Alder Burns

Perhaps more of a stopgap/temporary measure until I think of/find the time for/justify the expense of something else, I used ordinary cardboard on the outside of three of our worst windows, all facing onto views that don't matter.  I simply cut the cardboard as exactly to fit into the window wells as I could, and stuck it in there, four to six thicknesses thick.  One window facing north took enough wind and wet for the cardboard to begin to sag after several weeks, so I cut two sticks to the exact width plus a fraction and wedged them in to hold it in place.  Took me a couple of hours to set up and the difference in temperature issues has been very significant!  I've also done the rigid styrofoam board on the inside in a couple of other places, but they do cause condensation on the windows behind them as one other poster mentioned, so any day not bitterly cold I take them down and wipe the windows...

Two loose ideas: 1. warm air moves from the stove up to the ceiling and then out to the outside walls, cools and drops and is sucked back toward the stove along the floor.  Just having fans here and there, especially on the floor blowing out, is working against this natural flow. What we have are small fans that mount near the top of doorways or in corners where wall meets ceiling, to push warm air out, and then a box fan on the floor blowing cool air back toward the stove, so as to speed up the natural cycle that's already there.
2. As a stopgap measure while you pursue the mold and moisture issues, remember borax and boric acid are your friends.  Dissolve either or both in boiling water to saturation and then paint onto any moldy or half rotted surface of wood, drywall, etc. and let it dry and crystallize. This will kill and prevent all kinds of mold and rot.  Once it dries you can wipe off the dry crytals and paint over it if you like.  

Before doing anything dramatic in your excitement at the new place, I would seriously recommend leaving some time, and most of the space, to observation the first season.  Especially so if you see yourself living there for a long time. More than once I have been on a site for a design consultation and just happen to spot a rare wildflower, right in a place where some big project was being planned, like a deck or a dug garden bed.  Many rare plants and fungi are ephemerals....that is, they only show themselves above ground for a short season of the year and are otherwise invisible.  Spring time is a prime season for them, so if I were you I would restrict my planting ambitions to a small area the first spring and devote serious attention to getting to know the land as it unfolds itself.  The older the forest is, the more important this is since it's more likely to contain uncommon things.  

Sometimes the problem is the solution.  Need to plug up the crawlspace vents, and add insulation to the bottom of one outside wall where water pipes in the laundry room have once at least frozen.  What to do?  Crawl under there in the mud with styrofoam bits?  Then I thought, why not just pile up hay on the outside, and so I went out to do just that, and had to shovel the snow off the hay pile, and then it came to me....there's world class insulation laying a foot deep all over the landscape.  Ten minutes with the snow shovel...vents blocked, wall insulated three feet deep.  

Multiple neighbors had trees taken down while I lived there as well....two or three dead ash due to emerald borers, and an overgrown silver maple.  The tree crews wanted to charge the neighbors extra to haul off the logs!  So I got them to leave the logs, and I would go and cut them up and roll them home (this was within 2 or 3 lots of mine).  One time the city was cutting an ash on the right of way, and a brief conversation led to the entire tree being dumped in my front yard for free!  The four years we lived there we only bought firewood one time, at the very beginning (and it was nasty green stuff....unlike the standing, dead, cured ash I started scrounging after that!

The last time I lived in town, on a small lot among many other small lots, I quickly became known as the one who wanted everyone's yard trash!  Especially firewood (we had a woodstove!), sticks and branches, and fallen leaves.  The sticks I would lay down in my trenched in garden paths, along with cardboard, leaves, grass, whatever, and then turn the bed over onto the adjacent path every few years, adding in compost if possible.  The leaves became a huge pile which would be dipped into whenever needed for mulching, and the oldest of them rubbed through a coarse screen to make soil amendment.

From long experience (20 plus years) on two different z8 sites in Georgia, some loose ideas:
1. I would not bother with the currant/gooseberry or the hazelnuts.  They prefer cooler climates.
2. There are particular blueberries (rabbiteyes) that thrive in the South.  Most of the others also prefer it cooler.  Ditto on blackberries and raspberries....be sure to seek out varieties that are assured to thrive in your climate.  Don't rely on what big-box stores sell!
3. Same with apples, pears, and other temperate fruits.  Only a relatively few varieties will thrive in the south, and they become fewer the further south you go.
4. If you are far enough south or have (or could create) some warmer niches, or are game to offer some protection of some kind on the very coldest snaps, you could attempt some marginal subtropicals.  Jelly palm, feijoa, loquat, the very hardiest citrus come first to mind.  Figs should definitely be in there!

What varieties of squash were you growing?  I've had good results in multiple situations with the Seminole pumpkins and their relatives.  They seem to keep on growing and producing in spite of bugs, borers, mildew and the rest.  The vines do like to climb, though, so you might have to discourage them from climbing the corn and sunflowers, since the squashes might break them down with their weight as they grow.  Many times I've had to get a long pole to fish them down out of the trees and bushes!

I know this is an old thread and possibly other solutions have been reached, but my default in both the Midwest and the Southeast USA has been Seminole pumpkins and their relatives. I also try not to plant them in the same place year after year, but they seem to resist the bugs, the borers, and the milder much better than other kinds...

My answer from 30 plus years in hot humid Georgia and hot dry California is wear as little as possible....cut-off shorts and sandals most of the summer, drink enough water to have to pee every hour or so (easily well over a gallon a day, and more overnight),(and yes that means water! not any other liquids like caffeinated or sweet or alcoholic beverages!) and get wet from time to time....at least wet hair, perhaps a wet hat, and whole body wet if available.  I am however blessed with good genes in this regard...I tan easily and darkly, and have never fainted or vomited.  My partner by contrast goes through the hot weather as a night owl and her outdoor chores are crepuscular.