Yup, this is an ancient thread, but very helpful. I had to give up the pond eventually as we were starting a new house build and that summer the (really old) liner developed some big cracks due to age. Gave my two humongous koi to a local pond supply place and removed the pond. I figure the house will sell easier without something future owners may look at and think "high maintenance" (not that they're wrong, but...) and I want to ditch the old house fast when the time comes. I write this post simply to say to new pond builders: When you buy a pond liner, get a REALLY GOOD UV PROTECTED one that is mostly thick rubber, not plastic. I thought mine was thick enough but after 12 years or so, it started to wear out due to sun, get brittle and just start having problems. You drop a rock? Oops, hole! Now the pond area is just a plant area and all I have are memories of better pond days. I'll have a pond at the new place after things settle down and thanks to many posters here for all the info to help keep the water clear when that time comes!

Deanna your ASK is beautiful. This summer has been kind of weird, it was hot/cold/hot/cold with humidity, many of my plants got some kind of moldy fungus including my coleus and autumn joy sedum. Anyway, I am thinking of transplanting a mature one to another spot of my shade garden this weekend, has anyone tried transplanting in September? Will there be enough time for the roots to settle before frost hit? I prefer to do it now because temp is cool so easier on my body, doing it in spring is cold and wet :) I remember FrozeBudd has done dividing a mature ASK before but I can’t remember if it was spring or summer or fall…how much root did you have per division, like 1 - 1.5 feet long? I remember you mentioned the roots were woody and difficult to cut, how are your 2 ASK doing now?

I am really sorry to hear about your community. It sounds like you wouldn't want neighbors that short sighted and oblivious anyway, would you? Me, I'd love to have you as a neighbor. :) You are dreaming big but I honestly would suggest you pick a place, move there and rent for a while to see if it suits you before embarking on a homestead project. Since I am currently planning a green home and have been fixing up this rural property, I may be able to help with estimates a bit, but local costs can vary widely, particularly with utility service. So these are just general numbers. On that 80 acres, going off-grid might be cheaper than pulling utilities in if you want to get back off the street a-ways. Providing, of course, you can generate sufficient energy in your location. Out in the boonies, you just need power, and maybe phone and cable. If there's even cable access -- otherwise you'll need satellite internet/TV. And there are always cell phones. You'll have a well and septic system for water and sewage disposal. First, you CAN move homes. Purchasing a small older house is often cheaper than the actual fees moving it to the property. You could use that as a base of operations while building a new home, and then it could be the guest house. The boys can fix it up as part of their free room and board. :) Alternately, people always want someone to come and get rid of an old trailer. Not high class accommodations, but as a temporary home it would be fine. You do want to be nearby while the house is being built to keep your eye on things. In my area, construction costs for stick-built un-energy efficient homes are about $100/sq ft including lot cost. ICF construction with Icycene roof is about $115/sq ft including lot costs. (I don't yet know the raw figures without lot costs, but I just purchased 1/3 acre, unfinished, for $30k and it will be $50-$55k by the time I put a building pad in. FWIW.) Those prices can vary a lot depending on the finish level you want and how much you do yourself or if you act as your own contractor. Which, unless you've done it before, I don't recommend. Or at least get a good consultant. I can't recommend ICF as a construction material enough, especially if you are in a tornado or hurricane prone area. ICF will also work for bermed houses and daylight basements extremely well, and be completely dry inside. A typical ICF home uses less than half the energy of a comparable stick frame home -- and even less if you try harder. SIP construction is another energy efficient building method -- also a premium price over stick frame. Don't forget to look at passive solar home designs. Choose a pro; a poorly designed passive solar home is an uncomfortable nightmare. My chosen architect has a web page at http://www.sunplans.com with many of her plans online for viewing. Passive solar homes don't have to look funky or ultra modern. Digging a well is about $5k-$10k or more, depending on depth. Plus pumps, tank and trenching up to the house. There's no guarantee you'll hit water when you dig but you have to pay anyway. When I looked as restoring my well, the well was good and clean and very wet, but the other bits would cost about $2000. Solar hot water heating is not very effective for radiant heating and when you include the backup systems are usually not energy efficient at all. The people I know that have it have 3 problems -- 1) it heats the house in the summer much better than in the winter, 2) the hot water for showers is never hot and 3) the amount of solar capacity needed to really heat the house is just too much. In most areas, an electric geothermal heat pump is more cost effective and works better. You'll have to do core samples to find out if it's suitable for your land, but you can also lay the lines in a nearby pond even more cheaply. I'm not sure if that's compatible with livestock using the pond, but I would guess not. If you have a PV array to supply that electricity, all the better. Stand-alone solar hot water without the heating, provided you have the proper exposure and required sun, can be a big energy saver. Before getting on the solar bandwagon, be sure the property is in a latitude and climate where solar is effective. Many places in the US are just not good for active solar, either hot water or PV arrays. (Passive solar works anywhere, as does daytime solar space heating.) That goes double for wind power. Unless you have a strong, unidirectional prevailing wind, putting up a windmill is going to be more pain than help, and windmills take a lot of expensive maintenance. They are generally not effective at the home level. Outlying greenhouses are fairly cheap to build if you aren't going to a fancy glass or acrylic one. You do need to replace the plastic every 2 or 3 years. In reality, most climates don't need a greenhouse to produce food all year round. Come down South and you'll prefer winter gardening when there are no bugs. :) Or, design the home with the greenhouse attached (a conservatory) and enjoy the benefits of the plants all year round. Just provide pollination. Making a pond will not be too bad. You just need a local operator. It's cheap to hire a guy with his own backhoe; often cheaper than renting one and attempting to do it yourself and taking twice as long. Call it $500 a day. He'll probably dig a 2nd pond, then at the end, break the dam between them. However, if the pond is fed from groundwater or an underground spring you may not be able to go very deep because the equipment won't be able to operate in the water. Of course, if the water table is that high, a daylight basement is out of the question unless you have a convenient hill. Septic tank costs depend on the number of bedrooms in the house. In most areas, expect now to build an engineered mound system; ~1000g gallons for a 3 bedroom house. $20k-ish. Do consider coming down South. The climate is mild and many people here are not far from their rural roots, if indeed they ever left. Most places are livestock and farm friendly and hunting and fishing are just normal recreation you can do nearby. Land prices are still affordable but unlike what you may have heard, the place is not filled with gun-toting Klan members. (But yes, all your neighbors own shotguns and you will too if you don't already.) It's suitable for solar, and most of the unincorporated areas don't have building codes and inspectors so you can do anything you want provided it clears the health department. I think that's enough for now...

Aliquoting and freezing (although in a far colder freezer than households use) is the standard way of preserving stock cultures of bacteria. Your idea of a "BtCube®" for fast prep and no waste might work. Barrie, I was a microbiologist. That research paper is twenty years old, and although they say, "the results indicates a potential risk for gastroenteritis outbreak caused by B. thuringiensis" I couldn't find any such outbreaks documented in the 20 years after the publication, despite the widespread use of Bt on food crops by untrained persons. Bacillus cereus, the other bacteria they tested, is a known problem. https://www.foodsafety.gov/poisoning/causes/bacteriaviruses/bcereus/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_cereus#Pathogenesis