jenn Hatfield

Didn't appreciate the specific qualities. Ate some thAT tasted fine and saw a lot of wierd colors and sizes/shapes but uncertain other qualities. They showed us oca and called it a potato. Was tempted to smuggle that in but didn't relish a possible fine or prison time? Next exotic country I'll investigate import of plant material requiremetns in advance just in case

Just got back from DD's graduation trip (me and her) to Peru. It involved many days of travel by bus and train across that lovely nation to get to the sites we visited. So I got a view often as close as 10 feet away of many acres of Peruvian agriculture.

1- Only saw one tractor over a thousand miles- parked in a very large field (unusual) with US type small bales

2- All plowing I saw was 2 oxen teams.

(It was winter, dry season, there.)

3- Grain was shocked in 3' high cones.

4- Many walled in yards and some balconies had stacks of corn (shucked, on the cobs) drying.

5- Saw people hand (pitchfork) fluffing /tedding hay

6- Might have seen silage- or maybe it was just hay on top of dirt berms- and saw a few haystacks but mostly just recently cut.

7- Saw large group (maybe just a family though) picking carrots.

8- Main crops potatos grains (esp quinoa and 2 other types I'd never heard of) corn and livestock.

9- Many adobe walls- some dividing up fields but not all usually just around house area

10- Animals not fenced often but usually if in smaller group roped- even pigs!- and seemed some were roped in a line. Would usually be a person (herder) with every group of grazing animals- sometimes ropes on animals to person visible othertimes they were clearly staked and probably a lot more ropes than I clearly saw. Would see cows a few feet from the train with no definite protection other than their common sense- probably herder keeps them from crossing rail and they don't get too close as no grass there.

Often animals were grazing early grain or harvested field.

At evening time would see 2-3 folks herding animals home- as if 1-2 someones are sent out to herder to help him/her bring animals home. Once it was 3 behind a huge herd cows with boss cow out ahead of all. Never saw dogs herding- dunno if that is done there- most dogs seemed to be just companions but dunno about vermin they might control.

11- dogs- never leashed, never in packs (as I see daily from my window at home rural AL), only once saw one in road in front of car, many more in cities, roaming and eating garbage. (And only saw 3 cats whole visit.) Many purebred- dunno if of all those roamers several are purebred paid for or if they get purebred strays way more than we do.

12- One of our guides working and living in city heads 20 min away to old family farm (shared with one brother still also in area) to grow the potatos and corn for his family.

Don't know what else is of interest- ask and I will answer if able from what I saw/ was told by guides.

Lightly so sorry! One of my 4 actually had a blossom on it but otehr than that- with lots of water through the summer and our lucky Alabama fall/winter/spring with hardly a need for me to water- they are growing and leafing well.

I envy you not- I was at Ft Hood/ Killeen Lampasas area for 4 years on a 6 acre farmette and killed off many a plant and tree through not watering enough. If I were there working full time as I am now I wouldn't even DARE plant any trees.

Better luck next time- maybe put in a drip line? With a timer?

Did I post already seeing a dozen guys in a row with their backs to the road, all wearing team colours, on the road to or from a big footie game in England?

Dug for gold today and got a wheelbarrowful of sweet potatos from two (3?) plants that survived of the 9 planted long ago. The one plant with the most and biggest was in the hugelkultur bed. It had sunk so low I was digging up 2 ft bits of rotting wood or a 3 foot branch when I suspected I was pulling up another string of foot long tubers.

Can't truly say the hugelkultur helped the sweet potatos in that bed do better- think it was closer to where I was watering once in a while!

All our 5  pets go out of doors. THey certainly have fleas and we will never make them flea free until all the wild birds, squirrels, rabbits, 'dillos, deer, panthers, bobcats, and neighbor or feral dogs and cats are dead. (Animals are fenced but we walk them outside the fence and all but dogs and ? deer can get in our fence.) We treat them with frontline or revolution to cut down on ticks and fleas for their comfort and ours, but to keep fleas off us we let the animals back in the house before we go in if we leave town and kennel them!!!

That said DH is covered with flea bites (he thinks) this week, first time in his life. I have none, we share a bed, cats sleep on it but more on my side... He forgot to change the sheets as advised (and I'm refusing to baby him so I haven't done it either) but number of bites is already decreasing- none last night.

We do keep borax down behind furniture sinks etc but that's to keep down roach popualtion.

I got 3 types from Oikos and have them in several spots in the yard, one quite damp one.

I think pecans (and maybe butternut) died from underwatering or too close to larger tree roots. The drainage and tree cover on my property is very variable and I can't conclude any definite cause but those that didn't make it were closer to large trees, and were not in the area the house or septic drains toward  or where I pay more attention and water more. Lost maybe 25% of my pecans first year, rest continue growing but none so well as the heartnut.

PLanted one here 8a but it died- as did some pecans even in my yard. Heart nut a few feet away doing brilliantly 4 years out. So this year planted another heartnut and a buartnut from oikos.

Camp B by preference, A by custom. My compost piles are never in a private place in our small yard, and in the dark I gotta beware vermin in the compost. In a prior urban home desperate for compost I peed indoors in a bucket and carried it out to the pile immediately. Now I go outside to save a trip inside and water, if I can be out of sight of neighbors. Only 5% time.