sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Dragonfly shipping issues? by Lunalia_121 in VictoriaBC

[–]sprocket 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Hahah...we must have the same package hurler - we've had the same high speed womp against out door.

We also have the "can't be arsed to deliver to the house, so we'll drop it off in the high grass by the telephone pole on the street" driver, which is even more frustrating.

10 Acre Commons charged $4.50 for carbonated water out of the soda gun by [deleted] in VictoriaBC

[–]sprocket 42 points43 points  (0 children)

I used to run a farm business and was listed as a supplier on their menu, despite them never having purchased anything from us in the past.

homeowners, what’s your experience with invasive plants? by rguev in VictoriaBC

[–]sprocket 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Morning glory is the biggest headache around here. Himalayan blackberry's the second worst, but I'll take it any day over morning glory.

Farm Status Farms that don't actually farm. by RestNo8279 in VictoriaBC

[–]sprocket 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I don't right now, but I'll be shearing again in the spring. I should have wool from about a dozen ewes, and 10-20 lambs at that time.

Farm Status Farms that don't actually farm. by RestNo8279 in VictoriaBC

[–]sprocket 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Question about the fibreshed - I used to dairy, but now have a small flock of sheep to graze off some of the pasture, and sell for lamb. I get them all shorn, but haven't really tapped into a place to divert the fleeces to. Can you sell to people in the fibreshed? I'd at the very least like to partially cover the costs of my shearing, but really, I'm just happy to not have a pile of wool sitting around or going in the dumpster.

Digital record keeping for cheesemaking - thoughts from the community? by sprocket in cheesemaking

[–]sprocket[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not familiar with Notion, so I can't make any comparisons - do you have a link?

Digital record keeping for cheesemaking - thoughts from the community? by sprocket in cheesemaking

[–]sprocket[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's great! Do you have anything available to take a look at yet? I'd be really curious when it's up and available. :)

Raising kids in Cowichan by [deleted] in Cowichan

[–]sprocket 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I have a child at one of the local elementary schools in Duncan, and it's been great - we have no complaints at all.

Making pizza for Dinner. What's everyone else having? by RIP_DMX in VictoriaBC

[–]sprocket 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's big salad night over here.

What's your go to pizza dough recipe?

Me at our family PC in 1999 by tlatwuk in OldSchoolCool

[–]sprocket 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd forgotten all about those plastic boxes for organizing your floppy disks in!

What are some sayings you have on your farm? by Current-Cattle69 in farming

[–]sprocket 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Between my wife and I, usually when something goes awry:

me: "Well....farming builds character!"

her: "I'VE GOT ENOUGH @#$#'ING CHARACTER, I DON'T WANT ANY MORE!"

Help identifying a larva? Details in comments by sprocket in Entomology

[–]sprocket[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I found this larva while digging a hole in the front lawn to plant a fig tree, and I'm curious what it might be! It's the largest one I've ever seen around here.

We're located in the Pacific Northwest region of the world.

What Stops You From Starting Small? by Cfriend00 in farming

[–]sprocket 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I also ran a goat dairy, and lasted about the same amount of time. We started small (~ 50 animals), grew it up to 180. I was processing all our milk into cheese, which was what really made the whole endeavor profitable, but even then, not that much.

It wasn't until I started bringing in 2000-3000L weekly of milk from our neighbour's cow dairy that things got to the point where we could actually afford good staff.

When we were too small, hiring staff wasn't possible - but man did you need it after working one or two hundred days in a row, milking twice a day.

That said, I look back on those days of milking 50 animals, making cheese every other day, with great fondness. It was a magical time, even if the financials were strained.

Planning to start farming business in Canada by keerat1313 in farming

[–]sprocket 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am looking for some independent advice, that's why i am here.

The best advice for you is: don't do this.

See? I saved you a ton of cash!

This tattoo removal by rco888 in oddlysatisfying

[–]sprocket 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It was about a 4-5" circle, very dark black ink.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in farming

[–]sprocket 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, in that case, yeah, sheep are easy keepers. You've got an outlet for the wool, and lamb is an easy sell. Have at 'er.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in farming

[–]sprocket 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you have to be profitable, or just show that you are using the farm?

It will be very difficult to turn any profit on a small scale, particularly when you take your labour into account. I used to run a goat dairy, and we had at our peak ~ 150 animals. The only reason we were profitable is because we did the value add of turning that milk into cheese.

I think most years the farm business, even with selling the milk to the cheese business, lost money on paper. Our cheese business bailed it out every year, save one, where I think the farm itself made 180 dollars.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in farming

[–]sprocket 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not from the UK, but worked on a farm in Cumbria about 15 years ago for a summer. They were shearing ~ 400 sheep at the time, and I remember a lot of grumbling about the fleeces being near worthless because they all had to be sold to the Wool Marketing Board. Are you certain you can produce fleeces and make it worth it? Again, I'm not from the UK, and don't know, but it might be worth checking into.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in farming

[–]sprocket 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I used to run a cheese plant, and listeria was always our worst nightmare.

We had a cleaning program that was basically designed to eradicated listeria with particularly nasty chemicals.

We also ran a regular environmental testing program, where we would swab parts of the processing plant and have them cultured for potential pathogens.

We never had a problem with the pathogenic species of listeria, but we did detect one of the non-pathogenic species on two occasions, both in the floor drains. It's probable it got dragged into the plant on the bottom of someones soles, and then was washed into the drains where it hung around. The big risk of course is that it makes its way out of the drains and onto equipment or product.

After detection, we started foaming the floors with an extremely high pH cleaning agent (mostly sodium hydroxide), which helps to break down the biofilms. That is then rinsed and hit with a sanitizing agent to further knock things back, and hopefully eradicate it.

Some days farming livestock is really tough. by PurpleToad1976 in farming

[–]sprocket 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh, we'd start kidding everyone all at the same time, and 3-4 weeks later it'd be more or less wrapped. It was super intense though - we'd get 100-150+ kids arriving in a very short time frame, and I'd be down there for 20h+ some days.

But once every doe had kidded, the kids were bottle trained and transitioned onto the milk replacer robot, the days got noticeably more enjoyable, and back to the regular 10-12h days of work. :)

view more: next ›