Kris Minto

Here is an article where Amelia mention that they practice Permaculture.

http://www.inquisitr.com/1502299/live-free-or-die-natgeo-new-series-cast-interview/

Definitely observe your land for a year as stated above. The bigger the land, the long or more time you will need to spend observing it. When I moved to my house in the suburb I jump right away at creating gardens and didn't take the time to observe (this was before I discovered Permaculture less than two years later). As a consequence I had a water management issue because I not realise how much water was coming off my roof and from my neighbour (30-40 feet away). I mitigated the issue but I could have avoided the extra work and headache had I took the time to observed even in my suburb backyard. In fact I may have done things differently looking back.

While you spent the time observing your land for at least one full year, read and watch as many video from Geoff Lawton, Martin Crawford, Sepp Holzer, Joel Salatin (farming aspect), Brad Lancaster (water management) and anyone else online doing permaculture or something related to it (organic/biointensive farming, agroforestry, forest garden, aquaponics...)


Karnold

wayne fajkus wrote:... but I'd want a cover for it. Evaporation, keeping debris and bugs out, and stop algae from growing(block sunlight).

Using floating edible plants would be a good way to cover the pool while making it still productive. I personally would convert the pool into a pond/natural pool as shown in the below link.

http://permaculturenews.org/2011/10/28/urban-pool-to-pond-conversion-two-year-progress-report/
http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s3885240.htm

Karnold

I recently bought two twin mattress from Obansan (I am not affiliated what so ever with this company) for my kids who were upgrading to big kid bed. We bought the expensive organic (cotton, wool and rubber) mattress because of the chemicals found in regular mattress. I wasn't initially on board because of the high cost (~$1000 each with taxes) and because like most, we do not make huge salaries. But than my wife broke it down the daily cost for each mattress over the likely life spend and had me convinced.

$1000 twin mattress divided by 365 days (1 year) equal $2.74 per day. But the mattress should last 10 years (it has a 10 year warranty plus an additional 10 year pro-rated warranty). The organic mattress is really only costing us $0.27 per day --- $1000 / 3650 days (10 years) = $0.27. Once you get pass the initial purchase price, it's not that much once you brake it down.
My conventional pillow top mattress (Sealy Euro Pillowtop) is only a little over five years old and it has developed two sagging point after only four years and we are not overweigh individuals. I may end up spending as much in the long run if I am replacing my mattress every five years or so.

Karnold

From all the reading I have done, the only effective way to remove fluoride from your water is through a reverse osmosis system which are expensive to buy/install and waste a lot of water. I believe it's around 2 litter for ever 1 litter of treated water but don't quote me on that.

Karnold

I only occasionally give some free stuff to my family, friends and neighbour because I have found that most did not appreciate the hard work that when into growing that food.
Over the years I found most individual expect things or services to be free if you don't make a living on it. Because of this I become tired of spending countless hours and not getting anything in returned except people excepting me to continue doing it for free. I often found out that those individual ended up paying a "professional" 2 or 3 times what I had initial asked for.

It is never recommended that you plan trees over or near a septic tank. I would even be hesitant in even planting large shrubs like serviceberries (Amelanchier). Some individual may also caution you on the possible contamination human waste interacting with the fruit tree being a health risk to you but I personally think it's more of an issue if you're referring to the drain field.

You could plant shade loving plants like currants which should cause an issue to the septic tank unless you have to open the hatch for whatever reason.

Here is a link to a permies form which asked the same question back in 2012. https://permies.com/t/13768/organic/garden-septic-tank


Karnold

I got the seeds from Richters Herb and the seeds were inside the dried berry. I am not sure how fresh they were before they were sent to me.
I plan on trying a few more inside and outside (stratification) during the winter to hopefully get a couple of plants.

Kris

Thanks for the responses. I still am not convinced it's a Schisandra vine but I'll let it grow and see what comes of it.

Kris