Raising children to be orphans

When a father teaches his kids

A six year-old girl picking apples

This screen-grab is from one of the "Dacha video" channels that I follow. The property is approximately 4 acres in size and food from it supports 15 people (according to what Afanasy, the narrator, said in a video when they were butchering a steer).

The dacha is approximately 30 miles northwest of Kharkiv, Ukraine and 10 miles south of the Russian/Ukraine border.

While it might seem very dark, Afanasy and his wife are raising their children to be orphans. They are very intentionally, and intensively passing on the life-skills that those children might need to survive without them.

That is a night-and-day difference from how most Americans either helicopter parent or ignore their children and allow them to feral/free-range and then toss the task of teaching their children "over the wall" to the professionals. 

For most of our history as a species, parents had very little time to pass skills on to their children due to our short life expectancy. A child might be born to a sixteen year-old and both mother and father were dead before that child was sixteen. So, our genetic coding is to be a sponge for useful knowledge in the first years of our (extended) lives, years that are now mostly-wasted scrolling on tablets and watching animated princesses and mermaids.

Link to the video at the 4:19 mark. I ported you in where he is talking about he advantages of injection molded, plastic crates for storing apples. One factor that he did not talk about is the ergonomics of the plastic crates. Because they are wider in the direction of shoulder-to-shoulder, and shallower than most wooden crates, the center-of-gravity when full is closer to your spine and they are much easier on the back to pick up and carry.

He starts training his children on how to pick apples without damaging the trees and how to grip them and put them into the buckets without bruising them.

At the 6:56 mark he is showing how to twist and lift the apples off the branch (although he is not narrating about that).

At the 8:25 mark he is working with his six year-old (my guess regarding age) daughter. First he demonstrates (while talking) then he inspects her as she works. Finally, he affirms that she is doing it to his satisfaction. We communicate our expectations by what we inspect.

At the 9:06 mark it is clear that his children crave his approval and are proud of their skills.

As modest as her harvest is at this point, it still represents two-weeks worth of apple consumption for her...and she is just getting started.

At the 13:30 mark, Afanasy is handing his youngest daughter (about 2 years-old) apples and she is transferring them to the bucket. His main purpose is not to get work out of her (frankly, she is slowing him down). It is to train her.

Afanasy described an apple-picking apron that he used in a commercial orchard. Link to a similar apron. Note: The apron is not shipped with the model wearing it.

 

Great weather for working outside

I want to get in about three hours of splitting and stacking wood today. The fly in the ointment is that I have to unstack the wood before I can split it. Then restack it.

One-hand-washes-the-other, impact velocities, splitting wood and etc.

Stock trailers

One of the roadblocks I ran into in getting livestock to graze our pasture is the lack of access to a stock trailer.

I reached out to some of the people I know who are effective at networking and one of them got back to me. They have a neighbor who has a trailer and they would consider renting it out but the last horse that it had hauled had broken one of the rotted-out floor-boards.

After learning what time the neighbor was usually home from work, I went over and introduced myself. Indeed, they thought very highly of my contact and any friend of hers was a friend of theirs. The only problem was the flooring.

I suggested that I was retired and perhaps to cement-the-deal, that I take it upon myself to repair the floor.

$86 later, I had knocked out six 2"-by-10", 5' pieces and replaced them with new. 

My investment in this trailer is quite literally a "stock option". 

Brass prep proceeds apace

A 69gr, Sierra .224" Tipped GameKing launched at 2600fps will arrive 200 yards downrange at 2100fps and it will have a mid-range apogee of 2.4" if sighted in for 200 yards.

Those velocities are very comfortably within the range of impact velocities that a modern cup-and-core bullet will A.) Expand and B.) Hold together.

Is a .223 Remington the greatest deer cartridge in the world? Nope. But with the right projectile and a patient hunter, it is far from the worst.

For future reference, a 55gr, Hornady  .224" softpoint launched at 2800fps will also arrive 200 yards downrange at 2100fps with a mid-range apogee of 2.2".

Splitting wood

I started splitting wood by hand this morning. It felt good to be doing it. That is why you didn't get a mid-day update.

Lifting notes

I went through the warm-up. Everything was fine.

I did the first set of 205 pounds. Everything was fine.

I did the first lift of the second set and something felt off. I did the second rep and something wasn't right.

I packed it up and went home. Some days are like that.

Physical conditioning at 67 years-old is more about avoiding injury and setbacks than pushing-through.

Feed conversion ratios

Catfish: 1:1

Broiler chickens: 1:1.8 (1.8 pounds of feed turns into 1.0 pounds of live chicken)

Tilapia 1:2.0

Grass Carp 1:2.0 

Turkeys 1:2.5

Swine 1:3.5 

A few thoughts

The weight of the feed is "dry weight" and the weight of the meat animal is "wet weight". The "dry weight" of the body is approximately 40% of the total weight. So our champion catfish, on a dry-weight basis, has a conversion ratio of 1:2.5 and all of the other alternatives also suffer.

Typically, much of the weight of the animal is lost to processing...hide, guts, fluids dripping on the floor, bones. I don't have a conversion ratio for eggs, but the low processing losses are in its favor. Points in favor of modern, industrial meat-processing is that almost none of the animal goes to waste; even the feathers and hair can be hydrolyzed in HCl and used to provide umami flavoring for ramen noodles!

Traditional small-holdings didn't feed animals large amounts of high-quality feed. They might have fed some grain for energy and garden-and-kitchen waste, but the animals were also expected to forage for some of their own vittles. The traditional method of raising animals used them as one more net to capture human-quality nutrients before waste was returned to the soil. 

