James Freyr

Congrats y'all! Welcome to the team!

Jason Walter wrote:I should prob pick of any existing fruit cause Id rather have the tree devote its energies on growing a strong root system versus producing fruit, is this a correct assumption, if so than Ill assume it also stands for fig trees.

Yes I believe this is correct.

I will let my newly planted trees flower, and then I pinch off any developing fruits shortly after that so energy does not go into fruit production. I let them blossom in part to help the first pollinators of spring, which are hungry and need all the help they can get. I do not prune my trees the first year. Trees need energy to grow roots, and that energy comes from photosynthesis in the leaves. Pruning off branches reduces the amount of leaves to capture sunlight and grow those roots. Also, all new emerging growth in the early spring comes from stored energy in the trees roots, and the more energy a tree can store in its roots from photosynthesis, the better start it will have the following spring.

What else would it be helpful to know to care for these trees?

I do not recommend fertilizing or adding any compost or organic matters to a hole that a tree is planted in. I just put back in the same soil I dug out. I do add a bacterial & myccohrizahl inoculant in the first watering as I plant the tree, but nothing else. I have poured liquid fish + kelp on the surface of the soil out beyond the planting hole, so there are good minerals in the soil that the roots grow into and find, and upon discovering these minerals it helps encourage more outward root growth. If compost and things are added to the hole, the trees roots love that spot and there is little incentive to grow out beyond. This can result in the roots growing in a circle in the hole possible becoming somewhat potbound, and also the roots have limited exposure to water: the tree will drink the water out of that small area. With the roots growing outward away from the trunk, they grow into more soil and have more water to access for a longer period of time before things begin to dry out. I always mulch around by fruit trees with wood chips making sure not to pile them up around the trunk. This is not only just for covering the newly disturbed soil of the planting hole, but I also go beyond that another 4 or 5 feet in diameter. This helps hold moisture in the soil, at also facilitates fungal soil growth and improves the soil as the wood chips decay, which also encourages outward spreading root growth.

Hope this helps!

While I have never been diagnosed with lyme disease, I am into using natures pharmacy for healing the body. May I suggest these books if this path interests you.


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Good luck fellow friend.

Hi Phil, welcome to Permies!

Sorry to hear about the challenges you're facing. Here are my thoughts.

Phill Johnston wrote:
so heres my questions?....should i call him back and tell him something,?  

My advice is to notify them to direct all communication to you in writing through the mail. Discussing matters over the phone can become a "he said, she said" conundrum and pretty much amounts to hearsay. Having all communication done via mail with everything in writing, you'll be prepared in the unlikely event you were to be summoned to court, and you'll have proof of what's been going on. This will also really slow things down to a snails pace, allowing time for you to formulate any response, if needed.

2. what if someone complains again on me not doing anything to anyone btw? Whats the next thing?  

I wouldn't worry about it. Speculating what may or may not happen in the future can eat at a persons mental well being. I suggest just crossing this bridge if you ever get to it.

3. If i give him info will he be happy will this be the end of that?

I think it's impossible to forecast how someone will receive your info. Again, I would sit back and do nothing aside from waiting for official mail. You are the rightful land owner.

4.Will the sherif get involved cant i camp on my own land,?  

I don't know if the Sheriff will "get involved", but this person or a deputy may pay a visit, but I doubt it. I think that law enforcement is required to respond and pay a visit if someone complains, though they will likely do nothing. I don't think they can legally ignore complaints, no matter how ridiculous they are.  I'm pretty sure that land owners in America can camp out on their own land.

5.the whole idea was to get the hell away from everything and everyone and have my own peace and privacy but seems hard to do when others are hell bent on tearing your life apart for no reason known to us. We Really are peaceful caring people that stay to themselves. What ground do I have to stand on folks making it seem like we dont have any rights.

I'll second advice others have mentioned, and familiarize yourself with what your legal rights are. I'll also ditto what Leigh and Eric said about connecting with the neighbors. Perhaps bake them a loaf of bread or some muffins and come bearing gifts. Simple kindness is incredibly powerful.

I believe the source of the pathogens aren't so much the row covers, but are in the soil. I think a focus on promoting beneficial soil fungal and bacterial life through such things as quality compost, leaf molds and earth worms & their castings for examples will target the source of the pathogens by keeping them from gaining the upper hand and yield better results in the next growing season compared to just sanitizing row covers. I do think the row covers could indeed harbor dormant pathogenic spores, and while I think sunlight is great at killing actively growing things like molds and some fungals, microbial spores have evolved to survive things like sunlight and go on to live another season. I believe one option that can be effective in sanitizing this row cover is by removing and destroying spores in a brief soak in vinegar, or better, alcohol.

John F Dean wrote:... putting in the lug bolts.....  I suspect the damage is inside the hub.   What are my options?

Here's a few options I can think of:

Get a longer, slightly undersized bolt, nylon lock nut, and washers and rig it if the backside of the hub is accessible and if you're comfortable with the remaining bolts doing most of the work holding the wheel on the hub.

If you have a tap and die set, try retapping the holes in the hub and cutting fresh threads on the bolts. This can often work if the cross threading only occurred at the start of the threads on the male and female ends.

If you don't have a tap and die set, individual taps aren't too expensive, and retap the hole in the hub and get fresh replacement bolts with good sharp thread on them.

If the threads were buggered up all the way through the hole in the hub, it may be necessary to go up a size by boring the hole with a slightly larger drill bit and tapping it with a new larger tap, and fresh larger bolts.

If it's threaded studs on the hub that are buggered, I think Bruce offered a great approach by knocking the old ones out and pressing a new one in.

Those are the best DIY repairs I can think of at the moment. Hope these ideas are of help! :)

Thank you for sharing this Skandi. I'm half Danish (my mom is from Denmark) and seeing the picture of smørrebrød (Danish open faced sandwich for those that don't know what that means) brings warm memories of visiting family in Denmark when I was a child and my mormor and moster's would make sandwiches like these for me. Your post has brought me smiles and made my day.

Happy autumnal equinox to all! With equal parts of light and dark today and nighttime continuing to lengthen as each day passes, winter is fast approaching. I hope everyone had a good growing season in the northern hemisphere and a nice winter in the southern hemisphere. I hope each of us are able to spend some time outdoors today and I wish everyone a beautiful day!


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I have the heated fount shown in the picture below. It holds three gallons which is good for my chickens for a couple days. I've had it as far away from the house as 300ft using extension cords and it still kept water from freezing into the teen temps (Fahrenheit). I believe the one I have is good to 0 degrees when the air is still. Wind can cause ice to skim over. While it's not a bucket with nipples, it works, and it might be an option to consider.


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Hey K, I can relate to the difficulty in deciding what to choose to do. So fellow Permie Trace Oswald wrote, (if memory serves me correct I searched and couldn't find it, so forgive me if it was written by someone else here), a really great post about how just doing a little something each day, every day, will add up to getting a whole lot done over time. It could mean starting one project, like a hugel and working 30 minutes or an hour each day til it's done, or perhaps it could be bouncing around an hour on this, an hour on that, and after so many days of that several projects could be completed. I believe there's no prescription for how to do permaculture- it's different for everybody for so many reason which may include but not be limited to where we live (urban or rural, woodland or open land, long winter north or long summer south etc.), what we like to eat, our age and level of energy, whether one is challenged by a physical disability of some kind, etc. My suggestion is to pick something, like planting a fruit/nut tree this fall for example, and just plant them, or perhaps build a hugel this fall of any size that works for you and it will be ready to plant next spring. Hope this helps!