Eric Hanson

I will jump into the fray.....

Growing up in the 80s, it was totally commonplace to have a tape in the tape deck while listening to the radio and wait for that song to come on at which point I would hit record and I would have a free copy.  Was this ripping off the artists?  Turns out the answer is a great big "NO."  Here are some reasons:

1)  Those mix tapes (what an 80s thing!) were a far cry from perfect.  They were on a tape with that hiss.  They had another song, DJ voice, or add at the beginning and end.  If I really wanted that song, I would go and buy the CD (again, totally a product of the 80s).

2)  My listening and waiting for the song got a lot of artists the type of airplay they wanted--the type that would sit and listen!

3)  CD's were expensive--for no good reason.  I can remember when I got my first CD player--I thought I had it MADE!  But the CD's were $15-$20.  Of course, we were all promised that this was merely an introductory price--the prices would come down in time as CDs became more widespread and there were economies of scale.  It made sense.

BUT IT WAS A FLAT OUT LIE!!

4)  Record labels had been price-fixing for years!  Sony records was the worst but there were others.  Sony was gouging customers, but they did NOT pay their artists.  When I found that part out, I no longer had any remorse whatsoever about copying any music file that I could.  Record labels had been ripping me off for years (to no benefit of the artist) so now I reasoned that a little turnabout was fair game.

5)  I still have absolutely no ethical problem making a copy--any copy--of any musical, video or any other computer file that I already own.  I don't care about the copyright if I already own my own copy.  So if I want to rip a CD or DVD or Blu Ray to my computer for my own consumption, I think that is my right to do--I already paid for the file in the first place.

6)  I do pay for a streaming service (Apple) and I know that they work closely with artists.  I assume that artists get some type of compensation.  I don't know the details.  That's not my business.  I did my part, and I got scammed (Sony) and I just want to listen to my music.


I am a little ranty about this, but my opinions are very strong.




Eric

Nancy,

I wish I had as easy access to kelp and seaweed as you do!  But being in the middle of a continent, I will have to make due without.  As for the salt, my thoughts are that any salination from the kelp is likely to be miner to nonexistent.  And I have even heard of people watering with sea water to intentionally bring in some of the rare elements that are freely available in seawater (of course, watering is done once or twice, not as an actual means of irrigation).

I am establishing new garden beds and I need some type raised edging that will be positively rot proof.  At the moment my plan is to use cement block.  But I am not 100% sold.  The certainly will not rot, but they are very thick and a touch unsightly.  I am considering Shou Sugi Ban for some boards.  I think it will be cheaper, definitely thinner, and probably look better.  I have never done this, but it certainly looks easy enough.

So does anyone have any pointers on how to do this?  Is this even a good idea?  Keep in mind that the bed will contain wood chips being broken down by Wine Cap mushrooms and therefore this had better work 100% or it will fail pretty catastrophically.


Thanks in advance,


Eric

Christopher,

You were definitely on the right track.  Potash used as a fertilizer was initially secondary to potash used as an industrial chemical.  A lot of times the potash was just thrown on the ground which then became much more fertile--yet another accidental discovery.


Eric

John C Daly,

Can you shed some light on an observation I had seen some time ago?  I seem to remember hearing that one of the major limiting factors in modern cement is the fact that it is prestressed and reinforced with rebar.  As my recollection goes, the reason for the early failure (compared to Rome) was that the rebar, especially if exposed, rusts and the swelling rusty rod compromises the strength of the cement by pushing out from within.  This further made sense from my understanding on the strength of concrete in that it has outstanding strength under compression, but not when being pulled apart.

I am NOT an expert on concrete/cement, so if you could help confirm or more likely, redirect my line of thinking with regards to cement/concrete, I would certainly appreciate it.



Eric

OK, history lesson.....


What we call Potash is specifically the element Potassium/K.  But we call it "Potash" due to an early chemical process.

As long as humans have had fire, we have known that wood ash has some fertilizer value.  The main fertilizer component of wood ash is potassium.  In fact, wood ash itself is a pretty good, fast acting form of potassium.

