July workouts ~ Smoke

[Smoke]

Couple long days, 15 k steps… I’m calling it a workout!

Have a safe enjoyable holiday weekend!

[fish]

Happy 4th during these troubling times.

I don't really understand a lot of what is going on.

15k steps is certainly a workout.

how's the weather ?

[Smoke]

Happy belated 4th to you as well.
I know your not on Facebook but some of these “ man on the street” videos are unreal!
Simply asking how many stars are in the flag… OMG we’ve raised a bunch of idiots!

Weekend weather was nice, been threatening storms but haven’t really gotten anything.

[fish]

the ignorance is appalling.

we are not on any social media at all.

just got whatsapp for contact with friends from europe.

i do see social media in the articles on the blogs we read.

Twitchy has a lot.

my reading exposes me to the theoretical extremes and then i try to search for the midpoint.

the boundaries on one side particularly are moving rapidly, so it's a moving target.

some would have it that there is/are no absolutes, no truth at all.

of course, the self-reference test applied to that proposition brings smiles.

but seriously, 1 + 1 does not equal 2 ?

so they say.

and they brook no dissent, entertain no argument.

 

therein lies the real problem: not that they say it, but that they demand that i accept it.

but my argument has no value.

i'm an old white guy.

[Smoke]

Worked out in garden and yard for a couple hours this morning.
Watered, weeded, trimmed. Hauled some dirt, cleaned out neighbors chicken coop. Trying to get a nice pile of compost for next year.

[fish]

do you "stir" your compost ?

read somewhere that stirring reduces mineral content, etc.

i have to find someone raising chickens.

don't want to do it here, NC would give them names and bring them into the house.

[Smoke]

Right now I just have a small pile. Not putting kitchen scraps in it cause I don’t want the extra critters around. Just adding dirt, straw & poop from chickens, little lime, some wood chips and grass clippings/weeds from garden.

Neighbor said rooster was trying to crow this morning… I’ll have to listen tomorrow, I didn’t hear him.

Yea I’d be naming them all too!

[fish]

read a nifty tip for rough cuttings and leaves.

put em in a garbage barrel and use the weed wacker like a stick blender.

especially good for fall leaves.

going to have a homeopath question for you.

nc daughter did some off the grid tests to check against some physical complaints she has had.

as soon as i get the info ...

[fish]

ok

nc dau did home test for IgG (Immunoglobulin G)

don't have the numbers yet.

are you familiar with IgG ?

i had never heard of it, but it is interesting.

i can find lots of stuff about it, but have not seen much on treatment.

[Smoke]

No idea what it is… I’ll have to look it up

[Smoke]

Split wood about 2.5 hours

[fish]

machine or maul ?

have you seen the technique using bands around the log ?

[Smoke]

Cool.
Gas splitter. But still had to pick it up off trailer, split it, chuck it in wheel barrow. Not as much exercise as doing it by hand but I was helping out the neighbor.

[fish]

At the risk of repeating the story:

some years ago - maybe 20 - we had 14 huge pine trees taken down around the property.

no commercial value, as anything near a house may have nails embedded deep in the wood, and even one will destroy a band saw blade cutting boards.

so i decided to process them into firewood.

the logs were stacked on a spot were i could get at them.

used a come-along and a peavie and a huskie chain saw that i quickly learned how to sharpen,

cut them into 16 inch rounds, ready to split.

lots and lots of them.

rented a gas splitter.

my neighbor offered to help.

his job was at the splitter, sitting on a bucket, moving a lever up and down.

my job was to do everything else.

the contest with myself was to see if i could work fast enough getting the round, placing the round under the blade, rotating it to be split, and then clearing the split sections quickly enough so that the machine never paused.

the boy from the Bronx did it then.

he would die if he tried it now.

when the wood was dry, it burnt like tissue paper.

i know why pine is not used as heating firewood.

for the campfire, it's good.

[Smoke]

Good story.

I did my fair share of cutting and splitting by hand over the years…. Not sure my shoulder could stand up to swinging a maul.