Josh McDonald

As a fellow 6b, clay soil, hot weather gardener:

I've planted sunflowers and beans in mid-July (direct-sow) and still got a decent harvest (Average first frost is mid-October). I'm doubtful as to whether cool weather crops could get started in a summer here, though I might try setting up some temp shade for a month and see if beets and peas can grow under that. In the past, I've waited for it to cool down before trying to create a late-fall harvest, and it gets too cold and kills the plants before they produce.

The original Mistborn trilogy is my favorite of Sanderson's works--possibly my favorite book series of all time--and stands very well on its own.

The "Era 2" Mistborn set starting with "Alloy of Law" definitely works better after the original trilogy, but its last book gets pretty heavily into Sanderson's Cosmere where he overlaps with many of his other series with the idea that they are all part of the same greater universe. Some people recommend not reading the last Era 2 book until you've read a lot of his other stuff (The three before it come to a pretty good ending).

I have a write-up I'm working on (not quite ready to share in full), but the fundamental idea is that modern people in most developed countries have a terrible understanding of community. While "buy local" and "attend community theatre" are small parts of it, the most important part of historical community was shared work. The reason everyone is so overwhelmed all the time is that we don't share work anymore.

As a small-scale example, this year, I'm going to try to get some of the growers from my church to have a rotating schedule of sharing work, where we all meet at one of our houses and work on the garden for a couple hours. I'm not sure if the total work done will be higher, but we'll all learn more, connect better, and understand each others' garden, meaning we could easily help take care of it if someone went on a long trip.

You're running at a much larger scale, but you might be able to implement something similar. Likewise, when my kids are older, I'm hoping to get them to do work on a nearby farm (preferably permaculture) for very little compensation because the learning is the more valuable than most education we could get even by paying for it. At that point, my kids would be in an excellent position to help keep things together if the farming family wanted to take a vacation.

In short, I think one of the many benefits of building shared-work community is that it allows farmers to take vacations like the rest of us.

I've written a few novels and self-published one. I've also done a lot of reading and reviewing of other people's self-published novels, so here are my thoughts from that experience.

1. Almost all of the self-published novels I've read were weak. Most had ideas that could be made into a great story but missed the mark on execution--usually due to weak characters. My best guess is that they didn't get good editing or were unwilling to do as much work as their editors suggested. I look at my rough draft as about the 40% mark on writing a good book, as I think some fall into the trap of thinking a rough draft means "almost done".
2. People often recommend learning to format for e-book yourself, but you can also have it done for a couple hundred dollars, so it's really a time vs. money question. I spent the money, but I think the right choice is individual.

I may be available to read an early draft and give feedback: I say "may" because I am careful about committing future time, but I'd also like to help in your mission (and hopefully, I'll simply enjoy reading it). Feel free to PM me when you're ready, or maybe I'll see it on this thread.

My first reaction is "that sounds like something I'm interested in", and my second is, "Would I actually buy and read the book?"

It depends a lot on how applicable you can make the content. The top things that come to mind are:
1. Can this be broken down into smaller steps with clear benefit at each step? I've had my fill of articles or books that promise great results if you change 90% of your life. Not happening, unless I can break it down into 5% portions and get definable benefits after each.

2. How easy, tasty, and cheap are the recipes? It's related to #1, but it's that same thing where there are already thousands of people saying "Hey, eat this healthy muffin full of weird ingredients that my family loves so much they just can't get enough of". And I try it, and it's difficult and bland. So I conclude there are easier and more pleasant ways to be healthy.

3. What do you have that suggests benefits for people other than you? i.e. scientific studies, expert advice you've followed, etc. I always hear stories about how somebody started taking this one supplement or cut out this one food, and it transformed their health. Even if it's true for them, I've tried some, and most were duds.

In other words, I am thinking about all the times I've been disappointed by something similar and explaining what it would take for you to stand out from them. Hopefully it's useful.

Great thread. It's given me a few ideas for things I want to try (especially Erythronium for my shadier spots).

The one big thing I haven't seen mentioned here is Fuki. I think I'm going to wait one more year before harvesting mine, so I can't comment on taste, yet, but it's an extremely cool looking plant.

It likes wet and shade, so since I'm in Utah, I have it in a low spot where the water pools, and where there's enough shade. People warn about it being invasive, but I doubt it will survive outside of the little microclimate I planted it in, so that shouldn't be a worry.

Jenny Wright wrote:

Josh McDonald wrote:For me, the biggest struggle is direct-sowing seeds. I'm pretty successful with big seeds (sunflowers, beans), but haven't made a single tomato or beet pop up yet from a direct sow. Hearing Paul Wheaton talk about all the benefits really makes me want to succeed at it.

That's funny because I have the opposite problem. The big seeds are hardest for me because the birds and the rodents eat them up but they leave the tiny seeds alone. And then the ones that do sprout get nibbled up by the slugs.

I bet a big factor is your personal micro-climate and environment. Once you start saving your own seeds, you can afford to waaay over plant, direct sowing those hard to germinate seeds and then the few that come up will make seeds that will germinate even easier for you the following year, eventually ending up with varieties that will self seed for you.

Yeah, I'm in a hot dry environment, so I think it's hard for the tiny seeds to maintain enough moisture. And I'm in the suburbs, so few animals (with both the pros and cons that come with it).

For me, the biggest struggle is direct-sowing seeds. I'm pretty successful with big seeds (sunflowers, beans), but haven't made a single tomato or beet pop up yet from a direct sow. Hearing Paul Wheaton talk about all the benefits really makes me want to succeed at it.

I would expect them to be fine unless they ran out of sugar to eat. Start a new batch to be sure, but I always have 2 bottles going--primary ferment with the grains and no flavoring, secondary ferment with the flavoring and no grains. I've made mistakes before getting the grains with other things, and they seemed to work normally after.

Wow, that's bad. Based on my own experience, I'd second Douglas's suggestion of diatomaceous earth. It doesn't have the "nuke everything" effectiveness of some insecticides, but it greatly reduces bug problems without any of the side effects of other solutions. I'd also look for entry paths from under the house, as that has been a problem spot for us in the past.

The Ozone solution sounds interesting, but as I have no personal experience on that one, I'll let others speak to it.