Naked Chicks ... that Glow

This is creepy:



Glowing in the dark, GMO chickens shed light on bird flu fight

In the realm of avian research, the chicks with the glow-in-the-dark beaks and feet might one day rock the poultry world.

British scientists say they have genetically modified chickens in a bid to block bird flu and that early experiments show promise for fighting off the disease that has devastated the U.S. poultry and egg industries.

Their research, which has been backed by the UK government and top chicken companies, could potentially prevent repeats of this year's wipeout: 48 million chickens and turkeys killed because of the disease since December in the United States alone.

But these promising chickens - injected with a fluorescent protein to distinguish them from normal birds in experiments - won't likely gatecrash their way into poultry production any time soon. Health regulators around the world have yet to approve any animals bred as genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for use in food because of long-standing safety and environmental concerns.

Bird flu has become a global concern among researchers over the past decade because of its threat to poultry and human health, and UK researchers have been toiling in genetic engineering for years to control its spread.

People who are in close contact with infected poultry are most at risk for flu infections, and scientists are concerned about the risk for a human pandemic if the virus infects someone and then mutates. No humans have been infected in the latest U.S. outbreak, but there have been cases in Asia in recent years.

"The public is obviously aware of these outbreaks when they're reported and wondering why there's not more done to control it," said Laurence Tiley, a senior lecturer in molecular virology at the University of Cambridge, who is involved in the experiments.

[...]

At Cambridge and the University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute, scientists are using genetic engineering to try to control bird flu in two ways: by blocking initial infections in egg-laying chickens and preventing birds from transmitting the virus if they become infected.

[...]

To genetically engineer chickens, the UK researchers inject a "decoy" gene into a cluster of cells on the yolk of a newly laid egg. The egg will hatch into a chick containing the decoy gene, which it will be able to pass on to its offspring.

The decoy gene is injected into the chicken chromosome alongside the fluorescent protein that makes the birds glow under ultraviolet light, similar to glow-in-the-dark posters in college dorm rooms. The birds would not be bred to glow if they are commercialized.

When the modified birds come into contact with the flu, their genetic code is designed to trick the virus into copying the decoy and to inhibit the virus' ability to reproduce itself.

In one study with a form of decoy, scientists put 16 infected conventional chickens in contact with a mixture of 16 normal and 16 GMO chickens that contained a decoy. The GMO birds were found to be less susceptible and succumbed to infection more slowly than the conventional birds, said Tiley.

FARMER PROTECTIONS

A more flu-resistant bird could be a notable advance from the basic steps that farmers now rely on to avoid infections in barns, including banning visitors and disinfecting vehicle wheels.

Wild ducks, which can carry the virus, are thought to have spread the disease in the United States by dropping contaminated feces and feathers on farms. Humans can then transport the disease on their boots and trucks. [...]

I wish I could be more enthusiastic. The problem is, when you start genetically modifying plants or animals, you may solve a problem in the short term. But in the longer term, you may be creating bigger problems, caused by unforeseen side effects of deliberate genetic modifications, and by worse threats from diseases/insects predators that evolve themselves or change their behavior to adapt to the new genetically altered plant/animal.

Scientists may keep altering the plant or animal in response, till it becomes so modified from the original that it becomes degraded and vulnerable to something the original never had a problem with. And if the genetically modified mix with the originals, that vulnerability spreads to all of them. Our food supply could die out.

With so many people experiencing unemployment, we would be better off using people to go back to smaller farms using tried and true methods that don't degrade our food supply. But I don't see that happening, because:

1.) Agribusiness wants to keep their monopoly.
2.) Farming is hard work, and most people in advanced Western societies won't do it.

So we do the easy thing and let this continue, only to pay a worse price down the road. There has to be a better way.

     

Moss on the roof problems

We've had problems with ours, causing leaks by lifting the tiles up. So I've been researching solutions.

How to best remove the moss: "Dominic" on Youtube

How to keep it from growing back: This Old House Video

     

Oh, Deer! What could the matter be?

A few days ago, we had a back-yard visitor:


She seemed VERY interested in the fresh greens we had growing under netting. Fortunately she couldn't get at them.

We had seen evidence that there had been deer in the yard, but this is the first one we have actually seen during the seven years we've lived here.

So what could the matter be? Nothing, yet. It's just that when I went out in the yard, she didn't seem too bothered, and took her time leaving. Not very skittish. I just hope I won't have to start thinking of them as pests. So far so good.
     

