end of the world

Hi Seattle,
Glad to see you are starting a little bit of self sufficiency. If you want to kick start your compost pile, you can bulk it up with seaweed for a larger volume good start. To kick start your garden, until you get your soil better conditioned, you can poke small holes in bags of potting soil and plant your veggies in those for now, Be sure to cut some adequate drainage in the bottom. Putting the bags more vertical will help more with keeping adequate drainage.
The feral chickens running around the island are mostly game crosses, not known for decent egg laying or meat production. Also known for going feral at the first opportunity. Your easiest bet is to order chicks online. You might want to split an order with someone if you didn't want that many. If you order pullets (girls) often they will add a few (or several) cockerel chicks just to keep the numbers up so they stay warm, some call those "packing peanuts". If you don't want those, be sure to specify. You might get some anyhow. If you let your chickens run loose, they will likely get eaten by predators. Dogs most likely. When building your chicken run, try to think of keeping dogs out, rather than keeping chickens in. If you want to be completely overwhelmed with WAY too much information on chickens, go to BackyardChickens.com and click on the Forum. If you have more questions and don't want the thread to drift from apocalypse to poultry keeping, feel free to PM me. I'd be more than happy to help you any way I can.

Here's a nice local gardening help site for VI gardeners.
http://www.wtjx.org/homegrown/

Oh? What major events are those?

I found this while researching about this ridiculous 2012 hype:

" "Ask an Astrobiologist", a NASA public outreach website, has received over 5000 questions from the public on the subject since 2007,[107] some asking whether they should kill themselves, their children or their pets."

People scare me.

How's this for making lemonade out of lemons?

"In 2011, the Mexico tourism board stated its intentions to use the year 2012, without its apocalyptic connotations, as a means to revive Mexico's tourism industry, which had suffered as the country gained a reputation for drug wars and kidnapping. The initiative hopes to draw on the mystical appeal of the Mayan ruins"

i'd like to think they (mayans) did not do any more on the calendar because they were too busy being decimated. but that's just me.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012.html

Swan

Leave it to Swans to b*&chslap you with some science. (tu) Rock on, Swan!

i'd like to think they (mayans) did not do any more on the calendar because they were too busy being decimated. but that's just me.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/08/maya-rise-fall/gugliotta-text

The Rise and Fall of the Mayan Culture

Decimated by who?

The answer to "End Times" might be in your very own backyard according to a book called "The St. Croix Ark" that came out this year.

In fact, Google "St. Croix Ark" to read about the book. The author, Mr. Noel, claims the Ark of the Covenant was taken from Jerusalem shortly after the first crusades by the Knights of Malta (St. John, Rhodes, Hospitallers). The very same Knights that stayed on St. Croix in the 1600's.

Check it out if you haven't already, most book stores on the islands carry the hardback book including the St. Croix University book store, heck even the Whim has a few copies!

Get it on-line for $5 at www.thestcroixark.com

This story is the Virgins Islands very own dooms-day legend!

Sundial

Best compost = coffe grinds and egg shells. Chickens = rats. Ripe veggies = Rate. Invest in a cat.

Chickens=rats, depends how you keep your chickens.

I don't know why that song: "It's the end of the world as we know it..and I feel fine..." keeps playing in my head when I look at this thread.

It may not be the end of the world, but hard times are coming. Most people will be unprepared because they will not believe that anything bad will happen.
Learn how to purify water...most of us have cisterns, so we are somewhat self-sufficient there.
Buy extra stuff when you grocery shop...dried beans, rice, salt fish, stuff that can be stored for long periods without spoiling. You don't want to be in the grocery stores with the crowds at the last minute.

Have extra medication if possible...the first wave of die-off will be the elderly and those who are medication-dependent. Your best bet is to try to stay healthy.

Do all you can to stop the politicians from starting a world war. We have the second largest oil refinery in the Western hemisphere so STX would be nuked...this is a dangerous time we're living in.

Know your neighbors...you may need to form protective groups.

....for starters.

At the very least, you will have prepared for hurricane season so it is not a waste of time.

Swan, thanks for the link. Love how the NASA page kind of has the tone of "Seriously? Come on. Don't be so stupid."

Swan, thanks for the link. Love how the NASA page kind of has the tone of "Seriously? Come on. Don't be so stupid."

