Richard Henry

pollinator
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since Jan 06, 2018
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Recent posts by Richard Henry

I would second the suggestions to clean and re-silicone all interior seams.  Some silicone caulks may cause allergic conditions.  I suggest using a caulking tool.  They are really cheap and the one I purchased has an angle that looks very close to these panels.  Nice addition, the tool can double as a cleaning tool for the seams, place a small cloth over the angled head and use it to ensure the glass is as clean as possible.  The water pressure will be pushing the caulk into the seam if installed on the inside, so it helps to keep the aquarium from leaking.
1 month ago
I remember reading a book on aquiculture back in the 1970's where a catfish pond used a drum of rock with a waterfall flowing though the drum.  Could not locate anything highly similar, but did find a similar setup with photos if you are interested.  https://www.koiphen.com/forums/showthread.php?36550-55-Gal-Drum-Sand-and-gravel-filter-DIY
1 month ago
Several years ago while deployed to a disaster, I erred in attempting to eat some under cooked broccoli and dislocated my jaw.  A co-worker loaned me his Champion commercial quality juicer.  That was a life saver.  I was able to cold press fruit and vegetables and then mixed the masticated pulp with the juice and ate - did not have to attempt to chew.  I was so impressed, I tracked one down to use at home.  Here is a site I found where one could be viewed and purchased.  Yes, it is expensive, but this puppy will laugh at raspberry seeds and keep on rolling.  It can be used for multiple things including wheatgrass juicing.  https://discountjuicers.com/championcomm.html
2 months ago
Back in the day (yes, I am nearly as old as the dirt I study), the most common freezer wrap was freezer paper and freezer tape.  It is a heavy duty paper with a wax coating on at least one side to reduce moisture transfer.  One of the common shopping bags we use for cold items in warm weather is made with an aluminized lining.  They are very rugged.  Perhaps it would be useful to identify how one wishes to store frozen items: meat; specific vegetable; or time of storage (that is one I like).  Wrap different items in freezer paper in a container, stainless would be wonderfully efficient here, and then remove from metal container and place wrapped item in a specific heavy duty cold bag.  That way, even when removing from freezer, the wrappings would be less likely to loosen and it would be possible to haul the whole bag to where the items could be easily removed before returning the rest to the freezer.

One issue I have with a freezer is that it can lose power occasionally and then everything starts to thaw, refreezing when power comes back.  I have also had a child fail to ensure the freezer is properly closed (imagine that!).  Transferring frozen items into a secondary cold bag would add a bit of safety buffer and possibly reduce moisture loss and resulting freezer burn.

Just a thought.
2 months ago
You are aware that linseed is an oil, correct?  I suspect that the linseed may be reacting with your walnut oil and dissolving.  Water color might resist the oil by not mixing.  I am not a painter, but I have worked with environmental sites where oils were involved.
2 months ago
art
Well, I grew up on a farm where the dairy held up for 4 to 5 years after my father ruptured 2 discs in his back working a night job so he could keep farming during the day.  After that, the cows were sold off and my father purchased the first hydraulic backhoe in central New York State.  We never stopping growing gardens, however.  We grew at least 30 to 40 bushels of potatoes until I was nearly out of high school.  Then potatoes dropped to a few rows in a large garden.  I was given a rototiller around the late 50's and ran those until after college.  I read Rodale's Organic Gardening religiously and then took off to Colorado to work as a geotechnical engineer.  After I married, we moved back to Denver for a few years and I kept gardening when possible.  We bought a house on an acre of land in a village and I turned an old trash spot into a garden using tons of leaves and grass clippings.  When the parents passed and the kids graduated, we moved back to the farm where I continue to garden and have found deer far more of an issue than when we kept dogs.
I remember the Jim Crockett's Victory Garden from when I was a teen and could see PBS shows occasionally.  For the poster who remembered the Victory Garden shows, here are some publications:     Crockett, James Underwood. (1977). Crockett's Victory Garden. New York: Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-16121-3.
   Crockett, James Underwood. (1978). Crockett's Indoor Garden. New York: Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-16124-4.
   Crockett, James Underwood. (1981). Crockett's Flower Garden. New York: Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-16132-9.
   Morash, Marian. (1982). The Victory Garden Cookbook. New York: Knopf. ISBN 978-0-394-50897-9.
   Wirth, Thomas. (1984). The Victory Garden Landscape Guide. New York: Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-94845-6.
   Thomson, Bob. (1987). The New Victory Garden. New York: Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-84337-9.
   Wilson, Jim. (1990). Masters of the Victory Garden. New York: Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-94501-1.
   Weishan, Michael and Laurie Donnelly. (2006). The Victory Garden Companion. New York: William Morrow. ISBN 978-0-06-059977-5.

