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ShopTalk Sunday: How Memorial Day Became a “Labor” Day

You’ve been “blinking” the situation in the Middle East – and like us – I bet you don’t like it one bit either.  We’re going to ramble a bit – think of it like getting out and walking the land for a bit. Because when you walk the land, it’s easier to ground in what matters.

Good Land Needs Good Water

You need water and a bit of soil.  With good management – but now we’re sneaking around where the Middle East hasn’t mattered since 1970 when Scoop Jackson told me as a young reporter “Keep your eyes on Hormuz.  It may blow in your lifetime.”

That’s because Scoop – and people of his generation – knew that oil was coming – and was already here.  They had been around through the Dust Bowl and Great Depression.

In fact – most people don’t know this – but Scoop was a lifelong champion of public power who laid the foundation for the region’s modern hydroelectric and energy framework. His most significant legislative achievement was spearheading the Pacific Northwest Power Act of 1980, which fundamentally defined the operations and responsibilities of the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA).

Civilians who live in the A/C bubble easily forget that Grand Coulee was about power (to make aluminum and refine plutonium at Hanford, WA) as it was about making irrigation.  Depression memories haunted and that brings us to the first viewpoint.

Water is the BIG SIGNAL on Food

Get sufficient even in a few small ways with your water- and keep going that way if you can.  Industrial farming sounded like a great idea – and it was – once upon a time. There was a time no one would dare attack water.  Sadly, those times are gone.  See Iran’s threats.

See the pattern emerging in the Middle East?  Hate has overrun sufficiency.  Everyone gets a check.  But the fact is, one of these days, someone will get pissed enough, and an attack on desalination plants could kill a million, easy.

Remember, I lived in the Cayman Islands for a couple of years.  All the water there is desal, rain capture into cisterns, or imported as bottled. It rains in the Caribbean – a lot. Owen Roberts airport (GCM) gets 55-57 inches of rain a year. A lot like East Texas in a wet year.

Island life with a clean roof on the windward side, and a 25,000 gallon cistern?  A family lives well.  Not the case in the Middle East. Average annual rainfall in Dubai is a dusty 3 to 3.5 inches per year.

Water Sufficiency Matters (or here comes War)

Engineering hats on, everyone? K&E yellow slip stick in the leather scabbard?  Let’s kick this up after memorizing that 100 mm is about 4 inches.

Using Dubai’s roughly 87 mm/year rainfall, even a generous 80% collection efficiency, and just 100 liters/person/day — modest by rich-country standards — one person would need about 524 square meters of perfect catchment area. That dog don’t hunt.

With roughly 3.9 million people, that implies about 2,045 square kilometers of dedicated catchment, or about half of Dubai’s entire emirate land area, just for basic human water — not farming, industry, landscaping, cooling, construction, tourism, or food production. At a bare emergency standard of 20 liters/day, it still takes about 105 square meters per person. And that’s without backing out huge evaporative losses.

That’s the brutal arithmetic: rainfall capture alone cannot make Dubai-style population density self-sufficient. No way in hell.

The place works because of desalination, energy sales from oil and gas, imports, pipelines, finance, and global logistics — not because the local hydrology can carry the human load

Which makes the UN/Euro sermonizing about sustainability ring a little hollow: much of the modern world is already a stack of engineered exceptions, and Europe is busy becoming the new Lost Continent while lecturing everyone else about lifeboat etiquette. It’s a revival tent meeting for the Elites.

[Insert: Blood pressure drop pause]

OK. [resume]

The entire World is crazy: catering to nationalist and religionists in situ – unwriting continued unsustainable humaning levels.  Just dandy.

We only bring up  such boring realities when we’re out in the shop working.

I mean, how audacious of us to mention U.N. stupidity. World Banksters feed into that “money is the only metric” BS.

Keep the U.N around long enough? Like all good socialists, they will come for your resources and mine.  All to ensure energy domination of the seas of sand. Just to hit an increasingly hollow monetization goal of fake “growth?”  Sorry I started down this path.

The old man grumbling is only warming up.  Because systems that don’t make sense die.  Are you and me the only people to read World History?  For the kids, I should explain.  Since there’s no school on weekends (and there should be).

