Jill Dyer

My dryer is in the shed doing duty as a table for all sorts of small machines/tools - whatever needs a flat surface at the time. My washing machine has a very efficient spin cycle, so clothes take little time to dry.  I have an expanding clothes airer in my laundry - north facing, so gets lots of sun and an outside Hills Hoist - it looks like the bones of one of those shade contraptions, but is firmly anchored onto the ground. The clothes get pegged out in squares, it takes up very little space.  Outside in summer the clothes dry in about 10 minutes.  In winter, inside they dry overnight.  Anything a bit bulky goes over the back of a chair in front of the wood stove overnight.  I can remember clothes hanging about for a week in winter in the UK, and sheets with icicles . . .

The boiled and peeled ones can be added to a salad greens plus bacon.  They can be made into flour, though I've never done this, and then made into cakes - look for Italian origin recipes.  Just be sure to put a slit in the skins as mentioned above to avoid unhappy cleaning jobs if they explode. Also I should mention that peeling takes patience, and the nuts often split into pieces - a drag if planning to candy them.

We have 3 trees, bought from the same nursery.  1 produces really good chestnuts, the second passable (i.e. not too mush stress peeling them) and the 3rd one, leave for the deer.  But the latter also get well into the rest when they've fallen from the tree.
In dry years we get the flattish ones with the top-knot.  Each decent one has 1 or 2 excellent nuts and a flat shell only.  These latter I saved up over a couple of seasons and used to make dye - protein fibres - but the ratio of nut to weight of fibre was excessive.  A nice rusty orange, but it needs a large pan and little yarn.

Bonus!  If it's something wanted, and it's volunteering to grow, then I reckon take advantage of the situation. Any left to plant on an angle - some part of the stem above ground?   Doesn't grow, then not much lost.  Perhaps you are the first person to see this phenomenon - keep us posted.

Hi Blake, for removing seeds, I use a Mouli food mill.  Usually for things like boysenberries, or tomatoes - and as I remember paw-paw seeds are a bit bigger.  
Might be easier to peel and halve the fruits, scoop out seeds with a spoon and then put the flesh through the blender.  If you know how much you need per batch of icecream (?or sorbet?) then follow Laura's directions for freezing.  Mmm, I can taste it already  

Thick layer of any sort of mulch would be great - however this is not encouraged due to fire risk.  Rocks/stones are the preferred solution.
You may hear mumbling and muttering from this direction . . .

My mother always reckoned that root crops were far sweeter after the first frost, especially parsnips.  My soil isn't deep enough to grow 'em, so I can't back this up.  My climate is "Mediterranean" and weeding revealed that the capsicums were still with us - starting on their third year with any luck.  

Ain't that the truth!   My problem is weeds - went out to get some rhubarb, and every where was up-knees in an assortment of weeds. Take your eyes of 'em for a minute. . . Rained overnight (a surprise) and everything was wet, so did a pull and drop.  Found lettuces!!! And last years capsicums are still hinging in. There's cabbage seedlings in the Aloe Vera pot, and several unidentifiable sprouting things in the compost. Oh, and then the birds have nipped off the baby spinach plants - my fault for not replacing the mesh cover on the raised garden bed.  Just not enough hours in the day, or resilience in the back, or knees.

My brain said - they look mighty handy as containers for small balls of wool, for stranded colour knitting patterns, or for replacement warp threads, suitable weighted with coins, washers etc. Or kumihimo threads.
What about filling with water, adding food colouring.  If there's a sunny window sill available, then use the coloured water to solar dye a small quantity of fleece or yarn, add a dash of citric acid or vinegar when pre-soaking the fibre (protein)  It makes a nice experiment, regardless of the result. Plenty of info available on the web.

Maybe the draft stopper has too much stuffing?  If that's the case, maybe undo one of the short ends and remove some of the innards, shake it about a bit, then close up the end again, temporarily with a pin or two to check if fit is any better.  If so, make permanent closure.