Comments

Episode-1312- Listener Feedback for 3-4-14 — 19 Comments

  1. I enjoyed the Monastery Farm, but Victorian, Edwarian, and War farm were much more educational with a lot more useful knowledge in my opinion.

    • derajer, Check out Tales from the green valley. Its the first in the series and set in 1620. Its 12 half hour episodes so you get a real feel for the agricultural year.
      Be in interesting episode if jack could do a review of theses shows one day !!

      • I’ve actually watched that one as well. I’ve watched all of the Farm and House series (Pioneer House, Colonial House, etc….) All very good series.

    • Just finished Monastery Farm and liked it a lot. I have seen the others you mention and I think they all have something to offer, I like the historical perspective too. If it is still on youtube, Victorian Garden is very good with the head gardener there. They all make you appreciate how easy we have it.

      • Alan, I agree. Love the historical side of things too. And it does show just what I involved in farming with out the technology. Try looking for the wartime kitchen garden if you liked the Victorian garden. The head gardeners is the same bloke I think. Cant get enough of history, sometimes I think I was born in the wrong century LOL !

  2. Awesome perspective, “We have weapons of mass creation.” I love that quote. Thanks Jack.

    Good to “feel” the sun is still shining through these economic and social dark ages.

  3. A few days behind and catching up Jack. Your comments on the snakes caught me. I’m reminded of a time in early ’01 in Ranger School when a Ranger Instructor got bit by a Pigmy (?) in the panhandle of Fl. He was pretty messed up but survived. I keep remembering that I thought I’d rather be dead than dealing with what he was going through. I know you’re a big snake lover, and I certainly recommend walking away rather than messing with it ignorantly, but I think there’s a legit reason to have a primal fear against snakes in general.

    I also remember being taught to apply a tourniquet. Just in case it was a snake with sever enough poison. You can revive the limb after about 8 hours with a tourniquet, but with a poisonous enough snake, it might be better to lose the limb than the life. Of course, we were training for worldwide operations and not to be professional snake handlers, but worth considering.

    Anyways, I don’t disagree but wanted to share my experience. You’re the pro when it comes to snakes. The only time I ever intentionally messed with them was when I was VERY hungry.

    If you ever get back on that topic again, I’m now living in South America and would be interested in your take on snakes down here. After Ranger School I spent most of my time in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, with little or no snake interaction so it’s something I’ve forgotten about mostly. But living in South America now, possibly something I need to look into again.

    Oh yeah, one more question… you recommended that you kill a snake if it’s bit you. Is it safe to mess with a snake after it’s bit you? I.e. does the snake need a significant amount of time before the snake can inject you again?

    Thanks!!!

    Jason

    • You kill a snake that has bit you (if it can be done safely) for identification purposes. You may know what it is, but it helps to show the staff in the Emergency Room so they don’t doubt the identification.

      Crofab (antivenom) is very expensive. It’s like buying a car! Mixing it takes a while, you cant shake it or it foams up bad.

      • Thanks Jim,

        I totally understand the reason for it, I was just wondering if the snake was less dangerous the second time around. If it had “spent” it’s venom and needed more time to create more. If not, it seems like you’d be risking a second person or greater danger by messing with it again. May just be better these days to pull out a camera phone and take a picture of it if it’s still dangerous.

        I’m imagining a situation where maybe a child gets bitten and the only adult around is risking themselves trying to chase down and kill a snake, but actually gets themselves bitten in the process. I don’t know, just a thought. Thanks for the feedback.

        • @Jason, Jim covered it well but let me add on this,

          “I totally understand the reason for it, I was just wondering if the snake was less dangerous the second time around. If it had “spent” it’s venom and needed more time to create more.”

          The functional answer is no, in the end a snake can bite many times and will still have enough venom to do a lot of harm and even kill. A heavy bite will inject less than 10-20% if the snake is really PO’d, less is still a bad bite. There is a finite nature to venom, but snakes know it, just like we train to keep out guns running and manage ammo fired with time for reloads snakes do the same thing. Even if you milk a snake hard, get as much out as you can, it is still quite likely to be able to find a drop or two more to shove into your arm if you are careless.

