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Post by Alan on Dec 21, 2009 17:07:30 GMT -5
I wish we had bat populations like that here! Not in the house particularly, but somewhere where I could access the guano in a sustainble and undamaging way!
As far as seed security, I have seed caches many places, on farm and off, frozen, refridgerated, underground and aboveground, I try to stay very well prepared for whatever might come my way and there are two are three duplicates of everything that is of necessity or is incredibly rare hidden away here and there locally.
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Post by dirtsunrain on Dec 21, 2009 19:41:08 GMT -5
In the basement of this house is a thick walled cistern. It forms a cube of 8 foot dimensions. It is no longer useful for storing water since an entry was knocked thru one wall. I believe they intended to use it as a tornado shelter (tornados are almost unknown here). I spent some time tonight outfitting this cube to hold jars of saved seed. It should be reasonably fire and flood safe since the shelves are quite high. Thanks for giving me something to think about when it comes to protecting my horde of seeds.
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Post by dirtsunrain on Dec 21, 2009 19:46:07 GMT -5
I have quite a habitat of small brown bats in my roof. Most evenings, one or two or four will loop their ways downstairs and flutter about, waiting for me to open the patio doors to freedom.
I cant guess at the numbers, but it is thrilling to watch the cloud of bats in the early dawn, waiting to take their turn at the entrance hole in the rafters. I have had them brush my cheek as I walk around the yard in the dark. I squeak louder than they do when it happens. I will never get used to that.
I know I should evict the bats for health reasons but that is expensive and we do coexist quite peacefully. I imagine that there is a goldmine of a guano harvest upstairs.
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MikeM
grub
frost-free 365.25 + clayish soil + altitude 210m + latitude 34S + rain 848mm/yr
Posts: 91
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Post by MikeM on Dec 22, 2009 8:40:58 GMT -5
Yup, I, too, worry about what would happen to my seed collection if we had a fire or anything... Mainly I strive for security through giving seeds away to as many people will grow them and keep saving them.
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Post by plantsnobin on Dec 22, 2009 9:08:25 GMT -5
Mike, I think that is probably the most important and safest way of all-spreading the seeds far and wide.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Dec 22, 2009 10:04:20 GMT -5
Yep, Karen is right on there. And Dirt, maybe if you removed the guano and used it outdoors, or sent it to Alan (he's asked for guano on at least one occasion), that would probably eliminate a good portion of the potential health risk. I'm grateful you are a keeper of bats.
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Post by ozarklady on Dec 22, 2009 11:09:19 GMT -5
At 3 am on the morning of April 10, 2008, we were awakened by a bolt of lightening striking our house. Apparently it was a fire ball type lightening strike. There were 3 other house hit, that were many miles apart, in no particular line. We went to sleep, all well with our world, and awake to minutes of life remaining, if we didn't escape quickly. We vacated so quickly, that hubby did not get glasses nor billfold even. It was cold and drizzling rain, no shoes or coats... Not a good morning!
It was a long time before we got clothes and everything gone through to see what might be salvaged. The seed in the deep freeze were history, the seed in the refrigerator were history, these appliances vaguely resembled their original shapes. The box of seeds in the living room, were not treasures... a few survived, but were wet with the firehoses. They were in baggies inside the box, but the heat damaged many of them. And all in all... 100% loss of seeds, some that I have never seen offered in any seed savers catalog.
I would suggest that you definitely store duplicates of your most precious seeds, far enough away from your everday supply that if tornadoes, earthquakes, fires or whatever hit your area, at least you can preserve something. And lesson learned, I was lucky, I had a change of clothes in the trunk of my car... Oh that was like finding treasure, on that cold rainy morning. So, keep a change of clothes in your trunk, or in some other storage area, where you can gain access to it in case of emergency. I wonder if it would almost be worth having a bank vault to store seeds in? But, who can afford that. The fireproof boxes, the documents inside were dust. The ammo boxes did their job, shells went off, but never got out of the box! Whew, good safety point there. And, not all of the shells went off in the ammo boxes, some were actually still good ammo. But, please, do store your duplicates offsite. I had seed in the house and on the porch, and some new ones in living room. Only the new ones survived, and then many died, cause in the "aftershock" you just don't think of getting those seeds planted. You are thinking, comb, brush, clothes, food, where ya gonna live....
You don't have to engage in dangerous activities for your life to be in danger in the wink of an eye.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Dec 23, 2009 9:41:56 GMT -5
OOO, now THAT's a job! I get your point totally. Seems like you really have it all in hand though. A funky pumpkin patch would go a long way in teaching kids creativity and "growing" wisdom. Far better than the citified patches were all the pumpkins are size and shape graded so they are all the same. Kind of pathetic those...
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Post by plantsnobin on Dec 23, 2009 15:21:44 GMT -5
Sorry to hear about your fire, that is a devastating loss.
Our seeds aren't exactly safe after they have been planted either. I had some aesculus parviflora seeds from my garden, thought I would offer them here but with our wet August and September weather, they were actually sprouting where they fell from the bush. Anyway, I had to go ahead and pot them up-mice chewed on them in the pot. And then this past week, the wonderful seeds that Biorag sent me were gone-dug out of the pot. You would think that with all the stray cats we have around here I wouldn't have to worry about mice in the greenhouse. So, I guess the sad fact is, our seeds are never safe.
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Post by sandbar on Dec 31, 2009 1:06:47 GMT -5
The darn dog ate my seeds! ... hoovered them up. OK, now YOU owe me a keyboard to replace the one I bought to replace the one Karen ruined! ;D ;D ;D Why doncha' just feed Hoover some of this once in a while? I heard it works wonders for the canine "munchies."  |
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