The greatest number on earth:
I like composting (rotting) wood chips, hay, cow manure with soil and allowing it to rot many years, the longer the better. Adding a little ocean minerals makes it even better. Having a large supply, it is also a great place to plant a giant pumpkin or most broad leaf vegetables.
Green houses can become very hot and then kill all the plants, this green house is 20 years old and the automated vent openers needed replaced. these devices open when they are subject to heat and close when the air cools down.
When time permits, I hope to make throwing targets and use the limbs as supports.
I look at my skies everyday of my life, to ignore the quality of our air, would be the greatest mistake a person could do. Since 1949 they have been controlling the weather and warming up the planet by following the sun 24/7 around the planet and “trapping” the heat; for longer than most people have been alive. Understanding your weather and air is every human’s largest priority if they like living well. Mushrooms come up April 10th through Mother’s Day in my area. Always time for fun and the faster the better!
22 years ago we picked up a bucket of Gingko Seeds and planted them and had 500 young trees, i kept about 30 and today have my own little Gingko forest growing. The leaves are useful, but the seeds are what has some historical value and some actually make a soup out of the seeds. After 22 years I have yet to have seeds, i have hopes. My property and area has plentiful Black Walnut Trees and this is one of the greatest trees on earth, it has saved my live in many ways. The roots of the tree are the same size below the ground as the tree we see. They love water, but Black Walnut is a very hard wood used for the finest furniture making. These trees can be cut every few years and will keep growing back. Germany studied all herbs 80-90 years ago and determined the best de-worming part of the Black Walnut Tree is the “male” buds on the north / top of 60 foot tall trees. So a 65 foot 4×4 bucket truck is a must.
Usable wild herbs grow everywhere, Solomon’s Seal, grows in the dark woods and as well in fence rows and even garden. Wild Ginger likes rich soil inside dark woods, but it also will grow in gardens. Burdock is a very hardy plant with very large leaves. Mullein loves rocky poor soil and like Burdock; has many uses. Colts Foot loves rocky creek banks, but strangely enough will live in gardens. In the green house, Spinach comes up quickly, as does Cabbage.
Night time temp has been staying around 34 degrees and at least one more week coming, which is tormenting apple, peach and pear blossoms. Today I was pulling weeds in the Horseradish Patch and discovered a litter of little bunnies. The extremely intelligent mother has a high jump up into the horseradish box and understood that the fox and dogs can not smell the rabbits. ideally the little bunnies need a plastic pipe to crawl into or a box for mother and her babies to get in out of the freezing rain and snow; surely the babies were under this snow and i had no clue at the time. Wild herbs grow freely all around the property and often close to buildings, Catnip looks very healthy this year; True Lilly of the Valley is very rare and has been obsolete for years now.
Wild Stinging Nettles I use to believe was a harmless plant, until last year when I dug up this patch for the roots. Stinging Nettles never bothered me much my entire life; they just ‘itch” for a little time and then it goes way. I made a terrible mistake with a few dozen of these plants, i cut the stems from the roots barehanded and using a very cold water hose I washed all the dirt off the roots. My hands were “stinging” but not enough to bother that much as long as the water was cold. Did ever get a surprise, my hands were both horribly affected by the removal of the stems and holding the roots until they were clean of all dirt. Both of my hands swelled and stung for a full month, I felt like an extreme arthritis in both hands and up into my forearms to my elbow. In Fact, the Stinging Nettles “badly” poisoned both arms. it was a crippling experience that lasted a full month. I have never read of such a story in any herbal book. As a result of this horrible experience, I would never ever drink Stinging Nettle tea of use this herb in anything. It make be harmless and a very big historical use herb, but for “me”, I will never use it again. I will avoid the plant, the poison when over done as I did, with cold water is proof to me that this plant can be dangerous.Once the poison wore off after a full month, my hands and arms returned 100% back to normal.
The Horseradish patch is the ideal location for mother rabbit to nest and raise her babies. There has been a family of foxes all around daily feasting on rabbits for years now, it takes wise rabbits to survive in a world of the fittest when your what is for lunch for coyotes, fox, eagles, mink, measles, owls, dogs, cats, hawks, and humans with shotguns. Wild baby rabbits normal with die of “fright” when picked up by a human, these baby rabbits apparently have seen me enough that they are in extreme fear and amazing i never noticed their nest. The Horseradish surely is covering their scent. I finally today placed a 6 inch T Pipe to provide a nice protective home for the bunnies to get out of the freezing rain. How they have survived the snow and freezing rain is really amazing. once they come out of the horseradish, they will forever be running for their lives.
