Randy Bachman

I bought a 5 acre homestead last year and it came with an old Kubota tractor and a couple of implements. Had to do several repairs but my son and I figured them out. We have lots of tools and a big barn/garage/shop. So we’re set. I love having it. Mowing with it does take time on an undeveloped pasture, but a zero-turn would get destroyed due to all the ruts and heavy woody weeds. I may get a subsoiler to break the ground up and smooth it out. Probably a one-time event, but doable with a tractor. I put in a “bike path” around the farm for my wife. Still needs work but my tractor and a box scrapper made it easy. I love having a tractor. But I do dream of having a back-hoe. I sometimes wish I had an I OWN A TRACTOR t-shirt

Timothy Norton wrote:I've been spoiled my whole life and been reliant on municipal water sources.

For those who have to upkeep their own water infrastructure, how do you know your water is clean? How frequent do you check your water over time?

Do you utilize any filtration

I have had water tests done. Texas A&M works with the extension office to do testing. Its not cheap but it is thorough. I’m a chemical engineer with a lot of industrial water treatment experience. I found these analyses comprehensive, useful and
reassuring. They typically give you a drinking water range so you can see what issues you might have. I just put in a three stage filtering system because that’s what I do. It also makes my wife feel better.  A basic sedimentation filter and activated carbion filter are never a bad idea, and are not costly. I even put them on my house fed by the city.

I would not leave it to chance. Its not hard nor expensive to put in some basic protection. Do a bit of reading. Its not hard to understand the basics. And as a honesteader its great to understand and be in control of the essentials like water.

Anne Miller wrote:Maybe some picture might help tell what is going on.  

New beds take time for the wood to start decomposing.  

Hand watering sound good to me.

If the water is overflowing on the pathways maybe cut back to watering less more frequently.

I turned off the drip system. It took three days to dry out around the beds. Had to hand water to keep things alive. Just turned water back on but at lower durations. We’ll see. It is poking holes in 95 DegF here with almost no rain.

I put in a bunch of hugel beds at our new datmstead last fall. The ground is solid clay. Each bed was built on a 2 foot deep solid clay pit. Each was filled with logs, branches old lumber wood mulch. The wood was generally 1 to 2 feet above ground. I then filled each pit with water. I added wood mulch a little compost of leaves and layered in clay to buid up the mounds. My drip system sends water in and the beds overflowing onto the paths. But the tops of the mounds stay too dry and the plants arent doing well without hand watering. Is this a new bed problem that will become less an issue next year? Or do i need to redo the mound dirt so there is less clay?

Blake Lenoir wrote:Could I set aside a small puddle or bath for toads to drink or bathe in?

Mine dont seem to care. I guess they get water from the drip system. But it might be nice until the mosquitoes find it.

Born and raised in Arizona, the Valley of the Sun. I laughed at the gardener who found out even plants that like sun still need shade. Everybody and everything loves the shade in Phoenix.  We also have a mark on foreigners (any one east of Arizona) it’s red burn marks on the back of the thigh from sitting down in hot a car with shorts. You always have a towel to sit on. As a kid we were always getting foreigners moving in to school (usually from Ohio). One time a new kid asked me why I wore western shirts. All my nice shirts had perl snap buttons. I didnt know they were western shirts. They were just shirts! Texans seem to know better.

Blake Lenoir wrote:Greetings folks! Toads are an outstanding sight to any garden and are a force to combat pests and prolong the balance to the ecosystem. Could they create burrows under these mounds?

They have no problem digging borrows, even in clay crust. Now that baby toadlets are everywhere I am expecting my mounds will look more like Bag End soon, maybe even with green doors!

I started my garden on our new homestead. It has no soil, just dirt. It is really clay down at least 2 feet. All my hugels are built on two foot deep clay cells. I have no earthworms naturally so have added Walmart night crawlers as I go. Lots if pollinators like wasps. But every bed with onions is home to toads. They have built their little homes in the side of onions. It is a joy to be pulling bermuda and have these little friends come to their opening and watch me work. So I am adding onions to all the beds so toads will move in. It is beyond cool.

Edible Lotus sounds interesting. Where do get sonething like that?

“Here in Texas, I believe this is the year without a Spring.”

I’m in Fayette County Texas and Spring zip by. I had some Indian Paint in my south pasture buf tgat was about it. They were gone in a couple of weeks. Mid April and my pastures and garden look like August. Thankfully we got a good rain. Last years’ Spring went on forever, so I got a big spoiled.