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Post by synergy on Oct 7, 2019 9:09:34 GMT -5
This year I cut up aluminum cans and impressed plant names on them for labels which worked better than any marker I have tried previously. Yesterday I got a free nearly new wood pig shelter 4' x8' which I intend to modify a bit and use to house my muscovey ducks which have been cramped in with chickens . We located this new little shelter so the ducks will be able to access our orchard that has a drainage swale and a wee pond by walking themselves through a little sloping vineyard. I tried keeping the ducks last winter in the orchard but the hillside proved a chore to hike up and down the hill in snow and ice carrying food and water and shut the ducks in when they took to a shelter at night then I would be traversing down the snowy hill in the dark. So this change is to cut steps and risk as I am aging and have more difficulty so I have to think smarter and let the ducks do the walking . At my previous home I enclosed the fruit trees in pallets, cut a few access holes in the bottom and sprinkled grain in one tree enclosure each day. I placed a small plastic pool and filled it each morning for the beside and uphill of the tree and each evening tipped the water to deep water one tree each day in rotation . The ducks trample the weeds and fertilize the tree while retrieving the grain . At night the coyote had access to hunt the voles that previously were destroying my young fruit trees . At night my ducks will be secured in their shelter for their safety . This system worked brilliantly at my old farm but now I am starting over at a property I moved to 4 years ago and I have not been posting for that duration .
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Post by philagardener on Oct 7, 2019 20:21:54 GMT -5
Welcome back, synergy ! Great to have you posting again!
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Post by steev on Oct 7, 2019 22:08:19 GMT -5
Long time no see, synergy; glad to hear you're well and making progress.
Years ago, I scored a syntho-stone kitchen-island top, so now that I have a kitchen again, I was looking to find some cabinets/drawers to put it on; my local big-box store had some nice ones; it'd take two to work, $600; they also had a stainless wood-topped mechanics cart, $600 (wouldn't take the stone); serendipity brought a three drawer, stainless-fronted cabinet that just needs a plywood back and that stone top to fill the bill. Freeconomics rule!
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Post by synergy on Oct 15, 2019 1:06:10 GMT -5
Thank you for the welcome back . At my new abode , it is closer to wilderness and more rural . We haul our garbage to a very small transfer centre one day a week which has a 'free store' shipping container where we can drop off goods for others to use and take anything we can use rather than let good things go in the waste stream . Last trip I dropped off toys and picked up a Rubbermaid outdoor storage trunk I will scrub up tomorrow and put to use. In our climate storage out of the elements is always useful on a little homestead. Other frugal living things daily is using every stone I come across to fill in around the chicken yard and in the next two weeks I will be raking and hauling carts of big leaf maple leaves to dress the veggie garden in.
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Post by steev on Nov 4, 2019 20:40:45 GMT -5
Scored four feet of vinyl, 90% classical, 10% eighties rock; prolly ups my collection 40%; guess I should get my turn-table re-furbished; haven't used it in a decade.
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Post by steev on Nov 8, 2019 23:12:14 GMT -5
Scored a four-shelf cabinet that will hold most of my vinyl collection and a recliner/rocker, in very nice condition; my house is nearly furnished; I'll buy a bed and a sleeper-couch, for the occasional guest (you're all welcome, of course), but that's about all I need. Is everything harmonized and in good taste? Do I care? Not so much, I assure you. My interest is the farm, not where I crash.
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Post by steev on Nov 11, 2019 21:35:24 GMT -5
My sweetheart gave me a queen-sized sleeper-couch that had been in a therapy office she'd sold, so I'm only short a bed, which I'll buy (she'd not sleep in a bed of unknown provenance); all my other furnishings are street-finds, craigslist-free, or salvage; my motto is "Live Free or Borrow".
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