Hydrophobic Soil, KOH Soap, Chick Feeding Schedule
Drake opens with the I Ching reading on Feng, abundance, then covers storm damage from the night before: the drone shelter collapsed but the generator's cast iron took the hit, sparing the drone itself. He and guest Mark also patch the back deck with tar against Hawaiʻi's weather.
On the chicken coop, keeping the floor around 15% moisture with light misting instead of heavy watering has cut dust and smell, and the same idea comes up for hydrophobic soil: no known plant surfactant works well, so regular misting beats blasting the ground. Mark shares a KNF soap recipe of canola oil, water, and potassium hydroxide (KOH) as a cheap surfactant that also works for hair, laundry, and dishes.
A banana vinegar batch came out weak because the class didn't add enough sugar for osmotic extraction. The boxed IMO pile, raised off the soil, stopped reheating after turning, and Drake floats grounding it with a rod or wire to keep an electrical connection to the earth. Christoph in Belgium is testing KNF soil blocks, including sterilized IMO as a dead control, plus a heat mat to warm blocks in cold weather.
Mark talks about his specialties, plumbing, alcohol fuel, and community resilience from the Hawaiian Acres Sustainability Hui. Drake describes pitching the foundation's drone as a way for Hawaiʻi County to spray IMO on little fire ants and coconut rhinoceros beetle instead of poison, and building a research partnership with NRCS and CTAHR that needs controlled data to officially recommend KNF solutions. A member Q&A tool pulls Master Cho video clips directly, answering a question on feeding baby chicks boiled egg.
Questions answered
- 6:06 How do you keep a chicken coop from smelling and staying dusty? — Keep the floor about 15% moisture and mist lightly instead of soaking; that cuts dust, odor, and flies.
- 12:29 What's the pitch to Hawaiʻi County for using the drone on ag pests? — Spray IMO by drone for the County instead of poison sprays on little fire ants and coconut rhinoceros beetle.
- 22:31 What natural plants work as a surfactant for hydrophobic soil in Hawaiʻi? — Neither Drake nor Mark knows a good plant surfactant; better to mist the soil regularly than chase a chemical fix.
- 23:58 Why does hard watering make hydrophobic soil worse? — A hard blast just explodes on the surface and erodes dry dirt into dust; a fine mist actually wets it.
- 26:04 How do you make a cheap KNF soap or surfactant? — Canola oil, water, and potassium hydroxide (KOH) makes a basic soap that also breaks soil surface tension.
- 28:09 Why did the banana vinegar batch come out low-volume? — Not enough sugar was added for the amount of fruit, so osmotic extraction pulled less juice than expected.
- 31:49 Why didn't the boxed IMO pile reheat after turning? — Raising it off the ground in a box may have cut its electrical ground connection; testing a grounding rod next.
- 38:29 When do you feed brown rice, boiled egg, and bamboo leaves to baby chicks? — A member-clip search found Master Cho feeding boiled egg from day 3 through 3 weeks, about 1.5 eggs total.
- 51:55 What data do NRCS and CTAHR need to officially recommend KNF solutions? — Controlled studies comparing treated versus untreated plots, documented well enough to back a formal recommendation.
- 52:40 How do you test whether it's the IMO microbes or just the material helping soil blocks? — Autoclave or sterilize one batch of IMO as a dead control and compare it against live IMO in the same blocks.
- 58:27 Do seedling heat mats help soil blocks in a cold climate? — Yes, a plug-in heat mat can bring blocks up to about 20-25°C to speed germination.
KNF Office Hours is a free live Q&A every Sunday at 9 AM HST. Bring your question to pureknf.org/learn/questions or join live.
In this episode
- 0:00 Intro, guest Mark
- 2:05 I Ching: Feng, abundance
- 4:32 Storm damage overview
- 6:06 No-smell chicken coop, floor moisture
- 8:36 Rebuilding the deck in Hawaiʻi weather
- 10:48 Drone shelter collapse
- 12:29 Pitching drone IMO spraying to the county
- 19:18 Community building through potlucks
- 22:31 Surfactants for hydrophobic soil
- 26:04 KOH soap recipe
- 28:09 Banana vinegar: not enough sugar
- 31:49 Boxed IMO pile and grounding idea
- 38:29 Master Cho AI search: chick feeding
- 40:05 Mark's specialties: plumbing, fuel, community
- 51:55 NRCS/CTAHR research partnership
- 52:40 Soil block controls: sterilized IMO
- 58:27 Heat mats for seedling blocks
- 1:00:04 Members meeting and closing prayer
Transcript
Auto-transcribed with Whisper. Click any timestamp to play from there.
0:30 Hey, good morning. Welcome to the Pure KNF Office Hour Natural Farming Podcast. For February 8th, 2026. Got a special guest, Mark, in the house. Yeah. We'll get him a little mic and jump in. And, but before we get too far into it, we got a full hour. You can ask any Korean natural farming questions. We're happy to answer. Mark's a specialist in many things. So hit him up on those things.
1:15 And also today we have our monthly meeting for our members, which we're going to go over kind of what we want to do with membership and all that. So hopefully some of you will tune in and that will be good. Otherwise we'll get what we get for members coming back. And it's all good things. Tons happening with the foundation. We just had a meeting yesterday and tons of good things happening. So hopefully we'll get to some of that as well. But before we get too far into anything, let's get a little bit of higher wisdom. It should help all of us. And today is abundance or fullness.
