Washingtonians

[hallerlake]

So - our Brabanter cockerel has been crowing now for a few weeks; but I'm the only one who knows it

He's really quiet. I've been asking my husband if he hears any crowing and he says "no", so I think most people don't know that the sound he is making is a crow.

So my question is - since he's fourteen weeks now and he's already been crowing for a few weeks, will his crow get louder? Or is there a chance he'll stay this quiet? (I'd love to keep him!)

eta - Hallerlake - are your Brabanter roosters loud? Did they get louder as they got older?

As they get bigger, their crow does get louder. Wait and see what happens.

 

[hallerlake]

Quote: Mudbay pet supplies also have Scratch and Peck. Is there a Mudbay on the eastside?

 

[hallerlake]

Quote: They came from Europe, but have naturalized here like the darn Scotch broom, and stinking Robert, etc.

 

[Imp]

Quote: Mudbay pet supplies also have Scratch and Peck. Is there a Mudbay on the eastside?

Lots, maybe 16 on the eastside.

http://www.mudbay.us/store_locations.htm

 

[Chubby Chicken]

I think a lot of it comes down to economics, combined with how people have been raised. It costs money to learn how to do things. I've had to learn how to garden on my own (grew up near Seattle & a child of the welfare system - which meant I was limited on access to extra-curricular educational activities). I can tell you - it is expensive to learn how to garden well enough to be able to provide enough food for ones own family. I've been trying, and I can supplement my family with home grown food, but we certainly can't live off of what I've managed to grow.

Today, my immediate family is not poor, by poverty standards (in no way would our kids qualify for reduced or free lunches at school), yet our city has a lot of people who are. You can look up the demographics of any Washington school on-line at: http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us/ In our school, for example, 67.5% of the kids who attend get free lunches every single day - which translates to mean there are a lot of kids who live off of food stamps and food banks attending our school.

Our city is set up to teach people how to garden. The school system owns a garden and hosts classes to teach gardening skills to kids. The problem is, they charge quite a bit of money for kids to attend (for some reason, the # sticking in my head was $75.00 per kid). The kids who attend come from more affluent families. For families of low income, they can't afford to send their kid(s) to a class that is that expensive. Interestingly enough, our city provides free lunches to all kids ages 1-18 who wish to pick up lunch in all of our city parks (yes, even my kids pick up free lunch if we're at the park at the time they are serving it). Many of the vegetables that are served come from the school garden. I've often wondered why the school system, if they're capable of feeding thousands of kids lunch for free, why don't they have a program in place to teach impoverished kids how to grow food.

As for county fairs, state fairs and Mother Earth fair... we're a family of five - it is very expensive to take a family of five to any one of those fairs. I wanted to go to Mother Earth this year - but we couldn't justify it in our budget. I certainly wouldn't expect a family who lives off of food stamps to be able to come up with enough cash to attend a fair in hopes to learn how to garden.

Could they learn how to garden on their own by researching in a free public library - sure, they could try, but there's a lot of time, skill and expense that goes into growing a garden. Many work 2 low-paying jobs just to pay the rent. Some may not have the money to pay the extra water bill, or to buy the rain barrels needed to provide "free" water. And, if they're not confident that what they plant will actually yield food, they could be hesitant to put the money into it.

It's easy to judge others who don't have similar circumstances as our own. But there are many facets to the problem of people learning to garden beyond telling them to go buy seeds.

Edited to fix the link.

Mother eath news fair was free if you brought in an old cell phone. It's not that fun to walk around and see everything you can't buy, including a $5 hot dog.
It's not always easy to have a garden when you rent. I would imagine most low income people rent. I always container gardened in Portland, because rental soil is iffy. One time, I could tell that a previous tennant had dumped motor oil in the dirt. Yields are so much lower in a container garden.

 

[hallerlake]

Quote: My compost doesn't get hot enough to kill weed seeds, so I let the city take them away, also woody stuff. I don't need the juglone from the walnut tree getting into everything. I do compost my chicken bedding.

To each his own.

 

[apowell]

Greetings from the Olympia area.

Does anyone have a partridge plymouth rock rooster that needs a new home?

 

[hallerlake]

Quote: In Seattle, yaedwaste includes anything that can be composted, including leftovers, food stained paper wrappers, bones, meat, etc. These things can get very smelly. If one's bin lid doesn't fit tightly, they also get maggoty.

 

[ReikiStar]

I might have missed it, but does anyone have an update on Salina/RedReiner?

 

[VelvettFog]

Very well stated itsren.
It is not possible to support yourself out of an urban backyard, well unless your backyard consists of 40 acres and a mule + all the stuff itsren mentioned & more. When I grew veggies in my yard, I figured it cost me $50 to $80 a pound for about 8 bug infested meals. And I imagine the last couple of cloudy rainy summers my harvest would have been nil. Thankfully it was just for fun.
Imp

Someone forgot to tell these folks that what they are doing is impossible

http://urbanhomestead.org/journal/2011/01/02/urban-homestead-i-am-la/