Inge Leonora-den Ouden

Burra Maluca wrote:

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote: UK for United Kingdom was an abbreviation I learned from the internet (maybe even from the Permies forum), before I only knew GB, for Great Britain. Maybe you can explain the difference between those two?

This might help, or maybe it will just confuse you all even more...

Thank you. To me it is clear now. Before I didn't know that Northern Ireland wasn't part of Great Britain.

Ac Baker wrote:The so-called "United" States of "America", and the so-called "United" Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK can be confused with e.g. Ukraine), are probably both problematic abbreviations then.

I live in the Midlands of England, distinct in climate, history, culture, language, governance, law and more from Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland.  

I guess more accurate and precise locations are helpful!

It was only after I posted my comments here I realised I used the abbreviations 'USA' and 'UK'. UK for United Kingdom was an abbreviation I learned from the internet (maybe even from the Permies forum), before I only knew GB, for Great Britain. Maybe you can explain the difference between those two?

Yes, I agree it's most useful to tell about your region in terms of climate, soil, culture, etc. when it's in discussion on a permaculture topic.

'What makes a village a village?' Difficult question. I think many different answers are possible.

Probably it depends on where you live. Where I live there are two kinds of places: towns (or maybe cities, in Dutch 'steden') and villages ('dorpen' in Dutch). The difference has nothing to do with size or how many people live there. It;s only historical. Long ago for some reasons some places were able to get the privilege to build a wall all around, with one or more gates, so the place was protected. Then these places were called towns/cities. The open, unprotected places were villages. That's all.

And so it's possible that there's a 'town' existing of only two streets and some 30 inhabitants, while one of the larger places in the Netherlands exists of a cluster of villages ...

greg mosser wrote:... i decided against using my state name at all. i think bioregions are more applicable in permaculture than political boundaries.

You might be right, Greg.
But I think it's difficult to describe in what 'bioregion' I am in such a way everyone here will understand.

paul wheaton wrote:...
It's a bit like the debate about the metric system.  Currently, in the US we use both.  (the other one is called "Imperial").  Frankly, I far prefer miles/feet/inches ...  and I so prefer Fahrenheit that it takes me time to think of rough conversions.  People argue that it is too hard to do the conversion math.  My response is that I pretty much never convert miles to feet, so I don't care.

For non-US persons:  how do you feel about a metric clock?  Would you be better off?  Would you lose some of your culture?  I'm pretty sure that having a metric calendar will never happen, but it just feels like our calendars are on the chopping block.


Non-US peeps feel it is ridiculous that we don't switch to how they measure stuff.  I kinda like it that we seem a bit ridiculous to those folks.  
...

Hi Paul. Not only people in the USA use the 'non-metric' system, also older people in the UK (and on youtube).

The metric system was all I knew for the first part of my life, so it is as 'automatic' to me as the 'imperial' system is to you.
And the analog clock, with numbers 1 to 12 and two hands going round is 'automatic' to me too (you know, I am old). If I wake up in the middle of the night and I see those two hands, I know what time it is. But when there's a 'digital' clock with numbers ... I first need to think.

But I don't think it is ridiculous people use different measurements, clocks, calendars, temperatures or letters (and others ways of writing) than the ones I'm used to. If I don't know what they mean there's the internet that helps me. Or I can ask, that's what a forum is for, isn't it?

Ooh, what a long thread this is. Sorry I didn't read all comments.
I want to say 'thank you' to the topic starter. I live in the Netherlands, Western Europe. When I was at school (ages ago) I probably learned all states of the USA. But no abbreviations.
When I read such a two-letter code I pretend I didn't see it, because I don't know at all what it means. If it is important for me to know ... I ask what they mean.

BTW (By The Way) and other abbreviations often I don't know neither. In general I prefer everything to be written out in complete words.

And then I saw a discussion on saying 'Americans' when it's about  people from the USA only ... Yes, in fact my husband was 'American' too: born and raised on the Caribbean island of Curaçao (Netherlands Antilles). America is much larger than only the USA. If I remember well I learned at school about three parts: North America (USA and Canada together), Central America (from Mexico to Panama, and all Caribbean islands) and South America (Brasil, Argentina and lots of other countries).

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:As far as I know, the Dutch drew their inspiration for wooden clog from the Romans who had a wooden sole laced up the calf with leather to keep them put: the Dutch clog were  a local adaptation to muddy surroundings. At the time, they were practical and inexpensive even though they required real artisans who would fashion a shoe to very exactly match each foot of their customers. Because of this, people could wear them without socks the entire day and not get blisters.....

As far as I know (and the info on the internet tells) the clogs/klompen/sabots were not a Dutch invention, nor a Dutch adaption of Roman shoes with wooden soles. It seems the wooden shoes have their origin in the South of France and from there spread to other regions. There are no archaeologic finds of wooden shoes from before the Medieval era. Shoes woven of plant leaves are much older. And leather shoes too (leather became expensive when hunting became the 'right' of wealthy people, and if others did it was called 'poaching'. But 'hunter-gatherers' of ancient times had plenty of leather).

Hi Esteban.
I forgot to mention: I love your little doggie!

About cats: my son and d.i.l. have two lazy cats. When they go away for a few days I take care of those two cats. They do have two cat-feeders, the kind that goes around and has several compartments with one serving of dry cat-food inside (working with batteries). All I need to do is fill the empty compartments. This opens só easy ... I am sure it wouldn't be safe for the Wheaton cats!

Hi Esteban. Sorry I only discovered your thread here today, while you're already a 'boot' for a month.
I always love to follow the boots. Most of all I love to see photos and videos of what you are doing there.

From now on I'll do my best to read your posts. I like your story-telling style!