Once a year meal, pork loin cooked in PAPA's
My trees finally produce their first good crop and I got them before the raccoons did.
So I finally got to make PAPA Pork.
I would start with what is your long term and short term goals.
When my family bought 5 acres one of the first things we did was layout a idea of what we wanted to place to look like.
Then we did soil samples and researched the soil types, drainage, etc.
This let us know what trees and shrubs would grow. They were our first objective since that take so long to grow.
So spend some time to plan and do some research.
I met my wife in Alaska and she was always telling stories of the great gardens her mom had as she was growing up in Ohio.
As fate would have it in 1997 my family found itself in Cincinnati Ohio.
So trying to create a great garden and edible landscape was just a given.
I have collected cast iron for decades and now buy very little.
It use to be much easier to get good deals on cast iron before Ebay. Now many thrift stores have their own Ebay account.
I was in a thrift store lately that did not have a Ebay account and watched people comb through stuff to sell on Ebay.
I new buy mostly what I need unless I get the rare good deal on something I could actually use.
I find it know better to buy some of it new and modify if needed with polishing.
I would recommend that you think about how you cook and how much space you have and make a plan for obtaining cast iron.
I picked up one dutch oven that sat for 20 year before I used it because I had others I always used.
Depending on your cooking style you only really need certain pieces in certain size ranges.
Like I now stick to six quart dutch ovens because of weight.
Cast iron, metal woks both India and China styles, CHAMBA COMAL, etc. there are many great ways to cooks and cooking tools to match.
Got a breeding flock of cotton patch geese that I need to get rid of.
Due to health issues it is getting harder and harder to take care of all the poultry we have.
I have help but really need to cut down on what we raise.
I live in the Cincinnati Ohio area so if you are interested in raising Cotton Patch Geese send me a notice.
In my spice cabinet I have ground mushrooms.
One can find or buy wild mushrooms.
Once dried they last a long time.
You will find a number of vege soup stocks use mushroom.
I use a coffee grinder to grind them into a fine powder.
This is then used in soups and stocks to add flavor.
I have seen logging operations stop in a number of areas over the years and communities that depend on this renewable resource take a economic hit.
Having lived in the frozen north I know that the northern forests do not have anywhere near the biodiversity of the tropical forests.
So there are a number of factors in this discussion that are not raised.
There are always two sides to a argument.
This does not mean that in this case I believe one side or the other. I have too few hard facts to make a rational opinion.
It is clear that the subject line was created to attract a liberal audience who is more likely to be anit-logging.
This tactic is used often and can be very effective because it appeals to ones emotions.
Unfortunately, in USA at this time society is becoming balkenized.
We are seeing similar things happening in the EU areas.
Expect to see more of this we versus them in the next few years.
Rational thought will be replaced with raw emotions!
Here is something you may try to see what is out at night in summer in your are as a food supply for birds.
One guy I know places quarter inch cooking oil in a small kids swimming pool. He puts a light in pool to attract insects.
He empties pool each morning and mixes oil and bugs with chicken feed.
There are grasshopper traps that use light to attract grasshoppers. Grasshoppers hit glass panel and fall into holding container.
Another option, at least in my area, is attractive lures such as Japanese beetle traps.
This started because of a post by someone in Texas looking to raise cricket or locust
Commercial cricket farmers in Thailand tend to use chicken feed as a proteins source.
Locust ranchers use alot of easy to grow greens like mustard, collards, kale, etc. as a protein source.
Worms live off the composting microbes they ingest as well as organic matter they can ingest.
Soldier flies are seasonal in my area.
But the roaches are big fruit eaters. When I process my fruit I can feed wast to geese and other poultry.
However, could I produce higher protein by feeding waste to roaches and using roach waste in garden? Could these roaches be dried and stored?
I guess my real question should have been what waste streams do we have?
Of the waste streams we have, what insects or worms can be effectively raised on them.
Of the insects and worms that can be raised, which ones can I cost effectively raise in my area (Cincinnati Ohio) to use a poultry feed.
many times in permaculture we grow fruit. When we process said fruit we have waste.
Should we consider rasing Dubia Roaches using this waste fruit.
