By extremely poor, I’m talking physically disabled/mentally unwell/severely addicted. My viewpoint is from a rural southern us perspective. You see someone walking or biking, the assumption is that there is something very wrong with them and that they are probably homeless or nearly so. The only time you don’t assume that with bicyclists, is if they’re wearing spandex on a touring bike or are a kid.

I’m a total redneck so I’ve had plenty of friends and acquaintances that dealt. One former friend, only man I’ve ever called brother, I rode shotgun for a few times when he was making big moves. (he fell down the rabbithole with conspiracy stuff, we don’t really talk anymore, the brother I loved is gone)

I’m still adjusting to seeing so many people walking in my new home. Other than gas station/general stores, I’m used to stores being 30mi/48km away.

Anyhow, anybody moving product had to have a vehicle as a basic part of their trade. Like a shitbox civic and a Hipoint 9mm were a part of the starter kit or something.

You can get fresh fish, but, you usually pay a premium. Fresh farmed catfish and tilapia are common. Now that I think about it, that’s a type of factory farming I’m actually pretty okay with. As far as I know, their suffering is minimal and the environmental impact can be minimal or even positive when they are used to clean wastewater or fed byproducts. But most freshwater fish simply cannot be purchased, you have to catch them due to the laws. I now live within 300mi/482km of the coast, which is close by my definitions.

So buffalo vs bison is a funny thing. The american buffalo and bison are the same animal. However, buffalo refers to the wild ones and bison is farmed. Market hunters gunned them all down on the plains and that extirpation largely led to regulated hunting. Rinella drew a tag for one of the last populations of actual wild buffalo up in Alaska. (This stuff is closely regulated and actually backed by population science, one of the areas of law I actially agree with) So, he had to hike up a partially frozen river and stalk a buffalo, process it, and then pack and raft it out. He did this solo. He wrote the book while he was living in Manhattan, IIRC.

What about invasive vs naturalized?

Right there with you on small trucks, the kid and I have been drooling over the Slate even if it is Bezos. I drive a '98 Ranger, and we’ve been kicking around the idea of a Ranger electric conversion.

Got me. Totally made that assumption. I now live within an hour of downtown of a large metropolitan area, there’s even bus service here. However, even here, life without a vehicle would be full of hardship.

I’m used to only the extremely poor not having a vehicle. I don’t know the percentage, but a large chunk of our homeless live in their vehicle and have jobs. Which sounds like pure hell.

Another assumption I made is game not being available unless you hunt it yourself. I’ve read about butchers in Europe selling game but I have no experience with it. The only wild meat you can purchase in a store is saltwater fish, pretty much everything else must be farmed. I understand, and agree, with the original intent. Market hunting was a terrible thing, effectively wiped out the buffalo for instance. It now needs to be brought back, and closely managed, for whitetail deer.

American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon by Steven Rinella is a fascinating book. Rinella is one of the few modern hunters that I respect. He also has a show, MeatEater, that’s pretty great. He’s a thinking man’s hunter.

That sucks. My wife and I saved and scrimped for years, and put a big chunk of retirement savings into it. We also moved 700mi/1100km buying the place without visiting it to make it happen. Huge leap into the unknown and we got very lucky to make it happen. We realized we needed to get out of the deep south in 2020. Couldn’t afford to leave the country.

Small game should be totally doable for you if you’re allowed to own a shotgun or . 22. (I love squirrel hunting, I harvest deer because we all love venison but find hunting them missrable and boring.) You could even process deer in apartment without your neighbors knowing. Gut in the field. Quarter or at least bisect them at your vehicle. Put parts wrapped in plastic in duffle bags. Carry into apartment. Further processing like skinning/deboning in bathtub/shower. Use cheap coolers with ice to do what is called wet aging the meat(common in the Southern US as it often isn’t cool enough to hang).

Jesus fuck. I wasn’t there, but your father abused you, displayed laziness, cowardice, and tortured animals. I find the cowardice of having you do it and then drowning particularly disgusting. Fucking yeller coward. I’m sorry you went through that.

I dispatch groundhogs in the trap with a . 22 revolver to the head using high velocity hollow points. I also know what the fuck I’m doing. They don’t feel it. I’ve put down cats before, but I use buckshot to make sure, they move fast and fucking up with a pet is unacceptable.

