C. Orth

Have done it indoors on multiple occasions. Neither insane nor difficult to keep them inside while young. It makes for incredibly sweet, bonded pigs too, if you plan to keep them for breeders. My most recent house pig is a ~6 mo. old outdoor pig now, and he will always come stand on on hind legs at the fence to cradle his cheek in my hand rather than fight for the kitchen scraps I just dumped to the others.

I would be cautious about current outdoor lows in Oregon because of the damp. Pigs are fairly high maintenance when it comes to the temperature window they thrive in, and cold and damp can be dangerous even for adults. Any house temp will be fine.

They are inherently clean animals, and mine designate their own bathroom area as far from food and sleep areas as possible. Can usually be potty trained easier than puppies. It seems convincing to me that they require a different training mentality than puppies, though, as they are naturally a prey animal. Don't have the thought (like I believe is valid with dogs) of training them with a component of negative feedback, which is how canines will get training from their mom or their pack. The same actions with a pig seems to get processed like you're trying to eat them.

Don't use kitty litter for your suggested litter area; they will eat it and doubtful that is healthy. Wood chips/shavings, straw, or paper-based bedding. Don't skimp on bedding, and clean often or your house will stink. They pee a lot. Much like a cat, they will reuse any place they peed on your floor if you let them roam the house outside the pen before potty trained. But there is nothing cuter than a piglet that feels secure with you and their pen, and then released to start exploring your house.

I try to wean as late as possible, but commercial hog farmers would have weaned yours by now already. If you want to give milk, put it in a shallow pan to drink, like their water, or even better turn hog pellets into mash with it. It will be a huge mess, but they don't do well with bottles and tend to aspirate milk, which can lead to pneumonia. I've kept a runt alive that was too weak to drink from a pan, by using a nipple inserted at the back of his mouth on the side. But that was a lot of work for several days.

Until I know my hog nutrition better, I'm hesitant to skip hog pellets while they're young. Slop and pasture aren't always well-rounded, and I trust the pellet mixers to insure they're getting at least the basic nutritional balance better than I would.

Don't fall for their lies. If you've just fed them and know it's enough, it's enough. But make sure it's enough

One of the things I recall my grandad mentioning that I didn't pay close enough attention to when younger was that he pushed boundaries for some fruit trees in central Idaho by spraying with water in freezing winter weather. Built up enough ice to keep the tree dormant while the early warmth worked at melting that ice before it could bring the tree out of dormancy too early ,like it usually did for those fruits in that region, with the results described in the OP.

Don't remember if he said he encased the tree itself in ice, or if he built up a ring or cone around it on the ground. No recall of what volume of ice he used, but that should be fairly easy to calculate with all the data we have on typical weather patterns now.

I tried with one expendable tree last winter. A ring of ice on the ground seemed the more plausible method to my best guess. All I succeeded in doing was sealing the roots off from the air, I think. Probably I suffocated it. For whatever reason, it never woke up in the spring.

Next try will be spraying ice spokes out from a tree trunk, so that the root zone can still breathe. Will also be creating different volumes of winter ice where there are no trees to slaughter, and observing how long into a typical spring here they'll hold the soil in dormancy temps.

Great resources! My daughter has developed an interest in herbal medicine, thanks to your work.

No experience growing it, but a possible common denominator to those who have had trouble doing so may be that you're not in a place that's cold &/or dry enough for it's preferences? I associate it with Mongolia, where it grew like a weed. Thrives in brown places, not green ones.

The post from Greece gave me pause about my hunch, but I don't think Meteora has the typical Mediterranean climate that most of us associate with Greece, right? It was cold, brown, and snowy when I was there.

Walkie Talkies: ubiquitous street food in South Africa. What part of the chicken does the walking? What part does the talking? Boil, then fry those castaway parts. Serve with porridge.

