Chris Barrows

Heard about this on the radio this morning:

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/08/21/544191316/to-get-calcium-navajos-burn-juniper-branches-to-eat-the-ash


Has anyone tried this as a soil amendment?

I would expect a soil pH change, but other than that I can't think of a downside.

I posted this under cob, but it could definately apply to growies as well

My knees and other joints are great.

I work at the local fairgrounds, so I think I'll try running/jogging the bleacher seating of the rodeo arena.

Three miles north of my place, across Black Bear Creek, is the south edge of the Tall Grass Prarie.


The pheasant had been hunted to damn near extinction level during the First Depression (Great Depression)

With the pheasant went the turkey, quail, cotten tail, jack rabbit and white tail deer.

Deer were finally legal to hunt again in 1972 in my county.

I saw one mating pair of pheasant in 2015.

None since, but lots of pheasant  kills by bobcat and coyote.

Invasive or not, I'll take pheasant over pipe liners, frackers, water speculators or tax assessors.

Bow hunting season starts in 44 days.

Wood walking, tracking, rub/scrape spotting is always in vogue this time of year.

Unfortunately, in April I had a bout of pneumonia.

I had been running 7 minute miles (not bad for 47)

I'm down to 8:45

I've been cutting down on coffee, bumping up on teas, lots of pushups (100 on waking and another 100 before bed) high protein, low carb.

I still have lung problems. Still have a deep chest rattle in my lower left lung. Feel like I'm running  about 75-80% of normal.

Since the doctors and hospitals cost me 25% of my last 4 paychecks (with federal government approved health insurance), I have to get myself back into reasonable hunting condition in an affordable manner.

Any ideas on my situation?

Crazy!

From the article:

High rate of reproduction
Pioneer Species (able to colonize areas after they have been disturbed)
Short generation times
Long-lived
High dispersal rates
Single-parent reproduction
Vegetative or clonal reproduction
High genetic variability
Broad native range / Tolerant of wide range of conditions / Habitat generalist (can live in many different types of habitats)
Abundant in native range
Broad diet
Gregarious
Human commensal (lives in close association with humans)


Damn.... us humans are pretty invasive!

In my dealings with training cattle, mules and hogs to electric fencing, I've found the following process to work well:

Place animals to be trained into a reasonably sized, standard fenced area.

Place a run of electric fence from one side of the standard fence to a point 3/4 of the way across the pen, allowing enough space for the animals to comfortably pass between the end of the electric fence and the standard fence.

Place a water source on one side of the electric fence and a feeder or mineral block on the other.

Put animals in pen for 3-4 days.

They tend to learn fairly quick and I've not had problems  with animals escaping as long as the fence you use to train them is generally the same as what I've used in the field.

Goats generally  consume 2-3 gallons per day.

Sheep generally consume about 4 gallons per day.

The numbers will vary depending on the time of year and the available forage type.

35 gpm should go a long way

I love this idea!

It's coming on to County Fair time and there will be lots to be had for free!

Better to see it get put to use rather than going to a landfill.

As a row cropping guy, I try to plant a tall crop row (corn or sunflowers) about every 3rd or 4th row. I use these crops more for wind, hail and biomass production than for food production.

In my part of oklahoma, the hail generally comes out of the west, much of which is blocked by my eastern red cedar windbreaks.

The area protected from hail is about 3/4 the height of the tree, from my experience.

I repurposed my old deep freezer as a compost/worm bin.

Took out most of the lid seal to prevent the biologics from over heating it when I put too much high nitrogen material in it.

Opened the drain and put a pan under it to catch worm juice.

I empty it out every other year or so, which is a bit of a pain, but it seems to work well for me.