Jenn Lumpkin

This stuff was new to me, so I thought I'd mention it;  I just cut pieces of the material (that is 48 inches long), to fit into my windows, which are about 45 inches tall, and all summer long the A/C has come on very little, me opening up the doors and using a fan to bring in the cool morning air (starting about 6:00 a.m.), then closing up as the day heated up, so the house STAYED cool throughout most of each day.  Anyway, thought I'd mention this stuff which, IMHO, has kept my electric bill for cooling DOWN:

Amazon Smart Shield insulation

I am anticipating taking the pieces down during the day in the winter, (except on super-cold days) to let in the sun, then putting them back in the evenings.  The pieces of insulation have been stiff enough I didn't have to use anything except to push them into the window frames.   I also have curtains made of space blanket hung on the windows, plus regular cloth curtains over that, but this insulation material seems to have made the most difference.

a couple additions:
lobelia inflata (respiratory, expectorant)
wood betony (in the mint family)  (mood)

Viili   https://www.yemoos.com/pages/viili-guide
Filmjolk    https://www.yemoos.com/blogs/yemoos-blog/what-is-filmjolk

Judson Carroll, you might consider looking into water kefir.  I bought mine on eBay from a nearby source, but the heat of summer in a mail truck and mailbox would make it better to just find, if possible, a source you could pick up water kefir grains from!  or wait until Fall.  (so the living grains don't die in the heat).  ... for juice, I just use those with100% juice.

Some other herbs I've been fermenting with water kefir:  (sorry this is about "other than mints")  
Calendula (helps with chigger bites, SKIN) (works!)
Mullein (hearing?) (not sure, a few nights ago I got a cracking sound in one ear and suddenly could hear much better for about 15 seconds)
Milk Thistle seeds (crushed) (DETOX) (don't know if it works)
St. John's Wort (haven't tried it yet) NERVES
Haritaki (tastes acrid) don't remember what it's good for  ...  

btw, just did a search, this is a link to info about kefir posted, it seems, by Dom's wife:
https://myfermentedlife.com/kefir-grains/

I am not an experienced herbalist, but have been deeply suffering from grief over the death of my nearest and dearest.
Looking online (over two years after, btw), for nervines, I decided to try wood betony, just bought online.  

I've been fermenting with water kefir, sugar, and fruit juices, and long ago, SOMEwhere, I'd read that fermenting herbs brings out their qualities more strongly (mebbe it was "Dom," an Aussie now deceased, but deep into the uses of KEFIR.  In fact, he had a phrase he called "kefir d'medica" (IIRC), about using kefir to ferment herbs.)

Anyhoo, I used water kefir to ferment wood betony.   Into a fizzy fruit juice drink.  You keep a 1st ferment of water kefir going by using the fermented sugar water liquid and replacing it every 3 or 4 days onto your water kefir "crystals" with sterilized-by-boiling sugar water.  Very simple.
Basic recipe for 2nd ferment water kefir with wood betony (made one 33-oz swingtop bottle of infused water kefir, btw):
7 gojifruit, 2 tbsp. wood betony (cut and sifted), 1" chunk of ginger chopped, about 6 oz. fruit juice (in this case, Tropicana Fruit Punch).  Allow to sit and Ferment about 4 days.  (I use the green quart lemon juice bottles made of PETE, because they're strong and less likely to explode.  But you need to "burp" the bottle by CAREFULLY opening the lid a half twist and allowing gas to escape  a couple times a day).  
After 2nd fermention, strain out the liquid into a 33-oz swingtop bottle, I added more fruit juice (a bit more sugar to gently continue ferment to get a nice FIZZ),  (in this case, Ocean Spray Cranberry Concord 100% juice), (ALWAYS leave about 3" of AIRSPACE at the top of the bottle, this is a living fermention and pressure builds up!)  after another day sitting at 79 degrees F in the glass swingtop bottle, (temp here in summer), refrigerate ... after it's cold, ... DRINK!

IT WORKS.  For grieving sadness, (tho' in my case, after 2 years).   Calming!!!     I'd say ... "normalizing."  
So I thought I'd mention it.  It also tastes pretty good, being mostly a fizzy fruit juice drink.  

I've had Babbington leeks, that had crossed with some kind of winter-hardy leek I'd planted years ago ... and stopped having bulbils that flowered at the tops of the plants and started putting up ball-shaped flowers.  Many of them!  They've been here FOREVER.  
But oddly they've all disappeared, or so it seems to me.  
I've also got Spanish Roja garlic I'd planted from bulbils several years back.  The tops with more bulbils from the plants that were growing just fine this past Spring are still there, but the plants themselves have disappeared.  
I haven't dug down to see if there are bulbs or not.  
I am also in Ozarks.
I've also noticed a couple other odd things.  
The poke plants that had been growing tall at the side of my garden have collapsed (?) overnight!   was it some animal that did it?  But going to the mailbox, another poke plant leaning sideways ...
Apple tree, supposedly disease-resistant, just totally dead.

Hi folks, well it's raspberry season here again.  I wanted to tell about these red raspberries I planted (amongst other varieties) probably about 8 years? ago.  They're called "Dorman Red" and they SPREAD all over in dappled shade.   By this time they're all over the shady area on the south side of the carport.  They do have thorns, but the thorns aren't that bad.

From what I've read about them, they're part (half?) THIMBLEBERRY, which is a plant that prospers and spreads and is apparently wild in Michigan.
Well these have spread too, on the south side of my metal carport, but in the shade of a large Manchurian apricot (NOT a good tree, btw, for apricots since it's only ever produced apricots one year out of about 20!) in only slightly improved dirt (from many years ago).  They are not quite as strong-flavored as "Heritage" raspberries, and slightly flatter, but for sheer persistence and ease I totally recommend them!!   I'm pretty well amazed at how easily and without any work from me, they have spread.

I've been gone about a year (going through grief) but saw this and thought, yep, somebody on Permies might be interested.
a wood heater design challenge workshop.
Being able to use small branches and twigs as fuel is, to me, very worthwhile, rather than having to harvest whole trees!
I don't know if these folk having this design challenge would think about that aspect.

https://www.energy.gov/eere/bioenergy/articles/just-released-new-wood-heater-design-challenge-workshop-report

some of you folk might be interested in getting this newsletter from Dept. of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.  
Seems worthwhile reading to ME.  They're putting more $$$ into alternative and renewable energy nowadays.
https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USEERE/bulletins/35fff91

I am no expert on gout, but a friend of hubs had sent him a link to a video about an herb called Chanca Piedra:  (the video segues into a second video about Chanca Piedra that is even more informative, btw)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy_pA6GdiVI