Aimee Bacon

I love the taste, ease of growing, and how long Yukon Gold store.  But I also grow All Blue, which is my kids' favorite to eat.

It might be a cabbage moth.  If so, they are not friends if you want to grow any brassicas!

I much prefer to keep the skin on my chickens.  However, I also don't want to invest in a plucker nor do I have the space to store it for 363 days a year when not in use.  So, I bought a $25 plucking attachment for a drill.  It does an alright job, you do still need to do a little fine cleanup by hand but I think it is a good alternative if you are not doing large batches of meat birds.

Like others I have never measured my harvests of nettle.  I have a patch of stinging nettle on my property that I keep contained to about 2'x6' and I harvest enough to fill my 9 tray dehydrator several times each spring/early summer.  I dehydrate them and once a month powder enough to make a month's supply of capsules for myself to take one daily.  They have always grown very well here.  And a have to dig and trim them back a few times a year to keep them contained to a small corner of the garden.

I have long curly hair.  I use artnaturals shampoo and conditioner, then when still wet,  I finger comb in  argan oil creme by artnaturals and use a wide tooth comb.  This has been the best combo I have found so far.

What is your goal?  meat, eggs, mosquito control?  how big is the pond?

We stuck chicks under a broody hen last year and it couldn't have went any better.  She took such great care of them and showed them everything in the yard and pecked at anything that came close to them, it was glorious!  So this year I ordered chicks and expected a repeat, however, she didn't want anything to do with the chicks this time, I tried with another broody and nope she wasn't having it either.  So, they went in the garage brooder and I still have two broody hens  

I have both chickens and quail plus other animals.  I like both of them for eggs, however, you really need to use the special scissors for their eggs.  I mostly feed the eggs to my dog.  I love how easy quail are to harvest, however, it takes so many of them to feed the family.  I love that they are so quick to mature and how easy it is replenish the covey as long as you have an incubator.  So will I probably always keep them, yes.  But I will always have a laying flock of chickens and a batch or two of meatbirds per year also.  
I built a quail tractor to keep them in when we don't have snow on the ground.  Before it snows I cut the flock back to about 10 female & 2 males and keep them in two birdcages in my garage.

We have three small goats and they knocked out our poison ivy patch in one season.  The best thing for ticks is guineas, however, I have had pretty good control with chickens.

We recently got Creme d'Argent rabbits because we wanted another source of meat and I like to help preserve threatened breeds.  I am adding a handful of droppings to each hole as I plant this year.  So far, I am seeing beautiful results!  After I get enough for ourselves I am hoping to sell some to help cover the ongoing costs of the rabbits.