Preparing for Uncertainty and Self Reliance

[TheReal_ND]

Potatoes, carrots, onions, pumpkins, lettuce, peppers, and green beans.

Winter wheat is finally taking off, it’ll be a shame to plow it all under, but hopefully it did it’s job and loosened up the soil some more. I spread my composted manure today, and realized that I need about 3x more of it to make an impact. Neighbors are already complaining of the smell tho. #ClaySucks

Personally, I like it. Reminds me of Texas.

Have you tried No dig gardening? It’s supposed to work well with clay.

The gardens a bit large for that

Adding 6” of compost to 5000sqft would be 2500cuft of material. I just added 30cuft and the neighbors don’t like it lol. That’s like 3-4 dump trucks worth.

You're going to have to eat your neighbors

[C-Mag]

Well, if its good enough for Alex Jones.....

[SuburbanFarmer]

Have you tried No dig gardening? It’s supposed to work well with clay.

The gardens a bit large for that

Adding 6” of compost to 5000sqft would be 2500cuft of material. I just added 30cuft and the neighbors don’t like it lol. That’s like 3-4 dump trucks worth.

You're going to have to eat your neighbors

Long pork enters the menu about 3 months after a total supply chain collapse

[C-Mag]

Spuds and onions are in the ground.

Second round of planting starting next week

[SuburbanFarmer]

Spuds and onions are in the ground.

Second round of planting starting next week

Very good. Starting my tilling today. We’ve got one more cold snap tonight, but no rain until Sunday.

[Montegriffo]

Threshing again today. 2nd time this week, I'm in danger of getting seriously fit at this rate. We had 3 people feeding the sheaths in to the drum rather than the usual 1 so the bunches were coming out my end at quite a lick. Lunch break came as a welcome relief.
Really bloody hot as well, not a cloud in the sky nor a breath of wind. Had to wear my wide-brimmed Aussie hat to protect the pale Celtic skin on the back of my neck.

In other farm news, I've asked if I can have a bit of land to grow myself a few vegetables. Farmer Paul has suggested a plot that has just had a muck heap cleared off it. It should be good fertile soil and it's clear of weeds since it has been covered for a couple of years.
One of the local garden centres is open as it is also a farm shop so hopefully seeds won't be too much of a problem.
I think I'm probably going to have to stick to root veg' as the deer and rabbits would eat any tasty above ground plants such as lettuce or spinach.
If we have the materials I might be able to fence off a small patch though.
The hard work of tilling can be done with a tractor so it's mainly weeding and watering that I'm going to have to do.
I'm thinking of carrots, potatoes, onions and parsnips to start off.
I've never grown my own veg' before though so it's going to be a steep learning curve.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Threshing again today. 2nd time this week, I'm in danger of getting seriously fit at this rate. We had 3 people feeding the sheaths in to the drum rather than the usual 1 so the bunches were coming out my end at quite a lick. Lunch break came as a welcome relief.
Really bloody hot as well, not a cloud in the sky nor a breath of wind. Had to wear my wide-brimmed Aussie hat to protect the pale Celtic skin on the back of my neck.

In other farm news, I've asked if I can have a bit of land to grow myself a few vegetables. Farmer Paul has suggested a plot that has just had a muck heap cleared off it. It should be good fertile soil and it's clear of weeds since it has been covered for a couple of years.
One of the local garden centres is open as it is also a farm shop so hopefully seeds won't be too much of a problem.
I think I'm probably going to have to stick to root veg' as the deer and rabbits would eat any tasty above ground plants such as lettuce or spinach.
If we have the materials I might be able to fence off a small patch though.
The hard work of tilling can be done with a tractor so it's mainly weeding and watering that I'm going to have to do.
I'm thinking of carrots, potatoes, onions and parsnips to start off.
I've never grown my own veg' before though so it's going to be a steep learning curve.

Nice, man. I’m assuming that the budget doesn’t allow for soil amendments or testing, but you’ll want to save a few bales of that straw to put around your plants. Get a nice thick layer for weed control.

[Montegriffo]

Threshing again today. 2nd time this week, I'm in danger of getting seriously fit at this rate. We had 3 people feeding the sheaths in to the drum rather than the usual 1 so the bunches were coming out my end at quite a lick. Lunch break came as a welcome relief.
Really bloody hot as well, not a cloud in the sky nor a breath of wind. Had to wear my wide-brimmed Aussie hat to protect the pale Celtic skin on the back of my neck.