2:05 A moment of great influence is at hand. Prepare wisely and act accordingly. The image of Feng is that of a thunder and lightning filling the sky. It signifies a period of tremendous power, which all, like all such moments, only lasts for a brief time. Here we are instructed how to know when the moment is ripe and what to do when it's not. Our influence in the world naturally ebbs and flows. At one moment, others are full of mistrust and forward movement is impossible. In the next, by steadfastly clinging to what is true and good, we reawaken their receptivity and growth and take place.
2:56 Only by carefully observing these cycles, openings and closings of others to our influence, can we achieve greatness. To do this, we must cultivate an attitude of independent watchfulness. In this state of quiet observation, we open our hearts to the aid of the sage, who in turn opens our eyes to what is possible and what is not. This clarity enables us to move with strength and grace when the time is right. And in this, we achieve abundance. But Feng also advises us that our influence cannot last forever. As the sun rises, so must it set.
3:43 When receptivity gives way to mistrust and our influence begins to wane, we ought not to struggle to fortify or prolong it. But modesty and detachment require that we accept the turning of the tide. By letting go of the passing moment and entering the next with a correct and balanced attitude, we save ourselves for a more beneficial time. Yeah, definitely feeling some good abundance here on the farm. We've been busy doing all kinds of stuff. Last night was gnarly windstorm, bro. And there's a button there.
4:32 There's a button to turn that mic on. There you go. Test, test, test. And you're coming in a little hot on me here. No, no, you keep talking. Okay, cool. Yeah, I had the first big storm of, I don't know if it's the first storm of the year or not, but it was, the wind was blowing. But happy to get all the stuff that we got done yesterday done. And we're working on a couple of carpentry projects as well as moving animals and keeping the birds. Well, we'll keep them happy here in a little bit. But we still haven't dealt with the over rooster population bringing peace back into the chicken flock.
5:21 But it's coming. I actually think the chickens are slightly more peaceful right now because of just the work we've been doing up there. We got the dust down and it just seems better than it was originally. And they're kind of now forming almost two flocks. It's kind of interesting. I did have a chicken die while you were here. That was an older bird that got his ass kicked. Yeah, she ran out of time. But I think keeping moisture in the floors made a big difference up there. Because when I first got here, it was like cake mix, powdery, dusty.
6:06 And watering the floors just for splashing them just a couple of seconds a day just seems to have cleaned up the whole area. And it didn't smell when I first got here and it still doesn't smell. So that's my number one thing. The beauty of KNF is being around animals that produce a lot of waste and you don't have to deal with any of the smell or any of the problems the smells bring. So no flies, very little bugs. Mosquitoes. I need to stop wearing shorts up there, but I feed them well.
6:51 You know, actually, keeping the floor moist, 15% moisture content is about what you're always supposed to keep it. Even the IMO storage, you're supposed to keep it a little bit more moist than I do. I tend to let those things dry out. And actually, it's like, it's good you've been here because now I'm more conscientious of keeping it a little bit more moist. And there's just less dust, which if there's less dust for me, it means there's less dust going in all the chickens' lungs and stuff just in general.
7:27 And I always, you know, you're supposed to keep the pig pen and the chicken pen dry, but not bone dry. Yeah. I think the dust is worse than having it a little extra moist can be absorbed. But a little extra dry takes a while to overcome because, like we noticed up there, it gets hydrophobic. So you spray water on it and all you're doing is making dust. And everywhere a drop hits, there's fresh dust underneath it. So, but I think we've gotten through that point. And with the storm last night, I think we're well on our way to getting back to where it wanted to be or where it had been previously.
8:14 Yeah. Yeah. And we've been doing good work on the farm. Sometimes the stuff that falls through, man. So this is a stair set we've been working on. Well, that's the back deck. I don't know if you can see that. Damn, that looks good from that angle. Yeah. So we, we, um, we replaced the back deck, which was funny because that thing will focus again now. That's fine. We can be blurry. Um, but the, um, just, uh, Hawaii's weather on everything, you know, just the farm upkeep on everything. Man, it's just, uh, the water sat there on these wooden, um, deck rails. Yeah.
8:57 And just, and, and so now we're rebuilding and we're rebuilding with a whole bunch of tar in there and just, um, trying to, um, tar, tar it out, you know, and every, every place it's sitting. And it's just, I realize, you know, as a farmer in Hawaii, I think you have to, you just got to realize you got to rebuild your barn and your structures. Just like constantly. I don't, I don't know if it's the same elsewhere. Is it like, no, they see like in California, I'm from California, but I've also, um, then I have friends all the way across the States.
9:35 And, uh, you know, in New York and stuff, you get these ancient barns with, you know, 80, 90 year old wood siding. Yeah. Yeah. In eight or nine years in Hawaii, it's already completely digested and taken apart by bugs, you know? And a thing that we do, well, that you should do in Hawaii that, uh, I mean, I did when I built my house here is you paint all of your wood before you cut it and use it. So everything is painted all sides and that'll give you another year or two if you're lucky, but, uh, a year, a year down the road is a year down the road.
10:14 So it's a, it's a lot of work to change it, but, uh, at least we both have the skills and, and, you know, Drake's perfect with the tape measure. And then he can also cut straight lines. It makes it go so much faster. Yeah. Yeah. I, yeah. 40 years of carpentry. Plus, you know, my man, Jesus inspires me. Like I was saying, just, you know, you just throw a two by four in there and lands perfect right on, on layout. Yeah. And, and already blind nailed and, uh, there permanently. Yeah. Um, so it was a little bit more on the storm. So the drone building collapsed last night. Um, yeah.
10:59 So I, we've, we've now incurred more damage from this storm than named hurricanes, which they, they predicted on the weather. I didn't think of the drone building. I probably should have gone down there and address that a little bit better because it was kind of in a temporary thing, but it is now collapsed. The drone, um, uh, God bless, uh, is fine. The generator took majority of the hit right on a steel bar and didn't hit any of the fragile carbon fiber or any of that stuff. So none of the props, none of the, none of the arms, the, none of the expensive stuff.
