The original refrigerant used in most heat pumps/AC units was freon which was excellent at moving large quantities of heat easily. Unfortunately, freon ate away at the ozone layer so it is now banned and several replacements have been used, each somewhat more benign that the previous but each still with their own problems.
There is one technology that is currently in a prototype stage called Supercritical Carbon Dioxide, or sCO2. sCO2 is carbon dioxide compressed to a state where it can't decide if it is a liquid or a gas so it has the properties of both. It is about 2/3 the density of water but fills a chamber like a gas. It is very good at moving heat. And if it leaks, it is no more harmful than CO2 released by any other CO2 source, and hopefully, one would catch these leaks early, if for no other reason than to make sure that your AC does not quit working! I know that CO2 is a greenhouse gas, but this is not something that is dumped into the air on a daily basis. On a year-to-year basis, it is pretty benign.
The short answer is that we have a LOT of oil left in the ground. Like you, I want as much as possible to stay there, but in no way are we actually about to run out.
The article specified that their figures were based on recovery at $50 per barrel. As the price of oil goes up (and it is plenty higher than $50 now), oil exploration becomes more profitable and more oil gets pumped. The article even stated that the drop from 1 trillion barrel left to 350 billion barrels left was from a drop in investor confidence, meaning that money for oil exploration got pulled.
I did much of my masters work in the history of energy and I was shocked at just how expensive oil exploration really is. Moreover, I found a nice 170 year history of having 30 years of oil left. Back when the very first oil well was drilled in Pennsylvania, at first it gushed on its own. The owners of the well were ecstatic. Then the oil sort of bubbled out of the ground at which point sobriety sank in. Then the oil actually needed to be pumped at which point it was declared “30 years of oil left” with no real justification.
That 30 year horizon has strangely stuck around, though it varies a bit. Interestingly, that first oil well still produces oil. Try as I could, I could not find an actual example of an oil well running out of oil. What happened is that they got pumped beyond economic recovery at which point pumping stopped. But leave the well alone for a while and it becomes more easily pumped. Many oil fields come on and off line as economic conditions dictate.
So again, to reiterate, there is a whole lot of oil left on earth. I advocate for keeping as much as possible in the ground, but we are certainly not on the verge of an oil starvation apocalypse.
No problem Jen. Mostly I am dealing with Timothy as my daughter dumped out her rabbit litter into the bed and the seeds took hold with a vengeance. If you could control Johnson grass by pulling, I congratulate you. I find Johnson grass to be one of the most pernicious weeds out there.
My beds are made from wood chips that are heavily decomposed by Wine Cap mushrooms. The reason I mention this is that I have a lot of biology going on in my garden bedding and I am hesitant to really knock it back. As an idea I was thinking about cutting down the grasses and planting buckwheat as a smother crop. Alternatively I could just put down cardboard and add new chips. I am not certain which direction to go so I love the feedback.
Don’t feel too bad. I have been gardening for about the same length as you, and organic gardening even longer. But my gardens turned out terribly this year for a very simple reason: I didn’t stay on top of weeding!
Things started out a bit rough as it was a hot and very dry start to the summer, so much so that I had to water for the first time in years. My daughter had dumped a bunch of her rabbit bedding in my garden bed and it was loaded with Timothy seed. This grew much better than my tomatoes. I was keeping the Timothy somewhat under control until we left for 5 days for a short vacation. When I got back the grass and weeds had leapt over my veggies and the garden was basically gone.
So I labored hard in the heat to loose the garden in 5 days of neglect.
BTW, any suggestions on how to smother our established grasses. I am afraid that I can’t realistically pile on enough mulch to permanently smother it out. Lay down cardboard? A smother crop? I am totally open to suggestions.
Thanks for clarifying. I couldn’t tell if you were wanting to move lumber *across* the site or *up* the building. I think you got it clear for all of us.
