Matt McSpadden

Interesting.

Which would you rather invest in?

Hi,
Welcome to Permies!

I am not within the group you are looking for... but I wanted to comment on something you said

I have never dated before, so I am at a complete loss when it comes to that stuff- definitely a turn off lol.

If I understand... it seems like you are saying that you think your lack of dating experience would be a turn off to the person you are looking for. From a man's perspective, I don't think this is the case. I'm not sure where this notion that "men want women who have lots of experience" came from, but it is untrue for all the men I have ever talked to. For all those men, too much experience was a turn off.

I hope you can find the right person to raise animals, create a home and a big garden with :)

Well chickens are pretty high, and goldfinches are probably second. But my absolute favorite is the indigo bunting. Only seen it once in real life, but it was beautiful.

Flora Eerschay wrote:I decided to store them in a wooden box filled with perlite (which I rinsed to get rid of dust), in a portable cooler with ice packs. The herd is small now, so I'm only collecting 3-4 eggs per day. I want to collect 20 and then we'll see if they continue laying. If they do, we'll see if the oldest of these are edible. If they are, I'll try to extend the storing for as long as possible ;) so I don't really have a precise plan but I'm curious if this is going to work.

I'm interested in how this experiment goes :) Keep us posted.

Hi Jeff,
It sounds like you are halfway to a silvo pasture :)

For people who are not familiar with the term, it is intentionally using trees and livestock together to mimic a savanna eco system.  This allows livestock and timber to be harvested from the same land.

Hi Jeff,
That is a great question. Could I ask why you wish to put those two particular techniques together?

I think it could certainly work, depending on how many cattle and how far apart your swales are... but I wonder if there is a better solution. Swales are designs to hold water in the landscape and grow trees. Do you need to hold water and/or grow trees?

Strip grazing, or paddock shift, or similar techniques are designed to grow grass and forage and cows. They are designed for two different situations.

The reason I ask, is that I have the bad habit of falling in love with a specific technique and trying to fit my land to that technique. I think a better way is to find the technique that fits my land and needs. The old quote, "you don't need a drill bit you need a hole".

John F Dean wrote:I have had zero this year.  Frankly, I am a little concerned. You don’t suppose something terrible happened to then do you?

I feel about tomato horn worms like I do about mosquitoes and black flies. I know they have a place in the ecosystem, and I don't really want them to be extinct... but it's really hard to not enjoy it when they are not around.

I can't say that I noticed more birds than usual.

And we had a fairly dry summer, all things considered. Maybe not as many moths survived because of the drought?

Has anyone else seen a difference in the number of tomato horn worms this year?

I've gardened this area for 7 years, and I got tomato horn worms every single year... except this one. Some years more, some years less.

I did use a different tomato variety than normal, but otherwise, planted them the same way I always do. The same spacing, the same basil plants in the middle. And I have seen no horn worms at all this year. No damage or signs whatsoever. And I have been checking all summer... waiting for them to show up. Anyone else get a break this year?