i would say the most important thing would be selecting the right type for youre climate
you will need one of the more cold hardy varieties
look for varieties like namwa (often sold as icecream), orinoco or blue java(harder to get the real thing usually you end up with a namwa)
bananas like full sun and lots of water, but not wet feet/submerged
option 3 sounds good since the roots could find the ground water
maybe just chop and drop to avoid moving materials down there?
Dan Fish wrote:I made mine very similar to yours but I can't figure out where I got the recipe. The only difference I remember is that it was fermented with lacto-baccilius pills I got from the health food store. The only smell was sweetish with a hint of vinegar, like a cheap wine mixed 50/50 with water? I suck at describing things.
Anyway, the stuff worked amazingly! I need to make more. Here fishy-fishy...
thanks for the reply.
Do you think i can use the dark brown top layer?
So my husband used to work on Hollywood movies and he once made a film with a scene that took place in a forest of burned trees, ash raining down. So the location scouts found a real landscape of this type (sadly abundant right now in the US) but in the end decided to make a fake version on stage so it looked ‘even better than the real thing’. 🙄 Well my husband had to go buy a $5000 piece of light grid fabric for the effects and in the end only 2 minutes of filming survived to the final cut. And that $5k light grid was headed for the garbage! Easier to throw away, they said! So it came to me as my husband was charged with ‘disposing of it properly’... ie: wife will repurpose this, I just know she will! Since then (this happened in about 2007 or so) I have made chicken pen tarps, various sized cloches, etcetera, basically all weird garden contraptions that I design on my own, taking cues from the ingenious Elliot Coleman and his work 4 season gardening in Maine. So here is an example, this is my current cloche, made with plastic visqueen that was packaging for some furniture we purchased, sewn together with the light grid pre-grommeted for end caps. PVC forms the arcs of the structure, which are encased in hems I sew on my basic sewing machine. In a recent windstorm sporting 45mph steady winds with occasional gusts up to 60 (90mph clocked at the top of the local ski area) it stood up beautifully, literally did. not. budge. and all my tasty greens inside (redbor kale, broccoli dreaming of spring, electric lights chard, rocket arugula and simpson black seedes lettuces) were perfectly protected from the onslaught. So, yeah, my 50’ x 50’ Hollywood Movie light grid from last decade has been a wonderful addition to my ‘gardening supply squirrel stash’ that has kept on giving for years. “Disclaimer; No fake burned out forests were harmed in the creation of this repurposing” 🤣
r ranson wrote: The filming part is fine, but my back has been hell lately. I have an appointment with my doctor to talk about the different support garments available, including looking at history for solutions. My shape is very common in my family and I'm the first female in many centuries that has never worn a corset for support. We'll see what the doctor has to say about that and possibly make some films... if it's something people are interested in. Or maybe I should just make films that I'm interested in and the people who are interested in the same thing will find me? I don't know.
I think there’s a lot to be said for sticking to a ‘niche’ but then again... it almost seems like most big influencer types are turning more and more to having their name and who they are be their brand. A podcast I listen to just changed their website name from something generic to the woman’s own name... her online business is now being branded by her own name- who she is.. rather than the name of the podcast.
As long as these films are just once in awhile, I think it’d be super cool. I personally had no idea corsets actually had a function in terms of support... even though I’m a woman you’d think I would have figured that out on my own lol! I’d be very interested in hearing the history of corsets and how we came out of using them... in addition to what you are learning about the health impacts you are feeling of our modern garments.
If you make these videos- disperse them among your normal content rather than doing a big corset content dump. A blogger I used to follow very religiously lost me when she started to give ‘marital coaching’ in her podcasts. She’s a parenting coach... I was there for the parenting part.. not the marriage stuff. And so I stopped following because it was podcast after podcast of marriage talk- it appeared the parenting talk was gone even though it’s still a big part of her business.
Yeah. In past years they were good to me. When I visited last week, so much stuff is out of stock. I figure they're likely going out of business. I did not order from them this year.
Alder is a key tree species in a realistic plan to combat climate change and boost tree numbers.
There isn't a farmer on the planet who hasn't got a bit of wet 'shitty' land. Even the best dairy farm will have a few corners that you will never drive machinery on and you would rather your animals kept out off. And on the bad ground alder will grow.
Excellent way to encourage land owners.
I have been planting oak trees on the better bits of land, and last year I bought 60 Alders to plant in the wet boggy parts, but I will be getting another 150 this year. I live on west coast of ireland so plenty of boggy land
I think the curved design is great - both for strength and to allow more light inside. Also for shedding snow. If you would please darken the handwritten lettering in your diagram it would make it so much easier to read your drawing.
I think most of them are from Guatemala or Honduras and they use them to wrap their tamales in.
