Home Feeding Ideas and Solutions Discussion Thread

[Clay Mudd]

Yep. The problem with so many "experts" is that they earned that status from reading what someone else wrote. Not experience. Had that expert the experience he should have had, he'd have known it was indeed possible. Agreed, gotta love an expert.

See, what I like about you is that you so often write what I would have written if I wasn't too lazy to write anything at all.



I love it when the experts tell me something is impossible, and I've already done it!

 

[StephanieH]

Quote:
You might try reading up on Joel Salatin's "Raken House" At Polyface fram he converted a tool shed into a rabbit shelter. When not at pasture, the rabbits are in wire cages over wood chips. The resulting compost in progress brings in the earth worms and then the chicken are allowed to scratch through and turn the compost. The ammonia from rabbit urine is is captured by the wood chips rather than going into the air. Without the lung scarring ammonia, the rabbits don't need constant drugs. Interesting stuff. Read about it in the Omnivore's Dilemma.

 

[Frecs]

You might try reading up on Joel Salatin's "Raken House" At Polyface fram he converted a tool shed into a rabbit shelter. When not at pasture, the rabbits are in wire cages over wood chips. The resulting compost in progress brings in the earth worms and then the chicken are allowed to scratch through and turn the compost. The ammonia from rabbit urine is is captured by the wood chips rather than going into the air. Without the lung scarring ammonia, the rabbits don't need constant drugs. Interesting stuff. Read about it in the Omnivore's Dilemma.

Joel Salatin is awesome. I think his son is the one doing the rabbits. I read about the pastured rabbits but will go look up the Raken House. Thanks for the pointer!

 

[StephanieH]

Quote: I think you are right about it being his son. They have some cool systems set up on that farm. When I read about pigs digging into composting manure for 40-proof corn, I thought that was brilliant. Keep us posted on what you do!

 

[triplepurpose]

In the thread, there was a discussion about cost effectiveness of raising chickens. Part of my hope is to integrate the various elements of my micro-homestead in such a way that each element contributes to the other elements and helps reduce the cost of each element. Still, over the short term it might be cheaper to go down to the store or farmers market and buy eggs. But, I believe that it won't always be possible and WTSHTF I want to be set and able to feed my family healthy food produced right here on my land. The other thing is -- buy raising my own, I know how it was raised, how it was treated, and how it died. I know what chemicals were or were not used. It's worth the effort and expense to know those things.

Good on you! And I totally concur.

I would add and elaborate that right now the real costs are not reflected in much of what we buy at a supermarket. Cheap fossil fuel energy has distorted and masked the real costs of doing things, in this case producing and distributing food. (Misplaced government subsidies on commodities don't help either.) I think many people are becoming more aware though of the real costs of these things. For example, I had someone express surprise that I occasionally cooked food to feed to the chickens. The idea being that it was wasteful to use propane energy just to make chicken feed. But the feed in question was sweetpotatoes or squash grown on my own farm using zero fossil fuels to cultivate or harvest, and the transportation costs were only the muscle energy it took to carry the produce the hundred feet from the field to the kitchen and from the kitchen to the chicken coop. Compare that to the feed mix one buys from the feed store, where the energy costs include (mainly in non-renewable fossil fuels) those from growing grains and soy on a mechanized farm, milling and processing, creating and mixing ingredients by machine, packaging and shipping thousands of miles, and driving to town and back to buy the stuff. And that's just looking at energy costs, to say nothing of environmental impact or anything else. Am I really gonna beat myself up about using a little propane to make my home-made feed? Give me a break! I know, it seems silly when you put it like that, but the truth behind this is that people, however well-meaning, aren't used to thinking about things this way. We take this all relatively cheap, non-local food for granted as if it were normal. Although I think the realities behind this distortion are becoming increasingly evident to people and will become more so in the near future as oil dwindles. Besides, grocery food is only cheap when measured by price point in dollars and cents right there at the check-out counter, and not counting such related things as environmental degradation, tax money, and future health care bills as "costs." Might as well start rethinking things now, I figure.

 

[triplepurpose]

Joel Salatin is awesome. I think his son is the one doing the rabbits. I read about the pastured rabbits but will go look up the Raken House. Thanks for the pointer!

I think you are right about it being his son. They have some cool systems set up on that farm. When I read about pigs digging into composting manure for 40-proof corn, I thought that was brilliant. Keep us posted on what you do!

x3. Or is it x4?

The way I see it, Polyface Farms is a great example of the kind of solutions and sensibilities being discussed on this thread, but employed on a large scale to feed lots of people.

