Video RoundUp: 5 Favorite Hobby Farms Stories

Here at Hobby Farms, we do our best to help out folks trying to make their way out there—whether that’s keeping a few laying hens and a lettuce patch in the suburbs; subsisting off the land in an off-grid setup; or selling homegrown organic summer squash at the local farmers market. We’re here to tell stories of people like you, and share tips and expertise for doing things efficiently, sustainably and enjoyably.

Of course, we’re proud to offer this information in the pages of our benchmark magazines, Hobby Farms and Chickens, not to mention our fleet of full-color annual publications such as Hobby Farm Home and Healing Herbs.

We’re always live here at hobbyfarms.com with exclusive articles from our team of experienced contributors. And in recent years we’ve expanded into podcasting with the launch of Hobby Farms Presents: Growing Good, a podcast with and about hobby farmers, small-scale growers and sustainable farmers.

But did you know that, in addition to all this, Hobby Farms offers an ever-growing collection of video articles on a wide variety of farming-related topics right here and over on YouTube? We do!

We absolutely encourage you to check out all of the video content Hobby Farms provides our readers. And to get you started, here are five of our favorite video stories from the past year that you may have missed!

Clipping Chicken Wings

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You can clip the flight feathers on your chickens’ wings to limit birds’ mobility and ability to get into trouble around the farm. It’s easy, painless and helpful. Bevin Cohen put together the video above to show us how it’s done.

What the Hay Is Up with Hay Prices?

Quality forage got harder to find this year, while hay prices soared through the roof. Josh and Rachel Porter of Porter Valley Ranch looked into what was going on and delivered tips for feeding livestock all winter long.

A Fall Tree-Planting Tutorial

Fall is the perfect time to plant trees, and the process is pretty simple. In this video Russell Graves provides a few pointers for putting new trees into the ground in the autumn months.

Sew a Feed Bag Shopping Tote

From chicken feed to bird seed, the empty plastic bags add up—but they don’t have to end up in the landfill. Longtime contributor Susan Brackney shows how to make your own fun and sustainable feed-bag tote.

Support Winter Wellness with Herbs

It’s important to maintain health on the homestead year-round and especially during winter. Bevin Cohen shows us how to use herbs and activities in the colder months to stay in tip-top shape!

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Recognizing And Dealing With Shock

Shock can have many different meanings. A movie’s plot twist could be shocking to some. Touching a live wire could result in a shock. You may be in shock as a result of the death of a loved one or as a result of trauma. Shock, in my opinion, is a terrifying term that predicts poor outcomes despite our best medical efforts.

Despite the best medical care in the best hospitals, mortality rates can range from 40% to 50%.

What will you do if your partner or family member is involved in an accident or suffers a heart attack and goes into shock?

The most important aspect of treating shock is learning to recognize it as soon as possible. The earlier the diagnosis, the sooner the treatment can begin.

What is shock?

To begin, shock is defined as a lack of blood and oxygen supply to the tissues. Tissues and cells starve as a result of a lack of these nutrients. When this happens, the tissues and organs stop working.

The greater the number of organ failures, the higher the mortality rate. The sooner the cells’ nutrients and function are restored, the better their chances of survival.

In order to minimize cell damage, the body has several mechanisms in place to compensate for the lack of tissue perfusion.

Although many organ systems are involved in compensatory mechanisms, the cardiovascular system is the process’s foundation.

A pump (the heart), pipes (the blood vessels), and fluid are required for the cardiovascular system to maintain its pressure in a closed loop (the blood).

In order to minimize cell damage, the body has several mechanisms in place to compensate for the lack of tissue perfusion. Even though many organ systems are involved in compensatory mechanisms, the cardiovascular system is the process’s foundation.

A pump (the heart), pipes (the blood vessels), and fluid are required for the cardiovascular system to maintain somewhat constant pressure in a closed loop (the blood). If any of these components fail, there is a loss of pressure in the system.

If the pressure loss is severe, the tissues and organs will not be nourished with the necessary components for proper organ and body function. Let’s dig a little deeper into this.

what is shock

The pump output (cardiac output) and systemic vascular resistance control the pressure in the system (changes in vessel diameter or changes in blood viscosity).

