Jay Angler

I think this is what developing a really resilient homestead is all about.

Reading examples such as your makes me really want one of those really large rainwater tanks. Nine years out of ten, we wouldn't need it, but what if the drought *isn't* just one year?
Storing water in the soil by improving soil so the water infiltrates further down, then planting trees with roots that reach that far down, would be better than a tank. But soil water doesn't give you a glass of water to drink.

Resilience is all about multiple strategies that solve one identified risk. Many areas that were under drought conditions, flood once the rain comes. Good soil might help that, but so would that big tank!

Another example relates to what food you grow and store. Some foods store much longer than others. Some squash store multiple years (those ones I'd need a clean ax to break into!) Some squash are barely good until Christmas. Some foods dry easily and last years once dried. Others are much harder to dry or don't last as long. However, most humans like a variety of foods, and nutritionally that can be important, so again, I think it's important to choose the variety route and not become dependent on a single crop such as caused Ireland's potato famine.

As for the OP's question: I consider my Island has been very lucky this year. We've had slightly weird weather, but not the extremes many have suffered. We've avoided most of both the wildfires *and* the smoke (permies, please wear a quality mask - that smoke is very nasty to human lungs) But I am very aware that some other year it could be my homestead under threat!

Sometimes, though, the simplest of actions, can dramatically improve the level of resilience, so observe during the near-misses, so you can better cope when the main event happens.

I'm thinking some sort of heavy gauge wire clamshell type thing. It would have to be easy to make, as you'd need a lot of them.

My friend uses some sort of curly stainless steel scrubby to keep rats from chewing their way into her Bantum Chicken Houses.  I wonder if you could pop those over your share of the nuts and let the wildlife take the rest? You'd have to buy in bulk to do any good!



I've heard people talk about giving squirrels a spot to "hide" the nuts, so the humans can take advantage of the squirrels, however, I have never once read a personal account of someone actually doing this and it being effective. I suspect squirrels are programmed to park their nuts in many different places (like every one of my planters, rather than a bunch all in one planter!) so I suspect designing such a system would be a lot of work with little benefit - someone please tell me they've made this work?

A squirrel planted an English Walnut in the old corral. It hasn't bloomed yet, but I expect it could any year now. There's no way I could build a shelter to cover the whole tree and I've seen how easily a determined squirrel can travel from tree to building to tree to its target (my cherries!) to know that keeping a squirrel out of the Walnut tree would be beyond me. So this is a very real, ongoing problem, that needs some genuinely effective solutions.

I have heard that the Monkey Puzzle tree (Araucaria auracana) is considered a timber tree in some places. I understand that it is *really* slow to get started, but judging by all the locals that plant it as a lawn ornament, it must tolerate that sort of thing. And the deer haven't touched it, which is more than I can say about just everything I've planted the last two years! And it produces edible seeds eventually... so it stacks functions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Araucaria_araucana

Barbara Kochan wrote: Are you growing these yourself in our coastal PNW??  

I tried - I really tried. Alas, deer/bunnies seem to like them as much as I and R Ransom do, and they ate my whole crop to the ground.

I suggest if you're going to try this, you have significant protection set up? I will admit this year both rabbits and deer seem to be at a population high. A more typical year might not have been as lethal.

Daniel Schmidt wrote:I recently harvested one of the Rad Rover bikes at basecamp to get the others going.

This makes it sound as if in less than 5 years, all the electric bikes have enough problems that they aren't working?

As someone who is considering such a bike, I'd really like to know possible reasons for such a short trouble-free lifespan:
1. are they just being used so constantly, that they have multiple times the mileage than a single owner would have given them?
2. is it "the tragedy of the commons" type thing - someone else will fix it attitude, so little problems become big ones?
3. is it just that they get harder than average terrain they're dealing with - off-road use, extra heavy use, which has taken it's toll?
4. is it that they simply aren't being built well enough for what people need - "enshitification" of bicycle standards where the companies only want them to survive 5 years?
5. other possible issues I haven't thought of.

If there's another thread where the quality/longevity of the different bikes is discussed, a link would be great.

Nancy Reading wrote:... However I spotted this nut during the week! We're only the middle of August, so given a good autumn (and a lack of awareness from the wildlife) I'm thinking there could be a chance of this ripening?

That's an awfully tempting target! I sometimes cover my grape clusters with cloth bags to keep the birds from pecking every fruit, but I'm not sure cloth would do the job for a nut.

What are your most likely nut swipers?

That's a pretty fuzzy excuse for not getting your homework done!

Ooooohhhh.... Complete with a pressure tank. That is awesome, beautiful, functional, adorable... enviavble!

Two engineering majors meet. One tells the other what happened to him. “Yesterday I had the strangest of things happen. I was walking home from class when a young beautiful women on a bicycle stopped in front of me.” His friend begged him to continue. “So, she looked me up and down, ripped her clothes off, stood naked before me and said: ‘whatever you want - just take it’”. The friend looked puzzled: “wow! What did you do?” - “I took the bike and thanked the lady.”, said the first geek. The second geek nodded in agreement: “Makes sense, the clothes probably weren’t your size and she had ripped them apart!”

Burra Maluca wrote:Maybe it's a whole heap of pretty pillow cases? The advert said it was all bedclothes but maybe she inherited it and hasn't been through all the bags herself either, just wanting to get it out of the house to free up space.

I am always amazed at how much fabric is in a pillow case. I could totally see piecing free pillow cases together to make a skirt or top out of. If there are enough in that bag and you don't need them as pillow cases, I could imagine you might get a dress with some creative piecing. A pattern made of multiple panels would make it easier I expect.

Great score!