Still alive

Busy prepping brass this morning.

I will post something mid-day. 

New Kanji for "lack of situational awareness" proposed

"Oblivious" or "Completely lacking in situational awareness"

Robert commented that the Kanji for "noisy" is archaic and obsolete.

Always wanting to help a brother, I updated the Kanji for modern times. 

Brush, pallets, turkeys and an inspiring email

Brush control

Asian bittersweet climbing up a fishing pole.

Yesterday was another day of cutting brush followed with cut-stem application of herbicide. Much of what I am cutting has been cut before and is multi-stemmed.

I don't inherently dislike multi-stemmed trees that sucker. They have a place and a function. When they are outside of their place, then they are a weed.

Today will be more of the same. 

Breaking down pallets

It takes time. My biggest concern is being mindful of nails.

One of the newer pallets must have come from Asia. One of the stringers that the slats were nailed to was extremely heavy and figured. It would make good knife handles or, maybe, cutting boards. I will get a mass density and some pictures today, God willing.

The days are getting shorter

I am noticing. I cannot get as much done.

The leaves are falling. I can see the squirrels in the walnut trees.

I saw five deer yesterday.

Heritage turkey breeds

I am contemplating adding a small number of turkeys to our operation.

My preference is toward the more natural colored breeds like Bourbon Reds, Narragansett, Bronze or Black Spanish primarily to not attract attention from predators. Much of what I end up with will be heavily influenced by what will be available in May of 2027.

Do any of you raise or know of people raising heritage turkeys? All thoughts will be appreciated.  

I got an email yesterday

One of my readers stepped up and volunteered to lead "a Project" at the local high school. The team of students planted three apple trees on the school property.

He sent me an email with some pictures.

One of the (many) things that I think he did spectacularly well is that he gave the students ownership.

A cynical thought

The mainstream media is reporting that the chances of the Republican candidates has evaporated and that they have zero chance of retaining control of the Senate and House of Representatives.

My first thought questions their basis. Polls are totally trash. Many people who plan on voting refuse to answer random phone calls.

My more cynical thought is that if the Democrats don't crush the Republicans in the midterms, they have a "set-up" for rioting just like we see in France. They can claim "The Republicans stole the elections".

Regardless of which party wins, pray for America. 

Bonus link  When somebody promises violence, take them seriously.

A thought from Seth Capehart

"You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with" 

If you want to improve your life, be more selective in who you spend time with on-line as well as in meat-space and watch on TV. 

Brush control, putting Quicksilver to work, gym notes and a future road-trip

Yesterday's outside work was mostly cutting Box Elder and treating the cut stumps with herbicide. I was also cutting and pulling Asian Bittersweet vines out of trees. That was heavy work.

I acquired an impressive collection of stick-tight seeds while working outside. 

Inside, Quicksilver helped me make tree-tubes to slide over young trees to protect them from the rabbits. I cut old newspapers, rolled them on a mandrel and ran a bead of glue along the edge of the paper before I finished rolling them. Quicksilver then applied the tape to hold the assembly together while the glue dried. Then she pulled the fragile tube off of the mandrel and put them on the pile to dry.

It should be obvious that these can only be used for unbranched whips, but it is much, much faster than wrapping them in-the-field.

One of the pages had the picture and obituary of Susan N., one of our family friends. She will be pleased that even after she left this valley-of-toil-and-tears that she can still do good work. 

I also went to the gym and lifted.

There was a class going on. It had women. It had LOTS of women. The instructor, who was also a woman, was introducing them one-by-one to all of the types of equipment in the gym. The group assembled around the piece of equipment in question. The instructor demonstrated how to use it. Then each woman, in turn, used the equipment while the instructor coached them. Each woman did three "sets", each in their own turn, before the group moved on.

The equipment for arm curls is right next to the deadlift platform and the Japanese symbol or "Woman" looks a lot like a woman doing a curl.

I bought an anvil yesterday

I have to pick it up tomorrow.  I bought it at an on-line auction and picking it up involves a modest road-trip.

Bonus image

Probably an AI image. Who buys gold-plated battery cable terminals?

 

Fine Art Tuesday

 

Iceskating

Maximillien Clarenbach was born in 1880 in Germany and died in 1952.

He is notable for painting the same landscape hundreds of times from slightly different perspectives. He didn't make copies. He set up his easel and slapped out another painting.

The detail is coarse. The colors are muddy or nearly extinct. But a discriminating viewer can get a sense of the area that a single, highly detailed image cannot tell.

Fish net in the foreground. The shallow, sloping banks are clearly "flood-plains" likely the Erft River. The last image in this post is not a painting but an actual photo of the Erft River near Bergheim.

The trees  look like willows. The visual density of the tree canopies suggest the buds are swelling so the snow is likely a surprise, spring dusting of snow.

The trees are planted in rows. The branching of the trees in the foreground are not the usual willow-or-poplar. Perhaps elm or even Honey Locust.

This ground-level perspective accentuates the flatness. My best guess is that this is actually in the floodplains of the Rhine near Neuss.

I bet this area has a lot of insects during the warmer months.

A rare upland image

Another boat. More fishnets.

 

Actual photo. The brush along the river means that grazing animals are not pastured there any more, nor is it "bent to the plow".

Another actual photo of the Erft River. I have to admit that "Erft River" rates right up there with Ontario's "Nith River" for intriguing names.