Official Gardening/Homesteading thread: Our back yards are our grocery stores

Discussion in 'The Mainboard' started by lhprop1, Apr 9, 2015.

  1. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    I've successfully protected buds on blueberries by tossing a blanket over them during the nights that the freeze was going to happen.
     
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  2. One Two

    One Two Hot Dog Vibes
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    I was thinking about using old bed sheets but wasn't sure if it was that simple. Thanks!

    Update on the doggo?
     
  3. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Still won't put much if any weight on the leg. We tried locking him the tack room and he would try and climb out and started destroying the door. So we let him have run of the barn and he was doing the same thing. So we just let him back out into the area with the momma sheep and he was happy.

    The vet just took off the splint since he wasn't staying still anyways. We will go back in 3 weeks to do another x-ray and if there is no progress will probably have to amputate.
     
  4. One Two

    One Two Hot Dog Vibes
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    Man I really hope it works out ok whatever the final outcome. I really want to hurt the asshole that did this.
     
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  5. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    The ewe that we raised in our house a couple years ago had her lamb today. Then one of the goats went into labor. The baby wasn't coming out so my wife worked to try and reposition it. When she couldn't, we had to put the goat down and try a c-section. Managed to save the baby goat, so now we have a new bottle baby in the house. Also, the bees have started bringing in maple honey.

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    This picture is of drone brood (baby male bees) they had built between the boxes, so when I took a box off, they were ripped apart. If you look at the white brood dead center, you can see a varroa mite (brown spot), which is the pest that is decimating the bee populations.
    [​IMG]
     
  6. Open Carry

    Open Carry TMB Rib Master
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    How do you treat for mites in an existing colony?
     
  7. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    There are various approved treatments between chemical, natural products, and lite pesticides. I've leaned to the natural products like oxalic and formic acids, which are vaporized and affect the mites and not the bees. But those haven't been as effective to me and I may have to move to the stronger stuff.
     
  8. Arliden

    Arliden Well-Known Member
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    Been tinkering with a few projects before spring comes along.

    Ran a harrow over the fields and reseeded them in late December with a grass/wildflower mix, like the look so far.
    IMG_7088.jpg IMG_7131.jpg

    Also working on getting rid of some eucalyptus trees we have, they shit bark everywhere
    IMG_7063.jpg IMG_7066.jpg
     
    #1758 Arliden, Mar 5, 2019
    Last edited: Mar 5, 2019
  9. Arliden

    Arliden Well-Known Member
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    Planted some blackberries and raspberries down the hill for shits just to see how they do
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    Been getting a lot of rain lately and some colder temperatures but the avocado trees are looking good and the stone fruits like this peach have started flowering.
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  10. Beachy Toast

    Beachy Toast He wants you too, Malachi.
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    How big's your property?
     
  11. PJP3

    PJP3 Well-Known Member
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    Any tips on keeping bugs from eating the leaves of my plants? Mixed some powder stuff I got at home depot that was supposed to help but my stuff is still getting ravaged.
     
  12. Arliden

    Arliden Well-Known Member
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    5 acres
     
  13. comrade static

    comrade static i love french fries
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    So we never cleaned out our raised beds. Windy as shit here today but finally warm enough to get some work done outside this weekend.

    We had okra, tomatoes, jalapeños and blueberry plants in two beds.

    I assume the tomatoes won’t come back and we need to clean those out. What about the okra and jalapeños? Some of the okra stalks are fairly tall and thick.
     
  14. PJP3

    PJP3 Well-Known Member
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    What growing zone are you in? If you’re in a warmer climate and the stalks still look alive, I’d leave them in. I always get much better production from plants that are on their second season then new plants, but Im in zone 9 and in colder zones a lot of veggies kind of become annuals and you’re better off replanting.
     
  15. comrade static

    comrade static i love french fries
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    East/northeast Oklahoma.
    Everything looks dead.

    Zone 7
     
  16. One Two

    One Two Hot Dog Vibes
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    Replant

    Could get some volunteers if any seeds from fruit made it into the ground but better off just digging it up and starting over
     
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  17. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Had 2 more lambs born yesterday
    [​IMG]
     
  18. PJP3

    PJP3 Well-Known Member
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    Agreed w One Two , replant. In zone 7 almost anything you will plant consider an annual.
     
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  19. Beachy Toast

    Beachy Toast He wants you too, Malachi.
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    Nice farm.
     
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  20. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Another one this morning
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  21. BayouMafia

    BayouMafia Thought Leader in Posting
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    Any recommendations for dealing with squash vine borers? Got my squash seedlings in the ground last weekend and last year they were prolific producers until early June when the vines rotted at the base from pests. I’ve seen all kinds of ideas while researching but wondered if you guys have a tried and true method
     
  22. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    My hives are doing well so far. With this warm spring, I already have 4 full supers of honey. I also had a swarm move into an empty hive. I had several hives die over the winter and extracted the honey from those and ended up with 10 gallons of honey. We still have a goat and 2 ewes left to give birth also.

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  23. Hail Southern

    Hail Southern GATA Eagles!
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    I just planted some asparagus. This was a mistake cause i'll probably be moving in a couple of years.
     
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  24. PJP3

    PJP3 Well-Known Member
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    And the person who moves in probably wont be a gardener and just let it die.
     
