Good morning!!!!

[sodamo]

Awesome bounty, Drew

 

[txdon]

With the keyhole garden I can reach anything I grow in the garden. I put a thick layer of cardboard at the bottom to kill all the weeds. On top of that is a layer of anything organic like leaves, sticks, wood chips etc.. Then I put a thick layer of composted cow manure then 8" of top soil on top. The soil at the center will be near the top of the compost barrel at the center of the key hole and sloped down to about 3 inch below the edge. The compost barrel has lots of holes so the gray water from the compost will water my garden. The method of planting was introduced to Africa and is now very popular there since it maximize the use of water and allow for continual composting and building up the soil. Turning over of the soil is only needed once every 5 years to replenish the organic material at the bottom. A keyhole garden the size of mine can give me all the veggies a small family needs except in my case where my lady would probably want me to just plant a lot of hot hot hot pepper! What I usually do is to cut off the bottom of celery, green onions, etc.. and simply stick them in the dirt and soon I'll have more than my lady and I can eat. The last time I did key hole garden, I put 2 slices of heirloom tomatoes in the ground and had so many tomatoes soon afterward.

Not seen in the picture is the door on the compost barrel. I can open the door and shovel out the compost near the bottom if the barrel gets too full.

I just looked up the price for keyhole garden Whooa! This one is $509 and is way smaller than mine.
Cedar Keyhole Garden | RaisedBeds.com

Cajun I have a good colony of black soldier fly larvae to help expedite the composting in the middle of our keyhole garden. We throw about a gallon of vegetable waste in the compost middle each day and it has not filled up in five years. It does not stink. The larvae are making plenty of "tea" for the organic garden. I'll go out and take a pic. Mine is much smaller than yours and I had to put a thatch roof on to protect the tomatoes from excessive heat in July.

I tried to post a pic from my iPhone but the connection is too slow today both from at&t and my wifi internet service. it keeps timing out.

 

[txdon]

Finally took settings off WiFi

 

[daugen]

Awesome bounty, Drew

thanks David. I'm worried about that island of yours.
I hope you have some good gas masks. (my research shows the Israeli military ones, also rated nuclear, are high rated on Amazon)
That "Laze" is bad news. Airborne diluted battery acid
with tiny glass shards inside. Not what the Chamber of Commerce wants to talk about...
The river four miles long of lava going to the sea is amazing.
Those folks who live that close are nuts.
But there always be those who do.

If you own the land, pretty hard to walk away from it.

A keyhole garden, learn something new every day. I like the use of cardboard underneath, natural compost long term.
Thanks Cajun. Your wife loves the hot peppers? Usually the guy.
I have some chocolate habaneros growing, and some other much milder poblano and jalapeno varieties. I tried to pick the mildest hot
peppers I could grow except for those habaneros, those are 400k Scoville. I have to be careful even handling that one.
ER visit for anyone with acid reflux like me.
Can't eat any of them, but everyone seems to like hot peppers around here. Most of mine are on the milder side.
Plus lots of sweet peppers, all of which I'm trying to get to grow vertically.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

66ｰF and another 1.92 inches rain last 24 hours, 1.23 of it since midnight.

Jay, overview of how our water catchment works:

Rain from roof collected by gutters.
First part of collection fills the self draining 1st flush pipes.
Remaining water passes thru my 3 phase prefilter consisting of a course plaster core, a nylon filter, panty hose, then a second like prefilter on way to 4 foodgrade poly tanks, 4K gal each.
Pumped from tanks to pressure tank then filtered
100 micron
20-5 micron
5 micron carbon
1 micron
UV sterilizer light

Pretty clean by time it gets to House.

Prayers for all in need

Be safe
Have a great day

Thanks for the added details, David. Any idea how much flow through the tanks it takes to avoid stagnation probmems? I'm asking because I want to add storage up on the hill above my house, mainly for fire fighting, and I'm trying to decide if I want to plumb it into the home's water system or just run a pipe down from it to a hydrant and keep it separate. I don't use much water outside the watering season, which is June-October, and worry about 10,000 gallons sitting fairly stagnant durning the non-irrigation times. Not a big fan of using chlorine in the storage tanks, and even though they'll be light tight and I'll use a UV filter on anything I drink, I sure don't want anything growing in there...

