Judith Pi

r ranson wrote:  Apparently, it was trying to prove that people who grew up with headphones, especially ear buds, had increased untangling abilities over previous generations.

Ha, headphones, a couple feet of stiffish cord. No match for people who grew up with cassette tapes.

Steve Holder wrote:
Obviously heat is required for the gas monkeys to brew.  Is below ground better. Could a heat belt like you use for beer/wine brewing be used.

There is a backyard biogas digester made by an Israeli company who sell world-wide. The website has some useful information, though the site is not easy to navigate. One link of interest I found in round-about ways is the "Booster" tent for cooler climates. One could make some kind of little greenhouse, well insulated at back, sides and bottom.

https://landing.homebiogas.com/booster/

The toilet they sell, btw, is a standard ship toilet you can get in the UK for about £90.

This video "True review: Homebiogas with bio toilet" has some useful general info in the comments.
https://youtu.be/tdkmqxy-Tno?si=5tIYTvryDYHKtQdf

A bidet would be good way to deal with the paper issue as Nancy said. As you need water to flush waste into the tank, you may as well use that black water for the flush.

Another useful bit of info that came from a video where the HomeBiogas guy said that you can easily convert any LPG or natural gas cooker to run on the low pressure bio gas by simply removing the nozzle of the burner which constricts the flow. It's the second segment of the video.

https://youtu.be/d3o_elkOgUQ?si=eI93Ej3CIakDHqgj

Suzanne Jabs wrote: I found that the rubber rings have lasted me through 5 years or so for the most part.  

Thanks, that is good to know. I've only had Wecks for about 2-3 years. When not in use, I try to store the rings in an airtight container, flat and dark. I think that would help prolong life. But whatever composition their natural rubber is, it is a lot better than Kilner's.

Bess Saunders wrote: I also found these jars in my recent search for Kilner replacements:
https://www.pearljars.com/en/products/canning-starter-kit?pr_prod_strat=e5_desc&pr_rec_id=976974733&pr_rec_pid=8586653663567&pr_ref_pid=9473972142415&pr_seq=uniform

Wow, those are fabulous! Thanks! The classic Mason jar without the downsides, the jar I had dreamed of with everlasting neutral lid and band and long-lasting neutral rings. A pity about the distance, price and limited range (the range may still improve with some customer feedback). Also the inability to buy certain jars outside of a set. For example, the fermenting set includes one perfect jar with straight sides. Alas, you can't buy that shape separately at all. The shouldered jar is no good for keeping down floaters. And what if you want to ferment a bunch of things? End up with half a dozen pounders?

One other little criticism is the lack of certain information. If anyone is thinking of getting those jars, here are a couple bits of information hard to come by on the website, or is not obvious. The only reference I found on mouth size was on the canning starter set page: 70mm OD. The dimensions given for Mariposa jars are "diameter = 81/97mm". I assume the 81mm is the mouth? It is also not expressly stated that the "Storage" range has solid screw lids, whereas the "Luna Preserve" has the typical Mason type lid with band. The former is not suitable for vacuum sealing. At first glance photos of the screw lid could be of a band with the disk still inside. Last, but not least, they bury an amazing feature of the "Luna Preserve" in a blog post. Unlike the typical flat edged Mason lid, the Luna lid has a rim to go around the sealing ring with a gap for pushing against the ring to release the vacuum with minimal effort or distortion of the ring. That rim also makes the lid more rigid. Releasing a vacuum on a Mason lid can easily deform the lid, and is quite awkward from what I've seen.

The one thing for which I still use twist off lid jars is frequent access foods. The clipped Weck lid is too awkward, and the various push on lids are not air-tight enough. Those lids mean spoilage of dry goods in our damp climate. That is where the Mason type jar would be ideal.

I'd say this jar is one for TEOTWAWKI.

An unusual situation to start with. What is the actual allergy situation? With the up to 20 people living there, is it a sanctuary/community for people with allergies? I've heard of similar where people want to live perfume free. Or is it extended family with a genetic allergy? Can you tackle the allergy side of things? What makes you all allergic? The culprit may not be what triggers reactions but some underlying problem. How many of those people living there actually have allergies? If only a few, can you reduce the amount of laundry requiring those conditions, i.e. do it separately in a smaller, more easily run system? Tackling another root problem; would you be better off moving to a more suitable climate? It requiring the most extreme approach, but barring any permanent cure,  also offers the most permanent solution.

I also agree with Jay that modern attitudes to cleanliness can be an issue. What applies to germs may apply to allergen exposure in making you more susceptible when limiting exposure.

A few more ideas about the laundry setups suggested, and tackling humidity.

The rocket mass heater assisted dehydrator is an excellent idea. It's somewhat similar to a chamber behind a Tromb wall. It could be situated down-wind from the prevailing wind and have an extended chimney to remove any smoke away from the dwelling. If it goes onto skids or wheels, it could be moved if the wind occasionally blows in the opposite direction.

My mother had a regular front-load washing machine but used a separate spinner after the washer spin cycle. It would still extract more water. They are certainly more powerful in removing water.

I have an off-grid no-electric laundry setup using a mangle. It also does a very good job, but I would suggest that some items that are slower drying (typically cotton jersey, or bulky fabrics) are put through twice. I tend to let things with zippers and bulky buttons like jeans drip dry. I only wash them on sunny, breezy days, as they would take too long to dry. My climate here in west Wales, by the way, is similar to the PNW.

