@Barbramon1@ai6yr Coconut oil is the vegan substitute for lard. But its best property is being liquid at room temperature/body temperature and a solid on ice cream.😉
@mjausson@ai6yr It's from an anime where they open portals with CERN (Stein's Gate?). Far too many conspiracies start as works of fiction that someone decided to take literally. I just want to be able to enjoy fiction without having to prove it isn't real some days.
Another all too barren spring in NYC. There should be so many insects, so many ants, so many tiny creatures filling the parks, hitting the windshields of cars.
Remember when bugs used to hit the windshields of cars because the air was so full of life?
I guess most people think this is 'improvement' but they are wrong. There is a campaign to put the American bumblebee on the endangered species list!
We are living in an eerie lifeless netherworld and I don't know why more can't see it!
@futurebird All our neighbors have electric bug zappers running 24/7 to kill all the flying insects in existence. So there are less spiders catching them in giant webs, which means less hummingbird nests. The same neighbors often have hummingbird feeders out. #irony#Insects#birds#wildlife
@ai6yr $1.69 to $9+ per dozen depending on the store and egg labels the last few months, most around $2/dozen.
But we get the high end (green, blue & dark brown shells) free from our pet chickens daily. (We wear masks around them just in case they get a respiratory disease, but they have been extremely healthy the last few years).
@ai6yr We have lost several to the local hawks. But the local cats are currently the biggest issue (so mostly they need to be secure at night). Hawks are easily defeated by giving chickens cover such as bushes & trees.
Our neighbors already hate us & complained about us to a city that we don't even live in (with strict anti-chicken regulations). Very upset when told we are not in their jurisdiction.🤣
@ai6yr Just think of all the methane & waste that protocol will generate! (Yes, I am totally composting any and all dead chickens I encounter into soil, not landfilling them). #PolyCrisis#Compostodon
"Most governments are trying to trick us into believing we don't need to adapt to COVID-19. They can't sustain the illusion forever."
"While telling individuals to assess their own risk, many governments have removed the tools for people to do so, dismantling testing regimes, free vaccine programmes, surveillance, and free treatment provision"
@DenisCOVIDinfoguy@auscovid19 I went to a meeting recently. Of the three presenters, one got so dizzy when she stood up that she wasn't able to even start her presentation and had to go home. The second presenter had lost his ability to project his voice & used a microphone (for a crowd of less than 10). The third presenter had just gotten over an illness (COVID?) and had to shorten her presentation. This would have been abnormal before 2020, but apparently it is totally normalized now.
#Rain here, several inches of #snow up by #LakeArrowhead. Still some rain falling, indoor activities planned for today as seeds were planted yesterday to take advantage of the rain. #CaWx
Get this: you can generate lignite (low-grade coal) in your garden?? Fast! IF you get the composting setup right.
The first half of the video is very detailed, nuts & bolts of soil and chemistry. The actual images of the site and how they did it starts at about 50min.
Soil science is the study of some of the most complex systems imaginable, and sadly still badly neglected-- especially considering how crucial it is to the foundations of our biosphere and survival. Much of this presentation is over my head, and it's tough for me to wade through all the "um, uh, uh"ing, but... wow!
I'll try to summarize:
There's a distinctive layer of black stuff under the soil of the Amazon, and people tend to assume it was built up from fires in years past (biochar is becoming a popular analogue), but researcher Scott Goode says it's created through much the same process that forms coal under peat bogs. That can take millions of years, but under the right conditions it can happen MUCH faster-- and all driven by biological action.
The idea here is you're trying to mimic the layers of soil activity under an old-growth forest, inside a trench 2' deep and 1.5' wide that's anaerobic at the bottom. Doing this in your own yard, Goode calls a "Climate Victory Garden". The trenches bracket your growbeds, and you don't stir or turn them-- you just have to keep filling them from the top, and once it gets going it's got quite an appetite.
