Douglas Alpenstock

John Weiland wrote:What I was curious about with respect to the clipped statement is whether most pay their cards off themselves or have their bank/credt union do it for them.  

I wasn't aware that was an option. I pay off our cards manually using online banking. It works well because the due date is around the end of the month and a few other things need to be paid at the same time.

For anyone (re)building their credit score, a credit card with a very low limit and auto-payoff every month could be a very good approach.

Good info, thanks.

Given the current trade environment, shipping anything across the border is a giant, expensive hassle.

I'm going to keep poking around the used equipment market. Or maybe I'll get mad and make my own.

Nance Mortensen wrote:...but the whole point of the exercise was to become sovereign...

I like the word "sovereignty" when it comes to my personal food supply.

Anne Miller wrote:Making ones credit score going up is not a concern when being debt free.

Perhaps. A credit rating also impacts other financial products such as insurance -- they view it as a a reliability index, a way to evaluate high vs. low risk customers and adjust premiums accordingly.

I don't find it necessary to go into debt to maintain a good credit rating. Many of my utility bills go on to a credit card (for the travel points) but I treat it the same as a chequebook -- the money has to be in the bank. It's paid off in full, on time, every month. Result: high credit score.

Nancy Reading wrote:... When we set up our home here, we have tried to build in resilience rather than self sufficiency.

Similar path here. While the majority of my food comes through supply chains, I realize they can go kerflooey with little provocation. So I have the land, skills, tools, and seeds in place to quickly double or triple my food production. I think that in concert with my neighbours and local trading, we have the resilience to weather a storm.

Good comments above.

If the tank was dirt cheap, I would consider it even if a perfect repair was not possible or guaranteed.

One trick is to add a few inches of pure clay at the bottom. The leak may not be sealed, but the leakage rate through the clay will be miniscule.

Outwit a HOA? Now THAT is a noble cause!

Personally I would run an ABS pipe up the downspout, flared at the top, to catch half the rain but not enough to risk a plug-up. Nothing to see here! And maybe there's a market for water tanks that look like a parked BMW or Lexus?

Okay, the title sounds crazy and probably is, but biochar that is fully saturated with moisture is really hard to dry out.

So much so that when I complete a biochar burn in a barrel, I seal the barrel with dead-wet biochar and pack it in. It's one of the few things that will fully kill the burn and seal the barrel. This seriously works. The char underneath is dry.

So I'm speculating -- could a fully saturated biochar roof add cooling inside a building? Like a chicken coop or something? Could it create an evaporative flow from the top (black, hot) to the bottom (wet, cool)?

For the first time in years I have enough rain (for the moment anyway). So I can't hope to test this nutty proposition anytime soon.

What do you think of my crackpot idea? Worth an experiment?

Benjamin Bouchard wrote:Literally everything on Amazon is...not great. Even the limited gear that isn't INHERENTLY bad will ship in a completely untuned state and require a lot of setup work to get working right, which is inherently difficult for a beginner. The Lee Valley snath is similarly less than ideal. If trying to go with a Canadian vendor I'd suggest Scytheworks.

Thanks. I'm a sharpening nut so IF the steel was decent I would figure it out.

Unfortunately Scytheworks is not accepting new orders.

I'm musing about getting a decent scythe for heavy grass intermixed with pencil size tree stalks.

I don't want to break the bank but I know that if I buy junk I end up buying twice (i.e., not a deal). There's stuff on Amazon but no way to evaluate its quality.

The only one I can find locally is at Lee Valley Tools. The price is eye-watering ($235 CAD plus tax) but if it's good for 15 years it would be an investment.

What do you guys think of it?

https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/garden/garden-care/lawn-care/scythes/10198-traditional-austrian-scythe-set