Jay Angler

Rebecca Widds wrote:... we were told by the neighbours he was given the material for free and just liked it". It's black rock that is not local...

Yes, this is helpful! Sounds like you won't have much trouble figuring out where it's a bother, so the challenge is to put it to a higher use?

What sort of infrastructure *would* you like? You suggest you're very flat. Would the rocks be at all stackable for some sort of raised bed? If not, do you like the look of gabions?

What are the winds like? Would a curved wall direct a breeze where you would want it?

Do you have a budget that you can put into materials that you might require to improve the situation?

Rebecca Widds wrote: I have no idea what the past owner put them in for...

I might try asking any elderly in the area. My first thought from the picture is that they're intended to help infiltrate water in storms, to keep it from the house foundation?

... in a hot climate they add way too much heat too close to the house

Have the weather patterns changed? Are you universally "too hot" or are there cold periods when the latent heat in the rocks was an asset? You could help with seasonal patterns by growing short life plants in the hot season, and removing them in the cold season.

and make every type of building and maintenance more difficult as you have to clamber over them.

Yes - are there "flat" rocks on the property? Rearranging them and adding flat flagstones in key spots for walking would definitely make them safer.

It's pretty frustrating when you have a problem that appears to be man-made, but have *no* idea why they thought it was a good idea. However, it does look intentional to me, so I would genuinely be trying to determine whether they just were really into rocks, or if there is some sort of important function underlying their location.

John F Dean wrote:Gift economy...
It took a while, but they finally realized what no charge meant.  

We have not been raised with the belief system that one can just "give" with no strings attached.

At the very least, the receiver is expected to "show gratitude", but that undoes the goodwill of the gift in my opinion.

I really liked it when the "pay it forward" concept caught my attention. If I help someone with something, or gift them something, I can sidestep that whole side of the equation by simply saying, "pay it forward - help someone in the future when they need help and you're in a position to gift it."

To really work, I think we need to start it off with children. And yet, I hear of children being generous and being told by adults, "you can't do that, or people will take advantage of you." I think it would be better to teach the children how to tell if someone's likely to take advantage of you, so they can learn to be cautious around those sorts while still growing into a gifting community.

Winters have been shifting to more erratic, so I am trying a compromise this year.

2026-02-15 I sowed 12 seeds I saved in 2024 into individual paper pots.
2026-02-16 I sowed 12 seeds I saved in 2025 into individual paper pots.

The experiment is to see if I can get them to germinate in the house (night time ~ 60F, daytime fluctuates 64-70F), I will try to grow them until they have a couple of true leaves, then harden them off for a week under a bit of shelter, then get them in the ground. This should be less difficult than full overwinter, but will hopefully allow them to produce lots of seed before the summer drought hits. We are bound to get a few more frosts, but I will plant them where I'm hoping the risk is lowest. I would be able to put a little protection over the area for a night or so, but if we get a week of snow, they're on their own!

Having to start seeds indoors isn't as practical as being able to seed whole rows in place, but I've been watching the seed-snail thread and I'm thinking it would be a way to scale up without as much work, but with some hope of plants large enough that they can survive against all the locals who think I plant just for them.

I planted a bunch of summer beans on the late side last summer. We had a warm fall, and I got plenty for fresh eating, but we were already into the heavy dews, and there was no way I was going to get an drying on the vine. An important part of this experiment involves seeing if the plants will set fruit early enough that they will mostly dry outdoors. I would love to be able to do the same with beans, if anyone knows a bean variety that will grow and produce in our cool, wet, very long, "spring".

If you're looking for laughs, look up the older Arrogant Worms music. Ones like "Carrot Juice is Murder", "The Last Saskatchewan Pirate" and "Canada's Really Big".

Yes, my friend says I should have outgrown it years ago, but it does lift my spirits.

There is a way of making greenhouse walls with squares of glass - a friend of mine has boxes of them and described the process, but hasn't built anything. It seems to use metal channels so that each piece of glass sits at a slight angle, with the piece below forcing it outward and the piece above forcing it inward. They jam against each other in such a way as to not require horizontal joins. The overlap of the panes of glass would be only a 1/2" or so from what he said.

Using that as a description, maybe you could find more information on the web? Maybe ask some old-timers, as I don't think I've seen any modern greenhouses built this way.

I persevered with the crotched net project. It went faster as I got less rusty, but also the grip I added to the hook made a huge difference once I got used to it.

I had to figure it out as I went, as I wasn't working from any sort of pattern. I didn't want too much of a cone, but I did need somewhat of a truncated cone shape, so I reduced the number of stitches gradually, increasing the rate as I got closer to being done, and then sewed the "circle" sides together when I felt it was deep enough.

I have always found the original material to be quite rough. This material is much softer. I feel like it will be less uncomfortable for baby birds. I would say I'm very happy with my effort!

John Suavecito wrote:...  It could be that the ag lime makes the calcium present, and the biochar supports the microbiology that will sustain a vibrant soil food web that could increase the ability of the apples to store longer.  I think it's plausible. It's certainly not conclusive empirical proof.

Hubby is always reminding me that correlation doesn't imply causation, but if we don't experiment and observe, we will never learn and discover neat things!

I often spread crushed egg shells under my fruit trees, however, I hadn't thought of adding biochar (mostly because I don't have a whole lot of it, so it tends to get added to duck/chicken bedding in our wet winters).  I think that your idea is great and it would be wonderful if more permies tried the experiment on their land.

I will admit, that when I read the subject line, I thought maybe you had somehow incorporated biochar in your storage system. One of the reasons apples deteriorate in storage is ethylene gas. Any thoughts as to whether biochar might absorb ethylene gas from nearby?

Anyone have any idea whether bags of damp biochar stored beside/on top of apples might help them store longer? Inquiring minds would like to know!

Pearl Sutton wrote:There are a lot of types of tools, but as a culture we eat a VERY limited palette of food variety.  

This! Not just variety, but plant families - just think of how many foods fit in just 3 families, "Brassicaceae", "Solanaceae" and "Poaceae" (grain).

If something were to take out a whole family, Humans would take a huge hit.

So creating a truly new veggie, or even a variety based on a family less used like the succulents or cacti, would be awesome. Even popularizing some of the less efficient, niche plants in other families and improving them enough to be a viable homestead contender to the above three, would be good.

What family is skirret in? I've heard of it... Have I spelled it correctly?

Eino Kenttä wrote:... So yeah, in order to avoid breaking the universe while retaining my ability to plant things at all, I'm forced to say always. Maybe I'm overthinking this though. Just a bit... ;-)

Except you missed the bit about light being both a wave *and* a particle, so is a straight line *really* straight?

I have tried to plant in "lines" once in an effort to get an interesting polyculture to fit into a 4 ft wide bed. Alas, even using a straight board to help, no mathematician would have called the results "straight". Also, the germination rate was crappy, so I've sworn off that approach and let the plants go where they tell me they want to go. That uses more seed, since I don't speak plant baby talk all that well, but I save my own so rarely is there any sense of shortage.

So if I had to choose, I'd say never because I'm incapable of the other option!