Industrialization & Economics Kill

Ah. Zimbabwe.  Which was once upon a time Rhodesia when I first “worked it” on 40-meter CW as a 14-year-old ham.  Neat place for first peoples there. But then the rich westerners came in, cut deals, and eventually what had been sustainable became a kind of Hell Lite. From The African Collection.

Oh, it can change, but who’d buy into that?  Because the same (wrong headed) cattle policies (still held by much of BLM here in the USA) ruined agriculture everywhere, not just in Zimbabwe.

Until, that is, Allan Savory came along.

The Savory Difference

Allan Savory began demonstrating that properly managed herd movement could actually reverse desertification. His argument — controversial at first, but increasingly respected — was that overgrazing was often less damaging than under-managed grazing.

Large herd animals historically moved in dense packs under predator pressure, trampling organic matter into soil, fertilizing ground naturally, breaking capped surfaces, and then moving on before vegetation was all destroyed.

Savory’s “holistic planned grazing” approach attempts to mimic those ancient movement patterns using cattle rotations, timing, recovery intervals, and careful land observation. In parts of Africa where land had become dry, crusted, and nearly sterile, managed herds helped restore grasses, improve water retention, reduce runoff, and gradually rebuild living soil. It’s one of those reminders that sometimes the answer to ecological collapse is not removing animals from the system — but learning how nature managed them before humans got clever.

I think this was in my book Downsizing, or it’s an oversight.  The old chuck wagons of the West? On the trail four months, or longer.  Draft animals fertilizing the trail as they went.

Modernity can’t stand that. Everyone’s entitled to a big SUV, an air conditioned bunkhouse (with Starlink) and that means? Infrastructure. 

Savory works, but it takes people on the land.  Not on the Tundra 4x4s.

Where Modernity Failed?

When you get “back to the land” it quickly becomes apparent. There is damn near as much to be unlearned as there is to learn about farming with nature.  Open your World View to the Chapter of Twain and read Verse 10: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

Better Call Soil

We have done traditional dirt gardening in the past – and we may bring back a small dirt patch this fall. But it won’t be for the purposes of cloning industrial farming’s mistakes.  Glyphosate-ready crap? Um, no.

It takes less than an hour a day if you roll up your sleeves.  A couple of off the shelf hydroponic rigs. Then transplant to dirt (in season). Then a greenhouse to make your own “seasoning.”

A simple water catchment system, couple of rain barrels to water it, solar panels to power it, and raised beds with clean soil and modest organic fertilizer, though I do love my Osmocote. 

There’s the balance: right there!  I use Osmocote. I have had modern eye and hernia surgery. Ludd is dead.  Not my bok choi, though.

The bok choi is ready to be harvested – I started with an Asian soup for dinner Thursday with tons of fresh bok choi, small strips of ham, a handful of egg noodles, and a dash of oyster sauce and hoisin to round it out.

Here’s the thing: When I pull up the rest of the bok choi?  That (sunshine side) planter will immediately become home to three (small, sweet) watermelons.  The netting is already there for them to climb. It will take a month or two to melonize, but they like the heat and that’s what we have lots of.

Takeaway? You have to learn to live with nature – and if it’s not in “ideal weather zones” you bend on a few turns of engineering.  Which has been our approach. Start by reading up on  (south facing) greenhouses versus Dutch (glass oven) greenhouses.  Think there’s a reason China has a 2,500 year culture?

Tom Toms

Remember our electroculture experiments?  I wrote them up on the Peoplenomics side a month or three back (time blurs).  About 3- weeks ago, I had to turn off my frequency generator.  The grow rate has gotten completely out of hand – hitting the greenhouse roof. Extra grow light time ended.

The 2/3rds height plant on the left was a control group.  Not enough data – yet.  But flowers are setting all over the place in the netting – so we figure about a month out from mozzarella, basil, and fresh slicers (with burgundy, of course!).

In that picture (above left of the towering toms) are some insanely growing yellow squash.  Sometimes I feel like a lion-tamer, trying to get them interested in the 2″ netting I put up.  And flowers?  Nearly as big as your hand.  This is what happens when you get the soil, temp, pH, nutrition, light timing, all synched up with heritage seeds.

