David Royal

Bethany Dutch wrote:
I grew up in that sort of environment, and I will point out one key difference - the Christian boycott of things they deem not ok (like Harry Potter, etc) is very different than a concerted effort to have someone's livelihood and presence removed.

I remember plenty of "we don't shop there" or even on a church-wide level teaching to not patronize this or that based on religious beliefs, but I never saw a concerted effort to go out of their way to destroy the thing entirely. That's the big difference with cancel culture - it is beyond boycotting because it isn't just about making a personal decision about yourself, your family, or even your church - it's about having that person's voice, business, livelihood, etc. removed entirely because you don't like what they are saying.

That's a very key difference. It's the difference of "we don't patronize them" vs "They are evil, we need to go out of our way to get them shut down entirely."

I'm not sure about about this.  I think the difference might be being inside the boycott vs looking at it from the outside.  As someone who is outside both (Christian-oriented boycotts and woke-oriented boycotts) they look pretty similar.  In other words, I don't feel like the "they are evil and we should make them go away" perspective is unique to the woke-oriented boycotts.

Jeremy VanGelder wrote:
For those of you who are asking questions about legality and insurance and such. Are those questions holding you back from telling your friends about RMHs? If you got acceptable answers, would you tell your friends about them?

For me, yes and yes.

I'm a relatively new transplant from Florida to Nova Scotia, living in a conventional small town home.  We heat in the winter with a combination of a pellet stove and a heat pump.  Other local options are electric baseboard, oil furnace, and wood stoves.  I'd love to have a RMH.  Similar to what other folks have said, to make that happen I'd need to have someone local who could do (or at least inspect / certify) the install, and have buy-in from both city code and insurance that it was acceptable.  We have local licensed pellet and wood stove installers, but I'm not aware of anything like that for RMHs.

Heidi Schmidt wrote:I didn't look at all the rules, but this sounds an awful lot like "Dutch Blitz", which is my family's all-time favourite when we get together! Highly, highly recommended for tons of fun. A little wild at times, as it's a speed game (all play at once), but that's what makes it so fun!

I remember being a teen and getting the Dutch Blitz game as a family present... it looks so un-fun and old fashioned when you just look at the cards, but looks are truly deceiving in this case

Thanks for posting this!  I got Dutch Blitz for Christmas -- I'd heard it was good, but I haven't taken the time to figure it out yet.

Our daughter is just 5, but we've been introducing her to games and she seems game.  Our current favorite is crokinole.  I've made a couple of special rules for her to make it more competitive (she gets 3 do overs per game and can leave her disk on the board as long as it lands in the 15 point circle, even if she doesn't hit my disk) and it's been really fun.

Thanks so much for introducing your book here.  My family and I just moved to Nova Scotia from Florida, and we're looking at building a greenhouse to extend our growing season.  I'm very interested in learning more about your ideas for building a passive one.  Thanks!

Wow, that's really cool!  I have done something similar (though much lower key) using my wife's belly band (from when she was pregnant).  I've had back pain off and on over the years (usually due to overuse).  One regular trigger for me is meditation retreats.  So for the last several years, when I've done one, I pack her belly band.  For the later in the day sits, I cinch it on as tight as I can and it really seems to help.  I love the corset idea, though, as that's a much stronger solution.

Thank you very much!  Since we missed the blooms, I'm not sure, but I agree that the leaves and vines look similar.  I guess we'll see next year. :)

We just moved to Nova Scotia (from Florida) and have been pleasantly surprised by some of the plants that are already established -- blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, hardy kiwi and garlic.  The previous owner was primarily interested in ornamentals, though, so there are also tons of roses and other flowers.  On our deck is a tangled pole bean that I'd like to identify -- basically, we want to know if we can eat it.  The pods are pretty big, and thick, and grow in clusters of 3 to 6.  The mature leaves tend to have 11 leaflets.  The dried pods seem to unwind when they burst (ending up twisted) with little chocolate brown beans inside.  I believe it flowered before we arrived so I can't speak to the blossoms.  Any ideas?  And if any additional pictures would be helpful, please let me know.

We just moved to a house in Nova Scotia that has hardy kiwis growing on a trellis.  We've got some fruit -- any tips on knowing them to pick them?