Matt McSpadden

Douglas Campbell wrote:Warming up pond water might lead to ghastly pathogen proliferations.

I suppose this depends on how hot the water gets. 160F will kill a lot of things. And 212F will kill just about everything. But you still might want some kind of filter, because killing any pathogens and bacteria won't make the water clear.

I agree that a metal roof should be fine after the first rain fall. I'm not sure I would want to use a shingle roof for too much watering at all.

Just to clarify about the longevity of metal roofs and maintenance needs...

There are two main types. A screw down metal roof uses screws with a gasket underneath it to prevent leaks. In a perfect world they would last 15 to 20 years before the gasket fails. But in certain climates and conditions, these can start to fail in as little as 2 or 3 years. So there can be quite a bit of maintenance to avoid leaks.

The second kind of metal roof is called a standing seam metal roof. No visible screws anywhere and will generally last for many decades (40 or 50 years) before needing replacement. This option also the most expensive.

Hi All,
The seeds were dropped off at the post office today. Hopefully they find their way to each of you who gave me their address. Feel free to post pictures here later in the summer.

Noah packed each packet with a mix of the brown and white seeds he had saved. I hope they all germinate well and attract lots of pollinators.

I do not claim to be a cast iron historian, nor have I spent much time researching historic cleaning methods... but I came across an article on facebook that says pioneers in the USA in the 1700's and 1800's use sorrel leaves to clean their cast iron pans... specifically to get rid of rust. It is supposed to release oxalic acid which is supposed to dissolved rust.

Has anyone else heard of this? Sounds like a pretty cool thing if it is true.

Please let us know what was effective for you. While we have ants up here in Maine, ... they are not very tenacious. We stir up the nest a bit and they don't come back.

Christopher Weeks wrote:Matt, is this still happening? I never heard back or received seeds. (If you ran out of time or energy or Noah changed his mind, I get it -- just checking in.)

This is absolutely still happening... we just ended up having a long series of crazy weekends :) Also, we don't think about seeds as early in the year as people farther south so... my fault :)

We had 3 or 4 people respond earlier. If anyone else sees this before March 13th, feel free to PM me and we can get you out a packet. We have plenty! I expect to mail these March 14th. As I mentioned earlier, it is USA only at this time.

Hi Walter,
How fast things break down will depend on your climate and how big of pieces you use. This is true of putting it on top, or building a wood core or hügelkultur mound.

A wet climate, it will break down faster, and smaller pieces will break down faster. I don't have any experience in how fast it would break down truly buried, but I put a bunch of sunflower stalks in a cold compost pile (just layered and let it sit), and when I came back a year later... I couldn't see any pieces.

The benefits will last for years, even after it appears to be completely broken down.

Hi Jen,
That looks great! I can tell you worked hard to alleviate issues with brooding the chicks. Could I ask how many you are planning to have in there at a time? My only question is if there was a large number of chicks, whether you have room for the feeder and waterer and chicks up on the balcony? If it got crowded, I'll bet you could figure out how to add a little shelf just outside the door so the chicks could access the food and water without the containers taking up space on the balcony.

As others have said, it will generally work fine, simply adding compost over the mulch.

As a general rule for myself, I tend to put the things with the biggest pieces or the least broken down on top. So if I had a layer of fairly fresh woodchips, I would move it to add the compost. If I had a layer of straw mulch that was half broken down, and I had some compost with big pieces, I would just put the compost on top.

Also, it depends on the time of the year. If this is being down in the fall and it has all winter and part of spring to settle... I think it matters less than if you want to plant in it next week.

It would appear that camels and pigs are mutually exclusive....