Coydon Wallham

Good luck with the wild raspberries. I've seen wild raspberries like that all over the places I've lived for the last decade. Last year was the first time if found one tiny, pea-sized fruit that escaped harvesting by other critters. I'd sure be interested if there were some trick of timing or such to find them in quantity, they taste as good as the real thing (you shouldn't have to worry about false strawberries in Montana...)

I hadn't realized the metal ran that far across the entrance. I remember the clumsy wire gate and was excited to read you were replacing it with a proper wooden one, though...

I'm confuzed- Was the Abbey not fully fenced off before? It looks like y'all have been putting up completely new fence sections, not repairing old ones...

What can be done to assess/ estimate water needs while establishing a hugelkultur the first few years?

Best application techniques without access to pressurized water?

Got worky duty, sorry to miss the live stream...

Beau M. Davidson wrote:

Jeremy VanGelder wrote:I haven't tried it. But the PineNote runs Linux.

Have you used a pinenote, Jeremy?

I have a Pinephone and a couple of Pinebooks. With everything happening with big tech and privacy issues lately, I gave priority to open source hardware over cutting edge innovations. Unfortunately this area is more developer oriented and requires a good deal of time/experience invested in the tech itself to gain results. Even worse, as far as I can tell the general Pine64 project pivoted to work more on 'shiny objects' like earbuds and watches that I find completely superfluous for communication needs. I'm not seeing any 'push' updates on equipment and don't have time/capacity to follow up myself.

Last month I got my hands on a Daylight for a test drive. I didn't have an actual task to accomplish, but it felt like an excellent device. If I have a budget for new tech again, I'd get something with a screen like that. I also heard an interview with the owner/founder of the company, seemed like someone I'd feel good about supporting with my funds.

BTW, Android is a version of Linux. If you are not happy with the actual interface, that is more a function of the device's input design. I had Arch Linux on my Pinephone and it is ugly to operate. If you are more concerned about all of the proprietary elements Alphabet (Google) has built in to the Linux variant it uses, there are reverse engineered versions of Android that function the same, but avoid the Play store and other Google tracking/regulating activities. They are highly functional on some ARM devices, but for others you need to wander into developer realm to make work...

My site is mostly sand with ~6-8 inches of dirt/soil on top. When grabbing fill to build my hugels, I've been putting the sand in the centre, dirt/soil near the outside, and using the saved sod from the top to 'mulch' the surface, which also helps retain the structure beyond where the angle of repose would otherwise take materials. Oh yeah, there's some logs in there too.

Is the juice worth the squeeze when keeping the sand and dirt separated like that? Is there such a thing as too much sand when making the hugel, and if so at what ratio?

Also, what is the ideal slope for the sides? SKIP calls for 7' high at 7' wide which seems absurdly steep. How was this factor determined?

Well, good to see you don't have a zerk gun made from a gnarly old white oak. I hear those Burr zerkers can be pretty nasty.

Edward Lye wrote:Your cat will enjoy this too.

Ahem, the title of this thread is "Stairs and Ladders". I believe 'Chutes and Ladders' would fall into another forum (although it might have to be Snakes and Ladders to translate the joke into some cultures ;-)...

I'm looking to sew more canvas coverings for yurts and other semi-permanent structures.

Five years ago I made my first yurt cover. I searched around for the best natural fibre to use for thread, but the advice I got was that any natural thread would have me resewing my work every few years. I went with some #138 thread. I figure like the billboard plastic liner in a wofati, a relatively small concession to the gick economy was worth the larger benefits. After exposure to the full seasonal cycles of northern Wisconsin all these years, the cover is holding and I don't see even early signs of failure.

I recently started sewing another tarp, but couldn't locate the spool of #138. I had purchases a smaller spool of #69 at some point and just started with that. When it occurred to me I was going to be putting a lot of faith in this tarp holding up to the weather I began to question whether #69 was enough. That was the thread used and recommended by the offgridpermaculture website I used as my initial guide, but that website proved to have enough other fundamental flaws I'm not going to assume it was the best advice.

Looking on Amazon, #138 has gone up since I purchased it last time and is around 3 or 4 times the price of #69. Does anyone have reliable experience comparing the performance of these various threads under harsh conditions?

I'm using 12oz duck canvas, planning to move up to 18oz after my current supply is exhausted. While the thread is holding, the 12oz has started to go threadbare in spots...