permaculture

[YankeePerm@aol.com]

Re:  Dan Settles post.  

In the 1940s it was standard to run poultry or, more commonly, pigs, in
stockyards, which is more or less what Dan is describing, though with less
crowding.  

The ducks will be ok to eat but you have to cook them.  I'd look into the
matter more in tropical countries where ducks are  disease vectors.  

Ducks won't work for us because they will head for the water and the
alligators will eat them.  Turkeys are probably a better companion for cattle
as they are less subject to predators from the sky, though they have to be
rounded up every night. Turkeys don'tget big enough that an owl can't fly off
with one and of course foxes and racoons are all over the place.  

It happens that we have, or rather the steer has, egrets who keep him company
and keep insects down.  I don't think that they deliberately eat vegetable
matter and of course they eat a lot of our sacred frogs, too, but they
probably help us more than they hinder.  For this role, they are rightly
protected under Florida law. Even if they were a minor nuisance, eating more
frogs and less insects, they are so damn beautiful, especially at sundown
when they gather in soaring spiral patterns, silver against the pink and
orange sky, with the green of the water lilly pads darkening --  god, I can't
wait for dawn now to get out there again.

Lots of combinations work.  Beware of making so much soil bare unless you
have plans to plant it.  I mulch even the small bare spots where the steer
likes down--I think his urine kills everything.  Bare soil is
anti-permaculture, except as a very brief transitional phase.

For Mother Earth, Dan Hemenway, Yankee Permaculture Publications (since
1982), Elfin Permaculture workshops, lectures, Permaculture Design Courses,
consulting and permaculture designs (since 1981), and now correspondence
courses via email.  Next starts in Oct. 1997. Internships available.
Copyright, 1997, Dan & Cynthia Hemenway, P.O. Box 52, Sparr FL 32192 USA
 YankeePerm@aol.com  

We don't have time to rush.