Mark Scofield

I suppose you could steep them for tea.  My favorite is ripe mulberries, dark purple, add a little sugar and some water.

Mark Scofield

Wind strengthens plants to make them less susceptible to breakage.  It is also fun to walk in high winds.

Mark Scofield

Compost greens and browns at a 1:3 ratio respectively.  Greens are vegetable and fruit peelings, browns are egg shells, cardboard, shredded paper, egg cartons, wood ashes, coffee grounds.  Also consider using biochar, by burning wood twigs in the absence of oxygen.  Make sure the biochar is aged at least one year before using in the garden.

Mark Scofield

Have you tried pruning your cherry bushes/ trees?  I pruned our Haralson apple tree and gooseberry bushes.  The squirrels love the apples & gooseberries, while the bunnies love to gnaw and chew on branches of both plants.

Mark Scofield

Try tapping black walnut estimated 100:1 ratio.  Similar ratio for paper birch.  My sugar maples yield 30-35:1 depending on available moisture and the number of freeze/thaw days.

Mark

Janey:

You say you like old movies, so do I!  The Hennepin County Library system and its companion Inter Library System (ILL) is a great source of old movies in the DVD format.  The Criterion Collection is my go- to old time movie service that recognizes true art films and digitizes old movie that were feared lost.  Two of my favorite actresses from the past are Greta Garbo & Anna Magnani.  My favorite strong actresses for today are Isabelle Huppert, Liv Ullman, and Golshifteh Farahani.  My favorite strong actors are Takashi Shimura, Alec Guinness, and Ken Ogata,  My favorite directors are Shohei Imamura, Akira Kurosawa  Jim Jarmusch, Sergei Eisenstein, Andrei Tarkovsky, Frank Wolf, Kevin Costner, Michael Moore, David Lean, Jean Troell, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata (both from Studio Ghibli), John Waters, and Carl Theodor Dreyer.  I love films that showcase the "Human Experience" that we all share.  To quote REM, "I have lived a full life" and feel uplifted and inspired when I see these films.

My favorite radio station (and has a free website service too) is AM950 in St. Louis Park, MN.  They feature brilliant minds such as Thom Hartman, David Packman and Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!).  They also feature a wildly funny and profane all gay lineup show "The Stephanie Miller Show ("Girls Rule the World" theme song)."  Randy Rhodes (from Florida) in the evening is one of my favorites too, but it is on too late for me, damn!  "Native Roots Radio" is an excellent source for local "Indian Country" issues and information.

Some of my favorite YouTube sites are as follows: for permaculture Canadian Permaculture Legacy, for backcountry adventure Justin Barbour, for off grid living SSLFamilyDad, for political analysis Beau of the Fifth Column, for hunting and fishing New Zealand's Clay Tall Stories, for biblical humor DarkMatter2525.

My favorite books for permaculture are Jerry Baker's "Garden Solutions," Akiva Silver's "Trees of Power." Donald Culross Peattie's "Trees of Eastern and Central North America," Elias and Dykeman's "Edible Wild Plants," and the Peterson Guide Books series.

I have been camping (groups and solo), fishing, and food gathering in the BWCAW since 1986 and up to 2020.

I volunteered with the Superior National Forest (wildlife volunteer) in 1992 and with the MN DNR (Frog and Toad Survey) from 2006-2018.  I am a big time birder, I am especially skilled in identifying birds by their songs and calls.   I am big into Phenology and its relationship to climate change and global warming.  However, we are also overdue for the next ice age, I believe.  Clean water is the key to life.  Sustainability is the key to survival.

In my day "money is time" was the mantra.  Now I hear "money is data" and I think what a scary thing that is to me.  Education is the key, so never stop learning!  I am a super high energy person and have many ideas on how to improve agriculture.

As ABBA sang, "Take a chance on me."

Mark Scofield
Permies.com, Newbie

Hi:

As the Boss sang in "Spare Parts," "Janey had a baby and it wasn't any sin."

I am a Gen Xr too.  I live in Crystal, MN a first ring suburb of Minneapolis.  I am technically homeless (I am my mother's caretaker, but she owns the house 100%).  My education was a BA in Mathematics at the University of MN twin cities.  I have always been a lifetime investor and have saved, saved and saved.  I worked mainly in the home mortgage business for 14 years.  During that time of employment and after that I practiced permaculture without the term:  maple sapping, wild berry and nut harvesting  (canning, dehydrating, storing), gardening (every imaginable seed I have saved), wild bee habitat, prairie flower garden (periodic prescribed burning, constructing bee homes).  I have planted wild flowers all over my mother's lawn.  We have had edibles in our yard:  Haralson Apple tree, rhubarb, strawberry, red raspberry, black raspberry, blackberry, red currant, gooseberry.  All of these plants are suffering (with the added two years of drought) with the exception of gooseberry (shade tolerant), because of the ever growing shade tree monoculture:  Sugar Maple tree in the back garden with all its babies and two other sugar maples.  Composting is even difficult and pathetic.

The twin cities is great for the urban food garden.  Raw supplies for permaculture abound.  I am like a cave man in attitude and diet.  I can suffer and am not ashamed or afraid to do so.

Mark Scofield
Newbie to "permies.com"

from Mark Scofield

I am looking into purchasing a small house and outbuildings in a rural area in Minnesota to practice small scale permaculture.  Shelly Stern, if you are interested in potentially joining me please respond in kind.  Thanks!