Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil world) 2

RedStateGreen

Found a lady on Craigslist selling bricks for 10 cents each so I went and got 100. They'll come in handy for all sorts of things.

Her and her husband remodel homes and rent them out, so they have a huge stash of building materials ... now I have their number/email so I don't think I'll be wanting for that stuff for a while ... they also gave me some tips as to what stores have good prices on building supplies. Very Happy

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Conservation is conservative

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change. -- Charles Darwin

Ludi

Planted two more vegetable garden beds and planted another almond tree.
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No original ideas are contained in this post.

RedStateGreen

Put bricks around the front plot I'm making. Got a few more buckets of compost in there, with the help of my son.

If you make a plot under a downspout, putting rocks under the spout helps immensely to not have all the dirt wash away. Embarassed

Got more plants in: a rose, aloe vera, hibiscus, and french tarragon.
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Conservation is conservative

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change. -- Charles Darwin

steam_cannon · Expert Joined: Dec 28, 2006 Posts: 2467 Location: MA

gollum

Bought a rear tine tiller from sears, 12 monthes no interest no payment.

PeakOiler

Yesterday I re-positioned the 125W PV panel that powers the Sundanzer freezer since we just past the Spring Equinox. This required cutting and mounting more aluminum footings:

At noon, (1pm DST), the sun's rays will be perpendicular to the panel. At the summer soltice, I'll attach shorter legs to the panel and one more set of feet.
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About my avatar: Guess.

WisJim

PeakO, I would be concerned about putting more "feet" in my roof, with the holes involved. Around here, at least, that is too much opportunity for leakage. That looks like a standing seam roof--if it is, why not clamp the "feet" to the standing seams? Some of the commercial PV racks attach that way. Or, make telscoping supports so you would adjust the length of the support instead of moving their point of attachment. Mine are pivoted horizontally in the center of the array and adjusted by moving a support (perforated angle irontype of stuff) to a different hole, where it is held onto a bolt using a thumb nut. I found that using a tin can (nice cylinder with a square end) as a shadow device at solar noon tells me if I have it aimed right. Set the can firmly on the surface, and if there is no shadow around it on the PV surface, it is aimed at the sun.

PeakOiler

Jenab6

I planted 40 seeds of arrowhead. It's a wild herb that grows an edible tuber similar to new potato. When the seeds have become plants, I'll transplant them to my flower garden where the rain falls from the porch roof. They are semi-aquatic plants by nature, so that should be best for them.

Rural dwellers should learn to recognize wild edible plants. There are more of them than you think. Red-flowering sumacs, such as staghorn, aren't poisonous. You can eat the shoots and make a tart drink from the red flower clusters. I'm going to experiment heavily this year on eating wild, just to see how many different plants I can find and how much food I can get from them.

Hm. Yellow flowers = wild parsnip. White flowers = water hemlock. Definitely gotta remember that.

EDIT: You know, I just now imagined a hypothetical future episode of The Simpsons in which the Simpson family is hiding in their basement, sneaking a meal from hoarded food in the dark, while their neighbors are going from door to door knocking and asking each other if they have any spare food. Some of them seem to have lost their minds because they are walking around like zombies while hooting "Food fooooood!" Later, Bart has some fun by placing a bean on a sidewalk, then concealing himself in an observation post to watch people fight over the bean.

The water hemlock idea seems better. Bart ought to wrap tape around some hemlock roots and write "parsnip" on it in magic marker. Twisted Evil

patience · Expert Joined: Jan 04, 2008 Posts: 1521

Yesterday I ordered a dozen plastic 55 gal barrels with ring sealed metal lids, for 6 bucks each. Our neighbor gets 4 of them, the rest are for grain storage, anticipating a few laying hens next year. We'll buy wheat and corn direct out of the combine this year.

Also rebuilt the carburetor on the old Wheel Horse, and plowed the lower garden today. The upper garden is in wheat, which I'll leave for another month, then mulch mow it and till it in. Organic matter in our clay soil makes all the difference. Where I plowed today, the soil is chocolate brown, and drained the TEN INCHES of rain we got last week enough to plow today! And retains moisture enough to grow, far longer than the yard.

I'll probably cut some kale to cook today, that survived the winter, and plant garlic and onions that are sprouting in the basement.
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Local fix-it guy..

patience · Expert Joined: Jan 04, 2008 Posts: 1521

Also drove 2 of the 8 ground rods for our solar system-to-be, and built concrete forms for the LP tank base. Too cold to pour concrete today, as it was snowing and I ran short of ambition. Got to do the ground rods while the ground is soaked, because it is near impossible after this clay/rock stuff dries out. Sakrete tomorrow maybe.
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Local fix-it guy..

Ludi

Planted another small bed of fava beans; started leveling an area for another rainwater tank.
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No original ideas are contained in this post.

DomusAlbion

I've spent the last several days cleaning up the Black Walnut tree that a neighbor helped bring down this week. We'll get a lot of good lumber from this tree and with the other even bigger walnut coming down in about 5 weeks we'll have enough to floor the entire house plus make newels, posts and handrails for the stairs.
We'll also get some good firewood.
These were very old and beautiful trees but they are too close to the house. They present a danger and they create quite a mess every fall.
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"Modern Agriculture is the use of land to convert petroleum into food."
-- Albert Bartlett

"It will be a dark time. But for those who survive, I suspect it will be rather exciting."
-- James Lovelock

davep · Expert Joined: Jun 21, 2006 Posts: 1252 Location: Europe

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