João Carneiro wrote:this third one hosted on vimeo claims i have an unsupported viewing environment, so things aren't getting better.
This is the first I have heard of this.
What is your environment? What is your browser and OS?
I went to the bottom of it, and as it turns out my environment does not allow UDP traffic so that was the reason why vimeo streaming was impossible as the player streams in UDP. The previous video i watched on vimeo was not on my environment but on an rogue/isolated computer with windows i happened to have here at the time.
I'm working around my limitations, but as a lone user request, if you could provide things via youtube i would be a happier user :)
The first one i saw was hosted on vimeo, had to reduce the quality to 360p to get it working without pulling my hair out. It was justin rhodes 45min video.
the second one was hosted on youtube, whent OK, no problem at all. it was care for RMH.
this third one hosted on vimeo claims i have an unsupported viewing environment, so things aren't getting better.
would really appreciate if you could resolve this problem.
Dale Hodgins wrote:The frogs at Burra's place are incredibly loud. They have so many different vocalizations that I thought I was listening to other types of animals at first. High pitch, low pitch reverberating ... these guys have Freddie Mercury beat. They are in the Lily Pond and in every other body of water including a big well that used to be pumped by a donkey walking in a circle. I think that's what went on, I forgot to ask.
Nice interview on TV in channel RTP3 program "Tudo é Economia" (everything is economy) season 1 episode 25. Don't have the link for the episode yet as it is running live, but i leave a playlist with all episodes:
I caught part of the show by accident, but i liked seeing someone underline the role of the city councils(Municipios) in the social organization and local economies of the forest.
edit: added the tv website
edit2: removed youtube playlist since it does not contain this episode, added episode from tv website.
in 2003, it was disastrous. Huge material losses. This year, it whent overboard, too many people dyed(how many is too many?!...).
So in the aftermath of all the people trying to force their point, i heard one opinion on Radio Renascença - think it was from the president of the forrestry producers association - and he presented himself, his point of view, and then underlined:
if 95% of the Pedrogão Grande Council burned down to the ground, let's start there. Apply all our knowledge and techniques, making a new policy for forestry that implements them thoroughly, and as it works out, take the lessons and extend it to the rest of the country.
it made sense in my mind. i'm not presenting his point of view, because i really can't remmember the details and wouldn't be proper to distort his ideas and claims.
The point i make here is that he showed a way of moving forward without generating a heated revolution.
maybe this time things change visibly around here. I don't think it is an easy subject, there are many problems to be sorted out in between.
ps.: Burra, about that video, i have only one word for it: shocking.
Still about forestfires, just found this sample that seems pretty good:
edit: tried to get this to embed the video at the right minute, clearly without success. The part i was refering to is at 24:10.
The documentary as a whole was interesting, but i found that piece about the fire familiar.
About your question:
Burra Maluca wrote:So, how do we teach people to wash their butts with water and grow food instead of inflammables?
I really don't have an answer to give you, but it seems to me that the whole thing is way out of reach on a big perspective, maybe there are some small steps along the way we can achieve as individuals without disturbing the peace.
Miles Flansburg wrote:So how does it work over there?
Do you have surveyors that go out and find the corners and bounderies of land you buy?
I am wondering if in a country with such a long history the ownership records are all intact and agreed upon.
There has been a fair amount of debate on these matters around here.
Some times there are disputes. So neighbours, witnesses and it is not uncommon people just taking over the land and waiting 20 years to claim it legally.
Amongst other things, people are dying... fast. Heirs have gone to the cities or even abroad. Grandchildren don't know their own land... many times they haven't even set foot on it, ever...
There are many marks on the ground, mostly stacked stones at the corners of the properties. many times you can only see them after a fire.
When i was refering to people in the city, i definitively wasn't thinking of you but to the inumerous people that cross my path every day as i do live in the city. But i did enjoyed your update on the topic
About the political thing, i really bypass as much as i can, i have spent unsurmountable amounts of energy trying to change things that maybe are way out of my reach(hey, i was younger and dumb), so these day's i settle into looking up to people like ghandi and francis and making the best of things without reaching the point of giving up on my beliefs.
A couple of weeks ago i wrote a very comprehensive and concise rebuttal to an article presented on a local and very reputed technology website(i usually hang around in the foruns of the community built around that website giving a hand to people). They were actualy promoting the achievements(a biomass plant instalation on the council) of a local politician, and for some reason that might be related to this previous statement, they censored my contribution.
To me, this was just another reminder that when people have some strong bias influencing their better judgement, we really cannot trust them to stay focused on the matter at hand and have a clean debate.
I am heavily biased in this forest fires situation, even so because a big part of my family works/explores woodlands. So that being said, it is obvious that my better judgement is also compromised.
So speaking of trees, oak and chestnut are realy my favourites, i also have a corner in my heart to "sobreiro"(Quercus suber - the cork tree).
