Look: a cow

[outsidetheparty]

In the car yesterday, I was being kind of quiet, and squirrelhaven asked me what I was thinking. And I realized that I was thinking about how much work it was going to be to clear the extra land around our house so we'd have room to raise some crops, and how I might be able to improvise a fence using the branches from the dead wood I've been clearing lately anyway, to pen in some grazing animals -- probably goats would be manageable -- would the lawn and be enough of a food source or would I need to clear more land for them, too? A lot of ferns grow in the woods here, can goats eat ferns? And if we stopped chlorinating the pool would it still stay clean enough to be a safe water source for the animals? because the stream at the bottom of the hill is much too far away, and it might be a good idea to get started on all of this sooner than later before it becomes impossible to rent a tractor, because if I have to try clearing those stumps by hand we're going to starve to death for sure.

I traced back through the chain of thoughts that had led to me spinning out this little apocalyptic peak-oil narrative to myself, and it turned out to have been triggered by this: I saw a cow. That's all it took.

It's possible I need to start being a bit more mindful of where I let myself drift.

--

Edited to add: This, of course, would be the same car ride during which she was planning our baby's pirate / ninja upbringing.

We're going to have one weird-ass kid.

Comments

[magdalene1.livejournal.com]

I like your crazy brain!

[kcobweb.livejournal.com]

I'd glad I'm not the only one who ruminates about how I'm going to survive after the apocalypse.

galagan says: "Just wait till you see where your brain goes after you have massive sleep deprivation!"

[ellinor.livejournal.com]

A few sentences into that my mind started wandering off into how I would move in and start my cheesemaking operation with the milk from the goats and cattle. So there's that.

;)

[kouredios.livejournal.com]

"We're going to have one weird-ass kid."

You're going to have one awesome kid.

Happens to me all the time

[lillith156.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed your vivid recollection of the chain, very lucid!

Sometimes that stuff is really inspired and you need to pay attention to it and take action on it. So in that spirit here is some stuff I know...

Goats are great. You can eat 'em and milk 'em, they are smart and sociable, and they will eat almost anything. Lawn is not sufficiently nutritious for goats, but it is an good start. You could choose the kind of grass to grow (broam, timothy, orchard are all good but not your usual suburban lawn grass). Must be very careful what the grass is treated with, no anti-weed stuff or high chemical fertilizers. Have to add some protein (like alfalfa) and grain to their diets for them to be really spanky happy.

I have no idea if they eat ferns or not. Well, yes, actually, they WOULD eat ferns. They'll eat anything. The pocket off your bluejeans, anything, really, no kidding. I don't know if ferns would be good for them especially, probably wouldn't hurt them though.

Goats do pretty well inside fences made of branches. Just have to maintain the fence as goats will push and climb. Mr. Tumnus just figured a way out of his pen here yesterday after being in it for a year. He is a persistent black goat fellow.

If you stop chlorinating the pool, it will grow algae. However chlorine is poison and can't be drunk, shouldn't be swum in either! Look into alternative treatments for the pool. I think bromine is a little less evil than chlorine and I used to have an 'ozonater' on my hot tub that allowed us to be almost chem free. Ozonater water is drinkable.

[bsdinobaby.livejournal.com]

We're going to have one weird-ass kid.

I certainly hope so.