Alina Green

Some people buy chicken feet (aka "back scratchers"  haha) to add to bone broth, for the gelatin in all that skin and connective tissue...and toenails.  ugh.

Actually, that's a good question...after thinking about it, because there's no room in the pot for all of it!  haha

I  can actually eat the bones if cooked that long.  They come out kind of like chalk--soft enough to chew, but not mushy, kind of crunchy.

So if I do a small batch, I let the bones go a day, then add the vegs and the whole thing another day.  The vegetables don't need as long as the bones do to get soft.

Sometimes I'll do broth first, strain and freeze it, then add more water, vinegar, and vegetables, and then eat the bones from that.  So I get two batches from one batch of bones.

Forgot to mention that I add water to cover, plus a couple tablespoons of vinegar, too.

No salt; I add that when I use the finished broth.  Spent bones go into the compost pile...although I suppose I could make water soluble phosphorus (from Korean Natural Farming), maybe?

I usually do chicken and/or turkey bones, don't roast, and throw them into the slow cooker for 1-2 days, then remove the bones and add some onion, celery, carrot, parsley, do another day, strain and use.

But I don't have such a huge quantity as you do.

If I kept something on the stove that long, though, my electric bill would likely see a spike.  I like the slow cooker for the tiny bit of electricity it uses, and because I don't need to watch it.

They are almost always available at the thrift stores.  I try to get the same models, so I can swap out parts as they break.

<If I have bantams, will they fly over the fence and unleash a wave of vegetable garden destruction and poop across the land? Will they escape under any unguarded gap in a fence?
Are bantams as loud as big chickens?
Do they have any special bantam needs?>

They're very flighty.  Yes, they are as loud.  As far as difference goes, they tend to be more on the wild side than bigger chickens.  They prefer to sleep up in trees.  They will forage the neighbors' yards, too.  Mine will run across the street yet come back, squawking, if I scold them and tell them to go home.

One definite trait is they are faster, flightier, and go broody more easily.  They are very defensive of their eggs when they're broody.  Fiesty little wild things!

They are the original jungle fowl of Malaysia and that area, living in the underbrush of the jungles.  Their flightiness means they can quickly escape from predators, and they can resort to  their wild ways very easily.  They seem to me harder to tame, too.

I find them easier to raise because they are quite independent and more like street-smart kids:  scrappier, more self-sufficient, that sort of thing.  They eat less, being smaller, but then again, their eggs are smaller and they don't lay quite as often...but pretty close.

Another plug for raquetballs.  I carry one with me always, to massage if I have sudden pain, and I've given many away to people I meet or know, who seem open to learning how to massage themselves.

They eventually split along the seam, but they are cheap enough, light enough, and effective enough, that I value them dearly.

See my long reply on this thread (about plantar fasciitis):  https://permies.com/t/205218/personal-care/plantar-fasciitis

There's a lot we can do to help our bodies and pain.

Self massage can work miracles.  See the thread for multiple examples.

I also make my own essential oils in an oil-and-beeswax salve, to use like a homemade vapor rub.  Or a cayenne tincture that can be applied topically to painful areas.

Hot water, sauna, lying on a cement slab in the sun, furo or onsen/hotsprings also help.

I often practice falling asleep listening to relaxation tapes, which have me mentally imagine or direct my body parts to relax.

It's surprising how much tension we hold without noticing, and I think it contributes in a major way to pain.

I'm working on improving my posture, alignment, and moving more during the day, sitting for less time, or maintaining one posture for long periods of time.  I think that is also a major cause of pain, because it encourages stiffness and tension, especially if we aren't properly aligned (and 99% of are not properly aligned, probably.)

I think one key to surviving in this changing, crazy world, is to be able to open our minds and fight the lies we've been told, and to question the status quo (which isn't working.)

But I don't need to tell you that.  That's why we are all HERE...we get it!  We know there is a better way!