It’s rewarding in a “Fire a sautee pan for me!” way.

Same netting continues over the cukes but they aren’t as ornery about training.

And wrapping up the foodening projects for now, the peas are having a problem getting on the netting installed just for them. Aging and a pea problem, you say?  Is there a UREologist in the house?

My AI in the dell tells me the peas will go vertical any minute.  I just need to be patient.

Sustainable Dilettantes

Obviously, this isn’t enough food to sustain Elaine and me.  But, we have a new Atwoods opening in Palestine, Texas any minute.  And that will give Tractor Supply a run.  If you’ve never done the the Atwoods thing, my buddy Dan (who claims to be a redneck) says it’s a peak moment in life to explore one.

I’m not so sure Atwoods can compete with going through old-time ship breakers, like Zeidel’s in Tacoma, or a few of the ones down near Portland on the Columbia as a kid in the early sixties.  But I was not shopping chick and chicken food then.  Maybe I should bring Elaine to hold the credit cards.

Foodening by Objective

Our goal is to get serious greenhouse production rolling year-round.  Not to save a lot of money, though after the first year or three of kitting out, that could happen.

No, this is more like the stomach’s version of what F/U money was to the wallet.  Self sufficiency feels good.  The kind that once you own it outright is a little more difficult to take away from you.

And as long as it’s raining? You back the old farm pickup out into the rain because Nature will wash it, if Ure too busy.

Wherever that is, Get Rain

We’ve been doing long-form versions of “blinking” news for a couple of decades.  And the metrology choices made back then are the exact same ones we would use today, facing another major move.

That says something.  (I mean besides Ure older!)

Yeah, we sure are.  But the F/U of no bills and the flying F/U from having a route to a meal?  Feels pretty good. Keeps the blood pressure down.  Hysteria matters less when you own the ground you stand on.

As long as you’re bright enough to figure out that if you have more people than water, an involuntary military or financial conflict will be along soon enough.  Remarkably, the world is full of people who can’t figure that out…

 

Elaine and I crossed the 26 years married mark this weekend. T-bones and home grown hydroponic Romaine seems a fair plan.

Write when you see how sustainable systems are a better deal than extractive systems,

George@Ure.net

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60 thoughts on “ShopTalk Sunday: How Memorial Day Became a “Labor” Day”

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  1. “See the pattern emerging in the Middle East? Hate has overrun sufficiency.”

    Iggy Pop – Hate

    An evil look that tells me to fuck off
    From the one who’ll never treat me soft
    I start to boil and to concentrate
    On images of anger and of hate

    These are the ways I feed my hate
    These are the lights that burn too late
    These are the ways I feed my hate
    These are the lights that burn too late

    The mean stupidity of what he says
    The millions who admire it and they spread
    And all I wanta feel is just them dead
    And have to eat the things they did and said

    These are the ways I feed my hate

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GxnprKxK6HI&list=RDGxnprKxK6HI&start_radio=1&pp=ygUUSWdneSBQb3AgSGF0ZSBseXJpY3OgBwE%3D

  2. Grilled Romaine ?
    Dam right.
    Throw the whole Romaine Lettuce, split down the middle..thru stalk, toss into some Italian Salad Dressing,, then toss on grill.
    Doesnt take put a couple of minutes each side, to produce a deliciously lite Side or App.
    tbs garden has Buttercrunch Green and Reds growing currently, Romaines bout a 2 weeks out or longer.

    Pennsytucky is abnormally Cold and Rainy this holiday weekend, perfect for DeClutter Operations commencing at Casa de tbs. GrandDaughter will be up for a relief visit, as Mom & Dad are about wiped out with Newborn and super active 3 yr old.

    “Its all FAKE” Now where pray tell have youse all heard that before ???

    I’lll wait…

    Raymondo called it out 2 days ago, here is a closer look at the CONSTANT Fraudulent bullshit they have been feeding the US population for YEARS.