This waste could be frozen to use as feed over a extended time frame.
I talked to a company in Ohio that raises them for pet and fish feed.
He said the key was fats. It seems soldier flies are big on decaying stuff with a certain protien and fat percentage.
He is always looking for sources of fat to add to his feed mix for the soldier flies.
What about breeding Dubia Roaches
http://www.clubfauna.com/articles/invertebrates/breeding-dubia-roaches/ Roaches eat:
Dry cat or dog food is the most common (ground fine).
Fish flakes (mix with dry food is the best).
Cereals that are whole grains are the best (add honey and they love it).
Just about any type of fruit (not rotten or mouldy).
Some salads to balance out the diet (not rotten or mouldy).
NO poultry, they can eat it but you do not want to risk losing them or your pets.
Just about all table scraps as long as their is no or very little poultry.
First, where are you going to get your insect? There are different varieties of crickets and grasshoppers. My local crickets do not breed at the rate of a house cricket.
You will need to build habitat for them. Not only do you have to feed them you have to breed them. Which means you need conditions for them to breed in. You can find this information on the Internet.
You should design modular, so you can start small and scale up.
Since your food sources are untested you will likely need to design your first modular unit to house your insects and populate it. You will then need to do some trial and error testing.
I would like to throw out another approach.
Planing a cover crop in the fall is a good idea in many cases.
But what about planting a dense cover crop in spring that cannot take the heat and will die off in the heat of June or July.
I tend to grow a number of peppers, egg plant, tomatoes, etc in pots until the soil temp is around high 70's.
I have found that I have a bunch of spring weeds that will grow, seed and die off when temp get about that range.
So why not develop a weed the will grow, seed, and die so you can plant your hot season crops?
Burdock flowers in it's second year.
All you have to do is cut the stalk (which are edible) when the flowers form in second year.
In spring plant is dead and you likely have a clear area to plant something.
If you use burdock sprout it and plant the seedlings. This way you will not have seed staying in your growing area for years.
On our buckeye's one can look at saddle and hackle feathers.
Females have round ends on saddles, male have a point at end.
You see something similar on the hackles.
There is alot of good information on modifications that can be made to a home to make it easier for elderly people.
One could look at activities that one does now and evaluate the physical aspects.
Bending over is one such factor, so raised beds, containers, etc. become something to consider.
Tools that you may not use now can be another factor. I just planted a bunch of canna lily using a grabbing arm that I pick up trash with. I cleaned and separated my canna lily tubers into a five gallon bucket. Then I used the tool to place each one in a wet spot where no grass will grow. Once placed I filled a pull cart with old hay and used this to much the canna lily.
Another factor is stairs. When my wife had a stroke we put rails on both sides of the stairs so she could use both arms for balance.
I tend to start with what daily activities are required and evaluate different ways they can be done. The Internet is a great help in looking at different alternatives related to Tools and Techniques on how to do said activity. If you try hard you can likely find a way to do what needed to be done, or find help in doing what needs to be done.
In some cases what needs to be done, really did not need to be done, so you stop doing it. Like having all those annual plants that look so nice but require alot of work.
You can only do so much so you have to prioritize what gets done.
I still allocate 10% of my time to screwing around with new ideas
My grandmother lived on her homestead until she died in her 90's.
She rests next to her husband on the land today.
The key was my aunts children who lived near to her.
In the later years one of them move on to the homestead. They built there home next to hers.
I think having family close by is one way to age in place.
I am hitting 56 this year and I know how much help my children have been in keeping up with everything.
So for me family is how I will age in place.
Eric Materne wrote:Not intending to divert you from finding a good drawknife but I'd like to suggest one of these for peeling logs. It works great at least on pine I haven't tested it yet on hardwoods. If you can elevate your logs to about knee high it saves you backache and keeps you up off of the logs. You don't get covered in sap. I think it's proper name is a "slick" I call mine BACH.
Decades ago I remember seeing a Slick type chisel hooked up to a air impact hammer.
You just ran the chesil edge along the log and it peeled like butter.
The guy who used it had welded the slick on to chisel used on air hammer.
He made several so he just swapped them out as he used them.
At the end of the peeling he cleaned theim with terpintine and sharpened them for the next use.
