Matt McSpadden

I do not claim to be a cast iron historian, nor have I spent much time researching historic cleaning methods... but I came across an article on facebook that says pioneers in the USA in the 1700's and 1800's use sorrel leaves to clean their cast iron pans... specifically to get rid of rust. It is supposed to release oxalic acid which is supposed to dissolved rust.

Has anyone else heard of this? Sounds like a pretty cool thing if it is true.

Please let us know what was effective for you. While we have ants up here in Maine, ... they are not very tenacious. We stir up the nest a bit and they don't come back.

Christopher Weeks wrote:Matt, is this still happening? I never heard back or received seeds. (If you ran out of time or energy or Noah changed his mind, I get it -- just checking in.)

This is absolutely still happening... we just ended up having a long series of crazy weekends :) Also, we don't think about seeds as early in the year as people farther south so... my fault :)

We had 3 or 4 people respond earlier. If anyone else sees this before March 13th, feel free to PM me and we can get you out a packet. We have plenty! I expect to mail these March 14th. As I mentioned earlier, it is USA only at this time.

Hi Walter,
How fast things break down will depend on your climate and how big of pieces you use. This is true of putting it on top, or building a wood core or hügelkultur mound.

A wet climate, it will break down faster, and smaller pieces will break down faster. I don't have any experience in how fast it would break down truly buried, but I put a bunch of sunflower stalks in a cold compost pile (just layered and let it sit), and when I came back a year later... I couldn't see any pieces.

The benefits will last for years, even after it appears to be completely broken down.

Hi Jen,
That looks great! I can tell you worked hard to alleviate issues with brooding the chicks. Could I ask how many you are planning to have in there at a time? My only question is if there was a large number of chicks, whether you have room for the feeder and waterer and chicks up on the balcony? If it got crowded, I'll bet you could figure out how to add a little shelf just outside the door so the chicks could access the food and water without the containers taking up space on the balcony.

As others have said, it will generally work fine, simply adding compost over the mulch.

As a general rule for myself, I tend to put the things with the biggest pieces or the least broken down on top. So if I had a layer of fairly fresh woodchips, I would move it to add the compost. If I had a layer of straw mulch that was half broken down, and I had some compost with big pieces, I would just put the compost on top.

Also, it depends on the time of the year. If this is being down in the fall and it has all winter and part of spring to settle... I think it matters less than if you want to plant in it next week.

It would appear that camels and pigs are mutually exclusive....

Megan Palmer wrote:I have been putting a couple of tablespoons of citric acid in the toilet every couple of weeks and found that really helpful in dissolving limescale deposits in those hard to reach areas right at the back of the toilet bowl.

I am definitely going to try this for ongoing maintenance.

Megan Palmer wrote:Depending on the coarseness of the pumice stone, might it scratch the surface of the porcelain and allow build up of stains in the scratches?

Supposedly if the pummice stone is wet it won't scratch. We will see over time.

So... I had some rings and stains in the toilet that i couldn't get off with a toilet brush. I was doing research and came across a bunch of people suggesting pummice stone scrubbers (just a pummice stone with a handle) for dealing with this. I was skeptical, but they were not very expensive.

They arrived yesterday, and I scrubbed today... and wow! They actually did  good job. My toilet has not looked this clean in a long time. I'm sold.

How to get back on your feet again