Well said as usual! It turns out I've REALLY become cynical because I thought the perpetrators had been human until you revealed the source. I was relieved we haven't yet fallen that far.
I truly expected to read that some government health agency had decided that your flock is presenting an avian viral danger to the public and must be culled ‘for the greater good’.
Sadly I really am convinced that this is coming. The assault on large scale arable and livestock farming worldwide will eventually trickle down to the homestead level. Can’t have pesky independent food producers keeping people healthy and outside of the state controlled insect distribution gulags after all.
Love your work Mark and will be exploring support options. Keep doing what you’re doing, it’s tremendously inspiring.
As always this article was entertaining and informative.
Yes opossums are strange creatures. How many of their tiny babies can fit in a tablespoon?
When living in FL many moons ago, my very stout unwrinkled Shar Pei (Maya) liked to run ahead of me at night through the back alleys of Hollywood. One night I heard a skirmish and hustled up to discover a giant opossum had my dog’s neck locked in its jaws. Despite Maya’s frantic, ferocious efforts, the crazed critter would not release her. Realizing the gravity of the situation, I stopped a few feet away, took aim and let fly my best Lou Groza style kick to the midsection of the aggressor. The varmint let loose its grip, did three turbulent summersaults, popped onto its feet and started again after Maya, hissing with wicked teeth bared. I grabbed the dog, and we did a 180 out of there, figuring that was a no-win situation.
I’d hate to miss any of your paywalled writings so will have to “cut the neck” off someone else’s stack for which I currently pay. As you know, the cost of chicken feed adds up.
Poor misunderstood nature Oposums dont slit throats and leave without their prey also opies eat snakes and rats and other bad insects and they dont get rabbis like cats ive raised opossums they are playful as a puppy it is because of their looks and teeth peoples imaginations run wild
try to back me into a corner or provoke me I attack All animals / humans will. some idiots are shootin cows on farms for no reason, you need cameras everywher now a days to protect your family pets,livestock possesions
i doubt it was an opossum ive been around many wild possums never seen a violent one like that ive lived in the swamps and jungles and the only thing that bit me was moaquitos and poisonous spiders and ants
New Brunswick NJ? Home of Rutgers University - the first school in the country to mandate covid vaccines to attend school. Are you sure it was an animal that sacrificed those chickens 🐓 🐔 ?
Last week I came up from Delaware to 'house sit' my sister's house in the Red Bank area. It's the house we grew up in that my sister now owns. Before coming, I thought about trying to find you but the traffic is terrible now. Nearing three score and 10 years of age, the drive would have been difficult.
In the early 90's, I had an apartment in Somerset which eased the commute to my job in Piscataway and I spent some evenings hanging around spots in New Brunswick. I like that you write about living in the N.B. area as you set the tone for your scamdemic essays, which I look forward to since I first read your work at Brownstone. Thanks, Mark
Thanks, Roy, for thinking of stopping by. Readers are always welcome and I have met with some at my house and some in other places.
If I had the time, I would have met you somewhere so you didn't have to do the whole 35 miles. On summer afternoons, after work, I sometimes go to Asbury Park to swim and sometimes surf..
I live in Texas now, but was born in New Jersey and lived there until 4th grade. It’s neat to hear the names of the towns close to mine. We lived in Watchung and my cousins lived in Piscataway. We went to Somerset to visit friends.
Mark has touched on a bigger issue than many might realize. For those of us who do think Substack is the best way to get around the "gatekeepers of the news" and challenge many dubious narratives, the platform's continued growth will require a minimal level of readers who do become "paid" subscribers.
That is, most Substack scribes probably can't sustain their writing indefinitely without an adequate income stream.
My guess is that the Power that Be are going to wait out Substack and let these contrarian writers go by the wayside. I think the unsung heroes of Substack are the tiny percentage of readers who have "skin in the game" and are spending what they can to support their favorite writers.
