DIY instruction for making cheap and simple raised beds for your garden. These don’t rot or leach chemicals into the soil like treated lumber does. No carpentry experience needed and easily done by yourself. Recycling plastic drums.
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On my channel you will find videos pertaining to homesteading, gardening and living off the grid with fun DIY projects for self-reliance and SHTF emergency preparedness situations, with some campfire cooking and good old backwoods humor thrown in. Sharing knowledge and stories from over 30 years of living in the woods.
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MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
Q: How do you have internet at your cabins? A: I have cell service at both cabins but it is spotty due to foliage and cloud cover. I can access the internet from my cabins but have to drive to a local wifi location to upload videos.
Q: How old is Frankie? A: Frankie will be 10 in April of 2018
Q: What video editing software do I use? A: Presently, all I use is Windows Live Movie maker but I’m considering trying imovie, Adobe Elements or SONY VEGAS PRO.
Q: How do you get your water? Did you dig a well? A: Presently, I haul water to the NY cabin but at the NH cabin, I drop a kettle into an old well that was dug by hand by the settlers in the 1700’s.
Q:What is your favorite brand of cast iron cookware? A: I prefer using vintage cast iron. My favorites are BSR and Griswold. If I had to buy new I would buy a Lodge Brand. I plan to purchase this dutch oven in the future:
Q: What do you use for refrigeration? A: We have a small gas refrigerator that we salvaged from an old Shasta camper and a custom icebox that I built into the cabin wall. We make ice on site with a propane freezer.
Video of icebox:
Video of Gas Refrigerator:
Propane Freezer:
Q: What do you use for cooking and heating? A: We use a Kitchen Queen 380 for cooking and heating during the winter months but we also have an antique gas stove in the cabin for when we don’t need the heat from the KQ.
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38 Comments
I do plan to make one of the coop. Just gotta find the time.
Great vid love the sifting idea too! Love the homesteading vids just as much as the others thank you for them can't wait for more
Happy to hear you enjoy my vids. I just wish I had time to make them more often. The sifter worked out a lot better than I thought it would. The sifting is effortless and turned out to be multi purpose with the gathering of both crushed stone and top soil. Thanks for the comment.
I wouldn't go any higher with the barrels for the potatoes Boss. Did something similar and I had beautiful tops but when I went to harvest my taters I had only four or five little ones maybe a couple big ones but not to many. Needless to say with a family of five it made about three meals. Very disappointed.
Thanks for the heads up. I'm giving it a go again this season to see what happens and then decide what works best.
You come up with some great ideas. Is this the same propert as the off grid cabin? Doesn't look like it. Where is my favorite dog, love that dog. Maybe he's still pushing that turtle across the yard. Waiting for the next video on your cabin in God's County.
Good Luck Have Fun,
Vinny
Hey thanks. I'm working on a couple vids right now. This footage was taken at my home, not at the cabin. I've got some more Frankie antics to share.
Thanks for commenting.
Love the idea of the barrels, what works the best to cut them with??
I simply cut around the barrel with a skilsaw. Moat barrels already has marks in the spots where I want to cut. It's very easy.
Glad you enjoy them. Always more coming. Thanks for the comment.
how did the potatos turn out? thanks, Bill
They turned out ok but not a really high yield. This spring I had some taters in the house that were rotting so I planted them in the barrel and got about 8 pounds of new taters from them. I can't complain I guess.
Great video.. where in upstate NY are you? I'm in the center part of the state…. Plymouth, NY .. we have 62 acres.. hope to start on a cabin in the woods about the size of yours this spring!! Can't wait.
Love the barrel idea. I have 20 barrels that i'm going to be using this year. I was planning on going all raised beds this year but I think that the barrel idea will work out well for me. Thanks
Great video. I love all the stuff I've seen of yours. One question, who is the videographer?
How do you keep the deer from eating your plants?
Great videos. subbing.
I wondered if you gardened or had any animals. I would love to see more on that if you have time. Another great idea. Thanks! God Bless!! Janice
Just watched the raised beds series great I may try that when the bad weather is over. In the spring , saw a comment you made below if I may ask are you alright? You said you had chickens but sold them off, because you didn't know what the future holds, for you. I certainley hope you have a very long life and keep making your wonderful vids, you reach so many people across the nation and then some, hope all is well with you will keep you inmy prayers
You say you don't like the blue, Well a friend of mine over in the Albany area
uses 5 gal. pals to grow his tomato plants and paints the white buckets black
so the sun atracts heat and make the plants grow quicker.
when do you sleep ?
cedar boxes?
do you know about using pine tree parts, acorns, other edibles, and blackberry leaves for tea and things that you can show us?
Thank you for sharing these wonderful ideas so we can be better humans….recycling and growing our own food. From Alberta Canada.
How did the potatoes due with the hill with the barrels? I thought it was to much work for little results.
How do you keep the deer out of your garden? We bought a cabin in the woods on 3 acres and LOVE IT, but anything I've tried to grow gets consumed pretty quickly by the deer.
great idea !
Love raised bed gardening. If done right you can get so much more for so little space. Some time ago I saw potatoes grown in tires and then stack the tires like you did your blue tubs. I did it once but only two tires high. . .worked pretty well. The neat thing is the potatoes grow inside the tires with out the dirt. What I mean is you don't have to pack the tires with earth, just keep hilling.
I am trying stacking with some of my potatoes this year. I have seen many video's that have claimed failures, so I will only stack 2 feet high & will mix 50/50 sand with my soil & will deep mulch the plants between stacking. If this works out this year I will stack one tower 3' and another 4" next year as a continued experiment. Good video JC!
Where can you get the barrel at a reasonable price?
where did you get the blue barrels?
Just picked up a few more barrels today for my garden, have 15 total now. Absolutely love these! They work wonders. Ever since I first saw you do this (5 years ago already, wow!), I had to try it, this is now my 3rd season using them. Anyone who wants to have simple raised beds should give these barrel rings a try… you will not be disappointed!
I don't like the color blue
🙂
Just found you, love your videos. Ilike the plastic barrel idea! I'd air prune the roots by drilling some holes in them and lining them with old fabric to help hold the dirt in though. Larry Hall has how-2 videos for this here on youtube, it makes for stronger, higher producting plants. I'm also trying his rain gutter grow system this year…. I've been learning a lot from his RGGS FB group too.
Your videos never cease to amaze me. So much innovative ideas
That’s some pretty soil!
Again these older videos are so cool and timely.