Hydroponics + Fish Tanks = Aquaponics?

An interesting idea:

Your One-Stop Shop for everything Aquaponic:

[...] Aquaponics is a hybrid food growing technology combining the best of aqua-culture (growing fish) and hydroponics (growing veggies without soil), and it’s completely organic because the fish waste is your natural fertilizer and that means no pesticides. Aquaponics USA is dedicated to sharing information, developing products and bringing awareness of this life sustaining technology to every American home and School because it’s time Americans become Food Independent. [...]

I found this interesting, because for some time we have been breeding Guppies at home. One member of our household has often opined that, too bad we aren't growing something more practical, that could be used as food.

The Aquaponics system seems to be using large tanks of fish (Tilapia!) as a food source, but also using hydroponic plant bins as filter systems for the fish tanks, thus using the fishes waste products as nutrients for the plants, and using the plants (and beneficial bacteria with them) to keep the fishes environment clean and balanced.


What I'm not sure of though, is the greenhouse they are housed in. How is it to be heated in the Winter? They are in the high desert of California, where it even snows sometimes. And would the cost of heating the greenhouse, void the benefits of the food production? What I mean is, how could it be cost-effective? A quick look around the site did not reveal the answer. I will be looking around the site more, it has lots of links.

Also, I've seen seen Tilapia at the Supermarket. Damned UGLY fish. Don't know what it tastes like though. I suppose we'll have to try some soon.
     

From 9-11, to a Farm. Life, Death, and what is important to us.

I was living in San Francisco when 9-11 happened; I'd lived there for many years. I'd always preferred rural life to urban life, but I needed to work, and cities offered more job opportunities.

By 2001 I was a business owner. But as the economy soured, our business suffered, and we sold up and moved out. To a rural area, where we have a business in town and a small farm at home. I always figured we were heading to a place like this eventually. But 9-11, and it's effect on the economy and our business, made us decide to make the transition sooner rather than later.

While surfing the net, I came across one woman's 9-ll story. She worked near the towers. She got caught in the dust cloud when the first tower collapsed. She's a writer, and reading her story makes you feel like you were there:

First-hand account of 9/11

At the Wall St. train stop people were covered with papers. A plane crash. That's what everyone said. Then a boom. Everyone ran. I ran to my office and called my brother in the Midwest.

I wanted to be closer. At the corner of Church and Broadway, I angled my way through a large, packed crowd to get the best view. We talked about people jumping. The police stood behind the yellow tape. Minutes later, there was a boom. I thought it was a bomb, so I crouched, but people ran, so I ran. I couldn't see anything. I don't know how far I ran. Couldn't see where I was running. Didn't know if I was in a street or next to a building. Didn't know what street I was on. No one could talk because the dust filled our throats. After about ten steps I tripped over a pile of people and then people tripped on me.

I laid there. The only sound was the falling of dust and debris. No one moved under me. The weight of people on top of me got heavier. I couldn't breathe. I knew we were all going to die in that pile. I pulled myself out of the pile. My slip-ons slipped off. I stood up and saw nothing. Not even an inch in front of me. I put my hands out and felt for something. [...]

She ends up drinking out of a ... well, read the whole thing.

She writes for a living. She has a blog, and she's written about how the experience has affected her, shaped her life, even 10 years later:

Surviving 9/11: Ten years later

She also lives on a farm now. I can't say there are a lot of other similarities between my life and hers. But she does have some keen insights, and I do know, like her, that, when you think you are going to die in the next moment, your priorities suddenly become very clear. And when you survive, instead of die, if you have any sort of depth to you, those revealed priorities stay with you the rest of your life.

And I have to say, poking around her blog, I've really enjoyed reading some of her rants, observations, and advice:

What to do in college right now

Bad career advice: Do what you love

Motivation Tips from the Bath

Best alternative to grad school

Voices of the defenders of grad school. And me crushing them.

Overcome the willpower myth

Figuring out where you fit

She isn't politically correct, and her posts are full of interesting embedded links.
     

WikiHow: Compost bin for garden debris

I want one of these:

How to Build a Cedar Lattice Compost Bin

This bin is built using one 4x8 sheet of the extra-thick lattice panels. The "open" feature of the lattice allows for quicker, easier composting. It's easy to take apart, which is all you have to do when you want to use the compost. This good-sized box is best for vegetable gardeners - a place to compost your grass, carrot tops, corn shucks, tomato stems - anything from your garden.

