The Goose and Duck hunting so far

Time to take a break from political ramblings. I have been out since early goose almost everyday chasing the flocks around public lands and have done quite well so far. A new husband a wife couple have joined me with my 1 on 1 mentoring program this year. I am still running it, but not advertising like in the past until restrictions are lifted, and taking out individuals. Since opening of small game we have been hitting the public lands and chasing the elusive "teaching of being ready in a second for that grouse flush"..18 flushes so far and they have not got guns up in time...at least they are great kidders about the situation.

The woods are alive with hunters and I have met up with others I have ran through the program on public lands from previous years..most recognize me, as I dont remember them all. Been a good season so far, and way more time in the woods now we are in the country.

As for the Farm building and homesteading on new property we harvested 3000 sq of vegetables so far this year and canned over 300+ canned jars of preserves. The coolest item I learned to "can" and make this year was a Heinz Ketchup recipe, and it just was fantastic, big hit with family. I had 30 tomato plants which are still producing.

Half my squash crop was killed by those white/yellow little moths that you see flying everywhere, lesson learned. I had so many zucchinis I was giving away baskets to neighbours within a mile, same as snowpeas. Been a great learning experience to be larger scaled up and lots of lessoned learned to improve next year.

My solar power rainwater collection and watering system is fully automatic and fed from 1200 litre water collection tanks, which is powered by 400W solar powered collection system and 600AMP hours of battery storage. It performed flawlessly once set up and never dropped below 92% discharge of batteries. The 12 V pony pump services 300Ft of water irrigation system was connected to a timer, so it was set and forget. Just had to make sure I didn't run out of water, and I never got below 50% of collection needs.

Hey Mark, your property looks terrific, you've done a fabulous job of making it productive. Had you considered using a sand point well system for an alternative water source to rain water ? The water table in the area is excellent for them and a lot of farms have them. ?

Yes it takes a little experience to learn how to hold back on the planting. Things like tomatoes and Zuccinies can overwhelm.

How was your potato crop, you mentioned 3 rows before, I was wonder what the yield was ?

It was 7 X 22ft rows of potatoes, total yield between 3 varieties was 340lbs, MIL took 1/2 as they paid for the seed potatoes. Sand point well is not required, but I have not ruled it out for back barn and goat/cow pen I have planned. The 14 by 32ft open pavilion is going in first with barn area at east end. You are correct in too much water, the water table at the height of dry period was only 12" below lowest part of front yard. I have back ups to back ups, to back ups for water recovery if power goes out, plus pumps are connected to 12K geny as well. We filled the pool over 4 days with little or no drop in well height 1200 gallons, so water is no issue or the amount of it. In the spring the hydraulic pressure in ground caused the well head to overflow for 3 weeks. Basically, even with no power, solar or geny, I can still recovery water by hand from well with pump system I have.
The front and back are getting dug out for 30ft wide ponds to hold water and fill used to raise and level other low spots, maybe a year or two down the road.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MikePal

Hey Mark, your property looks terrific, you've done a fabulous job of making it productive. Had you considered using a sand point well system for an alternative water source to rain water ? The water table in the area is excellent for them and a lot of farms have them. ?

Yes it takes a little experience to learn how to hold back on the planting. Things like tomatoes and Zuccinies can overwhelm.

How was your potato crop, you mentioned 3 rows before, I was wonder what the yield was ?

---

It was 7 X 22ft rows of potatoes, total yield between 3 varieties was 340lbs, MIL took 1/2 as they paid for the seed potatoes. Sand point well is not required, but I have not ruled it out for back barn and goat/cow pen I have planned. The 14 by 32ft open pavilion is going in first with barn area at east end. You are correct in too much water, the water table at the height of dry period was only 12" below lowest part of front yard. I have back ups to back ups, to back ups for water recovery if power goes out, plus pumps are connected to 12K geny as well. We filled the pool over 4 days with little or no drop in well height 1200 gallons, so water is no issue or the amount of it. In the spring the hydraulic pressure in ground caused the well head to overflow for 3 weeks. Basically, even with no power, solar or geny, I can still recovery water by hand from well with pump system I have.
The front and back are getting dug out for 30ft wide ponds to hold water and fill used to raise and level other low spots, maybe a year or two down the road.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MikePal

Hey Mark, your property looks terrific, you've done a fabulous job of making it productive. Had you considered using a sand point well system for an alternative water source to rain water ? The water table in the area is excellent for them and a lot of farms have them. ?

Yes it takes a little experience to learn how to hold back on the planting. Things like tomatoes and Zuccinies can overwhelm.

How was your potato crop, you mentioned 3 rows before, I was wonder what the yield was ?

---

P.S. thanks for the comments, it has been a lot of work, but a labour of love to complete.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by line052

It was 7 X 22ft rows of potatoes, total yield between 3 varieties was 340lbs, MIL took 1/2 as they paid for the seed potatoes. Sand point well is not required, but I have not ruled it out for back barn and goat/cow pen I have planned. The 14 by 32ft open pavilion is going in first with barn area at east end. You are correct in too much water, the water table at the height of dry period was only 12" below lowest part of front yard. I have back ups to back ups, to back ups for water recovery if power goes out, plus pumps are connected to 12K geny as well. We filled the pool over 4 days with little or no drop in well height 1200 gallons, so water is no issue or the amount of it. In the spring the hydraulic pressure in ground caused the well head to overflow for 3 weeks. Basically, even with no power, solar or geny, I can still recovery water by hand from well with pump system I have.
The front and back are getting dug out for 30ft wide ponds to hold water and fill used to raise and level other low spots, maybe a year or two down the road.

---

Your garden sounds awesome. Great yield this year. Sounds like you’re set with preserves for the entire winter. I’d love to hear the ketchup recipe. My 3 kids go through it way too quick.

Talk about living off the land, WTG Mark, congrats on what sounds like an awesome place.

Sounds great, surprised you didn't do corn this year, the yield is suppose to be large.

Hoping to come up one of these years hopefully.

Gotta get my own truck first! Lol

Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Birdbuff

Your garden sounds awesome. Great yield this year. Sounds like you’re set with preserves for the entire winter. I’d love to hear the ketchup recipe. My 3 kids go through it way too quick.

---

I got the recipe from a friend who said to use this link. I follow them but never tried it before. It is important to use the 25lbs as stated in video this way the ratio of spice to condensed ketchup turns out. My friend used the full amount of salt and it was too salty, I cut the salt in half and turned perfect.
https://youtu.be/AI2hq3sy-eQ

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Birdbuff

Your garden sounds awesome. Great yield this year. Sounds like you’re set with preserves for the entire winter. I’d love to hear the ketchup recipe. My 3 kids go through it way too quick.

---

I also did not use roma tomatoes (paste), I used garden tomatoes beefsteak, ect, ect. Also I did not use her method of Slow Cooker. I ground the tomatoes in the Kitchen Aid food mill and got 6 quarts of finished pulp and liquid which reduced down to 2 quarts over 8hrs of simmering. You have to keep the pot stirred and moving if using high heat so as not to burn the base. As it gets thicker you really have to watch to make sure it does not burn.

Trying to upload picture, but I am not sure how with new PC I have.

Wow you put a lot of work in and in a very short period of time.