Pete Thomas

thank you! Since you knew it was purple, it was most likely propagated through layering (or other technic) so a clone from a knowed purple leafed variety. Unless you bought this as a purple seedling?

I'm wondering if purple leafed hybrid hazelnuts are common when sprouting from seed?

I planted 250 hybrid hazelnuts from seed bought from Grimo Nuts a few years back. One of them came out purple and is a thing of beauty. Wondering if this is common?

Thanks Travis for the insight!

Just made this easy model.
My goal was a fun sled to slide with but that can carry mucho stuffs
and will last numerous years.

Side lumber is spruce, plywood in back and maple & birch for small reinforcing pieces.
Bottom is made with what they call arena plastic at the hardware store because thats what
is used at Hockey rinks for the boards.

I had some left over from a dory boat project.
(I had reinforced the pine bottom with plywood false bottom and this plastic so I can land on rocky shores.)
This stuff is hard, strong and slippery.
I can push my 500 lbs dory boat on rocks even if it has heavy load, 500lbs+. (rocks must be somewhat level)
I had bought 4'x8' for 150$CAN, so on the expensive side, if I hadn't had left over pieces, would of tried to reporpuse plastic sheet
elsewheres.

Dimensions are 25''x40''
25'' is maybe a bit wide...
Its not too heavy but defenetly a bit heavier than an all plastic sled, but I'm tired replacing brooken ones every other year.

Gave her a try, slides very well with good control.
Angle on back makes for a comfy ride.
Could maybe ride 2 but a bit tight or romantic?
Skids on bottom are essential for control.
Ropes on side is for bungying stuff and I allso put rope handles.
Hole in back on plywood is for carry stuff that is longer then sled (40'').
Wood will receive a mix of Hemp Oil/Diluant/Pine Tar.
Linseed oil would work just as good and would be cheaper, I use Hemp Seed Oil because a good friend
makes and sells it, and I get it free.
This preservative is used a lot in traditionnal boat building and the wood will eventually become black.

Sheets recieved screws every 2 1/2''.
Notice how I countersunk the screws on the platic,
this is essential!
You don't want the scews popping out, that will slow you down
and will rip out the screws!

For now I just put a rope for pulling but Travis's idea of putting a hitch is great!
I have tried one before and makes pulling on uneven terrain a breeze.
The one I tried, the builder had repurpose backpack straps that go around the waist.
The backpack was cut out, only the straps were used for the hitch.

Anyone has good designs for homemade human powered sled's?

I'm looking to built something that has good control while sleding downhile
but can allso carry lots of stuff.

Took years to report back but all your sugestings made it work properly!
thank you!

Why only 50 watts?

We debated a bit on that question.

The goal was to help us get through the 2 months (Mid-November to mid-January) when we felt we were in need
of more electricity but not so much electricity to create new needs. (Ah human needs)

Having such long distance 700 meters (allmost 1000 feet) total to cover, bigger loads (more then 50 watts each) would of meant bigger wire.
We did burry slightly oversized wire so futur houses can connect. But buying smaller was really softer on the budget.
If you go a lot bigger, it doesn't make sense to use bateries anymore, might as well do a grid-tie system or just have full utility.

Our situation is specific in that we have much of our electricity needs that are catered at the workshop that has full utility with laundry, freezers, tools, etc
For someone who needs/wants to have those services at home, I'd sugest he'd go for more than 50 watts.
But that depends so much on location and specific needs.

We are happy with our small systems, even more so now.
Most of us have cold storage inside house that works naturally for free from october to early june,
rest the time plenty of pv power for fridge
All of us have less then 1kw PV's,
Battery bank of give or take 500ah in 12v or equivalent in 24v
All led lighting, phone, music in 12 or 24v
Inverters that are only turned on when needed
Systems that would cost today between 1500$ to 5000$CAN
depending on exact size and quality.

One thing certain is a setup with trickle charge from grid, makes that you don't
have to oversize your system for those 2 brutal months, thats a money saver!

Allso, when you built a house, money is often short.
With a setup like ours, you could buy battery bank and inverter then buy solar PV'S and regulator later.

I wanted to share a project we have realised because it works well for us and during the research phase, we could not find much info.

We are 5 neighboors on a northern slope all hooked up with small individual Solar systems. It works great except from november to late January when we spent the most time indoors. We did not want full utility, neither generator backup nor did we want to kill our batery banks or close all the lights/music/fun for 2 months a year.

We share a workshop that has full grid utility, 300 meters  downhill from the first house, 700 meters from the last one up the hill. What we did is buried a small wire hocked up on the 240volts, that made it to each house. Each house has a 50 watt charger converting 240v to 24v or 12v (depending on system). The converter can be switch up and off. 50watt ain't much, but after 24hours thats 1,2kw, plenty to keep lights/music/movies/fun going. Much cheaper than buying a generator and big charger each or abusing our batery banks.

Jay and others,

You mentionned mixing pine resin, linseed oil, citrus oil, tung oil, beewax

What is the method to mix and what are the proportions.

I am planning to home mix a finish oil for floors.
Heres the recipe i am envioning and method of mixing:
I will melt 1/3 carbauna wax to 2/3 beewax and dilute in citrus oil.
I will mix this 1 part to 5 parts hemp oil
(Could be linseed oil or/and tung, as mentionned higher up i have access to low cost hemp oil)
Then i'll dilute with citrus oil and add little siccative( lead free)
Some manufacturers add essential oils like rosemary, fir and others.
Are these only for helping the produce to shelf better or do they have other benefits.

Any help and info on home mixed formulas would be highly appreciated.

I am finishing a piece sur piece home and want to treat the interior logs with Hemp oil. My friend is one of the major producers in quebec and eastern canada.
We want the house to be somekind of demo.

Would it be better to mix it with something else to help it dry or harden? A siccative of some sort?
If so which are not toxic.
It's hard to understand what is what

Thank you for all your info!

Thank you for all your replies!


Just to clarify, the burn tunnel is 6' 3/4'' wide by 5 3/4'' high. An extra 1 1/4" high from a brick thickness and 1/4'' to 1/2''
width from placing the top bricks a little bit to the inside.
Still to low in propor to width?

Here is my course of action:
1-Raising the chimeny making it exit vertically 2' higher then the top part of the dryer (thats easy!)
2-Remaking and shorthening the feed tube to the same dimension of burn tunnel.
3-Shortening the lenth of the burn tunnel.
4- Rock it up and see how it burns
If there is a problem, then I'll highten the burn tunnel to 7''.

5- Once it's working, cobing the wall with perlite rich mix.

I'll post photos once it's up and running.