Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[Denim Deb]

I might just have to use some of those bags in my garden. That's a great idea, and I have plenty of them. At the end of the growing season, I can just pull them out and toss them.

 

[hqueen13]

Always great to recycle. I used wood pellet bags as plastic around my tomatoes since I have a ton of them left. I thought about doing the whole garden But that wouldn't be easy. I might try doing cardboard of I have some of that but I guess we'll see. S is experimenting with planning white cover as a cover crop in places to manage weeds because it grows quickly which prevents weed growth but only gets a few inches tall so it doesn't get in the way. Also returns nitrogen to the soil at the end of the season.

 

[Britesea]

S is experimenting with planning white cover as a cover crop in places to manage weeds because it grows quickly which prevents weed growth but only gets a few inches tall so it doesn't get in the way. Also returns nitrogen to the soil at the end of the season.

... and the bees love it!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

So, in the interest of lazy.... I did the feed sacks one better - and used a tarp in a wide open area! I've been pulling some potatoes cuz some of the plants are going south fast - and it left a nice open area. Had an 8 x 10 tarp laying around and it fit there perfectly. I think I was a bit hasty though - I'm gonna roll it back and spread some compost under there and then cover it back up for awhile. Sometimes being just a little bit lazy is a great motivator for finding a better way to do things!

 

[Britesea]

Ha ha, very true! I had someone tell me they thought I must really enjoy housekeeping because I do it so quickly.. the truth being I hate it so much I want to get it over with.

The tarp should work very well; I only mentioned the feed sacks because most of us have them to recycle.

I tried using cardboard and newspaper last year; the worms loved it, but once they started working on
it didn't stop my couch grass for very long

One of the prettiest gardens I ever saw was in a magazine- they had raised beds, and let the grass grow in the paths and mowed it. They didn't talk about what happens when the grass rhizomes find their way into the raised beds though. With most of my garden I can keep it under some kind of control because I dig up the bed and sift out all the grass roots; but I can't do that in the asparagus bed. This year was the first year we could harvest some asparagus, but it was a real hunt to find the sprouts in all that grass! When I try to weed it, the roots will sometimes pull up the asparagus plants as well. So I need to come up with something that will keep all the grass out of that bed; and if I can do that, then I would like to do it for all the beds and forgo the annual dig-and-sift.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I'm the same way about housework - besides hating it - I really do have to do it quickly or it doesn't get done in between everything else on my list.

I haven't given up on using feed sacks - but this area was large and just begged for something bigger! I've still got a couple areas to cover.

This morning's chore is to do something with the squash that is stacking up. Hard to believe I've already harvested enough to need to do something with it. May just freeze this small amount...or dehydrate it. Decisions, decisions!

Somebody shoot me - but I'm contemplating hatching some chicks. I don't want to be in the 'egg desert' when molting time comes around. If I'm gonna do it - I need to do it now to have some layers to fill in the gap by fall. Geeze - crazy to be thinking about fall already. This year is flying by isn't it?

And this morning is flying by too - gotta get busy!

 

[hqueen13]

The year Is flying by already! I'm not prepared for another winter!

 

[Denim Deb]

Well, at least you still have time! We shouldn't get any really cold weather for several more months! (I hope)

 

[Britesea]

One can only hope. One thing I've learned since gardening here, is how little control we really have over Nature. Famine is very real and closer than I ever realized when I lived in the city and all my food came in brightly colored packages from Safeway.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I REFUSE to think about winter yet...we have to get through hurricane season first... Don't want to think about that yet either. We've got at least 11 more days before it starts and I intend to ignore it until it happens.

Life is kind of status quo these days... water, weed, feed, milk, lather, rinse, repeat...

K'ili was being my little shadow last night and generally getting in my way. She is a former bottle baby and they have a way of trying to walk right in front of you because that's how kids get their mothers to stop and let them nurse. So, in her walk in front of me she stopped and pooped and I saw yucky, nasty, tape worm segments in her poo. Oh gee whiz! The lady I bought her from told me that she'd just been wormed the day she kidded - and I bought her about a week later - so I didn't think she'd need to be wormed yet. I'm going to go ahead and use Valbazen on her instead of messing around with 5 days straight of Panacur. (what a pia) So, I'm going to have to figure out a milk withdrawal time and feed her milk to the dogs and/or chickens. There's no real established rule about milk withdrawal with a bunch of wormer meds because most of them are 'off label' for goats and a true withdrawal time hasn't been established. I think I'll do 5 - 7 days at least...maybe 10.

I got the newest baby buck disbudded Sunday evening. I grabbed the little girl to do her next, got her head clipped and decided to wait a few days on her. Her little horn buds are practically non-existant and even though I've done this hundreds of times I prefer to do it with a visible target. So, while the iron was hot (literally) I grabbed Dusty, the new Nubian buckling, and worked on a little scur that he had. He had very conveniently knocked it off about an hour earlier so I grabbed his sweet unsuspecting self and applied hot iron to his head. I dunno why he reacted so violently - but he was not a happy camper. It was so bad that he stayed away from me for approximately a half of a nano-second. I just can't pi** him off, lol. That's a bottle baby for ya. I don't know if I actually did any good or not - he was jerking around and I had already unplugged the iron - so time will tell I guess.

All I know about that young'un is that he's not really little and if he keeps up this growth rate he'll be huge. When I got him he was about 3/4 the size of K'ili (who admittedly is not a large Nubian). But, he has almost caught up with her in height...maybe being about 2 inches shy of her size and he's not even 4 months old yet. Granted, he's not nearly as filled out yet - but OMG - he's gonna be scary big I think!

Had to pull a broody offa her stinky, disgusting, stinky (did I say stinky?) nest. Not sure why, but almost all of those eggs rotted and about half of 'em busted all over everything - including her. I pulled the nest out and tossed any remaining stinkers. I wonder if she'd start again on a new batch of eggs or if she's just tired of it yet? It's so much easier raising chicks when the mama's do all the work. May put in a fresh nest box and another batch of eggs. I want babies - but not the responsibilities

Got a few more minutes before I leave so gotta get my office in order. Later ya'll!