is there a Gus in the house?

I came here looking too - for the same reason.

His profile says he has been posting over the weekend

http://able2know.org/user/gustavratzenhofer/

Nope . Gus is short for gustavratzenhofer, a poster here from way back who made a recent appearance .

all the new names...

Im lost.

I wish there were more new names....I dislike the old clique for resisting newcomers . But how have you been, you dont post very often lately ? You were one of the more...how shall I say this...."character filled" posters .

For sure. I also dislike the immediate assumption that most first time posters are spammers.

I've met shewolf, and she can be fairly colorful in person, too.

Yes, I can imagine the conversations . One of the disadvantages of living here is not being able to meet some of the characters one would like to ....ah well...

i have always been a very gabby person. I still am, I just have more conversations going on Facebook than I do here. Its been years since i have posted in here regularly. Every now and then I step in to see how everyone is doing and check on those that dont post on FB, but for the most part, I dont participate here.

I agree with you, resistance to new people is not only futile, but it makes things uncomforatble. Granted, there are some times when the ' new' people make it hard to accept them in the first place .. haha.. And, when I was new, I am absolutely positive I was one those.

Things have calmed down a lot over here finally. We have a home now. 6 acres, 3/2 2000+ sq ft ( trailer) and working the homesteading plan. Im hoping in 3 years I can be growing and picking enough veggies from my yard that I dont have to spend monet for very much food at all. Ultimately the goal is to live on as little money as possible with everything we need coming from the house/yard.

We have 2 bunnies , 6 chickens and will be getting 6 more and really debating on how to get a tank up of some kind to support fish, but the cost vs the return just dont balance out, especially when my goal is to make it so that I dont have to work but only part time for money to cover land taxes if at all. It would be nice, and it is possible, to grow and sell enough to support us, but Im just starting out so .. baby steps.
Solar panels, windmills etc will all be put in gradually but they have to be built by hand. Financially we are penny to penny and barely making it, but we are finally above water and the evil grandmother seems to have found something else to chew on. She is such an unhappy woman I dont know what to think of her. I cant imagine a life with no friends, no circle of people, no comfort ..it must be a very hollow existance.. but any who.

Little woman is growing like a weed and about to be a teenager, which Im not ready for, and life though isnt quite balanced perfectly yet, is pretty nice .

how have you been?

What have you planned for the bunnies - or maybe I don't want to know.

You need more chooks to eat bugs and fertilize the veges ... I have survived another round of operations and physio, but it took some time before I had enough free time to come back here . I have also had some writing work, and have one on the backburners now awaiting "inspriation and perspiration" .

I was also involved in the design of a computer game, and before that was part of a test team on another .

A girl in her teens... My daughter was nearly the death of me then . She has now had her 21st and I can safely say the worst is over, she has two older brothers and two younger brothers and I can not recommend raising kids by yourself....well...

I have a new pet . I found a Rainbow Lorikeet being killed by a Magpie . It was very malnourished so I think something happened to its parents and it eventually gave up and left the nest . It could not have survived 24 hrs on the ground . It goes everywhere with me and has helped me a lot with my PTSD .

I am trying to help returned soldiers but they are reluctant to seek help (too tough) . It started off with just helping friends but two of them suicided and I realised how big the problem is . Anyway, thats a bit depressing...

What vegies do you grow ? Indoor plants see me coming and die instantaneously to save themselves, such is my reputation for a green thumb . I have never tried to grow anything outdoors unless you count not mowing the lawn . I can only imagine the work you have to put in .

Life isn't about being stationary and balancing something over your head, its about running to stay under it lest it full on top of you .

Is there a cheap way to feed fish ? Even if it is only for home consumption ?

you might not want to know.
Selling some... eating others. Same for the chickens. Selling eggs, hatching babies , selling babies, and letting some grow to eat them too.

Oh dear ... you have my empathy and my sympathy when dealing with teenage girls. I know I was a handful, and absolutely bull headed. I feel sorry for my mother, and Ive been up front and in direct shot of a teenage girl lately too. They are an animal.. almost not human. LOL!! And its not anything they can help which is what makes it hard as the adult. You know its not " them", but its ALL them so you cant really navigate. I hear you. You survived though.

