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Working in our Sorghum farm

monica-ene — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 05:44:00 GMT

Hello Hive

This is our Sorghum farm that almost got flushed away by rains. I'm so glad that the flood of water that passed by here didn't eventually carry them away.

We are now finally able to go near the farm, there is a river very close to this Sorghum farm that often overflows it's boundary and passes right beside the farm. Sorgum is the only crop that can grow here, no other crop would have survived with the amount of water that has passed by this place.

See the route where the water flowed over, nothing survived on the place except for grasses that have just started growing and for that we also have to come and clear the grasses round about the farm, in no distant time from now people will start burning grasses for hunting and we won't want any forest fire to catch up with this.

The Sorghum is yet to produce it's food despite being planted in the month of July. Even though the rains have stopped already, we are hopeful that these will be able to produce something within the next one month before the ground gets really dried

Sorghum is one of the crops that I know quite well that they are very much adapter to dry conditions as they can survive for about a month or two whenever there is no water.

It was a good thing that these Sorgum were able to grow to a good height above the ground before the flood water came. This is why they were equally able to survive and the more reason we chose to plant this specie of sorghum here rather than the one we were introduced to in the previous. Getting farm lands to farm on these days is a bit difficult and we are trying to work around the ones we have which is why we can't suspend growing crops around this water ways yet. Whenever the water comes, we stay away completely until it is safe to come near the crops again.

Preparing for winter

newsnownorthwest — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 20:41:27 GMT

Hi friends, I hope this day finds you well! I'm here with another quick update from the homestead. Winter is quickly approaching and this winter it won't just be myself up here. My partner in crime(Chelly) has moved up here with her daughter and our little family is trying to make sure we will stay warm this winter. Next year we plan to build a small cabin but for now we need to get this trailer set for the whole family.

We installed some skirting under the trailer to keep air from flowing underneath and help with keeping the floor warmer.

The furnace in my trailer has been out since I started this journey but my needs for heat were not great so I never fixed it. Last year I had a failed attempt but this year with the rest of my family joining me, heat alternatives from the past were not an option. I finally spent the required time and energy to get my furnace working.

I replaced the circuit board and sail switch which got the fan to kick on but the gas would not flow and ignite for heat. After some troubleshooting and curse words I found it was a faulty connection between the ignitor and the circuit board. I replaced that connection and now we have heat.

The last thing I did was replace the thermostat inside to a more modern one that will help us be more energy efficient.

Have a great day and as always be free!

Rain, Water Feature Rebuild Part 1 - Teardown, Materials, 3DP, Dinner Date - Wednesday

flemingfarm — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 13:10:30 GMT

It was raining yesterday morning as I went to get the truck started. I have found the sequence to make it work. In the morning I go out and turn the key to on, clear the codes, start it up and let it warm up. I then turn it off, turn the key on and clear the codes then start it and it runs normal. Then before every start the rest of the day I clear the codes first and it is able to play nice for me. At least I have a system now that allows me to drive it.

I got the boys to school then came home and loaded up my tools for the day before heading out to the water feature job.

Thankfully I had my Grunden's top with me that is nice and warm and water proof as it dumped on me for much of the time I was working. The task for the day was to remove all the basalt rocks and boulders then to shovel out the river rock and remove all the pond liner. You can see burned down houses in the background on the street below.

I started at the bottom and got the basalt out of the pool, tossed them all to the side.

I then worked my way up the feature and removed them and the slate fall rocks. I tried to pile everything to the side to make it easier on myself putting them all back in.

Within 2 hours I had the basalt all out and was working on removing the river rock, starting at the top. The top part of the feature I shoveled the river rock to 10 gallon plant pots to be able to pull the liner.

I stopped for a minute and ordered the pond liner for pickup later. A 5x30 and 10x15 pieces.

I laid the liner out on the side and used it to shovel the river rock onto. I HAVE to reuse the river rock so don't want it all mixed with even more dirt and debris.

I shoveled most of the stream out to the upper pile then pulled all the liner and laid it out around the outside of the bottom pool. As I pulled the liner river rock rolled downhill into the main pool. The worst part of the job was shoveling ALL the rock out of the main pool and onto the liner. I was then able to remove the pool's liner section.

The river rock is going to have to get washed off to clean it of mud, soot, muck, and dirt so I am bringing my pressure washer today.

The pump is on order so I will do the plumbing work once it comes in. By 12:30 I was packing up my tools and ready to go pickup the liner and underlayment.

I stopped at Horizon and got them loaded into the truck, then headed for home. I was rather sore from the morning's effort.

