You can buy a 60lb bale of Alfalfa at a feed store or from a farmer and run it thru the chipper shredder for a lot less! It does not have to be in powder form to work!
This time of year the “sled-dog folks” are gearing up for upcoming races. Training involves hooking 20 or so dogs in harness, to a wheeler which the dogs love to pull (in neutral) for mile after mile. Once there’s snow of course they will switch to sleds. It’s fun to stop sometimes and watch...
Welcome from the other corner of our country; Alaska! If you stick around, you can’t help but learn stuff from these folks.
I think of this forum as a Big Circus with a bunch of little side shows going on. Plenty of variety and many of us grow indoors too.
This is a happy place, the burger’s ground and headed into the tubes and the Tallow is in the oven rendering. After another hour’s worth of clean-up this project will be done for the year, thank you Lord.
Now i get to pull a Canoe down from the shop ceiling for a little winter project!
Mid day i took a break and “filled the bird feeder”. Within an hour i had a customer; one of them blabber mouth Magpies, so rest assured by morning there’ll be a gaggle of them out there. A lot of little birds frequent the feeder as well and that’s who im targeting anyway.
These are ranch raised, not hunted. Grass fed and grass finished; no shots, hormones or other “contaminants”! This animal hanging on the tractor weighed right at 400lbs as you see it. We completely bone them and do not put any bone in meat in the freezer. The boning will turn that 400 lb animal...
The Alaskan version of “Boys and Girls; getting down, on the farm”!
Today i headed, an hour and a half North for my annual Yak butchering ritual. As Alaskans would say “the mountain was out”, and im ever amazed at how big Denali is because in pictures it appears to be just over the next hill...
We use maple syrup, for most of out sweetening or Stevia.
We’re all to familiar with Pomegranate season too 😳 as Ruthy will “beat out” 15 cases of the seeds and freeze them. We have a fruit cup every day of our lives which requires 1/4 cup between us so in a year that’s roughly a 5 gallon...
Today i turned 4 good size Birch trees into firewood and re-claimed enough “wilderness” to give me a Mega Comfrey bed! This new area is 30’ by 80’ and will easily hold the intended 50-60 plants. I will open up the orchard fence to include this piece and get this all tilled in the spring.
During...
Deep stuff here!!!
While determining whether or not persimmons would work in my local, the vendor started talking about “heat units during the grocery season”! His concern was not based on winter hardiness but did we have enough daytime warmth to ripen the fruit.
Well, the geek in me plugged...
Welcome from Alaska; i understand your challenge; after spending 15 years in Western North Dakota. Upon seeing it for the first time; one of General Custers officers replied, “it looks like Hell, with the fire put out”!
This is better but there are still plenty of challenges AND the critters...
And just one day later we awake to the first bit of snow. I don’t expect this to stay but who knows.
The up-side is the weather is looking great for my Yak butchering project on the 19th!
* yesterday i mentioned my little time of reflection as i was shutting down the greenhouse. That time...
Said a little thank you prayer as i was shutting down the Toyo and walking out! It was a good year; sure seems to have gone by fast though?
Later in March i’ll dig a path from the house to the greenhouse and enjoy the Sun when she comes back around. That’s the time of year them two lawn chairs...
Today i apologized to my greenhouse stuff then mercilessly cut it all down.🤭 Green tomato’s are left on a bit of stem and hung in the shop to ripen and the red ones and about a dozen nice Cucumbers came in the house. After this i took after everything inside with the pressure washer and tomorrow...
I had one of those pop machines (7-Up) when i lived in the Dakotas. I gutted it removing the racks etc and filled it up with water and raised Minnows in it! The (refrigeration) Compressor still worked and it kept my water temp about perfect!