Search results

Sandy loam is the key here. Surveyors named soils based on where they first found them and those names seem fairly specific and are used, I think, for understanding the finer points of soil composition and geology. Farmers I've talked to describe their soils with clay, sand, and loam. You can...

Read more about soil structure. Basically, a nice crumbly soil is what you want. So avoid driving around on wet soil and don't till it until it's dry and likely to stay dry for a while. Sandy soil is different. Otherwise, it seems like the problem is mainly related to erosion. There's lots...

What kind of soil do you have out on the new farm? We've got silty loam here. We did a 50x50' garden last year. It wasn't enough. I'm running out of green beans! We'll probably do at least 50x100' this year. An acre is 108' square, right? So that's about 1/2 acre.

So spring is here and it'll be time to plow soon. But is plowing the right choice? I watched a UW Extension presentation on lawn care and one of the points was that spring is a bad time to disturb the soil because of weed seeds that will then happily germinate. He suggested a slitter, which...

I don't know of a good video. This is the article I read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark_testing

Pictures are always a struggle. And now I'm out a computer. Had neutral go out at the house over the weekend... probably it's been a long time coming but it all came to a head this weekend. The microwave wouldn't run, some lights were dim, others flickered bright. Turns out that the neutral...

A forge is a super low-tech device, if I understand it correctly. Seems like a fire-proof base with a tuyere (tweer). You don't even need electrical fans to make it work. I think there was many a forge back in the day. Probably a makeshift forge on every farm. And it seems like you could...

McMaster has some pumps. I don't know that they have the best prices but it's somewhere to start. As far as pump size, figure out how long you want to stand around waiting for it to fill a 250 trough, the divide by 250. Or whatever volume yours is. If you use gallons and minutes, your...

http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/ah635e/Ah635e00.htm Farm-appropriate blacksmith instructions. Great illustrations.

I'll have to try the silver sharpie. I tried the aluminum-foil lithography and wasn't able to get it to work. Didn't try very hard, though. I'll get back to it one of these days. I have all of these wine bottles that need a label clogging up my kitchen... Gotta figure something out. Maybe...

Found it! http://www.sufficientself.com/threads/how-much-do-you-spend-on-food.9241/page-12#post-373568

I signed up for a blacksmith course. I've been wanting to do this for a while and seeing the class offering was the kick-in-the-ass I needed. Lately I've been watching videos on the intertubes. I'm amazed at what you can do with some charcoal, a fan, hammer, and anvil. Almost no job is too...

The 8N doesn't have a live PTO. I don't think the hydraulics don't run when the tractor is stationary, which has obvious disadvantages. If you want to maintain a gravel drive, you need a box blade. And you'll need a drag of some kind. I have a Jubilee and that's been fine. Can't always find...

Most electronics have specific requirements for max temperature and duration for which they can be exposed to that temp. You could over-do it in an oven. I've had OK luck with a heat gun and banging the circuit board against the edge of something. BTW, speaking as someone who recovered many...

I see that I've returned just in the nick of time. Yes, you can can bread. There's defense-funded research from the 40s about how to do this safely. Basically, you have to keep the moisture below a certain level and maintain a certain acidity. My understanding is that it is difficult to...

Congrats on the new place. We did a little survey a while back and concluded that 100 $/mo per person was possible for food. Can't find it... haven't mastered the new forum software yet. Anyway, 300 $/mo on food should be possible. There's no perfect recipe or trick that will make your...

I've been thinking about how to label my canning jars. I'd like to fancy it up a bit and have more information about what's in the jar. I've been using masking tape on the tattler lid, with a few letters scrawled on it with a fat sharpie. It's not ideal. So far I haven't had any trouble...

Have you been over to permies.com? They have a lot more cob-type advice over there.

You've come to the right place! Welcome from MN.

22 pt venison + 10 half-pt jars. The smaller jars are lunch size.