Michael Cox

Are you sure it is fat and not silverskin? I find that removing any silverskin first makes grinding much easier

Seconding this.

I too have used the bucket system from Joe Jenkins "Humanure Handbook". It is easy to operate, not at all smelly, simple and clean. The hot composting process is incredibly effective at breaking down waste - a bucket added to the heap and covered is typically unidentifiable within a week or less.

Many of the negative comments about bucket systems seem to be from people who either have not used them, or have not followed the management steps properly.

Eg a key feature of the system is using copious sawdust as a cover for any deposits - solid or liquid. Cover everything properly and there will be no odour, no flies etc... Someone I know tried it and was put off by the smell. When I went round to see what they were doing it turned out that they were trying to avoid changing the bucket as frequently so were only using the sawdust to cover poo. Oddly enough urine when uncovered gets smelly. No surprise there.

As for emptying buckets... I have never found that the bucket ends up dirty or is a hazard to clean. Again, it's about using the sawdust properly. I tend to start with a  bucket 1/3 full of sawdust. No poop ever touches the sides of the bucket. When you empty it out the contents slides out easily and no marks are left on the bucket.

It looks like the house a whole is built into a slight slope, so I imagine that the levels direct run off away from the building. It's hard to visualise subtle slopes on video.

Also, my understanding is that these houses usually had a thick layer of rushes laid to make a dry and warm floor. While a small amount of moisture beneath the rushes wouldn't be ideal, the people living there would probably be pretty effectively isolated from it. And those living in them weren't stupid - if water flowed in the door the first time it rained they would quickly realise they needed to drain the water away. These houses weren't being improvised on an ad-hoc basis, they were a well understood design that was in use across large areas of the country for hundreds of years. The knowledge of how to build them well would have been common.

Himalayan salts do have those beneficial minerals in trace amounts - but the sodium chloride salt is still the overwhelmingly most prevalent component, and in most soils it can accumulate with time and drastically reduce fertility. Personally I wouldn't be considering using it at all.

Better is to look at the deficiencies of your local soil types and work out how to ameliorate those directly. In my case we have very alkaine soils due to the chalk, and most soluble trace mineral are in short supply. We have used a supply of very fine granitic rock dust as a supplement, which releases those trace minerals slowly.

It's actually relatively common for me as a beekeeper. I've been stung multiple times by at detached stinger. It happens if the bee stings something like fabric and flies off. The stinger remains, and when you brush or press against it with your sting it can still inject venom. I've had stings caught in my shirt then when I've sat down hours later it has stung my back.

Cut it back to ground level. It will attempt to regrow with multiple stems. This is called coppicing, and is used to produce poles for fencing and other crafts. Cutting back alone is highly unlikely to kill the stump unless you are extremely diligent.

Instead, I have had some success by covering a cut stump in thick black plastic and weighing it down with something heavy, so the regrowth doesn't lift it. You might try some thing like a car tyre for the weight.

When I did my training in massage therapy we used grape seed oil. It is very neutral in odour, light in colour, and lovely to work with. I have occasionally used olive oil, but find it can be pretty full on in terms of odour, and leaves the skin a bit tacky.

Hi folks,

I recently found myself in need of a new set of walking boots. My last pair were lightweight fabric and had deteriorated to the point of being unwearable. I decided to go back to leather, but also work out how to care for them properly as I am now (in theory!) a responsible adult.

Youtube took me down the rabbit hole of how to properly wax walking boots where I found this. Short version, when waxing your boot use a hair drier or a hot air gun to gently warm the leather and the wax. The wax will melt and be absorbed into the pores. A brand new pair of walking boots treated this way absorbed an astonishing amount of wax. Around half a tin. After waxing they look amazing, with a deep dark glossy sheen. The water is beading off them beautifully and I'm excited to wear them for real on the hills next week.

While I had the kit out I did the same treatment on some of my old, knackered, essentially unwearable leather shoes. I've been able to bring two pairs back into service; they now look sufficiently tidy to wear in public again and have gone from being as absorbent as a sponge to being fully waterproof. I was gobsmacked. The difference is all in getting the wax to absorb into the leather, rather than sit on the surface. Obvious in hindsight.



For what it is worth, I tried both pure beeswax and also a commercial beeswax polish formulation. I think the commercial formulation worked better than pure wax - it seemed to soak in more effectively and gave more even coverage.

I know this is a year past, but worth replying to for people who find this thread later.

I had a few chickens in my flock that developed this type of sore on their breasts. I belatedly realised that they were choosing to roost in a spot where they rested on a corner of a piece of unfinished wood. It was putting pressure on the spot when they roosted. I rearranged the roost area of my coop and it cleared up.

Looks perfect! We don't have an actual haybox, but I have done similar to this in the past - piling up cloths and stuff to keep a pot warm while I go out. It works well.