Bethany Brown

I don’t think of myself as clothes person, but I realized I’ve blown it by buying a bunch of winter gear and a dress to wear to a wedding. Maybe next year I won’t buy anything.

When I was a kid, we raised Holstein steers for meat. They’re not as meaty as the traditional meat breeds, but still substantially meaty. I’m sure it was because they were cheap to get from the dairy across the road. If you’re ok with castration, you could keep the calf with mother for a few months, milk her when the calf is done to increase supply, and when the calf is old enough, wean and castrate and sell to a local family to raise their own meat. Or you could sell sooner after birth as a bottle calf. Yes, eventually they’ll get eaten, but they can live a pretty good life in the meantime. Heifers you can keep if you want more cows, or sell to someone else to breed and milk.

I had been thinking that this fluff seemed like a resource that no one was using. Turns out, it’s definitely being used.

Kaarina Kreus wrote:I don't have electricity, so I cannot even consider an incubator or raising chicks under a lamp. Had to do it the old way.

Last summer, with only one rooster, although some chickens tried to brood, not a single egg hatched.

This year, I thought I can only keep my fingers crossed. I asked around, but nobody had any Arctic landrace chickens for sale. Then, suddenly, one hen got glued to a nesting box. Then another. I had to quickly add nesting boxes, as I had five hens out of 18 brooding at the same time!

Then little chicks started appearing. First they'd stay in the nesting box. The second day the momma hen would lead them around the covered run, cuck-cucking and showing how to peck and drink.

About half of the eggs never hatched. Some chicks were lethargic and died. But now I have 15 chicks belonging to four hens and one is still brooding.

The egg production from the flock has been miserable. Hens lay eggs in front of the brooders, who then roll them under themselves and won't let me pick them. The accumulating eggs make a string around the brooder and get warmed a bit but not enough. And at some stage the brooder rolls them out!  Then I pick it, thinking the eggs are fresh, only to find an embryo in my frying pan.

On the other hand, momma hen takes care of everything. She spends the first weeks doing nothing else, walking around with her chicks, digging food for them, teaching them how to hop on a perch. The chicks sleep and rest under her wings. She keeps other hens and me away from her little ones. The rooster sometimes gets to have a look at the chicks.

I have chicks of different ages in the run together with several roosters and thr rest of the flock without the slightest problems. Maybe we should let nature take its course more often?

My chickens and yours read the same books! I tossed some of the nest because they’d been there over a month. Tossed the eggs and they’re back at it! I had one hatch one chick a month or so ago. The rest are just perpetually setting and I’m barely getting any eggs! My mother in law needed eggs and I was too embarrassed to say I didn’t have any so I bought pasture eggs at the store and ripped the label to make it look like a reused carton!

In addition to the two trees I got from Winn, I’ve grown this avocado from a grocery store seed. I had about ten seedlings at the beginning of winter and most did not survive. We had a long cold stretch of below 15 degree days. I had put some of the seedlings in my garage and some ina cold frame. This was still the only survivor. It died back but grew new leaves in the spring. Anything I can do to make it less leggy?

This idea started as an autocorrect and extended joke in a group text. Now I’m obsessed and must do it. I need to breed a melon that is white with black mottling like a Holstein cow. Brown spots will do if black is not possible. The flesh needs to be white and I think it should taste like vanilla ice cream. I found a few varieties that have rind patterns that might get me in the right direction. Anyone ever taste a melon that reminded you of vanilla ice cream?

I love how you’ve accommodated their chickens needs! I’ve just been letting mine do what they want, and it’s not working in a way that works well for the humans or the chickens. Ended up with confused hens and rotten eggs

Christopher Weeks wrote:It's only been the last ten years that I realized I was different than most people in this regard. I experience mild hunger as pain and it becomes worse pretty rapidly, making it impossible to consider other aspects of my life. As a kid, my response was to pig out and get fat. As an adult, I've been trying to chart a new course for decades with mixed success. My very best balance is when I hike 4-6 miles in the woods and can afford the Calories associated with five full meals, but I only do that about once a week due to time constraints.

I've also just started a new thing this last year where I have a globus sensation in my throat if I don't swallow frequently enough. I've been combating that with a whole lot of celery. (This was incidentally brought on by trying to do intermittent fasting as a result of another thread here on Permies. I fear it has done me permanent harm, though it might be getting better now, after about a year.)

My hunger is similar, think it’s either a rapid change in blood sugar or something neurological. But I HAVE to eat. Since eating higher protein and lower carb I can do 4x a day most days.

Christopher Weeks wrote:Thanks for doing this, Matt! I usually concentrate on all the plans that aren't getting done fast enough but taking the time to point out this explicitly how the yard has changed was an amazing exercise.

awesome progress!

Matt McSpadden wrote:Here is my own example of something recently. I got a plant hanger for my window and things are growing quite well.

beautiful!