The first air lift pump was done on the #3dprinter but it had borked part way up the finishing of it. It still should be enough to mount the 4" pvc to. It is printed in 100" infill for strength and to allow Isaac to thread a metal air nipple into the air port. I got another started printing, though it borked at the same spot overnight. Still should work for him. He will be coming to the job today to help and to learn what he can to apply to his giant feature I helped with on Sunday.

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Natural Spices and plants beneficial to our health, why everyone should pay attention to this

monica-ene — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 04:56:48 GMT

Hello Hive

Would you rather take drugs or learn about these spices and natural plants that are beneficial to our health

Let's learn this together.
This is my first times of being exposed go things like this and I feel so grateful for it.

This is me and it's almost a week now I began taking ginger and feel so good about myself. All the itching and discomfort that comes with a change of weather is totally gone by just taking ginger. Normally whenever the weather changes I often experience some kind of discomfort. Since the weather changed the cold type, I started experiencing the cold already.

Harmattan is a very cold season here and it comes with characteristic of cold, upper respiratory track infections and others.
Quite alright I knew the benefits of some herbal medicine but not all of them. A neighbor introduced me to eating ginger.
And this time around it doesn't meant eating the ginger in my food like I often use it as a recipe for some food.

I was made to prepare, clean and eat this raw. It felt so uncomfortable as the ginger was pepperish but after a day of taking this I felt so relieved with no need to purchase any more drugs

This is where I started paying attention to more of this herbs and guess what I have been missing all these while, there are many many spices here. And many of them can be eating raw (without being cooked) with several benefits for our health.
You can chose to add these to your soups, baking and meal preparations and in instances you don't know how to use any of these, the internet is often helpful.

I have used honey in the past to cure wound, I got my face burnt from accidentally and this honey was so good at the wound healing without leaving any scars.

The local population selling these have also added some of the health benefits and how to use these at the body of the plastic bottles

More importantly these seeds have all been prepared naturally and there is no overdose go eating any of these. They can be eating as our natural food, added to most meal preparations and there are no side effects.

It will be my joy to see people eat natural foods and remain healthy. Yesterday I prepared some jollof rice, adding ginger, garlic and tumeric, the color and taste was magical. This is where I will advice us to look into these products as adding them to our meals will keep away long term health challenges.

Dugout Shelter Stove

cahlen — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 15:26:42 GMT

https://play.3speak.tv/embed?v=cahlen/kcileoal

Rather than building a wood stove as I had planned, I decided to go with a simple and inexpensive propane stove to heat the dugout shelter this Winter.

▶ Watch on 3speak.tv

Tirerama, Vent Job, Lock Install Job, Toyota Service HELL, BULLSHIT, Sunset - Tuesday

flemingfarm — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 12:36:54 GMT

Yesterday morning I took the boys to school after getting the truck running then went and dropped it at Tirerama to have them run the codes and see if they could diagnose it. I then got our one car and dropped @stryeyz at work. Went home for a few minutes then went to my session which I needed badly with all this vehicle shit going on.

Drove the mile and a half after to my client's by the golf course where I replaced the vent on the side of the house that had gotten totally UV damaged despite the paint.

New one went on okay but did not fit the hole in the siding exactly so it sits over the siding. No biggie. Then helped Maury move a table to the bottom level then a table back up to the top level.

I then drove 45 minutes north to Newport and along the river to a mobile home where the tenant had 3 awesome dogs. I got the door lock installed in about 15 minutes and had the tenant set her door code.

Super nice view of the river! On my way to the job I got the call from Tirerama and they said my best bet was to see if the dealership service center would hard reset the ECM. VERY nicely they did not charge me for the work they did with my truck. We have been customers of theirs for about 18 years. That was why we started going to them as they did not charge us for fixing a flat we had gotten way back when.

I got home at 1pm and then called to get a 2pm service appointment at the valley service center. My truck got through intake and then I had a long fucking wait. I sat in the place for 3 FUCKING HOURS! Finally I asked about the thing and was told they would not flash the ECM for me. MOTHER FUCKERS! They gave me a quote on engine tear down and possible new engine that totaled $23,000!!!!!! ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!?

So I took my truck and drove home. Coming down the north side of the Argonne hill I was treated to a nice sunset at least. Probably the highlight of my day all told.

At least the 4 wheel drive light was out on the truck as I drove home... I forgot to try the 4 wheel drive when I got home though so will this morning and hopefully it engages now.

To say I was/am despondent over this whole situation would be a vast understatement. I am now forced to muddle along with my truck given I have no other option right now.

Today I will get the boys to school for their half day, then I will load up tools and head down to tear apart the burned water feature and may get the liner and underlayment picked up and maybe installed. I will see how much I can get done before I don't feel like working anymore. We have our couple's session tonight and will likely do dinner after.

