Dennis Goyette

Dennis Goyette wrote:

J Katrak wrote:I leave out sunflower seeds and water. In town. In the winter. It's a long, cold winter.

I like to grow things some will use as well that are also nice to look at in winter. Highbush cranberries, wintergreen etc.

I do oilers (sunflowers), corn and suet, all year around. In summer I get birds, squirrels, coons, occasional porcupine, bears. Winter birds, grouse, deer, squirrels, ermine, bobcat (didn't know mommy was a female until she brought her first little ones 2 years ago.)

I forgot about the moose as well.....young ones in spring and summer.... in the winter, they come up to the hills/higher country as the snow gets deeper. It's easy to spot their tracks since they are several feet apart and the deer stay away from the deep snow and stick to the trails they make packing the snow down....

J Katrak wrote:I leave out sunflower seeds and water. In town. In the winter. It's a long, cold winter.

I like to grow things some will use as well that are also nice to look at in winter. Highbush cranberries, wintergreen etc.

I do oilers (sunflowers), corn and suet, all year around. In summer I get birds, squirrels, coons, occasional porcupine, bears. Winter birds, grouse, deer, squirrels, ermine, bobcat (didn't know mommy was a female until she brought her first little ones 2 years ago.)

Marc Dube wrote:Yes but only in the winter. Sunflowers and home rendered suet from deer and elk mixed with Sunflowers. The suet mix is poured into large holes drilled into logs and then the logs are hung as feeders.

The good old fashion way....

Timothy Norton wrote:This installment of the Permies Poll series has been inspired by seeing all sorts of birdfeeders around the countryside.



We recently had a younger black bear hit some birdfeeders in a nearby town so now the question has come up. Do you try and feed wild birds?

[applepoll]

Share your thoughts and experiences!

Yes, but since I have bears in summer and squirrels all year round, I do not use feeders. It is spread on the bare ground, bee3n doing it this way for years. Suet cakes are useless. I use actual suet that I buy by the 40lb box at the store (cheaper) and keep it in a freezer till needed. I put small amount out at a time during the summer due to heat and the bears. My woodpeckers actual fly to me telling me they need more suet. They can be pretty annoying with their yacking "feed me feed me feed me". They also feed the suet to their little ones.

I have a simple pump on top of my well head. So I can pump, by hand, water when needed for drinking (I also have the parts to have the simple pump redirect the water into the well tank in the house instead of out. This requires some one with the right tool to connect it to the water line going in to the house. Not an easy chore to do, but a plumber can. I don't need 5000 gal storage. Rain water can be used to flush toilets or put a toilet between 2 stumps, dig a whole and then........In winter there is plenty of snow.

I bought one of these years ago for emergency Lifestraw community.
Though I have a generator with auto transfer switch, for long term power outages (think EMP) it won't be running all the time. I have a simple pump on top of my well head to get water if I need it. I can also catch rain water from gutters and 50 gal storage barrels. That water would need to be filtered so the lifestraw would come in handy. It holds 6 gals and is good for filtering over 30,000 gallons.

I use to have a freeze drier and dried them that way.

Thin chip fries. I slice them thin, spray oil on them, shake some cayenne pepper on them and then bake them. Of course there is the old baked potato with vegan meat loaf. Also, I boil them, fridge them and then make home fries with onions....

No way I can grow my own coffee way up in the frozen Northeast. However, I do roast my own beans, have for over 20 years. Nothing like freshly roasted coffee. I buy my beans from sweetmarias.com (out of Oakland CA) and sometimes from my son's friend who has a coffee shop (Milford NH) and buys in bulk (like 60kg bag for $600). I use a Behmor roaster.

K Eilander wrote:Which generator type is "better", diesel or propane(dual-fuel) as a backup power source for an offgrid system?

Also, since it may factor into it, which has the best/simplest homemade green fuel alternative?
Where the one generator would be running on biodiesel, and the other could (presumably) be run on woodgas.

What do you think?  What would/did you all go with?

Mine is propane, hooked up to my 500 gal. tank and with auto transfer switch. Only issue with a permanent set up is that it is taxed. They assess a generator by the size of the house which is ridiculous. That would be like vehicle registration being based on the size of the driver. I'm still fighting this with the assessment company. Assessor is suppose to bring it up at their Nov. 18th meeting and I will hold his feet to the fire until they change how it is assessed, by the size of the generator (amps and kilowatts) like the size of a shed.