Annie Sires

good luck, Scott. It's hard to meet people now. Harder than it used to be.

My aunt lives in Maine in a double envelope house. the original farmhouse was box in box, the later other side (a second house) used passive thermals to warm the whole house. Only a couple of days during the coldest part of the year do they use heating for the house. I can give you more details if you contact me

It's the simple joys of life. I have a oscillating hoe. One of those u-shaped hoes that just whips along the ground, so easy to use. Makes clearing a dream. Fokin hoe would be cool. Just saying.

Your web page is down. Do you still do this?

Oh, and I have native bayberry, that we'd normally remove but rather than knock down, I'll pot and sell... This also propagates more natives and increases rarer plants since bayberry is a rare native.

Annie Medic

So, whatever the number is, I have been collecting native trees and bushes from my property, containering them, and plan on selling them in the spring. As long as you provide a quality product and aren't breaking any laws, in many states you can sell on the roadside. I have oaks growing on small pots that I will transplant into cheap plastic pots. One small oak for sale is worth $5-15, depending on size of tree and health. I don't sell anything that appears weak or has a penchant for virus, gal or illness.

As a dog trainer I have to say that shooting a dog is not on my recommended list of training tools... Just sayin'.

Roberto pokachinni wrote:Tie the carcass around the dog's collar, and let the dog suffer with that form of scolding for a few days.  That is often enough to get the point across.  When I saw your thread title, I was wondering what sort of chicken breed you had that it was eating dogs.  Ha Ha.

As a dog trainer with 30 years of experience... this really is an ineffective way to train a dog.  If you want to attempt to train a dog that has eaten a bird, you must make the reward stronger than the reward of killing/eating the chicken.  So, yes, you can train a dog to not kill chickens, but you have to repeat and repeat 4000 times (study showing how long it takes a dog to really get it... and no I don't have the study right in front of me).  You will have to start simple and then add distance and distraction.  Most people aren't willing to do the work involved in order to train the dog to be 100% safe around birds.

That being said, if you want more specific advice on the training, moose me and I will talk to you off line.

Get house chickens and quail for food, grow your own feed for them (mealworms, crickets, sprouted feed is easy to do - https://www.highmowingseeds.com/blog/how-to-grow-your-own-organic-non-gmo-chicken-feed/).  Grow your own vegetables indoors (tower garden - buy one or make your own.  Grow your own herbs.  Save grey water for watering.  Use LEDs in all your lights.  Keep the house cooler/warmer by several degrees - often the other apartments have their homes so warm or cool you get passive environmental control.  Use fans to cool, air circulation even when it's cool outside.  Buy local - Most cities have farmer's markets which will reduce the gas cost of supermarket groceries, plus they taste way better.  Eat stuff that others won't - offal, etc.  Much of that is wasted and is cheaper.  Learn how to make good food from what others think is garbage.  Wear warm clothes in the winter, cooler in the summer - the Amish go all year round without air conditioning and often work long hours in the cold with minimal layers.  They do very well, are very hardy folk and don't suffer.  I have even seen the kids barefoot in weather that would have most "English" scrambling for heavy boots and heavier jackets.

I don't know if anyone suggested this:  take two old car tires, stack one on top of other.  Place two boards or three across bottom.  Fill inside the tires with spray insulating foam from a can (or any other good insulator like bubble wrap) and place a five gallon bucket inside.  insulation will keep water from freezing.

voila.