C. Letellier

Need to understand the difference between earth worms and compost worms.  The question you should be asking is where to they primarily exist?  Earth worms live primarily in the soil and occasionally surface for various reasons.  Compost worms live and eat primarily in the surface organic detritis and retreat for protection into the soil.

The single biggest mistake I made starting out with a bunch of this was not planning far enough into the future.  (a bunch of it I didn't know then was part of the problem)  The rest was simply the get it working attitude.  2x effort back then might have meant more of it would be still running now.

For example about 6 years ago I killed most of the trees when health problems and finances meant I couldn't replace the pump that summer.  destroyed nearly 30 years of effort.

I could have reduce the long term effort by more soil prep.  More soil prep might have kept the tree alive or at least reduced loss rate.  Problem is I only had about 1/4 of the knowledge I needed then to do it.  Swales and water capture should have been part of the thinking better and earlier.  Should have eliminated a bunch of tillage as I was destroying the soil carbon structure I needed to be maintaining.  There again lack of knowledge

So my goals would be to make every system as bullet proof as possible while making it as durable as possible with the goal of minimizing long term labor.  Another piece would be designing for multi use tools.

There is too much to do for any one person or one family to do everything.  Pick your priorities.  If your goals are long term build for durability so you only do the work once in your lifetime where possible.

John C Daley wrote:

Glass bottle bricks often have tinfoil wrapped around them before being built into cob walls.

I have never seen that and wonder why it would be done?

It is done to create a mirrored tunnel to reflect light in.  Guessing over time it leads to no gain though as the aluminum foil oxidizes.

No idea.

If one just went out. I don't have it.  refreshed several times.  My most recent dailyish was 6:49 am this morning.  Parasols,good guys,tiny worlds  Looks very normal.

Personally I date when it, when I put on the shelf, month and year.  And put it on the shelf in order so the oldest is always in front.(tried pulling stuff by dates and found I don't do it.  It has to be in order on the shelf so I can just grab and go.)  This lets me track use rate by a simple glance at the shelf.  Depending on product the goal is 1 to 5 year rotations on most stuff.   Since nearly everything is purchased on special this also automatically shows me when I last purchased it on special.  Also put the price on it to aid in tracking best special price.  One other thing.  I love oval cross section big markers for doing dating because they don't roll off the shelf or stairs etc when put down.  Sharpie makes on of my favorites but several makers have them.

So for example I know I use 1 to 2 cases of pineapple a year.  Most years it specials once a year(rarely twice) on the super special.  But once in a while it goes 2 years between specials.  For the most part I have never had a can fail in less than 3 years so the goal is to stock back to 3 cases each time it specials.  Best bet is the spring case lot sale but sometimes the fall case lot sale.  I know pre covid the goal was $0.99 a can.  Post Covid $1.33 a can and most recently $1.67 a can.

Ketchup specials good typically 3 times a year.  Just before Memorial day, 4th and Labor day.  I know from decades there that I use roughly 18 20oz bottles in a year so when it specials I will bring it back to that count each time it specials.  I prefer bigger bottles but usually best price is on the 20 oz bottles.

Use of markers teaches me each time I get stuff off the shelf.

Yeardly Arthur wrote:I've always wondered how one might turn the tables on grasshoppers and use them as fertilizer.  During the 17-year cicada emergence in 2024, we had thousands of big, fat insects pop out of the ground all over our neighborhood. Every few days I would gather the husks in buckets for high-nitrogen mulch, and after a couple of weeks I could rake the spent bugs into piles and bury them in our garden plots. Best year for tomatoes EVER.

Back when Japanese beetles were first becoming a problem, a neighbor would let me empty his traps twice a day. I'd dump them by the pound in soapy water, wait a while and pour the soup around the veggies.

I hope we never have an infestation of grasshoppers, but if it happens I'll have to cycle back around to this thread and see what they like best to eat. Maybe they could be lured into big box traps and added to the compost pile...

Make great animal feed.  Animals make fertilizer.  bit indirect but works.  The are a number of systems to harvest them in mass from various types of fields.

Now you can also use them as grasshopper repellent also.  Capture, put in blender and mix roughly 1 cup of grasshoppers in a pint of water.  Strain the nozzle plugging bits out and mix the liquid  with about 2 gallons of water and spray on what you want to protect.  Washes off if it rains but otherwise will last 4 days to a week and will repel the grasshoppers for that time.

Another piece of a story I would love to understand.  Need to cross check chemistry of various recipes.

Geopolymer concrete aka Roman concrete is one part of the puzzle.  There again sodium silicate and ash are part of the recipe

Hot mix standard concrete which combines quick lime in the mix with the goal of encapsulating some of the lime in sealed pockets so when the concrete cracks later the CaO reacts with water and CO2 to make CaCO2 which is larger so it grows out into the cracks mating it self repairing.  One of the other advantages here is lower porosity.

Then mix MgO in the thinking which is tougher than concrete and used in Europe but almost never in the US.  There again because US building standards are not available for it.

And that leads to a mixture that is Dolomite  instead of limestone crushed and baked to achieve MgO and CaO done as a hot mix potentially with Geopolymer or sodium silicate and sand.

What happens when fiber is added to any of those recipes? either fiber glass or basalt fiber.?

Also leaves me asking what happens to cob structures treated with sodium silicate after the fact?

Missing some thoughts.  

1.  Don't waste water where you have other sources.  Yes you can soak sheets etc.  But what if you use wash instead that is already wet.  It is still evaporating and if stacked in staggered layers properly can still block light/heat.  Power cooling is adding a fan to laundry

2.  Lots of earth tube, water cooling line options from soil possible without heat pumps

3.  Black out curtains that are dark are a poor choice on sunny side windows.  What faces the sun should be white or reflective.  Best place for the shade is actually outside with air gap from building.

4.  Choice the right paint colors .

Need more hints.  What do you want to weld?  Heavy metal work?, lighter metal work?, Aluminum?, cast iron, hydraulic lines?, thin carbon steels?.  Do you have 3 phase?, 220?, 110?, DC batteries.

One other piece of the puzzle here.  These test rings have run nearly 3 full winters filled with water enduring free thaw behind a piece of glass leaned against the house.  Have had some leakage at the joint but no identifiable cracking of the PEX.  This is 1/2" oxygen barrier PEX B.  One loop is oxygen barrier PEX with no protection and the other is the same thing gently roughed up with sand paper and painted with flat black bbq paint.  The black loop in basically open air but behind the glass gets so hot it is seriously uncomfortable to hang onto and the orange loop gets almost as hot.  Get all connections inside the building so they are not doing freeze thaw cycles outside.  One loop had to be refilled once but quick pressure testing showed no cracks so pretty sure it wasn't a pipe failure but instead was a failure at the joint.  Other loop is still 2/3 full of water 3 years later.  Fairly sure the leakage is because of freeze thaw at the connector

Why oxygen barrier PEX.  Because it is supposed to be highly UV resistant.  Problem is they don't say if it protects the PEX under it or not.  Have written to 3 PEX manufacturers asking the question with no response. The paint should add another layer of protection is the plan along with increased absorption.  So far it seems to show the PEX is holding up.  It is literally standing behind the exact pane of glass that will eventually be over it