The-Practical-Poultry-Keeper-1904

The-Practical-Poultry-Keeper-1904

Heres a link to an old 1904 book on chicken keeping, coops and runs. It has a lot of good hand painted and hand colored photographs of many different breeds of common poultry. Book and information is a great reference guide to keeping a back yard chicken flock.

Why is Common Sense so Uncommon?

January Gardening Tips

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension

It’s January, holiday season is over, everyone has gone home. What do I do now?

One of the best gardening months of the entire year is January. This is an
ideal month to plant fruit, flowering and shade trees, dormant spray, prune
and eliminate weeds. This is also a great time to sharpen and repair mowers,
trimmers, shredders, chain saws and other garden implements.

WINTER PLANT PROTECTION – If you still have your cut Christmas tree
around, don’t throw it away. You can cut off the branches and use them
to cover tender or early flowering plants. Cut boughs from evergreens, like
the cut Christmas tree, are natural coverings for plants during cold weather.
Then when you are all through with the evergreen boughs they can be recycled
through the compost pile or shredded and used for mulching.

PLANTING TREES AND SHRUBS – If you are thinking of adding any fruit,
flowering or shade trees to the garden, this would be a good time to select
and plant them. Most garden outlets get their new selection of these trees
during the winter, so you get the pick of the crop. Plus, because the trees
are dormant, they transplant with a minimum amount of set-back. Incidentally,
if you are selecting fruit trees be sure to ask the Certified Nursery person
or Master Gardener on duty, which of the varieties are recommended for your
area, so you get varieties that will produce the very best, quality fruit.

January is also a great month to select and plant Roses. Likewise, evergreens
and deciduous shrubs can easily be planted anytime the temperatures are above
freezing.

DORMANT SPRAYING – Early winter is a good time to make an application
of Dormant spray to help control over-wintering insect and disease problems.
A combination Lime Sulfur and Oil spray or Copper spray are the ones most
often used for winter dormant spraying. Do not spray when the temperatures
are below freezing; or when it is raining; or at a time when the wind is
blowing. Of course, apply the spray according to label directions.

PRUNING – Do you have any pruning to do? January is a great month
to prune most deciduous trees and shrubs. Fruit, flowering and shade trees
can be pruned at this time. Do not prune spring flowering plants, like quince,
forsythia or Spirea, etc. as you would be removing their spring flowers.
If needed, these plants can be pruned when the plants have finished flowering.

WEEDS – Have you checked the garden recently? You’ll be amazed
at how many weeds have already flowered and are now going to seed. Get rid
of those weeds before the seeds have scattered over the garden. Many weeds
are capable of producing thousands of seeds, and left unchecked, you’ll be
fighting those weeds for years to come.

EQUIPMENT REPAIR - Does your mower need sharpening; does the oil need
changing; what about the filters; is the engine running properly? If you
need to have any parts of your power garden implements repaired, this is
the time to do it. I took a mower in for repair a couple of weeks ago, and
it was finished in two days. I can tell you from personal experience if you
wait until mid-February or later it will probably be two or three weeks,
to get this same type of work done.

SLUG CONTROL – Have you seen any slugs lately? I have, and this is
a good time to eliminate them too, Every slug left to roam the garden will
reproduce two hundred off-springs this spring, summer and fall. In addition,
the offspring will also reproduce young. So you can make a major reduction
in the slug population in your garden by eliminating them now.

BULBS - Did you forget to plant your bulbs? Although it’s getting
late, if you haven’t planted your Tulips, Daffodils, Hyacinths or Crocus,
take time and get them into the soil right away.

Why is Common Sense so Uncommon?

Which Came First? The chicken Or The Egg Plant?

I have not been very successful in growing these wonderful vegetables. They are heat loving heavy feeders that hate cool temperatures and wet soil . It would seem they don’t like me very much either!

A sure way to save my other garden plantings from insect damage is to plant a few eggplants. With in a day or so all insects abandon my tomato’s, peppers and cucumbers, attack my eggplants and only leave after they have consumed every thing except a few stems. Sometimes they eat the stems as well!