In other farm news, I've asked if I can have a bit of land to grow myself a few vegetables. Farmer Paul has suggested a plot that has just had a muck heap cleared off it. It should be good fertile soil and it's clear of weeds since it has been covered for a couple of years.
One of the local garden centres is open as it is also a farm shop so hopefully seeds won't be too much of a problem.
I think I'm probably going to have to stick to root veg' as the deer and rabbits would eat any tasty above ground plants such as lettuce or spinach.
If we have the materials I might be able to fence off a small patch though.
The hard work of tilling can be done with a tractor so it's mainly weeding and watering that I'm going to have to do.
I'm thinking of carrots, potatoes, onions and parsnips to start off.
I've never grown my own veg' before though so it's going to be a steep learning curve.

Nice, man. I’m assuming that the budget doesn’t allow for soil amendments or testing, but you’ll want to save a few bales of that straw to put around your plants. Get a nice thick layer for weed control.

What do you mean by amendments? Are you talking about enriching the soil?
It's not the best soil here and you get to clay within about 8-10 inches but I think that was the idea of using a plot which was under the muck heap as it should be richer soil.

There's plenty of waste straw from the threshing, that is too short and damaged to use for thatching, which comes out separately from the good straw that goes into the buncher.
The good straw is far too valuable to waste. We worked it out today, it goes for £550 per ton and you get about 120 bunches in a ton (averaging about 18lbs each) so it's over £4.50 a bunch. We did about 4 tons today.
We've got about 2 days threshing left to get through the rest of last year's wheat which we need to do soon before it gets too hot to do it.
Next week the drum is going off-site to thresh a load of straw for a local thatcher who grows his own so I might get a bit of paid work out of that.

[Hastur]

Threshing again today. 2nd time this week, I'm in danger of getting seriously fit at this rate. We had 3 people feeding the sheaths in to the drum rather than the usual 1 so the bunches were coming out my end at quite a lick. Lunch break came as a welcome relief.
Really bloody hot as well, not a cloud in the sky nor a breath of wind. Had to wear my wide-brimmed Aussie hat to protect the pale Celtic skin on the back of my neck.

In other farm news, I've asked if I can have a bit of land to grow myself a few vegetables. Farmer Paul has suggested a plot that has just had a muck heap cleared off it. It should be good fertile soil and it's clear of weeds since it has been covered for a couple of years.
One of the local garden centres is open as it is also a farm shop so hopefully seeds won't be too much of a problem.
I think I'm probably going to have to stick to root veg' as the deer and rabbits would eat any tasty above ground plants such as lettuce or spinach.
If we have the materials I might be able to fence off a small patch though.
The hard work of tilling can be done with a tractor so it's mainly weeding and watering that I'm going to have to do.
I'm thinking of carrots, potatoes, onions and parsnips to start off.
I've never grown my own veg' before though so it's going to be a steep learning curve.

Nice, man. I’m assuming that the budget doesn’t allow for soil amendments or testing, but you’ll want to save a few bales of that straw to put around your plants. Get a nice thick layer for weed control.

What do you mean by amendments? Are you talking about enriching the soil?
It's not the best soil here and you get to clay within about 8-10 inches but I think that was the idea of using a plot which was under the muck heap as it should be richer soil.

There's plenty of waste straw from the threshing, that is too short and damaged to use for thatching, which comes out separately from the good straw that goes into the buncher.
The good straw is far too valuable to waste. We worked it out today, it goes for £550 per ton and you get about 120 bunches in a ton (averaging about 18lbs each) so it's over £4.50 a bunch. We did about 4 tons today.
We've got about 2 days threshing left to get through the rest of last year's wheat which we need to do soon before it gets too hot to do it.
Next week the drum is going off-site to thresh a load of straw for a local thatcher who grows his own so I might get a bit of paid work out of that.

It sounds like you have the perfect opportunity to try some no dig gardening on that plot. Look at what this guy is doing.
https://charlesdowding.co.uk/

[Montegriffo]

I disturbed a pheasant's nest a couple of days ago when clearing the weeds behind my truck. I broke 2 of the eggs but got 5 whole ones. There was no way the pheasant was going to come back now I've removed all the cover so I've just hard-boiled them and had an egg mayo sandwich with a bit of homemade bread. Lovely deep coloured yolks but no different in taste than a hen's egg.