Douglas Campbell

Hi Jason:
"...My family are moving some way south to an old house..."

You are on the Isle of Lewis, and are moving some way south on the Isle?  Or moving radically farther south?
A friend recently tried hemp/lime on the inside of a house in a climate similar to the Isle of Lewis (coastal Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia), and it went mouldy.
I second comments to be careful about vapour barriers (or vapour resistant insulation like closed cell spray foam), and older houses.
It can be done, but it can also create a bag of rot.
Blown-in cellulose in wall cavities and attic can work with some constructions.

Not a direct answer, but I am in a similar situation.
I got a short blade 'ditch' scythe, and an Echo battery string trimmer/brush saw.
I wanted those tools for a woodlot, and they let me keep the grass down in the interim while I convert to vegetable beds, berries, nuts and fruit trees.
I dislike the microplastics from the string trimmer, so am moving to use it mostly with brush blade.

The scythe handle either needs adjustable handles, or careful fitting, to keep the scythe angle correct and the user comfortable.  A well peened, well fitted scythe is a joy.  Ill fitted and dull is a misery.  You also need a safe place to hang the blade out of children & pet reach.

Pressler, F. 1997 is a graduate thesis, maybe only in the university library.

I am ringing some low grade balsam fir to see about making poles for a wigwam/teepee (wig-pee? tee-wam?) I have in progress.

Hi I read an article on a similar invention within the last decade.  I think the idea was to use a large gearing ratio to convert a small distance change to many rotations.

The upper swirled layer seems lower resolutiom than the rest of the image.  I think it is a composite or AI image.

Different contaiminants may partition differently into oily seeds vs sugary fruit vs starchy tubers etc.
I think site appropriate planting will need to become a bigger solution than digging up messes and putting then somewhere else.

I once lived near the 'Sydney Tar Ponds' (NS) full of hydrocarbon and heavy  metal pollution.  At one point  a proposed 'solution' was to dig it up and truck it ~50 km to a dumpsite on agricultural land.
Sanity prevailed, it was sealed in place.

Hundreds of thousands of abanboned gas stations or old leaded fuel tanks are another looming issue.

Interesting.  I suspect highest starch content will be at late summer or early fall, maybe before the fronds die back.  

Sorry about blight.  Phytophora infestans is not technically a fungus; it is a Stramenopile that has evolved a fungus-like life cycle.

I got a pair of 'snickers' work pants with knee pockets for pads.  Now I rarely wear anything else.  It is a huge help to painlessly drop down.
Only problem is they are always filthy.  I may need  a dress pair ;)