Gail Gardner

ian andrus wrote:See if this photo helps. Those two plants are  very similar. I think patience dock is larger more robust plant and will have no red spots anywhere on the leaves or petioles also the flavor is more mild not as sour as curly dock.

What is pictured here grows wild where I live (SE Oklahoma). I throw some to the ducks periodically. The horses might eat a little of it, but it is all over the place.

Bill Ramsey wrote:Wild lettuce is my favorite these days. I do nibble on it but I also let it grow around my trees to attract browsing deer as they walk through.

Now is the best time to eat wild lettuce if you can recognize it. It isn't as bitter when it is little. I've been throwing it to my ducks daily as they love it more than I do. I eat some of it, though.

Cara Campbell wrote:Purslane!

Yes, may absolute favorite weed to eat is purslane. Sadly, I keep living where it doesn't thrive. :-(

I also eat dandelions, lambs quarters (tons of those here), wood sorrel, spring beauty flowers, day lily flowers, the tips of greenbriars, clovers, wild mushrooms...lots of things.

Heather Staas wrote:I need to look at window drafts,  I used those insulating films my first winter here but didn't think it made much difference so didn't repeat it.  But now I have winter numbers without them to compare to.  I bet they helped more than I realized.   Going to implement and explore several of these ideas!!  

You probably lose the most heat through the windows. Besides insulating films using heavy drapes can make a huge difference. Some people go low-cost and put bubble wrap over the windows.

In my bedroom I taped insulated foil bubble wrap packaging that cold-sensitive food items came in over the window that faces north. It normally has a window a/c in it so I don't ever look out that window anyway.

So that north-facing window is totally sealed off with insulation and tape. It makes all the difference in keeping that room warm. I also cover the west-facing window in that room as it is only used for sleeping.

This may sound crazy, but if you want a warm place to sleep without heating the entire bedroom, you can put your bed in a tent. I sleep on an air mattress that is inside a cheap (about $30) mosquito tent.

I covered that tent with multiple space blankets. It was built because the neighbor's smart meter transmissions were waking me up in the middle of the night.

But it also makes a warm, toasty place to sleep even if I turn the power off or don't use the heat in that room. If we have a power outage, I'll move all that in front of the fireplace.

Then I'll open the front up to use fireplace heat and then close it up if I want to let the fire burn down to retain that heat. NOTE: it gets REALLY HOT in there in the heat of the summer so I have to open up the front of it.

Look first at all north-facing windows and doors. Add insulation around them if they are letting cold air in. Then check all other windows and doors.

Before good insulation was common, everyone had heavy drapes over windows. And most people also had exterior shutters they closed during storms.

RE: Flushing. IF you have a place to bury or compost what is left, a luggable loo saves water. In a pinch, a 5 gallon bucket, a kitchen trash bag, and a bag of shavings (available at pet stores or feed stores) = power outage toilet.

In the country, many people have composting toilets. The commercial version is super expensive. But many just make their own by putting a seat and sometimes a box around a 5 gallon bucket.

Do your business, cover with shavings (or dried leaves, wood chips, peat pellets, etc.). When the bucket is full, empty it and start again. People who are off-grid or compost a lot may have separate wet and solid containers.

After composting a year, humanure is safe for plants. The squeemish only use it on trees, bushes, etc., - not food plants. Keep in mind that the cleaner your food, the better this compost will be.

And also be aware that if you take prescription anything, residue ends up in either the sewer, septic or compost. (And if you use city water, probably in what you drink and bathe in, too!)

Anne Miller wrote:I know nothing about the Pioneer Princess.

Thanks for the response, Anne. I was hoping there would be a commercial version or at least plans for a rocket stove version of a cook stove with an oven.

The Walker Stove is interesting and I had watched that video before. But it is so huge that I don't know what it would work in what I'm planning to build.

I want to convert one or more reefer trailers into a tiny home. Those are typically 8' x 48' - 53'. You would think every wood stove would come with an insulation option to put it against a wall.

This is an interesting video comparison between a rocket stove with multiple heat sinks and wood cook stoves.

I like a couple of wood cook stoves I've seen, but one was UK and another was AU. And I doubt they sell them in the U.S. Also, they probably have the same issues mentioned in the video I shared just above.

My apologies in advance if this has ever been built or discussed here. There are so many rocket stove / rocket oven / wood burning stove threads I gave up trying to find it.

Has the ultimate rocket stove been built or designed? What I mean by that is one that could replace what a Pioneer Princess or other top tier wood burning cook stove can do:

Heat your home

Cook your food

Bake a full size turkey

Heat water

Be used for water bath and pressure canning

The perfect rocket oven cook stove solution would have the ability to control the heat and direct it where you want it. So in the winter, you could use it to warm your home. But in the summer, you could vent it to the outdoors.