Balut: hard boiled fetal duck or goose eggs. In the Philippines, both 17 and 19 day versions were sold (they hatch at 21 days). Only thing I've ever tried that made my esophagus go on strike. First bite just sat there halfway down; couldn't get it to drop into my stomach, but didn't come back up, either. Not for the faint of heart. Can find at least the chicken iteration sold fresh in the US at large Asian groceries. Only desire I ever had to buy them again was so I could slip one into the egg bin in the fridge and wait for the fireworks when an unsuspecting roommate cracked it open into his morning omlette. Something wrong with me, I know...

Durian: Very nutritious tropical fruit that is SOOOO stinky! Probably a legend, but I was told its export awaited the advent of shrink wrap, because no boat or plane captain would ever allow it on their ship. Tastes good but smells like combo of skunk spray and rotting meat. Pinch your nose and it's doable. Resembles the squishy love child of a large pineapple and a hedgehog. Breaks down into waxy white citrus-shaped segments. Have seen in Asian markets here in the states.

Kholodetz: Unsweetened fish jello. Unflavored gelatin holding together chunks of fish. I think it's what's called Aspic in the West, but I never encountered it outside of Eastern Europe. Actually pretty good once you get past the understanding that it's not a satire on dessert.

Salo: trim that nasty meat out of your uncooked bacon, and you get this. Cured pork fat. Favorite snack food of Slavs of every flavor. Skin and hair left on seemed to be considered more desirable. Slice a slab about 1/4" thick and serve on black bread. This one didn't take me long to get used to. Mmmmmm.

Jumping Salad: not sure if this was a freshwater shrimp or some kind of large insect. Served in a big bowl with a lid on it. The bowl sounds like they're popping popcorn in it. Place settings consist of a fork and that's all. Lift the edge of the lid closest to you, and a couple will jump out where your plate would be if there was one. Fork it to the table, then pop into your mouth live. I passed on this one, so can't vouch for how it tastes. Not my thing.

Salted, Dried, Tiny Squid: why don't we have this here? The best snack to go with a beer that I've ever encountered.

Soliciting advise since I see so much expertise and great out-of-the-box thinking here, even while just starting to lurk on the forum. All input welcome, even if just idle speculation.

I recently picked up 4+ acres of what early soil surveys rank as some of the best farmland in Montana. Zone 4b/5. Looking to build a house and let my kids sink roots here. Permie homestead fits our vision for the land and their upbringing, though I'm a newbie and have not even mapped zones yet. Shaped like a face-planted L, with three 1-acre squares running W-E and a 1-acre thumb shooting south off the east end of the main tract. Just moved family into old house in the thumb. Planning to build new place and garden at the elbow, and develop the western 2 acres into rotational paddocks for a few sheep and goats with birds, plus a modest food forest/windbreak. Depending on how this old house shapes up, will either turn it into a rental or burn it down and re-purpose the thumb. Will be posting separately to solicit advice on plans for how to plant and develop all that.

Soil is silty clay loam; heavy but very friable in the top foot everywhere I've sunk a spade. Well records show alluvium goes down at least 25'. Haven't gotten soil testing done yet, but will get going on jar tests today and send samples off to the lab as well. I broadcast a 7-seed cover crop blend this spring just to get a headstart on eventually establishing diverse pasture while having to focus on other things first. Surface is virtually flat all across except for a low swale at the elbow that trees are planted on. Permeable enough that heavy spring rains didn't pool or sheet-flow much at all despite the lack of relief, yet heavy enough to hold shallow moisture after days of dry winds. Three waste ditches run through for neighboring irrigation systems: all run N-S, two bracket the N-S road easement on the E boundary line, and one transects the planned pasture. Strong, frequent prevailing winds from the W-NW-N

Well water reportedly of very good quality and virtually unlimited quantity available for the pumping from a shallow aquifer (seems to vary from 5'-10' in the surrounding mile radius; my wells pump from 25'). I have no ditch water rights, but the main ditch for irrigating this widened Yellowstone River valley is 300 yards up gradient and recharges the fluvial surface aquifer so effectively that I expect deep-rooted crops are essentially sub-irrigated. There are two wells already dug on the property, and neighbors say they never have issues with drawdown on theirs despite extensive watering.

