Gray Simpson

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since Jan 12, 2012
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McDonough, GA
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Recent posts by Gray Simpson

It doesn't look like I'll find the required number/type of sources for Berry's speech.

On a whim, I Googled "abraham lincoln agriculture speech" and found a really interesting speech that Lincoln gave in Milwaukee.
11 years ago
I need to analyze a speech for a college English class. I already wrote a paper analyzing the first image on this page (right click to view the full image, it's stunning isn't it?) My thesis ran along the lines of "Whatever the photographer's intended message may have been, this photograph can be a powerful wake-up call to those who are not familiar with industrial agriculture" and I went from there, analyzing and explaining all of the visual elements as I could find. This was purely analysis, no research required.

Now I need find a speech to research and analyze. I'd like to find a good speech that talks about the values of community, sustainability, agrarianism, feminism, ecology etc. BUT I could just as easily analyze a "bad" speech that talks about the values of, say, industrial agriculture.

This speech must be popular enough that other people (respected academics, journalists, etc.) have already done analyses of their own about the speech. And of course it must utilize skillful rhetoric (I have to have something to analyze, this is English class after all!)

Wendell Berry's speech "People, Land, and Community" at the first E. F. Schumacher lecture series in 1981 certainly has beautiful rhetoric, comparing marriage to farming, but I will need to do some research and find out if I will have enough sources to draw on. In the meantime, I'd love to hear your suggestions.
11 years ago
Are you sure you're not removing the urea as well?

...

I wonder if there is a viable way to recycle the NaCl back into one's diet.
11 years ago
Pictures are here (just the last three). You can see the whole flock in the first picture, with the exception of the silky rooster. The silky is aggressive and the other chickens generally stay away from it. Sometimes the students put him in solitary confinement in one of the two large enclosures. In the third picture you can see the plywood box that they all gather in when it is cold.

https://picasaweb.google.com/gray1753/DropBox?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCMTw_7v2uZmG0wE&feat=directlink
12 years ago
I'll have to go back tomorrow and see if the chickens have water since the nights are starting to dip below freezing. I did some Googling and found two main solutions for providing water in winter: (1) swap out containers so one can thaw inside; (2) use electric heat. Since our winters are fairly mild*, I expect it might be possible to bury a large water container in the ground and use some kind of passive solar technique to keep the top from freezing. A couple articles suggest using a galvanized feed pan and floating a piece of wood in it with 1 inch holes -- this is supposed to insulate the water (paint it black maybe?) and prevent the chickens from splashing water on themselves or getting the water dirty.

*(zone 8a; average annual minimum of 10-15 degrees Fahrenheit; soil temperature data is harder to find but I'm pretty sure the soil never freezes at a depth of 2 or more inches)

Chickens roost every night. Somewhere. Hopefully they are roosting in the coop you have provided.



I haven't had the chance to observe them at night. They do not have a true coop, but there are some sheltered areas. There are also two 2 foot high cages; one is empty and one houses a rooster that otherwise fights with the others. I'll post pictures tomorrow if I can remember.
12 years ago

Pick up your chickens.



Who am I, Usain Bolt? These chickens dodge students all day -- they trust no one! It takes three guys and a round fishing net. One of the roosters escaped the other week and ended up hiding out in the spiky bushes at the middle school, on Friday. No one could catch it and we eventually lost it. The following Monday the middle school principal called, and finally some students caught it.

Thanks for the answer Jay.
12 years ago
The two rabbits share the same space when it isn't so cold outside (although I'm just now reading that rabbits withstand cold better than our hot Georgia summers). Our teacher has good intentions, and she and I have a good relationship but I wish she would be less "sloppy" with managing the animals. And my other favorite teacher who sponsors our environmental club has been sloppy with regards to collecting paper for recycling. I just have to remind myself how much teachers in general have to deal with every day.
12 years ago
At my high school we have a greenhouse, where we grow mostly ornamental plants. (I established an outdoor vegetable garden in a different part of the campus.)

Anyway, the grassy area around the greenhouse (about 1800 square feet) is now home to 4 roosters and 5 hens (last year all we had were two roosters). My first question is: how can you tell if a chicken is beginning to starve? We have a two week Christmas break, and I had finished shelling some pecans so I decided to take the shells to the chickens. They all pounced on the pile and ate every bit of nut meat... the next day they polished off a couple pounds of birdseed and an apple. The thing is, there's somebody who's supposed to be taking care of them and I just want to make sure that person is doing their job. They do have plenty of rainwater right now.

I don't know how much they weigh exactly... Two of the hens are fairly small, and I believe all the hens are juveniles since there's only been one small egg produced so far. I found some charts here, but there are so many variables! Anyone have a rule of thumb for how much to feed chickens (for example, should they have food constantly available)? http://www2.ca.uky.edu/afspoultry-files/pubs/How_much_will_my_chicken_eat.pdf

I'll post some pictures after the break, and maybe someone could give advice on whether it would make sense to try some sort of paddock system, or other improvements. I'm in the plant science class, not the animal science so I don't know much... I'll have to ask my teacher how they take care of the chickens. Heck, I don't even know what they do with all the manure! Ditto for the rabbits. The rabbits, by the way, weren't getting anywhere near their fill of dark leafy greens until I started bringing them stuff from my garden! People were trying to feed them iceberg lettuce, oranges, apples, etc.

Have a good new year.
12 years ago
The One-Straw Revolution wasn't much of a hit here in Georgia -- there was only one copy in the entire GA library system!

Wow. It is so beautiful and amazing that Fukuoka went "against the grain" and is still inspiring other people today.
12 years ago
Can't figure out how to embed from Picasa. Here's the picture.
12 years ago