They also will use corn husks, unfortunately my corn failed this year, so I has none to share.
I figure If I could grow the bananas for leaves, I could trade, share and sell them and maybe the pups as well.
The fruit of truly hardy bananas is said to be inedible, though if I ever get any, I will certainly see what I can do with them before I give them to the chickens.
M Broussard wrote:This is my second season growing fibre European flax...
Congratulations! It seems like you might have enough to test out the Textile Prepare Flax for Spinning BB. It is a Straw level badge but you can work on them even if you haven't finished the sand level. You do have to earn the sand badge to be eligible for the straw level badge but there are no rules against working on Straw or higher level BBs before earning sand level.
lots of beautiful pictures of fencing in this thread, i linked to it in my recent podcast referring to junk pole fencing specifically, but i see now that there are good examples of other kinds of fencing included in this thread, glad i linked to it!
Are they close enough to the surface you can get to them without equipment?
If so, there's a trick that might work. You'll probably want a cordless drill with a masonry bit.
As far as I can tell, they are all at the surface, I’m going to give this technique a try!
Worst come to worst, I’ll have hole-y rocks on my property 😉!
M Broussard wrote:
Those of you who are hauling logs directly on your cycles--how do you balance it? I've been able to get smaller logs into my panniers (and always carry a saw with me just in case someone is pruning a tree on my commute), but things get really wobbly if I try to put wet, heavy logs of the size I'd like to collect (and the size some of you seem to be carrying!) onto my rack. I sometimes still do, but then I have to walk the bike home. Any tips, tricks and suggestions welcome!
I did just grab a heavy load of two long logs today to haul home. First I will say that my back rack is pretty beefy. Some of the racks I've had in the past certainly wouldn't have taken the weight! Anyway, today as I started off with my load it initially felt pretty dodgy, like it was wiggling around too much. So I got a third bungee cord and made sure the logs were strapped quite tightly in place. Loads that wiggle make balancing harder. If you can keep the weight of the load centered over the tire that helps too. When I'm hauling logs that extend out several feet from my bike balance is also trickier.
Before I strap on a load I make sure the gears are set so I'll have easy enough pedaling on start up with a lot of weight. I don't want to be fussing with gearing when trying to get going with a lot of weight. I will sometimes also work to push off some with my feet to get a bit more initial forward momentum. When going really slow, like when starting or stopping, it is much harder for me to balance it all. When it motion I believe it is the gyroscopic action that makes it all easier. With that in mind I should note that I'm doing most of my hauling in rural locations and along a trail where I don't have to start and stop much. In fact usually once I have a log strapped on I don't stop until I get home. If I were in an urban zone where I had to start and stop frequently the extreme loads might not be a good idea, at least not without having a true cargo bike, or trailer where balance isn't as much of an issue.
Part of the fun of this to me is the extra challenge of balance. Thinking back I think the most challenging point for me is usually stopping or making sharp turns with big loads. I have lost it turning into my driveway and when coming to a stop by the wood pile. Thankfully my poor bike keeps chugging along once I unstrap the load and set it upright again. I did break a plastic clip on my rear light today though. Fortunately I was able to metalsmith up a replacement without too much effort.
Interesting that you find the Ego to be "revy" with low torque. My Kobalt definitely has a lower chain speed but I can really apply pressure while cutting with barely any lack of cutting speed. In fact I would say it has quite good torque for the saw. I still wish that the saw could accept larger capacity batteries, but even the 2.5 ah batteries can cut quite a bit and it is not too difficult to carry a second battery along with me should I need more cutting power.
I have seen the Milwaukee chainsaw in action and I agree that it is a very nice looking tool--if a bit expensive. If memory serves, about 2 years ago Home Depot had a demonstration out front where they were cutting away. At the time the saw was free as long as you bought a 12 ah battery for $400! That may have been a nice saw, but that price made it a bit pricey for me, even if I were in the Milwaukee platform which I am not.
Eric
It is not at all that I find I am running out of power when cutting, but rather that a VERY slight obstacle will stop the chain from starting when you first pull the trigger; there is a split second of spin-up and then you can cut away. More noticeable than with the dewalt or m18.
Unlike the dewalt, I have found the Ego saw able to buck doug fir well over the length of the bar, cutting in from both sides. Obviously it is not intended for this, and will chew through batteries, but it did it. A definite selling point if considering it as a saw to carry in a truck in case of a downed tree...
Sam Liégeois wrote:
Here in Europe the laws are pretty strict about where you source your seeds and cuttings from.
Everything has to be certified, so you can only buy at dealers.
This sounds very strange to me.
This would rule out the possibility to take cuttings or even seed from some random volunteer in someones garden
that happens to be a good variety and market it.
Can you please post the law that requires this?
