My sweet little cat just brought me the decapitated head of a rabbit she must have just killed. Is that good luck or a bad omen? This cat is the same size as a rabbit, and she's now killed two that I know of. The last time she dragged the whole bloody corpse into the kitchen through the open window. I guess I should be happy it was just the head this time.

If you've never been around citrus trees in bloom, put it on your to-do list. The fragrance is amazing, a mix of fruit and floral, like a memory of what grape soda tasted like when you were a kid. I love that it smells so wonderful, and that it's only around for a few weeks each year, so you have to savor it while you can. It's a gray day here, but inside this greenhouse it's warm and smells like heaven and the bees and butterflies are hard at work. Bumper crop of lemons this year, too! If anybody in the Austin or Lockhart (#texas) area wants to trade sats for some organically grown, fresh-picked Meyer lemons, hit me up. #garden #homestead #fruit #grownostr

Any time you need to smile, just do an image search for "baby orangutan". Works every time.

This dude's bed-head game is always on point. #dog #dogstr #grownostr

If you're in need of a small generator to run a few small appliances, lights, etc, Tractor Supply has these little 800-watt ones on sale for $170. Yes, it's a cheap Chinese generator, not a high-end Honda. You probably won't find repair parts for it. But if you don't have any way to make emergency power, it's a good starting place, especially at this price. I've had one of these since early 2019, and it's always been reliable. Much higher quality than I expected. It's relatively quiet and very lightweight. At 800 watts, it's not going to run major appliances, but for emergency lights, running a freezer or fridge, camping, etc, it's great. #prepping #deal #camping #tools #bargain https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/sportsman-1000w-inverter-portable-gasoline-generator-gen1000i-1694825

Does anyone have any recommendations for good quality 18650 batteries? I have a number of devices that use them, and a mix of batteries that are reaching the end of their life. I'd like to find some quality batteries in the sea of cheap Chinese junk that's on the market. #diy #grownostr #asknostr #electronics #tools

That Thanksgiving dinner hits hard, ya'll... #dog #Thanksgiving #grownostr #dogstr

You know how when you're eating grapes, there's a lot of variation in the flavor of each one? Some are sweeter, or more sour, or just different tasting. When you get a really good one, you notice. Then why the hell do all raisins taste exactly the same?

For those who doubt that true, pure evil exists in the universe, allow me to present a 3" long, fine-thread, flathead screw. The existence of this object is incontrovertible proof that there are vicious, sadistic demons among us. #diy #evil #grownostr

We grow thousands of plants twice a year (spring and fall seasons), and start most of them from seed in these 128-cell starter trays. Going through and individually poking a little divot in each cell for the seed to be centered and at the right depth is incredibly tedious across dozens of trays... So I designed and made this "dibbler" tool on my 3D printer. Eight stamps on each tray and you're ready to go. It was the first thing I designed myself and printed that worked as intended. Though the first attempt at printing it had a bed adhesion failure and I later found a mess of plastic spaghetti on the floor... #gardening #nursery #tools #grownostr

Look at this guy. Just ridiculous. #dogstr #dogs

If you're in the central Texas area this weekend, we're having our fall plant sale at our farm in McMahan (near Lockhart) this Saturday (9/30) and Sunday (10/1) from 10 AM until 5 PM both days. If you’re in the market for fall/winter garden plants like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, herbs, and ornamentals, selected to perform well in our cool season, have a look at our catalog at:

Squeaky Frog Farm | Online Store

We had some ridiculously hot weather during the sprouting and growing season at the end of this summer, which caused some germination and survival problems, so a few items are in shorter supply than we would like, but we still have a great selection to choose from. If you can’t make it, but are in Austin, we can take an order and deliver the plants to you next week (or you can pick them up from our house in Austin). 20% discount if you pay with Bitcoin!

Good morning, Nostriches! Here's a photo of a teeny-tiny little green snake from my garden that you didn't know you needed today. His head is about the size of a pencil eraser. #grownostr #snake

This relentless heat has caused our chickens to stop laying eggs, so we had to buy some at the store. They were on sale, so we thought we'd supplement our dwindling supply. Holy crap, these things are flavorless junk compared to the fresh homegrown ones! When we first started raising chickens, I didn't notice that ours were that much better than the store-bought ones, but going the other direction really highlights the massive quality difference. (We also use much higher quality feed now than we did in the beginning, so that is probably part of the difference, too.) If you eat eggs, get your own chickens. Thank you for coming to my TED talk. #grownostr #chickens #homestead #foodstr

How dry is it here in central Texas? I had to dig up an irrigation pipe to fix a leak. This is in the middle of an open area, nothing but dry grass around, and within less than five minutes of there being a hole with water in it, this guy showed up out of nowhere. I have no idea where he came from or how he knew there was moisture, but he wasted no time getting to it. #grownostr #frogstr #frog

Does anybody else have one of these Velcro dogs? This little dork loves to go roll in the mulch, then we have to spend fifteen minutes picking out everything that's stuck to him. #grownostr #dogstr #dog

I'm back to working on some more #homestead automation projects. This week I installed a water meter at the head of my maze of outdoor irrigation lines. Mostly, it's there to sound the alarm when a pipe breaks (lots of leaks this summer as the ground has dried out so much, there's tons of movement against the pipes underground, pulling joints apart, etc). But it's also useful to monitor how much water I'm using on any given task, or to set an alarm to notify me when X gallons have gone into a zone or through a sprinkler or soaker hose so I can go turn it off or move it. The next step will be to add solenoid valves to the system to automate watering even more and also turn off the water automatically if a leak occurs, but this is a great first step. Like my other #automation projects, this uses a Wemos D1 Mini to read the output of the water meter and communicate it to the Home Assistant server. The meter is from MCS, I opted for a cheaper one that sends a pulse for every gallon that passes through it. I wasn't sure how well it would work, so I didn't want to spend a lot on a nicer meter until the concept proved itself. I'll eventually put in one with finer resolution that will be able to detect smaller leaks.

Measurement Control Systems

3/4" Water Meter with Pulse Output

We stock various water meter sizes and models! The MCS 3/4" poly water meter is perfect for large sub-metering projects. It comes standard with pul...

#homeassistant #grownostr

You know those plastic spikes they put on top of signs and buildings to keep birds from perching there? Well, it seems that magpies are now ripping them off and building nests out of them. Be like the magpie! Become ungovernable, and use the tools of the system against it... I know the mascot of Nostr is the ostrich, but I nominate the magpie as runner-up, in the event that the ostrich cannot carry out its mascot duties. Magpies are very intelligent and known to collect and keep objects they deem valuable. They're nature's hodlers. They also will give gifts of shiny objects to people they like. This bird *is* Nostr! #grownostr #hodl #birds

Great germination rate on these broccoli seeds for our fall plant sale! 127 out of 128 in this tray. That one empty cell is really aggravating my brain, though. Damn it, so close! #grownostr #garden

Found this a teeny little gray tree frog sitting in the birdbath last night, eyeballing a potential snack... Usually there's at least one or two of these guys hanging around the porch light, hanging out and hunting bugs with five or six geckos. #nature #frog #grownostr