M Ljin

As much as I agree with Paul’s answer to the issue, I still think the issue is likely to he different.

Paul suggests unemployment—I suggest that there will be a lot more jobs and they will be harder, more grueling, and less pleasant than today’s worky jobs. There will be a lot of jobs created in pollution management, power plants (of all kinds and fuels), in mental health management and treating AI-induced psychosis (because people won’t be forced to use their brains at all) and in general feeding the AI machine and cleaning up after it. The solution is still the same: live sanely.

There is a historical precedent, the Industrial Revolution. It took away the work of spinners, weavers, craftspeople of all sorts and started rolling out mass produced cloth, leading to lots of people losing their jobs. Then, the machine, even hungrier, had to pull a great chunk of the population out from the countryside and into the city for factory jobs. People weren’t satisfied with what the automated process could make, they wanted more! And so the machine got fed and now we’ve fast fashion and disposable clothes, a lot more worky work around and not much unemployment last I heard.

Non-permie family veto. Also worry about pipes freezing without a hot-air system.

No wonder I feel so nasty in the house, we’ve had toxic levels of carbon monoxide… sadly no chance of changing this, but I can change some things which is good.

bump…

I would also plant oaks or chestnuts for nuts, because I feel like they’re one of the healthier staple foods for starch, all considered. Red oak (Quercus rubra) is the kind growing here and they double as a source of fat.

Or maybe you have some excellent native nuts?

While looking up Tasmanian trees I found a fascinating species, not really a nut tree though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus_regnans?wprov=sfti1#

Not going to suggest crops so much as strategy…

As far as I understand no one has been able to have no inputs without fallowing, or food foresting.

The figure I have heard (maybe Will Bonsall said it?) is that cultivating more than one fourth (give or take) of the land at a time necessitates inputs—the rest being perennial something that goes into a composting (or animals). As a goat farmer the latter option seems wise! It’s also possible and possibly beneficial to rotate the cultivated area and leave the rest fallow.

So the goat manure and bedding go to making compost for your beds, which take up only 1/4 or less of the entire land (about a quarter acre per person— 9/4=2.5 acres). Turnips, say, could be good crops, and other roots—greens and vegetables could be gathered from the forests and fallows.

I also would include the forests and non-arable land into the food calorie equation because they can be excellent sources of all sorts of food—mushrooms, greens, some kinds of shade tolerant berries, etc. Especially if there are nut trees. And since they cannot be cultivated they need little input.

I would always emphasise foraging because it is so reliable and doesn’t require us to take up space in our own land.

Scott—

Why is the krafse blade curved? How does that benefit or how is it used? Most hoes are not like that so it is interesting to see one that is.

I believe those are taproots whereas kohlrabi is an enlarged stalk?

I used to have a “garden hoe” and loved it. I loved it a little too much and its handle broke. I do not have the equipment to fix its handle.

Currently I am using a small, short mattock, which is good, and better at cutting through sod than the garden hoe (would have to tilt side to side to cut it effectively). I also have used a large mattock, which, while very effective, is heavy and exhausting to use. It would be very efficient for heavier, rockier soils. I use hoes not so much to weed growing beds, as to prepare the soil, build earthworks, etc. The garden hoe was perfect for that and made it so much easier.

I would like to get a warren hoe at some point, because it seems like it would be especially good for some of my uses (deep weeding).

Timothy—that one you have looks excellent for pond digging!

Another advantage of hoes over shovels for digging is that they can be used bare-footed without any special affixions. (See  https://permies.com/t/361845/shovel-barefoot)

My neighbors across the valley grow Hablitzia. They grow back stronger every year, and they love the plants and use the greens a lot, but it doesn’t volunteer from the seeds produced, unfortunately.

Certainly a member of the sorrel/knotweed family. Likely some kind of wild buckwheat or black bindweed, maybe genus Fallopia.

My guess is Fallopia scandens, common names wild buckwheat vine or climbing black-bindweed.