Douglas Alpenstock

When Win10 is abandoned in October, there will be millions of good machines available for free. Linux users rejoice! Feeding frenzy!

I will need to have to have one Win11 machine for anything critical facing the Internet (i.e. banking or corporate access). I need to prove compliance with security protocols going forward. Fortunately I can get a W11 compatible corporate refurb for about $300 CAD. It will serve.

I will of course have older machines running Win 7 or 10 as needed, and they will run fine. They just won't connect to the Internet. So perfectly safe.

Kenneth Elwell wrote:Douglas, the weedy nightmare you describe is in fact another mode of the second "modern" block that Josh Hoffman posted a picture of.
I have seen that block marketed under the name "TurfStone", and seen it in-situ in a municipal park. The idea being that one can create a hybrid lawn/pavement, that from afar looks like lawn, and will support vehicular traffic. It is permeable, and protects the grass in the cells from compaction or "wagon ruts" from traffic.

Fair enough. If it as planted as grass, it needs to be maintained as grass. If it is left as open ground, well nature abhors a vacuum. It won't be long before it is colonized by the usual suspects, requiring maintenance. Though if there is lots of truck and ATV traffic they would continuously chew down any volunteer vegetation.

Well to clarify, I never had any sense that DDG was sketchy or creepy or invasive. I was just mad.

Considering the alternatives, I think they have done something wonderful. It's just that the search results have degraded. Based on the comments above, it seems they are at the mercy of a "major search engine thingy with a different agenda." Well that's not their fault, so I think I will cut them some slack.

It would be interesting if they added a "give me the whole raw barf-bag from the entire internet" button. There's cool stuff out there, if you have a strong stomach and a clothespin on your nose.

Judith Browning wrote:The areas with this surface are in a low stretch along a very small creek that must flood the road frequently so I assume it's a method to stabilize the road.

That's probably it. I wonder how they maintain it as clean as it is.

I once did a walking path with perforated bricks. It turned into an impossible weedy nightmare.

This intel has been suppressed for decades, but has just been secretly posted on you /tube.  

I suppose posting this makes me seem a traitor. But be warned: even in this kooky times, Canadians are dangerously nice, and dangerously funny. And dangerously proud. You have been warned.

Greg Martin wrote:I know that here in the northeast we don't typically tap trees less than 9" in diameter, preferably at least a foot, for the health of the tree.  Having said that, sugar maples are everywhere so we might be on the cautious side?  I assume the same advice would go for box elders too?

Hm! Good question, Greg. My experience is with big old gnarly specimens. Since they are often considered "weedy" I doubt anybody would really care. But I'm not an experienced "tapper" -- perhaps it requires a certain cross section to get enough production to justify the effort?

BTW, I don't know about sugar maples, but Manitoba Maples will blast out new shoots from the stump when you chop down the main tree. So these may be coppice friendly.

I'm not sure what grows at the Lab, but in the North, birch sap is known to make a light, spicy but toothsome syrup.

It's quite possible that like us you have "Manitoba Maples" (a.k.a. box elder) in the area (which Eastern maple snobs consider a weed tree). I can attest that they bleed copious amounts of sap when wounded/pruned in spring. I read somewhere that it makes a passable syrup, but haven't tried it personally.

Samantha Lewis wrote:Voles?  These cute little guys?

Yep. That's the perp shot.

LOL! Thoughtful teachers liked Stephen King -- not for his literary style nor for its content -- because it encouraged young men to read.