Countryside & Small Stock Journal articles from March 2000

Countryside & Small Stock Journal archives from March 2000

Discovering our roots: How the 1920s and '30s shaped modern homesteading.
March 1, 2000... The special feature of this issue grew out of reading a book that delivered more than it promised--and much more than I'd expected. I hope this issue of COUNTRYSIDE does the same for you--especially if you think reading about the Dust Bowl...

Internet is a wonderful resource.
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: I am sitting here at my computer desk (at midnight) reading the January/February issue. I just finished the article on "Homesteaders and the Computer Age" (pg. 62). I would like to say that I am one of those "modern" homesteaders....

Federal Reserve born out of panic.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: The article by the Intentional Peasant (83/6:112) contained a great analysis of the Federal Reserve. I would not change the analysis. However, some of the conclusions given could be more factual, rather than opinion. While...

How do you place a value on labor?
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: I've been reading your magazine since 1968. It just keeps getting better. Regarding those "funny little green things," there are two points I really wish people would realize. Those little green things do have a value that...

Insights and info on kerosene.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: I would like to share some of our insights and info. We rely on kerosene and candles for light. Since we try to avoid WalMart, we purchased two of our kerosene lamps at an antique store, another at a garage sale. A friend had...

Wood, water, and propane hibernation shack.
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: As B.C. Hydro is not available where I built my home (nor would I have it, if it were), I found that my complete system for kitchen, bathroom, living room and my "hibernation shack" was put together for less than $500, including my...

Solar roofing material trials.
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: A comment about converting to solar power (in reference to the Jan/Feb issue): The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) is running trials on a new roofing material in their Sacramento, California, service area. As I...

Homesteading in Costa Rica.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... COUSTRYSIDE: We've gone through many changes in the last four months. Calling it "an accelerated learning curve" is an understatement. Four days after we sold our Jeep, our three-year-old propane refrigerator that cost us $2,600 down here...

He has the best of both worlds in West Virginia.
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: I purchased a 65 acre farm in the beautiful rolling hills of West Virginia in 1989 with a nice home, large new barn, ponds, outbuildings, a 30-foot hand-dug well that produces very clean, ample water that I have equipped with both...

"Indian Bread" and cattail propagation.
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: We love your magazine! We are ordering the books, Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants, and The Dandelion Celebration from the COUNTRYSIDE Bookstore. We have long been interested in foraging. When I attended...

Homesteading on Main Street.
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: I've included some photos of last year's garden. We fenced in the vegetables to discourage the guineas and chickens from munching on 'em. This past fall we added Rhode Island Reds and more guineas to our home flock. The teepees...

Temporary garden fencing.
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: Here's my renewal. Keep doing what you're doing. I enjoy every issue whether I agree with everything or not. Just like a healthy ecosystem, diversity is our strength! Appreciate your attempt to provide lots of different angles. ...

Setbacks don't deter his efforts.
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: In the years since I began subscribing to COUNTRYSIDE, I have eliminated trash pickup service, recycled nearly everything, composted nearly everything else, raised ducks and a lamb, harvested a nice variety of fruits and vegetables...

Flourishing in a 24' x 24' "mansion".
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: Our family is homesteading outside Rawlins, WY, and your magazine is just what we need. It's great! We managed to find 160 acres of undeveloped land for $150 an acre. No fences, no buildings, no trees, just lots of sage brush,...

They're thrilled with their family cow.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: This is the first time I've written. I appreciate all the work that goes into COUNTRYSIDE, from the staff to all the down-to-earth people who write in. One point I'd like to make on the subject of a family cow. If you're...

Compressed air for butchering chickens.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: In the Jan/Feb 2000 issue Donna Cerabone derailed how she skins chickens using water to separate the skin from the body. It would seem the same process could use compressed air with less fuss and muss, which I understand is used in...

Goats keep him occupied.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: First of all I want to thank Jd and Diane for all their hard work and sacrifice to make COUNTRYSIDE what it is today. I would have written sooner, but my wife was in the hospital in intensive care. I buried her November 10, so...

