Roll Model: The Deanes

Not long after Matthew and Eliza Deane and their three kids moved to Oakley, Utah, from New Hampshire in August 2014, some teenagers “TP’d” their new house and front yard with toilet paper. It wasn’t the kind of welcome they hoped for, but it wasn’t entirely unexpected: “We both lived here as kids and we both did it,” Matthew Deane told the Deseret News. “It’s part of the culture.”

What wasn’t part of the culture–at least when the Deanes were younger– was for the pranksters to do it over and over again. Every Friday and Saturday night for weeks after the Deane family moved in, a dozen or more kids at a time pelted the house with toilet paper. The mess they made was only the beginning: the troublemakers also took apart the Deanes’ lawn furniture, rang the doorbell, and pounded on the doors and windows at all hours of the night. Sometimes they drove past the house without stopping, honking their horns and screaming as they went by.

Paper chase

The Deanes’ 15-year-old daughter was so upset by the harassment that she dropped out of high school and had to be homeschooled. Matthew Dean lost more than a few nights of sleep lying in wait for the pranksters to show up so that he could chase after them in his car. Once he cornered a carload of teenagers in a culde-sac and told them how upsetting their behavior was to his family. He thought the kids got the message, but the next Friday his house was TP’d again.

Finally, after four months of torment, a sheriff’s deputy caught some of the teenagers in the act and took them into custody. Deane could have pressed charges, and perhaps even sued the parents for damage. But he didn’t: “It sort of came to me that I should ask these people to bring toilet paper to our house and bring it into the house and come to know us,” he says.

Roll on Over

Deane figured that if the troublemakers knew his family as people, they’d be less likely to TP the house again. (He was right). And he thought all that toilet paper could be put to much better use if it was donated to a local charity that works with the poor–that’s why he told the kids and their parents to bring some with them.

Even if Deane had only collected toilet paper from those teenagers and their parents, he would have amassed a considerable haul. But when friends and neighbors found out what they were doing, many of them wanted to contribute some toilet paper as well. It wasn’t long before the story found its way to the Internet, thanks to Facebook, Twitter, and Matthew Deane’s own blog, and soon strangers began sending them packages of toilet paper from all over the country.

On a Roll

The Deanes set an initial goal of collecting 500 rolls of toilet paper by the end of December, then double it to 1,000 when their pile grew past 600 rolls. At first they piled the packages of toilet paper in front of the Christmas tree, but so much came in that they had to move it all behind the couch. By New Year’s Day, they’d collected more than 1,000 rolls in all, with more arriving daily.

The Deanes had planned to stop collecting toilet paper on New Year’s Day, but stopping the donations will probably be as tricky as stopping the TP’ers in the first place. All in all, it’s not a bad problem to have. “We just wanted to prove that good will win over all,” Deane told the Deseret News. It has become a happy positive experience I never thought it would…but it really has.”

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Shoe shops used X-Ray machines to measure shoe sizes in the 1940s before the risks of X-Rays were fully understood.

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Cold

Preparation For Small And Hobby

By Katie Ockert, Michigan State University

Michigan State University Extension recognizes that cold weather management can be a challenge for even the most seasoned poultry owners. There is no substitute for good management that takes into consideration a variety of factors.

First, temperature and wind are the most critical environmental concerns that flock owners must be aware of. Chickens begin to pick up temperature changes around 60 degrees Fahrenheit. A bird’s comb, waddles, face, feet and other non-protected body parts are sensitive to temperature changes. Making sure that your coop is draft free, yet well ventilated, is key in keeping a comfortable environment for your birds. There are many methods to cut down wind such as creating wind breaks that will protect the coop from the most common prevailing winds and identifying areas in the coop where there are drafts.

Brigid McCrea, PhD, small flock specialist, from Auburn University and Zac Williams, PhD, Michigan State University (MSU) poultry specialist dispel many of those myths and give practical, best practices for poultry owners in the “Poultry Talk 101—Cold Weather Prep for Small and Hobby Flocks” podcast. Here are some other tips from Brigid McCrea:

Coop bedding should be kept clean and doubled from what is used during the summer months to insulate the floor of the coop and protect again frostbite on the toes.

Daily observation is critical so that birds exposed body parts can be monitored for frost bite.

Choose breeds suited for your climate.

Provide free choice feed during the winter months; chickens should consume 50% more feed than during the warmer months. Provide fresh, clean water every day and make sure to clean the water troughs every day.

Deciphering a hay test - RFV and RFQ

By Jerry Volesky, UNL

Forage tests today contain two values summarizing feed quality. While similar, understanding the unique differences of each is important to accurately value a forage. Today we will look at Relative Feed Value or RFV and Relative Forage Quality or RFQ.

For many years we have used a forage testing system that measured two different types of fiber called NDF and ADF. We used NDF to estimate how much hay cows would eat and we used ADF to estimate how much energy they would get from that hay. Then we combined those values to give an overall estimate of forage quality that we called RFV, which stands for relative feed value.

RFV did a fair job of estimating digestibility of legume hay, but its major flaw is assuming all fiber has the same digestibility. We know that is not true, and it especially misrepresents the forage quality of grasses. Grasses have more fiber than legumes but grass fiber usually is more digestible than legume fiber. For many years, there was no other forage test available at an affordable cost that was any better.

Eventually, low-cost tests were developed that did a good job of measuring digestible fiber. Forage scientists and animal nutritionists have worked together with these tests to also revise the intake and energy estimates so results from these tests predict how animals will truly perform much more accurately. With these new tests, a new overall estimate of forage quality was developed, which is called RFQ, or relative forage quality.

While this new RFQ test is especially useful when testing grassy hays, it also has been proven to be better with alfalfa and other legumes. So when you test forages in the future, look for labs that offer relative forage quality. Your numbers will be more accurate.

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Q. What do you call a bear with no teeth

A. A gummy bear

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