11:41 And the, the generators like cast iron and rolled steel. So it's like, Oh, my paint got scratched. Yeah. Well, yeah. It took it on the safety bar. Not even didn't even hit the tank, you know? Yeah. It's really, really a lucky, lucky disaster. Um, but nonetheless disaster. And thank you for super chats. I see those, those are going to help rebuild our drone storage. I don't know. I got to rebuild it with actual like lumber and actual stout house. Yeah.
12:17 The thing is, I'm not entirely sure on the location and if that's the final drone and the total size I'm going to need before I put in a real temper or a real permanent structure. Um, you know, it's always good to build a bigger garage, I guess, but I'm having that thing and getting it out. And, um, also speaking of the drone, um, I went to the County ag planning, um, and pitched the drone as a way for, um, Hawaii ag. So our pilot project here from the foundation, the work we're doing is now hopefully going to flourish into Hawaii County. Yeah. Yeah.
13:00 Get that, get the County to, you know, address all the issues that they're dealing with from the little fire ants to the coconut rhinoceros beetle. And, you know, there, there's a lot that they could do that doesn't involve spraying poisons, um, which they love to do. So it'd be nice to see a transition from the toxic to the healthy, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And in this opportunity here, a lot of times they're like County should County could County to County. The County actually doesn't do shit. Let's just be honest.
13:41 I mean, there's a few things where they actually, but the way that County wants them, the folks want to move forward. It is actually to have foundations, things, nonprofits, other businesses come in to do the work. So what I'm, what I'm trying to say here is that we're putting this forward as something that we can move into. And so like the County won't have to spray, like we'll be spraying and, and this relationship will then, you know, it's, it's interesting. Cause it's like a government thing, but trying to provide services and just to get, um, exploratory funding to, to do a project.
14:21 And then I don't know. It's interesting in interfacing with the government. I'm not really sure what I'm doing. Yeah. Well, you know what? Um, just pretend you do and, and until you're doing it and then you're doing it and then you know what you're doing. You know, it's like, it's like our traffic control. I used to be in our traffic controller back in the day. And you can tell two airplanes to fly right into each other, even though they know they shouldn't, as long as it sounds like, you know, what you're talking about, but you can get them a hundred miles apart going away from each other.
14:56 But if you're not sure, they're not going to believe you. So yeah, as long as you make it sound like, you know, what you're talking about, people think you do. And the only way to sound like, you know, what you're talking about is to know what you're talking about. So, and, and I was, I was talking to Mark the other night about, um, this idea of fake it till you make it and using the AI to generate like authority. And so like, so say, say we wanted to, um, I don't know, reforest the hills of Santa Monica. Cause those just got all, all burnt, all burnt up. Right. Yeah.
15:37 We put a collected and redistribute IMOs from the burn area to the burn area. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we want to do this project. So one way, one way to do it would be to go to them and be like, Hey, look, we've reforested all these other places, but none of that actually ever happened. And we just AI that these places that sound good, like a deer forest Valley. Remember when we reforested that? Yeah. And we get all these, I remember that project. Yeah. Yeah. And we have all these, these photos of it, which if there's pictures, it happened, right? Absolutely.
16:15 And so we're going to contact our friend mid journey, maybe our friend, uh, Sam, Sam alt alt man and we'll get him to generate some pictures of the places we've reforested successfully. And then we'll have Sora generate a video of Pete Buttigieg. Who's the guy? Who do we need? Steve Whitcoff. Who sounds official. So maybe we'll get, um, um, no, I don't think Baron Trump would work because they would check, but someone else, some, some goon that's, that's, that's parading around and we'll get him to make an official video saying that Mark here is the chief of regeneration.
16:58 And he did this project and it was so successful. Um, and I think if we create this narrative and then you come to people to show them the success you've had. And the endorsements you have from all these other people. Yeah. Authority authorities, these authoritative people, you know, with maybe one letter or two off in their names. Yeah. Kind of like they do. Yeah. And then, and so if you hear this idea and this is inspiring you, then maybe you should try something like this and just make fake news about successful stories that you've had in your area. Yeah.
17:36 So when people ask, what have you done? Like, you know, and you're saying to someone, Hey, I want to teach you about this natural farming. And they're like, I don't know, man. You seem kind of sketchy. You're like, well, look at all these photos of things that I've done. People are like, wow. Like, yeah. Yeah. That's yeah. And it's like, get people believe. Well, you know what? Actually, I think that Korean natural farming stands firmly on its own two feet. But. So you're saying we don't need to fake it? We don't need to fake it. We just, we just need to get the word out there.
18:09 I mean, it's, it's a standalone. It's, it guarantees makes a difference on anything you use it on, whether it's one or all nine inputs. And whether you use it at the right time, the right nutrients at the right time or not, if you're using it, it's, it's making a difference. You know, period. Yeah. We, oh, hey, Kyle. Oh, what's up, bro? Okay. Um, yeah, man. Um. Yeah. So we don't need to fake it because the only thing we need to do is publish it. Right. So everybody out there, like, share, subscribe, right?
18:55 Yeah. Yeah. The like button is not that much of a problem to get through to navigate and just hit click. And then it's like, hey, boost the algorithm. You know? Hey, we get, I mean, how many people we got on right now? Uh, it says 14. 14. And we got nice super chats. So thank you for, thanks for supporting and all that. Yeah. Super chats are, it's. So, hey, we got a couple of questions, Mark. Oh, good. All right. Let's see here. So one thing here, uh, well, actually we got some inspiration.
