Nick Williams

paul wheaton wrote:
Even more, I heard somebody say that for rural stuff, if you were to get fiber, they would have to bury the fiber line to your house - and that is gonna come with a price tag.  But with starlink, you don't need to do that.  And the speeds just get faster and faster.

Might be less than you'd think. I don't use it because I had a cheaper alternative that works for my needs through calyx, but the previous owner of my cabin had fiber trenched through many miles of limestone in the little belt mountains for a single dollar thanks to the rural connectivity program.

If you have T-mobile signal, calyx is a great option. They're a internet privacy non-profit that through some historical deal with Sprint is now granted unlimited data. I use their Sprout SIM with a GL X-3000 router from iNet and am able to get 120 MB down, 20 up at my cabin in the little belt mountains of Montana, 22 miles from the closest tower. Much cheaper option than Starlink if you have the signal for it, and a portion of the membership is tax deductable donation to charity.

https://calyxinstitute.org/membership/internet

Same, I'm about three years in, so no experience with older beds. I will say that I've added material every year and the mycelium has spread to the new media just fine, so I don't know why it wouldn't be infinitely sustainable.

Anne Miller wrote:Here is one that is all stainless steel:

https://www.amazon.com/Germany-Multifunctional-Stainless-Steel-Basin/dp/B0CLLTV22J

It is also a multifunction:

Salad Spinner; Fruit Vegetable Rice Washing; Strainer Basket Bowl, and Food Graters with Container

I might get one of those as I need a grater.

How does one go about spinning it? Just seems like a colander in a bowl.

I've never seen one that's entirely plastic free, though there are some that don't have any plastic touching the contents at least: https://www.amazon.com/MOUNW-Spinner-Stainless-Vegetable-Washer%EF%BC%8C/dp/B0CWD4S68B


Or you could go old school. My mom always used to put greens in a tea towel and spin it over her head outside. She did detest a unitasker in the kitchen...

I dice and boil waxy potatoes in heavily salted water until tender. Drain, and spread out on a sheet pan to cool and dry. I'll usually sprinkle some vinegar on the hot potatoes (generally dill vinegar). Once cool, I add chopped hard boiled egg whites and pickles. Hard boiled egg yolk gets mashed and mixed with mayonnaise, a touch of sour cream, yellow mustard, white pepper, celery seed and maybe a bit of pickle juice and a pinch of sugar if it feels like it needs it. That all gets mixed together and into the fridge for at least a few hours for all the flavors to get to know each other.

Friend of a friend has an ATV that has two springy pieces of steel out at a 45 in front, and a high powered blower at the bottom of the vee blowing into a big bag. Drives through fields, the wires kick the grass up, and the grasshoppers jump inwards towards the middle of the vee where they get sucked into the bag.


In a more low-tech version, I saw a book once that had plans for what I think was called a "grasshopper tractor". Basically two skids. At the front of the two skids was a wire stretched that does the same thing, causes grasshoppers to jump. Mounted towards the back of the skids was a wide, flat pan filled with water with a thin coat of oil. There were vertical posts to push the contraption at the very back, and a screen between the operator and the pan, so grasshoppers jumped up as the tractor is pushed, bounce against the screen and fall into the oily water to drown. Might be something to tinker with...  

In certain localities (eastern Tennessee in particular is the one I'm aware of), structures were taxed on their footprint, so the cantilever barn was born. Large hayloft (which is what that door is for), storage space on the ground floor for tools, large overhang to keep animals dry, but teeensy little taxable footprint.

Not sure if that's the same intention of this particular barn, but it has precedent...

I'd probably bolt it down myself, but looking at the product review photos, looks like there's plenty of folks that didn't.

Could take the middle ground and put a couple hundred pounds on the baseplate? Couple sandbags or that sort of thing...

Do you get any water out at all?


Is there a foot valve, or are you relying on the check valve to maintain prime?