Alder Burns

One time years ago in Georgia, I visited a grove of bamboo that had been used as a night roost by an enormous flock of overwintering blackbirds, which collect in southern Georgia for the winter.  After a month or so of massive numbers of birds roosting there every night, the entire area was a couple of inches deep in guano, and here and there a dead bird.  I gathered up a few buckets full to take back to my gardens.  Being evergreen and wind proof, it is no wonder it was a favorite spot to shelter.  I've never wondered ever since at how bamboo can grow so vigorously even in worthless red clay.

I agree with one commenter that the issue is likely the sugars and other living sap consituents in the layers just under the bark since you peeled the trees in the spring.  It seems to me that it might help (don't know about now, but perhaps in future if you do more of them) to soak the logs in water for a period of time after peeling, so that the stuff will leach out in the water.  Such a procedure is recommended for processing bamboo.  After a few weeks or a month, pull the logs out and let them dry.  
    Borax and/or boric acid are your friends when it comes to mold.  Dissolve either or both to saturation in hot water and paint on.  This will kill all kinds of mold and wood rot, and make the wood repellent to termites and ants as well.  You can wipe off the white crystals that form and paint over that if you like, provided it's all completely dry.  I've used this both to kill existing mold and prevent it in advance.  

Different hoes are for different purposes.  Mostly I want one for weeding and "dust mulching" (breaking up soil crust and cracks into fine powder which conserves moisture further down) The ideal weeding hoe CUTS weeds, just below the surface of the soil. So for this I like an ordinary shape and sized blade, lightweight, and a long handle.  The motion of the hoe over the soil is comparable to that of a broom over a floor....one should be able to do it for hours on end without tiring.  Sharpening the edge is vital, and needs touching up every half hour or hour's worth of work, moreso if there is gravel etc.  I also use a small pointed blade hoe....made from one tooth of a sicklebar mower....to take out single furrows of various depths for planting seeds.   I've also used what they call a grub hoe in the South, with a heavy wide blade which is meant for breaking up heavy clods, chopping out heavy roots and stubs, and so on....jobs for which many people prefer a shovel and/or a pick.  A thing very like this, with a short handle, is the default soil working tool in much of the Third World, and it has always puzzled me....why people use that so much and not a shovel which seems so much easier on the back having tried both.

I wonder if something came along at some point and nipped off the leader growing tip, if in fact the trees ever had any?  In any case I wouldn't worry too much about the shape, you will end up with nice spreading trees with strong crotches the way they are.  You might pep them up with good mulch around them, out to the drip line for a couple more years to reduce competition from the grass etc.  And remember, "water is the best fertilizer".  If your veggies are going droopy from drought, trees this age and younger will benefit from watering too, even if they aren't showing signs of stress.

As a long time grower of sweet potatoes in several regions, I can vouch for not letting the vines root along their length, unless perhaps you are in so tropical a climate as to have them basically become a perennial groundcover, and even there, finding the largest roots to harvest would still be a challenge.  Raised beds and mulching help with this, but in wet weather roots will grow down through mulch, and then going along the rows and lifting the vines and setting them back down helps, and/or stuffing coarse mulch, bundles of sticks, etc. up under there as well.  
   Not letting the leaves droop from drought is also important.  In fact this is good for just about every kind of vegetable.  When I was growing for high-value organic markets I was taught that if you see foliage droop on anything, even if it recovers overnight, you are losing yield and quality.  Although yes, in a homestead situation resilience is also important, and you will still get a yield in spite of this.  A long drought followed by heavy rain can also make roots split.
    Most important of all, though, is to work toward what I call a "fluffy" soil....this goes for carrots as well.  Neither likes a heavy clay and it will lead to small twisty roots on both.  Sandy soil is ideal, good loam is good too.  If you have clay the answer is finely divided organic matter incorporated in.  I used to make this by running a mower over dry leaves, grass, etc. in the pathways between those beds allocated to these crops, and then dig and/or till this into the beds themselves...up to an inch or two depth of "powder" per year.  A bit of urine helps counteract the nitrogen uptake issue with this kind of organic matter use, but fortunately neither sweets nor carrots like a lot of N anyway.
   

