Marly Hornik

So I read a lot of magic wand posts here with lovely sentiment but you have a reality to deal with that I see as follows:

1. Having students is your livelihood
2. Haven't yet found an affordable solution to moving students out of your house
3. Students disrespectful of your space, act like little selfish kids

How to teach boundaries:

1. Have them and enforce them mercilessly

Facts:

1. People can be selfish slobs
2. For some reason, this is prevalent in your situation
3. Having a "good heart" can be a way to avoid responsibility, ie claim "but I'm a nice person" and somehow that means you couldn't be acting like a jerk. Or something like "but I'm here to save the Earth," same fantasy.
4. People don't agree on what clean looks like, possibly influenced by gender programming but please look at #3 above for reality check on that BS

Solutions:

1. At each place where cleanliness is an issue, prominently post laminated color photos of what you expect that space to look like.
2. If someone doesn't leave it that way, ask them to leave immediately. Goodbye.

This should clean up the entire problem in one season or less, as you will quickly get a reputation for being strict. That's a healthy, positive thing to teach people. Of course it will engender some negative PR...from people who are angry that you held them accountable. Crocodile tears.

I include the stems, leaves and twigs with my berries when I simmer them. I am experimenting with creating a higher potency antiviral this way as per Steven Buhner and the ideas about elder he lays out in Herbal Antivirals. I did not dig and include root, as he recommends, mostly because fall was just too busy.

I can't say if it's been a lot more effective yet as I anyway favored the baikal-licorice root tincture I made in treating myself and family. That has not been effective as last year. Last year I bought the tincture from an outstanding herbal producer who has a substantial herb farm and grew the Baikal. This year I bought some Baikal root to make the tincture; hers was way higher potency. I started some but it takes at least 4 years to first harvest.

The first round of sickness that came in our house I kept everyone else from catching it using the elder brew. I added stevia leaves while it cooked for extra medicinal value and sweetness. But I haven't replied on it yet as a healer.

Well if this thread is about acknowledging that a lot of things are very wrong in our culture and our world...yup. Oddo you make a lot of good points, about people being sold on a farming fantasy in slick magazines and films. That is right on, and it's most unfortunate. I agree that honesty would be good. However, many people are motivated in an unconscious way by a desperate need for attention and validation. Often we are not able to separate from this longing when faced with an opportunity for fame or wealth, or just being known as the one who has the "correct" answers. So Hollywood worship reaches farms, carried on the wings of famous farm to table chefs building mega-millions farm and "education" centers, making movies and selling books to further enrich themselves.

Also your original post, if I took it personally, would be highly alienating to me. My family--husband, wife, 3 kids now aged 13, 10, and 6--plus an elder who we have adopted each other as family, we purchased 103 acres in the Hudson valley of NY, 90 minutes from midtown Manhattan, almost 6 years ago, when our youngest was an infant. My husband was born and raised in Brooklyn, in a house purchased by his great-grandfather for what would then have been a lower class immigrant amount. Due to family drama, when his parents died my husband was the only one of 4 siblings on the deed, and his solution was to sell the house and distribute the money as best he could figure. His father had been abusive to all of them, and his brother had been extremely abusive to him as well, so imagine what a challenge this was. He really did an amazing job. The house sold for $1.2 million. We used our part of this money to pay the $300,000 for our land, plus closing costs, in cash. The purchase price was "low" for the area because the house we purchased on the land was old and highly shabby/disgusting, so perhaps you would say we were "lucky."

I am home full time on our homestead, homeschooling our children, preparing food for our family to have good health, and developing our gardens with the help of our goat herd which is amazing at eating and deep mulching the vast stretches of poison ivy, mugwort and multiflora rose that blanket much of our land in the areas that were abandoned apple orchards. I am learning bit by bit how to make cheese here successfully, although unfortunately due to the ridiculous regulations I will never be able to sell it, same with the amazing quality milk we have an over abundance of. In fact, in NY at least, we will be hard pressed to earn income from our land and farm without putting our kids in school. My husband works more or less full time, he builds custom rat-rod trucks for people who want flashy toys and have the money to buy them.....I laid out a new garden last year and used plastic double tarps on the paths, because that's how I can deal with meeting my responsibilities. I definitely am thrilled every year to get trailer loads full of horse manure from a nearby stable that doesn't use medications with their horses.

I guess what I am trying to get at here is that nothing is so simple, so black and white, when it comes to money and choices. It is a good idea, in my mind, to make connections with your neighbors. It's a good idea to keep working towards your priorities and learning about how to achieve that given your parameters. It's a great idea to share what you learn, as it could help another person.

But to spend time and energy judging and criticizing how other people choose to present themselves, choose to learn, choose to fund their projects, or basically choose to live in this amazing and sacred creation....I just really believe that you have gifts and talents within you that would better serve you and all the people and the earth that you clearly love so much and want to help in some way.