    This shit show is worse than actor playing Bidens’ “shows”were for 4 years-https://ecp.yusercontent.com/mail?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstackcdn.com%2Fimage%2Fyoutube%2Fw_728%2Cc_limit%2Fl_youtube_play_qyqt8q%2Cw_120%2FaK2qsR9bdhI&t=1779620315&ymreqid=635de174-06c5-99c0-1c5f-840005017000&sig=kvZssKDycbrqhRPRU3I2Cg–~D

    Is that in Ure FACE enough ?

    Yeah, I didnt think so either.
    Dam, that is some SAD shit, this Country is fucked with a capital T .

    • “Google changed some of your settings because we couldn’t verify your age.” “Submit a copy of your government issued ID”

      To quote you: “Bullscheisse!!”

  3. Local Tool Store ran a tool event last Thursday May 21 with DEWALT, Milwaukee & Makita reps and some others and offered taco lunch. Had wanted to get a DEWALT 20V compact 8″ hedge trimmer and while there decided to get 20V 1 1/2″ hand pruner, they were both on sale. DEWALT rep gave me a free DEWALT tough series 26′ double sided tape measure, T shirt and hat.
    Had great time.

    Happy 26 anniversary Mr & Mrs Ure

    • there’s a wood worker show here every winter.the wife’s tells me that.I’m not allowed to go..even though they have lunch and snacks….
      one year they had people from the show this old house.. I asked why norm wasn’t there.. guess he’s a little more expensive than they others..I would love to see the guy and his son from canada that has the router workshop.. I always get a tickle when he says there’s no need for a tape measure .then goes and builds something amazing without a tape..
      https://youtu.be/1QbV0jODRTM?si=qvNUBY7yR3KExu6V

  4. We already have a refrigerator full of squash. Squash casserole and squash relish are on the menu. Dena doesn’t like frozen or canned squash, so we’ll make extra casserole and freeze that. The canned relish will keep us going for a year or more.

    The green beans are within a week of being ready to pick, and those will get canned. The purplehull peas are up and should be in production in about a month, followed by okra. My work is cut out for me, and an hour a day ain’t gonna cut it.

    • Butternut squash, split in half, filled with brown sugar and butter, and baked. Mom’s specialty, and my favorite.

      • thats how we do Acorn Squash..cut in half, laid down on baking sheet, green side up first, then flip over and fill with liberal amounts of Brown Sugar & Butter applied, and put back in oven till done.
        *Gots to remove all the squash “hairs”, the stringy crap, from the insides prior to baking.

        • Lol lol lol..nope no nutmeg lol lol.. my brother in law made the turkey one year for Thanksgiving the recipe he used had nutmeg in it.. what’s the word on how it tastes.. oh YUCK…I hardly even look at any recipe using it now..
          kind of like KALE.. I hated kale until I realized that the Italian soup I adores main ingredient is kale..and flavorful Italian sausage

  5. (“They had been around through the Dust Bowl and Great Depression”)

    it’s dryer than hell here.. wind picks up and it looks like fog out in the country it’s that dusty .. then it’s freeze..wwe planted then had to cover them all up..today it’s supposed to get hot then back down..
    I’m trying to get and keep dill and parsley growing.. as much dill and parsley that I use…

    • Mom couldn’t keep parsley growing in the window box. I kept nibbling until it was gone… dead. I recently became a fan of dill when a local fish shop used it in their tartar sauce. Gotta get me some.

      • I love Dill and parsley.. use a ton of it..
        oh a while back I put a jar in the fridge..a slice of pool noodle with a sock over it..then put water so the sock would wick it up…
        I put green onions in it..another favorite..as a test..then put a bunch in a container in the crisper drawer..the one in the crisper drawer rotted and was tossed out way over a month ago..the one in the wicking sick..still free as if they were pulled up yesterday..
        I got bigger containers now from Wal-Mart and plan to do the same thing with dill and parsley..

        • Loobster,

          Do you familiar with Posion Ivy Tea, surefire cure/solution to posion ivy “infections”?
          20-30 some years ago, one of my “Witchy” friends, an Herbalist, suggested I brew up some strong Parsley Tea to treat my Sons nasty poison ivy infection.

          Sure as shit that rash was subsiding within 6 hours of his consuming the whole friggin pitcher in one hours time.
          This same kid is today practicing Pediatrician. We have had some good laughs and discussions regarding that case – shame western chemical – pharmacology based medicine treats symptoms, and does not even attempt to cure anything, as is a business model 1.0 .

