William Bagwell

Catie George wrote:

Any particular bamboo species you have had success with?

Never positively identified it. Running, medium sized and typical green with no variegation to help ID. Will try to take some close up pictures soon.

Catie George wrote:
My experience is that the general trend is native plants do better with juglone than European/Asian species.

Likely true, however two exceptions I have noticed are privet and bamboo. Both seem to thrive under black walnut.  

C. Letellier wrote:
I will second the end out of a pressure tank guess.  Likely the left over scrap from someone building an oil burning stove.

Or a bell. Seems to be a popular use for old cylinders. Tried searching for pictures of the bottoms, not many out there. Thinner tanks such as propane are convex and use a collar to stand upright. Thicker high pressure are sometimes concave for the same reason. Seems odd but still has the strength of a dome shape.

Tess Misch wrote:I found this at a 2nd hand shop and thought "how cool is that!!" with no idea what it is. It is bowl-shaped, but it is HEAVY and solid metal.  Could be very old. But a curiosity to me regardless!  Any thoughts?  Thanks!  --Tess

My guess: bottom of a gas cylinder such as oxygen or other high pressure gas. Correct shape, approximately the right thickness, etc. Has been flame cut from a larger object. Not sure what the round dimples are, but in the fourth picture they look like weld beads so may have been added later.  

Benjamin Dinkel wrote:
The one from the video is stainless steel if I remember correctly. A real beauty but quite hard to get.

Over $700 new the last time I looked. Befriend someone at your local scrap yard, most will sell at 2X scrap price plus a case of beer to the finder. Or have a relative that works there and skip the beer.

Question, can they still work as a bell if 2 inches short?

Ned Harr wrote:
The problem with books is that they may be out of date; the National Electrical Code is updated every three years to keep up with changes in technology and safety standards, for good reason. If you're going to go from a book that's fine, but make sure it's been published recently (like, it should at least not be talking about cloth-sheathed wire and stuff) and if possible try to verify that its author is a qualified authority.

Built my house in the early 90s using the 1984 code. Wanted something newer, but in the pre-internet days current code books were very expensive. No inspections back then (other than septic) so this was not an issue. Also found the McGraw-Hills companion to the NEC invaluable to my understanding. Set up in numbered sections that match the NEC and explain it in a more layman friendly way. Both books are still on my shelf behind me.

Agree with the premise of this thread that *most* homeowners should not do their own electrical. Would add that *no* contractor that is not an electrician should. Personally have seen as bad or worse work done by jack leg contractors than homeowners. Plus contractors sometimes try to hide dangerous things that a homeowner would leave exposed.

Christopher Weeks wrote:
Yeah, some of the "weirder" ones might make better middle names than firsts.

Agree, and exactly what we did for both of our kids. Nice normal first names and odd middle names. Equipment used in the sport where we met and not Permaculture related, but this was almost 40 years ago.

Roger Whittaker had at least three whistling songs. Most talented whistler I have ever encountered, not a bad singer either. Bit soft for my tastes but my parents loved all his music. As for movies, The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) has a very good whistled version of The Colonel Bogey March. Will not post them, but the WWII alternative lyrics they were implying are a hoot. Changes the whole meaning of that scene when you know.  

Back in the 70s, it was three jars in the trunk of a car. Can not remember what was in each of the jars, but agree that Jill was close.

A jointer that has been modified to put parallel grooves in wood. Useful in building bat houses.