I just love this time of year

[jgillott]

Thing are a little late with all the rain this summer. But here's tonight's dinner.

Nothing better than hot peppers right out of the garden with some homemade sausage. Can't wait. Oo.





Anyone else here have good luck with their garden this year?

 

[jclark5810]

The rain hammered ours. Cukes did good, peppers are starting to come around a bit. Corn not so hot and tomatoes look like they'll recover. Our herbs didn't do so well, just a lot of rain.

 

[jgillott]

Our tomatoes have suffered this year. We are getting some, but not like years past. We went from no rain at all last year to probably 3 years worth in a few months. I'm surprised we did as well as we have.

With that said, our grapes and apples are doing extremely well.

 

[BIGNASTY]

Ours must be doing good to great, the wife and her sister are not having a **** hemorrhage and they keep putting these great tasting veggies on our table so im not saying anything, except that I wish I had stock in Ball canning jars. I wish that they would leave me some Corn on the COB!!!! It don't taste the same when it comes out of the jar later.

 

[mfurrh55]

Yeah alot of people around here complained their gardens weren't growing like previous years, ours did great, got overrun with squash, jalapenos, tomatoes, can't complain any, Monte

 

[jgillott]

I agree. They are always better fresh. However, I really enjoy a jar of tomatoes with a loaf of bread in the middle of the winter. The wife cans them with 2 or 3 fresh basil leaves in the jar. They are amazing after a few months.

 

[BIGNASTY]

I have to keep this down or Penny will be in here all night long hounding the CRAP out of you about different ideas, she is BEYOND!!!!! obsessed with this. Don't get me wrong I love to eat veggies but she takes the different verities to new heights, you cant just make a BLT with a tomato that you dig out of the Frig drawer it has to be the CORRECT TOMATO for the occasion. We have them for Paste, salads, stewed tomatoes I cant even remember the count of them all. And then we move on to Cucumbers different ones for pickles dill, bread and butter, ect, ect, ect, I use to think that a radish is some red thing that you chop up and toss in a salad????? WRONG!!!!!!!! There are different EVERYTHING in her garden, I like Beets!!!!!! do you know how many different verities of those there are!!!!! The list is endless and she wants to plant a new crop of cool weather things this coming week. Thank goodness I will be working at our Son's house.

Lets not get into the bread making my arm is 4inches longer from cranking that stupid mill!!!!!!!

 

[jgillott]

It would be best if the women would discuss this stuff directly. All I know is, she tells me what to plant, I take care of it, pick it, and she does the rest. We went small scale this year since we were traveling so much this summer, but there have been years that we have planted 8 different types of peppers, 6 different tomatoes, etc.

Bread is a different story all together. I don't remember the last time I have had bread that wasn't made at home. Except, when we eat out of course. The only kind I can make involves a can of beer and self rising flower.

 

[BIGNASTY]

It would be best if the women would discuss this stuff directly. All I know is, she tells me what to plant, I take care of it, pick it, and she does the rest. We went small scale this year since we were traveling so much this summer, but there have been years that we have planted 8 different types of peppers, 6 different tomatoes, etc.



Bread is a different story all together. I don't remember the last time I have had bread that wasn't made at home. Except, when we eat out of course. The only kind I can make involves a can of beer and self rising flower.

I shouldn't be so hard on Penny she has as much fun doing this as I do working with the animals for fun, food, work. She had me turn 2 acres of land for her field garden and maybe a 1/4 for her kitchen garden. The Field garden is mostly for canning for the rest of the year and things that she wont need on an almost daily basis. The kitchen garden is herbs and everyday things. Penny her sisters and their daughters do most all the work in the field garden, Penny and I work the kitchen one. She bakes EVERYDAY weather it be for bread, rolls for dinner, muffins for breakfast, pancake mix, cornbread mix, deserts. All that needs to have grain ground so she can make these things that's my arm workout for the AM. That's half of her day and the other is ongoing with Dairy products that she deals with, Cheese, butter, on and on and on. She has the biggest job of the two of us. I help with the house work and take care of the animals. Feed and eventually making them into food for us, EXCEPT THE MULES !!!



