(01-13-2022 03:29 PM)TexanMark Wrote:  Reason #1 why I believe in birth control: too many people on the globe. We had 3.5 Billion 50 years ago and now it is 7.9 billion. Something has to give.

We're not letting nature take it's course so to speak. Stupidity should have a price.

(01-13-2022 01:38 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  It’s seed porn season (seed catalogs). My personal seed bank for the garden is becoming a bit of a personal problem. I have about 900 square feet of raised beds within an enclosure so far. All human powered organic gardening. Best exercise I get.

I don’t do it to prep. But that is a nice side benefit. It’s been fun learning as we go.

I'd start looking for heirloom seeds now, if you are not already. There are a few companies out there specializing in them. That way you can have an inexhaustable supply as long as you save and store some from each harvest. That's what I do. If the predicted food shortages appear in the near future, all you will be able to find are hybrid seeds.

I do organic gardening for several reasons:I know what has been applied to my food and it is good exercise. It tastes better than the stuff you buy partly because it is fresh, partly because it wasn't factory farmed and heirloom varieties just taste better.

(01-13-2022 03:18 PM)TexanMark Wrote:  

(01-12-2022 02:05 PM)shere khan Wrote:  cause

i can skin a buck and i can run a trotline

Ha Ha...but when the gubnet tells you deer are out of season you're f'd

Let the G-Men come to the Mountains of East Kentucky. We got abandoned coal tipples where you pitch them in and they’ll never be heard from again.

(01-13-2022 05:48 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  

(01-13-2022 03:18 PM)TexanMark Wrote:  

(01-12-2022 02:05 PM)shere khan Wrote:  cause

i can skin a buck and i can run a trotline

Ha Ha...but when the gubnet tells you deer are out of season you're f'd

Let the G-Men come to the Mountains of East Kentucky. We got abandoned coal tipples where you pitch them in and they’ll never be heard from again.

Kinda like taking the pickup truck ride to Wyoming in Yellowstone

(01-13-2022 01:50 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  I had an opportunity to takeover a chicken processing factory in South Carolina back in the late 80’s. A recruiter called me. They flew up to meet me. They made me a nice offer after a visit or two and wanted me to fly down to see the facility, sign paperwork and look for a home.

When l told my late father he said, “Jim chickens are nastiest damn animals God ever made”. “You’ll regret taking that job”. I ended up turning down the job. Thinking back I don’t remember seeing my Dad ever eat a piece of chicken…lol

100% correct. Guys who used to work the chicken plants in Arkansas couldn't enjoy eating chicken. LOL

(01-13-2022 01:55 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  

(01-13-2022 01:46 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  Northern Michigan. Looking into goats too since the wife wants to start making cheese.

Michigan, my fiancé always talks about a trip they took up there a few years ago to Mackinaw Island. She said its beautiful. Farthest I’ve been in northern Michigan is Lapeer. It was beautiful there.

There’s a goat farm not to far from my old place in Southern Indiana. They make all kinds of stuff. Their cheese is amazing.

It’s a great area. I’m an hour or so around the western coast of Lake Michigan from the Bridge.

We love the silence and peace of January through March. Makes the noise the rest of the world makes the other 9 months tolerable.

My only problem with the goats is I know who would be milking them daily. Not the cheese chef.

(01-13-2022 08:36 PM)BlueDragon Wrote:  

(01-13-2022 01:50 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  I had an opportunity to takeover a chicken processing factory in South Carolina back in the late 80’s. A recruiter called me. They flew up to meet me. They made me a nice offer after a visit or two and wanted me to fly down to see the facility, sign paperwork and look for a home.

When l told my late father he said, “Jim chickens are nastiest damn animals God ever made”. “You’ll regret taking that job”. I ended up turning down the job. Thinking back I don’t remember seeing my Dad ever eat a piece of chicken…lol

100% correct. Guys who used to work the chicken plants in Arkansas couldn't enjoy eating chicken. LOL

My girls are cleaner than pets. Hell, they act like pets. Guessing plants are a little different animal than backyard garden set ups.

If you’ve spent time in a pork plant you’d probably look at bacon and go vegan. Not me.

