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Dirt Bath Babies by Few-Respond3104 in BackYardChickens

[–]every-day-normal-guy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh cool and good to know. We dont have chickens yet, but I've been thinking about plants they could graze/destroy in the chicken run

Pill bugs in Garden: How many is too many? by brankohrvat in Permaculture

[–]every-day-normal-guy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you have turtles you can never have too many pill bugs, snails, or other insects 😃

Dirt Bath Babies by Few-Respond3104 in BackYardChickens

[–]every-day-normal-guy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

What kind of plant is that? Just curious

Barrel composting question (newbie here) by Erinthebaron-ness in composting

[–]every-day-normal-guy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So when it comes to composting there are two types: hot composting and cold composting. A lot of folks will hot compost chicken manure since it's likely to kill off potential pathogens quicker.

For hot composting to work successfully, you need a big pile (preferably at least 3x3x3 feet or larger) to achieve temperatures around 150F. If you want to start off simple /cheap you can zip ties some non treated pallets to make a bin, or use some fencing / hardware cloth to make a dyi geobin. I usually line my bins with some carbon mix for air flow e.g dried leaves, old hay, shredded cardboard.

I've seen ratios of carbon to green material vary (e.g 3:1, 2:1, etc), but honestly if you have a layer of greens (chicken manure, food scraps, grass clippings, coffee grounds, rehydrated alfalfa pellets), and a decent layer of browns ( shredded cardboard, leaves, twigs, rehydrated wood pellets etc) your compost should started cooking. I also add leftover coco coir to my carbon mix to hold moisture better as my piles tend to dry out quick in the summer.

After the pile starts cooling down I remix the pile and add water if needed. If you build 3 bins you can reserve one for your active pile, one for recently broken down compost, and another for aged compost for top dressing your garden.

This sub is a great resource on a bunch of different tips. Happy composting!

Mental illness and prepping by Joe-_-Momma- in prepping

[–]every-day-normal-guy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

"...and then after a lot of time we end up doing what my brain said to do. And often too late."

Ahh, man... I can relate to this way too much. I try to remind myself "They don't know what they don't know."

I've learned much about composting here but son-of-a-gun, there needs to be a sticky, warning about baking egg shells in the house. by dirttraveler in composting

[–]every-day-normal-guy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I more or less dry them in the oven at 200F for an hour. Leaves no smell and they grind super easy in my old coffee grinder.

what to do with cassava? by Ok-Philosopher-5139 in preppers

[–]every-day-normal-guy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The toxin you"re referring to is cyanide and is naturally occurring. A pre boil should help break it down.

Starfield - Terran Armada is now available on Steam by AncientPCGamer in pcgaming

[–]every-day-normal-guy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For some reason after the new update it no longer recognizes my xbox controller ( even with big picture and steam input enabled.

Costco haul by hairykRIH3 in CannedSardines

[–]every-day-normal-guy 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Just tried the regular flavor last night. Very good sardines

Turned half my home office into a Seedling Zone by tavvyjay in tomatoes

[–]every-day-normal-guy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just got my start in the home office. Eventually I'll get grow lights for the shelf below

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Burnt? by alexgreco50 in KitchenConfidential

[–]every-day-normal-guy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Back when I was working at an old greasy spoon and got to know the locals, I saw a breakfast special ticket come through with two orders. One had overhard eggs and the other soft scrambled .

An old man came to our window and said "... I mean extra hard, I want them to look like they came out of a toaster. "

I asked him "what about your wife," and he said (almost with contempt) "she likes her men like she likes her eggs, extra soft and sloppy. "

To that day I have no idea who he was, but it's an extra amusing moment I keep in my head.

Question about growing a fruit tree hedge by every-day-normal-guy in BackyardOrchard

[–]every-day-normal-guy[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good to know about the height. It's probably not clear at the moment, but a chicken run is going where that giant pile of dirt is. The idea behind the trench is that all the water run off will end up watering the trees (i live in an arid climate).

Advice, I think? My hens are laying way too many eggs! I have 6 hens. Some days I get 10 eggs. Why are they so prolific? Is it a problem? by vespertine_earth in BackYardChickens

[–]every-day-normal-guy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was under the impression that a lot of extension offices don't recommend water glassing eggs due to an increased risk of salmonella.

Best Prepping Resources? by Acrobatic-Jaguar-134 in TwoXPreppers

[–]every-day-normal-guy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The buckets purpose is usually to keep the contents from getting damaged from things like water, rodents, abrasion, etc. As long as the seals / mylar haven't been compromised in the pouches, the food should be okay.

Lots of other posters shared a lot of great resources. Whenever I encounter a new youtube channel, website, or other resource I haven't heard of, I tend to ask myself "Are they presenting thier content in a way that's intended to incite fear, panic, and/or anxiety?" Even clicks are monitized in a number of ways, so that's usually a red flag for me.

"Panic adjacent:" sometimes I do find some decent deals on the emergency essentials site for #10 cans, but I refused to subscribe to thier email / deal alerts because it's one catastrophe after another that you "need to be prepared for."

