| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Eileen |
Posted - Sep 08 2004 : 5:14:00 PM
Hello everyone!
My name is Eileen and I live in a little place called Quilcene Washington.
I had a little difficulty figuring out how to get involved in the discussions because my computer would not let me see the sign up form. After several conversations with some computer gurus I know we finally decided that the Norton program I was running might be blocking it. So after disabling norton I was finally able to get signed up! I re-enabled norton after I was all signed up and it seems to be working fine now.
My husband and I moved onto our 5 acre parcel about 9 years ago. Our original intention was to have a bed and breakfast up here with little yurts or cobb cottages but with county codes and other rules we are not able to proceed with that dream. After trying another business adventure for 4 years and failing miserably at it, all the while working to improve this piece of wilderness, we realised we were looking in all the wrong places to make our dreams come true so we decided to take on this piece of land full time and learn to be good stewards of what we were so richly blessed to own.
We have wild blackberries everywhere and after fighting to get rid of them in safe ways we decided that they could go to work for us. We got started in raising honey bees this spring and have had a really fun education and wonderful experience with them so far. All of the articles in Mary Janes magazine have been fun to read and compare notes.
We are an all organic family and so I shop at the closest organic co-op in Port Townsend. That is where I first found this magazine. There were 2 editions of it on the shelf. I got caught up in the Egg issue so decided to purchase one of each. I then found to my delight that our co-op carried a small variety of the foods. Potatoe and soup dishes mostly so I purchased a few of each. Yummy.
So far this past 12 months we have built our first straw bale chicken coop and one chicken tractor so that we can raise our own egg layers.
I had to take 6 months off of hard work to have my right knee replaced but as soon as I could, I got right back out there and have really been whipping things into shape to begin to fit the dream of an organic orchard in one area, an organic vinyard in another area a pond area for constant water source for our honey bees as well as a place for all of the migrating water fowl that pass over head, to stop and visit. We get all sorts of ducks, geese, swans and herons flying right over our pole barn every year both directions.
Wild birds of every possible description visit our feeders and birdbaths. I have planted huge quantities of perenial flowers that are a food source for hummingbirds and butterflies as well as great cut flowers.We have designated areas for the native plants to flourish and feed the deer, bear, and other wildlife.
We also have all sorts of raptors that fly overhead and land in some of our second growth evergreens. I have learned that if I want to have chickens or ducks I will have to keep the housing areas covered overhead as well as around the perimiters because the hawks and eagles are very good at grabbing them off the ground and carrying them away to feed their young. To keep the duck eggs I have to keep the ducks covered overhead as well due to the Ravens who do not even let the eggs get cold before they have carried them off to a nearby tree to consume. Opportunists all! So far we love it here and are slowly working our way into becoming organic farmers on a small scale. My husband grew up in the palouse as his great grandfather was one of the original settlers in that area and had at one time had over 2000 acres of prime wheat farm. My husband left farming to become an electrical engineer but I think that the farmer still lives in his blood and his great grandfather would be very proud of him.
I am looking forward to getting aquainted with all of you through this great forum!
songbird |
| 19 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Desertrose |
Posted - Oct 11 2004 : 8:52:29 PM
Elizabeth is approximately 35 miles southeast of Denver. When I first moved here from Seattle a little over a year ago, I was living in downtown Denver. I thought that it would be exciting, and it was close to the job that I had at the time, but I grew to hate it. Now that I am truly in the country, I would never go back.
quote:
Originally posted by MeadowLark
Welcome DesertRose! Glad you found this forum! Your little piece of heaven in Colorado sounds beautiful. There are a lot of people who post here with similar passions about land, home, animals and living as your own and it's great! Lots of people raise chickens here and have much expertise on the subject. Fresh eggs sound wonderful. I love Colorado and have visited there many times. Where is Elizabeth located? I look forward to sharing stories and ideas!
Time Flies
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| bramble |
Posted - Oct 10 2004 : 6:27:11 PM
Hi Susan...welcome! This is the only group I have ever joined and they have so much to say and share ! I'm relatively new and it's been great, a warm and welcoming group right from the start!
My husband lived in Boulder and I have a friend who lives near Leadville. From your screen name I am assuming you are near the four corners area and your gardening is xeriscaping? What a beautiful place to live, you are blessed! Welcome, welcome you will find kindred spirits here! Bramble
with a happy heart |
| Eileen |
Posted - Oct 10 2004 : 1:01:48 PM
Jenny,
The pastures in Wales were fragrant with the smell of damp moss and heathers some of which are really nice as well as the different grasses that grow there. Also I think that some of the hedgerows were a type of bay laurel or some other laurel that smells sweet when wet. ( It rains a lot there.)
