I'm going to paste in the entire text of a post on the Japanese news feed I've mentioned before. It's a perfect example of the excellent studies they continue to publish - which will rapidly disappear.
There's a good chance this will never appear in international news sources; and I'd predict with near certainty that it will not reappear in Japanese internal news; past today. The controllers can't pretend it never was published; but they can enforce "oh, it's trivial; drop it."
Summary; 3,400 people who survived the tsunami and nuclear meltdown - are now dead; from "prolonged upheaval." They're just reporting the facts. Lots of facts here; but you have to put them together yourself. The link is likely to stop working today- but it works right now.
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3,400 survivors of 2011 disaster have since died
The Japanese government says more than 3,400 survivors of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami have subsequently died due to health problems caused by prolonged upheaval.
The Reconstruction Agency compiles data every 6 months on deaths related to the disaster and the ensuing nuclear accident in northeastern Japan.
Agency officials say that by the end of last September, 4-and-a-half years after the disaster, they had documented 3,407 deaths.
The largest number was in Fukushima Prefecture, where the damaged nuclear plant is based -- 1,979 residents, representing 58 percent of the total.
The officials say 1,876 people or 55 percent died within 3 months of the disaster.
Since March 2014, 156 people have died, most of them in Fukushima Prefecture.
The officials say that as of February 12th, as many as 174,471 people are still in temporary housing or living in relatives' homes. The figure is down 50,706 from last March.
156,234 people are living in prefabricated housing or apartments rented by central and local governments. 18,237 people live with their relatives and acquaintances, down 316 from last year.
43,139 people originally from Fukushima Prefecture are living different prefectures.
Local governments have completed only half the planned public housing for people affected by the disaster, and just 30 percent of residential developments on land lots in higher locations.
Some communities continue to suffer from declining populations.
In Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima prefectures, 12 communities have reported population declines of more than 10 percent. More than half said their numbers are down by 20 percent or greater.
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End quote. Disasters cause long, slow declines - in civilization itself, now. The entire story of the Fukushima disaster is incredibly complex; but included the immediate descent of sophisticated vultures anxious to steal public disaster relief funds. And they have.
This is not fun to watch; but is incredibly educational; and could save your family's life someday.
Showing posts with label limits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label limits. Show all posts
Saturday, March 5, 2016
Monday, July 9, 2012
Only an "oops"
Hey, it's not hot! My brain is functioning again. Fingers, too, apparently.
In skimming the news today, this one hit me as beautifully relevant to all our considerations of Life, The Universe, and Everything.
From NHK, again, (remember these links only work for about 12 hours) one more little problem not in the original design specs:
"Jellyfish problem at nuclear plants
"Operators of Japanese nuclear power plants have experienced power reductions at times, caused by a swarm of jellyfish being sucked into water intakes.
"Electricity at the plants is generated by steam-driven turbines. The steam is then sent to condensers to be cooled down with pipes in which seawater flows.
"An influx of jellyfish to the intakes sometimes disrupts the supply of cooling water, forcing operators to reduce power output to curb heat generation.
"Many plants now have filters or equipment to remove sea creatures at the intakes. But these measures do not work perfectly when a massive bloom occurs.
"Thermal plants have been affected too. Kansai Electric Power Company says jellyfish problems have forced it to reduce power output in 17 of its generators from April to June, the largest number of affected plants for the utility in the past 5 years.
"The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says reports on jellyfish trouble have been made from spring through fall, mainly at plants on the Sea of Japan coast.
"But the agency says no reports have been made that jellyfish have completely blocked water intakes. The agency says that safety can be ensured by measures such as monitoring the flow of seawater.
Jul. 9, 2012 - Updated 10:50 UTC (19:50 JST)"
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So - nothing has blown up yet, so it's all ok, no worries. Yep, monitoring will make it safe. When the big surprise upwelling from the abyss of unanticipated ctenophores arrives next month, totally blocking all intakes, we'll be able to monitor the shut-downs as they happen. Fabulous.
Irony aside- this is what is going to bite us, as a species, on our collective butt. The utterly unforeseen consequences of global change, that our technologies simply have no ability to cope with.
With thanks to T.S. Eliot:
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
With neither a bang nor a whimper;
But with only a soft spoken- "oops."
------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE: HOLY CRAP - IT'S FOR REAL- NHK news update:
"Jellyfish cause problem at Ohi plant
"The operator of the Ohi nuclear complex in central Japan says it will strengthen the plant's defenses against jellyfish plagues.
"Kansai Electric Power Company was forced to reduce the power output of a generator on Sunday after a mass of jellyfish was sucked into a water intake of reactor 3.
