Jackson Bradley

Val Vetter wrote:The tongue-in-cheek answer I got from the local good ole boys about finding the septic tank was “when it has a problem, it will show itself”. (True, but hardly proactive.)

This is great. I am going to remember that saying!

If you like to read, I think this book would be very informative and demonstrate differences in chicken keeping philosophies. The book would tend toward not having a coop or fenced chicken area. You can read some commentary by scrolling down the comments in the thread.

https://permies.com/t/265718/Free-Range-Survival-Chickens-Florida

Edit to say that I see Timothy Norton already mentioned the book.

May go without saying......

I am not sure how you can tell the difference between bocking 14 and 4 and different types of virile comfrey. There are some threads on here but, at times, my bocking 14 looks like bocking 4 from what I have read and seen in the pics. It was sold to me as backing 14 so I just go with that. https://permies.com/t/175487/determine-Bocking-Bocking-Comfrey

I do not think the flower color, except the blue flowers, tell you too much. I have pink and purple flowers from the same plant/seeds.

I think you can figure out if you have some type of bocking and sterile verses other types that are virile. My bocking 14 flowers, drops the flowers and never closes to form seeds. The true comfrey closes and grows in size and forms seeds.

It could be safe to say that you could just label them as sterile or virile and go that route depending on what you observe with the seed pods. Or self seeding and non self seeding to be easier to understand.

Judith Browning wrote:thank you Jackson!
I never knew anything about that variety.

and yes! blue flowers are great....I always called these an 'electric blue'...and it's the earliest to bloom.

Lithodora is a very nice blue flowered ground cover. It seems to make the most flowers when it is shaded by other plants.

It was at the garden center of the big blue store and the blue flowers got me. It sounds like you may like it.

Judith Browning wrote:The first picture is earliest to bloom and my favorite color.
It's fairly low growing with smaller narrower leaves than the other...I think it was called Russian comfrey by the person who gave it to me but I've never been sure..

From the description and pictures of this one, I imagine it is SYMPHYTUM HIDCOTE BLUE COMFREY. I have some and it is the lowest growing compared to my true comfrey and bocking 14.

I really enjoy any plant with blue flowers. There are some good pictures of the blue comfrey here:  https://www.nantahala-farm.com/comfrey-wild-native-s.shtml

Ned Harr wrote:Therefore I want to know specifically what makes RVs such a no-no from a purchasing standpoint. I'm not afraid of fixing stuff or replacing stuff in a house or in a car--is an RV that much different from either? What's the big problem?

We traveled full time and still live in the RV full time on our property. It's been over 5 years. We started out traveling with our friends who we are still in touch with. In their first four years, they were on their 3rd RV. Major issues covered under warranty for the most part but not good.

Due to what I read beforehand about RV's, and some of the experiences our friends were having when we were making the decision to full time for a while, I decided to pay more for quality.

The 3 biggest issues with most Rv's are roof/window leaks, condensation/mold, and frame issues.

Frame issues - Find an RV with a high CCC rating. CCC = Cargo Carrying Capacity. This tells you how far away from the weight limit of the axles you are. Basically, how much stuff you can bring with you. Don't max it out and go to the scales once in a while. Simple thing to do that most people are not doing. Our CCC is 4800#'s which we could never get close to. This is due to having a toy hauler that we have no toys to haul except kids toys. However, I have seen toy haulers with a low CCC so you still have to check it out. Not maxing out the CCC is not a guarantee but will lead to fewer or no frame issues from what I have seen.

Condensation/Mold - Use a dehumidifier if you are not in an arid environment. Pretty simple.

Roof/window leaks - Leads to mold, water damage, etc. This is where they can become difficult. If it takes some time for the leak to be discovered, you can be in trouble and need to replace the roof membrane, framing, insulation, etc. These problems are not anything you cannot overcome but as mentioned already, RV construction is not conventional. I would say in order of repair ease it would be Conventional home, Mobile home, RV. Very doable and I would not let that stop you from trying it out. Inspect and seal your roof once or twice a year.



After 5 years of being in ours full time, I have had to make some repairs. Plumbing is pretty normal minus the toilet. Ours has a braided plastic line and plastic fittings that I change out to Pex and brass fittings as leaks occur. Standard kitchen sink, standard bathroom sink, standard shower minus the trap. Plumbing pipe is ABS and is supposed to be more flexible and handle the category 5 earthquake that happens anytime you take your RV on the road. I had some ABS traps leak and replaced them with PVC and it has been fine. I'd probably change them all to PVC as I have issues but have not had many. Our shower has a Hepvo shower trap. I have to take it off and clean it out about once a quarter. The toilet has a seal that needs lubricated with silicone grease and changed every few years. Not a big deal. Wear a rubber glove if you want when you lube it or change it.

For the electrical, there can be some nuance. The receptacles are mobile home style due to needing to be more shallow than a standard work box. I have not needed to replace any but have added a few. There is the nuance with having some appliances and other items DC powered and some AC powered and some are a combination. Also, you will probably have or end up with solar and an inverter. I would say the main issue with electrical will be the campground supply. I hardwired a quality surge protector/monitor after the 2 year mark. I went to push our 50 amp plug into a power pole and the box shorted out. I opened the box up to look and the grounding conductor was sticking out about an inch past the terminal connection and shorted.

For the mechanical, it is straight forward. Akin to portable heating and cooling devices. I hard wired a couple of wall mounted space heater for times when we have electricity.  The hot water heater in ours is electric/propane. It has an anode rod that needs to be replaced just like a full sized one. I had to replace the top half of the AC unit. It was under warranty and I did it myself. Besides carrying it up onto the roof off of a ladder, it was easy.

I guess I don't really see what the big deal is except it will have more maintenance required than your conventional home.