        • (“tbs(Herbs)
          May 25, 2026 at 07:23
          Loobster,
          Do you familiar with Posion Ivy Tea, surefire cure/solution to posion ivy “infections”?”)

          I never heard of that… just like I didn’t know Cocklebur tea for sinuses.. in china its called Cang Er Zi San….I bought some to try for sinus infection on the Zon

        • Poison ivy contains urushiol, the same oily compound that causes the rash. so I think it could be pretty toxic.. be careful with tgat..where the xanthum doesn’t have the toxicity…

    • The problem I have growing dill and parsley here in the middle of the country is butterflies……specifically the black swallowtail kind. They ignore the native (supposed) host plants and plant eggs all over parsley, carrots, and especially, dill. One caterpillar can strip a plant in no time.

      I grow that stuff under netting now, and the parsley in a raised container, because gophers absolutely love parsley roots. They will detour around carrots to get to them. In fact, when I have to trap a gopher, I add a parsley root to the trap and achieve 100% success.

      • (” The problem I have growing dill and parsley here in the middle of the country is butterflies……specifically the black swallowtail kind.”)

        unfortunately… years ago we would get monarch butterflies by the millions as they migrated south..today you barely see one.. it didn’t hit me why until the grand kids were in FFA.. getting plants pollinated is sometimes difficult.. so I wanted bees.. went to the guys place that has bees..he transports tgem all over the country..and asked if he could bring a couple hives out in our area..he said…” Not My Girls…”why not..in our area they grow almost all gmo crops..that are modified by adding the genetic structure I of the tobacco plant..it kills his bees and butterflies..if I bought bees and the hives he would teach the kids how and make sure they were taken care if but none of his bees will be placed..the crops are killers of beneficial insects..

  6. oh speaking about the dirty thirties..one of the gentlemen that lived in our spare room..lived through the dirty thirties.. survived landing during D day crawled his was across Europe .was in the liberating forces from the concentration camps..anyway he said they would toss the potatoes on top of the ground then covered the potatoes with straw…the straw held the moisture and the plants grew up through it..

    • LOOB, I have panted taters in old tires and have some growing in tires now. Turn over the ground. Place your seed potatoes on the ground and cover with straw. As the potato grows higher add more straw and then another tire with more straw. Mine are now outgrowing two tires. Have 1 set of tires for Blue and one set for Irish potatoes. But, this year I covered in leaves as we have plenty.

      Next for me is to cut up the potatoes in the pantry, that have eyes and place on the tilled up ground and cover with leaves. Deer have not touched them.

      Cleanest potatoes I have ever harvested! And NO digging. Just reach in the straw pile, feel around and pull out the size of potato you want.

      Cheers

      • I have heard about that..how did you do as far as harvest..
        I tried making a big vertical tower.. took fence wire panels and made a big circle.. filled it with a straw soil mix plated potatoes at every level..the plants looked amazing.. when harvest time came..only one potato ..

        • Lots of modern potatoes produce tubers at only one root level, thus defeating the purpose of the [Amish potato box]. Yukon Gold is one of these. I’m sure I’ll find the others, soon. I’m building an Amish potato box this week, so have been reading up…

        • Dude Loob,

          There is only ONE Potato worthy of sharing a plate with Wiener Schnitzel(tbs absolute FAV) and that is German Golds, grown in heavily mineralized Soil, like the have in Austria..location matters hugely when comes to tasty.

          If you are growing Potatoes for Dinner Table that includes Wiener Schnitzel, and dont use German Golds, you can expect a visit from Garden 2 Table Foodie Police (G2TFP). That is a 5150 situation, using anything BUT German Golds..https://youtu.be/Aa9Y0Hlrlbs?

          Dont be that Guy or Gal.

          PS Dont forget the Apple Strudel, with razor thin Apple Slices..RAZOR thin.

      • You may not like the results you get with the pantry potatoes.

