This weekly Snippets column is a collection of short items: responses to posted articles, practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. Note that we may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters.
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New York Retailers Blast Gov. Hochul After Losing $4.4 Billion to Theft Last Year.
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SaraSue sent us this snippet:
“Busy, busy, busy. I have sold some dairy cows who needed pregnancy checks, disease testing, and a health certificate from the vet in order to move out of state. One cow who tested positive for pregnancy went into heat, so I had her re-bred. This is something family milk cow owners know too well. Sometimes it takes numerous A.I. (Artificial Insemination) attempts before getting the timing just right, without the aid of “syncing protocols”. I don’t like the idea of injecting hormones into my dairy girls in order to produce ovulation in order to breed them. A bull knows exactly the right time, but there are no bulls here. The girls should be leaving in a couple of weeks, pending all of the above. They need to get to their destination before the poor weather settles in.
I sold two of the piglets (deposit accepted) and have to sell more. I discovered that the piglet market is fairly well saturated, even out here in the country. Of course I discovered this *after* purchasing a breeding group of pigs. I now have some decisions to make. Sell the whole group, butcher most of them for the freezer, or try and stick with it for a year or two. My reoccurring nightmare is a farm overrun with piglets! That problem can be solved my dispensing with the boar. It seems that most folks would prefer to purchase “pastured pork” and not have to deal with the raising of the pigs. It costs a lot of money to “organically” raise pigs to butcher weight, not to mention the infrastructure required. I haven’t decided exactly what I’m going to do yet.
Commercial pig operations produce pigs that are filled with vaccines and antibiotics – most of the pork in the grocery store – pork I wouldn’t put in my mouth. Pastured and holistically raised pork is a labor of love. Pigs aren’t much trouble at all if you get the electric fencing right. The trouble is that they are more expensive to raise than cows or chickens.
Thanksgiving was delightful as I had a house full of family. We are celebrating birthdays and Christmas early this year, so those preparations are also underway. I went over the calendar trying to find a break in there somewhere – just so I could focus on the inside of the house. There is a short window in January. LOL. We shall see.”
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Foreign-Born Living in America Reaches 49.5 Million, Highest Ever in Recorded History.
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Our Editor-At-Large Mike Williamson has posted another informative video: German Cape Gun.
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Reader Mike in Alaska spotted this, from Electronic Design: “Incredible Animal Journeys”: How Did NatGeo Track and Film Those Migrations? Mike’s Comment: “Some have no legs; some have 4 legs … imagine using on 2-legged creatures?
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From House Digest: We Tried Straw Bale Gardening And It Had An Unexpected Benefit.
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Smoking Gun: Biden Secret Email Exposed by Judicial Watch.
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Wild Burros Are Wreaking Havoc On This Small Southern Nevada Town. JWR’s Comment: I was apprised that this would be an “Old West meets the New West” sort of story when I read: “Residents of Beatty, Nevada say wild burros have taken over the town, control access to the Tesla Superchargers.”
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A live, real-time map of passenger train locations in North America.
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A herd of elephants smashed a car that hit one of their babies.
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J.V. of Maine had this comment on Tom Christainson’s recent review article:
“My favorite silk/wool base layers are made by HOCOSA in Switzerland. I purchase them from a Vermont company called, Danish Woolen Delight.https://danishwool.com/
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From National Review: The American Voter’s Flight to Freedom.
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And lastly, this report comes from and old buddy from my days at Defense Electronics, Scott Gourley: The U.S. Army recently completed first article testing and conducted lot acceptance testing in preparation for fielding a new Scalable Offensive Hand Grenade produced in Norway.
Please Send Us Your Snippets!
Please send your snippet items for potential posting to JWR. or AVL. You can do so either via e-mail or via our Contact form.