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Self-Sufficiency Acreage Requirement? (getting fuel)
Jim Dauven wrote:
[...] Have you looked into no-till farming? It's working very well for us on a smallish scale, just to feed ourselves. -dir I have planned on using no-till farming with horse drawn equipment. First I would run the disk harrow behind a two horse team. That's two acres an hour for 5 hours. Change horses (you cannot/should not run a horse more than 5 hours) because the need time for foraging. Then run disk harrow for another five hours. That way you can disk up 20 acres a day. The next day run the spring tooth harrow for the same about of time. (It actually may go faster as the spring tooth harrow doesn't have the resistance to pulling that the disk harrow does). Last run the grain drill for the planting of wheat, oats, barley, rapeseed etc. These plants are winter planting so you plant them in late september and let them germinate in the fall rain so they will get good start for the spring. That way the plant matures while the moisture from the spring rains is still in the ground. If you are raising cattle and you keep your cattle in a corral in the winter you can use a manure spreader to spread manure on the grain crops in the spring just as ground if thawing This will provide additional nitrogen for the growing grain plants. (The object of this is to get the grain as healthy as possible for increased yield) Also the rape oil is important here because after fertilization of the grain heads if you spray the grain with rapeseed oil that will kill many of the pests like grass hoppers as rapeseed oil is toxic and does really dry out. I don't have a horse drawn spray rig yet but it is one of the things that will have to be constructed. Crops that you will irrigate, Corn, potatoes, beans, peas, onions, alfalfa, etc you plant in the spring. One trick you can do is seed alfalfa over the grain crop that you planted the fall before. The grain will grow faster than the alfalfa but the alfalfa will still grow and the plant root nodules will fix nitrogen into the soil for the grain. You do the same no till harrow work but then you use a cultivator to make up the rows. After planting you can then lay the soaker tubes for a water supply. Again after these crops have fertilized then a mist of rapeseed oil will help in pest control. I have herd that a mist of rapeseed oil will also control pests on fruit and berries. So you can see why I am very interested in the rapeseed plant in a TEOTWAWKI scenario. The Independent The Independent A man with a good supply of horses (6) should be able to plant 180 to 200 acres of grain crops in the fall and an additional up the rows for the planting for crops Why do you need to grow so much stuff? We can live on a quarter acre apiece and that includes veggies, grain, oilseeds, bush/cane/vine fruits, legumes, sugar plants, and fiber plants. A simple planting stick is all you need, and something sharp to cut the weeds off at the base. Seems to me that you only have to have the tractor and horses in order to grow enough crops to 'feed' both of them. As for raising large animals, that's an incredible amount of work. I would rather eat veggies and kick back. Why feed animals 10# of food to get 2# back? And ALL that water and care and shelter and fencing and herding and on and on and on. I don't think you can do the above, Jim, without a pretty good size work force of people that are not equal partners. That tend the animals and eat turnips, so to speak. An underclass. Americans couldn't eat animal products at every meal now, if their food supply wasn't subsidized by cheap labor, here and abroad. -dir -- The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land. Abraham Lincoln |
Self-Sufficiency Acreage Requirement? (getting fuel)
On Sat, 27 Dec 2003 14:00:00 -0800, Jim Dauven
wrote: Robert Sturgeon wrote: When the seed is expressed for oil the oil recovery is about 10% by weight. So 1200 lbs of Rapeseed will yield 120 lbs (20 gallons) of low quality diesel fuel. I suspect that through fractional distillation we would probably get 18 gallons of fuel per acre and 1 to 1.5 gallons of lubrication oil. The distilled Rapeseed oil would also provide oil for lamps for lighting. So if we plant 100 acres of Rape seed we could expect to get 1800 gallons of high quality diesel fuel. You seem to have only a partial picture of biodiesel. If produced by adding methoxide to oil (any vegetable oil, tallow or lard--even waste oil from restaurant fryers), you can get a realatively low-temp reaction that yields biodiesel and glycerine. The glycerine can be used as is in the shop as a degreaser/cleaner, or cleaned up and sold as a high-quality cleanser. Methoxide is simply methanol (ethanol is also viable, but less reliable from what I've read) and pure lye. Biodiesel is cleaner than petrol, lubricates better (thus extends engine life) and results in quieter operation of the motor. Both the byproducts can be poured harmlessly on the ground, where they will break down naturally. Check out the biodiesel discussion here to learn mo http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/6/ubb.x?a=cfrm&s=447609751 