Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#16
|
|||
|
|||
Calling all gardeners in Aus...
"Jeßus" wrote in message
... On Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:27:41 +1100, "Farm1" wrote: "Jeßus" wrote in message . .. My poor Silver Birches have taken a real hammering from the little *******s. It's so disheartening to see a birch tree grow so well, then overnight the main stem is snapped clean off about 2 metres from the top... I melted some lard yesterday and mixed some kero in it. I'm going to smear it all over the birch tree's trunks in the hope it deters them. Interesting recipe :-)) Wonder if it'll work? I'm trying to deter rats round my hen house ATM. I don't want to use poison so it's a watering can of water down each hole once a day. I now know what the expression 'drowned rat' means. I haven't quite managed to drown any yet but they sure hate water in their holes and come up looking very saggy and most definitely 'Not happy Jan!'. ******* things. Yeah, I can't any kind of plastic around the chook pen as the rats eat it... I've had a few rats and mice drown themselves in the water bucket, which is great. I use rat traps with peanut butter, caged off so only rats and mice can access it. One of the old Earth Gardens or Grass Roots mags (whichever one it is that has Jackie French writing for it) had a great 5 gallon bucket rat/mouse trap made by Kackie's husband. The rats/mice climbed up a rampy/laddery thing on the side of the bucket and when they went to get the bait, they were effectively walking the plank and dropped into water for a very long swimming lesson. I've been meaning to hunt out the article for weeks so if I find it, I'll put the details in here so you can get it on interlibrary loan. I too can't use poison but I am sure tempted. I have no objection to them being drowned. |
#17
|
|||
|
|||
Calling all gardeners in Aus...
"Jeßus" wrote in message
... On Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:41:55 +1100, "Farm1" wrote: "Jeßus" wrote in message So how many blueberry plants do you have? Are your own plants the ones that you make mead form our are they bought in? In any event, it sounds delicious. I only have a few blueberry plants at this time, I still buy from a couple of people most of the time, for the mead at least as it requires an awful lot of blueberries. I had meant to ask... How do you make blueberry mead? I'll go get my little blue recipe book if/when the cat gets off my lap... But basically you need blueberries, honey, yeast, water and some yeast nutrient if you want it to ferment out as much as possible (meaning quite dry and high in alcohol). I use a LOT of blueberries and honey, which means its not all that cheap to make but I get the result I want. Note that different honeys produce very different results in terms of flavour and clarity. Brewing mead is a longer process than say beer - an absolute minimum of two months before it'll be drinkable... but two years is generally the ideal. And watch out... it's one of those drinks that hit you much stronger than the alcohol content would suggest... :-)) Is it done in a standard fermenter and twice fermented? |
#18
|
|||
|
|||
Calling all gardeners in Aus...
"Farm1" wrote in message ... ...now it's spring, what are you all up to? I've been busy in the veg patch, the rose bed and doing garden visits which always inspire me and fire me into action. We've had 8 huge pine trees removed from between my rose bed and the veg patch so now there will be no further root competition from the blasted things. It was amazing to watch the men clib the trees to drop them in chunks but in the process they dropped a huge branch on my wonderful old Hills Hoist and it took weeks before they replaced it with a new one. Of course the new one is crap quality. Here in the West I have about four decent weekends in which to accomplish everything, in my case too early and the hayfever gets to me and too late and the heat makes it very uncomfortable. I have been out and about planted a dozen tomatoes from cherries to beef steak first time this year I have planted out capsicums and chillies and I have a plot of spuds from some volunteers in the pantry and a couple of rows of beetroots. My question is, I buy packets of seeds and read the backs for planting instructions and I can't help but notice that no matter where one lives in Australia the seeds get planted at the same time of year. Now living in Perth I am reliably informed that our weather is warmer and drier than Melbourne, for example and nowhere near as tropical as FNQ. I suspect the little packets are lying to me and I don't think I have enough seasons left in me for trial and error. Can anybody recommend a book/publication aimed at the Perth region? Mike |
#19
|
|||
|
|||
Calling all gardeners in Aus...
