Eino Kenttä

Yep. I maintain that every description of reality is a simplification, and a lot of the information online is a description of a description of reality, if not even farther removed from the real thing. Even the simple-seeming stuff, where you can probably find a million "how-to" videos or articles online in about five seconds. Even if you read or watched all of them, I'm willing to bet that there's a lot you still won't know about the subject, because it's too subtle to be put into words, or because the only way to that knowledge is to do it for a few years, or because just a few people in the world have realized that particular thing and they're not the ones writing online tutorials...

Turf-covered buildings are definitely traditional, although they mostly used other types of frames. We've been looking a bit at buildings in outdoor museums and such. Even though our frame is unconventional, it does seem like it'll probably work.

We're doing it on a tiny scale, but with silt from a very small river (or creek, I guess?) that has no industrial activity upstream of us and very little in the general area. We also haven't been at it for very long, so no long-term data yet. However, it does seem to be working okay so far. I did see a little bit of compaction/crusting on one patch of freshly applied silt during the dry part of last summer, but I expect it'll go away as soil building progresses. Otherwise, I guess adding biochar or something would solve this problem.

As for pollutants, I probably wouldn't worry about it, personally, unless there's something extraordinarily nasty in the area the silt came from. Also, since you're planning for a food forest, you probably wouldn't harvest that many root crops from that land, but more fruits and nuts, yes? That reduces the amount of potential nasty that might end up in the food, if I got it right. Don't know if it's true for all species of plants, or all pollutants, but I've understood that plants tend to keep nasty stuff out of their fruits to some extent. It makes sense, the genetic integrity of the next generation is at stake...

Rebecca Norman wrote:Can someone who is growing and liking Good King Henry post a photo of the "shoots" that come up in the spring? When I grew it, there were no shoots but a rosette. I remain confused about the usefulness of this plant!

I think there's possibly some confusion over terminology here. The "shoots" probably refer to the immature flowering spikes, since as you mention, the plant doesn't make a shoot as such (no proper stem for a shoot to center around). The flowering spikes are very tasty stir-fried. Ate them at a friend's place a couple of years ago, our own plants haven't really started doing much yet. I think they need more seaweed...

Hugo Morvan wrote:I've put a big black container over the sprouting good king Henri. It's foliage yellows out, but is crunchy and sweet, not bitter at all, and i asked a friend what he thought of it who really doesn't like bitter tastes. Not bitter.  

Oh, that's interesting! I thought the bitterness was supposed to be saponins, right? Guess if they're there to deter herbivores, there's not much point for the plant in making them before getting into the sunlight...

When doing laundry by hand, we use olive oil soap. Just shave a little bit off the soap piece with a knife into warm water and slosh it around a bit so it dissolves. Works well, but I don't know how it'd work in a washing machine.

James Bradford wrote:what about using thatch for the upper most part of the roof ...so its lighter

That's an interesting idea. Not sure how to make the intersection between turf and thatch, though... If the thatch touches the turf, I suspect it'd rot fairly quickly in our climate. Also, I believe a thatch roof should ideally be steeper than ours.

Chris Clinton wrote:I like seeing the experimentation going on with the tannins and glue. If I wasn't so busy I'd enjoy playing around too. In the Skillcult video I posted above he brings up formaldehyde as making glues waterproof. That would lead me down the line of experimenting with seeing what effect wood vinegar/liquid smoke/pyroligneous acid would have on the glues. The aldehydes in smoke play the protein cross-linking (tanning) role in making buckskin, assuming that is still an up to date assessment. Just wanted to throw out that direction of inquiry. Didn't see anything in Dawidowsky  about it, but saw a reference in making elastic glue water resistant by the addition of even a small amount of caoutchouc (latex).

Ooh, now that's a neat idea! As far as I know, the aldehyde theory for buckskin tanning still stands. Maybe smoking the glue while it's damp would work?

So, I tested the tanned glue by putting the test pieces in water over night. One of them held together just fine, still strong, the other broke apart completely. And here I thought I had treated them the same... Inconclusive result, more testing needed.

Nancy Reading wrote:
Yes, there is a countryside code here which covers guidelines (like shutting gates after you and basic politeness) and as long as you respect that then technically you can wander anywhere that isn't someone's back garden in Scotland. Most people are fine, it's a pity to let a few spoil it for everyone.

It's the same in Scandinavia. You're allowed to be most places by default, the places you can't go without permission are exceptions to that rule (people's gardens, fields with growing crops, etc). Mostly, there aren't any problems with this. The only trouble I've heard of is people getting their strawberry patches raided by tourists who don't understand those exceptions. You are allowed to pick wild berries on other people's land, but not cultivated berries in someone's garden... The distinction does seem obvious, but I guess if one hasn't grown up with those rules, it might not be.

Our way of dealing with "unknowns", on the rare occasion that any turn up, is to give them coffee and get to know them... We love company, and there are way too few people who find their way out to our place.

The tanning of glue is looking extremely promising so far! I made some strong willow bark decoction, and then dipped the dry test pieces briefly in it, set them to dry a little bit, dipped them a couple more times (with some drying time in between) and then put them in to soak a bit longer. The exposed hide glue did absorb water, but it didn't dissolve or turn sticky at all. It just turned sort of... gelatinous. More importantly, it's still functioning as glue! When I pry slightly at the glued pieces, they don't budge, though I suspect I could pull them apart while wet if I wanted to. We'll see how it seems once it dries completely, and if it tolerates being put in water. I suspect it'd be good to oil it after tannin treatment, to reduce the amount of water it absorbs. But yeah, promising.

Did you try how water resistant the casein glue is on its own, M? In the Skillcult video it sounds like it sets chemically to some extent at least, rather than just drying. Does yours soften much when wet?