permaculture

[Daniel Lee Settles <dls4@acpub.duke.edu>]

On Tue, 14 Oct 1997 YankeePerm@aol.com wrote:

> Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 07:19:41 -0400 (EDT)
> From: YankeePerm@aol.com
> To: permaculture@listserv.oit.unc.edu
> Subject: Re: Strip crops and poultry
> 
> 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.  

Yes, I was planning on cooking them.  I don't think I'd care to try raw 
duck, even though your alligators probably like them. 

> 
> 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.  

Fortunately, we don't have to be concerned with alligators, but there are 
plenty of stray dogs, racoons, bobcats, owls, hawks and other wild things 
that would like to snack on our ducks.  The only reason we can manage things 
as we have is due to our livestock guardian dog, Sultan.  He lives with 
our animals and in the 6 months that we have had him we have not lost a 
single animal to predators.  I don't think I've read any permaculture 
books that mentioned these dogs, but I think they could be an excellent 
addition to many permaculture systems that utilize livestock. 

> 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.
> 
That sounds beautiful.  We have a blue heron that visits our pond most 
days to do a little fishing.  I really enjoy watching it fly off into the 
sunset in the evening.  

Dan Settles

> 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.
> 
>