Rj Ewing

We recently put up a yurt with an earthen floor and ready to build an adjacent structure that will be our bathroom and utility room. We started out wanting to construct a strawbale infill, but due to space limitations, we couldn't give up that much room to the walls. Then we were interested in light straw clay, however I think it is too late to use this method this year as our wet winter (Western Oregon) is but a few weeks away (Let me know if I am wrong. We could keep our woodstove going and many fans to help dry, maybe?). We really would like to at least get the insulated shell and a basic bathroom before it gets too cold outside.

Our latest plan is to construct a standard stick frame, plywood sheathed building. We will use rockwool insulation, and interior/exterior lime and or clay plaster. I have a few questions regarding the wall "layers".

1. Do we need to use a vapor barrier if we plaster both sides of the wall? They use kraft paper on the interior here as well as 2 layers of grade d paper when stuccoing the exterior. Are these necessary? I would prefer to have breathable walls.
2. do I need to use lath/drywall before plastering? Or can I use chicken wire over the roxul/studs and plaster to that? I saw someone use chicken wire over fiberglass batts, and they said they had a bit of cracking as the fiberglass was too flexible. If I am not mistaken, the roxul insulation is more dense then fiberglass batts, then it would support the plaster better. Any thoughts?
3. as anyone used cob to accent drywall before plastering? One of the things that we like most about strawbale/cob is the non-square look. I was thinking I could use a combination of cob and wire mesh to make rounded edges (window frame, door, etc)

Any thoughts will be appreciated. Thanks!

Darren,

I was wondering what your experience has been with establishing a large number of trees in regards to weed/grass control and soil health. I recently planted a apple orchard of around 1000 trees. I'm currently trying to determine what the best course of action is to reduce the competition for the trees. I am fully aware of the downsides of herbicides and really do not want to use them, but I'm not convinced that there is a better option. I've thought about using wood chips, but they they get expensive fast and depending on soil activity, I may need to replace them yearly. I have also thought about plastic/weed fabric, but I am concerned with that approach creating vole habitat and how the soil biology will be affected. There would be less air exchange as well as less carbon being added to the soil with plastic.

How do you recommend commercial orchards and/or timber plots control grass to establish trees? If spraying a 1m x 1m area around the base of every tree for 3-4 years, will this severely affect the soil health? How would a soil drench of compost extract after (1 week?) each spraying help?

I am located in western Oregon with 4 months of summer drought and 8 months of winter rain (40 in/yr). The soil is compacted clay loam, but well drained. The pH is around 5.5. Last October we did the first pass with a Keyline plow.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Hello Adam,

If I remember correctly, you milk once a day and you don't separate the calf? What have been you experience with this system? How to you prevent the cows from holding up their milk when in the parlor if the calf is never removed from the mom? If you could give a bit of information about how you manage your cows, that would be great.

We currently run a 12 cow raw dairy, and are looking to go back to once a day milking. We are looking at how other people are managing their small dairies and looking for ways to improve. Any information you can give would be helpful.

Thanks in advanced!

I believe he just bends it down

Paul,
In the video he shows a way of training by bending the branches to below horizontal. This stimulates fruit production and limits vegetative growth.
He does the same with the tops of the pear trees to limit their height.

So I just watched the film again and I have a couple of questions.

1. You mentioned that your woodchip mulch only lasted 6 months or so. When you are explaining how to correctly plant a tree, you lay down a layer of cardboard and then woodchips. How long does that typically last? Is that your preferred way of planting or do you plant and then lay out the plastic soon after?

2. People often recommend pruning a whip after planting. I believe to encourage a vase shape for the tree structure. I assume you do not do this if you want a central leader?

3. In the film you mention an alternative to plastic is to use plants such as hosta. How does this compare to using plastic right after planting? What about to cardboard and woodchips? Does hosta compete too much with young trees to get proper growth? I would like to avoid using plastic in my orchard if at all possible and am hoping to find an alternative while still getting good growth/yields. Are there other plants that would work well? Comfrey? Maybe it would be better to use a biodegradable sheet mulch for 2-3 years before planting living mulches so close to the tree?

4. After training branches to below horizontal, what is the growth like? You said a good time to beginning training the branches is when they are 3' long. Will they only grow very slowly after being trained? It appears that is the case. What would you recommend for apple tree on b118 rootstalk? An 18' tall tree with only 3' long branches might look a bit funny. Maybe train the tops in order to limit the height?

5. When you were demonstrating pruning, you mentioned that removing the branches/spurs underneath a branch is the polish when pruning. It sounded like that was optional. Do you usually remove them or leave them be?

Thanks so much for producing the film. I really enjoyed watching it. The film has been extremely helpful in my planning of a mark shepherd / stefan sobkowiak influenced planting going in the ground this fall.

Keep up the great work!

Cool, I'll look into all of these places and hopefully fit in as many as we can. Definitely visiting the Sepp's place in Austria.

RJ

My fiancee and I are traveling to Europe this summer. We are wondering what are some cool places to visit while we are there.

We are both farmers, and would love to visit some places that are doing permaculture on a commercial scale.

If you have any suggestions of what we should check out while in Europe, please let us know.

Thanks,
RJ

My fiancee and I will be in Europe from July until mid Sept. and are hoping to find a place to volunteer at. We would like room and board in exchange for our hard work.

We both are farmers and have a lot of experience with livestock. We would like to volunteer for 4-6 weeks total, ideal with 2 different farms.
I would love to find a place that has an orchard/food forest of commercial scale, as we will be planting a 10 acre mixed fruit/nut orchard when we return to the states in the Fall.

We are flying into Germany, but want to travel around Western and possibly a bit of Eastern Europe, so we are open to the location.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Thanks,
RJ

Adam,

I believe your a seasonal dairy correct? How many months a year are your cows dry for?

How did you go about selling this to your customers?

We currently offer a year round raw milk share, but I think it would make the most sense to do a seasonal share instead. I just find it hard to believe that we won't loose quite a few of our customers as there are other producers nearby offering year round raw milk.