Jackie Frobese

I don't know about you, but I don't always have an easy go of it when trying to get my family to eat more greens.

A trick that I have found is that greens in the form of a powder seem to be less visible and less strong in flavor and therefore I can get way with putting them into a wide variety of meals.

The problem; show me a greens powder with wild edibles, and the wide variety of greens that I can grow in my own yard. So here is my solution: Make your own greens powder! Not only does this make greens easier to get into my families bellies, it also is a super compact way to store greens through the winter. As you will see once the greens are dried and powdered they are a fraction of their original size!

I hope this helps some others to live more healthy!

PART 1


PART 2

Staci Kopcha wrote: finalize cob mix recipe.
   
1:4:4 dirt: clay:sand,  not strong, crumbles apart.

Stacie, in the pictures it looks like the crumbled brick has written on its paper 1:4:4 clay:dirt:sand

I only ask because I'm trying to better understand cob. I was inspired by your post and wanted to try making a few bricks with my property's dirt to see how they come out, and knowing how the wrong mixes act can be useful in troubleshooting.

I also wanted to say I'm so very impressed with your dedication and willingness! Its very inspiring to myself and hopefully to many others. Its great how the thread has become literally a step by step walk through a RMH build!

Gerry Parent wrote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf7JwmWpBA8

Maybe not quite as pretty looking as a commercial pair of crimpers but it does the job. Just don't make them too big or it could add a bit of drag to the exhaust flow.

The technique in this video of using sturdy pliers and twisting to kink the pipe end is what Ernie Wisner did at the workshop I attended, so I would consider that a thumbs up for its effectiveness. Ernie also said that to save time you don't have to do this all the way around the pipe just do some equally spaced clusters.

My sister likes to do a custom version of Sheppard’s pie. She layers in a baking dish: ground turkey, frozen mixed veggies (I substitute chopped fresh veggies par boiled) and puréed pumpkin or butternut squash. Bake at 350f until just browning on top.

It so delicious I think I need to make some again soon.

I too used to think urine should be diluted, but as is shown in the original link applying it undiluted is not harmful, in fact the effectiveness of urine as a fertilizer diminishes if it is diluted more than 1:1. Remember that nitrogen (the part plants love and that we don't want in our waterways) is water soluble, so the more water involved in its application the more likely the nitrogen is carried away bypassing the plants and going straight to the waterways.

There are also some major drawbacks to diluting urine before use:
1) this uses water, which in some areas is a scarce resource.
2) it adds to the weight of urine, wich can add up to huge amounts if you are looking at collecting from multiple housholds to fertilize with. One gallon becoming two gallons, or worse yet 20 gallons becoming 40 gallons
3) its an extra step requiring extra labor and time, making it less likely to be a sustainable practice (in terms of time efficiency) when compared the very simple model of pee, flush and done.

That said, if you are diverting your urine it matters far less how you are doing it and far more just that your ARE doing it. So just keep doing it in whatever way is working for you.

Jackie

Someone is now producing a urine collection systems similar to what is pictured above. It looks like they are hesitant to ship, but maybe that will change.

Here is the link: http://livinglandpermaculture.com/sitzpee/Sitzpee

Hi All,

I recently came across a catalog with steel and stainless steel drums for sale. This piqued my interest as I plan to one day build a RMH. The ad raised a number of questions for me. I don't plan to purchase anything now, I just figured these answers would be of use for others as well and I couldn't find them elsewhere in the forums.

1) Does it matter if I get a 55gal or a 30gal barrel? The 30Gal is $150 cheaper not including shipping

2) The steel drum is rated for 250F whereas the stainless steel is rated for 600F do you need to use the stainless for this reason or is 250F enough for the barrel?

3) The removable lid has a rubber gasket, I imagine this is across the board for steel barrels so how does that work with the heat from a RMH?

Thanks for your help and input.

Jackie

This was on an email from my credit card company.

If you’re wondering why the formatting is weird it’s just becauseI opened it on my phone.

Patrick can you share a link to your website where I would be able to peruse your products?

Thanks

I really enjoyed your comments Nicole.

It got me thinking about the most recent upgrade we did on our house, the countertops. We ended up with granite. Fortunately living in NH (the granite state) it was quarried somewhat locally, but I really didn’t even think to research the environmental impact of that choice. I’m thinking it’s probanly better than the fiberboard/laminate option, but I’m wondering how it compares to say concrete or butcher block? I’d love to hear some input on this from people.

As for siding we have grooved red cedar shingles. We had to re-shingle the south side of the house last year and the red cedar shingles are crazy expensive. Fortunately our house is small and the south side has a lot of windows so the total area wasn’t large, but we could not have afforded changing over our entire house to cedar shingles.

It does seem like a lot of the “natural” materials are more expensive. Cedar shingles, granite counters, solid wood doors instead of the hollow laminate doors... you get the point. But that said most of these options also have a much longer life. So the investment could be worth it financially speaking.

It really is amazing what you can learn to do by watching a few videos. We have done nearly every project ourselves. This is our first home so we had little to now experience before hand, and yet we have now done floor installs, retaining walls buildt with wood, stone or prefab blocks, wiring, painting interior and exterior, building and finishing new walls, patching holes in walls, replaced light fixtures, replaced faucets, re-shingling exterior walls, and removed old counters.  The only things we have hired for was the window replacements and the new counter install both of which were required by the manufacturing company for quality assurance. If you just have some patience, attention to detail, and some faith in yourself, you can do more than you may think. Doing the labor yourself has the added benefit of freeing up more funds to spend on quality materials. Certainly a worthwhile benefit in my book.