Lots of things are happening here at FloridaHillbilly.com!

Just as I’m out of the woods from my hernia surgery, I get a nasty bout of kidney stones, and dealing with another one as I write this, one of the reasons I’m posting this, not the article I WANT to post. Hoping that “this too, shall pass”, and soon!

Costs. I eventually would like to make some money from this site, but only if I am providing value for the money I’m making. I’m working on several things to help with it, Amazon Affiliate banners, monetized videos, eBooks of FloridaHillbilly.com content produced bi-annually in Kindle format, etc. I now have two more options, vanity email addresses, and seeds.

For $5.00, you can have a FloridaHillbilly.com email address. This will auto forward to your existing address. For example, my wife uses “eb” at floridahillbilly.com, and all email that is sent to that address gets forwarded to her yahoo.com email address, so that she doesn’t have to use a second email client. Contact me at my email address at the bottom of this page if you are interested.

I’ve finagled a bulk buy with the supplier where I get some of my seeds, and now have some available for sale. Right now, it is only Garlic Chives, but it is a start. I’m making less than a dollar a pack, and it will help to offset my website costs. And please, don’t buy them if you aren’t going to use the, ok? Click here to open my seed page

My garden is doing a nice job of providing baby greens for us.  I need to start another patch so that I can have lettuce through the next couple of months.  Harvesting is done with scissors, trimming the lettuce back so that it will regrow another batch, much like a yard lawn continues to produce grass to mow. This can also be done in a small container, much like a self-watering container…

…that I have plans on showing how to build in a future post. I have several in use, and I’ve built a couple of them just for documenting on a post, have the pictures ready, just haven’t written it out yet.

Aquaponics is also a future post, again, I simply need to get motivated to write it, and resolve a few issues. My aquaponics system is powered by two solar panels that charge a 12v deep cycle battery. The main issue I have is that the pump I use continues to die after 3-4 weeks. Anyone have any idea on a 300-500 gph 12v pump that is rated for continuous use? *Sigh*

Other than that, its a lovely piece of technology. Using a bell siphon, it floods and drains the upper compartments every 5-10 minutes, pushing the water full of fish wastes up to the lava rocks I’m using as grow media. On top of the lava rocks, I’ve sprinkled more of those same lettuce seeds I mentioned above. The lettuce has sprouted, taken root in the rocks, and is now filtering the wastes out of the water, giving the fish fresh water. Fish waste feeds the plants. Plants filter out the wastes and use it as food. Water is cycled back and forth between the upper and lower compartments (made from blue 55 gallon drums, btw).

A symbiotic system that provide fish protein and leafy greens! I promise to write it up soon…its been a fun project! Again, if anyone has advice on a pump I can use, let me know!

My rabbit production has ramped up, and I currently have two litters and two pregnant does. Ag good thing, since we are down to a single package of rabbit meat in the freezer!

Chickens and quail have tapered off their egg production, and I’ve even had to buy eggs a couple of times. Domestic bird egg production is based on the number of hours of light a bird receives. I’ve been tempted to use the solar panels to put in a supplemental light system, but it tends to wear the birds out faster – they really only have a limited number of eggs to lay in a lifetime. I’m still mulling over the morality of forcing egg production.

The Muscovy ducks are getting bigger, and I expect them to be heading off to “Freezer Camp” in the next couple of weeks. I REALLY want to get a plucker of some sort (yet another thing to post about!), as that chore makes me drag my feet…skinning is far easier, but the skin is SOOOO tasty! I’m planning on keeping two hens to add to the production line though. That should give me LOTS of eggs in the spring, as well as 30 or so baby duck running around next spring – even MORE reason to get that plucker!

Speaking of Muscovy ducks, I was recently contacted my a regular reader about a landowner friend of his wanting to get rid of his. We will split the work of catching and harvesting, sharing the end result….looks like I’ll be eating a lot of duck in the near future. Fine by me! By the way, did you know the best easiest method to catch Muscovy ducks is with a cast net? FINALLY, I get to catch some dinner with a cast net.

Cast net! I was contacted by Castnets.com, and sent a “guaranteed easy to use” cast net. And it REALLY is simple to use. I need to write that one up as well. I tried it right when I got my hernia, so didn’t use it much, but what I saw of it in action, this thing is almost criminally simple to use compared to the “old school” method!

School… RidgeRunner, over at Green Earth Survival School, has ramped up his class schedule, and has been calling on me to help more often. He & I often talk about how we are simply showing folks what we’ve done most of our lives. There is also an upcoming “Z-Day” class based on surviving the first 7 days of a catastrophe. The ironic part is that it is being held in January, after the Mayan Calendar ends.  Hope we are still around to have it, I’m looking forward to helping teach. We’ve also kicked around the idea of having some “lost skills” classes, things like canning, butchering, gardening, soap making, hide tanning, etc. Drop either of us a line if there is a lost skill you’d like to learn. Odds are, between RidgeRunner, Amanda, and myself, we probably know at least something about it! All three of us love to teach what we’ve learned…

Learning. I’ve learned that papayas, like many other fruits, have a wide range of flavors. My volunteer papaya tree produces fruit that tastes similar to, in my opinion, vomit. It is STILL producing papayas, and it shouldn’t surprise you that I’m not happy with this particular variety’s flavor. I really need to find something better. On top of that, I now have three new trees, all offspring of this one, that have volunteered and are about to start producing fruit also. At least the chickens will eat the fruit….but it had better not start making my eggs taste like vomit….

Speaking if illness, my meds are really kicking in, and I’m going to lay down before the rooms spins me off the edge of the world.

I appreciate all of you that read this, and those that comment, I appreciate even more. I love writing this stuff, and want to help others learn from my mistakes and successes, and hopefully learn to be a little more self-reliant along the way.

If there is ever anything you’d like for me to write about, you have a question about, or would like my opinion on, drop me a line at
db at floridahillbilly.com

And if you’d like any of those things from my wife, she can be reached at
eb at floridahillbilly.com

Peace,
db