As far as a financial no-no I think my buddy we traveled with said it best when he said; If you want to appreciate vehicle depreciation, buy an RV. This is not always true and depends on the market but it was a funny saying.

Since we knew we wanted quality and good resale value, not the cheapest price, it limited the manufacturers. After seeing all the issues our friends had, it was a no brainer for us. The up front cost is 40%-50% more. Ours has a resale value at about what we paid for it. Not many do.

We narrowed it down to Oliver trailer and ATC toy haulers. I am 6' tall so the Oliver was not for us. ATC uses no wood in the construction. All aluminum and composite materials. Even if we have a leak, I just have to address the leak and won't need to fix any framing. Even the cabinets are aluminum. You get what you pay for is not always a true saying, especially nowadays but buying the ATC has been worth the upfront investment. I would not change a thing.

I say all that to say that if you search for a quality product, you'll have a more pleasant experience. If you buy the cheapest model forest river RV available, it may be painful over time depending on usage.

Tough question to quantify due to personalities.

I had to run into town today to fill up a gas can due to a power outage at my home. I have turkey eggs in my incubator and they are for a buddy of mine so I had it plugged into the generator. Not that I would not have done that for myself but I really would like a good hatch rate for him. They started hatching this morning.

On the way to town, I was behind someone driving 15 under the limit the whole time. Fine with me, not in a hurry and I don't mind driving slow. The other people behind me however.....

On the way back, traffic was backed up into the 2nd light in town (only 2 each direction) and because I could not cross the intersection without blocking it due to the amount of backed up cars, I stopped and waved a guy trying to turn left across my lane through. The person behind me could not see over my big truck and laid on the horn. Providence would have it that he was turning left at the next light and I was going straight and it was red. We stopped next to each other and I got out of my truck and had a quick discussion with this person ha ha.

So during the short 10 min ride to town and the 10 min ride back:

I enjoyed driving slow behind someone driving slow and was stress free. Some of the people behind me, not so much. Evidenced by their unsuccessful attempts to pass in town.
I enjoyed the ride back until the guy laid on the horn over something out of my control and directed the horn at me.
I got stressed out and exited my vehicle to discuss the situation with the person blowing the horn.

Ergo, I had polar opposite experiences in a 20 min period. All due to me and my personality and my stress levels were very different in that short period of time.

I say all that to say that sometimes these things may be out of your hands. My first work boss told me that if I do not love what I do, I should do something else and he said he'd help me find that something else. It has been a mantra of mine since then and I've passed that saying along many times and helped others find things they love to do.

Maybe today evidenced that I need to go to town less or not hatch my buddies eggs for him.

I think weeding or mowing, for me, is a great activity that has no stress and is such a change from my day to day responsibilities. I would say those things are absolutely a form of stress free meditation.

***Edit to add that Egotism was my issue. If only everyone drove as well as I do then we wouldn't have any issues. Egotism, seems to me, to be a lot of the root of stress.

I use the "top down" fire method 95% of the time. That may be called the "fireplace fire" on the illustration.

Works great for just about any situation.

Timothy Norton wrote:For those who keep layers, how do you manage your flock to achieve your egg productions goals?

I've considered adding new generations of hens annually or biannually but I don't have a basis for making that determination.

Do you just raise a flock of hens until they live out their natural lives, do you butcher your oldest hens or maybe something else?

Our egg production goals are home based for our family of 8 and 2 neighbors. I like to have 22-25 hens laying to achieve this.

Due to having a dual purpose flock, my selection process is ongoing as I try to keep the larger hens and a larger rooster or two for meat and egg production. There are other selection criteria along with that but the gist is to select the best from my dual purpose flock and keep the 22-25 hens and 1-2 roosters in addition to tractoring broilers a few times a year.

I use plastic leg bands to identify different generations and genetics. As we go through the broiler season and selections get made out of the new generations, I'll cull or sell or give away some older hens. The rooster culling is an ongoing thing because we have a very hard time getting along with each other once they get to be older.

I prefer to sell or give the older hens away. Sometimes they have only been laying for 12-18 months and need to go because of the ongoing selection process. I really dislike processing hens after point of lay.

I did separate flocks for eggs and meat but it became unnecessary once we got our selection process going and it is much easier to manage one flock. You can select from one flock and incubate eggs from your own selections. From what I have seen as far as hatchery chicks, they appear to be selecting more for egg production than meat unless it is a dedicated meat bird like the Cornish X or rangers.

I say all that to say if all I wanted was eggs, I'd get white leghorns and hatch eggs to replace them every 2 years ,after point of lay.

I will also note that some friends of ours handle this question through the dreaded "chicken math" which we've been fortunate to avoid so far.  

Edy Ki wrote:
I would really appreciate hearing how I can feed my 40 rabbits without buying so much pellets. It is too expensive and with the fuel crisis there may be scarcity. How do you feed them?

There are a lot of really good threads on here like this one:   https://permies.com/t/180997/pellet-free-meat-rabbits

It is labor intensive compared to working a job for an hour and buying X amount of pellets but you don't have to do it all at once. I keep 4 does and 2 bucks for breeders and during the breeding season here, I end up with more than 40 at various stages of growing out.

You have to select for breeders that like to eat the things you give them. They will eat it no matter what if they are hungry but the enthusiastic ones put on more weight. Hay and silage are helpful during winter depending on your climate. You can plan your breeding season around the times of the year that have the most food available and get back down to your breeders only when that time is over.

I let some areas of the yard grow the grass up to a foot or two and hand cut it to feed. I also feed blackberry and raspberry canes that are plentiful here. I also am getting close to 200 comfrey plants and they eat all I can grow as well as the chickens eat it. Oregano, basil, most any garden trimmings. You can free feed a good hay all of the time if available and desired.

Comfrey is the main food for ours out of that list.