For those who like to see spots...our new Boer buck

[babsbag]

Didn't you used to work at TSC too? My DH is gone during the week so the rabbits would be mine and until he finds a cool in the summer...safe at night... spot for them no rabbits. We have coyotes and the place he wants to put them in just cages under the tree they would last maybe a week, if lucky. I could put them in my goat pen, but then they are MINE...not gonna go there. His family raised rabbits as a kid so he knows how, he just doesn't remember the work.

Would love to see your silkies and your plants. Someday I will have greenhouse and do all those things too, but I am seriously focusing on a dairy and a cheese plant. I have already gotten the blessing from the state and county and in California that is a huge deal. I also make soap and lotion and sell it, and I sell eggs and honey too, just to people where I work. Right now the flowers and veggies are just for me and my bees but hoping someday to sell blueberries and other produce at the local farmer's market. The blueberries are just babies right now so have a few years to go on that.

I will be retiring from my "job" in June so I can start my new "job" building and running a 15 goat dairy and making cheese, and secretly raising spotted Boers from Valentine on the side.

 

[Roll farms]

I only work at TSC 2 days a week (feed discount adds up, though!)...and the plants only net about 250$ per year...but it's enough to pay for my next round at the greenhouse. I'm a flower nut. I blame my mom. I could sell more plants but then I'd have to deal w/ more people and goat people and chicken people and rabbit people are about all I can handle...lol.

If I lived near a main road I'd consider selling more plants / started seedlings....but our road barely exists on maps, and gets no traffic. You have to WANT to be here to be here, ha ha.

Congrats on the dairy...That's a big deal here, too....Probably not as big as CA but still tons of hoops and inspections and approvals...We sort of pondered it -but only briefly- after seeing all the USDA regulations we'd have to meet and how much $$ it'd cost.

 

[Southern by choice]

 

[babsbag]

I guess I should say that it is a grade B dairy when I first start. I can't sell fluid milk, only turn it into cheese. It is a much easier license to get and we are building it to meet the grade A standards eventually, but it will cost more money. I would like to be a raw milk dairy but the insurance must be out of the world, can't even imagine so for now it is cheese all the way. And goat cheese truffles.

I love flowers too, and the nursery is a dangerous place for me. I was looking in magazines last night at all the things I could grow if I had a nice landscaped yard again. Maybe one day. My biggest problem is no shade in the summer, at all. Our house sits just right so that every side gets sun, and hot sun at that. Couldn't have placed the house like this if I had tried.

But I was picking out cucumber, squash, corn, and bean seeds. Going to try some new ones this year. I have my standard tomatoes, I gave up on heritage ones for now and just grow that good old standby, early girl, and a good Italian paste one. And of course Sun Gold cherry tomatoes...to die for. I am going to plant row after row of pickling cucumbers and I WILL get enough minis at one time to make mini sweet pickles. I WILL I WILL I WILL. Been after this for years. I think about 60' of cucumbers should do it. Just happens that I have a nice new fence for then to grow on if needed.

The other thing I can't seem to grow is watermelon. I don't get it at all. This year I am digging a BIG hole and filling it with scrapings from the barn and coop, maybe that will work. I could garden all day every day, in case you can't tell.

Feed discount...have to remember then if I need a part time job.

 

[Roll farms]

We harvested about 25 watermelons and 40 cantaloupe last year. I don't have a big garden area (4 - 10x10 raised beds) so I started putting the melons in a separate bed area. I laid down 50x10' of 6 mil black plastic on an area w/ a slight grade so it drains well. I dug several holes and put empty plastic Folgers coffee cans in the holes, then filled w/ compost. I plant the melons in the cans, and the cans hold water in around the roots well when I water them (every other day when it's really dry) because melons are thirsty plants. I plant the pumpkins and gourds in that area as well. The melons do a lot better than the pumpkins, but I get enough to decorate my yard. I finally learned some tricks to picking melons at the right time last year and we enjoyed all of them instead of picking too early (green) or too late (pithy).

I put in a goldfish pond 1.5 yrs ago and use the 'poo water' from cleaning the filter to water almost everything now....my houseplants have never overwintered so well as they do w/ fish poo water. I also use surplus milk or any that's had a foot in the bucket on my tomatoes. OH MY do they take off. They love the extra calcium. We tend to grow several varieties and the indeterminate ones have to be cut back 6 times or they start to scare my DH when he mows around them. Like Little Shop of Horrors plants.

I cannot, no matter how hard I try, grow / keep alive 2 things - tuberous begonias and Fuschia.

Our yard was once ALL shade, the only are open was where our house sat....but between storms, my dh getting rid of dead / dying trees, Emerald Ash borers, and an F1 tornado, I'm now able to grow sunny plants.

 

[babsbag]

When I lived near San Francisco I could grow Fuschias and Begonias outside, year round. Only had to protect them a few times. Where I am at now they die, too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter, and both of those plants are my favorites. I give up.

When you put the coffee cans in the ground do you put any holes in the cans? And the milk idea on the tomatoes is awesome, last year my pigs got most of mine but no pigs this year. I always put the whey on the blueberries but I through a lot of milk away; thanks for the idea. Little Shop of Horrors...

You must clean you filter often...I don't, but when I do that water goes into my little barrel composter. We do have a much bigger pond that normally fills when it rains and then we keep it full all summer until the frogs leave. We have talked about sealing the pond and then putting some fish in in and using the water as irrigation for the orchard, we should probably get a move on that project some day.

Well we have moved from spotted Boers to gardening

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Beautiful boer!!!!

 

[ThreeBoysChicks]

Many of you remember in Dec 2012, I drove to Roll Farms to bring home "Roll Farms Ally's Chaotic Trip", Our wonderful Nubian herd sire. His first kids were born last weekend. Well March 14, 2014, we are making another road trip. This time to bring home both of Sugar's doelings (one for us and one for another person here in Maryland) and if Patch is good and produces a buckling out of Roll's beautiful buck, he is coming home also. I have been saying Baby Boy, Baby Boy, Baby Boy morning, noon and night.

 

[babsbag]

I have my eye on Chase. Not that I need another buck, but boy he is a nice looking buck, with a black head no less. Probably a good thing that she lives 2200 miles away.

 

[ThreeBoysChicks]

Corrections - Baby Boy, Baby Girl, Baby Girl.