i found satellite images better than google maps so i screen captured and printed many pages worth and taped them together to make an almost 8 foot by 8 foot map of the property!
it is nice to stare at during the winter
although i tend to make way too many plans to accomplish in the short warm season
also macrostrat (Travis you are going to love that site)
has a feature where you can draw a line on the map and it gives you a side profile of the terrain below the line (not100%accurate though trees seem to skew the result)
i may have gleaned this info from permies.. but thought i would bring up detoxing aluminum using horsetail (the plant)
apparently horsetail has lots of bio available silica
perhaps fermented could increase the effect like with mushrooms
maybe add some fermented lions mane mushroom in the mix too
i know it is not a meal but could be beneficial if worked into foods
oh good
the boards are still rough and my thought was to rent a hardwood floor sander to smooth it once everything was in place
this will likely be next year though
saw snow on the game camera at night while i was away
heavy frost and almost a cm thick ice in my bowl waking up the other morning
anyhow not to be negative but chainsaw pants and steel toes are good
share a pair?
i bought some soaps recently from cedar point soaps and the ingredient list is as follows:
olive oil,coconut oil,palm oil,distilled water,sodium hydroxide
and a list of scented oils depending on the bar
my opinion is that plants created to produce BT in every cell of the plant, and ones which live through repeated application of broad spectrum nutrient chelators are affecting pollinators
so the rabbits are not used to humans or human food
so far they have not eaten any lettuce from the garden
they did however eat the cauliflower i planted
it seems like every morning this one and sometimes two join me for breakfast
one day while making coffee one came right up to me
within a foot or two
i was trying to figure out what they were eating since they were on an open sandy part
my guess is they were eating (damp from the dew) wood chips and woody debris
so i potted up this black ash a couple years ago and it has been in the shade
being in the tiny pot and surviving some cold winters here in toronto leads me to believe it will like its new home
black ash is used for weaving...the growth rings separate easily
i have not weaved with it yet because i only learned this after removing two smaller stems from the main trunk which were going to rub soon
i cut those stems into firewood and did notice it split easily
there are birch trees growing along the access road and i will try to dig a couple up from this location.
i may also collect some seeds and broadcast them if i have the time in the fall
supposedly there are cedars as well but i have not seen them yet
if i find some i would like to broadcast some seed as well
i brought a really productive black raspberry from my parents backyard...
which i originally got from a local park
loads of fruit but a fair amount of thorns too
i had planted veggies in this spot but the rabbit made off with them so i put the black raspberry in its spot
some pics of the parent plant as of today july 16 2019
about to be ripe fruit!
hi there
thanks for posting all the pics
i watched the youtube videos as well and one tip i have is to hold the camera (phone?) 90 degrees to where you normally hold it like you did in the video titled: oldie but goodie(flowers)
hello, i have a question as well
i plan to make a fenced in garden using thinned saplings
i envisioned myself making a trench with a pickaxe and burying the butts
is this style to save on labour and time as compared to what i have described?
there are commercial facilities here in ontario which buy power at night when it is cheaper and spin large cylinders of concrete on a bearing
there are expensive machines (100000 to 2000000) which use supercritical co2 to extract oils... if you could combine the two you may make it more profitable/worth it
in the last pic you can see some gravel... it is acidic up there so i broke up some matrix pieces from my fossil collection and put some with each paw paw
i also took some black muck from a wet area, bagged it and brought it to the planting site and mixed it in with the sandy soil
here is the sugar maple i planted
last week i had a friend up for the first time
he helped me assemble my small saw mill and mill some boards
it was a first attempt so some of the boards are some funny shapes
here is my little veggie garden which doesnt look like much yet as it was just planted
i stickered the boards and started trying to get things level so i can start building upwards soon hopefully
here are some wild roses
and to wrap this post up... youre daily dose of blackflies
hopefully that worked i just created this account to host photos since it seems i can not get in to photobucket anymore
i bought a property near kirkland lake, canada a few years ago
access has been my focus until recently
there is a local tree nursery which has fruit trees i plan to purchase
i stopped in there on the way up to get some monarda, which they were sold out...