        Taters have their own glyphosate moment. Wheat farmers poison their crop to ensure it is ALL ready to harvest when the crew with the $800k cultivator arrives. Potato growers treat their crop with Chlorpropham which inhibits sprouting (and also cuts the potato’s shelf life by several months) to ensure they “ripen” at the same time. They will still grow, but not as fast, not as well, and not as tasty. If you do this, do a search for growing grocery potatoes (or some such search) and see what the agronomists have to say — might save you time and headaches…

  7. George and Elaine : well, congrats there ya newly weds! Now, to clarify, that’s 26 years in.a.row to the.same.woman then? Whew. The girl must be a Saint.

    I married above station a mere (checks calculator) wow, 45 years ago. That’s on D-Day, annually, in a row, same Princess who adores and makes amends for me.

    ShopTalk Sunday ~ OK, I’ll play. A year ago I upgraded my E Scow lift winch to what was very well engineered and appeared overbuilt for the working load rating. It was. This was a worm-gear transfer to typical toothed wheel and … it turns (pun) out the rather important worm wasn’t machined / it was cast. The cast fractured to near failure while the load was in the lake.

    Friday my helper made an appearance so I worked him like a rented mule for several hours. Before too pooped to participate we belayed the load, removed the dead worm gear winch an old school (way over-rated) classic click gear winch. Now if we could just put on a sky-hook. I have floats but the lift lift?

    It’s race day in Indianapolis. We have low hanging moist air on the move. Possibly it’s a tad better there, cool so fast for open wheel racing. Yesterday I called an audible, a day of rest. Might do it again, watch cars turn left.

    https://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/events/indy500

    Gentlemen (and Ladies) start your engines.
    Back home in Indiana …
    Game on.

    Egor

    ps – Memorial Day isn’t barbecues and sports. Remember them

    • As far back as I can remember, my Mom would make rooted flower arrangements, then when the flag dropped on May 30th, we’d load up the car and off we’d go to the cemeteries for Decoration Day. Watching the 500 just isn’t the same as listening to Paul Page cover the race or Jim Nabors sing “Back Home in Indiana” (who’da thunk the dude was an operatic baritone and “Gomer Pyle” was a skit he developed when doing stand-up…?)

  8. Congrats on the 26 years, me and the misses are also 26 years this year but not until Nov.
    regarding the water issues that plague the mid east and all around it is the continuous flow of un checked pop growth which is causing more and more water need. That in itself is a problem which cause more problems as the pop grows and I know you know this as well. LOL
    Have a great wknd anniversary!

    • Yes congrats from the wastelands….
      I wasted seventeen years with the ex wife..then I to found the rare diamond…

  9. Congrats and happy anniversary to you both. Diana and I wish you many more years together.

    Have you considered dutch buckets and soilless media for your long term plants like maters and peppers? No soil related problems and you gain space to grow up into.
    Stay safe. 73

  10. In Texas, all local politics is about water, not energy, and everything else is just diversion, obfuscation, and window dressing. If a community has water, they grow, if not , they die.
    Much of the ground water in West Texas is horribly contaminated, some by natural means, some manmade. West Texas communities which have made deals to pipe in water from far away thrive. The Others, not so much.
    Water is a weak spot in my current location. There were a lot of dry holes drilled or excavated in generations past. That is why I maintain supplies needed to gather and treat water from nearby locations. If you have not done that analysis for your own property, that goes to the top of the list.

  12. Happy 26th wedding anniversary Elaine and George !
    T-bones and Romaine with some parm, pimentos, and purple onions
    sounds delicious !
    Some fine writing today wordslinger. (hat tip to Egor)

  13. G, how do you control stink bugs from decimating soft vines like yellow squash or zucchini? Every year, I battle them with Neem oil spray, but that tsunami of stink overwhelms and I lose the plants too early.

  15. No damage at the volcano ranch here from Friday nite’s 6.0 earthquake, but I am 90 miles from epicenter on the far side of Mauna Loa. Kailua-kona town on the west side is different, and has considerable damage reports coming in now. Houses shaken off their foundation legs, some broken infrastructure. County crews are inspecting bridges and water pipelines. Biggest earthquake we’ve had since the 2018 eruption with 6.9 earthquake.

  16. “Aging and a pea problem, you say? Is there a UREologist in the house?”
    Gack! Food puns. No soup for you!

