Jessica Windle

Hi Everyone,

My partner and I are planning to take the train from Montana to Tennessee in June of this year, with the intention of getting married. We'd love to stay at farms or permaculture sites in the area. Not looking for free stays, just good suggestions from locals!

Thank you!!

Nice, thanks for starting this thread Doug! We don't have any goats yet, but looking to get some this spring or next. Still haven't a clue what breed. Our interests are in this order:

1. Milk
2. Fibre
3. Personality - I'm an elementary school teacher with dreams of having an educational farm for kiddos.
4. Meat - Not necessary, we've got plenty, but worth considering at some point.

Where I live it CAN get real cold, but very rarely does it get below -20C. We get a LOT of snow but very little rain, its sunny more often than not.

I have about 1/4 acre I can pen off for them (thinking the electric fence method described on various other threads) and there is a good amount of alfalfa and clover in that section although I also have access to affordable hay.

We are just a family of two, but have several CSA type agreements with other families for our veggies, eggs, and meat rabbits, and I expect they'd be into this as well.

What do you think - what type, how many, and why?

Anyone had experience with Nigora goats? Haven't found many dual purpose (milk and fibre) out there, and am obviously concerned about hardiness.

Thanks for any suggestions!

I saw (though I haven't yet tried myself since I don't have a cat) an awesome, and free idea on a local garden tour:

The gardeners mulched their garden heavily with pinecones (actual pine cones would probably work better than fir or spruce).

It looked kind of cool and apparently was very effective.

Wow, thanks so much to everyone for all the advice. I particularly like Tyler's recipe for homemade feed, I've come across a few recipes, but this one is all things I have on hand.

Thank you for confirming that I DO NOT need medicated feed, it reminds me of feeding infants formula when mother's milk is pretty dang perfect.

Also thanks for the info regarding ACV. I've been adding unpasteurized ACV to my chickens water for about 4 months, and I've definitely noticed an increase in health.

Woohoo I'll have a much bigger crew in the coop by the end of the week!

I have a couple of hens sitting on fertilized eggs, estimated to hatch next Thursday. This is my first time raising chicks, although I've had a small flock of 6 layers for a year now.

My local farm store is trying to sell me medicated feed for the chicks because they won't be vaccinated. They also recommend some germ-be-gone something or other for the water... with my hens I've always just put some apple cider vinegar in their water and they've been healthy. I'd like to keep them as organic as possible, can anyone recommend an alternative feed??? Any other tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated!

I live in a town in Canada that recently implemented a deer cull, thats how serious our deer problem is.

I have 7.5" INVISIBLE deer fence, its much cheaper than the wire wildlife fence, and although I've only had mine up for one year, I've heard accounts of it lasting for upwards of 10 years. It cost me less than $2000 including posts to fence my one acre property.

Also, Toby Hemenway's book 'Gaia's Garden' discusses nuisance deer, he has a neat way of using perennial sunflowers and a fedge. I also read, I think in that book, that two fences are better than one because of their lack of depth perception.

And it doesn't get any better than dog patrol!

Check out this PDF from a Japanese farming research centre.

Try this website for info about Schizandra and lots of other great plants!

http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Schisandra+chinensis