My son could, and would, put down pets if I told him to or I wasn’t able. It would fuck him up and it would have to be dire circumstances for it to ever happen. I’d have to be in the hospital or something and my wife would do it before he had to. That shit ain’t right.

Start with fishing, easy to learn to clean from youtube and the emotional impact is a lot less.

You know what they say about camping sex? It’s fucking in tents.

Seriously tho, fucking outdoors is the best. Hammock camping and fucking is awesome, hammocks are basically a sex swing without having to tote all the hardware.

My ethical views of livestock/game animals, factory farming, slaughter/hunting are pretty much identical to yours. From the Southern US.

Worked on farms as a kid. Chicken houses are a nightmare. The suffering inherent in industrialized meat production is hard to overstate.

I’m rebuilding our little farm. We’re going to have steers, chickens, rabbits. Deer are very overpopulated and I’m going to be taking does to fill our freezer. Trophy hunters are disgusting. (Full disclosure, I’ve taken one trophy, will likely be the only one I ever take, she wouldn’t have made it through the winter.)

Ethically, I think that if you’re going to eat meat, you should have to kill and butcher an animal at least once. We’d have a lot more vegans that way. Factory farming should be abolished.

I completely agree. Making statistics lie is a dark art.

The fascist fuckheads and their followers are doing so much blatantly evil shit that there is no need to embellish anything. The plain facts are plenty apalling all by themselves.

Cats are absolute hell on wildlife, especially ground nesting birds, and should be removed from outdoors. That being said, that’s completely fucked up that it was put on you by your father. It also sounds like you had to use a pellet/bb gun, the wrong tool. Also sounds like you might not have had much experience killing animals, completely understandable, cute housecats is a terrible place to start with that and is fucked up. He shouldn’t have done that to you.

I had a similar experience when I was 15 and working my first job, on a farm. Had to shoot a puppy. Guess my boss thought it would make me tough or something. I managed not to throw up or cry.

My son is 15, I would never put something like that on him. He’s killed rats with rat shot. He’s watched me clean fish and squirrels. I’m hoping to have chickens next spring. My wife and I have talked about it, I’m going to teach him how to kill and clean a chicken.

Killing always makes me a little sad, as it should. I don’t even kill spiders unless it’s a black widow or a brown recluse and it’s inside a house or shed. I take the ethics of it very seriously.

However, I think that if you’re going to eat meat, you should have to kill and butcher at least once. We’d have a lot more vegans and more respect for life.

Nah, they’re saying sales have only dropped by 10% from 2024, in the US. Which is fucked up.

Wonder if that’s because left aligned types had already quit buying them in '24? He was already being a total fuckhead during the election at that point.

Hell of a way to squeeze a statistic.

That does sound like evil rodents.

I’m currently at war with the groundhogs again. They’re super cute and super destructive. They like to dig under foundations, especially my outbuildings. I got five last year; two, so far, this year.

I live trap them so that I can let any bycatch coons or possums go free. Unfortunately, I have to dispatch the groundhogs. (legally you are required to dispatch and not relocate as they carry rabies and are overpopulated due to lack of predators.)

What did the bad hamster do to you?

My dream car is a Chevelle with the straight-six, Brazilian turbo manifold, and a mega squirt computer. One day, maybe.

230 straight-six is my favorite engine.

😁 Those dinky little engines were tough, run forever.

Mine was a chevy pickup with the Straight-6 and three on the tree.

Yup, and you had to regularly check the water level in it.

The car is probably something like a Chevy II.

Hidden by the valve cover, intake is on the far side, note the spark plugs on this side. Air cleaner has been removed. It’s a straight-4.

I’m celebrating Happy Fireworks Day!

I’ve got new neighbors that are probably about to hear, “Fire in the hole!” unironically for the first time. You can actually see the shockwave from my blackpowder signal cannon. Good chance the cops show up.

I usually use the cannon to vaporize 10oz of kerosene for a nice mushroom cloud of fire, but I’ll have to see how it goes.

I’m a pyro.

Y’all wear safety glasses if having bottle rocket fights or roman candle duels.

Depends on the cat and the relationship you have with the cat.

Dominance is also shorthand for the threat/wariness and manipulation thing that is part of the cat nature. Cats have a quick and very reactive nervous system. If a dog is a sedan or a truck, a cat is a two seat sports car. Cats are also manipulative as fuck. They’d be quite sociopathic if they were human.

I love cats (and dogs).

Depressingly acurate.