Starting from scratch

Discussion in 'Members' Systems' started by Possum, Oct 23, 2010.

  1. helenlee

    helenlee Junior Member

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    The hen is gorgeous! What is she? And the chicken of course is too cute :)
     
  2. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Sweet!
     
  3. Possum

    Possum Junior Member

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    I don't know what her genetics are. She was a bitzer from a friend who breeds chooks indiscriminately, iykwim. I saw a chook with her colouring at the Collingwood Children's Farm but of course promptly forgot the name of it. She's my prettiest by far.
     
  4. helenlee

    helenlee Junior Member

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    She's just beautiful & I'd love to buy/trade/swap for some feathers off her if you pick up any that are in good condition :)
    Lucky score for you I'd say :)
    I hope she has chickens that look just like her :)
     
  5. Possum

    Possum Junior Member

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    I'd be very happy to send you some feathers. I'm sure we have a few around here in excellent condition which we collected at moulting time. I'll have a look.

    Sadly this isn't her genetic baby. It came from a fertilised egg from the same friend who gave me this black chook.So it may be a cousin or distant relative. ;) I'm sure she was black from hatching, so I don't think this one will look anything like her. My others from this friend are part silky, part bantam-who-knows-what, part pekin - a little of everything!

    I just want this chook to be a hen, not a rooster. The plan was to hatch at least 4 of the eggs and give them to a mutual friend who wants to start chook-keeping. But I can't give one chook away. So if it's a hen it stays. If it's a rooster it gets given to a friend of a friend who pairs hens and roosters for auction.

    My next plan is to buy some fertilised eggs or pullets of the aracuana variety. I wants me some blue eggs! Three dozen eggs are on my kitchen bench so I'm not in need of eggs, but I'm in desperate *want* of blue egg shells.
     
  6. Possum

    Possum Junior Member

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    Helenlee, I have about 5 or 6 feathers here from my pretty hen which I can send to you. Please PM me your address and I'll send them off this weekend. :)

    Sad news. Stupid news. I neglected to lock up my chooks last Sat night and three of them were taken by foxes. :'( Two isas and my pattable white bitzer. I'm pretty upset over it. DH and the kids were sleeping in a tent outside so DH woke and scared off the foxes before they could take more. I currently have two remaining isas and three bitzers (one lays every second day, the other two are brooding/mothering) and the hopefully-a-hen chick. I plan to buy another two isas from the same place and two araucanas just for fun.

    I might have to start a rain gauge question thread. I think I figured out why we have such enormous numbers in our rain chart.

    I harvested my small garlic patch the other day. Delicious!!!
     
  7. helenlee

    helenlee Junior Member

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    Wow! Thank you for that! I kind of forgot about this thread ... I have trouble keeping track of them on this forum :/

    Sad news about the other chooks :( It's a pretty horrible feeling I know ... I've experienced it. And carpet snakes :(
    I'll pm you tonight ... just checking in quickly between cow jobs right now :)
     
  8. Possum

    Possum Junior Member

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    Yeah, I find it hard to keep track of anything on this forum, but at least my thread hasn't gone anywhere since you posted last. ;)
     
  9. raven

    raven Junior Member

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    Hi,

    I haven't read through the whole thread, so sorry if this has been handled before.

    I'd be VERY surprised if you don't have a substantial enough slope to put swales and dams in.

    I'd get a laser level or similar and survey your highest spot (it's surprisingly easy) and your lowest spot and work out exactly how much drop you have. From that you'll be able to work out how many swales you may want to put in. If your neighbour's dam is close to your property (and the lines work out right), you may even be able to discuss with him/her running a swale between your two dams so that you both benefit... or at the very least, you benefit when his dam overflows by catching this overflow and putting it into the water table.

    When I first got involved in Permaculture my girlfriend at the time had a 5 acre 'perfectly flat' property. I never did do any Permaculture on it, but I did start to work out what I've described above, and I ended up with something like meters of drop from highest point to lowest. That's easily enough to make use of swales and catch water.

    Once you have swales you have it all (IMHO).

    Good luck. Hope to hear heaps more.

    Again, sorry if this has been covered.
     
  10. Possum

    Possum Junior Member

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    No, that hasn't been covered. Thanks for adding some more things for me to think about. Feel free to add more. I think you'd be right. The side which runs along the creek is likely to be lower than the road side.
     
  11. raven

    raven Junior Member

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    Yeah, I can almost guarantee that it will drop off. I wouldn't be surprised if the lowest point is actually before the creek (like a dip before it drops off into the creek).

    Finding out where the countours are (to me) is an essential first step. You can hire laser levels or autolevels fairly cheaply but you can also buy them easily. Just buy or make some little flags and go out one day and link a line of little flags out to find out where the lines are. After that you can find out where you're going to put your dams etc. You definitely wont have a keypoint of any sort (judging by what you've said) so you can at least have free reight on where a good place to put a dam in would be... however it may not be overly effective.

    Is your neighbour (and his dam) higher than you?


    Sorry, just noticed the picture and linking to his dam probaly won't work given the road in the way.

    YOu can always use the road to catch water too!
     
  12. Possum

    Possum Junior Member

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    Well, it's been a few months, but not as long as I thought. Lots has been happening here.

    DH has had a shed built which has almost doubled our rain-catching ability! The last few months have been fairly wet here and all three tanks (60,000lt+ total) have been overflowing each time it rains. They overflow into the underground tank (stock and domestic) so it's not wasted. The shed also brings us much closer to DH's dream of making quality furniture from home instead of rubbish for someone else. :) His passion is reclaimed timber freestanding furniture.

    The shed being finished also means we can finally put in the veggie patch I've dreamed of. We're putting in a set of raised beds (the whole property has clay soil and becomes waterlogged quite easily and I have a bad lower back) which DH made years ago from reclaimed materials for our former home.

    The kids have been diagnosed with aspergers, so it's been a rollercoaster year so far. Speech, OT, working on getting a therapy dog, realising our homeschooling will never be quite the same as I dreamed. I've been struggling and have found solace and enjoyment in the garden.

    I have 200+ garlic bulbs growing, in two varieties. Yum! A neighbour said he doesn't grow garlic because they never use it up in a year. I was shocked to discover he was talking about 6 bulbs! My goodness, I can't imagine a week without at least one bulb gone.

    A neighbour drove past saying he was about to rip out 4 rose bushes and offered them to us. Of course! The waterlogged soil made the clay easy to dig up to plant them.

    DH made a coldframe from sleepers lying around here and a shower door we ripped out when renovating. I currently have 12 seedling strawberry plants, 35 seeds in toilet rolls (tomatoes, snow peas, parsley, etc), and chives and carrots in there.

    View attachment 2673

    Once the frosts have passed I'll be establishing our first no-dig potato patch. I can't wait for tomorrow, to mark out the veggie patch. So many firsts, including finally a proper place to grow food, and most of the things I'm growing I've never grown before.

    Ugh! I have more pics, but the box is telling me my files are too large when they're the same size as the one it allowed. Hurrumph.
     

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