The mysterious rash of tree murders sweeping our nation

A rash of tree murders have popped up in my neighborhood. Trees, 6 feet or so tall, primarily of pine ethnicity, cut down in the prime of life, reportedly the corpses are put on display for bizarre rituals while the tree carcasses are still fresh, and then the dead trees are dumped unceremoniously on the street where cleanup crews have to work extra shifts to clean up the carnage.

We hear reports these murders are going on not just in our town, but around the country, and perhaps, if reports are correct, around the world.

Who knows why these tree murders are happening? It's a puzzling mystery that is now several years old. Looking back in the records we see similar flurries of tree murders every year. It's not clear even how long this has happened or even what the real purpose is.

What we do know is that, if our numbers are accurate, and we hope they aren't, the slaughter numbers in the millions every year. How can so many trees be brutally slain every year and nobody says a peep?

Best Rocket Stove Design Ever - UPDATE

Another Rocket Stove video, this time with a little design tweak.

The best rocket stove design just got better! Airflow was an issue with the original #10 can rocket stove design. I cut some two inch wide "flaps" and pushed them over the top of the rocket stove. This helps keep the top on and allows great airflow. Now the rocket stove is really rockin'.

How to Make a 16 Brick Rocket Stove

Here's another Rocket Stove video, this time showing how to make one with bricks rather than used coffee cans.

Dr. Larry Winiarski makes a clean burning rocket stove using 16 adobe bricks at the Rotary International-sponsored Integrated Cooking Workshop in Tlautla, Mexico

How to Build A Rocket Stove, Step-By-Step

I'm not sure what a Rocket Stove is or what is their advantage.  I understand that it has something to do with efficient fuel usage.  In any case the following video is interesting.

Build a Rocket Stove Step-by-Step. Building a rocket stove is quick and easy. You will need one #10 can and four small cans (soup, corn, beans, etc.). Seeing how to build a rocket stove is much easier then explaining the process in writing. I recommend watching the video and commenting if you have any questions. This is a great alternative heat source and cooking option for camping, emergency preparedness and to cook your food storage on. If you can cook it on a stove you can cook it on a rocket stove.

One way to have a drought resistant lawn

Out here in the Western U.S. we have an issue with little amounts of rain.  In Northern California we kind of ignore the real effect of the lack of rain, and continue growing lawns with grass as if we lived out east where it rains all the time.  Regular grass just doesn't make ecological sense here because we don't get rain for most of the year.  Most years the rain starts around November and ends in March and the rest of the year it's blue skies and no rain, except the last couple years the rain hasn't been starting until February (can you say "global warming"?). 

This morning on my walk I saw this:-

In case it's not clear - this yard is full of rocks.  Specifically the smooth rocks often called "river rock". 

Rocks don't need to be watered, meaning that this part of this family's yard does not require any expenditure of water, meaning that it's drought friendly.  Right?

There are other ways to do "drought friendly" of course.  Such as choosing plants that make sense in the local climate, rather than importing plants that make sense for other climates.  I would rather that this yard have drought friendly plants than rocks, because having more plants in the world helps the atmosphere, but at least they're doing their part to have drought friendly landscaping.

By the way the house across the street had a different take on "drought friendly".  Bare dirt.  No grass or other plants, means the yard doesn't require watering, but it's rather sub-optimal.  The yard next to that one had yet another take -- mulch that suppresses plant growth.  Again, a nice way to avoid having to water the lawn but sub-optimal to the preferential method of planting drought friendly plants.

Who says you have to watch everything on your DVR? Keeping television watching in perspective

Who am I, a guy that hasn't owned a television in over 15 years, to tell y'all how to handle your television watching habits.  eh?  Don't answer that and listen to the story ...

In the most recent episode of one of my favorite podcasts the guy started off by saying that he and his family had "cleared some of the backlog on their DVR" and watched some particular TV show he wanted to talk about on the podcast.  It doesn't matter what show it was or what he had to say, because I stopped at "cleared some of the backlog" from the DVR and had a thought come into my head like a bolt out of the sky.

That's a fallacy .. just because your DVR recorded some TV shows for you doesn't mean you're then obligated to watch those shows.

You can treat the DVR as if it creates obligations for you.  It's similar to how if someone makes you some tea, brings it to you, along with a couple cookies, and even though you don't really want the tea, don't want to eat some cookies, common courtesy has you drink the tea and eat the cookies anyway.  In other words, the DVR dutifully performed a service and recorded some TV shows for you, so is it your common courtesy to watch the TV shows?


Or you can treat the DVR as offering a possibility of things to do, but that it doesn't create any obligations of something you have to do.

Part of the reason I don't even own a television is that I turn into a zombie whenever it's on.  I don't like being zombified by the machines, and my way of keeping from being a television zombie is to simply not have it in my life.

I'm sure that television, when kept at the proper dosage, in proper balance with a healthy lifestyle, can be a positive benefit to your life.  It simply seems to me that someone who "clears backlog" out of their DVR isn't keeping a healthy balance around their television watching in that it sounds like they see the DVR as having created an obligation to watch everything it recorded.  Granted, I could of course be reading too much into what he said, but I'm also certain that this is true for some people in their relationship with their DVR.

Who'd have thought you could reinvent the shovel?

The humble shovel has existed in one form or another for thousands of years.  This means it is a very successful design that you might think cannot be improved upon.  But ...