[TheForge] OT: My floor is poured: the saga OT:

[jerry Frost]

I wasn't giving you crap about using poison you have to keep the vermin
under control. It's just keeping the local cats and dogs from eating vermin
that've been poisoned and died where the pets can get to them. If the pets
eat poisoned vermin it can get them too.

I've never even heard of those beans. Are they approved? Too many invasive
species are really screwing things up, think kudzu, it was brought in as
feed.

Jer
-----Original Message-----
From: TheForge [mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Andrew
Vida
Sent: Saturday, October 25, 2014 5:02 AM
To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge] OT: My floor is poured: the saga OT:

I don't like it either, but we had literally hundreds of rats in the barn.
We were over run and they were BIG.  I'm talking 16-18" from nose to end of
tail.  I don't even care except they destroy pretty well everything, so they
just had to go.  Bit fat Miss Kitty wasn't keeping up and Mittens almost
never goes out.  Besides, half of the rate were as big as she.

The worst of it is they would kill and eat the baby geese and that is what
tore it for me.  Took two in one night thsi summer past and that's when I
nuked them for the first time.  But yes, you have to have places where
nobody else will get to the bait.  I just slipped it into the bus (still
have that thing) and under the 8' thick hay in the other side of the barn.
Speaking of which... I almost dread doing the hay next year.  
I cut with a Gravely, tetter and rake and bale by hand and am getting a bit
long in the tooth for it.  My left shoulder is pretty well nerve-wrecked and
am not sure what to do. Next year if lucky I will be able to get a disk
mower for the tractor (small 24hp Kubota w/low cg for work on the steep-ish
pasture).  Cutting 4 acres of hay by hand is not for us old farts, but the
goats need to eat and we need the goat poo for the garden. We get about
25#/day in the barn, which we compost.  I've build several thousand square
feet of the most beautiful, 12" tick topsoil you could shake your stick at
and want to continue.  The garden produced very well this year.  We should
have potatoes into April. But I digress.

One more thing: this year we grew a bean they call "same" in Guyana.  It is
a purple-green pod.  They are not good raw, which is a shame because I love
raw beans, but cooked they are very good.  If you steam them lightly, they
freeze very well.  We planted 5 or 6 and the vines that erupted from those
were monstrous and are still going strong.  They produce fruit by the barrow
load... most fecund bean we have raised thus far - we must have 30 pounds of
it in the freezer and have eaten a load already.  Next year I intend on
saving a whole lot more of the seed - have only a small vial at this time...
less than 100 seeds.  If in a year the world has not gone to dust and anyone
is interested in trying to grow this bean, let me know at that time and I
will send some your way.  To my palate, the steamed bean's taste is
reminiscent of artichoke.  I like them. Thinking to run them along the fence
on the west end of the orchard.  That would give them plenty of room and the
neighbors can pick some, too.

-Andy