19:30 So Thomas down in Florida, he's starting a Christian guys group centered around natural farming inspired by your potlucks. Awesome. Feed people. Hey, feed people, bring people together. And when there's food, you stay and talk longer. And normally when there's food around the, uh, the, the conversations are calm, peaceful, and very non-aggressive. Because people are eating and they don't, you know, you don't want that in you and you're not going to bring it to other people. So, and it's the best conversations ever were, uh, around a table.
20:13 And the one that, uh, the best conversation I've had with KNFers was in Watsonville. I don't know if it was 19 or 2018, 2019, something like that. We had like 28 people come for a three-day class at my place and, uh, at the log cabin. And, um, we sat down for dinner that night. And, uh, I don't think a person left the table for four hours. It was, yeah, it was amazing camarade. And we talked about everything under the sun and challenges and successes and just getting people together around food.
20:57 And, uh, in my estimation is super productive because when you have what you need to nourish your body, you know, you can nourish, nourish your brain at the same time and then share community. Because when, if anything gets bad, community is the only thing that's going to get you through in my estimation. I think you're really on to something that, um, community, peace starts with food. It's hard to be nice when you're not, uh, full and you're hungry. You know, that it's hard to feel secure and supported without the, um, without that. So to build the community, the food, the potluck.
21:45 That's cool. Thomas is doing that. Right on, Thomas. Listen, Hey man, I don't typically get all the way across to the East coast, but if I'm ever there, I'll definitely hit you up. If, if I'm within a couple of hundred miles, I'll make a stop. Just, uh, just to, uh, envelop myself with that, uh, with that thought, with that energy. Because we got to keep going. Congratulations, man. You're, you're making the difference. I want to see in the world. Yay. Yay. Yeah. And, uh, speaking of second Tuesday meeting is coming up, uh, second Tuesday, which is like on the 10th, two days from now.
22:27 And, um, we're going to be going over KNF cleanser. Um, it was a good one. We did KNF food last, um, last meeting. So going over all the nine core solutions at the meeting over the year, um, it's been popular, man. People are showing up. Um, so, and then there is another good question here coming through. Let's see here. We had one talking about, um, surfactants. What natural plants can be used in Hawaii as a surfactant for hydrophobic soil? You know, I mean, I just, I'm just going to add like straight up answer.
23:13 Like, uh, I don't think it's worth it. Just like putting something in, like just watering and watering over to like persistent watering versus trying to have some sort of surfactant chemically drive the moisture. When you're watering soil and it's hydrophobic, like, I just don't think that like, if you can get a super cheap, uh, surfactant, fine. We, we make it out of soap. I don't know any plant particular that they break surface tension that way. I'm that I'm aware of that that would do it for the soil. I'm not aware of anything either in that light. Yeah.
23:48 Um, and so I just think that the key, like for, for us with the barn, it's, it's, it's really been just like every day we're really trying to like moisten the top quarter to half inches of dirt. And it's not really taking like certain areas don't take it. I mean, the, what I found is that if I, if I shoot like a fat, um, thing of water, it just hits and explodes on the ground versus if I run it more through like the misting or fan feature on the rain feature on the head, then it actually like hits the soil.
24:20 And it's like, it's, it's actually like wetting versus like hitting and, and just like pushing, you know, it's been made. Yeah. If you hit it hard, it makes all it makes is dust. And, and then it underneath the dust is dry soil. Yeah. Like, like erodes, like I'm, like I'm, I'm hydro mining the, the, the ground. So, so the key that for me, the key is just to like mist more often on it and just be regular. And it's, yeah, it's making a difference over the, over the two, three weeks we've been doing this, man. It's like significantly less dusty.
24:53 And then now when you spray it, the, the it's, it's, it's absorbing it better. It's becoming less. Does it make any dust when we spray now? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe, maybe like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just the, the, like under the box where it's hard to hit is like a little dusty and that's just cause we haven't shot there, you know, like under the IMO box. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's what I found the other day, like in the table and stuff, but I was like, this is really good. And yeah, I feel like the soil is now really starting to like. Liven up.
25:24 Well, like, like grab the moisture instead of just like it pushing dirt and dust around. Yeah. And with the, with the chicken scratching, it just makes a, it just makes a dust. It used to make a dust cloud. So it's, but yeah, it's, I think we're, I think we're winning. So the, um, um, on my KNF, uh, calculator that I, I got a, um, on the, I bought the app from, uh, and on there has a soap recipe. So using, uh, sodium or sodium or potassium hydroxide, potassium, potassium, potassium for the liquid soap.
26:06 And that is the, I mean, if you need a surfactant making just canola oil, water and KOH is, it's a super basic. And plus you can use it for everything from, I use it for doing my hair. She makes it shine. Oh yeah. Clearly. Yeah. Clear. Clear. Clear. Clear. My hair. Yeah. But you can also use it in the kitchen sink, in the bathroom as a body soap, as a body wash. Um, you can use it in the laundry and it also breaks surface tension to get nutrients all through where you need them. So, and it's super cheap. Yeah. Yeah. The, the soap, we just, we just made a five liter batch with the class.
26:54 It's actually out there. It needs to have the second water added. For some reason, not all my oil turned to gel. Yeah. I, I, I think my, my KOH might be, um, absorbing moisture out of the hair. Um, just cause it's so humid here that I don't think if I had to do it again, buying a 50 pound bag is the best idea, unless you're really going to make a lot of soap because I've, I've probably used 10 pounds of it over four or five years of making soap. And I still have 40 pounds left and I don't know how effective it's still going to be. So I really need to.
