Mike Cantrell

I have a hardy hi-can (hickory-pecan) from Oikos Tree Crops. It's only a foot tall, long time before it'll have nuts, but I bet you could get seeds from Oikos. They're near Kalamazoo, Michigan. Different type of cold climate than Denver, but still a cold climate.

The owner there has been doing interesting crossing and selecting projects for quite a long time.

https://oikostreecrops.com/

Nicole Alderman wrote:But, I wish I could get something less toxic that wasn't also drinkable...

Hardware stores have "denatured alcohol", which is almost-pure ethanol, with just tiny amounts of additives to make it undrinkable. That also allows it to be sold without drinking-alcohol taxes and therefore MUCH cheaper.

Thanks! I soaked them for two days, and now they're leaning against the north wall of my office, stayng in the shade and getting splashed by the eaves when it rains.

r ranson wrote:This may sound daft, but I don't know if I'm a millennial or not.

Born in 1983, Gen X. Born in 1984, millennial.

Caleb Peretz wrote:There are myriads of them on alibaba but i only want one,

There's a website just for that! When you want it direct from the Chinese manufacturer, but you don't want an order of 100 or 1,000.

www.aliexpress.com

I've ordered batches of little thing five times or so, and it's gone well.

I have one, different brand. Got it after it was recommended here:

http://kk.org/cooltools/clamptite-2/

Maybe I haven't found the right gauge wire yet, but I find it kind of clunky and aggravating. I don't use it nearly as often as I thought I would.

Last week my friend told me he got a good flush of shiitake mushrooms from the logs he inoculated. The logs he inoculated in 2009.

My ears perked up, because I really like shiitakes. I went looking for spore plugs, and didn't find a quantity and price I liked. So I'm trying an experiment, folks. Mushrooms drop spores out of the gills when they mature. If I put some whole caps with their intact gills into a log and seal it up, shouldn't it colonize?

I'll let you know next year.

I got these four logs:

I chainsawed a slot into them:

I stuffed the shiitake mushroom caps into the slot:

I need to seal these with wax, but if I just pour hot wax on them, I think it might cook the spores. So I'll block up the slot with these candle stubs first:

And then melt a pot of wax:

And then pour it over the slots to seal them. Good luck, little spores!

Hi CJ! Welcome to Permies. It's exciting to see somebody taking big, bold steps toward sustainability.

I poked around cruxhomes.com, and was curious about several things:

1. Is that all the pictures you've got? I wanted to see lots and lots more.

2. Are those asphalt shingles?

3. What's the oldest Cruxhome? How's it doing? Has anything leaked?

4. The zero overhang on the gable end makes me nervous. Has that given you any trouble? Wood siding rotting around the edges?

5. The FAQ says,

Is the lumber used in a CruxHome treated in any special way?
The method of construction for the curved trusses or I-beams is an assembly of composite / engineered wood that is bent into the designed shape.  No high temperature or chemical treatments are used to create the curved shape.

No chemical treatments are used to put the curve in the beams... that are made of glue.
It seems like you'd get better outcomes by scaring off your chemical-sensitive customers as early in the process as you can. Gluelam beams are non-optional (right?), so advertising "no chemical treatments" is going to bring the wrong people into the sales pipeline. If somebody's not ok with glue, they're not the customer you're looking for. Dontcha think?


Thanks!
Mike

Ahhhhhh, much better.  

Alley Bate wrote:Can anyone comment on how well it works when more of the teflon coating has worn off?

I've had mine four years, and I've split around 12 full cords with it. Wearing the teflon off has made no difference, still wonderful.