james cox

Love the pic and the quote.

"it's about learning to dance in the rain" though i would add "and not get struck by lightning." lol

cheers   james

looks like you have been working darn hard, well done.  is that an afternoon shot down the drain ditch, just wondering what the aspect is. hopefully an east west with westerly slope as opposed to a north slope?

well, as a follow up to my conversation above above, i do have something to say.

after this webinar you may see what i mean.

after watching the webinar, it may not have been as enlightening as i had hoped.

if i were 15 yrs younger i would spend the money and take her course. that would give me time to recoup the cost and put a bunch of do re me into my retirement fund.

just saying, for you young folks with a slightly scientific bent and a bit of analism and looking for a new hat to wear, you could do a lot worse in terms of rural income and rewarding self employment. so if you are even younger than 55 then take a look at her courses.

i still stand by what i said. as an opportunity to earn some cash, if you have the cash to get educated through her course and have that type of scientific mind/bent and want to work in the farming/rural community, it may be a way to go.

that said, i agree with some of the above comments with regard to the content.

i reread the blurb promoting the webinar and felt the webinar did not touch on:

- What does it mean when fungal-feeding nematodes attack grasshoppers or caterpillars?  How can you interpret this observation?  First: It is not normal for fungal-feeding nematodes to cluster around grasshoppers or caterpillars, but when they do, what does it mean?  Good or bad?  

What is the message being delivered when all the blossoms on your trees or shrubs are covered in fungus?  If you try to spray all the infected tips of the branches just makes the outbreak worse?  All the myriad of organisms whose jobs it is to wipe out the disease were killed by the toxic chemicals that were used.  

- How can we learn to interpret these messages from nature, and better focus on the managers of the soil?

she did touch on:

Permaculture practices rarely include the assessment of soil biology, and do not often include any explanation behind changes in soil life.  What does it mean when only bacteria are found in the soil?  Are those "good" bacteria, or "bad" bacteria?  What job to they do for the plant?  

while we may not have the education and the microscope to check the biology we are definitely interested in making it happen.

- What does tillage do to soil fertility?  Fifty-percent of the beneficial organisms in soil are killed from the crushing, ripping, and slicing that occurs during tillage.  How many times in a growing season will a grower till their land?  Most of the time, the answer is that the weeds have to be dealt with and ripping them out of the soil is the only way to deal with weeds.  But what does this management actually do?  It kills the organisms that, in natural systems, will deal with the weeds.

so, it may be hard to get all that into an hour and a half. unfortunately, i had to leave after the first question was answered, so i may have missed some good stuff in the q&a.

i did feel less time spent bashing and more time spent on whys and hows would have been much more productive.

while i have no problem with her promoting her work and website, it felt like, from the content of the talk it was more about that. that just might be me though. i liked what she was saying because it was a bit of a refresher but it did not seem to lead to anything helpful which is why i got the, come and take our courses vibe.

not really knowing her audience, in this case, was disappointing. i believe she has so much to offer and i found her being so cheap with good, applicable knowledge did more to deter than encourage follow up. again, maybe that is just me.

if someone had never heard of the stuff she talked about then maybe it had more value, however, i agree with the above comment that had i paid $75 for this, i would have been sadly disappointed.

that's all for now, hope to hear other's perspectives as well.

you sure you're not in Canada??

yep, i am pretty sure i am in canada, in the north okanagan, near a small town called enderby in bc.

pia, if you click on the persons name in the left column you can often read that person's profile which may include their location.

the children should have fun playing in the mud, i can't wait to do it myself.

looking forward to pics and updates

i've been following elaine for about the last year.

if i were 15 yrs younger i would spend the money and take her course. that would give me time to recoup the cost and put a bunch of do re me into my retirement fund.

just saying, for you young folks with a slightly scientific bent and a bit of analism and looking for a new hat to wear, you could do a lot worse in terms of rural income and rewarding self employment. so if you are even younger than 55 then take a look at her courses.

after this webinar you may see what i mean.

cheers   james

hiya, hoping to build this sometime this spring/summer. James did you end up building one? Would love to connect or build together! or just for a pizza party eventually  (ps also new to the website so maybe not great at using it)

hi pia
nope, haven't done it yet. still working out the details and collecting materials. not sure what i will build first, but most likely all projects(pizza oven, double chamber oven or any of the many rocket style projects) are slated for next year. too many other stuffs to do this year. if you do get it done, keep us posted with pics n stuff.

chelan is a mere 5 hour drive to where i live so we will have to do some serious planning for that pizza party  that said, since i won't be building til next year it does give lots of time for planning. if you get it done this year you can come help build, (adding all your practical expertise) then we can have that pizza party. my wife and i would definitely have a space for you to stay over. bit of a drive home, especially if you had a beverage or 2 with that pizza. lol

I just noticed the link in the original listing above to the "mega package of plans and stuff" was not working.  It is now! Do take a look either above, or here:

thanks, jules, wondered why why i hadn't heard back.

cheers    james

i have 3 types this year, genovese, emily, and sweet basil.

i typically plant in between all my tomato plants and have a bunch in 1 gallon pots. i pull all the leaves off and dry whole. i like the dried whole leaves because when i grind them in my mortar and pestle i get that sweet basil aroma. what i don't dry we turn into pesto, freeze in flattened sandwich bags or ice cube trays and then transfer to freezer bags.

i think this year i may spread them out around the garden as well as amongst my tomatoes.

another thing i am going to try, is find a spot and throw down a bunch of seeds, hope they germinate, and just leave them and see what, if anything, comes up next year.

should be fun

i'm sure i saw water lillies growing pots somewhere. have no idea where, however i did find this...

webpage

at least someplace to start

cheers   james

i haven't noticed any mention of the backside being filed in the posts. it is a good idea to run your file along the bottom/flat side of the implement being sharpened to take out burrs and, depending how beat up the implement is, really rough chunks that stick out. file not to put a bevel but just run the file flat along the surface. sometimes the gouges are very deep so it's better to just make it mostly sharp and each time you sharpen you will gradually work out the nasty ones.

cheers   james

hey lila
you are the second person to suggest epsom salts. not just for blossom end rot though. do 2 make a quorum? i will give it a go.
thanks