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YouTube Channel Updates

5/31/2018

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Have you checked out our YouTube Channel yet?  I try to post videos at least twice each week, and more often as time allows.  Recently, I have produced videos about things like:

How to plant tomatoes - https://youtu.be/z8Mf9FiIUHY 

Keeping city chickens - https://youtu.be/-RjQoyszEdY

Gardening Updates - https://youtu.be/iXiRlGSApEM

Rabbit Care (a multi-part series):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPVM29FizjvPFwH3B9yuEF_6A6MCpU3Vw

And more!

If you enjoy these videos and want to see more like them, please subscribe to our YouTube Channel.  After you have subscribed, if you click the bell icon that is beside the subscribe button, you can receive a notification directly from YouTube right away, each time I upload something new.
  

So head on over and check out what you've missed!
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Bees!

4/29/2014

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The Queen and her Ladies have arrived!
I have wanted bees for several years now, but due to the start-up expense, I have never seriously pursued the endeavor.  A few months ago however, my local beekeepers association offered a free, two-night class on the bare-bones basics of keeping bees.  I attended the class out of sheer curiosity, in hopes that it would help me decide whether I really wanted bees as badly as I thought I did.  I was hooked by the time we were half-way through the first night!

The first presenter discussed both the Langstroth hive and the Top-Bar hive.  Prior to this class, I was only aware of the Langstroth hive, and purchasing those can get a little pricey.  Not to mention, each super (the removable square box part of the hive that holds the frames where the bees build their comb) can weigh 60-70lbs or more (usually more).  You can probably imagine the reason for my hesitation.  After learning about the top-bar hive however, I realized that keeping a beehive wasn't such a lofty dream.  A google search will provide you with multiple resources from which to purchase this style of hive, but it can also be built using scrap lumber if you have it (NOT pressure treated!) - so you can decide how much money you want to spend and do it within that budget, no matter how small.  The construction plans are also easy to find online - for free.  Of all the plans I looked at (there are several), the differences included only minor variations.  I suggest looking at several different styles and decide which one will best suit your needs.

The next expense is purchasing the actual bees.  This is one expense that is much harder to avoid.  You can collect a swarm, you can trap a swarm, or you can purchase your bees.  While the first two options are potentially free, they are hit-or-miss, especially if you have no experience.  Rather than hope I could find free bees, I chose to purchase mine.  If you go that route, the best source for purchasing bees is going to be locating a local beekeeper.  If they do not have bees to sell, they will surely know another beekeeper who does.  Local is always best because those are the bees that will be best acclimated to your specific climate, and most familiar with local pollen sources.

However one chooses to acquire their bees, there is always a risk that the bees will reject their new home for one reason or another.  From what I understand, the risk is not so great that you should sit in fear and watch for them to swarm.  But you should be aware that the possibility exist.  I just acquired my bees on Sunday, so I'm still in that nervous phase of hoping they will settle in okay and decide to stay.  So far they don't seem unhappy, and that is obviously a good thing.

I am a brand new, infant of a newbie at this, so I can't answer any hard questions yet.  I do know though that honey tastes wonderful, a very large portion of the general food supply depends on bees for pollination, and the fate of honeybees is a bit precarious due to a whole host of possible causes.  Whether you want to collect honey, or simply want to improve the health of your flower garden, vegetable garden, or fruit trees, keeping bees will make a big difference, both in your purpose for keeping them, and in the general health of your local bee populations.  

Do any of you keep honeybees?  I would love to hear about your experiences!
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Feeding sprouts

2/6/2014

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Have you ever tried growing sprouts, either for human consumption or for animal feed?

Most any whole seed can be sprouted.  This includes grains, beans, legumes, and other seeds (such as sunflowers).  There are several benefits to sprouting grains.  By sprouting the seeds, they become more nutritiously available - this means that when consumed, the body is able to absorb and use more of the nutrition from the same amount of seeds, than if those same seeds were consumed in their unsprouted form.  Sprouting seeds also increases the content of some nutrients - the specific nutrients and level of increase will depend on the specific seeds being used. Additionally, feeding sprouts to livestock, such as chickens, increases the diversity of their feed.  The chickens are able to consume both the seed/grain and the green sprouts they produce.

Sprouted fodder can be fed to most types of livestock.  If you would normally feed the grain to a particular animal, then you can feed the same grain as sprouts to that same animal.  As an example, whole oats can be fed to chickens, goats, and rabbits.  Sprouted oats can also be fed to chickens, goats, and rabbits.  The ability to feed the same feed to multiple species can be very convenient, and can also save on feed costs!


