What's new
  • Happy Birthday ICMag! Been 20 years since Gypsy Nirvana created the forum! We are celebrating with a 4/20 Giveaway and by launching a new Patreon tier called "420club". You can read more here.
  • Important notice: ICMag's T.O.U. has been updated. Please review it here. For your convenience, it is also available in the main forum menu, under 'Quick Links"!

Farmin' Without Harmin'

Highlighter

ring that bell
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Do it!

Enjoying your thread and your life's ambitions quite a bit. Need to read thru more,
but given your goals, becoming a supplier would be aces.
 
Plenty of limestone around... About $2 a5 gallon bucket. Called diamond dust at the quarry. Much more accessible than zebra muscles. And so cheap it feels free! Get some bio accumulators to tap into the minerals already on the property and your off!

What up with the gold cost haze?
 
Thanks RR!

This is just the beginning of this mix. We currently have chickens,pigs and earthworms making compost for the big batches of mix for next seasons greenhouse.

I need to find a source of local aeration amendment. We don't have anything similar to pumice out this way. I don't even know what would be a logical replacement for aeration besides the norms.

Here are my planned replacements for the rest...

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]flax meal - I will be growing my own small test field this season. Also a local organic source is available.

Kelp - Lake Michigan "sea weed". dried and powdered (i know it isn't a good comparable to deep water AN kelp)

hardwood ash - Plenty from heating with wood all winter

oyster shell meal - Great lakes zebra muscles and shells. dried and powdered

DE/bentonite/GRD - Almost wondering if I can do without this. I am going to try a mix that only has native clay and see how it goes

I have two Gold Coast Haze clones just planted into fresh mix. I didn't give this batch any cook time to see how she goes.
[/FONT]

Welcome brother!

Looks like you got it all planned out! Just with having livestock around you have a big advantage over us city folks lol. That's another of my goals, to have a lil farm with at least one cow, one pig, one goat and few chickens lol. Really though.
 

Highlighter

ring that bell
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Hey growingcrazy,

I know you're probably up to your neck w/ things to do, but I'd love to hear/see more about your masonry furnace. Thinking cement block?
Are you heating your water too?
I heat with wood. My place came w/ a coal/wood furnace in the basement w/ a pair of floor grates to help it get upstairs, but I just use my Jotul on the 1st floor.

Hey h.h., good luck w/ your BCS. I get a kick that they're calling them 'walking tractors' now!
It was just a tiller when I bought mine 22 yrs. ago. I did get a cutter bar attachment too tho.
We have a mini skid @ work that you stand on, so I borrow that for brush-cutting these days as well as stirring up the compost pile. For a guy with just a few acres, it would be awesome to have, but I dream of a little Kubota. :)
 
The gravel supply should have it... Quarry was probably the wrong word. But I do like the sound of picking shells. Love some beach time!

Both gold coast and Alice sound delightful!
 

Highlighter

ring that bell
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Thanks for the update and congratulations! :greenstars:

Figured you were up in it with wrangling with the property this summer. Now w/ a little one on the way, you'll be up to your neck with it all the more!
Drop a line from time to time, we're pulling for you! :tiphat:
 

3rdEye

Alchemical Botanist
Veteran
saying hi. I have been enjoying your planning and builds. Congrats on the new baby. �� excellent work
 

Latest posts

Latest posts

Top