William Bronson

I am doing this at my yarden.
I have gourds planted in them this year, along with the usual Jerusalem artichokes.
Your materials are much nicer than the pallets I use.
The mulch/wood/etc will be much needed soil by the time the beds fall apart.
At that point I start anew with whatever hasn't broken down yet and new stuff as well.
I like to add urine to these carbon heavy beds.

Planted some red amaranth starts in a bed prepared by chop/drop.
Month later,  the bed is over run by healthy lambs quarters wilst the amaranth plants are stunted and insect damaged.
Why not just eat the lambs quarters in the first place?
The leaves are small and fiddly, to hard to harvest.
Maybe the variety you mentioned above would do well here and grow large leaves.

I love that so many permies are interested in this tree!
I must admit,  the food value is looking more and more doubtful.
It seems to have multiple chemical defenses.

"The fruit is high in saponins and is used as a soap[200]. The leaves are used as a fly poison[222]. Trees are planted on the spoil tips of mines to stabilize and reclaim the soil[200]. Wood - coarse-grained, heavy though not hard, strong, very durable in contact with the soil, finishes to a fine lustre. A handsome wood, it weighs 43lb per cubic foot and is used for cabinet work, furniture, construction, fencing etc[46, 61, 82, 171, 229, 235]."

Reports on the test of the pulp vary greatly,from foul and bitter to  caramel sweetness.
I wonder how well the leaves will compost,  if the fresh leaves kill flies.
Any reports on that?
I like the projected height OK,  and I love that the leaves only show up during the hottest times.
My experience with mimosa suggests that these   compound leaved trees that leaf out late are pretty great nurses for understory.
My yarden lot is filled with the debris of the house that once stood there, so almost any plant that grows is give at least a chance.
The mulberries are struggling, the box elder is thriving, go figure.
I am wondering if using the pods to wash cloths with might not be ideal.
I have been running this summers used wash water through a nacent vermiculture / willow filter.
The hydrocyanic acid in the seeds might made this a bad idea.

I read of this being done before.
That couple had a wood stove, firewood, couch and rug in their hoop house, doing side their camper.
They used shade cloth overhead during the summer,  and opened the sides for ventilation.
They even overwintered ducks in one corner.

Separating layers without a blower might be accomplished by running clear vinyl tubing between the layers, using plastic bottles,  bubble wrap or other mechanical means.
There are tough, insulative pool covers that have been used as well.
The advantage of the blower system is the minimal amount of contact between layers,  which prevents thermal bridging.
Another idea is to build nesting hoop houses.

The hoop house is such a good idea,  but in addition,  you could insulate the outside of the camper with anything from stonework to cardboard.

In all cases,  watch for fire hazards.

Mad science is my favorite guilty pleasure.
Trying to make something that is unlikely to work,uneeded ,or both.
There is always something more important I could spend the time and money on, but those things simply don't scratch the itch.

Could be a hydroponic hardwood tree cloner, could be pizza dough dumplings.
It's why I search out cheap and free materials.
If it's cheap or free,  I can afford to ruin or waste it pursuit of knowledge and thrills.

Just built a storage bench that's too small for anything I would want to put in it.
Didn't measure,  just went to town with a sawzall, brad/staple nail gun and pallet wood.
I'll turn it into a low tunnel of sorts, but even if becomes firewood , I had good fun doing it,  and learned what was possible with fasteners and pallet slats.

Looking into an old school barrel stove enhanced with masonry lead me to the rocket stove and this site.
The firebox is huge,  but you burn fast and hot,  and capture the radiant heat in the masonry.
Very simple.
I'm still looking at it as a way to capture the heat from a biochar retort.

So cool!
Your build is inspiring.
I used an offset smoker for part of a huge catering job.
It was techy, and not large enough.
That made me want build a my own.
I've considered using an electric water heater, with the insulation left on, but that could make it hard to do.

Hi there!
Your woods sound like a good place to harvest tree hay.
Mulberry, honey locust ,  anything they will eat really,  cut while green,  dried and stored.
I have had some success saving dried Jerusalem Artichoke stalks for a winter time bunny treat.

I think might have mentioned  a deal to station windmills on your land,  and the pushback from local nimbys.
As a passive income stream, that seems worth fighting for,  if there is any traction to be had at all.

If your internet is reliable,  there are real work from home customer service jobs out there-the pay is probably  not enough.

I don't know what hay goes for there, but here it is valuable enough that people lease acreage just to grow and harvest hay.
You have the land,  are there any haying Operations you could strike a deal with?
Same goes for any crop, hay just came to mind.

Creating farming implements seems like a great idea,  but in addition to innovation,  I suggest jumping on the band wagons.
Quality hoes,   broadforks,  pallet tools, are all out there,  but there seems to be lots of room for small scale and local producers.

People who know not a darn thing about anything make money sharing their "knowledge".
You know solid fuel heat,  boiler systems, tractors,  welding, animal husbandry,  foster care,  festival planning, timber harvesting, and much more.

Video is a faster conduit for information/money exchange than writing is.
YouTube seems to have become more a means to introduce yourself to potential patrons, and less an income stream in and of itself.
Your story, your talents,  seem like a great fit for this niche.

Loans.
Don't worry,  I get the resistance to debt, hear me out.
If you can get a loan using the property you are trying to sell as collateral, you are essentially selling the property to the bank.
Given the low offer you were ready to takeu might even get more for it that way.
This of course assumes you own the property free and clear.


Taking care of your family obviously means everything to you, and you are pulling out all the stops to do so.
That is entirely  noble, rather than  royal,  and simply can't count as failure, not until you give up entirely.
I don't see that happening.
I know that none of that fixes things.
But you will fix things,more  because you are steadfast, than anything else.

You have my admiration.

I just did a deep clean on a funky chicken coop.
I had used hay that was too soaked with rabbit urine to be good bedding,  with predictable results.
Getting down the bottom of the coop,  I found the wood itself still funky, after much scrapping.
I wanted to hose or out,  but I feared the worst,  as funk plus wet can lead to more funk.

Then I remembered I had a 5 gallon cooler filled with the results of a cabbage ferment.
I dispensed it,  sniffed it and finding it good, sprayed the coop with it.
Almost instantly the funk went away.
Corners,  nest box every thing got spritzed.

I had made the ferment with this use in mind,  but forgot it for more than a year,  yet it seems to remain effective.