Need to get my weather instruments set up. Wind instruments go on a 1" water pipe driven into the ground. Rain gauge needs a wood post set with level platform on top.
Posted on 11/01/2024 6:46:36 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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Good news.
I know RFK Jr has been big on fixing our health issues in this country.
Need to get my weather instruments set up. Wind instruments go on a 1" water pipe driven into the ground. Rain gauge needs a wood post set with level platform on top.
*Stew*.
I love it.
I’ve pretty much put the garden to bed for the winter. Just a couple things left to clean up.
Mr. mm and I have been out in the timber getting some firewood. We found several ash trees that had died and fallen over that were still in great condition, not rotted. So we just cut them up, split them, and stacked them in the wood shed. It’s much easier than taking the whole tree down ourselves.
I’m guessing we could get close to a cord of ash alone.
We are also taking down some trees that are very serious leaning over. They’re medium sized but going in an arch is not going to do any good. Those are mostly birches.
We’ll have to see what this winter brings in the way of downed trees. Now that are have some of the old logging roads cleared out and we know what we’re looking for and what’s where, we can keep an eye out for downed trees from the weather.
Today (& probably tomorrow) is new front driveway day. The guys started around 9 & just broke for lunch. It’s in the ‘looking awful’ stage - reminds me of when we were sidehilling new trail or repairing old tread. At some point, everything is a mess and you wonder if it will ever come together in the end & it does. I will be glad when it’s all done.
Mowed the back fields last evening which is about 2/3 of the property. No rain for most of October, so I was kicking up some dust. Once the front driveway is finished, I will mow the front & the big bank which has the potential to be the last time I have to mow this year.
Yesterday was 82 degrees & it is currently 81! I believe this qualifies as “Indian Summer” because it’s after a killing frost. Since it is so warm, I got some Bonide spray that kills grass & weeds (does not poison the ground & no glyphosate). Wire grass is creeping through the shingles overlaps & also coming up in the corners of the raised beds. With the warm weather, & tomorrow will be 70’s, I figured I’d take a shot at killing some of it now. If the wire grass survives (& some will), I will be spraying again in the spring when it starts growing again.
We could get a ‘spotty shower’ late day today, but I hope not - with no gravel down yet, we’ll have a bit of mud. No rain in the forecast until Sunday & then only 40%.
Glad to hear your neck is healing up well & you can get back to working outside in the garden. :-)
“That’s the only way though and I wonder if people in fedgov will even think about that? Or will they just expand the market for affluent people in metro areas?”
Either way more farmers will be making money!
Personally? If Mother Government just leaves me to my own devices that’s a major WIN for me! ;)
Still scouting around for ways I can help teach others to grow their own food. We really don’t have any ‘community gardens’ around here as people pretty much grow their own. Maybe one of the Elementary Schools is looking to start a garden? I’ll let ya know if I end up biting off more than I can chew, which is usually the case! ;)
I used the last ‘meat’ chicken raised by my niece, acquired 2 years ago. It was SO tasty, even after being in the freezer that long. I figure 2 birds a month would be about right - contemplating raising some myself. Meat chicken pens don’t have to be elaborate, just predator proof. Processing would be the issue since I would have no help. My niece had her hubs & probably 2 more people who got a chicken for their help.
Beef from the locals is more than I can afford right now. I bought quite a few chuck roasts on sale & froze them & I still have some ground sirloin from my Butcher Box gift subscription. My big ‘splurge’ is going to be some bison from a farm just across the mountain - I have had bison before & really like it. I may end up with some ground venison from my brother after this hunting season too.
RFK Jr. has a podcast & he has talked to several regenerative farmers - very interesting & some of my favorite interviews. I hope he can do something to promote it when in Trump’s administration working on MAHA.
I would be very happy with that. :)
I really wish I could get Beau off center about making $ off the amazing amount of trees we have. Just selling downed trees in a kind of ‘harvest your own’ style for our friends would be manageable.
We used to give all kinds of scavenged wood to our friend Robbie who heated strictly with wood. He had an awesome set-up with the ‘fire house’ outside the house that heated water that was piped through the house for heat. Beau’s brother has a set-up like that, too.
More and more people around here are going that route.
Oh, well. When *I* eventually manage this place...things will be done a little bit differently! ;)
Bonide is a good brand. We used to sell that at Jung’s.
I liked your thoughts on a project looking like it will never come together! My Mom’s happiest day out here was when we finally moved all the equipment and extra metal roofing off the back lawn after 8 YEARS of us re-roofing! I didn’t see her volunteering to go up on the roof with us though, just complaining about the mess, LOL!
Yes, I’m almost ready to head out! The greenhouse is open but it’s full of Box Elder Bugs. Even with two freezes so far, those jerks just will not die this season! Ugh!
My mower is going to ‘The Spa’ for the winter to have every stupid little problem with it fixed once and for all! See ya in the Spring, Blaze!
