Today I made/bought/learnt (for a post oil world) 5

[PrestonSturges]

Starting to pick figs, maybe a couple hundred minus what the birds get. The Conadria fig is finally putting out figs with pink flesh like it's supposed to, much better quality than the first couple years.

I'm going to repot some of the air layered branches and sell them on Craigslist.

[Loki]

:-D My new John Deere was delivered Friday and I have spent part of the weekend mowing back a decades or more of brush growth on a couple of my fields.

That'll be a fun toy. Why new instead of used, though?

[vtsnowedin]

:-D My new John Deere was delivered Friday and I have spent part of the weekend mowing back a decades or more of brush growth on a couple of my fields.

That'll be a fun toy. Why new instead of used, though?

Lots of reasons, some better then others. Zero percent financing for one. If hyper inflation or anything like it happens in the next five years I'll be paying it off with dollars worth much less then the purchase price today.
Second if you buy new you don't have to worry about what the previous owner did to it and forgot to tell you about. That just leaves the factory line crew and the shippers. That cuts your potential problem by at least a third, perhaps more as the first owner is the weakest link in the chain.
I expect to own this tractor for the rest of my life and then to pass it on to my heirs. Starting off with a new one today gives me a chance to give them an asset with real value when I'm gone not just a pile of worn out iron.

[Pops]

What size is it VT? 40hp or so? looks just right for a right sized farm.

[Shaved Monkey]

Growing mushrooms take 2
First lot failed.

[Loki]

Growing mushrooms take 2
First lot failed.

Magic mushrooms I assume

I have no idea how my shiitake logs are doing. I have about 50 of them. Guess I'll find out when I try to force some of them in the fall. I was watering them once a week or so (depending on rain) but after doing a bit more reading I learned that I was probably watering them too often. There's not much info on how often to water shiitake logs, but based on what I can glean it might be best to give them a deep watering once or twice a month. Ideal conditions are wet inside, but with dry bark. Really should have weighed a few while they were fresh to keep as reference logs to better monitor moisture content. Next batch I guess.

Did find that the soy-based wax I got from the mushroom company flakes off after a few weeks. The cheese wax I used on some of the logs works much better. Not sure if it'll make any difference.

[Shaved Monkey]

Growing mushrooms take 2
First lot failed.

Magic mushrooms I assume

Pretty sure they grow wild around here, haven't been out looking since my early 20's in a few rainforest gullies.
My ones are Portabellos local nursery sells spores for a few different varieties will venture out to some more exciting varieties as I get a little more confident in my abilities to grow them.

[EdwinSm]

Just took delivery of an EcoFan to go on top of the wood burning stove in the kitchen. But I will have to wait until it gets cold to see if it lives up to its hype. But looks nice, and I am learning things like what a 'Seebeck Effect' is and how the stove heat is used to create electricity.

I went through a local distributor although I know I could have got it cheaper from further afield (ie getting my daughter to bring it when she next visits), but I thought it best to encourage (relatively) local firms as this seems to be the sort of goods that might be of wider use during (and after) a time of power down.

For those who want more details see www.caframo.com It is Canadian made (but that is not where I live).

[rangerone314]

What I've been doing for some time is retaking the garden areas back from weeds due to my work establishing a mulched area in the south eastern hedge that is populated by holly trees. Of the 3 main areas on my properties, the East is pretty much under control: mulched beds lacking any real weed presence, or edible groundcovers like creeping raspberries.

The West, which has a smaller cultivated area, the vine area (grapes, kiwis, hops), got partly overrun by weeds, but I made a dent last week in retaking that area.

The North is a vast area, and today I cleared most of the rest of the northeast hedge. (230 gallons of weeds pulled Friday and today) and more mulch spread around. After the West is done, I will push into the "Core", where I have the vast bulk of fruit trees, nut bushes & fruit bushes.

As I retake the overrun areas from weeds, I maintain weeding on the areas already cleared.

[Shaved Monkey]

I've bought some coco peat to start marcotting my blueberries and gruminchana to create some hedges.
Will also take some more rooted cutting of other species to give to the Community Garden.

[PeakOiler]

Today, between ~8:30 AM till 11:30 AM, I worked outdoors until I had blood, sweat and tears.

The tears were from a little wood dust I got in my eyes when I began cutting down a few cedar trees. I finally put on my safety glasses, and had no more problem then. I cut down a few small (~12-15' tall) cedar trees that were on my neighbor's side of the property line, next to my carports. Those trees were adding debris to the carport roofs. (Rainwater collection surfaces work better with no tree debris.) Still more cedar to cut down, but not today. I'm taking a break now. My neighbor has given me permission to cut down those trees, btw.

The sweat was from working in 80 F to 90 F temperatures in the time frame mentioned above. It's supposed to be over 100 F again today.

The blood was from some of the branches I accidently stepped into. I was wearing shorts since it was hot, and got a little scraped up. My bad. I should have been wearing jeans... "It's only a flesh wound."

I moved a lot of tools and equipment into the new carport. Electric drills, hardware, ladders, etc., including all the rain gutters I'm going to install on the new carport.

I also attached one of the steel carport panels I salvaged from the carport damaged in a wind storm back in May onto one side of the original carport. The original carport (on the rhs in the pic below) was installed without side panels:



(Picture taken in Nov. 2011.)
I may be able to salvage enough of the side panels from the damaged carport to fully enclose the sides of the original carport. Then my vehicles will be fully shaded.

