Samantha Lewis

To repel ticks I put essential oils on us everyday.      Just for being around our home.  (zone 1-3)  Essential oils on wrists, ankles, midriff and neck.  We have a shower and tick check every night.



When we come in from playing in Zone 3 -5   Clothing goes straight in the wash and bodies go straight in the shower.   Tick check.  Re treat with essential oils after showering if we have more outside time.

I carry the essential oils in the car and we re treat before going out to wander the wilds or visit another farm.  When we get back to our car, tick check.  Clothing change if there are any ticks.  When we come home, straight in the shower clothing in the wash, re treat with essential oils.  

On farm mitigation.  Chickens and Muscovy ducks are working their way through the paddock shift system and take a regular turn in the front yard where they are loose and clean up any areas they cannot get from the paddock areas.

Cats, dogs are checked regularly for ticks and treated with neem oil daily or every few days.

Horses, never seen a tick on them but the do get fly spray and they have ducks, chickens working their fields.

Neem is much cheaper than the nice essential oils.  works just as well kind of stinky though so I prefer the essential oils on me.  My little guy likes the citrus oils, lemon mostly so he uses that . I like the geranium, On Guard or Thieves oil so I use those.       Fun to play around and see what works.  So far every essential oil I have tried keeps ticks off us.  I imagine the main thing is to make us smell like something other than their target food source.  

Hi  
It looks to me that the Geese are just being the dominant animals in the group and showing the ducks by pecking at them "pecking order" and chasing  them off the good spot.  With that many animals and so little a tub there will be competition and the smaller ones will be run off.  
Also there may be some seasonal changes.   My two Muscovy drakes are able to live together in peace much of the time.     When the season changes (like right now) I have to separate them or the smaller one will be run off to the perimeter. "the danger zone"

The duck lying down with her neck out looks like she is hoping to be bread.   Do you have a drake that is her kind of duck?

If you have a 'Berry Breeze"   you can just lay produce on the shelves of your fridge.  No plastic bag needed.   Fresh food lasts much longer and stays fresh and alive.   It runs on 4 'D' cells and makes ozone.  I use the rechargeable batteries that have a 'D' cell size case that holds a 'AA' rechargeable battery.

You are the best Paul!   We love you

I put them in the crock pot on low.  just the bird,  no water.    After about 12 hours on low in the crock pot I turn the animal over carefully as it is falling apart.   There will be about an inch or more liquid in the bottom by then.  I let it cook a another 3 - 6 hours or till the next meal.  Then I let it cool enough to remove the meat and pour off drippings to save.  Then I add water to fill the crock pot and put it back on low for the next few days.  Pulling out broth as needed and adding more water.  

This is all fun and games until parents get separated.   Judges and lawyers do not think eating dog food and playing in poop water is funny.   We like to not care what other people think until other people have the power to take our children. Then it becomes an entirely different set of permaculture skills.  How does one live and raise permies farm kids and still appear to the outside world to be "normal"?.   Clean shoes and preschool might not seem important until you child's life depends on them.  When you are out doing something fantastic with your child,  think how the experience will be recounted to the other parent by your child or others present.   Then think how the story will sound when your angry former partner recounts it to their lawyer or the judge....    This little bit of forward thinking may help you dial back your activities just a touch or you may be able to re-frame activities so they sound better when your angel excitedly tells of their happy life with you to the 'Other Parent"    

Hi Elle,
Looks like you are on the prairie like me.    Use what you have in abundance,  you can mulch with sod chunks.  Also if you pull sod from the paths between the beds you will raise your beds that much higher by just transferring the sod chunks to the bed.  flip them over and move them around as needed they have an excellent mulching effect.  If the grass starts to grow back just move it around, flip it over,  cover with more sod.  Maybe you don't have to leave your place to get material.  You have all you need right there for free.  Use what you have in abundance.  Take what there is lots of.  

If you do have a tractor and can mow, you can just mow and rake it up into a wheel barrow or cart and take it to your garden bed.  
Looks like you have animals there.  If you remove all their old bedding,  and put it on your garden bed, that will feed your garden now so you can plant in spring.  Bed them fresh and when it gets dirty add it to the garden bed.  That way all the mulch/straw/hay you do have to buy or transport you can be using it twice.  first they sleep on it and inoculate it with poop and then it feeds your garden.    Also used stall bedding stays in place a lot better in the wind  

"The Longest, Darkest  Night"  A story about the Lunar Eclipse on Winter Solstice.   Very sweet and dear.  Now for the Holidays it comes with the Audio Book read by the author with all the animals in their different voices and there is a song.    So Sweet!

Hey Paul, I pledged already and  I can manage my pledge but it does not look like I can pledge again and add to your count.  

get a batch of baby chicks.  hours of fun and mostly harmless.

gold fish in a kiddie pool are also great.  you can move pool to wherever you need to work.

my little guy has had his own marked off patch of garden every year since he was two.   ( bigger every year)  He does whatever he wants in there.   He can plant it with seeds one day, bulldozer and excavator the next and flood it after that.   stuff still comes up and he has a ball.  ( hours of me getting stuff done)  I get to have solid boundaries and rules in my garden and he has complete freedom to play in his.  

Growing trays of micro greens is a great way to get kids to eat greens.   I turn the kids out in the green house first thing in the morning to graze the flats of micro greens.    They are warm so they are  happy to be outside and I can get all my zone one chores done and can keep an eye on them.