It works out pretty well, after breakfast we don't usually see each other until lunch when she brings it out. Been cutting wood like a mad man lately got behind on the winters supply and have to make it up, her Brother is in the same boat so we work pretty much all day cutting. Go in for dinner and this way I don't think she gets tired of me under foot all the time and vice versa, Makes it better for when we go horse camping like this weekend with her sister and our 10 year old house guest. Makes for some full days along with building things for Son and FIL, Monday its back to work building 2 homes, have them weather tight!! just got some family in from out of state to help finish off the things that I CAN DO?? but don't feel real good about doing. And I was told that I can have the rest of THIS YEAR OFF WHEN THEY ARE DONE Oo.

 

[Bill Stockard]

Yesterday, I picked the last of our tomatoes in our small garden and pulled up the last tomato plant. Our hot very dry summer has finished off our garden. We had an abbreviated garden this year for the first time since moving to northeast Texas. The sandy loam soil we have here makes a much better seedbed for our small garden than the heavy black clay in north central Texas.

Bill

 

[jgillott]

I shouldn't be so hard on Penny she has as much fun doing this as I do working with the animals for fun, food, work. She had me turn 2 acres of land for her field garden and maybe a 1/4 for her kitchen garden. The Field garden is mostly for canning for the rest of the year and things that she wont need on an almost daily basis. The kitchen garden is herbs and everyday things. Penny her sisters and their daughters do most all the work in the field garden, Penny and I work the kitchen one. She bakes EVERYDAY weather it be for bread, rolls for dinner, muffins for breakfast, pancake mix, cornbread mix, deserts. All that needs to have grain ground so she can make these things that's my arm workout for the AM. That's half of her day and the other is ongoing with Dairy products that she deals with, Cheese, butter, on and on and on. She has the biggest job of the two of us. I help with the house work and take care of the animals. Feed and eventually making them into food for us, EXCEPT THE MULES !!!

It works out pretty well, after breakfast we don't usually see each other until lunch when she brings it out. Been cutting wood like a mad man lately got behind on the winters supply and have to make it up, her Brother is in the same boat so we work pretty much all day cutting. Go in for dinner and this way I don't think she gets tired of me under foot all the time and vice versa, Makes it better for when we go horse camping like this weekend with her sister and our 10 year old house guest. Makes for some full days along with building things for Son and FIL, Monday its back to work building 2 homes, have them weather tight!! just got some family in from out of state to help finish off the things that I CAN DO?? but don't feel real good about doing. And I was told that I can have the rest of THIS YEAR OFF WHEN THEY ARE DONE Oo.

Sounds like our gardens are about the same size. This is the second season using the field we planted this year and it is just a bit over 2 acres. I haven't quite figured this one out yet. I'm not sure what it is lacking, but I can't seem to get it to produce like I would like. It was better than last year, but nowhere near as good as where we used to plant. The field we used to use was amazing for tomatoes. There were years where we had so many, I couldn't give them away fast enough. Unfortunately, my sister and her family built their new house in that field. I'm not a real fan of using unnatural fertilizer, but I may need to give this ground a little boost next year.

We got away from raising animals a number of years ago. We used to aways have cows, chickens, and even a pig or 2. We don't really eat enough meat anymore to justify the work and cost. A friend of ours raises and sells very high quality meat and eggs off of his farm and that's where we have been going for some time.

 

[jgillott]

Yesterday, I picked the last of our tomatoes in our small garden and pulled up the last tomato plant. Our hot very dry summer has finished off our garden. We had an abbreviated garden this year for the first time since moving to northeast Texas. The sandy loam soil we have here makes a much better seedbed for our small garden than the heavy black clay in north central Texas.

Bill

Is this the second year in a row that you have been lacking rain in Texas?

 

[BDW]

Rain has been scarce but the garden was doing great till the grass hoppers come thru and wiped it out. They eat everything down to a stub very quickly.....

 

[BDW]

Rain has been scarce but the garden was doing great till the grass hoppers come thru and wiped it out. They eat everything down to a stub very quickly.....

 

[Bill Stockard]

Rain has been scarce but the garden was doing great till the grass hoppers come thru and wiped it out. They eat everything down to a stub very quickly.....

During the extremely hot dry summer of 1980, we lived in Collin County TX and the grasshoppers were so bad they ate holes in the plastic window screens.



Bill

 

[BIGNASTY]

Sounds like our gardens are about the same size. This is the second season using the field we planted this year and it is just a bit over 2 acres. I haven't quite figured this one out yet. I'm not sure what it is lacking, but I can't seem to get it to produce like I would like. It was better than last year, but nowhere near as good as where we used to plant. The field we used to use was amazing for tomatoes. There were years where we had so many, I couldn't give them away fast enough. Unfortunately, my sister and her family built their new house in that field. I'm not a real fan of using unnatural fertilizer, but I may need to give this ground a little boost next year.