Due to the soil here, Im having a hard time learning what grows with minimal interference . So far whats doing well on its own is yellow neck squash, tomatos ( with some compost assistance) , sweet potatoes, pickles, sunflowers and snap peas. All of which have taken off and we get about 2lbs of tomatoes a day ( Im under estimating actually) , we have had about 15lbs of yellow squash so far and one sunflower produced a whole head and we are waiting on flower number two.

I started out with a very small plot because where we are ( Florence texas) is all open, undeveloped land. The neighbor has allowed her horses to graze this property for 5 years , so there is old and hot horse **** every where, not to mention urine. The house is fenced off in about a 1 1/2 acre plot while the whole 5.8 acres are fenced off entirely and this has been those horses grazing land for years. The soil is already black and thick, so add that on top of it and you have very acidic soil. I started small with different mixtures of soil under each plant, and some with just the straight soil from the yard and so far straight soil supports what Ive written above.. but I had a TON more planted that died. Melons, cantaloupe ..watermelon..winter squash..a few different types of tomatoes ... Cucumber, eggplant, basil, gordes.. nothing could really handle the soil here so I have to practice with some seeds to find a good mixture. Im trying NOT to get caught in the huge budget of bagged soils and expensive mixtures. I use a certain percentage of the soil combined with a certian type of bag soil and straw. With the research Ive done, that should support almost everything if you have the ratios right. So im learning and its fun.

For my birthday today I got a black Australlorp. They are in HIGH demand around here.. in fact it took over a month to find one and 3 hours drive. The person who sells them says he sells 900 birds a month, mostly those because of their demand and he is doing what we are doing, trying to make the home the 'business' and is succeeding in less than a year. So it has crossed my mind now to change my route. At first my thought was to get enough hens to sell and ship eggs ( about 100) BUT, if I get about 6 more black hens, those babies, just hatched are 4 a piece, grown 30+.. yeah.. my path is about to change. If that guy who is many miles away is the only person selling those birds in that quantity in this area, we are far enough away to not compete and I might be able to work up enough in come from birds faster than anything else.

I have forgotten how to add a photo here.. but my birdie is beautiful, and hes huge!

I didnt know you programmed games?? What are you working on? are you even allowed to say at this point? Is it a multi platform or just one like an Xbox type game? Jillians father made board games.. well.. half assed at least, and Jillian loves to make them now and does pretty well with the mechanics. She wants to learn how to make andriod games and i think thats a great idea, but Im clueless as to what goes into programming. Tell me more! You can take it to message if you need to.

My canary died.. his name was Bird.. he died suddenly, like with a seed in his mouth suddenly. I only had him 3 years, but I got him from a store so I have no idea how old he was. He could have gotten something airborne from the pet possum too.. who knows. Ive thought about replacing him, but dont have the money. I looked up your bird. Absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Is there no reward sign around for him? He couldnt be wild..? Are they wild in that area?? Good gracious.. if they are, and you land another one, Ill give you my number, call me, and Ill ship him here! Those are wonderful birds. Very.. very lucky find. I hope you have a long time with him.

What do you mean working with returned soldiers? I can imagine.. but Im not clear. Im sure you have elaborated in other places, but ... I have not been here regularly so Im clueless..

Actually I dont program much but I can read it . I design . Its multi-platform to the extent of Windows, Linux and Mac . I could tell you what it is but them I would have to shoot you !

My Rainbow Lorikeet is called Jain because we didnt know if it was a boy or a girl . It hasnt laid an egg so we went with the Jain spelling, rather than Jane . The colour difference between boys and girls is very subtle and is basically the amount of orange/red they have around their neck . The more orange/less red the more likely it is a female . They pair for life . Unfortunately it is illegal to own Australian wildlife without a licence, and especially illegal to export them . There is someone near here who breeds them and would have an export licence . They are a very fast flying bird, the fastest in the sky around here anyway . They like to wrestle, and love a trip in the car . They are well adapted to drought, getting moisture from leaves and are a honeysuckle rather than a nutcracker like other members of the family .

They strike an enemy with the wing leading edge and I was amazed at how much force that generates from a little 10" bird . We were trying to trim its claws as it is a shoulder shitter . No, I didn't misspell it . It is somewhat toilet trained and doesn't like to go in the cage as it thinks it is a nest and tries to keep it clean .

They are very active and are heavier than they look..all that muscle...so they are not really suited for a cage unless it was a flight cage and they were paired . Then they might have a good life...about 20 yrs in good conditions .

Is there some way you can add alkaline to the soil or is that expensive ?