Growing staple food

[Lambsy]

I couldn't grow anything where I am since there's nothing but sand. Besides, I live in an RV on a very tiny site. I could stand between my RV and my neighbor's and touch both RV's at the same time. It's really roomy here.

You don't have to own land to grow food, I have planted gardens in the wild, and sown invasive herbs and sweet potato in some of my hunting grounds.

Subsistance farming and trapping might be an option for you. It keeps my living expenses down.

Bird liming can keep you in food for a long time.

A good bird lime is boiled linseed oil, as it reduces it becomes very thick and sticky. Paint a gob of your bird lime where ever you see birds commonly perch. Once your bird lands on it, it gets stuck, especially if feathers come in contact with it.

Pigeon and quail traps, are just a home made cage, the entrance is just dangling fencing wire. The wire only swings into the cage, so when the bird follows the bread crumbs, or rice into the cage, he gets stuck inside the cage.

A good way to catch crows is to roll a piece of paper into a cone and bait the cone with rice, barley or corn, then line the inside of the cone with birdlime. When your crow goes to get the bait his feathers get stuck to the bird lime. Your crow is now wearing a dunce hat, and can not see anything, making it easy for you to catch him.

You can make a good duck trap from a rat trap. Stick a piece of poly styrene foam to the bottom of a rat trap and attach a 100 lb fishing line to the trap. Bait the trap with bread and float the rat trap on the water, and let out the fishing line until its amongst the duck. The rat trap should stun or kill your duck, then pull your fishing line in.

[Lambsy]

If you have room to grow corn, add powdered charcoal to the soil, corn loves charcoal loaded soil. You can get up to 8-10 ears a stalk, just by adding charcoal.

Corn is also a heavy feeder, so plant climbing beans between corn seeds. The beans put nitrogen into the soil, feeding the corn, and the corn stalks provide a solid support for the climbing beans.

Thus you should get a large double crop from the same area. These two staple foods can be stored for a long time, and anything from soups to breads can be made from them.

[Onesiphorus]

You should write a book , your gardening tips are how do you say
bonsa ???mate

[Lambsy]

You should write a book , your gardening tips are how do you say
bonsa ???mate

Well its all trial and error, and listening to other growers, there is always so much to learn and observe.

If your back yard is covered in weeds, is over grown and the soil is depleted.

There are a number of simple things you can do to get rid of the weeds and improve the soil.

I just throw out green manure seeds, 15 different varieties of nitrogen fixing plants these are your pioneer plants. Some varieties punch deep tap roots and break up the soil, some are grown for their mass of compostable mulch, and others are grown to strangle weeds. And some are used as fodder for the chickens that you will introduce to the garden.

Just throw these seeds out, the more diverse the better.

Then introduce the chickens as your green manure plants mature. 20 Chickens will eat up and stomp in and scratch up the whole area. The Chicken manure is the key component to improving your soil.
The chicken bulldozer I call this method. One chicken will turn more soil than you can in a month sundays.

You also want to add carbon to your soil, charcoal being the easiest source. Charcoal improves the diversity of micro fauna and flora to the soil, so no one species dominates.

Two years of this simple no effort treatment, and you will have your very own piece of the fertile crescent.

( David Attenborough voice )
Weed areas are usually monocultures of one dominant species, what you will have done is introduced a large number of beneficial species, not just to the surface, but also deep in the soil. And it is here in the soil, that the greatest transformation takes place.



With the greater number of species added to the area, you will find that pests are controled by other species as they take residence.

You don't have a snail and slug problem, you have a duck deficiency.

[Monique]

My husband follows a bio dynamic regime. He once thought it was stupid but I got him some books, he made all the preparations (cow manure in cow horns etc) and the vegie garden has never looked back.
Lambsy's right it is all about the soil.
Happy gardening

[Lambsy]

Sweet potatoes are an excellent invasive food source, so they are great for planting in public land. Just get a few bags and quietly plant them everywhere that you find moist soil. Most people don't know they are looking at sweet potato, and if you scatter the plantings about, it won't look like a cultured crop.



If you don't have a firearm or it is impractical in your area, snares are good way of obtaining meat. Wire or 50Lb fishing line is cheap and easy to get a hold of.



This snare is a simple rabbit snare made of wire. An eyelet is made at one end by turning the end back and twisting up. Then the other end is put through the eyelet until you have a loop the size of your fist. Then the wire is attatched to either a peg or the base of a shrub.
Notice the hollow path that the snare is set over, this is what you look for, its a rabbit run. Set your snares where ever you see a fresh rabbit run.

You will need to set the snare four finger widths off the ground, otherwize you will not get the rabbits neck.

This is my style of snare, a twitch snare. This snare is loaded with potential energy, from over hanging branches. It is good for a quick dispatch of the animal, and has the benefit of suspending your catch away from dogs and foxes.

Some people overload the twitch and all they do is send a headless rabbit to the moon. Which defeats the purpose.

[inquisitive]

Your quite the survivalist Lambsy!!

Some people overload the twitch and all they do is send a headless rabbit to the moon

.... lol

[JIP]

They eat dogs in America and Australia, although you won't read about it in the news. Some things are to good to share.

And Philipinos..... they love dog meat I was told..
I would never even try.. i had good ones as pets...

There is so much meat around, why dogs... they are so faithfull and loving animals.

[Lambsy]

There is so much meat around, why dogs... they are so faithfull and loving animals.

Dogs don't mind if we eat them JIP, they are mans best friend remember.

[Lambsy]

Your quite the survivalist Lambsy!!

I see myself more as a thrivalist, which is much better than a starvalist.