Be a Master of Foul, Fish, Flowers, and Veggies in Lubbock!

Yep, you have to love beings with "Master" in their title. Master Yoda. Master Splinter. Master Bean. Master Blaster. Masters of the Universe. And, of course, Master Gardener.

Be a Master G! (Sugarhill Gangsters unite!)

The Lubbock Master Gardeners are at it again - and it's your chance to become an apprentice in the art of gardening and backyard farming.

They are offering four stand-alone 2-hour classes - $15 per class or $50 for all four! (Liking the math on that one!)

• Chickens and the Garden
• Attracting Hummingbirds and Butterflies to the Garden
• Aquaponics
• Mastering Vegetables

Learn more here (Avalanche Journal) and here (Lubbock Master Gardeners site).

May you go to the classes and become a Lubbock Master Eco Hero!

Backyard Chicken Class tonight in Lubbock! 8-18-14

You might need a bigger backyard!

(Find this and many interesting images at johnperlock.com - roller derby fans will like this site, Rusty!)

I am sorry for the short notice, but I just ran across this very interesting class that is happening downtown tonight. Thanks to the Avalanche Journal. You can learn a lot from an Aggie!

May you have the best of cluck in your backyard roost!

Bonus Aggie joke:

Why are Aggie farmers always unsuccessful in raising chickens?

They always plant the eggs too deep.

Local Event: Lubbock Preparedness Fair this Weekend

It's not every day that I get to promote a Lubbock event that promotes backyard chickens! 

Just a few of the things you could learn about. (I highlighted a few that we have discussed on MH.)

There are lots of details available on the website, but the overall goes something like this:

Saturday, March 29

10am-3pm

70th and Frankford Avenue

It's FREE!

Here's the website: http://www.lubbockpreparednessfair.com/

Tell them the Mesquite Hugger sent you!

May your weekend prepare you for something!

Answering Aquaponics Questions

So you find yourself interested in aquaponics, hydroponics, aquaculture, backyard chickens, gardening, etc., and you start asking yourself questions. The first (and most valid) question is, "Why?"

And that leads to more questions:

Would this lead to better physical health?

Would this lead to better mental health?

Would this lead to better financial health?

Could I really bring myself to eat that?

Could I make a living doing this?

Is it worth the effort?

Will my family desert me?

Will my neighbors get scared of the hippie and call the city to complain?

An article and video on Treehugger today asks one of these questions and answers many:

Can you make a living from suburban, backyard aquaponics?

May you find answers and healthy foods!

The Big 3 (when going green)

I love it when the complex is distilled to simplicity. I ran across this Zachary Shahan article on Planetsave a few days ago, and it shed a big light on the topics on this blog. The article actually lists 5 ingredients for The Green Life, but I'd like to focus on the first three today. Straight from the text of the article:

If you look at the top 3 contributors to global warming and climate change, they are undoubtedly transportation, electricity, and food (though, the order varies based on the assumptions and the location).
So, the top 3 things you can green, in no particular order, are:

Electric Poster

Transportation Poster

Food Poster

• your electricity supply — by going solar; using small-scale wind turbines; paying for renewable energy instead of dirty energy from your electricity company; using small hydro; or perhaps some other, obscure option that I’ve left out;
• your transportation — by bicycling, walking, using transit, traveling by train, using an electric vehicle (especially a solar-powered one), or carpooling;
• your food — while nothing relatively mainstream is greener than going vegan (or at least vegetarian), eating local, eating organic, buying food in bulk, and avoiding unnecessary packaging whenever possible are some other obvious ways to green your body’s fuel. (Even Mike Tyson has gone vegan — don’t you think you can do something along those lines?!) With perhaps 51% or more of greenhouse gas emissions coming from livestock production, this is a pretty hard one to avoid if you are serious about tackling global warming (& you know you should be).

Now, while those are the biggies in your personal life, there’s still something missing….

Read more at http://planetsave.com/2012/01/05/the-green-life/#eklmWdhtx8LW1lhM.99

So, Dear Reader, how about you? Which of those three categories interests you the most? Do you have green goals? What are they, and do they fit in one of the three categories?

May you know where you are headed before you get there!

Infographic for this Morn's Coffee Conversation: Big Backyards

Cluckers need room too!

Grizz and JB were talking this morning about that little chunk of land where they could (separately) raise their own food. Grizz had recently looked at an acre east of Lubbock and JB had looked at land in roughly the same area.

JB said he'd like five acres, but he thought one acre would work. And that got me to wondering. How much land would they need? Apparently, there is an infographic to help just that question, so here you guys go!

1 Block Off the Grid - How Big a Backyard?

May your backyard be big enough!

My Wife's Response to the Backyard Chicken Post - Pretty Funny

 

The original post for Backyard Chickens

Backyard Chickens - or - Hen Retirement Home (?)

I have watched the backyard chicken movement with great interest. There is a lot of appeal to having the lovely little cluckers keeping the yard bug free while providing the main ingredient for omelettes and helping us to grow our own mostly organic food. And, the older I get, the more I like birds, almost all birds.

But when I look at the overall picture, I shy away. Hens produce eggs for about two years. Then they last several more years. It's those several more years that have me concerned.

The logical among you are probably thinking, "Well, gee, when they stop laying eggs, just eat the chickens. Problem solved."

But our world does not work that way, and I am okay with that. Enter my wife. My wife has a phenomenal capacity for love and sympathy when it comes to animals, and a tremendous respect for the sanctity of life, all life.

So, all those Instructable plans for backyard chicken coops and chicken tractors seem inadequate to the task - the task of housing hundreds of hens who are living out their golden years in my backyard.

For those of you who have been reading this and thinking, "Well, gee, I want me some of them there backyard chickens," here is a link to get you thinking:

http://www.treehugger.com/culture/my-familys-adventures-keeping-hens.html

And for those of you local entrepreneurs who are looking for your entry into a sustainable small business (Hi Grizz, KK, and JB), here is a great idea that somebody up north has come up with for wimpy backyard farmer wannabes like me:

http://www.rentthechicken.com/

Happy clucking!