My two cents: Pastured Organic Eggs are extremely healthy. Seed oils are extremely toxic unless you're pressing it yourself fresh for short term use. Processed oils in a bottle are, well, processed food! A renowned cardiologist, Dr. Esselstyn, explains it in this video and is echoed by many other "new age nutrition experts"
There are lots of recipes online for dressings with no oil, usually by blending vegetables like avocado or chick peas into a creamy 'sauce' :)
I don't think you can just request "search for any chemicals in my water". Not an expert here but I think they have to select for specific things. I went down this research path last summer and concluded like Michael Cox, that the best we can do at this point is remediation (and activism - just thought I'd sneak that in :) It's so pervasive I don't even trust rainwater anymore and am probably going to have my collected water tested this summer. I have a local company I will call who charge a couple hundred dollars to send a technician to collect samples and run some basic tests.
Here's another company that looks interesting. They've been primarily a medical testing facility but the website says they're starting water testing, you can order a kit, but it's 8am on saturday so no point in calling right now. They seem very knowledgeable about our concerns
Hahahaha! More like I'll be arrested pending investigation into why there are body parts in my toilet! Okay guys - I'm sufficiently shamed and I'll never do it again! The more I think I about it, my rough, already occluded pipes clung to the mass and I'm not going to mess with it. Calling the plumber to design my new system next week :)
Thanks William. The bathroom sits over an 18" crawlspace. The main waste stack which has the cleanout and vent is in the corner of the room (single story one bath) The toilet is to the right of the main stack and the tub to the right of that. The sink is to the left and drains directly into the waste stack just above the cleanout. Toilet is to the right of the stack, which drains straight into the ground below the floor. Tub is on the other side of the toilet, presumably feeding into the toilet drain. The toilet was the first to clog. Plunging caused water to back into the tub. Sink water now causes the small amount of water in the toilet to gurgle and then seeps over to the tub.
I've tried to open that cleanout but it is too old and crusty - I think it's cast iron.
I know the rule about not putting stuff down the toilet but I really felt that chicken guts are just equivalent to un-processed poop, haha! I think it was the volume that did it, especially if the old galvanized were already closing in. Now that I think about it, the toilet's been good in the past but the shower water has been kind of slow to drain for a long time.....I'm a die hard, stubborn do-it-yourselfer and researched my way through a whole house renovation in the past but plumbing is just so hard I need to cry uncle I guess. I'll live with it another month until I get my floor plan done.
thanks folks - yep, I forgot to mention the plunging 100 times a day in my story, and as Wayne said it's just backing up in the tub. I have put the guts in the trash in the past - don't know what came over me this time - creeping dementia?
I'm procrastinating on the total replacement project because it's going to be a remodel of the whole kitchen and bath deal and I haven't made all the floor plan decisions or gutted the rooms - maybe this is the cosmic 2x4 to JUST DO IT, lol. I was hoping someone would have a magic chemistry solution. I'll look into renting a good power snake - never had any luck with the skinny manual ones.
Question about anaerobic decomposition... True confession here - because your secrets make you sick - and I need help - and maybe someone else can learn from my stoooopidity - aargh! (must have been my triple Aries/Mars risk-taking influence) On December 15 I butchered 7 chickens. I'm very proud that I've used every part of the chickens to make soup and bone broth, and bone meal. Except I couldn't think of a good use for the guts because I live in the city and don't want to attract animals to my compost pile, so I decided to flush it down the toilet and can't explain why I didn't just put it in the garbage. I warned myself it might clog the drain so I put small amounts in at a time, flushing after each deposit. All seemed fine until a couple days later when the drain got slow, then slower, then pretty much became a slow trickle, as in, 24+ hrs to empty the tub or the toilet. I thought - it's organic - it will decompose eventually. I'm still hoping that the total volume just collected in a blob in one of the pipe turns, so after a couple weeks I put some Rid-X in hoping to speed it up. It's worse. Then I tried Root Kill - no change. Vinegar and Baking Soda - no change. Now it's been a month and I'm tired of taking sponge baths and using a makeshift composting bucket upstairs because I'm too wimpy to use an outdoor loo in winter (the old lady 3am run you know).
