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swamp creek farms
05-19-2010, 12:23 PM
I was working on gathering the materials for a worm wicking bed. (I'll post that later on sometime)

Walking to the back barn I stepped on that lil guy, spooked me a little. Non poisonous but still too close to the house and the wildlife. I can't imagine my wife or the toddler stepping on it. I have about 10 or more 6 ft. diamondback skins that I caught in my yard.

Then spotted a cool little camo-frogger protecting my plants.

mpugh5@aol.com
05-19-2010, 03:01 PM
yup that would have turned up the pucker factor to the 10th power :shock: :D :shock:

badflash
05-19-2010, 03:33 PM
Looks to me like a corn snake. Harmless rat snakes. I keep them as pets. They get tame very quickly. Mine takes mice right out of my hand, or at least dangling by the tail.

dufflight
05-19-2010, 03:38 PM
Snakes can be a pain. Out this way I'll relocate some but the browns you don't muck around with. Angry suckers that will come after you if they spot you.

stucco
05-19-2010, 03:47 PM
Batter fried with tartar sauce. ;)

badflash
05-19-2010, 07:59 PM
Non poisonous snakes just require a cultural shift. My wife is willing to have them in the house to deal with rodents from the fish feed. She is a keeper.

I keep corn snakes and milk snakes. They can bite but can't harm you. A dog or cat can do far more damage but don't generate the same visceral response. I'd rather have a harmless snake in the basement than rodents crapping in my frying pan. Those are real choices.

swamp creek farms
05-20-2010, 06:50 AM
I think that snake was the same one I have removed from the yard a few times. We have baby rabbits around. Usually I'll pick them up and toss them in the woods. Last year I removed the same kind of snake several times. It kept coming back to the same spot.

Harmless lil oak snake, or rat snake is what they are called around here. But my wife would not come out of the house if she knew where I found it.

Grandpa was a rattle snake hunter, I can remember as a kid we were all playing in his house and looking up to see a rattlesnake curled around the top of a lampshade. As we freaked out he walked up to it and picked it up, threw it out in the woods. I'd go hunting with him and he'd find one, tell me to pick it up and put it in the bag. Tell me don't be a ____ and get him. Put them in a bag and save them for an annual rattlesnake roundup we have here. - good memories

JCO
05-20-2010, 06:58 AM
So, do you carry "Ole Besty" there in the back glass of you P/U. Didn't know how country that part of the neck of the woods was, but back home (Poplar Bluff, Mo. in the Southeast foot hills of the Ozarks) they still carry any and all sorts of rifles & shotguns in the back glass and usually more than a couple not to mention what's under or behind the seat.

It's only an opinion, but that's the way America should be, back to it's roots and a simpler way of life. Never mink, don't get me started..! :shock: :lol: :mrgreen:

JCO
05-20-2010, 07:09 AM
It's been many years ago (about 41) that I lived in Waycross, Ga. and my best friend at the time was an Elvis Presley Look Alike called Bubba (naturally :lol: ). He was the snake handler for the Okefenokee Swamp Park just South of Waycross. He'd been bit by Moccasins and Rattlers more times than he could remember and he was only in his mid 20s at the time. :shock: :o

He and I use to go out in the fall of the year when the Rattlers would start dening up for winter. He was a whiz at finding dens. We'd smoke them out, bag 'em up and take them to Ross Allen's snake farm in Fl. Never hurts to have a little extra spending cash. :D

I use to have a 7'4" Rattler skin hanging on my wall that he gave me, that is until my house burned to the ground in June of '85 while my wife and I were in Fl visiting her mother. All we had left to our name was what we had with us, but that's another story. :( :mrgreen:

swamp creek farms
05-20-2010, 09:53 AM
No, I am not allowed to carry it in the back window, according to the USA gov. I smoked the wacky weed when I was a teenager, got caught, and now have all my rights restricted. :oops:

But on that note, I think there would be less crimes if you hang your guns for the world to see. It would definitely make me think twice about messin round with some one or their stuff.


He was the snake handler for the Okefenokee Swamp Park just South of Waycross.

So you might know about Okefenokee Joe ! :lol: Ya gotta be swamp wise round here.

here is a few pics of what I find in the yard. The Two I'm holding came out of my grandpa's house after he passed. He didn't mind them being around, prolly the only friends he had left after 94 years. The house was about 150 years old.

