Month: December 2021

Hair has a funny way of disappointing us. Many people have unwanted hair on various parts of their body, which they desperately want to get rid of, while others are always fighting hair loss or are unhappy with their hair growth. Scalp hair grows by around 1 cm in a month on average. This means it should grow about 4 to 5 inches each year. Usually, we go for a cut once a month or once in 45 days.

Of course, you will find a lot of people who won’t have to go for a cut that often because their hair growth is slower. The speed of hair growth depends on many factors, including the shape of the hair follicles, and genetics. There are also many reasons for hair loss like stress, aging, over-styling, poor diet, excessive smoking, alcohol, and genetics. Some medications can also cause hair loss.

Luckily, you will find many solutions that will not just arrest the loss but will even help you gain hair naturally. The best news – there are many easily available natural ingredients too that can provide great results.

Natural Ways to Make Your Hair Grow Faster

Here are some of the best natural products that can prevent hair loss and also boost new growth. Check them out – 

The white portion of an egg can help your hair regain its gloss. It makes the hair stronger and also helps it grow back faster. The best solution would be to apply a mask prepared with the egg white.

• Start by separating the white portion and the yolk.
• Keep the whites in your bowl.
• Now, add a couple of tablespoons of coconut oil.
• Whisk well.
• Apply this all over your hair.
• Use a wide-toothed comb for combing the hair.
• Leave this for 15 minutes.
• Shampoo using cool water. Don’t use hot water while the white portion is still there.

You will surely find many egg-infused products. But it is always best to prepare your own home solution. This way, you can be sure of the ingredients that are there.

This mask will strengthen the hair and reduce breakage. Remember, it will be very difficult for the hair to grow if its ends are breaking. Hair length and thickness will also improve.

Onion juice is often considered to be one of the oldest and most effective treatments for hair growth. That’s because, onion contains Sulphur, which improves the production of collagen in the body. Hair can regrow easily if the collagen level is high. Collagen production starts to go down once we reach the mid-20s and it becomes graver after 40. This is one reason why there is baldness with increasing age.

• Cut a few onion slices.
• Squeeze the juice out.
• Apply the juice to your scalp.
• Leave it for 15 minutes.
• Rinse off with a soft shampoo

Onion juice has a strong smell. Don’t let this deter you. The smell will go away once you rinse off. You can also mix potato juice with the onion.

The avocado fruit is a natural emollient. An oil extracted from this fruit…

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It seems that the feral-hog population is thriving, and the number of wild dogs is increasing year after year in our country. While other hunting opportunities rarely increase, the chances of bagging something are pretty much endless when it comes to wild pigs.

They have multiplied so much that hunters in some areas consider them the second most favorable option for hunting, with white-tailed deer still taking the lead. However, since wild hogs are considered an invasive species and their numbers constantly rise, hunting restrictions are few. Even so, this doesn’t mean they are an easy hunt.

Feral hogs have become plentiful because they are intelligent and cunning animals, and you need to learn a thing or two about them if you want to be successful in bagging them. After hunting wild hogs around the country, I can honestly say that you need to understand their habits and have a few tricks up your sleeve if you want to put some pork on the table.

Go to wet areas

Pigs love water and are drawn to wet and marshy areas, so these places should be your starting point when hunting wild hogs. Since they do not have sweat glands, they need water and moist, shaded areas to cool off.

They will spend most of their time in such areas during torrid days. And, they love wallowing in the mud since it provides relief from pests. Wild hogs will take advantage of the occasional mud bath to eliminate lice, ticks, and blowflies.

Being omnivores means they can find food almost anywhere, so being near a water source is an essential aspect of a pig’s life. They have a diet consisting of roots, weeds, nuts (of all sorts), berries, tubers, insects, reptiles, and even garbage. You can imagine that finding food is rarely difficult for these animals, so you should emphasize water rather than food.

If you find yourself near a water source, look for tracks and scats and signs of wallowing and rubs since these are good indicators of the hog’s presence and movement. Finding these signs will allow you also to discover prospective ambush sites in the vicinity.

Other signs

By nature, pigs love to dig and tear up the ground while looking for roots, tubers, and insects essential to their diet. I know a few people that call them nature’s excavators, and it’s incredible how fast a sounder of 20 pigs can destroy agricultural land. A close friend of mine had 10 acres of land destroyed by these annoying pests in less than a week. So, for you, the intelligent hunter, looking for signs of ground disturbance becomes mandatory for tracking wild hogs.

Other signs that may be less obvious to the untrained eye are rubbing areas on logs, rocks, trees, telephone, and fence posts. To get rid of an itch or insects and other pests, pigs will often rub themselves to whatever’s available.

