Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Debbie McDonald <lbirke1@yahoo.com>]

Hello Aliza, thank you for snubbing me on the goat story, I have verified what I have said to you and also have a top breeder in the nation that has concurred about the person that sold me my does and her lies. How nice that you think hereditary faults in goats should be ignored so as not to rock the boat,  with the small gene pool in this breed, very bad for sure.

 

  Now, to the grasshopper story, I live in TX too , for now, and I found by accident that if you can have some water falling on your plants, the grasshoppers will stay away. They were decimating my flower gardens and I started running a sprinker over the gardens(only when I let the goatie girls out to munch the 30 acres of woods we have) to keep the goats from nibbling them, the goats hate to get wet, and lo and behold,  everything is thriving, blooming madly and just a tropical paradise, blooms intact. I have well water and do not like to waste but the grasshoppers are madness this year. Is it Nolo bait that is supposed to stop them. I think this year that is tricky as your neighbors hoppers will come on over. We have army worms on some hay fields now,  I am not one of them. It is sandy soil here and I have driven around and found myself a hay farmer that is almost organic, uses hummates, no chemicals mostly?:O and chicken litter:O:O but such a wonderful man and mostly for me, his grass is grown on dirt instead of sand. If you saw his peach orchard, I have never seen anything like it. The TALLEST, PLUSHEST peach trees, it was unbelievable. I'm getting some hay from him for my animals and trucking it home instead of buying hay grown up here. Mostly I like him as I think he has integrity,  and I do not find that almost at all anywhere in this area and online;) at times, anymore.
  I did consign to buy some guinea hens to decimate the grasshoppers but as is the case with integrity, she offered to keep them a week and then sold the ones I bought and said I could have the young ones coming up:(  They would have been too small to let loose and free range for some time. The human element is needing this adjusting the world is giving it.  I picked guineas because, firstly , I hear such stories of how they give the owners joy laughing at their antics, secondly, they do not decimate your garden with scratching, and also, I have dogs and the guineas leave you without fleas and ticks AND, they are noted for driving snakes away:) Too bad I dont' have any, lol. I did find a new source.  If you like to look at birds, here is a great site and look at the Vulturine guineas, really pretty birds, really expensive birds.

http://www.texaspeafowl.com

I hope that is right.

Anyone been reading any spiritual gardening books lately you can recommend?:)    Deb

---

From: Aliza Vanderlip <songbird97520@yahoo.com>
To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sun, August 15, 2010 9:13:52 AM
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] sustainable

For hoppers cant you cage your garden and leave the chickens loose?  Unless we are talking a huge garden - if you have annual hoppers the chickens would take care of them in short order and your feed bill would sure be a lot lower for a month or so.  Of course if you dont cage the garden and let the chickens out you wont have any beans either.  I have some younger birds in the 4 or 5 month range that think that my pole bean leaves are delicious:o)  They are only down here at the house because of a coyote incident - the LGD is down here in a pasture with the sheep and they found their way into the garden because of a cute little bantie that knows her way around the farm......  I would sure be using those birds to my advantage so the hopper population is depleted and fast.

Blessings,

Aliza
www.eftashland.com


“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Howard Thurman

--- On Sat, 8/14/10, Andeanfx <andeanfx@midrivers.com> wrote:

From: Andeanfx <andeanfx@midrivers.com>
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] sustainable
To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Saturday, August 14, 2010, 8:59 PM

On a smaller scale we have considered a smaller vacuum but it would need to be one filters the hoppers out of the air before the air goes through the impeller such as a shop vac.


I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened. -- Mark Twain


----- Original Message ----- From: <bob@4agoodauction.com>
To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 14, 2010 9:31 PM
Subject: [Livingontheland] sustainable


> I am in Texas and the grasshoppers have eaten everything in the garden
> except okra and Cucuzza. The cucuzza is thriving without added moisture and
> producing a huge quantity of squash. All the bean crops are gone. I am
> thinking about how to make a giant vacuum cleaner running off the PTO of the
> tractor so I could use the grasshoppers for chicken feed, fish feed and
> garden ammonia. I am rambling but part of sustainability to my way of
> thinking is to find what crops grow and flourish in the "new" higher temps.
> I am looking for seeds from the arid areas of the world to try as I do not
> believe anything will get better in my life time. I don't believe it will be
> worth the effort to salvage the past patterns of farming or life. Better to
> find what will work in the new reality.
> Bob C
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Livingontheland mailing list
> Livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland

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