Brian MacDonald

Really? Nobody?

Leila Rich wrote:Hi Brian, let's take this completely OT!
I live in Wellington, on the North Island, the capital of our wee cluster of islands.
I was mostly raised in the total boonies near a town called Karamea in the South Island.
While I'd love to live there, I don't and won't ever drive, which is an enormous handicap in the country areas where there's no public transport.
Fuel is expensive and will only get more so. Living at the end of a very long road is not very practical for me and I've come to the conclusion that the city is acually the best place for me to be.
NZ's really long and thin: the climate varies from sub-tropical up North, to sub-Antarctic down South.
Wellington is the closest capital on Earth to Antarctica and I think we've taken Chicago's 'Windy City' crown, so it's not the tropical paradise some might imagine! If I didn't have Southern ties, I'd probably look North to live.
The economic meltdown's definitely being felt here. The current government's not helping (deep breath, I consider them to be a cabal of right-wing, blinkered, free-marketeers).
The job thing really depends on what you can do. Trite, but true. IT, a trade, medicine...no problems. Public service sectors, teaching, sciences etc, etc, not easy. And wages are crap.
NZ doesn't subsidise some things as much as the US, so food, fuel, power etc are expensive.
But hospitals are free, the coffee's great and we've got heaps of 'the word's...' only carnivorous snail, alpine parrot, st insect...
As long as you're aware that the 'clean, green NZ' projected overseas is basically fantasy...it's a wonderful place

what about jobs in marketing? I'm in business right now on that's what I'm thinking about majoring in.
and I definitely be living in the north island. I'm much more of a warm weather guy. I have a fantasy of using solar for elevtricity and water heat along with geothermal and a woodstove to ve completely energy self sufficient. Id also like an electric car when they finally decided to release them (sometime after we are all dead haha).

So basically NZ sounds like a place for those who already have amassed a small fortune. Am I right?

also what is it exactly that your government is doing wrong? It seems like a lot of kiwis hate the government there.
we currently have a conservative government here in canada as well and I can't stand stephen harper. he's as cold as ice and if it would put an extra buck in his pokect, he wouldnt hesitate to destroy anything in the environment. Not to mention hes wasting all of our money on prisons verses rehabilitation programs which have been proven to be more effective. He also continues to pump money into our military. I swear he just wants to be george bush.'s boyfriend.

Is new zealand a very conservative place as a whole? I ask because I'm an extremely liberal left wing person.

thanks!

P.S. sorry for the typos and lack of capitalization. I'm typing this on my phone with voice recognition and it gets things wrong sometimes.

I have this idea for a stove. Alright, so a big issue with rocket mass heaters is that they don't meet code and have impossible chimney's to clean.
Ordinary fireplaces burn too inefficiently and release heat extremely fast.

So, we want to burn efficiently and not have to clean a crazy maze of chimney piping. How do we do this? I have a possible solution but it may sound crazy...
What if we use copper? Use a high efficiency fireplace (that isn't a rocket stove) and build a large thermal mass around it with copper tubing that goes from the burn chamber
to the mass. Basically the heat would be transferred into the mass without the need for crazy piping for the chimney. Is there any reason this wouldn't work?

Thanks!

Leila Rich wrote:Goats in NZ are virtually never fed grain, but many people supplement browse with hay.
I'd maybe look at growing cereal(s) that you can make high-protein hay with and leave some to mature for human/chicken food?
I've never grown grain or hay and this might well be impractical in real life!
Barley's used in a Moroccan bread, as well as in hay
Rye, although I don't know about hay vs cereal rye.
And then there's the threshing, which is a whole nother thing

Hey! I'm going to ask you a completely unrelated question. Where do you live in NZ? Have you always lived there?
I'm thinking about moving in a few years but I'm concerned about the lack of jobs there (this is what I've heard at least).
How do you like living there?

Hey everyone.

I need plans for a pedal power or crank thresher for pearl millet. Does anybody know where I can find this? Or a ready to go model?

Thanks!

It's looking as though I may have to grow pearl millet as well as wheat... Ugh. I really wanted to keep this simple.
Does anybody know of any way to make millet loaf...? Is that even possible with millet?

Basically I'm worried about peak oil. My dad is a little freaked out about it too so we had this talk about it the other day and came up with a solution: Be concerned, prepare, but don't worry.

So, what can we do to prepare? Get goats and chickens (eggs and milk), plant all our own vegetables and fruits, plant nut trees, learn how to preserve food and seeds, and grow grains for the animals as well as ourselves.
If we do this, and follow the modern harvesting methods but on a small scale and with manual tools, we can continue to produce our own food even when the world really starts feeling the effects of peak oil.

Why do I want to do this? I want to be prepared, not scared. I want to know that if suddenly something happens, I can make a smooth transition to gas free farming.
Basically, I'm trying to cover our food and water needs so I can keep them stable regardless of the state of the economy.

Hello everyone!

I'm looking for a multipurpose, high yield grain. I want something that goats and chickens can eat and that I can eat. It has to have the ability to be used as flour to make bread and have a very high yield (limited space).
Here's the thing, it doesn't have to make bread as well as wheat, but I want the loaf to be similar in taste, texture, and shape if possible.

Side Note: I've been looking at pearl millet and it seems to fit the bill with the exclusion of the bread... I need flour for bread!

Any advice? Thanks!