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Hi and greetings! I made the move from the big city to rural Twin Falls County in 2018 and am glad I did.

Talk about t-shirt "shock value" to those folks who are overly sensitive... I just got up and am wearing a red t-shirt with an old photograph of Charles Darwin on the front wearing a Che Guevara- style beret and the phrase "¡Viva la Evolución!" I doubt if I'd be wearing to church anytime...

Since I don't know where most of you live, the data doesn't help me much. In Twin Falls, southern Idaho, we had about a foot of snow over the past three days, and about 48 hours of sub-freezing temperatAlmost. Nasty; almost makes me miss Phoenix. Almost.

Went to the Doctor this morning to try to fight off this bronchitis/asthma/walking pneumonia that's been bothering me for the past four or five days. I almost never get sick, but when I do, I figure it's a good plan to get it looked at if it doesn't clear itself up within three or four days...

Good plan! I'm going to Home Depot tomorrow morning and get the materials for my second 12' X 4' X 2" raised bed. Same lumber as yours (only treated) and three 2' X 12' sheets of corrugated aluminum; I believe I have enough fasteners already. Dawn wants me to get about20 feet of 3/4"sch 40...

Woke up this morning and saw snow outside -- again. It goes away within a day an then is back again the next day. That's pretty typical for southern Idaho, at least at ~4000 ft elevation where we live. All of us -- Dawn, Leila-the-dog, Satan-the-all-black-cat, 27 chickens, and I -- are...

We have (I think) 100 Amps into the house, most of the circuits being 110v, except for the kitchen (oven), laundry room (dryer), and garage (space heater and previous owners' pottery kiln). 50 Amps to the pasture/barnyard is probably more than I'll ever need, but better to have too much than...

The past two days have been busy and rewarding ... at least to the landscaping folks who started work Monday at 0800. We wanted a lot of work done in both the front and back yards, and five guys with three Bobcats (loader, backhoe and trencher) dug a trench about 50 yards from my hose-bib, teed...

It seems a little like life itself: a mix of fantasy and reality. I don't know if we can get it on our TV, but I'll certainly try.

We're expecting a big one coming in tomorrow from northern Washington/southern B.C. Given Idaho Power, I don't know if I'll have internet, 'phone, or even electricity. I tested the genset Monday, tested the handpump the day before (they both work); made sure I had lotsa propane added a couple...

We got the last of the income tax you-gotta-have-all-these-forms-to-file in the mail today, and we did our 2020 income tax, courtesy or Mr. TurboTax, in about an hour and 15 minutes, paid the $30 fee to Mr. Turbo, and relaxed with a glass of wine. I don't know about you all, but I dread the...

Thanx, Viking!

That's one of the nice things abouit living near a city with a population of ~50,000: a half-hour in, go to any store you want, and then a half-hour back to the homestead with six dozen Ball jars -- all unbroken. Maybe some people don't seem to care, and they're the ones likely to be packing...

Thanks Terri! I especially liked her writeup on cattle fence arches between the two raised beds. It's a great way to maximize the bed area and makes the garden look a lot better, too.

In this design, the only thing that's touching the plant bed soil is corrugated aluminum. Here's some information about pressure-treated wood (the modern formulations, anyway) and raised beds. Dr. Scott Leavengood, Associate Professor College of Forestry at Oregon State University and Director...

Good point, Ben. I decided to put two vertical reinforcements on each side rather than one, to help minimize bowing. But I think a better idea would be to screw in another four foot 2 X 4 transversely across the bottom and another at the top. I'm also going to put in some sockets made from...

Dawn and I knocked together the frame for a 4' X 12' X 2' raised bed today. Had to do it in the garage, since it didn't even get up to freezing. You can see the 12' corrugated aluminum on the left. We have three pieces, one each for the sides; we'll have to cut two 44" pieces for the end. It...

English and Spanish, the two languages in a now-bilingual United States. There are enough bilingual Hispanics in Twin Falls ID to talk with at restaurants, shops, and the school where I work that I don't have much problem keeping in practice.

You both talked me into it! Thanks for the advice!!

Folks, I have a question about using chicken-poop in my garden. Once a week Dawn and I go out and clean out the three coops; we take the straw out, too, and refill the coops with fresh straw. Instead of throwing it away, I'm keeping it in empty feed bags and I have about seven of them pretty...