Burra Maluca

All ages here, from just germinated to totally defunct...

$200 would cover the remaining materials we need for building the bench for the rocket mass heater with enough left over to stock up on emergency food supplies in case tshtf. Split lentils, rice, beans, that sort of thing.

$1000 would give us enough to get a decent solar panel for battery charging and materials to render the walls downstairs, put the tile floor down, build a pantry with loads of shelves and extend the grey water pipe so it reaches the furthest fruit trees. We might need a few more barrels for the willow feeder too.

My son built one so he could get the tractor up to the next terrace to get building materials to the house.

I just used whatever soil and stone we dug up from behind the house.  started piling it in the corner of the cliff, then just kept putting the soil as high as I could.  if I couldn't get very high with the tractor, then it was too steep, so I put the soil lower down to let the tractor go higher.  also, took a pickaxe to the top corner of the cliff to taper it down slightly

He would load soil up into the link-box on the back of the tractor and reverse up the ramp as it was built to unload it and build the ramp higher.



Then when he finally tested it driving forwards he tied an old concrete sink to the front end to weight it down it a bit.



The finished ramp.

Austin's mum used to have a pair of castrated male goats that helped her around the farm - called Port and Starboard, naturally...



Here's a link to some more info about them , including stuff about harness, breeding and training.

I have no experience with them, but I want to share these videos from one of my favourite youtube channels which might be of interest.

The first one is only available in Spanish but has subtitles. The others have an option for an AI generated translation.

The carters and their hard life in the mountains. Taming of oxen for the transport of wood


Handmade YOKE with a WOODEN TRUNK. Manual carving of this agricultural piece by an expert


Plowing the Field with Cows. The Yoke and Other Traditional Farming Tools | Documentary


1500 kg stone roller pulled by oxen to flatten land as in the past

From the article...

At first, the solar installation appeared to be simply occupying unused land. But researchers working in the region began noticing subtle differences in the ground beneath the arrays. Soil temperatures behaved differently from nearby desert areas, and moisture seemed to remain longer after the rare rainfall events that reached the plateau.

And a video from the same area showing how sheep have been integrated into the system, keeping the vegetation mowed.

Oooh and another lot just showed up being cleared out from a renovation site. Too thick for what my son wants them for, and a bit battered round the edges, so they can go up to improve the attic insulation.

Lovely pair of plums...

This made me laugh more than I expected...

sean lofland wrote:I've had a profile twice on this site. I'm not going to do a third time. The first time I had a little bit of detail. I was inundated. By scammers, and by a lot of women.

That were not only turned out to be hateful in conversation. How dare you eat meat. What do you mean you don't do this. How dare you think of raising enough crops to sell. Also some of the women that contacted me were scammers in their own right. Hey can I borrow insert here.

The second time around. I added values and what was important to me. Like church, that I wanted to have more kids, that I'm a veteran. Mentioning I was a veteran that lit a fuse on dynamite. Talk about the hate and vitriol.

This breaks my heart to read. I've retired as a moderator, but I'd like to share a few tips on avoiding problems in the future and helping to keep the site as free as possible from scammers and nastiness.

First, check someone's post history. If the only posts they've ever made are in the singles forum, it's not a good sign that they are 'real'.

Second, don't hand out your email address too soon. If anyone breaks the 'not nice' rule in a purple moosage, report it. Staff can check it and decide on appropriate action. If a member is trying to harass or scam you, they might be trying it with other members too and steps can be taken to nip the behaviour in the bud. Once you've taken the discussion to email there's not much permies.com can do.

Third, make a few posts yourself on the main boards, with projects, hopes, dreams, advice, questions etc. That way potential partners can check you out quietly and see if you are likely to be a match. Plus you get the fun of sharing stuff and having questions answered and helping other people.

Like Roble says, some people are shy or arrive here first via the singles forum and we don't want to get rid of it. But it's far from problem free and acts as a scammer magnet and a way for people to attempt to push their own beliefs onto you. Please protect yourself, and the forum as a whole, as best you can.