So I'm appealing to you all to tell me it will be alright in a couple more weeks, or there's another magic catalyst I can pour down, or bite the bullet and call Roto-Rooter. This is an old house with galvanized drains that I plan to replace this spring anyway so I really hate to spend money on it now.
Thanks folks! Lots of great info here so I feel better - especially as the more I study nutrition the more committed I am to eating more antioxidants. The Cooperative Extension article is excellent Mike! I hadn't thought about searching the term "biotechnology" so I searched again on NC State Extension service and found good articles there too. And thanks for the GMO list Rebecca. I was also listening to an interview with Dr. Seneff (MIT scientist researching connection between Roundup and Autism and finding connections to a multitude of health problems) who mentioned that sunflowers are being sprayed and causing defects in birds. Many crops that are not grown from GMO seed are sprayed to manipulate the harvest. So I guess the list will continue to grow. It helps to be able to categorize, as some here have said, that so far it's primarily the "field crops" that are being engineered and sprayed. I also need to try harder to find local growers selling heritage cuttings.
I cannot find any references to whether or not blueberries have been genetically modified. I've bought plants in the past from Lowes and Willis Orchards and now that I want to expand my berry selection I'm obsessing over the GMO question - actually for any of the berry family. I want to grow enough for myself, my chickens (who will pass it on to me :) and possibly sell some. There's lots of articles about growing them organically but even the vendors don't specify whether their plants are "organic" or non-gmo.
Thanks Eric - I have, indeed, been following your compost story and will be watching your shrooms too :) I'm pretty much on the same path as you but don't have the discipline to photo and write a journal reliably :(
Travis we all are influenced by our backgrounds, the people we are surrounded with, and just life in general getting in the way of critical thinking about every little thing! Please don't shame yourself. I only learned about Roundup 4 years ago after using it liberally in my urban landscape. 20 years ago I trusted our government and big businesses to do the right thing. Now- I'm very cautious about trusting any business. Dr. Seneff does mention agent orange briefly towards the end - as being in the same class as Roundup. Other smart doctors I've watched believe that DNA pre-disposes someone to a certain disease but that's only under certain conditions, and there's a lot of evidence that nutrients via diet and supplements are very effective in preventing/minimizing/treating diseases, and repairing DNA damage caused by environmental toxins, I can share some other sources of info for anyone who's intereseted :)
Yes of course I agree with everything you've said Chris. But the vast majority of our society are completely unsuspecting, or don't have farms to grow their own food, or the money to buy organics (which still likely might be tainted from over-spray or contaminated water runoff). My comment about being doomed is sincere whimpering due to the enormity of the contamination and the deniers and corrupted EPA... ..I guess I watch too much independent media. I admire people like Paul Wheaton who persevere in the crusade to clean up our act. What also impacted me, if you watch the whole video, are the specific ways that glyphosates disrupt our natural immune systems, and metabolic processes. She talks about Roundup resistance so Monsanto is coming up with a COMBINATION of chemicals to beat that This video might be helpful to some people who are suffering from various chronic diseases. It's also just fascinating to learn the science of endocrine disrupters and other 12 syllable biology concepts (being a science dummy myself).
We all need to do more to expose the influence of Monsanto and Big Pharma.
This is a very long, very thorough, and fascinating interview with a scientist who began studying Autism and found links to glyphosate. Which includes the link to vaccines The discussion rambles around through a mountain of health science and evidence that glyphosate is causing most of our health issues today. Permies have all had a general idea of the dangers of glyphosate but this taught me how utterly pervasive and dangerous it is to our bodies. She has some recommendations for detox and to fight it (infrared sauna, herbs, methylfolate supplements...) but other than completely banning it I come away with the feeling I just need to leave the United States. Not sure where it's safe.
Chiming in to provide link to Paul Stamets' website
Paul is the king of mushroom science, education, and sells supplies and a variety of spawn.
https://fungi.com/
Completely inexperienced here but I've been studying to prepare..of course I can't remember where I read it but I'll add to this post if I come across it. I read that mushrooms don't like to compete with each other in the same bed. Pretty much whichever fungi gets there first will dominate and kill the new kid. A caution is not to let wood chip piles develop wild fungi before inoculating with desirable edibles. So, even though we're having the same crazy weather here (60's in January ?!?!?!?!) I'm waiting until April for a new woodchip delivery and start with fresh.
