Tom Bexley

The easiest solar sinks may be the loads already sitting around waiting to run. Water heating, laundry, dishwasher, well or irrigation pumping, tool batteries, an EV if there is one, and food dehydrating can all be pushed into that late-morning surplus window without building another storage system. A simple priority list could handle the boring recurring loads first, then use whatever is still left for experiments like extra thermal storage or pumping water uphill. Turning normal chores into dispatchable loads seems a lot simpler than converting electricity into another form and then converting it back later.

With drainage that fast, the 20–30 meter distance by itself probably isn't enough to call it safe. The missing pieces are the well depth and construction, where groundwater actually moves, and whatever setback rules apply in your part of Portugal. Since the proposed basin is uphill from drinking water, more distance seems like cheap insurance. Before digging, check the local requirement for greywater near a private well and find out whether it changes with soil permeability or well type. If there is any doubt, moving the basin farther away makes more sense than trying to engineer around the well later.

Makes me wanna have a mater samich right about now.

Ac Baker wrote:I am ridiculously pleased that, despite the heatwaves & droughts, we have managed to harvest this gorgeous red ripe tomato.  

I think it may be Amish Paste variety (thank you to N!).

I'm definitely going to save the seeds for next year!

The amount of useful material being diverted into that plot is pretty impressive, especially the wood chips, leaves and supermarket produce that would otherwise be waste. The pallet compost bin should make a big difference if the volume keeps growing. One thing that might be worth tracking is which beds get the richer finished compost versus mostly leaf mould or woodier material. After a season or two you could end up with a pretty good picture of what actually gives the best return for potatoes, tomatoes, beans and the lighter feeders without having to treat the whole plot the same way.

With cheatgrass and houndstongue I'd worry more about stopping another crop of seed than making the whole yard look pretty this fall. Anything with mature seed heads gets dealt with first and handled carefully so you're not spreading them everywhere while pulling. Then reclaim the areas you actually care about most, around the fruit trees and berries, and work outward a little at a time. Take some pictures now too. Once everything dies back it can be surprisingly hard to remember exactly where the worst patches were when spring comes around.

One thing to watch is how late they get seeded. Winter-kill is convenient, but if the oats only get a couple inches tall before cold shuts them down you miss a lot of the root mass and residue you're planting them for in the first place. The reseeding comments are interesting too. If easy spring planting is the goal, terminating before mature seed develops seems worth keeping in mind even if winter normally kills the plants. Have you decided whether you're sowing oats alone or mixing in something like peas or another legume?

Borates can be useful on accessible unfinished wood, but please be careful about treating them as the whole termite solution. They protect the wood that actually absorbs the treatment. They don't remove a subterranean colony in the soil or fix the conditions that let termites reach the structure. For a house I'd put the boring stuff first(no pun intended lol) : keep wood and soil separated, correct leaks and chronically damp wood, keep siding and framing out of soil contact, and make the foundation area inspectable so mud tubes don't stay hidden. Then borate treatment can be another layer where the wood is accessible and stays reasonably dry. That distinction matters because somebody can treat a few exposed boards, see no insects there, and still have termites entering somewhere else.

One combination I keep seeing that sounds really good is maple syrup with Dijon mustard. A little of each on roasted carrots, squash or sweet potatoes seems like it would give you sweet without turning the whole thing into dessert.
I may have to experiment with that one. Maple syrup is too expensive to waste on a bad experiment though 😄

I think some shrinkage is probably just unavoidable with 80/20 because you're cooking out fat and water. What I'd try is forming them noticeably wider than the bun to begin with and a little thinner than you ultimately want.
The center divot sounds like a good trick for keeping them from turning into little meatballs, but if the problem is mostly diameter, starting oversized may be the simplest answer. I'd probably make one comically wide test burger and see where it ends up after cooking.

Congrats on pulling it off. An old house, a big tree, knotweed and a Michigan basement sounds like you managed to buy yourself a whole hobby along with the house
If it were mine I'd probably make a boring priority list before getting sucked into the fun projects: anything involving water first, then roof, then anything that could fall on the house, then the rest. Old houses seem to have a way of making the cosmetic stuff look urgent while the unexciting stuff is what actually saves money later.