Kathleen Sanderson

My brother moved in next door to me a few years ago. He's got a lot of skills, and has a pretty steady stream of items coming into his shop that need fixed, anything from neglected maintenance to welding and fabrication of parts. Mostly farm and garden/yard equipment. Some of it would have had to go into a commercial shop, at high cost to the farmer who owns it. Other stuff would have been thrown out, ending up in a landfill. My brother gets paid a bit for some of it, but he does a lot of trading - he's gotten all kinds of useful stuff (that mostly needed to be fixed) in exchange for fixing other stuff. He's been given/traded for an old but working pickup truck, a DR brush hog, a walk-behind power wagon, a pressure washer, hay (which goes to my goats), a couple of lawn-mowers including a zero-turn riding mower, and a number of other things. The old pressure tank that he was given got turned into two useful items - a larger wood stove for my house, and then he fabricated a snow plow attachment for his side-by-side ATV. (We don't usually get a lot of snow here, but it has already come in handy.)

My brother doesn't know much of anything about permaculture, but what he's doing follows permaculture principles, whether he knows it or not! He's building ties in the community; recycling and keeping stuff out of the landfills; and making good use of what's available, rather than spending money on new stuff. And his network of contacts means that if we need the use of something we don't own, we can usually borrow it from someone, like a rototiller, or a horse-trailer, and that's a permaculture principle, too - sharing stuff, rather than each household owning one of everything.

For cattle (and horses, if you have some that aren't tamed down), chutes are a necessity. No human can hold a cow still if it doesn't want to be held still. Or a horse, for that matter (the BLM, dealing with mustangs off the range that are still wild, uses chutes at their facilities). For smaller animals, I've never had a chute, but if you had a large number of sheep or goats - or, I suppose alpacas, though I've never had any camelids, either - a chute would certainly save a lot of time, and might save some back strain, too. You will absolutely need some kind of pen setup that allows you to sort animals, though, and arranging the aisles and gates carefully can make them function much like a chute. It doesn't have to be terribly expensive to put together. T-posts and cattle panels will usually work, though if you have animals that are jumpers, you might want to spring for the more expensive - and taller - no-climb horse panels. For the small numbers of animals that's all I've ever had (a minimum of two goats, to a maximum of about forty sheep), we would just have a couple of small pens set up - sometimes portable ones. Put them all in one pen, and as each animal was caught and dealt with (whether medical treatment, shearing, or milked out) they were released into the second pen. Sorting for some purposes could really use an extra pen or two besides the basic and necessary two, though.

A big advantage of having some kind of chute system is that it prevents a lot of stress on the animals (and on the animal handlers). Quietly running them through a properly-designed system (see Temple Grandin's work on livestock handling facilities) is much better than having to chase and catch and wrestle with each animal. Do that very many times in a row, and you are going to be exhausted, I guarantee! And it's really not a good thing to have to do if you are working pregnant females. You could end up with them losing their babies.

I guess what it boils down to is, you have to figure out your costs with and without a chute system. Costs of materials to build your facility; costs of your time and energy with and without the chute; costs in terms of the potential consequences of stress on your animals. Then you can make an informed decision.

I've been debating about sheep. Parasites are such a problem here that, in spite of regular worming with the recommended wormers for our area, I've had high losses in my goats. There are several breeds of sheep that are highly parasite-resistant; most of them are hair sheep, but the Gulf Coast Native/Florida Cracker do have fleeces. I'd like to get away from having to use chemical wormers, so I'm considering switching out the few goats I have left for one of these sheep breeds. Personally, I'm inclined towards the hair sheep for my situation, but the Gulf Coast Native/Florida Cracker sheep would be worth considering if you want wool.

Annette Jones wrote:

Kathleen Sanderson wrote:I have two pretty cast iron teapots (I'll post Amazon links to them in a minute). The most recent one was purchased with four tiny little cups, a non-breakable tea set for my handicapped daughter; her toys all end up on the floor, so I didn't want to get china for her. (She's 45, not a small child.) I also have a SS kettle for heating water for making tea with tea bags, although, to be completely honest, I've found that my coffee maker also makes good tea, so I haven't been using the kettle much. It will come in handy in case of a power outage, though, when we have to heat water on the wood stove.