It is becoming more and more practical to buy pre-made biodiesel that can be poured directly into any diesel's fuel tank, but mostly in the midwest where soy oil is produced in large volume. There (and some other places), you can buy from a pump like any auto fuel, but most of us have to manage to arrange some sort of storage tanks and have it delivered in large quantities right now. The big drawback to biodiesel is that it gels around 32* F. and clogs filters. Solutions include a tank heater (still risk of clogging in the lines themselves), an anti-gel product that can be added to teh fuel, or mixing petro diesel with biodiesel to get a blend that can stay viscous at lower temps. Even blends as low as 5% biodiesel result in much better lubrication. Check it out--this is the next wave, IMO. We just have to push it past a congress and president who are in the pockets of the petroleum industry. Keith For more info about the International Society of Arboriculture, please visit http://www.isa-arbor.com/home.asp. For consumer info about tree care, visit http://www.treesaregood.com/ |
Self-Sufficiency Acreage Requirement? (getting fuel)
"David I. Raines" wrote: Jim Dauven wrote: [...] Have you looked into no-till farming? It's working very well for us on a smallish scale, just to feed ourselves. -dir I have planned on using no-till farming with horse drawn equipment. First I would run the disk harrow behind a two horse team. That's two acres an hour for 5 hours. Change horses (you cannot/should not run a horse more than 5 hours) because the need time for foraging. Then run disk harrow for another five hours. That way you can disk up 20 acres a day. The next day run the spring tooth harrow for the same about of time. (It actually may go faster as the spring tooth harrow doesn't have the resistance to pulling that the disk harrow does). Last run the grain drill for the planting of wheat, oats, barley, rapeseed etc. These plants are winter planting so you plant them in late september and let them germinate in the fall rain so they will get good start for the spring. That way the plant matures while the moisture from the spring rains is still in the ground. If you are raising cattle and you keep your cattle in a corral in the winter you can use a manure spreader to spread manure on the grain crops in the spring just as ground if thawing This will provide additional nitrogen for the growing grain plants. (The object of this is to get the grain as healthy as possible for increased yield) Also the rape oil is important here because after fertilization of the grain heads if you spray the grain with rapeseed oil that will kill many of the pests like grass hoppers as rapeseed oil is toxic and does really dry out. I don't have a horse drawn spray rig yet but it is one of the things that will have to be constructed. Crops that you will irrigate, Corn, potatoes, beans, peas, onions, alfalfa, etc you plant in the spring. One trick you can do is seed alfalfa over the grain crop that you planted the fall before. The grain will grow faster than the alfalfa but the alfalfa will still grow and the plant root nodules will fix nitrogen into the soil for the grain. You do the same no till harrow work but then you use a cultivator to make up the rows. After planting you can then lay the soaker tubes for a water supply. Again after these crops have fertilized then a mist of rapeseed oil will help in pest control. I have herd that a mist of rapeseed oil will also control pests on fruit and berries. So you can see why I am very interested in the rapeseed plant in a TEOTWAWKI scenario. The Independent The Independent A man with a good supply of horses (6) should be able to plant 180 to 200 acres of grain crops in the fall and an additional up the rows for the planting for crops Why do you need to grow so much stuff? We can live on a quarter acre apiece and that includes veggies, grain, oilseeds, bush/cane/vine fruits, legumes, sugar plants, and fiber plants. A simple planting stick is all you need, and something sharp to cut the weeds off at the base. Seems to me that you only have to have the tractor and horses in order to grow enough crops to 'feed' both of them. As for raising large animals, that's an incredible amount of work. I would rather eat veggies and kick back. Why feed animals 10# of food to get 2# back? And ALL that water and care and shelter and fencing and herding and on and on and on. I don't think you can do the above, Jim, without a pretty good size work force of people that are not equal partners. That tend the animals and eat turnips, so to speak. An underclass. Americans couldn't eat animal products at every meal now, if their food supply wasn't subsidized by cheap labor, here and abroad. -dir I currently have 4 horses, 6 beef cattle, 12 Sheep, 6 pygmy goats a flock of chickens and some ducks. I own 5 acres of land with half a duck pond, and have rented an extra 8 acres on a long term lease from an old gent. That gives me 13 acres for my livestock. My wife tends the garden 200 X 200 in raised beds. (That stops a lot of back aches right there.) The live stock takes about an hour a day to take care