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9 Comments

1. How is the cow pea cover crop prepared f
   or chicken feed?

2. What a wonderful series of articles! I live in a suburban area and always dreamed of moving to a rural area to begin a more self sufficient life, but I never imagined the weekly tasks associated with it. This bring insight and a sense of organization required to be successful. Thanks for the education.

3. My truck being down this week has me delayed on a lot of my plans at the remote location. I’m hoping to have it repaired early this week so I can make the long trip to Tennessee to visit my father on his small farm. Otherwise I can use some of this time to work on reloading data. Good luck to all and gave a safe Memorial weekend.

4. Well, unfortunately work has taken from the homestead in TN to a mandated conference in San Antonio, sonthere will be nomorogress this week. It was all I could do to get the lawn tractor up and running to handle the grass before i left. So I’m just planning this week, mostly of clearing the trees and brush outside my barn that I want tonfence in as my barnyard, and making plans for a retention wall and brush clearing. A disappointing setback this week. Oh well.

5. It is interesting to read the different approaches that work in the different parts of the country. Because we live in the Deep South, we have to be very selective about where we plant our tomatoes because they do not like heat above 90 degrees. This is mid May, and we are having temps up to 90 already. So I have learned that, even though all the official instructions on growing tomatoes say to plant them in full sun, I plant them in full shade. Most people’s tomatoes die back about this time of year, but I can grow them all summer in full shade. Peach trees also require full shade down here. They are naturally an understory plant, so that makes sense.

   1. Great idea planting tomatoes in the shade. when we lived in California the tomatoes grew wonderfully well but always got sunburned. I should have thought of planting in shade!

      1. There are so many different ideas and ways to fix things. That’s why freedom is so awesome! I’ve also tried many ideas that didn’t work, like trying to grow a cucumber trellis as shade for tomatoes. Only problem…tomatoes don’t like cucumbers!

6. After rain delays and other setbacks, we finally finished the north pasture fence this morning! In the meantime, I learned that wild lupine is poisonous for both cattle and goats and the pasture has a fair amount, so I will be out pulling plants before I let the cows into their new digs.

   The rabbit had 2 kits… 2 babies and rabbits doesn’t seem to go together… think that doe will be dinner in about 8 to 10 weeks.

   Our next projects will be completing the perimeter fence on the west property line,(I ask you, does fencing ever end?) re-arranging the barnyard to accommodate the goats and planting the orchard that is still in pots and bareroot bags on the back porch.

   Living the dream!

7. Hello Michelle,

   Seeds are living organisms and should never be vacuum packed. They need to breathe. The best chance for viability is to store in a cool, dark, fairly dry place. The best germination rate will occur within the first year of their harvest. In the following years the germination rate will steadily decline. So by year three you should be planting roughly two to three times the number of seeds to achieve the same yield that would normally result from fresh seed. As a side note: some two thousand year old wheat seeds found in the Great Pyramid of Cheops were successfully sprouted, albeit at a very low rate.

   Avalanche Lily (Mrs. Rawles)

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