The 2021 school track and field district conference is split into 1/2s, tonight was Shot Putt, sophomore, 16 years old, 184 pounds wins 2 place with a 43 feet 5 inches against a senior that outweighed him 100 pounds and threw his PR and won first by 1 foot. The large schools have steroid seniors weighing over 300 pounds throwing the 12 pound ball over 54 feet.
We recently spoke to an Amish sales clerk young girl who asked us if we raised cows, etc. and she said she did not understand people that do not seek to raise the best possible food; because our food is “everything” as far as our health and $$ value is concerned. When I was very young our garden was large and we went to town a few times per year. Chicken manure makes for the best garden soil fertilizer. Gardening can be fun and rewarding, this year my mother dropped off garden seeds and for the fun of it, I made a new garden and being older, I like to bend down less and prefer to spend the effort to raise the plants higher. My dirt is a mixture of wood chips, hay and cow manure that should have composted a couple more years. Once I was able to till the soil up and level it out, I covered it with 5 bags of peat moss, so it would appear smoother so seeds could be easier to plant. Once the peat moss was applied, I was able to plant green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, crook neck squash, zucchini, muskmelon, onions, watermelon, spinach, carrots, cabbage, parley, etc. and some bug repelling flowers along with aloe vera.
When working a lifetime to own your own property and raise your own food, etc. you need to “protect” what you have from unwanted intruders, such as coyotes, foxes, groundhogs, mink, raccoons, etc. and the ‘universal’ man’s best friend is the Black German Shepherd dog breed in my opinion. We picked up 2 new female pups, we named them Daisy and Dixie. The black breed tends to be the most loyal dog imaginable, they will ‘exist” to be by your side at all times. They will wait for you and best of all, they tend to stay home and protect the property they learn is “theirs”. Like most real dogs, they like to be the only dog, but adapt to having other dogs around, but always become attached to one human the most. They have less interest in hunting and not instinctive wanting to kill rabbits, squirrels, etc. and quickly learn what is friend of the family and to not harm what is off limits. The none black breeds can be hunters and often can be overly aggressive to strangers. The Black German Shepherds I have been very mild and extremely loyal dogs that prove man’s best friend is a real dog. a dog that is waiting at the door each morning and seeks to never leave your side. They can be trained to be policed dogs, but when left alone, they are the most loving ‘family” dog possible.
Amazingly the peach trees survived the snow and late freeze!
Potatoes! out of all the man manipulated vegetables, surely the potato has a long history of feeding humans. It is amazing how they can develop eatable vegetables from deadly nightshade plants. Common potatoes are one of the vegetables that can be sliced and ate raw, but most people cover them in salt, pepper, oils, dairy products, bacon, etc. With the common potato all you need do is cut the potato into 4 pieces and grow 4 new plants. There are endless goo varieties of common potato today and a growing number of variety of sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes can grow to huge size. You can suspend a sweet potato in a jar of water by inserting tooth picks and allowing the roots to form in the water and ‘shoots’ will grow out the top and you can plant those shoots and continue growing more sweet potatoes, otherwise, the true sweet potato is a lab created “monster” created by scientist and sold as “runners” that are cut into pieces and planted.
Pumpkins are a food source, but few people today grow them to eat and more as a ‘decoration’. For fun, people try growing the largest pumpkin and actually they are a form of a squash and not really a pumpkin. This summer for the fun of it, I am going to try to grow a large pumpkin. I sent off for the giant seed, but when you buy from amazon you almost always get ripped off and my pumpkin seeds were so tiny, the smallest seeds i have ever seen—but I will give it a try. REAL Giant Pumpkin seeds can cost as much as $100 per seed when they come from the champion weight pumpkin of 1+ ton plus in size. I have pumpkin plants growing in the green house and today have the soil prepped. The soil is actually a large compost pile and will have automated pond water and as much fertilizer as the pumpkin plants can tolerate. When going for a giant none eatable squash / pumpkin, there is no need to be “organic”.
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