27:34 Does it seem like it's degrading every time you make a batch or was. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Just, yeah. Like now I'm starting to get more and more oil and I just think that I have to either up my KOH, which the chemistry of all that's weird. Cause you need to dissolve and all these things. So I'm just like a little hesitant right now of like, it's fine. It's making like, you know, 90% of that came out soap, but interesting that if you have bad KOH doesn't, doesn't work as well. It has to be something because it's not like the other ones we made. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but that's coming.
28:09 And then our vinegar is out there chilling. It looks like a mouse got in it, but it is sure is ever turned to vinegar. I just, I should rinse the thing and Oh man, we, we got a bunch of vinegar from that bananas. Yeah. And that was a class, uh, food project and it, uh, it was made with bananas and they, uh, it just didn't get enough sugar. It was really producing a lot of liquid on the outside, but for the weight of the material and the total, uh, juice that was, uh, pulled out through the osmotic, uh, extraction with the sugar, it was underwhelming to say the least.
28:54 I think we should have had at least twice the liquid volume that we, that we got, but you know, now we have a, an amazing start to some incredible vinegar. Yeah. Yeah. Probably even more. It just, yeah, I think they, they, uh, they got scared on how much sugar to add. Sometimes it's your first time making fruit. You don't know. And he's like, the sweeter it is on the inside, the more sugar you need outside. And people are like, okay, I think they saw a little bit of osmosis happening, but yeah, you know, it's the touch and the feel.
29:31 I mean, that's the thing here, here, they did see a good example, but then when they tried to do it, it's hard, man. It is, well, you know what, and every, I don't want to call them failures. It was successful. They took the sugar, they harvested the fruit and, um, put it all together, did all the work. It didn't come out exactly what they wanted it to be, but after looking at it, now, you know, so you don't have to consider that the next time when you go up and say, yeah, absolutely going to need more sugar. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, hopefully they can recognize the failure.
30:11 Cause sometimes I feel like, oh man, I was like, not a, not a, uh, like my instruction wasn't as good as it could have been for them to do it on their own, but it's a learning experience. Like you're saying, you know, and, and every material is different. It's really, uh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's like, it was a really nice class. I really enjoyed the class though. I learned, like I said, I came in thinking I knew something. And at the end of the class, I was, I was uniquely humbled. So yeah, every class I go to, I always end up with way more than I thought. Yeah. Yeah. No.
30:49 And that's, that's for anybody else out there that wants to come and kick it at the farm, bro. Mark's been killing for a bit here. These are, we've really been working together well, doing a bunch of projects, but pretty much, you know, like just, yeah, like keeping high vibes and natural farming. I mean, like even, even just like just sitting here talking story, man, I've been learning a whole bunch and it's been really, really kind of a nourishing thing. Pitching a little bit like that. Cause I feel like, uh, you know, I'm, I'm just, uh, I'm just, uh, the guy on the side trying to learn.
31:24 But when I figure out that I can actually, I actually have a lot of stuff that, uh, is relevant, important, and needs to keep moving. Yeah. That makes me feel good. Yeah. Well, and so a concept that Mark was thrown around the other day, we, um, so we made a IMO aisle here for the class and I did it in a box off the ground, right off the soil, because trying to preserve the, um, integrity of the foundation of the building that it's in and doing it up at the barn was too far away to manage the pile properly. So I'm doing it in a box, which means like I built this thing out of plywood.
32:04 It has walls. You can think of it like a, like a four foot box. It's, you know, two feet off the ground, uh, to hold it in a rectangle, big, like a four foot by seven foot. Yeah. Big rectangle. So, um, we got in the pile. It heated up great. First day it was up, um, probably one, one 30 when we checked it, like it, it, it took about, uh, 36 hours to get to that. Um, yeah. It's great. It was really active. We turned it. It was a, it's a 100 pound pile. And then later the next day we, it was really warm. We got in there, we had a foot bath and then we, yeah, it was really nice.
32:49 Uh, about 40 minutes just sitting there, letting our feet and bodies regenerate in the pile. And then afterward. And so while we're doing that, we kind of stirred it up a little bit and then we then left it really shallow after, you know, flipped it and left it really shallow. So the pile was down to about a hundred because every time you turn it, it drops about 10 and it was like a hundred, 102, you know, in that low, low hundreds. And we left it thin that night and then came back the next morning and it was still like 98, you know, it just hadn't.
33:22 Didn't didn't recover temperature wise at all. Yeah. So, so with all that, yeah. So it didn't recover and we stacked it tall and it still didn't recover and it just didn't really reheat back up. So we made a critical air by spreading it too thin. But all that story comes to the fact that the different one, one major difference is that the IMO is off the ground, right? So it doesn't have that ground connection. So that means multiple things, but even electricity. So, so to put basically like a grounding rod through, uh, or, or, or grounding wire down
34:02 to a grounding rod and then like a metal plate may give you in the box, still this electrical grounding connection. And an interesting idea is that like, you know, these beings are electrical. They're, they're so much more than just like, you know, biological. If they're not on the soil, maybe they don't have the right charges. Maybe they don't have the right things. And so the idea of, even though I'm doing it off the ground, where it'd be insulated, it'd still be grounded electronically. Yeah. Electrically connected to the earth and getting the, you know, human resonance frequencies that,
34:42 you know, the, that are basically, um, causing natural forest floors all over the world just to, um, thrive because they've, they've got the whole picture. And if you take the electricity out, it might cause something. And I was just, I'm sitting around talking story that that came up and I'm like, well, let's try this, you know, see if it works. So now we got something to try next time. I was just thinking about connecting a wire and then having a copper pipe, you know, screw the wire to the pipe and, or solder it one way or the other and have the pipe running through your media. Who knows?
