Terry Bytes

John C Daley wrote:With respect; I have had a beard for 51 years, never off.
I have never seen the need for oil.
I brush it regularly, daily, and wash it every 3 days or so.
I need to be convinced of an alternative.
But on the subject of beards, have you heard of the band " The beards"?

That's because you're in the southern hemisphere.
Everyone knows that the body's natural oil is flows in the opposite direction there, much like your toilets.

I use beard oil to alleviate my itchy skin. I have other skin issues very occasionally. My assumption is that your body, diet, nutrition, skin, and hair type just works naturally for you. Perhaps climate (humidity).  You're like a lion & his mane.
Or maybe your beard is so long, that it acts as a shady mulch. You need to only water occasionally, if at all.

I give this seed source 8 out of 10 acorns

Mike Jay wrote:The other issue I have is that they use too much of their plant description space saying where the seed came from.  For instance I'll be buying Joe's Long Cayenne this year from them.  Here's their description:

Originally from Calabria, Italy.  Circulated through the Italian-Canadian seed saving community in Toronto before being sent to Joe Sestito in Troy, NY.  Introduced to SSE in 1996 by long-time member Dr. Carolyn Male.  Heavy yields of finger width thin-walled red peppers up to 12" long.  Great for fresh eating or drying.  85 days from transplant.  Hot  +/- 4600 seeds/oz

I do like the history but if they skipped half of the history they could fit in.....

Hahah! Mike, you have nailed it.
They really do care about the history & lineage of the seeds. And I believe it really does inspire others to 'seed save' as a hobby/way of living. People like stories now-a-days, too.
I did not realize that it was squeezing out useful information, though. Definitely a valid point.

These guys are in my back yard, so I am biased, and I enjoy being a member, and can just go to the place to pick up seeds and 'emergency' transplants any time I like.
My biggest garden had been 220 tomato plants, 25 different varieties. All from this place.

My favorite is some of the special packets they come out with. Rare varieties they finally propagated out enough of finally to reissue for 1 year. These aren't varieties I would normally plant, but it's just fun.
They also participate in the Seed Vault project out in Norway.

Here is a picture of their Seed Savers Exchange Yearbook. Great way to meet people I imagine. I haven't done it yet myself. For me, this makes my database-fingers twitch!

I give this seed source 8 out of 10 acorns

I want to say that last year Stark's ran into flooding issues and lost or delayed a lot of their stock.

My favorite part about Stark's is that they have the climate range numbers on all their products.
Being in 4b, I need to quickly skip over any varieties that would freeze to death in the winter.
And when online, they can filter what you see by climate #'s.

They also have variety packs that you can get to save more money.  Usually it's 3 species for the price of 2. It's a boon for small homesteaders who want one of everything. I did this for my 6 blueberry bushes, and a few other things.

They seem more expensive that other places, but it's because you get "free" shipping on anything over $99, and they advertise a lot, and put out slick catalogs & web site pictures & descriptions. And useful polinator helpers. Last year I redid my entire tree order with RainTree because I thought I was going to save a ton of money over my Stark's order. Then the shipping got tacked on at the end, and it was basically the same price.
Stark's is a big company, so you are going to have a wider range of quality issues. The reviews on their site reflect this. Super happy customers, and then some disappointed customers.

I give this seed source 10 out of 10 acorns

I highly recommend buying their big seed catalog. It's $10 (352 pages)
Even though they have a free one that is worth getting (148 pages), the one you buy has great stories. Yes! I read it for the articles, not just the pictures!
Unlike other catalogs, these have a permanent spot in my library shelves. I also buy these as gifts for other relatives/friends.

The first article that ever grabbed me some years ago was the history of brassicas, and how they all probably came from one dinosaur-type brassica, and how humans selected very certain attributes in different parts of the world, to help evolve the selection we have today: kale, broccoli, brussel sprouts, etc.

This year my 12 year old son picked up a copy and got absolutely fascinated by this huge watermelon picture & description. He wanted to grow it this year.
Not only did we buy some, but we bought extra and are now hosting a Watermelon Fest this fall at our homestead. A friendly competition with our like-minded community we're a part of. My invites include 3 different types of watermelon seeds, including this monster:


https://www.rareseeds.com/carolina-cross-180-watermelon/

I'm curious about the newly updated, "000 - Day 0 - Session 1-5 - Big Download - Wheaton Tour"

Is it just the first 5 sessions mashed together (Files 01-22?)
or is it something else like a pre-event Tour?
At 6.2 GB, I didn't want to download it if not necessary.

Anyone remember PermaCredits?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tjSRWblmmA


I liked the idea of people who could get some kind of equity / dividends by investing in whatever permaculture project they wanted. The idea would jump start a lot of projects, and successful investing would cause a lot a lot of reinvesting in the next chosen project to invest in (which is what KIVA claims)

It doesn't have to be permaculture, either. FoundUps is based on the same principle, but for any 'Startup'.
Last I heard, they even chose the Ethereum platform as the way to do this. I believe there was a delay after Ehtereum forked.

