dragonlady7

via http://ift.tt/2fwObAB:deputychairman replied to your post “so I’m writing part of the climax of Never Wrote A Letter and it’s too…”

Good luck with both the homesteading and the writing! I read all the Little House on the Prarie books so many times as a kid sometimes I think I too know how to do this, and then I remember I grew up in London and that was just a book

Bonus: homesteading on an established farm is way easier than on Ye Wilde Prarie. For what it’s worth, apparently those books were set beginning in 1874, at which time my sister’s farm would have been under cultivation for about 90 years. (The original house was built in 1789.)

this-is-furious replied: If everything goes to shit can I come stay at your gentle postapocalypse commune?? I don’t have that many skills but I know how to take care of vegetables!

You know, you are not the first to ask. It is not entirely my commune, but if everything goes to shit, I think more hands make lighter work! And it’s not that farm labor requires you to be incredibly strong or particularly skilled, you just have to be willing to grub around repetitively in inclement weather.

The only problem with the commune is that there’s no wall or moat, we’d have to come up with something, depending on the everything-has-gone-to-shit scenario. There is a creek big enough to be a moat along one edge of the property, though, so that’s a start. Oh, also, there’s a waterfall on the property, and there was an old mill but it has fallen into disrepair. We could build another one and have our own hydro power plant. I really really really want to do this regardless, but it’s obviously a low priority for everyone else on the farm. (The old mill-race is on the other side of the stream, which doesn’t belong to the farm estate. The water wheel is long gone. But it’s a solid 15-foot waterfall, and a 10-foot drop is traditionally sufficent for mill work.)

We can just collect a bunch of nerds and make a commune. Bring your own llamas if you want ‘em. LOL.

thesacredreznor replied to your post “unicornduke replied to your post “so I’m writing part of the climax…”

my understanding is that a true livestock guardian dog, from working lines, actually prefers to stay outside with the animals it’s guarding. apparently they aren’t particularly phased by weather and don’t even like to use a dog house or anything (although they should have access to one). so if you had a lgd specifically bred for that purpose it would probably be a non-issue.

I think the problem is more that any dog can get spoiled. The current farm dog was so claustrophobic she wouldn’t even come indoors, for years, and then abruptly she got over that because the other dog on the farm would go inside, and so she followed her in and learned about how nice it is indoors. She used to patrol around the yard at night, and chase wild animals away. Now she really just likes to lie next to the woodstove, because she is a spoiled old baby. Now, I think I’d have no problem being strict with a working dog? but my sister, she is soft about dogs.

singoallala replied: Geese. They might not deter a pack of coyotes, but they’ll try, and make a helluva lot of noise while doing so.

I have tried to get my sister to raise geese, because I think they’re funny, and she has said that she absolutely will not ever mess with waterfowl. Apparently they’re just. Bad news. I don’t know.

I’m really working on getting them to raise peacocks, though, speaking of loud obnoxious giant idiot birds. I just think peacocks are so keen.