35:27 There, that might be total cube or square inches of surface area. It might be, I don't know. There's, who knows? There's something else we can experiment with in this magical, mystical world of natural farming. Yeah. And I think that's just the thing of it. It's like, um, it's kind of this multi-domain type of thing where, you know, if you know about electricity and then you're like, oh, then biology and like, you realize everything has a charge and it's like, oh, this is missing in this situation where they're unable to get,
36:01 you know, even connect with their natural energy source, which would be the earth, right? They're creating this difference, potential low charge. Even us, I mean, we're electric beings. I wonder, you know, we're so insulated from the ground. I think one of the ways that people heal is actually like taking off their shoes and walking on the ground and just getting like the, those are resonances you're talking about, like those charges out of you, like grounding. Every time my mom lives up in Oregon and we're about 30 miles away is the Jedediah Smith state
36:37 park with a giant, ancient, um, undisturbed redwood forest. And, uh, every time I go through there, we get deep down the trail and all of a sudden there's trees that are 25 feet from one side to the other, just giant, massive trees. And I'm like, ma, you got to take your shoes off and walk barefoot around this. Just, just try it. It looks like it's going to hurt. And it looked the, the surface of the soil looks like it's going to be like rocky. And there's all kinds of, uh, redwood leave or boughs on the ground. And it looks like it's going to be prickly and hurt.
37:18 And it's, it's like walking on a down comforter and just the, what it takes to walk around the tree. It's, if you ever get to Jedediah Smith state park, walk barefoot around a tree. It's all I can tell you or any, any ancient undisturbed forest, you know, pull your boots off, walk barefoot. And, uh, it, uh, it can't hurt. Let's put it that way in my estimation. Yeah. That, uh, this is not medical advice. Yeah. Those redwoods are something else, man. That, uh, that zone. I mean, I, I think that it used to be just, um, that used to be the default in that whole
38:10 region and just that pocket is left, you know, but the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, of those, I mean, just trying to look up, tip your head back and try to look up and see the top of it. And it's a completely different world looking up through the canopy. So it's, uh, lucky to be in that place, but you know, get barefoot contact with the ground. It doesn't have to be the beach. It doesn't have to be this, um, the forest, but you know, find some place and touch the ground and, you know, let all your electrons align like they're supposed to.
38:51 Cause what if it makes a difference and we're not doing it? Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hopefully we are. Um, there was a question. When do we feed brown rice, boiled eggs, bamboo leaves? Sounds like someone's after chickens. The chick feed. Magani Kudo. So, you know, um, speaking of that, uh, if you are a member of pure KNF in the chat, you can ask master Cho directly these questions and, um, the spirit of master Cho will answer, meaning that I'll go through and find a video clip of where master Cho was talking about those things.
39:33 So maybe, um, Magani out there wants to become a member of the pure KNF foundation. All the cool kids are doing it. Yeah. Let's see. Should we search while they're doing that? What else? What? So Mark, you're a specialist. Tell us about your specialties. Jeez. Plumber. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I do. I do plumbers and plumbing. Um, you know, I'm a firm believer in better living through hydraulics. You know, when it comes to attacks, the more hydraulic pressure you can apply, the quicker it's going to be done. Um, but, um, as, God, I'm a, I'm a master of none more, more so than, um, but, uh, I,
40:36 man, I really, really don't have an answer for what, what, what I specialize in. I just, um, trying to build a, uh, an abundance of food, fuel, and community is something that I think is going to become really important. I spent a lot of time on, you know, what is, what does it take? Uh, used to be a part of the Hawaiian Acres Sustainability Hui. Shout out, uh, Oli, Brad, Fred, Jeff, and the rest of the crew up in Hawaiian Acres who
41:27 always got together on Monday night and helped solved for the question, what happens if the boats stop running? Um, being 2,600 miles away from the nearest warehouse store, we figured you needed an abundance of food and fuel and community. And short of those, you're going to have a struggle if things do go bad. So I spent a lot of time looking into what it takes and, you know, Korean natural farming to me is the answer to the food. Um, there's a book out there by Dave Blum, alcohol can be a gas learning how to learning
42:12 what distillation is all about. So that makes the fuel and, um, you know, people will trade treasure for quality drink and liquor if there's none around, but at the end of the day, I can run my generator or my vehicle on alcohol. And then the most important part is community. I don't have to have a bunch of people that come by every week, but if they're 20 miles away and I pop in and help them with their projects, because I know this about that, they come to my house and they help me with this and that, that's building the community. And all of a sudden, another group of people.
42:58 Now we've got seven or eight different crews from around building community. Um, and if anybody needs anything, yeah, hail with the call out. And, you know, now you got, you know, maybe with eight different groups, you get one or two people show up, you get 20, 30 depending, you know? Um, so, and then that shared thing of sharing resources, Drake and I were talking about farmer sharing resources. Um, you only need a cattle trailer, you know, six times a year, but it's an imperative for moving stock from one farm to another.
43:42 But if you get 10 farmers together and everybody pitches in, you've got enough resources to solve that problem for 10 farms, instead of 10 guys having to come up with long green to be able to handle that. So, but, uh, community building is important, especially in a natural farming community. So hopefully one of these days, next time I'm over in England, I'll get over and visit Lee. I almost had a chance to get there last time I was in the UK, but I didn't. So Lee is a guy and, uh, lives just east of London. And, uh, he's a guy that we see in the chat on occasion.
