John Weiland

Following this thread now.  Doc thinks my high blood pressure and other factors weighed in on a mild stroke back in January.  Looking into dietary/herbal assistance for hypertension as well as possibly switching medications.  Blood pressure can be pretty high, even upon waking....which has led to suggestion of apnea contributing to oxygen debt and elevated blood pressure.  So again, CPAP came up and for many reasons I'd rather not go down that road.  Would consider the mouthguard type of fix before that, but also hoping more chime in about what may have worked for them.  I'm a side-sleeper..... except when I can't.  The 4 am insomnia usually makes me sit up against pillows and try to meditate back to sleep, which usually works.  Anyway, hoping others continue with this thread and new solutions emerge from the discussions.

The comedian Dave Barry used to work for the Miami Herald and had a recurring column.  He mentioned a 'gathering' in a local big box retail parking lot where guys would assemble to pay tribute to their run-down, wheezing canister vacuum cleaners.  After plugging them into a remote generator via extension cord, the terminal Hoover was given a send-off by sucking up some gasoline.  The sparks in the motor would ignite the contents resulting in a small mushroom cloud over the parking lot.  Yeah.....guys and their visions. :-) .... but old gas would probably work as good as new..? LOL

John F Dean wrote:The first thing I did after I bought my property in MN was to have a well put in.  It was the correct decision for me.

We inherited our well in northern Minnesota and have never regretted it.  Water is so critical....  In a pinch for the animals, we can chop a hole in the ice of the nearby river and haul some up, but as we are aging, that is a less desirable option.  Trying to keep above ground tanks from freezing in winter would be extremely difficult I wager.  As an alternative, I did hear once of a person sinking a milk-truck tank into the ground far enough that his 'water stash' did not freeze.

Just adding to the chorus that recommends some sort of larger shed/pole building as a first build.  You can park tents, camper trailers, etc. inside to keep yourself away from the elements temporarily and store so much more in there to keep things dry.  And in the spirit of "buffers", during cold periods, the dead air 'buffer' in the building reduces exposure to rain/snow and extreme wind and cold.  Good luck!

Jt Lamb wrote:...... *Must Have Buffers*, in every system!

This statement capped off a very interesting and nice thread.  Thank you for this!...

Sunchoke/Jerusalem Artichoke.   It would be a non-woody perennial that would not suck as much water as corn, but would provide a decent wind-break,--and you could eat the tubers to boot!  Not great on shade, but may be good for the other factors.

My purchase of Corelle dishware is of the all-white variety and done in the past year.  Still, an unfortunate development for so many who have or may have been using contaminated ceramics from various sources.  Just posting this additional informative article....if it's blocked for too many Permies members, I'll remove it in a future edit:

https://www.consumerreports.org/lead/why-you-should-test-your-vintage-or-imported-dishes-for-lead-a2722202665/

Of all of the other toxics we have to worry about, this would not have been at the top of my list!...... Hmmmmm.

Lending an ear while 'Harley' relays the events of the day..... :-)

If the seeds and soil are the same and you feel the soil moisture is the same, then I would check soil temperature.  If you have a pair of thermometers, put one in the pot and one in the larger tub and try to monitor the temperature across as much of the day as you can.  That may be part of the difference.....worth checking.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:A quick method of reducing the photo resolution to a Permies-friendly size is to:
- open the photo on your PC
- use the screen grab program (Snipping Tool or Snip-and-Sketch in Windows / Take Screenshot in Linux Mint) to capture a low-res image to clipboard
- save the screen grab image as a file and then upload directly to Permies.

Agreed....I find this much easier than trying to "resize" images in the plethora of imaging programs that may or may not reduce image size (bytes) to a desired level.

Great to hear about the yogurt success!    Did the other batch get more tangy with time?  Other than the link I posted above, I'm not familiar with 'pre-biotics'.....is this something you can buy from a health food store or what did you add in your case?  I would like to try this in the almond/cashew milk yogurt that we occasionally make.  Thanks!....