We got away from raising animals a number of years ago. We used to aways have cows, chickens, and even a pig or 2. We don't really eat enough meat anymore to justify the work and cost. A friend of ours raises and sells very high quality meat and eggs off of his farm and that's where we have been going for some time.

Wife deals with what the ground needs and what to use, she's pretty much into organic growing, the use of Chemical pesticides are something that SHE WONT DO!!!! Fortunately for HER! we have an ABUNDANCE of animals that can help produce the best compost around. I don't understand the amount of GREEN vs BROWN that she mixes in the Compost pile, im just the guy with the shovel that mixes what she says to. She took in a dirt sample to the Dept. of Agriculture in Missoula and they tested it and gave her suggestions on what the ground needed. I cant tell you what it was that she added but it was a bunch of sacks of some kind of mineral and then the Mules and I turned the ground several times over before she was satisfied with what we had done.

The animals that we raise are mainly for family, our Pig Sweet Pea is an Over achiever last time she had 10 piglets, those are raised for family and a couple are for FFA projects that have done pretty well in the FFA auctions. The Chickens started out for eggs only. We picked up a few for eating and the taste was so much better we keep them all the time. That has expanded to a turkey or two year-round and Cornish Game Hens. I milk the cow she milks the goats (sometimes) but it sure is good tasting the fresh dairy products she makes.

Its pretty much a full time job just staying up with animal care.

 

[jgillott]

Wife deals with what the ground needs and what to use, she's pretty much into organic growing, the use of Chemical pesticides are something that SHE WONT DO!!!! Fortunately for HER! we have an ABUNDANCE of animals that can help produce the best compost around. I don't understand the amount of GREEN vs BROWN that she mixes in the Compost pile, im just the guy with the shovel that mixes what she says to. She took in a dirt sample to the Dept. of Agriculture in Missoula and they tested it and gave her suggestions on what the ground needed. I cant tell you what it was that she added but it was a bunch of sacks of some kind of mineral and then the Mules and I turned the ground several times over before she was satisfied with what we had done.

The animals that we raise are mainly for family, our Pig Sweet Pea is an Over achiever last time she had 10 piglets, those are raised for family and a couple are for FFA projects that have done pretty well in the FFA auctions. The Chickens started out for eggs only. We picked up a few for eating and the taste was so much better we keep them all the time. That has expanded to a turkey or two year-round and Cornish Game Hens. I milk the cow she milks the goats (sometimes) but it sure is good tasting the fresh dairy products she makes.

Its pretty much a full time job just staying up with animal care.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a 100% in to the "organic" craze. But the way I figure it, if I don't take the time to grow these things as natural as we can, we may as well save the time and buy it at the store. When you factor the time and work, we certainly don't save much with all the work we put in. I have a feeling that there aren't many left out there willing to put in the work/time that it takes.

 

[jclark5810]

As a younger lad I felt it necessary to learn to grow without anything store bought so to speak. If the "S" hits the fan, I want to be able to sustain without the use of chemicals are additives.

BIG how do gardens do in MT? How much time between the snow melt and first snow of winter do you have? And do you have to keep all the animals in a barn over the winter or can some manage outdoors?

 

[BIGNASTY]

As a younger lad I felt it necessary to learn to grow without anything store bought so to speak. If the "S" hits the fan, I want to be able to sustain without the use of chemicals are additives.

BIG how do gardens do in MT? How much time between the snow melt and first snow of winter do you have? And do you have to keep all the animals in a barn over the winter or can some manage outdoors?

