starting the fun- my 1st few weeks of observations of living in a "new" rural area.

[protus]

I agree..we let these grow over twice now between seasons..
I had considered doing the planting as you said. But..I got mad at the amount of grass and seeds choking everything out.
Its been near two years since they were tilled. This last till was not to deep 5-6 inches. Last time I borrowed my father in-laws big rear tine and about dug to China with it..lol .

After this storm passes well try planting. It results are meh...I plan on just doing small batches in potter's to be supplemental to bought food.
I'd rather be growing my down like it was the first two years...couldn't keep up.

[ANVIL]

Bears love to eat bees. We have had them destroy hives full of bees to get the honey. I have heard that some people just go hunting groundhogs. You know 300 pound groundhogs, and when the game warden comes around “count on it” They do a good SGT Schulz impression. "We Know Nothing". Each person must weigh out the rick involved. For my friends Bees are a cash crop so that helped.
For me the amount of land I need will depend on several issues. What type of livestock do I want and how much land dose each need for us to supply all of the needs of each head totally year in and year out. I am talking Cow's for meat & dairy, breeding and trade. Leather and replacements cattle. Horses for a horse power of a small farm. Dog's & cats. Chickens for egg's & meat. Goats for brush control, leather & meat. You get the picture. I heat with wood so having my own wood lot for heat and lumber on a ongoing basis. Hay fields pasture gardens orchards ponds. To each person hear I hope they find what they need. Those need's will be different for each of us.

[protus]

Just to update.

Added a cat to the team at casa de protus.
Added more pine apples...peach trees...expanded the garden. More herbs..planted a ton of seeds in our back lot to grow wild.
Started doing hanging beds on our fences using pvc. Along with about 10 3 gallon pits of starters....
Added more citrus...

[protus]

See if this pic works

[Lowdown3]

Nice.

Are the Peach trees producing anything yet?

Our peach trees never did squat except some really small skins surrounding that huge seed that fell off the tree prematurely. Peach State my arse....

I cut most of them down in last year's purge.

[protus]

Nice.

Are the Peach trees producing anything yet?

Our peach trees never did squat except some really small skins surrounding that huge seed that fell off the tree prematurely. Peach State my arse....

I cut most of them down in last year's purge.

It has one on it lol. But it's half the size of those apples we bought up your way. Only been in the ground a month.
My father in law put one in at his rental mile up the road. One tree and last year had about 100 on it. This year we are thinking it out. But he's already harvested 2 doz..and we've borrowed about 6 so far. I'm gonna plant the seeds.
Lot of the plants are long term deals. Avocado..citrus..grapes..mangos etc.
Few of the trees are big..but from what I've read it's a few years before production.

Got 5 blueberry plants that are producing though not mature yet as well.

I'm just to the point of grow plant..more etc. The pvc planters are an experiment. And so far are working. I've got plans to add larger ones and even try some vertical ones .

Sugar cane made it through winter and is nearing 3ft high.

Still battling soil issues. But right now. It's rain.
We've had one good rain in 30 days or more. Grass in the yard is like walking on rice crispies..and it works over some plants(tomatoes..celery etc)..

By fall I'll redo our boxes with composite planks or cinder block. Add some or pvc planters..few more trees. And maybe add another bed.
Hope these show up. There a three beds total. 6x12+ roughly.



Pic sucks..lol one beds far left.
Stuff is planted along the fence as well.
By our well pump isca second 4x4 raised bed with herbs.
You can kinda see the peach tree far right.
I've got enough room to put. If I space them correctly 6-8 more. But I think we're gonna stay at 4 trees. Even spaced two deep. I case we want to expand the garden more.

[RobertJ]

what are you growing in the pvc hanging beds, I think I may make a few.

[protus]

what are you growing in the pvc hanging beds, I think I may make a few.

Gourmet mix lettuce..aka mesculin,,bib..
With a hanging planter soil mix.
So far they are growing.