The 24-inch dimension means that no part of the interior is ever more than 1 foot from available sources of oxygen and nitrogen - critical for complete composting. This means you don't have to touch your compost after throwing it in - no stirring, no turning, no layering, no having to transfer from one bin to another. The 2-foot narrow dimension assures that your yard waste, etc. will compost evenly and completely over the course of the composting year. If you need faster composting, Build a Tumbling Composter. [...]

It goes on to give step by step instructions. Sounds very sensible and useful.
     

Mega Cow Carousel on Chicago Area Farm

I got this in my email. Wow.
     

"Feathery Foot Club" adds nine new members

Seven of the new members can be seen here. The other two are being sat on by their mother. This will be the last bunch for the year, if all goes by plan.

Hopefully most of them are hens, we could use some more egg production. August's egg count:

Pullets had 65 eggs (8 less than previous month), Bantams had 91 (48 less), for a monthly total of 156 (47 less). The yearly total is now 1,174.

End of Farm Report.

     

Is "Urban Farming" a new and growing trend?

Apparently Urban Farming isn't all that new; it's been around for a long time. What is new is the renewed interest that people have been showing in it, as our nation's economy struggles, and many people desire to become more food-independent, using whatever land is available to them for farming. I've been reading more and more, articles about people fighting city ordinances so they can be allowed to keep chickens in their back yards, etc.

This renewed interest in urban and suburban farming helps explain the popularity of a book I heard about recently. The other night on the radio, I heard part of an interview with Novella Carpenter, who is flogging her new book:

Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer"
Here are some descriptions from Amazon.com's website:

From Publishers Weekly
In this utterly enchanting book, food writer Carpenter chronicles with grace and generosity her experiences as an urban farmer. With her boyfriend Bill's help, her squatter's vegetable garden in one of the worst parts of the Bay Area evolved into further adventures in bee and poultry keeping in the desire for such staples as home-harvested honey, eggs and home-raised meat.

The built-in difficulties also required dealing with the expected noise and mess as well as interference both human and animal. When one turkey survived to see, so to speak, its way to the Thanksgiving table, the success spurred Carpenter to rabbitry and a monthlong plan to eat from her own garden.

Consistently drawing on her Idaho ranch roots and determined even in the face of bodily danger, her ambitions led to ownership and care of a brace of pigs straight out of E.B. White. She chronicles the animals' slaughter with grace and sensitivity, their cooking and consumption with a gastronome's passion, and elegantly folds in riches like urban farming history.

Her way with narrative and details, like the oddly poetic names of chicken and watermelon breeds, gives her memoir an Annie Dillard lyricism, but it's the juxtaposition of the farming life with inner-city grit that elevates it to the realm of the magical. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

"Farm City" author Novella Carpenter

Product Description
Urban and rural collide in this wry, inspiring memoir of a woman who turned a vacant lot in downtown Oakland into a thriving farm.

Novella Carpenter loves cities — the culture, the crowds, the energy. At the same time, she can’t shake the fact that she is the daughter of two back-to-the-land hippies who taught her to love nature and eat vegetables. Ambivalent about repeating her parents’ disastrous mistakes, yet drawn to the idea of backyard self-sufficiency, Carpenter decided that it might be possible to have it both ways: a homegrown vegetable plot as well as museums, bars, concerts, and a twenty-four-hour convenience mart mere minutes away. Especially when she moved to a ramshackle house in inner city Oakland and discovered a weed-choked, garbage-strewn abandoned lot next door. She closed her eyes and pictured heirloom tomatoes, a beehive, and a chicken coop.

What started out as a few egg-laying chickens led to turkeys, geese, and ducks. Soon, some rabbits joined the fun, then two three-hundred-pound pigs. And no, these charming and eccentric animals weren’t pets; she was a farmer, not a zookeeper. Novella was raising these animals for dinner. Novella Carpenter’s corner of downtown Oakland is populated by unforgettable characters. Lana (anal spelled backward, she reminds us) runs a speakeasy across the street and refuses to hurt even a fly, let alone condone raising turkeys for Thanksgiving. Bobby, the homeless man who collects cars and car parts just outside the farm, is an invaluable neighborhood concierge. The turkeys, Harold and Maude, tend to escape on a daily basis to cavort with the prostitutes hanging around just off the highway nearby. Every day on this strange and beautiful farm, urban meets rural in the most surprising ways.

