New Pool For The Quack Pack

My "quack pack" is 3 Indian Runner Ducks, 5 Rouens and 3 African Geese. Their yard is shaped like an L (actually an upside down L)...They have 2 pools 4' diameter that fill up w/ fecal matter, etc in less than 24 hours. Today I bought them a new 5' pool. It's amazing how much 1' diameter difference makes in size. Anyway, I'm fidna redneck engineer a drain so I don't have to flip this big sucker whenever I need to change out the water. I have what I think is a clever idea and will take pictures to keep anyone reading this up to date. Maybe I'll get some input as to how I could have done better and/or easier. I'mall about easy!

Neither a borrower nor a lender be

Last week I let my neighbor borrow my mower under 2 conditions... A#1 bring it back full of gas & B#2 you break it, you bought it. A#1 it was running on fumes when she brought it back, B#2 she'd adjusted the cutting deck so the front wheels were 2 notches below the rear so I got "swirlies" from Hell before I noticed what was going on and C#3 I still haven't gotten the self propel mech to operate correctly
Question of the day... next time she asks would I be an a~~hole for saying "no"?

Hotter Than Hell

It's been really, literally hotter than Hell here as of late. Too hot to do anything outside.

MerlinTheRedneck.blogspot.com: Free tomatoes

MerlinTheRedneck.blogspot.com: Free tomatoes: Due to rather limited space here in the suburbs I am trying to maximize my yield thru raised beds and container gardening. Sadly, my tomatoe...

Free tomatoes

Due to rather limited space here in the suburbs I am trying to maximize my yield thru raised beds and container gardening. Sadly, my tomatoes in pots and okra in barrels had rather dismal results. My best tomato crop has been from 3 or 4 volunteers that came up in the north east corner. I've no idea where the seeds came from but will happily reap the fruits. I'm getting about a handful a day from no efforts of my own. I sweat my ass off to raise maters and get nothing yet harvest what God provides unlooked for!

Trees & Landscaping

I'm a big fan of edible landscaping so I set out picking out fruit trees for my yard. My mom and I both like saving seeds from fruits from the grocery and seeing if we can get them to germinate. She gave me a Meyer lemon tree she had bought as a house (yard?) warming present and a nectarine tree, both of which landed in the front yard. She also gave 3 young  pomegranate bushes she had started from seed. I added an olive tree and pear tree and 2 kiwi bushes, all bought during late season 50% markdown from Wally World. I've raised many a tree from avocado seed but heard recently that trees from seed don't bear fruit, only them from grafted. Until I hear different I won't bother w/ avocado trees as a food source.
My house faces east and the southeast side of the yard is rather a bowl which quickly becomes a swamp after even a light rain. Any time I see a sack of leaves or grass clippings on the roadside I fetch them home to try to mulch, compost and fill this sucker up. A couple of months ago I heard a racket on the next street over and saw a tree cut down and the stump being ground. I went and talked to the fella in charge and got a pickup bed full of pine stump grindings free of charge. As I dig around the yard I find rocks, bricks, stumps, etc. all of which go into the swamp.
The back yard already had a mulberry and 2 catalpa trees and I have added  kumquat, lime and satsuma trees close to one corner and fig tree and 2 blueberry bushes towards another. Muscadine vines creep over the new 6' cypress privacy fence. A boardwalk made of some 90% salvaged wood leads from the deck to the 12' x 14' storage building w/ an arbor of new muscadine vines on it.
When moving in I found a couple of bird feeders, filled them up but didn't get many visitors. I actually got more corn and sunflower plants from seed being kicked out than birds at the feeders. I'm letting the stuff grow as hopeful free food for my quack pack, 3 geese and 8 ducks I bought as 1 day old hatchlings. The original plan was for me to eat them but after raising them up from wee bairns I can't see that happening unless the choice is eat them or my 2 dogs. Vlad is a Jack Russell and Bella is a Dachshund, both near 7 years old.

MerlinTheRedneck.blogspot.com: Starting my blog, I reckon

MerlinTheRedneck.blogspot.com: Starting my blog, I reckon: I'm more at home with a shovel, axe or chainsaw in my hands than pecking at a computer keyboard. (Good God, I do love power tools!) Anyw...

Starting my blog, I reckon

I'm more at home with a shovel, axe or chainsaw in my hands than pecking at a computer keyboard. (Good God, I do love power tools!) Anyway, I don't know for sure if it's me getting older (I'm 55, by the way) or that deep down I am truly lazy and would much rather dig in the dirt or fish than have a "real" job but I saw some magazine that said money could be made by blogging. More than I make working a "real" job. Didn't take me long to figure out I'd rather tell y'all about what I'm doing right or wrong starting a suburban farm than working my ass off for corporate America. Hey! Tell all your friends to log on where I blog on! Y'all will have to bear with me here.... I spend most of my time at the computer saying out loud, "I don't know what that means" and "I don't know how to do that!"