Leigh Tate

Thanks Christobal! Very helpful.

One question is, how much work do I want to make out of it??? It's a fascinating topic. I chose the four colors based on what I already had available. The online generator was easy to use, but it got tricky changing cones of yarn for every length of warp. It got even messier (as in tangled yarn) when I took it off the warping board, brought it to the loom, and tried to figure out which thread was supposed to be next on the loom.

Another question I'm wondering is, what is "random?" My dictionary says by chance, or haphazardly. So if I was being truly random, I would have a "rule" to not have the same color side-by-side, I'd just use whatever I grabbed. As a design element, I've been thinking of random as color order without a discernible pattern. It's funny because when I asked the question "Is anything in nature random" in the permaculture design forum, everyone agreed that everything in nature follows a pattern whether we recognize it or not. So for weaving inspired by nature, i seem to have chosen something that doesn't happen in nature.

For this project, I realize is that from a distance, the four colors will blend visually in the final weaving. They probably won't be distinguishable as individual colors unless one gets real close and takes a look. That kinda makes me feel that I don't have to be terribly fussy about how random my colors actually are.

Jay, maybe! I used an online random color generator and that's how it did it. I'm thinking that two (or more) of the same colors side by side would create a stripey effect, which I don't want. That said, it isn't as easy to create random as one would think.

anybody else?

Cristobal, it sounds like you've worked out a good system, any chance of a picture?

My warp is measured and I've started threading my loom.



I want 20 ends per inch and I have a 10 dent reed, so, it's two ends per dent.



To keep my random color order, I made sure to sley each dent with different color threads.







As I thread the heddles, I just make sure I don't put two of the same color next to each other.



I'm over half done, but it seems slow going with cheese making, garden prep, and spring planting getting started. But it makes for a wonderful break during the day.

I'm wanting to revamp aspects of my garden and irrigation is at the top of the list. I live in a hot humid climate which can have long periods of no rain. We have about 2400 gallons of collected rainwater for irrigation.

My current method is to use a hose from the rain collection tank and hook it up to a "leaky" pipe, which I move from bed to bed. Not only is this time consuming, but also I must lay it on top of my thick leaf mulch, so I lose some of the moisture to evaporation. Plus, it takes a lot of water to penetrate the mulch and soak the soil. I need ideas for improving on that!

I would love to see how others have dealt with irrigation. So please, show me your irrigation systems!

All I know is that by producing at least some of our own food and staying out of debt, we've weathered unemployment, inflation, ordinary price hikes, supply chain disruptions, lockdowns, and silly social trends (remember when people were boasting about buying up all the toilet paper?). And we've weathered it all quite comfortably. We've had very little lifestyle disruption.

My husband and I started with a garden, and gradually expanded our food production: fruit trees, grain, chickens, goats. Thanks to permies, i have someplace to go if I have a question or a problem. I've learned to cultivate perennial foods like sunchokes, hopness, lambs quarter. I've learned better preservation techniques and how to make things like cheese, kefir, kimchi, and sourdough bread.

We all start at the same place - the beginning. Modern society is all about buying everything, so learning how to grow food is something new to learn. It's challenging because there is no one-size-fits-all solution for every gardener. Every time I've moved I've faced a new learning curve in terms of soil, weather patterns, growing conditions, etc. I think it's those who see the value of the goal who stick with it. It requires experimentation and while we've had some failures, we've had many successes. There's just something incredibly satisfying about going out to the garden and picking lunch or dinner.

Our public library is a valuable resource. My husband and I don't have a subscription TV service, so I rely on the library for videos. I also check out a lot of books. Sadly, our library has been getting rid of much of the classical literature and concentrating on more pop lit. But we have a Library of Things, where we can check out equipment like fishing tackle and metal detectors. They also have free passes for all the area museums, parks, and attractions, which is a great savings. I also use their printer when I need to print something out. I don't make copies often enough to buy a printer, but they're reasonable at the library. I'm at the library at least once a week.

In 2024 we built our RHM (all about that in this thread ---> At Last. My RMH Is a Reality)



We loved everything about it except that it was very smokey at start-up. Once it warmed up, no smoke. But the problem was that we live in the southeastern U.S., where we can have lovely warm spells throughout the winter. When we have a string of warm days we don't need a fire. So throughout the winter we can have a series of cold starts. The smoke was annoying.

Initially I contacted Thomas Rubino about a bypass gate he used to sell (Dragon Tech), and he told me about the new bypass he'd been using to good effect. He told us how he did it and that's what we decided to do. Following are photos and explanations of what we did.

It uses a standard chimney damper. But we needed to add to the chimney pipe to accommodate the smoke. We decided to go through the top of the bell, so the first step was to remove the existing chimney pipe.



Dan cleans the chimneys once a year anyway, so that got done at the same time.

The next step was to drill a 6-inch hole in the brick top of the stove. For that, we had to get a 6-inch diamond masonry drill bit.







We used a standard 6-inch chimney damper, and followed Tom's instructions to modify it as a smoke by-pass. A typical damper plate has openings in it. We needed to seal these so that there would be no heat leaks when the damper was closed. To block the openings, Dan added a disc of ceramic fiber blanket and wired it to the plate.




 


To close off the damper when not in use, the disc of ceramic blanket had to be cut larger than the damper plate. But Dan was concerned that the soft, pliable fabric wouldn't stay flat. He thought about it for awhile, and then decided to hold it in place with a round table saw blade.



Then it was a matter of installing the new section of chimney complete with the bypass.





No more smokey start-ups! It took a little experimentation to figure out adjusting and closing it, but it's made a huge difference.

I definitely recommend one of these, but I also recommend planning it into your build! Retrofitting isn't impossible, but it was a noisy, dusty job. Still, I'm glad we did it.