Jeff Gray

Problems with oriental or Japanese beetles? Turn them into animal feed! Great way of supplementing your chicken feed so you can be more self-sufficient. Amazon links for the beetle traps Trap 1: https://amzn.to/3bNLZ7c Trap 2: https://amzn.to/3yL9ln8

We had a gully in our pasture that kept getting more eroded every time it rained. I tried several things and only one worked well.

Here's how I created this BSF trap that's been giving us an awful lot of free chicken feed: https://youtu.be/vh9tM2ccUVk

I discovered a cool hack for planting in your garden. It just requires a T Post, which almost everyone has. I got the original hack from Huw Richards and I've adapted it to be a bit more versatile.

PVC pipes and complex BSF larvae traps? Ain't nobody got time for that! I set up the super stupid simplest black soldier fly bin I could find and it works great. Permanently better chicken nutrition for $9. HT to Carol Broman who had the original idea for this bin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5j4i8_7fHw

I did a Paul Gautschi, Back to Eden wood chip garden. And it failed miserably. The problem is—without thinking—using a system developed for one climate in a totally different climate. Learn how to fix the main problem with the Back to Eden gardening method. You can watch a free documentary about Paul Gautschi and the Back to Eden gardening method here: https://www.backtoedenfilm.com I'd highly recommend the documentary with the caveats I mention in the video.

I built a simple pallet rain shed that allows me to capture 700 gallons of rain water in IBC totes and use it to water our garden and livestock. I got the IBC storage containers, cinderblock, and pallets for free, so the only thing I paid for was the structural lumber, the pipe fittings, and the metal roof and gutters. I got the idea for this system from Shawn and Beth Dougherty of Sow's Ear Farm ( https://onecowrevolution.wordpress.com ). Their book, The Independent Farmstead, has a ton of helpful information on making inexpensive water systems for your homestead. Grab their book on Amazon: https://bit.ly/IndependentFarmstead

We're in the middle of an experiment to grow feed for our egg layers right in the pasture. Using egg layer chickens and especially broiler chickens in Joel Salatin-style chicken tractors, we've been successful in raising 100s of pounds of grain that our chickens self-harvest.