of. Of course I plan on spending 4 or 5 weekends a year to repair fences that the livestock brake down. My bug out property in South East Oregon is basically my hunting and fishing camp. There are lots of deer, sage grouse, and chucker partridge there. The Owhyee river at the bottom of the deep canyon that borders my property is a fisherman's paradise with native lahaten cutthroat and rainbow trout. I can fly over in the morning and fly out in the evening. Its a two hour flight on most days. If event of TEOTWAWKI, major War, or economic dislocation I plan on having an abundant supply of: biodiesel for my vehicle linen cloth from flax wool cloth from sheep leather goods from traded hides from slaughtered animals flour Corn meal popcorn peanuts Potatoes Tomatoes beer (home brewed from my own hops and grain) beans pea onions garlic herbs squash turnips parsnips carrots beets asparagus strawberries black berries apples peaches pears apricots milk cheese butter eggs Wine from fruit and berries brandy from the distilled wine. For most of the above plants I already have seed stored in vacuum sealed long term storage containers. I plan on ordering some rapeseed this spring. I plan on putting about 20 lbs of it away in vacuum sealed containers. You might be interested in my vacuum sealing process. I have a steel pressure sphere. I place the seeds in old fashioned glass jars with the glass lids with rubber gaskets and wire hold down clamps. I fill jars with helium by turning them up side down cracking the lid which is not sealed at this point, and using a long thin hollow tube which I insert all the way into jar. When I think the jars are filled with Helium replace the lid and clamp it down. I place the jars upside down on racks in the pressure sphere. I then with draw enough air so pressure in the sphere causes the jar to seal its self. (generally about 7 psi or so) There may be a few other odd and ends that I have neglected to list but to have abundant food is to have wealth if things go all to hell. Now I know some wise ass is going to say the government will come in and confiscate all the food stuffs. But I got news for you they won't. They know if you confiscate the food stuffs there won't be any for the next year. What the government does is set a price ceiling of which you cannot sell above. But even the price ceiling is a lot more than the cost of production. During World War II the farmers in Southern Idaho while the didn't become filthy rich, they did rather well during the war. I know some Japanese families that were interned at the camp at Hunt Idaho. During the war they hired out as day laborers. By the end of the war Mr. Izowa, Mr. Murakami and Mr. Matsuoka were all very prosperous farmers with some large holdings. The way my parents told me, during the rationing of WWII, the farm communities had abundant meat, leather, gasoline, cheese, milk, and even tires for their farm vehicles, (mainly trucks). It seems farmers were exempted from almost every thing but sugar. That was hard to get but with bee hives and honey there was a lot of sweeteners to go around. The Independent -- The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land. Abraham Lincoln |
Self-Sufficiency Acreage Requirement? (getting fuel)
"David I. Raines" wrote in message ink.net... Jim Dauven wrote: [...] Have you looked into no-till farming? It's working very well for us on a smallish scale, just to feed ourselves. -dir I have planned on using no-till farming with horse drawn equipment. First I would run the disk harrow behind a two horse team. That's two acres an hour for 5 hours. Change horses (you cannot/should not run a horse more than 5 hours) because the need time for foraging. Then run disk harrow for another five hours. That way you can disk up 20 acres a day. The next day run the spring tooth harrow for the same about of time. (It actually may go faster as the spring tooth harrow doesn't have the resistance to pulling that the disk harrow does). Last run the grain drill for the planting of wheat, oats, barley, rapeseed etc. These plants are winter planting so you plant them in late september and let them germinate in the fall rain so they will get good start for the spring. That way the plant matures while the moisture from the spring rains is still in the ground. If you are raising cattle and you keep your cattle in a corral in the winter you can use a manure spreader to spread manure on the grain crops in the spring just as ground if thawing This will provide additional nitrogen for the growing grain plants. (The object of this is to get the grain as healthy as possible for increased yield) Also the rape oil is important here because after fertilization of the grain heads if you spray the grain with rapeseed oil that will kill many of the pests like grass hoppers as rapeseed oil is toxic and does really dry out. I don't have a horse drawn spray rig yet but it is one of the things that will have to be constructed. Crops that you will irrigate, Corn, potatoes, beans, peas, onions, alfalfa, etc you plant in the spring. One trick you can do is seed alfalfa over the grain crop that you planted the fall before. The grain will grow