Alaskan's Journal

Alaskan

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Now that grass is dead....

I can't decide about the geese.

How many to kill, how many to keep... feeding a huge flock pellets all winter is a painful hunk of money... but the more I eat, and the smaller the flock, the more susceptible they are to predation.

We are still letting them out every day. They work hard trying to find little bits to eat.
 

Mini Horses

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Well, in spring -- 🤔 that's july for you :hide -- you can plant some grasses, milo & sunflower to harvest seed and they won't cost so much 🤭 maybe raise some grasshoppers in the barn? Good protein. Catch, dehydrate fish...break it up to feed.

I'm thinking most feed is brought in by boat, truck, etc, right? I'm not thinking there's a lot of crop product in Alaska. Am I way wrong? Do you still garden now, with most of the boys moved out? I just remember pics of snowed in & thinking WOW!!! Hope they have well stocked pantry.
 
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Alaskan

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Well, in spring -- 🤔 that's july for you :hide -- you can plant some grasses, milo & sunflower to harvest seed and they won't cost so much 🤭 maybe raise some grasshoppers in the barn? Good protein. Catch, dehydrate fish...break it up to feed.

I'm thinking most feed is brought in by boat, truck, etc, right? I'm not thinking there's a lot of crop product in Alaska. Am I way wrong? Do you still garden now, with most of the boys moved out? I just remember pics of snowed in & thinking WOW!!! Hope they have well stocked pantry.
We have a huge swath just north of Anchorage that grows grass hay, oats, barley, potatoes and carrots. That is about it for large production.

There are a bunch of high tunnels around towns down here on the peninsula that grow asparagus, all sorts of greens, root crops, etc. But those are (as far as I know) small mom and pop, some do sell to local grocery stores.

We have one state feed producer that uses local for as many of the ingredients as possible. But corn, soy, and alfalfa (and i think peas) need to be shipped in.

The geese are SUPER vegetarian.

Chickens and the muscovy will eat anything.

The geese are very grass fixated, it is interesting.

It is difficult to grow the seed sun flowers here... they need too much time and heat.

My garden has been off line for a few years now..
I did a bunch in pots this year... mostly cabbage and nasturtium (which we eat) since i stuck them in the front flower bed. And.... the geese ate them all! Yum, yum!

Kid 5 finished up fixing up my garden fence.... so I will get to grow a big garden next year.
 

Alaskan

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:hit :barnie:barnie:sick:hit

I FINALLY forced myself to call the plow guy.

:tongue:barnie:hit:sick

So... all set up for the winter... he will plow us and the church and the rentals.

AND I asked him to look over the 1 truly horrid spot over on the church driveway. Years back when I had that section repaired, I paid for the least expensive culvert.

Penny wise and pound foolish!!!

:he

I have been paying for it ever since! I really think that section (about 100 feet?? ) needs to be fully ripped out, and 3 huge high quality culverts put in.

Anyway, plow guy is also a dirt work guy. AND he is incredibly kind, AND used to live up here, so knows the road.

He will give me an estimate on the road repair within the next few days.
 
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