I recently wrote my first appeal for paid subscribers and tried to emphasize the role this "silent minority" is playing in this "battle for the truth." The main take-away is we aren't going to get any important truths from The NY Times, Washington Post or CNN. For now, it's Substack and a few excellent "alternative media" sites.
So thanks to those who are spending a little money with their favorite Substacker.
FWIW, I think the magic number for most Substackers who have developed a good following is "five percent paid."
I just did some "back of the envelope" math calculations. Substack has 35 million subscribers at the moment. I'm going to guess that 25 million of these (71 percent) are in America. If 5 percent of these subscribers are "paid" that's 1.25 million paid subscribers. 1.25 million paid subscribers in America = about 0.5 percent of America's adult population. That's 1/2 of 1 percent or 1 in 200 adults.
So the bottom-line is that if 1 in 200 American adults can pay for some paid subscriptions, Substack should continue to have a good cadre of correspondents/newsletter authors.
(As Substack grows, maybe only 4 percent paid will be enough to support the best Substack writers.)
My point is that it doesn't take many people - only about 1-in-200 adults - to make a key difference and help us all get around the censors and "gatekeepers of the news."
So sorry about the chickens! Yes possums can be quite dangerous. I had no idea they were that far north, thought they were a southern plague. My dog and cats make a circle around them, and I have seen them walk up a tree as if on flat ground. And no, you don't want to try if they might bite, with these teeth and these formidable claws, better beware. And they are just in for the kill? I would have thought they would eat their prey!
Good morning Mark. I caught a "possum" in a Have-a-Heart trap 15 years ago as there was something burrowing under the back porch of a property my son and I were "flipping." When I arrived the next morning and saw what it was, I was dismayed I might have killed it, as it was not moving. Then, duh, I realized it was "playing 'possum." I released it into our woods and now I am re-thinking that approach. I had no idea opossums could be so vicious. At any rate, I have decided to subscribe to your Substack writings. Most of us as readers cannot afford to subscribe to all the writers we enjoy but we must give honor and encouragement to the ones we respect. Your essays are honest and straightforward and remind me of my own life having grown up on a farm in northern Virginia. I knew you had much to write Mark. Please have at it! Also, please be so kind as to read my Covid story and let me know what you think. I have more to write but, like Robert Frost, have "promises to keep, and miles to go..."
Wrt to subscriptions, it would be interesting to look at a demographic breakdown of answers to a simple three-to-five-point scale, from 'always pay for content' to 'never pay for content'. My hunch is that you would find those willing to pay heavily skewed towards older 'consumers', perhaps in part because of economic factors but also reflecting pre-digital experiences of paying for print subscriptions, music and other forms of entertainment (on whatever medium). The confound of 'free as in speech' and 'free as in beer' seemed to arise as a side-effect of the ease of distributing and sharing digital formats, which led initially to a culture of (mostly youthful) piracy and ultimately to the modern ad-slinging online business models. In the process, the 'disruption' largely wiped out the mid-level newspaper ecosystem and shifted the revenue stream in the music industry from recordings and royalties to performances and merchandise. For some, the economic devastation of the lockdowns served as a wake-up call that they needed to support the businesses and establishments that they hoped to be able to enjoy in the post-lockdown world, as much out of self-interest as altruism. A similar realization appears to be driving the growth of platforms like Substack, Locals, etc., and we may eventually see more of a bimodal distribution among subscriber bases, with older readers in one spike and the other spike made up of the generation that has come of age in an era where the adage 'you get what you pay for' applies with particular force.
I'm wating with bated breath for the day when my last remaining local "news" paper goes out of business, and it's leftwing writers have to scramble to afford their weed.
I feel your pain and rage. We have a chicken and a duck flock that we have hand raised and when a predator gets to them it is deeply frustrating. I cry and regret every one of them.
Oh hell! Sorry, Mark, I missed the post that you were charging. Subscription paid. I'm happy to support a worthy cause like buying chickens and keeping one of my favorite writers, writing.
