Lynne Webb

I just moved from a farm and re-routed the kitchen, one tub and laundry water. It's an absolute no-no with the county so check before you make that adjustment and use caution. I carefully buried my gray water down into my woods. It did not run onto other peoples property so going into my woods hurt absolutely no one. I did not re-cycle. My goal was to take care of my $eptic $ystem. It was one of those things, if you do it, you don't talk about it. A neighbor  became a good enough friend and showed me his design. He channeled his into his woods also but instead of it going out one specific place, he used piece of slotted pipe in a "T" fashion. That way it seeped out several places instead of one.

Without knowing what your tanks are made of, if I was going to make a safe, lasting bed for anything I'd first take as much vegetation away as possible and scour the area for rocks. Then, I'd get sand. Builders sand is the least expensive but white sand, like bedding for above ground pools, seems best. It has the ability to move with the pressure from above such as the pool floor.

If you were my cousin and came to my wedding with fluff sticking out from under your pits I would be very unhappy and probably never forget. Since the vast majority of adults think pit hair on women should be eliminated, I think for once you should try to please the establishment. Then, you can return to your Tarzan/Jane lifestyle. You don't have to prove to her friends and the rest of the family you prefer a la naturale. And after you graciously make an appearance, I reiterate, go back to what makes you happy. If you choose not to shave, at least wear something that covers up what others might see as crude. Could you manage to put on a dress (sleeveless if you prefer) and wear a stylish, sleeved bolero over it?

James Freyr wrote:Raising chickens myself I will share with you my observations. Every time one of mine has gone broody, there's been 8-12 eggs under her the day she went broody. I don't have a rooster and don't want broody hens, I want laying hens. If I catch them in time, and pull them off the eggs and distract them several times the first day, I've managed to have a few change their mind about being broody. The one biggest single identifier (for me in my cases) of determining if a hen is going broody is she will be in the nesting box at sundown and spend the night in there instead of on the roosting bar.

Another observation I've had with my flock and with friends flocks and talking with them is regular egg collection seems to keep (for the most part) hens from going broody. If I miss a day collecting eggs and there are nesting boxes full of eggs, it seems a hen is more likely decide to go broody and sit. None of what I have said is science, it's just what I've noticed. I have also, in my experience, never had a hen go broody in the fall when the flock is molting, or go broody during the short cold days of winter.

A trick I used when I was convinced my hens were broody (and you soon recognize that guttural "get the H away" growl) was to put them in a pen with a wire bottom. Using 'welded wire' that measures about 1/4"X1/4" holes will give them plenty of footing and with no nesting material, they soon are overjoyed to get on the ground and forage again. In fact, when they are pacing back and forth you know you've succeeded.

Judith Browning wrote:As much as I love the idea of repurposing materials, I think that plastic grocery bags have too short a life span to be really useful before they just naturally disintegrate into those tiny bits of plastic that have permeated our world......I don't know if rugs would be a good way to sequester something on it's way to becoming more trash?  I think I like the idea of making them into plastic 'bricks' though....for the moment I try to avoid bringing anything home in them and those that show up here are taken to the recycling center...not sure if that's the best choice but it's one I'm more comfortable with.

You are correct that they break down quickly. I'm going to check these plastic bricks out and see how they can become something long lived and useful. A person well versed in conservation and all things natural said all the hype over plastic bags is wrong. As a test leave them out in the sun and they break down into nothingness. Not in a week, it takes longer than that but it happens. The best thing is to scream until plastic bags are a thing of the past. I remember life without them and paper bags became text book covers, started fires in fireplaces, made great ground cover that broke down, lured worms and created more soil.