"The utility said that conveyer-like equipment used to remove objects that had slipped through a mesh filter at the intake was overwhelmed by the volume of jellyfish.
"The invasion disrupted the supply of seawater that cools the reactor, forcing the utility to power down a generator.
"Last month, the same problem forced Kansai Electric to reduce the power output of a generator at one of its thermal plants.
"Jellyfish are a considerable risk for power plant operators. But predicting an infestation is notoriously difficult and a solution has proved elusive.
"Jul. 9, 2012 - Updated 11:52 UTC (20:52 JST)"
------------------------------------------------
That's the nuclear power plant in Japan that they just restarted- the only one now actually operating, since 2 days ago- and they've already had to cut output, because of a "notoriously difficult" problem, where the "solution has proved elusive."
Fascinating that the announcement of an actual power reduction event at a nuclear plant followed a previous "theoretical" announcement by about 6 hours or so, isn't it? An amazing coincidence.
In skimming the news today, this one hit me as beautifully relevant to all our considerations of Life, The Universe, and Everything.
From NHK, again, (remember these links only work for about 12 hours) one more little problem not in the original design specs:
"Jellyfish problem at nuclear plants
"Operators of Japanese nuclear power plants have experienced power reductions at times, caused by a swarm of jellyfish being sucked into water intakes.
"Electricity at the plants is generated by steam-driven turbines. The steam is then sent to condensers to be cooled down with pipes in which seawater flows.
"An influx of jellyfish to the intakes sometimes disrupts the supply of cooling water, forcing operators to reduce power output to curb heat generation.
"Many plants now have filters or equipment to remove sea creatures at the intakes. But these measures do not work perfectly when a massive bloom occurs.
"Thermal plants have been affected too. Kansai Electric Power Company says jellyfish problems have forced it to reduce power output in 17 of its generators from April to June, the largest number of affected plants for the utility in the past 5 years.
"The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says reports on jellyfish trouble have been made from spring through fall, mainly at plants on the Sea of Japan coast.
"But the agency says no reports have been made that jellyfish have completely blocked water intakes. The agency says that safety can be ensured by measures such as monitoring the flow of seawater.
Jul. 9, 2012 - Updated 10:50 UTC (19:50 JST)"
-----------------------------------------------------------
So - nothing has blown up yet, so it's all ok, no worries. Yep, monitoring will make it safe. When the big surprise upwelling from the abyss of unanticipated ctenophores arrives next month, totally blocking all intakes, we'll be able to monitor the shut-downs as they happen. Fabulous.
Irony aside- this is what is going to bite us, as a species, on our collective butt. The utterly unforeseen consequences of global change, that our technologies simply have no ability to cope with.
With thanks to T.S. Eliot:
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
With neither a bang nor a whimper;
But with only a soft spoken- "oops."
------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE: HOLY CRAP - IT'S FOR REAL- NHK news update:
"Jellyfish cause problem at Ohi plant
"The operator of the Ohi nuclear complex in central Japan says it will strengthen the plant's defenses against jellyfish plagues.
"Kansai Electric Power Company was forced to reduce the power output of a generator on Sunday after a mass of jellyfish was sucked into a water intake of reactor 3.
"The utility said that conveyer-like equipment used to remove objects that had slipped through a mesh filter at the intake was overwhelmed by the volume of jellyfish.
"The invasion disrupted the supply of seawater that cools the reactor, forcing the utility to power down a generator.
"Last month, the same problem forced Kansai Electric to reduce the power output of a generator at one of its thermal plants.
"Jellyfish are a considerable risk for power plant operators. But predicting an infestation is notoriously difficult and a solution has proved elusive.
"Jul. 9, 2012 - Updated 11:52 UTC (20:52 JST)"
------------------------------------------------
That's the nuclear power plant in Japan that they just restarted- the only one now actually operating, since 2 days ago- and they've already had to cut output, because of a "notoriously difficult" problem, where the "solution has proved elusive."
Fascinating that the announcement of an actual power reduction event at a nuclear plant followed a previous "theoretical" announcement by about 6 hours or so, isn't it? An amazing coincidence.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Iceland Launches New "Piece Corps"
Iceland today has announced that they are sending aid to both the European Union and the USA, in the form of a new "Piece Corps".
Finding themselves with hundreds of unemployed well educated and reasonably well behaved youth, it dawned on them that Iceland is uniquely well placed to be providing desperately needed help and advice to other countries suffering from financial collapse.
Icelandic couch-potato youngsters have by now watched countless hours of financial pundits explaining what happened to them, and having nothing better to do, and wanting to "getoffadisrock" as they say in Icelandic; they have proven eager to volunteer for this new humanitarian adventure.