Eileen
songbird |
| Eileen |
Posted - Oct 10 2004 : 12:58:35 PM
Hi Susan, Welcome to the group! This has been the most fun I have had in a long time getting to know people with similar passion about the land. I do not have goats but I know lots of people who do and really enjoy them. Each one is such an individual. We have several neighbors who also have a donkey or two. The local summer music festival barn have seven full time donkeys that live in the pasture along side the festival grounds. They love all the people and attention. Sometimes there are a couple of cows in the same pasture and almost always there are wild Peacocks in the pasture with them as well.
You might want to look for a book called "The Chicken Tractor" to give you some great ideas about how to house your chickens for multiple uses. I built my first chicken tractor this summer and plan to build two more. They are portable chicken coops with a roof that opens up for servicing, feeding, gathering eggs and applying fresh bedding. They are great. There are other links to this forum where chicken raising and goat raising are discussed with others who have them also. You are gonna love it here.
Eileen
songbird |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Oct 10 2004 : 12:22:54 PM
Eileen, I can just picture the beauty you are describing of the Wales countryside. The rock walls that crisscross the British Isles and Ireland just amaze me. And that wall that the Romans built in northern England to keep the British native people out is still standing. Did you get to visit that as well as Stonehenge? I would love to visit these places. What made the mossy pastures of Wales so fragrant?
Time Flies |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Oct 10 2004 : 08:32:06 AM
Welcome DesertRose! Glad you found this forum! Your little piece of heaven in Colorado sounds beautiful. There are a lot of people who post here with similar passions about land, home, animals and living as your own and it's great! Lots of people raise chickens here and have much expertise on the subject. Fresh eggs sound wonderful. I love Colorado and have visited there many times. Where is Elizabeth located? I look forward to sharing stories and ideas!
Time Flies |
| Desertrose |
Posted - Oct 09 2004 : 9:25:50 PM
Hello! My name is Susan, and I live in Elizabeth, Colorado. I have for most of my 55 years been a city girl, moving to Denver from Seattle a year ago, and moved to this beautiful community when I met my husband, Larry. We have embarked upon creating a haven for ourselves and whatever creatures we can bring here to share our space. We have five acres, and realized a few months ago that we had room that needed to be filled, so adopted two pygmy goats. They are extremely spoiled and have found their own bit of heaven in our pasture. It has been my dream since I was a little girl to one day have a donkey, and we hope to make that dream a reality soon. I am also creating a rock garden which is meandering down the hillside of our backyard. In the spring we hope to build a chicken coop so that we can have our own fresh eggs.
I was thrilled to discover this website, and am looking forward to communicating with other "farmgirls" who have firmly planted their roots and have allowed themselves to bloom.
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| Eileen |
Posted - Oct 09 2004 : 11:45:29 AM
Jenny,
It is so amazing that all of the fields there are surrounded by either hand built rock wall without mortar so you can open a gate if need be and close it up again (rebuild the wall) or a hedge that looks small from an airplane flying over but some of the hedges are tall enough to stand up straight when inside of them and deep enough for a pathway tunneling along within them. Like secret passageways to narnia! The pastures are green mossy heathery and fragrant.
Eileen
songbird |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Oct 08 2004 : 5:47:40 PM
Eileen, Just had to add that I got a real chuckle about Americans being able to hit the "target" What a great story to share with grandchildren!
Time Flies |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Oct 08 2004 : 5:34:04 PM
Oh Eileen, All I can say is WOOOOOOW!!!! Thank you so much for sharing that part of your life! Your determination and "grit" to acheive this goal of a trip and education of a lifetime is inspiring to me. Your words helped me to visualize that experience and part of history. I remember watching Prince Charles at that ceremony. Tricia Nixon was in the crowd, and I am sure many other young ladies. Yes I do remember kettle cloth! I had a vest and a skirt out of blue kettle cloth with flower embroidery that I wore in 1971. What precious and wonderful memories you have! I was only 13 in '69 that summer and flat on my back with a serious illness of Rhumatic Fever so I took in all those historical events of the times watching TV. Of course I had to watch "Laugh-In" too. I have heard from many people that Wales is spectacularly beautiful. Thank you for taking the time to open those sweet memories!
