Michael Fundaro

Matt McSpadden wrote:

Jay Angler wrote:I wish I had a Chinese style greenhouse (I might as well wish big!)

Granted - You now have a chinese style greenhouse that is bigger than you could keep up with. Styling is perfect, includes a relaxation spot on one end, and has the most perfect raised beds you have ever seen. Unfortunately, the builder knew nothing about greenhouses and the glass is facing away from the sun causing nothing to grow and weird temperatures issues.

I wish - I could dig out my neighbor's pond and restock it with fish, plants, and other critters.

Granted:  Your neighbors pond was dug out, and cleaned out, and a solar pump installed to provide ideal current for all fish and plants.  Unfortunately the fish are Parana's, the plants are Curly Waterweed which grows aggressively, can fill large areas and impedes recreational activities, alters ecosystems, and the "other critters" are crocodiles and snapping turtles.

I wish I had a friend willing to help work on projects all day and provide free beer and Detroit style deep dish party tray pizza every night.

You could mix in some Mexican seasoning and reheat it to make tacos or burritos, or nachos.

I am wondering, are you asking about the content such as instructions for the various projects like Rocket Mass Heaters and composting and gardening, and building techniques, etc?  Or was Paul correct in thinking you wanted a thumb drive with every single thread and topic and discussion?

I have read up on filtering duck pond water to keep the pond clean-ish.  Some people pump the dirty water off the bottom of the pond up onto a stone waterfall planted with plants that need a wet environment.  I do not recall any mention of the plants burning from the duck waste.  I also know some will pump the water through aquaponics tubes with plants "rooted" in the water to absorb the nutrients.
My personal experience is dumping the mucky water from our small kiddie pools towards our tomato plants just outside the enclosure and we never burned the tomato plants.
Based on this I think you will be OK.  I would do what you are suggestion without hesitation.

I watched it.
Thank you.
=-)

Lisa Bjones wrote:Thank you so much for this post! Our fire alarm system is hardwired with our alarm system, and the whole darn thing goes off randomly to the point that we can’t even use our alarm system (and haven’t in a few years). I had someone come out and check it from the company that services it, and they couldn’t “duplicate the problem” either time, so they couldn’t fix it. The only reason that I have the system at all is because it lowers our homeowners’ insurance. It’s totally useless, because I can’t enable the alarm system at all, or the stupid fire alarm will randomly go off. I have to leave it with the error code on there. I’m not sure what to do at this point except to tell them to remove the entire system and shove it if they can’t figure it out. This issue has been going on forever, and when I came looking, I found this old post and was wondering if you had made any progress with your situation?

I had this happen several times over about 5 months, with the last 3 times occurring over 5 days.  I learned that dust build up (and who knows what else) caused the photo eye sensor to trip so I used air in a can spray to blow out each alarm and the problem stopped.  I guess I will do that each year when I swap out the batteries.  
My system is only about 3 years old but I live in a desert and I have a wood stove so dust is everywhere.  I am about 5 months without a problem since I blew out each alarm.  Hopefully this helps.

Thank you all for this information.  I just placed an order.  I am hoping to do better than with the lame packaged seeds from the store, which have been less than successful.  The best plants we ever had were the tomato plants that grew from seeds our chickens missed and pushed just outside their fenced area.  Anything we planted from seed or bought in a pot from the store were lousy.  After reading info on their website it makes sense why the corporate varieties wont work around here.

Online videos will give you the information on gutting and skinning.
As for the meat, when harvesting a deer I simply cut loose each individual muscle from the bones and I either leave them as a roast, slice them into steaks, or cube them into stew meat which could them be ground into burger if desired.  Some parts may be damaged from the harvest, you may want to cut that section out and use any good meat around it as stew meat.  After removing all the large muscles do your best to trim off any remaining small pieces, again probably best used for stew or burger.
It isn't difficult, just take your time, use a sharp knife, don't cut yourself, and have a good supply of gallon and 2 gallon sized ziplock bags available.  Get each piece into a cooler as soon as possible.  If flies are around you can sprinkle the skinned animal with fine ground pepper and for the most part the flies will stay away, keep sprinkling the pepper as each new section of meat is exposed.  When you get home rinse everything with water and cut or slice each piece as desired.  This is when you decide to keep them as roasts or slice them into steaks or cubes or burger, not in the field.

Michael Fundaro wrote:There may be benefits to sifting, you did mention a few, but considering the amount of compost and the length of time it would take to sift it using your method I would suggest that you would be just fine scattering it as is and just picking out anything large as you are spreading it.  As for the wood chips and leave clumps, again I wouldn't worry about them unless they end up in the way of something you want to plant in the future.  

Every persons compost needs and methods are different so you will get many different opinions and suggestions.  Due to the ingredients available to me, and due to the lack of organic material in my native soil I mix manure and wood chips (and whatever good stuff I may have on hand) with plenty of water and mix it well in a repurposed cement mixer and then dump it into a pile to cook until I need it.  The wood chips don't have time to break down before I use it but unless I hit something large I just create a hole and pack the compost back around whatever I am planting.  However, I am usually mulching with more wood chips (or occasionally straw) to retain moisture so that is another reason I don't worry about wood chips.  Eventually it will all break down.

I am quoting my own post just to repeat my repurposed cement mixer method.  If anyone has a place in the yard to store such an item with a little local internet search an old cement mixer can be had fairly cheap.  As I mentioned before, whatever ingredients you have available to you can be put into the old mixer with some water and a few large rocks and tumbled for an hour or more and the rocks will do a decent job at crushing the mixture.  When you think it is done enough for you dump it out, pull the rocks aside, and let the water drain off.  The smaller greens and manure and organic table scraps will be pretty mushy and can be mixed in to or top dressed on to your garden dirt or you can let it set and compost for real on its own for several months or a year..  Any large pieces can be added into the next batch and spun again.

I know usable cement mixers are not everywhere but there are plenty out there if you look around.  Mine is electric, the original motor was bad and I swapped it out with a used motor for cheap.  An old gas mixer could be converted to electric or an old lawn mower engine could be swapped in by someone handy.  I haven't used mine in a couple of years but it will be used here within a month or two to make me more compost batches.  If you don't want to use electric or gasoline, create a tumbler with an old 55 gallon drum and an old bicycle.    You get exercise and a compost mix at the same time.

Look up natural fly repellant.  I think we make some out of peppermint oil, lemon grass oil, and a few others.  But, the girl seems to think that "Mosquito Halt" works good too.  I think it is mostly natural oils.  With that in mind look up natural oils fly spray and see what ingredients they include them make up your own.
Nothing works perfect but a good blend of natural oils work pretty good in the right dilution.
Good luck.