Jerry Clower had some funny stories about possum hunting is southwest Ms, but I've never figured out what they're good for. Sorry about your chicks- maybe the possum you trapped will be the last. Looking forward to your upcoming stories.
I’m so sorry for the loss of your flock. As a backyard chicken owner I know how hard it is to lose precious hens to a predator (and possum’s signature beheadings are particularly gruesome). Fortification of the coop is everything! Sharing eggs with your community is such a joyful gift, and although adding new hens to a flock is an arduous process I hope you will do so.
"I found all five pullets dead, their throats cut. I had found another massacre the morning before. Four of our full-size laying hens had their heads severed."
At first I though it was a ritual sacrifice, but then learned it was an aggressive opossum doing what they instinctively do--slaughter chicks.
As the old saying goes:
"You can take the
boy/opossum out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the
I'm an unpaid subscriber. I fully support your position on paid vs unpaid, and am grateful you will still provide content to me. Newspaper were never free. One purchased a copy of the paper, and put up with the ads. TV news was never free, you watched the ads.
Newspaper never free, tv never free although for a certain price you can get multiple people's articles. Here on substack if you read 5x base subscription is usd25/month. I don't say it's not payable but definitely not a long term economically viable strategy. Substack needs a new model and I think long term writers should embrace a new different model also as sooner or later they have to fight for the subscribers as most will only subscribe to 1 or 2.
Well said as usual! It turns out I've REALLY become cynical because I thought the perpetrators had been human until you revealed the source. I was relieved we haven't yet fallen that far.
I truly expected to read that some government health agency had decided that your flock is presenting an avian viral danger to the public and must be culled ‘for the greater good’.
Sadly I really am convinced that this is coming. The assault on large scale arable and livestock farming worldwide will eventually trickle down to the homestead level. Can’t have pesky independent food producers keeping people healthy and outside of the state controlled insect distribution gulags after all.
Love your work Mark and will be exploring support options. Keep doing what you’re doing, it’s tremendously inspiring.
Hi Mark,
As always this article was entertaining and informative.
Yes opossums are strange creatures. How many of their tiny babies can fit in a tablespoon?
When living in FL many moons ago, my very stout unwrinkled Shar Pei (Maya) liked to run ahead of me at night through the back alleys of Hollywood. One night I heard a skirmish and hustled up to discover a giant opossum had my dog’s neck locked in its jaws. Despite Maya’s frantic, ferocious efforts, the crazed critter would not release her. Realizing the gravity of the situation, I stopped a few feet away, took aim and let fly my best Lou Groza style kick to the midsection of the aggressor. The varmint let loose its grip, did three turbulent summersaults, popped onto its feet and started again after Maya, hissing with wicked teeth bared. I grabbed the dog, and we did a 180 out of there, figuring that was a no-win situation.
I’d hate to miss any of your paywalled writings so will have to “cut the neck” off someone else’s stack for which I currently pay. As you know, the cost of chicken feed adds up.
Good story, Al.
Thanks for subscribing. I realize that decisions must be made. I do so myself.
Poor misunderstood nature Oposums dont slit throats and leave without their prey also opies eat snakes and rats and other bad insects and they dont get rabbis like cats ive raised opossums they are playful as a puppy it is because of their looks and teeth peoples imaginations run wild
Opossums attack other animals.
try to back me into a corner or provoke me I attack All animals / humans will. some idiots are shootin cows on farms for no reason, you need cameras everywher now a days to protect your family pets,livestock possesions
NO THEY DO NOT WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR INPUT FROM?
i doubt it was an opossum ive been around many wild possums never seen a violent one like that ive lived in the swamps and jungles and the only thing that bit me was moaquitos and poisonous spiders and ants
feral cats chew birds heads off and leve them FACT
New Brunswick NJ? Home of Rutgers University - the first school in the country to mandate covid vaccines to attend school. Are you sure it was an animal that sacrificed those chickens 🐓 🐔 ?
