Andrew Welser

Christopher Weeks wrote:I'd personally prefer copper.

I was thinking the same, wondering why copper pipe wouldn't qualify, its as "natural" and would need processing from found material just like glass or ceramic would, and it's at least as recyclable or reprocessable for reuse. The solder normally used to join copper pipes and fittings might be more of a toxic gick issue, but whatever sealant is used for glass or ceramic piping would likely also work for copper, with the benefit that copper is more malleable/less fragile than glass or ceramic, so it could easily be drilled for screws or other mechanical fasteners, in addition to the joint sealant.

I handle the sun similarly to Pete, though I'm in Texas. I avoid sunblock, rarely use sunglasses. My normal outside work outfit is long pants, shoes/boots, and light weight button-down shirts. I try to stay in the shade, but if I'll be in direct sun for a while I'll add a wide brimmed hat, and if the shirt is long sleeved I'll roll the sleeves down; I don't like to wear hats unless I'm in the sun, they block the breeze and add an insulation layer that feels like it holds too much heat in. Swimming I'll wear a shirt and a brimmed hat (as much as I can for the hat; doesn't always work) in addition to my swim trunks.

Hannah Medley wrote:And I needed the reminder on deer. We'll have to do some thinking about fence options...

In the "ha-ha fence" thread that was linked in the daily email a few days back some folks were discussing using 2 parallel fences to keep deer out of their gardens: This post and following

Jay Angler wrote:I wonder if it could be made into a ketchup replacement?

Banana ketchup (with bananas instead of tomato) is a relatively common alternative, a banana ketchup recipe might be a good starting point for experimentation with apple butter ketchup; I assume apple butter as the base would arrive at a more comparable consistency, whereas applesauce might end up too runny.

Edit to add: at the bottom of this thread in the "similar threads" there was one discussing "nightshade free ketchup", and one of the posts had a youtube where he makes ketchup from apples: Apple ketchup post

Usually water with a splash of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar, or my own version of electrolite powder, loosely based on the following recipe:

Electrolyte Mix

1 Gallon Water
2tsp Potassium Chloride (No Salt)
2tsp Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda (not powder))
1tsp Sodium Chloride (Pink Salt)
1tsp Magnesium Sulfate (Food-grade Epsem Salt)

Best served chilled after allowing to mix for 12Hr
--Ike Jones as heard on the Permaculture P.I.M.P.cast Episode #117 @
1:08:40

(Thanks for the reminder, I need to mix up another batch of powder for this summer.)

I'll drink the pickle or sourcraut juice as the jars contents get consumed.

John F Dean wrote:Much depends upon where you are driving. In my county, rush hour is two tractors and a combine.  I have found that anticipating turns and stops saves gas.   I avoid using my breaks by taking my foot off the gas early and letting the car slow itself.

Braking is one of the large energy wasters in driving. When you use your brakes all that kinetic energy gets wasted as heat (unless you have a hybrid or electric car which can recover that into its batteries).  I seem to recall reading of people who tested mileage of accelerating rapidly vs. gradually, and there wasn't a lot of difference. The big differences come through getting your lead foot off the go pedal earlier for a number of reasons: coasting to a stop/turn minimizes energy loss to heat through braking, and a slower speed means less energy loss to aerodynamic drag.

I used to be a regular lurker (and occasional poster) on the Ecomodder forums where in addition to modifying driving style for economy, they also discuss vehicle modifications for better engine efficiency and minimization of drag.

Anne Miller wrote:

I was not talking about electric. Not toasters (unless fancy, if there are such things), light bulbs, or power cords, etc.

Electronic means something that will process, store, or transmit data and signals, etc.

My car can be hooked up to blue tooth (what ever that is) so very much electonic and even has GPS.

Probably any vehicle with air conditioning is an electronic device.

By these criteria air conditioning is still safe, it can be done with just mechanical temperature controlled switches, relays, and motors.

Vehicles could be too; I don't remember the cutoff year now, but I've read that vehicles from the mid '70s (I think) and before will still run after an EMP attack.

My one device would probably be some kind of computer, tablet, or E-reader: movie/video playback would be nice, but primarily for e-books. As a hoarder of information and entertainment with limited physical space for books, I've had to resort to digital storage.

I've been designing an earth-sheltered home in my head, I don't have land yet to actually build anything. I'm in Texas so there's a greater need for cooling, but still some need of heating; I am leaning towards piping in the floor and/or ceiling for radiant heating and cooling, with large insulated hot and cold water storage/buffer tanks. This would allow multiple sources of heating/cooling (separate dehumidification would be required, and to prevent sweating the cooling water in the radiant system would need to be kept above the dewpoint temperature). I'm also considering the use of phase-change materials in the storage tanks to increase the amount of BTUs that can be stored.

My hope is the earth sheltering and PAHS (passive annual heat storage - see book by John Hait) would cover the majority of the heating/cooling needs, but secondary/supplementary options I'm considering using for creating hot & cold water for the radiant system include the following:
--Rocket wood fired water heater
--Heat Pumps:
   --Water-to-water: pull heat from the cold storage tank into the hot storage tank
   --Air-to-water: heat or cool one tank when the other is already at temperature
   --Water-to-water: heat or cool individual tank same as above, but pulling/dumping heat to/from a pond and/or underground piping (i.e. ground-source/geothermal heat pump)
--Propane on demand water heater
--Solar hot water panels
--Radiant cooling water panels
--Heat pipes between the outside air and the storage tanks

When I was driving truck locally a number of years back, I first got tired of hoping I could schedule my drive time to make it back to the terminal for lunch time to use the microwave, so I packed food I could eat on the road then quickly got tired of sandwiches. I bought a 12volt food warmer from Amazon (not that particular model, just as an example), and some glass food storage containers. I could pack whatever leftovers, put them in the warmer and plug it in about an hour before I planned to stop for lunch, and have a hot meal wherever I stopped. After maybe 6 months the first one I bought stopped heating, but the convenience was so good it was worth buying another one. If I wasn't working where I'mclose enough to go home at lunch I'd definitely consider one of the 120V versions to minimize my microwave usage.

There are a number of things I'll do to try to minimize vibrations and resonance of the material being cut, some work better than others depending on what I'm cutting:

-Clamp/hold down more tightly the thing being cut.

-Change the angle of the blade relative to the material being cut.

-Press the blade shoe (for lack of a better term) of the saw against the thing being cut: most blades cut on the pull.

-If it's a variable speed saw, try different blade speeds to find one that minimizes resonance of the material being cut.

-Vary the pressure applied on the blade.

-Especially if the thing being cut is unsupportable, and/or floppy, take weight off the saw blade, get it "up to speed", then slowly allow it to start cutting.

-Use a blade with finer/less aggressive teeth (more per inch).

-Find a blade with wider teeth set to be sure the blade isn't binding in the cut. (had this problem with some cheap pruning blades I got off Amazon: almost no tooth set, so the body of the blade drags in the cut, making them almost unusable)