I think the key to a shock collar is not the shocking but the sound before the shocking.
A good system should provide a warning sound before any shock is given.
What is hoped is that the animal will associate the sound as a warning.
I remember seeing some tests were smells were used instead of shocks.
If you pig responds to verbal commands you could use a verbal warning instead of the canned sound.
very cool results, I can why this works because you have two actions going on.
1)
Rooting, wallowing, and trampling activities compact soils, which in turn disrupts water infiltration and nutrient cycling.
2) pigs create something like a septic dranfield
A traditional septic drainfield has two types of bacteria present, aerobic (uses oxygen) and anaerobic (doesn’t use oxygen). In this system, when water containing nutrients flows into the soil absorption area, a biologically active film develops. This slime layer (commonly called the “biofilm or bio-mat”) is composed of bacteria and their waste products. This slime is actually a chemical compound secreted by the bacteria to anchor themselves to the bottom and sidewalls of the drainage piping, the aggregate in the absorption bed, the soil interface, and to each other to prevent being washed away by the water flow through the septic system.
"The Russian-devised version for dams uses a slurry of animal waste (pig manure) applied over the inner base and walls of the dam in multiple, thin layers, which is then itself covered with vegetable organic matter such as grass, leaves, waste paper, cardboard, etc. This is all then given a final layer of soil which is tamped down and the mixture is left for several weeks to allow the (anaerobic) bacteria to complete their task, at which time the dam is ready for flooding."
as a side note
"Many deer perform wallowing, creating wallow sites in wet depressions in the ground, eventually forming quite large sites (2–3 m across and up to 1 m deep). However, it has been claimed that only some species of deer wallow; red deer (Cervus elaphus) particularly like to wallow but fallow deer (Dama dama), for example, do not wallow. Even within the red deer species, there is variation between sub-species and breeds in wallowing behaviour. For example, although wapiti do wallow, they and crossbreds are less inclined to wallow than European red deer".
Here is a simple method that may work for you let people know to leave you alone.
You need a big ugly clipboard and a pen or something to write with.
Next print off satellite photos of where you are working, diagrams of parts lists of tools you use or vehicles you drive, Excel spreadsheet that are too small to really read, etc.
The point is to have a clip board that looks like it has important stuff on it.
When you think someone is looking to see if they can approach you just pickup the clip board and make like you are studying something.
Most people will assume you are busy and leave you along.
If they do approach, pull out something they are likely to know nothing about and ask them a hard question about it.
There are many books on non-verbal communication that may help let people know to leave you in peace.
I hear much about rocket stoves and outdoor cooking.
Having been a outdoor cook for a long time and loving history I see something missing from this whole conversation.
There really are two main techniques that technology falls into.
1) Low and slow such as dutch ovens, BBQ brisket, pot of beans, roasting roots in ashes, etc.
2) Hot and fast like the rocket stove, woks, grilling, griddles, etc..
Most of the time, when I see a rocket stove associated with cooking I see a pot with some liquid being heated to the boiling point.
Some times I may see a wok associated with a rocket stove.
The really impressive thing about the rocket stoves is the reduced amount of smoke generated. For people who cook over fire this is a major thing because of all the health problems related to inhaling smoke over a period of time.
The second impressive thing is that rocket stoves provide a better utilization of fuel so over time less fuel is required to prepare meals. This is important where fuel is limited.
This said for outdoor cooking you are mainly talking about heating a pot of liquid or using a hot and fast cooking method.
Now once you have a pot of something in liquid boiling you can shift to a low and slow by transferring said pot into a haybox.
This tends to work very well for legumes, soups, and stews. For water boils at around 212°F depending on elevation. So putting a simmering pot in a haybox can start you around this temp and minimum safe temperature for chicken is 165, and 160 for beef and pork.
I wish there were more effort to match rocket stove to haybox. For both have to be designed for the size of the pot being used.
To use rocket stove and haybox together you need to use the same pot so both systems have to be optimized around that pot size.
There are pests and there are pests.
Moles I love, I have always found them useful.
My family hates them. They want a smooth lawn.
Voles are another story
I view them like the rats in all the horse barns around me.
