Jay Angler

8 1/2 years and I'm not sure much has changed in the world of Fast Fashion.

All I can admit to is making sure the clothes I buy are natural, and since I learned about this problem, I now upcycle stained/damaged 100% cotton T-shirts into underwear and camisoles.

It is getting harder and harder to find cotton pants that don't have that Elastane "stretch" material in them, even jeans.

It's wonderful that so many permies are trying their best to not contribute to this problem.

Fluently speak and clearly understand animal languages.

I *know* my Gander is trying to communicate important Gander things, but I just don't understand him... sad face...

Are your birds getting less exercise due to winter weather?

My friend suggests too much grain (as in scratch) or bread or fatty food, could also increase the risk.

ETA: my friend also suggests you try switching to every 2 days for the soaked wheat. It may be causing a fatty bulge in the abdomen which can block the egg.

Timothy Norton wrote: You are essentially water bath canning your wheat grains. If you use canning materials appropriately, the risk of exploding glass will be minimized.

Part of why water bath canning works is because you fill the jar to a specific level, and leave a limited amount of air. Air expands due to heat faster and to a larger volume/pressure than a liquid. (The more are the greater the chance of explosion.)

Also, when canning, normally the jars are pre-heated to reduce the risk of them cracking do to the change in temperature. If the contents and jars aren't pre-heated, I would start them in room temperature water, and bring the water to boiling with the jar already in.

Wheat grains are more of a solid than a liquid (at least in small quantities - beware of large quantities ) and they will be surrounded with air as they don't pack tightly. If I was trying this experiment, I would use a quality canning jar and I would fill it with wheat so there wasn't any more air than what was between the grains.

I would have thought that the wheat would need to be wet to be a good substrate for mycelium. Do the instructions say to use completely dry wheat?

Steve Zoma wrote: We are not sure what to do, thankfully it is brackish water and at 1550 ppm sodium so under the 2000 ppm standard in being sea water, and unless we drain the Atlantic, we will never run out of water, but its terrible water. Plenty of it, but terrible, but the whole point of the island has this water issue and not just us.

It sounds like you're close enough to sea water that even your rain likely has a salt content?

Are you allowed to capture rainwater? One of my high school friends had a Grandmother living near Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia in a 100 yr old farm house with no indoor plumbing. They had a good "bucket" well for drinking and cooking down the hill, but they had numerous large bins catching water off their roof for everything else. Of course they didn't have a shower, but did sponge baths mostly (or jumped in the ocean,) but there are plenty of cultures where that's the norm.

When my friend started living there full time (it's now a 150 year old farm house), she had a well dug and got indoor plumbing, but now the idea of living off rain water in a modern house has come around again. I can't imagine the filters for rain water would be more expensive than what you've already been quoted.

What did the gardener say after planting all the flowers?
“Now, I’m just rooting for them!”

Ra Kenworth wrote:... My system is still low tech because I don't really have engineering skills, but I do make up for this in enthusiasm.

There is *nothing* wrong with low tech, Ra - less to break and even better if parts are upcycled.

I have a bucket under a drip up near an outbuilding and most of the winter, it's enough to give me rinse water if I need some. Can't get lower tech than that!

Three years on and I am no closer to getting my pond. Somehow water projects keep getting slid to the bottom of the pile, because my cheap help have other priorities and take the attitude, "we've got a good well, make do."

I'm a little worried that sort of attitude could leave a lot of people in North America in the lurch. There are places I keep reading about which are concerned about their aquifers. There are also places that run the risk of the rules changing when water gets scarce.

At least my son is doing solid planning for the house he's building. The plans include a very large tank for water storage off the roof, and several water gardens to encourage infiltration of ground storm water.  Unlike my house, his building will up up-slope from any major garden areas, which will make distributing the water much more straight forward.

Hubby says that the analysis in this video about the larger context of renewable energy and batteries is the best he's seen/read, although the bit about growing corn as a biofuel we read a decade ago and is only applicable to the USA.

So although it's a side shoot of the first post, if people want more information, it is worth watching, despite its length.

Tess Misch wrote: For some reason, I cannot keep it going.  

I live in a mild climate, but it's very wet in the winter. I finally learned that for it to grow well, it needs to be against the south wall of the house, protected from the worst of the winter wet.

I don't know where you are Tess, but consider what micro-ecosystems are available to you, and maybe you can choose a spot it will like better, as well as being patient with it?