On Wed, 14 Nov 2012 22:14:33 +1000, atec77 "atec77
wrote: On 14/11/2012 5:20 PM, Farm1 wrote: "atec77" "atec77 wrote in message ... On 13/11/2012 5:12 PM, Farm1 wrote: "atec77" "atec77 wrote in message On 12/11/2012 3:27 PM, Farm1 wrote: happy Jan!'. ******* things. feed the rats some antifreeze down the hole How do I do that? Do I put it on something foodlike so they eat it or just straight antifreeze poured down? antifreeze seems to have attractive properties to animals , cats like it a lot and will lap a saucer full Presumably with fatal results? Painfully so , but then it's to late Why am I not surprised that you'd find this an acceptable method Baz. |
#20
|
|||
|
|||
Calling all gardeners in Aus...
On Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:36:33 +1100, "Farm1"
wrote: "Jeßus" wrote in message .. . On Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:27:41 +1100, "Farm1" wrote: "Jeßus" wrote in message ... My poor Silver Birches have taken a real hammering from the little *******s. It's so disheartening to see a birch tree grow so well, then overnight the main stem is snapped clean off about 2 metres from the top... I melted some lard yesterday and mixed some kero in it. I'm going to smear it all over the birch tree's trunks in the hope it deters them. Interesting recipe :-)) Wonder if it'll work? I'm trying to deter rats round my hen house ATM. I don't want to use poison so it's a watering can of water down each hole once a day. I now know what the expression 'drowned rat' means. I haven't quite managed to drown any yet but they sure hate water in their holes and come up looking very saggy and most definitely 'Not happy Jan!'. ******* things. Yeah, I can't any kind of plastic around the chook pen as the rats eat it... I've had a few rats and mice drown themselves in the water bucket, which is great. I use rat traps with peanut butter, caged off so only rats and mice can access it. One of the old Earth Gardens or Grass Roots mags (whichever one it is that has Jackie French writing for it) had a great 5 gallon bucket rat/mouse trap made by Kackie's husband. The rats/mice climbed up a rampy/laddery thing on the side of the bucket and when they went to get the bait, they were effectively walking the plank and dropped into water for a very long swimming lesson. I've been meaning to hunt out the article for weeks so if I find it, I'll put the details in here so you can get it on interlibrary loan. I too can't use poison but I am sure tempted. I have no objection to them being drowned. Sorry for missing the rest of this thread until now... Drowning is one of the better ways IMO and don't have a problem with it. I've found quite a few mice and rats who've drowned themselves in buckets of water every now and then. If you do find those details, I'd be interested in having a look, cheers. |
#21
|
|||
|
|||
Calling all gardeners in Aus...
On Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:38:15 +1100, "Farm1"
wrote: "Jeßus" wrote in message .. . On Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:41:55 +1100, "Farm1" wrote: "Jeßus" wrote in message So how many blueberry plants do you have? Are your own plants the ones that you make mead form our are they bought in? In any event, it sounds delicious. I only have a few blueberry plants at this time, I still buy from a couple of people most of the time, for the mead at least as it requires an awful lot of blueberries. I had meant to ask... How do you make blueberry mead? I'll go get my little blue recipe book if/when the cat gets off my lap... But basically you need blueberries, honey, yeast, water and some yeast nutrient if you want it to ferment out as much as possible (meaning quite dry and high in alcohol). I use a LOT of blueberries and honey, which means its not all that cheap to make but I get the result I want. Note that different honeys produce very different results in terms of flavour and clarity. Brewing mead is a longer process than say beer - an absolute minimum of two months before it'll be drinkable... but two years is generally the ideal. And watch out... it's one of those drinks that hit you much stronger than the alcohol content would suggest... :-)) Is it done in a standard fermenter and twice fermented? I've used both standard fermenter drums and glass carboys... it's a bit more work to clean the carboys out due to the narrow neck but I'm not too keen on storing mead even in a food-grade plastic drum for months or years. |
#22
|
|||
|
|||
Calling all gardeners in Aus...