Only about 20 trees here, all fairly young (2-15 yo?) and all clustered on the north side of the thumb, above the old house. Neighbors say the previous owner disk-harrowed the field about 5x/yr to deal with weeds, but didn't seem to spray much, as the weeds are not the noxious ones. The long leg of the L has about 30% bare soil, 20% grass, 50% weeds. Worms not abundant, but there are 2-5 brought up in every spadeful, so at least the soil is not entirely sterile. My understanding is that it has been out of ag production for 20-30 years.

Surrounded on 3 sides by intensive ag operations that will start spraying more herbicides/fungicides/pesticides than usual this year. Part of what attracted me to this plot was that adjacent fields had been in wheat for most of recent history, and produced well without being sprayed much. Last night I learned the fields to the W & N are going into alfalfa, with heavy spraying. "Some pretty nasty stuff" in the words of one of the farmers, who asked for my phone number so he could call before spraying, "so you know when to keep the kids inside." He meant well. I'm in the process of finding out if anyone still does areal spraying here; all I've seen is tractor-mounted. Exposure to spraying from the east will be buffered by a 75' road & ditch easement on my property as well as favorable winds, which gives some comfort. The east side will be planted with willow cuttings soon. But west and north sides concern me, as the fields are planted right up to my fence on those sides. I have young kids, some of whom already manifest chemical sensitivities as chronic eczema and asthma. We hope to eat a lot of what we grow and raise, so even residues are a concern. We also breed expensive dogs and were considering to aim for organic certs with a small market farming/breeding enterprise, so the spray concerns are both personal and commercial.

MT law seems to acknowledge ag spray drift as chemical trespass, so if push comes to shove I could probably document and litigate. But in reality, I know most of the "regulation" is by self-policing, which essentially amounts to toothless recommendations. I do want to be respectful of the existing traditions in this farming community, even if I think there are better ways. I had a previous neighbor who moved into our MT ranching valley from California and immediately began circulating a petition to outlaw running cattle. Because he didn't like them. What the heck did you move here for??? Not going to be the ag-spray equivalent of that guy.

Already underway with baseline water and soil lab testing in case I need that for documentation, and will probably set up cameras to monitor/document W-N-E boundary spraying operations. One neighbor mentioned the previous owner here "was good about letting me spray over your fence so his weed patch didn't overtake my field." He seemed to genuinely feel his own offer to continue doing this was charity on his part, which I understand and don't hold against him. He has reconciled himself to the risks of the chemicals to make his living, so he probably sincerely considers spraying my land a generous and neighborly donation of his own time and money.

I am inclined to settle such things with respectful straight talk over a cup of coffee while seeking common interests, rather than getting confrontational. Yesterday evening I had walked over to the W & N neighbor and the landowner that he leases the field from, carrying a representative suite of unfamiliar weeds for their review, so I could ask if anything was of particular concern to them so that I could focus on controlling it while I begin to swing the flora in the direction I want it. Both asserted that they appreciated the gesture but that there was nothing noxious on my plot. When I asked about the thistle, they laughed, acknowledged that everyone had thistle in this valley, and suggested the amount I had was so minor it may have come from them rather than the other way around.

This morning that neighbor dropped the friendliness and is singing a new tune after I went out and asked him to stop spraying herbicide over the fence with his boom tractor. He started to ad-lib claims of me spreading noxious weeds (corrected to "Well, I consider Mallow to be noxious anyways..."), and said he would resume spraying 4' over the fence if I didn't hoe and Roundup my side of the fenceline regularly. "For now I'll just let it drift in a little as long as I see you doing that." He then complained for a while about the inadequacy of the previous owner's disking with minimal spraying, and demonstrated his conviction that the entire burden for whether we will become good neighbors depends upon my weed control and has nothing to do with his spraying. Two realtors had already warned me (after purchase) that he had a reputation locally for bullheaded selfishness. He put the exclamation point on that characterization this morning. I mostly just listened and reiterated my intent to respect his desire to grow a cash crop and that I would make efforts for our shared boundary not to become burdensome for him, but that he did not have my permission to spray or drift over the fence.

