The Country Wisdom Thread

[Anianna]

What tidbits have you learned that the rest of us can learn from?

-An egg has gone bad if it floats up when placed in water.

-Purple martins will keep hawks at bay and consume large quantities of mosquitoes.

-Honey is antimicrobial and antifungal; an excellent wound treatment that doesn’t create drug resistant bacterial strains and is safe on both humans and critters.

-Honey never goes bad. If it separates, heat and stir. If it dries out, add a little water, heat, and stir.

-Don’t kill black rat snakes. Old farmers around here deliberately put rat snakes in their barns when they find them. They keep down the rodent population and, supposedly, if you have a rat snake, you won’t have venomous snakes. Also, horses seem to know the difference. They are startled by venomous snakes, but aren’t bothered by rat snakes.

-If you have a lot of ticks, get guinea fowl and let them free range. If you lock them in a pen or coop for a few weeks before allowing them to range, they will stick around. They can be kept with chickens, though there will be some bickering initially.

-Poop is good. Use it to feed your soil.

-Encourage worms to your garden by laying cardboard or a few layers of paper across it. Worms are excellent at softening soil and moving nutrients through it.

[harris6541]

Great notes on the honey bee stuff! As a long time bee keeper, I'd like to add a couple of thoughts...

- Honey bees improve crop yield through efficient pollination. We rent out hives to fruit farmers during the spring to kick-start the growing season.

- Consuming local honey will help inoculate you against outdoor allergies.

- Excess bee's wax makes great candles.

- Assuming you are not allergic, "bee venom therapy" is widely practiced overseas and by some in the USA to address health problems such as arthritis, neuralgia, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and even MS.

- You can ferment honey with water, grain mash, and other ingredients to make mead, an alcoholic beverage.

All these bee derived products can make life easier in the PAW and make good products for trade or sell.

[ZombieGranny]

Floating eggs can either mean the egg is bad, or merely that the air cell is large.
Air cells get larger the older the egg is, but I have one hen who lays eggs with a large air pocket right from the get-go.
I don't hard-boil hers.
YMMV
-
Needle tea is full of vitamin C. It can be made from almost all trees that remain green in the winter. The most delicate tea is from the pale green tips, but older darker needles work too; just don't steep too long in too-hot water or you get a turpentine taste.

[Silverbug]

Common comfrey planted around fruit trees helps them to produce more abundantly. Also, when cut and dried, it makes a great chicken feed during the winter. It also makes a quick compost, as it has little fiber to break down.

Kousa dogwood produces edible berries but still passes muster with most housing association covenants. They are very slimy when pushed out of the skin, but very tasty.

If you can with honey, add more. If you bake with honey, add less or compensate for the extra moisture elsewhere.

Almond trees will kill many open pollinating fruit trees, such as peaches, apricots, and apples.

[KnightoftheRoc]

in before someone else mentions it - willow bark can be peeled from the tree, and the inner bark layer chewed as an aspirin substitute.

Black walnut trees will kill off any other type of tree around it. If you plant them, keep them separated from your other trees.

Wetted tobacco spread on an itch will sooth it- works great if you brush up against some "itch weed", I've used it for years when fishing.

[Anianna]

I'm glad you two mentioned certain nut trees not getting along with fruit trees. I had planned on planting fruit and nut trees together next year in a sort of grove. How far should those nut trees be from fruiting trees?

[Jeriah]

I'm glad you two mentioned certain nut trees not getting along with fruit trees. I had planned on planting fruit and nut trees together next year in a sort of grove. How far should those nut trees be from fruiting trees?

I don't know anything but common sense tells me as far as possible, and downwind.

[SeerSavant]

Tagged for interest....

I knew about some of these, but not many others...

[ViciousFishes]

I dont know if its accurate but it sure sounds like country wisdom. Don't plant your spring crops until the oak leaves are as big as a squirrels ear.

Tom

[CaptBrainFreeze]

Watch the signs when making kraut or pickling corn. Signs in the feet? They will stink. Signs in the bowels, forget it, kraut will mold in the pot that it is fermenting in.

[ODA 226]

Wetted tobacco spread on an itch will sooth it- works great if you brush up against some "itch weed", I've used it for years when fishing.

It also neutralizes bee, wasp and spider venom.

[ZombieGranny]

Does it need to be relatively fresh tobacco, or would a nice stale cigarette work?
Nobody around here smokes, so a pack would most likely be several years old.

[SeerSavant]

Cigarettes work okay, I've used them on bee stings before, but I've found that cigar or pipe tobacco is better at numbing the pain, dunno why, maybe the cigs are too processed...

Still, I'f I get stung and I have a choice between shredding a Montecristo or a Marlboro, you better believe I'm not gonna tear up a Montecristo on a mere sting...


As far as the pipe tobacco, haven't smoked it in so long, and never used it for a sting...

Did however begin looking for another pipe... Got my eye on a sweet Briar lined Cherry Maple english long pipe with an 18 inch stem.... Longer the stem, the smoother the taste, too close equals too hot, and to harsh....
Probably gonna call it the tolkien... Keep it with Rathbone, Spencer, and the Chief.

yes, I name the pipes.... It's just kinda a thing... Everyone I knew growing up named their pipes... I didn't name Spencer, or the Chief, they were hand downs from kin.

[ZapThyCat]

This thread is full of gems of wisdom... Keep 'em coming please!

[Anianna]

Toss your compostable kitchen scraps in your chicken litter. The chickens will turn and compost anything they don't consume. This works best in a deep litter coop.

[ODA 226]

Does it need to be relatively fresh tobacco, or would a nice stale cigarette work?
Nobody around here smokes, so a pack would most likely be several years old.

Since I don't smoke, I've only used Skoal, Copenhagen and Red Man to neutralize bee/wasp/spider venom. All of these work very,very well.

[NoAm]

These are all excellent! Thank you!

[Vel454]

Comfrey is also an amazing natural first aid medicine. It's been used to help heal bones, bee stings, burns, and back pain. Ingestion can cause problems though, keep it on the outside. Comfrey is also extremely hardy. I have a clump of it growing on the edge of my yard that I've mowed flat to the ground several times in a single year and it continues to come right back.

Plantain is likely growing in your yard. It's a very short, round-leafed plant that can be used on all sorts of boo-boo type stuff.

Speaking of trees, if you water trees on your property, remember that most of the rain will drip from the outside of the branches to the ground, not up underneath the branches. To get the most out of watering your trees and using the least amount of water as needed - water beneath the tips of the lowest branches from the trunk... Not up around the trunk itself.

[KnightoftheRoc]

Does it need to be relatively fresh tobacco, or would a nice stale cigarette work?
Nobody around here smokes, so a pack would most likely be several years old.

As far as I know, a stale cigarette would work. Try one on the next itchy the grandkids get- worst that can happen, is it does nothing. You can't hurt anything by trying it.

[CaptBrainFreeze]

Lemon juice stops the spread of poison ivy and the itch....it doesn't dry it up any faster but that's okay when it doesn't itch or spread.

[Braxton]

Tag.


Lots of good info.

[Kvaedi]

If it smells like almonds and isn't an almond, absolutely do not eat it. Avoid it like the plague, because that's probably cyanide. Many deadly poisonous plants can be identified by their "almondlike" smell.

[Vel454]

If it smells like almonds and isn't an almond, absolutely do not eat it. Avoid it like the plague, because that's probably cyanide. Many deadly poisonous plants can be identified by their "almondlike" smell.

Very true, good add. +1

[Ad'lan]

'A man and a boy can do the work of two men. A man and two boys do the work of half a man. A man and three boys does no work at all.'
-my grandfather.