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here's some real awesome shit: https://www.coursera.org/learn/best-practice-farming-sustainable-2050

there's a lot of information here, and while a lot of the examples are based on the farm that the university that came up with the program owns, there's still a lot of things worth knowing. i found it fascinating, though i haven't got past the water module yet - i struggle a bit with independent study.

man, the difference between a freeky with an empty stomach, and a freeky with a stomach + 1 whole lasagna, is p intense. i feel all happy and satisfied and content. it's wild, i tell you.

for lack of a better spot - another three years have gone by: and holy fuck did my outlook on life change beyond just getting fucking old. :3
there is actually a life worth living now. who would have thought this even existed??

but i guess that is mostly thanks to black market prescription hormones which finally put my brain into its rightful soup. and then hrt did its magic, partially to the body, which i am still somewhat trying to kinda live with; but most of all - to ye ol' brainbox: which can finally work as intended and damn did it click into place.

so yeah;i am kinda back. new and improved. eksky/planeswalker is dead - long live Ari, the tentacle queen. yadda yadda.
now back to lurking to see what you have all been up to as of late. i missed this place.

eyyo
/ari atari

hello there!

so, i'm getting really big into alternative ways to grow crops n shit, because while my fiancee really wants to go a traditional farm that uses horse technology route, i think the reality is just really going to be way too onerous for the two of us alone to produce the majority of our food for, what, minimum of five people at this point, two of those have dedicated incomes from outside sources (bee is one of them), two of us are severely impaired by chronic illness (i'm one of them), and then boi is gonna be a teen so probably not real hot on unpaid labor, which is totally fair i feel.

i really like the idea of going with grow bags and sack farming, because you can grow so fucking much food in a square meter cube, it's ridiculous.

here's a rad fucking video about it, 2:43 long https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAXHn0-gxZA and here's another longer one, 11:26 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBGx5nPHp3M

that's cool, I'd never heard of sack farming

how much space do you have?

none, at the moment. they're working their student debt off, and i'm waiting for SSI hearings. we're hoping for at least a couple acres of property, but who knows honestly when we'll even be ready. ideally, a property with ten or more acres, which isn't impossible in some states, but we might have to settle, which is fine tbh! sack farming would do us well, and i've done a lot of research into how to feasibly do aquaponics and hydroponics.

Hi Freeky! long time no talk! Have you ever looked into a hugelkultur? I started one before i had to leave it abruptly.

hell yeah! i'll look at this! also hey! 

We're doing pretty good with container gardening in the backyard using just 5 gallon buckets with holes drilled in them, on top of pallets to keep them off the sand and draining. Another friend is using IKEA bags rigged with cement blocks into a square bed, and then filled with gravel for drainage, and soil. It works like gangbusters.

I have cherry tomatoes, zucchini, runner beans, marigolds, and lavender outside. In my lanai, I have rosemary and basil to control them so they don't take over the yard. Rosemary does amazingly well in Florida sand and heat, so it may do good in Arizona, too depending on the water requirements. It could be work looking into if you like to cook with it.

hell yeah, that sounds like an awesome setup. also this won't be in arizona, because fuck this fuckin heat.

In other news, that tropical storm's low pressure finally hit the East Coast, and I've had a migraine since yesterday afternoon. If anybody has the remedy for pulling a fucking sword out from behind my left eye, let me know.

hot bath for me, even when it's hot out, but that's mostly for comfort, and in that comfort it takes the edge off because it's less burdensome to be in pain

so, i'm getting really big into alternative ways to grow crops n shit, because while my fiancee really wants to go a traditional farm that uses horse technology route, i think the reality is just really going to be way too onerous for the two of us alone to produce the majority of our food for, what, minimum of five people at this point, two of those have dedicated incomes from outside sources (bee is one of them), two of us are severely impaired by chronic illness (i'm one of them), and then boi is gonna be a teen so probably not real hot on unpaid labor, which is totally fair i feel.

i really like the idea of going with grow bags and sack farming, because you can grow so fucking much food in a square meter cube, it's ridiculous.

here's a rad fucking video about it, 2:43 long https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAXHn0-gxZA and here's another longer one, 11:26 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBGx5nPHp3M

that's cool, I'd never heard of sack farming

how much space do you have?

none, at the moment. they're working their student debt off, and i'm waiting for SSI hearings. we're hoping for at least a couple acres of property, but who knows honestly when we'll even be ready. ideally, a property with ten or more acres, which isn't impossible in some states, but we might have to settle, which is fine tbh! sack farming would do us well, and i've done a lot of research into how to feasibly do aquaponics and hydroponics.

Is this all just to have something to do, or a situation where you're fucked if you fail?

neither really. vegetables are fucking expensive, and it might prove to be equally expensive to grow our own but we could theoretically sell excess at a farmer's market.

It would probably be wise to at least start out small, and see how that works out. Youtube videos are ok-ish for back porch scale projects, but anything like that on the scale of acres definitely needs some real adult supervision, which would mean, at a minimum, paying a consultant with a degree in the field.

tbh the acreage would be for the horses. we're both dead set on having a couple because horses are awesome. furthermore i'd like to do animal rescue work but that's way, way out of my sphere of knowledge and is just a nice thing to dream about

Sorry, Howl, Tucson cops are all fucking horrid cretins too, and they just got legal support that is unspeakably shitty. No accountability. They'll lie down your fucking throat at any juncture with this:

https://twitter.com/artsymarxist/status/1269145707237175296?s=21

And even though it will get shot down in court if we are lucky, that's more than enough time for them to perform a full fucking ethnic cleansing if they are so inclined.

https://twitter.com/whatsuptucson/status/1269278592367656960 a clarification on that, though it's still sketchy timing

eta i'm reading the subthread by artsy marxist, who says they have a lawyer friend commenting on it. the entire thread is worth reading really

I run a reasonably-sized hobby garden, about 30 ft. on each side.  If I wanted to scale up to the point where it accounted for a significant part of my food intake, I expect I would need to quit my job to take up gardening full-time, and invest several tens of thousands in equipment and land.

