Jack Edmondson

Jay Angler wrote: "it isn't a soil building crop if you take any product from it. The whole plant must go to soil building." Does this sound right to all you permies?

I think at the extreme or theoretical level this is 'correct', but misleading.  Yes.  In a closed system all minerals are finite.  Plants health is more than just minerals.  Exodates from microbes, worm castings from the digestion of organic material, etc... go into the equation.  In real terms your plants will benefit from the cycle.  If you are truly 'building soil' then yes.  It would need to be a closed system.  However, that is not the way life and the natural world operates.  

You may be interested in reading up on the Jena Study done in Germany.  There are good youtube videos.  The upshot is they planted test plots in the same field side by side.  The more variety of plants that were included in a plot the higher the yields.  It was mostly a linear relationship, but they found maximum yields above 16 unique plant varieties.  Much like companion planting, it appears the overall health of the soil improves the more species you have contributing to the health of the soil.  So if it were just about cycling one plant the yields would not see variation in yields.  There is something beyond 'just the mineralization'.

Anne,

Thank you for the recipe.  I have never heard of the baking soda in tea.  I will have to give that a try.  Any idea what it adds?

One more caution for anyone reading.  Barbed wire is often coated or galvanized.  This contains zinc.  Welding on zinc coated material (or with coated wire) produces a nasty gas you don't want to breathe.  Use a respirator under your welding hood.  If not you will get sick for a day or so.  Welders call it "zinc flu" because it comes with flu like symptoms for a day or so.  bad juju.  Be safe.

M.

What makes a welding rod work in stick welding is the coating or flux on the rod.  As the metal burns away under current, the flux burns and creates A bubble that excludes oxygen from the puddle and reduces oxidation in the weld, which weakens the weld.  With Mig the wire is either protected by an inert gas or a flux filler inside the wire.  

Rods come in all different lengths, diameters, and coatings.  The barbed wire will melt, but will not make a suitable weld due to voids and contaminants in the finished weld.  

If you are looking for a good farm welder, a mig welder is a good place to start.  It is easy to operate and the learning curve is shallow.  Just know its limits.  in the hands of a good welder it can weld almost anything a stick welder can weld.  In a home/farm setting, most of the repairs one will do are within its capabilities (1/4 inch material or less.)  They are not so expensive anymore.  The more you pay the more reliable they become, but an inexpensive one will do most of what you want.

An import stick welder can be had very inexpensively.  They are a bit more 'touchy' to pick up the skill, but do the job for light repair.  Home repair welding can be fun, but like other 'hobby' can get costly.  If you only have a few repairs, it may be cheaper to pay someone whom has the equipment, skill and knowledge to do it right the first time (especially the cast iron.)  That said, I think more homesteaders and self reliant types should acquire some skill with a welder.  Start with mig.   Learn what good penetration looks like.  Have some fun and enjoy the new skill.

My thought process has always been vertical.  What finished form will the plant have.  Where will it fit "geometrically".  Then I decide how much I value its contribution to the system/guild.  (Will it shade or crowd out a higher value/more needed species).  Those priorities do change as the system matures, so looking forward 10 to 20 years, what are my priorities and what trade offs am I willing to make.  

Keeping in mind the 7 layers of a food forest, first ask what layer is its best fit.  Then is this the best species available for that layer given my priorities.  After that it is preference for what it brings to the system.  (fruit, soil health, pollintors, etc...  This is my approach.  Interested to see what other approaches.  

Hugo Morvan wrote:
I wonder if something similar goes for grasses? ... and have to say about it.

For me it goes back to one of the core principles of permaculture.  The problem is the solution.  Your plants need the microbiota in the soil to thrive.  The biology needs the exudates from the plants to multiply.  If there is a natural oraganism like grass that thrives and works symbiotically with the biology of your soil, why fight that?  Yes, people talk about grass and weeds 'competing' for resources; but do they?  Can you manage the competiion to maintain the benefits of what nature has selected for?  

Let the grass creep into the garden.  Let it provide for the mycillium and other biology.  It it shades out the sun, trim it.  Don't pull it, poision it, or fight it.  Does it 'steal' all the water? Transporation is a process we are just learning to understand.  All plants cycle water.  The grass clearly is helping collect moisture with the dew.  Work with the grass and benefit from its symbiosis.  Let the problem be the solution when well managed.  Is it more work to trim the grass rather than pull it?  How much work is it doing for your soil unseen and unmeasured?  Biology is telling us more and more "a lot".  Isn't permaculture the shift in perspective to work with nature rather than against it?  Rather than trying to keep the meadow out of the garden, learn to garden in the meadow.  The meadow is more successful and sustainable than a garden will ever be.  

Are we stewarts of the plants or the soil?  If we feed the biology of the soil the soil will feed the plants.  And that is our goal.  Why are we fighting against the organisms nature has evolved to feed the soil?  Does the grass do anything detrimental to the plants?  If so, can we manage that?  We have writings of agriculture all the way back to the ancient greeks; and earlier civiliztations develop those techniques centuries earlier.  But what if we found we have been doing things unnecessarily for all these milinia?  

Our modern look at biologic processes of soil, plants, and microbia are telling us we need to rethink our assumptions from the core.  It is not about killing what is there, turning the soil over and removing anything that returns.  But old habits die hard.

A quick run through google says the likely causes are a stuck thermostat, faulty ECT sensor, or 'electrical glitch'.  

Start with the easiest.  disconnect the negative battery terminal and leave sit for 15 minutes or so.  This will clear faults in the computer memory and hard boot the computer.  If the problem does not come back, you're golden.

If it does buy a new theromostat and install.  I have no idea what it should cost, but a thermostat used to be a $10 item.  They go bad over the years.

If that still does not fix the issue, you need to run a scan for OBI codes to narrow the electrical sensor that is twitchy.  If you are sure there are no actually over temp issues, you can just tolerate the false positives, but that can be annoying.

Also check (Fuses 12, 13, and 42 in the under-hood fuse box) that protect the cooling fans behind the radiator.  Quick and no cost to eliminate the possiblity of a gremlin there.

Next check your wires to the fans for any short, bare spot, or damage.  

My guess is you have a computer that is getting a false read, either from a software glitch or a a bad ECT sensor.  Let us know if we can help trouble shoot further.

Once I was shown this, I was humbled, embarrassed, and frustrated I had not figured this one out myself.  One can also use a straw, since the volume (vacuum) between the buckets is small...if you can blow with some force.


webpage

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/eXeQPJDsrsU

Alix,

I don't want to send you down a rabbit hole, so take this with a grain of salt.  The photos you post look a lot like a Kubota 3 cylinder fuel injector pump.  In trying to cross reference the part numbers above, I noticed your tractor may be a 3 cylinder turbo diesel, with this engine code: Valmet TD33DS4 .  Long story short, (and a few rabbit holes later) I came across this video.  The pump body looks similar and he tears everything down on camera, so you may be able to recognize similarities and differences with your pump.  I know a lot of companies will use off the shelf parts from other manufacturers rather than investing the time, research and engineering to develop all the parts themselves.  Since Agro Corp has bought up Valpandana appearently, you may have to find the OEM of the part rather than the tractor brand.  Anyway, take a look at the video and see if this looks familiar.