ShopTalk Sunday: Falling into Fall – Hydro & Electro

I suppose Fall Gardening is still on some people’s minds.  The Frozen North isn’t – at least yet. And the Southern states are not all atwitter about ice storms. But, give it time.

At our place, I have made a simple decision this year NOT to fire up the greenhouse heater system (Chinese diesel 8 KW) until January 15th.  The reason?  There wasn’t enough yield to make the use of burning money (for food) pencil out.  Still, even on cool days, there’s enough solar gain for a quiet reading spot…

Now, at this point, this morning’s article is going to split in two directions.  We’ll do the hydroponics in the house first and then the solar plans for 2025 next.

Planting Indoors

Our first batch of indoor hydroponic spinach done earlier this year was great.  so much so that we loaded up on more 18 plant site machines and are working on both lettuce (foreground) and spinach (background) which seems not to be doing as well because I ran the water levels and lighting too high.

Looks like the Romaines will beat the spinach by a country mile.  But therein lies the lesson.  You see, these were part of our “survival seeds” and several years old.

Which means one of the winter projects will be going through and comparing not only the raw germination rate of old seed packs, but also looking at plant vigor compared with this year’s fresher seeds.  There’s a lot of testing to do, but it should be instructive.

Already, though, doing a lot of hydroponic work (we have a big rDWC set up at the (almost) ready for spring plus a 90 plant lettuce and greens setup) it looks like the old seeds are germinating 50 percent, or less about the 4 or 5 year mark.  I could extend that in the freezer, I suppose, but that’s a lower priority project than, oh, getting my sore tooth repaired, for example.

Troubleshootizing the spinach: The plants going off to yellow from green should have been my clue the water was too high.  I’m a slow learner, though (just ask the boss).

The other problem was these were several year old seeds and it’s not just the germination rate. There’s this whole vigor thing too.

I’m also not sure if I didn’t “over-light and burn” a bit too.  I hatched out the spinach with the lights right down on the moisture domes.  The grow machine for the romaine was 6 inches up the whole time.

Color of light was different, as well. I hit the spinach with white full spectrum, but ran the romaine at yellow.  There’s a good discussion at Bios about getting the light right: Grow Light Spectrum Explained: Ideal LED Spectrum for Plants.  Figure for now, I will alternate days between the full spectrum white and the yellow because in Nature, sky is different every day so the plants can work it out.

Solar Plans

A week from tomorrow, our tax attorney/consigliere comes for a visit and one of the big questions will be “Should we add more panels?”

We have 30 online all the time now and we figure a reliable 6.5 kW or so. m Thing is, over this time of the year you can find some great deals on panels.  For example, I’ve been looking at panels in the $100-$200 class.

Santan Solar – where we’ve bought two loads of recycled panels previously – has a deal going on New QCells 365W Solar Panel | SanTan Solar for $112 a throw.  But that means only $1,120 for a ten pack pallet and some of that may be offset by the federal solar tax credit.

“The Residential Clean Energy Credit equals 30% of the costs of new, qualified clean energy property for your home installed anytime from 2022 through 2032″ says the IRS at Residential Clean Energy Credit | Internal Revenue Service.

I think everyone is clear that Donald Trump made a LOT of his money (prior to hawking sneakers and watches) by working the Tax Code.  Since the credit is there – and the payback on our last batch of used panels is already past, maybe we should up system capacity next.  So we will work on that.

How Solar Has Paid Off

We installed our system in back in 2008 and at that time, solar was hugely expensive compared with today.  Our cost of panels and balance of system – no design costs or labor for me in it – was about $28,000.  However, the latest panel upgrade came to only $800, roughly.

In 2023 I noticed that our summer solar bills had “gone Musk” on me, so I vowed to fix that and discuss it in a coming update of my popular book from our early days of downscaling (“How to Live on $10,000 a year, Or Less!”).  We can still live on less than $20,000 and rather well, if we do say so.  But, it’s a matter of not getting hooked on junk, status, or trying to keep up with anyone.

Here are some of our system highlights for the past couple of years.

