Christopher Weeks

Preserved, brined, aged, cured or lacto neeps?

I've been playing with my razor-blade on a board. My first thought was to pierce the can and turn, cutting in one sweep. But after seeing that video, I've been letting the blade slice into the aluminum very lightly. I spin and spin and spin it around and wears through to a point where you can just break it out. But it isn't anywhere near has handy as that tool in Hong Kong seems to be.

I was looking at Edward Norton's PEA BB submission for creating sheets of aluminum from cans. I've cut cans with snips and kitchen scissors, but it's fiddly. Edward's solution seemed great, so I've been experimenting with tacking razor blades to boards. The corner of the blade pierces the can at just the right height, but when I start turning, it slips up and down, it creates a jagged edge, and it's slower than using snips. So I'm either doing it wrong or ...something?

So I started looking around and found this pretty cool tool:



And he even sells it...but only if you happen to be in Hong Kong. I'm not finding a similar tool more broadly available or specific to the US.

Do any of you upcycle cans in this way? How do you do it?

I've never heard that asparagus is invasive. It certainly isn't here in Northern Minnesota. My brother-in-law grows an asparagus patch in Howard County, MO and he's never mentioned it needing controls. I'll see him on Christmas, so I'll try to remember to ask.

I'd suggest you check out a copy of this book: https://permies.com/t/265718/Free-Range-Survival-Chickens-Florida

Humorously, it had the same effect on me.

Maybe gamify things a little -- try to earn as many points as you can:

point value	action
1	keep things going for another day
2	learn something cool related to homesteading
4	learn something actionable related to homesteading
5	start a substantial new project
50	finish one of those projects.

And add specific things to the table that relate to your situation.

I'm also a lazy composter, but I've just watched through Dr. Elaine Ingham's presentations from Permaculture Voices 1 (which you can purchase as part of a large bundle here: https://permies.com/t/voices123) and am looking to learn more about her particular approach to composting for maximum microbial life diversity. I have these three videos queued up for this weekend:







(She won't call the humus that comes out the bottom of my cold compost piles compost because it doesn't have the right life in it.)

I've been a Facebook user for 15 years. A daily user. If I'm honest, more like an hourly user. It didn't feel like it was ruling my life or anything -- if I had other stuff to do, I'd do that, but when I was between stuff, I'd quick check on what my friends are up to.

On October 18th, I tried to log in and was told that my account had been disabled. There was a link to a page where I could supposedly appeal, but that page just told me to log in to do the appeal, which I couldn't do without being routed back to that page. It was frustrating to say the least.

Anyway, I started carving out a new life without Facebook. I'd been playing with the idea of giving it up for a couple of years, so it was sad that I was gone, but also kind of a relief. And then I noticed that I was happier. I had no idea what asinine thing my politicians said and did. I didn't know which company enacted a new policy that I should hate them for. They made me free of all that...I guess Paul would call it sleaze. (He's been using that word a lot where I am in the podcast.)

Three weeks later, out of habit, my wife "tagged" me in a post she made and it let her! My account was back. No warning or notice, just like when they disabled it. I have no idea what's up with that or whether they'll do it again.

So now I'm facing having to figure out what role that site plays in my life. it's been six weeks or so and I've logged into Facebook something like every four or so days. I deleted it from my phone when I thought I no longer had access, and I haven't reinstalled it. I did log in and post an update about what was happening and made sure all my friends have my email address. And occasional "this is what's going on in my life" updates. But I don't really have the urge to check it all the time. I would never have guessed leaving my overuse of it would be that easy. Mostly, I sort of slipped into living there gradually and accidentally and now I don't trust that they won't jerk me around at random -- I know for sure that's a thing that can happen. And it's a shame not to keep up with my friends. I sort of wish I could just pay $100 per year so that I was the customer instead of the product.

Anyway, I'm just sharing this thing I went through.

Andrew Welser wrote:Do y'all have recommendations for non cotton long johns? I much prefer the cotton "waffle knit" ones, but the only other type I've tried have been some kind of thin poly/synthetic that seems to make me more prone to sweat and don't wick it away.

These are a good starting place: https://www.smartwool.com/en-us/wool-apparel-and-socks/merino-250