Ra Kenworth

jason holdstock wrote: went with a Honda Jazz/Fit instead. Maybe a 4x4, or 2CV, will follow later.
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Honda Fit is essentially a newer version of the Civic Wagon -- type 2 (88-91) had a 45"x45" diagonal hatch opening and 44mpg and was available in both 2x4 and 4x4 so I am partial to them! Their gas consumption is excellent too, and people I know who own them love them!

Rico Loma wrote:I
 I paid cash for my 99 Toyo tacoma with 200 miles on it , 26 years ago and have made  one repair over 220k miles. . A corrola sure gets better mileage,  but my 1/4 ton truck is tolerable. Up to you, good luck.  My two spark plugs.

I agree! In addition to my 91 Corolla carTruck, I have an 86 Toy 2x4 pickup with the small 22R gets great mileage and I always pay cash -- this one paid for itself on the one move it hauled. But I have owned 88-91 civics for 20 years too! And all the rims are interchangeable!!

This thread landed on the dalyish, so if you already got something, feel free to skip the rest!

First consideration is always getting parts, followed by experience mechanics have fixing the model in question.

But considering your location a Skoda is definitely a contender
We had one in England in the mid 70s. Super reliable.

Personally , being remote, where electric isn't there yet, an alternative eco solution is to fix/upgrade what you have. So my two cents follows accordingly because you have a Civic.

If your civic is still going strong, another option might be after market rally shocks, like I have on my carTruck, a 91 Corolla sedan with the back seats removed , and will hold 5 hay bales -- in the back.

Anywhere that the roads are terrible, you will have noticed you have to replace shocks as well as exhaust frequently, and fortunately both are cheap on any Civic.

Once the car is completely rotted out, those shocks are going on my 88 AWD civic wagon (low 1 plus 5 speed) because they are generic shocks made to fit several models, the wagon which will be getting a lift, which should also help the saggy rear end to which the wagons are prone.

I would say keep what you have if it's still reliable and upgrade it. A hitch is always an option.

If you want to change vehicles because other parts are worn out too, I would be looking for a civic in the year range of your existing civic, and arrange with your scrap yard to remove all easy to remove parts worth saving, and keep driving a civic! You will know what you recently repaired and will have a good idea about this, and add to that computer, get on rockauto.com and price the parts for your Civic, and remember the scrap yard can easily remove parts underneath while they have it on the fork lift..

If you plan on a lift, you probably will be changing rims, but your scrap yard can probably advise you.

Thanks Jackson! I will indeed try the fridge trick for peeling! That's much appreciated 👍

I gather importing is a big no-no in order to protect the ecosystem.
I have a friend in Tas who has giant beetroot (mangelwurzels)  that grows wild and I would definitely take advantage of that!. Personally I find anything in the squash family is easy to grow and high yielding, but I would check into chayotes as well if I were in your zone, if they are available at a market, I would ask to arrange for some plants, otherwise take your chances growing them from store bought if available.

Hi everyone! It's nice to know there are a decent number of us in the area. Certainly an opportunity for seed swapping and plant trading!

I am Quebec side about an hour north of town, with an acre (1/2 of it virgin forest,) practicing permaculture for about 12 years. I have almost completely replaced the lawn around the house. It's fairly flat but I'm at about 1000', water table about 15' down, excellent drainage (rocks, sandy dirt , more rocks,)
and lots of snow, a moist zone 4.

I replaced lawn with neighborhood cardboard, kitchen compost, grew a bee and butterfly garden over the tile bed but haven't seen monarchs for 2-3 years. They used to love the echinacea and I recently added a wild cherry which they can't resist if they're around.

I have a large staff of free range pigeons for soil building and there is lots of wildlife. Willing to part with some, trade, etc.

I have a fair variety of perennials and more thimbleberries blackberries and raspberries than I need, so I'm happy to give away some.

My son bought in Cantley and I am going to transplant some goodies and play with his nice big parcel of land. It's probably 2 acres, I'm not sure. He gets deer too and I am going to plant red clover from my supply.

I've mainly been concentrating on summer squash for a calorie crop and have discovered that the scallop squash preserve better just on top of cardboard over the basement slab

My veg varies greatly from year to year. Sometimes I am in iqaluit but things seem to grow fine no watering in the compost.

I have a ton of barrels and collect rainwater off the 1000 sq ft roof and use pumps to relay water from barrel to barrel around the yard: low tech solution, no gravity feeding.

No till, hugelkulture, compost windrows, fall-winter planting. 2 dogs, my old boy is an excellent livestock Heinz57 rescue.

No farm livestock (zoned forest)

no cell reception but finally the phone lines have been upgraded and there's Internet. I'm early retired on a teacher's pension and putter full time.

There's over 2' of snow here. Lucky I like snow and don't mind rocks too much!

I hope to meet a few of you sometime in the future.

I just cracked 24 eggs for my bread pudding (diced stale bagels, a layer of discount grapes individually cleaned up and diced, over ripe pears, diced day old sourdough loaf) no sugar necessary and enough room for a baked lunch beside it in the oven!
Those egg shells go directly into cold water, then rinsed, and dried on top of the stove, ready for crushing for my soil building staff (a large flock of pigeons)
I try not to waste any shells at all, but I boil a lot of eggs and unless they are promptly dunked into cold water and peeled right away, the egg sticks then it needs to go in the compost. That's okay though, I usually start tomatoes and peppers on top of the compost pile, protected by a wire cage to keep away scavengers, and they can benefit from the discarded eggshells.

Bread pudding is also a great way of using up undercooked / lead weight homemade bread that didn't quite turn out as expected!

I haven't cut a tree for a few years but I look for one crowded out by a big tree that's conveniently flat one side, pop it in a #10 can, and secure it to the wall to keep it from falling over. It simply gets planted in the deep snow over the current compost pile, and the birds perch on it between picking at newly dumped visible compost. By Spring, it just gets lain against the hill to help stabilize the defrosting pile. There have been a few times I've been able to pull roots with one and then of course it gets replanted in a better spot and watered a bit.

What size are the spaces where you want to put boxes?
You could put cardboard boxes, nested one inside another to be more robust, and they will last a while, ideally just for one batch, which makes ideal compost, or if the size is appropriate, pick up some used plastic milk crates with or without a cardboard box inside. I use them sometimes and to clean leave them in the rain then pressure wash them once I've harvested most of their composting resources. Crates are nice because they stack.

I am pretty sure the sharing of regurgitated food the couples perform does double duty of sharing their immune systems, helping to ensure the pigeons are getting the same mix of beneficial microbes and pathogens from each parent.
I've found by the time I have had purebred giant runt stock for two generations they have become healthier, hardier, and smarter and the males always get paired with a healthy robust female before I decide if they are purebred breeding material. I limit the breeding of all of mine, collecting the eggs for my dogs.