          Now snakes in South America. There are some deadly beauties down there. Everyone thinks of the Bushmaster, which is the biggest pit viper on the planet and plenty deadly. But Bushies are pretty calm animals, they know they are big and deadly and so they don’t have a complex going on. They shy away from confrontations unless you step on one or mess with one or end up some how way to close by accident a bit is unlikely.

          Then there is the Lancehead, aka the Fer De Lance, Bothrops atrox. They are not the most venomous snake in South and Central America but they are the most dangerous. Check out Viper Keepers video of these little psychopaths.

          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIDa9w46uEQ

          If you want to know about hot snakes Viperkeeper is the man. His delivery is a bit Magoo but he is very good as what he does. A lot of his talking to the snakes is a way you keep yourself not the snakes calm and paying full attention. The snakes can’t year you they have no ears. But anyway be on the look out for these guys, they bite first and ask questions later.

          I kept and worked with hots as a kid with a mentors supervision. I don’t and won’t do it anymore. It requires 100% attention to detail and if you are not willing to provide that don’t ever consider it.

  4. “If you turn to politicians for solutions you’ll always end up kneeling.” – Jack Spirko

  5. When you talk about Permaethos and the difficulties you had, it reminds me of what you and Geoff talk about in Permaculture: Design constraints causing creative design ideas that you would never have dreamed of if you didn’t have an obstacle to design around. I can’t wait to hear your solution.

  6. Regarding whether King Philip the Fair was a politician or not. I stated that King Philip was sincere and brave but not too smart. My statement does not conflict with Jack’s assertion that the King is also a politician. Like many politicians (and the Blues Brothers), King Philip thinks he is on a mission from God. That is how the King justifies destroying the Templars (and it justifies the Blues Brothers destroying the Greater Chicago metropolitan area and Wauconda, Illinois :-)).

    Thus… if I am a politician on a mission from God and you suffer by what I am doing to reach my goals on behalf of God, then it must be God’s will that you suffer and you should feel grateful doing your part to accomplish God’s will.

    That is how the logic seems to be going for King Philip. He is insufferably sincere and utterly misguided… either by his own distorted viewpoint or being misled by his ministers for their own gain or both. He messed with the money supply which caused real problems. He’s trying to correct his past errors with an infusion of hard currency taken from various entities like the Lombard bankers, the Jews and now the Templars… all the people who gave him loans in the past.

    The practical consequence is that regardless of how sincere or cynical the government may be, you must be careful when they decide you have too much stuff for your own good and they think they can manage it better.

    King Philip’s son, Louis X, will be much more sensible… better for the slaves, the serfs and the Jews. That is why he will be murdered in fairly short order.

    Alex

  7. Mentioning that people in Switzerland have plots that they rent for 99 years and have little structures that they spend vacation time at caught my attention.

    What appeals to me is the idea of having an inexpensive leased plot someplace down south. Say I was in early retirement, early 60’s. If I could go down south in the fall, do some sort of work down there; plant sweet potatoes and perennials in the spring and then head north for the summer in a migration type pattern. In the fall, I head back down south and harvest the sweet potatoes ..

  8. Jack,
    Thank you for being so level headed and patiently explaining the yellow journalism thing so that the concept is accessibly to everyone. I applaud you and your agenda!
    Those who turn to sensationalism and cherry picking of the facts to garner attention are, bluntly stated, lying. They are telling “white lies” – i.e. using elements of factual information to paint a picture that is actually untrue. I’m reminded of a favorite movie line from Lawrence of Arabia, when the old politician says, “The man who tells lies merely hides the truth, but the man who tells half-truths forgot where he put it.”
    Thanks for another great show and for all you do.
    V/r
    Kevin