instead i bought some veggie starts and 4 varieties of haskap
i also had with me 6 paw paw (out of zone i know) a sugar maple and a burr oak
i plan to zone push plants and trees by planting on a north facing hill.. planting on the north side of spruce trees etc.
anyhow it felt great to get them planted and hopefully i can help them survive
the plot of land was planted with the best lumber varieties for the area about 25 years ago
i am also making a log cabin and in the openings where i have felled trees i plan to plant more variety
it is already quite diverse.... and lots of fruit to be had
strawberry,raspberry,blueberry,rose and service berry possibly more
i plan to plant apples, cherries, pear, plum, apricot and maybe even try for peach
eventually i also plan to make a year round greenhouse... but need to save up to buy some kind of earth moving machinery
i took pics... but my card reader is broken... will post some up when i can
Mike J
lets say you did go the pumping hot air underground route
from what i gather you want it at least 4 feet below the soil or you will dry out youre soil too quickly
i have heard of several depths
4 feet for more short term heat
an 8 foot one and a 12 foot deep one for heat storage in summer when you dont really need the soil to get so warm
you could possibly make it by digging a hole and lining the bottom with clay
and clay on the sides as you build youre way up then a large bed of gravel/rocks for the air to flow through
then maybe a woven reed mat to add the clay layer to cap it off then build up the soil for growing in
possibly bamboo or something with the segments burnt out to make pipe to get the air from the top of the greenhouse to the gravel heat sink
just a thought ignore if not applicable
i had a narrow window to get a 40' loaded container to my property
barely driveable road
it had to be frozen and i scouted it out..it was good
2 days later when i arrived with the driver there was a lot of snow on the road
we ended up leaving the container barely off the highway (and we got stuck whole other story)
once it was late spring i had the help of a logger who put it on a heavy duty trailer with 3 axles and dragged it in with a wheel skidder
cant say for sure what the grades are but there were definitely some hills and soft sections
right on!
is that evidence of the glacial lake outburst on the side of the hill?
pic 6078
the vertical lines would be from when they made the rail line but the horizontal ones could be from the lake outburst?
ok so i missed the replies while typing a response
so you already know what i covered
for other people reading this.. there is one step i neglected to mention
when putting the chain back on
it is good to pull up on the end of the bar while tightening the nuts
this will help put the bar in the correct position (provided the peg is in the hole and the bar is flat against the saw)
also once you use the saw for the fist time it may come out of adjustment slightly
loosen the nuts enough to tighten/loosen the tension screw
tighten the nuts and see how it runs
changing and or adjusting the chain are the easiest things you can do to maintain a chainsaw
try doing it youreself to save some money
make sure that the little tension peg is in the hole on the bar and make sure the bar is seated flat before tightening completely
you may need to turn the tension screw a little to a loose chain position and once everything is in position
but before the 2 nuts are snugged up you adjust the chain tension
the chain should not hang off the bar.
just right is when you pull on the chain mid way along the bar.. the bottom of the chain links should just barely show
too tight is when you use the saw and without the chain brake on.. the chain comes quickly to a stop when you take your finger off the throttle
that said, a chain can be sharpened many times before it is no longer functional
pretty much until the teeth are almost non existent
most importantly when sharpening a chain is to sharpen each tooth by the same amount to keep the teeth the same size
this will keep youre saw cutting straight
the easiest way to do that is with a grinder wheel made for chainsaw sharpening
at our shop we have 3 each set up with a different size wheel for the different chain gauges
they can be bought at places like (here in canada) princess auto
for a reasonable price... if you want to spend less you can buy a round file and sharpen by hand
same thing though you need to try to keep the teeth the same shape, and maintain the angles of the tooth
after a certain amount of sharpening by machine or by hand and the teeth become less aggressive
there are flat pieces of metal between teeth which determine the cutting depth and you will need to take a flat file and ever so slightly lower each of them
too aggressive of chain is more likely to kick back and may bog down due to biting off more than it can chew so to speak
sometimes a flat file to the bar to remove burrs from the sides may be necessary
there is a tool to file the edge that the chain rides along to keep the flat file(built in) at the correct 90 angle
when sharpening a chain on a grinder it is important to do this in tiny bursts of grinding with pauses in between
this is to keep the tooth from getting too hot and loosing its temper
if it is heated too much the metal will dull much sooner as it has lost its hardness
harder chains like carbide used by emergency personnel are unnecessary unless you plan on cutting through a lot of metal etc in the wood
by dialing in the chain to the type of wood you are cutting you should get good results
i plan to get a diamond chainsaw for rock cutting (maybe)
but these more so sand the material away rather than cut it
anyhow hopefully i stayed on topic enough and that helped!
