Big report today: Well over 5,000 words plus 29 graphics so it may load a bit slow… What we have is a complete step-by-step on how to put in some home deep water culture (DWC) hydroponics and a big discussion in the chart section about whether the G-20 is driving global stock prices, or whether the US is “leading.” Damn tough one to decide, that ‘un.
Oh, like that’s not enough? Fresh CPI figures out from the Labor Department, too. (Reminds me of the old broadcast journalist “Rip N. Reed” who was rumored to have been a WSU b/j grad…)
So two cups and maybe three as we roll though what matters minus the ILRF (idiot level ratings fluff).
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George, before you dig too deep into home Deep Water Culture and hydroponics You may benefit from having your water quality carefully checked out. Had a buddy that didn’t and it turned out after design committing to a design, installing tanks, and support systems ($$$$) the whole thing failed due to the water purification chemistry. The fish were too sensitive to that chemistry and began to die off. Our municipality has also changed the recipe for “water” and is now using a cheaper chloramine purifier and bacteria suppressant among the many others used in water treatment. Of course, the pamphlets they hand out gives glowing reviews regarding the fabulous water quality they produce. All safe and good to drink they say…
Just ‘sayin, check out the compatibility between what you are being provided for water and the crop you intend to raise. Good luck!
Exactly..
A few years back now they changes acceptable levels . Before that our water had such a high dose of uranium and arsenic that they suggested everyone put in filtration . Then all of a sudden ok..
I probably overfilled drinking water but then that’s ok with me .
I did aquaponics loved it the only problem I had was the fish became pets.. I couldn’t eat them . Gave em away .one tilapia was a couple feet long and close to ten pounds lol.. prawns, red claw which you can get easily since they are close to you. And crawdads.. it was fun. I used tanks
Not and have fun..
Over filter
@ Anonymous
“Over filter”
Naw…
Set up a few barrels or a tarp-cistern in the fall, to catch rainwater.
Rainwater, even if rendered non-potable by foliage detritus, is the best choice for plants.
Folks these days just try to overengineer, to make easy stuff difficult…
Ray.. I actually had a five hundred gallon rain barrel water storage.. with filtration unit on it.. either electric or hand cranked RO system with ozone injection ran by solar.. LOL LOL .. what shocked me is in less than five minutes with the water off of one fourth of the roof it was overflowing.. I used that for the aquaponics.. I made a few mistakes.. like making a nursery on the bottom of the tanks..
tank heaters to keep it at a stable temp..
I did it just to see..
Now the hoot is.. my grandson.. aka Dr.Doolittle.. four years old was worried about the rabbit in the yard.. insisted he feed it through the winter.. so.. now the rabbit had babies.. it runs up to him to get his carrot.. we caught one of the babies.. and put it in a small chalet cage.. but the mother is now bringing all the babies to us to feed.. I have the taj mahal of cages that we plan on putting up on sunday. then I will catch the rest of them.. and put them in.. so I might be raising rabbits soon LOL.. the rabbits come up while I am reading and sit at my feet.. I sometimes worry that while rocking I will accidentally rock on its feet.. so I have to be careful.. the babies are a little skittish but they are coming up to the veranda now to.. I had put a carrot in the chalet.. the mom pushed the little one in it then laid down in the door way to make sure no vile critter came up to hurt it.. she laid there while it napped.. damndest thing you ever seen.. this four year old running out wheres my rabbit and the rabbit comes running if it hears his voice.. he fell playing once.. got hurt.. the rabbit was watching the first instinct was to run away.. but then the rabbit came back to make sure he was ok LOL LOL LOL that is Jack the bunny not jack the rabbit.. Thumper is going to go to the vet to be checked over next week..
LOL last night he came up.. mom bought him some bubble gum.. he wanted to share it with thumper.. LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL I had to explain to him rabbits dont chew bubble gum but that was a nice gesture.. give him some lettuce or a carrot instead..
All the “free” financial markets are being driven by warring algorithm trades and sovereign state head butting, so the prospects for small investors are gradually diminishing. I have begun to suspect that the Elliott analysis is not up to the task of explaining inhuman trading patterns. All this implies that for the small investor the bonds, commodities, equities and perhaps even cryptos are now a dead end sucker’s bet for most.