Vegetarians read "Small Stock" magazine.
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: I must confess, after the first issue we were going to cancel as it seemed none of the articles pertained to us. Most of that issue was devoted to animal care, animal preparation, and animal eating. Since we are (do I dare say it?)...

Some prefer knowledge; even if it is unsettling.
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: I am going to renew for only one year this time in hope you people will come back to some semblance of reality. Your scare tactics about Y2K remind me of Armageddon theology. Paired with your advertisers, who are trying to make a...

Job layoff turned into a blessing.
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: What a funny world we live in. After clambering rung-by-rung up the corporate ladder for over 20 years, getting more and more successful but becoming even more and more miserable, I found myself tossed out like yesterday's fish....

Here's proof that bad luck doesn't last forever.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: We have been a faithful and a much encouraged part of the COUNTRYSIDE family for over four years now (if I'd known of you sooner, my life would have been much richer for much longer) and I've watched and learned about the homestead...

Homesteading at 80.
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: We have every issue of COUNTRYSIDE since spring of 1973. It has really helped us. We were "city people" when we moved beyond the sidewalks, although we had some country-type experience--after all, we were in our 50s then and...

Geothermal cooling.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: Have you heard of anyone who uses a home "air conditioner" system that works like this: You dig a 10 by seven foot pit and fill it with rocks. At one end a four-inch diameter pipe goes to outside air and the bottom of the pit....

Cats are a taboo subject.
March 1, 2000... We should have known better. We certainly have had enough experience. And interestingly, we noted in the old magazines we researched for this issue that editors had the same problems more than 70 years ago. The taboo topic? Cats! ...

Tips on using and caring for kerosene lanterns.
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: (Ref. Kerosene, 84/ 1:59): I use oil lamps because of the soft nature of the light and the general atmosphere they create. I started out as a collector and still pursue that as an investment hobby. Many of the lamps that have...

And more tips ...(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: Regarding Tom Brantmeier's question in 84/1:59, here is another snippet for the kerosene file. Put three ounces of lime in a gallon of kerosene and swish around for three minutes. Then strain through three layers of...

Mareks disease is a problem in this poultry yard.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: I'm wondering if I can eliminate Mareks disease from poultry? After bringing home one-day-old chicks from a hatchery, we set up 20 Black Australorps and five Rhode Island Reds from our hen, in our kitchen. We had two separate...

Pigs (and their caretakers) do better raised outside.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: I raised pigs for 20 years using various methods and facilities from outdoor loose farrowing, (birthing) two times a year, to totally confined inside farrowing, six times per year. I never had more robust, healthy pigs than when I...

Recommended reading for homestead lifestyle.
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: I enjoy your magazine so much. After years of newstanding it, I finally got a subscription and now my husband and I wrestle over it when ever it comes (not that that's a bad thing). If there were four publications I would...

Seeking fireblight treatment.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: Can you help? I have a Kieffer pear tree that is almost 100 years old that suddenly developed fireblight that was all over the tree. About half of the leaves were black. I read in All About Growing Fruits, Berries and Nuts, by...

Rushing folk want to slow down.
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: Just wanted to say thank you for all of the years I have enjoyed this magazine! I look forward to each and every issue. It's jam-packed with things that are really useful. I live in the foothills of the Cascade mountains...

What are friends for ...
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: Thank you, thank you, thank you! I began reading your magazine back in 1995, when a friend of mine shared her magazines with me. I loved them then and I love them now. At the time I was living in a fairly large suburban area of...

Wisconsin home steader not ashamed of being prepared.
March 1, 2000... COUNTRYSIDE: I am very grateful to you for the way your magazine handled Y2K. All the articles and commentaries have been helpful and insightful. How thankful I am that there were very few glitches due to concerned and knowledgeable people...

Dusting off our roots: The Dirty 30s.
March 1, 2000... Introduction: The Dow Jones Industrial Average is at its highest level in history. Unemployment is near the lowest. Almost 70% of Americans today own their own homes--more than at any time in the last century. The number of millionaires...