Lastly, an amusing thing I saw in an advert for double glazing for cold climates or periods. It showed a single-glazed window with condensation and the window sill was fashioned into a mini sink with drain. It was meant to be disparaging, but my permy/Heath Robinson/Rube Goldberg brain saw a brilliantly simple dehumidifier. It could be a small window or even a metal plate high on an external wall where warm, moist air rises to. The bottom would simply be fitted into a channel with a tube moving the water outside. You could place some insulated panel in front to reduce some heat loss as well as prevent warming of the panel by radiant heat, but allowing the air to go behind it around the edges.

If you need to buy jars I would second lovejars and also add https://www.glassjarsandbottles.com/ for reasonably priced jars. Both companies also sell replacement lids as they do wear out or become unreliable.

If you covet the fabulous Weck jars, and want to buy more than a hand full, and want choice of all shapes and sizes, it would be cheapest and best to get them from a whole sale company in Germany. Unfortunately, Weck does not send jars to the UK, but the company Gläser und Flaschen do. They sell any quantity, with discount for greater volumes. They have occasional sales on with, on average, 25% discount. They do individual jars, lids, rings and clamps, but also sets of 6 with all parts included. If you get them on sale, and some models at any time, they are not much more than buying directly from Weck. It would appear that jars don't incur duty. In any case, they only send parcels up to 15kg which usually brings the sales value to well below the duty threshold. The item description actually tells you the estimated weight (including packaging) individually, but if you just dump them into the cart, it works out the total weight on the fly. You can then adjust the quantity inside the cart. The biggest expense is the postage. A parcel up to 15kg  is €27.83 - at current conversion rate £23.33. VAT is all sorted their side. It's really quite painless going through the buying process, except for being spoiled by choice. Alas, it would appear that they only have a German text website.

Weck jars are quite versatile. I use them for fermenting (lid of next mouth size down will fit into a jar as dunker, though they may tilt as being on the thin side) and storing dehydrated goods with a vacuum. The Weck jars form the most reliable vacuum with an improvised vacuum chamber and a hand pump. I also apply a vacuum to fermenting jars. Has many advantages. Just repeat a couple or so times a day during the more vigorous phase, then ease off. The downward position of the pull tap will tell you if the vacuum is lost. The clips will hold the lid in place and if the fermenting is still going on, no air gets into the jar. Yet, the clips and rubber ring allow enough flexing to allow air to to be pulled out with the pump, and gases to escape. If you let them build up too much, that may cause a little mishap, though not one I've experienced so far. Vacuuming the jar also takes out trapped air from pockets and produce is more likely prevented from floating, very important in the early stages.

Oh, couple more thing about Weck jars, there are no parts to rust in our damp UK climate. The clips are S/S. The rubber rings are reusable until you actually see degradation. If handled gently they will last a fair few times. Excessive stretching is one enemy, so dab them dry, don't pull a cloth along. For the 100mm mouth jars you can also get oil resistant rings if you bottle any fatty things like meat, which is no good for natural rubber. They may also last better with fermenting. My Kilner rings disintegrated rather fast in that environment. For fermenting in Wecks, however, I made some rings from a 1.5mm thick sheet of food safe silicone. It doesn't hold a vacuum as well over a longer period, but for fermented goods it's not as critical as for bottling when a small amount of air will ruin your preserves. The oil resistant rings are made of "Thermoplastische Elastomere (Rottolit)"  (info via request).

Here is the Weck jar page (without bottles) https://www.glaeserundflaschen.de/weck/weck-glaeser/?p=1&o=11&n=60
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Also, for anyone who understands German, the former owner of this company (now CEO of it) has a great YouTube channel ("Steffi kocht ein") about preserving. She has some microbiology training and is very knowledgeable on risks such as botulism.  

Looks great. It looks like you used raschel netting on a roll. Where did you get it? I'm in the UK too and was thinking of doing hyperadobe for a building but haven't found any suitable supply of continuous netting. I've used bags before, which works fine too, but I think hyperadobe has many more advantages. One problem I found with bags below grade or built against soil is that rats will gnaw holes in the fabric and burrow into/through the bags. The plan for future work is to surround the bags with stone below grade, maybe use some slate pieces vertically against the bags as a shield.

There is a method of tapping which you can do on younger trees and causes less injury to the tree. Instead of drilling into the trunk, you break off the end of twigs and feed the broken end into a bottle. I've blogged about it here
http://www.judyofthewoods.net/forage/tree_sap.html
As for eating maple leaves leaves, you could make leaf curd from them, aka leafu or leaf protein. It is said that this method will coagulate the protein out of the juice and leaves toxins behind. No guarantee, mind. Best to try small amounts first. It does take quite a lot of leaves to make a small amount of the stuff, and requires some way of macerating all those leaves. To give you an idea, I tried it with a laundry basket (about a bushel) of nettles which are high in protein, and got about 1/2 cup of soft goop from it. But it was quite tasty, like cooked spinach.

Lizz Potter wrote: for folks making raw food the taurine content in chicken hearts is vital to add to raw food for cats.

Taurine is also supposedly beneficial for humans. There was a YuouTube video by Dr. Eric Berg titled "Taureine: the secret to living longer and healthier?", which, unfortunately, was removed, possibly by Dr. Berg himself, as I can't find that one on his Rumble channel either. I remember it has lots of different benefits, and a quick look at titles of a search show things like longevity, eye health and reduced tinnitus.  

Timothy Norton wrote:A future project added to the long, long, long, long, long list of things I want to try.

I've given up on relying on the "must live to 100 to get through my projects" list, and will be moving some projects to the "when I reincarnate" list.