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IdahoPuma
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Idaho - Gardening, Technology, Homestead, Plant Propagation
Replying to Avatar Jeremiah Baker

s reading a tape measure... well, a mystery?

Well, here is what you need to know:

Reading a tape measure is a basic skill used in various DIY projects and construction work. Here's a brief guide on how to read a tape measure:

1 - Understanding the Parts:

- Blade: The metal strip of the tape measure.

- Hook: The metal piece at the end that moves for accurate measurements.

- Markings: The measurement markings on the blade.

2 - Start at Zero:

- When measuring, align the hook at the starting point, and the measurement begins from the zero mark.

3 - Whole Inches:

- The largest markings on the tape measure represent whole inches. Each inch is divided into smaller segments.

4 - Half-Inch Mark:

- Between each whole-inch mark, there's a smaller mark indicating half an inch.

Quarter-Inch Mark:

- Some tape measures have even smaller marks between the half-inch marks, representing quarter-inch measurements.

5 - Eighth-Inch and Sixteenth Mark:

- In some tape measures, you may find even smaller marks between the quarter-inch marks, indicating eighth-inch and sixteenth inch measurements.

6 - Reading the Measurement:

- Identify the whole-inch measurement first, then check for any additional markings indicating fractions.

7 - Adding Fractions:

- If you have multiple measurements, add the whole inches separately and then add the fractions.

8 - Measuring Length:

- When measuring length, ensure the tape is pulled straight for accurate results.

Recording Measurements:

Record your measurements as whole inches or a combination of inches and fractions.

Remember to use the appropriate side of the tape measure (imperial or metric) based on your project's requirements. Practice and familiarity with the markings will improve your accuracy over time.

#grownostr #diy

But why does the tape measure move… not sure how to measure when you push into a corner rather than pulling from an edge.

#grownostr #freeze #woops didn’t realize we were getting below freezing last night… thought it was tonight. Sprinkler back flow preventer breaking in a few days :) wooo.

Replying to Avatar jimmysong

On Lincoln

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Lincoln wasn't a good president. He wasn't even a mediocre president. He was a terrible president. He suspended individual rights. He massively expanded the government through money printing. He led millions of people to their deaths. All for power.

What we learn in school is that he was the great emancipator, ending slavery and winning a war that had to be won. That he was some man of genius and virtue, thrust upon the national stage at the right time to progress history.

Such is the result of the history being written by the winners. Similar hagiographies have been written about FDR and even Woodrow Wilson. But like the news, much of history is spun to manipulate us. Most of conventional history is fake and even a cursory study of what actually happened is enough to make you question how virtuous they were, and why they made the decisions they did. Almost always, you find that they were opportunistic cowards that did what would cost them least, even at the expense of the people they affected.

History is a tricky topic because the counterfactuals are always very speculative. But what we can judge is the values played out in actions taken, and in that sense, Lincoln was pretty terrible. He suspended habeas corpus, he cheated in border state elections to keep them in the union, and he massively, massively expanded the scope, power and size of government through inflationary theft.

It's hard to imagine what things were like before Lincoln, because before him, was a string of single-term Jacksonian, hard-money Democrat presidents. This was back when liberal meant being for personal liberty and that era of government before 1860 was insanely small, about 2% of the GDP. He would oversee an unprecedented expansion which would take the government to 20%.

Much of it, was, of course, because of the Civil War, and the popular narrative is that he needed to wage that war to end slavery. And yes, the issue was a major one in that era, but the elimination of slavery was more of a lucky by-product than an aim. His main goal, as he stated over and over again and as acted out in his policies, was to preserve the union, not to end slavery.

In preserving the union, he destroyed the idea that states had the right of secession, he weakened the idea of natural rights and he stole through inflation and sent many to their deaths. The centralizing of the federal government, the behemoth that we live with today began during his heyday.

The main thing that preserved his legacy was his assassination. Had a couple of battles gone the wrong way in 1863 and 1864, he wouldn't have been re-elected and he would have disappeared into the annals of history as a political amateur that lucked into the presidency in 1860 and screwed things up for 4 years. Instead, he was re-elected, assassinated and the horrific legacy of reconstruction was blamed on others. In short, he died at the right time.

There are those, of course, that will argue that Lincoln would have done things differently, and that he would have been more merciful to the south and rebuilt things as to spare them the suffering. But that's inconsistent with everything he did. Like most politicians he was a power grabber and he did what was politically expedient and not what was virtuous or right. He suspended habeas corpus (needing a reason to arrest and detain people)! He made generals do what would make him look good so he would get elected, not what would save the most lives or win the war the quickest. He created the greenback, which was a form of money printing to finance the war. And he spent an insane sum of other peoples' money through implicit and explicit taxes to "preserve the union."

Ending slavery, of course, was a big deal and in the annals of history, it's a dark mark in the history of the US that the institution survived so long. And yes, the Civil War did end it, but that wasn't the objective of the war itself.

Being Republican, he had a large Radical wing that he had to deal with and they wanted abolition, and later full voting rights for blacks. Because the south had seceded, they had the votes to pass the constitutional amendments, though only toward the end of the war when it was clear the north would win. That was a political expediency that ended up defining his legacy. But really, it's his biographers and historians of the winning side that have spun him to be a hero, when he was anything but.

