It’s nice that most of us can now buy food again while showing our faces, again. But the past going-on-two-years ought to have taught us what could happen again.
It is Memorial Day weekend and the official beginning of summer. But fall – and winter – are only four months away from now. What will happen then, if a “new variant” of the ‘Rona appears? And those who’ve been Jabbed begin to get sick and even die from it – their Jab having rendered them as vulnerable to the “new variants” as emphysematic 80-year-olds were to the Original ‘Rona?
This could happen.
We know what happened, at any rate. All it took was “the cases! the cases!” – of hugely sketchy positive tests, breathlessly “reported” every 15 minutes – to cause a wave of health paranoia to sweep across the country that made the ’50s-era Red Scare seem like the nothingburger it was in comparison. People got blackisted – but no one was locked down. Weird obedience rituals were not imposed as the condition of being allowed to enter stores to buy food.
That just happened – and thus, it could happen again. What was once unthinkable – in a country full of people who like to imagine they are “free” – became mandated upon almost the entire population.
It would be wise to keep that in mind – and to get ready.
One way being to arrange it so that food is available without needing to enter a store – or even to leave your driveway. Gardens – and chickens. Plus some ducks. Now you’re in business!
And not going hungry.
The eggs keep coming. If you have a small flock of 10 or so birds, you should get about a dozen eggs every day. That’s enough high-quality protein for several people every day. The eggs can be eaten solo – scrambled, over easy or hard-boiled – or they can be mixed with rice and other staples to create a hearty meal for a whole family.
And if you have a rooster to go with your girls (and a drake to go with your ducks) you will have more than just eggs. You will have eggs that become new chickens (and ducks and drakes).
This will enable you to have meat, in addition to the eggs.
Chicks and ducklings grow to harvest weight in just a couple of months and if you let your original girls hatch out two or three clutches of eggs, you will have meat in the freezer for months.
And it’s an ongoing, self-sustaining cycle – one almost completely disconnected from the creepy centralized/corporatized external world that acts in lockstep and can “lockdown” your life almost overnight and – as experience has shown us – at its whim.
Almost is italicized because birds require food – and shelter. The shelter requires building materials, which generally requires going to a store such as Lowes or Home Depot and these could just as easily close again as they have opened again. Or close their doors to those who’ve not been Jabbed.
So it’s a good idea to get the supplies you need now – while you still can. And while you can still afford them, which you may not be able to a few months from now, if America goes Venezuela – which is also not something unthinkable any longer or even unlikely. Uncle Joe has proposed doubling federal spending and that money will have to come from somewhere, as by being created out of thin air and then injected into the economy, with the usual “adverse events” caused thereby.
Same goes for food – for the birds – which you’ll also need come winter. In summer, you can let the birds eat for free – grass and bugs, their natural food. It’s good for them and for you, because the eggs (and birds) are healthier and they also propagate for everyone’s favorite price . . . free!
But you’ll need to have some pellets on hand for when the grass doesn’t grow and the bugs are absent. Buying those bags now so you’ll have them on hand for later is also probably a very good idea.
Arguably, the best idea – the best thing to come out of this manufactured fiasco – is decentralization. Getting a backyard flock is just one example. Home-schooling your kids is another. More people than ever are doing both – so as to disconnect from the centralized/corporatized Nexus that has both its hands around our throats. The less dependent we are upon it for the necessities, the looser its grip. If we manage to become independent, it loses its grip entirely.
This goes for food – and for everything.
Americans were once a fiercely independent people, who relied on themselves, their families, their own networks of friends and allies and so were free of the yoke that has been draped over the necks of so many modern Americans.
They can be independent again. All they have to do is shake off the yoke.
Maybe by this coming Fourth of July, they’ll have something to celebrate again.
Yankee doodle dandee… and cock-a-doodle-do!
. . .
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Yeesh, yet another reason to grow your own chickens: did you know that in some cuts of chicken, of certain brands, they add Carrageenan to chicken?!
I couldn’t believe it at first, I’m guessing it makes the chicken seem more plump or something?
That Carrageenan stuff is getting to be in everything. It’s even in most brands of ice cream!
Out of dozens, there’s only two brands in the grocery stores in my area which Do Not have Carrageenan.
Here’s what Dr. Mercola mentions about Carrageenan:
Carrageenan is a thickening agent suspected of having carcinogenic activity. According to the featured report, food-grade carrageenan is associated with intestinal inflammation that can lead to cancer, even in small doses. Two decades’ worth of independent research has also linked it to:
Increased free radical formation
Inflammation (a precursor to cancer)
Disrupted insulin metabolism
Insulin resistance
Glucose intolerance
Moreover:
“Low-molecular-weight carrageenan, known as poligeenan, is classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a ‘possible human carcinogen’ (Group 2B) … While poligeenan has well-documented inflammatory and carcinogenic properties, food-grade carrageenan was thought to be ‘high molecular weight’ and safe to eat. However, the viscosity requirement to qualify carrageenan as food-grade does not exclude the presence of low-molecular-weight poligeenan.
In fact, the carcinogenic molecular-weight poligeenan is found naturally, in varying percentages, in all food-grade carrageenan, and exposure to heat, acid (including stomach acid), digestive enzymes (such as saliva and stomach enzymes) and bacteria (i.e., mouth and gut microflora) increases the amount of poligeenan.
Meanwhile, industry-funded propaganda often fails to point out that food-grade carrageenan does in fact contain dangerous poligeenan in varying amounts, in some tests exceeding 5 percent.”
Seems like I recall reading worse stuff than that about it by others. Who knows,… it’s like Brawndo, eh? Eat it up. It makes shit grow.
Hi B,
Hat tip for this; I had no idea. But I am not surprised. It sure seems that they they – Big Food, Inc. – are trying to poison us.
State-wide “reopenings” and the “end” of so-called mask et al. “mandates” are total sleight-of-hand misdirections. It’s all about “the vaccines” now. This is a work-in-rapid-progress. Given the alacrity of the 2020 lockdowns, etc., it is a short hop to the end of any and all “free” activity as you know it, unless you can prove COVID-19 vaccination. In other words, a “passport” for both internal and international permissions. Don’t be fooled by FL, TX, etc. Prepare for the worst.
The problem with roosters ie the make a lot of noise. The same with ducks that can be herd a country mile away. Muscovy ducks on the other hand are silent. No one will know you got them. The hens are excellent mothers do you don’t need and incubator. On will produce as many as 80-90 fast growing ducklings a year. Tasty too. Loook up , Raising French Muscovy ducks group on MEWE
Hi Sasquatch,
My ducks are Muscovys! But my rooster – Ulysses- does crow. But I love him for it. He’s a fun dude to have a around and the noise is no issue because I live out in the country and almost every other home/farm has one (or several) too!
Well this is weird. I’m presently in the Dominican Republic doing my “deep recon “ 2.0 before deciding to go Expat here.
The food self sufficiency question entered Heavily in my deliberations!
You folks would not believe all the organic fruits and vegetables that can grow on one acre. My Venezuelan girlfriend has contacts all over the place and when checking out some available land, I had to….get this ,dodge falling mangoes skirt around banana and plantain “trees”,pluck creole cherries, pineapple, ginger, corn, tamarind, lemon, orange , avocado,as well as 5 additional fruits I still can’t pronounce!
All naturally fertilized by free range chickenshit and dead plant detritus.
And that’s only half the story.
Heck and I was waiting for the opportunity to comment on the “Libertarian “ driving rules 😂 in this country!
That all sounds positively great, Lickpenny. That island was one of my top picks if I were to leave, it seemed very Wild West-ish.
I hope I don’t come to really really regret not going.
Helot
I strongly recommend becoming as fluent in Spanish as possible and it Really Helps if your partner is Hispanic!
Gringos will pay a premium for virtually everything.
The place will be much more “value priced “ if you run around with a Native of the Caribbean area.
My girlfriend is from Caracas and is an expert at “negotiating “.
Plus you simply can’t beat having an expert driver weaned on vehicle chaos 👌
Thanks Eric,
God bless on Memorial Day. One of the best you’ve published. Walking and laid food. Love it. Any kind of self sufficiency you can manage is recommended. Think we’re on a structured timeline at this point. Per NASA, the asteroid Apophis is scheduled for meeting our planet on April 13, 2029. Initially they said it would hit and then they modified it to a very close pass inside the orbit of some satellites. If this is the Biblical Wormwood which the book of Revelation states will hit at the middle of the Tribulation, then the beginning of the 7 year Tribulation begins 3.5 years prior on October 7th 2025, at the beginning of the Festival of the Tabernacles. It’s obvious that they’re targeting the earth’s entire population with the covid-19 death shot which is part of their depopulation agenda. They will also implement the “mark of the beast” to institute control over every human being on earth. Check out Tom Horn on SkyWatchTV. He’s written many books on prophecy. Aloha Nui Loa.
The comment about the cost of chicken feed (which is no longer the proverbial “chicken feed” to buy) is well taken. But you have to view the flock as insurance against disaster, and insurance always costs you money until you need to use it.
With five hens and a roo, currently all of prime laying age, we get four or five eggs daily, much more than we usually had call for. So my wife started making batches of omelets with ham or bacon, stored in poly fast-foot takeout bowls, and stacking them in the fridge. Instant microwavable breakfasts, diabetes-friendly, and they keep for days (longer than they spend uneaten).
The other thing is that the most economical way to buy starter chicks is unsexed, so you always end up with multiple roosters. The most obstreperous ones become stew while they are still tender.
We keep our flock in a chain-link dog kennel we had on hand, which we tin-roofed and netted against predators long ago. Can’t let them free-range, as we have plenty of hawks and owls here, not to mention our own retrievers. Fortunately, my wife has an inborn calling for animal husbandry, so what would be work to most is more of a daily hobby to her.
We’ve considered getting pigs, but they’re diggers and very hard to keep penned.
Forgot to mention, selling the surplus eggs can take a good chunk out of your chicken feed expense.
There’s a household that’s on my early AM (my friend calls it the “butt-crack of dawn”) that puts out garden produce and fresh eggs, usually brown, and you pay on the honor system. IDK what they take in, but maybe in a month it’s worth a 50 lb sack of Purina chicken feed? What DO chickens eats, cracked corn?
As much as I love my farm fresh eggs, it’s still a pain to keep my chickens from destroying my garden. I used to toss food scraps into the compost pile, but the chickens decided that none of that should go to waste. Chicken feed isn’t going to get affordable any time soon. Do some simple math, and it doesn’t take long to see that keeping a chicken more than a few months is a losing proposition. A 50 lbs. bag of chicken feed is $15.00. You can go through that in ten days with no more than a dozen birds. If you can find a microbrewery close by, brewer’s barley is the only way to go. I pay a guy $25.00 for a 55 gallon drum which weighs in at around 400 lbs. Keep it wet, and it will last until you need to get more. As bad as things may get, people will never stop drinking alcohol so you’ll always have chicken feed.
If you live in an area with mild winters ten chickens should only require 6-8 bags of layer pellets to get through Dec, Jan, Feb. I have a three metal garbage cans that I keep two bags each in. Keeps the food safe from moisture as well as vermin. Make sure they can’t be knocked over though, nothing is more frustrating than going outside in the AM to find a herd of peccary, snouts deep in your chickens long term food storage.
It sounds like your duck met up with a coon. Although coons will murder as many of your birds as possible in one raid. So maybe not. My last chicken coop was IMO the best ever built. I used an 8 by 12 old dog run (CL) 50 bucks. I attached it to a platform of 2 by 12s built on 4 by 4s attached to concrete anchors set in the ground. This gives the girls extra shade underneath during the heat of the day. I sided the thing and made the roof with old metal panels from the dump, free free and some metal lathe on the top half, this allowed lots of air circulation. The tiny cracks between the 2 by twelves allows the stuff that falls through on the ground to be raked up as ready to use compost.
Good read. Already noted is the chicken / egg ratio. A good hen (Orpington / RI Red) provide 200 – 220 eggs per year. My bird live in the “Coop De Ville” but a fox family made a way in I thought impossible. Tighten up whatever you have 2X whatever you designed. Trust me. New birds are happy, safe. Also order chicks now.
Hatcheries were out during first Corona wave. Check out Kunstler’s “World Made By Hand” books if you enjoy this type of scenario. Good reading. Enjoy your work. Keep going. Thanks.
So which came FIRST?
Eric – just so you know, Weimar is pronounced Vy-mar (rhymes with car.)
Allow me to play the devil’s advocate.
“The eggs keep coming. If you have a small flock of six or so birds, you should get about a dozen eggs every day.”
Eric, I like your articles, have read many of them, and found them to be quite good, but I think the statement above is inverted. Even the most prolific egg layers, e.g., Leghorns, only average one egg every day at best and many other breeds only lay one egg every two or three days. My experience, my opinion.
This should have read that twelve birds will produce six eggs per day, consistently and reliably. However, that production will fall off in the fall when they start molting. It will drop when daylight decreases. Cold weather has an impact. If your birds run loose, you will have to hunt for some of the eggs and probably won’t find all of them.
In addition, if your birds are running loose during daylight hours, they can fall prey to wild animals, including foxes and hawks. If your pen isn’t tight, racoons, skunks, and cats will steal the eggs. If you lose birds or eggs to animals, they have to be shut up which drives up the cost of feed and decreases the quality of the produce. If they are shut up, even the hens themselves may start eating the eggs if they develop a taste for them and, once that begins, it is almost impossible to identify the culprits. Butchering one at a time may be the only recourse until it ends.
That being said, there is nothing like an egg which comes from a small, backyard flock. Compared to the “eggs” produced in a factory,…well, there is no comparison. Cracking open an egg and seeing the bright orange yolk stand up proud just warms the heart.
Hi Roger,
Your points are well-taken.
My flock – including the five ducks – produces about 8-10 eggs daily. Once the new coop is built, I intend to maintain a flock of about 15 birds.
You’re absolutely right about predators. I recently lost a duck to . . . something. Might have been a Chupacabre. All that was left of him was a beak and part of his spinal cord…
Just yesterday at around noon a cat jumped the 4’ fence around my ducks’ daytime enclosure and took a few swipes at them. I noticed a group of visitors from next door looking into the enclosure and went out to see why, then saw the cat and chased it away. It jumped back out and tried to hang around nearby but we pursued it for several streets with a rake in hand. Fortunately, the ducks were fine, just spooked. We applied some anti-animal essential oil spray that my wife makes to the fences/enclosure and spent the rest of the day fabricating a fence roof. Middle of the day, May 30, with a bunch of folks standing around. Go figure.
Eric, that’s great advice for these times. But I’m afraid you are confused about centralization. The voluntary division of labor is inherently decentralized. And without massively complex structures of production, you would never be able to make a living writing about cars. Heck, there wouldn’t be any affordable cars.
I grew up on a farm. We have a garden but it is a pain in the ass. I don’t want chickens but can raise some if I have to.
Specialization is a good thing. It is pretty much the opposite of centralization. The blame for the latter falls squarely on our enemy, the state.
Hi Roland,
No argument. We’ve been fortunate to enjoy the fruits of a specialized system. But that system is becoming our master and a cruel one at that. I understand very well that decoupling from the system will entail harder times in many ways. At the same time, it will be easier in that we will be freer – to not be under the thumb of these people who want to herd and manage us like livestock. I cannot conceive working in a corporate environment anymore. I’d rather live a materially harder life.
I wish things had developed differently; it is a tragedy that the prosperity and opportunity that was available for the roughly 50 years following WW II has been shat away by incompetent – and evil – people. But it has been shat away.
Until it can be rebuilt on sound foundations, I think it’s wise to do do what we can to get through what is likely coming.
I suppose what worries me when I see a piece like this is that it leaves the impression that we libertarians blame the current troubles on capitalism – for the sole reason that it has become so big and complex. That smallness is good; bigness is bad. Simple local divisions of labor are good; cooperation between billion-dollar companies is bad.
“Americans were once a fiercely independent people, who relied on themselves, their families, their own networks of friends and allies and so were free of the yoke that has been draped over the necks of so many modern Americans.”
My parents didn’t wear any corporate yokes. But they had to get up at 4 a.m. every day of the year to milk cows. Now the farm down the road has robotic milkers that run 24/7. They can go on vacation and monitor the process on their phones. Machines like that simply are not possible without large companies, credit, and a vast network of suppliers. Had I known when I was a teenager that someday you’d be able to be in the dairy business and not have to milk cows, I might have gone for that.
If libertarians won’t defend capitalism and unfettered economic liberty, then who will? Progressives make no secret that they want to destroy it. Republicans/conservatives are too stupid to explain anything more complex than “Trump good; Biden bad.”
Hi Roland,
I always defend capitalism – but corporatism is another thing! I need to flesh this out more but – briefly – I have come to the conclusion that corporations are inimical to free market capitalism as corporations are by definition creations of the state, which endows them with limited liability and which regards them (legally) as “persons” with the same rights as actual persons.
More on this, soon!
Looking forward to it!
Hi eric, Re: “I cannot conceive working in a corporate environment anymore. I’d rather live a materially harder life.”
A materially harder life toughens you up like nothing else can. Sitting in some office or cubicle year after year saps the life out of you along with your spine.
Good stuff, Eric. My family and I did some backyard gardening a while back and it’s undoubtedly time for us to resume. If you’re still deciding on what to put in your garden, cherry tomatoes grow well around here. Even after we abandoned our garden, those cherry tomato plants kept coming back the next several years. You can’t kill them. Great for a new gardener in this area at least.
Thanks, cjm!
We’re working on the greenhouse thing; it’s in the hopper after or alongside (depending on time) the New Coop thing. The old one’s to small and it’s begun to rot. The New Coop will be framed up on 4x4s on a 4 inch concrete slab. It will have a chicken area and a duck area as well – with a completely covered/wire-meshed “self-service” run, so they can get air when they like even before I get up in the morning to let them out.
Well, I live in an apartment complex in a medium-sized city, so I won’t be raising any birds. At least not as long as I live here. But we do have garden plots, and I’m making full use of mine. I also decided to plant some things in pots on my sister’s patio (she lives a couple of buildings over in the same complex, and she gets sun while we don’t). What I can grow won’t be enough to feed us all (me, my mom, and my sister), but it’s something, which is better than nothing. I also joined a food co-op with a membership requirement that Eure Majestat would like – no telling Uncle. They screen new members for freedom supporting. That would at least get us some eggs, meat, and dairy products (until they can find a vegetable farmer). And I’m always on the lookout for local farmers and farmer’s markets. One thing I believe I can say with some confidence is that we’re not likely to starve, even if they require the jab to get into stores. Unless of course they start using force on us, then all bets are off for all of us.
Stirring words in the last few paragraphs Eric! And a great inspiring article before INDEPENDENCE Day. Fuck all these sissified, bimbified, estrogenized pissy little comfort slaves in this land. I’ll let Sam Adams (not the traitorous beer company in his name) close it out:
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
Thanks, Michael!
With all the bad news I figure some positive words were warranted; they help keep me tuned right, at any rate!
Tryin’ to put a chicken in the window, chase away the wolf from the door, I’m going steady with Iron Ore Beatty, she’s going steady with me… – John Prine
Buy a dozen farm eggs, hatch them, you’re raising chickens. After six weeks, you can have spring chicken, really good.
An old Hitler Jugend walked out of East Germany from his farm home near Stuttgart. Walked with a friend, both settled in my home town, met them both, very talkative Germans.
Otto was his name, he told the story of the time when the Americans left the occupied area near the end of WWII, three days later, the Russians invaded. He said the doctor and the butcher in the town near the farm both had cars. After the Russians arrived, the vehicles were confiscated, right of conquest right there.
A Russian colonel visited the family farm for obvious reasons, you gotta eat. Otto’s grandmother begged the colonel to leave the calf and just take the cow. The Russian colonel replied, “I Don’t give a shit.” He said it in Russian and Otto could speak Russian, so it was spoken verbatim in Russian.
8,000,000 displaced persons after the war ended made for a nomadic homeless traumatized European population. After Dresden was bombed into submission, what difference did it make?
Again, that’s the way it goes moving west.
‘Uncle Joe has proposed doubling federal spending’ — EP
Uncle Joe, the six trillion dollar man, is implementing the playbook pioneered by Frank Roosevelt, who created the federal welfare state.
Ol’ Frank understood that if you can enroll half the population on federal benefits, you’ve got a permanent electoral constituency financed with government funds. Uncle Joe thinks he’s got this formula locked in now, to ensure perpetual DemonRat rule.
What’s so insidious about Uncle Joe’s implementation is that he’s co-opted the Federal Reserve into directly financing his ‘trillion dollar deficits forever’ by purchasing Treasury debt using thin-air keystroke currency — just as Venezuela and Zimbabwe did before their abject collapse.
An actual opposition party would fight this ruinously illegal, unconstitutional policy. But as usual, the Repuke wing of the uniparty doesn’t utter a peep of complaint, since they too benefit (but less so than DemonRats) from handing out free money.
Here’s one wild card. Partisan prosecutors are laying the groundwork to file criminal charges against Trump, violating the unwritten rule that ex-presidents get a free pass for illegal acts. If they proceed to indict him, Mutual Assured Destruction goes into effect, with the two corrupt legacy parties perhaps managing to annihilate each other with weaponized, radioactive dirt.
Let ’em bleed! 🙂
“Americans were once a fiercely independent people, who relied on themselves, their families, their own networks of friends and allies and so were free of the yoke that has been draped over the necks of so many modern Americans.”
Amen Brother Eric! I’m very happy that there IS this trend toward decentralization. It’s the only thing that can truly save what is left of, and restore our freedom. Self-reliance is the only way to shift the equilibrium of power away from the authoritarian Leviathan, and to individuals again.
“Yankee doodle dandee… and cock-a-doodle-do!” You’re also kind of a dork sometimes, Eric, and I like that about you as well. 😉
Thanks, Bd!
Quoting J. Giggles Flintsone: I’m a kook – but a rich kook!
Well, scratch the rich part!
I’m like Fred..not rich, but still a kook!
I’ve been vigilant this last year in preparing for the possibility of food shortages. More so in my own production than long term store of store bought although I don’t knock that at all. I’ve still got a lot of work to do filling up the freezer.
Garden is coming along great, started with my first fruit tree this year and finished the basic structure for the poultry house to shelter my ducks and chickens. Now that I have a secure spot for them we’ll try hatching out some of the eggs to turn them into meat. As I currently get enough eggs to live off of indefinitely.
I spend many of my evenings looking for new ways to better use the land I have. I really want to be to the point of “piss on the grocery store… I am the grocery store!”
The sooner we reclaim our food independence the better we’ll all be for a variety of reasons. Many won’t because they’ll have a hundred excuses like I’ve had in the past and still do at times. The important thing to do is what you can do. One piece at time. Home runs are great but, base hits win games.
Not only is it rewarding it might be necessary to actually live. For all the hell 2020 brought, it also brought me to the place of finally acting on what we’re “pipe dreams” a few years ago.
A friend of mine just setup (yet another) chicken coop with a rooster. Sometimes in the past we had bought eggs from them. I never learned how to kill a chicken, never mind pluck and prep. I took hunter’s safety and they showed us how to field gut a deer on a chalk board! I’ve never done it. Apparently, you can take your chickens (or your game) to the Amish around here and they can do that business for you!
I live under an HOA — there won’t be any chickens (etc) at my house! We’re gonna move once I retire… hopefully somewhere just as rural and hopefully somewhere significantly less liberal! “No HOA” is absolutely a mandatory requirement.
In the meantime, I can make beer from grain. My wife (apart from being a licensed acupuncturist) can make chocolate from the cacao nibs. Maybe you don’t like beer or chocolate or want acupuncture but somebody you or I knows does.
And I know a guy with eggs and chickens. Maybe goats soon too.
But we all gotta swear a pact. No telling Uncle or you’re banned for life.
You can try quail. It seems that HOAs can’t ban them
https://silverhomestead.com/quail-are-allowed-by-your-hoa/
An Uncle of mine who was a very successful farmer claimed the credit for his success was because he never specialized. He didn’t just grow crops, and he never just raised livestock. He grew his own stock feed, and fertilized with the stock’s droppings.
Sort of like Ford was many years ago. 100% vertical. Ford owned every source of material and product they used building cars, including Iron ore mines. Not sure about tires.
RE: “He grew his own stock feed, and fertilized with the stock’s droppings.”
That’s, The Thing!
And, if anyone is paying attention, going grain free is The Way.
How you/i do that is another question, indeed.
When I read, “But you’ll need to have some pellets on hand for when the grass doesn’t grow and the bugs are absent.” I was instantly reminded of the many stories I’ve read and heard first hand of those who lived through The Great Depression, they had to get rid of the chickens because they couldn’t afford to feed them! Some bags of feed socked away only last so long.
What to do?
A poster here mentioned how the same thing applied to bottle calves.
Just something I contemplate.
I’ve been looking forward to this article, and the ones upcoming.
One thing, if a structure is built on concrete, don’t the tax man get you more vs. on the ground? Myself, I’m wondering if I’ll get a tax hit for a small cold frame I built. …Bastards.
P.S.
I liked the quail idea mentioned above , pigeons might be good, too?
I’m dabbling with three curious non-ferocious rabbits. I’m mean who knew that bunnies can be ferocious? You know, like in the animated film, ‘The Secret Lives of Pets’ – the bunny who was “The leader of The Revolution!”
I guess that’s a real thing.
Do a web search on Jimmy Carter and the ferocious “wabbit”. Seriously.
I believe in time Ford did buy rubber plantations. He also owned the ships that brought the iron ore from the Mesabi range down the Great Lakes.
Hi Douglas,
Ford, like all of us, had his flaws (most notably, his anti-Semitism) but he was also admirable in many ways, including his determination to make his cars more affordable, so that that more people could afford to buy them. He made more money – because more people bought more cars.
That’s an example of win-win capitalism, as things ought to be.
Ford thought there was a jewish conspiracy to take over the world. To the degree he doesnt harm anyoe else a man has his a right to his opinions and thoughts. How is that a “flaw” because you dont agree. Sounds like something a soy latte sjw would say.
Hi Mark,
I didn’t say he (or anyone else) hasn’t got a right to his opinion. I said: “Ford, like all of us, had his flaws (most notably, his anti-Semitism).”
Perhaps I’m splitting semantic hairs but to say Ford’s thinking is flawed is to say your thinking is *better* at least in regards to this one issue. And its just a step away from being the thought police to dismiss his opinion out of hand and unworthy of consideration. “Anti-semetic” is a trope used to justify murdering palestinan children and I doubt you’re for that.
Hi Mark,
Ford’s thinking in re “the Jews” was flawed. To point this out is not so much to “say your thinking is better” but that there are objective standards. Also, just because some use “anti-Semitic” in the same manner that some use “racist” – as a way to shout down opinions they dislike – does not mean there isn’t such a thing as anti-Semitism or racism.
I have a copy of Ford’s book. There’s a reason why he was awarded the highest decoration a non-German could receive by Adolf Hitler.
Well we can all relax – you’ll never see a succesful business leader step off the woke plantation and speak his mind again. Ford himself was forced to disavow what was written in his newspaper. Whew. No more disagreeable thoughts to worry about.
Hi Mark,
Everyone has a right to speak his mind; no one has a right to expect not to be called out on it when what they speak is vile bullshit. And if they can’t handle that, they’re the soy boy pussies, aren’t they?
Hey, Markie, do you have any actual evidence that Henry Ford was “forced” to recant his bigoted screeds? Who “forced” him? How did “they” force him? Be specific, vague references to “the joooos” or “the banksters” doesn’t cut it. Name the names of the individuals involved and the specific threats that were used, providing documentary evidence to back up your accusations.
I also find it pretty unlikely that you really give a rat’s ass about “palestinian children”. They are not white, they are not christian, and they are what most malicious bigots of your stripe consider to be “mud people”. (Of course your being disingenuous about your “concern” does not excuse what is going on in the mideast.) You also conveniently ignore what white christians have done to the natives here in the U.S. and elsewhere. Poor treatment of indigenous people is not limited to any particular ethnic group.)
Jason…CHILL. It’s not worth raising your BP nor getting your knickers in a twist over. Henry Ford is dead and gone, and FoMoCo is no longer effectively controlled by his descendants.
hi Flinders I was hoping you would show up. If I provide specifics it would be the first time anyone in this dicussion did so including Eric. And you know nothing about me besides your CNN Don Lemon portrayal of what a white bogeyman – I mean supremacist – is. Now its off to stormfront from some relaxing reading! Btw – there are many christian palestinians asshat. At least there were.
He also raised the minimum daily wage (for a TEN hour day, which was the norm at those times) to five dollars. It should be kept in mind that $25 week, which sounds downright miserly, you could own a modest house and feed your family. Ford believed that his cars, at least the basic Model T, should be affordable to HIS workforce, e.g., a “Volks” (folk’s) “wagen” (wagon), long before Hitler commissioned Ferdy Porsche, when he wasn’t designing the Tiger tank, to build the “KraftdurchFreude” (Strength Through Joy) car, which every one else in Germany called either the Volkswagen or the “Kafer”, or Beetle.
Ford ALSO believed that his cars should NOT be financed, but rather, SAVED for, so, not unlike what was done with the VWs in pre-war Nazi Germany, a “layaway” program was instituted for his workers, to have a certain portion of their wages withheld in order to save up for their car. Henry Ford may have been “anti-Semitic”, with his distribution of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and publishing the “Dearborn Independent”, but he felt that the easy credit, which he blamed on the “Jooish” bankers, which was used to stimulate car sales was not good for the financial or moral health of the American public. His views, which would be considered downright fascistic today, were a form of corporate paternalism.
If you have the land, and the energy and capability, grow your own chicken feed. Yeah, grain crops are somewhat labor intensive without powered machinery, but it can be done.
I loudly applaud all such efforts. There was a time not so very long ago when it was sage advice not to pay someone to do what you can do for yourself. If you are working full time, such can be justified, since you may not realize a positive return on your time investment. However, if such is not the case, doing so not only might save you some money, but gains you experience. Tackling a job you’ve never done before can be daunting, but once completed, its no longer a job you’ve never done before.