"Look", Ingrid Ingridsdottir explained, "We've, like, survived it. And when we read the financial news coming out of the ashes of the European Union, and from behind the barricades at the US Federal Reserve - any one of us obviously has a much clearer idea of what's actually going on than any of those dimdims. We just hate to see them suffer."
Starting in mid-April, flotillas of geo-thermal powered kayaks will begin carrying hundreds of eager, blond, idealistic semi-virgin volunteers to the financial centers of the Big 8. The first group is expected to reach New York by April 22, and a second wave is being launched to arrive in Washington DC just a few days later. London and Belfast are on the list, but dates are uncertain.
The volunteers heading for Washington include a second kind of Piece Corps volunteer; engineering students. "As everyone knows, Iceland is the center of the world for real geo-thermal power development." said Ingridsdatsun Ingridsdottirdottirson. "We've been monitoring the thermal signatures of the entire Earth for some years now. The satellite data is absolutely clear; somewhere in the vicinity of Washington DC there is a new volcano erupting. The signature is much hotter than Kilauea in Hawai'i. True, all we can see so far is the immense atmospheric upwellings from the heated air; but that much hot air has to mean a real geothermal source someplace. With our Icelandic expertise, we're sure we can find the source, and tap it. Judging from the satellite data, there's enough energy there to power the entire USA for the entire foreseeable future- no nukes needed."
The entire world wishes these modern saints good luck.
And- I don't know how I missed this when it first came out; but it's an appropriate follow-up to everything else.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Bittman and GMOs
Mark Bittman, the notorious NYT food columnist/writer, Luddite, elitist, and nauseating proponent of doing your homework and applying rigorous common sense, has been stirring the stew regarding whether we should be notified about the presence of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in our food, or not.
The stew is bubbling quite a bit, in response. (In case you can't tell, I admire him quite a lot.)
I have something to add to the stew, which is a little crude (and I don't have time to do a re-write) but which is to the point.
Below is an essay I zipped off in October 1999, as a heartfelt response to picking up a Future Farmers Of America newsletter, and finding that what was then being dubbed "biotech"; which includes GMOs, was being presented to high school kids as the certain, and bright, future.
It's a big topic. I'll let the conversation start here. This, incidentally, is my bit mentioned long ago in "once and future topics" on "where have all the mammoths gone?"
------------------------------------------
Why Biotech Has No Clothes
I’ve noticed a highly disturbing trend recently; the Biotech mavens, pushers, junkies, and corporations have stolen a march on those few of us who would like a little calm discussion before completely destroying the bottle that once held the genie.
If you take a look at any publications aimed at our mainstream agricultural youth, you will find article after article stating that Biotech is our only hope to feed our growing world.
No discussions. Just the flat statement: there is no alternative. Occasionally an interviewee will have the grace to preface the statement with “I believe...” . But what always follows is: “ we simply have no alternative if we don't want people to starve to death.”
And the kids are receiving this wisdom from above quite cheerfully, even willingly passing it on, to those outside the farm community who couldn’t possibly understand the internal necessities and holy mission of the food system.
Population control? Don’t be ridiculous. And shut up about China, they’re still godless communists, and horrifying. Don’t try to tell me they’re just people, like us, struggling to deal with a near impossible problem.
Questions about who benefits from Biotech? Huh? Obviously, corporations would only do what is good for all of us. Why, just look at what wonderful things have already been done for dairy farmers! They’re so much better off now that Biotech has increased milk production; and the vets have so much more work to do, too.
What is happening now is in fact an echo of an earlier phase of human development.
I can hear precisely the same argument going on about 10,000 years ago.
“Our tribe is expanding! We will simply have to hunt more, and longer hours.”
“And with this new tool our hunters have developed, the wonderful Bow, so much more powerful than the quaint old spear-thrower, we can clearly feed all our people!!”
“Look, there’s that herd of mammoths we’ve never been able to harvest before!! After them!!”
Meanwhile, some moron in the background was mumbling “Gee, look at all the grass. And all the grass seed. Sure, a grass seed is smaller than a mammoth, but, there really is a lot of it. I bet we could eat grass seeds.”
Echoes come: “What an amazing, ludicrous idiot! We’ve always been mammoth hunters, and always will be! He’s just a damfool dreamer; no concept of hard reality. Besides, nobody would ever want to eat that stuff; we eat mammoths. Always have, always will. Period.”
Luckily for you and me, once that very last herd of mammoths was eaten, someone remembered this idiot.
We’re in the same place now. We’re about to run out of mammoths (soil and water), the women in the tribe are pregnant, and the mammoth hunters have a new tool. Soon our soil and water can be remembered in museums, right beside the mammoths. And the whole world can look like Iraq, the birthplace of agriculture.
Gee.
