Bre Rich

I vote start your own! I started mine a few years ago using this recipe and I’ve been making sourdough with the same starter since. It worked on my first try. I’m not a very patient person either.

I recently taught other moms in our homeschool group and shared starter with them. A couple of them kept with it. I wished someone was there in the beginning to help me get started but starting from scratch made me feel accomplished.

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/sourdough-starter-recipe

This has been on my list of things to learn. So excited!

Callene Rapp wrote:

Bre Rich wrote:Hello and thank you for answering questions. I am a total newbie to cows but would one day like to raise my own beef and dairy. Roughly how much land will I need per cow?

Well, the standard answer is, 'it depends'.  Stocking rate can be extremely variable, depending on climate, forage species, and how much labor you are able to put into a rotational scheme.  If you are willing to fence off paddocks, and move your cows every couple of days you can have more cows, but if you need to be more hands off or live in a more arid climate, you won't be able to keep as many.  We sort of fall in between on our farm, I have 22 head of Pineywoods on Native Grass, but we rotate pastures and have a 'sacrifice' area we feed hay in.  I know that wasn't a precise answer, but hopefully that helps!

Do you cover land requirements in your book? Or breed recommendations? I need a good place to start learning🤓 I have found our local extension recommendations but was not sure how that compares with regenerative principles.

Hello and thank you for answering questions. I am a total newbie to cows but would one day like to raise my own beef and dairy. Roughly how much land will I need per cow?

I planted asparagus crowns 4 weeks ago. I’m in zone 7, clay soil. I dug the trenches and covered the crowns with some compost and mulch. Then planned to add more layers of compost to fill the trench as the plant grew. There is still no sign of plant growth. The soil doesn’t drain well and I know well drained soil is a requirement for asparagus. What could I do differently next time?

John Young wrote:It would be hard for me to break a "functioning" pond to rebuild it. Here is an alternate idea, since you seem to need a culvert anyway why not get some temporary pipes and siphon down the level of the pond a bit, then dig the "emergency" overflow down a bit so that when you place one (or more) large culverts (think 24"+) they would become the primary overflow. Pack the culverts in well with your clay soil before the water level rises back to the lip of the culvert. That way your primary overflow would not have a chance to erode the dam, as it would be passing through the dam in a plastic pipe.

Best of luck with your project!

Thank you for your reply! Adding a culvert sounds like the best route and I agree, would hate to break the pond. I’ll try to update the thread as we progress.

Our second challenge is road placement given the watershed. We are now considering building the road on the east of the tree line, closer to the pond mainly because it would save costs (less culverts, less gravel). This spot is lower in elevation so we would have to add dirt here to build the road up. Directing this running water towards the pond as nature is already doing is probably the best design, I just wasn’t sure if there were a better way to slow and spread the water across the land.

Curious if anyone has any insights or suggestions or perhaps something we aren’t considering on the topic.

The pond was already on the property when we purchased the land but was not properly constructed. The dam is too small for the pond and is eroding away. There’s 2 overflows which I assume the first was intentional and the 2nd created to address excess overflow.

My land is in zone 7 with about 40” of rainfall a year. My acreage is long and skinny, just 375’ wide. The west of the property has a watershed that runs East to our spring fed pond. On the immediate east side of the pond, a creek runs the length of the property.

The soil is heavy clay and the landscape is native grass with a 4% slope.

The watershed flows from our neighbor’s property into the pond which also needs to be addressed with culverts for our road which will run through. Also wondering if there’s a type of earthworks that can be done here to slow and spread the water.

I had a permaculture site assessment done and he suggested I slowly rebuild the eroded dam with hay bales and dirt a little each year.

I also got a 2nd opinion from NRCS who suggested I break the dam, let it dry for a year, and rebuild. His second suggestion was to break the dam and build a new dam down in the creek, further expanding the pond which we would need neighbor approval for. He provided engineered drawings.

I don’t really want the pond any larger and I don’t really want to break the dam either. Repairing is the preferred option - the challenge will be getting heavy equipment to cross over the overflow. We are considering adding a culvert to the second “emergency” overflow that was built and driving over it with equipment to access the eroding dam.

Thanks for your time!

Thank you for sharing. I’ve been looking into starting this project but unsure of how to build the float. I’m curious to learn more. We are in the process of moving out to our land and stuck in between houses. I want to get gardening right away but we still need to build the soil which of course takes time. So I thought growing food on our pond may be a solution, especially if I’m not there every day to water. I’ve already started my seedlings indoors.

Curious if birds/ducks would eat the veg? Also, is watering necessary once the seedlings take off?

Have you tried making these origami newspaper seed starters? I think I’ll give it a go this year.

https://youtu.be/7dlGQP81yfo