It's a picture of a picture, so sorry for the crummy quality & glare. :) I'm partially disabled now so I'm a stay-at-home mom these days, I live in suburban Los Angeles, California with my husband, 9 year old daughter and assorted animals, including a flock o' chickens in the back yard. Part of my childhood growing up with my sisters and brother was spent on a small ranchette in Norco, CA where we had chickens for eggs & meat, turkeys (meat), horses, rabbits, ducks, etc. plus a mixed fruit orchard and a large vegetable garden. Our parents taught us to how to live off the land and how to kill, clean, harvest and can what we raised & grew. I'm trying to pass that knowledge on to my daughter. My hobbies are birds in general and chickens in particular, raising and rehabbing wild birds, growing roses, my '69 Plymouth convertible, gardening & canning, with some writing and drawing tossed in here and there. I'm aiming to put in a raised bed vegetable garden this year to go with my blood orange tree (makes great jelly!) and white nectarine tree (makes great jam!). I just have to make sure the garden is chicken-proof! Good times! :) I've got a chicken info site here: http://jackshenhouse.com/ And my LiveJournal, with more day-to-day stuff, here: http://velvet-sparrow.livejournal.com/ Velvet ~:>

Craigslist is the used stuff shopping place now. Seems like you can find anything there! I now have two cattle, a trailer, patio stones, other things we found on there when we needed an item. Sometimes you can find auctions on Weekends, pick up things you want or need. You NEED to know prices, so you don't overpay. Check items out totally, before bidding because once you buy, it is yours working or not. Congrats on the new place.

Here's what I'm doing on the 33 acres that I inherited in North Carolina. First, I checked with a forestry consultant, whom I happen to go to church with. He walked the land and gave me an estimate of the worth of the timber on the property. Then, he took bids from logging companies. The high bidder won the contract, the consultant handles all the negotiations and supervises the cutting. After the cut, I was left with cleared land, but brush and laps from the trees that were harvested remained on the property. These pieces are currently being "harvested" for firewood. What's left will be burned off early this winter. The area that I want to keep cleared (7 acres) has been marked off. The remaining acreage will be replanted, using part of the proceeds from the timber sale and a grant from the state Forestry Service for replanting. The area that's left will have stumps, but they have been cut close to the ground. I have scored the top of these stumps with a chainsaw and applied nitrogen, in different forms, which will hasten the decomposition of the stumps. I don't plan to use a bulldozer for anything. Total out of pocket expenses: $0.00. The timber brought a good bit of cash that I will have available for farm use and to pay other expenses. The consultant gets his money from a percentage of the price that the timber bought, plus he remains as my consultant, working to get the replanted areas back into shape for the next sale, in about 18 years. The timber company built a good road into the property (I failed to mention that the entire area was 95 acres, split betwen myself and my siblings). The consultant made sure that the road was kept in good condition, plus he marked off a 50-foot corridor to protect the small streams on the property. I am more than satisfied. My recommendation would be to find a good forestry consultant. Since you have several years before your move, I would think that you can do the same. Check with the State Forestry Service. Ours keeps a list of licensed consultants. Good luck!!

I am looking for fast growing aggressive vines that will climb two old concrete silos on my hobby farm. Would be nice if they were flowering but not necessary. Just need to cover up the ugly silos on the east and south sides. All suggestions are welcome. Thank You!