Douglas Alpenstock

Derek Thille wrote:Another thing to consider is seasonality of supply availability.  By that I mean the season snow shovels are available ...  

Depends on your supply source. It helps to be a contrarian -- in late spring/ early summer, during garage-clean-out season, I have my pick of free snow shovels that have a ding or two and need my attention for about 5 minutes. When I look at what big box stores charge for a hunk of plastic on a stick, I'm pretty sure I make more than a lawyer.

This is interesting. Apparently it works with lentils, certain soy, and some beans (avoid kidneys). I'll be interested to try cooking with these since it is said to be much easier to digest.

I also want to create a winter dog food supplement to cut down on costs -- sprouted peas could be part of the dog stew.

I call it "The Three Pleasures." (Dear Wife might call it "the unholy trinity.")

1. Pleasure in acquiring (esp. free stuff)

- I have great sources for free stuff, and a lot of good stuff comes home with me. This is much more fun that shopping on Amazon, because it's free. I know how to clean stuff and repair / reuse it. It does tend to pile up after a while.

2. Pleasure in repairing / regifting

- Snow shovels, for example. The blades get worn and people toss them out and buy a new one. I can repair one in about 5 minutes with a fine tooth wood saw. So I collect and repair them year round. At the first snow I thin out the collection and give away what I can't use.

- Recently I scrounged a whole box of reading glasses. Like, 40+ pairs. Obviously someone cleaned on their parents' house and set them out in the "free" section. I grabbed the whole box, cleaned them up with soap and water, repaired a few that were damaged, and kept the ones I could use. The majority went to the local thrift shop, where folks will get good quality readers for 10% of retail.

3. Pleasure in refocusing the collection ("making order" -- turning a jumble of chaos back into a reservoir of resources)

- Hello thing. I can still use you. I'm going to put you where I can find you.

- Okay, thing. Plans changed. Thanks for stopping by. Now off you go to entertain / irritate someone else.

- Sorry, thing. I'll never get around to repairing you, so off you go to the recycle / landfill.

As soon as I get the feeling my "stuff" is starting to own me, instead of the reverse, #3 is activated. It's easier to be ruthless when it was free in the first place.

I regret that my post has caused such a ruckus -- clearly I have struck a raw nerve. That is unfortunate, and unintentional. I still remain completely baffled as to how this could be considered an attack on Paul -- on his own site no less. Though perhaps semantics plays in -- I think of Paul as an advocate for positive change, and therefore more credible than fly by night I-types.

I will stand down a while and consider what is appropriate to post. Cheers.

Ah! I see we've had a misunderstanding. I had assumed that "influencer" was commonly understood these days to mean online marketing influencers (i.e., essentially paid corporate shills and hucksters, hawking fast fashion and consumerist crapola that nobody actually needs). It's a marketing industry estimated to be worth $21 billion. Pushback is good.

The linked article is very much in synch with the conversations we have on this forum.

'Maybe you'll realise what you have is good enough': Why influencers are facing a pushback

Rejecting the "haul" culture of excessive shopping and promoting conscious consuming, the de-influencer movement is going mainstream – here's why.

Yes, this.

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20250107-why-the-pushback-against-influencers-is-growing

I wonder if the disappearing trap has a rabbit in it? Maybe somebody thinks they are doing the right thing, relocating the poor darling innocent bunny. Or maybe they're putting it in the stew pot.

Is your property line clearly marked as "private property?" Maybe somebody thinks they are preventing private mischief on public land. People get strange notions sometimes.

I wonder how much weight each one can consistently bear without damage. Maybe 25 lbs?

Can two of them be joined together with a single nut? That's 50 lbs, and the nut could be welded to a steel frame. 20 pairs would support 1000 lbs.

This could be a handy "crawler," a version of a stoneboat for dragging bulky and awkward loads around the homestead. 1.5" to shaft is not a lot of clearance, but maybe it's just enough.

Greg Martin wrote:My rhubarb experiment this year will be growing out these Early Champagne Rhubarb seeds from the Roughwood Center.  My thinking is that with rhubarb's large leaves that they might be ok in shadier spaces, but that getting them to leaf out earlier when shade is lighter that maybe they might be better able to handle life under deciduous trees in my food forest.  Going with seeds is just hoping that there will be enough genetic variability to give a few of them a better chance with handling shadier conditions.

Interesting idea! I confess I have no idea what varietals I have -- the details of where the divides came from has been lost in the sands of time. They certainly like full sun, though any that are in shade tend to grow more slowly and stay at a nice, harvestable diameter as long as I keep them watered. Shade usually means competition with big trees. The full sun ones tend to bolt to seed rapidly if it's a dry year, despite watering. the shade ones less so if they are kept damp and given a good wood chip mulch.

Can you give us a picture of your stove?

I have played around with a variety of portable tent / hunter stoves. Some draw surprisingly well (Camp Chef Alpine Cylinder Stove). Others need babysitting, taller chimneys, no elbows, and a 3-4" hanging flap of sheet metal added to the front opening so they don't smoke back. The extra-cheap tiny ones are impossible frustrations IMO.

If it's a 6" pipe, you can buy rotating chimney caps that turn with the breeze and create a "wing" effect creating slightly more draw and limiting downdraft.

EDIT: There are also adjustable angle elbows that avoid the "hard stop" of a 90 degree fixed elbow. They tend to be spendy though. For outdoor / temporary installations I have cheated and used old HVAC adjustable elbows, the ones where the metal is reasonably thick. Scrounged from the recycling centre.