I use the brown paper bags full I gather on my way around town like Lego's. My recent and top favorite has been the last 2 years they went around the veg garden fence, outside the fence perimeter laid so they are bottom to the fence sticking out, side by side the whole way around...if that makes sense...this has been an incredible bunny deterrent!!! I have had zero bunnies digging under the fence. For one, they can't see the plants, for two, the fence is now 3' wide. Works amazing, totally free. It made wonderful deep mulch and this fall I planted sterile comfrey in it, which should have the same effect with even less work. Plus it gives them something to eat as well, I do love bunnies.

James Landreth wrote:Next week I'm teaching a free class on home orchardry. I live in an area where people are very invested or interested in livestock raising. One element I would like to include in presentation and handouts is information on growing animal feed using drought tolerant trees and shrubs. I've done some research but it's been difficult to come up with lists of what works and what doesn't, as well as an adequate species list. I've heard that people use the following trees (and in some cases their fruit) for animal fodder. What is your experience? All ideas are welcome.

Mulberry (fruit for poultry and pigs; leaves as high protein fodder that can be coppiced)
Apple (fruit for storing as animal feed; leaves fresh and as tree hay)

This woman is really digging in to this topic like no one I have seen, she has been researching tree fodder and forest management for several years including what various animals prefer (including various storage methods), nutrition content etc. It's probably way beyond the scope of your class but absolutely fascinating

https://3streamsfarmbelfastme.blogspot.com/p/sare-grant.html?m=1

Also I must add poison ivy to the list, goats love it including vines, berries, etc. And all roses.


lm (I don't know much about this one)
Ash (same as elm)
Hazel (Came across it for fodder but I've never experienced using it that way)
Persimmon (fruit for fodder)
Storage pears (same)
Honey locust? (I've heard mixed things about using it for fodder)
Linden (I hear it can be coppiced and used for fodder)
Siberian pea shrub (for poultry)
Chestnut (nuts as fodder; leaves as fodder or tree hay, can be coppiced I have read)

I have oberhasli and french Alpine goats, and I don't like eating or selling goats. I currently have five, but have had as many as 10. I have no permanent fencing, to browse them naturally I have to build a day pen each morning using cattle panels and lots of baling twine. For 5 goats my pens last about 7 hours, thus the cap.

All this to say I was highly motivated to learn how to keep goats in milk for longer periods. Not peak milk, but milking. I milk once a day. I feed only about 1/2 cup of organic grain and 3/4 cup organic alfalfa pellets, the rest is hay and browse, and of course minerals and salt. So anyway I am more focused on the health of my animals, and the quality of the milk, than top milk production. In fact I find it strange how goat books give ideal milking amounts that seem unattainable without copious grain/goat chow. The precious MCTs in raw goat milk are abundant in browsing goats, and minimal otherwise. My approach is best health for all.

I milk all 5 goats. Three of them have been lactating for 3 years, consistently giving a quart each a day of very high quality milk, since probably the October immediately following their last kidding. One of them gives more like a pint, but she's not an abundant milker even right after kidding. Right now she is in year 4. The last one is a maiden milker I have been milking daily for 14 months, who has come up from 2 tablespoons to almost a quart. So every day I get about a gallon of milk.

At this stocking density I get so much benefit on our land, they are slowly transforming the landscape from poison ivy, Rose and mugwort into a diverse range of plants and habitats. They live in trailers we move every 6-8 months, and the old pens that were poison ivy jungles become tremendous gardens. This year in the Hudson valley of NY our corn was 13' tall.

I can't imagine putting all of us through the annual stress of breeding, kidding, dehorning, and then dealing with unwanted kids. I don't get half a gallon twice a day per goat. But I have more milk than I can always use, of the highest quality, with extremely happy and healthy goats in great condition.

John Suavecito wrote:I emailed Samuel Milham and he said that currently  (Pun) the only model that he sees working without putting out dirty electricity is based on batteries, which has its own set of problems.

I'm still looking and investigating. I guess we don't have an urgent timeline.  We got the right kind of metal roof going, so we could install it at any time.  As I understand it better, I may develop enough confidence to commit to solar the right way.  That's the goal.
John S
PDX OR

Hi John, I'm wondering if you made any progress with your inquiry into off-grid solar and transients/dirty electricity? I just learned about this company
http://www.cratuscanada.com/ that makes a "sine tamer" product used previously in industrial applications to save money, but it works by reducing transients to near 0. So now people are using it for homes if they have EMF problems, as it corrects the whole entire system whether the problem is internal or external. It looks pretty awesome though pricey. We have a small off-grid solar setup, so now we are considering it. I was wondering if you moved forward or furthered your research. I'm trying to determine how important the protection might be, without also investing in a meter.