Maya Rapp

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since Oct 14, 2021
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Recent posts by Maya Rapp

Good on you for not going the allopathic route, I applaud you. Should I get the Big C myself, chemo, radiation, and drugs will be the absolute LAST thing I try, if at all. There's so many other natural avenues out there worth trying that won't completely trash your day and your immune system.

Lexie Smith wrote:I did a comparison this year using peat pots alongside regular pots and the difference is huge! The peat pots definitely inhibit the growth of the tomato plants. Anybody want a bunch of peat pots?

We have a huge problem with deer here and I get bags of hair from a local hair salon and sprinkle it around like mulch. It’s pretty good for mulch and excellent for deer repellent but it does require reapplication periodically.



I detest peat pots. I start most of my stuff on grow shelves, and almost always the peat pots turn into this junky slimy mess.

We have a huge problem with deer and elk, but I seem to be having good results with a rotten egg spray. You ferment eggs, garlic, and milk together, cayenne if you chose. after a month it stinks to high heaven. I toss in a probiotic capsule to get it to ferment faster, although I suppose yeast would get the job done too. I don't use it on fruiting plants, like my fruit/nut trees and such (I do spray it on the trunks), and my lord but that stuff reeks. The smell goes away after a day, but apparently the deer and elk can still smell it, and don't find it too appetizing. Cheap to make your own. Home Depot charges a ridiculous amount for the stuff.
Sorry Mark Reed, I get them mixed up.
2 years ago

William Bronson wrote: This system sound great!
So, no condensation issues on the inside of the glazing?



It's so dry up here that condensation isn't much of an issue. Everything dries up as soon as the sun comes out.
2 years ago
Our last hive was a Warre hive. From the description, I'm assuming it's the same as a Kenyan top bar. Works great, bees thrived in it, til I screwed up and decided to overwinter them in the greenhouse. Don't do that. I was worried about our super cold winters, but keeping them in the greenhouse only confused them, and they thought it was a different season, and they all died. I mostly keep bees for pollination, I don't take a lot of their honey. I might take a slice off a couple of bars, but that's about it.

This year's hive is in a Tanzanian top bar, aka, a long Langsroth hive. I'm an older person, and I have trouble with those heavy regular Langsroth boxes. What I like about a Long Langsroth, is I can keep the hive warm-ish through the winter by changing over a feeder to a heater by cutting a new top board, and cutting a small slit for a submersible fish tank heater cord. We'll see how it goes. Although, I'm going to change from water to oil so I don't have excess moisture in the hive, and oil should be fine at 68 degrees (that's as low as the heater will go). Should they decide to swarm over to the old Kenyan (Warre) top bar hive, I'm going to buy some of those silicone mat heaters that just stick on the side of the hive box.

I don't know...it might just be me, but I hate the cold, and I can't bear the thought of any animal of mine being cold. The bees might just do fine without the heater, but we can get as cold as -15, and I just don't see how they can manage. My chickens have a heater, why not my bees? I keep my vermiculture in the house so they stay warm. The younger cats go outside at the first sign of spring, but that's mostly because they behave badly inside the house.
2 years ago
You just gave me a great idea!

Put the hair in cheesecloth, panty hose, what have you, but I'd soak the whole mess in deer repellant spray first, and hang it from your fence or a post. I don't eat egg yolks, whites only, but I use the yolks in a really nasty spray.

Use 3 eggs or 5 yolks (or 6, whatever), and at least 3 cloves of garlic. Add a tbs of milk (I just use a tbs of dried milk as we don't do dairy), a probiotic capsule (helps speed up fermentation), and do it up in a blender with a cup or two of water. The milk is just to make it stick to the plant, so I guess you could use liquid dish soap, a few drops or so. Toss the mess into a gallon jug, fill to the top with water. Let that mess sit a month, or till it stinks to high heaven. Strain out the solids with muslin or cheesecloth. Add the leftover solids to your hair mess. Put the strained stuff in a sprayer, spray your trunks and your fence perimeter.

Don't use it on fruit trees while they're blossoming or in fruit. I generally just spray the bottom of the trunks, and the area around your fence. It only reeks like h*** for a day, but the deer and elk can smell it for weeks.

It's the same stuff that Home Depot sells for a stupid amount of money, but if you have chickens and raise your own garlic, it's pretty cheap. It smells really disgusting til it dries, but it really works. Deer and elk hate it. Make sure you aren't downwind when you spray it (or you'll need an immediate shower after), and tell the dogs to go find someplace else to be. You can add cayenne to it if you want. I don't, cause I've killed plants with that stuff, so I don't use it.

The only other thing I know what to do with a glob of hair is to cut it in little pieces, and add it to your garden soil for really slow release nitrogen.
2 years ago
Much respect to Paul Wheaton, but I live in the Idaho mountains. You absolutely have to start plants on grow shelves. Cloches just aren't going to do it, not what with the wacky weather we get in March and April. Right now we have teens at night, 30's during the day, even though we were in the upper 60's last month. Snow predicted all week. Another issue I have is growing from seed in my greenhouse - too many slugs, earwigs, and sow bugs for plants to grow from seed. They'd get eaten before they had a chance. No way you'd get even one tomato, much less a winter squash, if you didn't start them early in the house. Our last frost date is supposed to be mid-May, but we almost always get a freak frost around the beginning of June. First frost is mid-September. Very short growing season.
2 years ago
I have 4 cats, 3 small dogs and 4 chickens (soon to be 6 chickens and 5 guinea hens). Rodents don't last long around here.
2 years ago
Most of my clothes are black. easy to mix and match. In the summer, it's so hot here, I go with off white, but black from September to June is my norm. Long winters.
2 years ago
I absolutely despise peat pots. I always end up having to peel them off the plant/soil. I've tried using them in my grow shelves, and they just get slimy and disgusting. It's been my experience that the plant roots just won't grow through the darned things. My husband bought a bunch, and I had to ask him never to buy them again. The ones I have used, I peel them off the plant, bust them up into little pieces, and put them in my potting soil. I have better luck with crappy potting soil with too much wood products in them than I have trying to start plants in peat pots.