. I just hate working all day and having less than an hour to spend watching and hanging out with my lady flock. Our dogs are always boys, and the chickens always girls. Works out great that way. I do want a rooster or two and some ducks when we move though.

 

[WthrLady]

Almost done swapping rooms. The studio is waiting on a giant L shaped shelf for the corner and all the fiber that goes on it. For now, all of that is stacked in the corner of the room.

The room that used to be the studio is just going to have antique prairie implements and tools hanging on the walls, a cabinet with all of the tech hookups hidden in it, a small dresser with all the office supplies stashed inside, and a chair and foot stool.

The robot vacuum will have to be retrained. The poor thing.

 

[CNJ]

A baby crowing rooster is in my yard, I think it belongs to a kid a few houses away. It looks like its going to turn into a grey fighting chicken. I caught him on the side of my house this morning and threw him on the street and chased him away. Now I see him in my back yard, I give up. He is too fast.

 

[CNJ]

I made a spiral clip for my tomato plant with a #12 solid copper wire, I am not sure if it will work out because it can slide on the string. At least it will prevent the plant from topping over. The idea is to use a single string, instead of a double string weave.

I will use a plastic clip on the next level up. The plastic clip doesn't slide as much.

 

[BReeder!]

Love how that looks. The only potential problem i see is. over time, dirt from the upper tiers is always going to wash down into the lower tiers by natural gravity, water taking it etc etc. The plants in there are naturally going to sink with it. You will end up constantly having to add dirt to the top one to keep the level up as everything works its way to the bottom which on the other hand will eventually want to overflow, especially on the rainy days.

Not trying to be disrespectful just it looks like this might present an issue and if it IS one, its better /easier to do preventative maintenance rather than damage control.


aaron

All my raised beds settle each year. I turn the top few inches with a potato fork or hoe and add compost usually to top them off. The challenging ones are the perennials such as my current strawberry bed and bed of walking onions. Both of these perennials spread each season though, so I might just start adding compost to these in the early Spring and let new plants from the runners and topsets take hold in the new, higher layer. After a few years the beds should settle less in theory. I well say, last season was far better than the prior season's settling.

 

[CNJ]

I have to cover my tomatoes with a fruit bag or I won't be able to eat any. Its challenging to grow tomatoes where I live. The tropical climate has too many birds and fruit flies.

 

[Ascholten]

Maybe I should just start a commune here. We have the space.

Sign me up.
or I just need to win the lottery. Buy out all my neighbors, fire the HOA and pay everyone 1000 dollars to crap on their driveway once a week, and move in people who'll do the farming and chickening and goating etc, and leave each other alone for the most part.

Put solar on every house, throw a few megawatt storage units in the back and be totally on our own. Have a little mom and pop grocery store at the front of the place where neighbors can buy / sell their extra grown stuff for 'credits' towards other neighbor's goods in the store and outsiders pay regular cash which is split up to help with upkeep. If they don't have cash, then they can pay with labor. They can mow lawns, turn over gardens, etc to pay for their food. Taxes go to buy ammo to keep the riff raff out. Roaming cows can keep the lawns mowed, provide PLENTY of milk for the community and support the meat needs plus fertilizer. We can sell extra fertilizer 'packets' to throw at politicians passing by.

Aaron