Dian Green

Mosaic is an option. I've had this in my Pinterest list for years since it is so pretty.

I agree that it does look like gnawing of rodent teeth but they must be good diggers since there was no signs of the dirt being moved.
Voles are about but this is the first Ive seen of damage to anything I want. ( just saw one today when I was out moving leaves) There are 2 other stands of sunchokes I didn't dig, so I'll see how those do through the winter. We had no issues the last 2 winters.

The sunchokes were only in about a 2' x 10' strip along one end so I'm very happy with how much they produced. I think it was a around a pound that was planted in the spring.

We've had hard frost so I dug out the sunchokes from my gamcod plot.
Got a bit over 10 kg.
Most were lovely, but as I went to the south end of the patch, several were showing damage.
The ground was not disturbed, so not likely rodents, and I didn't see any bugs around them that could be the cause.
We do have white grubs in large numbers and I could smell ants as I was digging.  
Anh ideas what could be the cause and any suggestions on how to help them next year?
At least they seem to handle the damage well and don't all rot or anything.

I've dug, cleaned and weighed all the sunchokes so was able to get my final totals for the plot.

Money: $6 (seeds and fabric)
Time: 12 hours ( this time does include fall prep. 2hours can come off that if it shouldn't be included )
Calories: 12 347.43

10 crops produced: dandelion greens, radish, kale, okra, beets, sweet potatoes, zucchini, sunchokes, garlic (and scapes) green beans and dried beans. ( the zucchini and okra were 1 fruit each but they did give me something)

The sunchokes did the heavy lifting by making more than half the total calories. Not great totals but I would say that under a third of the plot actually produced anything so I'm surprised I got even this much.

I still have to get my last video done and upload it and the prior couple.

How vital is the short soaker tub to you? You said there is a pool already on the property.
I've been looking at tiny builds for a few years and also considering some of those ideas for our basement upgrade.
Being able to age in place is something I've been putting at a high priority so am trying to plan in accessibility.
For a small bath, making the whole room a "wet" room seems to give the best space, access and usefulness value. A folding, wall mounted seat and a flexible shower head, with no closed stall, would make it very accessible, even with the small size. Easy to clean too!

For the kitchenette, my uncle did a bunkie a few years ago and the one he did was to put in a short bit of countertop that was just wide and high enough to go over the top of a bar fridge. Total length is a bit over double the fridge space and the rest is closed shelving. Open shelves above and there is lots of room a kettle, some canisters and any room temp foods on the countertop.
The same bunkie uses sliding glass doors as both the doors and the full length windows. Shows the best views and you don't lose another wall to a door.

Last thing I can think of is if you can cheat on the porch issue by using a sun sail? It's not permanent, so it shouldn't count but could give you almost the same benefit.

I'm still working on wrapping things up. We had some early snow and it has cleared enough that I was able to get some planting done and dug about half of the sunchokes. Just around 3.7 kilos so far.
I have to finish them and clean and weigh the dried beans before I can get my calorie total.
Considering how the squash were an almost total failure, the numbers won't be great, but it was a good learning experience.

With the shape and dull blades, we thought something for loom weaving but upholstery could also be possible. I'm fairly familiar with the basics so I know it's not entry level if it is for that.

I think it says either "HA" 5 or "KA" 5 on the handle. The long part can be removed from the handle and double layer metal section. The diamond shape seems to be how it locks into position.

I had this thing turn up in a box lot and am scratching my head.
Considering where it came from, it could be woodworking related but there are no sharp blades on any part.
Any ideas?

We continue to be very impressed by how well the turmeric and ginger tea cubes are working. Her movement is significantly better. The severe bursitis in her hips is greatly reduced. Her breathing is better and she's also found that her air pressure sensitivity is almost gone. No more noticing when a storm is rolling in!

A couple of friends visited this week. They are both in their early 80's and while in generally good health, they do have some issues and aches and pains. Both tried the tea. By the second day they were both feeling better enough that they wanted their own supply.
I was able to find some organic ginger ( from Peru) and (non-organic) turmeric at the grocery store. The ginger was in good shape and needed little prep but we removed all of the turmeric skin, just in case. We ended up with around 150 grams of each, so a higher percentage of turmeric. I still had a couple more of the lemons. The big change was that I pre-ground the peppercorns to a very fine grind before putting it all in the blender. It produced almost exactly the same amount of paste and they got the same 250 cubes with a bit left over. Total cost was around $10 since I'm not counting the lemons.

We see how it works for them but everyone agreed the flavour of the second batch was very close to the first.