John Weiland

Redd Hudson wrote:Everything I know about humans I learned from my chickens.....

Although I read the rest, I could have stopped here and been satisfied.

Given the way this species can be introduced to your homestead from a bin at a big-box store and within one generation exhibit textbook "good parent" behavior, chickens might be considered superior to humans.

Yet based on their propensity to eat styrofoam when complete seed and grain rations are otherwise present puts them on par with humans.

:-/

Eric Hanson wrote:Nicole,

I am so glad that you can actually recollect Lefse!  It’s not too often that I find people that do.......  

I suppose it is because of my location in the Red River Valley outside of Fargo-Moorhead that I shook my head a bit over this.....lefse is just so common even down to the local convenience store up here.  Every grocery store carries it, although I can't say if places like Sam's Club or Costco do.....do those stores cater to local tastes?

Speaking of Moorhead, Nicole, you may find some useful historical links in the following website:  https://www.moorheadmn.gov/parks-rec/hjemkomst-center/

A good synopsis of the creation of a Viking ship by locals here....-AND- sailing it to Norway!......can be found here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry6BOE2_laM

The Hjemkommst Center, which still houses that Viking ship and is home to the Hopperstad Stave Church ( https://www.hcscconline.org/stavechurch.html ),  is used for a variety of local events, but also is home to much Norwegian immigrant museum pieces.  More details can be found at the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County's website:  https://www.hcscconline.org/

Edited to add:  "Giants in the Earth" by O E Rolvaag to accompany other suggestions here.  One review on Amazon.com called it "The greatest book you've never read..."!  I can't agree more....comes off as a children's book when you start it, but finishes like a Greek tragedy, only set among the Norwegian immigrants to Minnesota and the Dakotas in the late 1800s.

Hope this may help in some way!

William Bronson wrote:
Most simple of all, maybe you don't need glazing on the greenhouse roofs.
Winter sun is low in the sky and mostly should enter via the vertical glazing.
By using a conventional opaque roof on the greenhouses , you can insulate it.

I have seen barns like this before, but did not know they had a special name!

Lots of good ideas here.  Based on living for many years with snow sliding off of a house with a metal roof, I can say that ~90% or more of your snow will land within 4' of the house siding (assuming ~18" soffit).  If your greenhouse will be sticking out from the main house structure by, say, 12 - 20 ft, you probably could get away with having 8 ft of solid roofing on the greenhouse most close to the house siding.  The remainder of the greenhouse roof approaching the drip edge could be your poly twin-wall (GE Lexan being a common standard).  As William B. notes here, depending on your location in Wisconsin, you will be getting low solar gain from above in winter and most will be coming through the sidewalls anyway.  But with a "half-solid, half-transluscent twin-wall" roof, you could still enjoy some extra ambient light and feel more confident that ice chunks won't be coming through your greenhouse.  All of this said, it may be worth giving the roof of the greenhouse a good tilt since the heat from the greenhouse will locally thaw any large accumulation of snow that can't otherwise run off of the roof.....freeze-thaw cycles are hard on seams, joints, and fasteners.

Nancy Reading wrote:......
I found it interesting that the photosynthesis rate can actually drop off at high light levels, as if the photosynthesis is actually inhibited somehow.

The following from Wikipedia was a response via AI when I followed up on this issue:

"Photoinhibition occurs when a plant absorbs more light energy than its photosynthetic machinery can process. This excess energy generates destructive reactive oxygen species (ROS), such as singlet oxygen and hydrogen peroxide, which target and degrade proteins—most notably the D1 reaction center protein in Photosystem II (PSII)" --Wikipedia

This makes sense to me.  Even as we all know well the effects of sunlight as it increases to detrimental levels on our own skin and physiology, we tend to think that plants do not suffer the same fate.  Yet it's known that plants also have active mechanisms to protect their DNA, proteins, and other tissue constituents from UV light damage that becomes too intense.  That said, those protective mechanisms can be overcome as the intensity increases.....and the resulting damage to the photosynthesis system will cause it to malfunction.  Hence the tapering off of activity on your graph as the light increases.  If the plant survives short periods of intense light overstimuation, the 'turnover' of the damaged photosythetic components wll allow for newly synthesized versions to replace the damaged ones once the light/environment return to something more hospitable.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Paint it pink..

