Episode-1622- Tales from a Week of Farm Sitting
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Morning Bath Time for Turkeys and Ducks
Ryan Bradley is a 26year-old former Science Teacher with a Marketing Degree from Texas State University. He has taught for the past 3 years, but recently left to follow the entrepreneurial path, hoping to have the impact that seemed unattainable in the public education system.
The show today will be about how a guy who grew up in the suburbs adapted to a permaculture duck farm.
Ryan is going to tell us what a “Week at the Spirko House” was like, and give everyone a kind of “day-in-the-life” of a duck-farmer in Central TX. Then, we’ll discuss his project to help Alternative Farmers/Homesteaders & other young entrepreneurs collaborate to do similar work.
He also has a treat for those of you who follow The Duck Chronicles, in the form of a Photo Album that will be mentioned near the end of the show & can be found in the show notes for today’s episode.
Resources for today’s show…
- Join the Members Brigade
- The Year 1622
- Join Our Forum
- Walking To Freedom
- TSP Gear
- PermaEthos.com
- AgriTrue.com
- GenForward
- JM Bullion – (sponsor of the day)
- Western Botanicals – (sponsor of the day)
- FarmSubs.com – Site of Ryan’s Future Business
- BradleySci – Ryan’s Blog
- Photo Collection from Ryan’s Time Managing Nine Mile Farm
- Ryan on Twitter
Bob Wells Plant of the Week – PAWPAW TREE – Adaptable from zone 4 to zone 8
Also called “The Custard Apple” because of its delicious taste of vanilla custard. The trees grow to about 25 feet and the fruit is 3-6 inches long. They work best if you plant two for pollination.
Some people refer to the Pawpaw as the “Miracle Fruit” and attribute their good health to it. The tree makes an attractive ornamental tree as well. Pawpaw plants are easy to grow.
Bob Wells Nursery specializes in edible landscape plants and trees including: Fruit Trees, Berry Plants, Vine Fruit, Nut Trees, as well as the hard to find Specialty Trees. Find this plant and more at BobWellsNursery.com
Bob Wells Plant of the WeekRemember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK (866-658-4465) and you might hear yourself on the air.
Also remember we have an expert council you can address your calls to. If you do this you should email me right after your call at jack at thesurvivalpodcast.com with expert council call in the subject line. In the body of your email tell me that you just called in a question for the council and what number you called in from. I will then give the call priority when I screen calls.
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re: background check for applicants.
Make the applicant provide the bg check thru an affiliate link to a company that does that (get 5% finders fee from affiliate). When skills are posted, link for that person doesn’t go live until bg check is posted/uploaded too.
Sounds like a good idea for a business.
Regards
@Jim: Good idea, and a nice revenue stream that I hadn’t considered. I’ll definitely look into partnering with a bg-check service.
Jack,
Thank you again for the opportunity to chat about what a week on the duck farm looks like. Anyone with questions, feel free to ask away 🙂
I had a hen go broody and hatch some chicks a couple months ago. Most of the chicks disappeared over a couple of days. Well, the turkeys decided they were tasty morsels and ate several of them. I had to separate the chicks and hen into their own pen and was able to sneak a few new chicks in from the feed store for her to raise. Turkeys were probably 3ish months old at the time. If you start having a lot of ducklings disappear, that turkey may be the culprit.
Adam,
It’s unfortunate, but it does seem like curiosity may get the best of a turkey & lead them to some strange tendencies. Congrats on sneaking in some new chicks as replacements 🙂
Awesome awesome talk! so informative and such great ideas of that website, I have thought about starting the same type of thing called permalocal.com (I happily bought along with permaglobal.com! A way to find people in your local area to do any of the permie skills- nursery, tractor work etc. Lets partner!! and go global! on a local scale. Awesome concept, thought about it for years, nice to hear talk of it. Ah what the internet will do to fix it all! Great find Jack! I’m sending this to all my 20 something friends and their parents! this is the new future for youth worldwide!!! Thank you Ryan for your EXCELLENCE!!!!!
Kelly,
Thank you for the kind words.
Permalocal/Global sounds & looks intriguing. I will be in touch.
Thanks for spreading the word!
I was listening to this show in the car on the way home from my new job on Stitcher. My phone started ringing and I paused the episode to answer.
I didn’t recognize the number, but since I just started a new job, I answered.
On the other end of the line was a friend from middle school, Jake. Earlier in the week I messaged Jake to tell him I had moved to the area and would love to get together. He has a property with three pigs, rabbits, chickens, horses etc.
He told me that he had to leave on a work trip for two months on Tuesday of the next week (tomorrow!). Jake wanted to know if I would be willing to stay at his property and care for the animals! I don’t have a house yet, and I said YES!
I have my first gig as a farm sub 🙂
So weird how life works…
Great episode!
~popvoxmatt
Just finished listening to the show. Great topic.
I have been doing Animal Caretaking for other people for over 20 years. I started in high school as a way to make extra money. I now have one main client and MANY smaller clients. One thing that is would be different with your business is the “lack” of skills. I only say that because most of my clients have wanted someone that has experience with their particular animal. Mainly dogs and horses. And while smaller animals are “easier” there can still be problems. And for the client it is important to have someone that can think in the moment. When an animal is hurt or becomes sick, sometimes the first actions can make all the difference, and that only comes with experience.
And it is also very important that the client have very detailed instructions and emergency numbers. (which should be a given, but sometimes people forget)
I no longer stay at people’s houses like I did when I was younger, I have a farm of my own to take care of, but I will be adding my name to your website once it is up and running. And will get the word out there about the site as well. I hear of people across the country wanting this exact thing and think “If only I was younger” 🙂
Good luck!!