My daughter's tea set:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DDPZ7HNK?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1

The SS kettle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DFF5WPQ?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_5

And my cast iron teapot - I got the light green one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NBGH9Q9?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_3&th=1

Kathleen your daughter's set is so pretty and functional, thanks for including the link.
I have a disabled nephew who loves herbal teas and think he would love this one so I am getting it for him.
He is a disabled artist with Studio Artes and Little Umbrella (here in Australia), and was so taken with the colours in this little set he is painting it for his monthly art exhibition.
I bet your daughter just loves it too.

That is so cool! Thank you for sharing!  And yes, my daughter does love her tea set. She has just been keeping water in it, which she drinks throughout the day, and that's fine - it's getting used!

thomas rubino wrote:My new solid copper tea  kettle

That's gorgeous! I drooled over some copper teapots when I was looking for one, when I ended up with my SS kettle. But the really nice ones are out of my budget.

The other thing I would love to have someday (but probably never will) is a genuine wood-burning (or even coal or charcoal burning) samovar. They are kind of the original Kelly Kettle!

Gaurī Rasp wrote:I’ve had this glass teapot since I was in my teens. It’s particularly precious because my Mom gave it to me. I just love all things glass!

It's so nice to have, and treasure, something that your mother gave to you! I eyed the glass teapots with some longing when I was looking for one, but I'm so prone to breaking things...that's why I ended up with metal teapots, instead.

I would be happy to have garter snakes here (south-central Kentucky); they may exist in the area, but I haven't seen any. We did have a king snake cross the property a couple of years ago, but mostly don't see snakes at all on the place (a dead one on the highway once in a while is all). However. As much as I'd like to encourage the non-venomous snakes to hang around, there is NO WAY that I'm going to deliberately build snake habitat. We have copperheads, rattlesnakes, and water mocassins in the area, and I don't want ANY of those here! If there was any way to screen out the venomous ones while allowing the non-venomous ones in, I'd be glad to do it. There's also a big snapping turtle in our pond, which means no baby ducks. I'd love to trade the snapping turtle for one of the other kinds that are native to this area.

Much as it's good to encourage various kinds of wildlife, they aren't all unmitigated good.

I have two pretty cast iron teapots (I'll post Amazon links to them in a minute). The most recent one was purchased with four tiny little cups, a non-breakable tea set for my handicapped daughter; her toys all end up on the floor, so I didn't want to get china for her. (She's 45, not a small child.) I also have a SS kettle for heating water for making tea with tea bags, although, to be completely honest, I've found that my coffee maker also makes good tea, so I haven't been using the kettle much. It will come in handy in case of a power outage, though, when we have to heat water on the wood stove.

My daughter's tea set:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DDPZ7HNK?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1

The SS kettle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DFF5WPQ?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_5

And my cast iron teapot - I got the light green one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NBGH9Q9?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_3&th=1

Timothy Norton wrote:Could you possible do both to start? Your main business to start (or keep doing) would be your appliance repair business and you could dip your toes into the nursery business? This would at least keep income flowing for you as you figure out the ropes with plants. Then you can eventually transition fulltime into the nursery IF you find that you are having success.

I personally would have a hard time taking a risk when I have an almost guaranteed cash flow from something that I already am familiar with.

I also believe that you can successfully flesh out a nursery business on the side without too much overhead especially if you specialize in something such as fruit trees, bushes, or even something like native plants. I know of a local who only works with fig tree varieties and does well on Etsy.

This is basically what I was going to suggest - do both. Start with your repair business, and gradually grow into the plant business. I do have a thought for you, with regard to the repair business - try looking at it as a way of helping people, rather than just a way to make money. You have an opportunity to provide a needed service, which not only helps keep appliances working (and out of the landfill!), but also serves and helps people who may not be able to afford new appliances right now. (And shame on the companies that build appliances to basically be disposable, with such a short lifespan!) Both the repair business and the plant business are noble occupations, if you are able to look at them that way.