Yep. I have failed to understand why excluding people who want to learn and participate is helpful in getting the message out. I will not be a bother to you any longer. Good luck.
If owner hopes for world domination, he is going to need all the apples he can get. Limiting your apples to a "chosen few" means the "chosen few" will have to work that much harder for the domination coordinator. Besides, this new tactic is not very nice. Everybody should get an apple dammit!
My garage is full. My basement is full. My shed is full. And I still find room for more. When this economy crashes, I will have enough hand tools and other useful items to give to all my neighbors.
Overall, I think the value of LED is marginal at best. I forsee a lot of subsidy and planned obsolescence for LED.
I didn't use subsidy and I think these LEDs are very long life at the moment. Since there is little you or I can do about government policy, a good plan would be to buy the LEDs when a subsidy is instituted, before the engineers can incorporate an obsolescence into them.
paul wheaton wrote: I think ten years from now, a long life incandescent will still be the best choice. In fact - i would like to see an incandescent with a thicker glass and a way to replace the filaments. Something with a tiny garbage footprint.
In ten years there might not be any, and you know darn well industry has no interest in producing high quality. You would have to have a glass blower and a electrical tinkerer to make you one. Then the cost advantage goes out the window.
The electronics that are in the LED. capacitors, resistors, etc. Plus - so much plastic. There is simply much more material and sophistication in one bulb. And how does it compare in the waste stream to an incandescent.
Granted, an LED is about 50 times less toxic than a CFL. But an LED is about 15 times more toxic than an incandescent.
I think that at $8 per year for electricity for light, combined with the idea that it is a heat source in winter .... for me, the incandescent is a clear winner.
Ok. If we count the toxic gick burning coal to produce more electricity for the incandescent? Brings this closer to par. Look, on the up front financial and having a choice side, incandescent is a clear winner. But I want to lower my electrical use down to my solar electric system production without compromising too much on the quality of life. Its what I want. I think this is more responsible than wanting to buy a Hummer, or some such other wasteful polluting device, with my extra money.
paul wheaton wrote:I spend $8 per per year on electricity for light. In 20 years that works out to $160. I don't think I'm going to see an ROI in 20 years.
Plus, I find the light quality of the LED poor. And the LED is loaded with toxic gick.
The heat that comes off the incandescent is a bonus in the winter. In the summer, I rarely turn on the lights due to natural sunlight.
What toxic gick? Not aware of that. That would be important for me to know. I have bought LEDs from assorted manufacturers, and there is no uniformity as to the quality of light. And yes, there was a period of adjustment, but a few days of use my eyes adjusted very well. You might criticize my kitchen light though, as there are 3 different style bulbs in 5 sockets to get a light my wifey actually liked. I replaced five 60 watt bulbs with two 1.5 watts, two 7 watts, and one 13 watts. Together they cast a very nice light.
You are taking payback, I am talking return on investment, using less electricity without compromising the quality of life (much), with the goal of not using any utility energy.
paul wheaton wrote:I just stumbled upon this old thread.
I am curious if there are any angles where I might still be wrong.
Here are the two CFL videos I made, followed by one that recently came out from europe:
I think the message is right. I like you highlighting the taxpayer subsidy angle.
But I also think incandescent bulbs use too much electricity because they give off more heat than light. This is also a problem.
I outfit my entire house with LEDs a few years ago, but it cost $1000 back then. So the cost of LEDs are a problem too. But I had the money to buy a few bulbs a month and it is about using less electricity, not about saving money, for me.
I think I have had only two posts deleted so far. Pretty good for me! I post here because more often than not there is feedback. Keeping your forum clean is a good deal for the long term. Thanks.
Very healthy birds because they are eating some many different kinds of nutrient-rich material from wild plants. Very healthy for you to eat too! The last one I ate came courtesy of a flush out of the ditch and into my truck's deer guard. Must have hit its head as the bird looked perfect. So I took it to camp, did the cleaning thing, rubbed it down with salty olive oil, and heated it in the barrel cooker - at 250 degrees for a few hours - that was placed on my wood burning stove.
Elisabeth Tea wrote:How many mounds do I need to plant per person who is eating? Corn dries well, so if I wanted a year's supply for one adult (perhaps only eating corn once per week) how many would I want to plant? I know that results may vary, so let's just say that my average production will be the same as your average production.
I planted 18 cord seeds and harvested 24 seven-inch cobs and almost as many smaller ears of corn. Along with this I planted 4 acorn squash and 4 butternut. The acorn squash did not like the situation and failed, the butternut "grew to sunlight" and produced 15 big sweet squash. And then I harvested many, many meals of Kentucky wonder beans that grew right up the cornstaks, and a row of climbing peas in front on the two rows of corn, that did alright. Hope this helps. I plan to do this same planting in the same spot until this fails, so we'll see how long this will keep working.