-------------------------------------------------
(Being polite and kind people, we will refrain here from pointing out that the wonderful bow, over the years, has killed vastly more men, women, and children, than it ever did mammoths. An excellent tool, the bow; very powerful. Alas that tools have no conscience of themselves; the sharp knife cuts anything; neither knowing nor caring what it cuts, or who is wielding it. So who is the conscience to be for the new Biotech bows? Giant multinational corporations? Ah, well, that’s all right, then! Thank goodness.)
(We will also quietly refrain from pointing out that the “world will starve” statement is a lie, and a myth, used very effectively to make people feel guilty about arguing. The world has a tremendous surplus of food, and will for a long time to come. So much we burn tons of food to fuel our cars; so we can drive to the lake, to play on our jetskis. People do starve; but not because the world has no food for them; they starve for political reasons, and because of a lack of timely compassion. The World is NOT hungry; the World is mean.)
(In fact, while Biotekkies proudly state that they will be able to increase production of crop x by as much as 5%! (gosh) the fact is that in the 3rd World, sometimes 30-40% of each year’s crop production is WASTED. Lost. It rots, after harvest. Due to inadequate storage facilities and systems. Yes, it really is that much; almost never less than 20%. Unfortunately, there is no real money to be made by helping developing nations build appropriate transportation and storage. Nor scientific careers and reputations.)
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Back but buried
I drove 2200 miles, to hand deliver my greenhouse product. Kinda buzzy on return, and overloaded with piled up work. Once again, too many thoughts running through my head to sift into sensibility easily here; just wanted you to know I haven't disappeared or abandoned the blog or anything.
An example of the overload- we have 28 guinea keets (chicks) here and growing. According to the available info, they want you to keep them in a brooder situation for 3-4 weeks, then a pen until week 6, when you can start letting them out into the world.
Except, yesterday, as I was turning on their heat lamp for the night (solar powered, by the new panels installed last fall) - I turned my back on them after putting in clean water and food- and when I turned back, one of the little stinkers was sitting way up on the edge of their brooder pen. He had to fly up there. Which means my pen is not going to be containing them tomorrow, and I've GOT to figure out yet another temporary pen rig, since the Chicken Dungeon is far from ready (building with sod turns out to- uh- take a lot of work, and time; imagine that)-
AND, after making coffee this morning, I discovered I'm out of propane for the summer cook-stove; so I can't wash dishes until I go to town- AND Spice is not here, but on her way to visit parents, far away, for the first time in a year and a half... AND in her hurry to pack, and toddler wrangle, and do extra greenhouse chores, she left me with a sink full of dirty dishes, so I don't have a plate to eat off of... (I'm fishing for pity here, in case you can't tell, and lots of opprobrium for my cruel wife) :-)
you get the idea.
More next time it rains, and I'm inside.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Crusty Chicken Uncovered...
It saddens me deeply to report that our friends in the CIA have revealed a massive cover-up over at Chunky Chincken's - alas, it is in connection with her most famous initiative, the drive to establish the Diva Cup as the cutting edge of green femaleness.
This is indeed a photograph, in spite of the considerable resemblance to commercial semi-soft porn drawings. PhotoShop is amazing, isn't it?
even though this is merely a drawing of the obscure robot, Windsy Lagner. Sad, we think.
As you can see, an original photo has been blatantly altered, proof of Chunky Chippy's attempt to pass off her current "photo" as reality.
You may recall, in the early thoughts she shared with us, she confessed she was worried about... a sneeze.
What we've discovered is, The Sneeze did indeed occur. And it was, as feared, catastrophic; putting the entire project in grave doubt- which clearly has been the motive behind the ensuing cover-up.
Working together with Chinese Military Intelligence, the CIA (both organizations monitor all communications from the Little House - really) was investigating all the activities on the Chicken's blog, seeking any clue as to the origin of the fierce animosity towards this blog; beyond, of course, her sad failure to dominate the poll she'd intended to illustrate her own moral supremacy in the green-blog wars. (Notice her own blog is listed first in the poll, rather than using alphabetical order- this is a well known ploy for skewing results...)
Chuppa Chicken afishionadoes may recall THIS highly salacious post-
Ostensibly regarding the green aspects of elevators, the CMI-CIA team discovered that the photo published there was an extensively photoshopped picture of- the aftermath of The Sneeze... captured by the CC in-house pap-arazzi (hoping for good smear material, as always), and recycled for other purposes, as is typical there.
Here is the extensively photoshopped photograph, as published by Chopped Chickkens-
This is indeed a photograph, in spite of the considerable resemblance to commercial semi-soft porn drawings. PhotoShop is amazing, isn't it?
