http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGeXdv-uPaw

Farm1 wrote:
....

*waves hello!*

hi there! how has your season been?


songbird

"Billy" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Farm1" wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGeXdv-uPaw

You must be one of those touchy, feely environmentalists.

Welcome aboard.

:-)) What on earth do you mean Billy? Where I live, even the most
conservative elements in my country have been discussing issues such as land
degradation and climate change for years. We've been waiting for the
majority of USians to finally see the light and climb aboard.

"songbird" wrote in message
...
Farm1 wrote:
...

*waves hello!*

Greeting bird from this side of the planet.

hi there! how has your season been?

Not brilliant. It's been very wet and we didn't get the sort of heat we
need to bring on 'the great tomato glut'. I've had enough veg for eating
and given to friends and family, but not enough to store for later in the
winter. AND, I didn't even get one single eggplant!!! Just not enough
heat. I did manage to incubate a few eggs though and now have 2 roosters to
replace the gorgeous young fellow I lost last November. My poor chooks
nealry drowned though given how much water was flowing through their pens -
I can't recall a year with so much rain.

"Billy" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Farm1" wrote:

"Billy" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Farm1" wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGeXdv-uPaw

You must be one of those touchy, feely environmentalists.

Welcome aboard.

:-)) What on earth do you mean Billy? Where I live, even the most
conservative elements in my country have been discussing issues such as
land
degradation and climate change for years. We've been waiting for the
majority of USians to finally see the light and climb aboard.

Best pull up a chair then :O( Nutters here don't use contraception, and
there seem to be more of them every day. We are 5% ofthe world's
population, and use 25% of the worlds oil. The nutters here don't see
the problem, and the government here pays the oil companies to drill for
more oil to sell on the world market. Good luck to us all.

We've been regularly watching a TV show called 'American Pickers' and part
of the charm of this show for us is the countryside they travel through. So
far we've seen the 2 chaps travel in Tenn., Idaho, Iowa, Ken., Ill., and
Wisc., (sorry if the abbreviations aren't right) and we are just astonished
at how rich and lush the background countryside is. If they were doing
simialar driving here and were that far from the sea, they'd have coveres
some lush country but a hell of a lot of it would be sub-marginal country.

When your country hits the wall with droughts in large slabs of that lush
country, then manybe your conservatives will also begin to see the light.
Here it was our farmers who started the push because they lived with land
degradation and you know how conservative they are politically and socially.

Farm1 wrote:
....
We've been regularly watching a TV show called 'American Pickers' and part
of the charm of this show for us is the countryside they travel through. So
far we've seen the 2 chaps travel in Tenn., Idaho, Iowa, Ken., Ill., and
Wisc., (sorry if the abbreviations aren't right) and we are just astonished
at how rich and lush the background countryside is. If they were doing
simialar driving here and were that far from the sea, they'd have coveres
some lush country but a hell of a lot of it would be sub-marginal country.

When your country hits the wall with droughts in large slabs of that lush
country, then manybe your conservatives will also begin to see the light.
Here it was our farmers who started the push because they lived with land
degradation and you know how conservative they are politically and socially.

the entire desert southwest is living on the
edge of water deprivation. this past winter
did not give them much snow pack so this year
irrigation water will be limited to southern
California (where much produce is grown).

the states you mention are mostly eastern
(other than Idaho) or borderline prairie. those
are rich habitats that get enough rain to be
ok without irrigation most seasons. they do
get periods of drought, but not often.

we are fortunate here for water in the mid-
west. this small chunk of property has a two
ditches through it that run almost constantly.
the water table is high. i also try to capture
most of the heavy rainfall runoff that i can to
let it soak in. i figure it is better to
recharge the groundwater and well here via as
many means as possible otherwise we might end up
with salt water like many of the surrounding
neighbors (old seabed here with layers of salt
and coal below).

i have yet to see much change in the way of
farmers here respecting water quality. i wish
i could say different.


songbird

Farm1 wrote:
songbird wrote:
Farm1 wrote:
...

