Sam Peet

With how life has been going these past three years, I acquired this book for my mental health, and also to support the author.
He’s got a great YouTube, has taught a lot of people really good and interesting tips on gardening.
I have the Florida survival gardening book and do not regret it. It’s gotten me into buying cassavas, planting more tubers like sweet potatoes and crops that just survive the Florida heat and humidity without all the work.
And if you want to be adventurous he has a push your zone segment. Which if you are really trying to be self-sufficient and survive off one parcel, you want treats like bananas and coffee.

Honestly this book should be at the front of every book store in Florida cause for like 20 bucks you have the knowledge you need to do good in hard times.
There’s a lot the book goes over and for anyone who has just moved to Florida it’s a great buy.

Also got the little grocery row booklet was an interesting set up. Want to try the method on top of a sandy dry hill, and then down in the compost rich low lying swamp.

Baby’s are being born. Antlers are shedding. And bumblebees are buzzing. This makes me very happy.
Thankful for this post! Went through my photos and realized a lot has happened in the last month and half,  A lot of good things.

Pardon the poop. They where too cute not to take a photo and share.

Matt McSpadden wrote:Unfortunately I have to skip this year for myself. I was just wondering though, if you have space for an all natural incubator that could hold over a dozen eggs (aka Mommy goose)? :)

I was leaving her to it, and grabbed 2 to try in the incubator.
This would have been her first year brooding, but a possum was able to come in and grab her eggs. She was so upset I felt so bad. She is going in a better set up, so this never happens again. Next year though we will see how many she hatch’s. I still feel bad for mamma bird.

Put 2 goose eggs in my incubator 33ish days ago and have them hatching now.
They will be African and Toulouse mix. Two big nice breeds.
This was my first time incubating and it’s not really made for the big goose eggs but it what I could afford and make due, that’s why I only tried 2.
One is doing better then the other. But they sure are super cute. Was thinking hard about gathering my silver orchard duck eggs and incubating those next. And selling for a few extra bucks.
Geese are so expensive and would love to eat and butcher extra males this year but this is what I can afford for now. May try to find local seller that have eggs or cheaper gosling for sale.
Anybody else got stuff in the incubator?

Another thing, especially if you’re buying land that has Woods on it.
look up at the tops of the trees. If there’s been a tornado some of the tops of the trees will be cut. You would think it’s not that common but once you start looking around it’s common.
It doesn’t have to be the mile long tornadoes that destroy and pull up everything that you have to worry about. The little ones will mess up your day too!
A really good sign that it’s not a tornado path is having older established trees that are usually 300 years old. We have live oak trees, depending on your region the tree may be different varieties. always a good sign when you have older established trees.
Keep in mind I’m in Florida. Florida tornado patterns are different from The Midwest where that tornado goes were ever it wants. Florida has tornadoes all the time, but ours will be at the most F2s or f3s and pop from being on the ground to going back into the cloud a lot.

Wish I had researched earlier how to identify native growing fodder and weeds. Cause only now just realized that the one field is littered with snake root and that there’s a LOT more work to be done to get that stuff out. Would have been nice to jump on the ball to get that stuff out a year ago.

That’s amazing Susan!!! Congratulations!!!

Stacy Witscher wrote:I have a well. I'm off grid. The well pumps only during the day up to two tanks totally 5500 gallons. The water is gravity fed to the houses. I have some rainwater collection but will be adding lots more as money becomes available. The property has large structures so the limiting factor is the cost of tanks. The property has two ponds and a seasonal stream. I'm looking at using these for animals. Unfortunately my well is deep, 300+ feet so a hand pump is out of the question. I do have a second well that doesn't produce well and have considered developing it with a stand alone solar drip pump, we will see.

The best thing you can do is be off grid lol. That’s really good that the water is gravity fed. And I get where prior construction can really inhibit the waterworks of the farm.
It is really good you have two ponds. I would love to put A few on the lot I’m at.
And I think that’s a very good idea if the Solar drip pump works. I’ve never heard of that but I will look into it now. It’s amazing how little water you can get out of a tube, and it actually amount up to a lot throughout the day. But you have a really good set up with Two ponds.

HaiLan Zhou wrote:Yes we have been thinking whilst building our Tiny Home about water currently we have a 15L filtered ceramic drinking water in the house and a tank out the back that we use a hand pump from the dam and creek when it is up. We love the idea of relying less on petrol/diesel and more on the simple physics.

In terms of watering the garden we have rainwater collection that runs from our roof along the fence that feeds into irrigation tubes throughout our garden beds. It works quite a treat as we can either collect into the tank or open up and let the watering of the garden happen automatically via gravity. I love the bamboo idea... if any of the pipes happen to crack I will definitely just replace with bamboo... how fantastic!

Bamboo such a cheap and fast resource that I do suggest getting some. But that being said, make sure you get the bigger to medium size bamboo. I was lucky enough to be able to get medium sized Bamboo. The small bamboo can absolutely work, but I’ll always gonna suggest bigger lol so it’s a real dual purpose for other things. Especially building furniture. Bamboo will last a long time, as you can tell with outside furniture, you do have to make sure that the bamboo is dried and heated.
Like you guys have i really really really want a water collection system from my roof. Don’t have gutters nor do I have the money for right now, so One day will be using the medium sized bamboo whenever I get to it. Which it this point will be a year from now.
Have seen a water collection system nearby here where the guy puts all of his water in a huge tank from his roof, it’s solely for his plants mainly bananas, so that gives him room to not have it be purified. He literally said it doesn’t matter if lizards fall and decompose.the leaves little branches and such is a good thing for his plants.