JCO
05-20-2010, 12:05 PM
I ate some BBQed Rattler at Ross Allen's way back when...taste just like chicken as I recall... :shock: :o :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :mrgreen:

swamp creek farms
06-02-2010, 12:16 PM
A worm wicking bed I made a few weeks ago.. Just figured out how to use the new camera.

swamp creek farms
06-02-2010, 12:18 PM
more pics. added a layer of coconut fibers, had to find something to do with it

swamp creek farms
06-02-2010, 12:20 PM
The wooden container has been sitting around the farm for years. Finally found something useful to do with them. We used to haul pecans in them, now we use trailers. We have aprox 1000 pecan trees in the orchard.

urbanrunoff
06-02-2010, 01:53 PM
very cool..
i'm inspired and might give it a try myself

swamp creek farms
06-03-2010, 06:40 AM
Check out stucco's wicking worm bed topic.. very inspirational

swamp creek farms
06-17-2010, 10:36 AM
Seems like my plants have just stopped thriving. Every thing has been growing like crazy up to about a week ago. Now everything seems to be the same. hmm :roll:

stucco
06-17-2010, 01:57 PM
How deep is your dirt and water? Wicking only works up to 12” and that goes down as the water level goes down.

swamp creek farms
06-18-2010, 08:31 AM
Im talking about the AP system, wicking is working fine.

davidstcldfl
06-18-2010, 10:21 AM
Hi Swamp Creek... Might want to watch the ph....I know my plants seem to stop suddenly, after I've done several 'top offs'. My city water raises the PH.
That, and here in central FL...it's turned beastly hot, which slows/stops the growth of plants. Exception to that rule is, the weeds in my yard... :?

swamp creek farms
06-18-2010, 11:14 AM
I check the PH all the time. I added sea shells to my filter the other week and it didnt even change the PH at all. I was hoping it would bring it down to 6-6.5 but the PH is always around 7. I live in the country and I'm on well water, which is 7.0 PH.

There are alot of springs around here so we have very good water. Tomorrow I will be jumping into one of them, been a long time since i've cooled down in a blue hole.

davidstcldfl
06-18-2010, 11:42 AM
I work outside doing AC work....it's been in the high 100's with the humidity added in.... :shock: ....I'd go into shock if I jumped in one..... :lol:

My lettuce especially, just sat there, when I was at 7 or higher PH.....It really started to grow at 6.5.

I have a really big plastic cup. I clamp it to my swirll filter. I have a small hole drilled in the bottom. I fill it mostly with water and add a small amount of muratic acid. I add about a 1/4 of a cup ...my system's total water is about 1,000 gals.

A little changes it more then I thought it would. I made a few goldfish float, the first time I added some... :roll: ....without the 'cup trick'

JCO
06-18-2010, 01:26 PM
Goldfish Float...is that similar to an ice cream float only with goldfish on top instead of a cherry? :shock: :o Doesn't really sound to refreshing or appetizing to me, but to each his own.... I'll just have a chocolate malt please...and hit it heavy on the malt...I like mine strong...:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :mrgreen:

davidstcldfl
06-18-2010, 01:43 PM
:lol: ....maybe I should of said ....they were resting on their sides.

badflash
06-18-2010, 04:45 PM
Shells bring pH up, not down. To go down you need acid. Nothing wrong with a pH of 7 anyway.


I check the PH all the time. I added sea shells to my filter the other week and it didnt even change the PH at all. I was hoping it would bring it down to 6-6.5 but the PH is always around 7. I live in the country and I'm on well water, which is 7.0 PH.

Emmett
06-18-2010, 06:54 PM
7 is neutral, neither acid or base. Although dufflight pointed out that it might have unintended consequences to the fish, 2 asprin tablets to a gallon of water to drop it from 8 to 6. You'd only need a bottle of 200 to drop a 100 gal system :D

swamp creek farms
06-21-2010, 06:37 AM
The trip to the springs was great, makes you feel like a new man after diving down a few times. Body aches go away. The first spring we hit was hidden, someone has put a rope swing on it since last year. So I climbed a tree and swung into the center of the hole, @!#$^#@ I lost my breath and barely swam to the side. You kinda have to ease into em. It's nice to be able to watch all the fish swim around. Swim to the bottom and feel the water rushing out the spring hole.

The whole time we sat there I was thinking what a great AP system, just pump water straight from the hole. It's so clear you can pick what fish you want to catch. I didn't get to check the PH of it tho. Maybe next time.