Edit: Sorry, Mike, I missed your post. You -do- remember.

Dale Hodgins wrote:My tenant, Randy has lived at my place for 5  1/2 years, without paying rent. He makes himself useful by maintaining the road and other things with his excavator, and he acts as a watchdog. I tried several other people who failed at the simple task of keeping the place clean and reporting to me once in a while.

There are thousands of properties just on this island, that might benefit from having a part-time caretaker. I found one couple on this site , who were supposed to do 2 hours of work per month , in exchange for living in my cabin. They couldn't find that kind of time, and I had to kick them out.

The caretaker thing is probably the most available and workable situation for most people. Particularly if there are children , a fixed address can be desirable.
.......
Most of us don't get paid to sleep. I know a fellow named Carol who does get paid to sleep, in his van, at job sites where materials might be stolen. His dog barks at the slightest provocation. When he wakes up in the morning, he's already at work.

I can't believe people are so utterly lazy that they can't chip in a couple hours of work each month. In exchange for rent. It boggles my mind.
I usually listen to Paul's podcast JUST to hear about the crap and beggars he has to put up with. It seems like he attracts them.
I just listened to #373, "Epic Shit", where he describes examples of this, and in contrast, the hard work he put into his early career to get where he is now. I highly recommend it, if you haven't heard it. Very inspiring.

I don't know why, but the purple-breathers fascinate me like a train wreck. I'm always rubber necking the carnage.

Anyway, thanks for sharing. I love the pictures, and the loader. That's a great relationship.

You're right about the sunlight hours in the tropics! I'm sorry I transposed my own summer hours into the story.

Even though I have doubts about a banana tree, I don't have any concerns with some citrus choices. Basically anything that grows well in California or Florida as my southern limit. I notice our love of lemons, limes, and avocados. Since we do get so much sun in the summer, the greenhouse would just keep them from dying during the winter freeze. No expectation, necessarily, of producing during the winter. But maybe.
In the winter, I'd be just happy to keep consuming greens, brassicas, & tomatoes.

I like the video you linked to. That guy definitely has it going on. Did you notice from his Description, he's using the "Eazy Bake Oven" trick to heat his tomatoes? Just a light bulb to heat the water!

I have every intention of supplementing a wofati structure with a rocket mass heater. That is why I have been looking into both solutions on this site, and have all the Ernie/Emily/Paul products.

Edit:  Walipini?? I might have been using the wrong word when I said wofati.

Mike Jay wrote: I'd be interested in growing tropical stuff if I ever get my greenhouse built.  Problem is that I don't know the first thing about tropicals other than they don't like to freeze and they don't sell them at the local nurseries...

I have always had this secret dream to grow a banana tree. I am up north in climate 4b, so I realize this is a bit of a reverse Jamaican bobsledding team movie idea.

I figure a wofati type structure (half underground) would be a good start in keeping the warmth levels up.

I shared this dream with a local biologist-turned coffee house owner who was originally from the tropics. He really like the idea, but said that even getting the temperature wouldn't be enough. The key would be to get the 16 hours of sunlight a day.

Considering the fact that we are currently at 9 hours of sunlight, and shrinking, I will reign in my growing choices.

The LED grow light market could probably handle this deficiency. However, the current price right now would only work if your product had a high retail demand - like marijuana. The videos and demos I watched on those, though, point out that as more and more states make it legal, and the market eventually gets saturated, there should be an abundance on the market. By then newer and better lights will be out, making the early generations much cheaper.

Cassie Langstraat wrote:yay yay yay! thanks for all of the responses.

Yeah, I got some jojoba oil last night, hazelnut sounds nice too. Is that more of a base oil? Or is that a strong scented essential oil?

I need to do some sneaky investigating on which smells he really likes because he has really sensitive senses, so I don't want to get him something and have him end up not liking it. I know of some that he likes, but if it is going to be right under his nose, I think i have to be really careful.

What are your favorite smells ? Is eucalyptus a good one? I already have that. I've heard sandalwood maybe?

The base oils, cooking oils, nut oils, hemp oils, etc, are usually 'odor-less'. It's the flower & spices from the essential oils that usually contain the scents, and often you might be only adding a drop.

Check his deoderant, shampoo, and soaps. See what he can stand.
I have a sensitive nose, and hate perfumes, etc. As an example, my deoderant is unscented, shampoo & toothpaste has tree oil, and my shaving cream is lavender. I put coconut oil in my hair. I don't mind sandalwood.

The beard oil I bought was called "Gentlemen's Beard" and it was unscented! The ingredients were:
Organic Helianthus anuus (Sunflower) seed oil, Organic Argania spinosa (Argan) seed oil, Organic Oenothera biennia (Evening Primose) see oil, Organic Simmondsia chinensis (JoJoba) seed oil, Tocopherols (Vitamin E)

Hopefully that gives you a safe base to start with.