The heart rate and stroke volume determine cardiac output (how much blood is pumped with each contraction of the heart). The formula is as follows:

Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP) = Cardiac Output (CO) x Systemic Vascular Resistance (SVR)

Cardiac Output = Heart Rate (HR) x Stroke Volume (SV) Therefore, MAP = (HR x SV) x SVR

To increase systemic pressure, we must either increase heart rate, stroke volume, or systemic vascular resistance (or some combination of the three). When one of these components fails as a result of an…

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6 Things You Should Incorporate in Your Routine | Homesteading Simple Self Sufficient Off-The-Grid

6 Things You Should Incorporate in Your Routine | Homesteading Simple Self Sufficient Off-The-Grid | Homesteading.com <![CDATA[ window._wpemojiSettings = {"baseUrl":"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72×72/","ext":".png","svgUrl":"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/svg/","svgExt":".svg","source":{"concatemoji":"https://homesteading.com/wp-includes/js/wp-emoji-release.min.js?ver=6.0.3"}}; /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(e,a,t){var n,r,o,i=a.createElement("canvas"),p=i.getContext&&i.getContext("2d");function s(e,t){var a=String.fromCharCode,e=(p.clearRect(0,0,i.width,i.height),p.fillText(a.apply(this,e),0,0),i.toDataURL());return p.clearRect(0,0,i.width,i.height),p.fillText(a.apply(this,t),0,0),e===i.toDataURL()}function c(e){var t=a.createElement("script");t.src=e,t.defer=t.type="text/javascript",a.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(t)}for(o=Array("flag","emoji"),t.supports={everything:!0,everythingExceptFlag:!0},r=0;r tallest) { tallest = thisHeight; } }); group.height(tallest); } equalHeight($(“.dg-grid-shortcode .dg_grid-shortcode-col”)); $(window).resize(function() { equalHeight($(“.dg-grid-shortcode .dg_grid-shortcode-col”)); }); }); ]]>

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How the Middle-Class Dining Room Revolutionized Domestic Life

For families and friends gathering for Thanksgiving dinner this year, chances are that many of them will gather at some point in rooms called the “dining room.” For most middle-class Americans, maintaining a formal dining room for ritualized forms of entertainment popular decades ago is no longer especially popular. Yet, most homes still have a room separate from the kitchen for meals with larger gatherings or when the entire immediate family assembles. A 2016 survey, for example, suggested that 78 percent of American homes have a dining room. Unlike with bedrooms and kitchens, however, interior designers and builders have debated for thirty years whether or not dining rooms are really necessary. Some contend they are “wasted” space. Others say that the dining room is “making a comeback” as people stubbornly continue to embrace the importance of family and friends sharing meals together in a setting slightly more structured than the act of grabbing toast and coffee in the kitchen before work. 

Perhaps more so than any other day of the year, Thanksgiving day is the day when the dining room is least “wasted” and most useful. It does indeed provide that extra space in which a larger number of guests can be comfortably accommodated for what historians call “domestic sociability.” That is, since the rituals of Thanksgiving day are generally performed within a domestic setting, a dining room can prove to be very useful indeed. 

The Dining Room Is a Recent Addition

In our modern age in which many families eat out at restaurants several nights per week, and public activities at entertainment venues are extremely common, the importance of domestic sociability is often overlooked. Yet, as Thanksgiving demonstrates, the act of gathering and socializing in a private home remains important for many families. Moreover, in times of economic downturns, domestic entertainment and social gathering becomes more important because it is relatively more affordable.

In a certain sense, those who think of the dining room as unnecessary are right. The dining room is a very late addition to homes. Even among the wealthy, dining rooms were rare until the seventeenth century, and even then, the room was not often seen outside of northwestern Europe. The wealthy certainly had large rooms for feasting, but these were often used for a wide variety of gatherings, and the public nature of the space makes them unlike private dining rooms. By the late Middle Ages, many meals were eaten in taverns and inns, but these areas, of course, were not private dining rooms either. It is only after 1700 that we begin to read of ordinary people finding ways to entertain friends and neighbors within their homes in these new spaces that would come to be known as dining rooms.

The Economics of Dining Rooms

To abolish the dining room would thus be a return to the “tradition” or a pre-industrial age when homes were smaller and living spaces tended to consist of one or two large multipurpose rooms devoted to everything from…

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Comparison, The Thief of Joy

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(Psst: The FTC wants me to remind you that this website contains affiliate links. That means if you make a purchase from a link you click on, I might receive a small commission. This does not increase the price you’ll pay for that item nor does it decrease the awesomeness of the item. ~ Daisy)

By the author of The Faithful Prepper and Zombie Choices

 

I woke up with a start

Because today, it was the day!

Turkey, corn, taters too

And I’d just like to say

 

My attitude quickly soured

As I walked down the stairs

For as I walked amongst the preps

All stacked deep in layers

 

“I need more cans. This radio’s old.”