Beth,

You're right, because NASA dispels hoaxes with facts. While catastrophic astronomical events from rogue planets to gamma-ray bursts abound, they make only for multi-million dollar profits in the movie industry, but that is about the extent of it. The industry feeds on peoples' fears and curiosities.

Rusty's post addresses some interesting points. but, the "end of the world for man as he now knows it" may be possible by mans own hand - such as nuclear and / or biological warfare (IMO) - and not through some extraterrestrial event. Should "man" choose to end the existence of his and other spicies on this planet, well... Earth will be just fine and recover nicely from the event(s) and continue to thrive as it orbits our small star.

Should any catastrophic event head our way, NASA would tell everyone in a heartbeat, just as they announce re-entries of satellites into the atmosphere (and most likely burn up there.)
Thanks Beth,
Swan

Thanks, onthespot, for the chicken info! End of the world or not, I like the idea of raising my own chickens.

Best,

Islandlola

Thanks, onthespot, for the chicken info! End of the world or not, I like the idea of raising my own chickens.

Best,

Islandlola

I have a friend who, amongst many others, helps out feeding feral cats so they can be part of the SNR program which I'm all in favor of and have been doing myself for years privately. One thing that really ticks me off though is that she feeds the damned feral chickens too and spends a bunch of money buying them poultry feed! Those annoying damned things don't know dawn from midnight when it comes to yodeling up a storm like a bunch of Indians sending out smoke signals but a whole lot more noisily. I had another chat with her the other day about my opposition but although she understands the concept, she gets all gooey-eyed about the little chicklets. She lives in a gated community where she's quite isolated from the reality of island living and I just end shaking my head and laughing while threatening to dump off one of the feathered clans around me outside her condo for her personal enjoyment!

OldTart,
When I have guests from the States they complain about noise. I don't hear it anymore because I'm hearing impaired, but my wife and adult children hear it and just say it's part of island living and they love it.:S

Oldtart, I actually LIKE chicken noises, lol! To each her/his own, though.

Best,

Islandlola

Oldtart, I actually LIKE chicken noises, lol! To each her/his own, though.

Best,

Islandlola

Chickens, i.e., HENS ... sure. Roosters, on the other hand, NO WAY IN FLUCKING HELL. FERAL ROOSTERS SHOULD ALL BE DE-CLUCKED. STAT.

Actually their noise doesn't bother me as I've lived here long enough to hardly notice it - it just makes me laugh sometimes when those damned roosters are yelling across the mountains and valleys at each other during the pitch black night. My peeve with my friend is that there are more than enough of the darned things, they're perfectly capable of finding food for themselves and live in the "survival of the fittest" category and yet she's feeding them high grade poultry feed as though they're some kind of elegant show stock or the avian equivalent of Kobe beef cattle. Her logic too is that if she feeds the chicken around the dumpster they won't eat the cat food she leaves for the ferals. Doh. Obviously she's never seen chickens chasing cats away which is quite a sight to see!

<>

Yeah, I hear you, OldTart. The feral chickens will *definitely* be okay without us; no need to coddle.

Ilo

Iris, random cockadoodle-dooing from roosters is okay for me, lol. My grandma used to hide chickens in the yard sometimes (we were in city limits where they weren't allowed) and I remember it fondly.

Now our neighbors, on the other hand, didn't think too much of it....

Best,

Islandlola

Iris, random cockadoodle-dooing from roosters is okay for me, lol. My grandma used to hide chickens in the yard sometimes (we were in city limits where they weren't allowed) and I remember it fondly.

Now our neighbors, on the other hand, didn't think too much of it....

Best,

Islandlola

It's not even CLOSE to being random. The feral roosters run rampant throughout C'sted. They wake me up by crowing VERY LOUDLY directly below my bedroom window. Usually around 4:30AM, and sometimes continuing all day. I have a friend with a home in a residential neighborhood on STX for whom I housesit who has a neighbor that acquired a rooster as a "pet". The noise from that foul fowl was so obnoxious that the relationship between the neighbors devolved into threats and counter-threats of lawsuits until one of the parties eventually moved. Buying a rooster to roam your yard as a pet in a residential community is akin to setting up a drum kit in your office cubicle.

i'd like to think they (mayans) did not do any more on the calendar because they were too busy being decimated. but that's just me.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/08/maya-rise-fall/gugliotta-text

The Rise and Fall of the Mayan Culture

Decimated by who?

the spanish http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_civilization#Colonial_period