But in the 1400's, wood ash was a resource from which K2CO3 or Potassium Hydroxide was made.  K2CO3 is a chemical which has all sorts of uses which include making soap and glass, but also extends to welding and all sorts of things in between  K2CO3 was made by mixing up a bowl of wood ash with water and a leaching agent and then boiling in an iron bowel.  The result was a white residue--The Pot Ash--later shortened to Potash.

While wood ash is a fine source for Potash, it is a long, laborious process that uses a LOT of wood for a trivial amount of finished product.  The good news is that plants don't need all that much Potash to go from sickly to healthy--nothing at all like a nitrogen deficiency.  Therefore, that little white residue would actually go a fairly long ways.

But K2CO3 can also be mined from places that were old evaporated sea beds--and this is a whole lot easier to do at a large scale and cheaper to boot (and you don't cut down forests to get it either!).

Food for thought!!!

Les is absolutely correct about both the compost and the biochar.  And if you can get the two to mix together for a little bit before placing on the soil/garden bed, that would be even better.  One of the best ways to use biochar is to add it directly to a pile of compost.  All of the soil microbes will inhabit the little spaces, bring in the soil goodies, and bring in some water to boot.  The microbes, goodies, and water will be available to the rest of the soil/garden bed/crops, but in a sort of slow release form.  One of the nice things about composted biochar is that it retains nutrients that might otherwise get lost--nitrogen is particularly easy to waft right out of the soil.  

Eric

Hi Caitlyn, and welcome to Permies!!


I will break my response into three categories and then you can decide what you think is the best thing to do.  And you can definitely mix & match.


Options #1   Buy some organic amendments.  My suggestions are:
Rock phosphate (for long, slow release phosphorus)
Greensand (Long, slow release of potassium)
Bonemeal  (another great source of phosphorus)


Options #2  Pile on the organic matter
LEAVES!!  One of the very best
Pine needles--if dry, they are harmless
Grass clippings
Seaweed/kelp--I would be jealous if you could find some!  
Wood chips (just lay them on top, don't dig in)

Option #3  Get a cover crop going!!  This is probably the best option if you can do it!  Options include:
Rye, oats, Winter Wheat
Austrian Winter Peas
Clover (careful with this one--it is a perennial)
Daikon radish
The goal is to keep something growing to feed soil microbes

As I said, you can do all or some of these and certainly mix & match



Good luck and let us know if you need any further elaboration



Eric

Charles,

I don’t have kudzu, but I do (Actually, DID) have Japanese Honeysuckle which behaves much like kudzu and can be a real problem if left to get out of control by which point it can be a real pain.

I cut back all of mine, right to the root crown, a little cluster of roots and vines that spread out, cover practically everything and then can kill from causing excessive shade.

One root crown put out a huge amount of vines, but once I found the crown and aggressively, relent, mercilessly dug it out, as deep as I could dig and still find taproot, it just didn’t have the fight left in it.  What was left was very deep in the ground, buried (I made sure) and now *IT* was shaded by vegetation now set free.  The tables had been turned!!  I went back the next season prepared for war but I never saw any growth come back up.


In the end, yes, one single plant can get extremely aggressive and grow relentlessly, but finding that root crown meant that I had found its Achilles heel, its weakness.  At that point, it was a little work, but the result was well worth the effort.

Note:  I base all this from honeysuckle.  I assume but don’t know specifically that kudzu has similar growing habits.


Hope this helps,



Eric

I have dense, brown clay.  When wet, it turns slick, sticky and generally a pain to work with.  It sticks to tools, and is heavy working.  

When dry, my clay turns into something bulletproof.  It is absolutely rock solid, fiercely resisting the penetration of any shovel or pick.  It’s not quite caliche, but it’s not a bad stand-in.

Last week, we buried our dog Gracie.  When digging her grave, the clay was initially wet and sticky, making tools excessively heavy and contributing to my back problems.  Then, about 2 feet under, we we hit a bone-dry section and that was virtually impossible to dig through with hand tools.  I had to jump on the spade from the 2’ high edge, hoping to power it into the dry soil and break it up.  But no—it yielded nothing!  Eventually my neighbor borrowed a small backhoe to get the job done.

My garden beds are different though.  I pile wood chips over a new garden plot and then use Wine Cap mushrooms to break down the wood and invite in the worms.  After a year, the clay and wood chips and fungal leftovers merge together into something more like a combo of peat and loam.



Eric