You can do that but you cannot sell it without being registered and obtaining plant passports etc (you can do these yourself but you must be certified). So either you certify it or someone else does, same difference in the end. this is a link to the overview of the british law on plant passports (inside the EU INCLUDES inside individual countries) the law is an EU one so it's going to be basically the same everywhere. Page of boredom here There is only one exception and that is selling direct, if you come to my farm I can sell you a potted plant, if I advertise it here and post it to you that is breaking the law. If I give it to you and post it that is still breaking the law.
There is another problem with selling seeds of your own varieties and that is that all varieties need to be registered on the database.. sigh.
Interestingly enough buried away in the legislation is a possibly very useful exemption
- The movement of seed intended for scientific purposes, selection work and other test or trial purposes
Actually selling plants is a nightmare, especially with "wild" plants there is a whole list from the UK of plants you need a license to sell and another list that is EU wide I expect most countries have similar lists if one looks as well. here
ok I get it, there is a difference between debt free and expense free. I guess my brain is just stuck on fact that it is so very difficult to make a transition to living free- expense free that is.i guess that once your life is lived with huge or any debt is very difficult to get debt free but is do able and something worthwhile to strive for. sometimes I guess it can be realized by examining the difference between wants and needs. and as I write this just today started seriously planning on turning a bunch of raw lumber into cedar chests in an attempt to generate----cash so I can pay those seemingly never ending expenses
for people looking for a "more natural" way of adding co2
one potential way could be to set up a bucket with calcite or other carbonate rocks and use an automated ph controller to dose vinegar(or other acid) into the bucket
i did a quick search to show the type of product i mean although i am sure there are less expensive options
Back when I lived in the US, I'd get poison ivy about once a year. I usually got it on my face, because I like washing my hands with soap several times a day, but I don't use soap on my face. After I know I'm exposed, I change and wash my clothes, and use soap -- any kind, but thoroughly. And that has always prevented the rash when I knew I had been exposed. And doing a pretty detailed thinking about "contact tracing" (as we'd call it in 2020) and washing any items that might be carrying the urushiol oil. Unwitting exposure usually caused much smaller cases. By the way, it really doesn't require specially strong soap or detergent, but it does have to be a real soap or detergent, any common kind that cuts oils.
Washing with soap works so well that I am willing to yank up a poison ivy seedling with a bare hand, if I know I can then go directly to a sink with my hand held away from the rest of me.
I also love the nuthatches but I think ours are the white breasted kind. We also have a smaller one, it's fun to watch them run up and down and around the tree trunks. In summer we have tons of wrens, they never ever stop singing and having babies. Wrens in the houses I put up, wrens in the tool box, wrens in an old boot, wrens in your jeans pocket if you leave them on the cloths line too long.
I have a special affinity for what I generically call hoot owls. When I was very small I would talk to them. Although I don't know what I was saying they apparently understood. My plan was to reach up and snatch one from the air. It took a long time to talk one down but I always chickened out and fell to the ground with my hands over my head just as one came in range. Then, resolved to follow through with it next time, the process would start all...over...again but up close I never overcame the sight of those giant wings and claws. Probably a good thing, in hindsight.
I'm too cheap and poor to spend much on feeding the birds, they could eat fellow out of house and home. One time I bought some thistle seed, that crap ain't cheep and a giant flock of finches came and ate it all in one day. I do buy a big bag of sunflower seeds and just throw it out on the ground, even in the leaves so they have to look for it a little bit. That way too nobody can hog it all at the feeder. I also get suet cakes but mostly just put it and the seeds out when it is very cold or there is snow on the ground.
I have a little garden pond just outside the kitchen window with a little stream part. It's deep enough that with the pump it pretty much never freezes. Turns out in winter birds are as or more attracted to water as food.
My husband and I have had good success with plantain for toothache. Plantain is considered a "specific" for tooth pain in the herbal world. It's a drawing agent for all wounds, including pulling out splinters. And it's prominent leaf veins show it to be good for nerve pain specifically.
From this page:
"The cooling properties of Plantain will clear toxic heat and reduce inflammation as seen in allergies, eczema and even boils and abscesses. Matthew Wood has found Plantain to be particularly helpful in infections around the teeth where there may be abscess or root canal sepsis. He says 'It is a specific here and it will almost never fail to draw out the pus and stop the infection, sometimes even saving the tooth where it was thought to be lost'."
The way to use it is to harvest a leaf or two, wash if needed, and chew them up slightly to make a wad of it. Then stuff that wad in the cheek next to the tooth in question. You can replace the wad with a new one after several hours or half a day if more treatment is needed.
My husband caught a goat horn in the cheek one day that jostled a molar and plantain completely cleared the pain and inflammation in a couple of hours. I've heard of plaintain pulling out infection after a wisdom tooth removal as well.
