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

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

  1. Arliden

    Arliden Well-Known Member
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    Feels like you are about to have a lot more rabbits soon
     
    #2451 Arliden, Dec 28, 2022
    Last edited: Dec 28, 2022
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  2. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Clemson TigersCarolina Panthers

    Yes. A new group today, so up to 11 babies. But there is a plan to get rid of most of them (lol). My wife is planning to use hers for meat at least.
     
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  3. -Asshole-

    -Asshole- TMB OG Reject
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    Where do you keep the rabbits? At home?
     
  4. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Clemson TigersCarolina Panthers

    A couple are in cages in the house, most are in cages in the barn. The ones in the house are on the couch with the girls fairly often.
     
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  5. Funshot Residue

    Funshot Residue Mammoth Stabber
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    RIP to your lamp cords. That's what turned our indoor bunny into an outdoor bunny. Neat critter, but liability nightmare. OTH, rabbit is a really versatile protein, one of my favorites for soups and stews. Cool that your kids are involved in the farm and 4H. Def looking forward to that part of dadding.
     
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  6. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Clemson TigersCarolina Panthers

    Smoking 2 today
     
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  7. bturns

    bturns a better poster than Bertwing
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    Super easy to clean also.
     
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  8. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Clemson TigersCarolina Panthers

    First sets of lambs for the year

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    And more baby rabbits
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  9. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Clemson TigersCarolina Panthers

    Two sets of triplets born today, but somehow one of them birthed one into the water trough and it died

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  10. Arliden

    Arliden Well-Known Member
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    Well thats sad
     
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  11. Arliden

    Arliden Well-Known Member
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    What breed of sheep do you have? And why did you choose that breed.
     
  12. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Clemson TigersCarolina Panthers

    Katahdin and Dorper. They are meat sheep that are good for a temperate climate. Meat sheep don't have as much of the gamey flavor as the wool sheep meat that is normally bought in a grocery store.
     
  13. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    Anybody ever made their own biochar?
    Thinking about making a few Buckets up of it out of hardwood charcoal and using it to amend my garden soil this year

    Garden didn't produce for shit last year so I'm thinking I need to try something new
     
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  14. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    Google, I like the way you think

    Screenshot_20230311_075422_Google.jpg
     
  15. arrdub

    arrdub Well-Known Member
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    Besides slaughtering birds and defending oneself from xenomorphs, what are intended uses of that cannon?
     
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  16. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Clemson TigersCarolina Panthers

    [​IMG]
     
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  17. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Clemson TigersCarolina Panthers

    One of our hens decided to go broody in the middle of February, so now we have 8 new chicks.

    [​IMG]
     
  18. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    Right
    It's actually a sound cannon
    I dunno if it's motion activated or what
     
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  19. NoNatty

    NoNatty Keyboard Cowboy
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    Anyone ever used diesel on a burn pile?

    We have two large burn piles. Last year I couldn’t get them to light worth shit due to them having a bunch of moisture down low. My neighbors all told me to use diesel, which I put on an hour ago but am still a little nervous.
     
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  20. One Two

    One Two Hot Dog Vibes
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    I’ve seen this live leak video
     
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  21. NoNatty

    NoNatty Keyboard Cowboy
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    to be clear, it’s diesel not gas.
     
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  22. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    Done it many times
    Much safer than gasoline
     
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  23. NoNatty

    NoNatty Keyboard Cowboy
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    Well, that didn’t work worth shit either. May need to get my neighbors tractor and move it around during the summer for it to dry out or soak a hay bail in diesel.
     
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  24. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    Quitter
     
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  25. Arliden

    Arliden Well-Known Member
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    Diesel is safer than gas, I'd just use gas personally, if you are having trouble with it try using a leaf blower.
     
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  26. NoNatty

    NoNatty Keyboard Cowboy
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    tried leafblower, didn’t help.
     
  27. Arliden

    Arliden Well-Known Member
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    I would lift it up and place some brush below then, just need to get air moving underneath. Worst case with this you could start the fire below and have it dry it out more, what type of material are we working with here?
     
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  28. Arliden

    Arliden Well-Known Member
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    Its been storming and windy pretty much all winter and finally had a couple trees go down and play ping pong with each other. Gave me a chance to put the first few runs on a new Stihl 362 I got this past fall.
    IMG_6671.jpg
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    Sometimes I just enjoy the look of cut wood, this is coastal oak that will end up making it to the BBQ pit for some Santa Maria tri tip or bill dozer chicken.
    IMG_6677.jpg
    Waiting for a break in the weather to get to burning, have 3 more piles outside of the frame.
     
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  29. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Clemson TigersCarolina Panthers

    Had a bunch of lambs born in the last 10 days or so, maybe 12, not sure.

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  30. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    I just picked up 3 eggs from my chickens
    :awesomeface:
     
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  31. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Clemson TigersCarolina Panthers

    We just found a nest of about 15 eggs.
     
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  32. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    Any composters here?

    Been trying to get more serious about doing it, and just read I can put animal and human hair in the compost pile and it's a great source of nitrogen
    Anybody ever done that?

    Trying to get the nerve to ask my barber if I can put a "hair only" trash can in the shop
     
  33. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Clemson TigersCarolina Panthers

    We do open composting, but not with hair or anything. Rabbit and sheep poop and veggie scraps.
     
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  34. Arliden

    Arliden Well-Known Member
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    Been on my list to things to get going, have you found any material on the topic that you’ve liked?
     
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  35. Arliden

    Arliden Well-Known Member
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    Also we had about 4 or 5 left over straw bales that we’ve decided to use to grow some veggies out of.

    Never tried it but had a coworker who swore by it, any one ever given it a go?
     
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  36. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    I was just googling it last night
    Everything I read said to treat the hair basically like you would vegetable scraps or grass clippings
    Layer it in and it breaks down in a short time
     
  37. Arliden

    Arliden Well-Known Member
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    haha gotcha I just meant composting in general
     
  38. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    Just got done tilling

    [​IMG]
     
  39. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Clemson TigersCarolina Panthers

    Same here

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    We also had our second round of lambs a few weeks ago. Ended up with 37 born, but 5 died for various reasons, so have 32 lambs.
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    And the bees are in full swing
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  40. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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  41. ned's head

    ned's head Well-Known Member
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    [​IMG]
     
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  42. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Clemson TigersCarolina Panthers

    I didn't, it came that way, but it makes it easy to find her or to know if she's been replaced. The color used is also tied to a year, so in later years you can know how old the queen is.
     
  43. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Clemson TigersCarolina Panthers

    texasraider
     
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  44. Det. Frank Bullitt

    Det. Frank Bullitt God Bless Texas
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  45. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    I own one, but I actually used my neighbors this time because it's a counter rotation tiller and it is way easier use than my forward rotating tines
     
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  46. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Clemson TigersCarolina Panthers

    Have my dad's old push one from the 70s, but we also borrowed my dad's tractor driven one.
     
  47. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Clemson TigersCarolina Panthers

    Bees are going strong so far this spring

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  48. Funshot Residue

    Funshot Residue Mammoth Stabber
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    Ours too. Built a swarm catching box and put it in one of my treestands for the next couple months. Would be cool to catch some and add to the apiary "naturally". Even if that fails, we're going to be able to split colonies next spring, they're going gangbusters.
     
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  49. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Clemson TigersCarolina Panthers

    I've found just sitting an empty hive out next to my others with some old comb in it has caught 4-5 swarms over the years.
     
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  50. Funshot Residue

    Funshot Residue Mammoth Stabber
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    We have one of those set up as well.
     
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