I had plantar fasciitis and stopped dancing for TEN YEARS.  I tried wearing a brace to sleep, stretching, rolling, the frozen bottle of water, inserts, exercises, etc...everything short of surgery.

Then I followed the recommendations of the Trigger Point Therapy Manual and after some very painful massage of only two points, I got rid of the pain.

Spoiler alert:  one point is where you feel the pain:  on the sole of the foot, directly in front of the heel pad, deep--a golf ball works fairly well for this, but a wooden massage tool can be more "pointed" in its effect.

The other point is the soleus, the deep muscle at the back of the calf, at the center and just below where the two heads of the gastrocnemius meet.  (If you stand on your toes and see the upside-down heart-shaped bulges of the two sides of the gastrocnemius, the soleus would be about where the V shape is in that heart shape.)

A fist (with straight elbow and wrist--lean; don't push) as you're sitting in a chair with your foot out to the side works.    So does lying in bed/on the floor with the sore foot's calf on top of the other foot's bent knee.

Every now and then it will come back.  I dance at least once a week.  My feet take a beating.

But now I know what to do.  Less than 15 minutes of massage, and maybe once or twice over the next day or two, if needed, and no more pain.

It's a small investment in the book, plus some tools, including a Theracane, dog balls, wooden hand-held acupressure tools, rubber balls, etc.  But it's very rare that I cannot massage away my problems.

I've had frozen shoulder, thrown-out back, headaches, stiff neck, giving-out knees and hips, stabbing pain in the front of my ankle, shin splints, side stitches, numbness in my fingers or arm, etc.

It's a small investment in money, a larger investment of your time and effort.  But the knowledge you gain will save you years and thousands of dollars, by not needing surgery or painkillers or shots, or braces, devices, orthotics, therapy, etc etc etc.

People want a free, easy fix.  Your body works for you for decades, yet when it hurts, we don't give it the love and attention it deserves.  

I recommend this book to so many people, yet I know only a handful who have tried it, but then gave in to surgery anyway.  Most discount the info outright.  Some buy the book and never use it.  

Only one old woman friend, in desperation, used the arm of her chair to massage away her hip pain.  I know someone who still cannot dance, due to recurring plantar fasciitis that's been going on for decades.  Another friend lives with chronic hip pain despite surgery and shots and pills...she's not the type to "do" anything to help herself.

Yes, sometimes it means we must change our posture, habits, alignment, etc.  Sometimes we're just really tired and sleep too long in one position, and wake up with a stiff neck.  Sometimes we lift something heavy and feel hip pain the following day (as I get older, even that is slower...I usually feel it TWO days after I did something to cause the pain...making my raggedy memory work even harder to figure out what the heck that was...)

My theory, based on experience, is that the body can hold lots of tension, until one thing causes the scales to tip, and then BAM!--you have pain.  Then it takes a bit of massage to smooth everything out again, to get the pain to go away.  

It's almost never only one place that needs massage.  At the least, it's usually two.  In hips and shoulders and backs, where you have up to 24 different muscles that can cause pain, it can get quite complex.

Learn how your body works and reacts and hurts.  That investment is priceless.

As we get older, we need more help.  Our stiff necks do not typically resolve themselves by night, like it did when we were young.  Stiff necks tend to get worse, until we get sore shoulders, headaches, or something else, as we try to adapt, rather than address the root cause.

I literally would not be able to walk if I did not know this information and use it regularly.  I'm also a licensed massage therapist.  Let's say I've witnessed a lot.

We have all been trained to believe that putting poisons into our bodies will make us well, prevent illness or disease, make us live longer, and save others, too!  I guess it would make sense, if we had deficiencies of poisons.

You might try adding some chopped liver.   Raw or cooked.  

The fruit, by the way, is edible...although you should look into it, as unless it's completely ripe, it'll stick you with needles.  And I've read it takes some years before it will fruit for you.

Monstera deliciosa, its scientific name, was given to it for a reason!

Sorry, I haven't eaten it before, or I'd give you more info.