[FaintlyArtistic]

I seem to have an insatiable drive to create…3 seasons of the year I love the garden and greenhouse. Winter, I am parked in front of the sewing machine making a quilt top or hand quilting on the couch. There is a lot of joy and satisfaction in getting things done.

[FaintlyArtistic]

I get it locally from farmers who don’t spray.

[FaintlyArtistic]

I have been chopping leaves with my leaf vac and spreading them in the chicken coop and on garden beds. A little every day after work and all weekend and it will be done soon. Dehydrate or can some of what you grew or have in the freezer. Take inventory of you preps and come up with a daily/weekly estimate of what you will need and fill those gaps.

After everyone is done with their seasonal straw bale decor, I will collect them for free and use them in the garden and as deep litter in the coop.

I am also bartering a couple of excess chickens to a local kid for him helping me with yard work.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  FaintlyArtistic.

[FaintlyArtistic]

The variety that they use to can pumpkin is actually Dickinson squash. You can buy the seeds from Mary’s Heirloom Seeds, others sell it as well.

[FaintlyArtistic]

I moved to zone 5b 2 years ago and just got a Chicago Hardy, a Violetta and an accidebtal Desert King (received the wrong one in the mail). I put them all in a raised bed in the unheaated greenhouse, will see what happens.

[FaintlyArtistic]

I’d be up for that as well!

[FaintlyArtistic]

You can order it off his website. Mine is up and growing!

[FaintlyArtistic]

We have a trio of Americans. They are still growing and should start breeding in late winter/early spring. They are in a 16×24 covered colony that they share with our chickens. I feed food scraps/garden waste, hay and pellets for now. Hoping to get off pellets soon.

I have a couple of good recipes I will dig out and post soon. After making bone broth, I plan to roast all the bones and make my own bone meal for the garden. Organs, etc will go to the chickens.

[FaintlyArtistic]

Yep, you can plant any dry beans from the grocery.

I also plant grocery potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc.

Last year I bought some hot Hungarian wax peppers from the Amish and saved some seeds. Planted them this year and they were the first to produce. I’ve picked a lot off those peppers.

[FaintlyArtistic]

I order from Fedco or Pinetree a lot. I like Fedco because you can order by the packet, or ounce. Pretty sure one of those will have them.

[FaintlyArtistic]

I’m feeling like it is coming sooner and harder this year. I’ve been canning, freezing and dehydrating like a crazy woman since the end of July.

[FaintlyArtistic]

Our 1955 home is chock full of wires spliced together with nuthin’ but a fat wad of ultra sticky electrical tape…

[FaintlyArtistic]

[FaintlyArtistic]

My husband used to rebuild and sell the old Surge milkers when we had Jerseys. If you are mechanically-inclined, it is pretty straightforward. He would buy used rotary vane vacuum pumps and Surge buckets on Ebay, refurbish them and sell them locally. He built one for us that would milk our 2 cows at the same time.

And, yes, you absolutely want a pulsator. You don’t want constant suction on the teats. Think about how a calf sucks or how you hand milk…

• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by  FaintlyArtistic.

[FaintlyArtistic]

Love it!