The vegetable plants are grown in a Green house to get them a head start during the winter. I have found a way to use the animal manure and scraps of food that we now have a pretty good supply of produce to use to produce a Methane Gas that runs into the greenhouse to keep it pretty warm in the winter. It runs thru a black-iron pipe system and then into Coleman stove burners, last winter I didn't get it going soon enough to REALLY PRODUCE the gas in a large supply. Heat is needed to make it all work and when I started it in the middle of December it was pretty hard to get things to decay and convert into the methane. This year im going to start it around the middle of Sept, I hope that by doing this the greenhouse will stay warm and in turn keep the containers that converts the manure/produce into methane at a higher temp and make more gas to burn. We put out cool weather crops as soon as the snow is gone from the ground, it varies each year we have a PVC plastic hoop house arrangement to make it better in case of cold. It can snow anytime of the year around here if conditions are right. I haven't seen it, but my FIL has lived here most of his life and he's seen it snow in July more than once. Then when its pretty sure of good weather the wife mounts an all out attack on planting the rest of the Veggies, the good part is that in the summer it stays light until 9:30, 10:00 at night so the days are very long although the season is somewhat short. Right now she has planted a second crop of cool weather things and hopes that they will come in before the snow, again it varies but last year we had no snow in the middle of Oct. Good for her veggies but bad for Hunting, we need snow to drive the Elk down out of the mountains to lower elevations. This is the youtube that got us into this, have looked into it more and have found other ways to make it more efficient if need be. Would like to build an in-ground kind and heat with wood fired hot water boiler ran thru copper coil wrapped around the digester. Just want to make sure of its feasibility before I dive in bigger than we are. The pressure comes from a fuel tank bladder bag that I built a wood enclosure around and to produce the pressure to drive the gas to the Coleman burners is by just a piece of plywood on top of the bladder and putting some cinder blocks on top of that, it don't take much pressure to push the gas along the pipe. We would like to eventually become self sustaining in our plan but that is pretty hard to do, a more realistic plan would be to barter with other like minded people to obtain other things that we need in exchange, if that time ever came. I don't have much trust in our Government #no matter what party is in control# I hope it wont come to it but, I like to be ready.

http://theurbanfarmingguys.com/methane-biodigester-how-to



People think that cause we live in MT that it snows everyday in the winter, sometimes it seems like! it but we can get hit REAL HARD for a couple of days and then it wont snow again for a week, but then we can go for a week or maybe two with NON STOP SNOW!! It depends on WHO LEFT THE DOOR OPEN!! If the Canadians leave the door open it gets so cold its like nothing that I have ever experienced and I have been in Maine in the winter, I know Mike a TDR member from Maine might have a problem with me saying that, but if our weather comes for the North plan on COLD COLD COLD. But the snow is not wet its like sand and drifts like nobody's business LOTS of shovel time is in the plan, I have become ambidextrous at shoveling it helps make the workouts more productive, because I can shovel longer and then to be equal on both sides of my back, arms, shoulders, forearms, hands, I dream of shoveling snow or is it a nightmare? To keep the mules earning their keep, I have a mule drawn snow plow that they pull so I can clear the driveway and a path to the shop and barn. The wife runs our tractor and helps throw the snow over the pasture fence last year we ran out of room to dump the snow in the pasture we got 130" of the white stuff. Luckily we have a good relationship with the State Hwy Crew that plows the road , we push it out to the end of the drive, they stop to get a cup of coffee and sweet roll and take it away for us. Pretty cheap way to get some help, they are a great bunch that we enjoy their friendship year-round. If the weather comes from the West and its the WA and ID folks that leave the door open its usually going to be ICE, wet heavy snow that is totally miserable to shovel, but it don't wind drift much so once shoveled it stays pretty much shoveled.



The animals that stay outside are the Beef they get pretty wooly and can take the cold, they get in a huddle and make a game plan and then rotate positions within the huddle to get someone else warm, they also go hide in the trees and down in some of the ravines that offer protection. But if they want to eat they have to come out to the flat land where the mules and I drag out hay for them to eat. My Mules, the goats, pigs, milk cow stay in the barn if they want, I leave it open during the day and at evening I go close it up, it stays pretty warm with all the bodies in there they also get pretty wooly. More grain in winter gives them something to burn for heat in their belly. The Chickens are the sissy's I have a heat lamp in the coop I found a few of them frozen pretty solid a couple of times, I put more straw in the nesting boxes, they go in at night or during bad weather but go out during the day, none of them run to far away from the safety of the coop. Predators are out looking for a easy snack.


Its pretty much luck of the draw on what makes it around here plant or animal, We take special care of our riding stock, the others are pretty hardy.

Sorry it took so long to get back to ya I had a chance to get into the mountains BY MYSELF and that don't happen often, SO I TOOK IT

BIG

 

[jhenderson]

Pretty fancy with the methane. I marvel at folks who live off grid. I like to think I could do it if I had to, but it's WORK. You are an industrious and crafty lot.