Nathan Jarvis

Hello again,

This site has been very helpful and I thank all who maintain, create, participate, and share. If I hadn't stumbled upon permaculture videos and sites about ten years ago I would probably never had done what I needed to do to get here. I'm finally getting to do it instead of just thinking about doing it.

I plan on turning a 1/4 acre of lawn into a garden this spring. I'm anxious to turn the soil over and try to cook off some of the seed bank under plastic.

I have a tractor, subsoiler, two bottom plow, rake, disk, and back blade,

I have a few sources of manure on the farm and a bunch of loose straw and hay that was cleaned out of the barn last year when I purchased the property. I'm also willing to truck in material to get started.

The photo of inside the riding ring (100' x 35') seems like packed down horse manure that has accumulated over fifty or so years.

The pile of horse manure pictured has been outside for at least eight months. It is full of little red worms and has not been turned.

The native soil is odessa / schoharie type. Silt loam down to six inches or so and then clay or clay silt loam for many feet.  

Is it a good idea to mix these materials into the native soil as is?

I want to go no till after the soil is in good shape for veg and berry production. These beds for now will be market garden type beds and could be interplanted eventually.

Should I plow some of this material into the silt loam?

Thank you for looking.

Larry Streeter wrote:This may be of benefit to some.
https://onpasture.com/2013/06/17/keyline-plowing-what-is-it-does-it-work/

Perhaps she came up with exactly the results she was looking for. She slags off a bunch of peoples work and opinions and then as far as I can see doesn't publish a link to a peer reviewed paper, abstract, etc?

I would have preferred to see a soil scientist go into a degraded pasture and try to rehabilitate part of it or try to solve some sort of water related issue in a challenging setting.

My takeaway is that they probably went into healthy pastures and two years of plowing didn't make enough of a difference to justify their efforts. Good to know.

Ken Peavey wrote:I've got a Lowline Black Angus bull in the back field.  He's 8 years old, fully grown, and is lower than my belt at the shoulder, tipping the scales at about 1000#.  There small size means less tearing of the sod.  He's as gentle as a kitten, the breed being bred for docility.  Lowlines will put on marbled beef on pasture alone, with a carcass yield of 75%.  The back field is about 2.5 acres with some woods in there.  I offer him hay, about 4 round bales will get him through the cold season in northern Florida.  Their small size means a small area is all that is needed for each animal.  The result is more meat per acre than most other breeds.  Calves come in around 45 pounds, so calving is much easier on the ladies.  Bred with a normal sized cow for the first calf presents a high survival rate for the cow and the calf.  They can be an expensive breed, Bull, pictured below would command $1200-1500, while a cow of breeding age can draw $1800-2500 and up.  A calf will run you a grand.  I picked up this handsome fellow for $600 with delivery as the owner had to find a home for him or install fence which he could not afford at the time.  He was cheaper than a lawn mower and can keep up with the back field most of the time.

Great looking bull. Thanks for posting.

Julia Winter wrote:Instant pot is just a fancy pressure cooker/multicooker but it seems like a great idea, especially for people who don't already have a good pressure cooker.  It would also be great for anyone with a small kitchen.

Pressure cookers make the best bone broth!  They extract ALL the gelatin from cartilage.

When I'm cooking a tough roast, I will usually fry up onions and load them into my slow cooker.  Then I will put more fat in the pan and brown all the surfaces of the meat.  Then the meat goes into the slow cooker and some liquid is used to cover it (fruit juice can be really good).  The last time I did this, chunks of sweet potatoes and parsnips went in as well.  Carrots and regular potatoes are more traditional.

That sounds really good. Sweet potatoes and parsnips are nice together with venison.

The instant pot is indeed a fancy slow cooker and pressure cooker, but it's automated and allows for precision cooking. It could be a crutch for people who can't cook, but can follow a recipe. Set it and forget it. Totally worth the investment if you use it often, even for experienced cooks. If I was starting with no kitchen gear I would buy a budget enamel dutch oven and quality 10" saute pan instead of anything with a cord on it. We are buying a small grass fed "braising" beef package just to use in the instant pot.

It would be nice if I could co-own equipment with other people in my area but it probably would turn into a shit fest eventually.

My girlfriend just bought an instant pot brand pressure cooker, slow cooker crock pot combo and I really like it a lot. It cooked chuck for a pot roast type recipe really quickly and evenly and it came out really nicely. I thought it would be a gimmick for yuppies but it worked.

Hello,

Over the weekend I purchased a John Deere Killefer subsoiler for my farm. It has a mole attached for creating a drain channel. I'm hoping my 50hp 2wd diesel tractor will pull it through my clay soil. Is anyone else using a similar set up in hard clay? My soil goes from formless goop when saturated to concrete when dry.

There is a Yeomans dealer less than an hour from me if this doesn't work.

I will post in the spring to report on how the set up performs.

Best regards,

Nathan

Waterlox is really nice to work with even though it smells like it contains solvents. They don't bother me. I won't be alive long enough to worry about any potential health risks associated with the fumes. It is food grade after it cures. If you are sensitive to that sort of thing then wear a good mask and gloves that can stand up to the solvents. I was doing floors and counter tops and wanted something easy to apply and maintain. Everything came out nice. Growing and producing something yourself is a cool idea but if you just want to get it done with a formula that has already been figured out and has a good track record then check this stuff out.