I need to find a ‘spa’ for my mowers. The one recommended only services what they sell (Ferris). No John Deere dealers nearby ... I would have to go across the mountain & Clyde won’t fit in the trailer! I haven’t looked super hard yet, too busy with other stuff going on. At the moment, trying to find someone to hang our TVs. I can get the mounts on the wall & the TV, but getting the TVs up on the wall & attached to the mount is not something I think I can do - mom is too frail to help. She’s getting anxious to get the TVs off the floor in the living room.
Box Elder Bugs ... did not get the huge hatch as we did in the spring (my spraying in all the cracks paid off ... maybe?). We probably have a dozen crawling around the garage & French doors. The stuff I used this spring was just ‘deadly’, knocked them right down. I used a spray can, but noticed they have a larger size with a sprayer - that ‘looks like the ticket’ to me!
Maybe with Massie’s PRIME Act plus RFK Jr severing USDA and Big AG $$$$ & employee ties and doing the same with FDA ,we’ll see locally grown and processed meat for sale from the small processors. The competition would lead to lower prices, inline with Big prices.
Speaking of which, I just looked up that local farm with state approved processing and sales to general public. Latest prices are from 2023 and I don’t know if they’re prior to or after them having to rebuild the plant due to a lightning strike which I just learned about.
NY Strip $13.99/lb which is about the same as grocery store when not on sale. I haven’t been there since pre-COVID so I was guessing they went up the same amount as everything else.
I made a 4x4 brooder for the foyer, then moved them to a 2 foot tall 8x8 pen outside. Both had no electric or brooder light. I made a shelter within them just big/tall enough for all of them to crowd under for heat. It had heavy cloth for walls with a bunch of vertical slits in the cloth like vertical blinds but cut out a couple of slats to make sure they found their way in/out until they figured out they could do it anywhere.
Same concept as how they can ship day old chicks. Small enough space that their crowded together to keep warm.
Next pen was at my neighbor’s place and was an 8 foot tall 16x16 chain link dog kennel and I made a place in it for them to get out of the sun/rain.
I sure hope the MAGA/MAHA factors can get together more and stay together. There’s so much in common.
I’m bi-political - MAGA/MAHA are my pronouns
“We found several ash trees that had died and fallen over that were still in great condition, not rotted. So we just cut them up, split them, and stacked them in the wood shed.”
That sounds like what I do. Unless I am clearing for something I take the dead down or standing dead stuff for firewood. In this area you can figure that the woods will grow about a quarter of a cord per acre per year. Each new windstorm gives us new heating fuel.
I used to start and plant a lot of stuff. Now days I just grow what the two of us use and put by. Before all the divisivness destroyed casual conversation we used to go to town once in a while to visit at coffee. I would haul a great big cooler full of stuff to give to people. They would take it all, but I would never hear from any of them later. And do you think that anyone would go so far as to walk across the street for free produce? Nope. With no infrastructure, and very little if any regard from people, I am not going to put in all the hard work to compete with Safeway and Fred Meyer and Costco.
When I have an over abundance of produce from my garden, I give it away at church.
The pastor always gets first pick. Am workman is worthy of his wages.
I share garden goodness with my Mom and a few of her elderly friends who really APPRECIATE a home grown tomato. When I had too many peaches, my neighbors were MORE than happy to have some.
My Ex-Amish neighbor paid me the highest compliment I’ve ever gotten: “D@mn, Woman! You sure know how to grow a tomato! These taste just like Ma’s did when I was a kid.” (I owe it all to composted mule manure!)
My garden really saved my bacon when I had three adults and three TEEN boys to feed - seemingly 24/7 on the latter! Between the garden, ALDI, the day-old bakery store, the local dairy, hunting and fishing, it wasn’t unusual for me to feed us all on under $200/month back then - but this was in the 90’s. Remember those GOLDEN years? LOL!
I had a stand at the end of our driveway and would sell extra produce, flowers, herbs, eggs, seedlings and Pesto and the kids sold Pumpkins in the Fall that they grew with Grandpa whose farm was just up the road from ours. It was a fun enterprise and you could get away with an ‘honor system’ back then. No ‘Revenuers’ ever stopped by to ask me about it. ;)
Have you ever heard of Sarah Frey? Her life story is really interesting. I love a ‘Rags To Riches’ tale any day of the week.
https://ilfbpartners.com/farm/illinois-woman-turned-passion-produce-business/
Her Book: ‘The Growing Season’
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51794452-the-growing-season
Harris’ pronouns are: ‘HAS/BEEN’ Bwaa-Haa-Haa! (Thank Gawd!)
When we were dating and Beau was still trying to ‘talk me into something’ he took me to ‘Rainbow Fleece Farm’ and we learned all about making yarn from the sheep shearing to the end product. Super-interesting!
And, No, ‘City Slickers’ - making yarn does NOT involve killing any sheep, LOL!
Anyhow, he bought me this HUGE, frozen organically raised chicken. It was 8 POUNDS and cost $37.00! We treated it like a Turkey and had it for Christmas Eve Dinner that year...and for weeks afterwards!
I was never so nervous cooking anything in my LIFE! I’ve made Prime Rib that was cheaper than that stupid chicken! ;)
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