Like drop the macho act and ask for help, buddy. It’s ok.
And watch the people who said they cared suddenly get real scarce.
I wish it wasn’t that way, and I’m happy it’s no longer that way for me. But there are people around you right now who know of they speak up, loved ones and friends will tell them “it’s no big deal” or “It’s all in your head” or my favorite, “man up”.
I was invited to a rural party for new years, I’m pretty sure it was 2003-2004. I drank entirely too much, and saw some friends crushing beer cans, and was inspired. I found an old 55-gallon steel drum, put a bunch of water in it, and rolled it into the bonfire. Once steam was shooting out, I put the bungs back on it and rolled it into the pond. After a few minutes, there was a metallic “bang” and the drum was folded in on itself.
The guy who invited me to the party told everyone for years that I used my head to crush a steel drum.
Fun fact, this is part of the reason so many cars are silver, white, or black now. A lot of base models of cars are only available in those three colors, along with maybe red. To get a different color, you have to get an upgraded package… and there’s your $1k price jump.
Some sort of strike. Either a general labor strike, or a debt strike. A general strike of laborers will be hard to organize, and there will always be scabs.
But a debt strike ia easier. Although I should probably say “Bill strike”. It goes like this: don’t pay four or five figure medical bills. Just put them in the shredder. If a significant portion of the population does this, it will force change. Just like the courts getting backed up because there were too many evictions, they will get backed up by all the wage garnishment cases that I’m sure someone is typing a reply about. If nobody pays, there isn’t much of a way to enforce it.
Ask anyone who’s kept chickens, keeping the hawks and foxes and raccoons etc. out of them is a constant and eternal struggle.
Two things I have learned as a chicken weirdo:
1.) Get dark colored chickens
2.) Get a big mean rooster.
I haven’t lost a chicken so far, but I have seen my bigass stupidly brave rooster take on all comers, he has defeated squirrels, snakes, frogs, mice, and a gopher that was apparently pretty bad at making connections. I’ve watched him chase off a cat and a pretty good sized dog. Foghorn Leghorn is more accurate than I realized.
But more than his incredible dinosaur kung-fu is that he is smart, and communicates with his hens. He will tell them to shelter in the coop, and they will run and hide. A hawk isn’t going to want to deal with 15 pounds of land-bird standing in a small doorway.
For the color, a black or gray chicken will be harder to see against the ground than a white one. Also, I think they look cooler than plain white chickens.
Just in 2023 my wife has learned to can food, grow food, raise chickens, heal chickens, make salsa, make pickles, (she made pickles with cucumbers she grew, using onions and dill that she also grew) and every week it seems like she has something new she is going to try. She has lost over 50 pounds since we’ve started this whole journey in making food at home and we can’t keep our hands off each other.
She’s also a caring soul who is loved by everyone she meets, and she makes me feel like the luckiest person alive. Every current positive aspect of my life is directly because of her. And as a bonus, she looks incredible in thigh-high socks and does things with me in the bedroom that I suspect many don’t get to experience.
It has been my long-standing belief that a motorcycle helmet can prevent an accident. I’ve had too many things hit my visor while riding. Imagine taking a june bug in the eye with nothing but a set of oakleys for protection.