Jeff --- Interesting to hear that pigs won't take care of it. It seems like there's little they won't root up....

I placed my pig pasture in an area that is overrun with knotweed. They weren't interested at all. I've tasted the young shoots and they do taste like rhubarb. I think I'll have to give this a try next spring. Thanks for the info!!

Jesse -- Good question. I'm not actually sure. Richard Kretz, who wrote the article, is usually in the know about things like that, but the article was written about a year ago, so things might have changed.

Are you sure that the Cliff Trail is open to the public? Do you have confirmation of that from VADGIF? I know that trail and was under the impression that it went through private property and was closed to the public.... That was a while ago though. Maybe access issues have been resolved?

Chelsie --- I haven't been keeping up to date on the Clinch Mountain Trail project, but last I heard, it was still in the construction phase. I'm not actually positive whether it's open, and if so, where you enter it. Sounds like I need to hunt that information down and then post about it....

Thanks for commenting! I seem to have lost momentum over here. I've been pouring my energy into writing a book that is due out this fall, and into my homesteading blog. I might end up back over here once things calm down there....

Hi,

I came across your blog and I'm impressed with the quality of your illustrations.

I see that the last update is half a year ago. Do you plan to continue the project? It would be nice!

Best regards, Olga

I was looking at some places I could go hiking around Abingdon, VA and I noticed your blog. I am really interested in hiking the clinch mountain trail, but I am unsure on where to enter for hiking. I was hoping you could help me figure out where I could begin the trail, and how long the trail would be. I will be hiking it with my boyfriend so I am really interested in scenic views. If you could please help me I would highly appreciate it, and I am looking for directions with my starting point at Abingdon, VA. Thanks!

Its sad that animals aren't treated like humans when its just a human soul in an animals body. I would make a donation but im broke:(

People like to chose extreme positions. Neither conveniently ignoring the negative aspect of invasive plants nor being hard line about preserving "native" plant assemblies is very productive. The middle road, wherein sensibility often lies, makes much more sense. Each situation/plant has to be examined individually to make any sense of the problem. It has to be noted though that we can't necessarily accurately predict what will happen when we introduce new plants, so I tend to advocate for caution in such matters... the precautionary principle... weigh the potential consequences and lean your position accordingly.

I fight nasty invasives on my place every year and more show up on our shoes or tires or whatever. True, many are more aggressive in disturbed environments, which any homestead has plenty of but others, like tansy ragwort, need little help and increase exponentially. Yes, someday a balance may be achieved wherein the plants slowly become part of a community through the mechanism of naturally evolving checks and balances, but that will be a long time coming in evolutionary terms and for now they continue in growing numbers to decrease total plant diversity which is often held, and justly, as the sign of health in most ecologies. I hope to blog on this subject eventually as I've butted heads with both sides on numerous occasions. Thanks for being a voice of reason!

I'm glad I could help! You've gotta love any kids who collect dead bugs.

What great photos! My summercamp kids found a dead moth just like this on our playground this moning. We were able to identify it using your pictures. This particular group of children have been finding all kinds of dead "critters" for us to identify. We have been very busy with our ever growing bug collection.

Thanks Anna for the concern,I would ask four quiz(1)what material if used would provide a strong and durable support for the raised water tank fully loaded say 40,000.00 litres? (2)which pipes,plastic or metallic? How about the pipe internal diameter? (3)I need a skeleton structural design to guide the laying down of the pipes to inlude angles n connections at junction points(4)In seasons where rain is erratic,I would like the system to support watering an adjacent green house with tomatoes and other horticultural crops,but how? Kindly send in your advice,photos of the house is available on request.Thanks pmutaiya@yahoo.com

I'd love to help you out, Peter, but I'm far from an expert. That said, I (and our readers) could probably give you better advice if you ask a more specific question. What exactly are you most stumped by?

I have recently build a permanent house in a rural set up where i grew up.My bigger dream is to have an efficient rain water collecting system that would solve water shortage problem we have faced all a long.i have already purchased two KENTANK( heavy plastic tanks) and intend to put one below the level ground so all the the water from the gathers drain into it and subsequently with the use of a small pedrollo horse pump powered with electricity,water is pumped to a tank raised six meters above the ground.once up supply to the internal toilet and bathroom should by gravity I need advise on how to do it nicely to cover efficiency,reinforcement,durability,capacity and aesthetics address pmutaiya@yahoo.com country Kenya East Africa home town Kericho

We've looked into hydraulic rams several times, and I always have to re-look the information up to see why it won't work for us. The first deterrent is the price tag --- even building your own, it looks like you need to spend at least $100 on parts. But more important is the elevation issue. You have to have at least 5 feet of elevation drop between the inlet and the pump, and our creek is flat as a pancake. The same problem that bogs down all of our hydroelectric dreams...

Keep in mind that bends in the pipes (especially right angles) can have as much resistance as several yards of pipe (depending on flow rate, diameter etc.)

For pumping water from the creek, you might want to look at a hydraulic ram as an alternative to an electric motor driven pump. It can use the kinetic energy of flowing water to pump water up. It's main benefit is it's simplicity; it has only two moving parts, and can be made from very basic materials.