Winter of 2023 was cold and even with the auxiliary propane, we still sucked down a gob of power.  Try $500 worth in a month.  Well, that wasn’t to be allowed to happen in summer, so at the Red Arrow above, I upgraded to new (used) panels and took down one rack of well-aged and getting inefficient panels.

I was just getting it all dialed in (by the blue arrow) when a lightning strike took out one of the big grid tied inverters.  But after two boat units (a boat unit is $1,000) a new inverter was in and we were rolling out the kilowatts again.

By the yellow arrow, we were selling 8-10 kW per day and were it not for the “customer charge” ($20) looks like this month would come in right about $100.  Remember, that’s HVAC for 2,400 SF of living space.  Still, we could do better, but no point in OVER building because we only get about 5.5 -cents on the sell side while the utility charges 11 and change  on the buy side.

You can also see (white trace here) that when we get down into cold nights, that heating bill pops right up with the heat pump running. It goes SpaceX when the aux resistance heating blends into it.

See? White line down, green line up.  Welcome to real life.

Since we live on 30 acres of tall (and thick) southern pines, I have thought about buying one of the Harbor Fright gas sawmills.  That way, I could cut my own wood for (wild man) projects around here, G2 who may come back in the Spring from the wilds of Washington might cut enough for a small home for himself.  And the leftovers could go into another “add on room” where I’d put in a decent wood stove with a lot of thermal mass to it and some 24 volt fans pushing hot air around.

Not that we need more things to do. But, slowly and surely, the “workstations” idea is coming together so we can do all kinds of different and fun things without having to “pick up every time.”  To me, it’s always best if you can work on something til you hit a milestone (or simply get too tired) and then leave everything where it is, so you can come back to it later.

Maybe not practical with power tools and really young children, but between us, our “oldest” is nearly to Social Security as Elaine rolls over 82 in Q2-25. Q1 is 76 for me…

The main workstation of importance is thus “Spa.” Which is where the red light machines and massages and what-not live.  Makes a real difference in energy levels and general attitude when you wake up to a good foot massage, some light, and a cup of tea.

So I’m going to go do that again, now, while you figure out what’s on your agenda today.  After breakfast, swapping out computers at the music studio workstation and moving software around is at the top of my list.

A “Coffee sinks in” Postscript: 

There is a simple reason that we have a high emphasis on getting the hydroponics going now.  The reason is the numbers involved in grain production interruptions from the Russia-Ukraine war which we anticipate will begin to impact global “calorie costs” in 2025.  While my consigliere and I agree – the prices will go up, but the main impacts will be in other countries – but the odds of massive food price inflation is there, especially if Trump is subverted/thwarted/disabled by the neocons and they keep the Ukraine war rolling and move into the WW III outcome so desperately sought.

If that happens in 2025 we anticipate food prices going crazy and a new form of survival gardens (War Gardens) will become a global phenomenon just as Victory Gardens were in the World War II era.

Global Depressions are often labeled “The Hungry Years” and we have no reason to think the unwinding and aftermath from current insane (made-up valuations) coming back to Reality, should play out differently this time around.

Write when you get rich,

George@Ure.net

49 thoughts on “ShopTalk Sunday: Falling into Fall – Hydro & Electro”

    • I love spinach and beets onions dam we go through a hundred pounds a year in onions and green peppers.
      I will start the carrots and onions in agar .. specimen trays..its way better than paper towels…I did consider making garden green paper.. the nutrients in the garden greens..but agar is perfect to use and in a sterile environment.. perfect to start garden seeds..

      • That sounds awesome. Its fairly hot here in florida so Im growing mustard greens. taste to me a bit like horseradish so i likem raw on sammitches use it as lettuce but boiled taste just like spinach. Put out a nice raised bed for actual spinach this winter. Love the fresh veggies

  1. Run some btc miners with the free electric. Theres peeps running hot water baths, home heating, greenhouse heating. Rather than spend money on electric use the heat from the btc miners. maybe snag a coin or 2 while your at it.