The Intelligence squad was suspicious of this photo, and discovered on a remote server in Kuuzbeckystan (the border country between Kurd and Uzbek regions) used by Hallibutton Inc to backup all web activity, the original photo: and the steps involved in creating this one. We know this is shocking; but we feel obliged to make the truth known.
Long-time Chickn minions will be aware that Madame Crinchy has always been sensitive about her appearance, and has often sought to mislead the blog consuming public in that regard. For months, she claimed this as her personal photo-
even though this is merely a drawing of the obscure robot, Windsy Lagner. Sad, we think.
Other photo deceptions were also perpetrated in the early days, but we will not inflict them upon our readers now.
The first clue that all was not as it appeared came when this photo was uncovered, in the Kuuzbecky server backup-
As you can see, an original photo has been blatantly altered, proof of Chunky Chippy's attempt to pass off her current "photo" as reality.
Digging further, we uncovered the actual, (mostly) UNRETOUCHED photograph below- revealing, for the first time anywhere, the Madama Crunch's TRUE FACE- covered up eventually with a totally fabricated image. (SOME retouching HAS gone on in this photo- we do not claim Madam has 4 arms yet; but analysis reveals the face is in fact the original photo image, unaltered.)
AND, as all can clearly see, the true fate of the Diva Cup - following The Sneeze. The elevator person's shoe was irretrievably damaged, according to our information, and he has not yet been reimbursed.
AND, as all can clearly see, the true fate of the Diva Cup - following The Sneeze. The elevator person's shoe was irretrievably damaged, according to our information, and he has not yet been reimbursed.
Sad, and disappointing, but reality so often is.
Likewise, we must report that the alleged "potty-offset" schemes being touted by DC turned out to be- a ploy, alas, to get Hallibutton employees ensconced in the THWASPCO as putative "potty watchers"- but whose real task would have been to spy on the Little Blog's personnel, for purposes of future embarrassment.
No actual payments for offsets were forthcoming- despite DC's effusive promises. We fear that "DC", in fact, may be mere vaporware from Krunchola; another egg layer of deception.
Faith, it's an uncertain world, altogether. (Errol Flynn, in Captain Blood).
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(PS - We hereby declare the humor contest to be "complete" - and while all the comments in the world are welcome here, we will not be making more revenge oriented posts any time soon. I've duct taped my dignity back together, and am resuming the cloak, undisirregardless of activities elsewhither.)
Monday, July 23, 2007
EVERYTHING can break.
Having climbed just far enough out of my alligator morass to be able to catch my breath for a moment; my problem with this blog is a huge overload of stuff I'd like to write about (floods, philosophy, meat, science...) and stuff you've asked for. And I can't do them all, of course, so I'm going to do a short one, that wasn't on ANY of those lists so far, but which IS important, and connected. :-)
There have been multiple discussions on laundry hereabouts; including one today in the BBC, which probably tipped my choice of topic this way. England builds desalination plant. Last line in the article; "At the moment, half of the drinking water supplied to homes is used for flushing toilets and washing dirty clothes, which is madness." !! Ya think??
Nice somebody is starting to think, anyway.
So- laundry, and water, is NOT the point of this post; they're just the platform. Is water use critical? Way past. New lake?. This is a very good article; pointing out the tangle of interconnections between climate change, genocide, bad policies, and inadequate understandings. Darfur; one of the great horrors of our time, from all aspects. Water is going to continue to be a huge factor in global disturbances, as far out as anyone can see now.
So. We have to CHANGE the way we use water. Duh. Everybody agrees. Immediately after that lovely agreement, all the 2,804 different viewpoints and vested interests go straight for each others throats. Not much useful discussion going on, or progess in changing anything; hence the need for England - to build a delsalination plant for drinking water, so our current wasteful ways can continue without troubling interruption or real thought.
What is the sensible reaction of sensible people in this situation? Where the noise of conversation is drowning out any actual discussion, and no world body is actually capable of making any decisions? My own answer is; I'm going to live my own life as sensibly as I can, at least. Kind of all I can do; and the example might help, some decade or other.
Then- we get to the real world, that nasty nasty place, where your actions have real consequences. What, this isn't a video game? I don't get 10 lives, before I get to just start over? We'd laugh, but it's so not funny.
And here, in my own backyard, is a perfect example of what I'm trying to say- change is NOT EASY- and one of the barriers to real world change- is the increasing number of humans we have- who have never, ever been in touch with the real world.
This is where we do our laundry; a subject we've never raised here before; largely because it's not likely to be of use, in its total process, to folks living in cities or suburbs; This is a rural process; mostly, though some aspects could be adapted.
And why is the clothesline down on the ground, you ask? Ah. We'll get to that.