It is critical to be able to control the temperature for canning as canners can be damaged by too much heat. And if you can't keep the heat consistent, you can't safely can food.

I believe this could be done. And suspect someone may have already perfected a design that comes close. Ideally, it would have the smallest footprint possible without giving up any of the features on the list.

It would be great if someone would produce these to retail. Ideally, there would be a base model (for heating and cooking) and add-ons for heating water. And maybe even a design to get the water from the stove to a sink and/or shower.

Imagine you were building a tiny house from a reefer trailer or shipping container or bus or rent-to-own building. You have an empty space to work with and want your rocket stove centrally located.

You can build the perfect rocket stove. How would you do it? If you already have resources or know where this has been written up or video-taped, please do share. [Is there a design for this in any existing Permies resource?]

If you build and sell these, let us know. There is a possibility I may be able to buy one later this year (assuming one exists or someone with rocket stove expertise believes they can build it).

Keep in mind that many wood cook stoves were located outdoors because it would get so hot in the house that they didn't use them much in the summer (especially in places like Texas or even Oklahoma).

So how could you make a usable cook stove that wouldn't run you out of the tiny house in the summer? A tiny home build might only be 384 square feet or less. (The smaller and better insulated the space, the hotter it could get.)

paul wheaton wrote:For this offer, yes.  The video must be taken at wheaton labs.  I suppose it can be edited elsewhere.

Do you have raw footage somewhere that you would like edited into specific segments? If you do, I know someone who does that for me for a community I manage.

Adam Thornton wrote: All of the pasture is full sun except for where the 2 solar arrays cast shadows.  I have been having a lot of growth and soil stability in the shadows.  I have tried a few  different grass mixes in these partial shade strips, but nothing has done very well long term.  What grass mix do you suggest I plant in these strips?

Have you tried one of the pasture mixes specifically for shady areas? Examples:

https://alseed.com/product/shady-pasture-mix/

https://www.prairiemoon.com/shady-woodland-seed-mix-prairie-moon-nursery.html

https://www.naturesseed.com/pasture-seed/by-region/

Also see this information: https://nwdistrict.ifas.ufl.edu/phag/2013/07/19/growing-pasture-under-shade-a-challenging-mix/

Tall Fescue has fair shade tolerance, followed by Pensacola Bahia, Argentine Bahia, and Bermuda. Bermuda is the least shade tolerant, and both Pensacola and Argentine Bahia are a small improvement over Bermuda.

Lora Kpat wrote:Hello from Central Oklahoma. I'm interested in building a greenhouse and the more I research, the more overwhelmed I get! I would love to know what greenhouse designs have been successful for you in the Texas/Oklahoma region.

Leon's Greenhouses (currently in Kingston, OK but for sale because Leon wants to retire) has a model with doors on both ends plus a triangular shape on the top what has vents all along it.

The reason for that is greenhouses in Oklahoma get too hot in the summer to use. But by opening all those vents and both doors you can let the heat out and a breeze in.

I believe they redesigned the vents so that rain won't come in even when they're open. They had photos on their website and at Facebook, but those are not available to link.

On my hard drive I have some; however, you can't upload images to Permies for security reasons. If you reached out to me elsewhere (search for GrowMap) I could send them to you.

The cheapest way to moderate temperatures in a greenhouse is by using geothermal pipes buried in the ground. The temperature below the freeze line stays the same year round.

Done correctly, the greenhouse pulls cold air up in the summer and warm air up in the winter. I'd love to figure out the correct specifications for taking one of Leon's greenhouses with the vents and installing geothermal under it.

Even if you have geothermal, I would still want those vents because it can go from cool to very hot quickly here.

Patrick Claffey wrote:Hi everyone, I have been looking on developing an underground green that can withstand the Oklahoma heat.

I know I'm late to this discussion; however, I, too, am interested in building a geo-thermal greenhouse. My thought was to do that part of it to keep the greenhouse warm in the winter.

The way I believe I can deal with the heat is a greenhouse design Leon's Greenhouses (currently in Kingston, OK, but up for sale because Leon wants to retire).

They have a greenhouse that has doors on each end and a triangular shaped vent down the entire top of it that can be opened to let the heat out but not the rain in. Their site is down or I would link to a photo.

I have photos of it on my hard drive, but you can't upload images to Permies.

I thought it was the growing oranges in winter guy who had the calculations for how to determine how much pipe you need by the size of the greenhouse. If it wasn't him, someone else has it online in a YouTube video.