Well done, Bruce and OrganicSu, I guess you already know these places, but just in case:
http://www.siouxme.com/acorn.htmlhttp://www.yummly.co/recipes/cooking-with-acorns#!
Here in Spain there are a few traditional recipes for acorns, even an acorn spirit. the difference is that our trees are mostly
quercus ilex a varietal with 'sweet' (not bitter) acorns. It was people's bread after the civil war.
It's different for each of us when facing our 'environments'. Where I live your not allowed to live in a mobile home, or even in a wood house. It must be stone or bricks. Anyway sharing knowledge is our better weapon.
I do recommend chickens as a company animal!
They prevent plagues, give a lot of great compost stuff, offer proteins and B vitamins without killing them, don't have to feed them unless is too cold (like now -8ºC). So yeah, I'm with Bruce.
Another very good idea for this walk, people living self-sufficiently, is building an sewage lagoon:
http://extension.missouri.edu/p/WQ402This is the idea, but I made it not only with the purpose of cleaning the sewage but also to retain rain water, use it for watering in the dry months and to improve biodiversity. Mine is not regular with a total length of 32 meters and 12 meters wide, max. depth 1 meter. And now days I'm building a bigger and deeper one.
The first week the lagoon got some rain there was a life explosion. After two years it was fool of frogs, carps, insects, snakes, bats, and all the birds in the area come to drink and a bath.
Another great thing is that there are different stadiums in the development of the biodiversity and usually algae have moments of very, very rapid growth which gives you marvellous compost stuff.
There're less mosquitoes now than before the lagoon.