Growing sprouts can be as simple or as sophisticated as you want to make it.  There are sprouting kits of all sizes available from many different resources.  You can also make your own "kit" with basic items such as a canning jar for the initial grain soaking, and a shallow plastic tray or bowl for growing the sprouts.

I intend to experiment with feeding sprouted grains and seeds this year.  Since this is not something I have tried yet, I will leave the more specific "how to" information for a later post that I will share with you once I have actually done it a time or two.  It will be a learning experience, but hopefully a good one!  If any of you have experience in feeding this way, I would love to hear from you!


Here are some great websites with more information on the benefits of sprouting seeds/grain, both for human and animal consumption.
Animal Fodder:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/sprouted-fodder.aspx
http://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/growing-sprouted-fodder/72618
A video from Joel Salatin on sprouting grains for chickens
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhzph-4tyUI

Human Consumption:
http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2009/01/why-sprout.html
http://nourishedkitchen.com/sprouted-grain/
http://sproutpeople.org/sprouts/nutrition/science/

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Disclaimer:
None of the information contained on this site is intended to diagnose, treat, or otherwise substitute for the care and advice from a qualified human or animal medical professional.  Please consult the trusted medical professional of your choice before using any of the information contained on this site. 
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A miniature watermelon?

9/12/2013

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Yesterday I discovered a curiosity that appears to be a miniature watermelon!  A short google search brought me to this website, which really discusses the research that the University of California has done more than the actual melons themselves.  It seems that the tiny melons pictured on that page are seedless hybrids.
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My discovery however, clearly had seeds.  And I don't know about you, but those seeds sure look like mature seeds to me.  The melon was much too ripe (almost to the point of rot) for me to taste it.  It smelled very sweet, with that icky, beyond-its-prime over-sweet smell that rotten fruit can have.  Needless to say, I wasn't brave enough to even lick it, so we will all just have to wonder about the flavor.  But since it looks like a watermelon, and smelled like a watermelon, I'm going to guess that it tasted like watermelon (yeah, I know, I'm a genius).  

You better believe, I'm saving these seeds.  Next spring, I will try to sprout them and see what grows!

Are you familiar with this type of watermelon (the seeded sort in particular)?  I welcome any information about it that you have to share!

Disclaimer:
None of the information contained on this site is intended to diagnose, treat, or otherwise substitute for the care and advice from a qualified human or animal medical professional.  Please consult the trusted medical professional of your choice before using any of the information contained on this site. 

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Summer Update

7/3/2013

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My goodness, it has been a while since my last post!  I'm so sorry!

"Farm" life has been busy lately.  Most of the garden is coming along nicely.  If you look closely at the photos of the bean arbor, you can see how close the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks are to my garden.  Unfortunately, Norfolk Southern cares absolutely nothing about property lines or gardens, because they sprayed weed killer on the approximately 2-3 foot wide strip of my garden that is closest to the tracks.  One side of my bean arbor lies within that space, so I have lost half of my beans. *insert sobbing sounds here*  I have also lost two tomato plants (I didn't label them when I planted, but I think it was the yellow tomato *sniff*), all of my cabbage, half of my brussels sprouts, all of my yellow squash, and the eggplants are iffy.  After consulting with my grandfather (who admittedly does use chemical pesticides and herbicides on his garden), I have been assured that it has been long enough since the spraying, that plants will still grow in that same soil should I decide to replant.  I may...I'm not super excited about planting my veggies in soil that has been contaminated with weed killer, but I may give it a go anyway.  I'll let you know.  On a happier note, the other side of my bean arbor is growing well.  The beans haven't put out runners yet, so they are not yet climbing the arbor, but the plants are large enough that I expect to see those runners just any day now.  I promise I'll take pictures when they begin to climb!  I do have other tomato plants in various stages of growth.  The earliest plants I put out are sitting full of green tomatoes now.  My cocozelle squashes are monstrous sized plants (and the squash are tasty!), and my purple kohlrabi are excellent both in size and flavor.  I planted it late, but my corn is growing well.  I only hope the almanac was correct in saying it was okay to plant the corn as late as I did.