*waves hello!*

Greeting bird from this side of the planet.




hi there! how has your season been?

Not brilliant. It's been very wet and we didn't get the sort of heat we
need to bring on 'the great tomato glut'. I've had enough veg for eating
and given to friends and family, but not enough to store for later in the
winter.

oh arg!


AND, I didn't even get one single eggplant!!! Just not enough
heat. I did manage to incubate a few eggs though and now have 2 roosters to
replace the gorgeous young fellow I lost last November.

i'm glad you got your new fellas, were they from
the previous rooster via the hens or did you get
fertilized eggs from someone else?

tough luck on the eggplant, do you usually have a
large harvest of it?

new for me this season will be okra. i have seeds
and am waiting for certain warmth well past the last
frost date.


My poor chooks
nealry drowned though given how much water was flowing through their pens -
I can't recall a year with so much rain.

and now heading to the rainy winter season too? or
do things normally dry out there in the winter?


songbird

"songbird" wrote in message
...
Farm1 wrote:

I did manage to incubate a few eggs though and now have 2 roosters to
replace the gorgeous young fellow I lost last November.

i'm glad you got your new fellas, were they from
the previous rooster via the hens or did you get
fertilized eggs from someone else?

After he fell of his perch (literally) I saved the eggs for the next few
days and incubated them using a Hovabator borrowed form a neighbour. I set
it up in our dining room and I must say given how seldon we use tht room, it
was probably a more productive use than that room has had for years.

tough luck on the eggplant, do you usually have a
large harvest of it?

No, we don't ever have a large harvest of them because we're somewhat
marginal climate wide. I dont' ever plant more than a few plants as I'm too
mean to give them the space. We usually manage to get a few of the smaller
ones but I couldn't even manage to get them this year.


new for me this season will be okra. i have seeds
and am waiting for certain warmth well past the last
frost date.

Good luck with them. IIRC I think David H-S mentioned growing some of them
last year

We had no frosts but just not enough heat. No long stretches of extended
heat but just a few short sharp days of warmth and then back to coolish and
rain.


My poor chooks
nealry drowned though given how much water was flowing through their
pens -
I can't recall a year with so much rain.

and now heading to the rainy winter season too? or
do things normally dry out there in the winter?

Our rain is usually fairly evenly distributed throughout the year but this
year has been very different to normal. Long range forecasters are saying
it should be about average rain, but I have no idea how good their
predictions are.

Farm1 wrote:
songbird wrote:
Farm1 wrote:
....
tough luck on the eggplant, do you usually have a
large harvest of it?

No, we don't ever have a large harvest of them because we're somewhat
marginal climate wide. I dont' ever plant more than a few plants as I'm too
mean to give them the space. We usually manage to get a few of the smaller
ones but I couldn't even manage to get them this year.

do you ever use black plastic around them?


new for me this season will be okra. i have seeds
and am waiting for certain warmth well past the last
frost date.

Good luck with them. IIRC I think David H-S mentioned growing some of them
last year

he's quite a ways away from where i am at,
yet i should be ok, my brother grows them at his
place a bit further north than here and has less
than full sun, still gets results.


We had no frosts but just not enough heat. No long stretches of extended
heat but just a few short sharp days of warmth and then back to coolish and
rain.

that would be a very very unusual summer here,
akin to one that would result from a major volcanic
eruption or the sun being masked from space...


My poor chooks
nealry drowned though given how much water was flowing through their
pens -
I can't recall a year with so much rain.

and now heading to the rainy winter season too? or
do things normally dry out there in the winter?

Our rain is usually fairly evenly distributed throughout the year but this
year has been very different to normal. Long range forecasters are saying
it should be about average rain, but I have no idea how good their
predictions are.

heh, well, ...


songbird

amazing, I think its the best ever stuff that I could find on 'earth'. Its really
impressive. The playback music was also nice. Nice creation.