 

[sodamo]

Thanks Drew

We don’t have any masks. Likely not to get any. I suspect that should an air quality situation make it to us, there’ll be much carnage in its wake.
One thing I find annoying is the misinformation/sensationalism fostered by various news organizations. Got a txt today siting concern that the lava flow had encroached on the nuclear power plant. We don’t have a nuclear power plant, it is Geothermal.

The laze is definitely scary.

Many people live there due to affordability. Locals know and accept the risk. They live there at Pele’s grace. Their attitude is often minimized at the expense of the mainland welfare transplant here to take advantage of the low rent. One “poor” family even said they might be forced to return to Texas.
Local politicians are already posturing to use this event to raise taxes, both the general excise tax and property tax. No hint that fiscal responsibility might also include spending reductions or even restraint.
Cattle owners in the area are scrambling to find new pasture and relocate herds before tragedy.
Locally, the stories run the gamut, the good, the bad, the ugly. At this point, no one has died and apparently the only injury was someone sitting on his lanai and watching the spectacle until he got hit in leg by flying lava.

 

[mostly_gas]

Good evening all. 66F this morning partly cloudy calm wind for first half of day. Wind came up to moderate, Sky start building some "Q" and high temp of 85F. Went to POA meeting recap, voted in runoff election, lunch, Bike ride, then attempted to take pickup into town to get diags run, ABS light and brake light on before I left driveway, 1/2 mile later dash goes out, drive back home engine did not quit. will have wifey follow me into town tomorrow and drop car at dealer.
Prayers for all.

 

[sodamo]

Thanks for the added details, David. Any idea how much flow through the tanks it takes to avoid stagnation probmems? I'm asking because I want to add storage up on the hill above my house, mainly for fire fighting, and I'm trying to decide if I want to plumb it into the home's water system or just run a pipe down from it to a hydrant and keep it separate. I don't use much water outside the watering season, which is June-October, and worry about 10,000 gallons sitting fairly stagnant durning the non-irrigation times. Not a big fan of using chlorine in the storage tanks, and even though they'll be light tight and I'll use a UV filter on anything I drink, I sure don't want anything growing in there...

RNK, truthfully I don’t know. In our tanks, we fill from the top and draw from the bottom. The pump line connects to all the tanks so I imagine all are affected to some extent. Theoretically, we catch about 260k (3150 sf at .6 g/inch/sf X 140 inches/year) gallons per year to fill our 16k tanks, so a lot of overflow/self flushing.
Maybe in your case let the fill also agitate?

 

[lostcreekranch]

Went to vote this morning and, as usual, drove into Columbus to the Colorado County Court House Annex. Walked in and the office where we usually vote ...... was dark? Whuuuu?

Then I snapped to the fact that this was not early voting and I’d have to go to my precinct polling location, City Hall in a Weimar. Doh!

First time, in years that I’d not early voted. 40 mile round trip taught me a lesson. This election was a single vote one, primary runoff for our State Representative. Soooo .... 40 miles to fill in a single oval. Hope my preferred candidate appreciates my efforts?

 

[txdon]

Many people live there due to affordability. Locals know and accept the risk. They live there at Pele’s grace. Their attitude is often minimized at the expense of the mainland welfare transplant here to take advantage of the low rent. One “poor” family even said they might be forced to return to Texas.

How low is the rent? Are you talking about Government Assisted rent or private pay rent? I was always under the impression that it cost more to live in Hawaii.

 

[Ed of all trades]

Can't sleep so I just got up. HVAC guy was here yesterday and said hat I have a hole in the coil of the 15 year old air handler in the attic. Need a new unit. Guy put 6 lb of R22 in the unit Have an AC unit and the generator will pull it but they say not a HP due to the heat coils in the HP. Had finely scraped up the $$$ to buy a mill and lathe but don't guess that is to be for now. Been wanting them for many years.

Prayers for those in need. Ed

 

[RoyJackson]

2018-05-23, 0331

54 right now...high today in the mid-70's.

