Gilbert Fritz

I've recently been reading a lot about woodland crafts, particularly various green woodworking techniques; the type of books that show one how to cut down a tree and turn it into handles, chairs, fences, lumber, baskets, etc.

All the books I've found, however, are based on traditional practice in places with moist temperate hardwood forests. "Find a straight hickory/ash/oak/maple . . ."

Here in the semi-arid Front Range, the trees consist of three types: conifers in the mountains, riparian strips consisting largely of cottonwood/poplar and willow, and various imported yard trees, most of which develop branchy, multi-forked shapes quite different from forest grown specimens of the same species.

Are there any resources that would be helpful here? In particular, a focus on conifers instead of hardwood would be great. How do cultures in areas dominated by conifers make tool handles and other wooden items requiring strength and durability?

Some are closer, some are farther away from the hose bib.

They are several miles from my house, and generally a few hundred feet from the owner's house. I'm working with standard city water pressure through a hose bib. The square footage is usually between 500 and 2000 square feet.

As far as a y connector, that can help to spread it out, but I've heard that a total of 100 linear feet is all that average hose pressure can manage at one time. That seems to be borne out in my experience.

Starting brassica seedlings for fall harvest here is REALLY difficult. The weather in July and August is just too hot, and getting worse.

I start seedlings under row cover low tunnels built of PVC hoops and rebar ground stakes. They are fairly strong and could take a lot of weight.

If I set up a system to trickle water very slowly down the north side of the fabric, would I get significant evaporative cooling inside? Keep in mind that this is Denver, CO with low humidity, lots of wind, and high temperatures, an ideal drying climate.

I'm thinking of either a soaker or drip type hose connected to a garden hose, or a leaky gutter that could be refilled every day.

I'm doing urban farming on lots of little bits of land, usually without longterm access, and sometimes a good distance from my house.

Because of the temporary nature of the plots, setting up an actual automatic irrigation system isn't an option. Also due to the same conditions, I'd rather use soaker hose than drip line. Soaker hose is not as efficient, but is easier to work with and less likely to fail in an invisible way. (This year some of my drip lines plugged up and I only noticed once the plants were pretty stunted.) Also, I've noticed that plants I water with soaker hoses are happier than with drip lines. I think that is because the drip line irrigates a bunch of little spots, while the soaker line irrigates a wide band. Since I'm largely depending on the breakdown of organic matter to fertilize the plants, and live in a very dry climate, keeping a wide band of soil moist is going to be more productive in terms of mineralizing nutrients for the plants.

The problem is that while I was able to run a lot of drip line off of one garden hose with the right adapter, 100' seems to be the maximum for a soaker hose. That's only 200' square feet of bed space.

I need a system that can be turned on manually, and then automatically run one section of soaker after another.

How would you go about setting something like this up?

The description of my pump says that it is "150PS." What does that mean in terms of horsepower? Trying to figure out how much pressure it could generate.

Getting ready to start working on this again.

If I reversed the flow through the radiator and turned up the flow from the pump, would I be in danger of damaging the radiator? How much pressure can they take? I ask because a small pressure release valve is mounted on the top tank, and if I moved the inflow to the bottom tank the water would go through the fins before reaching it.

Is there anywhere here that talks about how permies first got started? Was it just Paul? Was there already a group of people? I've heard that without an initial critical mass of members, forums tend to flop. I was wondering how permies got over that hurdle.

My brassicas were heavily infected by black and soft rots and wirestem disease this year. They were all under rowcover material. I'd like to reuse the cover, since it is quite expensive. I do not, however, want to risk pathogen carry-over. Should I sterilize the covers with hot water somehow?

Nobody I can find online is talking about this. I'm guessing that the big operators throw out their rowcover after one season.

That would be great!

How much shaping do you do before drying, as opposed to after?