Real estate is very crowded and always risky, though if you actually own property, then you really do own something. Owning a modest home outright in an area with low property taxes and utilities is always a good investment. Agricultural property liquidity is highly cyclical, and I would expect that the same problems which are effecting other equity markets will begin affecting agricultural real estate as well.
In short, if you have a steady job and are operating in the black, try and hang on to it, because you can do worse. The corporate brown shirts are targeting the higher end professional jobs for extinction, so holding a modest but steady job may actually pay better in the long run. Jobs with benefits from employers who are not highly politicized are especially valuable in this age of computer blacklisting and social media gang stalking.
Absolutely – and on the Peoplenomics side, we will be spending a little less time on techni8cal market discussions and more on “big picture” and where did we “go wrong?”
Next chapter of the book will cover the housing picture..but you’re right – a paid up home in a low tax area is a great thing.
Out here, we pay about $48 a month in taxes – on 30 acres.
We have been considering a couple of places up the road in Tylerr, Texas, but without the senior tax breaks, these homes are in the $4,800 a year ($400/.month) tax range and that is just plain stupid.
The government is, perhaps, going socialist because eventually, them’s that collect the money will have the right to seize homes for non-payment (to the govt) and that will make the govt the big property owner. Only problem (like BTC’s hidden problem): When the socialists and govt get everything, how will they support themselves?
Stalin got there first: work or die collectives.
Give it time – history repeats.
While many people get worked up about all sorts of, frankly, bizarre low-probability survivalist scenarios, the scenario that makes me most uncomfortable is the bad times home seizure due to non-payment of real estate taxes. When economics go completely to hell for you, you can bet that the people who never lose their jobs will be the revenuers, regardless of the circumstance. The more desperate the situation, the more control the King’s men always have, and the less options you will be given.
I don’t see the socialists as any more likely to seize property than any of the past or present local partisan gangs or banksters. Here locally in the depression era, people who asked for as little as one week extensions on mortgages had entire farms foreclosed on, even when they had the money to pay in process. The socialists are just more likely to cause the economic crisis which leads to the non-payment seizure. The laws which protect property owners from unreasonable seizures by creditors can be repealed with a single vote of the legislature, and likely will be repealed if the revenuers can’t meet their payroll obligations statewide.
The question then is what investments do you keep as a hedge for fending off the tax man from seizing your home. I doubt that one answer covers all scenarios, or that any combination can guarantee you aren’t forced into a tent. Oh, and by the way, even if you don’t camp, keeping a serviceable heavy duty tent for plan B is a good idea. I like the Marine combat tents, myself. You can buy a used mil-spec one from many sources, but the civilian version is still available brand new from Diamond Brand in NC. If this discussion makes you uncomfortable, then that just means you understood it.
I share your nightmare. – More in this morning’s column.
Morning George, Fun Peoplenomics read this morning. as long as you have the space which you do, may suggest you take your growing in a slightly different direction. I suggest you and Elaine consider Aquaponics, which gives you great return for dollar and time investment and gives you fresh fish for the table. Here are a few links:
First I suggest searching out a meetup group in your area. https://www.meetup.com/
Then, a meetup aquaponics in your area like this:
Aquaponics groups | Meetup
https://www.meetup.com/topics/aquaponics/
Meet others in your local area interested in Aquaponics, the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics. Together, seek to enhance the productivity of the …
Tucson AquaPonics Project (Tucson, AZ) | Meetup
https://www.meetup.com/Tucson-AquaPonics-Project/
The Tucson AquaPonics Project – http://www.TucsonAP.org – has been created to bring community-scale aquaponics to the greater Tucson metro area, as well …
Introduction to the Design and Construction of Home Aquaponic …
https://www.meetup.com › Tucson AquaPonics Project › Events
Aquaponics, the integration of aquaculture and hydroponics has become incredibly popular because it provides the opportunity for sustainable, localized, …
And a google search: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=aquaponics
will produce video’s and local information for your area. If you don’t get good results in your area. Then do a “aquaponics + Tucson, AZ” to your google search.
This should work well in your area. Also keep an eye out for Houston or Dallas-Ft. Worth aquaponics tours. They usually have one here in Tucson each year and that opens about 25 to 30 homes with active aquaponics home owners showing off there handy work. These people are always full of great information and you’ll find wonderful friendships made during these tours.