On Thu, 15 Nov 2012 11:16:11 +1100, terryc
wrote: On 15/11/12 07:18, Jeßus wrote: That's the problem - I have poultry, dog and cats around, so poisons are too risky. The dog loves to bail them up but doesn't go further unfortunately. We have a cat that chases the cabbage white butterflies to the wife's please then displeasure as the silly then then liftsd is paws to let them fly away. Funny you mention cabbage moths... we've had hardly any of those this year. Hmm... odd. I reckon I've seen less than half a dozen of them this spring/summer, yay! A friend has a Jack Russell/Foxy cross and he's just amazingly efficient at dispatching possums. Those dogs were bred for suck work. |
#23
|
|||
|
|||
Calling all gardeners in Aus...
On Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:31:15 +1100, "Farm1"
wrote: "Jeßus" wrote in message .. . On Tue, 13 Nov 2012 22:10:53 +1100, wrote: On Mon, 12 Nov 2012 08:54:40 +1100, Jeßus wrote: My poor Silver Birches have taken a real hammering from the little *******s. It's so disheartening to see a birch tree grow so well, then overnight the main stem is snapped clean off about 2 metres from the top... I melted some lard yesterday and mixed some kero in it. I'm going to smear it all over the birch tree's trunks in the hope it deters them. Ratsak one shot embedded in peanut butter works a treat. Just make sure no pets are around. That's the problem - I have poultry, dog and cats around, so poisons are too risky. The dog loves to bail them up but doesn't go further unfortunately. A friend has a Jack Russell/Foxy cross and he's just amazingly efficient at dispatching possums. I was in his ute (the friend's, not the dog's!) As a former (multiple) JR owner, I have to tell you that the ute does indeed belong to the dog, it just lets your friend drive it. Ask your friend if this is so, I'm sure the reponse will be in the affirmative. I reckon so one day and just as we pulled up at his house the dog was out the window and had a possum just before it could climb a tree. I need one of those! Brilliant little dogs, but if you do get one, be aware that Phillip Adams calls them disposable dogs - he and his wife Patrice Newell have them on their biodynamic farm up close to Scone and they need replacing frequently. Yes, they've had a few dramas with it going missing (although I don't think the dog would agree with that)... minor injuries etc. Ours didn't get replaced so frequently, but they did end up being $5,000 dogs after multiple life saving trips to the vet's. We couldnt' stand the thought of losing the little blokes as they were such great mates. I understand. I wouldn't hesitate to do the same with my two girls (my cats). Never thought I'd get so attached... but there you go. They're like family members as far as I am concerned. Winnie, my Staffy/pitbull cross is in the same category now, she's about 2.5 y/o. |
#24
|
|||
|
|||
Calling all gardeners in Aus...
On Tue, 20 Nov 2012 18:16:08 +0800, "Bloke Down The Pub"
wrote: Here in the West I have about four decent weekends in which to accomplish everything, in my case too early and the hayfever gets to me and too late and the heat makes it very uncomfortable. Oh boy, I know all about that. I moved to my current abode about 4.5 years ago, no dramas until this time last year... I got hayfever really bad and I just couldnt face doing much work outdoors... the veggie patch in particular suffered as a result. Got the hayfever yet again this year, so far not as bad as last year and I can still do work around the property most of the time. Getting some tests done at the moment so it'll be interesting to see what the culprit is in my case. I have been out and about planted a dozen tomatoes from cherries to beef steak first time this year I have planted out capsicums and chillies and I have a plot of spuds from some volunteers in the pantry and a couple of rows of beetroots. My question is, I buy packets of seeds and read the backs for planting instructions and I can't help but notice that no matter where one lives in Australia the seeds get planted at the same time of year. Yes, it's a load of ******** |
#25
|
|||
|
|||
Calling all gardeners in Aus...