But Douglas, if he paints it pink....and THEN you receive it in some sort of (tariff-free?) trade, will the anti-phantom effect work equally well against residual zombie mosquito apocalypse?  Perhaps with a large enough fan geared to the rear cog??.... ;-)

As an aside, skeeters just really starting to crank up now.  They got tired of waiting for some moisture in this dry spell so they are doubling-down on the use of the lakes and rivers of the region.  But dry enough that Fargo-Moorhead have not sprayed once yet.

If the fabric between the corporeal and spirit world is indeed thinner around the time of Halloween (Samhain) then perhaps before that holiday arrives you could install a stationary tandem bicycle in the basement.  By riding alone in the front seat, you could periodically look behind you to see if a spectre has appeared pedalling in the rear saddle....  

If so, pedal faster!.... :-)

John,   I'm curious,....how do you feel this was contributing to the illness?  My younger sister, now in her early sixties, remains an avid bicyclist.  Just a few weeks back she was doing one of those 'gravel rides' .... I can't imagine doing 50 miles on pavement, much less gravel!  But the winter months are her exer-cycle time and considers the cardio pretty helpful.  

Dylan Simpson wrote:.............has anyone found practical solutions for other tasks that have gotten trickier with age? Interested to hear more ideas and learn what's worked for others!

Likely mentioned already in numerous threads, but I'm ever grateful for the transition over the past few decades to battery-powered tools, from drill/drivers to riding mowers.  A main impediment overcome with these is the need to pull-start gasoline-based machines like chainsaws, tillers, etc.  Installing or replacing a lithium battery pack is far easier and in recent years no longer so deficient in power or run-time.  As the offerings diversify, more items like car jacks and tree pruners are coming out to assist as our strength declines with age.

Eric Hanson wrote: It basically means a roof replacement is in the works.  The good news is that it might be covered by insurance.  I am going to have to see about this.
Eric

Following, and now adding some notes.  This discussion may have solved a similar issue for me regarding an outbuilding where wife started seeing some drips in one of the animal sheds.  Roof is corrugated metal over asphalt shingles and I could not fathom where the water was entering that could cause the drip.  But a 'spinner' vent is near the ridge-cap and now I suspect it to be the likely culprit.  No drip for many years, but as you noted, UV, hail, ice daming, freeze-thaw damage....all could be contributing to damage around that vent over time.  So that will be the first thing checked when the time comes....

Insurance and new roof:  A high wind storm many years ago tore off enough shingles for us to re-roof the house.  At the time, few metal roofs were going on to houses, but many local businesses were starting to use them and a local roofing firm began offering the interlocked version.  Insurance covered what it could and we paid the rest....and it was more than worth it.  I don't know for sure, but I have to think that, relative to asphalt, perhaps metal roofing has come down in price and more offerings available...??  Possibly worth looking into if interested.

Cindy Mortera wrote:....so the urge to spit out or discard bad food may have a survival connection.

The seed-dispersal idea is fascinating too, though it’s hard to know if that’s an evolved purpose or just a side effect of our instincts. Either way, it’s a fun example of how biology can influence everyday behaviors.

Our instincts are quite possibly the effect of evolution so these may be inseperable.  Even if done unconsciously, the removal of dangerous/poisonous seeds and plants far away while retaining tasteful/healthy seeds nearer to dwellings would result in keeping accidental ingestion of toxics more rare.  But stepping back even further, when we have behaviors that we find 'distasteful' or abhorrent, the psychological phenomenon of 'projection' (throw off elsewhere) comes into play where we 'disown' that behavior but locate it in others, quite frequently when 'others' do not even have those traits/behaviors.  So removl of toxics in many forms....not soiling the nest, discarding to remote areas bad food, psychological projection.....all in some way are attempts to reduce interfacing with such substances or entities in myriad ways.