“And I’ve got to have more books!”

“Look at this old charcoal.”

“I still hope it cooks!”

 

“This Kelly Kettle has a ding.”

“This battery? Probably dead.”

“And I’ll be too when it’s post-apoc”

“Unless I buy more lead!”

 

“These med supplies, they’re not legit.”

“Just stuff from Dollar Store”

“The fancy stuff is where it’s at”

So I tossed them on the floor.

 

All these preps, all this stuff

But these thoughts were in my mind

Sure, yeah, it was cool.

But my stash was way behind.

 

“My buddy has more. This isn’t enough!”

“And I lost my old bee hive!”

“If I don’t pick up all this slack”

“My family won’t survive!”

 

“Look at these guys on Youtube!”

“Think of my buddy, Bob.”

“They’ve got more ammo, food, and guns.”

“And they make me feel a slob.”

 

“They’ve shelves and bins, a storage room”

“That must’ve cost eight grand.”

“If you cannot match Pinterest”

“If it’s not name brand”

 

“Then are you really prepping?”

“Or just collecting junk?”

My dissatisfaction with it all

Had put me in a funk

 

My new knife wasn’t cool as Bob’s

To his, mine was just a toy

Comparison had snuck on in

It is the thief of joy

 

I hopped into my truck

Just to get out. Clear my head.

Drove through the morning fog

Might pick up a loaf of bread.

 

I wandered through the backroads

The chill air whipping by

Upset with all I didn’t have

Falling for a lie

 

The grocery store was open

The clerks weren’t happy there

I was off and they were not

To them, it wasn’t fair.

 

Then as I drove out the lot

A tent, nestled among trees

An old man was sitting there

Trying not to freeze

 

His beard was grizzled as his face

A weather-beaten man

His clothes were falling all apart

And his skin was leather tan

 

I continued driving on

Somewhat shocked by what I saw

There’d been more homeless

Than there were last fall

 

I stopped to get a little gas

That truck can drink…

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Homeowner’s Guide To Garden Pest Control

Are pests taking Are pests taking over your garden? Are you having trouble getting rid of them? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Many homeowners struggle with pest control in their gardens. In this blog post, we will discuss some common garden pests and how to get rid of them. We will also provide tips on how to prevent pests from taking over your garden in the first place!

Types of Pests

There are many different types of garden pests, including insects, fungi, rodents, and more. Some of the most common include.

Beetles

Beetles are one of the most common types of garden pests. This pest can damage plants by eating leaves, flowers, and stems.

Caterpillars

Caterpillars are another type of insect that can wreak havoc in your garden. These pests feed on foliage and can quickly devour large portions of plants. They are also capable of destroying flowers, fruits, and vegetables.

Cutworms

Cutworms are the larvae of several different kinds of night-flying moths. They get their name from their habit of “cutting” young plants off at the ground level.

Slugs

Slugs love cool, damp conditions, so they’re often found in gardens in spring and fall. These slimy creatures can decimate a crop in no time flat, so it’s important to take action as soon as you see them.

Ants

Ants are small insects that live in colonies consisting of one queen and many workers. They vary in color but are typically black or red. Ants damage gardens by eating seeds, young plants, and fruits.

Tips To Keep Garden Pests Out of the Garden

It’s not always easy to prevent pests from invading your garden. However, there are a few things you can do to reduce the chances of an infestation.

Plan wisely

One of the best ways to deter pests is to choose plants that they don’t like. If you’re not sure which plants are on a pest’s menu, do some research or ask your local nursery. Once you know which plants to stay away from, you can plan your garden accordingly.

You can also try planting certain herbs, like basil and mint, which tend to repel pests.

Be proactive

If you notice pests starting to take over your garden, nip the problem in the bud as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the more damage they’ll do and the harder they’ll be to get rid of.

Regularly check your plants for signs of pests and take action immediately if you see any.

Maintain healthy soil

One of the best ways to deter pests is by having healthy soil. Pests are attracted to weak and unhealthy plants, so by keeping your plants’ roots healthy, you’ll make them less appealing to pests.

Make sure you’re providing your plants with enough water and nutrients and that you’re not over- or under-watering them. You should also add mulch to your garden beds to help retain moisture and keep the soil healthy.

