Hi Alan! and Welcome!

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Welcome to BTS, Alan! So, what've you been up to since you made the big move? Would you be willing to tell us a little bit about yourself? If you look in the archives, there's a post where some of us introduced ourselves - just sos you know what you're getting in to!!

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

Answers

Welcome to BTS, Alan.

I don't think you and I have ever spoken to each other before but I wanted to thank you for your work on the Prudent Food Storage FAQ. My printout of it came in mighty handy during my Y2K preps. And even though we didn't see a Y2K meltdown, I think the FAQ was (and still is) a valuable piece of work for those who want to prepare for possible disruptions in our infrastructure (*whatever* they may be).

Thanks again!

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002


Welcome aboard, Alan. We need more male input!

Wildman, (waiting)

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002


Howdy folks,

Thanks for the invite! Looks like a right nice group here. I'm looking forward to participating.

A little about myself? I'm not big on talking about myself but I'll give it a go.

I edit the Prudent Food Storage FAQ which some of you may be familiar with and wrote a book on the same subject that's several times the length of the FAQ. Lost my butt on that project but it's still one of the best works in the field even if I do say so myself. I'm glad you found the FAQ useful Jim.

Last Fall I moved the family to our new homestead which we have come to call DunHagan. Essentially that just means Hagan's Hill in Gaelic since the house sits on a rise. The property is nine and a half acres of what may charitably described as sandy loam and lots of trees. Actually a few more than I really want since I need to open some area up for pasture grass.

These last two months I've been planting fruit trees and have put in:

12 rabbiteye blueberries 4 apples 3 pecan trees 3 pear trees 1 Chickasaw plum (our native wild plum)

Still waiting to go into the ground are:

3 fig trees 3 Cattley guavas 3 swamp chestnut oaks (large native white oak) 3 camellias 2 southern red cedars 1 pomagranate 1 olive tree

and I got a jump on the gardening season by planting out some greens - broccoli, kale and collards - which should shrug off any remaining frosts that we have coming. I should say frost that I *hope* we have coming since it's been getting into the 80's here these last two weeks here in my part of North/Central Florida. I suspect it's not going to be a good year for fruit this go around since we've had too many freezes for citrus to do well and perhaps not yet enough chill hours for deciduous fruit to be happy. Well, that's why they call it gambling...

Animal wise we have one dog, five laying hens and a rooster in a portable hen house and yard that are presently working on my next garden spot. I planted the greens in the area they just vacated. Sometime next Monday or Tuesday I've got thirty chicks coming in from Murray McMurray which will also be going into portable houses as part of my pasture renovation program. I'll be building their brooder this weekend using plans developed by the Ohio Cooperative Extension service just before the Second World War that were rediscovered by Robert Plamondon in the Yahoo Pasture Poultry group.

Like with most folks who buy their first place we're broke from the purchase but we'll eventually be putting in a small barn, improving or installing new fencing, acquiring animals like a few goats and a cow or two and, of course, planting more fruit and nut trees.

I personally don't believe that it's possible for a family wanting to live something better than a Stone Age existence to be truly self-sufficient but I do think that we can all go a long way towards being self-reliant and my long term goal is to bring the property into a condition that we could if we CHOOSE to produce everything that we eat in a year and hopefully even produce all of our own animal feed as well. I've been toying with the idea of starting my own small grass-raised egg operation which the 30 birds coming in next week are the first small experimental part of.

My circle of friends here are at the point where their eyes are glazing over when I start talking homesteading so it's always good to find someone to discuss it with!

Thanks again for the invite.

........Alan.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002


Hi Alan, and welcome from me also. Hope you enjoy yourself here and participate often!!

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

Welcome Alan, and thanks for the "intro". :-) I must warn you, though we DO discuss homesteading and self-sufficient topics, almost all threads wander off in different, sometimes odd, directions. And we like to be chatty and goofy. :-D

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002


Joy!! How dare you says such a thing! I deeply resemble that remark!! :OP Welcome Alan. I'm in Nova Scotia Canada and am not reeeeeally jealous of you getting the garden etc going already. I still feel like I am on sabbatical from the garden which is good becauseI am getting a dumping of snow, ice pellets, and freezing rain and anticipate a power outtage tonight. If i wasn't on sabbatical I might get antsy. Never mind that bag of organic potting soil out in my van...hee hee Again, welcome.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

Hi Alan and welcome!

I still have lots of hard copy prints of your pre-Y2k advice from TB2000...for example, the "About Chlorox, chlorine, and water disinfection" post (2-3 pages) is taped onto the inside of my laundry room cabinet door (just in case!). That was a fine public service you provided by writing so much info for so many folks. Thanks for doing that, albeit belatedly! Hey, you just never know...

We're a pretty friendly group here (as you many have noticed!) and I hope you'll enjoy the forum.

-- Anonymous, February 02, 2002


Welcome, Alan, I hope you like it here! We are prone to call ourselves the touchy-feely forum, (although methinks we didnt originate that description of our members.....I seem to remember it being a frequent perjorative reference to those of our ilk, whatever that means..)

I really like what you said on the Joel thread, by the way.

Peace,

-- Anonymous, February 02, 2002


Sheepish, glad it was of service to you. Y2K was pretty much a bust but who knows how many folks ended up needing their preps for crises and disasters they wouldn't otherwise have been prepared for if it hadn't of been for Y2K?

Earthmama,

I've never had any doubt in my mind that we should hunt Bin Laden until the end of time if that's what it took but it's sure looking like we're heading into an open ended conflict with no idea of how to get ourselves out of it. We have enemies to be sure and when they hurt us we need to thwack them *hard* but anyone who gives it a minute's serious thought can see that one simply cannot win a "war against terrorism." A man, a group, a nation we can defeat. A tactic that every nation on this planet uses is something else altogether.

.........Alan.

-- Anonymous, February 02, 2002


A warm welcome to Alan. Always good to have new people and new ideas to ponder on.

-- Anonymous, February 03, 2002


I'm a little late with my welcome, Alan, but what else is new!!?? I'm always late with something :-)!! Yup, I believe we're all a little goofy here, but if you can't be goofy with friends it would be a boring existence! Feel free to discuss anything...after all, if Wildman does it, so can you :-)!!!

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

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