Happenings on the back 40' (feet)

This is the cold frame my Go-To-Man built for me out of scrap wood collected from a local shed factory's scrap pile & some upholstery plastic bought with a coupon. Yes, I know you thought that it was just for covering your Aunt's living room furniture.
This little project came after I had spent some time curled up on the couch reading vintage MEN mags about harvesting a salad in the depths of winter. Reality was that shortly after this pic was taken everything growing in here froze.
Upgrade for this coming fall/winter is to insulate the end panels with scrap insulation foam covered with foil (reflection factor) and add a second layer of plastic so there is a 2" or so dead air space between. Will run tests to see if side vents need to be installed.

To the left is our cold frame minus the lid in early June.
There is spinach along with mixed salad greens, a few red onions intended to be compost, beets, and some marigolds for bug protection.
Directly behind in a landscape timber bed is about 8 green bell pepper plants and two red something or other peppers.
To the right is two rhubarb plants on their 3 rd year.
Wood chip mulch curtsy of my city organic dump a.k.a. free.









Almost two months later about the same time of day.
As you can see very shady. In an urban environment there is allot less control in where you plant or what affects your garden outside your lot limits such as neighbor's walnut tree that shade's the very back of my lot/farm.
Despite this so far I have picked 1/2 a bushel of green peppers and numerous salads for DH & myself.
Last year there were 3 hanging baskets of Nasturtiums so this year via falling seeds the pepper bed is full of those edible blooms. To the left in the houseplant container is my Husband's Bloody Butcher Heirloom Tomato plant. A great salad type tom very prolific. Mulched with used hay from our buns.

Satellite Farm

This is a pic of our satellite berry farm located somewhere in our city limits. We don't weed, water, spray, or fertilize.
Just simply enjoy our booty of wild black raspberries, blueberries, and fox grapes.

A good harvest is about 6 - 8 pints total. That's picking every other day in season. Competition is mostly birds (Blue Jays) sometimes deer, and the person who mows once a month.
We make cordials, jam, and fruit syrup for yogurt and ice cream.
Nothing we really depend on like our garden just a nice add on that is free. DH & I have a nice quiet early evening in which there is no conversation just a quiet peace between us.
Something that keeps us bonded much like reading in bed together.






Close up of wild black raspberry shrubs.
Bring off spray and wear old ace wraps on your arms otherwise it's a blood bath.
Scattered in with the berries are some wild concord type grapes (fox grapes), and other odds & ends. Big one to i.d. is of course poison ivy.
On my to do list is to actually take a foraging class Ala Stalking the Wild Asparagus/Euell Gibbons. No matter how many books or photos a person has read and seen there is nothing like learning first hand.

Keeping the Milk Cold

This is a great example of an gas-absorption cycle refrigerator the Crosley Icy Ball Refrigerator in working order. The following link explains in detail the non-electric method of refrigeration better than I can.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icy_Ball
It was a true excitement to see one as complete as this @ the Pageant Of Steam in Canandaigua, New York. My only regret is that I wasn't able to speak with the owners who were away from their campsite.

Expanding on a resource

The following Spring after I bought my city home I stumbled on a nursery run by two elderly brothers who had the most varied selecting of plants I had ever seen. The Purple Cone flowers a.k.a echinacea took my breath away despite costing $10 a bucket. I bought 6.
Now seven years later I have new cone flowers that I re pot & sell in my annual plant sale, a beautiful view in my side garden, and when there's a breeze a faint lovely scent fills my home.
The flowers share this bed with Ever bearing Strawberries and an occasional pussy cat on the prowl.
Behind the Cone flowers is a pale Lilac shrub obtained from a vacant city lot for free. Re potted shoots have made me a bit of change.
As you can tell my good neighbor's 1915 there is less than 20' between our homes. The flowerbed defines and provides a buffer.



This honey bee isn't exactly part of our livestock since we can't harvest the honey - yet. Just a matter of my can-do man building us a hive.
It is a possibility waiting to be enhanced.

~~ pelenaka ~~
addicted gardener

Urban Homestead Livestock a.k.a. putting meat on the table.

This is Handsome, our two y.o. Flemish mixed breed buck bought for $5. He is quiet, eats almost anything I throw at him such as garden weeds along with his rabbit feed.

Right now he is giving me the look since I had actually touched his lady Chocolate. The look says "You know better".

Come winter I set up my portable greenhouse moving their pen in. They both sleep in a big hay filled nest box.

The plan is two or three times a year Handsome jumps the fence and has a tryst with our meat rabbits does.

The after about 16 weeks the results are sent to freezer camp.

Rabbit isn't our primary meat source on our menu so we don't grow more than say 10 fryers of 5 lbs. weight a year. Often it's less than that which is fine for now.

Raising meat rabbits is more or less a two fold benefit on our urban homestead.

First is the bunny poop which is the greatest manure ever since there is no need to age the poop before application. Here is a nice site http://www.rabbitfarming.com/manure.htm

Better garden production = more harvest = less $ spent on food = extra income.

Second is that raising this type of meat is very do able both in cost & location wise.

Can't buy a beef cattle for under $25 and pasture it in your backyard.

So if the worst case scenario does happen be it a version of Red Dawn or simply that money is tight we can still eat.

Rabbit is good eating. Delicate white meat that can be cooked anyway you would chicken.

I can directly control what my rabbits eat.

Resulting in a healthy meat that isn't laced with hormones or antibiotics. Or jammed pack with preservatives.

The care & welfare of my livestock wasn't trusted to a multinational company who's bottom line will always be profit, think pet food or peanut butter. Or the latest- Sara Lee products.

Good site on raising backyard rabbits http://www.rudolphsrabbitranch.com/rrr.htm

~~ pelenaka ~~

Urban Homestead Livestock

I said, "ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME"!

This is Chocolate a pig who is after a year the common law pen mate to my Flemish mixed breed rabbit, Handsome.

What can we say it works for them.

He protects and warms her on cold winter nights in their nest box and she signals for more food with a glass shattering squeal.

Chocolate came to us about six months old from a home that had two big dogs. Her cage was on a small table in a dark hallway. She was a bundle of nerves to say the least. She isn't real social, dislikes being held, but will take feed from your hand now.

Last time she was weighed she came in just under a bit over a pound.