Hi Emily! Are you in a city? I would follow the advice of others...call every tree service/arborist in your town. They save money not having to pay dump fees. In my city one of the arborists got wise and has started charging $100 to dump a load! But another one gives them free if you live within ten miles of the job they are doing that day. I found them on Craigslist where they post where they'll be working that day. Sometimes I have to put in my request several times over months before they show up so patience and persistence are required
I also get dump trucks of shredded leaves from a lawn service company. I drove around old, affluent neighborhoods where the giant oaks and maples are, and called the numbers on the trucks working in the neighborhood. Of course I don't want their regular grass clippings throughout the year, just the fresh leaves in the fall, which is the end of November here.
Bryant I just remembered to ask about your use of borax in the yard. Is that safe for chickens? I use borax & sugar in the house to kill big black waterbugs (working on damp areas around the house). I find roaches half dead lying on their backs and have debated whether to feed them to the chickens. I'm sure it's just a trace amount of borax in each roach's system.....?
I don't use DE for dust bathing or in the coop at all. I have 11 girls on half acre of assorted areas of vegetation, grass, weeds, leaf mold and wood chips. My first year I made a couple boxes under shelter that they wouldn't use. Chickens are like cats, no matter how many fancy accommodations you provide they'll find some other least likely place to enjoy their life, lol! I've observed that they prefer a spot with friable soil or 3rd year woodchips with friable composted soil underneath. Although I have also seen them in a clay area under the blackberry bushes in late summer when it's quite dry and scratch-uppable. They seem to like doing it with their pals, and preferably with shelter at their back but sunny in front - so my girls' favorite spot is in front of a giant cedar tree facing the western sun as they usually congregate there in the afternoon. I wonder if the thick bed of cedar mulch (leaves) is what keeps them bug free.
Andrew perhaps you could add a canvas canopy over the box like a kiddie sandbox. As for pecking, like Lucrecia, I never see my girls peck at wood other than for termites and other bugs. I suppose chickens who are malnourished might try to eat rotted wood or sawdust.
And for your amusement - I just watched this gal spend about 20 minutes turning and flipping around in this almost empty flower pot next to the shed door (high traffic area). It was hilarious because she has so many other choices but we had a lot of rain this week so I guess this was the driest spot she could find.
I'm no expert but have been researching this subject myself as I have a lot of moisture problems in my 95 yr old frame house. My understanding is that it's most important to not let moisture move from the inside of the house into the walls. Therefore - air circulation and VENTING to strategically vent interior moisture to the outside is critical. For example bathroom fans and a kitchen range hood fan.
Matt Risinger is a builder of large, high end homes in Texas, and uses a lot of expensive poly (ick) products but he goes into great detail of the principles of ventilation and insulation specific to different climates in his videos - here's one
Travis I'm so glad you've posted - I'm kind of a new kid with the regulars but must agree with everyone else that your candor and stories about your life put you on my list of favorites I truly hope that you find solutions to your problems because your beautiful family deserves to have you healthy and happy. I seem to miss a lot of posts and threads as I'm not on here everyday so when I learned you were signing off of permies I sent a Facebook message about resources for detoxing and curing cancer naturally. (hope you'll excuse the presumption You may not have seen that but I referenced a few websites and Youtube channels Ranging from Nourishing Traditions, Gerson Therapy, Dr. John Bergman (Youtube) and there are many more.
My personal experience in healing with food and supplements has eliminated some nagging chronic conditions as I age! Particularly on the subject of fatigue and weakness, Magnesium and D3 have made me feel young again! See Dr. Carolyn Dean youtube.com/watch?v=d55y4yOnn3c&t=73s
Virtually all the therapies for cancer have to do with alkalyzing the body, cleansing and strengthening the liver. If you've not studied these topics before, warning, don't be put off by the emphasis on vegetables, no meat, coffee enemas... that's usually in the context of therapy, not necessarily a lifelong requirement. Hopefully you have time to look into some of these folks and I would like to offer any assistance I can with researching therapies specific to your needs. I'm the google queen and have the time.
