Mike Barkley

gardener & hugelmaster
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since Mar 01, 2018
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Biography
After a long career electro-geeking for R&D labs in the electronic industry Mike has checked out of the rat race & moved to the woods. Not entirely off grid but trying to achieve that goal. He raises a few animals & enjoys growing healthy food in various gardens. He is a life long nature lover, adventure seeker, & to a certain extent a minimalist. Eventually bears will probably eat him & turn him into compost. He is ok with that.
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Recent posts by Mike Barkley

Welcome to permies Daniel.

Good luck with that. I might be wrong but I don't think it's nearly warm enough up there for mesquite. Maybe harness some heat from the Canadian wildfires???
3 hours ago
You know it's summertime in Texas when you step outside and WHAM the heat hits you like a ton of bricks. In my opinion it's far better than -20 below zero. Been there done that. Didn't like it one bit.






1 day ago
Then if it were mine I would use it as a meat tenderizer.
3 days ago
That looks like a leather working tool used to mark stitch locations. Does tightening the screw on the end lock the discs into place?
3 days ago
I'm still having trouble understanding how this would do much to control varroa mites. Sure, there would be few brood at first but it seems like that would increase quickly.

It also seems that since bees respond & act mostly due to queen pheromones two queens would confuse both sets of workers.

Bees are so fascinating. The more one learns about them the more they realize how little we humans know.
4 days ago
A class I took said blue flowers are their favorite.

A safe supply of water is good too. Sugar might be good too. That somewhat depends on if there is enough natural forage for them. In your area at this time of year I suspect sugar might be very welcomed by them.
1 week ago
Sprinkle a little lemongrass oil around. I've heard peppermint oil also works but have never tried it.
1 week ago