Tyler Grace

I do irrigation so I'm constantly getting sprayed by sprinklers, comes with the trade. I see rain as a free shower brought to you by nature.

When I worked in a landscaping crew a while back, a boss I had would always say, "what are you, made of sugar?", when guys would complain about getting wet, then we'd work through it. Fun times.

I would make sure to keep that thing clean. Sounds like harmful bacteria or mold could form and transfer into the compost if you don't. I personally just manually break up kitchen waste with my hands before it goes into the compost pile. Kind of messy but requires no equipment.

Looks great! Have you ever measured the maximum temperature that you can achieve?

I use ghee for high temperature oven cooking, the smoke point is around 485 degrees. I also use it for stovetop cooking but usually use lard, butter or coconut oil.

Always plant trees and shrubs on the shelf (sides) of the berm, so that they can grip on to the native surrounding soil. As the berm decomposes, it will sink and damage the root system and possibly kill the plant. I have gotten away with planting a haskap on the top/middle of a berm for a few years now and the berm it was on dropped a substantial distance. I think the only thing that saved me was that the berm's trench wasn't that wide (about 3') and it was planted near the mouth of the trench for the hugel. The depth to the bottom is probably around 2' rather than 3'.

Randy Bachman wrote: But the tops of the mounds stay too dry and the plants arent doing well without hand watering

Sounds like your soil/clay is hydrophobic or maybe you have too much mulch on the surface?

I'll just tell you what I've done on some of my berms to increase hydration and decomposition. I ran 1" poly pipe at an angle, down to the bottom of the berm, about 3'. The other end is sticking up out of the side of the berm and I plugged it with a 1" coupler (barbed x MIP) so that I can unscrew it when needed to feed a garden hose into it. This will allow water to go straight down into the larger biomass at the bottom of the berm's trench to speed up decomposition and hydrate long term. Just make sure you don't over saturate, or you will most likely get anaerobic bacteria growth.

I've also tried using microsprayers for drip systems, but I personally hate those things. Best results I've had with those is flipping them upside down so the water sprays downward, rather than all over the place. I much prefer using dripper line (6" spacing) and/or multiple 1gph-2gph emitters running through the center/top of the berm.

You could also mix in some sand into the clay to help aerate. Just a thought.

Pork shoulder steaks have recently become my favorite cut of pork. It used to be chops but they can get so dry depending on the quality.

I am by no means a doctor so take what I say with a giant salt lick block.

I personally used to have slight acid reflux which went away completely when I went on the keto diet. I was not eating highly inflammatory seed oils, starches, gluten, sugar etc... I also was consuming a good amount of fermented foods which really helps your gut health.

I would give it a try if you already haven't. It's a pretty simple diet to stick to and it's really not all that limiting. Increasing fat consumption and reducing carb intake (preferably completely) is the most important aspect, but you can still eat a whole variety of foods. As long as you stick to the program, you are not limited to how much you consume per day.

I haven't worked with biochar myself, but I have heard about how it can briefly absorb all the good stuff/rob the soil if not first innoculated in some kind of nutrient soup, or something, first.

Indeed. I figured that watering extra before the freeze and adding a bunch of compost, then cover cropping early in the year would allow it to inoculate itself. It seemed to work. It's definitely not a good idea to add un-inoculated biochar to a berm if you're looking to plant right away. We have a surplus of biochar at one of the farms I volunteer at because we make mass quantities every winter. Sometimes I go a little nuts with it.

I started this beastly thing and realized that I may have to do the bulk of the planting portion in the spring

Been in the same boat many times. Last fall I experimented with adding a large amount of biochar to one of my berms that I was building. The ratio was somewhere around 15% of the native soil/compost mixture. I did not have the time to inoculate the biochar and realized that the berm wouldn't be good to go for quite some time. I watered it heavy and cover cropped it the next year (this year). It took until about mid-summer before it was ready. I was advised by many people NOT to use so much biochar but I did it anyways because why not? The berm turned out great thus far.

Good job on your project. Did you use mostly dead wood?