I’ve mentioned…

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In my previous article, I talked about how Permabeds can benefit community gardens. The primary benefit we looked at was organization. As community gardeners often seek to do a lot with a little space, Permabeds help keep plots organized for maximum efficiency.

On a macro scale, Permabeds can also help keep the overall space organized, too. And they offer much in the way of building and maintaining soil health.

But when it comes to working within garden plots to grow food, Permabeds bring additional benefits to both the grower and the soil.

Management Benefits

When an entire community garden is divided by raised beds that run the full length of the community garden land, organized Permabeds allow much more efficient layout and use of material, supplies and techniques.

For instance, a single irrigation header along one end of the bed can provide a water source for each Permabed. And you could use tarps to regenerate plots easily, spreading them across an entire bed or an entire triad.

And you can even bring the efficiencies of market gardening to the community garden. For instance, beds could be turned over with a two-wheel tractor, operated by a laborer communally paid for the seasonal job of preparing all the beds.

Read more: Permabeds can bring organizational improvements to community gardens.

How do you apply Permabed System Design on a Community Garden?

This is a simple process. Here’s an example.

Say your total available space is 50 by 100 feet. You can divide this space into exactly 12 Permabeds 4 feet wide and 6 inches high.

You can even put a chip-mulched perimeter alley around the entire plot. The size could range from 3 to 6 feet wide, depending on space available and access requirements. In this scenario, each bed offers 400 square feet.

Need more room to grow? Advanced growers could apply for an entire triad—three beds totaling 1200 square feet.

Seasonal Organization

Before the first growing season, install an irrigation transport line at one end of the community garden. Positioned thusly, the line offers each bed water access with heavy-duty, releasable drip lines.

When the end of a season arrives, a professional community gardener could come in and apply cover crops and tarps, as well as perform any other seasonally appropriate jobs. This, ideally, would be assisted by community growers.

In spring, the community could bring in specialized labour with equipment know-how to ready the garden for another growing season. Paid for by membership fees, this work would help improve yield and long-term garden success. Less weeds, less disease, improved soil and fertility.

Read more: Ready to go all in on community? Here’s how to find an off-grid community for you and your family.

Permabeds Allow a Rotation Plan, Too

Another huge benefit of using Permabeds in community gardens is the feasibility of an overall, whole-garden crop rotation plan. You can easily execute whole-garden crop rotation by designating beds (or…

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We take for granted our relationship with chickens. After all, more than 23 billion chickens live on the planet right now. And, globally, we consume more than 65 billion chickens each year. That doesn’t include the more than 800 billion eggs we eat every year. 

In fact, more chickens exist in the world than any other domesticated or wild vertebrate species in number and biomass. They provide us with food at multiple levels from mega farms to humble backyards all over the world.

Village poultry (i.e., “backyard” chickens in Africa and Asia) are an essential source of protein and income for millions of people. 

The ubiquity of chickens wasn’t always so, though. In fact, until the recent African swine fever outbreak in China in 2018, pigs were the most consumed animal protein on the planet.

The point is that the scope of chicken meat and egg consumption wasn’t always at its present level. So why is this so? Independent birds/Shutterstock

Rise of Village Poultry

From a historical perspective, humans have only lived in villages—as opposed to being hunter-gatherers—for approximately 10,000 years. And chickens have been with us as domesticated animals for approximately 7,000 to 8,000 of those years.

However, the reasons we brought them into our villages are probably different than what we might guess thousands of year later. 

Specifically, chickens were domesticated not for dinner purposes but for status, religious ceremony and entertainment (i.e., fighting). In fact, the best fighting birds were often buried with the high-status elders.

From a more practical perspective, roosters were also used as timepieces. Crowing roosters proclaimed the hour of dawn.

Once established in the culture of these emerging societies, various cultures then spread them via migration, trade and territorial conquests to various locations including Europe in 3000 B.C. and South America in 1200 A.D.

One of the reasons chickens were largely ceremonial as opposed to dinner is their appearance. The humble chicken wasn’t so humble back then. It was a smaller, flightier bird with long, colored, beautiful feathers.

In other words, you’d want to show it off as opposed to stick it in a barn. You can see the living ancestors to modern chickens—red jungle fowl—with a trip to modern-day India, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka. 

Based on how stunning red jungle fowl appear, it might make more sense why humans would prefer to hunt wild animals. And why they’d keep farm-domestic animals, such as sheep and goats, for milk and meat instead. It somewhat explains why a culture would learn how to farm grains on the same plot of land, too.

That way, they could just “show off” their chickens.

