CrabGrassAcres

Got most of them and sang the theme songs too! LOL Didn't get all the commercials.

I don't buy freeze dried meat or anything else freeze dried for that matter. However, I pressure can my meat. I don't like keeping much in the freezer because it could be lost if the power goes off.

Amber, about how many calories in your qt? I figured a qt of canned seasoned beans is about 750. Daughter has one qt a day plus 3 pts of rich goat milk plus a pt of juice and a bowl of fruit. She weighs 90# and is not active, yet she barely maintains her weight on it. I can't get any more down her though.

I figure on mostly dry foods in LTS. One pound of any dry food is approximately 1500 calories. (It varies a little depending on how much fat is in the food vs how much fiber, but is a good working average.) I started out by making a big order from Walton Feed on their pool truck. I had to make it a large order so they would drop it at my location. This gave us several yrs worth of basic calories at one whack. This is not our entire calorie intake for that period, just a base. Then I canned up a lot of meat I raised. Since then, I've been rotating the meat and adding to it sporadically. I also dried some veggies and bought more dry fruit and veggies. Later I was able to get another, smaller order of grains and beans to replace what we had used. I buy sugar locally and try to get more than we will use between trips. I garden when I can (I've been ill a lot and right now plan to move as soon as this place sells), I raise dairy goats (milking 6 right now and bottle feeding 8 doelings), so that provides a good share of daily calories. I also have a good size flock of free range chickens and ducks for eggs and about 50 pet geese. (I should think of geese as meat on the hoof, but I call them my lawn mowers since they keep the grass short enough I don't have to mow.) My hens hatch chicks constantly, though I give many of them away so I don't have to bother raising them, I still get enough roosters for meat. I've been promised two piglets to raise, waiting on delivery. They should be ready to butcher about the time I've used up the lard and most of the meat from the last two.

I know most people these days don't have farms, but if possible, it is a good thing to have some chickens or ducks or quail for eggs and some rabbits for meat as well as the largest garden you can manage. Just remember that a garden won't produce without a good bit of work so don't make it too big to start.

Sorry Mt Rider. I've already macheted a copperhead this yr, down right next to the barn steps.

I wanna move soooooooooooo bad.

I'm still bringing 4 goslings in every night and they are getting BIG. They are still in down and no mama to snuggle with and the snakes can get in that pen. Snakes will try to swallow a bird head first and if the rest of the bird is too big the snake just kills it and leaves it. The goslings are still in a tote at night, but I'm going to have to set up a jumbo crate soon.

Ducklings will NOT cooperate for a good photo and my camera doesn't take good distance shots. Having a time keeping those buggers in their pen and off the pond. I want them bigger before they spend so much time with the mayhem crowd out there.

I'll try, but my old camera doesn't do well unless I'm close and if they see me they run back to mama.

LOL, the frying pan was the only thing I have that is shallow enough for baby runners to climb in and out of. So I filled it with water and put it in the pen for them. It sure is funny to see the pan sitting there with 10 ducklings paddling around in it.

One of my runner hens just hatched 10 cuties! They are in a nice pen with mom. Water in a frying pan for now and feed in a shallow dish. They are enjoying the water but really WANTED to get thru the fence to the pond. I prefer they not join the crowd in the yard just yet.

I was just running up here to ask "WHA HAPPENED?" Glad just a little glitch. Could have been worse.

Too hot for spinach and lettuce now.

How much is it costing you to put that much water on the garden?

Plants that get stunted early will not produce, no matter how much water you use.

I would suggest you go to native seeds search and find varieties suitable for your area. I know they carry tepary beans and different varieties of corn, tomatoes and peppers as well as different melons. Look for greens that were not developed in cool moist climates. Did you know you can eat tumbleweed when it is young? Some of the amaranths should do well for you. Instead of trying to adapt the garden for plants unsuitable to the climate, try growing plants that are adapted to the climate.

Black eyed peas do well in heat and try tepary beans.

Probably not a bad idea. I sometimes wish I could go back to work. We could sure use the additional funds. But between my health problems and daughter's need for constant supervision, that isn't going to happen.

I would think the peppers and tomatoes would be doing something, but most of what you mentioned does better in cooler weather.

Cool. I have a french press, but I've quit drinking coffee so it just sits.

Geese and goats together are even better!

No problem. Don't like to complain, but thought you might need to know that some are having problems. Don't sweat it too much.

Where does your water come from?

I think I'd do a test garden with hydroponics and see if that makes a difference. If nothing is sprouting there has to be a reason. Also do a test on the seeds to see if they will sprout when not in the ground.

I'm still having problems. I have to go in every few days and clear Mrs. S history or I get the data base error message page. I did discover I don't have to clear ALL the history. I click on "History" on the tool bar then search for Mrs S and I can clear only those pages. It messes too much stuff up to clear all the history every few days. (Though if I were truly paranoid about anybody looking at what I have been reading I suppose it would be good to clear history every day. LOL.)

So glad you are catching up on your rest! Wish you didn't have those hills to contend with.

I had two miscarriages then my husband left me. The Lord never sent another man into my life and I adopted a 4 yr old with Down Syndrome when I was 31. Maybe that kept some man from being interested in marrying me. If so, no big loss. Yes, I often think of what it would have been like if I had not lost my natural children. I probably would not have adopted. Whether I would have remarried I don't know. Whether my life has been better or worse, I certainly couldn't say. Only God knows those things.

Excess phosphorus can cause muscle cramps and spasms as well as kidney stones.

You and us both, Mt Rider! Severe drought here. We got a sprinkling from this weather system and a sprinkling from the previous one.

I have ducks setting. One has been on a nest in a brush pile of mesquite thorn branches. I heard chicks peeping in there this morning but couldn't reach them. I need to grab the chicks and let the duck finish setting her own eggs. I don't want her abandoning her eggs to take care of chickens. Wish the stinking chickens wouldn't DO that! I have had them mess up a turkey hatch too and didn't discover it till the turkey eggs were cold.

I'm bottle feeding but use a holder so I'm feeding all the 6 older ones at once. The two younger ones come outside the pen and I feed the two together so they don't have any bigger kids pushing them away from their bottles. They are so cute. I have the top half of a jumbo dog crate on the outside of the fence with a cut out of the fence so they can get into the crate but not jump on it. It is fastened to the fence at the end with the opening but I can lift it on the other end to let them out or put them back. The two youngest come scrambling thru it as soon as I lift it up. They know where to go to get fed!

I also have 4 goslings in the kitchen. 7 goslings outside with their mom, but I stole these four and gave their mom a second setting of eggs to hatch for me.