M Broussard

S. Marshall wrote:Wow, hearing how the Kiwi could use 1-2 meters separation is quite worrisome.  I may need to stick to the Virginia Creeper and maybe that is going to be too problematic as well.  My cattle panel is only 5" away from the siding.  I had hoped the canopy would be so dense that nothing could grown underneath it (leaving the siding free from vines).  

Am I highly mistaken?

My experience is more with commercial vines rather than home garden ones, so I can only speculate based on my in-field observations. For vines pruned vertically (sometimes done for male vines underneath the canopy), this year's growth often extends 30-50cm away from the supports. A distance of 5" will mean that the vines are basically certain to reach the wall. They'll go upward to find sunlight, but they might find a gap in your siding instead. If it were me, I'd want enough space that you can either prune through your cattle panel, or get in behind it with a ladder. That all being said, I'd take Actinidia arguta near a structure over Virginia creeper. The way Virginia creeper adheres to structures is an issue not shared with kiwiberry - the vines just wrap themselves around whatever they can grab.

William Bronson wrote:
My kiwi is on the north side of an opaque fence, right next to the chicken compost area.
I thought kiwi hated lots of direct sunlight , but If I'm off base that would explain my lack of success.

It is finally getting sorta outta hand but that's taken years to happen.
Still no flowers, much less fruit.

Actinidia is grown commercially in full sun. In nature, the vines climb to the top of trees to access sun. Growing in shade that far from the equator is likely one of your issues. Plants in nature in the shade tend not to flower as much as vines in the sunbathed canopy.

Many Actinidia varieties are quite vigorous and need a minimum of once yearly pruning. Locally, it's not unusual for a plat to put on 3 meters of cane per year. Be ready to prune back aggressively. The vines like to twist around branches/wires and will get into cracks and between places you don't want it. I would recommend putting your panel at least 1-2m away from your house so there's space for you and a ladder to prune things during the season in case some of the vines start getting ideas. If that seems too much space, don't worry - the vine will happily fill in the gap in suitable climates.

They are lovely shade, though. Working under a pergola canopy of kiwifruit is quite a lot nicer than working in more open fields.

Another option in addition to those posted above is the warp-weighted loom. This requires less woodworking skill, no expensive (and difficult-to-manufacture) reed, and has a very slim profile. You can make blankets on them, but doing more than a plain weave takes a bit of determination.

Sally Pointer has done some nice videos on how to make a warp-weighted loom with basic hand tools here.

From back in November! More large bamboo shoots from the local gulley! I processed some with a friend and they were delicious.

I used some of the ginger decoction and ginger cubes to make gluten-fee ginger gummies based on a licorice recipe.

80 g ginger decoction
20 g gelatin
100 g sugar
30 g ginger paste
2 g salt
75g gluten free flour mix (based on sorghum and buckwheat flour)

They are delicious, but for my taste, I might add more ginger next time as I like it really strong!

I've tried to grow ginger root for the last several years with no luck, so this is from the shops. I'm just a bit too far out of the subtropics to make it work without a hothouse.

Made a couple of very concentrated infusions, one with old root nodules (in the jar) and one with younger root (in the measuring cup).

They burn a bit but it's worth it!

After a couple years, I finally found enough mushrooms to harvest at once for this BB. Most of my mushroom locations yielded just a handful at a time, and unfortunately some of the nicest spots have been developed in the intervening time!

While cycling, I found a lovely flush of wood ear on a log that came down in Cyclone Gabrielle. I was able to harvest 1.526 + 1.271kg (6.16lbs) of wood ear.

The other two jars are the largest singles flushes of mushrooms from the previous years.

I bought this 100% cotton back in January of 2020, but with disruptions from COVID didn't make the skirt out of it until 2023. Here's the finished piece! Sewed on a 1940's singer with details done by hand, including installing twill tape around the pocket, the buttonholes, and the strip that fastens the top fabric button. The pocket has a suspension strap to distribute the weight of things in it onto the waistband.

All the thread is cotton, and the buttons are vintage shell and fabric.

I spun a large quantity of wool singles for a weaving project that I've finally finished!

Photos are the wool rolags from my wool prep BB, which I then spun on my upright wheel to a target of 14 ends per cm. The singles were then wound into skeins on my yarn swift; using the swift's diameter, I estimated each skein was around 500m (~1500m in total). The skeins were then boiled in 4L of water and 1tbsp of crushed flaxseed to act as sizing and hung to dry under tension using what I had to hand (a large spring we picked up at the scrap yard, and an F-clamp).

I realised partway through the weaving project that I hadn't taken a photo of the weight of the skeins of wool! To make up for this, I've included a photo of the finished singles being woven my warp-weighted loom and the weight of the finished textile (exactly 8 oz!) - as this necessarily doesn't include the thrums I've cut off the piece or extra wool yarn, it's obvious I spun in excess of this quantity. I hope these additional photos are acceptable evidence!

I find other peoples' responses to this question really interesting.

To add another data point, as a two-person household, we eat the equivalent of 2-4 chickens per year, or around 5-10% of the other people posting. It's a bit hard to estimate as it might be two whole geese or ducks one year, 1-2 1kg packs of drumsticks from the butcher the next year (cheaper than whole chickens, and with a slightly more favourable meat/bone ratio), or a 5kg box of frozen chicken feet the next, with a very small amount consumed at communal events 1-2 times per year.

Growing enough birds to accommodate 2-4 chickens per year would be possible even on a small section, except we are living in an area cockerels aren't permitted.

On the other hand, we go through a dozen eggs a week, which would require a larger number of birds.