That big water tank down at the end there is a 500 gallon tank. It's filled by our windmill, and we use that water for lots of things; showers, and the occasional watering of plants just being established in our fields. And, laundry.
The basic idea here- this whole setup is on the path between the house and the greenhouse and the garden. We walk between house and other places like 6 times a day, most days. What I've developed over the years, is the habit of doing laundry- ALL DAY - EVERY DAY. In little tiny bits.
You're SUPPOSED to walk down and do "the next thing" for the laundry- every time you pass. Both ways. Regardless of how big a hurry you're in. If you allow yourself to say "oh, but I'm in too big a hurry to make lunch right now, I don't have time to stop and change the laundry from soap to rinse tank, I'll do it later.." you've lost the battle; and this will not work. You will wind up not doing the laundry. So you do need the philosophical attitude that "hurry" is a bad idea, pretty much always.
But if you can set up this internal habit- it's a pretty sweet system. You don't wind up spending hours doing just laundry- you do it in 5 and 10 minute bits. Then move on- usually feeling good about it, rather than overburdened. Here's what we do; you put a reasonable batch of laundry into a 30-40 gallon tank, which has a lid for it. Add soap/detergent/whatever, in the right amount, so the tank is about 2/3 full; and agitate; or "pound" as we say. Lots of different choices for pounding implements; currently we mostly use a natural rubber "plumber's helper" - which I have cut holes in, to increase the turbulence, and decrease the work. Pound the laundry up, say 100 strokes- counting is fun, with kids- put the lid on, and leave it to soak. Probably for hours, maybe in the sun, which adds heat to the water.
On the way back from whatever; you stop in- pound it another 100 strokes. Leave it to soak. The decision when to shift from soapy to rinse cycle depends on how dirty your batch is, of course. It's pretty forgiving. Usually we have 2, or 3 tanks going at once; one soapy, one first rinse, one second rinse. Then, it goes onto the clothesline, for lovely outdoor sunny drying. Wonderful fresh smells.
So. Spice tried this system a couple times when she first got here, and was not enthusiastic. She reverted to driving the laundry in to town, laundromat. For about 10 reasons, one of them being the price of fuel, she decided this year to give it another shot. For about 10 reasons, this time she became enthusiastic. One of those was- the height of the tanks. Something just that simple will make all the difference between success and failure- MOST OF THE TIME.
I'm 6'1; my two sons are both the same-ish. Spice is "5 foot-nothing" as she puts it. She just had too much of a struggle getting soaking wet laundry out of those taller tanks. We got some that were shorter. Hey presto! it's not killing her anymore. And Smidgen loves to help, and is entertained.
So. She's decided this is the future for us; a good functional cheap laundry system; and incidentally fantastic exercise- think of the money we save on gym fees and exercise equipment! But our original clothesline had died- the aspen tree it was secured to succumbed to a fungus disease- and fell over. So we needed a new clothesline.
Part of the problem with the old line was the fact that it was a quicky; temporary. Wasn't done right; so now I have to do it again.
One of my father's favorite jibes- "Yeah, there's never time to do a job right. But there's time to do it over; once it breaks."
Building something RIGHT is incredibly satisfying. Constructing something that will last- and that will be basically USEFUL for your life, your family, is about the most rewarding activity I know.
So with the help of Middle Child ( trying out a new moniker here :-) - before Smidgen, he was Younger Son; but now he has the Garrison Keillor slot-) I set out to build a clothesline for the ages. The Rolls Royce of clotheslines.
We had fun building it, too. Went down to the SE quarter, and cut some black locust trees- which I had planted, decades ago- for exactly this kind of purpose. Black locust won't rot in the soil- it's better than any treated wood, no kidding. Peeled the posts- the bark will come off messily and slowly otherwise. Set the posts so they are guyed to "deadmen" - 3 foot long black locust posts totally buried - sideways - to provide tremendous anchor power. Laundry is HEAVY, you know? That beautiful line is under serious tension when loaded with wet clothes. You need to design for it.
Bought 50' of plastic coated steel cable for the line. (Oh, hush; it's a good use of plastic. :-)) 50' is a LONG way- you need to allow for re-tensioning; and for - mowing the grass! So there's a big turnbuckle in the line, with a hook- a few turns and you can take the line down for mowing; if it's sagging, a few turns and it's tight.
Worked great! Looked beautiful! Dried laundry!
Worked so well, that Spice decided to put ALL the laundry on the line today; doing a big batch. With blankets.
Overload.
You can overload ANYTHING- and this is what so many people growing up protected in cities- and thinking you can always do it over, like in the video game - just DO NOT understand, in a very basic way.
"It's working great! I'll just add a little more!"
