Eric Thompson

I definitely have a bias due to my love of equipment, but I have great results by running a sod cutter over them with 2" depth.  This generally teases the roots out and leaves weeds with roots laying on the top gasping for soil...  My main weeds are grasses and buttercup.

I should mention that I set up my plantings to use the 19" sod cutter width, so these are usually spaces between garden rows, or other paths like between raised beds.

Elderberry is just great in a hugel.  It breaks down fairly fast, and also readily sprouts out all over if you bury live material -- since it's a nice plan that is easy to chop I never found that to be a problem..

I normally dig the whole center and then separate into crown pieces and root sections....then just plant them all!  You will always have enough root left around the place you dug for the plant to come back strong..

I have some of the common comfrey growing a few places in the PNW and have had no signs of invasiveness.  Oe area is a grass pasture that gets mowed for hay each year - there are some decent sized plants growing, but they are sparse and just in one moist area of the pasture.  The other are is a shaded hillside that has some sparse plants but they are small and don't create a covering.

I'm inclined to not worry about invasiveness, and would even say that the bocking varieties spread more and grow more robustly, so I would prefer those  And propogating those by root cuttings is very easy...

You should be just fine -- in nature trees get tricked into breaking dormancy too soon and then recovering all the time.  They will probably go through with no pause though.

Be sure you seal up the roots and keep them moist -- they don't need a lot of heavy soil, just something to hold moisture.
Be really careful to protect the new grafts!  It is easy to break them loose in side loading..

It seems well worth it to keep your grafted trees in the family! :)

I use just parafilm that is the 2" wide - it seals well and releases easily as the graft swells.  But it doesn't add much strength to the graft and can be broken when a bird lands on top or when brushed from the side.  I usually expect better than 90% success with 1/4" stock.

A lot of nice human food options for tuna heads - In Japan they just grill a half head with some salt and pick it apart with chopsticks as a $10 side dish.  Fish head soup or curry is fantastic.

Japan is still rigidly following the Cannabis Control Act established in 1947 with the strong oversight of occupying USA.  This essentially squashed traditional food and fiber uses that were coon in Japan.  

Anybody who understands Japan wont be surprised by the continued rigid stance on this seemingly outdated law.

There is still very strict control for imports -- no THC products are allowed.  CBD products can be allowed, but only with lab testing that shows 0.00% or "Not Detectable" levels of THC.

I use turmeric and black pepper in soup quite a bit.  If you dislike the taste it or want to take more, you can get a supplement or just get some empty gelatin capsules and fill your own supplement - this is really easy with any powder..

Some things to evaluate for your needs beyond just power:

Do you need 4WD?  If you have just one tractor and it gets stuck deep in the mud, a season may go by before you can pull it out.

Are you a decent amateur mechanic?  repair cost for small fixes is still big money.

Don't underestimate how nice power steering can be!!

$3500 seems steep for  a 9N -- running decent with no bucket I would expect to get one for work use for under $2000.

I would say get something usable and not too expensive -- if you get a good deal on an old tractor, you can re-sell for the same price and move to something that fits you more after a few years of experience..