Feeling adventurous this year I am going to start my transplants indoors. I’m trying to stage them this year and plant my first sets on the 15th of February and a second planting on the last day of February. It distresses me to think so many insects will go hungry if I don’t provide them a steady source of eggplants to munch on.

Why is Common Sense so Uncommon??

Gardening and Raising Livestock is a Full Time Job

It is easy to let your winter gardening plans over load your summer abilities. When you are considering raising a flock of chickens or a few rabbits, Don’t Forget they are an everyday commitment.  The require feeding and watering ‘Everyday’.  They don’t care if you have plans to go to the lake for the weekend, they still require you to tend to them ‘Everyday’. If your considering getting a milk goat or two, then you have committed yourself to being present every morning and every evening to milk them.  Not one time a day but two times a day and at about the same time two times a day!!

Properly managed gardens require a great deal of your time and effort. Soil preparation begins as soon as the soil can be worked. The amount of time and effort expended is dependent on garden size and whether you will be using hand tools, garden fork, shovel to till the soil or if you have power tools such as tillers or garden tractor.

Have a plan. First decide what you ‘really’ want to grow. Grow what you like to eat! Don’t plant a row of cabbage if you only eat one head of cabbage every three months! My summer garden plan is a simple one. I plant what I like to eat fresh from my garden, no cooking for me thanks.
Cucumbers, bush goose neck squash, bush tomato’s, peppers both hot and mild sweet bell pepper. I plant a few radishes, white, red and yellow onions and beets. Garlic was planted back in late November.
No zucchini, lettuce or other cool weather vegetables. Most cool weather vegetables do not do well here in our dry hot spring and summers.

Crop planting. Do Not, I say again do not crowd your plants. Your big, empty garden can become over grown and untenable in a short time if you over plant and crowd your plants. Lets start small and work up from there. First if you buy seed, follow planting dated, spacing and depth instruction on the package. Remember the 2-3-4 rule. Width of 2 fingers is about 1 – 1 1/4 inches, 3 fingers cover about 2 inches and 4 fingers will give you about 3 inches. This is an easy way to properly space seeds when planting.  Small seeds are difficult to plant one at a time but it is worth the effort to do so.

Larger plants like pepper need a minimum of 24 inches between plants, bush tomato’s require 36 inches minimum and vining tomato’s as much as 5 or 6 feet between plants even when staked or caged to allow easy access for harvesting and to allow for good air circulation. Cucumbers allowed to vine on the ground can take up as much as 8 feet of garden space for each vine. I think a better way to manage cucumbers is to grow them on a 6 foot or taller trellis. I purchased two 52 inch tall stock panels and use three T-post to support them. At end of season you can easily disassemble them and they require little space for winter storage.
Melon’s can easily take up to 10 or more feet of space. The real question is how large is your garden and is it really worth giving up that much space for a few melon’s?

Nice people are not good gardeners! You must be unforgiving. Diseased and non-producing plants should be ripped out! Replant with something that requires a shorter growing season. By July you should be thinking about what plants need to be pulled up and developing your fall garden plans. Removal of used up plants is a good thing. It helps control the number of damaging garden insects and helps control spreading disease to healthy plants. Depending on your planting zone, you may need to start planting you fall garden by mid July or early August.

Happy gardening.

Why is Common Sense so Uncommon?

Gardening In The Southwest, Not An Easy Task!

Smile it's summer time

In much of the southwestern United States we only have 2 seasons, Summer and Winter! On winters arrival our daily temperatures often go from 80 degree days and 60 nights nights to 40 degree days and 30 degree nights within one or two days. The reverse is true for our ’spring’ temperatures.

Procedures I use work well every where, however your temperatures and moisture conditions will dictate different planting timing. Here in southwest Oklahoma, it is common to have daily temperatures in the high 90’s and into the 100’s everyday from mid June through mid / late August. Dry hot winds can be a real challenge to home gardeners.

Rain fall at best is about 18 to 30 inches a year. We often get this rain in two or three months, about half in April / May and most of the remainder in September / October. Water is scarce and expensive to use on gardens. I catch about 300 gallons of roof run of rain water in plastic barrels this, most of the time, gets me through the hottest and driest part of the summer months.

