dogmom4

Yep. I got a Cadbury milk chocolate bar (cuz its my favorite) and a movie. KISS is my motto.

We are in the extreme drought area. Today the weather was in the 60's and humid after 4 nice days of rain. We are also battling mosquito's...very early for our area. That is one of my big fears. We're pretty much having no winter at all...I wonder if the bug situation will be bad....

Stay safe!

Interesting. Read some comments and one lady said she had her son taken away from her because was living off grid. Turned in by her own mom....really sad.

Thanks Cat!

I dont do digging here at all. Soil is too hard. I put it on top of an old raised bed I haven't been using so there's already some loosening of the soil around it. I started out with dried wood from a dead tree. And I'm doing a little at a time...I throw yard waste on top when I get it. I won't be planting it until probably March/April...depends on how warm the soil gets. The plan is to try tomato and squash...they row deep roots and do better with less watering. I'll post pics. Right now the pile is about 4 feet tall. I'm sure it will shrink with the rain we're getting. I plan to keep adding...I have an area of ivy I'm taking out and I'll top it off with some compost that should be ready in March. Have you heard of Ruth Stout? She gardened with no digging at all. http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/mulching-ruth-stout-style

http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/ http://futuretribal.wordpress.com/tag/hugelkulture/?blogsub=confirming#subscribe-blog http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/list/520/17#80038

Most of you know California is going through a pretty serious drought. We've only had a few days of rain since November (it's storming right now but I doubt a few days of rain are going to fill the very empty lakes and reservoirs in the Sierras). Many farmers are not going to be getting enough water for their fields...which means less fields will be planted...which turns into higher costs for the veggies that come from this area because there will be less available. We've been encouraged for quite some time to be careful with our usage...there are lots of dead lawns and the school I'm at has stopped watering the huge grass area for sports ( its completely brown). I want to expand my garden but know how much water it takes to keep it going here. In normal weather times it stops raining around May/June and doesn't start back up until Sept/Oct. The weathers been so off lately who knows what will happen. Our soil is very hard clay here so I've never bothered to try and dig...I garden on top. Raised beds and containers. The problem with containers is during the hottest months you sometimes have to water twice a day to keep things alive. Raised beds are good...but require the initial startup of buying the wood, etc. I've been doing some research on hugulkultur which I heard about on the survival summit. It seems to be a simple, no or low cost way to build a bed and reduce water usage. I've started a small one in my backyard. It'll be interesting to see how this works. (I didn't dig a trench as it says in the directions. I just started a big pile) What is Hugulkultur? Hugulkultur is a German word translated as Hill Culture. Turns out hugulkultur is a permacultural way of making raised beds using rotting wood, twigs, branches, hedge clippings, brassica stems, felled or discarded trees or any kind of wood that would otherwise have been burned or shredded. How to make a Hugulkultur raised bed The concept is brilliant yet so simple. You dig a trench about 30 centimetres deep and 1.5 metres wide. In the centre you dig another hole about 30 centimetres deep. You pile in all the woody bits and cover it with turf turned face down and then place well rotted compost, leaves, manure and the like over it. The wood provides water retention, so less watering. Depending on how large the wood is that you are using the decaying process can take a few years. The raised beds are full of organic matter, nutrients and air pockets for roots to establish. As the composting process is still active it can be that the raised bed stays warm for a long time which will even extends the growing season. These raised beds are perfect for hungry crops such as courgettes and pumpkins. It is a great way to use clippings, branches and twigs which would have taken a long time to compost or ended up in a shredder. This way uses up less energy and creates a perfect environment for your veg and for the creatures that live in the soil. Not all kinds of wood are suitable. Go to richsoil.com to read more about Hugulkultur and which woods to use and ones to avoid. Or this article on inspirationgreen.com with great photos of all kinds of raised beds using the hugulkultur method.

Hi lovin it! So sorry to hear about your horse.

Welcome back! And congrats on the new baby!

Bump! How do you de-stress?

What she said.......

ROTFLOL!

Ummmm...yeah...that's what I was thinking.

Its gonna save us all from getting carpal tunnel.

ROTFLOL!

That's pretty cool! I like this one too. A chicken moat...chickens are around your garden to help reduce weeds and pests. I can't figure out pictures. http://theharriedhomemakerpreps.blogspot.com/2011/10/great-chicken-moat-build.html http://theharriedhomemakerpreps.blogspot.com/2011_10_01_archive.html This link is for one like what you found Cat. http://oursillyoldlives.blogspot.com/2013/07/mary-mary-quite-contrary.html

I like her stuff too. I'm in the middle of today's webinar and its pretty good. I also heard the one she gave on Tuesday and it had lots of good stuff in there.

Doesn't the egg make them 'cake like'?

Thanks for testing it out Cat. Sounds like its a nice idea when you're in a pinch.

http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2013/08/2-ingredient-pumpkin-brownies-recipe.html I'd really like to know how these taste....

Hope you had a wonderful day!!!

Hmmm....does the higher percentage mean we're just a bit closer to being ......a little crazy???

Mine was 33%....but said the same thing as CG.

So sorry (((Midnightmom))).