Jesse Glessner

pascal billford wrote:here's my situation:   I want to make all my own compost but I"m going to need a lot of biomass to do that.      
I'd like to plant about 500 cuttings or so at 2 ft spacing that would produce about 10K lbs of biomass per year.  Would comfrey be fairly low maintenance in the first few years?
anything else to consider?

Well, 500 cuttings will give you a LOT of bio-mass, however, when that composts down you won't have nearly as much as you would think coming from those huge plants. So that 10 K lbs that you are expecting will be a fairly small pile of compost. And WHERE is your compost pile going to exist? It will be huge with cuttings (in your operation you need to cut and grow, cut and grow, all summer long) that eventually will compost, but not as fast as you think either.

I have one plant that looks as large as the one in the photo. I grow it for the bees mostly, but I want to see if I can make a tea using young leaves. I do know that Comfrey is great at stopping blood flow from wounds.

I would very strongly recommend to everyone reading this forum about building/printing/manufacturing their own bee hives to consider several items.
1.    Read several books about Beekeeping.
2.    Join a local BeeKeeping Club and learn from those people.
3.    Check costs of pre-built hives compared to buying parts to assemble.
4.    It isn't just a hive you need. You also need several supers in a Vertical hive w/ FRAMES!
5.    In a Horizontal Hive you need larger frames - OR - pull down plans to build your own and use           --------Langstroth Frames.
6.    How are you going to protect your bees through winter using thin woods in builds?
7.    OSB exposed outside, even if painted is a NO! NO! NO!
8.    Plywood swells with humidity, rains, snows, etc.
9.    Plans for Plastic hives? Too thin to repel heat or cold!!!
10.  Check our site 'horizontalhive.com'   for FREE PLANS to build  HH's for use with the Langstroth     --------FRAMES. Make sure you select the right plans - far down on the Plans page.
11.  Build up your bank account. It is expensive to get started in to BeeKeeping. See the --------------graphic below and stretch it out to read easily. These are bare minimums as of --------------early 2024. About the least expensive way to get your equipment.
12.   OH! I forgot! You need a stand to set your hive on also. Extra costs will keep popping up.
13.   PLEASE! Don't buy into all of the medications offered. Box your bees and leave them be --------------bees, SOME meds are good. A guy in Missouri though has over 50 hives and NEVER --------------medicates, so it can be done! Far too many are opening their hive every week to --------------'find the queen' and see how she is doing. Queens KNOW what to do without all of                   --------------the interruptions! Again, let the bees be bees!!
14.   Think about what you need to harvest even ONE SUPER of honey around the Fall season!

Make sure and download the attachment! Just don't have a heart attack when you see the total of the items because you'll need other tools as well.

I bought a Shapeoko Desktop CNC system with an off-the-shelf common router and it took me quite a while to get all of the bells and whistles of the software kinks ironed out in my mind. Once you understand the software and manage to make a design the rest of the process is a piece of cake.

I then sold that smaller model and purchased the next size up and never looked back, but, if you don't pay attention you can still make mistakes.

I was doing some Xmas ornaments on one board about 3 weeks ago. I got the thickness of the board correct, but I had not paid special attention to the required width. The ornaments looked like they were O.K. but did not mill correctly. I then used the only board of the correct width that I had, but instead of 1/2" thickness it was 3/4" thick. I milled the ornaments any thinking I could easily shave off the bottom of the board with the band saw. That actually worked like a charm.

I took those in to our normal monthly CNC meeting for a 'show-n-tell' and the guys liked those. When our meeting was over I took them next door where several ladies meet and told them they could each choose one ornament as their own and paint it and hang it on their tree. They were thrilled with that. They were also very curious about WHAT our meetings were about so it was a good way to show them as well.

I bought my CNC systems for ENJOYMENT more than just having to produce items on an assembly line basis. My system sits idle - a LOT! But when I get the urge to do a job I look up an already completed design or build a new one and then produce the finished item. I get a HUMONGOUS AMOUNT of pleasure at completing a job.

And YES you can do production line work. A cousin teaches a 3rd grade class locally and I did 23 small boards on 1/4" plywood for her students to color a design as something for them to do during the last gasps of the Covid19 garbage! They all liked the project too!

SO, is it worth it to buy one? From my view - being retired - yeh it is worth it. IF you are looking at Production Runs you should have some experience on some other CNC system first and then buy a really good system - and then make sign your contracts. SO, can you produce enough interest to keep the contracts coming in? How much would it cost you to just have that expensive system sitting idle for 2 to 3 to 4 weeks waiting on the next contract? I would say just off hand that you would have to be really experienced to have lots of contracts coming in. It is more likely that you would wind up more of a hobbyist rather than a production shop.