The next picture I take from this spot will show a few less trees in the background behind the carports. But the cedar woods are so thick, perhaps not...

[rangerone314]

Back from my 3-day vacation at the ocean and got that "devil grass" pulled out again in my house garden. Vigilance, at least until it completely dies under the mulch.

Tomorrow I will push against any weed regrowth in the rest of the East region of my property and then I will go back to the West area (cultivated vine area) and push back against the weeds there. Then plan is to be done with the West by Saturday the 18th.

Then the rest of the month can be building chicken trailers and weeding & mulching the Core area in the North region. (the other main part of the North region,the Northern hedge/orchard is very weed free) In the northern orchard, some of the jujube trees have matured quickly despite being fairly new; one has a few jujubes on it.

The grains of the Hokkaido rice are developing nicely.

[rangerone314]

A few weeks ago I crushed the weeds in the Western garden beds, which have grapes, hops & kiwis. Then I moved into the Northern beds and completely weeded the massive blueberry area (18 blueberry bushes, roses, azaleas, pussy willows etc).

I'm currently weeding the hazelnut area in the North and will then finish the 1/3 weeded fruit tree area in the North. Then I'll be all done weeding & mulching except for spot weeding.

My accessories for my StagArms AR15 arrived this week. I got a T-POD G2 handgrip/bipod in one, quad rails, and an EoTech 552 holographic sight. Tonight I got the quadrails installed after I removed the default handguard and installed the handgrip/bipod and EoTech sight on the rails. The G2 opens up from a handgrip into a pivoting bipod by pushing two buttons down. The EoTech holographic sight is SWEET and doesn't eat up batteries (although not quite as good as the Aimpoint CompM4 in that regards)

[PrestonSturges]

We had a few hardy kiwi this year (Anna) about the size of a grape. They were kiwi flavored with overtones of pine resin. Not bad. The Li jujube did really well.

I sold several of my fig cuttings in 3 gallon pots for $10 each.

My online store is actually making about $200/week in profit. i had hoped to be doing better, but a company popped up selling some cheap Chinese imports that was competing for ad space. But we are growing steadily.

[argyle]

Built my barn/stable and got myself 2 diary goats (a yearling (pregnant) and a youngster (april this year).

Took me most of summer as I did everything (bricklaying, roofing, etc) myself.. and fencing. Still some work to do before winter though. Plan for next year is a greenhouse

[rangerone314]

This weekend I finished sheetmulching the hazelnut area & pushed into more of the fruit tree bed to re-take it from weeds.

Today, I got 7 more blueberries planted in the fruit tree area. (The blueberry area has 18 blueberries, the house garden has 7 blueberries and the fruit tree area has 9 blueberries.)

[rangerone314]

Have made massive progress in retaking the fruit tree area from weeds. I got 3 holly trees planted in my newer North hedge and this weekend I put 8' landscaping lumber down & I sheetmulched 2 full 8'x8' sections with cardboard & mulch. (I encompassed the 3 holly trees and 2 thuja green giant trees). The landscaping lumber is low enough that it can be mowed along, saving having to weedwhack.

[careinke]

Have made massive progress in retaking the fruit tree area from weeds. I got 3 holly trees planted in my newer North hedge and this weekend I put 8' landscaping lumber down & I sheetmulched 2 full 8'x8' sections with cardboard & mulch. (I encompassed the 3 holly trees and 2 thuja green giant trees). The landscaping lumber is low enough that it can be mowed along, saving having to weedwhack.

Interesting, I'd love to get rid of my holly. The birds eat the berries, and spread it everywhere in the forest. What are you planning on using them for?

[rangerone314]

Interesting, I'd love to get rid of my holly. The birds eat the berries, and spread it everywhere in the forest. What are you planning on using them for?

The previous 120+ I bought were used in the southeast and south hedges (in the shady or wooded areas). Growth will be slow but I use them in a zigzagged double row with the idea of having a thorny evergreen hedge in areas unsuitable for thuja green giants with roses in front of them.

This new batch of 3 hollies (taller than the mass ordered ones) are at the northern hedge, where it starts to get shady again and they are next to the thujas). The next batch of 120 holly trees will continue the northern hedge into the wooded area and also form a western hedge that will connect the northern hedge to the complete south hedge.

I also like the fact that they produce berries for birds to eat... I like a healthy bird population to keep insect pests in check. I have a few mulberries growing in pots with idea of planting them in the periphery to feed the birds so they keep off of other berries. From what I've seen though, the birds eat more bugs than they do berries, so they are a net positive.

My order of ashitabi has shipped and should be here soon. They are a land plant that has good amounts of vitamin B12, a rarity. I also have an order of Jerusalem artichokes that should be shipping soon for October planting.

[careinke]

Ranger,

I can see using Holly as a barrier, planted close enough, they would be a formidable hedge.

I planted some Jerusalem Artichokes this year. Unfortunately, I don't think the tubers were that viable as only one actually sprouted. But what a sprout! The thing is now over 13 feet tall and I had to stake it up. I read, (before I planted), that you should put them in a permanent spot as they are hard to remove once they become established. Since they spread through tubers, I'm hoping to have a nice patch next year. Hopefully they taste good, as I have never eaten one.