Good luck, Roger in Tucson
Kind of hard to get to such meetings (time and distances issue) but in a cool place to live (like Tucson) it’s great.
One of the barriers to aquaponics (well aware of it!) is that our air and ground temps get high in the summer and it was too late this year to go digging a 20-foot long, 10 foot wide, 6 foot deep pond which would maybe work. But that would mean moving the garden, greenhouse, running new power down to the lower 16 acres and that’s approaching “work” which we don’t want to get too carried-away with.
By the way, Tucson – real I mentioned it being a cool place – has also been one of the real hotbeds in the development of packet (ham) radio protocols and such. See their breakthrough $29 WSPR-Pi SDR radio information here https://tapr.org/kits_20M-wspr-pi.html. I did mention, Tucson is cool people, right?
I have the same problems as George regarding meetups. It takes a day if you’re at a distance and their requirement for RSVP’s plays havoc with schedules that are built around the weather and how you’re feeling on a given day. Meetups can be helpful for finding a few friends(not that helpful), but the time/payback ration is all out of whack. The same is true for most enthusiast clubs. They work far better for people who actually have “spare time” and “nothing to do”.
Sir,
“A baggepype wel coude he blowne and sowne.” Lettuce give thanks. Welcome back from the cryptonite mines! And in your average way weathered mean and mode to slay the climate change dragon, you say? “The Glass” is rising; stand aside Bruce Willis!
One is compelled to avail of country airs and review again, before the surging stormfront arrives, “A Field Guide to Lies – critical thinking in the information age” by Daniel J. Levitin.
The deer would sue for damages – the cats have already filed suit and it’s pending, following an outlandishingly loud playing of Wicked Tinkers at full volume…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOGG7p-EOmQ
George…
You have to Google rain gutter grow system.. larry Hall…
Hes been doing this for some years now has a few million followers from all around the globe. Great guy… great idea..
He has had some monster plants to ..
https://www.smallscalelife.com/intro-rain-gutter-grow-systems/
I use final fence post covers with end caps and net pots..
Suggestion: Lose those crappy Sterilite containers and get HDX Tough-Totes instead. They’re UV-resistant, about 3x as dense as Bella or Sterilite, and are much stronger than even Rubbermaid Roughneck Totes. They’re polypro instead of polyethylene, so may crack if dropped, (AFAIK Roughneck are the only ones which won’t), but for sheer strength… ‘Worth the drive to Tyler ($7 cheaper, each, at Home Depot vs Amazon. They usually keep 17 and 27 gallon sizes in-stock, but call or order online, to ensure the ones you want are there at the same time as you…)
https://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-27-Gal-Tough-Storage-Tote-in-Black-HDX27GONLINE-5/205978361
Melon plants like it hot — the fruit, not so much. Watermelon vines will run 9-12 feet. I’ve had muskmelon and cantaloupe run nearly 18′. Expect to cull the fruit so as to only grow two melons per vine (I was about 10, the first time I grew watermelon. I had 5-7 per vine, and when their stems dropped, I had the most-perfect, softball-sized melons you ever saw!)
Growing season is 15 weeks m/l and “vine-ripened” is always best (but rarely completely achievable.) Watch your nutrient levels. If the melons grow too rapidly, they will lose flavor (which is why Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee melons are much more flavorful than California melons) and can grow out of their rinds, splitting the fruit (which obviously ruins them.)
Your trellis must support 2 10# cantaloupe or 30# watermelon, and once they become larger than a golf ball, should be supported with a tray (I use a wood “platter” made from whatever scrap is handy), a layer of visco-elastic foam, Visqueen, then hay or dry grass. Moisture causes them to rot, hence the vapor barrier and hay. The stems are delicate and the bigger the fruit, the more-delicate they become. If the stem gets damaged, the fruit dies, so tray them sooner, rather than later.
A ½”-1″ memory foam mattress pad (like this one – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003LVY4H0 ) can be had for cheap — much cheaper than buying the foam from an upholstery supplier, and will make a lot of pads for a lot of things.