LIMITS. Limits. Everything has limits- and we have a society we've trained to NOT KNOW that- and it's a huge part of reaching our goals of a livable world. You want more? Bigger? YOU CAN'T HAVE IT. The world will break.
The laundry overload didn't break my massive black locust posts. Didn't pull out the deadmen. Plastic coated steel cable is a little tricky to fasten; you CAN'T tie knots in it; you have to use "cable clamps". The overload actually pulled the cable out of the fiercely tightened clamp- which I had put together myself, in a pretty knowledgeable way- cable doubled back; looped, right piece down- etc. Still- stripped the plastic off; pulled the cable right out.
Easy enough to fix; only took me 10 minutes. Lots of humor. But the principle remains one that worries me- how do you get people to accept limits- when they don't realize there ARE any?
My concern, and experience, goes far beyond Spice. One year we had a group of GREAT interns living here for the summer. All exceptionally bright. And all city kids.
They broke every machine on the farm, eventually. "The mower is doing great in this foot high grass; I'm going to mow the 18" tall grass over there next..." Nope. CAN'T. Overload. Burn up the belts, if you're lucky; burn up the transmission or overheat the engine, if you're not. "Well, how was I supposed to know??" in anguish.
Good question. We need good answers. It used to be called "common sense" - but how do you teach that?
What we're overloading is the Earth- and it's mostly the result of millions of tiny overloads; from clueless humans; far too many of whom do not know "overload" is even possible.
There have been multiple discussions on laundry hereabouts; including one today in the BBC, which probably tipped my choice of topic this way. England builds desalination plant. Last line in the article; "At the moment, half of the drinking water supplied to homes is used for flushing toilets and washing dirty clothes, which is madness." !! Ya think??
Nice somebody is starting to think, anyway.
So- laundry, and water, is NOT the point of this post; they're just the platform. Is water use critical? Way past. New lake?. This is a very good article; pointing out the tangle of interconnections between climate change, genocide, bad policies, and inadequate understandings. Darfur; one of the great horrors of our time, from all aspects. Water is going to continue to be a huge factor in global disturbances, as far out as anyone can see now.
So. We have to CHANGE the way we use water. Duh. Everybody agrees. Immediately after that lovely agreement, all the 2,804 different viewpoints and vested interests go straight for each others throats. Not much useful discussion going on, or progess in changing anything; hence the need for England - to build a delsalination plant for drinking water, so our current wasteful ways can continue without troubling interruption or real thought.
What is the sensible reaction of sensible people in this situation? Where the noise of conversation is drowning out any actual discussion, and no world body is actually capable of making any decisions? My own answer is; I'm going to live my own life as sensibly as I can, at least. Kind of all I can do; and the example might help, some decade or other.
Then- we get to the real world, that nasty nasty place, where your actions have real consequences. What, this isn't a video game? I don't get 10 lives, before I get to just start over? We'd laugh, but it's so not funny.
And here, in my own backyard, is a perfect example of what I'm trying to say- change is NOT EASY- and one of the barriers to real world change- is the increasing number of humans we have- who have never, ever been in touch with the real world.
This is where we do our laundry; a subject we've never raised here before; largely because it's not likely to be of use, in its total process, to folks living in cities or suburbs; This is a rural process; mostly, though some aspects could be adapted.
And why is the clothesline down on the ground, you ask? Ah. We'll get to that.
That big water tank down at the end there is a 500 gallon tank. It's filled by our windmill, and we use that water for lots of things; showers, and the occasional watering of plants just being established in our fields. And, laundry.
The basic idea here- this whole setup is on the path between the house and the greenhouse and the garden. We walk between house and other places like 6 times a day, most days. What I've developed over the years, is the habit of doing laundry- ALL DAY - EVERY DAY. In little tiny bits.
You're SUPPOSED to walk down and do "the next thing" for the laundry- every time you pass. Both ways. Regardless of how big a hurry you're in. If you allow yourself to say "oh, but I'm in too big a hurry to make lunch right now, I don't have time to stop and change the laundry from soap to rinse tank, I'll do it later.." you've lost the battle; and this will not work. You will wind up not doing the laundry. So you do need the philosophical attitude that "hurry" is a bad idea, pretty much always.
But if you can set up this internal habit- it's a pretty sweet system. You don't wind up spending hours doing just laundry- you do it in 5 and 10 minute bits. Then move on- usually feeling good about it, rather than overburdened. Here's what we do; you put a reasonable batch of laundry into a 30-40 gallon tank, which has a lid for it. Add soap/detergent/whatever, in the right amount, so the tank is about 2/3 full; and agitate; or "pound" as we say. Lots of different choices for pounding implements; currently we mostly use a natural rubber "plumber's helper" - which I have cut holes in, to increase the turbulence, and decrease the work. Pound the laundry up, say 100 strokes- counting is fun, with kids- put the lid on, and leave it to soak. Probably for hours, maybe in the sun, which adds heat to the water.