44:28 So shout out to Lee. Keep it up, buddy. Oh, Hey, you know, you know, Lee that's in like Lee in this. Yeah. In our chat. Yeah. I don't know him, but I just know him from the chat. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. I know he's in the UK and I was over there last Christmas and I was trying to figure out a way to make a trip over there and make the connect just because I was on the other side of the Atlantic. And, um, who knows, you know, we could have, we could have had lunch at the pub and, you know, oiled the neck with a couple of quality pints and who knows what stories we could have come up with.
45:11 You know, you never do. So getting together with people and my Korean natural farming family is going to be a priority in the upcoming years. Just, uh, just to make those connections. So, and learn more, man. So many people, everybody I meet teaches me way more than I ever expected to teach them. Um, yeah, you know, I think, yeah, you mentioned the community and I think your specialty is, uh, being the staple of a community. Like you're, you show up consistently. You're here. Like, I, I, I think, I think you appreciate it, the community and, and like, Brian, like
45:59 in it, like the, your, your specialty is like being the, like the, the kernel that the community is built upon. Right. If there's a catalyst. Well, yeah. Yeah. Like if there's a calling, right. Yeah. And like Mark shows up and, and then, you know, like, like if you go to a party and no one's there, you're like, ah, I don't know. You know, like, but, but if, but if there's a party Mark and Mark's there, cause like, and then other people should, and they're like, you know what? I think I'm going to stay. Cause like you, you, you know what I mean?
46:29 Like, I think that's your, you're, you were like this. Wow. What a huge compliment. You, yeah. Like you hear callings, you show up and then everyone else see, they, they would have not maybe stayed or, but they see you and they're like, Hmm, you know what? I'm gonna go hang out. I'm going to check this party out. That was a way back in the day. If, uh, there was a, there was a thing called occupy wall street and here in Hilo, there was occupy Hilo in solidarity with occupy wall street. And there was a, out in front of Merrill Lynch, there was a, uh, we had a gathering one day
47:13 just in support of, and then every Friday, me and people from the forest that I deeply admire, um, would get together three or four of us and we'd show up. And we were there for like five weekends in a row. And all of a sudden people, more people started showing up and then we were having 50, 80, a hundred people, which is for Hilo size. It's a huge. And then it became, it became something. And it was standing out there by ourselves five weeks in a row, just holding that space. And then it became important. And then everybody showed up. Yeah.
47:58 So it's yes, small efforts, but yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm glad to be a, uh, well, weather speaking, uh, a particulate nuclei. It's those little things that float around in the air that water condenses to that makes rain. Yeah. So if I'm that little guy that floats around and people gravitate and we make stuff, especially, maybe anything has to do with peace, you know, you know, there's a, we definitely, we definitely need more people thinking that, uh, peace is profitable because it is, it's better for everybody except the military industrial complex.
48:44 So not even good for them, bro. They're just faking it. Uh, so Kyle's saying you're the, you're the grounding rod of the community. Oh, geez, man. I don't know if I can fit no shoes, but, uh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I like that. Thanks bro. It's a, that's a very magnanimous, um, generous con, uh, comment and I appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah. So let's, let's, let's just, uh, you know what? My screen isn't even going to work. I can't even do this, but you know what? On this side of the screen, I'll tell you what, um, I did.
49:22 So we searched, we took that question on the chicken food and I searched it the other day. This is what I, so I can't really show you because it's on the other side of the screen and my screen, read it out, but, but it, well, so, so what we searched, okay. So the search I put into the thing, as I said, bang search, which is like a keyword and it says feeding schedule for baby chicks, and then it went and it searched and it found two clips and then it returned two results. Um, one of, and one of them, which answered the question, yes, with 75% accuracy, it says,
49:59 and the summary is describes feeding baby chicks boiled egg to start three days through three weeks with approximately 1.5 eggs consumed over the entire three week period as a milk substitute. Um, and then the longer clip to that, um, was the exact clip and the transcripts here. I'll just, I'll, I'm going to paste the transcript in the chat and you can see it. And then this is what it transcripted to go. Paste, copy, copy. Can I paste? Can I paste? I don't know. It's not going to go in the chat. Sorry. Well, today we have technical difficulties, but the point is that if you are a member, you
50:43 could find a clip actually of master show talking about these direct things, which is pretty cool. And it's not exactly clear of how all this stuff happens, but this is the projects we're working on this year and made a whole bunch of progress, man. I mean, Mark can see it. That's pretty cool, right? Yeah. Yeah. I'm blown away, but, um, I mean, I'm not, I'm not a complete Luddite, but, um, this, uh, this techie stuff just blows me away, um, of how it's streamlined and stuff and makes it efficient. Yeah. We're just putting, you know, some text AI, good searching stuff, transcription, all the
51:23 good things that 2026 can bring to, and bringing it to our members. And I think, uh, yeah, yeah. Anybody working on any KNF, um, projects at the moment, or does anybody have anything? Big or small planned for the spring? And that is, that's a good question because, um, the research, I was just meeting with, um, some folks from the NRCS, which is the National Resource Conservation Service to kind of do soils and those types of things. Um, and, um, and working with, um, some of the, the state, um, CTAHR, which is the College
52:15 of Tropical Ag and Human Resources. And they all need good data. So if anybody out there is interested in doing research and wants to do a little bit more of this and document, I'm, we're just, just the other day, I was really cementing the partnership with them to say, Hey, what data do you need? What do you need collected to make our studies legit? So when we do the studies, we can give them to you and then you have the studies and then you can make these recommendations of these products because we know they work.