I actually dream recurrently of planting a whole hill of chestnuts and "sobreiros", as i see it, it is a very rational approach to anyone that has some land and wants to take care(set up) of their grandchildren.
I will, in my lifetime, achieve this small undertaking.
This really sounds pretty romantic, but... that won't take care of the problem. Not in Portugal.
There is a whole economy thriving on forest fires. If you can't break the money cycle, you can't solve the problem, but... i guess you can plant trees anyway, no harm comes from that .
I have been in the middle of a couple of forest fires, one of them surrounded my family's village and burn out everything around for miles. The fire was as high as 7 meters(above that, really thick smoke). A couple of miles away from the fire, the air was so dry that it was not dificult to ignite anything at all besides dirt and rocks. Firemen took off to a 'safe' distance leaving the locals behind. Only stayed the one's that could handle the situation, but clearly with their lives on the line. In their madness, they managed to save the village, but at the cost of their sanity, it took them years just to surpass the trauma, a lifetime to recover from the financial and ecological loss.
If you have been there, you understand what happens, if you live there or your family does, you'll know the impact/desolation/loss first hand.
So i really invite people that come to me talking about forest fires in the city, to grab a dozen jerrycan's of fresh water, some food, and set sail to the affected regions to give out some support to the people on the ground, firemen included. That does give them some insight on what happens and what's involved.
But if you do want to get some answers and takle with it at the source, please do follow the money...
ps.: I could talk about this for a long time, but in my experience, i have come to realise that in this matter it is better to let people experience things themselves and take their own conclusions rather than providing them with the biased output from my own.
my father gave me a small folding knife when i was a young boy...
i had many through the years, even made a couple of them.
these days i settled on a victorinox skipper. it has the right combination.
it also features a blade lock. but all those things kinda grow on you. you have to learn to use it, and take advantage of the tools. there is a tool for every job...
And if you want a cheaper & safe DIY approach, get a quality relay, with a superior switching rating, if possible with the same pinout. Grab a soldering iron, and replace it your broken UPS...
I am curious though on how long it would handle the abuse and become in need to be replaced again. Guess it would really depend on the picking.
With the proper tools you could even repair the relay itself...
Are you into this sort of thing or just want a solution off the shelf?
So if you have the budget, get an online UPS. At that power rating it shouldn't be really expensive.
An online(double conversion) UPS, keeps things going on battery power, when the grid power is present, it continuously charges/feeds the battery's circuitry, when it goes out, it runs on battery until depletion.
The catch: there is a continuous power loss, that defines the efficiency of the UPS. That is the real silent cost of this solution...
Devaka Cooray wrote:Considering the potential loss in case of a worst case, which includes the cost of appliances and more importantly the data stored within them (of course I do keep backup's, but....), I think I would be okay with a bit heavy budget.
Going offgrid is fine, except the batteries in my UPS wouldn't last that long (as the fluctuation usually happens all the way from 7am to 8pm ). Maybe running on an inverter-style generator would be a handy solution?
Devaka, there are many useful contributions on this thread. Wise words have been spoken.
Please do understand that you can get things off the shelf that offer diferent solutions to diferent problems. But diferent things will be present on diferent shelfs around the world. Maybe your problem can be solved with a simple voltage regulator, maybe not. Maybe you can solve it using a managed UPS and configuring it properly. But it could be in such way that your input is so dirty/unstable that you have to resort to turn it to DC and back to clean sine AC...
There are also other considerations on energy efficiency, because energy transformations have an energetic price, so there is loss at every step of the way, this can make your electricity bills increase.
DIY at this level is cool for people who know what they are doing. VERY EXPENSIVE errors can occour... even to people that know what they are doing.
But consider your budget and options. You may even get to realize that since you are investing you can go offgrid with just a bit more...
We used to have "voltage stabilizers" for TV's about 25 years ago. It was the only way as power distribution was messy. Don't have a clue where to get one these day's.
Undervoltage is as serious as overvoltage. Bulbs glow dimmer, but electronics enters dangerous states. Modern electronics have developed the concept of "brown out" that simply handles these situations, but there is a disrruption in the normal working of the device.
About UPS damage, be sure to get a nice managed UPS, and specify some histeresys on the event of loosing the defined input tension. So make it go "on battery" for at least a couple of minutes on these events. That should take care of the relay malfunction.
Capacitor banks could help filtering out some ripple and electrical noise, but i guess if you're using an UPS already you don't need them.
If i had this problem, i would get a nice voltage stabilizer for my premium electronics: TV, routers, computers. Change my lamps to led lights with nice power ratings, like this one that can go from 85 to 265V in input voltage.(around here voltage is rated at 230V).
Now that i think of it, i got a modern oven and a washer that would really suffer from such conditions... so there could be more devices to protect...
I would also make a formal complaint to the utility company as they are bound to maintain certaint operational parameters on the power grid. And of course, get a nice, knowleageable electrician to keep them in line.
