Jim Webb

A long time ago, I went on a charcoal burning course back in England  with Walter Lloyd (https://www.thelandmagazine.org.uk/articles/many-hatted-man). He was producing charcoal for barbecues on a large scale but he also made drawing charcoal for local artists. He used old coffee tins with a hole punched in the lid and would cut a piece of willow that would just fit inside, leaving a clearance of maybe 1/4" around the outside. He put a couple of loops of wire around this, with the ends twisted up, set it on a chopping block and used a bricklayer's bolster (a wide chisel)  and a lump hammer to split the willow at 1/2" intervals, first one way, right across it, and again at right angles, leaving the willow divided into 1/2" square pieces held together by the wire. He'd then set this in the top of the full kiln before fitting the lid. When the burn was complete and everything cooled down, the coffee tin now contained nice, neat 1/2 sticks of artist's charcoal, which were in great demand locally.

This method ought to work fine on an open fire or a in a wood stove, if kept going long enough, with any size of tin or whatever size of stick you fancy. No doubt a little experimentation would be necessary to achieve the best results, as with most other things.

paul wheaton wrote:I just found out that i will be told about taxes and shipping for the server after it is purchased ...

Best keep on going then! Congratulations on getting this far but might as well see if you can build up a bit more of a surplus against all these other costs. It doesn't seem right that you should have to subsidise this wonderful resource which so many people enjoy and make use of!

Happy to help!! Do you have a deadline?

Re: Handles slipping. Don't ever use a scythe with a slipping handle. As soon as it moves at all, stop and fix it before taking even one more stroke. If you keep on, you'll very soon ruin your snath.

Setup: If your scythe is correctly set up, my Great-Uncle Harry always told me that when you are holding it comfortably, ready to take a cut, you should just be able to touch the tip of the blade with the tip of your left boot. He could mow a lawn with his scythe better than the lawn mower could and I wish I'd learned more from him while I had the chance. Mind you, that is over 60 years ago now and he's long been on the other side of the turf! I do love my scythes, one with a long grass blade, the other with a shorter brush blade, which is the best one to use for the rough grass and shrubby stuff I generally mow.here.

I use a short piece of light railway track clamped in a heavy vise and a 1lb ball pein hammer for peening, generally using the flatter head, which still has a slight radius

We have living willow fences that are one of the most admired features of our garden, made by my wife, who has put a lot of work into them over the years. I must point out that some willows are much better than others for this job and some don't work well at all. One of the best is French Pussy Willow, a form of Salix Caprea and one to avoid is Navajo golden basket willow. Some research may be needed before you plant. Ideally, the stems should graft together at each crossing point and can be encouraged to do so with twist ties. These fences are high maintenance if you want to see the structure as the willows, naturally enough, want to cover their bare stems with side shoots and these need continually pruning out. I wouldn't have said that they are anything other than ornamental: they might keep people out but aren't really stock-proof, especially when it comes to hogs, which are much like living bulldozers. Best skip the living fence idea for them and instead use rebar to get a similar effect!

We've never had any trouble with plants refusing to grow near the fence and some of our best strawberry plants grow along it!

I was going to add a couple of pictures but can't see how to - no "browse" facility. Never mind.

Can I put my own tiny ad in here? We're selling up and moving on. More info at https://is.gd/GardenersGreenForSale

I go for simple: -

1) Assemble lots of different sorts of leaves & herbs in bowl, whatever I've got.
2) Grate plenty of tasty cheddar cheese (English for preference) over the leaves.
3) Splash lemon juice over that.
4) Mix well.
5) Eat. Lightly toasted slice of nice organic bread goes well with it.

Sometimes I add half an avocado, cut out in little pieces with a teaspoon, to the mix. Takes more mixing, tastes good.

Jim Webb wrote:The next part is due out on Thursday, May 2nd, so there is still time to sign up for this

 PS: - When I signed up, I was asked what organisation I belonged to so I wrote "The Source" and this was accepted!

I doubt if this is the right place to post this but it is about Mexico and I don't know of a better place, so please could those who do such things move it to where it should be.

Please watch this webinar series: - Science, regulation & human health: Justifications for Mexico’s GM corn restrictions

The write-up states  in part "This webinar was part one of a three-part series. The Mexican government has restricted the use of genetically modified (GM) white corn for human consumption and glyphosate as part of its broader program for food self-sufficiency and agroecology. Last August, the U.S. government launched a trade dispute, falsely asserting that these rules violate provisions in the U.S-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Canada joined as a third party, even though it does not export corn to Mexico."

The next part is due out on Thursday, May 2nd, so there is still time to sign up for this and to tell your friends. There is much more I could say on this topic but, again, I doubt if this is the right place to say it so I won't!

Melissa Ferrin wrote:Best of luck on your adventure Jim. Feel free to keep in touch.

Thanks again, Melissa, I'd love to do just that. I'm sure that there is a lot that we can learn from you and maybe one of these days, we'll meet you in person!

I've just come across this thread, thanks to a friend sending us a link, and there's some very relevant information here for us. We're going to be selling our property, along with virtually all our possessions, and heading off towards Mexico with a 10 foot travel trailer behind our van. Up till now, both of us have always "had" to do things, starting with going to school, then university, getting jobs etc etc and we had plants and livestock that needed caring for after we gave up working for anyone else. Once we've sold up, we'll be free and light for the first time in our lives and about the last thing we'll want to do is to try to transplant any aspects of our previous lives into our new one, we've finished with all of that. What we'll be after is cultural immersion. So, this post resonates very strongly with both of us: -

Melissa Ferrin wrote:Hi I live and work in the Mixteca region of Oaxaca and I've found it's a much better approach in villages to work with the current/original residents. Most of them do really value nature and while some of their current practices may not be in line with what you are dreaming about--most actually now recognize that in many ways, their bisabuelos lived better lives and are excited to learn how to get back to their roots and be self-sustaining.

This is not to say that outsiders can not come in too--though it is extremely difficult for outsiders to legally buy rural land in much of Oaxaca because it's communal, and it can also be difficult for outsiders to accept the usos y costumbres community assembly style of governance.

Thanks, Melissa!! Communal land and a community assembly style of governance both sound great to us and we'd love to work with the original residents instead of trying to parachute our culture in on top of them. It seems to us that the individual ownership of land is a modern evil and a way for those who have far too much (Black Rock, I'm talking about you) to get even more at the expense of the common people. Communal governance should be the way of the future, replacing the total control of the self-imposed de-facto corporate governance that most of the so-called West is currently saddled with.

We intend to be semi-nomadic to start with, visiting friends around Mexico and checking out places we've been told about, finding out what the climate is like in both summer and winter and whether a higher level suits us better. We're looking forward to all the local markets and having the time to get to know the area, without being bound up in our own affairs. We thought we might eventually gravitate to Oaxaca and we really like the idea of living in a particular area for a year before settling down. It's going to be quite an adventure!