Bryan Beck

I got an f code. It was easy.  Yes, I was logged in already.  

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I am raising Idaho pastured pigs this year for the first time.  My experience has been great so far.  

We got two weaners in June and will have them butchered in January.  We trained them on electric net fence surrounded by hog panels during the first couple of weeks and they have not gotten out at all.  

I move them around every couple of weeks.  First they were on pasture, now at the edge of our forest.  They have benefitted from a lot of windfall apples and are getting quite fat.  

I built a small triangular hut for them, on skids, and drag it from one paddock to the next.  At first I was nervous about keeping them contained but now let them wander free for a while on moving day while getting the new paddock all set up and have no trouble getting them into the new fenced area by shaking a bucket of feed.  

I added a nipple waterer to a food grade 55 gallon plastic drum, held in place with fence posts and haven't had any trouble with this setup.  

I thought the Better World book was outstanding.  I've shared a bunch with friends I thought might do something with it...

Hey all,

I'm an infrequent poster these days, but have learned a ton here over the years.  I've been raising turkeys the last couple of years and we are bearing down on butchering day.  I will have work stations set up and we have a few friends and family joining us for the day.  If some of you would like to join us for the event, we would love to have a few more sets of hands.

We've raised the turkeys on pasture, with a mobile coop and net fencing, with organic feed.  If all goes well, we will have 11 to butcher on Saturday, November 18th at our place in rural Oregon City, OR.  

The process is a lot like butchering chickens, but the birds are much, much larger.  Last year birds averaged over 20 lbs after butchering.  This year's may be even bigger - they will be a couple of weeks older. This video follows our process pretty closely, so you will have some idea of what to expect.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53mBU7WHeXg&list=WL&index=6&t=515s

If you are interested in joining us, please send me a purple moosage with your phone number or email address (or questions if you want to know more) and I will get you more specifics.  

It's been a while since I posted anything here, but saw this news tidbit and thought someone might be interested in recent funding from the US Department of Energy to improve wood heating through research.  

https://biomassmagazine.com/articles/20093/doe-launches-4m-effort-to-modernize-wood-heating  

A little more info:
Eligible projects include those that aim to improve the performance of commercial wood heaters through design optimization/modifications; develop and validate the performance of wood heater retrofit devices; develop and validate the performance of post-combustion wood heater technologies; and support field testing to better quantify heater performance, including advising on data collection best practices and equipment, interpreting data that is collected, and understanding how collected data could be used to improve heater performance.

An informational webinar is scheduled for June 16, with the deadline to submit concept papers set for Aug. 11. Final proposals are due Nov. 3. Additional information is available on the DOE website.

This all looks good.  You are SO smart and attractive!

paul wheaton wrote:I changed all of the rewards to something like "12 Physical Books, or 36 eBook Gift Codes, or a mix of each!"

I think that's pretty clear.  Thanks!

paul wheaton wrote:

Bryan Beck wrote: It would be great to have options for a combination of physical and e-books if you can do that without making it super complicated or a PITA to implement.  A single physical copy for myself plus ebooks (for me and to share) would be a great option.  

We have a mention of exactly that in the description.   Do we need to add a line saying something like "or a combo - deets in the description"  ??

Ah, I missed that but see it now.  Yes, I think if you put "or a combo" in the pledge boxes (down the right hand side), people like me will be less likely to miss it.  

I got an error message when trying to LIKE  from the email, but then when I went to the kickstarter page I got a little flash message saying my LIKE had been registered, or something like that.

Based on the live feedback on the KS page it looks like my suggestion is already being covered, but will make it here anyway.  It would be great to have options for a combination of physical and e-books if you can do that without making it super complicated or a PITA to implement.  A single physical copy for myself plus ebooks (for me and to share) would be a great option.