Today I made / bought / learnt (for a post oil world) 4

[rangerone314]

I moved a large patch of Monarda didyma to the east end of the fruit tree bed (red oswego mint) and yesterday moved a large patch of Monarda fistula to the west end of the fruit tree bed (pink oswego mint). The red flowers look so nice bookending the bed that I decided that the other end would look nice ended by pink. Plus they'll attract lots of pollinators to that bed.

East of the fruit tree bed along the driveway are hazelnut bushes and various perennials (like echinacea, tick weed etc) & reseeding annual purslane, also crocuses & daffodil bulbs.

[patience]

We have all the cracks and holes in the cistern patched with hydraulic cement now. Waiting on the Quikwall we ordered to arrive so we can seal the walls with it. Meanwhile, we can punch a hole through the double block wall into the basement and put in a new pump line. The old pipe is corroded, and I only want to do this ONCE, so it gets replaced.

I also have a start on plumbing in the new tank and pump to draw water out of the cistern. That is for convenience. For no-electricity periods, there is a gravity flow drain line at the bottom of the cistern, with a simple spigot on it and threaded for a garden hose. And, on the back porch,which is the top of the cistern, there will be a hand pump for outside water needs.

Our city water (county, actually) is pretty bad, so the cistern will become our drinking water supply. Output of the cistern will go to a charcoal filter (an old swimming pool sand filter, reworked) and thence to a separate faucet in the kitchen. We are looking at a reverse osmosis filter for the final clean up in the kitchen. Not sure about that yet.

[PeakOiler]

We have all the cracks and holes in the cistern patched with hydraulic cement now...
<snip>

You should have posted this in the Rainwater Collection thread.

Mods: Can the post be moved?

Meanwhile, we're enjoying some of the rain from Alex around here. I measured about 2" of rain two days ago, and received ca. 1.1" this evening and it's still raining lightly as I type this.

That corresponds roughly to about 5,200 gallons collected. I'll take inventory tomorrow.

[Ludi]

We ate our first homegrown apple today! Granny Smith.

[vtsnowedin]

Ludi; Congratulations!!! I'm sure it tasted great.
Ripe apples on July fourth? There are certainly some advantages to living in Texas. Up here they are still the size of acorns.

[Ludi]

Granny Smith is supposed to ripen in OCTOBER! This one fell off the tree, had turned a light yellow color, and tasted great. So I don't know if the rest are getting ripe, will get ripe later, this was just a freak, or what. I deliberately chose late ripening apples to not compete with the fruits of summer (which have failed for us anyway - we got like 3 plums this year ).

[davep]

I chose the hottest day of the year to bring 20 cubic metres of seasoned wood from a copse to our place.

I got bitten half to death and am now taking antihistamines...

Oh and then I went and inadvertently kicked my metal lathe in my bare feet. It hurt.

So all in all a productive weekend.

[Ludi]

Built another hugelkultur bed and planted the Jerusalem artichokes I had in the fridge for months. None had died, even though they had things piled on them and had gotten shoved around a lot. Some were even trying to grow in the plastic bag.

[PrestonSturges]

Putting up the 8ft x 8ft arbor for the kiwi vine. Nothing fancy, just a cube of 4x4s set deep into concrete. I figured any ornamental work would be demolished by the vine, which is already 20 ft long.

It's hard to be systematic about framing timbers on an uneven slope. I dug 2 holes a little too close together, so now they will be twice as big. There will be several extra sacks of cement to fill them in.

[frankthetank]

Preston-

What kind of kiwi... Next year i'm putting in several vines, but they have to be able to take -25F.

I turned the AIR CONDITIONER off! today. Had it running for 4 days now. The humidity this summer has just been horrible... No cooling off at night whatsoever, with temps staying in the low 70's *yuck*... I really can't see not having AC. Its impossible to sleep in that crap. Whats even worse, from a alt power perspective, is that its been very cloudy during the day and no wind...so solar/wind would both be very low power producers during this garbage. Nice thing about winter is mother nature stores her energy in trees...hard to cool a house with wood

[SolarDave]

I replaced TWO 40-Watt energy-wasting bulbs in my 9 year old refrigerator with a SINGLE 7.5 Watt nightlight bulb. 1/10th the power use - and 1/10th as much heat to purge from the system every time the door is opened.

Posted while pedaling - powered by me!

[PeakOiler]

Today I bought a wine making kit from Austin Homebrew. I'm going to make a 6-gallon batch of wine using some of the peaches I've recently harvested.

[PrestonSturges]

Preston-

What kind of kiwi... Next year i'm putting in several vines, but they have to be able to take -25F.

I got an Anna, which is a vigorous vine. It's 2 years old and in a 18 inch pot, probably severely root bound. It needed to be pruned to a single leader before it took off, and currently it's growing up a rope hung from a tall tree branch, so I can lower the vine and replant it over at the pergola. I'll put it in a 22 inch pot with the bottom cut out but sitting on wire mesh so it can send down roots but it will also be able to survive any unexpected vole attacks, and I can take it with me if I move. The underlying soils is powdery yellow loess that seems to be several feet deep and is agreeable to trees This vine survived 10 degree weather in a pot and is rated zones 4-9.

The pergola is an 8 ft square with 10' uprights set 20" in concrete in the back and a foot deep in cement in the front. I'm using about 180 lbs of cement per pole. All lumber is 4x4" with lag bolts. We'll hang a porch swing from it. My GF pointed out how easy it would be to put a floor in the pergola, making a nice little meditation retreat area.

Now I built a square jig 8x8 feet to help center the posts, and this would have been helpful from the start.

[Keith_McClary]

I made a solar charger for my mp3 player out of broken garden lights:

Just needs a bit of duct tape for that slick professional look.

[davep]

I made a solar charger for my mp3 player out of broken garden lights:

Just needs a bit of duct tape for that slick professional look.

Good idea! I've got a few broken garden lights hanging around too...

[americandream]

Brilliant!

I made a solar charger for my mp3 player out of broken garden lights:

Just needs a bit of duct tape for that slick professional look.

[rangerone314]

I installed more fencing and bird netting and increased the chicken run area from 288 sqFt along the western woods to 600 sqFt. I will expand the chicken run area until I figure out how much grass 18 chickens can handle without destroying to the ground.

I did a lot of weeding in the fruit tree bed and moved wide logs to serve as boundaries between the mulched fruit tree & perennial bed and the grassy area. I emptied the buckets of weeds and put that in the chicken coop as fresh material for the open bottom.

Moved the last 3 kiwi vines to my new vine area behind the shed above the stream... the west vine area has 6 kiwi vines and 3 grape vines, and the east vine area has has grape vines.

[frankthetank]

Hope i made the right decision in refinancing our mortgage. Drop about 1.5% off the interest rate (15yr)... I figure we could be rid of it in 7 years if we pay a little extra each month... Kind of a rip off that its costs $1000+ to refinance...

[PeakOiler]

Hope i made the right decision in refinancing our mortgage. Drop about 1.5% off the interest rate (15yr)... I figure we could be rid of it in 7 years if we pay a little extra each month... Kind of a rip off that its costs $1000+ to refinance...

Yes, you made the right decision. Yeah, refinancing fees are too high. But keep making those extra payments and eliminate that mortgage asap.

[PeakOiler]

Today I bought 20 pounds of sugar for the peach wine and to prepare more peach jam.

Too bad I can't grow sugar cane here...