    Water… the first ‘need’ of life. The volcano ranch gets 130-150 inches of rain annually. My subdivision has a private well into the Mauna Loa aquifer and pipe distribution. But all the outlying ‘jungle homes’ in the area are off-grid with catchment systems. Plenty of water here.

  17. If you need something to read:

    New research links aging gut changes to increased disease risk

    HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Researchers at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine have identified new evidence suggesting that tiny particles produced in the gut may help drive inflammation and chronic disease associated with aging. These findings offer new insight into how sleep, metabolism and immune health may be interconnected.

    https://jcesom.marshall.edu/news/musom-news/new-research-links-aging-gut-changes-to-increased-disease-risk/

    The paper:

    Gut Luminal Exosomes in Young and Old Mice: Multi-Omic Characteristics and Regulation of Gut Permeability

    ABSTRACT

    Aging is a multifaceted process impacting physiological, genomic, metabolic, and immune functions. This study investigates the role of luminal fecal exosomes (LFEs) in age-associated metabolic dysfunction. We analyzed LFEs from young (3-month) and old (24-month) male and female C57BL/6 mice to characterize age-related differences in exosomal proteomic and miRNA cargos. To explore interactions between LFEs and the gut microbiome, naïve young mice were gavage fed with LFEs from old donors, followed by 16S rRNA sequencing. Gut permeability in vitro and in vivo and systemic metabolic effects were assessed using ECIS, 3D microfluidic models, and insulin sensitivity assays. Bioinformatic analyses identified specific proteins and miRNAs linked to insulin resistance and barrier dysfunction. Heatmaps and principal component analysis revealed distinct differences in LFE profiles between young and old mice. Notably, LFEs from old mice impaired gut barrier integrity and metabolic function in young recipients, with reciprocal effects noted in older mice when receiving LFEs from young mice. Multi-omics profiling, including proteomics and miRNA sequencing, identified age-dependent and gender-related changes in LFE cargo, encompassing host- and GM-derived proteins and miRNAs. These age-specific profiles were associated with pathways implicated in cancer, neurobehavioral changes, and metabolic dysfunction. Our findings highlight that LFEs from old mice are enriched with proteins and miRNAs involved in insulin resistance and gut barrier disruption. Together, these findings identify gut luminal exosomes as age-dependent mediators of microbiome–host communication that contribute to intestinal barrier dysfunction and metabolic decline.

    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acel.70455?mc_cid=1262463ff5&mc_eid=5c3c7d7f2e

  18. re: Arnold is back
    feat: Willis via Norway

    Happy anniversary, George and Elaine!

    Two days after the Village People played Oslo, the band reached New Delhi for an American 250th gig at the U.S. embassy. The ambassador guided the Secretary of State to the stage where Willis and Co. launched into a four days early “Happy Birthday” song to Secretary Rubio which segued into their hit tune “Y.M.C.A.”

    The Young Men’s Christian Organization was founded on June 6, 1844 by Sir George Williams according to Wikipedia. Sir George is said to be a great-great-great grandfather of past London Mayor and UK PM Boris Johnson.

    • re: “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, 1975
      feat: The Bermuda Triangle

      Apparently dangerous Bermudan reefs and storms had already earned the area a nickname “Isle of Devils” as well as Bard attention via “The Tempest” in 1611. Nautical types may enjoy the archipelago’s motto “whither the fates carry us”.

      This weekend the fates carried a First Son to a private Bermudan island to be joined in marital union with a daughter of a late Palm Beach banker. “People” magazine is quoted by various msm noting that the happy couple previously exchanged vows three days ago at the West Palm Beach home of the bride’s twin sister.

      As an aside, the First Son’s new father-in-law is also credited with founding an exclusive Palm Beach private school offering pre-K to Grade 8 levels. A cursory read through the institution’s website points to tuition ranging from about $26 to $42,000 per annum depending upon grade level.