If your final prediction is right, that gives a flow rate of 2.4 gallons per minute, which is actually quite good. Since I suspect pipe lengths would be less than 100 feet, it sounds like the tinacos might have our system beat...

Warning: Maths ahead

Assuming laminar flow for the moment, according to the Hagen-Poiseulle equation (only valid for laminar flow!), volume flow is:

Q = ΔP·π·d⁴/(128·μ·L)

For laminar flow, the Reynolds number should be <2300;

Re = Q·L/(ν·A)

where

• Q: volume flow in m³/s
• ΔP: pressure difference in Pa (1 bar = 10⁵ Pa)
• d: pipe diameter in m (1 in = 0.0254 m)
• μ: dynamic viscosity in Pa·s (10⁻³ Pa·s for water @ 293 K)
• ν: kinematic viscosity in m²/s (10⁻⁶ m²/s for water @ 293 K)
• L: pipe length in m.
• A: pipe cross-sectional area in m² (0.00051 m² for 1 inch pipe)

For 30 meters (100 feet) of pipe, this gives 0.034 m³/s (9 gallons/second).

Now we need to check our assumptions! With this flow, the Reynolds number is 2·10⁹. So in this situation there will not be a laminar flow, and the above calculation is invalid.

So now you need to use the Darcy-Weisbach equation to determine the volume flow. This is where it gets complicated. For this calculation you will need to know something about the roughness of the inside of the pipe, to get at the Darcy friction factor, which depends on the Reynolds number, which depends on the volume flow. Calculation now becomes an iterative process.

You can use this online calculator to play with the numbers. For a 30 m long 1 inch pipe, you'd get around 0.0015 m³/s (0.4 gallon/s) for a 1 bar pressure loss (assuming a friction factor of 0.019).

Here in the Netherlands, water pipes in homes are typically 10 mm inner diameter. For the same length of pipe and pressure, that would yield 0.00015 m³/s (0.04 gallons/second).

Faith --- That's right along the lines I was thinking. I love looking at "less developed" countries for tips on how to survive when the power goes out.

Roland --- I was looking into water pressure a month ago when Mark and I first started thinking about bladder tanks. It seemed like there's a wide range of acceptable flow rates in municipal water systems, maybe because of different pipe sizes? It seemed like our flow rate (1 gallon per minute) was in the realm of ordinary, but at the low end. Can you do a quick conversion for me and tell me what flow rate you'd get at 1 bar of pressure with one inch pipe?

Ikwig --- Mark's a big fan of white noise and usually brings a little fan with him on trips, but we left it at home this time in the interest of packing light. You're right that it almost certainly would have made a difference.

I suspect we'd use the train a lot if it didn't take us 3 and a half hours to drive to the station...

I come from a train-riding family - almost all of our trips are planned around where a train goes - and we are always trying to convince others of the joys of train riding, so I'm especially happy that you two had such a great experience!

One note on the sleeping experience: it will get better with practice. After a few more trips you should find that the motion is actually quite soothing (rather like rocking on the waves in a boat), and the noise becomes less noticeable as well. However, in regard to the latter, some people find it helps to put on a little white noise (a room fan or some such) a few nights before their trip - just to get conditioned to it.

I hope you have many more good experiences on the train!

You need 30 feet of height to get one bar of water pressure. Looking at the height the tank sits, I'd say the pressure is not much.

Out water mains here are supposed to have two bars of pressure.

But for a tap you don't need much. It is just that with lower pressure you need bigger pipes to get the same volume flow. Just look at a typical old-fashioned toilet with the reservoir close to the ceiling. Those flush really well, using a pipe that is about an inch thick.

These would be useful in the U.S. for areas where the snow puts the power out for a week or so at a time.

Thanks so much for the bird IDs! I was using a very generalist field guide with just a few pages of birds since we weren't there long enough for me to spring for a real Mexican bird field guide. I had a feeling I wasn't getting it quite right...

Hi there,

FYI "Rufous Piha" is actually a ruddy woodcreeper, another specialist species following the army ants. I was in Yucatan for Christmas too and found 5 army ants waves, but only had one northern barred woodcreeper (the one you got on top). Nice job !!

Wow!

Those are some amazing images. I had no idea we had so many colorful mushrooms in this area.

mark

I highly recommend it, especially if you have a stream close to home. I keep meaning to add our creek to the monitoring roster. Maybe next year I can trick a few people into helping me and add it to the list.

This is a great project idea! Around here I am working with our local land trust on a watershed management project but I have recently been thinking of ways to contribute without traveling too far from home. We have an organization here that supplies the equipment, but only to classrooms not individuals. I'd love to start monitoring the stream right across the road from me on my neighbor's property, and it just might be a project of mine to start the local SOS chapter. Thanks for the resources!

Sara

Amy --- I think you're right that starting with something smaller and safer is a better start. I like the idea of being somewhere that it's not so dangerous to be out by yourself, so you can make mistakes and really learn.

