Alex Riddles

I would definately be interested in buying a video copy of the class.  As for the kick starter video, there is someone in a coat , hat, and gloves, sitting in front of a rocket mass heater.  Given Pauls enthusiastic advocacy for rocket mass heaters, this reflects poorly upon him.  Other than that, and most people probably wouldn't even notice, I thought the video was good.

I was a master gardener here in Missouri.  Then I quoted William Albrecht in a meeting and got shouted down.  So, I left the master gardeners behind and went my own way.  There is a lot of useful information out there that those who sell toxic gick and fund research don't want us to know.   This Garden Master program sounds like a good step toward correcting that situation.

I spend my days in a warehouse full of college textbooks, then I come home to my small scale suburban permaculture back yard.  After reading this thread yesterday I saw something at work that might be useful here.

Scott
Psychology for Sustainability
978-1-84872-580-5

Will there be plans or a tutorial available at some point for those of us that can't get to Montana?

If you're dealing with whitetail deer, and in Illinois I suspect you are, just talk to them in their own language.  When you chase the deer away they run off with their tail in the air.  That's an alarm to the deer.  When they see the underside of another deers tail it says to them there is danger here to be avoided.  So, make a white flag the size and shape of a deer tail and hang it by your garden.  After being told a few times, in their own language, that it's dangerous in your garden they will begin to avoid the area.

I am getting to the point where I'm thinking about the last house I'll live in and kicking around ideas about how it should work.  That business of converting solar to electric then using the electricity troubles me also.  My parents used to have a home that had a trombe wall.  It was the south wall of the house, 14" thick, painted black and was glass covered.  It saved them a lot on heating costs over the winter.  But, there wasn't enough over hang to shade it in the summer and they spent all the savings cooling the house in the summer.  I've been told such a thermal collector is about 40% efficient.  The latest photovoltaics are just over 20% efficient.

   So, here's my wild idea.  What if the photovoltaics were mounted so they could track the sun.  They are on the ground to the north of a building.  In the summer they are pointed directly at the sun.  In the winter they are aimed such that they reflect the light they don't use at a trombe wall or some other thermal collector on the north side of the building.  That way the thermal collector would be shaded all summer.  But, it could capture part of the 80% of the energy the photovoltaics reject.  Such a system could also be designed to concentrate that reflected energy and get even more heat at the coldest time of year.

I don't get fanatical about it.  But, I try to eat what I've grown year round also.  Two things I find that help get me through the "hungry gap" are Jerusalem Artichokes, they can be harvested mid winter and Asparagus which is the first thing to produce a harvest in the spring.

I grew up in Iowa.  Tornados are just a part of life there.  One tip I have is, if you are traveling and see a tornado it will typically be traveling from Southwest to Northeast.  You can use this to dodge out of the path.

There is a website  honest-food.net that has many recipes for wild game and foraged plant based  foods.  It includes a recipe for pickled Jerusalem Artichokes.  They are pickled in a vinagre based brine that helps convert the indigestable inolin to fructose.  This helps with the gas problem.

When I was growing up in Iowa (zone 5)  we had a Santa Rosa plum.  It survived those winters and produced a huge crop of plums year after year.

Bone Broth?