Broke in spite of high wages.(city dwellers of the 1930s)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... "A large majority of the people in the cities have not saved anything. They do not own much. Most of what they earn goes for food, and clothes, and shelter. Only a small percent live in the lap of luxury, or even accumulate good-sized fortunes....

Is it a mistake to let horses go?(horse population dwindles in 1930)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... "Ten years ago we said on this page that `power-driven machinery will ultimately replace horses on the farm.' This made a good many people laugh, and some were indignant. Yet, just look at what has happened. Within the 10 years the horse...

There's a good time coming.(pay rates for farmers should equal those in other industries)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Our readers are sharp enough to see the several ways this item is linked to many others in this issue. So it requires no comment, except to note that it appeared in March, 1929. We note with interest this news item, bearing a New York date...

Pests arrive by airplane.(a prediction made in 1929)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Some of the bugologists are worried and not without cause, at the possibility of introducing new pests into the country by means of the airplane. Heretofore, harmful insects and plant diseases--like other immigrants--have come in by way of...

Chain stores: The "A&P" effect on homesteading.
March 1, 2000... In the 1920s farmers had many familiar and recurring problems such as weather and low prices. But there was another one that is seldom heard about today: chain stores. Called "the greatest marketing development of the last 50 years," grocery...

We're pretty good when we look ourselves over: Read this survey of farm progress and see another day comes to farming.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... That was the headline on this story in 1928. Today, ours would be "How homesteading bit the dust." This story contributes to several of our goals for this issue. It succinctly covers the transition of homesteading to farming, and...

The more things change, the more they stay the same.(a 1929 quotation says a farmer's work should be valued)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... A letter to the editor from 1928 EDITOR FARM LIFE: I have been interested in the discussion "On what farming needs?" by Farm Life folks. That the American farmer is a very sick man there can be no doubt. And his sickness has gone beyond...

How to build a barn -- or anything else -- with little time or money.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... This article appeared in a now long-defunct farm magazine way back in 1929--before the Crash, and before farming and homesteading became two separate and very different callings. It helps to dramatize those differences and the period in which...

Brevities and short cuts from 1929 Tips for all around the farm.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... What kind of a coat has your farm machinery got--one of paint or one of rust? The paint is a lot cheaper. More and more farmers are sowing three or four pounds of timothy seed to the acre with alfalfa. It cures a lot easier and the timothy...

Grow potatoes on pasture land.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Our pasture land was a fine piece of ground and had furnished our cows with grass for years. It had never been plowed, just seeded and harrowed between the stumps a few times. The cows had grazed on this ground so much it was high time to get...

Some farmers were early ecologists.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Common-sense approach lost out to economics? Homesteaders (and some city people) are more concerned about pesticides than most farmers. That wasn't always the case--especially during the transition from homesteading to agribusiness...

Handy To Know.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... A hydraulic ram will pump water from a stream or spring, where as much as a three-foot fall can be had, and a flow of from two to six gallons a minute. It will force water ten times the height of the fall. It's a good time now to look the...

Raising Better Calves.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Another spring opens with hundreds of thousands more calves to raise. And flocks of the little fellows will be fed wrong or out of dirty pails, and kept off in dark, evil smelling barns and otherwise misused. And a lot of them will be upset in...

Feeding the chicks.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... You have your own method of feeding baby chicks. If it has given you good results, there is no reason why you should change. But if your losses have been large, maybe the trouble is in the feeding. A chick is a delicate morsel of life, and the...

Gape in chickens.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Taking the affected chickens I put them in a deep and narrow box. This I cover with a medium weight loosely woven cloth, holding it down firmly, but allowing it to bag in the center. Then I dust in slacked lime, raising the cover from time to...

For hen lice.
March 1, 2000... TO THE EDITORS: I am very much interested in the helpful things I read in your valuable paper. I want to tell my dear friends who raise poultry that all they have to do to keep hen lice out is to take coal ashes and just give them a throw in...

Good records with chicks.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... That it is possible to reduce the death rate in baby chicks to less than 10 percent has been shown by a group of Hold County, Missouri, farmers. Out of 3,697 chicks on the eight farms where records were kept in co-operation with the county...