I think this translates pretty acurately my feelings on killing:
That beying said, i have an agreement with my wife. She calls the animals by name, i don't. I kill them. But in my country, certain animals(like pigs) are forbidden to be killed at home. People still do so. In fact, if you ever visit a slaughterhouse, you'll never eat supermarket meat again in your life. So i really can't blame people for not going there with their own animals.
The best traditional way that i have seen starts by tying one of the back legs of the animal to an anchor. Then with a rope, firmly hold the nose/mouth. With a swift thrust apply one single blow to the aorta artery. Collect the blood and support the animal until he bleeds out. It's important to miss the heart as it must continue to pump out the blood. If done right, it's a quick and decent kill(imho).
Then you take some straw or a gas burner and burn off the hair and nails. Then thoroughly wash and scrape the animal, remove the nails. String it up and let it sit overnight.
Chop it up in the next day beying extremely carefull to remove the digestive system, bladder, etc...
Thats about it. It takes two people to do this right. Someone with experience can even do it alone.
There really is no waste at all. All parts and organs have a role in our gastronomy. I can surely live without eating some delicassies, but others can't seem to live without them, lol
J Hampshire wrote:Great post. Commenting because it was highlighted in today's Dailyish.
I'm a meat cutter, and it's always great to see people providing their own animal protein from start to FINISH. It appears as though there was no major study done to pig slaughter, specifically. Now I totally understand; you mentioned there was some collective animal harvesting experience and the excitement/anxiousness level was at a maximum. However, maximum future yield, I'd love to impart some information to make your next harvest be a banger. If you have that many people willing to help out, you could easily scald and scrape. Taking off that skin broke my heart!
I fervently recommend the following books:
The Gourmet Butcher's Guide to Meat by Cole Ward. An excellent starter book for meat processing and foundational knowledge. It even comes with a CD containing an 800 page PDF with pictured instructions for butchering chicken, lamb, pork and beef!
Butchering by Adam Danforth. Superbly done. The layout and digestibility of this one are second to none. It's very clinical and to the point. The cutting methods aren't "retail based" which is good for showcasing home butchery, but may be lacking if you intend to sell your wares at retail. Overall, a must have for anyone processing their own meat. He always has an entire edition dedicated to beef.
Farmstead Meatsmith is a wealth of knowledge. The Butcher's Salt guides, their DVD entitled "How To Kill A Pig Nicely", etc. Anyone raising pork needs to spend time looking over all of Brandon's information; and/or attending one of his workshops.
Although it's from an Englishman's point of view and some of the terminology is different, the skills of Scott Rea are second to none. He's a little ham-fisted with some procedures, but the knowledge is there for the taking.
Last but not least, I'd also recommend you spend some time at the blog of a fellow Permie, Walter Jefferies of Sugar Mountain Farm.
I have assisted an expert(a cousin of mine) doing it, and have even been introduced to the art of butchering. I think your post is very good, informative, well supported with good references.
They might have some use for the skin. I have tryed to persuade my people to collect the hyde, but they aren't keen on surrendering it as some regional delicassies depend on it beying attached to the meat.
Keep up the good work of sharing your activities and insight.
Does she travel??....is there a way that, when she is away from her home, you could reciprocate 'in kind' with your own interpretation of "better"??
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Thanks, it's a really funny thought and I had a good laugh!
But I have no desire to do anything like that, not anymore. I'm in my forties now and I just accept that my mother is the way she is and mostly I just laugh at her. I do have to be careful and not accept too many things from her but it's become a routine, I do it almost automatically and it doesn't bother me that much. We don't fight anymore. She hasn't really learned anything and she doesn't show any more respect towards me, she still constantly keeps trying to run our lives. And I constantly tell her no, we don't want that/ thanks but no thanks/ we have other plans then/ please return these curtains you bought for us, we don't like them/ I'm not going to ever wear the dress you bought me so you might as well take it to recycling, etc. She doesn't get offended, she just backs off for a few weeks and then returns with new things. We are characters in a comedy series - that's how I see it nowadays .
My poor sister-in-law has some real problems with my mother (her mother-in law) though. She is a professional therapist and she believes she can get through to my mother and make her see her point of view eventually. I try to hint her that really she is wasting her time and energy as her mother-in-law is just a hopeless case. But hopefully I can offer my sister-in-law some therapy, because I certainly understand what she is dealing with.
The problems I described in my original and following posts are not with my mother, they are with my other relatives who I consider to be normal-enough people and from whom I therefore expect a lot more empathy/ manners than from my mother who is just plain hopeless.
Beautifull post Nina... saw myself in it a few times, had a nice laugh, more even with the other posts on this thread...
Social security (and health insurance): if you register as a small business (farmer) at Finanzas, you can receive social security benefits. Not automatically but after a long process at the social security office. A small business doesn't need to have VAT bookkeeping. Just order some printed sales receipts from your local printer. I have a social security number but I refuse to use any social security benefits.
Hey Rudi, i'm not knowlegeable about this, but i think this is not quite acurate.
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