Mark Roberts

George Bastion wrote:
There are many alternatives to "obey or else."

True. but none of them are practical, pragmatic or effective in real world situations.
Those ideas may sound great in speech or written down but they don't work when you gather real people together.  
If you have 100 people and they all desire the exact same things and act the exact same way then your ideas will work just fine.
Unfortunately ideas like yours don't work when you toss in random variables.

George Bastion wrote:
There are many alternatives to "obey or else."

You have a guest over to your house for a week. This guest daily wears muddy shoes into the house, makes noise until 3am and leaves the fridge open every time he is done using it. Are you not going to apply the "stop it or else" principle to the situation? Will you stick to your idea of not dominating another human? Of course not - common sense. You will remove him from your house because he didn't obey.

Obey or else is the only model that works in the real world.

Country?

This thread is silly. Anytime people gather in any situation there are "act like this or else" rules and it has to be that way. It's basic common sense.

I appreciate the replies, thanks!

My thinking was that a partially decomposed log would have a much greater ability to absorb water then a solid newly felled tree. I thought if the long winters were keeping the logs from decomposing they would not be as effective in retaining water.

Glad to know it won't be an issue, thanks again  :)

I'm in Zone 3A, long cold winters. When I make my hugel beds do I still want to use large logs, Frisbee size circumference and larger? Or do I want to use smaller logs, maybe 3/4 that size? I figure with the long cold winters it will take significantly longer for the wood to break down and decompose. What might take 3 years in a warmer climate might take 6 in my area. Is my thinking right or am I off track here ...