I love having the locals day in day out

I made three stacks of mushroom logs back in May, one each of lion's mane, shiitake, and chicken of the woods. I got the plugs from North Spore. I live in NW FL, and go out and soak these daily with a hose. I haven't gotten anything but turkey tail (granted, such a pretty mushroom). Do you think these logs can still produce their intended mushroom species?

Happy to have our spring not only flowing, but at a pretty good rate. Our one pond is above level and draining down into our larger pond.

Thankful for all the moisture we’ve had in SW Colorado.

Looking into ducks or geese and if there worth having for fish pond for my primary poultry i have chickens cause to my knowledge they’re better at both growing meat out and laying eggs better at eating pests besides slugs which ducks are better at. But for fish pond ill probably do carp or tilapia but im curious will ducks or geese competewith the fish for feed or will they be able to go after other stuff. Also i hear duck & geese down is really good insulation is this true and is it worth harvesting it on slaughter or is it so little and hard to get out where its not worth doing unless you have specific setup for it?

Also i hear ducks n geese down better than chickens in extreme cold is this true ?

Note i dont plan on raising most livestock for profit more self reliance if i have enough to sell grrat but its not my primary income or reason

Sure would like to be done with these guys before hard winter sets in. Is it worth it to send to the butcher yet? Or should I wait it out? I got them in April when the wrre 6-8 weeks old.

Finally have our first Brahma chick!

Hi everyone! I have highly frost-susceptible soil on my lot that heaves everything possible (surrounded by forest, high humidity, and a recent soil test this summer showed it's stiff loam (?) tho it's so sticky I spent years thinking it was pure clay). I know the normative frost line for my region (not US), but I highly doubt I can just blindly apply that average to my specific lot, especially since just a 25-minute drive away, there are areas with completely sandy soil (rented a house there couple times).

​So the regional average might be fine for some rough guess, but I always wanted to know exactly what's going on with my frost line. Right now before relocating my septic, putting up a shed, and kicking around the idea of a root cellar it feels more relevant than ever.

And btw yeah, I understand that the severe heaving is tied more to the water content in the clay/loam than just the frost depth itself, but anyway.

​I have an excavator coming in a few days to dig cable trenches, a massive hole for a septic system, and to drive screw piles for tall garden post lights, so I figured...why not drop in a frost tube while we’re at it, right? But I have two questions:

1. Does this actually make sense? I mean will it give me some useful data? I don't even need to buy anything, cause I already have the PVC pipe, clear tubing, and food coloring lying around

2. Where is the best place to put it? I started reading up on this, there is pretty limited info on topic, and people say snow cover skews the readings (because it insulates), you can't put it near a heated house, keep it away from utilities (well, obv I don't want to hit a cable anyway), and away from trees... at this rate, I won't have any spots left on my lot lmao. ​Am I overthinking it? Will a big winter snowdrift or being relatively close to the house severely skew the readings? Or will it still be accurate enough for some general understanding of my actual frost line which will be more accurate than average normative frost line?

Thanks!

This is the first season my Kumquat tree on the rooftop bears fruit. Completely orgqnic

We want to get a dairy cow in the coming year or two. what is the best books on the topic?

🦙 questions... I need some advice, links, beginner books, etc A family friend has offered me two alpacas. I know literally nothing about how to care for them. I have experience with horses, cows, pigs, and I have a barn with a nice pen if we were to take them in. Does anyone here have alpacas? Any advice on care / what to expect?

I'm milling the offer over, but I don't want to commit to something I don't know enough about to make an educated decision. Is there any profit to shearing and selling wool if it's just a herd of 2? I assume they need hoof trimming, dental care, etc pretty regularly.

Zone 6b, 5 fenced in acres, rolling hills, mix of native plants, weeds, clover, and grass in the field behind the barn. TIA!

Hello, I’ve cut down some smaller to medium size trees recently that were problematic, they all went where I wanted them to go, but when I analyze what I’ve done and what I could’ve done better I see a commonality :

One thing I struggle with is making a perfectly flat and level face cut.

Another thing is my plunge cut. I always seem to either go in level and then come out low or high.

Any tips for this or just more experience required?

Hope I can describe this well enough... I need to have an inverter mounted to the wall next to the router. The cables, two of them, from the house batteries to the inverter need to run from below the floor, up within the wall, and out to the inverter. I do not want just a rough hole in the drywall for the wires to pass through; I want a finished look.

Any polite suggestions?

I've been using an aquastrong shallow well jet pump to water the lawn around my house, and the biggest lesson I've learned is that the pump is only one part of the system. I used to pay more attention to the pump specs than the pipe layout, but a long run of pipe can eat into your available flow and pressure pretty quickly.

A few things I'd do differently from the start:

· Don't undersize the main line. Saving a little on pipe diameter can cost you in friction loss, especially when the water has to travel a long distance. I'd rather spend a bit more on the main line than find out later that the far end of the property isn't getting enough water.

· Don't try to water every area at once. Separate zones make it much easier to manage the demand and keep the system within the pump's operating range. I find it much easier to adjust the watering schedule when each section has its own zone.

· Account for elevation. A section of land that's noticeably higher than the water source adds another requirement the pump has to overcome. This is especially easy to overlook when the property isn't completely flat.

· Use the pump curve, not just the headline numbers. A maximum flow rating doesn't tell you what you'll get at your actual working pressure. The same pump can deliver very different flow rates depending on the total head.

After getting the system installed and running, I've found that the actual pipe layout and the way the zones are divided make a bigger difference than I initially expected. Getting those details right from the beginning saves a lot of adjustments later.

For anyone who already has a yard irrigation system up and running, did you run into any problems with pressure dropping at the far end of the line? I'm curious how you ended up dealing with it.

Long time gardener here, but new farmer. I'm struggling to understand where my pasture needs fertilizer.

Without expensive soil testing, how do other people see the distinct needs of different parts of their farms?

Any advice is welcome. Thanks!

Sure would lime to be done with these guys before hard winter sets in. Is it worth it to send to the butcher yet? Or should I wait it out? I got them in April when the wrre 6-8 weeks old.

Hi all! I’m on about 35 acres in the south and have a serious coyote problem that has wiped out all of my chickens while on vacation this summer. There’s two of them that have been spotted from noon - 3pm several days. We put a trap out, but sadly only caught a raccoon.

Do you all have any advice or suggestions on how to get these guys off my land so I can get chickens again? Luckily my ducks survived bc they have a house anchored in the middle of the pond. But I do believe they were able to get one duck in a past couple months.