 

[Clay Mudd]

Well said, Sky!

 

[galanie]

Good on you! And I totally concur.

I would add and elaborate that right now the real costs are not reflected in much of what we buy at a supermarket. Cheap fossil fuel energy has distorted and masked the real costs of doing things, in this case producing and distributing food. (Misplaced government subsidies on commodities don't help either.) I think many people are becoming more aware though of the real costs of these things. For example, I had someone express surprise that I occasionally cooked food to feed to the chickens. The idea being that it was wasteful to use propane energy just to make chicken feed. But the feed in question was sweetpotatoes or squash grown on my own farm using zero fossil fuels to cultivate or harvest, and the transportation costs were only the muscle energy it took to carry the produce the hundred feet from the field to the kitchen and from the kitchen to the chicken coop. Compare that to the feed mix one buys from the feed store, where the energy costs include (mainly in non-renewable fossil fuels) those from growing grains and soy on a mechanized farm, milling and processing, creating and mixing ingredients by machine, packaging and shipping thousands of miles, and driving to town and back to buy the stuff. And that's just looking at energy costs, to say nothing of environmental impact or anything else. Am I really gonna beat myself up about using a little propane to make my home-made feed? Give me a break! I know, it seems silly when you put it like that, but the truth behind this is that people, however well-meaning, aren't used to thinking about things this way. We take this all relatively cheap, non-local food for granted as if it were normal. Although I think the realities behind this distortion are becoming increasingly evident to people and will become more so in the near future as oil dwindles. Besides, grocery food is only cheap when measured by price point in dollars and cents right there at the check-out counter, and not counting such related things as environmental degradation, tax money, and future health care bills as "costs." Might as well start rethinking things now, I figure.

I get the same kinda gruff for burning wood in order to have wood ashes for the girls to dust bathe in (keeps them mite free). Like please, the truck that picks up the wood if I put the stuff by the curb doesn't pollute? Hows about the factory that makes all those chemicals to put on them? Or the idea of eating whatever has resulted from that chemical bath? I can't wait till I can have a few acres to do what I need to in. I suppose I'm lucky that no one cares enough to report me (I'm inside the city limits) for burning wood but I'll still be glad if and when I can get a few acres in the country.

 

[triplepurpose]

I get the same kinda gruff for burning wood in order to have wood ashes for the girls to dust bathe in (keeps them mite free). Like please, the truck that picks up the wood if I put the stuff by the curb doesn't pollute? Hows about the factory that makes all those chemicals to put on them? Or the idea of eating whatever has resulted from that chemical bath? I can't wait till I can have a few acres to do what I need to in. I suppose I'm lucky that no one cares enough to report me (I'm inside the city limits) for burning wood but I'll still be glad if and when I can get a few acres in the country.

So true, so true....

 

[SouthDakotan]

I get the same kinda gruff for burning wood in order to have wood ashes for the girls to dust bathe in (keeps them mite free). Like please, the truck that picks up the wood if I put the stuff by the curb doesn't pollute? Hows about the factory that makes all those chemicals to put on them? Or the idea of eating whatever has resulted from that chemical bath? I can't wait till I can have a few acres to do what I need to in. I suppose I'm lucky that no one cares enough to report me (I'm inside the city limits) for burning wood but I'll still be glad if and when I can get a few acres in the country.

I can totally understand. You all would love my town/village here

the whole town pretty much burns! We've been waiting for two years now to be able to burn (county burn ban due to fire hazard), but they finally lifted it

So I'm able to burn any trees that fell, old lumber, etc. We almost all burn. Normally fall leaves get burnt too. They don't get bagged and then put on a curb for some diesel truck to pick up, so it can haul it away to some county landfill (to have another diesel spewing monster belching more fumes plow it under soil or better yet BURN). Yep, our county landfill burns the lumber and wood debris, so its still burnt! LOL

Instead I can keep my ash and USE it! What a concept! I use it also to add to my compost and also I put it into my raspberry patch! Actually I ADD more ash, beyond my occasional burning of the patch. I do that every few years to revive the patch.

There is a house for sale in town

if you are really sick of the attitude where you live. http://cdn.resize.flexmls.com/ecb/640x480/true/20120317023502683146000000-o.jpg They tolerate poultry too! And it has a huge "art" studio and a three car garage to boot, and a small 2 bdrm house and they are asking less than $75,000. LOL I have to say at moments like this, I'm glad I live in Bushnell, South Dakota

we may be a nutty, artsy crowd, but we live & let live, generally.