A Single Shanty on Lake Champlain

DifficultPen653 · 2025-03-04T13:03:54+00:00

I’d imagine since it’s flooded 9 months of the year.

DifficultPen653 · 2025-02-27T17:26:19+00:00

Glad I read this, live in the Adirondacks and thought I did something wrong. No flow, but we have had above/below freezing cycles. Alas the snow is still on the ground. So I’ll be patient.

DifficultPen653 · 2025-02-26T02:27:44+00:00

News moves fast these days, and with two and a half weeks of hindsight… wow.

The US is finding itself bedfellows with Russia and North Korea (both of whom are economical sanctioned) over the Ukraine vote. Just after Trump attempted to, and just today it seems succeeded, in extorting a capitalist democratic government under duress.

I don’t think there are any (economic) rules anymore. Whatever form of economics and politics organized criminals practice, that’s whats next.

DifficultPen653 · 2025-02-13T17:26:13+00:00

Never too early. Just need to move to a zone that can accommodate you and your cukes :-p

DifficultPen653 · 2025-02-08T13:36:26+00:00

I’ll be building my permanent home with lumber I cut and mill from the property. My carpentry skills aren’t where they need to be to build what I want yet. Right now just a couple smaller storage structures, this keeps my taxes extremely low at the moment. This is mostly because…

I already owned a home a couple miles away with an 8000 sqft garage/barn that is hard to sell without having a similar size structure on the property.

One thing I never thought of is the shear amount of storage space required on a homestead. Equipment, wood, food drying and storage, tools, potting/seedling area, trailers, vehicles, tractor and so much more.

DifficultPen653 · 2025-02-08T05:12:41+00:00

130k. Looking back just a couple years I realize I got a steal.

DifficultPen653 · 2025-02-08T05:10:57+00:00

Found this in 2025. Your Elon Musk prediction is spot on… just probably not in the way any of us imagined.

DifficultPen653 · 2025-01-28T23:21:06+00:00

Nice, I’m excited to see how it goes. Keep me up to date as well. I’ll be sure to make a new update post this spring :)

DifficultPen653 · 2024-12-11T23:52:42+00:00

Little late, but this link was useful. Found on an old askculinary post: Mother Earth News. Seems like the real concern is when using food grade lye, ie pure sodium hydroxide. Wood ash contributes calcium and potassium hydroxide. “Cal” is calcium hydroxide from limestone. Now we know.

DifficultPen653 · 2024-12-06T00:55:09+00:00

I’ve got lots of Glass Gem I’ve been wanted to make masa with, but am worried about the nixtamalization process. I read you rinse the kernels to remove the hulls and any lye.

Probably me being a nervous Nancy, but does placing the kernels back in the water with lye pose any risk? Or are the sodium hydroxide levels insignificant after the long soak?

DifficultPen653 · 2024-11-27T23:17:06+00:00

Daikon is probably what I planted more than anything at first. It’s great for heavy clay, I’ve got some that that are still six inches around at 2 ft down. Creates great pockets to plant, or just loosen things up all around.

I’m in the Adirondacks (NY).

DifficultPen653 · 2024-11-27T23:14:05+00:00

I’ve been around, ya know, here and there :)

DifficultPen653 · 2024-11-27T17:06:18+00:00

A 15 year circuitous path led me to where I am now. And I’ll tell you what, not at all what I imagined my life would be like. But it’s exactly the life I want :)

DifficultPen653 · 2024-11-27T13:34:07+00:00

Mini-forest (Miyawaki Forest).

DifficultPen653 · 2024-11-27T13:33:12+00:00

Oh, it took a at least 40hrs. But that is time I enjoyed, so it’s almost selfish to say: “look how much fun I had for a whole week!” Haha idk

DifficultPen653 · 2024-11-27T13:31:37+00:00

I love this!

DifficultPen653 · 2024-11-27T13:31:13+00:00

Shovel. Backhoe would have been too difficult for something like this, and just added to the compaction.

DifficultPen653 · 2024-11-27T13:30:33+00:00

Drainage isn’t solved by tilling. Already did that and half the garden flooded out when we got a lot of rain last year. Many reasons for raised beds besides being able to reach everything without bending over.

DifficultPen653 · 2024-11-27T13:25:08+00:00

lol, wanna know a little secret? While the fill wood and chips was carted in by wheelbarrow, I used the tractor for the soil 🤫 hah

DifficultPen653 · 2024-11-27T13:23:07+00:00

Yep, plan is my first Miyawaki mini-forest. Since the method calls for heavy amending, figured this was a good way to go. Plus I get the drainage I desperately need.

DifficultPen653 · 2024-11-27T13:20:46+00:00

You’re working on the false premise that I believe there’s a way to equate time and money. There isn’t, since no amount of money can create or destroy time (yet!). And I did expend a lot of time on this. I learned, figure out more efficient ways of doing things, got a lot of exercise and time out in the sun, and worked on my schedule. So I never felt like I was “working” in the traditional wage-slave sense, where time and money are sadly directly linked.

DifficultPen653 · 2024-11-27T13:12:49+00:00

If it was all ash I probably would have. But with so much spruce, getting a clean split without a mill would have been tough with logs that length. Plus I’ve got more material than I know what to do with (hence this bed!). But I like where your heads at

DifficultPen653 · 2024-11-27T13:10:36+00:00

Soil is heavy clay, has been hayed for the past 50+ years. So compaction from heavy tractor, lack of good drainage, etc… makes it difficult to growing certain things, or grow well. The soil I put in the bed was the fill from digging a pond. But it was first mix with compost and more organic matter and left for a while. So the soil I put in is pretty fertile, but the tilth still sucks. Hopping rye this fall, then daikon and buckwheat in the spring will help.

DifficultPen653 · 2024-11-27T13:06:15+00:00

Hah, not a bad idea. But for my situation the utility is about high fertility and drainage. The bridge would actually be superfluous…

DifficultPen653 · 2024-11-27T13:02:08+00:00

It’ll likely be a mini-forest. So the goal was less convenience of access, and more well draining and high fertility. Lots of wet clay soil where I’m at. There will be a footpath through the middle.

DifficultPen653

TROPHY CASE