sarrathefletcher Hatfield

paul wheaton wrote:
By "leave the list" do you mean "the forums"?  Or, do you mean my "daily-ish email"?

I think the forums you can just walk away from. 

I don't get the daily email. I know that I can just walk away from the forums, but my email and other information will remain in somebody else's computer forever. I don't particularly like that, and for that reason I seldom participate in social media. It's just too invasive, and frankly, it creeps me out. Can I remove that kind of information through the "change profile" section?

Al Loria wrote:
Just inserting my nosey self in here, but what did not find here? Was it practical uses of permaculture for you own specific needs, or something else?  ... Just ask the right questions in the right places and I know you will enjoy being here.

I have no problem with "nosey selves".
What I didn't find - specific discussions regarding northern/cold/short growing season climates is the big one. Secondarily, there's not much having to do with gamebird production and predator management in general besides coyotes. Third, management of the global warming effects that are already painfully evident here in the subarctic region. The spruce forest I purchased six or seven years ago is now a deciduous forest, and it's not likely to return to conifers in my lifetime. Fourth, "right places." The website is so big that it is very difficult to find the right discussion, and as with so many lists, if you aren't an old hand, you tend not to attract replies even if you do find a relevant location.

I just feel that I'm better off to be talking to people in my region, reading books for theory, and following a much smaller, local discussion with people who share my specific needs. It's interesting to read about water management in the southwest or companion plants for passion fruit in the tropics, but neither will do me much good when I'm trying to learn about out how to produce browse for goats without attracting either bears to eat the goats or moose to eat the browse, and the traditional browse plants may not grow here very well anyway. That's just an example - there are a lot of other things that I need to learn over the next two years before I move out of the city for good. That's not a lot of time, I don't want to waste it.

While permaculture in general is a very interesting topic and I have a LOT to learn, I have seen precious little in a month of reading and occasionally trying to participate that is of real use to me. How to I unsign-up? I can't find a "leave the list" link on the help pages.

Years ago when I lived in Iceland, I used to take a summer work crew of teenagers into the mountains behind the village where I lived for reforestation work. We had these 75 centimeter-long long, tubular planter gizmos that worked sort of like a dandelion puller but backwards. We worked in a line about ten feet apart. We pushed the pointy ends of the gizmos into the ground, stepped on a pedal that forced the turf apart about four centimeters, and dropped a little yearling tree from the regional reforestation nursery down the tube. Lift the tube, and the turf came back together around it. Then we'd take four steps (about another ten feet) and do the same thing. If the line got ragged, that was OK, the forest probably benefitted from the raggedness.

Except for fencing the forest area from reindeer and sheep, the trees were left to fend for themselves. This is generally a very successful way to reforest, as patches of woods are now to be found all over Iceland.

I've never seen the tree planting gizmo anywhere else, but would love to have one.

It's the plain white oyster. The bag is from Fungi Perfecti, so it's probably a West Coast mushroom, but they are a lot warmer than here most of the time. However, my back yard garden beds are in a protected location and seldom suffer much from north or east winds because of the location of utility buildings and the house, which provide a lot of shelter.

I guess I have nothing to lose, so this weekend I'll crumble up the mass and put it iunder the mulching straw. I plan to sterilize some new straw and introduce a bit of the bag mycelium into a new bag also.

Is unused organic, wheat-based or corn-based kitty litter any good as a growing medium for mushrooms? How 'bout if it's been used for bunnies?

I have an oyster mushroom spawn bag that is probably just about spent. How much winter can this spawn take, if I put it outdoors now? I'm in Anchorage, Alaska, so once winter hits, it can get very cold. Is the spawn likely to survive in the mulched gardens?

dolmen wrote:
Thank you for all the valuable info ... I'm in Ireland and have been unable to find anyone raising squabs or even any info locally, some pics would be really helpful on housing etc.
I also must look out for the book, thank again.

Cheers

You"re welcome. A good source for the book is an international online book mall called abebooks.com which is where I found my copy of Levi's book.

One caution for you, me, and anyone who lives in a cool, damp climate. While pigeons are remarkably hardy and adaptable birds, their original habitat was dry cliffs. They are most productive and healthy when they are in a dry environment. Wet floors, deep litter, and other situations that may promote dampness won't work where it is humid.

I'll try to get a picture of my loft on line. I'm not real skillful at putting up pictures. I may start another thread about pigeon lofts, but not right now - I'm on lunch hour at work.

I think I figured out how to answer on the discussion list.

Those are terriffic sites, thanks for the addresses. I think I remember enough Latin from high school to be able to find what I'm looking for. Maybe. I hope!