Discussion Board

You know I felt the same way when my husband and I split. We may not have had as much income, but it was total worth trying to make it without him.

That is wonderful that you grow so much produce you can sell it and share it. I barely share and it's with people I know. I just don't have that much excess.

I always get over excited in the spring, then when stuff starts coming in I always say I'm not going to plant as much next year, then I always do
Last year we had 15 tomatoe plants of different types, we had tomatoes coming out our ears. lol
but I love to do the farmers market, it is so much fun, and my best friend is the cook at the assisted living home and she loves having the fresh veggies to cook with.
All the stuff I started early this year is ready to go in the ground but we keep having rain and ugh snow. so it all still in my living room. but there is already two tomatoes! TA DA
I'm doing so much better physically this year and can hardley wait to get the garden going.
but yesterday I got given a way to pass the time. Two Nigerian Dwarf Goat babies to bottle feed!! they are so tiny, smaller than our cat. and sooooo adoribibale. I have been missing my 'girls' so much now I have my pets again and I'm loving it.
there won't be any thing wasted from the garden this year!!!

I've never heard of that type of goat. I've never owed a goat but love playing with them. These aren't the fainting goats is it? How do you keep them out of the garden?

One neighbor around the corner from us, always has problems with deer. He has a large piece of property with some woods, his lovely garden and the stream that goes through our neighborhood. So the deer travel up at night to feed off his garden. He tried this fancy motion thing last year. Darn thing would squirt me when I was walking by. This year he put up rod iron with spokes on top. He's serious about not losing anything. Luckily I am far enough away so no deer. I do have squirrels and rabbits.

Sorry to go off, just thinking of keeping out goats made me think of this fence he put in.

LOL Your neighbor will need a pretty high fence to keep them out he is beter off fencing it completly with wire over the top too. THey can jump pretty high.


I love goats they are really pretty cool animals and you can get the boys fixed so they don't stink... they do stink if un nutered.

Hi Faith and Kitty,
We have a well fenced barnyard area on the other side of our 3 acres, as far from the garden as we could get it
A few years ago we had a real problem with the neighbors cows, they trampled the entire garden. I was soooooo angry The neighbor denied it was his cows, said it was probably deer, but I know a cow print when I see one. SO one night I sat up wrapped in a dark coat and ski mask, I hid behind the garden shed and when those danged old cows showed up I shot them,,,with bright pink paint balls !!! Each one of 4 got about 3 hits and their hind sides were covered in undeniable pink paint. Next morning I called the neighbor and ask him again if his cows had gotten out, again he denied it. Later that day he came shame faced to our door with a sack full of squash, zuccinni and tomatoes and told us how surprised he was to see all his bright pink cows!!! We had a good laugh and have been great friends ever since!!!!!
For the deer we use cattle pannels that are about 5 feet high, above that we string fencing wire from post to post every foot or so up to about 10 feet high ( we made it that high using 1x2's wired to the post ) and tie brightly colored strips of material to the wire, we also hang tin cans togeather and they clang and make noise,,never have had a deer problem.
You can look up the Nigerian Dwarf goats online,,,they are soooo cute! My new babies are black and white and white and black. they stand about 8 inches high and are about 10 inches long. the big one, a little buck, weighs in at a bouncing 1 1/2 pounds!!!
Right now they are living in a play pen in our living room and are quite spoiled already. When they get bigger and the weather dries out and warms up they will be introduced to the wonderfull world out side and a nice big barn to play in. And yes we will be getting the buck neutered cause they do get very smelly. I got two, because goats of all types are herd animals and I love seeing them skip and play out in the pasture. I'm hoping to get pictures up on my facebook soon and you can see them there. just look for Marcia Young to view my profile. I'll try to have some up next week.

I'm going to have to do a search on those goats.

The thought had crossed my mind on the fence maybe not being tall enough. It looks to be about 4 1/2 ft. The spikes are tall and pointy though. God I hope I don't walk by and see an impelled deer.

I get bunnies and so far they are behaving. I do have some liquid fence. I just saw that advertised on TV. It smells like rotten eggs and for keeping bunnies and deer out of the yard.

It doesn't seem to be working for the birds eating my bean seeds. I'm tempted to lay down some netting until the poor plants sprout. I know then the birds will leave them alone. I guess things like the chard will be ok temporarily under the netting. Darn I planted like all over too on Saturday.

We are considering trying to grow some wheat or other grains in a small meadowlike section of our new acre. We haven't figured out how we'd thresh it yet, but we actually might just grow it for chicken feed. (We want chickens to help with pest control in the garden, to produce manure for compost, and to provide eggs to feed the dogs.) The stalks would also be useful for mulch.

Our CSA farmer grows wheat in Phoenix so I buy extra from him every season. (I no longer buy flour or wheat elsewhere.) While it is threshed, it is not entirely clean. Cleaning it is time-consuming but must be done before grinding. I winnow by pouring between two buckets in front of a fan. Outside, of course. We grind it with a pedal-powered grain grinder.

For improving soil, he recommended we plant wheat along with a native "pigeon pea". When it gets knee-high, he said to turn it into the soil as a green manure and plant your desired crop. We haven't tried that yet, but I took a load of wheat with mouse droppings in it off his hands for just that purpose.

I do believe I have a can of pigeon peas on my shelf. I got them on a southern jaunt and liked the name.