Jay Angler

What did the gardener say after planting all the flowers?
“Now, I’m just rooting for them!”

Ra Kenworth wrote:... My system is still low tech because I don't really have engineering skills, but I do make up for this in enthusiasm.

There is *nothing* wrong with low tech, Ra - less to break and even better if parts are upcycled.

I have a bucket under a drip up near an outbuilding and most of the winter, it's enough to give me rinse water if I need some. Can't get lower tech than that!

Three years on and I am no closer to getting my pond. Somehow water projects keep getting slid to the bottom of the pile, because my cheap help have other priorities and take the attitude, "we've got a good well, make do."

I'm a little worried that sort of attitude could leave a lot of people in North America in the lurch. There are places I keep reading about which are concerned about their aquifers. There are also places that run the risk of the rules changing when water gets scarce.

At least my son is doing solid planning for the house he's building. The plans include a very large tank for water storage off the roof, and several water gardens to encourage infiltration of ground storm water.  Unlike my house, his building will up up-slope from any major garden areas, which will make distributing the water much more straight forward.

Hubby says that the analysis in this video about the larger context of renewable energy and batteries is the best he's seen/read, although the bit about growing corn as a biofuel we read a decade ago and is only applicable to the USA.

So although it's a side shoot of the first post, if people want more information, it is worth watching, despite its length.

Tess Misch wrote: For some reason, I cannot keep it going.  

I live in a mild climate, but it's very wet in the winter. I finally learned that for it to grow well, it needs to be against the south wall of the house, protected from the worst of the winter wet.

I don't know where you are Tess, but consider what micro-ecosystems are available to you, and maybe you can choose a spot it will like better, as well as being patient with it?

Starting it from cuttings isn't all that easy either, but I managed it. It is growing slowly but steadily.

Rosemary isn't an herb I use a lot, but I'm in Salmon country and putting sprigs under Salmon when I'm baking it, helps it not stick to the pan and imparts a subtle, pleasant flavor.

Don't quote me, but I'm sure I read something about Australia offering a subsidy for these sorts of home battery banks in an effort to quickly improve the ability to store sunshine generated power. This way the homeowners get the money benefits rather than big business (like the Musk huge battery installation place), the storage gets diversified so less fire risk, and if done right, homeowners have back-up power when needed. I don't think owning solar panels was part of the requirement.

So yes, you need to crunch the numbers and consider all the factors. For example, I have a friend who literally cannot sleep without a CPAP machine who therefore can't sleep if there's a long power outage. It might take only one extra reason to make a marginal monetary gain into a lifestyle gain, like being on a well which requires power for the pump like we are.

Maybe one of our Aussie permies could find some info about what I recall reading and confirm its accuracy so far as details.

They are starting to come up with better home scale battery systems. They don't have to be light weight with high density like car batteries since they just have to sit in one spot. If more new battery tech is designed with this in mind, I can see the costs dropping. As always, the danger increases for late adopters by which time there's more night time demand for recharging batteries, and the rate difference between day and night use will decrease or disappear.

My crystal ball has some serious cracks...

I noticed this morning it was Groundhog day.

There are absolutely *NO* shadows on my land today, but there are also no Groundhogs, so I have no idea what the weather's going to do next!

The building inspector is just doing his job - no whining! He doesn't make the rules.

Dave Lotte wrote:

When in fact there are a variety of reasons i am building this type of home.

And I agree with *all* your reasons.

My son needs to build a home. I would have liked some of the types with lower embodied energy, but my Municipality is not at all willing to consider alternatives.

Like you, it will have much more concrete than I would have liked, but it's being designed to be fireproof and as earthquake proof as we can manage. We're trying to build on a high spot, but with the type of rain the wet coast has been getting, I'm going to have to be creative with rain gardens, redirection, artificial wetlands etc. to encourage the water to go where we want it. That said, if we flood, we'd be talking inches not feet due to the topography for at least the next 100 years. We will likely drop if the Cascadian Subduction lets go, and coupled with sea level rise, things will get iffy. Hoping the family will be waterfront but not flooded, but I won't likely be here to see it.

We are definitely getting a certain amount of pushback from his wife's side of the family, but we've got our priorities straight. Most homes built in our area will be unlivable if there's an earthquake higher than Mag 5.

So I totally get what you're doing.  

Great score on all those doors!

Tereza Okava wrote:this is not maps per se (he calls them "data poems") but very interesting ways of looking at data.
Some are very smart (the air quality) while others are practically unintelligible (the UFO sightings one). but creative and worth checking out.
https://dr.eamer.dev/datavis/poems/

The language one is cool. You really  have to take the time to scroll over things to see the writing.