Marvin Weber

Tim Barker wrote:Hi Tyler unfortunately not. Im a physical book kind of person also. All i can advise is print it out double sided and ring bind it. That's what i did when i bought the ebook of Ianto's rocket mass heater book.

It looks like the book is only available in Kobo or Kindle format. Is there a way to print a Kindle or Kobo file?

Has anyone been looking at Matt Powers' new course - "The Advanced Permaculture Student Online"? The Kickstarter is only on for a few more days:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattpowers/the-advanced-permaculture-student-online/description

I'm just wondering what everyone's thoughts are on this new course. Looks to me like a very broad base of information, taught very well (by numerous experts) and with lots of accompanying support. I was thinking of getting the teachers' version so I can share it with my homeschooled 13-yr-old son, who is also interested in Permaculture. Matt says it's the next level up from a PDC. It's very reasonably priced right now. I think you get some sort of certification with it.

Any comments, for or against this course?

Sounds interesting...  I'm wondering though, did you have a 'control' where you didn't use evergreen branches? How do we know it really did work?

I recently received a pair of these hoes (two different sizes) that I ordered from http://ecominded.net/news/fokin-s-ploskorez.html a little while ago. I used a hockey stick for the handle. It works fantastic! Best hoe we have ever used. No regrets. We will probably buy more. Great for finest weeding, for grubbing out roots or rhizomes, for tillage and every task we've set it to so far.

Thanks for your service, Yury. I have posted a review.

Devin, I was looking at these Magna Grecia hoes last week, and I think they look like a good tool for breaking up small plots of ground. I can't imagine weeding with one, though. Have you tried one?

I just got my hoes from Yuri Smirnov a little while ago; I used a hockey stick for the handle. It works fantastic! Best hoe we have ever used. No regrets. We will probably buy more. Great for finest weeding, for grubbing out roots or rhizomes, for tillage and every task we've set it to so far.

Those look good, Dale. I ordered a pair of those ploskorez hoes; they are not very expensive if ordered without the handles. (See thread on these). I think I will look for hockey sticks for those.

I might try making one of those hook knives you pictured. We used to have one from Lee Valley tools - very expensive. We used it to prune out old raspberry and blackberry canes and currant bushes. It saves scratches when reaching into those thorny areas - especially with a long hockey stick handle!

I just ordered the Russian one from ecominded.net (the link at the top of this page), after reading a review by Nathan Rutz at poopaculturezero. He says he tried both the stainless one and the regular carbon steel one, and the carbon steel hoe is much stronger. The stainless steel version bent very easily. The price for a set of two different sizes, without handles (you can easily make them with a tablesaw), was about $25 plus $23 shipping, in Canadian dollars. That's $24 each; US dollars it would only be about $20 each or less, if you buy the set of two.

Get in there everyone if you are interested in Jenni's book. I live close to her in Nova Scotia, Canada, and just bought a copy from her at a local event. It is a good book to get started with putting some permaculture into practice. A personal, interesting read. Of course, you may want to get a print copy later even if you get this freebie download!