I have had two physical maladies that struck me in the last 2 weeks. About 2 weeks ago I exacerbated an old back injury. I just got into my van an I heard/felt a “pop.” I needed to get a steroid shot to bring the swelling down. It feels better now but for about 3 days it was really painful.
Today was my 1st day back at school—students come tomorrow. Near the end of the day I hit my head—hard!! I have a mild concussion and a little goose egg on my head. I still have some things to get done but looking at a screen is a little difficult right now.
John, I agree on the idea of quality tools. I will pay extra for quality tools as one of the most frustrating experiences is trying to fix something and the tool that should be an asset to the repair itself needs repair.
That said, I can’t tell if the OP wants this for a single use/project or not. If it is just for a single use, personally I hesitate to really splurge on something I won’t use again.
I really like John’s idea. I was once in the market for one of those, but I was cheap and didn’t want to pony up the money for something I would only use once. My alternative was what I called my log trailer. It was a simple, 2’x’2 cart constructed out of 4x4’s. I attached 4 wheel barrow wheels and used it to support the rear of a log. I then used the 3pt hitch on my tractor (a small one) to lift the front end and tow it out.
I imagine you could construct the same and load lumber instead of logs. If I can find it, I will try to attach a picture. The whole thing, if purchased from new parts, was under $100.
Although we keep no animals other than pets (dogs and cats) we have an old 1/4 acre stock pond that was on site when we built the house. The pond is a wonderful resource for all sorts of wildlife. Deer visit daily. All sorts of birds are attracted to the pond, including ducks and blue herons. We also have a nice population of turtles that lives in the pond.
Oyster mushrooms are awesome, amazing wood decomposers. If you have the compost, it might go very well with some wood chip or straw mulch which will eventually break down into very fertile garden bedding.
Ouch! Heartbreaking story. I know this is of little to no help to you now, but I am pretty certain that my bank required me to get the mortgage insurance in order to get the loan in the first place. I know that there is a lot of discussion on this site about insurance and self-insurance, but when my wife first started her practice I think we were required to buy just about every insurance under the sun. It was a bit overwhelming at the time but it was also good to know that we were covered for just about every financial contingency.
Opinions on insurance may vary, but in the long run I am pleased that we have the insurance coverage. Just my experience.
Let me second what MaryAnne said about Main Coon Cats. They are awesome hunters.
But I disagree about them being feral/untamable. For about 10 years we had a Main Coon Cat that had the run of our property or inside the house, whichever he wanted. He was a huge, hulking beast of a cat (20 or so pounds) that could intimidate any creature larger than him that might otherwise be a threat (around here, think numerous coyotes). He was also a great big softy, a true gentle giant. My young children could play with him and I had no fear whatsoever of him scratching or biting. He was a truly affectionate cat. And he is missed. But in his day we never ever had a single mouse problem.
So I totally agree that a Main Coon Cat is a great mouser, but I have found them to be the most “dog-like” cats I have ever seen.
I just did something similar with some cucumbers that were planted after being root-bound. Unfortunately we left as a pretty bad heat wave and drought was setting in. I grow in deep, composted wood chips. Normally I never ever water but I had to break out the hose for this summer.
Before we left I watered heavily for about 2 days. I mean I really soaked the ground with water. Given the way that the wood chips moderate the water, I was really not afraid of the plants getting drowned out. We left and came back and the garden was all nice and healthy! Maybe something similar would work for you?
Scott, you ask a good question but I am afraid I don't know how to answer it. I think part of the answer is knowing just how close the surface of your soil is to bedrock. If you have say, 4 inches/10cm of total soil sitting above bedrock, I would think that at most you could improve those 4 inches/10 cm, but not actually pile up any more. I could be wrong on this. After all, part of carbon farming is the process of drawing carbon from the air and putting it into the soil. Perhaps it would add a bit of depth to your soil, but in this example, I would be shocked if you could get that 4 inches to 5 inches.
