Sam Potter

pollinator
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since Apr 21, 2016
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Biography
An Urban Homesteader making the best of a small space in a big world
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Central Iowa, Zone 5b
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Recent posts by Sam Potter

Curious if anyone finishes there ducks on anything special and if it makes a difference on the meat. Normally we just raise chickens for butcher but I have 8 mix breed drakes to many that need to be taken care of before winter. I like for the meat I work hard for to taste the best it can but also not add extra work and money if it doesn't make much of a difference. So far they are eating corn oats and sunflower seeds on pasture. The crickets and grasshoppers are wild this year so they are filling up on those everyday to!  And Iv heard of dry aging but never tried it and honestly it seems sketchy to do at home. Logically I know people have been doing it for a long time at home, but the food safety training in me is stuck on the idea not being safe.  Iv never tried it but Id like to see what a difference it makes. Any good trusted refrences for how to dry age ducks or other poultry?
5 days ago
Id start with chickens or ducks. If you haven't raised alot of critters before you will underestimate how easy it is to get attached to them. Its easy to say now that you will butcher the cute fuzzy rabbit but then youl care for them and there offspring for a few months and now you have pets instead of livestock. Chickens and ducks are a easy way of getting experience and eggs for the table. Plus its easier to learn the mental thing of butchering a animal you have fed and bonded with on a angry jerk of a teenage rooster then a docile sweet doe the kiddos named snowball. That or start with Cornish cross chickens for meat, If you try to put off there last day they get to big and its painful to me to watch them waddle around on painful joints.
3 weeks ago
My old place had a problem with the path turning into ankle deep mud due to how the driveway and garage roof ran off into it. The whole yard would wash out after a big ran event and it was the only path to the back yard that Id take at least three times a day. So we made a inverted huglemound.  We dug it about 3-4 feet deep the whole way. Then added dead logs and branches and topped it off with free mulch. Its alot of work but the path way still works and that was 5 years ago now. I have a couple pictures of us making it.  It dose need a couple inches of mulch added to it once a year or it likes to sink down. We put fruit trees and garden beds along it where we could so they could benefit from the water in the pathway hopefully. The peach trees grow best along it to this day so I think it helps. Il see if I can remember to take any pictures of it now next time we visit.

P.S I thought I had more pictures but I must have them on another account.
3 weeks ago

Carla Burke wrote:Add gentle exfoliant to your list. It's great for your skin and with the massage required to use it for exfoliating, it also promotes lymph drainage.

It also works on hands, one, elbows and feet



So Iv now replaced my body wash due to this suggestion. It works great without causing my pretty sensitive skin to break out. I think Im allergic to all soaps just some more then others. The coffee grounds don't irritate my skin and I feel clean afterwards!
4 weeks ago
I tried the no poo thing and might revisit it again in the future but for now I decided to just reduce how often I shower and use shampoo. Did find out that used coffee grounds instead of soap works wounders as a body wash for me. And soap on my face causes pimples and over time it stopped producing so much grease. But my hair just couldn't adapt! I tried for 3 months and my friends have officially dubbed me a crazy hippie from that stint. I think there's a way but I don't have the freedom right now to have gross feeling/looking hair with work and stuff right now.
4 weeks ago
Im glad this post was brought back. I didn't know my marmalade would mellow over time. I have 2 jars left that were made years ago and they were dubbed prank white elephant gifts due to how awfully bitter they were. Iv never made the attempt to make it since. Il have to go dig them out and see if they taste any better then they did before!
4 weeks ago
I have no idea how to tell if a frame is good for canvas or anything on its own. But I have on multiple occasions gotten a print or mass produced office painting that is done on canvas with wood from the thrift store on the cheap for like 3$ just to steal the frame. I get art from some pretty awesome friends of mine and they happily take the canvas to repaint over them as well so I don't have to toss anything.
1 month ago
art
I do a green veggie mix of sweet potatoes leaves, lambs quarter and nettle every year to add to soups during the winter. The hard stem bits that dont powder down are good in soups and you wont notice them. But for baking I will send the powder thru a electric coffee grinder. It works really well and breaks up the dried fibrous stalks and leaves. I dont like blanching before drying them, It sounds counter productive so I take care of it this way.
1 month ago
My husband and I are just looking into Tai Chi. We'v been doing yoga since the start of this year nearly every day and the improvements have been so nice! But some variety is always welcome so we don't stagnate and get bored. Dose anyone notice a difference between the two for back and hip pain?
1 month ago
Iv never delt with them personally but i know ground wasp can be easily flooded out if you want to with water. My grampa connected his truck exhaust to the entrance and he just killed them all that way. It seemed pretty effective and they didn't freak out really during it.
1 month ago