On Wed, 21 Nov 2012 18:18:06 +1100, "Farm1"
wrote: "Bloke Down The Pub" wrote in message Here in the West I have about four decent weekends in which to accomplish everything, in my case too early and the hayfever gets to me and too late and the heat makes it very uncomfortable. LOL. Not an super early riser then? I knew some people who lived in a hot place and they did their work at the crack of dawn inthe summer and had a snooze or read from about 10 am to almost dusk. I do that here in Tassie, the sun here is quite harsh even when low temperatures... I've done most of the outside work today already I'll go back out around 4PM this arvo and get the beds for the spuds ready. Shouldn't get any more frosts now... but you never know. It's been known to frost here through summer, and has even snowed on Xmas day. But that's extremely rare of course. |
#26
|
|||
|
|||
Calling all gardeners in Aus...
"Jeßus" wrote in message
... On Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:36:33 +1100, "Farm1" wrote: "Jeßus" wrote in message . .. On Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:27:41 +1100, "Farm1" wrote: "Jeßus" wrote in message m... My poor Silver Birches have taken a real hammering from the little *******s. It's so disheartening to see a birch tree grow so well, then overnight the main stem is snapped clean off about 2 metres from the top... I melted some lard yesterday and mixed some kero in it. I'm going to smear it all over the birch tree's trunks in the hope it deters them. Interesting recipe :-)) Wonder if it'll work? I'm trying to deter rats round my hen house ATM. I don't want to use poison so it's a watering can of water down each hole once a day. I now know what the expression 'drowned rat' means. I haven't quite managed to drown any yet but they sure hate water in their holes and come up looking very saggy and most definitely 'Not happy Jan!'. ******* things. Yeah, I can't any kind of plastic around the chook pen as the rats eat it... I've had a few rats and mice drown themselves in the water bucket, which is great. I use rat traps with peanut butter, caged off so only rats and mice can access it. One of the old Earth Gardens or Grass Roots mags (whichever one it is that has Jackie French writing for it) had a great 5 gallon bucket rat/mouse trap made by Kackie's husband. The rats/mice climbed up a rampy/laddery thing on the side of the bucket and when they went to get the bait, they were effectively walking the plank and dropped into water for a very long swimming lesson. I've been meaning to hunt out the article for weeks so if I find it, I'll put the details in here so you can get it on interlibrary loan. I too can't use poison but I am sure tempted. I have no objection to them being drowned. Sorry for missing the rest of this thread until now... Drowning is one of the better ways IMO and don't have a problem with it. I've found quite a few mice and rats who've drowned themselves in buckets of water every now and then. If you do find those details, I'd be interested in having a look, cheers. I'll see if I can dig out the issue and let you know which one it's in. I've been meaning to go back over my collection anyway as a very early one has an article on how to make a hat using woven bulrushes and our creek is full of prime rushes right now. A nice job to do would be reviewing all the material over the non TV watching period that is the Xmas season. |
#27
|
|||
|
|||
Calling all gardeners in Aus...