@stryeyz ran my truck issues through ai last night and got me more potential things that I can do to try and remedy the situation. The factory service manual says a LOT that the tech at the dealership seemed to completely ignore so it falls to me to rummage through the manual and keep trying to fix little problems. One is the exhaust leak I am sure I have where the manifold meets the exhaust line before the Y, I know I didn't get a good seal on the junction.

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Different Harvesting Methods for Beans, repeated application of pesticide

monica-ene — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 05:17:06 GMT

Hello Hive

This is the 40 days beans type as it is finally ready for harvest. This beans can be harvested and eaten this exact same way it is and it it can be left to dry before we go on to harvest it. There is a special beans recipe we normally prepare from this. We pluck the green beans like thiss, cook them in a pot and then prepare a sauce we used for eating it. My late mother is very good with preparing that delicacy, ever she left we haven't tasted that. I regretted not learning akit of thing from her before her sudden demise.

So far the beans has not had any issues or sickness as I have taken precautions to spray some pesticides and insecticide that easily attacks beans.

The process is to be repeated bi-weekly and the beans will be safe until harvest.

This 40days beans is one of the easiest crops one can grow so far and sometimea I wish that farming will remain about growing simple crops that won't stress us. This is obviously not practicable as we cannot rely on eating just one type of crops for the whole year, we need to eat a bals of the different types of crops available, this is why we have to grow other crops even if it is very much difficult to grow them.

Every two weeks we would be repeating the spraying of the insecticide and would start picking the beans as soon as it begins to ripen.

The fact that the beans has produced so well us what excited me the most here, unlike rice I can't predict how much beans we would be harvesting as the beans will be needing some processing to remove the pods before one can measure or guess the quatity buy for now the beans has produced as much food without any challenge.

What My Chickens Have Made Me Think About Good Meat

gentleshaid — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 19:18:57 GMT

Since I started rearing chickens, feeding them has become something of an observation exercise. I put out their feed, and they gather around it with enthusiasm. Yet, after eating, they still wander off to scratch the ground, inspect leaves and pursue insects. Apparently, whatever I serve does not exhaust their interest in food.

Watching them has strengthened a thought I have been nursing: a chicken that receives good poultry feed daily and still enjoys the freedom to roam probably has something extra to offer on the dining table. I imagine that something in the flavour, aroma and texture of its meat.

A bird confined to one place depends almost entirely on what appears in its feeder. The roaming chicken supplements that provision with whatever suitable food it discovers. As a plant ecologist, I find it difficult to overlook that variety. Different plants, seeds and insects represent different combinations of nutrients and other compounds. I suspect this broader menu could contribute to the character of the meat.

Then there is the movement. My chickens walk, scratch, stretch and occasionally run with an urgency that suggests a serious appointment somewhere. Their search for food keeps them occupied even after I have fed them.

It makes me think about human beings. We recognise the disadvantages of a sedentary life, and I find myself extending that concern to animals. I struggle to imagine that spending most of a lifetime confined, with little opportunity to move, offers every advantage an animal needs.

My instinct is that a bird allowed to exercise its body and explore its surroundings should be in better condition. Whether that translates into better meat is another question, but I suspect movement contributes something worthwhile to its texture.

Personally, I do not require chicken to fall apart at the slightest touch. A little chewiness can be part of the enjoyment, provided the meat is flavourful and properly cooked.

This is why I favour a combination of daily complete feed and managed roaming. The feed provides dependable nourishment; the surroundings offer variety and activity. I initially wondered whether commercial feeding emphasised meat quantity at the expense of eating quality, although I recognise that this is an impression I need to examine.

The scientific evidence gives me encouragement, alongside reasons for caution.

An experiment involving Taiwan game hens compared cage, floor-pen and free-range systems. Free-range meat received higher scores for flavour, chewiness and overall acceptability, despite being firmer and tougher. That finding fits my suspicion that tenderness alone does not define enjoyable chicken. It does not, however, isolate dietary variety or exercise as the cause.

Ponte and colleagues, in 2008, studied chickens receiving cereal-based feed with access to clover pasture. Grazing birds earned higher overall appreciation scores, although the reported comparison found no improvement in flavour, tenderness or juiciness individually.

Other evidence challenges my expectations. Fanatico and colleagues found that outdoor access did not improve flavour when birds received the same feeding programme. Genetic differences also influenced sensory characteristics.

So, my comparison with sedentary humans remains a useful question rather than scientific proof. These studies neither establish that roaming birds are always healthier nor justify dismissing formulated feed. Most also examine outdoor access rather than cages specifically.

