James Landreth

Hi there! Welcome to permies.

Mushrooms come to mind. There are greens that can grow in some shade. How many hours of sun, if any, does it get?

There are also some trees and shrubs that will bear in some shade. Currants, gooseberries, goumi berry, silverberry, rhubarb, strawberries (to an extent), pawpaws. Quince may fruit if there is a little sun.

I bet that ramps would grow.

In spite of having acreage, I actually do a lot of my gardening in pots. I find that it’s easier, and still very productive.

As others have mentioned, the biggest thing is watering. In my area during summer, pots have to be watered once or twice a day. One solution is to have a solid dish of some sort that the pot sits on. Extra water will pool there and prolong the amount of time you can go between watering.

A solution to going away for the weekend is to put the pots in buckets and fill the buckets maybe a quarter of the way up. You can’t do this all the time as it will cause rot, but for a few days it has worked well for me.

I’ve had the most success with tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and tomatillos. I have done squash and even corn this way. Bush squash will do better than vining.

You can also punch holes in the bottoms of pots so that they root out into the ground. This will help them grow bigger and need less water. Obviously won’t work on a patio but just throwing it out there.

I think this is an excellent undertaking. In the past I grew a lot of my own chicken and rabbit feed. It was a ton of work, but I enjoyed it at the time. With prices being what they are I think it's an important conversation we need to all be having. I see a lot of people online say things like, "I'm self sufficient, I have a garden and a flock of chickens." While I don't think total self sufficiency is really feasible or pleasant, I think greater self reliance will be key

May Lotito wrote:General sewing books such as Vouge Sewing usually have chapters about specialty fabrics of leather and fur. The Fabric Sewing Guide by Claire Shaffer also has a chapter on fur with both hand and machine stitching (home sewing machine, not special fur machine).

Here I took a few pictures of the pages.

This looks like a gold mine. The pictures are from The Fabric Sewing Guide by Claire Shaffer, right? (as opposed to a Vogue book)

May Lotito wrote:Foe hand sewing, do you need a special needle? I have made coon hat before and used the strongest needle that came in the regular needle pack. It worked most of the time but had a hard time piercing through the skin behind the neck.

There are needles that are designed for it. They are thicker, and some are sharp, and others not. Sometimes people use an awl to pierce the hide then sew through the holes

Anne Miller wrote:This might help:

Thank you Anne! I've seen this and it is helpful, I'm just hoping for more techniques

I am especially curious as to how to to link two panels of fur side to side, if that makes sense

My request is, can anyone direct me to any books or resources?

The title says it all. This year I've really gotten into sewing,  and I have access to a lot of locally harvested fur (raccoon, fox, badger). It's harvested by farmers and given to me, else it would go to waste. A lot is prime winter fur.


I know how to tan if and have done so. The next obstacle is sewing it. I have one vintage book written by a woman by the name Phyllis Schwebke. I have also looked on the internet for videos and articles but have found little other than faux fur.


I am looking to make coats, scarves, mantles, etc, and to trim and line with it.

Traditionally (and what worked for me) was chopped scrambled eggs, and if I remember right, water over cooked oatmeal. Water over the eggs might help. They can eat tender grass from a fairly young age. Everyone's experience is different though and it's been a few years since I had geese

Thank you for the information! I reached out. Did you rent a car to get to her?