By planting heat and drought tolerant varieties, heavy mulching and intensive weed control I manage to produce some very high yielding gardens. Planting times, companion planting and removal of non producing plants is a must do project if you want fresh vegetables over a long season.

Fresh home grown Tomato’s are often associated with southern gardens. However for us living in southwestern US, growing tomato’s can be problematic at best. They like the soil to be damp ‘Not Wet’ and when air / soil surface temperatures get above 90 degrees tomato pollen can die and plants will not get properly pollinated. Staking, caging vines and heavy mulching to retain moisture and keep the soil cool is very helpful.

Mulch choice is mostly dependent on that you have available at little or no cost to you. Lawn Grass clippings collected from your yard and neighbors works well but needs to be sun dried several days before applying to your garden. Fresh cut grass tends to form a almost water proof mat if not air dried several days before being spread around your plants.

I feed native grass and wheat straw to my cows, goats and rabbits, this allows me to have an abundance of animal {urine, dung} soiled hay as well as the litter I remove from my chicken coop to use in my garden as mulch. {Excess hay/chicken litter is piled onto my compost pile.} By the end of summer my garden has become two to four inches deep in mulch. It has been decomposing and feeding my garden all summer. It has allowed me to work in my garden even on the few days we may get rain, without getting mud on me and tracking mud into the house and as an added benefit has prevented ‘most’ weeds from germinating and becoming a problem.

Before someone starts beating me up, if you have properly applied and tilled in a rich compost ‘Before’ planting and ‘before’ heavy mulching, the loss of nitrogen through mulch decomposition is not a noticeable problem. Many gardeners over water and over fertilize their gardens wasting water, money, time and effort.

1. I only plant from seed mostly what I saved from last years crops. Seed plantings seem to produce as fast as when using pot grown set’s purchase from my local nursery.
They put down better deeper root systems and I don’t run the chance of introducing disease’s into my garden.
2. I never water my garden from the tap. I catch all water need for my garden from roof run off. Nothing against tap water, it is a cost thing with me!
3. I never buy or apply non-organic fertilizers! Never, just that simple! They soon leach deep into the soil below crop root zones or get washed away in heavy rains.
4. I am vicious in removing diseased or non producing plants. Rip it out and plant one of the many cool fall weather plants like cabbage, lettuce and the like.
This will prolong your gardening season while providing a lot of fresh vegetables for you and your family.

Happy 2010 gardening.

Why is Common Sense so Uncommon?

Surviving 2010 and Beyond – Think long Term

May 2010 will mark my first full year of my getting out of Americas daily rat race.  I didn’t have thousands in a 401K plan or invested in stock and bonds so retirement fund was little effected when the so called Great Recession came along .  I never tried to live beyond my means. I have never used credit cards. I did let my banker talk me into getting a debt card and that seems to work well.  It allows me to pay by plastic yet I do not incur any interest or other charges.

I was very careful, I bought a smaller home, drive an older vehicle. This allowed me to be debt free when I retired. I do not have a mortgage or auto loan to worry about making every month. This alone allows me to live better than many of my friends on much less cash income. I refuse to go into debt to purchase thing that I ‘want’ or need. If I don’t have cash in bank to cover this expense, I simply wait and save until such time as I can pay cash for this expenditure. Nothing says secure easy living like cash in your pocket.

I grow a medium size garden every summer and make a second planting in late July or August to provide me with fresh food 8 to 9 months a year. I catch run off water from my gutters to water a few chickens, rabbits and my garden this provide all the eggs and most of my yearly meat supply needs. Ducks and geese are easy to raise, require little supplemental feeding. I just don’t like duck or goose eggs or meat.

I have found that it does not require as much water for my garden as I was using when watering from my tap. Now I only water when plants ‘really’ need watering. It seems that waiting it out for normal rain fall is almost always best for me and my garden. I only water now to prevent plants from dieing in the hottest driest parts of summer. Pot and raised bed growing works well for many but they also require much more supplemental watering than simple in ground gardening.