For anyone who has ever grown herbs on their windowsill, tomatoes on their fire escape, or obsessed over the offerings at the local farmers’ market, Carpenter’s story will capture your heart. And if you’ve ever considered leaving it all behind to become a farmer outside the city limits, or looked at the abandoned lot next door with a gleam in your eye, consider this both a cautionary tale and a full-throated call to action. Farm City is an unforgettably charming memoir, full of hilarious moments, fascinating farmers’ tips, and a great deal of heart. It is also a moving meditation on urban life versus the natural world and what we have given up to live the way we do.

Gosh. I find the book interesting, because I'm amazed that she has been able to do so much productive farming with a small city lot.

I live in the countryside, and we've been trying to turn our country home into a farm. I've lamented at times that we don't have more cleared land to work with. Yet, seeing what Novella has accomplished, I am greatly encouraged. If she can do so much with so little, certainly we can achieve something with the resources we've been blessed with here.

There was this comment left in the comment's section on the book's Amazon.com page:

As a reader, it was just a great read--fast and smooth, funny and informative, opinionated but not preachy--that even a non-farmer would appreciate. I am so impressed with the high road that Novella took by not engaging in political commentary. Although I am certain that she and I would agree very little about many things, she let the book speak to all the things we can have in common. Conservatives and Liberals will neither be baited or offended by this book. I admire that so much. I am not sure that I could have pulled it off.

As a dabbling suburban farmer in the Northwest, this book was both a source of encouragement and a justificaiton of our whacky, foul-filled backyard. I feel like I have a neighbor somewhere who gets it. I feel vindicated and motivated. I started out wanting some fresh eggs, now I am part of a movement! ;)

Boy, I would appreciate that too! I have strong interests in Tilth Farming and Alternative Medicine; two areas that attract a lot of people on the political Left. When researching information on these topics, one sometimes has to read through tiresome politically-correct diatribes, in the search for facts on relevant topics. I'm grateful to any author who stays on topic and spares me that. I'm quite happy to agree to disagree with folks about many things, and happier still if they don't try to shove their opinions down my throat.

Judging from a comment I read on her flicker photo, I suspect Novella's had her fair share of grief from militant vegetarians and vegans. I know I have. As a result, I'm grateful when people, in general, aren't too pushy with their opinions. Perhaps she is too.

At any rate, listening to her on the radio, it sounds like she strikes an even-tone, and has a fun sense of humor. And judging from the many other favorable comments on the Amazon page, the book is a most enjoyable read. It made it onto Oprah's Book List, so it must have something going for it. I'm looking forward to reading it.

You can also visit Novella's blog: Ghost Town Farm
     

This factory has geared up for more business

And what factory might that be? Just ask this contented, non-unionized factory worker, hanging around outside the factory door on her extended lunch break:


It's the egg factory at Robin's Wood. Our hens had stopped laying in November. They began laying again in February. Below is a recent product sample:


The total of eggs for February is 82 bantam eggs, and 67 pullet eggs. Not a bad start. And no Trillion Dollar stimulus package required. ;-)
     

"Reality Check" for USA is long overdue

Whether it's passing failing students through the education system and letting them graduate, uneducated and unemployable, or bailing out failing auto industries instead of letting them be replaced with non-failing ones, it's the same thing. Postponing reality only makes your reality check much harsher when it finally, unavoidably arrives.

Postponing Reality

Some of us were raised to believe that reality is inescapable. But that just shows how far behind the times we are. Today, reality is optional. At the very least, it can be postponed.

Kids in school are not learning? Not a problem. Just promote them on to the next grade anyway. Call it "compassion," so as not to hurt their "self-esteem."

Can't meet college admissions standards after they graduate from high school? Denounce those standards as just arbitrary barriers to favor the privileged, and demand that exceptions be made.

Can't do math or science after they are in college? Denounce those courses for their rigidity and insensitivity, and create softer courses that the students can pass to get their degrees.

Once they are out in the real world, people with diplomas and degrees-- but with no real education-- can hit a wall. But by then the day of reckoning has been postponed for 15 or more years. Of course, the reckoning itself can last the rest of their lives.

The current bailout extravaganza is applying the postponement of reality democratically-- to the rich as well as the poor, to the irresponsible as well as to the responsible, to the inefficient as well as to the efficient. It is a triumph of the non-judgmental philosophy that we have heard so much about in high-toned circles.

