Jay Angler

There are areas in Northern Canada where earthworms were introduced by fishermen. Thus humans effectively "sped up"  succession significantly faster for this one creature, beyond where plants and particularly trees, were able to adapt.

I've been told that many of the earthworms in Canada were brought by humans from Europe.

I've also read that there's a newly imported Asian worm (jumping worm maybe?) that is a problem in areas of the USA.

So it seems as always when Nature and Humans interact, things are "complicated". I just hope Nature is resilient enough to rise to the challenges.

Happy/not happy/happy/not happy, that is the question. Venus keeps telling me she *really* wants to sit on eggs. (Muscovy) She's been a good mother in the past, but she'd have to go into protective custody, which would make Bro very sad. (for about 8 weeks until the babies are big enough to go out with him and Venus.) And it will be more work when I'm trying hard not to add to the pile.

I can feel my resolve weakening ... I suspect Venus will win! She will be so happy!

I have read that around 100 years ago it was normal to have charcoal bits in feed for at least cows. I don't know what temperature the char was made at (which can make a difference) or if they inoculated it. However, it was considered beneficial for their guts and my recollection is that cows that got it were healthier and less likely to get sick than cows that didn't get it.

Then after the war, vitamins and antibiotics were cheap and the practice was abandoned.

I sprinkle biochar into my two duck runs. which usually also have some chickens in with, and the chickens certainly peck at it.

Dogs are scavengers, and are certainly known to eat things that *aren't* good for them. However, I suspect it isn't doing them any harm. I think I've even read in certain circumstances, humans ingesting it. It may be helping their gut biome.

I totally admire the Lab for working on this one step at a time and not getting ahead of themselves.

There's really no free lunch - if you want to grow things that are marginal, it's too easy to put a lot of little bits of work into it, but still risk total loss and failure the one year that "shit happens".  Permaculture has been exposing people to a number of different marginal plants in my area over the last decade. I ran into a lady who I thought had planted a number of these plants and asked her about her experiences. Three years ago we had an atypically cold spell and she lost every one of them.

I planted some lemons in pots about 4 years ago and they'd been coming inside for the winter, but this past 9 months we've had an over abundance of shit happening and I decided the lemons would have to cope on the front porch. Then we had 4 weeks of snow and below average temperatures for here, two nights went down to -6C (average normal low is 1.4C for February). I was already past coping with other cold related problems, so it appears that 1 plant made it, but that the smaller plant died.

I totally knew the risk I was taking, and set my priorities based on it. However, *IF* I had gotten all my ducks in a row before planting the seeds, I wouldn't have been watering these plants for several years before even knowing for sure where their forever home was going to be.

Of course, I do now have the experience of growing these lemons - they got scale despite there not being any other lemon trees within a kilometer??? But I didn't even have the time to look scale up on Permies and find out what to do about it (I think the sugar ants were farming the scale?)

I gather that the Russian system worked and was a critical source of Vit. C at at time when importing citrus was prohibitively expensive. However, once cheap foreign citrus was available, their methods became uneconomical.  Thus, experimenting and proving that the impossible can be done is great, but keeping it practical and sustainable is also important. Personally, I've got my eye on the Lab experiment using a Rocket Mass Heater inside a hugel bed in an effort to get season extension. Would that be enough to keep citrus alive during the few cold spells we have that would be as easy and lighting a fire?

Of course, my problem is that I think experimenting is fun - the practical goes out the window when I have seeds in my hand and I can't resist the temptation to see if they will turn into something green - so please don't judge me... we all have our little vices!

r ranson wrote: In other news, is anyone noticing a mega lag on the internet today?  My connection (and permies) is fine, but several websites seem to be overloaded, especially wordpress based ones.  

Hubby and I were trying to use a website and had no end of trouble, and my version of Google Chrome was having serious issues of total weirdness. I've only just made it onto permies and I agree, things seem fine here (but then, we're the best...)

Timothy Norton wrote:If we are going on only possibilities and not practicality, I find eggshells to be incredibly strong when completely static.

In other words, storing them in your cold cellar in a low earthquake risk zone? But maybe not during the collection process?

It is sudden kinetic force (dropping) that breaks the shell most of the time.  

 
Like when I slip on the mud or fall into a chicken trap and the whole crate drops 3 feet?

I feel like we need a REALLY tall graduated cylinder, a scale, and a bunch of eggs to test this experiment.

Isn't there some old saying about the difference between theory and practice?
"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is."

I'll stick to my bin system, as I'd be sure to drop and break the graduated cylinder. Then again... it would be very useful for measuring rainfall, so feel free to send it my way after you complete your experiment! You didn't say what diameter the cylinder would be. I would suggest it be wide enough that your hand fits in it easily.

M Rives wrote: Burgers for the grill won't work unless you add some fat or pork. It's so lean it will fall apart otherwise. We pan fry venison patties in butter and melt cheese on top. Add salsa if desired.

Grated cheese mixed in counts as fat...

Beatrice Carp is made mostly out of the lining of a dead coat. She's been hanging around in my field since last spring, as she acts as a wind-sock to give me some idea which direction the wind is coming from and how gusty it is.

She's starting to look a little the worse for wear, but it's fun to have something cheery and unique in the field. That it actually helps me keep track of what the weather's doing is a bonus!

Thank you so much Ethan for all the great posts you made this week! I know much more about uses for wool beyond spinning than I did before.

Congratulations to the winners - have fun with this unique material!