The big flaw of Lincoln is that he created an unnecessary war that cost millions of lives and billions of dollars, one that set back the US by decades. Letting the south secede and revoking the Fugitive Slave Act would have ended the institution just as well, for much less cost. And this isn't idle speculation. Brazil had the second largest slave population in the 19th century that was whittled down quickly because the slaves had northern provinces where they could escape. The price of slaves dropped dramatically and soon, the institution itself was destroyed through economic means, not martial ones.

What's worse about Lincoln's legacy is that he set a precedent for federal power that brought forth the progressive era and eventually to Woodrow Wilson and FDR. The centralization of federal power began with him.

Lincoln wasn't a good president. But the history is written by the winners and they have made a secular saint out of him.

The big thing for me, living in Texas, being from Seattle… who wouldn’t have fought based on their location/neighbors. The north is portrayed as heavenly, but people killing your neighbors, who would you protect? It’s very simplified for history, but everyone was basically dealt their cards at birth.

#biochar #dogstr #coffeechain morning biochar burn with the doggy.

Yeah, pumps and air pumps. Just not sure if generally solar is super expensive. I run 7.5w continuous, then 24w for 12 hours.

What is your setup? I’m curious to have a backup for my fish tanks outside. Not sure if it is cost prohibitive…

#garden #banana #grownostr #permies #volcanomulch the only volcano mulch should be for banana trees :)

#garden #permies #grownostr #pond #aquaponics 8x4 pond has been running for a few weeks now.

I should have done 4x4 posts on the inside corners with 4” screws. I did have one board start to push out, I lowered the water level and added more screws to the ends.

The stock tank on the top, has a 3/4” pipe from the pump, this fills the tank. It is on a mechanical timer which runs 15 minutes on, 15 off. When the pump turns off it also drains to the level of that bulkhead 1/4”.

The other side has a large 1” bulkhead which sets the level of the stock tank. The tank has plant pond baskets which contain biochar, clay balls, lava rock. This method is super easy to move around, clean, etc.

I have some azolla and minnows in the water right now. I’ll expand to some local bluegill, catfish, etc.

I still need to add an overflow cutout, we had 4” of rain in the past two weeks and I manually dumped out water.

#garden #brusselsprouts #grownostr #permies I’ve never grown brussel sprouts before. It’s been a lot of growth but it looks like the parts you eat will grow off the crotch on the stems.

Replying to Avatar rev.hodl

Now that transaction fee storm has passed I'm back to heating my living space primarily with wood in a rocket mass heater instead of Asics.

https://v.nostr.build/Ee2K.mp4

Wood is burned in the small firebox and heat radiates from the barrel warming the space quickly while the fire burns.

As the exhaust gasses make their way to the chimney, they pass through ductwork in a plywood box filled with pea gravel.

The majority of the heat from the exhaust is transfered to the gravel before exiting up the chimney. By the time the gases exit the box, they are cool enough for me to put my hand on the chimney pipe.

After the fire burns out, the heat absorbed by the pea gravel slowly radiates out into the living space until the next fire is burned and the gravel is recharged with heat once again. I built this rocket mass heater for a fraction of the cost of a wood burning insert, with no special tools, materials, or skills.

It has been an unusually warm November and December here at the homestead. Normally we have to start burning wood in the rocket mass heater early November to stay comfortable but this year, the bitcoin mining dehydrator was enough to stay warm and do some food preservation simultaneously.

Transaction fees started climbing and I was shocked to see the most efficient miner I had approaching break even at my electric rate.

I didn't have the circuit to run it wired yet but this bump in fees was the motivation I needed to get the miner hashing. Coincidentally, the weather also started to get colder finally so getting the miner up and running was a win/win.

It successfully kept us and our guests warm through the holidays, even earning some Bitcoin beyond the cost of power at times, all while allowing us to save our firewood.

We did have to fire up the rocket mass heater a handful of times, but so far we've burned less than half the amount of wood compared to previous years. This is thanks to the combination of the warm weather, and high transaction fees allowing us to stay warm with heavily subsidized electric heat.

This might be the first winter we make it through with wood leftover for the next year, typically I'm scrounging for the last couple weeks.

#permaculture #permies #homesteading #selfsovereignty #meshtadel #rocketmassheater #woodburner #bitcoin #bitcoinmining #plebminer #rmh #grownostr

nostr:nevent1qqsxlrvat999wlsqh44lf69nvqwd60d0gstakzy0fw2mesveazx0fycpr4mhxue69uhkummnw3ezucnfw33k76twv4ezuum0vd5kzmp0qgsy6q3ua80awknlxp6m368qssqghct6ra6scca4meepumhcswkuwegrqsqqqqqp6xa6wk

Cool, how long did it take to build?

#grownostr #mulberry #garden Mulberries, it’s winter, stop with the berry making!

#gardening #grownostr #permies #coffeechain

Hints of our first frost in 365 days, garden beds are doing wonderfully. The beds were moved from another location before fall. No worms, terrible soil quality.

I put in 25% biochar, fertilizer, planted winter crops. A few weeks later added rye grass. I’m hoping for the spring/summer to have some excellent soil and do it all again.