Joined: Sep 16, 2007 Posts: 1132 Location: Oklahoma City, USA
Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 11:11 am Post subject: Re: Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil wo
The downspout was clogged, with a tennis ball, of all things.
So DH and I unstopped the spout with much balancing on overloaded ladders.
I added some weeds to the compost pile and aerated it (I have the homemade wire kind, and it needed some poking at after the rainstorm).
I found out that there's an olive tree (Arbequina) that tolerates frost and can be grown in containers. It's zone 8, but it might do okay if I can roll it inside when it freezes out. Olive oil is one of my must-haves, and I don't know of any local sources, so I'm going to try to make my own. _________________ What, so I'm in no end game
Move my piece right off the board
Joined: Dec 27, 2004 Posts: 12021 Location: zombie horde wonderland
Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 11:23 am Post subject: Re: Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil wo
I've been replanting my medicinal, edible, and useful herb and flower beds. _________________ "...powerdown so soft and fluffy you'll think you're living in a pillow..." - jboogy
Joined: Sep 16, 2007 Posts: 1132 Location: Oklahoma City, USA
Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2007 8:04 pm Post subject: Re: Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil wo
Bought more stocking up food.
Got an estimate on fixing our hot water issue. Basically, we have an electric heater (which as it turns out, works fine) but hot water isn't getting to the faucets. It's going to cost $500 - $1000 to fix.
Used my collected rainwater to water the garden for the first time today, a nice feeling.
Started reading One Circle by John Jeavons. I need to grow a LOT more food than I am right now. _________________ What, so I'm in no end game
Move my piece right off the board
Joined: Apr 17, 2005 Posts: 2680 Location: Vancouver Island
Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2007 8:25 pm Post subject: Re: Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil wo
RedStateGreen wrote:
Got an estimate on fixing our hot water issue. Basically, we have an electric heater (which as it turns out, works fine) but hot water isn't getting to the faucets. It's going to cost $500 - $1000 to fix.
Can you give some more details on this? Do you get any water from the hot water tap? My thoughts are either the line is clogged and you get nothing, you get lots of cold because it was plumbed wrong in the first case(unlikely), or it's somehow losing all the heat on the way from the tank(also unlikely but cooling is normal) _________________ shame on us, doomed from the start
god have mercy on our dirty little hearts
Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2007 10:40 pm Post subject: Re: Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil wo
We just had a 77% efficient wood stove installed to replace iur 1970s era stove here at our home in Wyoming. I can already tell we use drastically less wood.
Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2007 10:42 pm Post subject: Re: Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil wo
We just had a 77% efficient wood stove installed to replace iur 1970s era stove here at our home in Wyoming. I can already tell we use drastically less wood.
Joined: May 10, 2007 Posts: 2740 Location: The Entropisphere
Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2007 11:50 pm Post subject: Re: Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil wo
gollum wrote:
We just had a 77% efficient wood stove installed to replace iur 1970s era stove here at our home in Wyoming. I can already tell we use drastically less wood.
We replaced our older stove with a new one this summer. I too think that we will use less wood (and less LP which is what we use to supplement the wood stove). The temptation will be to keep the house warmer or to heat the whole house (instead of just the downstairs). _________________ "Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain."
-Friedrich von Schiller
"What I try, may not work. It may be ineffective. It might even turn out in the pages of history to be the exact wrong thing to do, but I'm going to try to do what I c
Joined: Oct 27, 2004 Posts: 628 Location: Salt Spring Island, Cascadia
Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 12:01 am Post subject: Re: Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil wo
RedStateGreen wrote:
Bought more stocking up food.
Got an estimate on fixing our hot water issue... It's going to cost $500 - $1000 to fix.
If I may offer a suggestion, spend less time stocking food, and learn how to do basic plumbing.
I think one of the best things we all can do is to prepare to live outside the greater economy. That means being jack of all trades, and not having to call a plumber. Or perhaps making friends with a plumber who might be willing to train you in exchange for something you can offer.
Requisite on-topic stuff: today, I taught a class in website design, which it might be argued doesn't really help prepare, but through this class, I have established relationships with eight local people who have a variety of skills, interests, and needs. I've already started working as a service provider to several of them.