I'll be consulting with an ag attorney to make sure I understand the legal context correctly and have my bases covered if things go south. I'm pretty comfortable I can demonstrate reasonable efforts to be a good neighbor, which I expect will be enough to win most hearts and minds (especially compared to the previous owner who seemed to have pissed off all the surrounding neighbors in every way imaginable). But I'm not shy about going on the offensive to escalate things if that is not good enough for anyone.

But enough with the long-winded background/context...

I see most of what I need to do for now as defensive in nature. I'm looking at modifying my fencing and windrow plans in that context. The current boundary of concern (W & N) is 3' of woven wire capped with barbed and torn up by the neighbor tractoring every last inch, right up to the fenceline. That fence was going to get upgraded anyhow before I can get any animals running. I was expecting to need 2-4 yrs to establish good pasture before getting back into sheep and goats, but now will be prioritizing fencing of the perimeter so I can mitigate spray drift and get going planting windrows right away. I now don't expect to have fence-building access from the other side if I plant the windrow first on my side, as originally planned, so fencing will now come first. A thousand feet of new 5' board fence would probably be cost prohibitive, but I have access to other cheap fencing solutions. I can do heavy steel posts/rails with 5' chainlink for ~$1/ft. The cheap local lumbermill's rounded outer slabs might also be an option, mounted on steel post and rail to make a cheap, rough board-and-batten fence; I'll be looking into that. Also can do t-posts and two courses of woven wire to reach 5' for about $0.10/ft, so I'm considering that option. These are material costs only for good used material, using my own backhoe and labor.

I was previously planning to do either 5' chain link or 5' of woven wire on the perimeter and leave it at that. Now with the spray/drift issue I'm considering to either do board fence or run silt fence fabric over the chain link or woven wire, up to 5'. In both cases, I fear that might make wind load on the fence an issue, so I suspect I'll need to go with the 2 3/8" steel posts on 8' centers with welded top rails rather than using t-bars. A localized blowout of a neighboring field dumped 6-8" of silt on all ten neighboring residential yards to the S & W last year, so it evidently gets blowing good around here at times, perhaps enough to bring an impervious 5' fence down if not built very tight, maybe even buttressed. I'm more concerned about minimizing spray exposure while the hedge grows up than I am about the undesirability of growing my eventual waste stream by 5,000 sq ft of woven poly fabric, as selfish as that may seem. Might be able to repurpose the silt fence fabric once the hedge gets established, but that concern is presently secondary for me. Feel free to scold or convince me otherwise, but I really want to minimize our exposure to the ick with the funds I can spare. One potential way to mitigate the wind load with silt fence may be small u-shaped cutouts? I don't expect any spraying to be going on while there is heavy enough wind to open up the flaps, but maybe I'm being naive?

I was also going to plant 50'-deep windrows on the W & N boundaries anyhow. But I had planned to put that off for a couple years until after I had established a pasture and gotten the soil healthier. And I had planned on keeping the outer trees shorter, partially so as not to block the nice views to the W & N, but also to be neighborly and not shade out the border strip for the farmer who has been planting up to the fence.

Now that the neighborliness does not seem to be a two-way effort to the W & N, I'm considering to get going on a taller, denser sacrificial first row of plantings right away and imposing a buffer zone by way of sealing off the N & W fences with something like a dense, tall hedge rather than the spruces/pines & bushes I had originally thought to plant. I had also considered a hedge of the low Emerald Green Arbovitae (7'-15'). Now I'm thinking a solid 60' wall of Green Giant Arbovitae may be in order to minimize what gets through. Here is an example of a half-grown version of what I have in mind:



It grieves me to realize that would put a minimum 20' buffer zone on the other side of the fence in perpetual shade during the growing season, where the neighbor might have trouble growing (and thus have trouble justifying continued spraying) right up against the fence. But if we are all going to think about nothing more than maximizing our self-interest to the full legal extent, I guess that's the direction my plans drift off in... It would sure keep the weeds down for him, too.

