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

[protus]

meet the paw pup..midnight,,,assuie shepard.
shes not pretty after 6 hours of water play,dirt rolling and tree rat chasing,,,but she cleans up well ;p.

[protus]

on the guard lol...


got our chicken coup/house built,got our chicks.
guard dog midnight HAS to check on her "babies" each trip outside,gotta sniff each one etc.
the chicks are getting brave,trying to fly, some actaully got onto the roost i made in the house. ill post some pictures of them.

gardens doing well. lost some stuff on our last freeze, but not much.
the birds have been our big project the last week or so.

[protus]

update-
harvest our 2nd cabbage basketball sized.
expanded the garden some more.
bought some blueberry and grape vines as fence coverage/food producers.
have asparagus shoots and seeds to plant on a fence line as well.

using a vintage tiller with dull paddle blades and no drag brake is a freaking work out lmao!

also working on prepping the electrical for AE..will have all of the 110 circuits separated from the 240 circuits , this will allow me to update to a newer safer panel while being able to back feed via a gen set and solar when we put that in down the road.plus have redundant systems in place in case of failure.


possum is back with babies...gonna try and trap it this weekend.

had a stray cat it seems #2 in my garden and break some young pepper plants in the process.

will get pictures up later to show progress.

my wife laughs cuz i wanna plant more of the yard lol

[Matt In Oklahoma]

any front tine tiller is a workout especially in clay LOL

[610Alpha]

also working on prepping the electrical for AE..will have all of the 110 circuits separated from the 240 circuits , this will allow me to update to a newer safer panel while being able to back feed via a gen set and solar when we put that in down the road.plus have redundant systems in place in case of failure.

Was the prep work just separating the 110 circuits to different breakers or did you do other things as well?

[wwdnet]

Let 'em laugh

I manage to scam about 200 sq. ft. more from the yard every year - up to 600 now which is not too bad for the burbs. My own 'laugher' is becoming fascinated with the process, the plants, and the rewards. He is checking the tomatoes every day for new flowers and baby tomatoes. One of these days he may even learn the difference between plants and weeds :) Until then he can look but not touch!

[protus]

Was the prep work just separating the 110 circuits to different breakers or did you do other things as well?

what were doing is taking all of the 110 circuits and putting them on a dedicated panel. This does a few things. It updates the exsisting panel a old POS FPE panel to a new smaller panel. .
It then allows me to move any 220-240 circuits to the older "main" panel( which is not fpe). The main will hold all 240, the main breaker for the house and the mains for the new panel and small sub panel already in the wash room. The new panel will be set up so i can back feed with small gen set for short term back up and then when i eventually do get solar going we will be able to install the transfer switches to have all of the 110 dedicated for solar.

i need to upgrade the electric for safety purposes so while im doing i may as well plan ahead and get it laid out for easier use later. i could be easy about it and just replace the large main panel but this gives me some options down the road etc.

[protus]

cabbages stalled..and are getting blighted i guess due to the warm/wet weather.
spinach has done the same etc. its rained 5 days now here.
rest is growing good. tons of peas,,beans are going etc.
i gotta take some updated pictures. of it all.
birds are bigger, got a rooster,,"rex". he's an americana.
gotta work more on the pen this weekend ,,the roof leaks onto the house.

[protus]

small update.
ill be flooded in maters,, and peppers. Looks like mid summer will be salsa and hot sauce canning time. my last count was 50+ tomatoes and the same count of tomatillias .
Also added 100+ more sq ft of garden and a bed.
pic from last month..ill get a new one its twice the size now as are the birds.

semi newer one,,,ill get better pics wife unit took that pic.

