Welcome to number 60! GFL will need it's AARP membership card soon. ;) You'll hear the barn door blowing in the breeze, and wow is it windy today. Is the show this week:
- Big thanks to John M for the care package
- Farm Phone: 206-202-GOAT
- Moving from Hawaii to Missouri
- How Beehive Splits work
- Round up: From cleaning to turkeys to sprouts it's been busy
- Farm Section: All about types of spinning wheels
- Life Section: Roller skating and astronomy
We hope you enjoy the show. Please leave a comment, drop us a line on the farm phone or email us at gfl@geekfarmlife.com.
The Sheep Shearing video I talked about is available from The University of Vermont UVM Livestock.
Picture of the week:
This week I made a time lapsed movie of our garden through the winter at: http://media.geekfarmlife.com/gtty.avi
It needs a lot of clean up, but even as it is I find it interesting.
John G on 2007-04-01 22:08:20
Nice intro. I had it at the first. NPR has their great April Fool's story on the Indigenous Scuplture Society where artists go to funnily named towns and build a sculpture based on the name of the town, and out of materials named in the town name (e.g., Monkey Eyebrow, KY). You can listen here. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9272588
Getting started: I agree with you to do all the interior work on the house before moving in. We did that in our house and it really made a difference. The second thing is to start a garden, but start small. Garlic is easy and you can grow a lot in a small amount of space. Peas are also good, and provide fixed nitrogen to the soil. Remember crop rotation! Also, tomatoes and peppers are easy. You will never buy store tomatoes again! But the very first thing is asparagus. Once you plant it, it will bear for 50 years or more. You really need to prepare the bed well, and if you plant crowns, you can get stalks the following year. Top dress with 1/8th inch of compost every year and that is all you ever need to do to your asparagus bed. 50 crowns can feed 4 people all year long if you fast freeze the excess.
I agree with Misty and Andrew to not get farm animals for the first year (or two). You will need to know your weather and sunshine patterns and provide your pasture areas. Their method of moveable electric fence is great.
Andrew, you should change the background of your website to the shade of green of you beehives.
Sorry about your turkey poults.
Do you shear 2x per year?
Baby might need an adjustment to her diet to get her milk production up, or it could be an indication of a health problem. If she has good reproducible udders, it seems a shame to give up on her.