Saving the baby chicks.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Some chicks just naturally die, for no known reason, but very few. Most of those that fall by the wayside are murdered. In mortality statistics kept of more than 300,000 chicks -- enough, certainly, to strike an average -- it was found that...

Mr. and Mrs. Guinea.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... There is no sure way to tell the male guinea fowl from the female by looks. Usually the wattles of the male are a little larger than the female's, but this is not always noticeable -- nor is it true in every case. But their cries are...

Green foods for rabbits.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... After some years of experience and observation, I am of the firm opinion that rabbits are not fed enough green food. I know that some will agree while many will disagree with me on this much discussed point. To make myself clear, I must qualify...

The Successful Breeder News.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Thousands of farmers are taking heavy losses this year in hogs, cattle and poultry. The loss sustained on cattle throughout the western states is ranging from $6.00 to $15.00 per head. Poultry raisers have been hit hard. Hogs are being...

A new house for your old one: Stucco will make the exchange at moderate cost.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Stucco is something we don't see or hear much about today. Maybe we should. This article, from 1929, makes it sound useful... and simple. Perhaps your old house is looking sort of shabby and beginning to let in too much of the summer heat...

Standard of living.
March 1, 2000... Gentlemen: In regard to the articles mentioning the McNary--Haugen bill, I would like to say that it is one of the most unprofitable bills that has ever gone before Congress. I have studied that bill from all angles (as I debated on it) and I...

What a housewife needs.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Now, here's something that would make the Thoroughly Modern Millies (should any read this magazine) tremble with politically correct anger, or shriek with laughter. The editors trust that thoroughly modern homesteaders will receive it more...

Can a city woman do the things a country woman can?
March 1, 2000... TO THE EDITOR: So many articles are written in magazines, casting reflections on country people's mental ability that I would like to make a reply. I am a country woman, born in a small town in New York. When I was about ten years of age, my...

When pressure cooking was new.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... "Foods are more appetizing cooked in their own juices, quickly and thoroughly" Someone recently told me that my reference, in Raising Milk Goats the Modern Way, to pressure cookers (for sterilizing syringes) was "outdated, as almost no one...

Tested recipes.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... To preserve the 1920s flavor of this issue, these recipes are from that period. Olive oil pickles Peel and thinly slice 30 table-size cucumbers and six onions. Cover with brine made of 1/4 cup of salt and boiling water. Let stand two...

Rural communities should emphasize building relationships.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Community development in rural areas has historically meant building "things" such as new schools or recreational centers. But in the future, rural areas should emphasize strengthening relationships and working together, says a sociologist at...

The Mora knife: The backwoodsman's choice.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Ask any back-country inhabitant--homesteader, hunter, trapper, fisherman, prospector or backwoodsman--what tool they most frequently use. The answer will most likely be their knife. This bit of wisdom is nothing new. Every historical account we...

The best log tool.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Planning on building with logs? Save lots of time and money using this most versatile tool. It copes, cuts, shapes and strips logs like butter. The tool is comprised of a 4-1/2 inch electric hand grinder and a Lancelot 14-tooth saw chain...

Gary's Creations.(Gary Ecert)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Situated along Highway 49, between the historic towns of Bridgeton and Salem, New Jersey, sits a roadside display of some very eye-catching creations. "Gary's Creations" to be exact. I passed his display of most unusual, handmade, primitive...

No homestead should be without comfrey.(plant care and medical use)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Comfrey. No homestead should be without this plant, commonly called Russian broadleaf comfrey, Symphistum uplandicum or knitbone. Both the common and Latin names for comfrey come from root words meaning "to join" or "to grow together." This...

Getting started with livestock.(money-saving tips for farm start-up)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Everyone and anyone who has farmed or is considering it has found out that the start-up costs run high. Besides the land, livestock on the open market is the most expensive. A good family milk cow can run you anywhere from $450 to $1,200,...

Hair sheep: clean, safe and efficient.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... The year 2000 marks the end of the millennium and the virtual end of commercial wool sheep production in the US. The transition from wool sheep production to raising hair sheep is occurring for several reasons. In 1999 a typical ewe...

