Alder Burns

In an amenable climate (basically anywhere that isn't too cold or too dry), bamboos of various kinds seem to rise pretty high on the list for both resilience and usefulness.   If they can grow big enough to give canes multiple inches in diameter, their usefulness multiplies still further since you can split them into even "wooden" strips that can weave walls and fences, make hoops to hold cloth or plastic over beds and so much more.  

Oaks of various species with different uses are key players in your ecosystem, and in similar climates around the world.  Thinking first of acorn producers, both for people and for animals.  There are less-bitter varieties of many types available, and the hunt for more is ongoing and deserves encouragement. There are nurseries in America working with hybridizing oaks...a long-term project for sure, but the first generations of crosses are showing a lot of promise in acorn yield and precocity, growth rate, and climate resilience.  Mediterranean oaks like Q. ilex and Q. suber are common introduced trees in California....makes me wonder if anyone is growing California oaks in Europe....species like Q. lobata and Q. douglasii are amazing trees and produce huge yields of big acorns.  Growing oaks in a nursery is a challenge which would make you popular if you can master it....the seedlings are often taprooted and so things like air-pruning containers may be the way forward.

The other day going out, there was a fresh deer on the corner with the highway, not half a mile from home.  Still warm!  So I put all other projects on hold and spent the next three days getting 50 pint jars of venison, 2 pints of rendered fat, and 7 quarts of bone broth canned up, and more in the freezer! And half a dozen new trees got the skin and scrap into their planting holes!  And to think that in this state people pay $50 for a "deer tag"...essentially legal permission to shoot one!

I lived for three years in a place and time (rural Bangladesh in the 1980's) where humanure was commonly simply deposited wherever the urge overtook people on the roadsides, or in designated "open latrines" often near or even directly over bodies of temporary or permanent water. Diseases of various sorts were inevitable and widespread, even for those very careful of their own hygeine.  The stuff would dry out in the dry season and blow around in the wind so one could actually inhale the germs!   But by far, the majority of diseases were spread through three means....1. contaminated water 2. contaminated hands and 3. flies.  An ordinary pit latrine, enclosed to exclude flies or with each deposit covered with even a small amount of soil or mulch, would prevent the vast majority of cases.  Even moreso if water for handwashing were provided nearby.  One advantage is that most of the soil there is clayey, and so transport of bacteria through the soil, to the water table or elsewhere, is minimal.   Another danger common there, and to beware of elsewhere, is flooding, which would enter pit latrines and liberate their contents broadscale.  Humanure used in any way in a flood prone area complicates things hugely.

Bone broth is now a must-have for me whenever I process an animal.  Just last week I put up 7 quarts from a roadkill deer, and that was just the leg bones since I was in haste and buried the rest as I was cutting the meat off to can in warm weather.  With a critter that I get to decide myself when to do, I do it in cold weather and use every bit, even skinning the head, extracting the brain, and putting the rest into the pot.  And, here's a shortcut....put the whole mess in the pressure cooker.  2 or 3 hours at 15 pounds and sheep ribs are practically mush.

One time years ago in Georgia, I visited a grove of bamboo that had been used as a night roost by an enormous flock of overwintering blackbirds, which collect in southern Georgia for the winter.  After a month or so of massive numbers of birds roosting there every night, the entire area was a couple of inches deep in guano, and here and there a dead bird.  I gathered up a few buckets full to take back to my gardens.  Being evergreen and wind proof, it is no wonder it was a favorite spot to shelter.  I've never wondered ever since at how bamboo can grow so vigorously even in worthless red clay.

I agree with one commenter that the issue is likely the sugars and other living sap consituents in the layers just under the bark since you peeled the trees in the spring.  It seems to me that it might help (don't know about now, but perhaps in future if you do more of them) to soak the logs in water for a period of time after peeling, so that the stuff will leach out in the water.  Such a procedure is recommended for processing bamboo.  After a few weeks or a month, pull the logs out and let them dry.  
    Borax and/or boric acid are your friends when it comes to mold.  Dissolve either or both to saturation in hot water and paint on.  This will kill all kinds of mold and wood rot, and make the wood repellent to termites and ants as well.  You can wipe off the white crystals that form and paint over that if you like, provided it's all completely dry.  I've used this both to kill existing mold and prevent it in advance.  

Different hoes are for different purposes.  Mostly I want one for weeding and "dust mulching" (breaking up soil crust and cracks into fine powder which conserves moisture further down) The ideal weeding hoe CUTS weeds, just below the surface of the soil. So for this I like an ordinary shape and sized blade, lightweight, and a long handle.  The motion of the hoe over the soil is comparable to that of a broom over a floor....one should be able to do it for hours on end without tiring.  Sharpening the edge is vital, and needs touching up every half hour or hour's worth of work, moreso if there is gravel etc.  I also use a small pointed blade hoe....made from one tooth of a sicklebar mower....to take out single furrows of various depths for planting seeds.   I've also used what they call a grub hoe in the South, with a heavy wide blade which is meant for breaking up heavy clods, chopping out heavy roots and stubs, and so on....jobs for which many people prefer a shovel and/or a pick.  A thing very like this, with a short handle, is the default soil working tool in much of the Third World, and it has always puzzled me....why people use that so much and not a shovel which seems so much easier on the back having tried both.

I wonder if something came along at some point and nipped off the leader growing tip, if in fact the trees ever had any?  In any case I wouldn't worry too much about the shape, you will end up with nice spreading trees with strong crotches the way they are.  You might pep them up with good mulch around them, out to the drip line for a couple more years to reduce competition from the grass etc.  And remember, "water is the best fertilizer".  If your veggies are going droopy from drought, trees this age and younger will benefit from watering too, even if they aren't showing signs of stress.

As a long time grower of sweet potatoes in several regions, I can vouch for not letting the vines root along their length, unless perhaps you are in so tropical a climate as to have them basically become a perennial groundcover, and even there, finding the largest roots to harvest would still be a challenge.  Raised beds and mulching help with this, but in wet weather roots will grow down through mulch, and then going along the rows and lifting the vines and setting them back down helps, and/or stuffing coarse mulch, bundles of sticks, etc. up under there as well.  
   Not letting the leaves droop from drought is also important.  In fact this is good for just about every kind of vegetable.  When I was growing for high-value organic markets I was taught that if you see foliage droop on anything, even if it recovers overnight, you are losing yield and quality.  Although yes, in a homestead situation resilience is also important, and you will still get a yield in spite of this.  A long drought followed by heavy rain can also make roots split.
    Most important of all, though, is to work toward what I call a "fluffy" soil....this goes for carrots as well.  Neither likes a heavy clay and it will lead to small twisty roots on both.  Sandy soil is ideal, good loam is good too.  If you have clay the answer is finely divided organic matter incorporated in.  I used to make this by running a mower over dry leaves, grass, etc. in the pathways between those beds allocated to these crops, and then dig and/or till this into the beds themselves...up to an inch or two depth of "powder" per year.  A bit of urine helps counteract the nitrogen uptake issue with this kind of organic matter use, but fortunately neither sweets nor carrots like a lot of N anyway.