Kelly Jo --- I really appreciate you saying that about barking orders. That was my gut feeling too --- that an instructor shouldn't just be yelling at us. I was feeling a bit burned out by the experience, but Mark talked me into going out again more locally in an easier setting so that we can, hopefully, put a better taste in my mouth!

Alas, it is true that sailboat captains do bark orders, however, it was unprofessional to bark at people who are learning from you. If this was a racing crew, going fast, the yes, there would be lots of yelling and colorful language. We would not take guests who were inexperienced out on the lake when it was blowing 30, and if we did it would be a tightly controlled lesson. We both race and cruise on a 46' Tartan and a 36' Santana and we have many years of experience and race flags behind us. Don't let anyone tell you this is normal behavior. Also, don't give up on the sailing experience just because you ran into one jerk.

I took sailing lessons as a Girl Scout in little 8-foot boats called Sabots - sometimes with one other person in the boat or occasionally solo. With little boats like that, you can capsize them and right them yourselves - in fact, I think we did so deliberately, to practice - and there's no instructor in the boat; they taught us things on land each day and then we went out to practice them. It was awesome; maybe you could find something like that?

Good point about the renovations --- I forgot to mention that. Plus, I was highly impressed by the way the proprietor had our key ready for us when we walked in the door. I've noticed that some hotels don't know how to deal with people who book in advance through third party websites, but Village Inn was on top of it.

Everyone seems to agree with you that barking orders is pretty much par for the course (although I think there's a difference between a captain and an instructor --- the instructor should try to do more than just bark orders.) You'll see in Mark's post tomorrow that his thicker skin let him shrug off more of the day.

The more I think about it, the more I think that the weather was the real problem, and maybe we just had ourselves to blame. We looked at the weather forecast, saw "windy", and thought that was a good thing, but in the future we'll try to keep our plans a bit more flexible so we can sail in easier weather at first.

The bigger boat did make frequent jibing a bit safer. Like the other boats out that day, we didn't even put the mainsail up, and the boat was so big that when the jib jibed, it didn't come anywhere near us.

Actually yelling orders is pretty normal for a captain. Basically, when sailing particularly in stronger winds, you have very little time to respond or make a decision. Also, fast is what boats are about. But it did sound like you got a sucky day. As a frequent small boat sailor (I took several years of lessons at a sailing school on either 18ft hobys or 14 lasers and raced them. I would be hesitant to go out in that kind of wind on the bay with newbies even in boats that i was very familiar with. or a much bigger boat without a good experienced captain. Response time is vital. a girl next to me lost a tooth by not ducking fast enough when I warned her the boat was about to jibe. and every year tehre were a few boats that sunk due to crashing into each other.

I agree with Anna. The Village Inn had a very warm and cozy feeling. I especially like the fact that the room was quiet and dark.

There is clear evidence that they are in the middle of some upgrades so by the time you read this they may have added a few items of newness.

If felt good to stay somewhere with a little character as opposed to the sterile feeling all the chain hotels seem to emanate.

I had a feeling I wasn't the only one disappointed by my first Canon photos.

wow, this is a BIG help....I had a Kodak Easyshare and was feeling like this camera was no better than it, I actually considered returning my canon! but i cant wait to try out your tips, i thank you!!

I don't know why I didn't think to tell you about this --- it's even more up your alley than it is up mine!

I really wish I could be there to see them! I'll be awaiting those blog updates.

i have got to go check this out! prontisimo!

well you are a cheeky thing anna, and i love it. thanks for posting about my exhibit and giving me a jab to blog more often. Ok! I'm on it. but first i gotta spritz the art.

"The males tend to have the yellow spots more reduced above, and to have more reflective blue scaling on both sides. The angle of the photo may cause one to look more blue than the other too, since it is reflective coloring, and it doesn't show up the same from different angles. Both genders a little variable in markings though, so it's not always easy to tell them apart by pattern alone. They do tend to loose some of the blue as they fade too, but these two both look pretty pristine to me. Upper one is male, lower is female."

My sketchbook is chock full of those flowers, and I constantly wrote appreciatively of your finding skills in my journal. We made a good team!

I was like your private investigator for finding things in nature. An explorer. I really think I saw wild boars, and luckily am still alive. I also collected many of the seedpods and fallen flowers that fell on the ground for you to draw.

I loved the canopy walkway! I can't believe I was quite so cheap, though, as to get permission to get in free. (Well, I mean, I can believe it. It's true, and I'm still cheap. ) I think we probably could have afforded to pay to get in....

Yup, I remember that day clearly, and am still ashamed...

One day which happened to be Easter, the dogs followed us to Quaker Meeting. I do not know if you recall, Anna. But I think the Friends would have preferred silent worship minus the dogs. One of them left and walked "our" dogs home.

Anna and I spent a lot of time on the canopy bridge. Anna had worked out a deal with the naturalists that gave us access to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve any day that we wanted it. We spent some of that time sitting on that canopy bridge, and spending our time in interesting ways. Once we did an experiment to see how tall the bridge was by dropping things off the bridge and timing their fall to the forest floor. I think we found it was 50 feet up.

I don't think I knew about the mealy bug when I was there --- that was a fascinating addition to the symbiosis.