M Rives

It does not meet your cold weather requirement as-is but this family in northern BC uses their outhouse year round. You might be able to add insulation, a door and a small propane Buddy heater for intermittant heat. Even a small electric heater would work in a small space if you run power out there. Gridlessness put up this video of their composting outhouse 8 years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2ZViclQbc0

There was an update 2 years ago where Jeff explains how their outhouse has saved them around $250,000 based on an initial cost of $100,000 borrowed for 30 years at 8%. Most of the info is in the second video so you can skip the first one, although it has a few humorous moments...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INy12evR-IU

You could also use garbage cans to collect the output (like Paul's willow feeder approach) in a structure like this.

John F Dean wrote:As part of an Operations Management course I was teaching, I attempted to go into business ethics using a functional approach.  Such as if I screw over the best suppliers and screw over my best customers, how long can I expect to remain in business?   Silly me. I thought the concept was obvious.   About 50% of the class thought I was speaking a foreign language.  Their concern was only for the short term. Once they had padded their resume they would be with a new  employer.  Now, for the real scary part.  These were healthcare management students, and most of them were already working in the field.

It sounds like many of your classmates would fit in perfectly at the company in this humorous public service announcement from the Norwegian Consumer Council. It's calling out the increasing ensh*tification of everything. They even touch on Paul's issues with web pages and calling for customer support. Truly, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

Warning: If you are offended by the use of the word sh*t, just use "sleaze" and DO NOT click

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4Upf_B9RLQ

r ransom wrote:Better than 1080 is promised to paying subscribers, but they seem to be complaining about this issue just as much as advert watchers like me.

As for "free", 2 to 3, 15 to 20 second, non skipabble ads every 55 seconds of video,  isn't exactly free.  For some reason, I ended up stuck on that experiment of theis for the last 2.5 years.  That's a lot of income they are getting from a free service, combined with data gathering and selling permissions we grant them...

Using Brave, Opera or Firefox with the uBlock Origin extension you won't see any of those ads...

The videos look fine to me with Firefox on a Linux PC. I'm not signed in to YouTube in case that makes a difference.

This is a great thread on drying firewood:

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/solar-kiln-for-hardwoods-part-deux.175875/

Summary: The firewood should be stacked off the ground with air space underneath. IBC totes, pallet crates or any way to stack the wood in a sunny place. Create a peak at the top with a board or some of the stacked firewood. Cover the stack with clear plastic sheeting. Wrap the base with stretch wrap to hold down the cover. Cut u-shaped vent holes in the side near the top to allow air circulation. Adjust the vent hole size to limit the maximum temperature.

The thread also discusses target temps and how long to dry the wood.

Finally, a use for the silly hog ring pliers that have been in my toolbox for years... So far, it looks like using a hog ring instead of thread to tie the end of the rope will work out fine.

To cut nylon rope I grab an old utility knife blade in some vise grips, heat it red hot with a propane torch then slowly melt through the rope. Pushing the ends of the cut rope against the blade will fuse all the fibers together nicely. You might have to heat the blade more than once depending on the rope.

wayne fajkus wrote:
I am not sure if groundfos is the only pump or if there are cheaper alternatives with ick free auto (dry) shutoffs. If there are, i'd love to hear about them.

Long ago I had a Grundfos pump like yours to boost our incoming water pressure from about 20psi to about 65psi. The dry-run protection did not always turn it off when there was no input water which resulted in a warped housing and leaks. It was discontinued and parts like the leaking seals were no longer available. After searching for an alternative, I found a similar pump from Walrus:

https://www.walrusamerica.com/product/hq/

It worked great. Like the Grundfos, the small pressure tank on it and the variable speed pump held a surprisingly constant output pressure regardless of water flow. It was all engineered plastic and stainless like the Grundfos (no ick) and also had the dry-run protection. It was a lot less expensive than the Grundfos at that time. We sold that house so I don't know about its longevity.

We've had some indoor-only cats for many years. As a bonus, we have stacks of kitty litter buckets which are super useful - until the handle breaks, that is...

These buckets have either a slot or a hole for a tab on the end of the strap-type handle. Normally, the strap breaks right at the round grip section in the middle. Once it breaks, it's much harder to carry a full bucket and the remaining handle straps dangle below the bottom of the bucket.

Does anyone have suggestions on how to easily add a new handle? I've thought about punching a slot on each side and threading through some mule tape or it's cousin, pallet banding but haven't tried this yet. A piece of old garden hose could be added for more comfort. Depending on the stiffness of the strap it might not easily fold down out of the way. Ideas?

This is not for everyone, but... We live where the ground freezes and there is snow. Normally I take down trees in the spring right when the ground thaws. When the surface is saturated the subsoil will turn to goo. At that time it's usually pretty easy to use a 15' ladder to attach a 100' cable around the tree as high as you can reach then the tractor can easily pull even huge trees right over. An extra snatch block (pulley) can be used to turn the cable if needed. All of the roots come out of the ground easy peasy. It's the cleanup after you take down a bunch of trees that's the hard part. The window of time where this works is very short but it's much faster easier than knocking trees over with the backhoe in the summer.

William Bronson wrote:Fish skin,that's where it's at!
Seriously though, it's thing.
Ever since I found out about alligator gar I've wanted a jacket made of the skin!

You can see them make and use Fish Leather in this Gridlessness video:

https://youtu.be/CgxMkA1tFkE?t=551

It's from a burbot (ling cod) and they make a wallet (shown at the end of the video).

thomas rubino wrote:And here in the mountains, with 300' of vertical drop, water arriving at the hydrant in the yard is at 125 psi.
Not even commercial hoses last more than a few hours.
I must purchase a 200-psi industrial air hose and have hose bib ends installed.
Any other hose will burst from the pressure.

Yikes! That kind of pressure will make a toilet valve explode. Have you considered a pressure reducing valve?

https://www.supplyhouse.com/Pressure-Reducing-Valves-17082000