Comments

Episode-2250- Expert Council for 7-13-18 — 7 Comments

  1. On reducing poison ivy sensitivity… unless you’re born with it, I’m not convinced you can reduce your sensitivity over time.  In fact I’ve been told that reactions tend to increase your sensitivity over time.  My personal experiences might subscribe to that.  I’ve also been told by various survivalists and nature guides that taking a small baby leaf and eating it will reduce or eliminate sensitivity, while in the same breath warning of cases where people had systemic critical hospitalized reactions from ingesting the plant.  I don’t ever plan on testing that theory and I vehemently advise that no one risk it either.

    On poison ivy protection… when you can’t avoid it, covering up is good but I’ve had oils wick through long clothing fibers to incur a reaction anyway.  Disposable Tyvek sleeves work well.  It’s what telecom splicers use when they’re splicing cables together around all that cable/wire grease.  I’ve even duct taped plastic bags to my arms as disposable protectors (that sucks when you’re sweating!)  The problem is that it gets everywhere! and you can’t see it.  Not to mention the inadvertent itch of the ear or neck, or wiping your brow from sweat even when you’re covered.  I’ve always understood Urushiol to be an oil but when you think of it as a grease your interaction with the plant changes.  A great ytube video on this is titled,”how to never have a serious poison ivy rash again.”  If you’ve ever had to grease a tractor, motor, automobile, clean up oil paints, etc you’ll understand how persistent this urushiol oil/grease can be.  I like the idea of a washing station on site if you know you’ll be out for awhile.   I also employ the use of Jewel weed as a pre-eruption/reaction  remedy with great success.  Either crush it up and rub it on exposed areas or harvest it and make a tincture in either alcohol or witch hazel to apply topically.  Either way, get that invisible stuff off asap!

    On poison ivy treatment… post-eruption/reaction.  Its sucks and you want it over sooner rather than later.  I’ll use jewel weed tincture with some success but it’s best pre-eruption.  I’ve used all the typical over the counter treatments.  Meh.  You can pay an arm and a leg for Zanfel which does work, or just use a combo of Mean Green hand cleaner and nonoxynol-9.  Way cheaper that way.

    Good Luck!

  2. My home schooled son wants to become an electrician. He had some college but not a degree and the program wouldn’t accept his home diploma.  So he went through the GED rigmarole.  He had good placement test scores, ok college grades; but even though it’s not a union program it smacks of statist thinking to me.

    If you’re paying for your trade training and you make it (or not) the state’s diploma adds no value and if the placement test is not a good predictor of success then why bother with it?

  3. I just went through an issue with a “home school diploma” trying to go back to college, but the diploma wasn’t the problem.
    I’ve made two previous attempts at college, but it didn’t work out. Great GPA, and I have 63 semester hours from a reputable University. The only reason I started toying with the idea of college is because I am running out of time to utilize my chapter 31 GI bill (pre- 9/11, meaning I payed in so want to take out). A recent change in the law requires a highschool TRANSCRIPT to receive “government assistance”. I graduated from a small private school in Texas that closed about 12 years ago. Because my diploma is considered a “homeschool diploma” the college I’m trying to attend in Idaho actually told me to ask my mother to get on the computer and create a transcript, and they honored it. I’m 36 years old, a multi-tour combat veteran, I have more than an associate’s degree worth of college credit, but I had to call my mommy and have her create a baseless document to appease the system. Sorry, I had to share the ludicrous hoops I jumped thru to access a promised and payed for benefit, but further, I thought I’d share that there’s more than the diploma itself to consider.
    Thanks Jack, and thanks to the community.

  4. Re: mining GPU’s

    As someone who’s only been mining for less than a year it is great to hear Ben’s take on the current situation. I certainly PERCEIVE this as a good buying opportunity for adding more rigs, but it’s great to have another (educated) opinion on the subject. Especially when it involves plunking down hundreds or thousands of bucks on hardware. Most people I know are either super-bullish on crypto or extremely cynical, with hardly any in-between (at least ones that are knowledgeable). I’ve also gone the GPU route instead of ASIC’s… not only for the crypto-mining flexibility Ben mentioned, but also because the cards have uses beyond mining (AI, high-end gaming systems) which helps their resale value. Interestingly enough, most of the handful of miners I’ve talked to here in Mongolia primarily do Bitcoin ASIC mining; the fact I do ETH mining with GPU’s makes me a bit of an odd duck here.

  5. Hey in regards to the poison ivy question…

    I was told by a couple of wild foragers that if you eat a small amount of the new leaves of poison ivy you will grow immune of it.  I guess it works like a vaccine.  You ingest a little and your body does the rest.

    PLEASE RESEARCH THIS FOR YOURSELF!  I only heard it from a few people, saw it done, ate a little myself ONCE but again this is from Dennis Alan the City Boy Homesteader so don’t put too much stock in what I say 🙂

  6. High school diploma, contact your local homeschool groups or state one. We as a group get our diplomas from Jostens (yes the class ring company) and these have a state seal. Three homeschool graduates, three in or went to college. The only time we were asked to produce it was so our daughter could work late hours (she’d want 18 yet).