Rife river pump

If you have a river or creek on or adjacent to your property, you really need to check out the product that serves as title for this post. The You Tube video bar on the right has a 3 1/2 minute video that will do nicely. It's the one that looks like a bullhorn with a propeller on it. No, I am not affiliated in any way with the company. I just think it looks like a simple yet elegant way to pump water. No electricity, no fossil fuels, just moving water and it can move it vertically over eighty feet (max). Also, since it mixes air with the water as it pumps (air lift principle), it would be a good way to help aerate a pond or tank. I haven't had an opportunity to test this out myself yet. If any of you have tried this, we'd love to hear from you.
http://www.riferam.com/river/index.htm

Wildcrafting

Good morning, good morning, good yarrow

And thrice good morning to thee

Tell me before this time tomorrow

Who my true love is to be

Traditional

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Wildcrafting is the practice of gathering wild plants that are used in herbal preparations and as food or food supplements. In addition to gathering the herbs, the wildcrafter must clean the wild plants (particularly roots) and dry them. Methods of doing this vary according to the herbal product being gathered. Some large roots must be sliced or chopped to facilitate drying. Herbs which are not dried properly may mold which will render them worthless.

The list of wild plants which are of commercial value is a long one and includes a number of plants that many consider to be troublesome weeds. Examples of this would be common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) root and Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana L.) root. At the other extreme, some of the botanical specimens sought after may be threatened or even endangered.

Although there are a lot of plants that can be gathered, prepared and sold, speaking as one who has done some wildcrafting for profit from time to time, my advice is...don't quit your day job. If you enjoy the activity, however, wildcrafting makes a great hobby.

In lieu of trying to cover all of the environmental and ethical considerations of wildcrafting for profit, what follows is a personal example of doing it all wrong. For the record, due to lessons learned from the errors that are recounted here, subsequent wildcrafting activity by this tree hugger was much more environmentally friendly.

The area I reside in is known to be a part of the native habitat of North American Ginseng (Panax Quinquefolium) which, as far as I know, has always been the most valuable wild plant in North America pound for pound (no, marijuana doesn't count!). There is also a lot of multiple use National Forest land that is easily accessed; a wildcrafter's dream. I knew little or nothing about wildcrafting at the time I moved here. I wouldn't even know the term until years later. What I did know was that there was a local man who knew how to "hunt ginseng" and had had some success cultivating it. I approached Howard with a proposition. If he would teach me how to hunt ginseng in our local woods, I would help around his farm. He agreed to this and a small group of us (word gets around) met him in the Ouachita National Forest atop Rich Mountain at a location he had decided would make a good starting point.

It took some time but within about an hour or two we were locating some clusters of ginseng plants. Howard told us the right season for harvesting the roots. He showed us how to determine the age of the plants. He showed us how to plant the seeds where the larger roots were harvested. I was a good student as far as learning how to find the plants in the wild. I also pretty much ignored everything else Howard taught us. In the next two or three years I would harvest ginseng too young (for transplanting to my property, which didn't have the right conditions), harvest seed and dry it out (destroys viability), and harvest at the wrong time of year (seed not yet mature). The point is that there is a lot more to wildcrafting than stomping through the woods and harvesting nature's bounty.

The first company listed below will, upon request, send an annual list of the prices they will pay (per pound) for each wild plant. They also reference page numbers in books (which they also sell) to aid in identifying these wild plants. The second web address is an excellent article for those who would like to read more about it.

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http://www.americanbotanicals.com
http://www.newfarm.org/features/0304/wilds/wild_ethics.shtml

Stone wall

Sometime before history began, a human (or a reasonable facsimile) stacked some rocks up and said, "Voilà!, a stone wall." Although the techniques have been refined since then, they are still variations on this theme. A person who builds with stone is referred to as a stonemason.
Stone walls come in two basic types:

• Dry stacked
• Mortared

Dry stacked stone walls do not contain any mortar and must be put together in such a way that gravity holds the stones in place. Often soil or smaller stones, or a combination of both, are used to help lock the larger stones into place. Dry stacked walls are often used as retaining walls where a steep slope would otherwise cause erosion problems. For someone who wants to try this, careful consideration needs to be given to the amount of force that soil will apply to the uphill side of such a wall. A dry stacked wall used as a retaining wall should be widest at the bottom (one half of the height) and sloped towards the buried side (two inches of slope for every foot of height). Often, long stones are incorporated that are buried into the slope at right angles to the face of the wall. These are referred to as "dead men". These help gravity to do its job of keeping the stones in place.
Mortared stone walls are similar to block or brick walls in that mortar, which is a mixture of portland cement, lime and sand, bonds the stones (or bricks or blocks) together. Such walls may range from a stone veneer, which is attached to a wall built from other materials, to massive free-standing walls. The Great Wall of China is actually constructed of both dry stacked and mortared stone as well as other materials such as bricks and soil.
It seems that there are about as many styles and methods for building walls with stone as there are individuals undertaking their construction. There are a few "rules", though, that should be followed if the stonemason wishes his or her creation to outlast the builder.
Rule #1 Keep vertical joints as short as possible. The joints in stonemasonry are the spaces between stones that are filled with mortar. In dry stacked walls, the joints are the interfaces between adjacent stones. In either case, a vertical joint should be broken by placing the stones so that each stone above the first course, or row of stones, is resting on top of two or more stones below it. Long vertical joints make weak walls!
Rule #2 A stone wall is only as good as its foundation. At the very least a trench should be dug that is deeper than the soil freezes during the coldest weather expected. A reinforced concrete foundation may be poured in the trench, or the stonework may be started in the bottom of the trench. This is done to minimize frost heave.
Rule #3 This one applies only to mortared stone walls. Stones should not touch one another at any point in the wall. The mortar joint should be continuous and tightly packed, with no air gaps.
There are many resources one can turn to for further information on stone walls and their construction. A random sampling follows.
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/stone/
http://www.stonemasonry.net/
www.easy2diy.com/cm/easy/diy_ht_index.asp?page_id=35720755

Simple concepts and advanced techniques for sustainability

Since this is a brand new blog, you probably need to know what it is supposed to do. On these pages will be posted concepts and techniques that aid in sustainable living. Much of what will be seen here may not be new; in fact many of these ideas are "old as the hills". Still, even these may be new to the reader or just presented in a slightly different way. Other posts may involve cutting edge methods or a totally new way of doing something familiar. In either case, the goal is to focus on ways to live well, but not consume or destroy what cannot, or will not, be replaced. Links to outside resources will be included if they fit that model and add to the mix. There is a lot of good information out there and I will try to sort through it and provide some of the "good stuff"   :)
Coming soon: Tips and methods for using native stone for landscaping.