Jim Spaulding

Can someone add the dates to the top post? Neither the post or email included quite possibly the most important detail. I had to go nearly to the bottom of the full price ticket page to find it.

One thought that I had is to reconsider the images used. The copy of this page is for a non-gardener buying a gift for a probably non-permaculture, possibly miracle gro gardener. I think which cards are shown on the page could better match this intent.

The cards the non-gardener sees are:
1. Rocket Mass Heater (not a gardening thing)
2. Masanobu Fukuoka (never heard of him)
3. Solar Dehydrator (barely a gardening thing)
4. Dandelion (a WEED!?)
5. Honey Bees (oh I like these!)

So I would consider replacing these with more beginner friendly cards that build into permaculture specific topics:

1. Apple tree. Everybody loves apple trees.
2. Rhubarb. They’ve eaten this before (albeit only in pie [but we love pie])
3. Hugelkultur. They don’t know this word, but they see plants growing. Maybe plant people know about this.
4. Food Preservation. Oh, they’ll be growing so much they’ll need to save some.
5. Dandelion. They wonder why it’s there. Maybe you can eat it?

I’m pretty boring with mine - shred and mulch, then compost any leftovers. I have the Worx shredder, which does well to break them down.

This winter I am planning to use them to insulate my hydrangeas, using some snow fencing to keep them in place.

A problem that I’ve run into is tree roots growing up into my compost and other plants (nightshades, Virginia creeper) growing into it from the side. The tree roots make it difficult to turn or move the pile. The other plants are more manageable, but I don’t want to encourage them either.

One issue is that my pile probably is carbon heavy and cold. I’ve been able to push parts of it up to 100° F when I’ve added grass clippings.

I’m on a suburban lot, and don’t have any other great spots to put this. One experiment I’m running is putting a tarp under a pile. It’s got a little slope, so I’m hopeful that water is running off and keeping things aerobic.

I’m just outside Lansing, suburban .5 acre. I had the opportunity to attend the RMH workshop last fall and really enjoyed it. I’ll probably look for a PDC or similar course closer to home in the next year or two.

Attaching a bunch of pictures from my fence repair today, looking to cross post these to the Oddball PEP.

Hello there! I was looking for a place to post my goings-on (similar to the boot camp threads), and figured the Midwest forum was as good as any. I’m a little bit outside of Lansing, MI, and have a exurban half acre that backs up to a large wooded park.

I’m idly going through PEP, trying to remember to document the things I’m already doing and using it as a guide for new things to try. I do a good bit of gardening and cooking already. I’d like to do more woodworking, DIY, and food preservation.

I’m going to document things here, and use this as a place to dump photos from my phone, then add some context from my computer later. If you have any questions on stuff, let me know!

Hopefully not too much duplication with folks' comments above:

Overall design: is this missing a vertical firebrick at the outside corner of the burn tunnel and riser? Seems like this goes right up against the orange brick that makes up the retaining wall. I don't remember this from the Solarium build, but I'm pretty sure the builds that I worked on this fall had white firebrick for the feed tube, burn tunnel, and riser base.

4: I would add a sidebar about making cob, or if there's a good commercial replacement. The previous comment about a bill of materials would resolve this; x lbs clay, y lbs sand, 2 bales straw, stable fill, etc.
4: 1.5 - 2 barrels are required, a half for the manifold and a full barrel for the radiator.
5: I think the vertical lines are a bit out of place, the step labels make it pretty clear to me.  I would like a heading on this page - something like "An overview of the build"
19: Another angle on the manifold cuts would be helpful.
19+: I would use "barrel" when talking about materials, but once we make a cut or are talking about it as part of the build, refer to it only as the Manifold or Radiator.
19-20: I would swap these pages. One page dedicated to cutting the manifold and installing the flange, then a second for installing it on the jtube.
22: Highlight the flappy-dos in the top image.

For everyone having issues with adding a few cents - so was I.  I realized that Kickstarter won't let you add less than $1, so I needed to update mine by $1.14 to vote for potatoes.

I'm in!