On the other hand, if you have some decent depth of soil--even if of questionable quality--then I would think you could radically improve that soil with your plans. In any case, your plans should help save what soil is there and prevent its further degradation & further loss. I would say aim for the best and see how it goes.
John, I think you are right in that the notion of "well-managed" will probably look different to every person. There was a time in my life when I was positively allergic to any form of debt. Of course, I didn't own a house then and my rent was money that was lost. The day before I got married I was about $20k in the black. I got married and I was much, much further in the red. That sounds bad, but really that was only bad superficially. Much of that debt went to a house which was appreciating. We sold that house for a profit. My wife had student loans, but those quickly paid for themselves.
Today we are solidly in the black, even though we still carry some debt. When we buy a car, we will finance the car if the interest rate is less than the inflation rate. We generally have pretty good credit so we can finance a car purchase (and we really only buy a new car once the old one has been run into the ground) at low interest rates--we just did so for far less than the current rate, and we put a hefty amount down to lower payments. I even "financed" a tractor once for a zero percentage rate loan. Does that even count as debt?
I think that we keep our debt generally low. Basically we make our debt work for us and not let it get out of control (we never carry a credit card balance). But what we do will not necessarily work for everyone.
With all the news about fusion these days I had to include a thread about it. I have two links to different articles, one generally positive and one a bit negative.
The first article outlines a billion dollar program funded by Chevron and Google. The plan is for something called Proton-Boron(11) fusion which if successful would fuse simple hydrogen with Boron (atomic weight 11, 80% of all boron) which would yield up 3 simple helium atoms and a whole lot of energy. More importantly, this process is aneutronic, meaning that the process does not irradiate everything around it with high-speed neutrons as the much simpler D-T fusion does. Even better, the helium is so hot it is in the form of a high energy plasma that can be “tapped” to make electricity directly! This would be a pretty amazing feat. If successful, this would be the cleanest electrical production ever achieved.
But then there is the downside. The second article details how the recent, most successful fusion experiment ever, even after spending over $3 billion has closed up shop because of lack of progress.
The thought of actually producing fusion energy is amazing, I just hope it isn’t perpetually 30 years away.
I thought I would throw a current issue by me into this thread.
Just behind/bordering my land is 40 beautiful, hilly, rolling acres of partially wooded, partially cleared land that just went up for sale. If I just had money laying around I would be tempted to buy it but I have enough land and too many expenses already (1 kid in college, 1 getting close). I would just love to see some Permie oriented person (or better yet, a Permie member!) but this land and start their own homestead. I would gladly buy produce from them.
Unfortunately my fear is that the asking price is too high and will scare off most homesteaders, even though it has real potential a good market (several farmer’s markets nearby), decent soil and long growing season.
I hope that if a homesteader does not buy the land, a single landowner buys the land for a single house. My biggest concern is that the 40 acres will be subdivided into many homes and wreck the rural character of the land.
This fear is rooted in my experience growing up where the farmland around me became more profitable to sell to real estate development than for growing crops. I really hope this does not happen by me again.
Just throwing out an idea. Could you plant it as a wood lot now with fast growing trees that would be good for firewood? Black Locust comes to mind. With 8 acres I would think that you could harvest a good amount each year and then leave the harvested part to coppice/regrow. Maybe you could harvest 1/2 to 1 acre per year. This would allow 8 to 16 years for regrowing—perfect for a sustainable operation. You could then sell high quality firewood for profit, at least enough to pay the property tax.
I am going to echo much of what L Johnson just said. Context is king. I think we are really looking at two different categories of energy production.
I will start with RMH heaters. An RMH excels at localized, homestead heat production. It is very efficient at turning chemical energy in wood into heat that can be stored in the thermal mass and radiated over time. If one has a wood lot and a means to harvest, cut and importantly, regrow the wood, I think that an RMH is an excellent source of localized heat. If one wanted to be truly off/grid, an RMH could be a significant contribution to energy needs.
