R Grier

r ransom wrote:I just tested

It appears the name policy is still easily visible.

Looks like about one third of the text on the sign up page is dedicated to it.

Funny thing is, when it's in larger letters, fewer people seem able to find it.  The internet has trained us to ignore large letters or all caps as it's usually trying to sell us something.   Right now, it's about one in 200 who miss it or who see it but don't care enough about the community to feel it applies to them.

I wasn't sure if it was there or not (yes I totally missed it) and your explanation about large or caps definitely sounds true, I could see where you were going with that halfway through the first sentence!
 Having a program that auto-rejects comon fake names/names including obviously fake words might still help though, maybe? Like when you go to make a new email and it says "that name is taken", but "that name is obviously fictional" instead? I really don't know programming or how difficult that would be, but I could help come up with a list of words to trigger it! As a bonus, getting this message would help those who just completely missed the requirement. (in my case I was half asleep at 2 am with a sick toddler trying to learn about permaculture while I was forced to be awake anyway.. yes I missed it.)

On the other hand, it sounds like I was already in the minority and maybe it isn't as big a nuisance to the mods as I expected, so maybe it really isn't necessary. Sorry for putting my nose where it didn't belong!

Tommy Kilpatrick wrote:Looked normal to me and both links worked fine. Was able to purchase Hügelkultur book for $1 and download (I already own it, but hey, have an extra buck)..

I dont feel like that was very nice 😭 there are plenty of us who DON'T own it yet who would have loved to have it. Oh well though, easy come easy go i suppose!

( before you say "you can't even afford 10$?!🤨", You try providing for 5 kids with rent on 1 income in America!)

Also, the email worked, but obviously it back to 10$ before I got there because I missed it.  😵

Oh yes, I wasn't trying to complain about the policy, i can think of several reasons for it to be in place, even if it did catch me off guard! I was trying to suggest a way to make it better seen at sign up and less moderator intense. I'm sure it frustrates the mods to have to constantly flag new sign ups and block the account then wait for an appropriate name to approve. I'm sure a few new sign ups get frustrated and decide not to come back (although i suppose the type of person to do that not coming back might be a bonus actually..) so I was trying to come up with a way to help streamline the process.

Salt buildup, both from the detergents, AND from what you are using it on (for instance all that salty sweat and food reside is going somewhere..) are both problems. I have fallen in LOVE with laundry nuts.
   I have experimented ousting laundry water with laundry nuts and had no problems at all, plus they really do work i have also experimented with making my own organic soaps using local or grown plants high in saponins, like english ivey as well. I will say though, that can get to be a bit much to keep up with. This said if I have particularly soiled things I cleanse them in different ways, or use it. I pour salty water over the driveway to help keep out weeds, I soak particularly messy dish thing in hot water then give it to the chickens as drinking water (bonus vitamins!) and give the dog fatty leftovers. I mix oats whole wheat eggs and nuts in my frying oil and make patties  that i give to our chickens a bit at a time. I do use unscented dawn in my drain field septic system though, dawn breaks down pretty clean and I need something to break through the grease. It works on bad oil stains too.

I personally was completely caught off guard by the naming policies, and had to wait a few days for an acceptable name to be approved before I could post (consideringhow busy the mods must be i dont blame you. Its just a but inefficient) . I don't know if it's there and I just missed it, but a noticeable note about no obviously fictional names right next to the name box when you sign up would be nice. Also, this is a bit beyond my abilities, but perhaps some sort of program that automatically flags obvious names and rejects it during sign up, that way anyone (like me) who didnt notice the requirements would be more likely to be stopped and fix it immediately themselves during the sign up process. It would save staff time in sorting through names too. Just having the computer flag commonly used words or phrases would probably cut down on much. For instance animal names or agriculture words?  Real or fictional. I imagine just that would stop a huge portion of mistakes. (Ex I tried to use "Gardenfairy")

My favorite is to slow dry them in my rock smoker. Powdered dried smoked jalapeño is what Chipotle is afterall! 😋 plus is keeps forever that way, takes up almost no room, and is easy to use!