Step-daughter's procedure went well and now it's back to work for me

 

[sodamo]

How low is the rent? Are you talking about Government Assisted rent or private pay rent? I was always under the impression that it cost more to live in Hawaii.

The 2 rents mentioned were $500/mon for a 2 bedroom, $600 for a 3/2. One had almost bought, but unable to get a mortgage.
No mention is GA or section 8, but probably not. Many are affordable due to absentee ownership, some due to being just basic, even unpermitted structures. Very mixed bag in Puna District. Leilani Estates has reputation of being one of the nicer Puna subdivisions with good number of retired owners. Not a lot of jobs in that area. Lot of alternative lifestyles in Puna.

 

[daugen]

70 going up to 86, humid day with thunderstorms this afternoon.
I got all the lawn mowed yesterday, good to get that done, though with these every couple of day light rains, and the heat,
I only get four or five days out of the mow. Rear facing mower does clump grass a little more than conventional mower I see in damp grass; I was mowing
early. I just let those areas dry out and ran over them again and problem solved.

Going to fill in some empty spots in the main fenced garden with cantaloupe plants coming up quite nicely outside that area.
Trying to move as much as possible into maximum security vs free domain of those hungry vegans.

The rabbits are here and there, I can't shoot them..., maybe with the bb gun on low power. I just need to make my plastic 8 foot fence better stitched up and
make sure the bottom is secure. If they want to dig, sandy soil isn't going to stop them one little bit. But I may.
Haven't seen a groundhog here, yet..., but if I do, out comes the .22. Zero hesitation to send them on to their next life, if I can get a safe shot.
And perhaps a taser dart gun for the deer...
Competition for the food supply. Can't blame the critters, I'm just a chef laying out quite the spread for them.

Hope you all have a nice day.

 

[daugen]

. We don’t have a nuclear power plant, it is Geothermal.

I had to chuckle at this, when I first saw the photo of the plant I thought it was a desalinization plant or a pumping station of some kind,
having worked in the power plant business for several very interesting years, I knew that wasn't a nuke plant. Then I read the article and
saw geothermal. Expensive plant to lose, supplies one quarter of Island's electricity I read. Maybe that's wrong too...
And you don't have to worry about any of it being totally independent.

Perhaps in some ways this will keep development out and nature in, just what the local residents want.

 

[ronjhall]

Drinking first cup of coffee. 51° with mostly clear skies this morning. Heading to 80° with lots of sun. Future weather for here has changed this morning. One slight chance of rain over holiday weekend. :thumbsup: Got nothing accomplished yesterday. Today I hope to get weed killer sprayed on fence line and other area's needing it.

Buppies, RS, LS and others best wishes for continued recovery.

Prayers for all those in need.

Good Morning All.

 

[Buppies]

67 high of 83 today a little chance of storms. Big storms moved thru again yesterday evening lots of flash flooding all around

Prayers for all of those in need Roy and his step daughter Ed and his heat pump

 

[Thomas]

54F cloudy now upper 70's for high w/sun.

Cut and stack wood after work yesterday evening,hopes to finish this evening.
Starting tomorrow 12 days off from work :dance1: fingers cross to get my things to do list completed.
Time for E-muffin than feed little 4 legged critters and slow roll to work.

Enjoy the day all.

 

[Buppies]

Thomas enjoy your upcoming days off hopefully you have beautiful weather

 

[Looking4new]

45 and going to a high of 75. Wind NNW 2 mph. Mainly sunny.

I am still waiting for gravel. The first guy I called quoted me $200.oo cash for 18 ton loads of pit run, to call when I wanted it.I call and have to leave voice mail messages and he won't return my calls. The second guy I called quoted $225.oo/18 ton load and said I could see the stuff this week. The second guy screwed himself out of an extra $100.oo due to the $25.oo increase per load. I really only need three loads, but the extra loads would help with another project that right now is on the 'back burner'.

I am going to the garage today to pick their brains about a dual battery setup in the Dodge and eliminate the battery behind the fender. I think it is do-able but it will cost me about a grand to do.

My travel agent called me yesterday wanting me to go back to work. I told him I have commitments right up until the end of the month, which is the truth.

Have a safe day all