David Nightingale

Em, Hello,  Happy Sol-stead day to you.  Peaches, I really love them.  My farm’s soil in western WA loves to decompose them with fungus, soil bacteria, and bugs faster than they can grow.  Stubborn and hungry I planted 10 around my 8b farm in a few wetter micro climates.  6 did not even leaf out of dormancy, and by the next year all had died.  I have native roses, and cherries,( same family as) peaches so they should be able to make it here.  Companion planting with a Rosa rugosa, (local wild rose) has worked with Elberta, Frost, Red Haven, but peaches still seemed slow growing.  In places I have only clay, so soil depth with deeper planting 4’ holes of my own compost was a start.  Later, planting in dry locations stand alone Baby Crawford, King George, and a John Fanick with 4-5 grams pelleted zinc sulfate in the soil near the tree 4-5 inches from trunk the peaches took off.  Adding spring Composted Pig manure (phytic acid rich phosphates) 2’ out narrow ring of 2lbs wet and water timely causes roots to chase outward ie more growth.  
Copper or Zinc Sulfates, I don’t like either fungicide, mossicide/algaecide.  Yet the second you plant peaches they start to get eaten by everthing so a small amount of Zn SO4 at least encourages quick and abundant leaf growth, limits pathogenic colonization, which helps slow the decomposition of the trunk.  One more ring of zinc just outside manure line from tree at year 2 same amount, and that’s it, no more.  ZnSO4 binds into horseradish, garlic companions planted just inside the manure line helps bug and larger competitive friends mind the P’s and Q’s.  This is a start. I hope this helps, Cheers.

Nature lives everyday in balance.  On Solstice we free ourselves of gravity at the top of Earth’s orbital arc, as time steads our sun to equity twice yearly to remind us.  

June, in the northern hemisphere.  A beloved month of green, endless sun, and the Solstice.  Here on our farm we have a strange Solstice tradition of snaking our fruit trees, bushes.  I hand the kids enough small rubber snakes, plastic bugs 3-4”, and we tie them to branches nearest fruit.  Why? Well, the kids love it, but it has a practical purpose.  The birds will often leave the fruit alone anywhere near a snake/bug for awhile.  It does not stop all fruit loss, but sharing is ok.   Sure Im crazy, but try it… a small way to celebrate Solstice.

Omnivores Dilemma, what to eat? I say many, many trees and bushes.  Dense planting, side of the house, pots, planters, cover the lawn, who really eats grass?  Sheep, they’re in my front yard right now laying on their food.  Humans historically gathered and ate 600% more vitamin C daily than today, along with all the unknown berry and fruit bio chemicals that we don’t get today.  That’s a vastly different diet than what you see everyone eating now. The most modern I’ve become is to bring the gathering to where I live.  I like crazy fruit guavas, papaya, melons, apples, strawberries, goumi, huckleberries, josta, blueberries, goji, aronia, the list is endless, really.  I snack in the garden and around outside all day more than half the year.  
     Health is the greatest gift any parents can give to their children, I say as many trees and bushes as possible. Pass it on, to the kids and grand kids will benefit well into the future.  And maybe others will notice and quit eating from plastic bags at every meal, and save the human race…  Cheers.

Howdy, superb topic.  Brakes and Roofing I leave to the best professionals I can find, as loss of either is final.  Just reroofed 24 year old house 2 years ago with architectural singles.  I wanted metal, but the contractor had an interesting take.  Much of the plywood, truss, vents needed to be changed first .  It seems modern houses have condensation issues?  A bit too airtight.  Interested in long term roof here in PNW.   22” snow in 4 hours to 112F roof surface temp same year…

Almost forgot, Wool.  Have sheared the sheep and left a large pile 6’ deep on swamp like ground, for a year (meant to burn it). Ive noted it has not molded nor degraded in fiber strength while I moved it in March.  German appliances, cars, use felted wool on panel interiors for noise reduction.  Problem maybe felting may remove natural oils that achieve this durability, but German engineering is legendary.  Cheers.

Beautiful red soil, makes me miss daily trips over Sentinel and the Hellgate view.  Always wonder why so few live inside their playground, and with apricots and cherries.  Lucky man.

Mr. Ransom has a great thought as much is lost in translation.  It’s not hard to strike up a conversation about someone’s wool hat as they’re often hand made and regional.  Even in a different language, you can figure out what words for wool and sheep  Surprised that they’re often the same word, I’ve heard a few times.  Wool’. I found in the UK was used to describe someone from the burbs.  That was confusing.  

I use my raw eggs in a Bokashi outdoor compost. Odd in that is a dry compost, quite acidic as low pH 2.9 it handles human waste if need be (5 gallon bucket anaerobic culture) yet it maybe the best digester of proteins. And of course with all compost I cheat, some.  Meat. Poo, a tinkle. or two, (that rhyme isn’t mine) in a 3 walled mortared stone 6’ long compost bin, a bit pyramidal in shape. Wide back6’ on the inside, narrowing at the top to 3’ wide.  Interior is Rubberized with liquid tire chemically inert (you’ll have to look that one up). I layer with semi rotted alfalfa sheets which are just damp and compressed but form almost airtight pockets where the meats, cheese , and eggs can go in the back widest part compressed by plywood sheet often a large rock on top.  I rake it forward after a few weeks, shorter if it’s hot.  Then mix in some aerobic compost and/or I add pig/+cow manure for a dense concentrated compost. Nifty in that rats rarely dig into it, in fact almost nothing bothers the Bokashi (it’s that acidic) except rain causes  dilution). So it’s got a roof, and about 40-50 days you have a high caloric compost.  Used on my raspberries, blueberries, anything that likes acidic soil… we had raspberries until November, 2025… so weird. I think it was the Bokashi, my son said berry fairy’s. Cheers.

Great ideas. Mr. Rodger’s sweater show used to baffle me.  Myself, often Cotton on the inside. But thousands of years tends not to be wrong. WOOL. for the brutal tasks. Logging, fencing, full contact Gardening:) Felted, knitted then felted. I’ve been blending raw silk into an outer layer of the heavy felts for a ridiculously strong fiber.  Cedar bark needle felted with silk and then felted between to layers just at the sweat spots into a vest is my overall favorite. Smells like forest everywhere you go.  How much plastic micro fiber are you breathing in from clothes daily? Cheers.

Some of the most sound Advice from Kara Ive read anywhere, Melissa.  Water is life, and the essence of time.  Testing your well can tell you about the land over time as well as health and safety.  I grew up with a hundred plus year old well on an old farm in west Puget Sound, WA.  Hand dug at 97’ and lined with a brilliant (an accident, maybe?) mortar/rock chemistry of 1880’s well technology.  The water smelled like rotten eggs, sulfates and no kid in the neighborhood wanted any no matter how thirsty they got.   However, turns out that the ecology and biochemistry of that aquifer is actually more sustainable,  naturally mineralized, and with substantial health benefits.  So investigate deeply:) you maybe surprised.  Public well information through county and state websites can help you learn about local ground water, and possible problems.  Call a few “More seasoned”, well drillers and plumbers locally as well they generally know things the public records do not.  
Rain drops of the first rivers that ran across the planet billions of years ago have shaped and sustained all life on Earth, for as long as we allow.  Footsteps of the farmer…  Take care, cheers.