The whole works was planted in a 27 year old lasagna garden and fertilized with fish and texas greensand.
chrissy bauman wrote:all avian manure can potentially be carrying pathogens like salmonella, psittacosis, and aspergillus fungi. since it is a manure that contains both colonic and renal wastes, it is acidic and should probably be composted before applying to your plants.
that being said, i take the poop from my parrot cage and put it directly on my ornamentals (don't want any potential pathogens on my edibles). always wash your hands thoroughly with warm (hot) water after handling bird poop. and try not to inhale it, since the pathogens can be transmitted by inhalation like a common cold is.
if your pigeon problem leaves wastes in an area where they are allowed to dry out, the poops can and will grow disgusting, deadly fungi called aspergillus. please be careful.
I know a few 80 year old pigeon racers, but maybe I ought to do a study of how many died young? HA! Well anyway, mine wifey would like you. Giving facts to her deepest fears. She would lock me up lest I kill everybody with poisonous avian turd fungi!
She is on a kick about rabbit crap right now (she even took turds into the vet for testing), and hope she doesn't read this... Yeah yeah, I know. Its just the facts.
I used a fine mesh fence immediately around the sapling, then a large mesh 6 foot fence 5 feet in diameter around this. My garden has a 6 foot fence around it to keep the deer away, with a fine mesh fence bent in 90 degrees at the bottom, designed to keep the digging critters out. Continuing drought will have the critters more interested in what we are growing. That is all I know...
I raced pigeons in the past and used the litter in the garden for great results. I have never heard of any diseases other than the normal pathogens that come with any raw manure. I used a deep litter system that allowed for a 2 inch thick layer of dried droppings - in the coop - that was stirred every so often to keep the moist fresh stuff from forming a mat. I had an open coop and the birds went out foraging most days, so I think the litter was top notch. Of course, there could be some new information I am not aware of!
Oh, about the only method I can think of for the roof is to string loose wires/strings across every few inches. Hard for them to land on and around them. I haven't actually done this, but know some people who have and it slowed them way down.
Somebody dumped a pair of meat rabbits nearby, and they have now ate all our greens. They are just running around here like they own the place. I might just have to eat them!
I am thinking about planting the American Persimmon tree as my over story tree. Strong tap root to bring up moisture, 60 feet tall, and slow to leaf out in the spring allowing the under story more sunlight until they do. Persimmons are actually berries? What do you think?
How about squash? The three sisters will give 3 to 1 in the same space. And I would take up fishing in place of squirrel hunting. Sitting lazily on the bank does not use so many calories - methinks - so one eats the flesh and uses the rest for fertilizer. Great thread by the way. Thanks.
S Bengi wrote:Solar cell, broilers, roofs, fruit tres etc only last about 20 years.
So build everything now, find ways to streamline activities/hravesting/etc.
And save money for a big overall in 20yrs when you are ready to stop working for money.
Do you see yourself killing/processing a 2000lbs cow or a dwarf 50lbs goat or a 3lbs fish/chicken in 20-30 yrs.
Are you going to climb a 30ft apple tree.
I dont want to do any of that now! I do plan on chickens because of the tick problem up there. As for the rest... I was raised on a farm. In 20 years I will be 66 and I have seen much older people doing the things you described and who lets their apple tree get 30 feet high? If you prune the thing you get a ton more apples. I plan on 20 years of trial and error research plus getting advice for the next twenty years. I have lived off the land a lot in my life, for months at a time. Twenty years of planning should make this a really, really nice retirement spot.
Interesting. I went the cedar cabin route made from (very large) mostly fallen cedar trees. But I had a 48 inch deep R-42 insulated foundation built for it. If you were to look at Google Earth, you will see my 40 acres, with the exception or the clay/rock outcrop the cabin is built on, is a giant swale for the sections immediately to the west. Have fun!
S Bengi wrote:Solar cell, broilers, roofs, fruit tres etc only last about 20 years.
So build everything now, find ways to streamline activities/hravesting/etc.
And save money for a big overall in 20yrs when you are ready to stop working for money.
Do you see yourself killing/processing a 2000lbs cow or a dwarf 50lbs goat or a 3lbs fish/chicken in 20-30 yrs.
Are you going to climb a 30ft apple tree.
Solar heating lasts decades longer, and this is what he'll need to learn. After building a small tight swedish-coped log house out of thick cedars, heated by wood, solar water heating and a solar greenhouse should be tops to ease the burden on the wood lot. Build a number of rascally-looking hugelkulturs, get some tall fencing for a garden, and plant zone 4 fruit and berry bushes everywhere.
Yes, I can see my 80 year old self butchering whitetail deer and climbing 30 foot trees. Not sure if that would really happen though...
I do plan on chickens because of the tick problem up there. As for the rest... I was raised on a farm. In 20 years I will be 66 and I have seen much older people doing the things you described and who lets their apple tree get 30 feet high? If you prune the thing you get a ton more apples. I plan on 20 years of trial and error research plus getting advice for the next twenty years. I have lived off the land a lot in my life, for months at a time. Twenty years of planning should make this a really, really nice retirement spot.