James Freyr

I want to move to Montana so I can be grandfathered in and move to Canada.

Nicole Alderman wrote:. Maybe this one should be edited to say that, too?

I believe that's only fair. I think that would be helpful and reduce any confusion and disappointment that may occur from people reading, and meeting the requirements of one set of pep badge instructions, but not a different set of instructions located on a different thread, and being denied the badge they worked hard for.

I think Wayne clearly met all the criteria listed in the instructions above.

Dang Wayne nice job! That looks delicious and I wish I could have been there :)

To help me understand (and admittedly also in Wayne's defense) I ask for some clarification. In the requirements, it clearly states:

To qualify for this Badge Bit: 
- prepare all the food for 8 people 
- clean up all the dishes, pots and pans, etc used to cook and serve the food. 

Nowhere does it say eight people must attend and consume the meal. From the pictures, it appears there may be enough for eight folks. Should the qualification requirements contain more details?

I think Wayne gets an A for effort, inviting eight and planning for eight.

paul wheaton wrote:

Also, shawn said that he thinks there could not be an iron badge for nest.   So what might be five or six things that would fill out an iron badge for nest?  Five or six things where each things might take a full month of full 40 hours weeks?    Maybe there could be "make a house a home - iteratively" where there are ten iterations of improvement.  ??

I think building a home might qualify, just in the sheer amount of labor involved. I think stipulations might be needed like no vinyl siding or asphalt shingles. Just tossing an idea out there.

Hi Alyssa, welcome to permies!

I noticed in your post there's no mention of having a drake. Do you have one in your flock? Also, I'm afraid 95° may not be warm enough for proper incubation, the duck egg incubation needs to be closer to 100°.

Here's a link to some helpful duck information https://ahdc.vet.cornell.edu/sects/duck/hatching.cfm

Here's a handy duck egg candling chart

J Davis wrote:Beware neighbors with bushogs. Those markers are nowhere near sufficient. Id suggest 4 ft high markers with orange flags or a few tractor tires surrounding your saplings.

In case you cant tell, Ive lost a few saplings to neighbor with a bush hog.

That's a good point. The markers are really for me, so I can periodically go around with the string trimmer and mow an 8 foot diameter circle so the acorns that do sprout have maximum sun exposure and aren't shaded by the grass and clovers and vetch and everything else growing. I hope this trimming I do is enough to make big visible circles of cut pasture that my neighbor can identify and avoid.

Hi Janell!

May I suggest the USDA web soil survey found here https://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm with it you can learn all sorts of neat info about the soil of places you're interested in purchasing. It can tell you the names of soils, water absorption, expansiveness, depths of layers and more. It's a pretty cool tool to learn a little about a potential homestead from the computer.

Looks great Aaron! Looking forward to seeing more pics!

I'm calling it a journey, because I want to continually plant more throughout life. I have a new farm, and will be moving in a few weeks, and today I planted acorns. They're from a shumard oak that I bought at a nursery as a sapling eight years ago. It's a nice looking tree, and I will miss it so I hope at least one acorn will sprout and survive.

Oaks can live a very long time, especially those grown from an acorn. Oaks have a taproot, but the sapling I bought from the nursery had its taproot severed from when it was first dug up and brought to the nursery. That tree I planted will have a good life, but it is unlikely to have the three, or four, or sometimes five hundred year kind of life that oaks with taproot can sometimes have.

I planted 24 acorns, six clusters of 4 with a stake to mark where I planted them so I can find them and also so my neighbor won't bush hog them when I hire him to mow the pastures.

I'll report back with updates and progress pics as time keeps on slipping into the future.

I was sampling some soil in the woods and uncovered this guy. I'm used to seeing white and light brown grubs, and have never seen a bright green grub. Any ideas?