Time Flies |
| Eileen |
Posted - Oct 08 2004 : 11:05:01 AM
Jenny and All,
When I was in Highschool there was a program called AIFS (American institute for foreigh studies.) Several of my friends had gone on summer schooling trips to various foreign schools involved in the same exchange student programs. I wanted to go to the one in Wales because the program also included a three week tour through France, England, Ireland and Wales with free time during the school term on weekends to tour Scotland if you had a chaperone. I have many relatives still residing in Scotland and a great Uncle who resided in London and was the president and one of the founders of the London School of Dance. I had no thought that this desire would be possible due to our family financial situation. One of my girlfriends told me that there might be a possibility of getting some scholarship money to attend so I went to the school representative about this possibility and he told me that if that was the program I was interested in he knew of a place where I might apply for the money to go. I had to apply to the St. Davids Welsh Society for the scholarship. This entailed a complete school transcript, a recommendation from the guidance counselor, an essay from me about why I thought I should be the deserving student, as well as financial statements from my parents( the hardest part of the application) Although our family lived at the near poverty level my parents were very proud and did not want to admit to this lack of money. My father was self employed as a house painter and handy man. In summer we had enough to get by but in winter we were starving due to lack of work or the people (mostly doctors and lawyers) who my father did work for seemed to forget to pay him until he threatened law suits. Any way many tears later I was able to convince them to fill out the paperwork so I could have an opportunity to visit the place where my mother was born. I was very surprised when I got the phone call from the president of the society to tell me that the scholarship had been awarded to me, albeit by a sort of default. I did not have the 4.0 grade point average that another applicant did have but I had a verifiable Welsh ancestry and my parents had been honest in filling out the financial forms while the parents of their first choice had falsified their paprework to make it look like they had no money. I was exstatic! I was going to attend The University of Wales at Bangor North Wales. I filled out all the college applications signing up for a class in Shaksperian literature taught by a noted author and expert on the subject(whose name I cannot remember) another class on Art and Architecture of the 16th century, beginning gaelic (welsh variety, not irish or scottish)and canoeing as my physical education class. I was given an itinerary and a list of wardrobe I would be allowed to have including how many pairs of socks and underware. I guess this was for the weight restrictions on the airplane all of which I took very seriously having never been on a huge jet before. I had a job and had been making all of my own clothing since before junior high so I went with my employer (a wealthy widow woman) to the fabric store to choose fabric and patterns to maximise my choices of wardrobe. It was so exciting. I bought what was then called "Kettle Kloth" anybody remember that? I got cordinating colors and patterns so everything could be worn with everything else and the fabric didn't need ironing and was supposed to be spot resistant. I made two reversible skirts of the wrap around variety and 4 blouses to cordinate. I made some slacks and shorts for our saturday outings and I made my own two piece swim suit (ugh) Georgia my boss bought me a couple of scarves and a couple of pins to dress things up and I made a nice black dressy dress for the sunday dress up dinners. I had a jumper at home that I could wear with all of the blouses and a sun dress for over my swim suit. I was told that the weather would be cool and rainy while I was there so I took along a sweater and a coat.I had one sturdy pair of striderite walking shoes which was all I ever had and lots of kneehigh stockings with holes mended. I had saved up the $900.00 I would need for meals away from school as well as transportation costs on the city bus and underground and for tickets to attend concerts and theater. It was actually my first semester community college tuition, but I was assured of a job when I returned and had tuition deferrment at the college so I spent it willingly to have this opportunity. I almost ruined my opportunity however by staying out all night at a party after my senior prom and having such a bad hangover from the little champaign I had tasted ( I think I was drugged actually) that I did not call home or venture out of bed until after 6 pm the following evening. My parents were LIVID and threatened to tell those nice people who had trusted me enough to buy my trip to Wales and have them reward it to the other girl instead. That is another story however and has very sad memories. Two weeks later I was on that plane thanks to my school guidence counselor being willing to reason with my parents. The plane trip was an adventure in itself. I took a train to Seattle from Spokane and a shuttle to the airport where I left for my connecting flight in oakland. So far so good I did not get air sick! The plane I boarded for heathrow airport in London was a charter jet with room for 380 passengers (something like that) all bound for the AIFS schools in europe. Chaperones and students. The plane had been overbooked and there were not enough seats for everyone but for some reason we were allowed to take off, so a few of the boys volunteered to sit on the floor! I can't believe it now! The flight was to have been a 12 hour flight over the pole. It was storming over the pole so we had to fly over the USA and landed at Bangor Maine in the middle of the night with nobody to do the customs work due to come in to work for hours! We were cold on the plane and it was 110 degrees in Bangor Maine with a 100 percent humidity. We had to leave the plane and sit on the tarmac until the customs workers came to go through our baggage. Our flight ended up taking about 22 hours and several of us caught terrible colds. We all boarded different touring busses at the airport depending on which program we were attending so some of the friends we made on the planes did not go to the same school as we did.