Both build up a large summer population and become a major problem when the easy to find food runs out.
Now a solid reason to have a cat!!!
I base my need to trap or remove voles on the number of voles the cat brings me.
When voles become daily offering from my cat, it is time to take action.
If I get the occasional vole, let the cat play with them.
I am not sure this is a communication issue as much as a management issue.
In my line of work many times the customer determines what needs to be done. However, I have to determine how it will be done.
So my first job is to work with the customer to develop the requirement for all the WHATS.
Once we have that we set down with the team that will be responsible for the how and come up with some alternatives.
When we have some basic ideas we go back to our primary customer contact and start fleshing out the hows.
In this case what needs to be done and how it needs to be done is decided by the customer.
Anyone who is licensed and bonded may have some issues if how it needs to be done does not follow best practices.
For if something goes wrong it could open them up to a law suite.
In my case I tend to avoid projects of this nature if possible due past experience.
I prefer to help my customers and work collaboratively.
It may be you are experiencing this situations. It could also be they are really trying to help.
Finally, you could be dealing with "I know better attitude".
In your situation, you should make it very clear before you hire, this is what I want, this is how I want it done, are you OK with that!
Bryant RedHawk wrote:Ferne, have you checked your soil pH? it needs to be in the 6.2-6.8 range for best growth, they need around 8 hours of full sun per day and they don't like really hot weather.
In our summers (really hot and very high humidity) the peppers slow down in the heat but pick back up as it gets cooler (under95 f).
There are fungus and nematodes that can be injected in to the wood.
It is likely that cedar oil, lemon oil, etc could kill them. You can mix oils with turpentine also.
Woodworm how to get rid of it using white spirit (terpentine)
"If a vegan friend visited you today, what could you make for them?"
What we are really talking about is
The main dish which is usually the heaviest, heartiest, and most complex or substantive dish on a menu.
The main ingredient is usually meat, fish or another protein source.
There are many vegan options for the other courses.
So the question becomes what vegan protein source can you provide.
This generally leads to some type combination of
1) legumes
2) Pumpkin Seeds
3) Asparagus
4) Cauliflower
5) Nuts
6) Spinach
7) Broccoli
Quinoa
Get this figured out and the rest is likely to fall in place.
Your details are lacking, so I will talk about my heavy clay soil in Cincinnati Ohio
First, there are weeds and there are weeds.
think rock, paper, scissors
I have goldenrod, giant ragweed beats golden rod, etc.
So one goal is to see what weeds are currently growing and what can outgrow them.
Second, every weed has a life cycle.
I am one of the few people who love giant ragweed. It is an annual that I feed to my poultry. If you cut it before it produces pollen you have great mulch.
It can also produce a canopy so tight that it kill all the other weeds. The trick to using it is to either have a stand in a area you will not use for other things, or to sprout it and plant the seedlings. This means that you do not get seeds living in the ground for years. So long as you cut it all down before it seeds you are golden. you can likely do a fall planting after you cut it down.
Another plant I love is wild burdock. It lives two years, so long as you cut the flower stalks no issues. Again, I sprout and plant seedlings so I do not get seeds in the ground for years. Burdock produces deep roots and alot of top cover.
Third, try some experiments
Several people have talked about prodcasting cow peas or legumes in seedballs.
I will be experimenting with some new cowpeas this year. I will broadcast them this weekend and use a weedeater to cut down all the weeds on top of the cowpeas.
Fourth, some soil tests are not bad. It helps to know what you are starting with.
In my case we have alot of poultry so I have to watch the phosphorous levels they tend to get high in my chicken waste.
Fifth, carefully dig a few holes and look at what soil structure you have.
Soil has micro, meso, and macro pores. Hopefully you will see worm tunnels and other structures.
Note how far down the structures go. Look at the soil profile as you go down. Should be leaf or grass litter on top and organics generally decrease as you go down.
It is now summer in the Northern half of the world. So assuming you are not down under, you should have a very good idea of what is growing on you clay soil.
So start by investigating and letting this discussion know of some of the details you have observed related to you clay soil area.
The more information you can supply, the better the advise people can offer you.
