Comments

Episode-1560- Listener Feedback for 4-20-15 — 30 Comments

  1. I just don’t get it when people tell me I have to vote. I don’t want either one it matters not who runs. To me they are all just different cheeks on the same butt we get crapped on either way. That aside every time I ask well do you vote for the one you want? Yes? Then who do I vote for if I don’t want either one? So should I vote for the one I don’t want or the other one I don’t want? What should I do pick by hair style shirt color What? All I get is a blank stare. So irritating to me.

    • Try this, say, who did you vote for in the last election?

      They will say criminal A or B.

      If they say A say you would have voted for B if they say B say you’d of voted for A and then say do you still think I should have voted.

      Watch the reaction bemused.

  2. For the guy wondering about mesquite for a hugelbed, mesquite, is a different animal, if you use immature trees with smooth bark, mostly or all white wood your looking at a couple of years with soil contact, more mature trees with rough bark 50/50 heartwood/sapwood closer to 6-8 years. And Jack, you are correct in saying there’s not much better than mesquite for cooking, regardless of heartwood/sapwood.

  3. I don’t know much about salt cedar either but if your fungal community is working in your hugelbed, it is possible (and I have a hunch) the mycelium will keep the salinity in check if not meliorate it.

    Also just fyi, Mesquites are suitable tree species for the cultivation of gourmet & medicinal mushrooms!

    I suppose ignoring the obvious, you could use them (the mesquite) successfully in your hugelbed.

  4. Jack, regarding the worms. I have a worm bin in the house ( two totes stacked with bricks in the first one) and I just can’t take the fruit flies anymore. Do you know at what temps the red wigglers would die?
    I would love to try that idea with the PVC, but I am afraid if it gets too cold here it would kill them all. I could try a few one winter as an experiment however.

    • I know what you mean about the fruit flies, but they can be dealt with via changes to bin management. Regarding cold temps, it’ll depend on how far north you are if your red wigglers survive outside. You can experiment by splitting up your worms into two working groups, one inside and one outside. If your outside experiment fails, repopulate with your inside group.

      • Robert, I am in Zone 5b border line 6a, on the Canadian zone chart. We dropped to -13F (-25c) this winter, with heavy snow cover. But typically 5F.

    • Brent, we have the same sytem set up in a closet. I keep a layer of 2-3″ of shredded newspaper/brown paper bags on top. All scraps are buried under the layer of shredded paper and most of the time down about an inch into the castings. No more fruit flies.

      • Excellent. I think I was a little sparse on the bedding, some of the worms were on the top perimeter.
        Any idea of cold temp tolerance?

        Thanks

        • No, I’ve kept them in the house so that they would stay active. I have to worry more about the summer heat than the cold.

        • Red wigglers are happiest between 60 & 80 degrees F. In hot or cold weather they will burrow down around two feet in depth to survive. If you sink pvc pipe in your garden as an experiment you’ll want to consider how deep your frost gets through winter. Mulch it!

          We’re about zone 5a – 5b here. Last year I had one of my worm totes outside in a shed for the winter. At first the worms conglomerated in the very center of the tote away from the colder exposed edges. Not ideal but they were alive, until the really cold snap hit us and the whole tote froze. It was one of the worst winters on record for us. I had to repopulate after the thaw in the spring.

          This year they stayed inside, and are thriving! Proper management equals no problems with pests.

        • @Robert_Indiana , ok, glad I didn’t put mine out. We get -25C here. So I will have to evaluate the shredded paper idea for next year. I did peel back the debris and there is alot of castings. But man the fruit flies; Looks like Heathrow

      • The other thing I noticed is a healthy population of wood lice or sow bugs as we call them up here. They seem to be living peacefully amongst the worms and have no desire to migrate.

  5. All that’s needed for those playing the Supreme Court card in regards to the 2016 Presidential election is two words: John Roberts.

    • You know I can’t believe I didn’t mention that! I was thinking about it the entire time and left it out anyway, great catch and GREAT point.

  6. Hey Jack, on the DIY composting toilet could you use the shaved pine bedding meant for hampsters and other small pets? That can be found in large bales in most bigger pet shops and more easily found in my large urban area. I know even my local Jewel store carries small packages of it in the pet aisle.

    • Sure and for temporary use it would be fine, I feel it would get expensive if tried as a permanent solution. Great point though for a prep!

  7. No need to restrict the recommendation to a samurai sword. Any well-made blade of appropriate size kept sharp is incredibly dangerous in close quarters. Personally I’d actually take a single-handed double-edged blade [such as a Gladius or a Spatha] for such conditions, especially considering dealing with multiple assailants.

    • Yeah, I personally would prefer a well-maintained machete. Bit shorter than the sword most everyone pictures when they think of a katana, but thicker and wider. But, regardless, Jack was always right. Any large, sharp blade is gonna be DEVASTATING in close quarters against guys who will almost certainly be expecting little resistance.

