Jese Anderson

Zone 7 here and December is the month to get them in the ground for us.

More "bad" about Black Locust:

Yes, it's great for BTU's (one of the best) but I never burn it.  When I decide to or have to take out some black locust on my property the go to fence posts.  Why fence posts?  Well that's all will let my chainsaw give to a black locust.  A single tree will completely ruin a chain on a chainsaw. I can't say I've ever sawed a good dry one and not seen sparks fly like hitting a piece of metal.

Great fence posts 50-75 years easy.

Dale Hodgins wrote:

On a larger property, It generally doesn't make economic sense to build a really small house. It does make sense for a normal sized house, to have a little guest cabin or studio. Build that first, if there's any chance that you will run out of time or money, before completing the larger structure.

I agree.  Small 600 ft "guest house" with kitchenette, full bath, and bedroom was built first to live in while building the big house.

If I were shooting for some type of "food Forrest" outside of your typical fruit trees then I'd go with:

Sugar Maple (it will take a few years but they are quick growers). Use - tap them and make syrup.

Persimmon - Honey bees love the blooms and the fruits are a tasty treat for both wildlife and humans (make sure they are ripe otherwise it's like eating alum). I have one 70ft tall persimmon in my yard, in the spring/early summer it puts off a steady "hum" from the thousands upon thousands of honey bees dining at the blooms...it's really remarkable (I have a few hives and closest neighbor 3/4 a mile away has 20 hives or so).

Chestnut - there is no beating the taste of chestnuts.

Sumac - Please note there is a poisonous version(s) and an edible version(s). Berries are used in cooking and to make mead and wine.

White Willow - Plant in wet spot.  Bark is an anti inflammatory and also can be used as an aspirin substitute.

White Oak - Acorns are a favorite of wildlife and native Americans processed them into flour and used for bread making.

Mulberry - Had a 25ft tree at old house I use to own - Talk about edible berry production.  It was pretty much impossible for me to scratch the surface in harvesting all the berries on a single tree- simply amazing production and tasty to boot.

They way most of us in the "sticks" process our walnuts is to lay them in a gravel part of the driveway for a few months.  Automobiles driving over them will get rid of the husk.  In a few months you will find the intact shell there waiting to be picked up and cracked open....I don't advise this if you have a bunch of squirrels.

 

Give um' hell Eric.

For those not wanting to spring that much cash for hearing aides I'd suggest you look on craigslist for newer used ones.  Most of the time it's family members selling them after their parents die.  Those can be had for about half as much and most places can adjust them for you.  Also even though I have two I mainly wear one most of the time in my "worst" ear so two are not absolutely necessary to have acceptable hearing.

I'm fairly active and love destroying things and misplacing things.  It was rather difficult for me to keep track of two and I was going to turn one back in but decided to keep it.  A single one serves it's purpose in most instances such as watching tv with others, the dinner table, etc.  I'd say that I only wear both around 10-15% of the time and that's when it's a situation like playing music, hunting, a funeral, or when I really need to put emphasis on being able to hear.

Another side note is that friends who have not seen me in awhile always say: "Man you talk different now, you used to be rather loud when speaking".  I simply just point to my ears and show them hearing aide(s).  I also can look folks in the eye when I talk to them again.  I used to have to somewhat focus on the lips when someone was talking low.  

The good thing about it is that you can always take them out and get some peace and quiet.  And as far as the ringing in the ears - even with a single one in there are enough noises (birds, planes, critters, wind, etc) that pop up and do not permit me focus on the ringing.

We don't venture out much from our place but when we do I take the ears.  We've been heading out before and get 5-6 miles down the road and my wife will say: "Did you remember to bring your ears"....if I forgot them we make a u-turn and head back home to pick them up.  

As I mentioned earlier: There are a lot of noises going on around us in daily life and I hadn't heard them in years.  I am 100% satisfied with them and my family life has improved dramatically.  I still enjoy putting them on and just setting on the front porch in the evening and listening to all the sounds.  Previously I'd not hear anything but ringing in my ears....the entire world came to life when I opted to try out hearing aides.  It's quiet back here in the woods but not nearly as quiet as I thought it was before getting me some new "ears".

Judith,

The ones at Sam's club are actually pretty high-end and less than you'd pay elsewhere.  They still set a person back $4K-$5K.  Mine are bluetooth compatible (cell phone can be routed through them) and 4 levels of volume control.  Plus they have 3 settings that you can tailor/set up. My settings are "Adro" (which is the normal setting), "Noisy" and "Music".  Adro is what it is typically set to and if I am in a crowded noisy area I can set it to "Noisy" and the background noise will be filtered out but I can still hear those around me in normal conversation.  I've been flat-picking acoustic guitar for around 30 years and I play with some guys from time to time (Hippie grass, Bluegrass, Americana, Fiddle Tunes,  etc) and the "Music" setting tones it own a bit but I am still able to hear each individual instrument and their part.

They can adjust them the way one likes.  I think it took 3 trips to finally get mine dialed in to where I wanted them.  My wife has good hearing so I would compare things to her hearing.  When she'd hear something she'd simply ask if  could hear it and vice versa.  It took awhile and we finally got the hearing aides dialed in.

My wife nearly cried when we decided to buy them.  We have 2 young children and it was creating a problem that I was oblivious to.  My youngest's (son - 10 at the time)  speech was driving me crazy.  I'd say things about his pronunciation of words and I was sure he had a speech defect when saying words with "th" in it.  Same goes for the "r" sound.  Come to find out with my hearing loss those were labeled as the first sounds in speech to be missing in my hearing loss.  

Eric Thomas - Holy crap youre experience is mine to a tee.  Same place (Sams), same damn experience.  I even thought Sam's club was quiet before they stuck the ears in.  We walked outside and for some reason 2 workers were pulling a pallet across the pavement....that lit me up.  At one point I considered handing the Sam's lady back the ears and running away.  It's loud out there and offensive when one can hear again.