Shua Gave Me Another Lamb Today

HARK! said:

Shua is my pet sheep's name.

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HARK! said:

The babies are so cute.

There is a steep leaning curve; but it seems that I'm starting to get on top of it.

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HARK! said:

I'm kind of new to farm life. I recently found out that it's in poor form to ask a farmer how many acres he's on.

I grow barley as a winter crop. I think I have that almost mastered now. I can make bread with that, and it makes great chicken feed.

This year I managed to slow the predators from killing my chickens. I now have over 100 chickens. Last year I had over 100; I lost over 60, in a single day.

I grow sorghum as my summer crop. I can make bread with the grain; and I can make syrup from the stalks. The grain also makes great chicken feed. I still need to work on getting that crop to be more productive.

In addition, this year I started growing sunflowers as a summer crop. I had fair success. I'll continue working on this. I can make cooking oil from the seeds; and they make great chicken feed.

I'm hoping to start a tilapia farm next spring; but we'll see how that goes. I've been working on that for a few years now, trying to dig a hole big enough that it won't dry up during the dry season. I'm almost there; but this summer has been so rainy that it might not dry up enough to do more digging.

I've started an elderberry patch last year; and so far it it doing very well. I have fruit this year.

I also grow sticker free edible cactus. It grows slowly; so the yield is low; but it takes virtually no care

Then there are wild mesquites that I harvest to make mesquite flour. It has a cinnamony raisony sort of flavor. I have other fruit and nut trees; that aren't doing as well. The long term plan is to have a completely off grid food forest.

After about 10 years of research, numerous failures, and lots of hard work, I'm just getting to the point where I might be able to sustain myself on what grows on my land, year round, if I had to.

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HARK! said:

During the egg season, I have trouble finding homes for all of my eggs. I give them all away.

However, I could store more eggs than I would ever want to eat, with no refrigeration; and very little effort.

I have both; but I am doing dryland agriculture. Modern agriculture is unsustainable, and dryland agriculture produces a product that tastes better, and is more nutritious. I'm moving toward regenerative agriculture; but it is not easy.

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HARK! said:

The biggest challenge is storing the energy. I was looking for a inexpensive source for quality Ni sheet, to make my own NiFe batteries. I put that on the back burner; and now with skyrocketing metal prices; it's an even bigger challenge. I have enough battery power to keep my incubators running. Priorities: water, food, heat.

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HARK! said:

I have looked at tilapia farms that are closed systems. Tilapia will eat lemon grass. Lemon grass will grow in tilapia waste.

Enough lemon grass will grow in the tilapia waste to sustain the tilapia.

I have seen a closed system tilapia farm, on one acre of land, that will sustain 200 people.

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HARK! said:

That might bore you to tears. Progress in farming moves very slowly. Aside from that, I have had far more failure than success; but that is part of learning what works, and what doesn't. Best to figure these things out before I depend on what I can grow.

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HARK! said:

Today is an exciting day.

Last week I bought a 50 pound bag of hydrated lime, a vacuum sealer, and some paper lunch bags.

I did some more research on waterglassing eggs, and was advised that using a 3 gallon bucket for storage makes it easier to gather the eggs on the bottom for use first. FIFO. A 3 gallon bucket will hold up to 80 eggs.

Sources told me that 5 quarts of hydrated lime solution will be sufficient to cover a 3 gallon bucket full of eggs.

I also did some research on the shelf life of hydrated lime. As I suspected, like concrete, it doesn't last all that long when exposed to humidity; so I thought out a practical way to store it for long term use.

I started by writing the following on each paper lunch bag:

HYDRATED LIME
5 OZ BY WEIGHT
MIX WITH 5 QTS WATER
FOR 3 GAL BUCKET

I didn't want to take any chance that I would forget those ratios over the years, should the internet be down for any reason.

I then weighed out 5 OZ.
I then transferred that to a measuring cup. For the product that I purchased, it worked out 1-1/4 Cups.
I then put the powder in the lunch bags, and neatly rolled them up; so the the text that I had written on them was all visible.

I found that it was useful to wear a mask during this process, as I found that was was inhaling some of the dust that was being stirred up with all of the motion. Hydrated lime is caustic; so i could have worn gloves too. I just rinsed and dried my hands from time to time. I'm not worried about getting a little bit of wet concrete on me; but extended exposure can cause severe chemical burns. I kept my my fingers away from my eyes; but eye protection might not have been a bad idea either; but I'm not all that cautious.

The paper bags will help protect the hydrated lime from light; but more importantly it will help to prevent the fluffy powder from being drawn into the vacuum sealer, which would cause damage to the machine.

I bought two 8 inch X 20 foot rolls of the vacuum bag plastic. The full, rolled, lunch bags fit the 8 inch dimension very nicely. With a little bit of experimentation, I found that an overall bag length (before sealing) of 7-1/4 inches worked nicely. This will yield 66 bags of finished product. I started my bag cutting process by marking my first 7-1/4 inch bag as a template. Through transference I didn't want my measurement to deviate. I then took that bag and aligned it with the edge of the remaining roll. I marked the roll with a felt tipped marker, and made my cut with a paper cutter, for a nice clean, square, edge. Then I repeated that process, being sure to work off of my template each time.

Excluding the cost of the vacuum I managed to put these bags together for under $1 a piece. We will see over the years how well this method works. I'll try to remember to post an update from time to time.

Hopefully it works well, and even if the grid goes down; and the trucks stop running; I can hopefully store eggs year round without refrigeration (from anywhere from 8 months to two years) for many years to come

Be sure to understand how to properly waterglass eggs before before you start that process.

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HARK! said:

The temperature does make a difference. They should be stored in a cool dark place.

Have you heard of the float test for eggs? It works.

Happy Egg • What is the Float Test, and How Does It Work?

The Float Test has entered the chat.

happyegg.com

I don't know if it works for water glassed eggs though.

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