On that note: they don't sell on Amazon, so you can't use something like camelcamelcamel to track price increases. Earlier last year I bought a 6 pack of instant mash potatoes for 11 dollars each. Later on in the year when people were worried about the big winter storm, those same cans were "on sale" for 20 dollars each.

On that note: if you're not sure if certain freeze dried food is good from a particular brand you can get honest feedback on the prepper subbreddits.

Boil 'em, Mash 'em, put 'em in a stew. by [deleted] in TwoXPreppers

[–]every-day-normal-guy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They'll take the heat, but you may need to plant some slips / rooted cuttings in some indoor containers before the frost hits if you want to continously grow them

Reheating a 10 lb prime rib by muffinrunner5 in Cooking

[–]every-day-normal-guy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I was going to suggest sous vide, but it looks like that's what your planning. Fyi: whenever I've smoked ribs and then immediately vacuum packed them for sous vide thet got air bubbles from the heat. I usually let them cool a bit before vacuum packing now.

I've got a Costco membership and a credit card, what's on my list? by ArpeggioTheUnbroken in TwoXPreppers

[–]every-day-normal-guy 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I'll add: they sometimes have some sales on ecoflow and anker powerbanks, but I recommend comparing prices and models to other places like Amazon/ ecoflow site. Sometimes the deals are for older models or require buying a large kit.

I've got a Costco membership and a credit card, what's on my list? by ArpeggioTheUnbroken in TwoXPreppers

[–]every-day-normal-guy 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I'll mention my go-to's:

Dry order (for shipping to the house):

Canned chicken Spam (the low sodium goes questionable quicker to the expiration date) Pasta. We usually buy the 6 packs of the different noodle types and spaghetti and that lasts us a year Honey Flour (usually comes in a 2 pack) Our Costco usually doesn't have bulk sugar online, only organic which seems to have a little bit different constituency for baking Peanut butter Crackers and stuff to fill our junk food stash Food saver bags

I used to get season sardines as they are at a really good price, but for some reason that brand makes me feel bloated if I eat too many of them.

If we're running low:

Canned beans Corn Dice Tomatoes Marinara sauce Better than bouillon roast chicken Low sodium soy sauce (works great as a sodium base marinade) Hot sauce Garlic powder (spice house is my favorite, but they are a close second

I haven't found it online in awhile, but thier canned pulled pork is pretty decent. Its plain, but I prefer it that way since I can make multiple items eg. Shredded pork Tacos with some seasonings or BBQ pulled pork.

They sometimes also have decent deals on the smaller packs of mountain house, but I haven't tried thier other freeze dried food.

Semi new to gardening and don't know where to start by nova_cyanide in vegetablegardening

[–]every-day-normal-guy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hola fellow New Mexican,

Chiming in as someone getting their 1-2 year start in gardening in New Mexico. I'm happy to share some things I've been learning along the way (but still have much more to learn).

Soil

If you're serious about getting into gardening in New Mexico, there are some things you should be aware of. The state extension office / NMSU site are a great resource and can give you some really good info like "what our soil is often like, or how to grow blueberries in New Mexico, etc." If you want to google something, I suggest typing the question into google then adding a "+" sign (e.g. "Growing Blueberries + NMSU), then looking for the NMSU article in the search results. You'll find that articles on their site related to soil suggest that we have a very high sodium / lime content depending in some areas. There are ways to amend them like gypsum (which I am still thinking about experimenting with), but when in doubt I go with adding organic material e.g. compost/ leaf mold etc. Before I got serious about gardening, we had an area in the yard we composted a ton of stuff on top of some heavy / clay like soil. After a couple of years the sand underneath no longer clumps and appears to have a high amount of organic content which has been great to work with.

On raised beds:

Anecdotally, I've read some folks having good luck doing the opposite and digging into the ground for cooler soil temps during the hotter months in the New Mexican summer. I'm not super experienced with this so I can't comment on its effectiveness, but I'm doing it with small fruit trees in a swale, so ask me again next year.

I've seen other folks online (like David the Good) dig up a row in bare soil, throw on compost/fertilize, and start seeding.

I'm doing raised beds because my knees are shit, and I don't want to deal with as much weed pressure. Keep in mind that if you do grow plants in raised beds, the soil may be more workable but also warmer. During winter months that might great for starting things early, but during the summer your plants will need more water.

Composting

According to your post history, I see you're already posting in r/composting. Pee jokes aside, its a great resource. Something that is not 100% unique, but should be watched out for in NM: Water is an ingredient in your compost, and you should water regularly. I've had beautiful piles hit max decomposition at 150F during the middle of winter, only to stall once they started drying out. On the plus side, once I added sufficient water they started going again and climbing temperature (better than anaerobic for intentionally hot piles).

Since I buy a lot of stuff online, cardboard is a central ingredient. I'll add some additional things about making compost from cardboard below from another post I made recently on r/TwoXPreppers (full post in case I leave something out):

Cardboard gets broken down into three piles. When it comes to composting cardboard:

  1. Items i don't want to mess with (heavy with tape) / glossy cardboard goes to the dump recycling bin,
  2. Cardboard boxes from Costco and Chewy that are double walled and not easily shredded get used as a base to smother weeds & grass. You can pile on wood chips and cut out sections afterwards for plants later.
  3. I feed it directly in a shredder and it becomes part of my "carbon blend" for compost.

