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Life off the grid in the SW Texas desert. An experiment in sustainable living. NUMBERS AT THE END OF EACH BLOG POST: temp at 8PM,high temp,low temp,rainfall,wind conditions(CalmBreezyWindyGusty). YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/c/TheFieldLab Daily live streams at https://www.youtube.com/thefieldlab/live
8 comments:
Is Ben a lucky guy or what!
the rabbits are pretty happy about it too...
So Ben is enabling the rabbits, my oh my.
Back in the 1960 thru 1970 period - we used to visit a Wyoming Rancher that grew alfalfa in his creek bottoms for his cattle. This food was needed during the winter months when deep snows prevented the cattle from finding food. He pumped water from the creek to provide the needed irrigation water. Stored all the hay crop he could - in his large stone barn building and the remainder was stored in the alfalfa growing field - in large conical piles of hay protected by stout fence posts & barbed wire. He really disliked the elk - that the Game & Fish Dept. relocated from Yellowstone to the Mt Laramie area. When they got hungry - they would break thru his fence to eat his alfalfa hay - stored in the fields. That displeasure was evident in the elk tooth necklace he wore around his neck. He even gave my wife some of his surplus elk teeth - which she still has.
That is interesting Ronald. My father was born in Green River, Wyoming. My grandparents moved there in 1911 from Indianna. In those days the stagecoach did not even go that far. Then they rode in a horse drawn wagon to their destination. My beautiful long, thick blond haired, beautiful blue eyed, brilliant, talented grandmother who was the great niece of Jefferson Davis used to shoot wild animals off her back porch with a shotgun. My grandfather was train station master in the beginning before he made his millions. Then they moved to Laramie and had a fancy store across from the main entrance of the University of Wyoming. I visited and rode horses on a cattle ranch.
----- Margery Bills -the rancher we visited was named Sid Sturgeon (my spelling may not be accurate because that was about 50 years ago). And he had quite a bit of property on the southern side of Mt Laramie. He let hunters harvest deer on his property -at very reasonable rates - primarily because he did not want the deer to eat up his cattle forage. He let my dad, brother, and myself start using (free of charge) his small unused stone building - which was formerly a ranch schoolhouse. And that was much warmer than sleeping in a tent - and we felt we were very privileged to be inside a warm building. Just goes to show that Northern Hospitality - is as good or better than Southern Hospitality!
Fun fact, alfalfa makes an excellent source of fertilizer! It is a nitrogen fixer, and also can provide a rich source of potassium and phosphorous, the main nutrients that plants craves crave. I first heard about alfalfa from people making "tea" from it for their roses, which is great for the plants, but stinks to high heavens!
Ronald, I remember my parents mentioning Sid. Wouldn't that be something if that were the same Sid.
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