Our tour bus took us up to Bangor with two stops for food and several stops for restroom. First stop for food we were taken to a small city center with about 8 shops where we were instructed to go and buy our own lunches. Each store had only one type of food. A bakery for bread, A dairy for milk and cheese a butcher for meats and sausages. NO FAST FOOD! And none of us were sure about the exchange rate on money. We all had some of the right kind of money and travelers checks but we were all scratching our heads. It is so funny to remember. When we got to the University there was a convocation where we were all welcomed and given instructions in an almost unintelligible form of english! We were given our room assignments two to a dorm room with me being the only one with a room to myself. I was introduced as the remarkable girl who had received the scholarship and they made a really big deal over me. I was so embarrased! It also earned me an enemy, the other girl who thought that she should have won the scholarship was there and had plenty of money to spend. She was so mean to me taunting me about everything from how I walked like a slob to how funny my homemade clothes were.
The school was great! The proffessors were so very different from the teachers I had in high school and were so encouraging. I loved the class in Shakespear and we attended open aire theater to experience some of these plays first hand as they would have been produced in shakespears day. These were held in little nearby places that took only a couple of hours to get to by bus on a Saturday. The Class in Art and Architecture was interresting but I could hardly understand the instructor so thick was her brogue. I learned some Gaelic and was able to understand some simple conversations when I was invited to eat supper with a local family. My highschool foreign language had been French. The canoeing class was the most fun of all. What they call canoeing we call kayaking. We were bused to a nearby wide spot in a river that looked almost like a lake but had a set of rapids that we were warned not to venture near until the last week of class. There were 12 of us who had made this our PE choice. One was a very fat young man that was determined to learn how to do this sport. We were all fitted as best as possible to one of the kayaks in the rack and given basic instructions on the shore while sitting in our Kayaks for the first day. The next day we were allowed to enter the water with our kayaks and were given instructions on how to get into them. Each day was an adventure! The big boy tipped over every day and would get stuck in his kayak so he needed help to get out of it but he never gave up and finally near the end of the school semester he had figured out how to get himself out when he went over. I think he had lost some weight. The last day of this class we all were given permission to attempt the rapids. We all had to stick out our paddle to the next kayak and hold on to each other. Then when we got to the rapids she instructed one at a time to let go of the group and attempt the run. It was very exciting even though after we went over them we all realised that they were really not very hard after all. Even the one who always went under the water managed to get through it with out dunking himself.
Meals were held in a large cafeteria and were served at table not a food line. Tables were set formally for each meal and food was on each table on dishes and turenes that we passed around. After the main course there was always dessert! Dessert always meant that there would be hot custard sauce to pour over whatever was served. Milk was fresh with cream on top! There was also always toast. The bread was very different from any I had ever had. I have been told that it has something to do with the type of wheat used to make it. It was baked at the school in the kitchen fresh daily, sliced thin and toasted, buttered and put on the tables in a little rack. The food was so good that I gained weight and almost could not tie my skirts by the end of the summer.
I could write a book about how lovely the hills were where I went for my evening walks. How beautiful the Isle of Anglesey looked from the cliff overlooking the sea. How charming the little row houses were with their slate roofs on stone or Cobb walls with their little front kitchen gardens and fences all whitewashed and shining in the sun when it was out. How gray the days were when the sun did not show its face. How beautiful the music when the welsh people raised their voices in harmony on sunday mornings in the churches and cathedrals with their unutterable double consonant words rolling around on their toungs and in the gutteral backs of their throats. Their language is one of clicks and trills so very much like bird song.They all seem to be gifted in music.