    IF you’re using the energy to heat that is you can use it to run a miner and get bonus heat. Kind of a neat concept when you look into it a bit. Sadly im in florida and have no need to create heat. Now if I could get a miner that created cold air now we’re talkin.
    I did run 5 systems with 5 cards each mining eth back in the day and yeah they create some heat. lots of it. Mined eth bought btc with it. That worked out well.
    Anyways thought it might be a neat thing to look into for you, if you need a way to get heat and are spending money on getting it.
    Off to mess around with the garden. IM growing the 2 hottest peppers in the world, Carolina reaper and the apocaliptic scorpion Doing really well cept they are to dang hot to eat so its just me growing plants haha its all good

    • Dude talk about “hot scheisse” literally comes out HOt. Like “firehouse.on fire” hot!

      Chaco primatial I and Warthog – Chase the HEAT..

    • Lol lol years ago 2012 ..I planted sweet bell peppers it was so hot that year… in march I stuck my hands into the garden and the Dirt was warm..so I planted half of the garden the first week of march. everyone told me I was nuts..but that was the only part of the garden I got anything.. the pepper and green beans..what green beans I got was maybe half an inch long.. on the green pepper plant there was only one bell pepper the size of a grape.. I bring it in and show the wife we both chuckled..but not wanting to waste it.. I chopped it and put it in the salad..
      oh my god that was so hot even the brother knows that sword there wasn’t a hot pepper broke out In a sweat..lol lol lol I can’t even think how hot those that are bread to be hot are..

  2. There’s a thing… I know it as a “strawberry pot,” but I’m not sure that’s a right name.

    Imagine a Grecian urn — maybe 24 inchs tall. While the clay is still wet and soft-ish, one reaches inside and “bellies-out” some little pouches, like little pouty lips. Each makes a small site in the side for a plant.

    Watering — perhaps with some fertilizing juice — is easilyand simply done through the open top, and drip-filters down through the mass of soil. A small handfull of gravel and a drain hole are provided in the bottom.

    The whole affair is hung someplace sunny.

    In mine, I thought there would be too much dirt and weight, so I put a capped 3-inch piece of PVC pipe as a central shaft volume reducer, figuring it would also guide the water more towards the outer walls and pockets. (It did.)

    I put one small cherry tomato plant in each pocket, and just let the plants hang down in the breeze — no tying up or trellising or frame work — just let ’em dangle.

    Loading this total affair was a bit of a pain. Fill with soil to a lower level of maybe six pockets at that height, and add dirt to the net pocket level. Repeat till all levels are loaded.

    I got maybe five milion tiny tomatos. It produced till the first heavy frost. (I put in a few varieties thinking I’d get a spread-out continuous harvest over time. I did.

    All summer we had fresh tiny tomatos for our salads.

    Reduced soil surface exposure reduced water needs. It took a half-gallon twice a week. Three times in dry weather.

    Advantage? Verticallity — small footprint — no fussing tying up or trellising — low water need.

    VERY successful. Certainly would work with mny other plant types.

    Complicated version of same idea — most garden centers have cheap clay strawberry pots.

    https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Stacky-5-Tier-Strawberry-Planter/dp/B00A3HFNNE/ref=sr_1_2?

    [end]

    • You can do that with a 5 gallon bucket as well.. cut a short slip on a side where you want the plant then heat it up with a hair dryer or heat gun. take a garden trowel and shape it out and the top in..

  3. “If that happens in 2025 we anticipate food prices going crazy and a new form of survival gardens (War Gardens) will become a global phenomenon just as Victory Gardens were in the World War II era.”

    Cannibalism coming too, no escape. Doomed…

    Nostradamus Quatrain II-75
    The voice of the rare bird heard,
    Over the cannon breathtaking coinciding,
    So high will the bushel of wheat rise,
    That man will be eating his fellow man.

    https://theageofdesolation.com/nostradamus/2024/09/04/collapse-and-revolution/

    • I hope we dont go to eating each other, We got ferral hogs all over the place. I guess city folks though dont have that hmm wouldnt want to live there.
      Saw a meme once about punctuation and how important it is.

      Lets eat Grandma!
      Lets eat, Grandma!
      Why would I eat grandma, shes old that meats ewww. look over there across the street at that youngin now thats fresh meat.
      Oh geez this got dark. sorry its the red40 and yellow 5 messed me up some

  4. I salute all you vegetable growers. Possibly I’ll start taters and make vodka? Otherwise: same ole plan here: lay in staples, especially those everyone else might lack, and barter.