Overcoming obstacles is key to rural internet access.(University of Kentucky TVA Rural Studies report)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... As we move into the 21st century and all its communications marvels, one sobering fact tends to dampen the enthusiasm of rural computer users: It's harder for them to connect to the Internet than people who live near cities. Recent U.S....

Another view of What homesteading is -- and is not.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... It doesn't bare to mean a life of drudgery What a surprise to read in the Jan/Feb issue all the emphasis on "modern homesteading!" This has been my soap-box for many years: The true measure of a "homesteader" is not in what one has or...

The organic/eco farm of the 21st century.
March 1, 2000... The organic/eco farm has the potential to be the cornerstone of the rural revival. Let's look into the future to try to describe some of the characteristics of the organic/eco farm of tomorrow. If the 21st century organic farm is to be...

The changing face of education in America.
March 1, 2000... Distance education brings down barriers I envision an evolution, even a revolution, in the educating of our children and ourselves. The cultural changes on the horizon cut to the very core of the institutions that make up our public...

When an empty nest fills up again.
March 1, 2000... Grandparents get a new purpose in life Yogi Berra once said when something familiar was happening, "it's like deja vu all over again." Well, that's the way Dottie and I feel on our homestead near Hallettsville in southeast Texas since our...

A Texas homesteader.
March 1, 2000... I have been receiving COUNTRYSIDE for four years now. I have been impressed by the wealth of information I have learned and am thankful for the encouragement to never give up. This is my pat on the back to you and everyone who has contributed...

Amish ancestors.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... We have forgotten so much that our ancestors knew. Thank goodness for COUNTRYSIDE magazine and the Belangers' efforts to keep the self-sufficient ways of the past handy for use in the soft, commercial age going on around us. In recent...

What does it eat?
March 1, 2000... THE INTENTIONAL PEASANT BALTIMORE, MARYLAND Reading about artist-writer Tasha Tudor's "primitive" lifestyle in Biblio magazine set this old mind turning over the concept of "upkeep." What do the things we use cost in terms of time, toil...

Winter and Y2K: preparations coincide.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... We (actually I, the old editor), thought that when we revived the old Question of the Month it would take, well, months, to get your responses through the mail, get them set into type, and into print. Wake-up time: By shortly after dawn on...

A time for reflection.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Homestead Millennium Diary, December 31, 1999 5:30 A.M.: Clear,. starry morning. Stoke up the fire, read my Bible, wash the dishes we were too tired last night to tackle. 8 A.M.: Let out the chickens--they're anxious to come outside to...

Where were we when the lights didn't go out?(those prepared for a Y2k disaster are now ready for inclement weather)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... So, you listened to all those Y2K "experts" and prepared for starvation, riots, and the end of civilization as we know it. You now have 270 gallons of water, in one gallon water containers, lining the back wall of your bedroom. The corner of...

They didn't need a house to feel "at home".
March 1, 2000... I'm sitting here on December 29, writing a letter to you folks which will reach you in seconds, on a computer that might not be working a few days from now. But, we can live with that, as not long ago, we didn't have this piece of machinery and...

Full pantry syndrome.
March 1, 2000... I read in the Nov/Dec issue that you wanted to hear how we spent New Year's Eve. Well, here you go. It's Sunday afternoon and as often happens, friends from church stopped by on their way back home. Although I'd skimmed through the...

Cleaning kitchens, cleaning critters ...(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Life goes on A woke just before 6 A.M., December 31, 1999, and dressed in jeans and old sweatshirt. While making a pot of coffee, I glanced out the kitchen window and caught a flash of headlights through the trees. A group of goose hunters...

A year-end trip to town is very revealing.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Wednesday, 12-29-99 This afternoon I had to visit the local Wal-Mart and, despite media reports that all is normal, I can see panic buying all around me. One couple is over in the paper goods aisle filling a shopping cart with all the...

Y2K: The final chapter.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Let's close the book on Y2K. or many of us, it has been a rewarding experience, in many ways. Like many others, I accomplished things that had been on the back burner for far too long. If they turned out to be helpful in an emergency,...