Charge for your work. Donate some free to introduce people to it from time to time. So, I think you are striking a good balance.
And glad you whacked that varmint. Chickens give much but are defenseless to predators.
Danny Huckabee
Last week I came up from Delaware to 'house sit' my sister's house in the Red Bank area. It's the house we grew up in that my sister now owns. Before coming, I thought about trying to find you but the traffic is terrible now. Nearing three score and 10 years of age, the drive would have been difficult.
In the early 90's, I had an apartment in Somerset which eased the commute to my job in Piscataway and I spent some evenings hanging around spots in New Brunswick. I like that you write about living in the N.B. area as you set the tone for your scamdemic essays, which I look forward to since I first read your work at Brownstone. Thanks, Mark
Thanks, Roy, for thinking of stopping by. Readers are always welcome and I have met with some at my house and some in other places.
If I had the time, I would have met you somewhere so you didn't have to do the whole 35 miles. On summer afternoons, after work, I sometimes go to Asbury Park to swim and sometimes surf..
I live in Texas now, but was born in New Jersey and lived there until 4th grade. It’s neat to hear the names of the towns close to mine. We lived in Watchung and my cousins lived in Piscataway. We went to Somerset to visit friends.
I think I will subscribe.
Mark has touched on a bigger issue than many might realize. For those of us who do think Substack is the best way to get around the "gatekeepers of the news" and challenge many dubious narratives, the platform's continued growth will require a minimal level of readers who do become "paid" subscribers.
That is, most Substack scribes probably can't sustain their writing indefinitely without an adequate income stream.
My guess is that the Power that Be are going to wait out Substack and let these contrarian writers go by the wayside. I think the unsung heroes of Substack are the tiny percentage of readers who have "skin in the game" and are spending what they can to support their favorite writers.
I recently wrote my first appeal for paid subscribers and tried to emphasize the role this "silent minority" is playing in this "battle for the truth." The main take-away is we aren't going to get any important truths from The NY Times, Washington Post or CNN. For now, it's Substack and a few excellent "alternative media" sites.
So thanks to those who are spending a little money with their favorite Substacker.
https://billricejr.substack.com/p/our-rulers-fear-the-the-silent-minority
FWIW, I think the magic number for most Substackers who have developed a good following is "five percent paid."
I just did some "back of the envelope" math calculations. Substack has 35 million subscribers at the moment. I'm going to guess that 25 million of these (71 percent) are in America. If 5 percent of these subscribers are "paid" that's 1.25 million paid subscribers. 1.25 million paid subscribers in America = about 0.5 percent of America's adult population. That's 1/2 of 1 percent or 1 in 200 adults.
So the bottom-line is that if 1 in 200 American adults can pay for some paid subscriptions, Substack should continue to have a good cadre of correspondents/newsletter authors.
(As Substack grows, maybe only 4 percent paid will be enough to support the best Substack writers.)
My point is that it doesn't take many people - only about 1-in-200 adults - to make a key difference and help us all get around the censors and "gatekeepers of the news."
So sorry about the chickens! Yes possums can be quite dangerous. I had no idea they were that far north, thought they were a southern plague. My dog and cats make a circle around them, and I have seen them walk up a tree as if on flat ground. And no, you don't want to try if they might bite, with these teeth and these formidable claws, better beware. And they are just in for the kill? I would have thought they would eat their prey!
Good morning Mark. I caught a "possum" in a Have-a-Heart trap 15 years ago as there was something burrowing under the back porch of a property my son and I were "flipping." When I arrived the next morning and saw what it was, I was dismayed I might have killed it, as it was not moving. Then, duh, I realized it was "playing 'possum." I released it into our woods and now I am re-thinking that approach. I had no idea opossums could be so vicious. At any rate, I have decided to subscribe to your Substack writings. Most of us as readers cannot afford to subscribe to all the writers we enjoy but we must give honor and encouragement to the ones we respect. Your essays are honest and straightforward and remind me of my own life having grown up on a farm in northern Virginia. I knew you had much to write Mark. Please have at it! Also, please be so kind as to read my Covid story and let me know what you think. I have more to write but, like Robert Frost, have "promises to keep, and miles to go..."
