[Jen-in-Ok]

my grandpa has some in the ground that don’t get any babying in the winter. they usually die to the ground in a hard winter. he’s z7, I think.

I’d keep them in the house or a sheltered spot and plant out in the spring. they need to have a good established root system before winter, so if they freeze to the ground they have something to come back from.

you won’t have to keep the leaves green all winter, just keep it from a really hard freeze.

[Jen-in-Ok]

yup. always have been.

[Jen-in-Ok]

boiling will destroy the botulism toxin (not the bacteria, though).

if it is iffy, i would thow it out – where animals can’t eat it (or boil it for 15 min, then throw out)

I would think trying to pressure can already sealed jars would damage the seal.

only you are able to decide what risks you are willing to take with your life and health. if it were me, and ONLY me – i would probably boil it thoroughly and eat it anyway aslong as it didn’t seem off. but doing that has the potential to kill you if you got a bad jar in there somewhere and don’t boil it long enough.

[Jen-in-Ok]

I would look into adding solar hot water (builditsolar is a great resource )

and i so want to build a methane digester here for cooking gas. but i do have lots of animals and things to feed it with here.

[Jen-in-Ok]

I would love to have a wood cook stove!!

maybe one of these days! ❤

[Jen-in-Ok]

I do all the work around here. from gathering eggs to fixing fence, doing chores, butchering chickens, building structures to fixing the trucks. it is my job. i get bogged down sometimes. it would be nice to have help. everything seems always broken/in need of repair. I just try to keep on keeping on. don’t got any advice, but you’re not alone. hang in there. don’t be afraid to downside where you need to. burn-out is real. take care of yourself, so you will be able to take care of others.

[Jen-in-Ok]

I’m in n-e Oklahoma, and I can only ever get a good hatch (with ancient incubators ) in the early spring and late fall. it’s too humid and the temperature swings too much throughout the day the rest of the year (i don’t have central heat/air) even then i never put water in my incubators even when hatching – otherwise they drown…

so, you may have to take a hard look at WHY the chicks aren’t hatching. are they dieing at a couple weeks in? (not enough turning, poor flock nutrition, temperature swings)

are they dying at pip? Are they gooey around the chick? does the chick look big? it’s legs look ‘puffy/swollen’?(high humidity) are they dried to the membrane and unable to turn? (low humidity) are they positioned weird in the egg? head under a wing, head pointed to the narrow end of the egg? (not enough turning or bad position in incubator)

crack them open when they fail, and learn why. if you are afraid of cracking one open that isn’t dead yet, it is safe to crack open the area over the air sack. it won’t kill them and they can still hatch out – you do have to put some cooking oil on the exposed membrane to keep them from drying out too much – then put them back into the incubator.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  Jen-in-Ok.

[Jen-in-Ok]

the flys lay their eggs in the fresh cow pies. ideally you would be able to move the cows to new pasture before they hatch in less than a week, or have chickens come up behind the cows to scratch apart the piles and eat the larvae(by day 3 to 4), or both…

a pour-on will get the flys on the cows now, but in my experience only last about 2 weeks and needs re-applied. (it is also bad for the dung beetles- but so are the chickens 🙂

[Jen-in-Ok]

I’ve got them living in my compost pile, but I would like to get a harvestable system set up to help feed my chickens too. I’m thinking of using a cracked IBC tote like I saw online somewhere. don’t know how I could store them for winter feed though? I’m not willing to stick them in the food dryer… 😝

[Jen-in-Ok]

I would highly recommend looking at “The humanure handbook” wonderful book.

[Jen-in-Ok]

I’m going to try this. it sounds like it could work for me. i fail in the sane most days.

thank you

[Jen-in-Ok]

this is my basic hair care too. except i do use baking soda (about 1 tsp or so). you will definitely need to rinse with some vinegar water after to re-balance ph. between washes, I just rinse with vinegar/water. it works great for my naturaly greasy hair. it’s too drying for my mothers not-greasy hair. ymmv.

[Jen-in-Ok]

I’ve had goats for decades. they are hard to keep in sometimes. they are smart. don’t let them see how you unlock the gate, if it doesn’t absolutely have to have thumbs to open…. from my experience, pigmy goats, no matter how short and fat, are actually excellent climbers and jumpers. we’d had some that would regularly go over a 4′ fence – only touching toes to bounce to the other side. angora goats aren’t as smart. they are more like keeping sheep – they stay in the fence well (but like sheep, look for stupid ways to die). nubian goats are also easier to keep in a fence – as long as the fence is strong enough not to lean over if they stand on it ( i would highly recommend an electric fence to keep them off of it) one of my nubian bucks could stand on his hind legs and reach up into the trees as high as i could – but he never got out or gave me problems. Nigerian dwarfs, pigmys, and my mutt goats are active, intelligent, and just beg to get into trouble.

I would recommend making a fence worthy of fort knox before bringing goats home. I like stock pannels with 2″×4″ welded wire wired on top of it, with a hot line a foot inside to keep them off. that seems to work the best and is movable if i need to. they will get their head stuck in anything they can put it through. they will tear up the fence from pushing on it if they can reach through. surprisingly large goats can actually squeeze through a stock pannel square. the 4″ square “goat pannels” are weaker than cattle pannels, more expensive and you trade adult goats getting stuck with baby goats getting stuck in it.

if you have a good enough fence from the beginning, goats are a joy to have. they are smart, trainable, funny, frendly, the milk is delicious, they are tasty as meat too….

but if you don’t have a good fence – you, your neighbors, your garden, your orchard, the wireing under the truck, the hood/top of your car and your flower beds will all hate them….

[Jen-in-Ok]

how do you pasture your rabbits? do you move them around like in a chicken tractor? do you have trouble with them digging out? do they raise their bunnies on grass too?

[Jen-in-Ok]

OMG!!! I would have never thought of that! that would work. shure would be alot of jars for the chickies, though. it would put a bigger dent in the already short lid supply. but them chickens probably will think you opened a jar of candy for them!!! 😆😆