Important note: while healthy soils can hold large amounts of carbon (80% of a forest's carbon is underground, only 20% is in the vegetation you can actually see), that carbon only stays put while the web of organisms using it stays healthy. Lignite on the other hand is a mineral that pretty much isn't going anywhere unless it catches on fire. This project demonstrates how to get BOTH the living system AND build long-term carbon storage at the same time.
One bit I really appreciate, about 1h16min in he is asked, "So what about the carbon market, what are they paying for?"
His reply starts with: "Really similar to the biofuels market, it's essentially a scam!"
So many issues with the science in the beginning. The zones aren't that neat & you can use 100% detritus/food waste to grow plants under the right conditions.
Also, he apparently needed a specific land type to make it work, so that limits its usefulness.
I don't have time to watch the whole video tonight, so I will post more once I finish watching it in a few days. The lignite is interesting, but I think you could do similar with pure SOC.
Now that we have a clear day, it looks like we got 10 1/2 inches (25.9 centimeters) of rain from Sunday to today and 19 3/4 inches (50.1 centimeters) in the last week. #CaWx#LosAngelesCounty#ClimateChange#ClimateDiary (We are fine, just a bit soggy).
A sealed bin (to keep flies out) is a must unless you take it out immediately. It should be dedicated to food scraps as it is almost impossible to get the smell of rotting eggs out of plastic.
I don't bother with chopping or browns, my method can handle 100% greens, including meat, dairy & eggs, in large volumes. However, bones can take several years to compost.
Checked on local rivers & spreading grounds & they are basically empty, so we should be in good shape for the upcoming rain. #CaWx#SantaFeSprings#DrainageSystem
Me: "Some of these forecasts were predicting 8 to 26 inches this weekend!"
Friend of mine: "Oh, hope that comes at the end of the weekend, we have some outdoor activities with the kids to do"
😂
(What I did not say: "I don't think you heard me. 8 to 26 inches is potentially catastrophic... I don't think the kids soccer game/track meet/etc. is in the same category of concern")
@ai6yr You can dig up clay soil, add wood/ leaves/ shredded paper and other "browns" to the hole (1-3+ feet deep) & cover it up with the soil & it will vastly improve the water holding capacity (but don't try to grow anything in it that needs irrigation). We did that both in CA (to stop erosion) and WI (to stop our garden from turning into a pond because people literally would ice skate on the soil during the winter before).
Spent the day outside enjoying nature & watching my #PetChickens enjoy some fresh grass. We have a lot of predation issues from the neighbors' cat, so guard roosters have become essential.
@shuttersparks Geese also tend to be nice to only one human and we need something that won't attack humans (all our roosters were selected for not attacking humans and several even enjoy being held). Mostly they just vocalize "we can see you" to the cat and that is sufficient to keep it from attacking. It is also why our yard is a haven for wild birds--the roosters let them know where the cat is as well.
@glightly I think there needs to be a new category of recumbent bike: the pseudocar. It would seat 2-10 (ideally with pedals for all), have cargo capacity equivalent to a car trunk, and be enclosed (so you can operate in rain or snow). Basically it would be a car you can pedal. I get they don't want people using e-bikes as electric motorcycles, but there needs to be something that is bigger than a regular bike but smaller than an electric SUV.
@John@ai6yr Double wall stainless steel is not that much heavier (& holds temperature~24 hours). For single wall, it needs to have a cover you can wet to keep it cool (and if you add ice cubes, there is the condensation issue to deal with as well). I would rather have the slight extra weight of double wall steel than having to deal with a wet water bottle.
(Glass tends to break in a vacuum flask and plastic doesn't hold the vacuum long term, so no extra insulation value).
It looks like no snow from this round of storms up by #LakeArrowhead (and only one light snowfall that has completely melted so far this season). Historically, this spot has garages built against the road due to high likelihood of heavy, wet winter snow blocking egress otherwise. There should at least be snow/ice on the ground now. But the year round residents are likely happy with this compared to last year. #ClimateCrisis#ClimateDiary