I’ve never even considered growing melons hydroponically. I will be terribly interested in your experience. Corn and melons like a soil temperature of 82°+ (I believe I read some years ago where Purdue Ag determined corn germination drops off 2% for every soil degree under 82…) A year like this, where I’ve only seen three 80° days at my house, would make indoor melons appealing…
I’ve been trying to get a hydro/aquaponics setup going in my current home, but have had HOA battles that, as expected, are not really going my way. With the spousal unit between jobs, we are accelerating our city escape so we can get clear of such nonsense. I like your idea(s) presented here, as I can do some of that while staying below the radar. :) I too, like to “go big or go home” and I’ve been waiting on the whole thing to get going before actually starting. Walking before running is a good idea.
Thanks for all you do.
“the scenario that makes me most uncomfortable is the bad times home seizure due to non-payment”
N__________
You dont know how close you hit the nail on the head….. .
A few years ago there were Medicare cuts.. eleven percent.. in health care systems (at least around here) when ever there’s a cut higher paid employees not close enough for retirement is targeted for being let go.. long time employees all fear the next round of witch hunts.. the same with beds down..one to three beds empty in a hundred..your going to loose a half hour of pay.. 5 to ten beds someone going home.. no unemployment.. one year they decided to get rid of all the higher paid nursing staff ..what was it two or four hundred my doctors nurse and I joke about it because she was one..said she wasn’t even out of the locker room for the meeting and some guy cutting her padlock lol…
Anyway we were without an income for a year.. the first thing you assume is thank God for the food stamp, heating assistance,unemployment insurance,all that money they are throwing at people..
You quickly apply for unemployment.. then get the you heard of news..you were let go.. you dont deserve unemployment compensation.. for those gainfully employed that decide to terminate their employment…you quit.. you don’t deserve unemployment compensation…nope that’s only if the company pays people off..
Food stamps..do you own a home, a car, have retirement funds.. to much crap in the garage.. that’s cash you can sell it.. it doesn’t matter if it is papered at the bank..
Taxes.. same thing..the hospital.. I have medical expenses yup they will reduce them through federal programs seems a living wage at that time was 700 for a household of two. We got phone calls where they said.. why did you even think of seeking out medical care if you didn’t have the money to pay for it..
They of course tapped our checking account monthly for 750.00 their collection agent since it was the VA is the IRS the bank doesn’t argue with the IRS they give it you pay for overdraft fees if you dont have it..the local hospitals are more ruthless and degrading…
Disability insurance dont waste your money.. they are a joke at best..broken arm.. no problem something serious well learn to kiss your own azz ..
All our retirement funds wiped out for medical.. your closest friends seem to think you have the plague and vanish..
The wife always showed this proud it’s ok look..yet late at night when she thought I was asleep I would watch her cry softly.. saddest site I ever seen.. for me the frustration was I was a workaholic never less than two jobs at the end two full time jobs and a part time job..they wereways plentiful..to no one wants to hire you.. a friend and the employment representative at church..worked at job services..he said unfortunately at your age your not employable..sad but true..employers are looking for younger..the church they have a welfare system but they don’t have funds to carry you..the good thing was I had a food stock.. I should have had a camper.. if it had gone one more year we would have been put out..
What was surprising for me is from out of the blue.. a guy I hadn’t seen or talked to since he was 7 wrote me a letter and said..you won’t believe this but I keep having dreams that you need help and everytime i say prayers you come to mind.. take this and use it for whatever..it was a life saving check.. just enough to get us to the first paycheck.. there was 49 cents left..
Three times something like that has happened..(probably more that i don’t know about)
In the end seizures of property goods and funds is a real worry..
Food is ok..any money can be lost..physical therapy just shy sixty grand pops you have to pay what insurance doesnt..they had a limit..
That’s why when a young lady was thrust in front of me..well i stood up for her.. heavenly father directed her to me for a reason.. i am ready willing and able to guide her..
Wat scares the hell out if me is.. what do you do when the dollar tanks..
We all know coming…
Compounding interest rates on the national debt leaves little doubts to its eventual arrival.
I’ve seen multi millionaires reduced to paupers from end of life expenses. Just look at Argentina and Venezuela greece…
Look back in history at the weimar depression..
Look at the bay area where poverty is just shy a quarter of a million.. kids living in boxes and cars ..
I realized something funny yesterday.. even though the puppeteers hate DJT and have been relentlessly trying to destroy him.. they are having both sd ideas attack from every ane..yet he is actually on there side to discredit it will actually put people in place that dont have their best interests at heart..lol
Our “end of life” expenser cap: Medicare HMO policies!