JCO
06-21-2010, 06:49 AM
You're always thinking about business...that's why I can never take you anywhere :o ....got any goose bumps left.... :lol: :lol: :lol: :mrgreen:

swamp creek farms
08-09-2010, 08:47 AM
I had great growth on plants, but no or small harvest for veggies.. A few tomato plants, grew big, no tomatoes. First time trying AP. My hopes are not down yet. About to start some winter crops..

Any ideas ?

badflash
08-09-2010, 09:58 AM
The problem with tomatoes is that they don't fruit with too much water and nitrates. You sort of need to isolate them from the fish water a bit. Really long dry cycle time and not much concentration as far as fish go.

I put my tomatoes in pots and water them with fish water when they droop.

swamp creek farms
03-22-2011, 07:08 AM
Started alot of new projects around the farm. Built an 8X8 greenhouse around the first IBC system. Got a little cold this winter and found my algae eater frozen at the bottom of the tank, so the greenhouse warmed up the water and the fish went back to eating and swimming through the mid days. I planted mustard, collards, turnips, and potatoes in the middle of the freeze. They all came out good, I put the potatoes in the wicking bed yesterday, and ate the mustard and collards. Also on the IBC system, i am using it for germinating seeds for my dirt plants (tomatoes and corn)

System # 2 consists of an IBC tank barried in the dirt prolly 1/2 way, my back would not let me finish the hole. I have a table 4'X8' 16' long, 3' tall with half barrels on them. Total of 8 half barrels on each table. I will have three or four of these tables set up on this system. Which will give me total of 24 - 32 half barrel GB.

These tables are going to be mini greenhouse / shade cloth houses. The bottom of the tables-underneath- is going to be wired in for chickens to keep the bugs down. The sides of the tables will be plywood to the top of the barrels, then a fine screen wrapped around the sides about 2 ' tall, then the A frame tops will be made with greenhouse plastic. Should keep the humidity at the top, let the sides breath and also shade the plants a little, and keep the bugs out and away from the plants. What bugs do try to get in, hopefully the chickens will eat them up.

The return coming out of the barrels are going to a 4" sewer pvc set up as an NFT system, so I have plants growing all the way back to the FT as well. I planted tomato plants around the top of the fish tank to shade it, now it is wrapped with black plastic.

There are about 18 speckled catfish, 2 channel cats, 12 bluegill bream, and a few warmouth.

No deaths as of now, its been cycling for a few weeks now. I did wake up the other day to a crashed table, that had rocks and new growth in them. And the pump was clogged with pea gravel rock. :evil: I was not happy to wake up to that. Now all my plants, if they make it, are all scattered about in different places. I did have them all labeled and neat. 6 types of lettuce, swiss chard, 3 types of peppers, basil, spinach.

Another project I am attempting is growing marbled crays. I have them in an aquarium inside my band room. I've had these a little over a month now, waiting on them to hatch their eggs. I want to raise these up to eat, or feed to my fish.

Here is a link of the systems, system #2 does not look like this any more, this was the first day I cycled it. And of course this quick built table collapsed. Now I know not to get too excited and take my time making the tables.

[youtube:q1vl9gfd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq4ct22rvBo[/youtube:q1vl9gfd]

[youtube:q1vl9gfd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ4wId3Dmow[/youtube:q1vl9gfd]

the pics are too big to post in here. :(

JCO
03-22-2011, 12:50 PM
So Hey, you have a band??? If so, you need to be raising Fiddler Crabs then..! It ain't country unless you have a Fiddle in the Band..! :lol: :lol: :mrgreen:

stucco
03-22-2011, 02:32 PM
I thought that was only in Texas.

stucco
03-22-2011, 02:42 PM
Dewd that sucks about the table collapse.

swamp creek farms
03-24-2011, 07:01 AM
i suggest to any one building tables for growbeds, make them super heavy duty ! i dont know how much water weighs, ive got an idea of how many #s of rocks i have. At least 1 ton of rocks + the water which is different due to cycling. but thats a heavy load.

It sucks working twice.

JCO
03-24-2011, 09:48 AM
1) One US Gallon of clean, clear fresh water weights 8.35 lb

2) One cubic foot of liquid equals 7.48 gallons

So, a grow bed constructed of plywood; 4' wide X 8' long X18" high with a water level set at 1' contains 32 cubic feet and the weight of the water is 267.2 pounds now add to that the weight of the media, the weight of the "GUCK & MUCK" that will sooner or later ACCUMULATE in the media despite the efforts of the almighty worm "as it turns" and your carpentry better be at the top of its game or it will all come tumbling down.

