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animal care badges for vegans - brainstorming

paul wheaton

author and steward

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Location: missoula, montana (zone 4)

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posted 6 years ago

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All of this stuff is being designed so that a vegan can be PEP4 certified.

For the animal care badges, a vegan would need to get a sand badge and a straw badge to be PEP3 or PEP4 certified. This thread is for figuring out what all those tasks would be.

- build a mason bee house (possibly other solitary bees)
- build a ladybug house
- build a bat house
- build a bird house
- build an insect hotel
- scythe and bale one bale of hay
- scythe and bale one bale of straw
- scythe and bale a dozen bales of hay
- scythe and bale a dozen bales of straw
- build a baler
- create a three season nectar harvest for pollinators
- create a brush pile near a garden for animal/insect diversity habitat
- create six brush piles

What else could be added here?

Lucrecia Anderson

Posts: 538

Location: Middle Georgia

posted 6 years ago

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Create a small pond/water source near the garden to attract/breed dragonflies and provide water for local birds/lizards/snakes and other small animals (with natural or dried vegetation around the edges to so the dragon fly larvae can climb out and shed their skin, and "natural" water that harbors larvae for the baby dragon flies to feed on).

Supposedly breeding dragon or damsel flies will have a big impact on the mosquito population.

Chris Kott

pollinator

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Location: Marmora, Ontario

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In your zone 4/5, plan food layers in your plantings that provide forage for wild animals other than pollinators, sacrifice crops to protect other plantings. An example of this would be outer-zone fruit trees grown from seed, allowed to grow bushily from the bottom so that, say, deer, can come in and trim up the suckers.

-CK

EDIT: another example, but for birds, would be planting sacrificial mulberry trees to draw birds away from other fruit.

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-Robert A. Heinlein

Lucrecia Anderson

Posts: 538

Location: Middle Georgia

posted 6 years ago

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Also reptile winter dens to attract lizards/snakes. I have a few snakes hybernating under my chicken coop (a couple of huge ratsnakes and a timber rattler). A shallow pit with some plywood over it can work if the area gets sun and doesn't flood during winter.

I googled so I could link to an article with specific ideas and the first result was a permies thread started by Dale Hodgins: https://permies.com/t/37884/critters/Building-Snake-Lizard-Habitat-Winter

Chris Kott

pollinator

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Location: Marmora, Ontario

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In that vein, Lucrecia, I suggest, where they wouldn't be in danger of harbouring dangerous animals, piles of stones or slash for garden habitat for such beneficial predator species as garter snakes and spiders.

-CK

Lucrecia Anderson

Posts: 538

Location: Middle Georgia

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Chris Kott wrote:In that vein, Lucrecia, I suggest, where they wouldn't be in danger of harbouring dangerous animals, piles of stones or slash for garden habitat for such beneficial predator species as garter snakes and spiders.

-CK

Yeah I wondered if I should mention that. Lots of snake species such as Garters and Rattlers like to hibernate in HUGE numbers (the mass of bodies keeps the babies/small snakes from freezing to death).

If there is a sizeable rattler population nearby building a huge den near an area with lots of human traffic may not be a good idea. But smaller dens would probably be fine.

paul wheaton

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Location: missoula, montana (zone 4)

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frog and toad habitat

paul wheaton

author and steward

Posts: 56147

Location: missoula, montana (zone 4)

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live trapping - maybe the whole mouse bucket thing.

M. Crex

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Location: Finland

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The bird house could have a good deal of subcategories given various requirements for owl species, ducks, or purple martins.
A hollow log honey bee hive or other natural hive designed to be hands off for wild honey bees.
Vermicompost
wildlife rehabilitation
Some vegans might be willing to take in livestock animals from a county shelter.
winter feeders
providing a zone 5

Tracy Wandling

steward

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Location: Sunshine Coast, BC

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Bird feeders - include seeds for birds specific to your area
Perches and water for birds in the garden

Identify a certain number of birds in your area - take photos.

Identify a certain number of mammals in your area - take photos.

What else?

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Tracy Wandling

steward

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Location: Sunshine Coast, BC

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Some good ideas here already.

What do we need to complete the Sand Badge list, and get the BBs happening?

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Shawn Klassen-Koop

gardener & author

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Location: Manitoba, Canada

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There is one aspect for animal care.

The idea is that there will be some big lists.

For the sand and straw badges there will be sufficient items in each list so that someone who is a vegan might feel comfortable completing it.

The wood and iron badges will likely require tasks that many vegans would not be comfortable with.

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M. Crex

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Location: Finland

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Tracy Wandling wrote:
Identify a certain number of birds in your area - take photos.

Along those lines, participate in the Audobon bird counting day (2 hours observation)

paul wheaton

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Location: missoula, montana (zone 4)

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The animal care badge has been created, please see it here:

https://permies.com/forums/posts/preList/107858/881691

Further brainstorming can happen in that thread. I am locking this thread.

I agree. Here's the link: http://stoves2.com