Nuclear, preferably 4th generation molten salt type reactors, could be an excellent source of grid based electricity. I specify the 4th generation molten salt reactors because of important built-in safety features and their ability to reduce waste by orders of magnitude (some can actually run on existing waste and radically reduce those stockpiles). This might be attractive to someone who is reliant on grid-based energy, especially say, in a high-rise apartment.
I specify grid and localized because these are really two different models. I would not want a grid sized RMH devoted to electrical production. Technically it could be done but it would consume entire forests in the process. And likewise, a homestead 4th generation molten salt reactor is in the realm of science fiction at best and probably not a wise choice of energy production.
And I do have one, mostly sour note on fusion. Fusion has been 30 years away for about 70 years and still is. There have been a couple of exciting developments that show that fusion is technically possible on earth, outside of nuclear weapons, extremely exotic and energy intensive experiments in highly expensive equipment and of course outside the intense gravity of the sun. Unfortunately, contrary to popular belief, fusion is not free from radioactive waste. Actually it is far from.
The most promising fusion reaction is called D-T fusion (Deturium-Tritium, two isotopes of hydrogen). And while the reaction does produce non-radioactive helium, it also releases a neutron with an energy of about 14 MeV. That is a very high energy neutron and it will probably collide with something, either causing a fission event, or more likely bonding and making a new, unstable (radioactive) element. So while the “exhaust” of D-T fusion is perfectly safe, fusion tends to irritate everything around it. There are ways to work around this problem and most of the newly-made radioactive material is considered low-level, it is an issue thus far not addressed (because we are nowhere near a practical fusion reactor). And there are aneutronic reactions—reactions that don’t release neutrons—but they are very difficult to initiate and sustain and as far as I know are presently not a topic of research.
So bring this long-winded response to a conclusion, I think the primary advantage of an RMH over possibly (4th Gen, Molten Salt) nuclear or vice-versa is the context in which it would be used—grid based or localized homestead.
I have been prescribed a vast number of sedatives over the years to control my insomnia. Eventually after much trial and mostly error I found a combination of two sedatives that are effective, wear off quickly in the morning, produce minimal tolerance and of course are safe for regular use. This took a very long time to figure out, but it’s only one half of the story. The other half is about the morning wake-up. My current sleep doc is focused on reinforcing my circadian rhythms so that the meds help the circadian rhythms and vice versa.
As to your more specific questions, I have had a couple of spells of kidney stones and was prescribed narcotic pain medication. They did put me to sleep, but of course these can not be used for anything other than short term pain relief or tolerance and worse develops. I have used a wide dosage range of melatonin and I found it a cruel joke. I got very tired but never actually slept.
Hey, thanks for understanding. You might be surprised by how many people have told me that my account did not happen as I recounted—as if they were there watching me go through it. I think the sudden, abrupt, severe onset makes some think that the cause must be something else—depression, anxiety and even substance abuse (despite my complete lack of use) have all at some point been levied against me. It is actually really good to simply be heard and not judged—and I have been judged a lot. It seems that plain old stress just was not a sufficient answer but you recognize that so I credit you.
It might be a stretch, but I wonder what would happen if you could mix the “sand” with some finely ground wood chips—like really shredded chips—some compost and maybe a little Biochar. This might be a lot of work and probably too much for all that sand but maybe you could use some of it for a base upon which to grow crops.
I do agree with Anne about staying connected though. Several years ago I joined while looking for some specific information about planting comfrey. I ended up staying for the wealth of information here on this site and given that you are starting homestead, I would think that you would run into more numerous questions than I did.
But at any rate, again, welcome to Permies and please keep us updated at least for the time that you are still connected.
Since you are wanting food fairly quickly, I recommend planting root crowns. Some sellers sell older root crowns that can theoretically be picked the first year, though I would want to wait at least a year to let them get established.
