Kai Walker

r ranson wrote:I worry about that too. It's confusing to me why wheat is suddenly seen to harm humans when some populations have been eating it as the main source of nutrients for thousands of years.

Crohns means we're on a low fibre diet anyway. But I am worried about missing out on some of the other main nutrients that wheat gives us.

Wheat is a trigger food in our family, but this is only in the last 12 years or so. We don't know what the trigger is in the wheat, but it doubtful it's the wheat itself. Probably something to do with how it is grown or how it is processed. I can handle wheat grown in Europe and local wheat that is ground then sifted (instead of separated then ground like the commercial stuff). It's hard to go wheat free without going gluten-free. On the doctor's orders, the family members are cutting out anything related to wheat in hopes that the body can heal up and we can start eating it again.

The thing is, we should be genetically suitable to eat wheat, barley, and oats since these are the ingredients of my ancestors. I think it's something in the way wheat is grown in China and North America that causes the symptoms. Or it might be the added vitamins we are sensitive to.

Non GMO wheat is generally OK. It is the GMO variety that typically can cause people digestion problem.
Same with Oats, Barley, corn, similar grains.

Carbohydrates cause inflammation in your arteries. That causes them to coat themselves internally to protect from the carbs (actually it is glucose the carbs make). Result - hardening and clogging of your arteries.
Excess glucose can cause fatty liver disease, similar to liver disease alcoholics can get.

Glucose in your blood stream acts like tiny shards of glass, scraping your arteries.

Fiber can be obtained from other sources other than grains.
Fiber is needed to offset (aka reduce re-absorption of) bile.
Not enough fiber and you can have other liver and gallbladder issues.
Bile is needed to metabolize fats both good and bad ones.
Just a few things my doctor told me...

Dunno why we need to even list a gender. Shouldn't that be optional?
For age, how about over 18 instead of real age or birthday?
It's not like either would have any effect on what their comments and things would be.
Just wondering.

If you can thin the oil, it could climb the vertical wick.
I like the teapot lamp!
But alas, wife refuses to let me use hers....

Lauren Ritz wrote:Life happened this past year. In January, in order to keep my sanity, I planted 36 tomato seeds and 12 pepper seeds on a sunny windowsill in a house kept at 60 degrees F. No bottom heat, sandy garden soil. 27 tomatoes came up. I don't remember the germination rate on the peppers, but after a month in a dark box, sporadic water, heat, cold, and me forgetting about them for lengths of time, I ended up with 2 peppers and 6 tomatoes when I got here. All of them recovered relatively quickly once they started getting actual sun and water.

The tomatoes appear to be a pillbug magnet. Literally, the pillbugs will pile up around them in a mound until there's nothing left, completely ignoring everything else they could eat. So I now have 3 tomatoes left, one in the hydroponics and two that I haven't planted yet because I know the pillbugs will get them.

On the other hand, I have one pepper in the hydroponics (one of the 2 that survived, the other is thriving in acidic clay soil) that really doesn't want to put roots down in the water. It has plenty of roots in the sphegnum moss I use as a base, but only one stringy root in the water. I suspect it's drought tolerant enough that it's resisting the transition.

My brain says, Hm. Possibly drought tolerant pepper that doesn't like the hydroponics, and tomatoes that the pillbugs will feast on if I set them out...

I'm thinking I'll take the pepper and put it in the ground, then put one of the tomatoes in the hydroponics in its place. Not sure, though. The pillbugs really like these tomatoes, and I'm not sure if that's something I want to encourage. I could get seeds off these tomatoes, then lose them all next spring because the pillbugs still like them. A lot.

I guess I'll find out.

I am PLAGUED with pillbugs. At night they look like a moving carpet on the ground, literally.
Soap water kills on contact pretty quickly. But doesn't touch the hidden ones.
I bought some special nematodes that kill them with little to no results.

For my grow bags, I literally had to wait till cold weather, then COOK pots of the dirt to 204F to kill them, their eggs, pathogens, etc.
Takes hours to cook 80L bags of dirt.
At least I got to mix in some fall leaves for next spring, soil sulfur, Azomite, Alaska Fish fertilizer, and table sugar to get it all started.
Will use urine every couple of weeks for the nitrogen boost.

About a month before planting I will mix in some bone meal.

At least I will start out bug free anyway.
Oh and even after the 11F cold weather there were still some of them alive.

What a pain having to go through all this.

Pill bugs were so bad they were eating the flowers off the plants. They ate 5 tries at growing bush beans too.

I did read you can pour boiling water on the ground to kill them. But that kills any plants you have too.

Tomatoes:
I grow mine in laundry baskets that sit in clean oil change pans of water.
Very few bugs that way.

Rj Howell wrote:

May Lotito wrote: I have seen video of one made out of flat carbon felt and it burns without smoke. .

I just tried my carbon cloth and find it's too thick. Lights yet won't stay lit. Before I switch wicks again think I'm going to try this copper tube warmer. I'll start the experiment by just warming the oil and see if there's a difference.

A guy on YT uses a copper tube in his. Seems to work OK, and with carbon felt or cotton wicks.

For me, I haven't tried it yet. - too busy and arm injury.... sigh...
On my Hurricane lanterns, I use carbon felt with copper wire sewn in to get thermal feedback.
Using lamp oil in those.

I suspect that if you heat the olive oil, it will thin out and travel farther up the wick.
Stuff is a little thick compared to other oils.