    How many pounds of coffee do you own? Bet it approaches 20 lbs here. Salt? Lots. Flower. Ditto. BBQ charcoal? Maybe 10 bags (short there). Butane lighters? Prolly a dozen (with Zippo collection, flints and fluid back-up). Do you have enough ammo to get game? I do. And enough to stock friends if they’re a better shot ;0)

    An interesting jog through solar George. You kindly sent links on how to via private comms. My stopper was always the [pants then shoes …] 1) chimney repair 2) Wallenda painting 3) roof. The trifecta complete I am set for splashing 6-10 panels on the S facing roof to add active to passive gain (he said while water furnace spins).

    Putting pencil to the local generation kit minus energy credits always made cents, err, sense. Now? a no brainer (one of my best things). Among many perceived winners / losers in the *Trump Trade* are solar firms caving in. I figure panels are about to be free. But who to install and set-up the sys? Stay tuned.

    There is a neat convo in the Lord of the Rings where after Boromir and Legolas fought their way through snow to exit the mountain the Elf said [paraphrase]: “men with shovels would have served you better” [ish]

    I need a guy with a shovel. Mrs. E isn’t fond of me on a 6:12 pitch. Me neither.

    Possibly I should have the panels delivered and handle the rest later. Every time I lovingly care for the (6) nearly new golf cart batteries in my Cat lift truck it occurs they are part of what I could use if a lithium stack isn’t available.

    ATL: chill, ESE breeze going SW as the day grows long. Hunters are out but now tired so will probably retreat and only the tough guys be out at dusk / dawn. Big moon out …

    Enjoy your Sunday all,
    Egor

    ps – we B bored? In addition to an existing virtual platform, I have now identified a cash cow bidness to play with in 2025. Stay tuned to Shop Sunday!

      • Steevo: prolly have more tape than the average human, more than any need but … no flexseal. Egor

        ps – just finished moving bone dry firewood to hearth-side and garage stack. Mrs. E is pleased

        • Flexseal is heavy rubber and impossibly sticky. Weather makes it lose its shit after a couple years, but for a year-or-less repair, I’d not even be afraid to plug a bullet hole in a boat with it.

      • I’ve had better luck with Leak Stopper clear sealant. Applied with a spatula or flat stick, it outlasts Flex seal by several years.

    • “How many pounds of coffee do you own? Bet it approaches 20 lbs here. ”

      I have 26 pounds in my basement — unground, and nitrogen vacuum-packed, for trading purposes. I don’t have flour. I have hand flour mills, and tons of wheat — hard & soft, red & white, good for planting or eating — also several hundred pounds each of organic oats, rice, and maybe 50 pounds of organic seed corn. I keep bags of Solar Salt handy. No charcoal — I make my own. Lighters? Bought a case of Bic lighters about 25 years ago packed in 12×12 display boxes from a “roadkill” (semi-trailer rollover) salvage place located somewhere in the middle of Missouri — paid about $25 for it.

      IMO any prepper who doesn’t shop the surplus markets is crazy, an idiot, or has more money than they know what to do with. Counting a couple boxes of MREs and a couple dozen (or so) cans of Mountain House, Patriots, Augason, etc. I’ve got about $4000 invested in preps (much of it is barter items), and about $800 invested in my GO-Bag. There is no way I (or anyone else whose not on some rich dude’s Christmas list) could afford this shit unless they bought it for <2¢ on the dollar, and over a period of years (as I have.) Purchasing a nitrogen tank (or grabbing Kurt Saxon's CO2 primer), a dehydrator, and a top-shelf vacuum-sealer are also prerequisites (none costs more than a few weeks' worth of Starfucks' lattes…)

      IMO booze, cigarettes, coffee, and ammo (although I'd never trade ammo, not even .22s) are pretty much worth their weight in silver in an economy where barter is king.

      • Ray: that’s a _solid_ list of put away for rainy day stuff. I think we are way short on staples like rice and pasta. The Mrs. thinks not. I am perpetually over-ruled. BR, Egor

        • If you have wheat, you can make pasta. Durum Semolina is best, but any wheat or triticale will work well.