Thanks, Nancy. I really don't know what else I have to say. But I've wondered that for over a year.
I just read your story. It's very good.
Please don't ever kill an opossum. They are so important in the ecosystem.
Wrt to subscriptions, it would be interesting to look at a demographic breakdown of answers to a simple three-to-five-point scale, from 'always pay for content' to 'never pay for content'. My hunch is that you would find those willing to pay heavily skewed towards older 'consumers', perhaps in part because of economic factors but also reflecting pre-digital experiences of paying for print subscriptions, music and other forms of entertainment (on whatever medium). The confound of 'free as in speech' and 'free as in beer' seemed to arise as a side-effect of the ease of distributing and sharing digital formats, which led initially to a culture of (mostly youthful) piracy and ultimately to the modern ad-slinging online business models. In the process, the 'disruption' largely wiped out the mid-level newspaper ecosystem and shifted the revenue stream in the music industry from recordings and royalties to performances and merchandise. For some, the economic devastation of the lockdowns served as a wake-up call that they needed to support the businesses and establishments that they hoped to be able to enjoy in the post-lockdown world, as much out of self-interest as altruism. A similar realization appears to be driving the growth of platforms like Substack, Locals, etc., and we may eventually see more of a bimodal distribution among subscriber bases, with older readers in one spike and the other spike made up of the generation that has come of age in an era where the adage 'you get what you pay for' applies with particular force.
This is extremely thoughtful and well-expressed. Thanks.
I'm wating with bated breath for the day when my last remaining local "news" paper goes out of business, and it's leftwing writers have to scramble to afford their weed.
I feel your pain and rage. We have a chicken and a duck flock that we have hand raised and when a predator gets to them it is deeply frustrating. I cry and regret every one of them.
Oh hell! Sorry, Mark, I missed the post that you were charging. Subscription paid. I'm happy to support a worthy cause like buying chickens and keeping one of my favorite writers, writing.
Too bad about your chickens. That truly does suck ... especially for those chickens.
Jerry Clower had some funny stories about possum hunting is southwest Ms, but I've never figured out what they're good for. Sorry about your chicks- maybe the possum you trapped will be the last. Looking forward to your upcoming stories.
I think people eat them.
Hmmm...
The " Beverly Hillbillies " loved "Possum Gizzards!"
I’m so sorry for the loss of your flock. As a backyard chicken owner I know how hard it is to lose precious hens to a predator (and possum’s signature beheadings are particularly gruesome). Fortification of the coop is everything! Sharing eggs with your community is such a joyful gift, and although adding new hens to a flock is an arduous process I hope you will do so.
"I found all five pullets dead, their throats cut. I had found another massacre the morning before. Four of our full-size laying hens had their heads severed."
At first I though it was a ritual sacrifice, but then learned it was an aggressive opossum doing what they instinctively do--slaughter chicks.
As the old saying goes:
"You can take the
boy/opossum out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the
boy/opossum.😁
I'm an unpaid subscriber. I fully support your position on paid vs unpaid, and am grateful you will still provide content to me. Newspaper were never free. One purchased a copy of the paper, and put up with the ads. TV news was never free, you watched the ads.
Newspaper never free, tv never free although for a certain price you can get multiple people's articles. Here on substack if you read 5x base subscription is usd25/month. I don't say it's not payable but definitely not a long term economically viable strategy. Substack needs a new model and I think long term writers should embrace a new different model also as sooner or later they have to fight for the subscribers as most will only subscribe to 1 or 2.