"Jeßus" wrote in message
news On Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:38:15 +1100, "Farm1" wrote: "Jeßus" wrote in message . .. On Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:41:55 +1100, "Farm1" wrote: "Jeßus" wrote in message So how many blueberry plants do you have? Are your own plants the ones that you make mead form our are they bought in? In any event, it sounds delicious. I only have a few blueberry plants at this time, I still buy from a couple of people most of the time, for the mead at least as it requires an awful lot of blueberries. I had meant to ask... How do you make blueberry mead? I'll go get my little blue recipe book if/when the cat gets off my lap... But basically you need blueberries, honey, yeast, water and some yeast nutrient if you want it to ferment out as much as possible (meaning quite dry and high in alcohol). I use a LOT of blueberries and honey, which means its not all that cheap to make but I get the result I want. Note that different honeys produce very different results in terms of flavour and clarity. Brewing mead is a longer process than say beer - an absolute minimum of two months before it'll be drinkable... but two years is generally the ideal. And watch out... it's one of those drinks that hit you much stronger than the alcohol content would suggest... :-)) Is it done in a standard fermenter and twice fermented? I've used both standard fermenter drums and glass carboys... it's a bit more work to clean the carboys out due to the narrow neck but I'm not too keen on storing mead even in a food-grade plastic drum for months or years. I can understand that. I have a very nice collection of carboys and a similarly nice collection of really, really big bottle brushes that can clean the whole inside of those carboys. |
#28
|
|||
|
|||
Calling all gardeners in Aus...
"Farm1" wrote in message ... "Jeßus" wrote in message ... On Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:36:33 +1100, "Farm1" wrote: "Jeßus" wrote in message ... On Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:27:41 +1100, "Farm1" wrote: "Jeßus" wrote in message om... My poor Silver Birches have taken a real hammering from the little *******s. It's so disheartening to see a birch tree grow so well, then overnight the main stem is snapped clean off about 2 metres from the top... I melted some lard yesterday and mixed some kero in it. I'm going to smear it all over the birch tree's trunks in the hope it deters them. Interesting recipe :-)) Wonder if it'll work? I'm trying to deter rats round my hen house ATM. I don't want to use poison so it's a watering can of water down each hole once a day. I now know what the expression 'drowned rat' means. I haven't quite managed to drown any yet but they sure hate water in their holes and come up looking very saggy and most definitely 'Not happy Jan!'. ******* things. Yeah, I can't any kind of plastic around the chook pen as the rats eat it... I've had a few rats and mice drown themselves in the water bucket, which is great. I use rat traps with peanut butter, caged off so only rats and mice can access it. One of the old Earth Gardens or Grass Roots mags (whichever one it is that has Jackie French writing for it) had a great 5 gallon bucket rat/mouse trap made by Kackie's husband. The rats/mice climbed up a rampy/laddery thing on the side of the bucket and when they went to get the bait, they were effectively walking the plank and dropped into water for a very long swimming lesson. I've been meaning to hunt out the article for weeks so if I find it, I'll put the details in here so you can get it on interlibrary loan. I too can't use poison but I am sure tempted. I have no objection to them being drowned. Sorry for missing the rest of this thread until now... Drowning is one of the better ways IMO and don't have a problem with it. I've found quite a few mice and rats who've drowned themselves in buckets of water every now and then. If you do find those details, I'd be interested in having a look, cheers. I'll see if I can dig out the issue and let you know which one it's in. I've been meaning to go back over my collection anyway as a very early one has an article on how to make a hat using woven bulrushes and our creek is full of prime rushes right now. A nice job to do would be reviewing all the material over the non TV watching period that is the Xmas season. The ABC link was perfect for what I wanted, and as I suspected it appears I can plant anything at any time and have some form of success. I am not a particularly early riser and as we have no daylight saving in the West and the boss still expects me to appear at work every day the mid-day snooze is out, at least while he is watching. I did a quick google search for the rat/mouse trap and found http://www.ehow.com/how_6653960_make...-rat-trap.html also a whole heap of youtube videos on how to build them my search term was "5 gallon rat trap" and once again an evening was spent absorbing youtube info. Mike |
#29
|
|||
|
|||
Calling all gardeners in Aus...
