Cécile Stelzer Johnson

Matt McSpadden wrote:

Anne Miller wrote:Black Oil Sunflowers offers food for birds, you, etc.

Joe Pyle Weed for Monarch Butterflies.

I like both of these suggestions. I learned something too. For some reason I always thought of Joe Pye Weed as a southern plant, but when I looked it up... it is here in Maine.

Joe Pye weed is also abundant in Central WI, sandy zone 4b, and good for pollinators. Unfortunately, the local authorities will not let us plant anything in the "right of way", a rather large zone that extends over the entire ditch.
The 'reason' given is that deer, turkeys etc. are attracted to it and we are already paying through the nose with nose bleed level car insurance premiums! They already mowed the ditch as of today (6/13), and they will do it again a couple more times before snow flies.
I keep it clean myself so that I can mow around some asclepias (milkweeds) that volunteered. Blue flags would do well there too, if the zone is damp enough, and could not really hide an approaching deer, but nope. Rules are rules and they want it cut to the ground, as if a herd of sheep had eaten there...
I plant forbes at the very edge of the 'acceptable limit', so technically, they are on my property, on which I pay taxes. They can't mess with that!
The nice thing about forbes is that they go back in the ground in the winter, so it won't be a problem for snow removal. I have lots of false indigo, peonies, along the edges of my driveway, and some cup plants (silphium perfoliatum). Those are nice for little birds who come to drink the water from the "cups" at the vase of the leaves.

Ra Kenworth wrote:Yes Judith a summer kitchen is the answer: mine is simply an apartment sized upright freezer directly outside the door that doubles as a countertop, where single burners and crockpots can be used without heating up the house.

That's a wonderful idea. I'm planning to do the something very similar.
There's a concrete fire circle that we are not using, about 20 ft in diameter. I plan to add cattle panels all around to make an airy enclosure, maybe with some grapevines all around then put a roof on top, just to protect the equipment.
I  think the roof will be a fairly cheap affair as they sell on the internet some super duper heavy tarps, reclaimed from advertising panels along the highway.  This:
https://www.billboardvinyls.com/products/14-x-48-reused-vinyl-tarp-black?variant=41687924244563&country=US¤cy=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&tw_source=google&tw_adid=756680107359&utm_campaign=22641825750&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22641825750&gbraid=0AAAAADhQWtKKyt2dFNS2coBA3p0Yan5vU&gclid=Cj0KCQjwlqTRBhCBARIsANrkrxjs2zzmIQFlY3Lh9a0BX_H4V_cpiKHmvChKmVaFYOudivltar37JZwaAkeDEALw_wcB
will take you to the site.  You can then pick your size.
Billboard vinyl material is stronger and heftier than anything else you will find to cover your stuff: they usually double it, so that one face doesn't show the advertising
It would go directly over a round wood frame, supported by a number of 4" X 4" posts.
They have grommets and I could add more, just so I could fasten them more easily to the wood frame.
It's just too darn hot to do canning inside the house.
I built a little cabinet for the stove (concrete blocks and lumber to cover, and a  propane tank, and another for a counter top for a cutting and prepping place, so this project is humming along, but calculations are not my strong suite. With a 20' diameter, I wonder how many posts I would need, as this will impact the final shape of the roof.
Oh, I intend to keep the center of the roof open so that smoke/heat can dissipate if we burn marshmallows at the center of the fire circle.
The final piece that would close the roof could be a patio umbrella, removable.
Do we have good engineers on permies to tell me if I'm going totally wrong? I'm hoping that the roof would be high enough to not melt in the heat...

Mom used to make "potage": It was essentially whatever veggies she had on hand, sometimes pureed, with some sort of meat. She could make it last about a week, adding more veggies, and I must say that the 2nd or 3rd day was always better than the first day, as the flavors would "marry" as we say in France.
This said, I do not know anyone who has enjoyed eating potage for a month, no matter how good: One gets tired of essentially the same fare, the same consistency (pre-chewed and liquidy), essentially, for a whole week.
The other problem is that in order to keep it free of bacteria, you have to keep it hot enough to kill the bacteria. Perhaps, in the winter, if you have a woodstove that you must keep burning anyway to keep warm, that might be doable. If you need to keep the fire active, you may have to think about the amount of fire wood. needed. That may not save any money.
We are also talking about very long ago, when folks didn't add much meat at all in their stew (as the meat would spoil first).
I have my doubts that the potage in question would retain vitamins, as we know that vitamins can get lost in a long cooking period. In 1772, the potato tuber was declared useful by the Faculte de medecine, and even so, the introduction of a solanum was thought as risky. Cabbage was pretty much THE vegetable of choice when all was frozen outside.
Many peasants in France didn't have any meat, unless they raised their own. Even so, Taxes were often paid in kind to the lord of the castle, and peasant often made do without meat. It was Henri IV (1553- 1610) who decreed that there should be a "poule au pot" (A hen in the pot) at least once a week so the lords of the castle could not take everything in taxes). So they had large flocks, like 56 chickens (for 56 weeks), running wild. They could eat the eggs.
Those were not good old times to be romanticized and go back to: The last famine in France was in 1870, I believe. Folks caught rats from their sewer to feed themselves, attacked a zoo, killed an elephant, and a restaurateur was arrested for cooking the trunk for his guests.
At my home, of 2 things one: if the potage was good, it didn't last. If it didn't disappear, mom would add some savory meat ("pour le ratrapper" = to "catch it back",) so she would not have to toss it.
We never bought dog food, and my dog was never hungry, as we knew how to put it out in the garage so mom would not see it.