I still favour my combined approach, but I would like to test it with comparable birds and a blind tasting. Until then, I can enjoy watching my chickens forage while admitting that they have inspired a hypothesis, not delivered a verdict.

Rain Week, Wall Bid, Planter Job Schedule, Motherfucker Car Died, Truck Sorta Lives, Carport Build in Rain Deluge - Monday

flemingfarm — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 12:29:51 GMT

Yesterday was a fucked day. I mean part was okay but the main problem just made me SO FUCKING MAD! We are slated for rain all week which of course is when I have bigger outdoor jobs to do.

So I dropped the boys at school then drove to the valley to my first client. She has a wall that she wants built in a bedroom to enlarge an insanely tiny bathroom that had been demoed already. The old one was 4'x4' and barely enough room for a toilet and a sink. It was to be a short visit but turned into an hour. I gave her good ideas on how big to make it and got measurements made for a materials list.

I then headed up to another client in NW Spokane where I was 15 minutes late but it was okay as I scheduled work for Monday to clean out planters in her back yard and remove a couple dead grasses.

As I was driving there the car started to have a clack in the engine. When I left I headed for home and it only got worse.... MOTHER FUCKING LIFTER CLACK!!!! I was about 5 miles from home with the cruise on and it suddenly bogged down and codes blew on it. The clack got louder and then constant at all rpm. I pulled into the property and got my car stethoscope out and saw the codes were #3 and #4 cylinders. I heard the clacking with the scope on the passenger side head. Thankfully I was not totally despondent and had the ability to focus on shifting gears, otherwise I would have started breaking things.

Having no other options I pulled the battery from it, dropped it in my truck, got it started, cleared codes, then test drove it up to the gas station and back. It managed to drive at highway speed just fine... So I transferred my tools from the car to my truck, crossed my fingers and bit the bullet. It made it the 15 miles south to my afternoon job of assembling a 20x20 carport. As is my life it began to rain as I got to work, then it began to DUMP! And continued to dump on me as I worked for the next 2 hours.

Jim is a great guy and likes to talk. The carport is nice and light weight so manageable by myself. He said I didn't have to work in the rain but I was determined to at least get the trusses all connected. I had chosen to bring my soft shell which was a mistake as it got soaked through.

Within a couple hours I had the trusses all connected with connector bars and the thing in place where it will be standing. I will go back Friday to finish assembling it for him.

I was SOAKED and chilled pretty good. I then went to start my truck and it refused. I tried my jump pack, nothing but a starter click. I had brought another battery with and tried putting cables between it and my truck, still nothing. Tried Jim's jump pack and still nothing. I figured if I turned the crank pulley it would do the trick so after borrowing a 22mm box end from Jim I got the pulley turned a bit and BOOM, it started right up. No codes showing.

So I was able to make it home just fine and THANK GOD the heater works well in my truck as it got me warming up despite being soaked.

That was the rain that had passed over and drenched me.

After @stryeyz got home I was able to muster the gumption to call Tirerama and cancel the axle replacement on the car and instead am taking my truck in to have them try and fix the "random misfire" codes that keep popping up on it. At this point I am SO FUCKING OVER car problems and am willing to pay to have others deal with my vehicle issues. I will get her car for work this week which is not ideal but it is what it is.

I will get the boys to school this morning in my truck then head into Tirerama to drop it off and then get her car. I have my session, then a quick job for a client by the golf course. My next job is way up north of Newport to change out a door lock for a digital keypad one which won't take long but it is near an hour drive each way.

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Homesteading Resources!

jacobpeacock — Tue, 16 Aug 2022 22:37:48 GMT

Hello Everyone!

Homesteading Resources That Are Handy!

Note: This post is a work in progress. If you think something should be added here please put it in the comments section so that it can be reviewed. Entries can be posts made to Hive also... so please if it seems relevant share it!

Also please note that I intend to create more sections that cover other various homesteading related topics such as farming, gardening, livestock and permaculture to name a few. Please feel free to suggest topics for inclusion.

General reference materials:

CD3WD Project is a multi language wealth of knowledge on how to do stuff.
Note: Not all documents have translations but many are in:
English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Italian.
http://www.cd3wdproject.org/CD3WD/INDEX.HTM
http://www.cd3wdproject.org/

Low-Tech Magazine contains a wealth of knowledge on low tech solutions:
https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/

Low-Tech Magazine in multiple languages is also available.
Note: Not all articles have translations but many are in:
English, French, Spanish, Dutch, German, Polish, Italian, and Portuguese.
https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2020/01/low-tech-magazine-in-spanish-french-and-other-languages.html