ALSO - if you decide to try something like Gerson Therapies that is very intense and best done with the assistance of experts, I'll be the first to contribute to a GoFundMe page for you to be able to afford the clinical assistance, labwork and the mountain of organic veggies required You can assuage your guilt by living a long, strong life to be a healthy testimonial for all the other skeptics out there
Meanwhile - eat lots of kale, and the ABC's (apple, beets, carrots)
What a sweet xmas gift James! I agree it's heartwarming. We all are familiar with the principles but his writing style is almost poetic, and gentle.
Thank you - and happy holidays - mmmwah!
Yes we want to avoid sludge but the concern is how? There's no way to know what fertilizer that growers around the country use, or even locally for that matter. I'm glad to report that after my original post I researched my own city's wastewater sludge handling and found a fascinating description of the many steps and technologies it goes thru before it is incinerated and the ash is sent to the landfill. I don't know if that's "best practice" but it sounds good so I'm glad I don't have to haunt the halls at city council meetings to fight for change. But as for the fluoride and chloramines in our drinking water........that's another story for another forum
I subscribed to this email reminder by the Almanac and it's WONDERFUL! I'm so busy and scatterbrained that I invariably get things started too late so hopefully this year they will keep me on track. I don't think they sell their email list because I haven't been bombarded with other solicitations.
Tailored to your zip code, they send periodic emails (monthly I think) to remind what needs to be, or can be done, in the near future. You put in your zip code and it provides real-time projected frost dates, frost and moon seed starting dates for indoors and out, xplant dates, etc.
I'm a big fan of Ronnie Cummings Organic Consumers Association donate and subscribe to their newsletter. This just in - I want to throw up, then never buy ANY industrial food again. It's been my goal for 10 years but I'm only 50% there. Now I'm really motivated.
As if it couldn't get any worse, I didn't know about this municipal wastewater sludge practice. Ugh.
Oops - I just realized I gave my email URL instead of the Organic Consumers Association website so I'm replacing it here. I think you can be safe - it's a website I visit regularly.
Really helpful and encouraging tips guys. Particularly knowing that the 55K is plenty and possibly even too hot appeals to me. It's easier to cool a pot down than to bring up the temp. As slow as I am doing one bird at a time, maybe this will be fast enough to be ready by the time I've plucked the previous bird. At least the water left from dunking the first bird will be re-heating itself while topping off with a half-gallon or so of fresh water, compared to letting the scald pot cool down while I'm waiting and carrying soup pots of water from the house multiple times!
I can't imagine doing 130 birds - you must have had a team of people. As a beginner I'm still operating under MAJOR anxiety and I had to spread 6 roosters and 1 old hen over 3 days, lol. I wish I had posted my question before doing this year's harvest - I'll get the burner now for making broth out of all the carcasses but it will be next summer before testing plucking production. I'll update this post then. Some day I'll write an E-book for solo beginners. The guys on youtube make it look so quick and easy - us old gals need lots of moral support Thank you Thank you Thank you !!!
p.s. after my original post I discovered that model burner also comes in a black powder coated version - $30 LESS than stainless! I can definitely invest $29.95 for a trial run
I just finished harvesting this year's batch of roosters and am exhausted from running back and forth to the kitchen to reheat water and try to mix it to the right temperature. I probably waste 30 minutes per bird futzing with that. I've learned that getting the temp just right 145-150 is crucial to easy plucking. When it's done right the feathers (including pins) come off in handfuls and then a final rub with a butter knife in the direction of the pins to catch any strays. This year I can splurge on an outdoor burner with temperature regulator but I don't do enough chickens to justify hundreds for the "pro" style scalder. After looking high and low for something big and strong enough to support the huge pot (my water bath canner works well) I found this which can also be my backup for electric stove and for simmering broths all day every day. I
I would appreciate opinions, especially if someone here already owns this burner. The price is right but the specs don't talk about how long it takes to bring the temp up (aka how much propane I'll use), and of course time to re-heat between birds. I've never used propane before and don't know how to translate BTU's into real world function
John I agree that any product we use should be control tested :) As an aside, in the last several years I've tried to eliminate any petroleum related ingredients/products from my world (virtually impossible). But I wonder if the vaseline I used to remove eye makeup for the previous 40 years is the reason I have no crows feet at 64 !!! ??? But I digress.
