Christopher Weeks

master gardener

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since Jun 24, 2018

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Biography

I steward 20 acres of Cromwell Sandy Loam in the north woods of Minnesota. I clear birch and aspen as needed to plant food sources.

I always have more projects going than I can keep up with which isn't really awesome but I don't know what to change.

I vote for Libertarians and Socialists because they know what it means to have principles and that matters more to me than the exact details of what they believe in. I'm a gun-toting vegetarian. I write code for cash and grow food because no amount of cash will buy real food these days.

I have a wife, two kids, two grandkids, and three cats. I've never had a dog, but I'm thinking about changing that. I hike, garden, read, play games, code, cook, spin and knit, putter, and play at arting.

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Carlton County, Minnesota, USA: 3b; Dfb; sandy loam; in the woods

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Forums and Threads

Recent posts by Christopher Weeks

Improving your chances of growing an apple tree from a seed

Does fridge-stratifying go against Paul's notion of growing from seed? I get great germination results in the fridge and then just plant those shallowly in pots come spring. And then in the fall, plant those into the ground before the tap-root reaches the bottom of the pot. I think that's growing "from seed" -- once it's in the ground it's not available to be moved and I haven't taken up grafting.

I wonder what causes high winter losses when you just plant a seed?

3 hours ago

seeds and breeding

TimeBanks: using time like money in our communities

Thanks for posting this! I did some online timebank experimentation fifteen years ago and kind of love the idea. And through your links, I just found a local one that's in its infancy. And to address your first point to ponder, I've highlighted a little bit of their front page:

6 hours ago

intentional community

wild turkey nest 2026 northern Minnesota

MN DNR says turkey eggs take 28 days to hatch. So if the nest was a few days old when I found it on April 30 now is a perfectly reasonable time for them to be out. I don’t know how turkey clutches behave when they're first born, but since it wasn’t much of a nest, my guess is they are mobile quickly and I’m hoping that the mama just took her babies into the woods.

17 hours ago

wildlife

wild turkey nest 2026 northern Minnesota

If these eggs are broken and scattered across 30 feet, does that mean something (raccoon, prolly) got them or they hatched but aren’t hanging around?

22 hours ago

wildlife

Bread bag

I was going to ask about how they're washed -- worried about melting and losing the wax. But I see on your picture that it says "machine wash". Does the literature that comes with say anything interesting about washing the bag?

Specifically what I was imagining is leaving bread in the bag long enough that it _does_ mold anyway, and then there being mold impregnated in the bag.

1 day ago

food preservation

Growing Milkweed for Bast Fiber

I experimented with retting. I bundled up milkweed stalks in the fall and laid them all down on the ground and let them live under the snow all winter to see what would happen. The quality seems way, way worse than the dry upright stalks I worked last year. I have them under a sprinkler now to see if they just need to be wet when I break them up, but the fibers seem extremely brittle.

1 day ago

plant fibers

I think I've got an alien.

If that 20% number is reliable, I'm not sure I'd spend much effort fighting them. It sounds like a lot of work for not much gain. And how much will they reduce the slug population? They aren't really bad here yet, but as I keep improving the soil with carbon additions, they keep getting worse. I've lived where slugs were a real problem. (Of course, Hugo makes good points about all the multifaceted details.)

2 days ago

bugs

Explaining Faceblindness

I'm also in this club, though not at the most extreme end Nicole describes.

I also forget chunks of names. Like, my manager once got mad at me when we were working on a problem together and I had to ask him what his last name was. I just couldn't remember and I needed to key it into the database to figure out his employeeID. He acted like I was an imbecile but I fixed the esoteric problem he was distracting me from and couldn't figure out himself.

2 days ago

meaningless drivel

Walking tractors David Bradley, why they are not used more? and other discussions.

If, like me, you don't know anything about tractors, I found some good explanation of Kevin's "ground speed PTO" over here: https://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cgi-bin/viewit.cgi?bd=ford&th=346661

2 days ago

gear

What are the advantages grasses carry in the permaculture setting.

I hate the perennial runner grasses that constantly invade my garden beds. I'd love for this thread to show me that I'm wrong and chart a path for living in harmony with them, but I'm starting out with a murderous bias against them. (Grain-bearing grasses, I love!)

4 days ago

lawn