Read more: Interested in raising show chickens for poultry exhibition? Here’s how to get started.

Transition to Domestication

There isn’t a lot of research on this, but slowly but surely chickens—and their eggs—were used as sources of protein and fertilizer. One thing that helped…

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The Nature of the State

So far in this book, we have developed a theory of liberty and property rights, and have outlined the legal code that would be necessary to defend those rights. What of government, the State? What is its proper role, if any?

Most people, including most political theorists, believe that once one concedes the importance, or even the vital necessity, of some particular activity of the State—such as the provision of a legal code—that one has ipso facto conceded the necessity of the State itself.

The State indeed performs many important and necessary functions: from provision of law to the supply of police and fire fighters, to building and maintaining the streets, to delivery of the mail. But this in no way demonstrates that only the State can perform such functions, or, indeed, that it performs them even passably well.

Suppose, for example, that there are many competing cantaloupe stores in a particular neighborhood. One of the cantaloupe dealers, Smith, then uses violence to drive all of his competitors out of the neighborhood; he has thereby employed violence to establish a coerced monopoly over the sale of cantaloupes in a given territorial area.

Does that mean that Smith’s use of violence to establish and maintain his monopoly was essential to the provision of cantaloupes in the neighborhood? Certainly not, for there were existing competitors as well as potential rivals should Smith ever relax his use and threat of violence; moreover, economics demonstrates that Smith, as a coercive monopolist will tend to perform his service badly and inefficiently.

Protected from competition by the use of force, Smith can afford to provide his service in a costly and inefficient manner, since the consumers are deprived of any possible range of alternative choice. Furthermore, should a group arise to call for the abolition of Smith’s coercive monopoly there would be very few protesters with the temerity to accuse these “abolitionists” of wishing to deprive the consumers of their much desired cantaloupes.

And yet, the State is only our hypothetical Smith on a gigantic and all-encompassing scale. Throughout history groups of men calling themselves “the government” or “the State” have attempted—usually successfully—to gain a compulsory monopoly of the commanding heights of the economy and the society. In particular, the State has arrogated to itself a compulsory monopoly over police and military services, the provision of law, judicial decision-making, the mint and the power to create money unused land (“the public domain”), streets and highways, rivers and coastal waters, and the means of delivering mail.

Control of land and transportation has long been an excellent method of assuring overall control of a society; in many countries, highways began as a means of allowing the government to move its troops conveniently throughout its subject country. Control of the money supply is a way to assure the State an easy and rapid revenue, and the State makes sure that no private competitors are allowed to invade its self-arrogated monopoly of the power to counterfeit…

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Your backyard poultry are of great interest to you, providing delicious eggs and meat, as well as garden fertilizer, pest control and daily enjoyment to you and your family. But unfortunately, your chicken coop is also quite interesting to other creatures, including coyotes, cats, dogs, foxes, hawks, minks, weasels, owls, opossum, rats, raccoons, skunks, snakes and many other predators. 

Raise poultry long enough, and you’re likely to lose one now and then to predators. However, if you take the protection of your poultry seriously, losses can be kept to a minimum.

The list of predators that can attack our poultry is long, and air and ground attacks can occur day and night. If something is attacking your poultry, the first step you need to take is to find out which predator is to blame. In many cases, predators will leave signs and tracks behind as evidence.

When these signs are not present, much can be inferred by how the birds are attacked. Different predators are active at different times of the day, and their hunting and feeding behavior differs. Once you know which predator is attacking your poultry, you can secure the chicken coop and take action to prevent future issues.

What Hunts When

Bobcats, coyotes and foxes prefer to hunt after dark, and they usually take birds away to eat elsewhere. Overnight, raccoons and weasels are also significant threats. Raccoons will often pull a bird’s head or legs through a wire fence and leave its body behind, while weasels sometimes kill many birds by biting them at the backs of their heads. 

Birds of prey can also be very serious predators. Large hawks will attack birds from above during the daytime hours and eat them in place, as evidenced by scattered feathers. Great horned owls are also known to take birds at night, either carrying them away or eating them on the spot. 

Dogs and cats can also be a very big problem in urban areas. Skunks and opossums will eat eggs and sometimes birds, while black bears will occasionally recognize poultry as food.

Wildlife cameras can be used to help find out the predator. Because motion sensors activate them, cameras can also be used at night. While they can’t prevent predators, the knowledge they can provide is beneficial in preventing future issues.  GS23/Shutterstock

Regardless of which method you choose, knowing your enemy is critical if you expect to win the war against predators.

