J. Adams

I believe this about trees, yet some of us live in the Pacific Northwest which is burning up literally from massive forest fires partially caused by record breaking spring through fall droughts over the past four years. People are wearing masks and hiding out indoors next to HEPA air filters from the smoke that is blocking the sun. Millions of acres of trees hundreds of years old from Oregon to BC, including a temperate rainforest, are not keeping our area free from drought. If trees bring on rain, I would expect our springs, summers and falls to have regular rainfall as in the past -- maybe just some variation from year to year, a little less one year, a little more another year... but not this type of ongoing damaging drought. If droughts come and go anyway regardless of trees, how is it that trees are protecting from damaging drought... if drought comes and goes, regardless of massive numbers of trees. May I guess, is it that they'll protect it from being worse, or from year-round droughts vs. just spring through fall? Ironically, hundreds of thousands of acres of trees are burning to the ground because regardless of some winter rain, the drought was bad enough anyway to destroy the trees that might have at least protected from a worse future drought. Nature does create fires, of course, and some species depend on forest fires. But nature more often creates a more gentle low-to-the-ground fire that moves slowly across the forest floor, leaving the larger, older trees and allowing wildlife to escape and rebuild. These wildfire monsters we're having are destroying trees that are 200 feet or more tall and are extremely destructive to nature and humans. We're looking for solutions and any ideas or feedback is appreciated. Goats for forest fire mitigation and gentle "prescribed" fires that virtually don't harm wildlife are two possibilities to reduce the fuel load naturally, mimicking how nature would do it.

Lots of great replies here. We raised our kids on our farm, and one great thing it taught them was delayed gratification and the ability to achieve longterm goals. One way we did this was by planting pumpkin seeds in spring, and waiting until fall to sell pumpkins. That story is partially told here:  Pumpkin Patch from Spare Time Income to Six Digit Income

A few other delayed gratification ideas are in this article on gardening with kids: Children's Gardening Ideas

Also, along with the structured plans, multimedia, interconnections of nature, and goals they will come to experience and witness, there's also just letting them discover how much they love soil via free play in soil. Someone else here suggested something similar. Here's an article on how great "dirt pile" fun can be, and ways to make it safely happen on your property. Backyard Dirt Pile Fun

Mourning doves at least at one time were considered a very close relative of passenger pigeons, and were also considered possible genetic material for re-establishing passenger pigeons. And they are migratory and very abundant all across North America.

Some people keep them year-round, though, with bird feeders, which could result in the same problem as feral domesticated pigeons' loss of the migratory instinct.

I love pigeons in rural settings (not in cities) because my grandfather raised them on his farm and gave me a young one to raise as my own pet.  Rusty rode with me on my bicycle around the neighborhood and was my pride and joy. Eventually decided he would be happier with other pigeons and returned him to the farm with the others.

One note about doves and pigeons is that they are kind of big, slow and awkward compared to other wild "songbirds." Raising them can mean losses from flying predators, as they're quite an easy target, even in flight.

Enjoying and appreciating this thread. We're considering a lean-to greenhouse up against the south wall of our barn/workshop, with the RMH inside the barn itself and near the wall where the greenhouse is on the other side.  Then, thermal mass somehow coming from the RMH into parts of the greenhouse on the other side of the wall.

Corrie Snell wrote:

Here's a question I've had for awhile, and never thought to ask at Permies:  Does the heat kill the beneficial bacteria?

Here's an interesting article on cooking probiotics: says that yes it kills them, but that dead probiotics might still have some different benefits (I've never heard of that before, so I'm interested in learning further about it but not yet sold on the idea)  http://www.care2.com/greenliving/does-cooking-kill-probiotics.html

These kimchi photos are beautiful. And Frank, ginger grown in Maine? Impressive!

Here's an article on growing olives in cooler climates, but it leans more towards people doing it for profit. Cool Weather Olives -- Micro-EcoFarming

Great replies here already, I'll just add:

1. We could not keep our ponies in with solar electric fence. They took advantage of any tiny, brief moment where undetected vegetation drained too much energy from the fenceline. Many people have had great luck keeping all kinds of animals in with it... I think we just had naughty ponies. But some animals tend to remember a shock once and never challenge a fence line again. Ours would challenge it each day until they found an opportunity.

2. As a child growing up around electric fences, I hated them and they scared me. But I did learn to respect them.

3. If you're going to use field fencing of any kind, you might want to look into the no-climb field fencing meant to keep goats, horses, etc. from getting a hold with their feet and pushing the fences over, and then down.

This is a wonderful thread! So glad to find out nettle has such a wonderful potential for fiber. We used it for many other things but will follow this thread to see how the reinvention of nettle fiber evolves. Thanks very much for starting this thread.

Bundles worked well for us in drier climates. As has been mentioned, it saves time to quickly gather herbs into larger bundles then tie them up, rather than tying up many more single stems. Also, being upside down allowed gravity to straighten the herbs, allowing them not to flatten from laying on a horizontal surface while drying, making some of them easier to harvest when it came time to using the dried herbs. In a more humid climate, we've spread them out on paper towels to dry, reusing the paper towels when finished.