Chris Griffin

I've never researched the English walnut, so I did a little today.

"How to Compost English Walnut Leaves
Chop the leaves into small pieces by running over them with a mower equipped with a mulching blade or by raking them into piles and chopping them with a hoe. The leaves will compost more quickly if broken into small pieces.

Layer the leaves in the compost pile with other organic matter, such as kitchen scraps or grass clippings. Leaves are naturally high in carbon, which composts slowly. Layering in high-nitrogen matter such as grass and vegetable peelings will speed composition and increase the temperature of the compost pile, which will break down the juglone more quickly.

Water the compost pile to keep it moist but not soggy. Moisture encourages the growth of organisms that speed decomposition and hasten the transformation of the leaves to healthy compost.

Turn the compost pile regularly to aerate the contents. This also hastens decomposition."

I would still be concerned with juglone, but if you're composting material is limited I would try chopping the leaves and as mentioned above soaking them in water.

Research. Research black walnut husks, research golden rod leaf and the recently approved prescription CBD drug. Black walnut husks can help with thyroid issues. Golden Rod leaf seriously reduced inflammation and helps regulate blood sugar. I always find a suggested herb then research it online and with physical books. If I find the suggested use at least three times in my research (from reputable sources) and I can wild source the herb, I try it. The only herb I regularly use is golden rod leaf. My arthritis improved so much that I haven't used my implanted back stimulator in 2 years and instead of taking 400 mg of celebrex everyday, I occasionally take a Tylenol (less than 3 a month on average) and if you give it to your friends you may have a full time job collecting and processing golden rod. The new CBD drug is used for certain types of epilepsy. I believe that using a plant in its natural form is best though. So now I'm in search of hemp plants that I can afford.

I haven't taken pictures yet, but... I did a test plot this fall planting eco-till radish in a line extending from one of our walnuts. It is extremely visible what juglone can do.  My walnuts are well established and range from 15 to 75 years of age. Juglone doesn't seem to affect common grass, but something affected my tomatoes and something is affecting my eco-till radishes. My scientific wild ass guess is long term natural composting of walnut sheds has created poor growing conditions for broad leaf plants.  On the other hand I pick and dry all the fresh leaves I can get my hands on, powder the dried leaves and put the powder in #1 veggie capsules. They can be used for a sleep aid for people or a dewormer for animals. You may not be able to plant under a walnut, but walnut is a versatile medicinal and they are good to eat.

The show producers influence a lot of what Tony and Amelia do. This season's trip to the coast for salt made the couple look ignorant in my opinion. I live near and in the same climate as the couple, I know that they travelled about 250 miles to the coast to collect their sea salt. The deer meat was left where? Our winter was super mild when that was filmed. Deer meat, venison, is safer canned than cured or smoked. Tony and Amelia are very intelligent people, but gave in to the producers need to show "drama". I just wanted to blow off a little steam in regards to the " show"...

Philip Green wrote:

A Philipsen wrote:Pine needles can cause abortions in cattle. Goats seem to be surprisingly tolerant of toxins (my one azalea is dead and my goats aren't), but that might be something to consider if your goats are or will be bred.

This winter I cut down pine trees (have way too many of them) as a supplement to the goats hay. They chomped through them happily all winter and all 5 bore healthy babies in the spring. So I'd guess its not a problem. What they really love is cedar trees (which are also a natural dewormer), they ate every needle off the cedar I cut down before they would touch the pine needles.

At some point you can compare Cows, sheep and goats, but the one big difference is goats are browsers and cows and sheep are grazers. Eating pine bark and needles is a normal feast for goats, where it isn't for sheep and cows. Though when we had Jacob sheep they could kill off a stand of pine trees rather quickly, sheep and cows normally eat from the ground up to about 6 inches and goats like to eat from about 6 inches above the ground to as high as they can reach.

Yep, this looks real promising! The idea of turning the panel to keep the cells from overheating is genius. This is obviously new technology and it doesn't look like there is much real world, normal person testing, the issue I see is anything that moves has parts that can wear out. This unit would have to be mounted on copper slip rings so as not to twist up the wiring. That makes me wonder how often you would have to change brushes or rings. If their initial cost is low enough, I will definitely want to try one.

I normally just grab a nice sized stick and use my draw knife to shave it into small pieces that stay attached to the stick, then use one piece of newspaper to get a flame and put the stick in on top of the paper. It seems to get hot faster and allows me to get larger pieces burning quicker. I have several acres of hardwood though, so finding wind fall pieces suitable for starting a fire is really easy for me.

I do like the "Cooking oil, scrap paper" idea a lot though. That is something that most everyone has and is not something I am buying for a single purpose.

I use the "Harbor Freight" kit to power my electric fence and provide lighting in our barn. The 45 watt kit takes a little time to get the batteries charged though. If you are handy I would think more along the lines of an MPPT charger controller and a single 100 w panel. If the Harbor Freight kit used a small MPPT controller they would charge the batteries much faster, but the cost would double. The Harbor freight kit on the other hand is a good start. They are monocrystaline PV panels that seem to last. We are on our third year using one kit. The charge controller that comes with the unit went "belly up" after about a year and a half, but other than that it has been a decent testing platform to work with.

Tyler Ludens wrote:Can anyone recommend a good brand of solar water heater? This would be connected to the existing water heater.

Thanks!

Evacuated Tube Collector. I would check this system out. They appear to have the ability to make hot water even when the sun is covered with clouds. I don't have any first hand information on them, but someone on here may.
http://www.siliconsolar.com/20-evacuated-tube-collector-p-16145.html

Here is a link to an old thread. The in-floor heater in this Yurt is a great design.

https://permies.com/t/5937/rocket-stoves/rocket-mass-floor-heater-finally