Daniel Ebert

The download worked for me and the file seems fine as long as it is supposed to start on chapter 4.

I am not able to attend the workshop but I still had some thoughts on people making their own shippable core. This type of core seems like it would have a lot of value for someone living in a more traditional house in a more urban area. A person like that (me) has a lot of interest in melding the core idea with the wood box idea for a design that can be disassembled and moved.

Based on the prototype I saw in the RMH DVD's I am suggesting the term "castable core" unless I completely misunderstood it's construction and makeup. If so please tell me the method of it's construction if you are willing. Obviously once cast and cured it can be shipped. I have some experience with casting plaster, concrete and metal so I have a lot interest in the possibility of being able to cast a core.

For those of us that are non-attendees I still see the opportunity to sell plans for form work, casting recipes etc. showing how to build one. Also I would think there is a good chance a lot of the materials for making a core come in maybe a 50lb sack or something similar. So you end up with a lot more material than you would need. To me this presents the opportunity to also sell the hard to obtain or expensive materials in the appropriate amounts for specific designs for those of us who would rather make one than buy a finished core.

To follow up on Darren's post. The only difference between the free version and the pro version is the ability to import and export certain file types like DWG's and other CAD or 3D modeling file types (unless they changed something in the latest version).

Sketchup is fairly intuitive and reasonably robust for what it is. If you are looking to for info on how to use certain tools there is a ton of tutorials on youtube and other sites as well.

I grew up with Honey Locusts, they were all over the place at the old farmhouse where I grew up. The biggest grave surrounded where the old cow barn used to be. I am not sure if they were used because the can't be rubbed because of the thorns or because of the pods for the cattle to eat. The pods make good fodder and Native Americans used to eat the meat around the beans and use the pods to make a beer like drink.

I have never tried transplanting them but my experience is that you can't get rid of them. They reproduce by the pods obviously but also by suckers and if you cut one down it will sprout up form the trunk and you have to dig up the trunk if you really want to get rid of them.

I know there are thorn-less varieties that are ornamental but I have no experience with them only "wild" specimens. I have seen thorns of 5 or 6 inches or 12 to eighteen inches if you strip off the the branching thorns from a thorn cluster. The thorns break when stepped on and we never got any in our feet from them penetrating our shoe soles. However they are murder on wheelbarrow tires.

They seem extremely hardy and can grow almost anywhere, but in Ohio we get a lot of rainfall so in my experience hardiness means different types of slopes, solar exposure, soil and the ability to win out in "survival of the fittest" in the thickets of Ohio.

They grow in pretty dense stands but the leaves are pretty small so you get decent sun to everything below them and support dense ground cover including shrubs and small trees. Actually raspberries and blackberries seem to do very well under them so I assume beans and squash and other plants that like mottled exposure would do well too.

I have heard mixed things when it comes to nitrogen fixing but they do seem to improve the soil overtime and retain topsoil extremely well. I have also read that they do well as inter-crops with apples or other fruit trees but don't know why. If anybody has more scientific explanations for why to inter-crop them and use them in guilds with fruit trees I would like to know.

Hope this helps