Best thing about it is it grows literally everywhere. It's one of a couple of plants I kept whole in the freezer for winter use "just in case".
Just love finding natural fibers in my yard. When I did gather some leaves, I dried some fresh leaves & soaked some in rain water.Also gathered some fallen dried leaves & soaked them as well, to see which ones could be spun into some kind of thread. But I didn't scrape off the outer layer. Next time I am scraping the leaves, that's a promise.
For those near Victoria, BC, Eco-sense is a good source of perennial tubers. I bought oca and skirret from them this year. They have a list of what they have in stock at
Eco-sense.ca
I got red and white Sunchokes last year from Glenora Farm near Duncan,BC. They were selling them as food but they sprouted nicely in my garden.
Eventually we will have a perennial edibles nursery at our new place on Gabriola Island near Nanaimo but we are a year or two away from having plants to sell. The only thing I think we have ready at this time might be chestnut trees. I imported 400 grafted European x Japanese chestnuts (various named marron varieties) from Washington state back in the spring to establish a chestnut polyculture orchard at the new farm. They are in big pots at the moment and some actually produced a handful of nuts this year which I wasn't expecting. By the time I noticed they were well along so I decided to just let them mature.
qualified as someone who cleaned windows for 8 years (not residential)
if you have anything more than a couple small windows to clean
get a tbar and squeegee
use a small amount of dish soap in water
soak the window with the tbar and swirl it around a bit until it slides easily especially along the edges
but along the top edge wring out the tbar a bit and soak up any excess water so you do not get drips
if it persistently drips because of gaps etc along the top edge then wring out the corner of the tbar before washing that particular window
get the kind of squeegee which has a replaceable rubber and is made of brass or stainless steel
you might need more than one squeegee if there are narrow windows like the one above
if small ones arent available buy a second regular sized one and cut it to length
inside... lay towels on the window ledge to soak up dripping dirty water
wring out the tbar and apply less water.. might have to be done twice
ladders are dangerous if you are going to use one you never reach to the side centre youreself on the ladder always
i was always tied into 3 ropes when working at heights
it will still take a while to do a whole house inside and out but will take way less time
I can understand why some folks are totally anti-tax... Ariana Huffington wrote a book years ago, "Pigs at the Trough", about corporate theft. Also I think Nomi Prins' "Other People's Money" is a good one. And the contracting give-aways are obscene, not to mention the 'cost plus' military contracts, et al.
I think 'understanding' on both sides is the missing 'magic sauce', including understanding that essential services ARE essential and require taxation. (Acts 4: 32)
Hopefully, with UNDERSTANDING will come cooperation, and we can ALL support candidates brave enough to write the necessary laws, and regulations! (with luck they will live long enough to see them enacted - I'm 74). Are we 'cutting off our noses to spite our faces" by letting 'them' divide and conquer us. (We seem frightfully addicted to hatred... sinfully ginned up on both sides.)
I mostly just wanted someone who has expertise in the field to verify that yes, the tower does send out the signals and therefore radiation at about 5-10 degrees descending from the top of the tower.
(I also noticed a misleading statement there:
"IARC (International agency for research on Cancer) declared radio frequency radiation (RFR) to be cancer causing in May 2011. "
IARC merely identifies hazards, that is, things that might cause cancer. Risk depends on exposure. A swimming pool is a hazard; the risk of drowning depends on other factors.)
Oh, thank you for pointing that out! That's the exact type of literature that makes me want to pull my hair out anytime I research something.
And the might is very important, a friend and I were having a discussion about the studies that show X number of people who lived Y distance from a tower came down with cancer. Who is to say there is not another factor at play such as water pollution? (I tend to believe these studies still since they have test samples such as tenants in the top floor of an apartment with a tower on top.)
She even mentioned a friend of hers whose whole family was coming down sick all at the same time. Some people may conclude it's EMF related, but it turned out their home had a serious toxic mold level- it had to be burned down it was so bad.
It's night here so this image isn't going to get the point across but one time I was beachcombing (as a casual amateur) and I came across a strand of shells. My spider sense started tingling and I looked closer. They were brilliant purples and pinks and oranges. I've gotten plenty of shells over the years that looked good but when I got home they were a grayish blue dull mess. But I just knew these were different. I've had them in my bathroom-that-will-soon-be-cleaned for almost 20 years and they're still brilliant.
Looking good Ash! And while I'm late to this thread let me give you an extra bravo for transporting logs by bike. I've been doing that a lot myself lately, hauling 3 to 4 foot logs off the side of bike trail each trip I make, slowly gathering firewood while cleaning up the trail at the same time. I get a few confused looks at times though! ;) Bikes can haul a lot more than most people think!
One of my husband's love are 