On Mon, 3 Dec 2012 16:19:19 +1100, "Farm1"
wrote: "Jeßus" wrote in message news On Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:38:15 +1100, "Farm1" wrote: "Jeßus" wrote in message ... On Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:41:55 +1100, "Farm1" wrote: "Jeßus" wrote in message So how many blueberry plants do you have? Are your own plants the ones that you make mead form our are they bought in? In any event, it sounds delicious. I only have a few blueberry plants at this time, I still buy from a couple of people most of the time, for the mead at least as it requires an awful lot of blueberries. I had meant to ask... How do you make blueberry mead? I'll go get my little blue recipe book if/when the cat gets off my lap... But basically you need blueberries, honey, yeast, water and some yeast nutrient if you want it to ferment out as much as possible (meaning quite dry and high in alcohol). I use a LOT of blueberries and honey, which means its not all that cheap to make but I get the result I want. Note that different honeys produce very different results in terms of flavour and clarity. Brewing mead is a longer process than say beer - an absolute minimum of two months before it'll be drinkable... but two years is generally the ideal. And watch out... it's one of those drinks that hit you much stronger than the alcohol content would suggest... :-)) Is it done in a standard fermenter and twice fermented? I've used both standard fermenter drums and glass carboys... it's a bit more work to clean the carboys out due to the narrow neck but I'm not too keen on storing mead even in a food-grade plastic drum for months or years. I can understand that. I have a very nice collection of carboys and a similarly nice collection of really, really big bottle brushes that can clean the whole inside of those carboys. Another few weeks we'll be swimming in cherries... so the next batch will be cherry mead. Should be interesting |
#30
|
|||
|
|||
Calling all gardeners in Aus...
On Mon, 3 Dec 2012 16:17:58 +1100, "Farm1"
wrote: "Jeßus" wrote in message .. . On Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:36:33 +1100, "Farm1" wrote: "Jeßus" wrote in message ... On Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:27:41 +1100, "Farm1" wrote: "Jeßus" wrote in message om... My poor Silver Birches have taken a real hammering from the little *******s. It's so disheartening to see a birch tree grow so well, then overnight the main stem is snapped clean off about 2 metres from the top... I melted some lard yesterday and mixed some kero in it. I'm going to smear it all over the birch tree's trunks in the hope it deters them. Interesting recipe :-)) Wonder if it'll work? I'm trying to deter rats round my hen house ATM. I don't want to use poison so it's a watering can of water down each hole once a day. I now know what the expression 'drowned rat' means. I haven't quite managed to drown any yet but they sure hate water in their holes and come up looking very saggy and most definitely 'Not happy Jan!'. ******* things. Yeah, I can't any kind of plastic around the chook pen as the rats eat it... I've had a few rats and mice drown themselves in the water bucket, which is great. I use rat traps with peanut butter, caged off so only rats and mice can access it. One of the old Earth Gardens or Grass Roots mags (whichever one it is that has Jackie French writing for it) had a great 5 gallon bucket rat/mouse trap made by Kackie's husband. The rats/mice climbed up a rampy/laddery thing on the side of the bucket and when they went to get the bait, they were effectively walking the plank and dropped into water for a very long swimming lesson. I've been meaning to hunt out the article for weeks so if I find it, I'll put the details in here so you can get it on interlibrary loan. I too can't use poison but I am sure tempted. I have no objection to them being drowned. Sorry for missing the rest of this thread until now... Drowning is one of the better ways IMO and don't have a problem with it. I've found quite a few mice and rats who've drowned themselves in buckets of water every now and then. If you do find those details, I'd be interested in having a look, cheers. I'll see if I can dig out the issue and let you know which one it's in. I've been meaning to go back over my collection anyway as a very early one has an article on how to make a hat using woven bulrushes and our creek is full of prime rushes right now. A nice job to do would be reviewing all the material over the non TV watching period that is the Xmas season. Sounds like a plan, and thanks. |
Reply |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
Calling all extreme gardeners for new tv show idea! | Gardening | |||
Calling all extreme gardeners for new tv show idea! | United Kingdom | |||
aus.gardens, marketing momentum | Australia | |||
Aus Tea Tree, Manuka - is it easy to grow? | Australia | |||
Calling dr solo, Calling dr solo | Ponds |