Jay Angler

OK... "Yeast is a single-celled living organism that transforms sugar and starch into carbon dioxide and alcohol through fermentation."
From Wiki "A yeast is any species of fungus that grows primarily in a unicellular form and reproduces via budding or fission. Yeasts are eukaryotic microorganisms that originated hundreds of millions of years ago, with at least 1,500 species currently recognized."

The two yeasts I have happily interacted with are bread yeast and brewers yeast (the wine version). Beer yeast is better at attracting slugs than bread yeast, although the two are more similar than some other yeasts. Wine vs cider yeasts can be quite different.

There are also nasty yeasts out there - ones most humans would prefer not to interact with. I've never had a "yeast infection" but I've definitely heard of them.

So if you're dealing with really dead soil, and don't have access to some quality compost to make compost tea, any sort of yeast for making bread, beer or wine, would probably be better than nothing. However, you might do the soil more good by finding some good local dirt, digging up some worms, and introducing those to either some near finished compost, or your plants with some compost spread around them.  I've been told that worm guts have lots of microbes of all types in them (sort of like human guts, but we've got a few dangerous ones like e-coli) and that as the worm poops, those microbes will inoculate the soil.

So I don't think the idea isn't helpful - I'm just suspicious that there might be better ways.

I am seriously considering an e-bike particularly for the range it will give me.

Here are some of my concerns:
1. E-bikes are *much* heavier. If I am in an accident, the weight of the bike alone may increase my injuries.
2. The "carrot" of going "faster", rather than simply "further" is real. An accident at 10 mph is safer than 20 mph is safer than 30 mph. Granted my area has many very serious cyclists who go waaaayyyyy faster than I am capable of going without electric assist, but I'm seeing more people going faster on flats and down grades on electric bikes and am concerned. There have been multiple articles from Emerg Doctors about electric scooters and how dangerous they are.
3. My concern is cubed for people riding with a child on the back such as the picture above. Just because you *can* go fast, doesn't mean that you might not have serious regrets if something goes wrong. I am totally happy with the idea of using electric assist to help me up some of our hills, and to help me go on a 20 km trip when I know my knees are only up to 10 km. Personally though, I'd rather a child be in a bike trailer with it's lower center of gravity, than on the back of a bike as shown above. This, of course, means I need to do some serious upgrades on my old bike trailer before my hoped-for grandchildren become a reality!

For the moment, I an still contemplating the issue. I am *really* happy that Wheaton Labs is doing some serious real life testing for us. One concern is with how long they will last, and which ones are truly repairable. It has gotten to the point with cars, that home repairs are much more difficult if not impossible. I don't want to have to loose my bike to a shop for months because of difficulty getting parts.

"Unsightly Stump" is in the eye of the beholder.

If you know someone with a chainsaw, have them chainsaw out the middle of the stump from the top and you have a natural planter! If you don't want to plant into the hole, fill it with sawdust and give it regular doses of Fertilizer P, and it should rot faster.  And yes, I expect the right kinds of mushrooms would happily live on it!

This is from my friend:

Cora, my 5 year old Bantam Mille Fleur Hen, has developed as swelling on both sides of her lower beak. Two weeks later, she developed swelling above her upper beak at the base of her comb. The swelling has been gradually getting larger.

I have tried treating the swollen areas with peroxide and polysporin (antibiotic cream), however the distress and pain that it caused the hen prevented me from trying anything else.

She is eating well and is active and will allow me to examine her mouth, but is still in pain.

I have raised chickens for 30 years and never seen this before. I need ideas about how I might treat it, or even an idea what could be wrong so that I can research it. She is otherwise lively and laying well.

The average lifespan of this line of Mille Fleurs is 8 to 10 years.

I would appreciate any help I can get.

I took these two pictures of Cora today:

A woodcutter once decided to build his own motor bike. He used wood for the frame, wood for the engine, wood for the brakes, and even a wooden gas tank.

Did he ride it?

No. It wooden start.

Jill Dyer wrote:Our commentators for the Tour de France . . . now approaching fast -introduced "Fromage Friday"  - a great excuse for a walk on the wild side straight past the cheddar.

Arrggghhh for those of us who had to take high school French, Friday is Vendredi in French (named after Venus if I recall correctly). So what's a French food that starts with a 'V'?  Vichyssoise is one I've heard of - a fancy potato leek soup - that sounds nicely permie-ish!

Hubby does *not* tolerate swearing - which in today's society where we live, makes him quite the outlier.

Generally, I managed to keep swearing out of the kids vocabulary when they were young by reminding them they has *much* more creative words they could use, and swearing was for people with poor vocabularies and no imagination.

So my eldest turned the words, "Bagel Box" into a swear word. I have only some guess as to why he chose those particular words, but never asked.

Do you know anyone with an electric winch? Some are battery. You would still have to find solid things to attach the winch to.

r ransom wrote:...  1. As a culture, we've become plastic blind.  ...

This is soooo... key. I am sitting at my desk and just looking at what is on it:
Thread: the holders used to be wood, but now they're plastic.
Embroidery hoop: could easily be made from wood or bamboo, but the one sitting there is made from plastic.
Glasses case: could be natural fibers - used to be leather - but now it's all artificial (not to mention the glasses inside!)

So yes, R Ransom is specifically referring to the kitchen, but helping permies make choices about their whole lives, takes being able to *see* the plastic that's taken over.