On another point, asparagus is a pretty hungry plant and your yield will depend heavily upon the fertility of your soil. In particular, asparagus likes nitrogen. This means that you will want to do something to get extra nitrogen to your plants. This could be accomplished by adding in an organic fertilizer like blood meal or compost/ comfrey tea; adding some type of cover crop; or my personal favorite—add in biology to work synergistically with your asparagus.
A Permie detox-time-out period is a great idea. I simply don’t know if it would have helped in my particular circumstance. I have had numerous, countless people try to diagnose the cause of my insomnia, including people who told me bold faced that my insomnia did not start as I said it did.
On September 10, 2005 (a Sunday), I slept like a baby, never ever used sleep aids of any type and generally thought of sleep disorders as either rare or something exaggerated. September 11, 2005 I was watching a Monday Night football game where my team was winning despite being underdogs. I was excited and worked up and did not sleep that night.
I went to school the next day (Tuesday) and taught as normal, came home exhausted and told my wife that I was headed to bed, but sleep did not come. The same happened the next day, Wednesday and again on Thursday. By Friday I was in pretty rough shape, having been awake for 4 consecutive nights. Really, I should have called in sick but stubbornly I refused.
My wife was getting concerned and made an impromptu appointment for me at her clinic with the other doctor there. I gave him the scoop and he disappeared around the corner and came back with a sample pack of sleeping medication. Friday night I took the sleeping pill and mercifully fell asleep and slept through the night. But before a week had elapsed the meds were not working any more—really, faster than a tolerance should have developed.
I could go on and on about how my life devolved around sleeping, but it is sufficient to say that my insomnia started very abruptly and did not get better until I got some better medication. I did eventually see a sleep specialist who wanted me to try a technique where I restrict my sleep by staying awake longer than I normally would. I still used my sleep medication and the idea is to really exhaust me into needing sleep. This led to a four-day period of wakefulness. I was not coherent or lucid by my roughly 85th hour being awake.
I have had this conversation with many, many people and I realize it is difficult to wrap the brain around. In my case, my sleep did not begin to resolve until addressing the morning wake-up part of sleeping. I had a LOT of stress in my life and I am positive that played a part. Unfortunately that stress was something I had to work through in order to escape. And while a detox time-out is a great idea I am pretty certain that my insomnia had its roots elsewhere. I am all for the detox time but I am certain that I needed the meds. Fortunately, by this point, I need fewer.
Wow, this thread really came alive in the last few days. I have been traveling in that time and had poor to nonexistent internet so I could not respond to these questions so I will respond now.
Firstly, I will respond to Terry who wanted to know what type of compression garments I use. I use two brands, mostly based on the season. In the cooler months I use a brand called MAVA which provides very good compression across the entire leg. The outside material is slightly slick and is good for layering/does not make other clothes bunch up. In warmer months I wear a brand called Compressionz which gives good compression over the thigh. Both brands make long pants and shorts and your opinion may differ from mine, but this is what worked for me.
Secondly I will give an insomnia update: my sleep continues to improve. I still have a medication regimen, but I generally use much less than I did years ago. Also as my sleep improved it made my medication work better and the cycle continued.
I wish I had a single magical answer to everyone with insomnia, but my insomnia did not really improve until I addressed the morning wake-up side of sleep. Also, just improving/continuing the cycle of sleep has its own merits—I now get tired and want to sleep on a more regular schedule. My mood and concentration are all generally much better.
Thanks to everyone who has offered me condolences for my suffering and my thoughts go out to all of you who who suffer from insomnia as I once did. I will continue to support those who need help, even if it is just to have someone to vent frustrations, and of course I want to keep this thread open to anyone who needs help.
Nice job Jen. You are on top of things better this summer than I am. And you are right that this about the worst time of the year to get Wine Caps to grow but you are doing all the right things, especially by keeping that container in a shady place.
