[Basic] Skill of the week: Farming and Gardening

[Verjigorm]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

Build a low stone fence, say 3-4 foot high and 2-3 foot thick for keeping out hogs* (make it taller or top it with a wooden fence to keep in your dogs**). Use dogs for keeping out the deer and elk (and other jumping herbivores) or build a really tall fence, 12-15 foot.

Not sure about keeping the dogs out of the fields, if there is a time for them to run free or not. We had an orchard, so it was never an issue.


*Knew a guy who'd build a run along the fence to a blind with a swing gate. He toss some rotting veggies along the run when he knew hogs were in the area. They'd follow the run, push past the gate and get into the blind (where he'd put most of the bait), but the gate was on spring hings and only swung in. Free pork. Also, 3 foot thick isn't always thick enough. Boar hogs can be tenacious. And big.
** If you want your dogs to live.

If you had the time and free albor, I'd probably fence in my field to keep the dogs out, then have an outer fence for the dogs.

Or... Just hunt the deer and get free meat for them too, and keep'em off your crops.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Verjigorm

If you had the time and free albor, I'd probably fence in my field to keep the dogs out, then have an outer fence for the dogs.

Or... Just hunt the deer and get free meat for them too, and keep'em off your crops.

Like I said, I'm not sure if dogs are an issue for crop fields. I'm only familiar with orchards, apiaries, sheep ranching, and fish farms... none of which suffer from having dogs running about (though the dogs may suffer some in an apiary).

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

Like I said, I'm not sure if dogs are an issue for crop fields. I'm only familiar with orchards, apiaries, sheep ranching, and fish farms... none of which suffer from having dogs running about (though the dogs may suffer some in an apiary).

I did have a dog that knocked apples of our tree, buried them until they fermented, then ate them all at once. So it's technically possible to have a family of alcoholic dogs laying waste to your orchard.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I did have a dog that knocked apples of our tree, buried them until they fermented, then ate them all at once. So it's technically possible to have a family of alcoholic dogs laying waste to your orchard.

That's far more amusing to me than it should be.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

That's far more amusing to me than it should be.

Non-humans can occasionally do some very weird seemingly impossible things. Their main problem is that they can't seem to teach others to build on their single inventions.

[Verjigorm]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

Like I said, I'm not sure if dogs are an issue for crop fields. I'm only familiar with orchards, apiaries, sheep ranching, and fish farms... none of which suffer from having dogs running about (though the dogs may suffer some in an apiary).

Really, it only seems to be a problem when you're waiting on sprouts, once your garden get's going, the dogs seem to have sense enough not to run through the squash.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Verjigorm

Really, it only seems to be a problem when you're waiting on sprouts, once your garden get's going, the dogs seem to have sense enough not to run through the squash.

Unless they develop a taste for that ... true story. The dog had a liking for certain vegtables, notably cooked beans and raw squash. At one point we started putting pepper sauce on the squash to deter her. She just licked lit off -- we got the impression she liked that too. And she was quite well fed, probably even overweight.

[Flyndaran]

I had a cat named, Pepper, because of how much he loved peppers and hot sauce more than the meat it covered.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Not

If you ever make a Classical Hero, e.g. Odysseus or Achilles, they should have a point or two in farming. Heroes were farmers inasmuch as they owned land and directed slaves to make the land productive. There's a whole chapter of the Iliad that's about the image on the shield Hephaestus builds for Achilles; the images worked into the gold are of farmland and vineyards.

Don Quixote also talks about wanting to retire from knight-errantry and take up farming, but I can't recall he ever shows any competence at it.

Likewise an Officer and a Gentleman, or other blue-blooded character is likely to take a few points in gardening as a hobby.

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Farming is the IQ/A TL skill of growing plant crops on a large scale, ... Farming animals is herding, which is done using the appropriate Animal Handling specialisation, with Farming and Veterinary as likely supporting skills.

Why do you think that? I am away from my books, but I remember that farming covers both crops and livestock, and that Animal Handling is for moving groups of animals. I have also seen it suggested for general practical horsey knowledge.

Most farmers have some fowl and large or small cattle, so I am suspicious of breaking the skills up that way.

Edit: I think that some 3e books gave herders Animal Handling (Goats) or similar, but rightly or wrongly I remember 4e clarifying that Farming covered both stock and crops as long as you did not want to move large numbers of animals at once.