Marvin Weber

Aircrete. I did a search and found a number of people inquiring about aircrete, and not much information at all. We have built a foamer and are starting to experiment a little. We would like to know more about how to pump aircrete; it looks like more research might be needed in pumping it to use in walls. Also how to make aircrete in a continuous  flow process so that it can be pumped into walls as insulation/mass. There is a video by Mr. Energy Saver on YouTube, and I would like to find out how to build such a rig.

If it's as good as his previous book, The Permaculture Market Garden, then it's worth getting a hold of!

No ducks, Daron? I haven't used ducks yet as slug control, but I hear they work well. Has anybody had good results? I've been on the fence about it because I know they are quite messy. Also, since we are in a regulated license system to raise pastured poultry in movable shelters, I'm not sure if our regulatory agency would allow free range ducks.

I like the tips to attract predators. Maybe I now have an excuse not to clean up those brush piles..

Arlene Marcia wrote:I grind all my flour with a Vitamix blender. If you don't need very large quantities of flour at one time, it works great. And a Vitamix can be used for so many other things--smoothies, soups, sauces, etc. You can even purchase a special container designed specifically for grinding grains, but I just use the standard container. Although it's an electric appliance, it works very fast so doesn't use much power.

Our friends use a Vitamix, but we understood from them that it won't make as fine a flour as a grain mill does. What is your experience with this?

We have had several Whisper/Wonder Mills, over a period of 20 years.

Before that we had a County Living mill. We had figured our children would enjoy cranking the thing, but.. not so much! It was harder to crank than any of us expected and was quite tedious when grinding all the flour for our large family. We then installed a motor on the Country Living mill, but it was still slow, and quite bulky to store with the motor mounted on it.

We ended up with the Whisper mill, and when the first one wore out at about 13 or 14 years, we got another one. (This was after grinding several tons of grain!) It was so much faster to just grind what we needed in a minute or two, rather than cranking for half an hour. The Country Living mill also needed to be re-sharpened every couple of years. (They suggest just buying a new set of plates, but it's much cheaper to resharpen with a sharp file.)

Our second Whisper Mill did cause some problems which would have been covered by warranty, but warranty in Canada at that time was not practical because shipping was our responsibility, and it was quite expensive. There is now a Canadian parts and service centre in Alberta I believe. We just kept that second one for parts. We have our third Whisper Mill now and it is holding up very well. I don't think the flour is any warmer out of the Whisper Mill as it was from the Country Living mill.

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.