Justin Peck

Does anyone have experience in growing rice? I would love to grow our own in our zone 6/7 garden but haven't heard of anyone else doing this. Is it possible?

We have a Great Pyrenees and she does a wonderful job protecting our flock, though she does cost us about $90 a month in dog food. She get's the good stuff (4Health grain free). I agree with Bryant that it's more about the size of your enemy than the size of you farm. And most small dogs are more likely to go after your chickens. An alternative may be for you to get a guard goose. I know Joel Salatin keeps one with his chickens and they keep predators away. Just don't get more than one or they'll care about each other and not protect your chickens.

The glass is always going to get dirty, for a stove like this I would just encourage her to do it without glass, does she want something pretty to look at or something to heat her house?

I personally don't care for the fabric, they used it under gravel roadways around here and now it looks awful as it's sticking out from under the edges when you walk along the road. I've had a gravel driveway my entire life and it just takes regular maintenance. Still cheaper than any alternative but if you want to keep it mud and pothole free you just need to keep up on maintenance. If it's just a few potholes your dealing with I'd get a load of 2" stone and mound it up over the pothole. As you drive over it it will displace the mud and level out with the rest of your driveway, for the longer ruts that appear I would get an entire dump truck load of crush or run and spread it out over the area, again mounding it up higher than the rest of your driveway, If you keep up on the little potholes it will make long term maintenance easier. As soon as you see standing water, deal with it. That's what degrades your road.

In order to raise goats with low input you would need a significant acreage per goat and have a variety of forage. Some wooded, some open field. Goats can not live on grass alone, they need forbes and browse. But if you're looking to raise goats at a low cost and are ok bringing in food from outside sources check with your local groceries and food pantries, they throw away organic vegetables every day that could go to feeding your goats.