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  25. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Had a baby goat born this weekend, which was the last of the babies. So far I have 7 boxes on the hives full of honey, which would be about 18 gallons. The main honey producing flowers (tulip poplar, blackberry, privet) are still in bloom, so I should get a good deal more.

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  26. Arliden

    Arliden Well-Known Member
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    Do you work from home bill dozer? How do you have time for all these things.
     
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  27. Beachy Toast

    Beachy Toast He wants you too, Malachi.
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    How much honey do you make a year?
     
  28. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Nah, I work 4 10's though. The sheep only take 15 minutes or so a night to feed/water. The bees only take 1 hr every week to 2 weeks. So it's not that much at this point.
     
  29. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    It fluctuates with the number of hives and the weather. I'm not quite sure how much I've gotten, but here's what I've sold:

    2014 - 8.5 gallons
    2015 - 7.125 gallons
    2016 - 11.75 gallons
    2017 - 15 gallons
    2018 - 27.33 gallons
    2019 - 9.8 gallons

    So I've sold just shy of 80 gallons since I started, with my family using a lot too. I still have about 6 gallons in 5 gallon buckets right now, so I would guess I've gotten about 100 gallons total.
     
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  30. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    It's been raining so much I have green moss growing on the dirt in my garden
    At least 3 pepper plants and 2 tomatoes have died I'm pretty sure because they just drowned
     
  31. Hail Southern

    Hail Southern GATA Eagles!
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    Deer clear cut my garden, all the leaves from my pepper plants and cucumber plants are gone and most of the tops of the potatoes. :angry:
     
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  32. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Time to get some venison to supplement your diet.
     
  33. HuskerInMiami

    HuskerInMiami Well-Known Member
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    What are you selling a gallon of honey for? Trying to see how much you're making off your really cool hobby.
     
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  34. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Pints are $10, quarts $19, so roughly $80 a gallon. It's pretty expensive to start out with buying bees, all the boxes, and other equipment. Throw in a learning curve with having bees dying in the winter and I'm still in the red overall. After this year I should be in the black. I would only expect to make $1000-2000 a year, depending on how the springs go.
     
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  35. Hail Southern

    Hail Southern GATA Eagles!
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    Put these up, probably a waste of money
     
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  36. BayouMafia

    BayouMafia Thought Leader in Posting
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    Got back from a two week vacation and had a few scallop squash ready to harvest. Threw them on the grill with some lamb and shrimp I was grilling anyway (the big bitch tasted great but I had to cut it into 6 pieces to cook evenly with the rest).

    Going to have a shit ton of zucchini, odessa squash, and these scallops over the next few weeks. I also have some ivory eggplants already fruiting
    9E548C38-2740-485D-88C1-B039295ED1DA.jpeg
     
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  37. Beachy Toast

    Beachy Toast He wants you too, Malachi.
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    Commercial selling?
     
  38. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    We were somewhat, we were part of a local online farmer's market. Sold there and mostly to friends/at work or people that found our farm on Facebook. I view commercial as more in stores. I have the license to do that, but haven't needed to yet.
     
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  39. Jim Brockmire

    Jim Brockmire I think you're wildly underestimating heroin.
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    My Boston Pickling Cucumbers were exploding and in need of trellising so went to HD today and got two 6' trellis. I put them in the ground, worked the vines and such through and I have to have a total of about 20 tiny cucumbers already. I can't believe how fast they grow.

    I'm gonna be trying out a lot of different brine recipes. Anyone here have one they're particular fond of?
     
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  40. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Extracted over 20 gallons of honey today from 3 hives, most of it from 2 hives.

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    And these are samples of all the honey I've gotten since 2015, left to right.
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  41. HuskerInMiami

    HuskerInMiami Well-Known Member
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    What makes the color change? Also, can you zoom in on the pic with all the bears through time? It looks like it says harvested XXX date. But It's hard to read.
     
  42. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Different flowers will make different honey in color and taste. When the bees find blooms they like in bulk, most go there, so they store the honey in the same place. So I was able to go through and pick out the frames that looked lighter than the others and get that honey first.

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    Also, here's honey flowing out of the extractor.

     
    #1792 billdozer, Jun 10, 2019
    Last edited: Jun 10, 2019
  43. arrdub

    arrdub Well-Known Member
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    billdozer

    Given honey prices are approximately on par with narcotics, he is probably looking for clues to track you down to kill you for your honey stores. Safety first!

    :twocents:
     
  44. texasraider

    texasraider thanks
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    fun fact: Honey never spoils
     
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  45. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    True, provided it's kept sealed away from moisture. Otherwise you can end up with mead.
     
  46. Matt Foley

    Matt Foley RIP EARL
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    You say this like it’s a bad thing.
     
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  47. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Not at all. I've always planned on using some to make mead, but with the farm being a business for now, it's tough to justify passing up the revenue.
     
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  48. Arliden

    Arliden Well-Known Member
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    Whats going on with hive #3? Why are they underproducing
     
  49. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Was a new swarm that moved in. So they were behind the times with having to build up enough population to be able to collect excess honey.
     
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  50. BIGASSTITTIES

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    The basic ball brand dill pickle recipe is my go to. Hard to fuck it up. I cut my pickles into larger chunks so they stay crispier. I’ve found when I make chips, they get soggy.

    Also slice up some jalapeños and toss in to make spicy dill pickles.

    For help keeping them crispy through canning... I strongly suggest buying “ball pickle crisp”
     
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