(01-13-2022 05:36 PM)MileHighBronco Wrote:  

(01-13-2022 01:38 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  It’s seed porn season (seed catalogs). My personal seed bank for the garden is becoming a bit of a personal problem. I have about 900 square feet of raised beds within an enclosure so far. All human powered organic gardening. Best exercise I get.

I don’t do it to prep. But that is a nice side benefit. It’s been fun learning as we go.

I'd start looking for heirloom seeds now, if you are not already. There are a few companies out there specializing in them. That way you can have an inexhaustable supply as long as you save and store some from each harvest. That's what I do. If the predicted food shortages appear in the near future, all you will be able to find are hybrid seeds.

I do organic gardening for several reasons:I know what has been applied to my food and it is good exercise. It tastes better than the stuff you buy partly because it is fresh, partly because it wasn't factory farmed and heirloom varieties just taste better.

All we do whether it be for food or wildflowers for the pollinators and critters are heirloom and native varieties. rareseeds.com is a great source for the garden variety. Prairiemoon.com for native wildflowers. No neonicotinoids. No pesticides. No gmo. The seeds breed true generations later. Frankly, they seem to us to be less finicky, too.

(01-13-2022 01:38 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  

(01-13-2022 01:13 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  I hate chickens. I don’t know what caused greater trauma for me when I was 5 or 6. Getting run out of the henhouse by a rooster or watching my Grandma wring a chickens neck.

I just got into chickens 2 years ago. I built the Taj Mahal of coops in March of 2020 when the world was initially getting weird due to Covid and nobody knew where this was heading. We get about a dozen eggs a day most of the year. I give most to friends. No roosters...they stress the girls out. If time comes where I need a roo since tractor supply is no longer around, they are easy enough to find.

We also have a breeding trio of meat rabbits that produce about a dozen fryers every few months. Chickens and rabbits provide all of my compost and fertilizer needs. Two hives now, too and I have put 5,000 square feet of what used to be stupid fescue lawn i has to mow every week into native wildflowers for pollinators (the honey is to die for). Not too shabby for a guy who was a full time city boy until 2018.

It’s seed porn season (seed catalogs). My personal seed bank for the garden is becoming a bit of a personal problem. I have about 900 square feet of raised beds within an enclosure so far. All human powered organic gardening. Best exercise I get.

I don’t do it to prep. But that is a nice side benefit. It’s been fun learning as we go.

Been there done that.

If you want chickens for meat White Rock, Plymouth Barred and Rhode Island Reds are common. If you want egg production the White Leghorn or brown leghorn chickens are best for that.

Another thing about chickens are they attract every kind of varmint known to man. Every animal likes to eat chickens. Weasels kill them just to suck their blood. Late night stake outs were not uncommon. I killed coyotes, a fox, Ferrets/Minks, Weasels, Possums and Raccoons. Snakes and Hawks as well. Nothing like reaching into a hen's nest and touching a snake. I used to leave glass filament light bulbs in the nest to kill the snakes that would eat the eggs.

One last thing we constructed the Chicken Yard by digging 2 and a half feet into the ground for the fence to be buried below ground all the way around so varmints couldn't dig in. We also put chicken wire over the top to keep out the Hawks.

As far as rabbits we hunted Peter Cottontail during the winter only because they had worms any other time of the year. We always made Hasenpfeffer as Bugs Bunny called it or Rabbit Stew which was always a treat. Red Fox Squirrels and Dumplings are ten times better than Chicken and Dumplings.

I have had a couple solo bald eagle attacks in 2 years but the varmints leave us completely alone. I have 175+ lb Great Danes that have 5 acres of invisible fence to roam…they don’t like intruders leave scent around like there are grizzlies on the property. We haven’t seen a raccoon, fox, yote, possum or even a mink (we are on a lake) since we moved the lads up here.

(01-13-2022 09:14 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  I have had a couple solo bald eagle attacks in 2 years but the varmints leave us completely alone. I have 175+ lb Great Danes that have 5 acres of invisible fence to roam…they don’t like intruders leave scent around like there are grizzlies on the property. We haven’t seen a raccoon, fox, yote, possum or even a mink (we are on a lake) since we moved the lads up here.

Nice, hope it stays that way. We had stay out dogs with no invisible fence at all times 4 to 5 and fenced hunting dogs but still had problems. Oh I won't even start with the night corn field stories and dogs chasing critters.