Jay Angler

Andrew Mayflower wrote:With her level of healing I'm getting close to wanting to reintroduce her to the tom (and the 2 new hens).  I think I'm going to wait until the coop I picked up from friends is off my trailer and in place in the back yard.

Reintroducing her while moving the birds into their new home which will therefore be "neutral" territory is a good approach from my experience. You may still need to keep a close eye that the two new hens don't attack Wounded Girl.

I've got the hard hat and Hubby's got several chainsaws, but then he's the type that if two are good, three are better...

I would LOVE to have a top-bar bee hive though. Made out of *really* thick wood so it will help them feel like they're inside a natural tree hollow. I'd be pushing that project harder except friends down the road have given a farmer a place on their land for a hive in exchange for honey, and they share their honey ration with me in exchange for plants and pumpkin pie.

Hmmm... it's awfully dry here for a water-buffalo. And they're pretty big. And I expect if I only had one, he'd be lonely.

Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead-to-know basis.  

I tried to catch fog.

I mist.

I can't see a lot changing either. I look forward to just being able to drop in at a friend's for tea or to check out their garden or to help them plant (if it ever stops raining).

I expect he'd be happy to feed a willow pooper.

Phil Gardener wrote:

Amy Arnett wrote:The glass of water you just tried to drink out of had seeds soaking in it.

and you immediately recall that tomato seeds are viable after passing through the digestive system . . .

so you choose carefully where you're going to put your next couple of "deposits" - seeds and fertilizer in one drop...

Gilbert you've identified a bunch of the "not working" parts. Is this green house oriented with it's long aspect north-south or east-west?

Your first photo shows tanks and equipment sitting on top of a bunch of concrete blocks and pavers. I'm currently reading "The Chinese Greenhouse" by Dan Chiras and I've read Oehler's greenhouse book in the past. How do you feel about ditching the "higher tech" stuff and insulating the north wall reasonably well, and putting all that concrete stacked against it on the inside as "thermal mass". If you get enough winter sun, you could put some pipes through that thermal mass and down into the dirt below your beds with pipes and rocks.

Several greenhouse books I've read suggest that if the south side is your long access, you'll be further ahead to insulate the entire east and west walls as well. That's certainly what Dan Chiras is claiming. The Chinese also use rolled "curtains" on the outside of the south wall at night - another concept that I'd heard before. Maybe exercise your high-tech mojo in figuring out how to automate a curtain system?

No, I haven't tried this yet. I'm in a *really* cloudy winter environment and the clouds bounce what little light gets through around from all angles. Codes will prevent me from experimenting on a large enough scale that it's likely to work without spending more money on permits/sign-offs than I'm willing to spend to test something in a climate it wasn't intended for. That said, I'm getting desperate enough to be trying to figure out how I can make 2 structures soooo... close together I can open the doors between them to get the effect of one large space, but be technically under the 10' x 10' un-permitted structure rules.

Michael Cox wrote:

Old drinks cans cut up?  

I would have thought that would be too thin, and I find "tin cans" rust really quickly, whereas galvanized sheet metal has coped well in our wet climate. I went and took a picture - I'm using the full depth of the pallet, cutting it off at the first "stringer" and in-filling any gaps that dirt would fall out of on the front face. Then I fit salvaged 2x4 into the gap between the front and back of the pallet, and that's what I've screwed the bracket to. These things are heavy and solid and I can stand on the edge if I need to.  With the exception of a little hardware, they're free, but a lot of labor. I even re-use nails from the skids I take apart for the infill bits, so I've only needed to use a few new ones.

I've used scraps of sheet metal (either recycled from garbage or small scraps that haven't much potential) to make simple brackets which I've screwed on. Not super strong, but avoids the "end grain" issue.
So if you run out of 2x2 sized stuff but can find free sheet metal, it's an option.