faster than the alfalfa but the alfalfa will still grow and the plant root nodules will fix nitrogen into the soil for the grain. You do the same no till harrow work but then you use a cultivator to make up the rows. After planting you can then lay the soaker tubes for a water supply. Again after these crops have fertilized then a mist of rapeseed oil will help in pest control. I have herd that a mist of rapeseed oil will also control pests on fruit and berries. So you can see why I am very interested in the rapeseed plant in a TEOTWAWKI scenario. The Independent The Independent A man with a good supply of horses (6) should be able to plant 180 to 200 acres of grain crops in the fall and an additional up the rows for the planting for crops Why do you need to grow so much stuff? We can live on a quarter acre apiece and that includes veggies, grain, oilseeds, bush/cane/vine fruits, legumes, sugar plants, and fiber plants. A simple planting stick is all you need, and something sharp to cut the weeds off at the base. Seems to me that you only have to have the tractor and horses in order to grow enough crops to 'feed' both of them. As for raising large animals, that's an incredible amount of work. I would rather eat veggies and kick back. Why feed animals 10# of food to get 2# back? And ALL that water and care and shelter and fencing and herding and on and on and on. I don't think you can do the above, Jim, without a pretty good size work force of people that are not equal partners. That tend the animals and eat turnips, so to speak. An underclass. Americans couldn't eat animal products at every meal now, if their food supply wasn't subsidized by cheap labor, here and abroad. You do know what subsidies are, don't you? They're money we paid to the government so that we wouldn't have to pay it to the farmer. After the government takes there share for the administration of the farm programs...we'd be better off if we'd just bit the bullet and paid higher prices for the food. |
Self-Sufficiency Acreage Requirement? (getting fuel)
Jim Dauven wrote in message ...
The alfalfa and wheat stubble provide cover and feed for pheasant and quail which can be harvested in the fall with a shot gun. Small disagreement. Harvest the birds with live capture traps. Check the one-way door used by pigeon raisers to let birds back in the loft, the same thing can be used for both quail and pheasent. Empty the traps in the dark so the loose birds do not see what is happening. Easier on the teeth than shotgun pellets. http://www.scottsdog.com/pigandgambir.html |
Self-Sufficiency Acreage Requirement? (getting fuel)
Gunner wrote:
On Sat, 27 Dec 2003 22:27:32 -0800, Jim Dauven wrote: A man with a good supply of horses (6) should be able to plant 180 to 200 acres of grain crops in the fall and an additional up the rows for the planting for crops As long as he keeps them out of the rapeseed field....if he dont...he has dead or sick horses Good point. Unrefined rapeseed oil *is* used as an insecticide. -dir -- The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land. Abraham Lincoln |
Self-Sufficiency Acreage Requirement? (getting fuel)
Susan Kennedy wrote: "David I. Raines" wrote in message ink.net... Jim Dauven wrote: [...] Why do you need to grow so much stuff? We can live on a quarter acre apiece and that includes veggies, grain, oilseeds, bush/cane/vine fruits, legumes, sugar plants, and fiber plants. A simple planting stick is all you need, and something sharp to cut the weeds off at the base. Seems to me that you only have to have the tractor and horses in order to grow enough crops to 'feed' both of them. As for raising large animals, that's an incredible amount of work. I would rather eat veggies and kick back. Why feed animals 10# of food to get 2# back? And ALL that water and care and shelter and fencing and herding and on and on and on. I don't think you can do the above, Jim, without a pretty good size work force of people that are not equal partners. That tend the animals and eat turnips, so to speak. An underclass. Americans couldn't eat animal products at every meal now, if their food supply wasn't subsidized by cheap labor, here and abroad. You do know what subsidies are, don't you? They're money we paid to the government so that we wouldn't have to pay it to the farmer. After the government takes there share for the administration of the farm programs...we'd be better off if we'd just bit the bullet and paid higher prices for the food. You are leaving out just *how* people have enough money to pay those taxes in the first place. Living on things picked and processed and mined and manufactured by what amounts to slave labor are also forms of subsidies. Like the Hispanic migrant laborers that pick and process a good percentage of American fruits and vegetables. Although most of this happens in the Third World. -dir -- The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land. Abraham Lincoln |
Self-Sufficiency Acreage Requirement? (getting fuel)
Gunner wrote:
