Jenn White

Just a thought about reducing your footprint and materials for the driveway part of your project. In New England a century ago a popular economical driveway solution was to only pave parallel strips for auto wheels to drive on. Eventually the norm became paving the center too, but I recently read someplace that people were returning to the old double strip style because it’s greener, reduces water runoff and is obviously cheaper. Wonder if that might help you save some $$$.

We’re fortunate that our New England hobby farm is located on a major state road with power lines supplying the high school (also an emergency shelter), fire department and ambulance service. We’ve been here 22 yrs and typically never lose power for more than a few hours. (If you looking for a property, some food for thought!) We do prep for major storm events (mostly hurricanes and blizzards) just the same. I have an emergency checklist I follow a day before each potentially destructive weather event. Because we have horses that drink 5 gallons each a day, my top concern is always making sure we have enough water. Our 50 gallon stock tank gets cleaned and filled prior to a storm, and it’s enough to supply the barn and our house with gray water if needed. We also kept an old hand dug well we have on the property in service as a backup should we ever need it. We always have a spare filled propane tank on deck for our gas grill throughout the year for cooking, and our backup heat source is either a kerosene heater or fireplace, depending on our wood supply. We’ve discussed purchasing and installing a backup generator, but really the only benefit of having one to us would be peace of mind for the impending zombie apocalypse.

Hi Patrick, welcome. As a metalsmith, I’m not sure I’ve met a tool I didn’t like—I admit to being a bit of a tool hoarder. The products you’re representing look sweet

I grow them every year and the heads get stripped by the birds before I get a chance to harvest them. We had a horrible time with squirrels this season. They’re not only stripping the heads off all my sunflowers before they get a chance to bloom, they’re even scaling my 12’ tall flower stalks to do it. I’m trying something new this year with the survivors; I’m covering the seed head with shade cloth towards the end of the flower bloom time. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Last season I used some branches I pruned out of a maple tree on the property to build this sturdy four sided trellis. Our Kentucky pole beans loved this spot and produced enough to feed my family of three for the entire winter. (Sadly I don’t have a better shot from the end of the season to show how well it supported the weight of all those beans.) This was the second iteration. The first (second pic) was too top heavy and fell over during summer storms. The key for me was leaving the ends long enough to bury and anchor them well into the ground. I’m sure it’ll decompose and break down sooner than I’d like, but I figure it’s a better solution than purchasing something plastic, and there certainly isn’t a shortage of branches at our place. This season I hope to experiment with rebar.

I don’t have an answer either, but I too began exploring ollas as a sustainable way to irrigate my gardens a couple of seasons ago. I tried milk jugs with pin holes this past year, but they stopped working mid-summer. I have not had a chance to dig them up and examine them., but I’ll finish my experiment next spring.

I found some large clay ollas both online and in local garden shops available for purchase, however they were very expensive. Buying in large quantities made them cost prohibitive, so I started my research and picked up some porous clay to attempt making them on my own. I have a kiln, but it’s very small, so I’ll likely pit fire them. One of my info resources is gentleman on YouTube named Andy Ward. He specializes in teaching ancient pottery fabrication techniques. When I reached out to ask him about ollas he was very helpful and guided me in selecting the right kind of clay for the project and put firing, etc. You might want to reach out to him there. (Update: I went looking for a link to his YouTube channel to share below and discovered he recently made a video on the subject. I haven’t seen it yet, but my guess is that it’s an excellent resource.)



Good luck!

I have a small horse farm in the CT River Vally area. Fortunately, my bedding bags are eligible for a Trex recycling program our town participates in, however my feed bags are not. I’ve been hoarding them and waiting for inspiration to strike because I hate to add them to our landfills. Last spring I verified they’re made of a food grade plastic!  I decided to use them as grown bags for our potato crop, and it worked out very well. Our plant yields weren’t as abundant as those of our traditionally grown crops, but the convenience of growing in bags was a fair trade off IMO. I was able to grow potatoes right over our leaching field, which normally wouldn’t be used to grow veggies. It also became a great permaculture conversation starter in my town. People who saw them not only inquired about what they were, they asked if I had extras to share as well. A win in my book! 🙂

I’m in the CT River Valley and I also saw a decline in the bird population throughout the summer. I too saw the Autobon notice urging people not to put up bird feeders this season to help mitigate the spread of disease.  We grow sunflower every season and leave them in the ground until the birds have stripped them of all their seeds. I was trying to decide if I should take them down earlier this year, but now I’m not sure I even need to. Usually by now the gold finches are flying around our farm at Mach speed, while weaving in and out of the gardens feasting on seed heads, but so far I haven’t seen a single one yet. I’m still holding out hope for them. 🤞It’s been unusually quiet in the wetlands out back as well.

Ugh I missed it! My child has mono and I’m out of step with the outside world rn. If I sign up after the event will I still be able to listen to the recording?