Comments

Episode-1747- Expert Council Q&A for 3-18-16 — 9 Comments

  1. I realized after I recorded my answer for this week that Noel’s orchard has some road frontage. With that in mind, I would probably do a three wire perimeter system (possibly four). You would also want to make certain the orchard adds a rider to its insurance policy to cover any damage should a cow get out onto the road. Each state is different, but most likely the orchard would be liable for damages should a vehicle strike a cow on the roadway. That type of insurance is very inexpensive. The soil regeneration the cattle will add to the system more than offset the cost of the fence and insurance. Good luck!

  2. Thanks so much for the prompt response to my question regarding solar dehydrators, Steve & Jack. For the record we do have an Excalibur, and a solar oven (inspired after I bought “Sunshine to dollars” a handful of years ago). I wanted to build a solar dehydrator for times when I just don’t want (or can’t) use electricity and in the spirit of backups and redundancy.
    I guess the take-home I got was… monitor and manipulate a solar oven at the appropriate times for the temps you want. My concern with the solar oven is the exposure to light and what that might do to the nutrient quality of the dried product. Hence why I was looking at the solar dehydrators all over the net (the kind like a tiny house on stilts with a huge slide). They’re enclosed, so no light reaches your stuff. But they looked cumbersome and maybe wouldn’t store well in the off season being so oddly shaped. That’s when I stumbled upon these flat type dehydrators. Flat pack stores pretty easy, so if they performed well I figured I’d build one in the spirit of GSD (getting shiite done). Just wasn’t sure if radiant heat or heated air was better for dehydrating, so I thought I’d try to run it by Steve (thanks again btw). Although I’m not sure what he meant by reflectors being black. I mean, not on the solar oven; I got that. But on the flat dehydrator… Steve, did you mean the picture of the open covers on those things? I’m a little fuzzy on that part.

    • Yea or just build something old school and forget about making it complicated, http://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/tools/solar-food-dehydrator-plans-zm0z14jjzmar.aspx

      Like I said for all the talk about efficiency etc online all you need is air 10 degrees warmer than ambient, that is dry and at least over 90 degrees. The base design above is solid he goes off then about reflectors, etc. Again a black box covered with glass gets warm, warm air goes up, warm air in such a situation is dry. Done.

      You don’t even need the metal stuff inside a black box is all you need! Once you get warm dry air moving you are golden.

    • Just wanted to drop by and say Hi from another Michianaer. Glad to hear there are a few of us around the area listening!

  3. Regarding finding a primary care physician with a more holistic approach. There are functional medicine doctors. They specialize in just what you are looking for I believe. Some are MDs, others are chiropractors and so on. Here is a website: https://www.functionalmedicine.org/