Ron Kulas wrote:Ive been searching my fool head off for ANY info so substance and tests done of an actual scientific bases to let me know if I should take the time to try electroculture and to date I can find no proof its worth the time. I can find lots of youtube stuff that I watched but cant trust after seeing how the "test" or trial was conducted.

Everything in my decades of engineering tells me this will offer no increase in yields or growth but I dont claim to know it all so I continue to search for answers.

I have yet to try it, so im not sure. I also haven't found a significant amount of supportive research. HOWEVER, I have found good techniques and information smothered too often in the past for this to stop me. It also just makes sence! We know copper coils like this do in fact generate low.level electric current, thats actually measurable. We also know that high level electrical current drawn from the atmosphere (most often in the form of lightning stikes) do in fact drastically increase the bound nitrogen in the soil. Both of these are well established and measurable facts. The final question is really, does the low level current created by these coils actually create enough bound nitrogen to benefit the plants? This seemingly simple question would actually be very hard to measure. It would depend on the soil and existing nitrogen levels, the atmospheric conditions, the microorganisms present, the plant type, the gauge and resistance of the copper wire, the spiral pattern/repetitions, the local magnetic field... and I dare say a slew of other factors. One thing seems highly likely to me though, which is that it seems like it could only help not hurt.

Mike Haasl wrote:I pick with an extendible fruit picker.  Mine extends 13' so I can get stuff about 18' off the ground.  It's slow though and a hell of a shoulder workout.  Keep the bucket 13' away from you on the ground so when you fill the basket you can lower it down to the bucket and let the fruit tumble out.  It works fine for homestead scale harvesting but wouldn't work for a market garden or farm.

Nice! This. I rigged one from "trash".  I attached an old broom handle to a cut open juice jug. I used the nozzle for attachment, and cut a hole in the side of the "bottom" end of the jug. The original bottom, and sides, acts as a cap you can hook over the fruit top to give it a tug! You definitely want the hole at least 2x the size of your fruit, and you want to smooth/cover the sharp edges. I use a small step stool to get a bit further, making my reach about 15ft up the tree. Hurts the shoulders after a while but I can do 1 smaller tree a day like this at least. I have only used it on persimmon trees though.

I don't enjoy the culling part, but i still fi d it a worthwhile part of the process. We don't cull our males at birth though, even though i have mostly autosexing (i cross a solid colored roo against a barred rock). We want the life to have fulfilled a use, like feeding our family. The amount of my garden they eat can be frustrating, but i know they are eating that rather than lower quality food we would have to buy so I'm happy.

Katrin Kerns wrote:

Kellic Cantrell wrote:Its rather sad to think that their really exist people that clueless about something that use to be common knowledge. If you've ever cared for any kind of animal before you should know that all animals need some care from humans if they are kept in artificial or contained environment.

You would be surprised at how many people are really that clueless about raising or caring for animals in general. Ask your local pet store about "Easter Bunny" stories.

Lots of clueless folks think it would be fun to buy their kids pet rabbits as an Easter present, but they don't research rabbits or just exactly what it takes to properly raise one. Many of them try to return the rabbits to the pet stores once their kids get tired of trying to take care of them, or they get sick from improper care and feeding. Failing being able to return them many of those folks just release them into the wild thinking that they should do just fine. But domestic rabbits do not have the proper instincts for survival in the wild. Most rabbits that are released into the wild die within a few days due to being hit by cars, killed by predators, or simply due to exposure.

The ones that do actually survive become a problem because they dig burrows near people's homes and eat garden plants because they are not as wary of humans as actual wild rabbits. It's generally a bad situation all around.

The number of Adults I have had to inform that "chicken" is a species, not a gender, is shocking.  Very few know that the chickens they get at the grocery store are GMO monsters that would have almost certainly died from over growth before adulthood and so were killed at only about 2 months old....

My problem isn't really from clueless people, as it is people who jump into major projects involving other lives without doing their research first.

Of course... here i am thinking "i learned my lesson with 400lbs of butternut last year, only a few of those! Let's plant mass beans instead...." here i am at 20lbs of green beans and we have been eating them for weeks.... so maybe I should research too!