And then I'd spend the winter eating mostly potatoes and beans.

But I don't grow potatoes.  They're boring, and for a few bucks I can buy a bag at the grocery store.

Unless you're almost completely mechanized, gardening requires the equivalent of doing bad-form squats for hours on end.  If you have back or knee problems, it will severely exacerbate them.  And if walking is difficult for you...I don't think this is going to work out.  Sorry.

i appreciate that you're trying to save me from heartache, but there's plenty of ways to do it that don't involve shoving seeds into the dirt that's at ground level.

aquaponics planters can easily be raised and set over the fish tanks, leaving them at waist height - that's probably the best setup for space restrictions, anyway, and gravity helps in the water cycle too, saving me from yet another pump system to figure out.

hydroponics can be done upright, and it's another popular space saving technique that maximizes output and minimizes space, and can be as tall as you please, though some plants don't do well with that and we'd need more experience to get the finicky plants to thrive.

we could do raised plant beds, or potted plants, or hanging pots even for lighter things like herbs. what i'm getting at here is that i'm aware of my own limitations and have put in the work to find solutions that already exist.

so, i'm getting really big into alternative ways to grow crops n shit, because while my fiancee really wants to go a traditional farm that uses horse technology route, i think the reality is just really going to be way too onerous for the two of us alone to produce the majority of our food for, what, minimum of five people at this point, two of those have dedicated incomes from outside sources (bee is one of them), two of us are severely impaired by chronic illness (i'm one of them), and then boi is gonna be a teen so probably not real hot on unpaid labor, which is totally fair i feel.

i really like the idea of going with grow bags and sack farming, because you can grow so fucking much food in a square meter cube, it's ridiculous.

here's a rad fucking video about it, 2:43 long https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAXHn0-gxZA and here's another longer one, 11:26 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBGx5nPHp3M

My general experience with growing crops is that it is a lot of work.  Doing it different ways changes what sort of work that is, but not really the amount.

If you can find a way to grow food that is a sort of work you are comfortable doing it is totally worth it, but if you are chronically ill in a way that makes hard physical work impossible it's probably best to leave the food growing to the (sadly underpaid) professionals.

i do accept that it's gonna be a lot of work, and i look forward to it honestly! walking is the most difficult. i can do it as long as it's not daytime and hot out, so i feel like if working in the heat is going to be a thing anyway, because that's when most growing seasons are, minimizing the distance i have to move will be of great help in making it more doable.

https://www.pscp.tv/EyesOpenDC/1ZkJzLZyzEdKv here's a new live feed since the other one went dead.

so, i'm getting really big into alternative ways to grow crops n shit, because while my fiancee really wants to go a traditional farm that uses horse technology route, i think the reality is just really going to be way too onerous for the two of us alone to produce the majority of our food for, what, minimum of five people at this point, two of those have dedicated incomes from outside sources (bee is one of them), two of us are severely impaired by chronic illness (i'm one of them), and then boi is gonna be a teen so probably not real hot on unpaid labor, which is totally fair i feel.

i really like the idea of going with grow bags and sack farming, because you can grow so fucking much food in a square meter cube, it's ridiculous.

here's a rad fucking video about it, 2:43 long https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAXHn0-gxZA and here's another longer one, 11:26 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBGx5nPHp3M

that's cool, I'd never heard of sack farming

how much space do you have?

none, at the moment. they're working their student debt off, and i'm waiting for SSI hearings. we're hoping for at least a couple acres of property, but who knows honestly when we'll even be ready. ideally, a property with ten or more acres, which isn't impossible in some states, but we might have to settle, which is fine tbh! sack farming would do us well, and i've done a lot of research into how to feasibly do aquaponics and hydroponics.

Realistically, between the corona virus furloughs and lock downs, this is the best opportunity I've seen for Ketteling the police.

you're not wrong

military are ignoring curfew.

for the moment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNFOIz8jV00&feature=youtu.be

live from the front of the peaceful protest. i've been watching for a while. there's one woman who keeps demanding of one of the airmen look at the black men who walk up and down between the lines. they keep pulling the men who do acknowledge these men, looking them in the eyes and such, towards the back. very few cops at this point.

so, i'm getting really big into alternative ways to grow crops n shit, because while my fiancee really wants to go a traditional farm that uses horse technology route, i think the reality is just really going to be way too onerous for the two of us alone to produce the majority of our food for, what, minimum of five people at this point, two of those have dedicated incomes from outside sources (bee is one of them), two of us are severely impaired by chronic illness (i'm one of them), and then boi is gonna be a teen so probably not real hot on unpaid labor, which is totally fair i feel.

i really like the idea of going with grow bags and sack farming, because you can grow so fucking much food in a square meter cube, it's ridiculous.

here's a rad fucking video about it, 2:43 long https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAXHn0-gxZA and here's another longer one, 11:26 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBGx5nPHp3M