52:44 We know the natural farming solutions work, but they need like controlled studies where they show this and that, and then they can actually make these recommendations and they want to. So research is very important. So, um, Christoph is doing, um, soil blocks with KNF solutions. Oh, that's right. He was talking about that last week. Yeah. So make sure to try and make some of like, you know, like autoclave, whatever IMO and sterilize it and do a soil block with dead IMO and try, you know, like these are the sort of studies
53:20 they need where they need like, you know, they're like, well, we'll be able to was it the IMO? Was it the microbes or was it the material that was with the microbes? So they figure out if you autoclave it and burn it, then there's no life, but you're still getting the same materials. And this is the kind of studies they want to see, which to me is silly, but if it shows that the IMOs work better, this is what they need to make them recommendation to say the IMOs work. And it's not just like the constituents of IMO, which what's the difference really?
53:46 But anyway, that's the kind of proof they need. So we got somebody else here. Yeah. Postop media is a constant work. His family farm can't have powered document some of it. Let's let's share. Let's share. Because if you're doing the work already and then you have just neglected parts that you're not doing the work, then you can use those as a control. And now your whole farms in production. Yeah. Just because you're not using it for to be productive, it still holds data points. It still has value. You know, it's getting getting all the getting as many data points as we can.
54:28 And then we connect the dots and pretty soon you go from 740 resolution on your video screen to AK, you know, because if all you need are data points to make it clearer, you know, so it's it's a great it's a great gift that we've been given. And, you know, being able to have information directly from Master Cho through Drake makes it, you know, it's I don't know, to me, it's one of the most valuable things that I could ever have is being connected, good friends with Drake, whose personal friends and have
55:17 spent a lot of time with Master Cho. So there's there's things that you learn being with somebody that never, ever were put into words, but you still learn it just by proximity, you know, being or watching how people move. And, you know, there's there's way more than words than that Master Cho put out that Drake gets that I get from him directly, because unfortunately, I never had the opportunity. I never had the opportunity to talk story with Master Cho, you know, which for me being a natural farming geek would have been, you know, it's like Super Bowl 50 yard line tickets.
56:03 Oh, yeah, it is the Super Bowl today, too. We're definitely going to participate in our own unique Hawaiian way. Yeah. Yeah. With a Super Bowl. Yeah. They're going to become superb owls. So I don't quite follow this. So he's saying this is this is Christoph still talking about the soil block. So he said they smelled for one day only a little bit. Then it went fresh. Probably needed time to balance. And then he's saying I like non sterile if I lose some before if I got one problem, it just escalated every time. It has worm castings, peat, white sand, seed soak, lactobacillus.
56:51 I poured it from a cement mixer in a tub and let it warm up in the grow tent a few days. So he's in Belgium, so it's probably freaking cold right now. So if he's doing this right now, it's like it got to be freezing outside. So it sounds like he's doing inside. And I think what I'm following is that if he adds inoculant, it doesn't ruin all the blocks. If something goes bad, is that is that what you're tracking of? Because I don't I don't get this. They smell for one day only a little bit. Then it was fresh. I probably needed some more time to balance.
57:27 Is he you think he's talking about like mixing this stuff before he compresses it? Yeah, that definitely sounds like he's mixing. He mixes it mixes everything together. Then he's letting it sit for a day or two, maybe gain some heat. And then he uses it. Christoph, the smell, is it a pleasant, good smell? Or is it pungent, maybe putrid or rotting kind of smell? Expound on that. That'll tell us a lot. It'll tell me a lot. Yeah. And I would think I would think lactobacillus would always be a good thing to add to this just in small doses. It is as protectors.
58:10 It's probably going to help synergize whatever is there. So he's saying now it's neutral. Also, it tastes okay. Tasting it, that's the number. I mean, yeah, I would think it would taste would be kind of neutral. You wouldn't want any sours, you know, because that would indicate like... Putrefaction? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Or anaerobic biology. Yeah, I think your nose would smell that. And you want to keep it aerobic for sure. He says, it is indeed cold outside. Yeah, need to give the peppers a head start. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I mean, yeah, start. I mean, don't get me wrong.
58:53 I'm just saying it's cold there. Yeah. Do they have heat mats for seedling trays where you're at? Um, you plug into the wall, you just put your blocks on a seedling heat mat. It'll take it up to 20, 25 degrees Celsius or somewhere in that region. Might be enough to turbocharge everything. He says he has a Viver diesel heater. Perfect. Yeah. Yeah. Wild. Yeah, yeah. Good luck on that. Take some pictures and send them to the foundation so we can, or even video.
59:40 I'd love to see what you're doing. Yeah, yeah. He's, he's, he sent a whole bunch of pictures before we did, uh, his, oh man, it just looks, his place looks magic. Yeah, it really. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Cool. Well, um, well, awesome. We're, we're about 10 here. Um, getting there. Um, getting there. Yeah. Yeah. I'll share, share those out. And, um, yeah, great. Cool, man. Um, we, we do have, uh, you know, members meeting today, two o'clock Hawaiian standard time. Um, if you, uh, please, you know, if you're want to be part of the membership and enjoy that, it'll be over zoom.
1:00:18 Uh, we're going to continue zoom a little bit, keep that going and, um, I'll see it then. Um, yeah. Well, you want to give folks a little prayer here? Yeah. Yeah. I'll, uh, start with saying, um, blessings of gratitude to all who participate with the natural farming ways to the happiness, to the healthiness and to the wholeness of those that we share this technology with. We ask for your blessings. Amen. Amen.
1:01:03 Amen. Okay. Well, thank you for tuning in. Thanks for super chats. Thanks for being part of a good family. And, um, we will see you on the next one. Peace. Love and aloha. Bye.
1:01:54 Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. ! Bye. Bye. Bye. ! Bye.