On Sat, 27 Dec 2003 22:27:32 -0800, Jim Dauven wrote: A man with a good supply of horses (6) should be able to plant 180 to 200 acres of grain crops in the fall and an additional up the rows for the planting for crops As long as he keeps them out of the rapeseed field....if he dont...he has dead or sick horses Good point. Unrefined rapeseed oil *is* used as an insecticide. -dir -- The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land. Abraham Lincoln |
Self-Sufficiency Acreage Requirement? (getting fuel)
Susan Kennedy wrote: "David I. Raines" wrote in message ink.net... Jim Dauven wrote: [...] Why do you need to grow so much stuff? We can live on a quarter acre apiece and that includes veggies, grain, oilseeds, bush/cane/vine fruits, legumes, sugar plants, and fiber plants. A simple planting stick is all you need, and something sharp to cut the weeds off at the base. Seems to me that you only have to have the tractor and horses in order to grow enough crops to 'feed' both of them. As for raising large animals, that's an incredible amount of work. I would rather eat veggies and kick back. Why feed animals 10# of food to get 2# back? And ALL that water and care and shelter and fencing and herding and on and on and on. I don't think you can do the above, Jim, without a pretty good size work force of people that are not equal partners. That tend the animals and eat turnips, so to speak. An underclass. Americans couldn't eat animal products at every meal now, if their food supply wasn't subsidized by cheap labor, here and abroad. You do know what subsidies are, don't you? They're money we paid to the government so that we wouldn't have to pay it to the farmer. After the government takes there share for the administration of the farm programs...we'd be better off if we'd just bit the bullet and paid higher prices for the food. You are leaving out just *how* people have enough money to pay those taxes in the first place. Living on things picked and processed and mined and manufactured by what amounts to slave labor are also forms of subsidies. Like the Hispanic migrant laborers that pick and process a good percentage of American fruits and vegetables. Although most of this happens in the Third World. -dir -- The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land. Abraham Lincoln |
Self-Sufficiency Acreage Requirement? (getting fuel)
David I. Raines wrote:
Gunner wrote: On Sat, 27 Dec 2003 22:27:32 -0800, Jim Dauven wrote: A man with a good supply of horses (6) should be able to plant 180 to 200 acres of grain crops in the fall and an additional up the rows for the planting for crops As long as he keeps them out of the rapeseed field....if he dont...he has dead or sick horses Good point. Unrefined rapeseed oil *is* used as an insecticide. -dir Rapeseed oil is also the canola oil that many food processors are trying to use as a marketing tool against commonly used saturated oils. Pete H -- If A = Success, then the formula is A=X+Y+Z where X=work; Y=play; Z= keep your mouth shut. A. Einstein (1955) |
Self-Sufficiency Acreage Requirement? (getting fuel)
David I. Raines wrote:
Gunner wrote: On Sat, 27 Dec 2003 22:27:32 -0800, Jim Dauven wrote: A man with a good supply of horses (6) should be able to plant 180 to 200 acres of grain crops in the fall and an additional up the rows for the planting for crops As long as he keeps them out of the rapeseed field....if he dont...he has dead or sick horses Good point. Unrefined rapeseed oil *is* used as an insecticide. -dir Rapeseed oil is also the canola oil that many food processors are trying to use as a marketing tool against commonly used saturated oils. Pete H -- If A = Success, then the formula is A=X+Y+Z where X=work; Y=play; Z= keep your mouth shut. A. Einstein (1955) |
Self-Sufficiency Acreage Requirement? (getting fuel)
David I. Raines wrote:
Gunner wrote: On Sat, 27 Dec 2003 22:27:32 -0800, Jim Dauven wrote: A man with a good supply of horses (6) should be able to plant 180 to 200 acres of grain crops in the fall and an additional up the rows for the planting for crops As long as he keeps them out of the rapeseed field....if he dont...he has dead or sick horses Good point. Unrefined rapeseed oil *is* used as an insecticide. -dir Rapeseed oil is also the canola oil that many food processors are trying to use as a marketing tool against commonly used saturated oils. Pete H -- If A = Success, then the formula is A=X+Y+Z where X=work; Y=play; Z= keep your mouth shut. A. Einstein (1955) |
Self-Sufficiency Acreage Requirement? (getting fuel)
"Peter H" wrote in message ... David I. Raines wrote: Gunner wrote: On Sat, 27 Dec 2003 22:27:32 -0800, Jim Dauven wrote: A man with a good supply of horses (6) should be able to plant 180 to 200 acres of grain crops in the fall and an additional up the rows for the planting for crops As long as he keeps them out of the rapeseed field....if he dont...he has dead or sick horses Good point. Unrefined rapeseed oil *is* used as an insecticide. -dir Rapeseed oil is also the canola oil that many food processors are trying to use as a marketing tool against commonly used saturated oils. canola oil sounds more PC though. Pete H -- If A = Success, then the formula is A=X+Y+Z where X=work; Y=play; Z= keep your mouth shut. A. Einstein (1955) |
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