          The Norpro pasta machine is not special, but it is adequate. It’s 24 bucks at Amazon and $40 at the Rural King in Niles, but if you go to Niles, you can hook up with the Amish community there. The real Amish store will likely have organic oats, wheat, and rice (maybe corn, but probably not) and a mess of jellies, jams, preserves, and fresh baked goods and meats that’re higher quality than you can buy elsewhere, and for probably less money than you’re used to spending (you may have to hunt for it, though.) Oh yeah, they often have homemade pasta — everything from capellini to linguine.

          Most women go nuts when they visit an Amish country store. The sights, smells, and prices work together to send them to their emotional happy place. She won’t overrule you if you allow her to believe its her idea…

      • I’m considering getting a supply of those very small and cheap bottles of liquor for bartering. Depending on what’s being bartered, they may be handier than a regular sized bottle. My small stash of Everclear and vodka is only for making herbal tinctures.

        Also have a bucket of Franklin’s Finest Instant Coffee for bartering. I haven’t sampled it, but it gets good reviews. The cheapest place to buy it that I’ve found is at:
        http://www.campingsurvival.com/products/franklins-finest-survival-coffee-720-servings-1-bucket

  5. After all your talk of teeth, I wanted to send this along. Do a search on your tube for “The Diary of a CEO” channel. You want the episode from Nov 11 “Dr Sampson”. Interesting info on links between mouth bacteria and other health issues including alzheimers. I knew some of it already, some no. Thanks for all the good conversations and hope those redone teeth enjoy the holidays.

  6. To add on to your food inflation theme …. as a reminder … Brazil is in BRICS ….. and its clear (to me) BRICS will be a Trump target (just reading the tea leaves) … and what does Brazil make mega tons of? …. Soybeans and Wheat

    George, to add to your tooth issue .. I had a #30 molar removed a year ago, yeah it hurt for a few days, but healed just fine. I just completed the Implant process with a new tooth (about a 8 month process), and it all went perfect …. but agree with some of the others comments … as in, the older I get, the more I notice my great teeth over all these years, are beginning to have issues …….. hang in there … be safe, be prepared

  7. (“I suppose Fall Gardening is still on some people’s minds. “)

    got the kids to get me some oak leaves, some maple leaves, I got some oak sawdust, and cardboard and one batch of junk mail…
    the idea is before I go all out and make the chair molds we have to find out which mix is the best to support weight.
    before we make the chairs I will make several different batches of cookie dough.. then let the kids make Christmas ornaments.. see which will work the best.
    I will never forget the first chair.. it was one I found in the trash..oh I can fix this..lol got it done and ready and a friend stopped by..plopped his butt in it and as we talked I could see the legs slowly spreading apart..lol lol lol until wham he sat on the floor lol lol.. well I don’t want that to happen again.
    now on the cardboard mini bar..I should have put a piece of plywood on the bottom.. the only issue that has come up is the wheels are screwed into cardboard..
    I have been giving the cross brace support a great deal of thought.. the other mold will be the arm and rocker.. what I am thinking is this is a lot similar to making paper..the cookie cutter side should be constructed similar to a deckle.. so I will make it 4 inches thick .. then have a keyed base plate with the center separation piece attached to it. then coat the whole thing and the whole bottom key plate. the keys will be Dowling .. a drill guide to make all the pieces universal..

    yesterday… I got an odd phone call from an old boss of mine.. he just retired.. got his retirement funds and he asked me.. How do you do it.. he’s freaking out over what he’s getting.. and he asked how much do I get..we went through what we get and what his retirement is.. and he says..that’s all you get to live on.. yes..he asked you get those programs don’t you..what programs ..food heat utility assistance.. nope that is for someone really poor..you have to make less than seven hundred a month for a family of two..to qualify we make a couple hundred more than that..
    his retirement is five times what we get..so he was flustered and had no idea.he said you worked all the time..yes but the amount you get is based on what your earnings are all the jobs I had were crappy wages..extensive medical costs and the costs of you insurance doesn’t count. not being where you want to be.. is what your concerned of..instead you need to make the most out of where you are and what you have.
    I learned how to make all the crap that makes a quality of life..
    life has been filled with hard situations you won’t leave with anything you leave the way you came in.. owing the hospital and undertaker cash ..

    well.. I am making beet pickles..
    I will start my hydroponic potatoes this week.. and I will get some Agar plates to start seeds.
    https://www.amazon.com/DalosDream-Bacteria-Science-Kit-Experiments/dp/B08C546HHK/ref=sr_1_6?
    I have given the potatoes a lot of thought..I think I have it figured out carrots and beets are figured out..

