Tj Jefferson

White tupelo/ogeechee lime. -citrus.

Hans, I am very interested in your take on how to retrain MSK systems after injury. I had to go through it once, all better now, but I'm not sure what I did for that would work again because I stubbornly get older. Honestly I don't use herbals, mostly because I don't trust the provenance and I don't have them on my place yet. I'm big into wood-grown fungi, the evidence seems pretty good and I can grow lots.

I guess I'm interested in modalities. I do Tai chi, postural exercise with loop bands, ballistic lifting. I get a lot of baseline exercise from my work most days (I walk alot and have to squat and change posture) and on the hobby farm. I'm struggling with what to do when I inevitably get hurt. Right now I can just lay off for a while, but there is an inflexion point that I won't be able to do it without help. I'm asking you specifically because I've read your stuff and philosophically I agree with a lot of it. And I'm an opinionated sort.

I've tried chiropractor (some really good, some an injury waiting to happen), Graston (no benefit from a practitioner I respect), dry needling/acupuncture (again, sometimes worked), massage (most are not deep or disruptive enough, some are not strong enough to work on me and just mash on bony points). Oh and active release, which was the best, but have really struggled to find one locally that wasn't trying to sell me x-rays and vitamins and was skilled.

So this means I have a mixed bag of modalities that might work, but the trick is finding expert practitioners. Honestly I've given up on chiropractic, the quality control is lacking and one jacked me up. Is there a certification or something that means to you- Hans- that someone knows what they are doing?

Nate, charging the top wire doesn't matter to deer. They wouldn't be grounded while jumping. If you want them jumping in and out, make sure they can assess the situation- height and clear landing zone. Top wire is charged in my design to limit raccoons. My design is 6' to limit deer ( keep out doe/fawn pairs) but mostly to keep the dog in. Anyone referring to insulators for HT has never installed one, since they use sliding tubes instead. Deer basically cannot become entangled.

5' fence with good visibility ( many people recommend aluminum foil or cut up cans with peanut butter on them) will train the deer to not push through and should remain visible for years.

When you drive back from your day job with a painfully full bladder because you can't bear the thought of your garden missing out!

Also, hydrogen peroxide is not very stable. Your 3% peroxide bottle is generally nowhere near if it has been unsealed for very long, I used to use it as a mouthwash and it doesn't even fizz after several openings or months. For making scientific preparations such as Dr Redhawk has mentioned from his other posts, a fresh bottle would be a good idea. Basically if the bottle isn't a little pressurized, it isn't likely to be much peroxide, because it will produce O2 gas breaking down into water. Always reseal tightly and keep it in the opaque container or in the dark.

I still dilute it before adding to the watering can even if old. It does great in really compacted soil that is a little prone to stinky and anaerobic conditions.

"Just to clarify folks, they are not "hot water" heaters, they are "cold water" heaters, or just plain water heater."

Good time to remind everyone of the importance of punctuation and spelling. I'm sorry in advance...

I'm not an infectious disease doctor, but this sounds like an immune issue rather than a chemistry issue. Candida is everywhere. I don't buy into alkaline water for reasons I won't go into. Lets just say the amount of base required to change your entire body pH would kill you with sodium, and be buffered by acids.

I would concentrate on immune function. Get zinc and Vit D checked. Vitamin D is misnamed, its a fat compound and basically a hormone/signal not an enzyme or catalyst. Zinc is the basis of cellular immunity (this is based on my Biochemistry from 20 years ago so feel free to check my math). There is a whole family of proteins (nerd out here) used in DNA and RNA transciption. This is critical for high turnover cells like the pink cells lining your inaards and immune cells. Those are easy fixes.

Then concentrate on the diet that fits your genetics. There are some testing companies that are advertising this, but I am not sure the science is very good yet. I would trust your sensation. Brain fog? Don't eat that. Bloating/gas? Not a normal thing, we aren't ruminants. Listen to your body.

I'm a paleo-ish diet person, and it is NOT low carb necessarily. If messed up sugar metabolism is an issue, I don't think sweet potato is a fix. That said regular potato gives me sleepyness, which maybe is from the beladonna- type stuff in them. Not sure. So I grow other stuff. Corn and rice I feel fine. But that is me- you have to do your own sleuthing. Cabbage gives me gas,unless fermented. So I ferment stuff and feel awesome! Milk lights me up but kefir is a great, no gas at all. Keep a list, simplify your recipes/diet to figure it out. I do restriction then reinitiation- no symptoms off some food then back to symptoms means its not for me.  

Probably https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenolphthalein

There are other buffers that change colors due to ring structures.

Ralph, if you have some chicken wire put it over the row of comfrey. The deer dont like to step on it at all. Then when it is well established take the chicken wire back up (like when you take the first cut). Like you said once it is going you can't stop it.

Ralph,

I guess it depends on your scale. I have made 1.5" blocks and 3". In general they work well. I used them to sprout shrub/vine layer plants (3") that haven't germinated in place. A good example is yellowhorn, things I am paying through the nose for seeds. The smaller ones I used for perennials with big seeds (lupines and stuff like that) that also haven't done much in the wilds. For veggies they work sort of ok. They tend to fall apart after 3-4 weeks unless you compress them into a supernova, you have to have a wicking waterer I think and mine didn't work optimally. I think that was my fault for poor composition of my starter medium too. I went back to peat pellets this year because I changed my setup to include heat pads since I am in deep mulch and everything tends to be late germinating, but I'm doing some tests on the small blocks for the trays. Moisture content when you are making them seems to be critical, not too wet but pretty moist.

I would say if you are buying starter medium, you are not saving much versus buying bulk peat pellets at 10c a piece (I go through 600 at a time). I'm working on making my own bulk starter medium and potting soil from degraded wood chips using only waste stream items. For the starter medium especially under a cover it turned into a moldfest. So I am back to a more sterile starter plan for that.