Our group spent one sunny day on the Isle of ANGELSSEY TOURING ONE OF ITS MORE FAMOUS MANSIONS. It was enormous and each century or so the whole mansion had to be re built on top of the old one as the peat bogs were the foundation of the house. It would sink little by little as the years would pass. We were allowed to tour down to the fourth level underground but that was as far as they would allow even though it has several more levels underground. On each level there were glass cabinets full of things that represented the belonings of the people who had occupied the house during that century. It was amazing! In the lower level we saw glass cases where there were elaborate gowns with roses sewn all over the dresses. We were told that instead of washing the dresses they sewed a new rose over stains.There were suits of armor and golden dishes and silverware. Wooden cabinets filled with the records and book keeping of the families of the century. I was awe struck about so much history in one little place.
I was lucky enough to be able stand among the crowds to attend the crowning ceremony of Prince Charles! I went to another ceremony where there was what is called "The Charring of the Bard" Eisteldfodd.
After the school part was finished we had a ceremony where we each received our grades and a certificate from the Mayor of the town of Bangor North Wales and I was given the opportunity to gift the Mayor with a Washington State Flag that my mother had been able to get her employer to get from the State. She worked for the Wa. St Highway department. I have a great Photo that my chaperone took of that presentation. I was in turn presented with a Flag of Wales that I then gifted to the St. Davids Welsh Society upon my return.
We then left for the tour portion of the summer school. We spent time in London where we were given tours of all the tourist attractions and then given a couple of days to do what we wished. I loved traveling around the city on their underground. I was amazed at how fast I could get from one place to the next. I attended several out door theater presentations as well as I saw a premier showing of Fiddler on the roof. We went to Ireland and toured cemetaries and castles Which we also saw many of in England and Wales. We went to Dublin where we were given a tour by bus of the city with stops at all of the tourist places. The evening we spent in the pubs learning to drink Guinness and dance on the table tops. I was taught a couple of the jig steps of the irish and sang along with all the locals many of the songs I was raised on. We had a mideavil Feast at Caernarvin Castle where we were tied in huge bibs and served whole haunches of meat that we had to eat with our fingers and a large knife. The castle was lit with smoky torches and we were served mulled mead and ale as beverage. There was entertainment all night long at the feast and all of us slept the whole next day on the journey to our next destination. Incidentally the trip to Ireland was aweful. We were on an air boat going over extreemly rough seas and almost everybody on the boat was sea sick. I spent that trip outside on the deck with about 6 other students who were not sea sick but who would succom to the illness if we had to stay in where everybody was sick. We sang and told jokes all the way across. Our last country was France. We toured by bus again through the country side where we found rest stops with pay tiolets that were attended by sour looking ladies who handed you 1 sheet of tissue for your centime and one piece of paper to dry your hands. The tiolets were ceramic holes into a ceptic tank that you had to squat over. They didn't think kindly of the silly americans who couldn't hit the target. We had never seen anything like it! I was in Paris on the day we landed our first man on the moon and I brought home a parisian newspaper with the headlines! I went to a show at the Moulin Rouge and saw the Cistene sp
Chapel. We toured famous art museums and returned to London to go home the end of August. It was such a full summer that it is hard to tell you all of it.
Any more questions Jenny?
I hope you have enjoyed this tour down memory lane.
Eileen
songbird |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - Oct 07 2004 : 4:28:58 PM
Dear Eileen, I'd love to read about your school in Wales that you attended in 1969. Sounds really fascinating! Was it an American university sponsored program?
Time Flies |
| Eileen |
Posted - Sep 14 2004 : 1:02:02 PM
Alicia,
The nice thing about the chicken tractor method is that the chickens are penned in pens with a lid that lifts for servicing. It is usually covered with a lightweight corrugated plastic or fiberglass roofing material. These pens are lightweight and can be moved anywhere on the farm that you would like to make use of the chickens natural ability to scratch up the ground looking for seeds and bugs. You add a new layer of straw every day and feed with feeders and waterers that are suspended fron the two support poles on the top of the cage. It is only 3 feet high by 4 feet wide and as long as 12 feet if you have garden beds that long. The cages are secure enough that I don't think you would have a problem with the coyotes being able to get to the chickens. Adding a 1 foot wide section of chickenwire or hardware cloth to the ground along the bottom edge will discourage digging under. In this way you get a garden section plowed, debugged and de-weeded as well as fertilized and mulched all in a couple weeks time. A bonus to the broilers. They are working for you instead of creating a concentrated and stinking toxic buildup of excrement and urine saturation. No more cleaning the pen, you just keep it moving and eventually have an entire garden patch ready for growing lushious goodies for your table. If you add a couple of nest boxes to each pen you can gather clean eggs and have an additional income source from the eggs you get. People around here put a sign on the end of their driveway and sell eggs for as much as $3.50 a dozen! Fresh and organic. Others sell them to the local co-op.
