Dave Bross

I think this made word of the year in a few places that track such things.

It's Corey Doctorow's term enshittification.

He explains:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2e-c9SF5nE

I like Mo Bitar's take on it too, particularly his last comment here where it gets down to...it's who you can know and trust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_2YN1MungI

When this cultural mess runs it's course, the decent humans will be the only ones left standing, but that's a ways in the future.

In the meantime, as a friend jokes, it's time to go "full Amish."

Sign out of or quit/never patronizing all the bad and incompetent players to the greatest degree possible to accelerate their demise.

Here's a local guy who has done an incredible job of recording our local ( N. Florida) wild edibles. A lot of this is probably useful across the southeast.

www.eattheweeds.com


My favorite forage? The Chanterelle mushrooms when the spring rains arrive.

For traditional gas cars/trucks, if you can find it near where you live, non alcohol gasoline will get you better fuel mileage (1 -2 mpg), minimize repairs, and make your vehicle run better.
Marine gas is the same, no alcohol.

I could write paragraphs on why alcohol is terrible for your vehicle.

https://www.pure-gas.org

Next best is premium gas from a certified top tier station.
Not for the octane rating(unless you need that for anti-knock) but for the extra detergent in the gas.

https://stationfinder.toptiergas.com

What you're looking for by doing this is get away from the alcohol or at least getting fuel with enough detergent in it to keep engine internals and fuel system from carboning/gumming up, requiring repair.
The top tier rating is mostly about having enough detergent in it. Detergent is the first corner that gets cut to make inexpensive fuel.
Detergent cuts down premature engine repair expenses and mileage loss from clogged fuel system components.

Were I to consider an electric vehicle today, it would be a hybrid so I didn't get stuck somewhere with a low battery.
The charging grid and battery tech is not there yet.

I'm working on shifting a lot of annual garden stuff over to perennial due to decreases in energy/endurance that comes with age.
I'm also interested in different sizes of things to squeeze more food capacity into the small space that I have.

One of those projects is to try some larger blueberries along with the smaller Sunshine Blues I mentioned earlier here.

Reading up and watching vids  on this led me to some great resources for my part of the world, the southeast US.

After watching these I figured rabbit eyes were the way to go for what I want, long life, more frost tolerant, fruit later into summer, and less inputs.
I'm reading lots of positive things about Biloxi southern highbush being a very tough cultivar too, so I'll probably try a few of those with the added bonus of cross pollinating my Sunshine Blues.

One thing not mentioned in these resources is to be sure you get varieties that match what your chill hours are.
This one is tricky for fruit in my area because we're very low chill hours.
Fortunately, there are a number of both southern highbush and rabbit eye that will work in my 360 hours of chill.

Old time u-pick blueberry grower tells how he goes about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_xCSLU6e1o

Nursery in Jacksonville FL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtC-pvd_AcI

Local phenomena, north Florida...when a cold wind picks up on a hot day you're about 10 minutes until rain.

Concrete floors driveways, etc. will sweat water before it rains and dry out quickly when the rain has passed.

If they're not drying out, but it appears the rain is done, it's not.

I think Mr. Jung came up with a pretty good list :

maintaining good physical and mental health.

Good personal and intimate relationships.

satisfying work and a reasonable standard of living.

seeing beauty in art and nature

a philosophical or religious outlook that fosters resilience


I think gratitude is an effective mirror for reflecting into the present and future all of the good and joyous things of the past.


Knowing that I, many good friends, and everyone here, have put up the good fight for what's right for many years.

Here's an article with well thought out definition of this in our modern world:

https://stylman.substack.com/p/from-fiat-everything-to-real-everything

Along the lines of what Tereza did, I tied a piece of twine to the handle of my broadfork, allowing me to push it into the ground with my foot. partially push it down with my hands then finish with my foot.
The string is to pull the handles back up after they've been pushed all the way down. Way less bending over to retrieve the handles is a good thing for my creaky old body.

One of the things I did for a living was mechanic. I have many wrenches and other things that were heated then bent to fit into tight or difficult spaces.

I'm fortunate in having friends and neighbors standing by in case of surplus.

I plan to grow at least enough for all these folks to have a fresh veggie treat during the particular season anyway but it's great to have a network that can disperse an overabundance..

Getting back on topic, an older copy of the Joy of Cooking cookbook is probably the best reference ever for how to deal with something you're cooking from scratch.
Much explanation of why a particular thing does what it does, which is a great base for future innovation once you have the basics down.

In Florida you can still bury the body sans coffin if you get it done within a certain number of hours/days.

An old friend has a large farm, with a bone pile for the carcasses of all the animals that have passed on.
Vultures need to eat too, and they dispatch the meat part of the deceased rapidly.

I joke with her about how I too would be happy to be vulture food, but if anyone in authority, or one of those folks who consider themselves a self appointed authority, ever spotted a human skeleton amongst the bones of the critters all hell would break loose.

North Florida here, where it has been getting into the low 20s a couple nights this week.

Things to deal with that..and worse?

A 10 x 35 greenhouse with 15 55 gallon plastic barrels along the walls to soak up heat during the day and give it back at night.
The water in the drums is chlorinated to keep it useable for drinking long term.
If the sun is out during the day the greenhouse heats up nicely even if it's cold outside.
If we lose power the greenhouse will hold above freezing if temps are in the 30s, maybe high 20s, but I'll lose the plants if we go very far into the 20s.
Two tiny electric space heaters will hold the greenhouse above freezing, as thy did this week when night temps were in the low 20s, but no power would mean goodbye tomatoes.
If I really wanted to save the tomatoes I have a long piece of steel flex pipe to fit my garden tractor exhaust and I believe leaving it running inside the greenhouse with the exhaust vented out might hold it above freezing. Haven't tried that yet.

The old mobile home I live in isn't very well insulated so I might be inclined to go "camping" here on my property in a severe cold snap.

My shop is an old army surplus  20 x 32 truck maintenance tent tucked in under some big oaks.
Anything plant-wise I wanted to try to save from freezing seems to make it in there.
The big trees seem to hold a good bit of heat under them.
I have a large camping tent I could set up inside the big truck tent, and yet another smaller tent that would fit inside the big camping tent if needed.

All my camping gear I've had since the 1970s, like Coleman stoves and lanterns, multiple sleeping bags and grills and other gear to cook over a wood fire.
Lots of oak here for fuel wood. I could have a lovely campfire for quite a few days.

I used to work outside in very cold weather 50 years ago and still have all the clothing and insulated boots from that.

I have 2 small generators and an old pickup truck with the 24 gallon  fuel tank behind the seat, so an easy to siphon fuel storage for generators.

The last really bad freeze here was 1984, with 3 - 4 days steadily below freezing. I remember having to use the exhaust from my car via flex pipe aimed at the water line up into my house to unfreeze the line daily.  
That was the end of any serious commercial citrus growing in this part of Florida. the trees froze right to the roots.
I was in the junkyard business at the time, and this being a very poor area, a lot of folks didn't run antifreeze in their cars. I ended up junking a LOT of cars with their engines split wide open from the water in them freezing, up and breaking the engine block.

If I never have to deal with extreme cold, snow or ice again that would suit me just fine.