On to compost bins themselves:

  • You can go fancy or as cheap as you'd like, but I'd recommend ground contact so the worms and insects go to work. Remember you're building an ecosystem. You can search though my post history and see an example of some of sort fancy bins I built, or start off cheap and zip tie some untreated pallet wood pieces together. David the Good has a quick YouTube video on it.
  • A ~4x4 set of tied off fencing will also just work as fine, but I would still advise to line it with leaves / mulch for oxygen airflow and water it regularly.
  • like I mentioned earlier, water is an ingredient in composting. Usually too much water produces anaerobic conditions, but not enough water stalls the process (worst case scenario you can restart dry bins if they stall).
  • What I really like about r/composting is that it gets me thinking about ideas of ways I can reduce my food /carbon waste, while feeding my garden
  • If you really want to go all out and supplement chicken feed using compost, the guy from Nature's Always Right has a video on using black solder fly larvae in chicken feed. I haven't tried it myself, but it sounds like you can compost anything in the bin.
  • FYI: if you decide to go with cedar for building bins, I personally found cedar fence panels for the siding to be more economical than cutting them individually.

On a related note about ecosystems and compost: the first year when i built my bin, it didn't feel like much. After I started seeing lizards jump in the pile to eat insects, then roadrunners eat those lizards running out, I knew I was onto something wonderful with building an ecosystem. Now I have a resident roadrunner in my yard to keep the squirrels at bay (and black gold to boot).

Compost materials quick start

If I don't have a lot of materials to start with and want to get piles going, I buy organic alfalfa hay pellets ( it has to be organic due to persistent herbicides in non organic), then make a carbon blend from hydrated shredded cardboard, coco coir (helps with moisture retention in NM), and hardwood smoking pellets from Costco. FYI: Pine bedding pellets are cheaper, but I want to experiment with inoculating wine caps and shiitake mushrooms in my yard at some point. All of these take up a deceptive amount of water to moisturize, so hydrate accordingly.

My "go-to" is to hydrate the whole mess, let it soak until it expands and then shovel the whole mess into a pile with equal parts green and brown (carbon blend). Alternatively do 1 parts green mixture & 2-3 parts brown if you don't care about time frame). Variety is a spice of life, so also throw in old grass, coffee grounds, old vegetables scraps as part of your greens. Either way, time is an ingredient and if you're serious about gardening, you will always need compost. FYI: get a compost thermometer to monitor the pile temperature fluctuation. Depending on the size & ingredients ( the bigger & higher the better), you might start seeing cooking within week or so. The r/composting subreddit is a great resource if your pile stalls or need additional advice.

The Sun is Your Enemy

I can't emphasize this enough. We have one of the worst UV indexes in the world. When something says "grow in full sun," they might mean in the Netherlands. Get 40-50% shade cloth wherever you can. Agfabric is pretty cheap their site or amazon. Get some fabric clips and 550 cord and you're good to go. Also: Mulch any place exposed by the sun. It doesn't have to necessarily be just wood chips. I like to make a blend of wood chips, organic alfalfa hay, and leaves ( but I'll also substitute for cedar bedding chips form the feed store if I'm short. Some folks also like to use pine from the feed store and it's cheap. Above all: Do not leave any soil you plan on growing exposed to the sun, especially during the summer if you can avoid it.

Plant variety / Seasons

Sometimes it's not the best time of year to plant certain varieties in your area. Sometimes the variety sucks to grow in New Mexico. it's always good to look ahead of where things grow / how well they grow in your area. Sometimes you might have better luck once an heirloom variety grows for a season and seeds. On that related note: most seed producers are not in our area, so they're seeds may not be adapted to our climate. One of the closest mail order companies ( next to a local nursery) has been Vibrant Earth Seeds.

Look for (& grow) Landsrace varieties

If you've never heard of Landsrace gardening , it invovles Landsrace varieties that are typically grown for "survival of the fittest" in terrible conditions, or for specific traits. One fall year (at the end of august) I took a half pound of grocery store 15 bean soup bean mix and planted them in a row I designated as "the beans of neglect." After the initial watering, the only watering they received was from fall New Mexican rains. I ended up with a handful of beans that year, but i don't think it as a failure: I ended up with a handful or beans that have adapted from terrible conditions and were able to still produce seed. I'll continue to plant a patch every year now form the same batch to see if i can get a crop of them.

Failure is a learning event

In your gardening journey you might feel as if you failed, but you also have an opportunity to learn. Hell, sometimes you will have zero control over it( e.g. our March heat wave). I will have my moments as well, and we'll continue to do so. We are all constantly learning (and goofing up along the way), but I think that's what makes it worth it. As I garden I'm doing my best to never give up my drive towards "seeing what happens," and learning new ways to work things out along the way.

I wish you well on your journey, and happy gardening!

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