John Brunton

An outside dog that chases deer would be the best option.

I have a baker's rack with ordinary shop lights mounted underneath each shelf on small chains so the light height can be adjusted. I also have plastic floor runners lining the shelves so water doesn't leak down on the lights. Each shop light has one warm and one cool bulb bought off the shelf at Lowes. There are two shop lights under each shelf. I've been using this for several years and has been successful every year. Oh, and I use a timer - on at 7 AM, off at 7PM. One more thing - I have the baker's rack just a few feet from my wood stove.

I have a Pioneer Princess wood burning cook stove. One firebrick, next to the oven, is fairly large - approximately the width of three standard firebrick. The original lasted two years and the replacement lasted about the same amount of time. When it cracks it gradually allows ash to fall behind it and eventually the brick will begin to bulge making me think it could fall apart. This week I drove 2 1/2 hours to the manufacturer and bought a complete set of firebrick. I've read where it's a good idea to dry firebrick in an oven on low heat to remove all moisture. What are other opinions relative to removing moisture? The fellow at the shop thought it would be a good idea as they are stored in an area of the factory that's kinda damp. Our electric range has 170 degrees as its lowest setting.

In 2009 my wife and I moved into our dream home we built in the mountains in Northeast Tennessee and the only choice for internet was satellite. There were two main companies at that time - WildBlue and Hughsnet. I chose WildBlue's 1.5 mb service which was the mid-level package. I was sooooo disappointed. I could only get the 1.5 around 4 A.M.. After work in the evening it was little better than dial-up. Horrible, horrible service! It took assistance from the state of Tennessee to get me out of my contract.

A couple months ago we moved into a new country home in Kentucky. DSL is not available even 12 miles from the state capital! In fact, we don't have a land line because of the expense of running the wire across the neighbor's field. So the only options for internet is Dish Network (Hughsnet) or Verizon wireless. I choose Dish Network because the download amount has a higher limit than cellular. I have the mid-level service - up to 10 mb download. Of course I've never seen 10 mb at anytime of the day but normally I see 3-6 mb on average. I wish it were better but I can live with that for now. Improvements are being made all the time.

We don't live a strict perma culture lifestyle - we're still new to this. Internet has become an invaluable tool for learning a country lifestyle and had it not been for internet I wouldn't have found this site. So for that reason I'm keeping it.

If you ever wonder why your options for internet are limited check out this Bill Moyer video: http://billmoyers.com/segment/susan-crawford-on-why-u-s-internet-access-is-slow-costly-and-unfair/