This method could be adapted for your show chickens as well by dividing the pens to keep them separated but still all within the same area for ease of feeding and whatever else you do to maintain a good show bird. The author of the books calls this uppining the ground or putting back what is removed by other methods of farming and land use. You get free range chickens without the worry of what will be eating your chickens before you are ready to butcher. Don't know if this will work for you but it is the way we have decided to go. We shall see. I am sure by next year at this time I will be better aquainted and have first hand experience with the actual process. I don't even have my chickens yet but plan to start with the first batch in may.
Eileen
songbird |
| LadyCrystal |
Posted - Sep 13 2004 : 5:59:59 PM
I haven't read the "chicken tractor book" yet.We only have our broilers for 8 to 10 weeks so we don't use them for egg layers.We raise Old English game standards and bantams for show.Plus we have dark cornish bantams for show.We are not a big egg eater family so we give away what we don't use to friends.So it is ok if ours don't lay regularly.Last year we had our broilers in a big pen that was open and movable but this year the coyote are close and we would lose them if we didn't keep them penned up.We have all 100 iin the 8 by ten.We clean the pen every other day but soon they will be less.Our Show chicken are single penned except for the breeders that are kept in trios.One male to 2 females.
As far as growing things,I am a little nervous because all I have ever grown was house plants so I will read what I can this winter and see how I do next year.
Follow your dreams |
| Eileen |
Posted - Sep 11 2004 : 7:55:32 PM
Sheila,
Don't think you can harm Iris! I have done really bad things to them and still they seem to recover and bloom. The extra tubors that are old and don't look like much is happening I have simply thrown into the compost only to find them recovered and ready to grow the following spring. I have thrown extras over the bank that I could not find homes for and they have taken root and bloomed among the weeds and wild flowers. When we moved here I had left my iris bed behind along with my extensive perrenial garden that I worked on for 12 years. I found the iris that I now have in a cardboard box outside the local community center building with a sign on it saying "Free, take all you want" I brought them home and healed them in in the only place we had had time to soften. An area under an Alaska yellow ceder tree about 15 feet in diameter. They bloomed the next year and I was surprised to find Iris of colors and descriptions I have never seen
before. They are all very fragrant and showy. What a precious gift I was given and do not even know the giver nor the names of my precious beauties. If you are still timid about dividing them go the the library and get a good book with photos of the process. I simply dig under them from behind the tubors, and gently lift them from the ground. They divide easily into separate tubors or you can cut them at junctions with leaf fans and trim the roots to about 4 to 5 inches long. Remove any dead roots and plant in newly prepared and well weeded soil by digging a shallow hole the length of the tuber, stir in a little bulb food, lay the tuber in and gently sift the soil in and around the roots then packing it down gently leaving a portion of the belly of the tubor exposed above ground. I have been told by old timers that Iris tubers need to get a suntan in the summer for their continued good health. I don't know why but it seems to work. Then water them well. This should be done after August 15th and before you expect it to freeze. Happy planting!
Eileen
songbird |
| LakesideQltr |
Posted - Sep 10 2004 : 7:21:35 PM
Whew, Eileen! And wooooooooooooohooooooooooooo too! Your talk of the apple trees has my mouthwatering...24 years ago I was blessed to attend a mountain wedding, just about this time of year, in an overgrown orchard in the Smoky Mountains near Roanoke, VA (anyone know of Copperhill?). The only beverage they had (other than if you had a BYOB stash of something) was cider from those trees in the orchard and I have NEVER had anything better since!
I too, am about to embark on moving/expanding an Iris bed. My Sweetheart had a bunch under the dining area bay window from his Mother's garden that he and his brother and sister had divided when she passed away about 5 yrs ago. When I moved here two and a half years ago he pointed out to me 'where the Amaryllis grow' and I was delighted to find out he was mistaken and had some of the most gorgeous large iris I'd ever seen! But nothing's been done with them since the siblings divided them to move to their various homes from his Mom's place. It's past time...but I'm intimidated. Don't want to harm them trying to do good...
