Mastiff
Though they are not as agile as some of the other breeds on this list, having a Mastiff on your homestead can act as a deterrent for others.
Research shows that having a large, intimidating dog around your property reduces the likelihood of poaching significantly. Providing a shelter for your mastiff-type dog to stay outside with your animals will cause any poachers to think twice before entering your property.
The scent of a large dog on your property is also likely to deter any natural predators such as wolves or foxes.
Despite their scary appearance, Mastiff type dogs are often gentle and cautious dogs with lots of love to give. This makes them a good match for families with young children about!
Reader Contribution .
The author’s air-source heat pump resembles an air conditioning unit, and it pictured here alongside one of the heating oil fuel tanks. Photos by Adam D. Bearup
The following story covers our recent upgrade to an air-source heat pump, which works in conjunction with our fuel oil furnace. The efficiency of heat pumps has improved in recent years and most of our building projects that do not have access to natural gas now have propane forced-air furnaces with heat pumps instead. The heat pumps provide heat and can help to conserve propane.
The heat pump that I am writing about is an air-source heat pump and it looks very similar to a conventional air conditioning condenser unit like those that sit outside of a house. According to the United States Department of Energy, “an air source heat pump can deliver one-and-a-half to three times more heat energy than the electrical energy it consumes”.
The raspberry, with its botanical name Rubus idaeus, belongs to the rose family, which includes around 3,500 species. The raspberry is a hardy, deciduous climbing shrub that comes in a variety of colors, including red, yellow, purple, and black. The raspberry bush can bear fruits twice a year. The plants are self-pollinating, but wind, honeybees, and other insects also help the plant to bear plenty of fruits after flowering.
Raspberries are very easy to grow in almost all climates and soils, and actually are the ideal plant for gardeners and farmers across the United States. They are known to grow wild in many areas, and therefore can flourish and bear lots of delicious berries without much work.
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If you are a gardener or farmer in North America thinking of growing Asian medicinal herbs, mostly Chinese, The Chinese Medicinal Herb Farm: a Cultivator’s Guide to Small-Scale Organic Herb Production was written for you. It’s both a how-to and reference guide. If you consume or prescribe Chinese medicinal herbs and want to understand why your growing them regeneratively is crucial (hopefully you do!), chapters one, two, and five are for you. This substantial book is colorful, beautifully laid-out, and easy to read.
The popularity of Chinese medicine has exploded all over the world. Demand for Chinese medicinal herbs has outstripped supply of plants harvested traditionally, ie. from the wild and in an ecologically renewable manner. This is partly due to sheer volume of clients, but also to dwindling intact wild ecosystems in China and other countries traditionally harvesting them. Supply is also down due to urbanization, pollution, over-harvesting, and climate change li
Countersink bit or bit to predrill holes
Step 1: Start Cutting Your Material
OK, there aren t any ladders in this project but the two sides of the A-Frame garden look like ladders and that is what we will call them for simplicity.
The two ladders are comprised of three rungs and two side: 3 + 2 = 5 times 2 = 10. So we need to end up with 4-foot pieces. So start by cutting five of the 2x2x8s in half to end up with ten 4-foot lengths.
Next, cut the three of the 10-foot-long gutters in half to end up with six 5-foot lengths. I carefully and slowly did this on our miter saw.