Dave Vazquez

Here's what I do to deal with stray dogs. If I know who's it is I will scare the dog off my property and then speak to the owner. If the dog returns and the owner isn't supervising (chasing their runaway dog) or if it's a stray I've never seen or is acting aggressive, I lore them in with food, leash them, then take them to an animal shelter in the next state. Honestly it's not that hard to train your dog. My yard is not fenced and both of my dogs never leave it. One will even bark at the people across the street but he always stays in my yard. Also when he was young he ate one of my smaller chickens so I took the time to train him and now he loves the birds and runs to protect them when they give an alert call. Any unwanted behavior from a dog (escaping a fenced area, aggression, running away) is a failure on the owners part. Which is why I don't just shoot them like I do foxes. It's not the dog's fault that their owner hasn't trained them, doesn't stimulate them enough, or doesn't spend enough time with them.

I've got 10 guineas and about 60 chickens free ranging together. While out and about the guineas fight among themselves but leave the chickens alone. The only issue I've had is when they go up to roost. Make sure you have plenty of room to roost because the guineas will peck at the chickens if they feel cramped. I raised them in the coop so they usually go in to roost. In the past two years the guineas have randomly roosted outside in the trees about a dozen times. As for eggs, with a well maintained nesting box I've had almost no chicken eggs laid outside. The guineas never use the nest boxes and prefer the managed grasslands around my property.

Sell directly to restaurants! Good chefs are thrilled to get local, fresh ingredients but they are way too busy to go out and source them. Take a sample to them with your contact info and they'll be calling in no time. One restaurant uses 10-15 dozen eggs a week. So far I only have one customer and they buy anything and everything I can produce! And the chef/owner is always begging for more. My biggest problem is that I can't produce enough! Sometimes they don't want to bother buying 50 pounds of squash from me when they need 500 pounds just for that week. So go get to know your local chefs and you'll never have trouble finding a buyer and getting full retail prices.

I have had a lot of luck using water to level my swales. Basically all of mine are dug by hand in the rain. Start at point that you can't move, your tank or pond, and go from there. Also if the gradient ins't too steep a deeper swale and larger berm can accommodate minor changes in the contour. I filled mine with wood chips and it soaks up all the water.