  8. For those looking for info on “salt cedar” look for Tamarisk its a native of Russia and is very tolerant of high salinity soils and water. Texas is currently trying to reduce/remove it in the Pecos River watershed.

  9. Regarding the use of some 6″ plastic pipe sunk in the ground, does anyone know anywhere online that I could find a diagram of what Jack was saying or explain in a little more detail?

    I get the drilling the holes and sinking it, but do you then put the newspapers in and the worms find it? Or do you somehow stock it with the worms? I like the concept but am not so certain exactly how this would work even after googling for some answers.

    • You tube search: worm tower yes stock it with worms they will go in to the tube to eat and then go out to the soil to poop and eat some stuff in the soil. Don’t just stock with newspapers stock with slimy stuff banana peels like jack said anything but alliums (sp?) and citrus. They are generally called worm towers

  10. As south park put it….Turd Sandwich vs Giant Douche for the 2016 Presidental Elections

  11. Where can you find a high quality katana?
    Where can you find training?

    Jack you are such a geek!!!

    Love you dude…like a brotha

    Thanks

  12. Hi Jack,

    Thanks for commenting on my query about the quite possible result of the nominations of the next five new Supreme Court justices by whoever becomes the next president.

    Yes, I agree that it may make absolutely no difference in whoever is elected president, the same slate of new justices may be appointed because whoever is elected president is backed by the same interest groups – primarily the major banks.

    My question was not so much as to “get out the vote” (as you know I not only cannot vote, no I am not a felon, I am apolitical, but care about retaining our Constitutional liberties) as it was to raise critical thinking awareness.

    As I said in our email dialog, Citizens United decision diluted all of our “one person, one vote” rights.

    What will they take away next? As you know Jack, I am one step away from leaving the country I still love and proudly served in the military.

    I still have hope in the quiet (but effective) revolution that the core ideals of our PermaEthos or that of Toby Hemengway, Joel Salatin, Mark Shephard or even especially Bill Mollison envision.

    I for one, will continue to make others aware of what is going on and up to my last breath not only will continue to do so, will, as I am currently doing so, as in Aikido, turn their energies against them.

    The Toby Hemengway interviews of yours and Diego Footer’s are great for anyone to counter our oppressive government entities at whatever levels, right down to HOAs.

    Or if you want to, if need be, why stop at US borders? Get cash out now, while you still can, in offshore permaculture farms (where you just might want to move to).

    John “Caribe”

  13. Hi Jack — I really appreciated your bit on the idea of “social justice” in this episode. I have to tell you that, as someone who initially comes from a pretty left-wing perspective that I found very little in your description to disagree with.

    When I think of “social justice” nowadays, the Urban Farming Guys spring immediately to mind. They’re helping to teach people who live in very disadvantaged circumstances how to create and seize opportunity not only for themselves, but for their entire community and future generations. Ditto for a lot of the real, grassroots urban farming initiatives taking place in the city of Detroit.

    One thing that I do think needs to be acknowledged in this conversation is that people are able to have access to the means of production. This was a core component of Mahatma Gandhi’s economic development plan for India — instead of building big factories in every city for people to get “jobs”, he advocated creating a workshop in every village so that people had access to tools to make the things that were needed for the village economy. A good primer on this kind of an economic model is the book “Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered” by E.F. Schumacher.

    One of the facts in history that turned me away from progressive liberalism and toward anarchism was that when European powers moved in to colonize an area, one of the major changes they made was to institute taxes that could only be paid in hard currency. This undermined all of the self-sufficient village economies, because they existed outside of the cash economy, and forced the natives to work in the mines and on cash crop plantations. Same for the enclosure movement that took away common rights to large parcels of land.

    Anyway, thanks for all that you do in putting out a great show every day.

  14. Regarding composting toilets — the best book you can check out on this subject is The Humanure Handbook by Joe Jenkins. He offers it free in PDF format via his website.

    And even if you’re not into that sort of thing, it’s one of the best books on composting I’ve ever read. Everything in it is completely founded on solid, established scientific research.

  15. I really liked the bit on social justice, though my hackles went up at first. When I was first introduced to the concept in college, it was all about individuals and communities taking action to help others, without getting the state involved. And a lot of what I saw was based in a “teach a man to fish” philosophy.

    But over the last few years I’ve seen a shift to reliance on the state for change. To me it seems somewhat generational. The people getting shit done without the state seem to be mostly late gen X and early gen Y (born before 90). The post 1990 millenials are mostly coming at social justice from a “get the state to do it” stand point. One of the most interesting things I’ve noticed among the latter group is a sense of powerlessness. There’s a strong theme of, if there isn’t a law, nothing will change.

    And this is why I love permaculture. It puts the power to make changes in your hands. It offers hope and solutions that don’t need the force of the state to change things. I see a lot of hopelessness in my generation. Many don’t see a solution beyond begging the state for help or rioting. Sometimes I feel hopeless, because I can’t change all this hopelessness by myself. I can only control myself. So I focus on bettering myself, sharing what I learn, and striving to live a life that shows that you really can solve all the world’s problems in a garden.