That's why I prefer to use the raft system to grow all plants beside the tuber ones such as carrots, beets etc. Tomatoes actually do extraordinarily in a raft system, you just have to tie them up to keep the weight off the raft. :mrgreen:

swamp creek farms
03-24-2011, 10:18 AM
so i am guessing, with 2 barrels 55 gal = 110 gal = 918.50 #s of water.

round that down to 900 #s
and the rocks are prolly the same, say 900 #s
maybe around 1800 #s per table.
not counting the sides and tops im going to build onto it as well.

looking around 1 ton per table. constantly changing

urbanfarmer
03-24-2011, 10:38 AM
1) One US Gallon of clean, clear fresh water weights 8.35 lb

2) One cubic foot of liquid equals 7.48 gallons

1) One US Gallon of clean, clear fresh water weighs...
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/4304/waterweight.png

2) One cubic foot of liquid equals 7.48051948 gallons (rounded to the 100,000,000th place)

:ugeek: MWAHAHAHAHAHA


Pea gravel weighs ROUGHLY around 105 pounds per cubic foot of dry, loose gravel with 1/4" to 2" stones...

swamp creek farms
03-24-2011, 10:47 AM
too much for this simple stupid kind of mind.
keeping it easy folks. 8-)

urbanfarmer
03-24-2011, 11:02 AM
I was just messing with you guys :lol:

swamp creek farms
04-01-2011, 10:30 AM
I got home to a real treat yesterday, i've got two border collies, and they brought me up a turkey hen from the woods. Thanks, a lot. Feathers and crap all across the front yard. That is their little boneyard, I find deer skulls, cow bones, and everything else they find, now turkeys.

swamp creek farms
04-12-2011, 08:38 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQoxAc1gLgQ




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoBcBOB_ ... er&list=UL (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoBcBOB_Y30&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8lI6Ex4 ... er&list=UL (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8lI6Ex4ZJ0&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL)

swamp creek farms
04-12-2011, 08:48 AM
not quite sure on how to post a video

but there are some links to the systems i have going on now, and new ones to come

still working on two of them, you know its never a finished project

swamp creek farms
04-15-2011, 07:30 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ78mZQmz38

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5nHQ..._order&list=UL

swamp creek farms
05-04-2011, 07:19 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCBWDXZnEIo

this is a run through of a system i am making at the moment. I am going to add a moving bio filter to it as well as the one that is one there.

i had a dozen chickens at the house ive been raising for a few months, the dogs decided they wanted to eat them, so they dug into their pen last night and killed all of them.. im out of chickens, and out of dogs too.

rfeiller
05-04-2011, 12:19 PM
That's a shame. Seems like kids get more then one and they can think of all kinds of mischief.

urbanfarmer
05-04-2011, 04:27 PM
Looking good! thanks for sharing

swamp creek farms
05-05-2011, 08:25 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba6T80id ... er&list=UL (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba6T80idLJE&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL)

think this will work ? trying to make a floating media bio filter... hmmm

urbanfarmer
05-05-2011, 08:35 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba6T80idLJE&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

think this will work ? trying to make a floating media bio filter... hmmm
It's not that it wouldn't work, but how well does it work? The biofilter basically needs 2 things, 1) surface area, 2) water flow. The unit you have there definitely has surface area inside, but is the water flowing over all of that and at a decent rate? This will determine the efficiency. If you took a long PVC pipe and filled it with that plastic, and let water come in the top and gravity feed to the bottom where it would come out after running over all the plastic bits, that would provide the best bang for your buck as far as biofiltration.

swamp creek farms
05-09-2011, 01:21 PM
I have my third system cycling now, its been running a few days now. No fish yet, maybe i'll go catch a catfish this week and add. It's the all in one system. Two biofilters going, one with #2 chipped plastic, the other with dish scrubbies. I've got a few things to tamper with. I'm starting to find out that i am never done fixing or upgrading the systems.

i am like a little kid when it comes to this, it is now the main hobby around the house. i get too exited and want to plant things too soon.

urbanfarmer
05-09-2011, 02:32 PM
I have my third system cycling now, its been running a few days now. No fish yet, maybe i'll go catch a catfish this week and add. It's the all in one system. Two biofilters going, one with #2 chipped plastic, the other with dish scrubbies. I've got a few things to tamper with. I'm starting to find out that i am never done fixing or upgrading the systems.

i am like a little kid when it comes to this, it is now the main hobby around the house. i get too exited and want to plant things too soon.
I know just how you feel! :lol: