Like the illusion of Wall Street, with its vast and powerful investment banks, now shuttered, China too is an illusion perpetuated by the Globalists that gave us the 15,000 mile Caesar salad, poisoned cat food and lead based paint on babies' pacifiers. Like the illusion that money would come from thin air to always push housing prices higher, China has spent a generation pursuing its illusion. Pursuing an unattainable dream to be like the West, while 6000 years of its carefully shepherded top soil blows into the sea.
Who handles the "emotionally" difficult to do tasks at your place?
Wife/female partner
20%
[ 4 ]
Husband/male partner
35%
[ 7 ]
Him/her together - or taking turns
40%
[ 8 ]
Other family/household member (please post to specify who)
0%
[ 0 ]
We hire someone to do this kind of stuff - or OTHER (please post to thread if you choose this one)
5%
[ 1 ]
Total Votes : 20
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Message
DomusAlbion Moderator
Joined: Dec 08, 2004 Posts: 1636 Location: Nez Perce Nation
Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 10:04 am Post subject: Re: Difficult tasks/lessons learned on the road to independe
Ludi wrote:
I recoomend for killing poultry, the killing cone. You can either buy one readymade or make your own:
Ludi, this is what we have. Unfortunately feral cats have taken 10 of our hens in the last 6 weeks, so I have not had the opportunity to use it. I've take out about 5 of the cats with my 10/22 and the slaughter has stopped (for now). This has set us back but it's been a valuable lesson. _________________ "Modern Agriculture is the use of land to convert petroleum into food."
-- Albert Bartlett
"It will be a dark time. But for those who survive, I suspect it will be rather exciting."
-- James Lovelock
Joined: Dec 27, 2004 Posts: 13141 Location: naive idiot fantasy world
Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 1:26 pm Post subject: Re: Difficult tasks/lessons learned on the road to independe
We had little luck with "free range" chickens - so many were eaten by various critters (mostly hawks). Even the penned chickens have been difficult because of raccoons breaking in at night. It can definitely be a challenge. It took me several years to develop pens that are (so far) raccoon-proof. _________________ "...powerdown so soft and fluffy you'll think you're living in a pillow." - jboogy
Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 3:05 pm Post subject: Re: Difficult tasks/lessons learned on the road to independe
Ludi wrote:
We had little luck with "free range" chickens - so many were eaten by various critters (mostly hawks). Even the penned chickens have been difficult because of raccoons breaking in at night. It can definitely be a challenge. It took me several years to develop pens that are (so far) raccoon-proof.
Cheap night vision scope on a .22 with an IR flashlight.
If you shopped hard you could probably get it together for around $700 or so I figure.
You wont be spotting coyotes at 300 yards with it, but for 50 yards and under vermin killin....Well....It'd get the job done well enough I figure. _________________ "Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the
Abyss, the Abyss gazes also into you."
Ammo at a gunfight is like bubblegum in grade school: If you havent brought enough for everyone, you're in trouble
Joined: Apr 03, 2004 Posts: 7017 Location: My Grandkids' Farm
Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 3:42 pm Post subject: Re: Difficult tasks/lessons learned on the road to independe
Ludi wrote:
We had little luck with "free range" chickens - so many were eaten by various critters (mostly hawks). Even the penned chickens have been difficult because of raccoons breaking in at night. It can definitely be a challenge. It took me several years to develop pens that are (so far) raccoon-proof.
We put a little "skirt" around the bottom of our chicken tractors made from old chicken wire. We haven't lost any to predators even without this contraption, but the digging kind might be detoured by a pad cut on the wire. _________________ Make a plan and work it:
Joined: Dec 27, 2004 Posts: 13141 Location: naive idiot fantasy world
Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 8:51 pm Post subject: Re: Difficult tasks/lessons learned on the road to independe
Pops wrote:
We put a little "skirt" around the bottom of our chicken tractors made from old chicken wire. We haven't lost any to predators even without this contraption, but the digging kind might be detoured by a pad cut on the wire.
We ended up putting that kind of skirt around all our pens, and it's made the difference. _________________ "...powerdown so soft and fluffy you'll think you're living in a pillow." - jboogy
Joined: Nov 16, 2007 Posts: 307 Location: Rural Western Idaho
Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 9:10 pm Post subject: Re: Difficult tasks/lessons learned on the road to independe
Pops wrote:
Good job lumpy.
You are guys are stronger, more confident and skilled today than yesterday, right?
That is a good day I'm thinking.
Thanks, Pops -
The truth is, yes, we are.
You know, it's pretty encouraging, amazing, and even miraculous the things human beings can learn to do -- and the fears that can be conquered when they HAVE to be.
I was terrified of bird since early, early childhood until about 10 months ago. Now I handle chickens like it's no big deal - because it's not anymore.