-Sheila
Life is what happens while you're making other plans - John Lennon |
| Eileen |
Posted - Sep 09 2004 : 09:44:42 AM
Hi Alicia,
Have you read " The Chicken Tractor?" Do you move your 4'x10' coops around? How many broilers do you keep in each section? Do you also use these for layers? Just wondering. We plan to use this method of building up the really poor areas of soil on this rocky/clay ground and would love any additional info from someone who uses this method. We will not be getting our chickens until next spring as I was not ready for the work involved until just recently. I will be having my left knee replaced sometime in November and having had the right one done in October last year I know that I will be ready and excited to get started early next spring. The recovery and pain relief has been so remarkable with just the first one done that I am looking forward to next summer being pain free!
I have a strawberry patch that I love! I used the frame of a rope bed that we built for use in our Yurt. The bed was not strong enough for 2 people so it was a design we abandoned. The cast off frame was already knee high so all I had to do was add a bottom with drainage and fill it up with good soil and plants. It has filled in very well and this year we got a bumper crop of strawberries! Just enough for the family ,not enough to sell. The berries seem to be confused this year however and have just set on another full round of fruit. They are june bearing plants!!
Nothing like fresh really ripe strawberries!We have so many runners this year that I am rooting them in little pots to start another bed next year. I have read that I should replace my plants every couple of years anyway to keep them fruitful and disease free. We shall see how this method of replacement works.We also have an incredible amount of wild strawberries growing all over our property under the blackberries. I am wondering if they cross polinate with the domestic variety that I have planted because most of the berries we got were really small but incredibly red and sweet. The wild ones are so tiny I wonder how anybody has the patience to pick them, but there is a winery near here that makes a small batch of wild strawberry wine every year and I guess you have to be on a long waiting list to get any of it. I have a friend who was lucky enough to get one bottle( it cost a fortune) and she shared a taste of it with My husband and I.It was very sweet.
This week I am moving my Iris beds. Theuy have become all overgrown and did not bloom this year so I have moved them to a location where they will do better and made room to add a few new ones including a few of the sweet lena from Maryjanes farm. Can"t wait till next spring to see and smell the sweet fragrance of this great flower!
We have wild plums all over as well as several varieties of very old apple trees. I have been told that this area was part of a very large orchard a hundred years or so ago. I do not know the names of my apples but we are working this year to get them into shape to be useful by next year. The trees are so over grown and tall that harvesting them is almost imposible. We have a local fruit tree expert who is working with us this year to get them down to size without killing them. Others in the area have done this successfully and are pleased with the results. I guess we have heritage apples.They look somewhat like a transparent. Our neighbors have some red varieties. Will know more about them after we get a good crop. Our country road is lined with these great old apple trees interspersed with wild plum and maple.I made a batch of plum jam last week using the wild plums and turbinado sugar and the long cook method. It turned out wonderful. Another product that I can market!
songbird |
| Clare |
Posted - Sep 09 2004 : 05:41:13 AM
A warm welcome to you Eileen from across the state. Glad you found us and have joined in. Your place sounds really great. I envy you being able to pursue your dreams like this. So many of us here just have a big dream/goal of returning to the land, and it's nice to read about someone who's actually doing it. I know how your husband feels... once a farmers son or a farmers daughter, it's always in your blood. Good to meet you!
P.S. My anti-virus program is McAfee. They recommended a program called AdSubtractPro, which stops or blocks all pop up adds, etc. (Those flashing things drive me crazy.) It works really great, but when it's running it prevents me from doing certain things. So when I hit a roadblock on something I want to do, I just exit from the program, do the thing I wanted to do, and then restart it. Technology, technology. It's a love-hate relationship, isn't it?! 
****Gardener, Stitcher, Spiritual Explorer and Appreciator of all Things Natural****
"Begin to weave and God will give the thread." - German Proverb |
| LadyCrystal |
Posted - Sep 08 2004 : 6:01:29 PM
Wow that all sounds wonderful.Welcome to the forum.I want to have some apple trees so badly but we are doing one thing at a time.We have been getting our animal housing built,which is taking quite a time.We keep expanding our chicken coops and we built a building for our cows.In the last 3 weeks we built one large 8by10 ft coop for our broilers and (2) 10 by 4 ft coops,divided into 4 indivdual pens.So we have been very busy.We have to finish the roofing and we will be done with building. Next year we can go onto planting the garden I would like and the trees.Oh and I want a strawberry patch in the worst way.
Here in RI we have all kinds of birds too,That is one of my favorite things to do,to bird watch,I find it very relaxing.Well welcome again.
Alicia
Follow your dreams |