  8. Hi George,

    When you say you live on less that 20K a year are you just talking about food and utilities or are you including tools and equipment you order for your different projects?

    Very impressive if your total outlay for the whole year is under 20K.

    • That ios ongoing exp only does not count all the crazy shit I buy for projects./
      But like my prop tax for the year was paid last week $257.11 – for the year.
      With medicare advantage very cheap copays and dental. hard for 2 people to eat $600 a momnth if we don’t throw out leftovers…and you saw the power bill. Water is a semi-fiex $48 a month.
      We are planning on social security going down 25 percent in purchasing power in coming years so growing some food, and working at low cost living…more in PN Next week. Since thinking about another book “Winning at Life…”

      • That one month you had for $500. Ouch! We built our house in 2008 and went with geothermal and used insulated concrete forms for the basement walls and spray foamed the upstairs walls. This is a walkout basement so the ICF’s helped a lot. We average about $150 to $200 a month and heat and cool a little over 3000 square feet. This is in Iowa. That geothermal was expensive but it paid off.

        • Real good choices Scott – very sound engineering. Here, we get enough sun so that cooling is a big deal but as cheap to add cooling as to rip of a trailer roof, superinsulate and re roof.

        • (“we get enough sun so that cooling is a big deal but as cheap to add cooling as to rip of a trailer roof, superinsulate and re roof.”)

          look into coolerado.. to doit naturally.. go Korean ancient Chinese or Roman hypocaust .. the grand daughter gets her plants from a greenhouse that has a similar cooling and heating system..
          earth berm the outside ..Foam insulate the walls.. best money spent..and now you can get the kit on the zon…
          https://www.amazon.com/Fomo-Products-Inc-Handi-Foam-Insulation/dp/B00901ONRQ/ref=sr_1_5?
          of course you need a respirator

          having

      • “$257.11 – for the year.”

        Less than the monthly equivalent (tax) here at Che Egor. But, you pays extra to live in God’s Country here in the Heartland. I lose not a wink over semi-fixed expenses of this nature. It’s more about cost of energy and groceries.

        Red sky at night, sailors delight. Though mid afternoon, the sky is glowing pink to the south. Oh, the sun!

        Cocktail thirty :0)
        E

    • I live on less than twenty..and I am a serious tool slut lol.. everything has to be weighed and measured and for what I have I live very well.. and I still am able to give others a hand up as well.. its a challenge and sometimes its a serious challenge….every January when I do the new years budget I fume and fret if I can do it. G has seen our budget it totally looks scary… the article on average weekly spending for food ..well that’s six grand more than we get annually..
      yet my kids come and still seek assistance from time to time even though they make many times what we do. no outings every couple years we go on a staycation to a local casino.
      once a year the wife and I go out to eat at a nice high end restaurant. That’s why my obituary I wrote up simply says I went on vacation. I love my family and friends very much and will miss them. hope the weather is moderate temperatures and will see my family and friend in the future. anyone that knows me knows that I have never had a vacation. and if they are curious they will ask. then they can go down to the chicken ranch have a keg and a few bottles of wine..give the kids each a roll of quarters to play the machines and reminisce
      what worries me is .. expenses you don’t have any control over..
      my old boss called his retirement will be about a hundred grand a year.. huge money but he’s use to getting three times that much.. he won’t be getting what he’s use to.. he needs to make the BEST of what he gets..
      its not what you get.. but what you do with what you have..

      • “its not what you get.. but what you do with what you have..” –Amen!