Dave de Basque wrote:Make friends with your neighbors, interest and fascinate them with permie/eco stuff, and as a group find an undervalued enclosed space nearby (garage, under stairs...) where you can share stuff. And agree on smart, easy rules of the road for sharing, reserving, maintaining and replacing what you share. 1 or 2 powerdrills is more than enough for 20 or 40 families! Is there a roof where you could set up a greenhouse together? Etc. Or if you like being less organized, as Tobias said, be generous and lend and borrow things to/from each other a lot.
Part of the original post was "I just wanted the thread where we could have a giant list of all the things that people can do when they don't have soil to work with'.
There was talk of joining a permaculture club, getting an allotment, or joining a community garden.
From personnel experience people working together can accomplish so much more than we can alone.
In my case I have about five acres that I can do mostly small scale thing at this time due to health reasons.
However, I just loaned my very good collection of tools to a family that needed to put in a garden this year.
I also supplied them with seeds to plant.
In turn they come over and help out a few times during the summer.
Sadly there are many more people I could have such a relationship with. I can start seeds, grow seedling, and many other things on a small scale.
We have garden clubs, community gardens, permaculture groups. etc. However, the connections between a urban or suburban and rural can be really hard to establish.
Keeping fake eggs in the nesting box is always a good idea IMHO
Collecting eggs in a timely manner also helps.
Having oyster shells available is another good thing.
Many types of poultry do not like grape flavoring.
As a last resort remove the egg eating chickens. If you are a breeder you likely restart a flock each year. Just keep a few rosters in the fall and process all the old birds.
1) Mother in law accidentally dumps bucket of shrews on your head while cleaning the well.
2) Cow steps on foot fracturing said foot.
3) Dog get head stuck in glass jar son had frog in, must break glass jar.
4) New kitten meets skunk for first time, you get to try new de-skunking recipe.
5) Kids let dog into house, dog drops raccoon head in your lab.
6) Dog discovers new joy of rolling in manure, you rent rug cleaner.
7) Cat has kittens on your bed while you are out of the house.
Emerald ash-borer move into your area, all your ash trees die.
9) New asian stink bug moves into your area, damages 30% of your fruit crop.
10) Poachers take 50% of the ginseng you planted 10 years ago, just when you were ready to harvest it.
11) Neighbors dog breaks through fence kill half your geese.
Several small poultry flocks I know use Great Pyrenees. They are the best farm dogs for protecting from fox, coyote, raccoon, possum, etc in southwester Ohio.
From what I have seen two dogs are better than one. This is based on young dogs tending to get bored and looking for a playmate.
What I generally see happening is when the main dog gets to a certain age a pup or young dog is brought in.
The old dog knows the ropes and the young dog tends to want to copy the old dog. This tends to make training easier and keeps the young dog where it should be.
Travis Schultz wrote:Okay so some of you are familiar with who I am and my experience in starting a small scale biointensive type farm. I have relied mostly on close spacing for weed control but was really liking the idea of sheet mulching beds and pathways to make a more esthetically pleasing look and to greatly reduce the weeding. I just used my own hybrid method of cardboard newspaper and straw or dried grasses on top.
I understand your vole problem. They are very common where I currently live. I once had one using me as a salt lick as I was sitting near tree watching a ball game. I kept feeling something tickling my leg. I would look and nothing was there. I call my wife and she spotted a vole licking my leg. I was ducking into a hole every time I turned to look!
Voles like to tunnel.When you put in cardboard, boards, or any type of solid material in a vole area, you are likely to find voles tunneling under it for shelter.
Material like this provides ideal habitat for those little rodents. They can now safely venture out at night and eat the food you have kindly planted next to their new homes.
As for the slugs, you again have created moist areas were slugs can safely hide in the heat of the day. That mulch is now providing ideal moist conditions for slug eggs to hatch.
So something that does not support tunnel structures or provides protection would be a consideration for voles. This would mean small pieces of organic matter that allow you to see and collapse tunnels and allows predators to eat voles.
For the slugs you don't want pocket of moist areas.
I have used coffee grounds from starbucks to mulch between rows. Your idea of sheet composting is good. But your material has the wrong physical characteristics.
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Quinoa