When planting I wide space rows at least 42 or more inches between rows. This allows me easy access to plants when harvesting. It seems to me that plants not being crowed in narrow rows produce more and larger vegetable crops as well. Spreading grass clippings, old soiled hay and chicken litter between rows help keep mud off my shoes and is a real effective soil builder when tilled into the soil at the end of my growing season.

Small space, big tomato

Fertilizers in a bag or box, is the most expensive and least effective way to to add nutrients to your garden. Once started it is difficult to return to less expensive more effective compost and manure fertilization regimens. Fertilizers in a box gives a quick shot to your garden but is quickly used up or lost through water run off and leaching into the ground well below root zones of most plants. Compost and manure is as they say the first slow release fertilizer.

Next time maybe we can talk about how the cow eat the cabbage!

The Garden Worm gardening website
The Garden Worm blog

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Hay + Manure + Compost = Healthy Garden

Looking under my rabbit hutch I am amazed. Where did all that rabbit manure come from. I only have 3 rabbits and it must be nearly 3 inches deep rabbit manure under their hutch. Today I will fork about 2 or 3 inches of soiled cow / goat hay under my hutch and water well. Then wait for nature to compost whats there and the rabbits to deposit another 3 inches of manure. All will be composted to a point that it will be perfect to till into my summer garden plot early this spring.

I will breed 1 doe about the first of January.  Then  the second 1st of February that way I wont have all my fryer rabbits  at butcher size at the same time.  Need to produce some tracking charts between now and January so I don’t for get breeding date and date to put nest box in her hutch.  This will also allow be to track her litter size and next date to breed her.

I have one Holstein steer that will be 1000 – 1200 pounds by the middle of January. I will send him off to be processed. Checking my records, cost of the steer, feed and processing {about $200.00- $225.00}, assuming I will get 550 pounds of usable beef, I will have about $1.25 a pound invested. Thats not to bad considering the cost of beef in my local market these days. Best part is I know whats in my beef and what he has been fed. I don’t think my deep freezer will not hold 500 pounds of beef but I’ll bet my daughter will take any excess I have. Grinning.

Raising Back Yard Rabbits for food and profit

I'd rather be naked than wear fur

I’m a card carrying member of {P}eople {E}ating {T}asty {A}nimals} and the picture caption is funny. Before someone gets nuts about this, my flock is well fed, cleanly housed and well cared for.
They are after all a good meat supply as well as surplus rabbits provide a cash crop to off set the cost of care and feeding them.
I have acquired 2 does and 1 buck at a cost of $16.00 dollars each and plan to began my breeding program starting about the first of January 2010.

Rabbits were about 6 weeks old when I got them and will be 8 months old at first breeding cycle.
They are New Zealand whites.  I have raised this breed before and had good luck with them.
They will weigh in at about 5 – 6 pound as fryers. They produce a nice tender all white meat and if properly cared for have few disease or parasite problems.

Rabbit Hutch That I Built

Fried Rabbit: This is a basic pan-fried rabbit recipe , delicious any time of the year. Preparation time, 15 minutes; Cooking time, 40 to 60 minutes. Serves 4 to 6.
all-purpose flour 1/4 cup
salt 1 tsp
black pepper 1/4 tsp
1 fryer rabbit, cut up
olive oil 1/4 cup
1 bottle beer

Combine flour, salt and pepper in plastic bag. Shake rabbit pieces to coat evenly. Brown on both sides in oil in heavy skillet or dutch oven. Reduce heat and add bottle of beer, cover and cook slowly 40 to 50 minutes or until tender. For crisp crust on rabbit pieces, uncover for the last 10 to 15 minutes.<br><br>

One More Rabbit Recipe:
Ingredients:
1 fryer Rabbit, cut into serving pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
1-cup apple cider
1-cup warm water
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons fresh ground pepper
1-tablespoon salt
3 tablespoons flour
¹/₄ cup half and half

Preparation:
Heat olive oil in heavy covered skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat.
DO NOT ALLOW OIL TO SMOKE
Place rabbit parts flat on bottom and cook until lightly browned.
Turn each piece and brown on other side.
Salt and pepper to taste
Add water and apple cider; enough to cover meat.
Add garlic
Simmer covered for about 1 hour or until rabbit is tender.
In a small bowl mix flour and half and half to make a thickening.
Remove Rabbit to serving platter and cover
Increase heat to bring mixture to boiling.
Add thickening stirring constantly until mixture is thick and creamy.
Pour mixture over Rabbit pieces
Garnish with sprigs of parsley

This dish is especially good with mashed potatoes.  The sauce makes excellent gravy.