        I fretted hugely over being prematurely ‘downsized’ into an early retirement. But I bought the Volcano Ranch free and clear with the retirement funds I had and took my social security. The start was insanely tight, but two years later when I turned 65 my meager pension kicked in for several hundred dollars more per month. The next tax season was a real treat. I learned that my ‘taxable’ pension was so small that it was below the poverty level and no taxes were due. So with untaxed SS coming in, I owe NO taxes. And the ‘take home’ of untaxed income is damn near what I took home during my working career at over twice the pay grade, but paying Fed & State taxes on!! So I’m not rich, but I’m living comfortably and relatively cheaply in the country, compared to the VERY expensive ‘tourist town’ big city. Life is good and I can afford the occasional Fish & Chips ‘dinner out’!

  9. I live in a fairly large city. 3 houses within a block of my house have chickens and roosters. This is a new summer trend.

    Have you considered chickens?

    • Eleanor: we have friends who are building a flock of laying hens (and the cock of the walk rooster). Saw a funny meme photo looking over the farmers egg display with a sign that read: boneless chicken. Well, it was funny with the image sez me. BR, E

    • I sure have..I live in a small community..they passed a law or ordinance no farm animals in city limits..
      the year we went with out an income..I traded cheese for eggs and milk. I was trying to get the grand daughter to get a cow for milk.
      my bad teeth and huge dental expenses is because my mother went without adequate dairy during the last depression.
      how they did that then was each family in the block combined their efforts..
      I have had the opinion that the colonies will be the ones to survive in style..the colony where I got my cucumbers built an awesome earth sheltered greenhouse..amazing setup there..they have one for garden and one for grains..
      while most of the people I know feel they can prepare to survive alone..
      I learned how to make wines and brews..lol.. good tradeable items.. I want to convert one of the rooms to becoming a hydroponic center..lol

  10. Hmm.. for us I have 200 lbs of salt…
    coffee.. boy that’s a biggie here we go through a three pound can every couple of weeks it use to be a week..I have twenty three pound cans .. and I have to pick up four this week..
    I wanted to get coffee trees acclimated to this growing area. I thought start the plants then graft the tree to a tree from this area.. well it didn’t work.. so I would need a greenhouse .. everything I want to do would take more space than what I have to work with.
    my dream home .. I always wanted an earth sheltered home .. earth termed similar to what the Vikings built.. with a greenhouse and courtyard attached.. you could build it in the outback of texas.. I couldn’t do it here..someone’s kid that I know did that.. its amazing.. no heat or air conditioning bill..and they can have a barbeque anytime.. swimming year round. it was the smartest thing they ever did.

    the grand daughter gets her garden plants from a greenhouse..he buried vent pipes under the greenhouse.. has a wide variety of fruit trees year round ..

    https://www.motherearthnews.com/sustainable-living/green-homes/cast-character/

    Cast earth is similar to rammed earth instead of talking it you pour it similar to concrete..

    https://wowowhome.com/architecture/gardur-landhouse-icelandic-turf-house-by-studio-granda/

    this Icelandic home has some of the features I like the idea I have is more on the breathing homes of China and the Roman villa..

    https://i.pinimg.com/736x/c0/fd/ef/c0fdef8b469cf3ed96e4d7a45bb1dba4–romans-plan.jpg

  11. After reading Stewart’s words:

    If Russia, China, and/or Iran are going to move, it better be soon. Right now, any response would be seen to challenge the feckless, weak, appeasing, soft Biden administration. Trump has yet to come to power. About two months remain.

    The closer any action is to January 20th, the more it will seem to be up to Trump to respond. They would probably prefer a weak to no response.

    Any action takes a while to start up and “sink in.” In the earliest days somehow it seems less real than a few days or a few weeks in.

    Point is, the sooner the better from their angle.

  12. …Dock!

    And just like clock work.. comes the pedovores’ whore . his own dam self.. right on F-ing time.
    -small r.

    Hickory,fivkeroey… least he can still take orders… aApproval – long range strikes with Us misdialed deep into Russia. Bee warned – now it’s game on for Pooters – money line indicates Vladd wusses out, AGAIN.

    Never thought I would ever say this, but the guy is acting like a yellow belly, a fucking COWARD.

    Might be time to move out Moscow city limits proper.

    Posters seems to be OWNED, so if you live in or near Moscow – it’s BOHICA Time.

