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247 comments on DrumBeat: June 6, 2006

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dizzysaurus on June 6, 2006 - 10:04am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
That's an interesting point.  Not to dip too much into the doomer scenario here, but your comment encouraged me to think about each of our neighbours.

1 is a rental household, 3 adult males, all work for some haulage co.  (but all drive their huge pickups to work separately).  Aggressive and selfish.  Definitely a worry.

Next door is a middle aged hippie couple, friendly and definitely a good ally.

The rest are all couples + 2 or 3 kids age 11 or less.  All minivans and SUVs, no vegetables growing in their gardens, lots of water usage etc etc.  All of them bar one have hired gardeners to landscape their front yards, so very little in the way of nature-savvy.

The two houses to our left are empty...

Typical suburbia, in other words.

My wife and I?  lazy liberal slackers, 4 cats, 4 ferrets - soon to be 3 :-(.  No veggies yet, but we bought the seeds!  Our excuse is that we can't afford the drip watering system, and that we haven't yet gotten off our lazy asses to submit our plans to the Almighty Association.

ah let's face it, we're screwed ;-)

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Dragonfly41 on June 6, 2006 - 10:16am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Don't dismiss people based on first impressions or stereotypes, i.e. the aggressive males in the rental and the couple with SUV and kids.

People have the ability to change and change quickly when necessary.  Think about what they may have to offer in a crisis.  

SUV - might be handy for making once a month shopping trip for the group many miles away when food supplies grow thin close by (don't drive frequently, but when needed useful).

Strong dudes - Assist in building new structures in your group or tilling soil in "community" garden.

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mr f on June 7, 2006 - 2:06am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Just like in the John Carpenter's movie Assault on Precinct 13, where cops and criminals band together to fight off gruesome gang members?

:-D

I believe love even resulted...

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Nate Hagens on June 6, 2006 - 10:38am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
also consider eventually replacing ferrets with guinea fowl.
higher PROI (protein return on investment), more daily dopamine from watching them do funny crap with neighbors shiny SUV tires, eat ticks, lay lots of eggs, etc.

sorry about your ailing ferret though..;(

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costa rica Johns on June 6, 2006 - 10:33pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Guinea fowl are also one of the best alarm systems you could ever have. They will raise a ruckus at anything, a stranger, a snake, deer, almost anything. Of course, they will also sometimes be startled by the occaissional blowing leaf. . .
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Substrate on June 7, 2006 - 9:27pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
After a while you learn to interpret their "language" and to know when 'backle backle backle' means "OMFG a rain drop hit my bump!" or "OMFG something's swooping down to eat me!"  However, they make noise all-of-the-time and it's really annoying.  Sometimes so much so that you might be driven to the insanity of chasing them and throwing stuff to get them to stop.  Anyone who hasn't experienced them just doesn't have a clue.  It's also very difficult to find their nests, you generally have to keep an eye on them and know when they're being suspicious, then search the area.  If you go over to the nest while the hen is on it the males will try to lure you away.  The eggs are also really small.  You need about 50 of them to make a decent meal.  They also tend to give up hatching when their nest is disturbed.  Unlike a chicken which you can generally "transplant" to a safer location.  Their males do fight, but it's more of a running around chasing each other thing than a bloody killing thing like chickens do...perhaps the only silver lining.  Despite what anyone might tell you, they too are hell on a garden.

For a new fowl owner I recommend Barred Rock chickens.  Good egg layers and generally a good personality.  Steer WELL CLEAR of rhode island reds and leghorns - they're evil.

Beware of foul fowl! (had to, sorry!)

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xironman on June 6, 2006 - 5:52pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
>No veggies yet, but we bought the seeds!

Organic gardening is not as easy as you would expect, the bugs... and I just had a large number of rows of Blue Lake Bush Beans wiped out by deer.  The only thing I seem to be able to grow huge quantities of year after year is potatoes, I need to find a Russian recipe to turn those tubers into vodka.  You never know when an Oil CEO is going to turn up for dinner post crash.

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Substrate on June 7, 2006 - 9:36pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I'm not sure the kind of territory you're trying to protect, but I saw the funniest thing that might help.  They're motion sensor sprinklers.  Something moves around them, they come on and start hissing and shooting water.  If anything is a good use of water and electricity I'd say that is.
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