After some 25 years at the game of scrounging and dumpster diving, I will say this, organization is crucial!  One of the highest compliments I've ever been given was when someone said that I kept the most organized junkyard they had ever seen!  All off the ground or under cover, and usually under trees if possible so that grass and weeds don't grow up and cover it all and make future access impossible.   Some of the most consistently useful items, which I can usually find close by wherever I've lived, include the following:
---cardboard boxes....useful for mulch, insulation, and building projects (from roofing wood stacks to building cabins)
---big pieces of plastic.  Furniture and mattress stores are ideal for these, and also giant boxes.  Those items are often shipped in huge plastic bags which can be cut open and turned into large square or rectangular pieces.  I've even covered a small greenhouse with these by "welding" multiple pieces together with a candle flame to make whatever size and shape I want.
---carpet scraps...many uses from smothering weeds and stumps to various building projects.  Old carpet attached to a frame and stuccoed with cement makes a solid surface for dirt cheap...walls or roof.  My cabin and shed ideas usually use all three in combination...cardboard first, then overlapping plastic, then carpet last with or without stucco.  Moss will grow on it pretty quickly and it would be easy to go living roof.  Ditto for making enormous rainwater catchments with fencing and stakes...think of a carpet sandwich pond but in a wire basket and you've got the idea!
--long pieces of metal....pipes, bed frame pieces, etc.  These are handy, semi-permanent stakes useful around the farm for everything.
---wire and baler twine....also useful for everything.
With these resources, plus some tools and access to pole timber and or bamboo, I've basically built entire homesteads multiple times, with cabins, sheds, dry firewood "stashes", animal housing, and more.  And dumpster-diving food and feed helps subsidize the startup transition until the system becomes productive.

Why separate the seeds and skins at all?  I discovered the easy way to tomato sauce, at least, is to first dry the first few harvests, and then store these until the main crop comes in.  With the big harvest I just throw them in the blender whole and puree them, first having cut out the core if there is one and any bad spots.  As this is beginning to simmer in the big pot, I take some of the dried ones and powder these in the same blender, and then stir this into the sauce until it's the right thickness.  Then add spices, bring to a boil, and can away!  A huge sauce project now fits easily into one day since there is no hours and hours boiling it down, stirring the while to keep it from scorching.  And I've replace a bunch of propane with solar energy.

Do you have access to the attic space?  This is often the easiest place to add insulation, and it can be just about anything that traps air.  I'm right now in the process of putting just about anything up there...foam mattresses, styrofoam packing bits, bubble wrap and other clean plastic crumbled up, and cardboard. Yes it's all a rodent habitat but I've seen them nesting in pure fiberglass fluff too, so I just keep mousetraps set.
    My house also has a crawl space, and it has mold and damp issues.  Research has told me that attaching insulation directly to the wood under there will only make that problem worse.  The only way to progress is to add the insulation to the foundation walls, preferably on the outside....this means digging a trench, etc. which is beyond my schedule these days. So we're doing rugs!
     you've discovered the main advantage of wood stoves over fireplaces in heating efficiency.  Wood stoves have better air control.  One thing that would help would be to contrive a cold/outside air intake for the burn box of the fireplace...perhaps a hole through the floor?  This might mean chipping or drilling through brick or cement, but it's worth considering. Then you can put glass doors in front of the fireplace and burn it as an enclosed chamber, like a wood stove.  The goal is to heat up the thermal mass of the fireplace itself, which will then radiate warmth into the space.  The better option, though pricey, is to add a stove that sits out in front of the fireplace, or even partly inside of it, that vents up the same chimney, or else somewhere else in the house.  The issue to remember here is that for many people, firewood is nearly free, while other fuels aren't.  Even an inefficient wood burning system is often better on the budget than the alternatives.

For many years I've tweaked with my diet to reach the best compromise between sustainability, self-sufficiency, economy, and energy footprint. What it has led to most of the time is a diet relying on root crops (white and sweet potatoes, specifically) as the staple calorie source. In multiple climates that I've lived in, they almost overlap in season in terms of being available to eat from storage. Right now in the last few months I've succeeded in closing that gap by grating and drying the excess, which I can then rehydrate and use during any gap in fresh availability.  In previous years I've often grown or bought small amounts of grain or other starch sources, or else kindly dumpsters have subsidized with breads etc.  To these things then are added veggies and fruits depending on what's available...here again every climate and landscape offers several that grow easily...I'm long past the time of spending large amounts of effort trying to grow something persnickety....just buy it and let it be a special treat!  Protein sources....that's one thing that requires some stability and system maturity.  Laying hens are probably the first thing to add, except in situations where harvesting wild protein by hunting, fishing, or trapping is an option.  Having enough land to add small ruminants like sheep or goats is a game changer and a quick way to ratchet protein toward self-sufficiency. Vegetable protein sources, like legumes, are a lot of work.  You need space to grow them, and they take processing....which often seems out of balance with commodity purchased legumes that are never touched by human hands from seeding to market.  I did it a few years with fava beans....will probably try soybeans now that I live in soy country.  

I grew basil for market in a greenhouse for a couple of winters.  It wants as much light as you can give it....several hours of a south facing window at least, and temps. above 55F/13C at minimum and preferably above 65F/18C.  The warmer it is the faster it will grow.