Marianna Johnson

Can a junkpole fence be set up using existing trees as the main supports? Either nailing or tying cross pieces to them? And would that still qualify for a badge?

Can I clean, sharpen and oil my Fokin hoe for a BB? Or does it have to be a shovel?

Chemistry 101 tells us: like dissolves like. That means for an oil based problem, you need an oil based cleaner. I'm still finding organic replacements for what I used in the past (i.e. Murphy's Oil Soap), but that's where I would begin.
Good luck!

I'm all over it, thanks! I'll keep searching and reading.

paul wheaton wrote:After three weeks with Sepp Holzer, while listening to Michael Pollan on CD, topped off with another excellent presentation by Paul Stamets ....

So many different sources of so much different information and this one, really important factor ...

Right now, do you take vitamins?  Herbs?  Medication?  Do you eat a certain way in order to mitigate some health issue? 

Our biological existence comes from having evolved to eat certain foods from a hunter/gatherer society.  100% of the food we ate either grew in a polyculture, or it was from an animal that ate from a polyculture. 

The organic food you buy at the store:  was it grown in monocrop rows?

When you plant your gardens this year, will it be in rows?  Even if you use companion planting, will you have one or two companion plants or dozens?

Add in to all of that:  we are only beginning to barely understand what we need for nutrition.  Every few years scientists come up with some new thing that we didn't really know about before - something we need that isn't in food as much as it used to be.  So we find ways to compensate.  There must be hundreds or even thousands of things we still don't know about.  And for all sorts of problems we are perpetually medicating ourselves.   Maybe wiith vitamins or lotions, or herbs or chemical medicines either OTC or prescription.  It seems like damn near everybody it taking something for some problem.

With a polyculture .... mycelium excahnges wee bits of stuff with lots of plants for other wee bits of stuff.  So it makes sense that a carrot growing next to an onion would have a bit of exchange going on there.  A little bit of the onion would end up in the carrot.  And if there was an oak tree - a bit of that would end up in the carrot.  And if there were a thousand species of plants around the oak tree, then a little bit of all of those would end up in the carrot.  Including little bits of plants that we never would think to eat.

And I just wonder ....    what if damn near all of ickiness would go away if we just replaced row crops with polyculture.  The poly-er the better. 

Just a thought.

I am on the journey of using "health care" (permaculture, polyculture, healthy diet and exercise) to replace my "sick care" (a plethora of medications for numerous and severe health issues). I don't care how long it takes. I am extremely knowledgeable about the medical field; I'm also knowledgeable about herbalism and natural healing. I WILL figure this out.

Rachel Klucjasz wrote:I've always had asthma, I've always had to use some drug to breath. Every now and then one stops working and I'm shuffled through a buffet of chemicals to find my new controller medicine. Most days I'm resigned to this but deep down it pisses me off lol pardon the outburst.
It's a total long shot but has anyone found a better way? I read years ago about a dude who infected himself with hookworms saying it created a symbiotic relationship, the hookworms poop keeping his immune system from going haywire.
I'm not going to run out and do anything rash, but I am curious if anyone here has had any good results self managing their asthma?

I am asthmatic, absolutely deadly if I get near a cat. I'm also an herbalist. I used to make many ER visits a year, until I was prescribed Advair inhaler. I hate having to use a steroid, but this one only goes in the lungs, and does keep me from dying. But I want something better!

My number 1 go to herb is ephedra, called ma huang in Chinese. Powerful decongestant, but don't use too much. Lavender helps relax chest muscles and bronchi. Also pleurisy root (butterfly weed) is helpful. If you need additional information, respond to this and I'll reply.
Good health!

I can see in my research so far that the typical- or possibly only- wofati design has much open space and little to no separation between rooms. It's beautiful, airy and social, but I have certain requirements for where I'm going to live. In a nutshell,  I need a bedroom to which I can retreat in COMPLETE isolation with minimal noise transfer to or from the rest of the house, so I may cope with mental illness "wobbles" and re-ground myself. And thankfully, in such a wonderful house that in it's inherent design honors nature and the earth, it will be a much more simple task.

I am hiring a structural engineer to help me design what I need into my first wofati project, and help me get it past the code laws here in the Commonwealth of Virginia (no easy task). Can I get any guidance on putting clearly separated rooms into my design? I am a brilliant scientist, but physics was always more difficult for me; nevertheless, I am learning.

I need an entrance area, kitchen, dining area, living/social room, workroom and 3 bedrooms.

Hey there, I live in rural-ish Virginia between Richmond and Fredericksburg. I turned 50 this year, and while I've been described as a shot of whiskey without a chaser, I know how to party with the big boys without needing bail money. If nothing else, I'm a damn good friend.

I've had problems with ants many times, but this year a species of ginormous black ant moved into my kitchen. They were so big I could hear them talking and I'm still worried I may have to claim them on my taxes.

Every other time, my homemade version of Terro ant bait worked well (9 parts corn syrup mixed with 1 part boric acid). Ants come in droves to gobble it up, take it back to the colony, and die. Other ants that handle or eat the dead also die. The only 2 drawbacks are that I have to use the bait outside and it must be protected from rain; also, it leaves behind prime real estate for a new colony. But this year it didn't work!

I tried a cayenne pepper spray; pepper gassed myself, kitchen inhabitable for hours, and left behind pissed off ants. (However, a strong cayenne infusion, piping hot and poured down the entrance to the colony ensures no ants there EVER again.)

I finally figured out why nothing was working. These ants had extremely hard and thick exoskeletons. DT to the rescue and success!

But I'm disappointed I didn't end up with an excuse to buy a flamethrower.

I had to cut down my peach tree due to a widespread infection from the trunk up. Almost broke my heart. Since Virginia gets notoriously humid in summer, should I treat the soil with something like liquid copper so it doesn't come back or spread to the neighbors? Any advice is welcome!
Thanks,
Marion