Cyn Stratt wrote:Do ducks really need a pond? I was taught that they must have clean water for washing their beaks and head. Ours get a clean tub daily and enjoy the sprinklers.

That's somewhat true, although they are much happier if they can totally dunk, and they will be cleaner, too. If you have just a few, you can probably work it  like that, but if you have a larger number, changing the water daily becomes a real chore that cannot be skipped.
A plus, though is that because the water will get 'fertilized' in one day, you could pump it out on a different tree each day in an orchard, for example, or in a bog that you can fence out of their reach (or you won't have a bog after a couple of days: they will eat everything.
Chuckles.

John C Daley wrote:What is a pluvium

I've always called it a pluvium, but the best representation I see is this, from the Wiki:
They call it an impluvium, which sounds more correct.
Because I wanted to have access to the pool myself, and put in other features such as circulating pumps, one solar, the other electric and the roof was only 2 ft high near the pool, I modified it by creating the slanted rooves only on the 2 longest side, and I made them 6 ft wide, so the surface of each roof is 20'X6'.
I thought of these rooves as being a neat place for my ducks to nest, but my first batch was white Pekins.
(I wasn't quite ready for the winter and they decided to sleep in the pond at night, so that force my hand. (Ever tried to get ducks out of a pond when they don't want to leave!?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impluvium

I had 15ducks in just short of 8000 gallons and when it warmed  it had to be partially emptied every 2.5 weeks.
By partially emptied, I mean I had to remove about half of the water, and replace with fresh.
Since your area is much wetter than mine you might be able to change the water without having to use electricity, but I would not count on it. If your ducks are the "not flying" kind, you could use a barrier to keep them out. ( it doesn't take much to keep them out when all they can do on land is waddle. A 1ft barrier should be enough)
If you add small fish ,some milk crates, upside down will keep them safe. They will add to the muck
That roof is only 2ft high.
If I had to redo it, I would double the size to catch more rain..

Larry A Elvidge wrote:I've had a duck pond for a couple years, around 12,000 gallons, and I can say that ducks do make things messier pretty quickly, but it's totally manageable if you're using water as fertilizer for your orchard and have some sort of rainwater top-up. You’ll notice the water start to cloud and get a bit green especially if the ducks are in most of the day, but just how gross it gets depends on rain, your soil, and how much you’re swapping out. With 10 ducks, you’ll probably want to move some water out every week or two in the warm months, more often if we get a heat wave or less rain.

The pond that I dug (in sand) contains about 7-8000 gallons but I won't put ducks in it this year. I did 2 years ago, and yes, 15 ducks can get it pretty messy. The main reason I don't have ducks this year is that I'm going to have a knee replacement, and already, hubby is grumbling about having to take care of the chickens when I'm out of commission.
Well, that and plucking these critters. I bought a bunch of suckers and other minnows this time, and I'm raising watercress. At the end of the season, I plan to pull all the fish and dry them for chicken feed. (Our winters are long in Wisconsin, and I can't justify pumping water through the filters and changing the water in the cold... Nope)
Because I'm in sand, I put a liner in it but I didn't want to shell for an EPDM so I got the thickest tarp that I could get, and I must say, (Cross my fingers  and knock on wood), so far, it's holding. No leaks!)
What I built to save myself a bit of work and sheltering the ducks from predators at the same time is a 6 ft wide roof on the 2 long sides of the pond, angled to collect all of the rain water in the pond. (I was inspired in that by the Roman rooves slanted inward in a patio on all 4 sides)
These 2 rooves are very efficient: They each measure 20 ft by 6ft, for a total surface of 240 square feet.
According to the formula I found, a 240 square feet on which only 1" of rain falls will get me...149.61 gallons.
So yes, I'll still have to pump water from my well to fill it up. We average 40-60" of rain a year, so  (4,488.31gallons to 8,976.62 gallons total for the year) Of course, you don't quite get that much because of evaporation, but it is not negligible either... The ducks will get shelter, maybe lay eggs under the rooves, or in the cabin I built for them. (The cabin was for when they were too young to go in the pond.)
That pond is in the center of my orchard as I had the same thought you did: The partial changes of water once every 2 weeks work out quite well. (I pull out only half of the water each time to not kill the fish. (These little buggers are really tough: Koi fish just could not make it. I would love to raise grass carp, but it is illegal here, so I'm screwed.)
I operate 2 sump pumps simultaneously, that I have in 55 gallon barrels to keep them a bit cleaner so the change happens pretty fast: I didn't time myself, but I can partially empty and then fill it all back up again in an afternoon. I can walk away and check on the progress every hour.
Since you are raising some ducks, and I heard that in Laos, they eat a lot of ducks, have they found a way to pluck them clean pretty fast?
I love ducks and would much prefer to raise ducks: They don't tear everything in the garden and they stay pretty much together, but plucking them!!!...

I'd go with Jay's suggestion. I have a "wealthy" apple tree to which I did that. I leaned only a little, but there was such an apple crop that I feared the branches would break. I sunk 3 posts on the heavy side, which I then connected to a couple of 2X4 so as to take most of the weight off.
The trick is to place them far enough apart that you could still run the mower under if it needed, although you can also use a weed eater...
It doesn't lean quite as much, but I left the supports just in case.
Depending what branches are growing on the 'light' side, you might want to start doing some light trimming on the heavy side to encourage the light side to pick up the pace?
Is it still potted? When you place it in the ground, you might be able to correct the imbalance if that's the case.
I hope you can save that tree since it's giving you good apples.
Supports will also save your tree in case of high winds, heavy snow fall and other foul weather events.