Scotttt Davis

We live in the burbs, we took a master gardeners class on basic food storage techniques/preservation. The instructor also lives in the burbs. He walks around his neighborhood and sees ( as do we ) homes with fruit trees that go untouched. He approaches the homeowner/renter and volunteers to keep the tree mess cleaned up in exchange for the fruit, he cans/dehydrates and he also trades harvested fruit for meat and eggs from friends in the countryside. We share our extra fruit with family, friends and donate some ( some trees produce so much you can’t even give it away ) to the local food bank. We are learning to can and dehydrate fruits, herbs and veggies. Wish we could afford one of those freeze drying contraptions.
This year, 2024, we saw organic zucchini going for $3.49 lb and we were giving it away. 4 plants produce a lot of fruit.

Good morning, A couple of years ago my wife and I decided to get a worm bin after attending a garden talk at Sylmar High School in Sylmar California and speaking with a wormer at a local farmers market. We decided on one of those multi layer Japanese Pagoda looking ones, small enough for the two of us. So off we went and set it up in our garage following the instructions. Next we went and bought worms at a local farmers market put them into the bin and a week later added some finely cut up kitchen scraps. We waited a week and added more scraps, noting that there was not much progress ( though we did see some worms ), but we are patient being new to worm composting. Well after about 3 months we saw no activity, digging through the scraps now moldy and slightly smelly we saw no worms. We spoke with our "worm lady" at the farmers market and started over just because. New media, kitchen scraps and then got new worms. Well about 2 months later we went through the bin and no worms at all. The worms did not escape from the bin because we kept the lights on in the garage, the temperature was not hot for too cold. So exasperated at this Time we decided to start over with a bigger bin thinking the bin was too small. Well as I was cleaning out the worm bin layer by layer I discovered a frog in the bottom where the "juice" would be and I swear it was smiling at me, or maybe laughing. Well it was happy and after we stopped laughing at ourselves I removed the frog to the garden.
The moral to this story is "you've got to keep your sense of humor", we don't always have complete control even when we follow instructions.

Question? Did your teacher walk/ride for his health? And are you going to do it for your health? help the environment or to save money? I walk for my health. I rode my bicycle to work years ago for my health and because my car quit working and I could not afford to fix it. I find riding my bicycle is actually bad for my health do to drivers of vehicles where I live.

As a kid we used to nail them, sharp edge up, on a piece of wood, they made a great mud scraper.

I had a book once called "Pallet Wood Furniture". I made a few pieces then loaned the book to a friend and never saw it again. The book recommended looking for pallets coming from Asia, like for motorcycles, because the wood in Asia is not like our soft pine and fir, it can be Mahogany or even Teak. But this was in the 1907's so I don't know if that is still the case.

To help with your plant/tree addiction ( it is one of the few positive ones to have ) I would visit your local county website for their gardening classes/locations also "permies" type groups and visit them. You have a beautiful Public Botanical Garden or 3 in your area ( San Diego Botanical Garden for one ) that have gardening classes and they have classes ( some free some with a fee ) but you will meet many people with your same addiction. You can take along cuttings and/or starter plants to trade or just to give away. We have met so many nice ( and like minded now friends ) people this way and have learned much from them. Also you can probably donate trees to "Habitat for Humanity" or some other like minded group. So then your addiction actually gives you "real" pleasure.

I don't know about using wool as an insulation because even if it is cleaned if it gets wet it can cause more problems plus it does breakdown over time. I would also think that the cleaning process to remove all the potential insects/their eggs, harmful bacterias and so on would be rather expensive today. I would opt for a soy based spray foam type if you can afford it.
But if you have lots of wool left overs after shearing try using this in the soil as pellet fertilizer and as a moisture holding medium. We have a company here in California that produces these pellets. Maybe you could start a home based business with the wool.
Here is their info: www.integrityalpacas.com, email charlene@integrityalpacas.com

We have 2 garlic presses ( one which reverses with tines that push the garlic from the holes, sort of a self-cleaning ) and 2 graters ( plate type ) plus a rind grater and the standard mini-vegetable grater. But we use knives to cut and chop the garlic every time we use garlic.
The only tip I can offer here is how to get rid of the garlic smell from your hands. Grab a stainless steel table knife and wash your hands with soap and water while holding the knife between your hands, works every time.

It looks to me like you have 2 problems, spider mites? but also watering too much? your tree looks weakened like maybe you have a root rot problem also. I would check the depth of moisture in your soil at that tree, you could also check the roots at the same time. We had the same type of problem on a couple of stone fruits but got to it too late. Had we diagnosed it sooner we could have saved them. I would spray with "neem" oil and add a "neem" oil dilution to the soil when you water next you can also make a "rosemary" tea and add it to the water, insects do not like rosemary or neem oil. Watering with these solutions will allow the tree to uptake them all the way to the leaves and help repel sucking insects.