Comfrey salve made with beeswax is the best option and there are tons of people selling it on Etsy and elsewhere online. (luckily I can make my own - I buy beeswax pellets online to melt with my homegrown comfrey leaf - how to's abound on Youtube)
So much I could rant about but I know I'd just be preaching to the choir, tehe. I'm offering this article in case people don't know about this organization founded by Dave Chapman. I support groups like this and hope that all the young farmers out there can be encouraged by this couple's resilience and success. I really like what they say about the value of organics being not about what's been eliminated (pesticides) but more about the good natural elements they INCLUDE (pasture nutrients)
Thanks Mike - this was never part of my family's tradition so it's a real blast from the past for me! But I have lived faithfully by the memories of the war and the public service announcements of the 60's and 70's. This is one of my old favorites
Well.....interesting to hear a lot of different environments - it will be fun to compare notes next year. I did go ahead and move them to the lowest section of my yard which is kind of a bowl surrounded by a privacy fence, hedges and only 6-8 hrs of sun per day. The main goal was to get them out of a high humidity area which I think was causing the mildew. They recovered from the xplant nicely (pruned off the mildewed leaves). Hopefully the bowl will create a cool air sink. July and August can get brutal but if I can get an early crop I'll be happy!
How did you know I was just researching this topic last night? My concern even in my pantry for short-term storage, aside from moisture, is getting rid of weevils and any other wormy and mothy things in in my nuts and grains and flour. I experimented yesterday with heating the rice per instructions in the link below, and then steamed it as usual for dinner. I was a little afraid it would render the grains too dead to fluff up but it came out fine. I wonder if that also would extend the life by removing some of the moisture before mylar bagging. Not sure how you could do that easily with your 50-pound bags.
Great info and pics everyone thanks! Love Fluffy Butt, Burra :) Lucrecia, I knew that it's usually okay to mix 1-3 day chicks in with already hatched new chicks but you answered my question about the window of time that mama needs to 'sit'. They do seem to go thru a process - physically and mentally during those 21 days and I'm afraid if interrupted she'll be really grumpy and mean. My wonderful sussex wants to be broody all the time and stays with the babies for 7+ weeks so I'm optimistic she'll be a good adoptive parent. I have a "maternity ward" set up in a separate yard which works very well - it's an antique dresser I gutted and put a roof on and set in a woodsy corner so everyone is calm and private for about the first 3 weeks until they outgrow the cozy nest. At night they're in a 19" square nesting box with an additional 19" square open space for water and moving around.
Hmmm....whenever I get greedy and impatient (don't want to lose even 3 weeks of eggs waiting for incubation by god!), things don't always work out very well so I'll go with mother nature's plan and your recommendation of 21-24 days next spring :)
Anyone know if a broody hen NEEDS to sit for 21 days before coming out of her stupor and hormones adjusted to care for the babies? I'm having great success letting my hen incubate and raise a dozen eggs at a time. But it's been hard to find quality fertilized eggs in the breeds I want locally, and I just don't like the idea or cost of shipping eggs (I know I know, everybody does it successfully - I'm just trying to extract myself from the Amazon world) So I'm wondering, if I get some local day old chicks, is there a best time to sneak them under her? Can it be day 3 of broodiness, or 10 days, or wait until day 21?
I have an ancient crabapple, variety unknown. The leaves are smaller and rounder. The leaves get splotchy with red at this time of year when they're starting to fall, but it doesn't have the reddish tint on the stems like yours. I'll try and get a picture tomorrow.
So right Bryant. Some lettuces and even beets that I planted a month ago are growing s-l-o-w-l-y.
First frost was last night so under the covers everything went!
I'm thinking that the minimum temps should only apply to early-early spring planting, not for Fall. I've read other advice that fall/winter plantings should be started indoors and transplanted outside after true leaves are well established.
My first year attempting to grow greens year 'round, I searched minimum soil temp for lettuce - as we're in transition here. Found this handy quick reference and thought I'd share :) I'm shocked that some of my favorites can be started as low as 32 degrees!