Create a barrier

Another way to keep pests out of your garden is by creating a physical barrier between them and your plants. This could mean installing a fence around your garden or using netting or…

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Amoxicillin Shortage -What You Should Know

Amoxicillin Shortage

Is the Amoxicillin shortage fake news, or is it something we should be paying close attention to? Amoxicillin Oral Powder, Albuterol, and Epinephrine Injection are just a few of the many medications found on the FDA Drug Shortage list. Amoxicillin oral powder is used to make a liquid antibiotic for children.

When a cold doesn’t go away, it may mean an infection has developed. Antibiotics are commonly prescribed by doctors to treat ear, sinus, and lung infections. One news company reported that the Amoxicillin shortage is due to an “early respiratory season”.  Another reporter claims, “the amoxicillin shortage comes as children’s hospitals nationwide are reaching capacity due to a resurgence in respiratory illnesses.” Is there a reason to be concerned about an Amoxicillin shortage, or are antibiotic shortages normal?

 

Within this article, I’ve interviewed three medical professionals to determine if the recent news coverage of Amoxicillin is just fearmongering hype or an early warning flare. Below are my questions and their answers. 

 

What Medical Professionals Say About the Amoxicillin Shortage

 

Joe Alton, MD

  1. Why is Amoxicillin the most prescribed antibiotic?

“Amoxicillin covers the bacteria from the most commonly-seen infections in the ears, sinuses, plus strep throat. It is also effective for certain pneumonias. It’s not too broad-spectrum, which means it doesn’t kill off some of the good bacteria in our gut. It’s also very inexpensive, with a ten-day course costing between four to eight dollars (some places it’s free!).” 

2. The FDA states the Amoxicillin shortage is due to a “demand increase for drug.” What factors would cause a demand increase?

“A common reason for such shortages are mass purchases by the military or other government agencies replenishing national stockpiles. Some years ago, the military purchased so much of the antibiotic doxycycline that it became widely unavailable for a time. As a result, the government issued an emergency use authorization for expired lots of the drug.”

3. Does the United States have any companies that produce Amoxicillin, or is all of it imported overseas?

“At present, only USAntibiotics of Bristol, TN produces amoxicillin in the United States (as far as I know).”

4. What medical preps or tips would you recommend to preppers as we face ‘supply chain issues’ and ‘increases in demand’ for vital medications?

“My advice would be to stockpile the medicines you can, be aware that most medicines remain potent longer than their expiration dates, and learn about medicinal plants in your area that you might be able to incorporate into a preparedness garden. Alternatives to standard drugs may not have as much scientific data behind them, but as President Theodore Roosevelt once said: “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.””

5. Amoxicillin Oral Powder, Albuterol, and Epinephrine Injection are just a few listed as “currently in shortage.” Is there a reason to be concerned about these shortages…

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PRESS RELEASE: EPIC to Federal Trade Commission: It is Time to Protect Consumers from Commercial Surveillance

WASHINGTON, DC  –  Today, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) submitted comments in response to the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding a Trade Regulation Rule on Commercial Surveillance and Data Security. As EPIC explains:

The unchecked spread of commercial surveillance over the last two decades has led to a data privacy crisis for consumers in the United States. The ability to monitor, profile, and target consumers at a mass scale has created a persistent power imbalance that robs individuals of their autonomy and privacy, stifles competition, and undermines democratic systems. It is far past time to disrupt this data abuse and set rules of the road for our online ecosystem to ensure that companies cannot extract private value from personal data in ways that undermine the public good. 

“For twenty years, lawmakers and regulators have failed to protect us as whole industries have risen to power on the exploitation of our personal data,” said EPIC Senior Counsel John Davisson. “Who we are, what we like, where we go, what we believe—the intimate details of lives have become commodified and used to extract profit. But it doesn’t have to be this way. The FTC has the power to set rules that will limit what companies know about us, rein in harmful algorithms, crack down on digital discrimination and harms to children, secure our data, and reverse the asymmetry of power between consumers and big tech. EPIC’s comments set out a comprehensive blueprint for the FTC to do that.”

EPIC told the Commission that it should address the widespread data abuses by data brokers, targeted advertising firms, and other entities facilitating commercial surveillance by issuing comprehensive privacy rules that address the unfair trade practices that are causing substantial privacy injuries to consumers every day. Specifically, EPIC said the Commission should issue a data minimization rule to ensure that companies only collect personal data that they need to provide consumers with the goods and services that they request; collection and uses of personal data that go beyond what consumers reasonably expect should be prohibited.

