John Suavecito

There are also many libraries that have cooperative arrangements with other libraries.  If yours won't rent out a ukulele, there may be a nearby one that you could arrange to have it sent to your library.    You could also possibly rent one, or look on Craigslist or Facebook marketplace.

John S
PDX OR

I'm sure that straight biochar without inoculation is a pretty good filter, even if the metal enhanced and more complicated version is superior.

JohN S
PDX OR

My musical partner and I play every 2 weeks.  Each of us will likely get inspired by a song we like, and want to learn how to play it.  After copying someone's rendition of a song off the internet, I will typically format it to my liking and then try to play it.  I may have to change some of the chords, or I may surprise myself with how good or bad it sounds when I play it. I send it to him before we play.  We play together every 2 weeks.  There are talent shows at two of the schools I teach at.  There are also open mikes in town.  

John S
PDX OR

There seem to be a lot of them on Amazon for $99-$199.
John S
PDX OR

I give extra fruit to the people who come to the food giveaway at my church. The receivers of food all have nicer cars, clothes and phones than I do.
JohN S
PDX OR

I highly recommend the baritone ukulele.  It doesn't have the same chords as the little ukes.  It is easy to learn like other ukuleles, but it is bigger and makes a bigger sound, like a small guitar.  You can look at guitar chord books, of which there are zillions, and figure out how to do the harder chords. The baritone uke uses the same chords as a guitar, but simpler, because there are only 4 strings instead of 6.  I play regularly with another guy in town. It's really fun.  I also play the piano and sing.  I tried to play the regular guitar, but the quick chord changes were pretty difficult. I didn't have an hour a day.  It always sounded kind of "off", but now it's great.

JohN S
PDX OR

I remember going through Central California's valleys.  Forest Service people told me not to drink the tap water 35 years ago, because so much of the synthetic fertilizers and pesticides had permeated the water table. They all drank bottled water then.  Yes, there were tons of plastic bottles strewn about that county.

John S
PDX OR

In many areas, you can't drink your well water, because they've been adding synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, that aren't mostly soaked up by the lack of organic material.  It goes into the water table.  This paper talks about a method to make biochar with iron to filter it out:
John S
PDX OR

https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007/s42773-025-00516-5?sharing_token=WgulsZOnS7w33XLPZwigqPe4RwlQNchNByi7wbcMAY6r2grbVa9pygSUhu5QRBxumO76vymTJcFJjVoj0yaVOUlRpQOYAlnlzmXk6-bjY-fu0w5ZUkzjMYgtz0E7TzbTV_GOoPTClLMvU7BR1UZ2paKHIen6NOPGN8tWPOg0U_k%3D

I agree. I would rather use wood to grow mushrooms if I can.  Not always possible, though.
John S
PDX OR

Great info about the available range of use.  Maybe someone will invent something.
John S
PDX OR