Annie Daellenbach

Hi Sandpoint folks!  

We've been here about 3 years and would love to meet other permies!  I teach soil microscopy to kids here on my farm.  

paul wheaton wrote:I will head up the eve before and head home the morning after.  Sound good?

That sounds like a plan.  Looking forward to it.

Yes!  We have a guestroom / classroom you can stay in. (There will be a nice bed set up when you get here).
We are not far from the potluck at the Oeschgers.
My 11yr old is an aspiring pie maker, so please let us know your favorite type of pie.

I hatched 5 Bourbon Red turkeys last spring, in a diy incubator, as a homeschool project for my kids.  Baby turkeys weren't taking our instructions on how to eat and drink, though we did 'show' them by dipping their little beaks into a bit of water and mashed feed.  I went down to the feed store and bought 2 of the only birds they had: Cornish Cross chicks, who upon arrival hopped right over to the food and water.  The turkeys watched them and immediately understood how to eat and drink.  So we raised them together, although after a few months the CC's were so heavy that the ground would shake when they ran to the food dish.  Those chickens get large.  We eventually slaughtered them, I didn't weigh them but they were very dense.  The turkeys are just so inquisitive and entertaining.  They talk to us and ask questions when they hear a loud noise "is everything okay?!". I tell them "Yes, everything is" and I swear they answer back "okay."
Our turkeys are all female, and we are taking them to the neighbors tom, who is a Narangasett.  Hoping to get one of the moms to sit on her eggs, wish us luck!

Wow, I'd be interested in learning about how these are made.  What a great product.  Welcome!

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!