EPIC also detailed harm that consumers are suffering as the result of untested, unsubstantiated, opaque, and dangerous automated decision-making systems in commerce. The Commission should issue an algorithmic fairness and accountability rule to require companies to establish that their decisionmaking systems are effective, accurate, and free from impermissible bias before they are deployed, and ensure that companies give meaningful notice to consumers about the use of these systems. EPIC also called for a ban on algorithmic systems that have been shown to cause serious and systemic harms, such as one-to-many facial recognition and emotion recognition systems. 

Commercial surveillance and algorithmic decision-making systems disproportionately harm marginalized communities, and EPIC calls on the Commission to prohibit discrimination as an unfair trade practice.

EPIC also highlighted that minors are uniquely vulnerable to profiling and the outputs of commercial surveillance systems, which are necessarily designed to suggest and shape preferences and beliefs. The Commission should issue a rule limiting the collection and processing of minors’ data unless strictly necessary…

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Primitive Sun Block Methods and Burn Remedies | Homesteading Simple Self Sufficient Off-The-Grid

Primitive Sun Block Methods and Burn Remedies | Homesteading Simple Self Sufficient Off-The-Grid | Homesteading.com <![CDATA[ window._wpemojiSettings = {"baseUrl":"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72×72/","ext":".png","svgUrl":"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/svg/","svgExt":".svg","source":{"concatemoji":"https://homesteading.com/wp-includes/js/wp-emoji-release.min.js?ver=6.0.3"}}; /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(e,a,t){var n,r,o,i=a.createElement("canvas"),p=i.getContext&&i.getContext("2d");function s(e,t){var a=String.fromCharCode,e=(p.clearRect(0,0,i.width,i.height),p.fillText(a.apply(this,e),0,0),i.toDataURL());return p.clearRect(0,0,i.width,i.height),p.fillText(a.apply(this,t),0,0),e===i.toDataURL()}function c(e){var t=a.createElement("script");t.src=e,t.defer=t.type="text/javascript",a.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(t)}for(o=Array("flag","emoji"),t.supports={everything:!0,everythingExceptFlag:!0},r=0;r tallest) { tallest = thisHeight; } }); group.height(tallest); } equalHeight($(“.dg-grid-shortcode .dg_grid-shortcode-col”)); $(window).resize(function() { equalHeight($(“.dg-grid-shortcode .dg_grid-shortcode-col”)); }); }); ]]>

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11 Edible Tree Leaves for Survival

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Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

11 Edible Tree Leaves for Survival

Young tree leaves are the best to eat. This is one of the most important lessons when it comes to harvesting edible tree leaves. 

When your delicious spinach leaves and lettuce leaves bolt, or go to seed, you know that they become tough and bitter. The same is true of these edible tree leaves. They are best harvested in the spring or off of new growth that is young and tender. 

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Late season leaves are going to be the most bitter and the most fibrous. 

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How to Eat Tree Leaves

Of course, you can just tear them off and chew them up. I would recommend you get a little more creative if you want to add edible tree leaves to your diet. 

Foraged Salads

If you are out foraging wild edible tree leaves then you might as well forage some other edible greens, too. Plan on adding all of these foraged foods together to create some kind of simple salad. You can even mix foraged foods with salad lettuces from your own garden

Purees 

Wild edible tree leaves can be added to smoothies or even pureed and added to soups and pesto.

Fresh or Dried Teas

Tea is a great way to enjoy wild edibles like tree leaves. Drying the leaves will make them last longer but having tea leaves that are fresh often has a different kind of flavor. 

Wraps 

Larger edible leaves can be used to wrap up things like rice or meat stuffings. 

11 Trees With Edible Leaves 

1. Maple 

Red Maple Leaves Against Blue Sky

Maple trees require a bit of work up front depending on the species. Young Japanese maple leaves can be battered and fried. Larger maple leaves are supposed to be layered in a container and dusted with salt then left in a cool dark place for up to 10 months! 

The process sounds crazy, but this is how you can preserve the leaves. Batter fried, they are dusted with powdered sugar as a tasty treat. Maybe even drizzled with a little maple syrup?

Want to prep but not sure where to begin?
Click Here to Get Your FREE One Year Urban Survival Plan!

2. Mulberry

Fresh Mulberry Leaves

The mulberries get all the love when we are talking about this tree. Few people take advantage of the wild edible leaves as a resource. Mulberry leaves always reminded me of puzzle pieces. They are one of the rare trees, like sassafras, that has a few different shapes of leaves on a single tree. 

There are five segmented leaves that look like stars with rounded edges, then there are fuller, thicker versions of these leaves and finally there is a leaf that looks like…

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