Some biochar info:
about one gram properly made has a surface area of nearly 10,000 square feet.

Putting a thick layer of untreated biochar (aka plain charcoal) on the surface will draw nitrogen from the soil and reduce weeds.

Treated biochar is recommended to be mixed in the soil to a depth of 6-8 inches with 2 inches of regular coil covering it.

When making biochar, it helps if you add in come sulfur free molasses for the soil goodies to eat and populate it.

If you use Epsom salts in the mix, it can lock up phosphorous.
It can still take from 1-3 years for it to show great results.

Human urine to charge it with the NPK it contains is a good idea (with the molasses in the mix if you feel froggy).
Or charge with a compost tea for 6 weeks to 3 months.

Biochar also helps stabillize soil moisture levels.

Most sites say to start with 5% mix of biochar to soil.
Add in another 5% if results are not as anticipated.
12.5% seems like a good level for tomatoes.
20% is good for some plants but not other.

Patience is a virtue.

If you have the setup, you can mix plain charcoal into your compost bin and turn as scheduled. It will become the biochar you desire.

I made mine out of oak heating pellets. Perfect size for the garden.

Larger sizes do not yield as good results.

Oh and some plants do not like biochar at all. I think it was carrots that didn't like it much. But you might want to research it further.

Dave Bennett wrote:

Robert Ray wrote:
For those of you interested in humanure, composting toilets, urine diversion.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=human-urine-is-an-effective-fertilizer

My old toilet looks just like that.  Hopefully the property manager won't ever discover that some of the compost I give him for his flower beds is partially composted humanure. 

And here I thought that was a picture of MY toilet....

I ran across some youtube videos where people are using diapers (the crystals in them) in their soil for moisture control.

Some say this is not an organic way, others say it is OK since you are not introducing chemicals like fertilizers, herbicides, similar and that the crystals are inert.

Has anyone tried this method?
Any pros/cons?

Or is it just a bad idea and why?

If it does what it is claimed to do, it sure would make the watering chore less of a chore.

Oh, if it is OK to use, will it absorb compost tea and feed the plants automatically too?

I cannot find 'clean' manure or 'clean' straw where I live. ALL are contaminated with herbicide chemicals.
I have to hand water everything due to my situation.
300 plants is a LOT of work.

Out of curiosity, what did women wear before underwear was invented?

Catherine Windrose wrote:If you don't mind learning a different operating system, I suggest Linux Mint 18.3.

There are so many benefits over MS that it's hard to know where to start.  Though really that is determined by what is important to you.  Time, simplicity, and nosiness are my pet peeves, and where MS fails most by comparison, imo.

Since you have two laptops to work with, you could give Linux a try on one.  If this is a consideration, you can find details at https://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=248 for Mate.  There are other editions though I've found Mate to be most appealing.  Maybe you know someone local who uses Linux who can discuss it with you?  

Linux OSs are free, open source, and have become so 'made for anyone' that the learning curve is next to nothing.  A friend who is not at all computer or internet savvy was actually excited after using the Mate desktop interface on my laptop.  More so after I installed it on hers because Office Libre converts Microsoft Office products.  MS subscriptions can be optional unless you're tied to using those products.  She said that was helpful with homeschooling.  Her laptop is about 7 years old and now it moves like a kid again :.)  (Mine is so old there is no bluetooth!  About 8-ish years old with the hard drive signalling it's close to done.  Still the Linux OS works like a champ.)  Her kids love it and have since learned more about Linux than I have during the past 10-ish years ^.^  

GIMP is way cool and comes free with the standard install.  It's a slimmed version of Adobe Photoshop.  There's thousands of free apps, games for kids (not all junk), and educational tutorials for typing, math, etcetera.  I used the Tux math tutorials to help with saggy math skills.  The Software Manager allows searching for and installing free open source apps, so there is no need to be concerned with anything other than installing apps for your Linux version.  It works or it doesn't.  Super easy install / uninstall with the Software Manager.

Windows is so slow on older computer models.  Tweaking can alleviate that but if a reinstall becomes necessary then all that tweaking has to be done again and those instructions become quickly outdated.  Cortana... ugh.

If you know how to partition drives, you can multi boot to use both OSs.  I use a thumb drive to download the OS install.  This allows viewing prior to install and without obligation of any kind, because it's all on the thumb drive.  If you don't want it, just remove the thumb drive and reformat for other use.  If you do, select install and follow directions.  Easy as eating pie

Just remembered one thing that could slow things up some, not terribly so.  These days UEFI (interferes with installing other OSs) is a factor and dealt with according to the model.  The steps are simple if sometimes long-ish.  This is for computers on which Windows was 'factory installed'.  Afterward you can install nearly anything you want in the future and be almost 100% MS free.  Or completely if, like me, you avoid MS junk at all costs  It's been easy enough to do that.

There is also an app called WINE that liaisons between Windows and Linux apps.  It's not an emulator, rather a kind of virtual sandbox environment for apps to sit in without touching the Linux OS.  There is a sentiment that MS does not cooperate sufficiently to allow WINE to work with more apps, though some users say WINE is worth the bother specific to their needs.  That's a toss up for me.  Haven't needed it.

All in all, about the same amount of time is spent including circumvention of UEFI to prepare for a Linux OS install.  Unless you're a developer, in which case there are probably all manner of fun tweaky things to do :.)

MX Linux is VERY fast.
Worth a look-see!

I use it on a 15 year old desktop and it works very well!

It barely uses 2GB of ram too.