Dave Bross

One of the more clever ways to leach out the tannins is to put them in a mesh bag hung in the water tank on a toilet.

Automatic water changes.

The one that worked for me was driving a school bus.

I liked it well enough I did it for 19 years.

There are many caveats and potential downsides if you choose to work for the wrong outfit so I wrote a short Amazon Kindle book about it.

How To Be A School Bus Driver

https://www.amazon.com/How-Be-School-Bus-Driver-ebook/dp/B007RRHW8M/ref=sr_1_1?

A friend had one of those high frequency boxes you're building on an old tombstone welder and it made it a very different and highly satisfactory beast.
Way easier striking and butter smooth welding.

I agree with your assessment of what a pain those tombstones are to weld with in stock configuration.
I've had one forever and have to employ workarounds like "stitching" on light stuff (spot welding every inch or so, then going back and spot welding between the original welds...rinse and repeat  ad nauseum)  and multiple passes with small diameter rods on heavy stuff.
I had to laugh watching a very talented hot rod/custom fabricator doing the same thing with a wire welder to avoid warping/burning through the thin auto body panels he was joining.

Certifiable it ain't, but what I do  works for what I need.

Randy...

Here are a few good vids:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j9V8DkXJVU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwkSTfNy1Nw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs1UhhJH0E8

My first job in the auto trade was working for a Mercedes shop. Back then (early 1970s) the exhaust systems on them had to first be fitted/mocked up in the car, tack welded, then pulled back off and welded completely.  We got a LOT of oxy acetylene welding practice. An odd thing we discovered was that the wire coat hangers the uniforms came on made the best gas welding rods.

Fast forward to the 1980s and owning junkyards and cutting things up with a propane/oxygen tip saved huge money using propane instead of acetylene. You can buy propane cutting tips for most torches.

All that to say I'm still quite fond of torch work.

One thing to be careful about on that old rig from your dad is that the diaphragms in the regulators may blow out from old age when you first put gas pressure to them. Just be ready to shut down the valve in case of unexpected excitement.

Looks like all the basics as I see them are covered here, but I can add one thing.

If you're going with a stick welder the 70 series rods are WAY easier to weld with, or to learn to weld with, 7018 and 7014 being the most popular.

Check this, or any of his other books:

Martin Crawford

https://permies.com/t/16041/Book-Review-Creating-Forest-Garden

more food forest than garden but plenty of useful crossover.

You can get around the bugs with timing...sometimes.

Try to grow whatever when the bugs aren't there.

An example here in N. FL is getting tomatoes in the ground in March, with freeze protection available, to get tomatoes before June first.

June first the bugs arrive and the heat will soon be too much for most tomatoes.

Not always do-able with all veggies but worth a look in case it would work for you.

Agreed on the sun factor being important.

I planted citrus up close to my oaks because that supposedly prevents the HLB disease ravaging Florida citrus.  End result was very slow growing citrus and long overdue to fruit...which I think is lack of sun.

Oaks are surprisingly shallow roots. When we get a lot of rain here even big old oaks can be uprooted and tipped over sideways by the wind, roots and all.
Don't know about apples.

Same here. Girardi was one of the mulberries I couldn't get to take that way either.

Very limited success with that one as cuttings also.

Now that my Girardi trees have finally fruited, which took 5 years, I don't like the fruit taste as much as others and there are very small numbers of fruit.

I am seriously considering taking the chainsaw to them.

In contrast, my Worlds Best fruited in two years, put on massive growth every year and are covered in tasty mulberries when they fruit.
They were even frozen to the ground last winter and have grown back to their original size in 10 months.

I have 6 - 7 varieties of mulberries and none come close to this one.

I got the original cuttings from Jan Doolin, who is easily found via searching her name and mulberry.

Mulberries are good about sprouting from a stick stuck in the ground...some more than others,

My most favorite and productive variety, World's Best, is very willing to take root this way.