So even though there is much uncertainty and even fear about the future, I believe this CAN bring out our stronger better selves -- better selves that were not encouraged for a generation or two, recently. And several times in the course of more remote history -- fall of the Roman Empire comes readily to mind.
Lumpy _________________ "A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have." Thomas Jefferson
Joined: May 10, 2007 Posts: 3328 Location: Resiliency Farm
Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 4:27 am Post subject: Re: Difficult tasks/lessons learned on the road to independe
Shannymara wrote:
Our buck's scurs were removed when he went to stay with friends and encountered their bucks, who had horns. The initial sparring removed his scurs at his scalp within a few minutes. He didn't seem to mind very much, according to my husband, but I wasn't there so can't speak first hand about it. His scurs were pretty thin and curly.
Otherwise I have done all the killing and butchering so far, but it hasn't been very much. I think my husband would be vegetarian if he had to kill most of his meat himself.
Cur, have you thought about shooting the rabbits in the head to kill them? Or have you become proficient enough at the neck breaking that it's not a problem anymore?
At this stage in life I am able to break their necks without any problem. It was mostly a matter of mastering the technique so I do it right each time and learning to feel the seperation of the spine so that I know for sure when the job is done. It is about 2 seconds from the time that I start the movement and the rabbit feels something different (being held upside down by the legs) until seperation of the spine.
The exception is the largest, full grown stewing rabbits which get a ball peen hammer to the head, then I break their neck.
My grandfather (84) does use an air pistol to do the job since he has more problems breaking necks. _________________ “It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
"The time has come for men to act like men; and for women, well, to act a lot more like men."
-Ma Cur
Joined: Apr 03, 2004 Posts: 7017 Location: My Grandkids' Farm
Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 12:19 pm Post subject: Re: Difficult tasks/lessons learned on the road to independe
Lumpy wrote:
You know, it's pretty encouraging, amazing, and even miraculous the things human beings can learn to do -- and the fears that can be conquered when they HAVE to be.
I was terrified of bird since early, early childhood until about 10 months ago. Now I handle chickens like it's no big deal - because it's not anymore.
Makes me think of one of my earliest memories, Lump. My folks had a little place and the chicken house was set a ways from the house. They would open it up during the day and the birds would roam the pasture and go back home to be closed up for the night; we lived in the Sierra Nevada foothills and there were lots of predators roaming then.
Anyway they always told me to stay away from the chicken house because of the roosters the but of course like any 4 or 5 year-old I had to figure the reason for myself.
Anyway the resulting retreat on fat little legs from the chickens' house back to mine with those mean SOB's bloodying my heals all the way seemed more like 200 miles than 200 yards!
But on topic, anytime I need to hurt an animal is tough. The thread about sewing up the cut calf got me in hot water around here but the upshot is he is doing fine and I'm not convinced he would have otherwise.
Castrating, dehorning, pulling calves, splinting a break, tube feeding or even administering a bolus is everything from uncomfortable to downright excruciating for the animal. Still it needs to be done and I'd rather I do it than someone without any feeling for the critter.
And speaking of rabbits, when the kids were little we raised some rabbits. Of course the kids sorta knew what they were for but got so attached to them anyway, I always sent the off to the park or somewhere with mom when I did the killing.
I had gotten pretty good at dispatching them as Cur describes but was not quite finished when the kids got home. I was just preparing to do the last one when my youngest daughter (about the age I was at the time of the Great Rooster Retreat) screamed from the back door:
"Mommy, Mommy, Daddy's killing Fluffy!"
Needless to say, I duffed on Fluff.
As I stood there trying to finish off the screaming Fluffy with my baby girl wailing her heart out in the background, I decided rabbits weren't my thing. _________________ Make a plan and work it:
Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:51 pm Post subject: Re: Difficult tasks/lessons learned on the road to independe
I've killed a couple of groundhogs with an old 20 gauge - that's about it. They were digging under the concrete under a barn I had. They had to go.
When I was about 10, I watched my grandfather do chickens. He'd hang them by their feet from a line, several at a time. He'd go along and slice their throats and let them flop and bleed for a while - then into the big drum of hot water for de-feathering.
When I was about 14, I watched my grandfather and uncle do up a steer. He put a bowl of meal down. The steer dropped his head and my grandfather dropped him flat with a shot from a rifle to the back of the head. They picked up the steer by the back legs through the achilles tendon with a tractor with a front end loader. With it hanging up, they gutted it, skinned it and cut it in half down the spine with a saw. They let a local butcher process it the rest of the way.
At the time, I thought it was all very interesting. I don't think I'd have a problem doing it but who knows till ya try it.
mark _________________ “It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.” —Theodore Roosevelt
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