If subsequent spray drift still kills off too much of the backside of the hedge, I expect that will contribute to fairly convincing documentation of negligent or malicious spraying practices, as would such heavy spray damage that the whole hedge just dies. But I expect we would still be able to keep our side green if he calms down and does his part. I would happily keep the hedge trimmed very low if I see that effort from him. With as dense as those Arbovitae hedges get, I expect I wouldn't then have to treat all the other plantings in the entire 50' wide windrow as sacrificial just to protect our living space, which is what I expect without a dense, deep hedge. I still hope to see a usable food forest from those windrow plantings, and am not psyched out by the thought of ambient levels of spray exposure. We're going to get that anywhere rural we go. Mostly just want to shield the interior from direct spray and drift as much as I can.

Enough from me; let's hear it from you! Please feel free to sound off on any attitude adjustments, options, oversights, or improvements you can think of. I'm a fairly thick-skinned and humble permie newbie. Here is my formal acknowledgement that any detrimental consequences, legal or otherwise, from me being influenced by your feedback will be my own bleeping responsibility, not yours or anyone else's. Sad that we live in a culture where that might need to be spelled out like that. Thanks in advance!

Kudos to the OP for the self discipline to pursue this goal more than casually. I share the need and the sentiment, but have not yet applied myself like you have.

A couple observations from my experiences and learning that might be helpful:

Creating muscle memory is now believed to be fiction, but the term still gets the general idea across well enough. Current scientific best guess (as I understand it) is that what you are looking to do is actually create new neural pathways associated with patterns of good penmanship. Endless, mind-numbing repetition is the only way to achieve this, but it needs to be the right kind of repetition. Perfection, not inspired approximation. But that is why there is hope for folks like you and not much for folks like me who are too casual about it. You willingness to carve out the time to put in the reps virtually guarantees you will end up where you want, as long as you do the reps right. Early childhood is the effortless prime time for hardwiring these neural pathways, but your goals are still realistic as an adult since you are willing to put in effort.

I always regretted my awful penmanship as a young adult. Did well with languages through college, but my penmanship sucked in the other languages too. I just assumed I was hopelessly sloppy. Then I was provided with a free epiphany by a Chinese friend who formalized some of the differences between Eastern culture and Western culture for me, especially in the context of how those cultures approach education. Short version is that the Asian approach tends to stress learning by rote, where Western systems tend to stress understanding the process rather than just regurgitating a right answer. In the context of learning to cook, the Asians would say you find a successful chef and enslave yourself to follow them without a peep until you can copy everything they do quickly, just the way they do it. The Westerners say you should instead find a cuisine you like, do a lot of experimenting and taste testing from scratch. Eventually you learn what produces results you like and what doesn't. You learn to understand why there are different techniques and what their respective strengths and weaknesses are.

Being a good little Westerner, I had always intuitively chafed at rote learning. I pursued the fantasy of subject mastery to such an absurd extreme that my education actually suffered from it. Learning foreign languages was what finally broke me. One of the fruits of that experience was learning to apply the "Asian" way of learning to penmanship. The epiphany came while starting to learn Russian. Despite a latent dyslexia that hadn't shown up in any other languages but manifested itself fully in Russian, my Russian penmanship was so good the whole class would "Oooo!" and the professor would beam whenever I was called up to write on the board.

If my experience is not an anomaly, I expect you will see rapid progress if instead of using the practice sheets that provide a printed letter on the left and then leave you blank lines/lanes to copy your attempts to the right, you find a font you like and learn proper penmanship by tracing it. Make all your exercises just printing out lines of letters, then words, then texts. And do nothing but trace them. The former is the Western way; the later is the Eastern way. And particularly for creating new nerves/neural pathways, you want endless repetitions of perfect form, not creative attempts at being inspired by the idea of it. The Asian way will rewire your hand/arm/brain; the Western way will reinforce your old pathways as much as it encourages new ones.