Subject: Re: Self sufficient

From: [email-masked] (Don Bowen)
Date: Wed, 22 Feb 1995 10:04:47 -0800

>On 02/21/95 at 14:53:06 [email-masked] said:
>>	Homesteading as we seem to have defined it is one of those things I have
>>been watching for several years.  The idea of moving to the country and
>>fighting for our substance from the very soil under our feet has real
>>appeal.  Clean air, wholesome food and complete control of our destiny offer
>                                        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>Complete control of our destiny?  Ain't no such thing!

        What I really wrote is:
Clean air, wholesome food and complete control of our destiny offer an
attractive alternative to the daily commute over crowded, polluted roads and
factory produced foods.  The reality though, is far from the ideal.  Kids
want shoes, cars want fuel pumps, counties want tax payments.

        I grew up on a farm and watched the years corn profits felled by a
20 min. hail storm.  I have watched crops stop growing during a drought.
Foxes get the hens, chinch bugs eat the wheat, rain washes out the soy
beans, a little rock breaks the plow point.  No one in this world that wants
to live past the next few seconds has complete control.  You can fight for a
little bit of control but it is a fight that you can be ahead of for very
brief periods.  The secret is that you always fight.

        As for dogs, those %#$&%$&@%$#% dogs from the neighbor dug up my
potatoes.  THey never seem to be there when I can grab the .22.  The rabbits
are not so lucky.

>Complete control of your destiny?  Sure, if the sun shines, the weather
>cooperates, the pests, predators and diseases stay away......

        One thing that modern life insulates from is these risks.  Very few
people understand how thin a thread holds us up.  Those of us that try to be
self sufficent understand these risks all to well and are always doing our
best strengthen that thread and to provide additional strings.

  Donald E. Bowen           [email-masked]
  Valley Center CA.         [email-masked]

  Software Engineer, woodworker, historian, beekeeper, farmboy
  1936 Farmall 12          1966 Corvair CORSA 140 convertible
  1 wife, 3 kids, 2 acres, 2 cats, 2 dogs, ? projects,  24 hours

---

From: [email-masked] (Karl Henning)
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 95 10:37:45 EST

Just a quick note, there are ways to protect crops against deer, rabbits etc.
when we take an adversarial approach to nature it always wins. 
Why is it that destroying is the first solution?  Isn't that what brought
this country to its knees as populations of indegenous life have 
at times been wiped out by the search and destroy methods? Was another considerd?

We have a fenced 1. acre area, the agarden is inside and is fenced, we have dogs
which we keep in our area and they keep the deer and rabbits out.  If you have
a neighbor problem with dogs you can file a "Free Roaming" complaint with 
the local shelter.  We got results from this that seem to be working so far.
As far as parasites and land erosion go, alot of that 
stems from sick weak over farmed soil.  the idea is to establish 
predator prey relationships to keep problem insects away and the good soil
enriching life in.  There are ways to live and treat the soil
with respect but it takes some deprogramming to learn it all and strike up
a balance.  The dogs can be kept out.  Just like the ranchers in the west
they need to start working with the local life and ecosystem not against it.

I don't have all the answers but I know this, the indegenous insects and
the balance that was once here in this country is the main problem with
agriculture today.  Droughts effects can be greatly minimized with 
healthy non-chemical techniques.