Laura Emil

Thanks for 'refreshing' this thread; maybe someone else will see it now, and I AM still here and the land IS still available to share.  I have given up trying to promote it, though.  I THOUGHT my offer was clear enough, the share always was 'use the land FREELY to give it a try'.  But I see the link in my sig doesn't say that.  Check the bio on my profile page; you'll see much more.  I'm hesitant to be open about WHERE I am, because I don't want strangers to just show up; but once a conversation is opened, I've offered just what you suggest:  

R Grier wrote:   patient with small time commitments of what ever they can afford, and what they help grow they get to eat, other than that they have to provide for themselves.  

  I'd love to meet a family who just wants to "try", even if only an hour a week.  But I think part of the problem here is I can't offer housing, so any interested folks would need to live close enough AND have their off farm job to be self supporting.  (And I had to do the same - the 'farm' does NOT support me.  It's not even a FARM, really.   It WAS a farm, and it's just TOO beautiful NOT to share.)   And so I try to share it; while I wait for the right homesteader to try, I just keep building toward sharing with kids, with free events.  (and now, at 70, because I finally retired from my office jobs, I'm JUST BEGINNING to learn to garden!  Everything I did while I was working 'off farm' was to support building infrastructure for whoever DOES find their way here.  I didn't grow my own, I grew pumpkins to share, or paid for tractor repairs so someone ELSE could use it.  Exciting this year, I grew LOOFA GOURDS - so I can TRY to make sponges and SHARE them with visitors!)
Wherever YOU are, I do hope your path to homesteading is successful!  Inch by inch!

looks good to me!

Thanks all for the replies, and thanks Anne for the welcome back  (I've been too busy!  need to update my bio - the pond is in, an off-grid cabin is in, too!  And the place is STILL available to share!!! https://hewittfarmspics.smugmug.com/Projects/The-CABIN)  

ALSO thanks for the SIMPLE recipe, I DO have these ingredients on hand ... I'll give it a try.    

A really good treatment for powdery mildew is: 1 gal water, 1 T dish soap, 1 T baking soda.
  I put it in a spray bottle to make applying it easy.
  Some recipes call for adding oil. I have never found a need for the oil.  

NOW, HOW do I properly dispose of the plants I cut down?  NOT going into the compost pile, so WHERE?  Can I burn, or will that spread fungus, too?  In black plastic bags?  What a horrible single use of horrible plastic!  Are there better options?

QUESTION:  if I make comfrey tea with leaves already powdered w/powder mildew, am I spreading the mildew, or would drowning the leaves to steep a couple of weeks resolve the problem?  
thanks in advance for advice from anyone who's tried this...

JudyJ Johnston wrote:Chew up some plantain leaves and squish them on. Having a jar of plantain salve is handy.

Plaintain has always been my 2nd choice; don't know why I'm not seeing anyone else suggest it but my first remedy is to find some mud, or spit onto dry dirt.  It seems to 'draw' as it dries.  That's worked for over half a century for me...

Julie Harris wrote:caution ... against using electric blankets.  

we turn on the blanket an hour or two before retiring for the night; and turn it OFF when we go to bed.  the bed is warm enough to get comfortably off to sleep.  (it almost seems decadent in our 'live simply' and 'buy less' goals, but the blanket was inherited and one VERY cold night we decided to give it a try.  hard to give up 'cozy' now...)

F Agricola wrote:...
1. The soap scraps can be soaked in water with a few spoonfuls of cheap vegetable oil to make 'White Oil' - used in the garden on fruit trees and roses to kill scale bugs, aphids, etc.
2. Place it in an old sock and use it to wash dishes...

So simple and so easy to apply, and why DIDN'T I think of them sooner? THANK YOU for sharing!  I'm in search of an old sock now, to wash the dishes that were left in my sink, lol!

Edward Norton wrote:
1) Don’t buy stuff in the first place

easier said than done, but the best first step! I found the following, clipped/pasted/printed on postcard stock, and keep one in front of my computer screen and one folded around my cash in my wallet, to help me pause before buying.  When that isn't enough, I revisit articles I've saved about what our plastic footprint is doing to the planet, and that lends weight to doing without.  doesn't ALWAYS work, but more often than not.