    Enjoy the fireworks -eurodopes bout to FIND THE FUCK OUT.

    PS-General Winter is already marching on Ukies, me thinks he has eyes set on urepeons.
    Suing,dun,dun

  13. Well I damn near had to ‘hydroponic’ it, but the #3 vanilla orchid lives! Must have been damaged in transit, as when I got it and planted it, the leaves turned brown and fell off, and the vine began to wither and dry out at both ends. It was pale and down to about six inches when in a last gasp it sent out one viable root from the center. I re-buried it with a gentle U shape with both ends sticking out of the soil, and placed a chunk of coconut husk fiber over it to hold moisture. Fertilized watered and made sure it stayed damp. After a couple weeks the vine stem ends were a deeper green looking. Yesterday after a week of good rains, I went out to check things. (Cue Gene Wilder: “IT’S ALIVE!”). Amazing little stub of a stem has sprouted and is working on it’s second leaf! It’s only 2-1/2 feet behind it’s sister, but it is NOT going to die! This is the rare ‘Pompona’ (fat bean) vanilla, and I have not yet found anyone else here in Hawaii that is propagating it.

  14. Clif High once predicted a year without Christmas (maybe 20 years ago) so I tend to buy presents early. I always think, maybe it’s this year.

  15. JOE’S LAST STAND. Start the war NOW to stop Trump from taking office.

    In “Major Policy Shift” Biden Authorizes Ukraine’s Use Of US Missiles To Hit Targets Inside Russia
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/major-policy-shift-biden-authorizes-ukraines-use-us-missiles-hit-targets-inside-russia

    “FRANCE & BRITAIN just authorized Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory with their SCALP/Storm Shadow missiles.”
    https://x.com/jacksonhinklle/status/1858239614227550333?s=46&t=oXM3QUNDayEotvdo1W-zQA

    Looks to me like they all just declared WWIII is ‘On like Donkey Kong’

    Also looks like Stu will get his prophecy ‘hits’ in a major way… unfortunately for us all.

    • “JOE’S LAST STAND. Start the war NOW to stop Trump from taking office.”

      Don’t low-rate Xi or especially Putin. They both know exactly what’s going on WRT American politics and they both know Trump is completely predictable. Xi may make Taiwan the 23rd State in the near future, but Putin is not going to do anything rash. No matter how badly Russia gets rocked, unless someone uncorks a nuke, he’s going to suck it up and take the punches until Trump is in office.

  16. From a couple of days ago the gentleman from Beliz mentioned not having his glasses with him (lucky him only needing readers) which reminded me about the ADJUSTABLE glasses that I bought as “Emergency Glasses” that ANYBODY can use in a SHTF scenario if they don’t have their glasses or if they get broken.

    Those glasses have a twisty knob on each side that you can twist so as to change the power of the glasses to match virtually any prescription (no bifocals lenses though). They work by moving two sets of engineered plastic lenses on each side sideways against each other so as to change the prescription strength. They actually work fairly well and even with the sideways adjustment of the lenses you have a decent size of in focus field of vision. Caveat … they are about the ugliest thing you would ever put on your face, but faced with being blind or being able to see I don’t mind the tradeoff.

    They can be readjusted time after time so could be used by more than one person, the next person just needing to readjust the lenses to fit their particular vision.

    I bought them via one of those “pop up” items that sometimes pop up when you surf the web, $75 for three pair with shipping. When I ordered them I knew it might be a scam but I had read about them so decided it was worth risking the $75. Sorry I can’t give you a website but have noted seeing them with pricing as high as $40 each plus shipping vs my $25 each with shipping.

    Since I know they actually work and have a solid plastic frame if I didn’t have them I would be willing to pay $30 each for some.

    Just a “heads up” to those of you who are like me and are virtually blind without their glasses.

  17. (“If Russia, China, and/or Iran are going to move, it better be soon.”)

    My thought has been that the go signal will come from Kim in NK…
    Japan and South Korea has a very formidable army.. keeping both of those busy allows the world to go wild ..the NTO Armies are great but they can’t be everywhere at the same time..then If this administration allowed an enemy army into the USA .. our military is everywhere but here..

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