Why is Common Sense so uncommon?

¿¿ Brussels Sprouts NoT Just For Adults Any More

Named after the city of Brussels, Brussels sprouts were first made popular in Belgium, where they’ve been grown since about 1200. The sprouts are buds that grow in the axils of each leaf. They look like tiny cabbages and are considered a type of wild cabbage. The plant itself looks like a small palm tree and the sprouts grow along the trunk-like stem. The green variety is the most commonly grown.

Brussels sprouts like a sweet or slightly alkaline soil. Soil pH should be at least 6.5. A good amount of organic matter will help maintain the moisture they need for their intense growth. In colder climates, start seeds indoors and set outside when there’s no threat of a hard frost. Be sure to allow the full time outdoors for required days to harvest.

In warmer climates, fall planting is preferred. You should be able to direct seed in mid-summer for a late fall/winter harvest. You may also be able to squeeze in a second, early spring crop, direct seeding in February and harvesting in May. Hot climates where the temperature never approaches freezing are not really suitable for growing Brussels sprouts.
Direct seed in warm areas. Otherwise start seed indoors approximately 5-7 weeks before last expected frost. Cover seeds with 1/4 – ½” soil and keep moist. Transplant when the seedlings are about 3″ tall. Don’t allow seedlings to become root bound or the plant will remain stunted when transplanted. Space plants about 2′ apart with 3′ between rows or stagger plants 2′ apart in each direction, for a grid.

Fertilize twice a season once when the plants are about 12″ high and again about a month before harvest is often recommended, but if you have a fertile soil to begin with, it doesn’t seem to be necessary. Brussels Sprouts are prone to the same problems as cabbage and broccoli. The most common pests are Cabbage looper, cabbage worm, cabbage root maggot, aphids, and Harlequin bugs.

Each sprout rows in the leaf axil or joint. They begin maturing from the bottom of the plant upwards. You can start harvesting when the lower sprouts reach the size of large marbles. Just be sure to pick before they get too large and start cracking and turning bitter. Some people prefer to cut, rather than pull the sprouts. Pulling is easy if you remove the leave below the sprout first, then twist and pull the sprout.

A few of the Varieties available are:

* ‘Bubbles’ F1 (85-90 days) Early and easy. Tolerates heat and drought. 2″ sprouts. Resistant to Powdery Mildew & Rust.

* ‘Jade Cross’ F1 and ‘Jade Cross E’ F1(90 days) Jade Cross was a 1959 All-America Selections Winner. Both are compact plants good for windy locations. Sprout are slightly larger on Jade Cross E. Good disease resistance.

* ‘Long Island Improved’ OP (90 days) High yield. Another small plant that stands up to wind. Freezes well.

* ‘Oliver’ F1 (85 days) Early producer. Easy to pick, 1″ sprouts. Compact, disease resistant plants.

* ‘Royal Marvel’ F1 (85 days) Early and productive. Resistant to bottom rot and tip burn.

* ‘Rubine’ (85 – 95 days) Red Plants. Late maturing and lower yield than green varieties, but good flavor. 1 ½” sprouts. Heirloom

Tell the kids they are baby cabbage, they will love them.

Why is Common Sense so Uncommon??

Moo Say De Cow

Jerseys at feeded

Son-n-law bought 3 dairy calfs, 1 was drinking from a bucket the other 2 were / are still on the bottle.  Two are doing well and putting on weight and eating hay and creep feed. I am still giving them a 1/2 gallon of milk a day as a supplement.

I have one that was only 3 days old and developed scours. I think it may live now but it has been a real battle. I really have more time, medication and associated cost invested in a $50.00 dollar calf than I should. But I refuse to just let a calf die for lack of effort on my part.

Why is Common Sense so Uncommon?