      The founder allegedly wrote a letter of recommendation for a future graduate of an alleged cuckoo’s nest equivalent event as seen in the following “X” link:

      https://x.com/PGKroeger/status/2058217187500872128

  19. “Rural King” is our big regional TSC competitor. Their stores range fom for 8x to 20x the size of the typical TSC store … and their range of products in most areas are bigger plus entirely different stuff too. Pricing is superb, for most products under TSC by at least 20%, often 40%. Cheapest vehicle batteries I have seen anywhere. WAY UNDER the absolute cheapest I found elsewhere, by 40%+- cheaper if you can believe it (have bought 2 and so far both have stood the test of time and weather).

    OH … and free popcorn and coffee at a dispenser near where you walk in the door. They want you to wander around a bit probably figuring the more you wander the more likely you will find stuff that you think you ABSOLUTELY NEED!! (of course you need those baby chicks and baby rabbits! … what about a baby rooster too?, you want to be an early riser like Ure friend don’t you) LOL

    • around here TSC , Ace, and others have a pop or machine the car dealership has the best coffee maker …. when I go to town I always stop for a cup..my friend at the service desk has cardboard chaos like myself..

    • (“They want you to wander around a bit probably figuring the more you wander the more likely you will find stuff that you think you ABSOLUTELY NEED!! (of course you need those baby chicks and baby rabbits! … what about a baby rooster too?”)

      that’s why I have to have a shaperone when I go in.. funny story..I have this habit if I see a product that interests me.. I look at it feel its weight etc.. well I was looking at something and I hear someone vsay Don’t touch that put it down..
      .I quickly dropped it assuming it was the boss..I turned around and there’s two young ladies the one telling the other to put it down..I started laughing the girls looked at me with this puzzled look and I said .yeah I thought you was my wife.. lol lol

  20. HAPPY ANIVERSARY!! Congratulations!! Elaine must be a true Angel!

    26 years is a long time … so long that when I was 27 I didn’t remember anything from when I was 1 ..

  22. Congrats on being together for 26 years. 43 years ago, my second wife and I decided that we would be good for our 4 kids, and each other. We still are.

  23. Happy anniversary, George and Elaine. I had about 15 years with my ex, and when my late wife, Jan, and I celebrated our 16th, she told the gathered folks that she now had more equity in me than my ex had. We were just shy of 38 great years together when she passed four years ago. I miss her every day, often. Gray Fox

  24. I have 6 Mulberry trees sprouting in my hydroponic system. 6 didn’t sprout and no cherry trees sprouted. This is the third time I have tried to grow cherries with no luck. The raspberry plants sprouted last year are doing well. I have 3 and a friend has two. I enjoy the suprise every time seeds sprout.

    I had 5 Moringa seeds out of 10 sprout in a wet paper towel , which is pretty good as they are hard to sprout. I transplanted them into cups with dirt and 3 are flourishing and one hanging in there.

    My yard guy moves over everything so I’m hoping to plant small trees in pots on my back porch and later put them in big planters. Nothing has eaten the raspberry bushes this year so perhaps the hungry critters will let them grow.

    I’m supposed to have surgery on my right foot this week but I have ear aches and I’m on my second round of antibotics, so surgery might have to be postponed. Please keep me in your thought/prayers this week.

    • Moringa… Meringa… filipinos here call it meringai. They strip the leaves from young shoots on the trees and use them in soups and stews. You can always spot a filipino house with a Meringai tree. It’s all hacked up and stunted.

  25. Congratulations on being together for more than a Quarter Century- especially in this chaotic world of
    today!

  26. Atwoods is very like Rural King and Big ‘R’ (RK is out of Mattoon, Illinois and is all over the Midwest. Big ‘R’ I think is out of SW lower Michigan and is MI, IN, IL only.

    Stephen isn’t blowing smoke — RK rocks. They don’t have the selection of tractor implement parts (lynch pins, hitch pins, lift pins, 3-point top links, hydraulic cylinders, etc.) that TSC has, but they have a decent sized weapons department with very good prices, and a much larger tool department. Their ammo prices are generally about 20% under CTD’s best sale prices. I buy bricks of .22s for under 25 bucks and boxes of 9mm/115 or 124 for ~$12, every day. You will definitely enjoy having an Atwoods close by.

    Congrats! 25 down, another 60 yo go…

    • -=ugh=-

      George: For some reason I thought you guys had been married 25 years. Apologies…

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