Mike Haasl

steward
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since Mar 24, 2016
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Biography
Mike is a homesteader, gardener, engineer, wood worker, blacksmith and most recently a greenhouse designer. He heard about permaculture in 2015 and has been learning ever since.
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Northern WI (zone 4)
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Recent posts by Mike Haasl

Hi Phil, thanks for writing!

My official current goal is to replace the glazing.  It's bought and ready to go anytime before it gets cold out.  Along with the glazing, the upper vents need to be worked on so they open farther and lower vents would need to be made.  I have some nice side quests that I could add as well:

One would a system to collect heat from the main greenhouse during the day and store it in the mini-greenhouse to keep the citrus alive.  I have the stuff for it but haven't gotten around to doing it.

Another would be to make an actual door from the seasonal mini greenhouse out into the main greenhouse.

Lastly, the exterior cement board is starting to flake off so I'd like to cover that with something more durable, perhaps like metal roofing

Planting wise, I'd love to see the whole thing be a gorgeous oasis of flowers and food.  Currently it's growing some trees and seedlings in the spring.  I have 4-5 citrus in there that are fruiting, 4 pawpaws that are 3 years old, grapes, figs and peaches.  Haven't gotten fruit off the figs or peaches yet but there are little fruits on the peaches so maybe this year.  I guess an irrigation system could also be a side quest...

I'll PM you about the visit idea, I'm wide open to it.  Thanks!
1 day ago
Since I got my new phone, it's hard to get photos to permies. The two planters are the base for a trellis archway that folks walk through to go down a path.  They are also (I now realize) located at a corner of the building that's the high side of the roof.  So the water would have to move about 10' along the side of the shed before it could water the planters.

Thanks for all your input, it gives me plenty of approaches.  We just have to decide how/if to go about it and how visible of a demonstration we want it to be for garden visitors.  I could run the water through the inside of the shed to more easily get near the planters but it wouldn't make it a "demonstration" for visitors
Yes, I'll send you a PM on the side in case they don't want to be put out in public...
1 week ago
Hi Patrick, no stipend or pay is available.  My hope is that folks can help out 2-3 hours a day in exchange for staying here, and have plenty of hours left to earn money in town if needed.  The hours could possibly be bunched into a few days to leave much of the week available to work off site.  I have a lovely lady here now who is helping substantially with the weeding and watering.

I'm in the Minocqua/Eagle River/Rhinelander area
1 week ago
That would work, except both planters are on the same end of the gutter...
1 week ago
I was trying to avoid a tank and just let it water heavily when it rains and manually when it doesn't.  

If we didn't have a walk way between the planters, having two buckets connected with a big pipe, and have small drainage holes to water the planter, would do the trick nicely.

My "creative" triangular holes in the gutter would incidentally use the gutter as the rainwater collection tank until/unless it overflows.

Having a tank would be a nice way to show people how to do their own rainwater harvesting though...
1 week ago
I have a shed roof (one edge for a gutter) and two big planters that would like to share that water.  I know getting water to divide itself in half is a bit tricky but I have two ideas and I'm fishing around for other options to consider.

One is to physically divide the gutter into two half gutters (each collecting from half of the roof), each with a downspout to one of the planters.  This is most straightforward but I think it would be ugly since both planters are on one side of the building.

The second is to make a custom end for the gutter that has two exit holes.  The holes would be matching triangles with a narrow point downward.  That way as the water backs up in the gutter it's level rises and both of the triangular holes accept more water, somewhat evenly.  Then each flow can go to a planter.

Oh, just thought of a third...  Normal gutter, normal downspout for all the flow.  Then invent a back and forth flapper that the falling water will flip left, then right and divide the flow.  This is least likely to work...

Bonus points for artistry and creativity since this is for a community garden :)
1 week ago
This is a badge bit (BB) that is part of the PEP curriculum.  Completing this BB is part of getting the sand badge in Food Prep and Preservation

To complete this badge bit, you must cook at least 2 cups of grain in a rice cooker, crock pot or instapot.  (Note that this BB is part of a 4 part adventure in cooking grain in four different ways. Pseudograins are also allowed, but all four ways of cooking must be the same food prepared with 4 different cooking contraptions.)



This is a rice cooker

This is one of many types of rice cookers, and an article on the differences:



and how to use it:



To complete this BB, the minimum requirements are:
  - you must produce at least two cups of grain
  - you must use a rice cooker, crock pot or Instant Pot (other brands of pressure cookers are fine)

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, you must provide:
   - explain and show that the cooking pot doesn't have a prohibited coating or material
   - a picture of the uncooked grain in your cooker
   - a picture of your cooked grain in your cooker (clearly at least 2 cups of cooked grain - if it isn't clear, make it clear with an extra picture)

Clarifications:
- All food prep and preservation BBs strictly prohibit plastic, teflon or aluminum touching the food at any point
2 weeks ago
pep
When I tried compost inside my greenhouse it gave off funny odors and didn't really do much for heating. So I wouldn't focus on that benefit, but designing it to be consumed/replaced every year or two could be interesting.
3 weeks ago
I think your concerns are valid. Those bales would have to be sealed impeccably well from the interior to keep from sucking up water and rotting.
3 weeks ago