Protection Priorities

Once you have identified which predator is attacking your chicken coop, you can take actions to prevent future issues. Probably the two most important parts of protecting your flock from predators are correct housing and fencing. Whether you buy it ready-made or build your own, there are a few simple things you need to know to keep your poultry happy and safe.

Fencing

Quality fencing is the foundation for effective predator control. Fencing is almost always a necessity, especially if your birds…

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Pruning is best described as a horticultural practice involving the selective removal of certain parts of a plant, such as branches, buds, or roots. This may be done for a number of reasons, with the method and timing being of some importance, particularly when flowering and fruiting plants are the subjects – and we wish to achieve a good yield of high-quality produce.

The main principles of pruning

When we prune, there are a few basic objectives to achieve healthy plants, which will then reward us crops for as many years.

Firstly we need to remove growth that is dead. Once plant cells have died, they cannot fight infection, so they are an entry point for diseases to enter. Cankers, Coral spot, and Silver-leaf are all diseases of fruit trees and bushes which could gain entry through dead wood, which should be cut out, back to a suitable place in good, healthy growth.

Growth that has already become diseased also needs to be removed. Plant diseases will spread through the plant and may eventually cause death. Pruning should remove infected wood by cutting back to healthy growth to help prevent its spread both through that plant and also to neighboring fruit trees and bushes.

Fungal diseases, such as Apple and Pear Canker and Coral Spot, can usually be controlled by good pruning, but Bacterial diseases such as Bacterial canker (plums and cherries) and Fireblight will colonize the plant cells far more quickly and will usually necessitate the whole tree being removed to help prevent spread.

Damaged shoots and branches are more prone to infection by diseases, which can then spread. This can include damage to the trunk by rabbits or deer, particularly in the winter, which is why guards are so important when planting. Branches of fruit trees and shrubs may also break when carrying heavy crops, especially in windy conditions. A good, clean cut is far less likely to become infected with a disease than a torn off limb.

Pruning, particularly of fruit, will also aim growth which is generally termed as displaced. Branches or shoots that are ‘in the wrong place’, such as crossing or rubbing, should be removed as these are more prone to damage and infection. Removing these, as well as other congested, surplus, growth, helps airflow and the general health of the plant. Letting more light in will ensure better quality produce and help improve the color of the fruit.

The basic rules of pruning fruit trees and bushes

Here are the basic rules you need to learn for pruning your trees:

Use sharp tools, secateurs, loppers, or saws, depending on the size of wood being cut. Do not overstress your hands or your tools!

Generally, do not remove more than one-quarter of the living growth as this can encourage too much vegetative, nonflowering growth the following year. This could then lead to a biennial bearing…

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The following is an overview of our farm progress at the end of 2021. For those of you who don’t know me, I am a widow and grandmother of retirement age. Eight years ago I bought a country property in the mid-south 300 miles from a large metropolitan area and two-hours away from a large city and one hour away from a small city with a hospital and medical specialists. The closest town has two gas stations, a pharmacy, a medical family practice, and two grocery stores, some fast food places, and a few other family-owned businesses.

The property had a very old barn which was used as storage, a water well, electric power, and lots of acreage, but no septic system. The sellers used the old pipe to the woods system but they put in a new septic system as a condition of sale. The house was old and needed a new kitchen and another bathroom before we could move in and I splurged on a whole house backup generator. The other updates are done as we can afford them and they are still ongoing. My oldest son, a truck driver, moved closer so he could help me when he was not on the road. Eventually, he moved on to the property permanently.

My goals in moving out to the country were to: (1) be more secure; (2) become less dependent on buying from stores, (3) have room for my kids and other family members to come to if and when things fall apart for them, (4) learn skills to develop cottage/home business(es), and finally (5) learn to be more self-reliant so I could live in freedom and independence. It has been lots of hard work, with some failures. But over the years, we have gained confidence in our abilities and acquired new skills. Everything we have done has been on a very tight budget and everything is paid for in cash; I have no debt. This is a summary on how we have developed the farm over the years and where we are at the end of 2021.

Year 1: After the house was made livable, the first thing to be done was to fence a half-acre of the back yard for the dogs; at that time I had 5 small dogs, a stray red tick coon hound and one feral kitten which came out of the woods. The coon hound had 6 surprise puppies. She was so emaciated even the vet didn’t realize she was pregnant! That brought us up to 12 dogs; we eventually gave most of the puppies away, but kept two.

Next came a chicken coop and fence around the chicken yard. A neighbor down the road gave me a bunch of hens, a rooster, and a couple of ducks. I had never lived in the country nor had I raised chickens before; thus I lost 5 hens the first six months due to inexperience and predators; a fox, raccoon, owls, and hawks. Since…

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