The future lies in community. Just as tribes gave way to families, which gave way to the individual, on the ride up the energy roller-coaster, the best way to prepare for the ride down is to re-learn how to be inter-dependent with a community of like-minded people. _________________ :::: Jan Steinman, Communication Steward, EcoReality, a forming sustainable community. Be the change! ::::
Joined: May 10, 2007 Posts: 2740 Location: The Entropisphere
Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 2:05 am Post subject: Re: Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil wo
albente wrote:
Is there any way to stop this thread???
Sounds like you have an opinion you would like to share?
Are you giving us all an "F"? _________________ "Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain."
-Friedrich von Schiller
"What I try, may not work. It may be ineffective. It might even turn out in the pages of history to be the exact wrong thing to do, but I'm going to try to do what I c
Joined: May 10, 2007 Posts: 2740 Location: The Entropisphere
Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 5:14 am Post subject: Re: Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil wo
albente wrote:
There's an underlaying additional addendum you have to figure out for yourself Wisconsin_cur. Let's end this ringworm thread here and now! This doesn't mean holding your breath! And no, the agenda neither requires omnipresence nor is there any omnopotence, in the real sense there is no agenda in the first place at all!
I get the feeling you are not a big fan of unstructured activity (or unstructured threads). Perhaps the content posted here appears piecemeal and radically inadequate? Are they the weak attempts of nerds who should be out doing something rather than being parked in front of a computer?
I check it out because I'm looking for ideas and, sometimes, to be outraged by radically inadequate steps taken by others. then I remember that we all started somewhere and something is better than nothing. If posting something here makes someone feel better why spite it, even if it is a waste of time?
I would agree with your critique (making the large assumption that I am rightly discerning your hierogliphics, only one of which I can see because of my workplace's internet restrictions). I am lucky enough to have a job where I can spend a large part of the night reading on the net and still be able to work a couple of hours around the house before going to bed to do it again. Most of what i'm doing will not be posted here.
And for the record I'm a gentrified hillbilly, a lot more comfortable behind a fishing pole, plow, firearm than a computer screen. Computer screens, however, pay better.
_________________ "Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain."
-Friedrich von Schiller
"What I try, may not work. It may be ineffective. It might even turn out in the pages of history to be the exact wrong thing to do, but I'm going to try to do what I c
Joined: Apr 03, 2004 Posts: 6375 Location: My Grandkids' Farm
Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 10:47 am Post subject: Re: Today I made / bought / learnt .... (for a post oil wo
Bytesmiths wrote:
I think one of the best things we all can do is to prepare to live outside the greater economy. That means being jack of all trades, and not having to call a plumber.
Here, Here!
Pops Rule #3, Don’t Specialize
& #5, Don’t Be Dependant
Oh and rule #6, Ignore Albiente's off topic attempts at cuteness.
As mentioned elsewhere I have been working on gutters trying to figure out how to keep the stock pond filled just right. Going into winter this is a big deal.
I’m still working on improving and putting the garden beds to bed for the winter. I opened a path across the beds, essentially splitting the 200ft long beds in half so as to get wagons and stuff around easier. In addition the path acts like a little dam slowing and holding water. I planted some slow growing (but cheap) grass on the exposed soil and it has sprung up well enough to prevent erosion of the loose soil I hope.
The bedding from the calf barn I hauled out and composted in one of the paths, basically turning it into a 6ft x 30ft compost pile stirred with a tiller periodically, is finally getting sweat and I’ll spread it over this years bark mulch as soon as I get the gumption.
And lastly, along the lines of being a little less dependant on infrastructure, I rigged up a poor mans transfer switch. My summer kitchen is on a separate circuit from the rest of the place, it houses the freezers, a propane cook stove and a sink as well as supplies power to the well. During our power problems last winter I had to unwire the subpanel there from the grid and wire it to a plug (which luckily I had on hand) that fits the generator. I did that and reversed the procedure half a dozen times in 0* weather during the ice storm as the power went out then came back on.
What I have now is a pigtail coming from the sub panel and an outlet wired to the grid that matches the outlet on my generator. Grid is up, sub panel is plugged into the grid; grid goes down, sub panel is plugged into the genny. Absolutely safe and foolproof in operation (as long as it is wired correctly) and it cost about $30. _________________ Make a plan and work it:
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