Ulla Bisgaard wrote:

Mary Cook wrote:Thank you for your input. As for sweet potatoes rotting. It only happens if they get bruised. One time my son dropped a case of them, and they started rotting within days.
As for making cubes. I have an electric machine for dicing, cutting fries, and make slices. With it, I can dice 20 pounds in about 5 minutes.  

I'm going to try Sweet Potatoes again this coming year. I've been getting 'bowl meals' with little meat and lots of veggies. One of the veggies are cubed sweet potatoes and those little guys are really tasty. IF I can store some of the crop I can always clean, cut, and store some cubes in the freezer for immediate baking.

Has anyone tried their cuts or cubes of sweet potatoes in a low-pressure Pressure Cooker - like an InstaPot or a MealthyPot? IF so does that work well to cook the potatoes?

Kate Michaud wrote:Finally I've managed some pics of my homestead.  I thought it was time to show just how Permaculture can change a landscape.

Seeing your (pizza oven???) reminded me of a 'rocket stove in two large cement blocks that were rounded on all corners. I went back to find that and never could find it again. It was a really unique design and I wanted to bring that to the RMH gurus here and lost out on that.

Kate Michaud wrote: I myself don't own a smart phone, and won't get yet another digital camera as I have gone through 3 of them over the years (junk). Cheers!  K

My old Kodak digital was left out in rainy weather and died. I liked it so much that I went on-line (eBay) and found another just like it and I think it was around $35. I believe it is an M65 Model Kodak, 8.2 mega pixels and will accept a storage card as well. I is very easy to download images to your computer too. Light weight, compact, easy to carry in a pocket for instant use out in the field. Check'em out! You might like it.   :-)

I just used a cleaning agent called "Bar Keepers Friend" on my bathroom vanity and it worked like a charm to remove the gunk that was under the faucet I had to replace. I think this might have a very, very fine powder in it.

But, according to the container it is good for Stainless, Porcelain, Ceramic, Tile, and Copper and good for cookware, kitchen, and bathroom.

O.K. - This recipe uses Heavy Cream ( Whipping Cream ) and only ONE other ingredient. See comment at the bottom of the recipe.

2-Ingredient Cream Biscuits
Prep 10 mins
Cook 15 mins
Active 5 mins
Total 25 mins
Serves 15 to 20 biscuits
Ingredients
• 10 ounces (about 2 cups) self-rising flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar IF making sweet shortcake-style biscuits)
• 10 ounces (about 1 1/4 cups) heavy cream, plus more for brushing
Directions
1. Adjust oven rack to center position and preheat oven to 450°F. Place flour in a large bowl. If making sweet biscuits, whisk in sugar. Stirring with a wooden spoon, drizzle in cream. Stir until a lumpy dough is formed. Do not over mix.
2. For Drop Biscuits: Using a 1-ounce cookie scoop, scoop balls of dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing them 2 inches apart. Brush tops with cream and bake until golden brown, about 12 minutes. Let cool slightly and serve.
3. For Flaky Rolled Biscuits: With a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 12-inch square.
4. Using a bench scraper, fold the right third of the dough over the center, then fold the left third over so you end up with a 12-by-4-inch rectangle.
5. Fold the top third down over the center, then fold the bottom third up so the whole thing is reduced to a 4-inch square. Press the square down and roll it out again into a 12-inch square.
6. Repeat the folding process once more, then roll the dough again into a 12-inch square.
7. Use a 3-to 4-inch biscuit cutter to cut out rounds and transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet, spaced 2 inches apart. Press together scraps to form additional biscuits.
8. Brush tops with cream and hake until golden brown, about 12 minutes. Let cool slightly and serve.

COMMENT: Also, 1 cup of self-rising flour and 1 cup heavy cream seemed to work out too.

This isn't a way to keep your house warm, rather it is a way to help keep YOU warm in your house.

Something most people don't even consider as they come in the house and drop off ALL of the cold weather clothing, including their HAT!

Get yourself a small hat, even a beanie, and slap it on your head and keep it handy as your own HOUSE HAT!

Your head loses more heat than the rest of your body - even inside your house. You may even think someone has turned up the thermostat after you start wearing the hat in your home!

USE IT! DON'T LOSE IT!    THE HEAT, THAT IS!