Comments

Episode-619- Listener Calls for 3-8-11 — 22 Comments

  1. Jack –
    Regarding sound quality. Thanks for taking the extra effort to level the sound. I generally listen to your show sitting at my desk at work, and it makes it much easier if i don’t have to continually increase/decrease the volume to not disrupt others. All this to say, yes, the leveling is a great idea and it worked well in my opinion.

  2. Hey Jack and listeners!
    On the blacksmithing issue… Many blacksmiths are farriers and many farriers are blacksmiths.
    If you apprentice with a person that does both, you can make a great income from the farrier side RIGHT NOW and
    practice your blacksmithing skills along side it. Just a thought from someone who has to pay a farrier
    bill from time to time! 🙂
    All the best,
    -C

    • @Clayton Jacobs, thanks for the input and for those not in the know a farrier takes care of shoeing horses and the like.

  3. @4blogs and @Dave, thanks for the feedback thus far. If this makes call in shows better we will make it part of the SOP (standard operating procedure for you non military types ;>] ). Anyone else notice a definite improvement in this show over other call in shows? Some people still have background noise and all but I can’t really do much about that.

  4. Loved the show today, Jack. I wholeheartedly agree with your suggestion to get the kids into the garden early. My son and daughter have worked with us outdoors from the time they were old enough to get around, and while many times their ‘help’ may have caused a task to take twice as long, just knowing that they were learning and enjoying some family time with us made it all worthwhile. My husband has always had a dream of our son taking over our farm when we get too old to do the work, but right now he’s just 11 and he’s really not interested in much except video games and sports. However, our 6 year old daughter has developed an affinity to working in the garden, following her dad around the orchard, planting trees and taking care of the chickens. I’ve told Robert that he may need to look to her as his next little farmer-pal, at least for awhile.. until I steal her back to cook, can and dehydrate with me in the kitchen! And quite ironically, it is our son who seems to like the cooking part the most! You just never know with kiddos.

  5. The audio was more consistent. I didn’t really notice during the podcast, but at the end when you mentioned it, I thought, wow, I didn’t really have to turn the volume up and down on my headphones like I usually do. It’s normally not that big of a deal unless you get someone getting really loud then really soft, but it was a definite improvement.

  6. The audio was good Jack. As far as fitness Jack…Push-ups, Sit-ups, Run…PT aint for Fun!

    • @Matthew From Gooseneck, GA

      I completely disagree, why, top chronic issues with people in prior military service. None combat related.

      Bad knees – Running slowly for mile upon pointless mile
      Bad lower back – Sit ups to the point of a rash on your ass
      Torn or damaged rotator cuff – Push ups – in cadence! of course

      That’s the facts Matt! My buddy Val from the KGB taught me to do ONE push up and it does more for you than doing 100 and doesn’t do any damage to your shoulder.

        • I should some time but ONE REALLY slow push up down to a count of twenty and up to a count of twenty. The count is about one count to 1.5 seconds so you are talking 60 seconds for one push up, the key is the breathing. It starts out slow and measured and from about 15 down to 15 up it is rapid and shallow. It is kind of like what a woman does during lamaze during child birth. The Russians really focus on maximum effect with minimal damage to the body and internal organs.

  7. Some time the caller audio seems to just get drowned out to me. This helped. To put it through the leveliser? or so it is called.

  8. Jack, the sound was fine. But I’ve never had a problem with your show’s sound before. I have listened to about 60 shows so far, and I’ve only been listening since mid-December. Meanwhile, I went back to a lot of older shows from when you used to record in your car, and even those podcasts presented no problems for me.

    My experiences in the past with bad sound on other podcasts have on rare occasions been due to my computer equipment (I have a rather average computer — a 5-year-old Gateway laptop with built-in speakers). But more often than not most acoustical problems I’ve ever suffered while listening to a podcast have been attributable to where the heck I am physically located while trying to listen. A large room never works with this particular computer. My current listening spot is the rocking chair in my bedroom –a room with wall-to-wall carpet. My former listening spot (last summer) was the living room which is really three massive rooms all loosely joined (kitchen, dining room, and living room all rolled together) and they all share one continuous hard-wood floor. My ability to hear ANY podcasts in that spot of the house always got compromised. Since relocating to my bedroom, I can hear everything just fine when it comes to ANY podcast. But when I am in the living room I have to attach a special set of portable computer speakers to enhance the sound quality enough to where I can make things out. Moving to a smaller room with carpeting was the best solution for me. So maybe some of your listeners might want to evaluate where it is they are listening.

