Annie Daellenbach

Jay Angler wrote:

Anyone know if the leaves are human edible?

Yes, the leaves are edible!

The best way to harvest berries is to carefully clip the branch (they enjoy a prune every year) and freeze the branch with ripe berries. Do this in a single layer, on a cookie sheet or similar, keeping all the branches pointed in the same direction.  

Once they are frozen you can strip the berries off the branch in ONE direction only, and mostly accomplish it unscathed.  Lots of leaves will come off too, but my Russian friend says all the leaves and bark bits are also very medicinal.

The vitamin C / antioxidant and bioflavonoid content of this berry is off the charts.  Omegas including 7, and essential fatty acids, Very restorative for us (and also for poor soils.)

Ben Falk's book the Resilient Farm and Homestead has good info.

Nathan McCormick wrote:

I use it for science experiments with kids.

Have any experiments to share?

We have the Citric Acid ready to go

while trying to figure out how to go about creating a rocket heater, my husband and I connected with Tom at Dragon Technology, and are now Light Years ahead in our understanding, confidence and ability to go forward with our build.  

He is incredibly knowledgeable and kind, has two excellent books - we highly recommend!!

Counting myself lucky to be a part of this community, and to have experts and friends here.

a big Thank You to Tom for answering all of our questions, we will be posting pictures as we go.  

here's a few pictures of the walls, sauna and the stove after we tried to cook off the zinc

Thank you all, for the comments suggestions and advice.

Update: we burned the barrels in a crazy hot fire, with a leaf blower assist, and got them mostly red-hot.  However, after we put the barrel stove back into the sauna we till have that weird sweet smell.  I do see some small amount of rust on the metal, but am not convinced we removed all of the galvanized coating.

We almost have everything gathered to build the rocket sauna stove, I'll be adding pictures as we attempt it!
The sauna has been heated to keep the walls drying, and because we keep thinking maybe the galvanization isn't that big a deal... but then we both seem to get mild headaches after we are working in there (even with some air flow)  So, the verdict is: stay away from galvanized stuff.  haha.  

I am so grateful to all of you who weighed in.  I have some kind of hesitation to just start experimenting with RMH stuff, even though I've watched all the movies and have some great books.  It just feels like its out of my lane.    
I want to come to the event and get hands on learning (I have young children, so haven't made it yet.)

Once we get the hang of it I want to build a bunch of them!  everyone in this town will get dragged up here to see ours!

Ugh, In our haste to finish our sauna before winter, we bought a double barrel woodstove on craigslist.  
This stove is a place holder, to dry the cob walls,  the eventual stove will be rocket-ey, but it will be the first one we build and may take some time.  We set the chimney and then noticed a sweet smell coming from the double barrel... ah dang it's galvanized.  needless to say we uninstalled it, coated it in a paper mache newspaper and clay slurry.  Going to attempt to get it hot enough in a bonfire that the yuck will burn off.  I've read it can be removed with a weak acid (although it has to be scrubbed to remove the zinc oxide)  I'd prefer to not do that, as galvanization includes lead and making dust seems like not a good plan.  

My question is:  Is the 'burn the yuck off the barrel' technique only for removing the paint?  would you experienced rocket mass heater folks use galvanized after it gets red hot?  Or just scrap it and start over?
Thank you!

I am dealing with mold in our attic, due to the soffit vents being blocked by insulation.  I have been down a rabbit hole of research and, despite many opposing voices I have come to believe that any biocide is counter productive, due to the fact that killing mold spores breaks them into MUCH smaller pieces, called mycotoxins, and adds to the VOC load of the home.  These are more difficult to remove and can have even more detrimental health effects.  I would recommend you look up John Banta, a leading researcher on all things mold remediation, and home environment.  His website is a little clunky, look past the book info to his blog and articles!  but there is excellent information there.  There are also a few really good video interviews.  

The better health guy: https://www.google.com/search?q=john+banta+yourube&oq=john+banta+yourube&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQIRgKGKABMgkIAhAhGAoYoAHSAQg0OTA2ajBqN6gCALACAA&client=ms-android-google&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:96367ef2,vid:i1sES9VWz_U,st:0

Good luck and keep us posted on the bathroom!

Pasta is one of the ways I got my kid into chef'ing.  He loves to make noodles.
Over time I have found some inspirational videos, to keep us on our toes.
This one is fun:

I recently had the incredible luck to be able to see John Liu speak.  I got to meet him and his wife and am a big fan of them, and the outstanding work being done by the ecosystem restoration camps.
It was a very positive experience.  
Thanks for sharing this!