Matthew Woods

I agree with M Ljin the path most likely to succeed is going to focus on perennial crops.  I don't know anything about the adverse pressures Tasmania, but assuming the climate zone reference is anything like the USDA climate zones we use here in the USA you're in a good macroclimate to meet the challenge.  I'd focus on the long term challenge, which won't be calorie production.  In that climate with consistent effort I'd sail right by the calorie threshold in a few years just developing the land on autopilot.  The real challenge will be dietary nutrient profile and a degenerative environmental impact if practices neglect a waste stream, introduce a parasite cycle, redistribute nutrients with a geographic bias, etc.  That's where my attention would be during design activities.  I'm interpreting no inputs to mean short term dependencies on outside resources.  A land area of just ten acres is several orders of magnitude to small to avoid resource scarcities.  

Ten people is also an abundance of labor for ten acres so I wouldn't shy away from practices that require intensive management, but I'd still avoid practices that make the local (site) ecology dependent on human labor.  After a good year of observation I'd plan transit ways, cite structures and water works, then work up a plan for the long lived stuff.  Without knowing the site any proposal I make is just blind guessing, but it would likely involve a lot of timber and nut trees, some kind of livestock integration, and an alley cropping system (or equivalent) to make use of annual plants and your abundant labor resource to compensate for whatever design deficiencies appear until they're resolved.  I'd probably also give a lot of consideration to aquatic and riparian areas.  You've the rainfall to support them and the labor to do the land forming.  They're just so productive!  A one acre pond full of panfish and surface plants (lemna, azola, watercress, etc) with a half acre island full of running bamboo, waterfowl, locust and almond, and various utility infrastructure could be a powerful local resource center.

Turning waste plastic into a liquid fuel is next level upcycling. How about amend the sand level badge to specify a quantity of fuel, perhaps a quart?  Make it worth more points.  

Then you could make a straw badge for a useful quantity, maybe five gallons.

A wood badge BB might require a home production scale system that can demonstrate ann output like five gallons per month.

Iron badge could be a cottage industry scale system: 50 gallons per month.

Perhaps a grey water system for wash water at household scale that serves as irrigation for a perennial tree/bush crop? Might make a good straw badge BB.  

For example, an irrigation ditch or French drain that distributes waste water from a minimum of one each of: shower/tub, dishwasher, and clothes washer to not less than four perennials.

The quantity and periodicity of meals has a meaningful impact on nutrient uptake independent of total nutritional content.  For example, the protein saturation threshold of blood is actually quite low in light of dietary needs. Protein synthesis is quite slow which often results in much of the protein people (over)eat being filtered out as waste while the very same person remains chronically protein deficient.  

A healthy person of normal body weight can only assimilate about 40g of protein in a four hour period but we need about 0.5-0.7g per pound of body weight per day to maintain healthy muscles and connective tissue. People building muscle or healing from traumatic injuries need more. Since the amount we can use from one meal is limited additional meals are needed for more. The blood saturation levels of the other macro nutrients are much higher, practically, but similar constraints exist for many micronutrients.  

Here, in western Ohio, the water deposits so much lime we might be able to lime wash walls by simply misting them with well water on a hot day!  As such, everyone here has a tactic for decalcifying their shower heads. I prefer to wrap the shower head in a used plastic bag filled with vinegar. Let it soak overnight. Then brush with an old toothbrush saturated in vinegar to remove any stubborn deposits. If any jets remain clogged, repeat with fresh vinegar.


Photos required:
- Dirty/calcified shower head operating poorly
- Cleaning/decalcifying the shower head
- Newly cleaned/decalcified shower head operating properly

Here in western Ohio the limestone bedrock saturates well water, as well as most surface waters, with calcium. Lime deposits accumulate rapidly so, I decalcify my plumbing fixtures about every three months rather than wait until they’re clogged. Since I can be certain they’ll clog within a year, anyway, it makes sense to decalcify as part of preventative maintenance.

I prefer to flush any debris under running water. Then scrub the parts with vinegar and an old toothbrush. After that I soak the aerator overnight in vinegar. The next day I scrub any remaining material.


Required pics:
- Clooged or decalcified aerator
- Cleaning/decalcifying the faucet
- Newly cleaned/decalcified faucet operating properly
- A description of the method for how the faucet aerator was cleaned/decalcified

I’d like to offer a general suggestion for those who has a similar situation in the future. Traditionally hemp ropes were used for rigging at sea due to their strong resistance to environmental stress.  It’s a good choice for a clothes line, but can be a bit rough on the users’ hands. Sisal rots easily so if you live in a dry climate it might be a good option, but if you get pretty regular rain may be short lived.  For any kind of commercially made outdoor cordage check out websites that market to sail boat owners. They offer an endless variety of tough reliable weather hardy lines and more accessories for rope work than you can imagine.

One basin of my two basin kitchen sink hasn’t drained well for awhile. The zip tool, unexpectedly, brought up an oil waxy cottage cheese like substance. It did improve drainage noticeably. The stench was pretty foul. I don’t typically put a strainer in that basin and I think some food gunk must’ve gotten lodged in there.

My sign was made from 2x6 #2 pine finished with Linseed Oil during the 2024 SKIP event. It’s a much larger than the minimum required length. I planned to use a propane torch but Paul’s router went missing and a wood burning iron turned out to be a better choice, anyway.  Another SKIPper made the sign “Dances” which was mounted to the same post as mine.


To complete this BB, the minimum requirements are:
- At least 5" tall by 18" wide
- Some means of hanging or posting the sign
- No treated wood
- Lettering and images are burned
- Must finish with tung oil or linseed oil (or else the burned image disappears)

To document your completion of the BB, provide pics or video (<2 min) of the following:
- The wood and your burning tools
- The sign getting burned
- The sign getting oiled (showing type of oil)
- The sign meeting the minimum size
- The sign hanging or posted

Here’s my first attempt to build a kindling cracker. The key points of my design are: substantial mass, a dimensional stable base, a low aspect ratio along the log’s path, the supports for the splitting edge drive the log apart in the last few inches of stroke, uses a standard 6 lb splitting wedge instead of sharpened sheet metal. All these design choices should hopefully reduce how often logs bounce back when struck and prevent the logs from being cut instead of splitting.



Minimum requirements:
 - Cage accepts wood at least 8 inches in diameter (9 or more inches preferred)
 - Bolted to a chopping block
     - Lots of knots in the block if it's a soft wood (possibly a taller than average chopping block)
     - The creation does not have to be centered on the chopping block
 - Stamp, etch or chisel “made by XXXX” somewhere on it where XXXX is your name

Provide proof of the following as pictures or video (<2 min):
- Your creation at two points of construction
- The finished product with a tape measure showing the the size of the wood that can enter
- The stamped/etched/chiseled name