Tyson, Chicken Rancher 🐓

Product marketing at Dropzone AI and lay pastor. Servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. Cursed with ability to see nuance. Trying not to let the bastards grind me down.

I'm married and father to three. I live in the Cascade foothills outside Seattle with my family and small flock of chickens.

I'm a startup junkie who tries to learn from good and bad examples.

Interests outside work:
#troutfishing #backpacking #backyardchickens #homesteading #wendellberry #chess #LOTR #Tolkien #CSLewis #Earthsea #romanbritain #churchhistory

In 2002, Larry Wall, the inventor of Perl, answered a reader question on Slashdot: "How can a scientific or at least technical mind believe in God?" I hope you enjoy his answer as much as I did: https://interviews.slashdot.org/story/02/09/06/1343222/larry-wall-on-perl-religion-and

Avatar: Bearded guy in a beanie and orange puffy jacket chopping wood.

Header image: Man wearing waders standing in a swollen river fishing.

Dropzone AI: https://www.dropzone.ai/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tysonsupasatit/

Last Notes

2025-09-05 05:31:12 UTC

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Racoon massacres in the daytime?! That’s terrible! Maybe I should keep my .22 by the door.

2025-09-04 15:11:37 UTC

A close escape! Dont' worry, this has a happy ending.
Olive the Olive Egger always jumps out of the run to free range. (I need to clip her wings.) This morning, a coyote nearly got her!
When I went out because the chickens were making a ruckus, I saw this pile of feathers and thought she was a goner. Turns out, the coyote had spooked and Olive had run far away. I saw her just now in the front yard and brought her back into the run. She looks fine other than missing some tail feathers. Hopefully she's learned her lesson about staying in the run!
#backyardchickens
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2025-02-02 15:15:02 UTC

#silentsunday
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2025-01-20 02:20:30 UTC

I've been collecting stories from my neighbors: the types of stories that you'd retell over and over and I believe are essential for a sense of place and community. Here's one that I recently published. It's titled "Beaver, You Must Go."
A neighbor has a small creek that runs through his property. Over the years, beavers have tried to dam the creek three times. The first time, the neighbor was surprised at the speed and craftsmanship of the dam. It was constructed with larger rocks at the bottom and sections of turf to hold the water. He had to wade in up to his chest to breach it. He called the State and they sent a WDFW employee to trap and relocate the beaver. They put it in Duvall, as apparently beavers are very stubborn and will return to keep building their dam if within 10 miles.
The second time a beaver built a dam, the neighbor again called the State but apparently now they contract this work out to a private company. The man that came to trap the beaver was unsavory in his appearance and smell. The neighbor felt bad for the beaver, having to be trapped by such a person.
Later, the neighbor traveled up to the Kenai River in Alaska where he related the beaver episodes to a Native American woman. She told him that when a beaver is constructing a dam somewhere inconvenient, the indigenous people talk to the beavers and ask them to leave. That thought stuck with our neighbor.
The third time a beaver built a dam (this neighbor's been on the property for quite a while), he didn't call the State. Instead, he walked out to where the dam was, closed his eyes, and spoke to the beaver using his mind. His spirit reached out to the beaver's spirit.
"Beaver, you have to leave. You can't build your dam here. It will flood my driveway."
The beaver's spirit was steadfast. It wasn't leaving. He tried again, this time reasoning with the beaver. He told the beaver what would happen if it stayed. There would be a stinky man who would come. The man would trap the beaver. Our neighbor showed the beaver a picture of itself in a trap carried by the malodorous man. It would be bad.
The beaver's spirit thought about it, then agreed. The beaver left and didn't come back.
#microfiction #storytelling #pnw #beaver

2025-01-03 01:02:28 UTC

I'm extremely fortunate to live on 2.5 acres of property. It may seem like I'm complaining about taking care of the land, but in reality it's in my bones. I am sore and aching after spending yesterday pulling up English Ivy (ready for the burn pile in the photo) but would 100% do that over my do-things-on-the-computer job. When God put Adam in the garden, his job was to care for it. I feel that some people have that pleasure in land husbandry, and I'm one of them. No offense to those of you who would rather hire someone!
Anyway, here's what I've learned about my top two invasive plant enemies so far:
English ivy - It's actually not nearly as bad as I had anticipated. The ground is super wet, and I think that makes the vines a little easier to pull out. I'm strong enough that I can rip one out at a time. The vines are very strong which means I can pull out 20' of vine at a go easily. Otherwise, they snap which is also fine. The trick is to find the vines that lie an inch or two underground and pull those up—otherwise you're just treating symptoms. I spent five hours on this yesterday and cleared an estimated 1,000 sq ft. I noticed that the vines grow thick in sunlit areas and that they were really sparse deeper under shade.
Himalayan blackberry - I've successfully cleared some areas! Like the ivy, it was more easily eradicated from shaded areas as in it's less likely or slower to return. You have to tackle it hand-to-hand. I wear double pairs of gloves so that I can grip the vines without worrying about thorns. The best time to get after these is January-March when the ground it soft and they've died back during the winter. I use a shovel, but am interested in other tools. I try to get as much of the root ball as possible. I paid a neighbor to clear and area with a skid steer and it worked pretty well. He dug a few inches down and then I went through a few months later and could easily target the root balls he missed. There's still some coming up in that area, but it's manageable and I'm hoping that they'll be gone in a couple years after targeted digging.
#invasivespecies #gardening
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2024-11-22 17:27:34 UTC

Well, if nothing else, this windstorm taught my family a few new things about disaster preparedness:
1. Fill up gas tanks and charge power banks when we see nasty weather coming
2. We only need to run the generator a few hours in the day to keep the freezers cold, get ready for bed, pump sewage to the septic tank, etc.
3. I'm learning more about how our well system works!
4. The Verizon network has been a lifesaver, allowing me to keep working
#pnw

2024-11-14 19:30:35 UTC

Every year around this time, I’ll start watching for the salmon to arrive in the stream. It runs alongside the road for a 1/4 mile before cutting back into backyards. Last year they didn’t make it up to my backyard … hopefully there’s enough rain this year! These fish traveled up the Snoqualmie and Raging rivers to get to this point. #pnw #salmon
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2024-11-07 20:45:20 UTC

I felt happy this morning. The sun was out and looked great on the treehouse. Sharing here in case it makes you feel better that there's a lot of beauty out there. Hope you run into some things to be happy about today.
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2024-08-23 23:40:35 UTC

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On the bright side, I bet the early salmon are loving it. I heard from someone at the Issaquah hatchery that the counts of fish at the Ballard Locks is great this year. 🐟