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Homesteading and relying on what God made

David D

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is anyone on here building a homestead/ gardening /animals?
This is our farm we are restoring with faith and hard work!
Would love to share ideas!
 

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We have some livestock, garden, orchard, but not immersed in homesteading. Part wants/needs to be but major focus is ministry and feeding sheep plus job....

BTW, beautiful photography!
 
We have some livestock, garden, orchard, but not immersed in homesteading. Part wants/needs to be but major focus is ministry and feeding sheep plus job....

BTW, beautiful photography!
Yes! Life sure is a lot of work we are often overwhelmed with running a business, building a small farm, homeschool, study, fellowship and ministry (we hope our homestead will be a tool for ministry that’s why we are here). I am hopeful our family will grow and bear good fruit to share with others.
Thank you for the comment on the pictures. If you want to see more we have an instagram #journeyacres21
 
We are in central Arizona working toward greater sufficiency in producing what we need.

A great online resource for gardening and orchards is www.growingfruit.org

I like political discussion there in the non public areas....(it gives some here a break from my opinionated views)....and I use the same user name both places....so you can see some pictures of our projects there if you look.

I have not purposely brought up poly there, but I don't run from chances should one come up.

Very excellent forum and people there.
My second favorite place after this one.
 
We are in central Arizona working toward greater sufficiency in producing what we need.

A great online resource for gardening and orchards is www.growingfruit.org

I like political discussion there in the non public areas....(it gives some here a break from my opinionated views)....and I use the same user name both places....so you can see some pictures of our projects there if you look.

I have not purposely brought up poly there, but I don't run from chances should one come up.

Very excellent forum and people there.
My second favorite place after this one.
Awesome! Yes, I will have to check it out. Polygyny doesn’t sit well with many people as it upsets spirits if in the biblical context. It was hard for me to grasp but I really think the Father told me he would be setting up my family thatat way. Currently it’s me and my first wife and she is a huge blessing to my family. Sometimes it’s best not to bring it up if you want people to talk to lol.

I bet Arizona would be a good place to grow stuff.
 
We got a lot done today on the farm! I scraped out all the nasty dirt and am going to fill the area with 12-14 inches of good compost. We have about 800yards of shavings composing!!
 

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Just be aware that fresh shavings can be very detrimental to plants until its fairly composted. I made the mistake last year of putting too much too close to some fruit trees in an area that I’m filling up. (About 18-24”). An apple tree and an apricot tree totally died between last fall and this spring. Another apricot tree and nectarine tree that I didnt get to fill around yet are still going strong.

Wood shavings will suck the nitrogen right out of any soil or matter around it to feed the composting process. Not sure if that was the cause of my trees dying but I’d be careful
 
Just be aware that fresh shavings can be very detrimental to plants until its fairly composted. I made the mistake last year of putting too much too close to some fruit trees in an area that I’m filling up. (About 18-24”). An apple tree and an apricot tree totally died between last fall and this spring. Another apricot tree and nectarine tree that I didnt get to fill around yet are still going strong.

Wood shavings will suck the nitrogen right out of any soil or matter around it to feed the composting process. Not sure if that was the cause of my trees dying but I’d be careful

Yes! Some are close to a year old, I will be layering in around 8” and the than another 6-8” of finished garden dirt and peat
 
Just be aware that fresh shavings can be very detrimental to plants until its fairly composted. I made the mistake last year of putting too much too close to some fruit trees in an area that I’m filling up. (About 18-24”). An apple tree and an apricot tree totally died between last fall and this spring. Another apricot tree and nectarine tree that I didnt get to fill around yet are still going strong.

Wood shavings will suck the nitrogen right out of any soil or matter around it to feed the composting process. Not sure if that was the cause of my trees dying but I’d be careful

My first instinct would be to say that's more likely winterkill; though I don't actually know that a lack of nitrogen can't take them down over winter. A nitrogen problem in trees will show up in stunted spring/summer growth and small leaves, esp. on the new growth. Chipping out to the drip-line is a fairly common practice in organic orchards; keeps the sod out and allows the roots to breathe.

But it will eat up nitrogen on the A horizon of the soil. The affect of that will depend on how old the tree is.

Although, chipping it could exacerbate crown root rot if your soil isn't well drained, specially if you chipped to the trunk.
 
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My first instinct would be to say that's more likely winterkill; though I don't actually know that a lack of nitrogen can't take them down over winter. A nitrogen problem in trees will show up in stunted spring/summer growth and small leaves, esp. on the new growth. Chipping out to the drip-line is a fairly common practice in organic orchards; keeps the sod out and allows the roots to breathe.

But it will eat up nitrogen on the A horizon of the soil. The affect of that will depend on how old the tree is.

Although, it chipping could exacerbate crown root rot if your soil isn't well drained, specially if you chipped to the trunk.
I was thinking along similar lines (coming from a Arborists perspective though).
It could have been winter kill, but I was thinking it would more likely be a fungal infection caused by burying the trunk (like crown root rot), or possibly depending on how hot the chips got they may have cooked the trunk. It's hard to tell though without seeing the trees.
We will typically use 4-6" to hold moisture in, and keep weeds down around our trees. Granted though we do have well drained soil.
Just my two cents worth.:)
 
It also depends on the age of the tree. I strongly suspect only a young tree would be susceptible to being killed by nitrogen shortage. And in general, fruit trees aren't heavy feeders; you're more likely to hurt them with too much nitrogen. Any age tree will go to root rot.

Another thing, if you had a really dry winter that can kill fruit trees; especially, but not only, new ones.
 
We are looking to setup a small dairy (not selling) but looking to provide milk to neighbors, friends and family. Today’s milk is kinda sketchy. Does anyone have any dairy animals, goats, sheep or cows?
 
We are looking to setup a small dairy (not selling) but looking to provide milk to neighbors, friends and family. Today’s milk is kinda sketchy. Does anyone have any dairy animals, goats, sheep or cows?
I have done some work with goats and I think people with a Jersey cow(s) for milk do much better. Goats are nuts and harder to keep plus you get less in return for all the effort.
 
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