A site on IMBD still hosts some newer episodes.  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1065739/episodes/?ref_=tt_eps_yr_sa

I hope some folks enjoy.
I'd support this. Since the audience is all over the Eco-scale, I hope it helps convince them it's better than an outhouse. I'm especially concerned it proves the pathogens are gone in the final product. But how to test that?

The gas from the system could be tested by collecting it over time and sending it to a certified environmental lab.  The same would be possible for the effluent.  I suggest the collector be someone with experience at taking water tests for hazardous waste sites.  Contact with the lab is a must since they should be sending a trip blank (distilled water sample that just travels to and from the test site; a comparison sample - a sample of what is entering the digester and a sample of completed compost to allow full comparison of starting conditions vs final product.  
3 months ago
This is an interesting project.  I would like to see it, a couple of caveats: I have concerns regarding what should or should not be used as cover in a composting system.  For example, I see in the Humanure book that they suggest using junk mail.  I would not want to see junk mail or colored paper used to cover compost material due to levels of heavy metal such as lead in the colored inks.  That will reside in any compost and is unlikely to be removable except by uptake by vegetation and no humans or animals should eat any of said vegetation as that allows concentration.
Also, is there any way to remove the PUFAs or forever chemicals most humans eat, contain and pass on through their waste?  If so, removal or disposal of toxic components should be a very prominent section of this project.  Put that in there and I would be very interested in donating.
We did not have an in-home toilet until I was around 11 years old.  I remember the outhouse out by the barn as well as in local park facilities.  Noxious places and gathering sites for critters with stingers in the summer.
3 months ago
First, for a drain, since you are likely to have considerable dirt and even small stones, when I worked as a geotech in soils engineering, we had a lab sink with a rolling tub underneath that the initial drain water fell into.  This had a drain that flowed water into the regular sewage drains while the sediments settled into the tub.  Depending on the size of the tub and the amount of soil being introduced, it could last a month between rolling the tub out and dumping it.  The water drain plugged into the back of the tub with a swaged fitting that kept it from leaking.

For a quick and easy foot or knee spray faucet, how about using a regular hose spray head fit into a box that held it in the correct orientation for either foot or knee to activate?  The spout of the spray head would preferably have a male or female garden hose connector to allow it to remain inline.

9 months ago
The form of aluminum for this discussion is not recognizable as a metal. It is not protected by oxidation from reactions at this level and from what I read has been been changed in valance at the molecular level. Each metric element can have electrons removed and then can make new compounds. This is easier if you have studied chemical thermodynamics. The form of maltose that has been identified in the paper I provided the link to is aluminum maltone which is a specific form of maltose in combination with aluminum after molecular reactions in an acidic environment. All water contains excess hydrogen atoms which lowers its pH - the definition of an acid. Any aluminum released into an aqueous solution will remain until it finds something to bind to. The percentage is quite small but not zero. Any feee aluminum will be able to bind in a body with malton, a sub-form of maltose to form, in this reaction, aluminum maltone.

Let’s face it, my professor saw this potential process over 30 years ago and it remains a theory. However that theory is now gaining scientific traction.  There are few guarantees in this life.
1 year ago