[...]

Detroit and Michigan have followed classic liberal policies of treating businesses as prey, rather than as assets. They have helped kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. So have the unions. So have managements that have gone along to get along.

Toyota, Honda and other foreign automakers are not heading for Detroit, even though there are lots of experienced automobile workers there. They are avoiding the rust belts and the policies that have made those places rust belts. [...]

It's worth reading the whole thing. Thomas makes an interesting comparison with the horse and buggy industry, and the businesses supporting horses and horse-transportation, that were displaced by the automobile. There were no bail-outs or stimulus packages for them. Somehow, everyone adapted without a diaper-changing government spending tax dollars to keep dying industries going.

People have no respect for "easy" money that they don't earn. Government has no respect for our money, because they don't earn it. The government doesn't need to reform the auto industry (the free market is doing that), the Government itself needs to be reformed. From the WSJ:

Let's 'Restructure' Washington While We're at It
Congress is at least as unresponsive to consumer demand as Detroit.

Congress has been suitably tough in its advice to Detroit, calling for "a complete restructuring" of our failing auto makers. But how about restructuring Washington? The federal government is a giant Rube Goldberg machine that not only wastes hundreds of billions of dollars each year but also burdens local governments and the private sector with legal requirements that no longer serve the public good. Congress should take its own advice and retool Washington. Here's how:

[...]

- Streamline management. The federal government employs about 2.5 million civilians (including the Post Office), about 10 times the number directly employed in the U.S. by Detroit. The bloat is legendary. In his study on "thickening government," NYU Prof. Paul Light found that some government agencies have 32 layers of management, compared to five layers in most well-run companies.

Civil-service rules make hiring an ordeal and firing practically impossible. Rigid job classifications are far more onerous than UAW work rules, guaranteeing massive inefficiency. At many federal agencies, people shuffle back and forth, passing paper from one level to the next, doing nothing useful. Civil service needs to be overhauled.

- Make products that the public wants. Congress is in the business of making and revising laws. But it almost never goes back and reviews unintended consequences. Pick up any volume of the U.S. Code and ask yourself whether the detailed provisions of that law make sense today.

Take something relatively innocuous, like the requirement in the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act to maintain the privacy of patient information. One effect is lots of forms -- over $1 billion worth annually. Compliance also stifles important activity: For example, research on heart-attack recovery at the University of Michigan slowed to a crawl when only one-third of the sample bothered to complete the necessary HIPAA paperwork.

- Enhance competitiveness. Washington's failures are far more significant to the economy than Detroit's. The federal government not only is over seven times larger than Detroit in annual expenditures but it also establishes the legal platform on which the entire U.S. economy operates. The legal infrastructure that Congress has provided is a huge, internally inconsistent mess, requiring businesses, hospitals and schools to negotiate a maze of legal detours. Day-to-day, teachers, doctors, business managers and government officials are unable to make sense of ordinary choices. Law has effectively removed the freedom needed to take responsibility. [...]

There's more suggestions, with examples, it's worth reading the whole thing. One thing they mentioned that I didn't excerpt was farm subsidies. They may well be worth reforming, but I'd be VERY careful about cutting or reforming funding to something as essential as our food supply. But the rest is an excellent comparison of our government to the failing automakers. They suffer from the same problems. Both are strangling from bureaucrats, unions and needless paperwork. In both cases, major reforms are needed.
     

The Farm House of my Dreams?

At least it is when the weather is cold and nasty. Behold, the House-Barn:


Uncle Howard's Barn-Homes, "Great Western" floor plan:

76' x 80' Custom Great Western Barn and Home Conversion

4 Bedrooms, 3 1/2 Baths, Office

Here is more details and photos about the "Great Western" model:

THE GREAT WESTERN STYLE
Barn Kits, Horse Barn Kits, Barn Home Kits

I told Pat and Andy about it at lunchtime, and how I thought it would be energy efficient, having everything under one roof. Pat said we would end up smelling like the livestock!

I was thinking, I could take care of the animals without having to go out in the rain. But the smell, that would be something to consider, especially in the summer.

If you look around their site, they have all sorts of designs for barns and buildings of many different sizes. Some are Barn-House combos, others are barn-like houses, or free standing barns, garages, or small multi-use buildings. Have a look around till you find something you like.