Maybe think about the lid. Fungi need oxygen to grow so make sure they can breathe. Maybe attach loosely? At any rate, it looks great. Thanks for the pictures.
I need to do something different about my fencing needs.
I have always had deer, but the better my garden soil has gotten, the more attractive it’s veggies have become to deer. I used to be able to grow a garden with no fence at all—NO MORE!
A couple of years ago I built a set of gates that rested on the edge of one of my raised garden beds. It was nice in that I could lift out any 8’ section to get access to the bed itself. It was a lot of work and more money than I wanted to spend (about $100 for 1 bed! All the fasteners drove up the cost and I didn’t realize this till I was well into the project).
With that in mind I made a quick, cheap fence out of chicken wire and cheap T-posts. It works fine but I have to straddle a 4’ fence to get in, which I can do but it takes a toll on the fence.
I am at the point where I am going to put a fence around both beds and leave space for me to work and of course a gate. I probably won’t get this done till fall though.
Anne, this might be a stretch, but is there a possibility that you could grow bluestem grass? It comes in two broad varieties—Big Bluestem (6’-8’ tall) and Little Bluestem (3’ tall). Both are highly tolerant of a wide variety of conditions, but Little Bluestem is especially noted for its drought resistance. It is also a very nutritious grass that deer generally love.
Big and Little Bluestem grass used to make up much of the Midwest before it was turned to corn-and-bean county. Bluestem grassland largely fed Bison. Maybe this could work for you along your dry creek area.
Bob, I think that is a really great idea! You are looking at some type of high pressure, low volume spray, correct? I am not exactly certain how to incorporate hardware Kim that into a kitchen but I assume that you want something that sprays a higher pressure and a lower volume than a typical sink hose. I suppose for starters you could just modify something like the pressure sprayer you already have to fit more conveniently on your limited kitchen space.
It is weird that you have vibrant, dark, healthy green leaves on shoots right next to shoots that look like they are about to die from drought which leads me to think that the problem isn’t about water, especially as you state that you water daily.
This does make me think about the possibility of some type of disease. If Disease is the issue, my thoughts would be to get rid of as much of the diseased portion of the plant as possible.
But this is just my guess as I have never seen this exact problem before. If this sounds about right to you, maybe we could brainstorm a way out for you.
Thanks for the question Jay! I am pretty certain that the fungi is just hibernating, kinda sitting in time out. But I am pretty certain that it also ran out of food in the first place, thus the reason I want to add in the straw—sorta like a quick fungal sugar snack. But at the moment it is just sitting dormant due to lack of food and water.
Yesterday our drought broke. Thunderstorms started about 5:00 am and gently continued till about 11:30 am after which the day was generally gray and the temperatures were in the lower 70s. It was a perfect day for getting moisture to my rain-starved garden bed.
I checked on the bed this morning at about 10:30 am with the temperatures again in the 70s and the skies bright and sunny—perfect for growing! I checked specifically on my cucumbers and they look like they have had a little growth burst but are just a touch light green and look like they could use some nitrogen.
I had been adding some vitamin “P” into a Kitty litter container yesterday so today I filled with water and took it out to fertilize. As I was pouring on the fertilizer I was a bit surprised by how fast the liquid ran through the chips. The chips were much, much wetter than two days ago to be certain but we’re still not soaked to the point that they really want to readily accept more water. I clearly need to water some more. It is on the road to recovery, but it has a ways to go.
Maybe worse was the conditions of the bit of potting mix that came with the cucumbers. It took me some time between buying the cucumbers in little pots and getting them in the ground (I needed to build a trellis). I watered the cucumbers in their pots daily but the plants may have become somewhat root bound. Now that the plants are in the ground, hopefully they will root out quickly.
As far as getting Wine Caps re-established, if things work out I might try to get some new spawn this Fall and add it to the bed under some straw and see if I can get a fairly quick crop of mushrooms growing in some straw placed on top of the chips, hopefully reconstituting the bed again.