This year's goat clinics were a huge success.  When I first entertained the idea of having a goat clinic, I expected to have one, single, solitary clinic, and only hoped there would be enough participation to not be embarrassed.  Much to my surprise, the demand was exceptional.  We ended up putting on four clinics, and have had numerous emails from people wanting more.  I'm afraid of the summer heat and humidity being oppressive, and it often gets miserably muggy by mid-morning, so I have decided to take a break for the rest of the summer.  I am trying to organize a meat rabbit clinic for September, so there will be no goat clinics during that month either.  If time and weather permits, we may try to have another goat clinic in October or November, but I won't know if that is possible until closer to that time.

If you are like me, the summer projects you planned in late winter and early summer have turned out to be much more than you actually have time for, but then again I am inadequate at time management.  Maybe you have more skills in that department than I have!  I would love to hear from you! How are your summer projects coming along?
Disclaimer:
None of the information contained on this site is intended to diagnose, treat, or otherwise substitute for the care and advice from a qualified human or animal medical professional.  Please consult the trusted medical professional of your choice before using any of the information contained on this site. 

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My bean arbor

6/2/2013

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Last weekend (Memorial Day Weekend), I built my bean arbor and planted some blue lake pole beans.  I saw a picture of an arbor similar to this last year and fell in love with the idea.  Now, I cannot find the original pictures I saw, so unfortunately I cannot give credit to the person who built it, nor can I compare mine to theirs.  I built mine based solely on what I remember that one looking like, but by golly, I think mine will work.
I started by driving a short (approximately 12-14 inch long) piece of rebar about halfway into the ground.  I slid one end of the pvc pipe over the end of the rebar and then carefully bent the pipe in an arch to see how tall I could make the arch without putting the pvc in too much of a bind.  I marked the spot on the ground and drove a second piece of rebar in, and slid the other end of the pipe onto that piece of rebar.  Then I measured out how long I wanted the arbor to be (this one happens to be 7 feet, but it's really your choice) and arched a second piece of pvc in the same manner as the first. Next, I used some scrap hay string and lashed a 1 inch square wooden stake (purely because that's what I had on hand) to the top of each pvc arch, near the center (see the bottom right photo below).  Finally, I stretched plastic bird netting across the whole structure to form a tunnel of sorts, and wove more hay string through the netting and around the pvc (again, see the bottom right photo below).  Down the center of the tunnel, I layered empty feed bags and covered them with straw, to help keep the weeds down.  I planted my beans down each side of the arbor, for 14 total feet of planted beans.  
Today I noticed that all of my beans have sprouted!  We have had steady, gentle rain all day today, which I'm sure helped a great deal, because the beans are 2 inches tall already.  Once they begin to climb the arbor, I will take more photos to share with you.  Have you ever grown pole beans on an arbor like this?  What is your favorite trellis design for pole beans and why?

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Disclaimer:
None of the information contained on this site is intended to diagnose, treat, or otherwise substitute for the care and advice from a qualified human or animal medical professional.  Please consult the trusted medical professional of your choice before using any of the information contained on this site. 

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Spring Gardening

4/30/2013

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I am so glad for Spring weather.  I think Spring may be my favorite season because I enjoy watching everything turn green and blossom.  The unpredictable weather can make things difficult, but the warmer temperatures are a nice change after the Winter blahs.
I am working on some serious garden improvements this year.  The plans I have in my head may be vastly different from reality, but we'll just have to try it and see what happens.  Our yard at the house is very small, but I am attempting to maximize space using containers, rotational planting, and a little creativity in some cases.  I have always insisted on only planting perennials when I plant flowers because I have no desire to maintain annual flower beds.  That may change slightly however, because I am going to try planting food in the front yard.  I want to choose plants that are visually appealing as well as tasty.  It's all really an experiment and I am constantly learning as I go, but hopefully my big ideas will turn into at least a few successes.  I'll keep you updated as the growing season progresses.
Disclaimer:
None of the information contained on this site is intended to diagnose, treat, or otherwise substitute for the care and advice from a qualified human or animal medical professional.  Please consult the trusted medical professional of your choice before using any of the information contained on this site.
 
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    Hi, my name is Nicole and my friends think I'm crazy.  I love farming, and my methods can be non-traditional at times, but I love simple living, I love playing in the dirt, and I love life.

    Disclaimer:
    None of the information contained on this site is intended to diagnose, treat, or otherwise substitute for the care and advice from a qualified human or animal medical professional.  Please consult the trusted medical professional of your choice before using any of the information contained on this site. 

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