Homestead mailing list

["Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT dtnspeed.net>]

>Since George will only be with us a couple years  more, your decades are
>a bit of a stretch.

We can only hope he will be out of office in a couple of years. What if we
have another terrist attack and it becomes necessary to declare martial law?

Okay, okay, I'll put my tinfoil hat back on the shelf, but I'm not
encouraged by computer voting without a paper trail. If fraud can be
committed and humans are involved, fraud will be committed.

Damn! I don't want to become a guerilla fighter at my age... but I'm sure it
gets easier to blend in the older you get, so I might be effective.

Now back to starting seeds...

Having, in a fit of enthusiasm, acquired two donkeys, I'm thinking of laying
down a few inches of donkey droppings for the heat and starting hotbeds of
composted materials in March on top of the composting donkey manure. My
late, great uncle Johnny was an amazing gardener, and he prized equine
manure for hotbeds. I wish I had picked his brain before he died
(thankfully, I was forced to work for him for several summers by my mother
so I learned some stuff, though not nearly enough, from him).

I believe he put in a layer of equine or chicken manure, layered it over
with dirt, and started his seeds in the dirt. The heat from the manure kept
the soil at a reasonable temp and, as it decayed, fed the seedlings. He had
his hotbeds on the side of an east-facing hill and used old windows over
them.

Marie