William Bronson

That's a good point, I'm usually planting them in nice soft garden beds, or weeding away competition.
Maybe they do better with a challenge.

It seems to me the heat from making  a  new batch of char could melt the frozen inoculant, which could then be used on the old batch.

Also, going forward you could quench the char with inoculant.
Lots of the microbial life would die, but the nutrition would survive and the microbes would rebound.

I love that plant, but I can't seem to get it to spread in my garden!
On a similar note, last night I was making waffle batter with oat flour and I had to keep adding milk so it could remain liquidy.

Hmm, I have experience with the KY coffee tree seed and their stickiness.
It might be perfect, it seems to make tons of seeds and there doesn't seem to be a lot of things that eat it.

I was thinking about replacements for plastic l, cardboard and other sheet mulches and landed on wood veneer...

Wood veneer cost too much and would be difficult to make at home.
Woodchips, sawdust, the shavings from a plane, autumn leaves, these are all low cost wood products we could put in a sheet mulch, but they are not in sheet form.

Industry uses glues and or high energy to turn similar materials into sheet goods.
These things cost too much, use a lot of energy  and introduce toxins.

Mucilage is a natural glue of sorts.
Sesame,okra,flax and chia are some of the seeds that mucilage can be sources from.
They are also food, and annual plants.
I've looked for trees with seeds that would produce mucilage, but only found quince.
Before I move on to other plant glues, like pectin, I thought I'd ask y'all if you have any ideas.

For what it's worth, Chinese Yam seems like a good perennial source of mucilage, one that could grow in a tree layer.

Very cool!
I have often thought that a storage tote could be used instead of a bucket or barrel, so the container would be bigger but remain low to the ground.
Easier to drag across the ground, and potentially stackable.

I don't think there much reason to bury your barriers.
Lay your barrier on the ground and pile soil/bedding on top.

For large predators I would use chain link fencing.
It's very durable and can be found used for cheap or free.

Other materials that are solid instead of being a mesh can be even better.
If the digging predators are smaller than the holes in chain link gencing, sheet metal or flashing will serve you well and can often be had for less than the equivalent in hardware cloth.
Pavers are good , but expensive.
I get tiles for next to nothing, interlocking layers could make for a good barrier.
I get slightly mangled cement backer board for about 5 dollars, they are usually 3'x5', offering lots of coverage.
I use these in my yard to cover pathways.
I don't use sand or gravel under them, but they conform to the earth underneath.
When you walk on them,they crack but hold together because of the fibers in them.

Something Id like to try is a layer of wet concrete, followed immediately with a layer of old carpet,and topped with a layer of self leveling concrete.

This is very cool!
I might do this at the community garden.
I wonder, could you alternate cuttings and pea seeds, for a little nitrogen fixing?

 They grow quite easily here, but when I had one I barely tasted any of the fruit, thanks to the squirrels!
Or maybe it was racoons, since every fruit was eaten down to the pit in a matter of a day or so.
At any rate, I've realized since that even the pits can have yield.
The nut inside can be used to make "almond" extract and also eaten, but they need to be cooked first.

EVs have the potential to get cleaner and cleaner.
The more that are in use, the less emissions from that part of their infrastructure.
Electric vehicles can be  involved in harvesting materials for construction or delivering finished vehicles and parts.
The static infrastructure like refineries and factory lines might also be run on solar electric.

We can clean up the emissions of  IC infrastructure as well,but IC vehicules will always be burning something and conventional IC vehicles will be burning oil products, the extraction, distribution and refinement of which all produce their own pollutants.

I think it will be a lot harder to get the oil industry to run their refineries off of solar electric than it will be to get a battery manufacturer to run their factory of the same source.

I've worked at a coal fired power plant, a gas fired power plant and a metro sized solar power installation.
If the three, the solar installation would make the best neighbor.
Not so much due to emissions, more due to traffic.

The coal plant needed a constant stream of vehicles not only delivering fuel,  but also everything else that goes into maintain in such a power plant.
It has lots of moving parts, coolants and lubricants are involved.
It employs  a lot of people.

The gas plant also needed a lot of tending, but it at least receives it's fuel via pipeline.
It's gas turbine design, so lots of moving parts, coolants and lubricants are involved.
It was originally built as a "peaker" plant, to cover  periods of high electricity demand , but with fracking, natural gas got (monetarily) cheaper so it runs all the time now.
It employs  a lot of people.

The solar power installation needs  maintenance but no fuel.
No moving parts, so no built in wear, no need for lubricants or coolants.
The panels should be kept clean and the grass needs to stay short.
Some places mow and some use sheep or goats.
I think humans are required for the squeegee work, but not that many, so it should not employ a lot of people.

The misery of an exploited workforce seems to be part of all forms of advanced transportation technology.



My ideal vehicle would be a plug in hybrid   panel van with an all electric 4x4 drivetrain.
Basically an Edison Motors "bread truck"


Realistically, I'm trying to get my wife into a newer used Honda Odyssey so I can claim the one she has now.
Minivans can  haul animals,vegetables, minerals,etc  or they can haul people, but the people complain about the smell, stains or occasionally, bugs that the cargo leaves behind in the van.
I in turn am annoyed at them treating the van like a living room instead of a wheeled workbench.