Ra Kenworth

Thekla, I would check out the oehler greenhouse book -- he has one on a slope with a north facing glazing ai really interesting, where drainage is well explained and taken into consideration.
You could also review all that wapiti resources on permies, with the trench idea in mind
Adapt the two to meet your needs

The subsoil is so poor where I am that earth berming would be my best option for most trenching ideas

Myself I can use this idea to collect red clover dry seed heads next spring and grow them in my son's drainage trench
He has a mound at the back that filters his drinking water and I could add a berm to that on the east side

I'm making pumpkin soup out of a medium pumpkin I was given, for lunch, before getting outside, wet, sweaty, start going in and out like a cat but changing clothing

... while I do the main job right now, which after freezing a bunch of pumpkin purée, I am now dealing with all the skin and tougher outside flesh, which is roasting in the oven at 200F with rice and red split lentils and ground fennel, for the dogs.

I will add some Mexican spiced veggie páté to my soup once I have finished with today's dog food  on the stovetop

... Dog food du jour made out of some of what's in the oven, some water and frozen dog dinner. My old boy is almost finished, and his 6 month son is complaining about the
slow service lol!

Edit: my soup was really blah so it got a can of chipotle beans and turned into ragout!
Edit: I should add the roasted seeds in the middle got sautéed until the stringy "meat" came away, and about 2tbsp went in with the dog food, and I have a container of seeds which easily peel away from the outside crust so I will be snacking on seeds later. All the juice went into the dog bake.
Nothing wasted except the stalk and a bottom flat 2" disk went in the kitchen composting.

Nothing fancy for me but there is a ton of snow with a crust of ice to move outside today! I have to see how my pumpkin purée plus vege páté  mix is going to taste with a little ginger... I eat pretty well anything

I have since learned that bringing live plants across a line on the map is not a great idea, sorry. Mine are at 650' in Quebec. My comments can be deleted if desired.

Thimbleberries: there are two types
Rubrus odoratus grows along the dirt road roadsides and tastes way sweeter than any other berries around here with the smallest seeds, and black raspberries are nicer than blackberries.
The wild blackberries are small and full of large seeds! I don't bother with them.

Pearl that sounds like a perfect thanksgiving!
What makes more sense than spending Thanksgiving to put away food preserves! All those pumpkins! Like wow!

Trampoline parts: gotta love roadside scrounging! I have one being used as a tarp this winter, and a platform for a tree hammock tent next spring! I am hoping to use some of the supports to rig up an ama to a damaged canoe to make a prototype proa while fixing the canoe sidewall damage with a makeshift belt and trampoline springs -- also for a platform between the ama and the canoe !

Things have changed a lot since I got my music degree and teaching degree in the mid 80s in Canada.

I didn't have the ability to pursue biology and geology and I was expected to get a degree, so after the first year, I transferred I to a 3 year program which put me almost half finished because I had taken music performance on top of my required credits, requiring 2-3 hours daily practice and keeping me out of trouble, and I took a music education summer evening course while I was working as a teaching assistant, having volunteered as one the previous summer. It was suggested I take the concurrent education that was new and I did.

I never regret that I did this, and had many fun years teaching music.

Now tuition is even expensive in Canada, but I have a friend who worked as a store manager up.north before it's reorganization, and he doesn't have a high school diploma. In his case he asked and I recommended he try to get in to any college program as a mature student, because then he won't need the high school diploma. I suggested he might consider personal support worker, a thankless job but in high demand and some colleges are even offering it free. The main reason would be he wouldn't likely need any upgrading courses. So why spend time doing high school credits when you can at least be employable which is his main concern.

So it depends. If you are new to your country or didn't finish high school and need credentials, yes, get some post secondary  courses. I also told him about all the open university courses available throughout the world, plus Athabasca university offers the option to challenge for credit which is way cheaper (it turned out I was a computer programmer whiz so I took a bunch of credits by reading the text book and writing the exam -- and made some real cash doing that in between music teaching cintracts)

I really don't know if getting into debt is wise though. I went the gert route as soon as I could in my early 40s and have been debt free for 20 years.

I would say every situation is different, but if you think you can handle nursing, that's a great skill that is guaranteed to provide a job in the rat race but also has transferable skills in an alternative lifestyle. That's what my son did, but tuition is as close to free as is possible in Quebec (called CEGEP) and we did it debt free.

Well it's snowing now in the Gatineau mountains, the barrels are all upturned and waiting for next spring and I have a well.
My system is very low tech: about 25 black plastic barrels that came from the Canadian forces that used to contain olives, under the eaves of 1000 sq ft, and a relay system of barrels about 40' apart from those points, all over, additiinal scrounged blue and white barrels and pumped to those locations, no gravity feed. I don't do much watering but all for growing food
My system is still low tech because I don't really have engineering skills, but I do make up for this in enthusiasm.

I hope some of you who haven't seen this film yet get a chance to watch this while it is available today for free.
Edit: You will apparently not have to provide them with an email. It's totally worth watching!.
https://grow.foodrevolution.org/screening/

My power is Hydro Quebec.
They have a reputation but at least the power comes from water gravity, not coal or nuclear. If it was something else, I wouldn't use it.

20 years ago, when I bought my 850sq ft humble abode, yes, small makes the best of any heat source, I replaced the most used baseboards with newer ones -- smaller and more efficient.

I also added house wrap -- house was still black joe.

Soon thereafter, roof job and new insulation.

I recently replaced the stove outlet with a 220v utility heater under the kitchen, and the oven was replaced with my small thrift store $10  110v portable oven, and I use the conduction single unit, which is part of my outdoor summer kitchen equipment, crock pots, and camp stoves for the cast iron etc.

Now I am only going to use the wood furnace if there is a power outage which happens less frequently these days, but I am well equipped for this -- making the best of electric anything I think includes making sure you aren't totally dependent on it!

Interesting new fact for me!
Pigeon chicks don't generate dander if that's the right word, until they are much older. They are born hairless, and if the temperatures are warm, they stay that way for quite a while, with the flight feathers being the priority. So if kept indoors it's not a problem even as they reach the 3-4 week self serve stage (before which they must be hand fed and watered if their parents aren't doing it.)
I tend to keep them in plastic cages which keeps the straw contained.

Maureen Finn wrote:Consider yeast

Excellent point! That would explain why the most chronic back rashes I have seen were on dogs eating high sugar kibble