Ray Cover

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since Apr 11, 2012
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Recent posts by Ray Cover

Thanks Liz,

I did find a worm farming forum. There's a forum for everything now days.

They all pretty much concluded the same thing, that I let me box get too dry. Live and learn. I have been watering it everyday to try and run the ants off. Before I refill it with worms I need to figure out what to do about winter. How do I keep my worms from freezing over the winter? I dont' want to put out another $50 in worms just to have them freeze and die again over the winter.

Ray
12 years ago
Hey everyone,

Been a while since I have checked in here. Life has been very busy the past few weeks.

I am having problems with my worm box under my bunny hutch. We set this up about 5 weeks or so ago and put 2000 worms in. Things were going fine for a while. I even noticed tiny baby worms at one point. Then all of a sudden my worms have disappeared and my box is overrun with tiny ants about 3mm or 1/8" long. Did the ants eat my worms or run them off?

Here is how things are set up. The box is approx 3ft by 8ft by 11 inches deep with a plywood bottom. I drilled 3/8" drainage holes in the bottom on a 6" grid per directions I had for building a worm box. I started the box off with a mixture of composted cow manure, topsoil, shredded newspaper and shredded cardboard. We put the worms in and topped it all off with about a half inch of grass clippings to try and help hold moisture in. I tried to keep the bed moist but not sopping wet. The directions I had said about as damp as a wrung out sponge.

For weeks i could go out wnad turn over a patch and find worms just anywhere I looked. Now when I do that all I find are those tiny ants.

I don't mind buying more worms and starting over but I need fond out what went wrong before I do that.

I sure could us some expertise of some of you worm farmers out there.

I didn't really see and appropriate place in the critters section to put this so I put it here in the general permacutlure spot. If it is more appropriate somewhere else please move it.

Ray
12 years ago
Here is a pic of one of the affected peppers and the plant it came off of. The leaves on the plant look healthy to me. The only thing that I can find on the plant that might be a sign of something suspect is the dark coloring at the forks where the branches and fruit sprout off but every pepper plant I have ever grown has had that coloring in the forks.

I don't know guys. To me it seems to look more like the sunburn than the fungus rot but I'm not sure. Do the pictures help ID the problem?
12 years ago
That sure looks like what I have Tyler. These plants have grown in this bed the whole time. I would think they would be used to the sun. Is there anything I can do about it? I pulled the affected fruit off already to prevent any chance of spread or other problems. Would more water help?

12 years ago
Hey all,

I am getting brown soft spots on my bell peppers way before they are ripe. It looks they are starting to rot on the vine so to speak but they aren't even ripe yet.

Any clue whats going on?

Ray
12 years ago
I am beyond skeptical. If this were true large industry would be buying all the technology up. They would not be offering it on the net like this.

IF it is true I say wait till the price of gold drops to a reasonable rate again from them glutting the market and it won't hurt my so much to buy it. Ya for them. I had to buy a 6' Piece of 24K 18 gauge wire and a 1"x2" 30 gauge sheet a couple weeks ago for my current project. $550 for those two little pieces. I remember when I could have gotten those two pieces all day long for $125.

Gold has no real value to me other than a material that I work with. This current market is putting the hurt on.

12 years ago
I wander how well this works on some of those hard to split woods like elm. Around here we call this splitting wood. Chopping is cutting to length with an ax.

I learned to really split wood from a blacksmith that lived in Potosi Mo named Tom Clark. Tom took a single bit ax and welded a 1.5 x 1.5 block on the back of the ax head and ground it to the contour of the original head. This added a weight that gave torsion to your ax head. TO use the ax you held it with the head canted about 30 degrees to one side rather than straight up and down. Tom's method made splitting wood very efficient and fast. Tom use to do local demos where he would take on a team of men using he latest miracle wood splitting gizmo. He never lost a contest. By time they got through a rank of wood he was usually way ahead.

I don't' have one of Tom's custom axes made for this but I have found that a double bitted ax gives almost as good results if held the same way. I'm not as fast as Tom was at it but it is the fastest way I can split wood myself. There is a technique to it but once you get the hang of it it is easy and a lot less physically stressful than using a splitting maul or wedges.

I don't know how to embed a video but I did find a vid on you tube of Tom splitting with his custom ax. Even hard to split hardwoods with interlocking grains would split using his method.

Tom clark splitting wood

Here's another one.

Tom splitting 2
12 years ago
I am working on my overall plan.

Today I started mapping out the sun at various parts of the yard so I know how many hours of sun, shade and, mottled sun I get at each spot. That will help with what to plant where based on amount of sun needed.

I also have things that I do need based on family and business needs. For example I have a pair of whippets that need some yard to run in. I also build custom fly rods and I need to keep a lane of yard back there for test casting rods. I have been working on that list needs and wants. As well as trying to map out the lot.

My daughter and I are taking a trip this weekend and I am taking stuff to work on my plan of the evenings in the hotel room so hopefully, I will be able to get a good portion of it done.

Ray
12 years ago
Thanks Morgan

If it will end up being too wet for the grapes between the two sets of beds, I may move them north or up hill of the two hugel crescents. I may just trade the top set of crescents and the grapes places. That back fence is already covered with blackberries and raspberries.

Will it hurt the grapes to transplant them over the summer or should I wait until they go dormant in the fall? I just planted those this spring.

If I mulch up the inside of the crescents do you think the inside of he crescents can retain enough water to grow high water things like melons and cantaloupe?

One more question, If I move all this around how far up hill should I space the two sets of crescents? I'm thinking put the first set 10ft uphill from the second set. Would I need more space than that?


Ray
12 years ago
I'm going to give it a try. When Rachel and I build that second hutch we will also build worm boxes to go under the hutches.

12 years ago