Pennsif's Progress - The Days are Numbered // Day 919 : Goodbye young cockerel, hello new friends
I'm back again. Two Pennsif's Progress updates dates in two days.
We're really motoring now 😊
I have been especially motivated today - for three reasons.
Although much of what I write is very much in the homesteading vein. I homestead to prep.
I am a prepper through and through. Moving to this smallholding in Wales was a major step on that prepping journey.
This is my bug-out location. Food production is one big part of that.
Prepping is always on my mind. When I see natural disasters like the US hurricanes and potential man-made catastrophes like the threat of war with North Korea, I get a jolt. A sharp kick up the backside.
I must prep harder. I must prep faster.
The worst fear for any prepper is that when that time does come you haven't prepped enough.
So I'm moving up a gear again. And if time permits Pennsif Progress will be recording that shift in gears.
New friends
Today we had some new friends come to visit. They are an Anglo-Latin American couple like my wife and I, they are of a very similar mindset to us and they are starting on their homesteading journey.
They have just managed to rent a house with an acre of land a few miles from our place. When they came today we gave them one of our spare cockerels to go with their four hens.
This made me particularly happy. It helps them out and it gave the cockerel a much, much happier life.
He is a young Silkie-Brahma cross. He came to us from Freecycle with his much larger Brahma half-brother.
We had wanted the Brahma to upbreed our flock into bigger dual purpose meat and egg birds.
But then a few weeks back the Brahma just dropped dead. Dead on the spot.
Then poor young Prince Silkie was on his own. And he wasn't going to get a look in with the existing King Cockerel living it large with all the hens.
So now Prince Silkie has gone to marry his very own flock.
His life is complete. He will sleep happy tonight. Farewell Prince Silkie may you cock-a-doodle-do.
Building local connections
One of the most important parts of prepping is building connections in the local community.
If the bad times do come knowing people locally who will help out and watch your back will be paramount.
Your security could depend on your neighbours.
In the USA I often see reference to Prepper Support Groups. I don't see such groups so often in the UK, but I am sure a few exist.
Getting to know the people in your local area is all important. If you can find people in your neighbourhood who have a similar prepper / homesteader way of thinking all the better.
Finding these with whom you can barter, share, swap and mutually help out is so very useful.
How Steemit fits into this story is hard to tell. With the relatively low numbers of active users at present the chance of finding anyone else on steemit in your locality is quite small. In rural areas it is even more unlikely.
In rural west Wales I have only so far found one other steemian in about 40 mile radius.
This is one of the reasons I have been looking at the idea of SteemTowns. I am not sure yet when and how this project will take off but it does intrigue me as a very useful way to move steemit forward.
I have just discovered the #teamgb group on the PAL discord channel.
Maybe, just maybe some local steemians will pop up from there.
Bugs out!
I also spent an hour today working on my bugging-out plan 😊
Those caterpillars and slugs on my brassicas just had to go. Pick and squash, pick and squash.
Here are the four life stages of the Large Cabbage White. They are all your enemy. Memorise and destroy...
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That's a wrap for now. Happy Homesteading. Perfect Prepping. Steem On.
If you found this post useful or interesting please do upvote, resteem and follow. Thank you.
You might also be interested in some of my other posts :
Pennsif's Progress - The Days are Numbered // Day 920 : Up on the roof, down in the earth
SteemTowns - connecting the virtual with the reality - would it be possible?
[all images provided by @pennsif // the chrysalis one is by my wife - hopefully she'll join steemit too soon 😊]
UGH I am struggling with the Pieris rapae and Pieris brassicae species as well. AKA the annoying as hell cabbage moths! Only thing I have found to be 100% against them is hand picking and destroying all eggs, OR using BT var kurstaki.
I should probably do a post about them soon...
Sorry to hear you lost your Brahma. I have heard of this phenomenon before, but have not witnessed it.
I'm glad your prince finally got a harem of his own. I thought for sure that you had put him in the pot due to your title. I'm a big fan of community building and have already reached out to some people in the area we hope to move to. It can be difficult to find like-minded people. Most just stare at you, like you are crazy and I wouldn't even call myself a prepper, I merely have a homesteading mindset.
@pennsif
You doing great...to for sharing this...
Think you are pretty smart to do your prepping. Also glad you made a couple of new friends and neighbors. Things are pretty scary lately, it would appear that more and more people are just looking out for themselves. Glad for the steemit community. 🐓🐓