Homesteading

[Bullet:Mich.]

Deep one of the best things you are learning this year is what plant grows the best in your type soil. How are your onions doing. Also watch out for the ants working on your carrot crops where you can't see them.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Deep one of the best things you are learning this year is what plant grows the best in your type soil. How are your onions doing. Also watch out for the ants working on your carrot crops where you can't see them.

My onions died pretty early on, as did my garlic. There's been a whole lot of dying going on in the garden. I've planted jalapenos twice to no avail, etc.

I did pick 3 cucumbers yesterday, they sure do like to hide, hadn't even noticed I had them. Mom said I'd waited too long to pick them - what do I know? The skin was tough, but they were tasty. Today will likely be a good tomato picking time, I hope anyway.

I'm going to continue planting things, have a greenhouse up by early October, and keep greens going in there through the Winter - at least that's my plan.

I do need to get back to the vigor and hope I began this adventure with. Admittedly, there's been some "why bother" creeping in at times. I just need to remember my dreams.

 

[Bullet:Mich.]

Pickle making cucumbers have a tougher skin then regular eating cucumbers do.

 

[releventchair]

An apple can be bagged with tomatoes, but they can gas off them selves without an apple.
Using paper bag magic to ripen green tomatoes

 

[Bullet:Mich.]

Most Farmer Markets that sell sweet corn by the dozen sell by what they call the bakers dozen 12+1, 13 in a bakers dozen.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

I'm looking forward to a day alone with nothing planned. My boxed beds have 30 or so empty "blocks" now, so I have to add soil (not compost). I see one of the major mistakes I made was filling the beds with mostly compost. I'll remedy that today. Additionally I need to look at crop rotation - what was there before and what should be there now.

One major move I plan is to break away from that "Square Foot Gardening" I subscribed to when I first began. That method, and my innocence in beginning, contributed to my major problems. And Mom said that potatoes specifically did not like the looseness of my beds - them taters came out deformed but edible. Plus something else aggravating me was that some of the taters had holes eaten into them in the soil. I'm thinking ants as Bullet mentioned on the carrots. I know that when I pulled out all the leaf lettuce plants this week, a number of them were covered in piss ants.

The season ain't done yet and hopefully no company today. There's still time.

Oh, and we're looking at 10 days of heat ahead again, into the 90's will little rain forecast. So that's round number two of gardening hard times.

 

[joncutt87]

I was just on the baileys website looking at 2 stroke oil, and found that the husqvarna xp and low smoke oil mixes already contains fuel stabilizer. Very interesting.

 

[Reed Lukens]

That pre-mix looks interesting also because of no ethanol. I bought a case of miracle oil from baileys years ago, I guess they don't sell it any more but it works great still today.
Vp Racing Small Engine Pre-Mixed 2-Cycle Fuel (50:1) Case Of 8 Quarts | Pre-Mixed 2-Cycle Fuel | Fuels, Oils & Lubricants | www.baileysonline.com

 

[joncutt87]

I keep a can of it for emergencies, but it's hard to swallow $7 per quart.

 

[releventchair]

Been tempted to grab one for the ice auger. Less fuss than a special midwinter trip to a fuel station for( fresh?) gas after huntin up the oil and anti-ethanol treatment out in the shed and doin the math for a splash of gas..
Me and math and cold get old after a while.

 

[joncutt87]

I used one a few years ago, when one of our old pecan trees fell on our power line. I had used the last of my mix the day before, made me real glad that I had it.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

I've been collecting pallets and have several projects in mind, beginning with a Vermiculture compost bin, and a wood shed. Wood shed is on my mind right now, and in sizing it I needed to know just how much wood I could store in it.

The legal definition of a cord of firewood in the US and Canada, is a full or bush cord, which measures 4' wide x 4' high x 8' long and is 128 cubic feet in volume.

 

[joncutt87]

What method are you going to use to build the woodshed? Keep airflow in mind when you do build it, ours faces south because the wind at the house generally comes from the south in the summer and the north in the winter.

 

[Bullet:Mich.]

I caught a young Bandit in one of my live traps last nite in my sweet corn patch. It took down a couple ears until it decided that it liked peanut butter on a slice of bread better. Just getting ready to take it to a bigger woods then mine and turn it loose. Right now it isn't to happy being in a cage.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Jon, I'm still thinking about the wood shed. I kinda see my eyes were bigger than my logistics right now....

I caught a young Bandit in one of my live traps last nite in my sweet corn patch. It took down a couple ears until it decided that it liked peanut butter on a slice of bread better. Just getting ready to take it to a bigger woods then mine and turn it loose. Right now it isn't to happy being in a cage.

Bullet, what critter you catch?

Too many tomatos coming, but I've grown to love that! I took a look at the kinda maladies tomatoes help you with, juiced my first batch - tomatoes and enough water to keep the pulp liquid - this morning.

Right now I've been in a "why bother" mood for over a week. I need to get out of that immediately, but once again it is what it is. But I'll continue my dream nonetheless.

Been DEEP here for a while.

 

[Bullet:Mich.]

Deep all of us go thru that mood why bother at times but just keep at it, you are going to make it. The bandit was the kind that always wears a mask, a raccoon. I have been eating some fried green tomato's and in the last few days my Big Boy tomato's are finally turning red, we make a lot of tomato juice the old fashion way and I love tomato sandwich on home made bread and butter.

 

[Reed Lukens]

My Aunt used to feed the raccoon's at her house. She took a long log and cut 4" to 6" bowls into it with a small chain saw. Then she set it just off of her deck where we could sit inside the glass double door and watch. She filled every other hole with water and dog kibbles. We would watch them come down from the trees and line up along the log. Then they would pick up a kibble, wash it in their water bowl, and then eat it. I don't remember how many she had it set up for but there were enough to feed 15 or 20 at one time. She would go through a 40lb bag of kibbles a week and had a couple of them tame enough to come grab a kibble out of our hand Her garden really didn't get touched as far as I can remember but only because she had those animals well trained. We counted 27 raccoon's one night and I think that was the most that she ever had. Some would even come up on her lap to take the kibble from her mouth... I remember seeing her corn and tomato's maybe 20 feet away and they never got touched. I always wondered where those 4 legged turkeys came from that we had for Thanksgiving, hehe

 

[releventchair]

I try to dodge eatin tomatoes. Make myself once in a while.
3 moles trapped this year.
Plantain came up good though I did not seed. Still a bunch of seed in the freezer. Maybe next spring test the viability. It will have been well stratified by then I suppose.
Don't feel bad Deep. My why bother is way ahead of yours.
Besides you have wood to cut and put up...You'll wake up. or freeze. Usually wake up when it gets too cold first though...

 

[Bullet:Mich.]

My working dogs and barn cats take care of the moles that show up in my lawn.

 

[releventchair]

We have one terrier that takes them out if they enter the fenced area. They been staying out of it this year...
Neighbors cats don't seem to get the moles. They will steal a mouse trap if a mouse is in it though.
I cut a hole in a coffee can lid the mice can enter. Put the lid on after setting trap. Keeps the weather out, and our dogs out too if allowed loose.