[protus]

some up dates-

garden got expanded pretty good.its twice the size of the above pics. Summer stuff didnt do well. so the last few weeks ive been adding grass clippings, etc to th ebeds and woringthem. mowed in all the stuff that wasnt producing. Got okra and some collards left and tons of hot peppers.
Got 4 pineapple plants going for extar fruit and some mango tree's.

the birds are going good.Rooster is doing his roostering LOL and we got our 1st eggs the other day. 2 so far. I dunno which hen is laying them but they are two different sizes and found in the same spot. The birds drag all the bedding out of the boxes i have out for them so who knows. Its Easter hunt each day i guess.

[protus]

just wanted to update:
will try for pics..i know i got some but not recent.
chickens are doing great we avg 9-10 eggs a day. we sell most , it helps cover feed cost. its gonna be time to clean the coup. we went the deep mulch deal. and with 12 birds nesting/sleeping in there its just now getting stinky(high humidty as well). i think the open air set upi made has helped a ton. rooster is a bad mo fo. hes pretty to look at...but crows at everything,,which is good and bad. he hates females and trys to rush the wife when shes on egg duty.
He stays clear of me, but then again her idea of shooing him away and mine when he gets mad are different LOL. so he stays clear of me ..
i fear we may need to make chicken and dumplings with him,,,but im kinda attached to the annnoying lil shizz stain LOL. there's only 3 males in my house..me,,the new cat and him....safety in numbers i guess LMAO!

garden was planted few weeks ago. some seeds didnt take.so we gotta plant more, whichis good, soits keeps a constant grow going. we didnt plant all of our plots. One left over from summer still has okra growing so we left it to grow. we'll till under and plant that one in dec/jan.

still hate yard work...got a new to us mower,,old 25 inch commerical deal. make life easier but still takes 1.5 hours to mow by hand.Rain and humidty has been a killer. my house design has paid off more than once due to heavy rains and the city/neighbors not keeping their culverts/dicthes clear ( i mow and spray treat mine from time to time) .there was 8 inchs + of h20 in my yard one day LOL.. only 1/4 of it but that was the house side ..agian..luckily my house sits 2-4ft above ground!

having the new gas saver is great on the drive but commutes stillsuck and its a constant pain if there's lots going on. pre planning trips is key!
but we cant complain to much..no more roving bands of angry amish kids and fsa types at 3 am to keep us on constant alert..now its just the rooster at 2am and the possum,coon, bear chasing wonder dog to keep us awake LOL

[protus]

been a bit so an update-

gardens up and going with winter stuff. had to replant 2-3 times in some ares. old seeds and other issues( weather) played tricks on us. got one bed tilled up and ready for spring.
Got a 4x4 thats got taters going,but dont expect them to make it thru winter here...but never know.
chickens are still popping out 6-11 eggs a day. roosters being a rooster. He got a second attitude adjustment few weeks back. Now were best friends again LOL.

just cleaned out and put all new bedding in the chicken house/coop/ etc. compost pile is gonna be kicking this spring. its already a worm farm,,and 1 shovel can get 8-10 worms...i see some fishing in my future LOL.

sides that not much has changed just the daily grind of plant,,weed,feed,mow,,trim,,clean LOL repaetr as needed LOL.

hopefully after the new year/spring i can pick one big project to complete.

[Rmplstlskn]

I saw no FUN mentioned... All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!

Don't forget to add some of that in...

Rmpl

[protus]

I saw no FUN mentioned... All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!

Don't forget to add some of that in...

Rmpl

oh there is....just nothing super crazy. ive been off work the last few days and ive been just chill-laxin ..doing work in the am,,and veggin out in the pm..was gonna fish this am, but its raining.

[protus]

Been slacking on this. But here is some more learn from me thoughts LOL.
chainsaws. Even cheap ones are better than none. Its one of those items when you need it....you need it.
Ladders - luckily I I have a few small ones but use the extension ladder more than the rest.
Rubber boots - in my area if I'm gonna work on my "swamp " you need them.
Gas cans /treatments /oil - finally realized 40;1 isn't the same as 50:1 ratios LOL.
gloves - underrated ...I have tons of fancy gloves in my kits...but basic rubber coated garden gloves I've used the most..