Jay Angler

Emily Smith wrote:The most recently sick hen died, and I took her to the state poultry lab today.  So I’m just waiting now.

My fingers are crossed that you figure out what the problem is and are able to help keep your remaining birds healthy.

We can only do what we can do, and it sounds like you've done that, so I also hope you don't let this discourage you.

The birds sound too old for it to be a coccidiosis problem unless they somehow got a sudden heavy exposure? Another remote possibility is some other poisoning. I know that galvanization contains lead as an example.

UPDATE on Babies

Breaking news - shells breaking to be precise! Yesterday I started wondering why a bird outside was being so noisy. Seemed more like spring behavior than fall. As I moved towards the noise to investigate, I realized that the noise was coming from inside my house. More precisely, from inside the incubator.

As of this morning, there are 6 chicks hatched, all from King Arthur's flock. I sure hope some of the Saddler eggs start to pip.

Watch this space for further updates.

Spaghetti sauce: commercial ground beef, but the tomatoes, walking onion greens, garlic, and oregano were all from my gardens. I used Holy Basil that my DiL bought two pots of on sale, and are happily living on my living room window sill. (My idea of "house plants".)
Noodles were leftover commercial.

Climate is everything. In my very wet winters, *everything* rots! In Siberia, I suspect things are too cold to rot much of the time.

I am learning that how and when logs are harvested really makes a big difference. I believe one of the northern European groups would ring trees at one time, then peel the logs while they were still standing, and after a set time, finally fell them. They had learned that following this recipe, the logs would be stronger.

However, logs grown in cold areas by nature last longer - the rings are narrower. a 50 year tree grown in the far north will be much smaller in diameter than the same species grown in my ecosystem, and much smaller again, than one grown in the southern USA. My understanding is that as the level of CO2 in the atmosphere is rising, this too is making the rings wider and the wood less strong.

There are many factors at play. There emphasis on training and skill in carpentry is another important point. Children would have started learning these skills when modern children are sitting in classrooms.

Your deer must be much better behaved than my deer. I watched one cross over a patch of tall weeds and eat all the leaves off my potato plant a few years ago.

I suppose it all depends on how desperate the deer is?

Others are attracted to your endearing warmth:

Reminds me have having to hand raise some Muscovy ducklings and how their favorite game was crawling around between my shirt and my sweater. Muscovy are "tree ducks" - they climb surprisingly well. And they *love* to cuddle.

My friend grows peas in planters on her deck railing. They do cascade down as they get heavy, and as described above, mostly form into a bushy mass that wants to grow up, but can't. She has not had a big problem with them breaking off, or the roots not holding.

My friend has limited mobility, so this keeps the peas pods from 2 1/2 ft off the ground up to no more than 5 feet off the ground, making it much easier on her for picking.

Since she's looking for a tender crop and can pick these every one to three days, the system is working wonderfully for her. Sometimes the definition of "working" depends on the exact niche a person needs to fill.

To extend the idea of "Gardening gardeners" - an expression that's been around on permies since at least 2016 - I think we also need to pay attention to cooking up a big batch of cooks.

Am I right to suspect that a lot of home-grown food gets wasted composted because it all comes ripe at once? Or like on my farm where I really can't store summer apples, so they get fed to the geese, chickens and ducks - better than compost as they preprocess the apples and spread the goodness all over our field.

The weather is changing rapidly now that it's early October, but I've got a lot of green tomatoes and not sure I've got the time or energy to make green tomato mincemeat. Having a team to process food together would make it much easier and much more social!

Tech Dinosaur here: Does your laptop have a camera for zoom meetings? Any way you can use it to take single pictures? It might be awkward as you don't get to see what it's focused on... sigh... it was a thought, but probably a bad one!

I get that you don't want a smart phone (I've been ordered to carry one because... cougars... the four-legged brown ones that killed a few local domestic animals in the last few months. Safety first.) It does take awesome pictures, and it has lasted 7 years so far, while many of the digital cameras people I know bought, crapped out.

Hopefully there's a permie around who knows a good reliable one they feel able to recommend.

1. Have you Googled "Intentional Communities"? I believe there's a list somewhere of them.

2. The "Bootcamp" mentioned above is an Intentional Community that focuses on learning skills. That got me thinking that if you haven't explored this site much, you may have missed the SkIP program. https://permies.com/c/skip
Some of those skills require land, but some can be done in backyards, public parks, and apartments. It would be a step towards the reality you describe.

3. The travelling alone thing is a challenge. I also recall reading about a "solo women van group" that links their people for travelling. You would be in your own vehicle, but you'd be going like a convoy and have company wherever you stop. Then you have to find your destination and plan a way to get there.

4. I do get the fresh air and low car usage thing. Bike paths have been slowly expanding in my area, and the local town is more walkable than many in North America, but it takes a lot of push from committed groups to make it happen. My homestead is long and narrow, so now that I've drunk my tea, I will be off to walk past a garden area, through a mini- forest, until I am greeted by my geese at the entrance to a 3 acre field. Alas, they don't really want me for anything more than fresh water and some breakfast, but they still greet me noisily.