i grew on a floating mat on a bog once and planned to make chinampas on the margins of a beaver pond
googling chinampas just now i found the most awesome thing which has me all charged up for this project
making a wood frame over the channels of water and growing vines to cover the water area also
it would keep the water temperature cooler too
i was thinking rice in between the raised parts but at least a few of these tunnels of foliage would be a cool place to hang out/harvest on a hot afternoon!
so awesome
guess i will have to make a raft with some plants on it too
i have wanted to do this for a while
although this project might end up on next year's itinerary
i am planning to build something similar and some things i have considered are:
the sun angle is quite low in dec and an insulated N side is a good thing
but by the time it is warm enough to bring plants outside the sun is much higher in the sky
even starting the day ne and ending nw
so maybe have insulation on a roll being rolled up and down nightly for the south facing part
and a temperature controller roll up motor controlling insulation on the top/north facing side/s
or just as the season progresses remove insulation from the top opening up more area above
the roll would have to be inside to operate properly
i might even go triple poly
solar panel and batteries inside structure to be warmer and free of snow
i was also looking to build with fence top rail and hoop bender at first and i still plan to make this style of pit tunnel hoop house
but for the deep winter greenhouse i think wood on a steep slope would be better since it does not transmit the cold as much and water will not condense on it like with the steel pipe
also looking into jean pain compost heating
possibly the pile being in proximity/part of the north berm to further heat the thermal mass
ideally the s facing area will have room below the poly for lots of snow to be able to pile up without the light being blocked
also a solar water heater inside the structure to circulate heated water into youre reservoirs whenever it is warm enough to do so would help
the RMH would be nice too
my plan is to throw everything i possibly can at it and hope it works
i took a drive out to guelph in the fall
i was expecting a small wild stand.. but there are only 3 trees which are small
speaking with someone in the visitor centre (who was very knowledgeable)
he said that a frost in the spring left them with only a couple fruits this year
it was nice to walk around in the rain for a couple hours at near freezing temperatures though!
the build is taking place near the edge of zone 2 and 3 in ontario canada
it will not be completely passive .. i want to throw pretty much everything i can at it
but i do want to incorporate passive systems as well
when sucking the hot air from the top of the greenhouse down through the earth...(i think solar panels would need to be inside the greenhouse)
the air would be routed into kinda like a burrito of mid sized rocks wrapped in a tarp
i imagine it being kinda like a rhm bench
the inflow being mid way up the rock burrito
the outflow back to the greenhouse being at the bottom
the whole place will be built with logs then covered with dry sand etc and covered in pond liner or other tarp
somewhat attached(this is all still planning/imagining phase) could be a woodchip pile insulated by earth and possibly transmitting some of that heat to the earth covered side of the greenhouse
i have looked up the arc of the sun and in early winter only the south would need to be exposed
but to get through the long winter and get to actual warm temps outside it would need to also have sun come through the top
one solution could be an attached pit greenhouse with similar heat banking burrito
at the same level so plants could be rolled to the pit greenhouse once the sun gets higher in the sky
or possibly an A frame of poly steep enough to shed snow to the sides
(not towards the south) and it could be insulated more heavily when not needed then the insulation could be rolled back daily once sun starts to shine through it(i know more electronics... the roll up motors i have looked at are a 24V system)
supplemental light depending on how short the days get might be necessary to keep some plants happy
should not take a ridiculous amount of power
some 4 foot fluorescent shop lights would be the minimum in my mind to simulate more dusk and extend the day length
i really have no idea what i am doing though ... just planning
hopefully this year i can scout out the location for the build at the very least possibly work on drainage at the site although the earth will be piled up from there... it will need to flow the right way before even starting
TLDR: it wont be passive but the more passive systems incoporated the better in my mind