On the way back from whatever; you stop in- pound it another 100 strokes. Leave it to soak. The decision when to shift from soapy to rinse cycle depends on how dirty your batch is, of course. It's pretty forgiving. Usually we have 2, or 3 tanks going at once; one soapy, one first rinse, one second rinse. Then, it goes onto the clothesline, for lovely outdoor sunny drying. Wonderful fresh smells.
So. Spice tried this system a couple times when she first got here, and was not enthusiastic. She reverted to driving the laundry in to town, laundromat. For about 10 reasons, one of them being the price of fuel, she decided this year to give it another shot. For about 10 reasons, this time she became enthusiastic. One of those was- the height of the tanks. Something just that simple will make all the difference between success and failure- MOST OF THE TIME.
I'm 6'1; my two sons are both the same-ish. Spice is "5 foot-nothing" as she puts it. She just had too much of a struggle getting soaking wet laundry out of those taller tanks. We got some that were shorter. Hey presto! it's not killing her anymore. And Smidgen loves to help, and is entertained.
So. She's decided this is the future for us; a good functional cheap laundry system; and incidentally fantastic exercise- think of the money we save on gym fees and exercise equipment! But our original clothesline had died- the aspen tree it was secured to succumbed to a fungus disease- and fell over. So we needed a new clothesline.
Part of the problem with the old line was the fact that it was a quicky; temporary. Wasn't done right; so now I have to do it again.
One of my father's favorite jibes- "Yeah, there's never time to do a job right. But there's time to do it over; once it breaks."
Building something RIGHT is incredibly satisfying. Constructing something that will last- and that will be basically USEFUL for your life, your family, is about the most rewarding activity I know.
So with the help of Middle Child ( trying out a new moniker here :-) - before Smidgen, he was Younger Son; but now he has the Garrison Keillor slot-) I set out to build a clothesline for the ages. The Rolls Royce of clotheslines.
We had fun building it, too. Went down to the SE quarter, and cut some black locust trees- which I had planted, decades ago- for exactly this kind of purpose. Black locust won't rot in the soil- it's better than any treated wood, no kidding. Peeled the posts- the bark will come off messily and slowly otherwise. Set the posts so they are guyed to "deadmen" - 3 foot long black locust posts totally buried - sideways - to provide tremendous anchor power. Laundry is HEAVY, you know? That beautiful line is under serious tension when loaded with wet clothes. You need to design for it.
Bought 50' of plastic coated steel cable for the line. (Oh, hush; it's a good use of plastic. :-)) 50' is a LONG way- you need to allow for re-tensioning; and for - mowing the grass! So there's a big turnbuckle in the line, with a hook- a few turns and you can take the line down for mowing; if it's sagging, a few turns and it's tight.
Worked great! Looked beautiful! Dried laundry!
Worked so well, that Spice decided to put ALL the laundry on the line today; doing a big batch. With blankets.
Overload.
You can overload ANYTHING- and this is what so many people growing up protected in cities- and thinking you can always do it over, like in the video game - just DO NOT understand, in a very basic way.
"It's working great! I'll just add a little more!"
LIMITS. Limits. Everything has limits- and we have a society we've trained to NOT KNOW that- and it's a huge part of reaching our goals of a livable world. You want more? Bigger? YOU CAN'T HAVE IT. The world will break.
The laundry overload didn't break my massive black locust posts. Didn't pull out the deadmen. Plastic coated steel cable is a little tricky to fasten; you CAN'T tie knots in it; you have to use "cable clamps". The overload actually pulled the cable out of the fiercely tightened clamp- which I had put together myself, in a pretty knowledgeable way- cable doubled back; looped, right piece down- etc. Still- stripped the plastic off; pulled the cable right out.
Easy enough to fix; only took me 10 minutes. Lots of humor. But the principle remains one that worries me- how do you get people to accept limits- when they don't realize there ARE any?
My concern, and experience, goes far beyond Spice. One year we had a group of GREAT interns living here for the summer. All exceptionally bright. And all city kids.
They broke every machine on the farm, eventually. "The mower is doing great in this foot high grass; I'm going to mow the 18" tall grass over there next..." Nope. CAN'T. Overload. Burn up the belts, if you're lucky; burn up the transmission or overheat the engine, if you're not. "Well, how was I supposed to know??" in anguish.
Good question. We need good answers. It used to be called "common sense" - but how do you teach that?
What we're overloading is the Earth- and it's mostly the result of millions of tiny overloads; from clueless humans; far too many of whom do not know "overload" is even possible.
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