[protus]

Pvc planters are full.
Had two good pulls of beans,squash . Zuccs are ready yet.
Peppers are out.
Lettuce I can't keep up with nor the cherry tomatoes.
Put another peach tree in.
Added another grape vine.muscudine.
Water melons are going crazy.
Blueberries we got good 1/4 lb. So not to shabby on young bushes.
Herbs are growing great. Cant keep up.

Dont reach in to the pvc planters to quick anymore. Had a 14 + inch grey rat snake attach it's self to my finger. That was a small adrenaline dump at 7am. Lmao.

[Lowdown3]

You need to get some rabbits Protus. Great meat and lots of good fertilizer as an added bonus. We were having a helluva time with ours last fall, but we swapped out some breeders and that seemed to definitely help. We used the last of some goat feed we had on them and the wife thinks that helped also. Got 17 kits of various ages out there now. Every ma but one has kits, and with that ma it's her third chance so she gone after this.

[protus]

Ahhh...rabbits....yes. those furry little things that I get pulled to at the farm market.
"Come on dad...let's get one. Ahhh,ohhhh they are so cutesy wootsy"
Lol .
Its been talked about. But I think we may try doing meat birds..along with some layers and split their pen. Its big enough. Rabbits we've thought about the hutches off to the side of the pen under the over hang to keep them dry.

[protus]

Lost all but 2 chickens. Time for coop rebuild/refurb.
Gardens going ok so far.
Hurricane wiped out my avocados and mangos. But still have one going good. Pineapples made it through the freeze.
Planted more peach trees..a mulberry as well.
Pepper plants got hit hard as well. Replanted and got many New plants.
Lots of New herbs. Oregano is pretty hard to kill off lol

Blue berry are full. If all berries ripen , we should have a good pound.(5 small bushes).
Planted more black berries as well.
Fun fun.

[Benn Gleck]

Protus, what happened to your chickens?

[protus]

Old age..sickness. I guess.
That or injury. Our rooster is very rough with them. So I suspect a couple we're from that.
Basically they'd start acting lethargic, and be dead that day or next day.
Age wise they were 5+ years old.
Our egg production went to zero for months. Then picked up, but never to a full 100%. Then went to 1-2 eggs every few days. That's with 12 birds..
This was our first go at raising birds. The next batch we are gonna correct and adjust. Do we aren't losing production . Either by doing meat birds every few months or separating layers from meat birds.

[protus]

Some small things.

Blue berries came through decently. We have 5-6 small bushes.
They were covered in berries , I'd estimate we harvested a solid pound, there is still berries on then but only a few. Made the wife happy..lol.
Black berries we finally got a good doz or so..raspberry we got about 6. It's a New Bush and animals were getting the..
Good thing is they are both covered in flowers again.
Grapes are being grapes and taking forever .
Peaches are new but we got 6 good ones. We had to cull done off because of weight. Trees are still only 5ft high and thin.
Weve got 5 more avocado trees going from seed and a peach free from seed to replace those killed during the freeze.
The mango free I cut down that died from first, has somehow grew back. I cut the stump down below grade,as I was mowing the other day, I noticed 4 -6 inch shoots coming up from the spot.
So add that to the list lol.
Pineapple we have 2 going now, with 8 plants total.
We can't keep up with the herb garden I made for the wife.
My pepper plants are growing and hopefully produce good. I need more to make sauces for gifts lol.
Beans did great got about 3/4s of a 5 gallon bucket off one bed, and few more weeks we'll harvest the rest.
Sweet potatoes are looking good to, but it'll he months before harvest.

Got the small boat up and running. So hopefully it'll be ready for fall/winter ,when crappie fishing is good and we can have a good natural source of meat .

Wife and lid blindsided me while on training and I came home to a second survival dog. A gsd/rott puppy....free yard fertilizer for sure lol.

Slowly but surely ....it'll all getting there.