    Also, I wonder if some of your listeners have a problem with the different accents that accompany some of the call-in questions. (I’ve got a knack for accents, so that’s never been a problem for me there.)

  9. Termites, I’ve heard that if you have a healthy ant population, you generally won’t have a termite problem as they are enemies.

    I also heard an interview with Paul Stamets of Fungi Perfecti (who I think would be a great interview) say that he discovered a fungus that kills termites and carpenter ants. According to the article below, chemical companies are fighting him on bringing it public:
    http://www.appalachianfeet.com/2010/02/23/how-to-kill-fire-ants-carpenter-ants-and-termites-with-mushrooms-a-mycoremediation-crash-course/

  10. I did notice the caller audio was better, but I would not say it is great. The problem is not so much the audio level, it is quality of the recording equipment (a telephone). Turning up the decibel level helps, but that also amplifies the recording flaws.

    This is the same problem as the interview shows. The difference is the caller is doing most of the talking. Some shows come out great, other shows…well the interviewee’s audio simply sucks. This is where I really get into the volume fluctuations – your voice is loud and clear, the caller is soft and muffled.

    Again, a suggestion for a solution….

    Document what interviewees are using for their phone equipment. Are they at home on a POTS line, or are they in an office with a digital PBX, etc? Somewhere along the way it will become obvious which system works the best. Require/recommend/strongly encourage future interviewees to use the same setup.

    Another factor is how the interviewee is holding the phone. Some people don’t realize when they hold the phone lower that it muffles their voice. I know this sounds remedial, but you may want to inform future interviewees of telephone ‘best practices’ for a successful interview.

  11. Blacksmithing-I’ve heard that old Washington State Park in Arkansas offers some kind of classes, but I’m not able to confirm that looking at their website.

    I do know that for years our local community college has had a school of bladesmithing, several in our local area are bladesmiths.

    https://www.texarkanacollege.edu/pages/251.asp

    Mike @ http://ruthknives.com/ has been making knives as a hobby for several years, not sure using his current status.

    Looks like they are holding the bladesmithing class at Old Washington Park,so that may be what people meant by blacksmith classes.

  12. Regarding the recommendation for pine needles as soil acidifiers… It’s true that pine needles will turn soil acidic, but they do so very slowly and over a long time frame. You will notice in a pine forest, if you dig lightly through the needle litter that you can go down several layers and see that the needles are still completely intact and recognizable as needles. They break down over a period of several years, and can’t affect soil pH until they do. Certainly use pine needles as mulch where you want to acidify soil. Just don’t expect it to have any effect in the near future. It’s a good long term strategy.

    A faster effect can be obtained from spent apple pomace from cider pressing. This stuff is *highly* acidic, and breaks down much faster. Don’t put it anywhere near your regular garden plants unless you compost it thoroughly first. I apply pomace *and* white pine needles to my blueberries each fall for both quick and slow effects.

  13. Jack,
    The audio quality was much better. Thanks for the extra effort. In the past I generally have to boost the volume for the questions and then turn it down for your response. Not too much of a big deal in the car, but a pain when using the iPod with earbuds.

  14. In todays podcast, you talked about blacksmithing. You mentioned blacksmithing a nail and how it’s something you cannot do yourself and it seemed implied that it would be a valuable thing to learn. While I wouldn’t stop someone from wanting to learn how, I say that’s not worth your time. If you are worried about getting nails in some bad situation, dude, just buy 50 pounds of them now. You can get a 50 pound box of nails at a hardware store for about 40 bucks an unless you plan on building a whole new house with just your preps, that’s more nails then a normal man will use in a lifetime.

    Also as a note, dirt cheap stuff like nails and screws may be a good thing to think about in your preps. Infinite shelf life, costs of metals seems to be rising, and it’s so dirt cheap and easy to store, it just plain makes sense.

  15. thanks jack for the leveling of the audio. much better. even almost understood the auzzie lol. sorry my comments are behind the times. i load on weekends and listen when i can at work.(otr truck driver)then comment when i get on the net at some truck stop somewhere. thanks for all you do man. ps i never get to play any of your reindeer games either lol (contests)

  16. In regards to the blueberry bushes. A local blueberry farmer around here shared his “secret” to huge blueberrys and that was sawdust. When he planted them, he said he would dig the hole 2-3 times larger than necessary and fill it with sawdust, then plant his bushes as usual. Then he would mulch like crazy with sawdust. Nothing special, just what he picked up from the local lumber yard for free.

    And after I thought about it, seems it would be close to the idea of hugelkulture. None the less, he grew the best blueberrys I have ever had.