This is (one reason) why my shed is made out of solid reinforced concrete. If everything in it catches fire the worst that will happen is the window shattering (nowhere near enough fuel to make it hot enough to spall the rendering off). I don't know why people bother with those flimsy flammable wooden things.

Aren't the wooden sheds cheaper?

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Needs moar dakka

Around here they are.

There might be some cultural inertia - the US has long built stuff out of wood that in Europe is more often brick or stone due to the abundance of wood and the ease of harvesting it vs. starting a new quarry.

Some areas might also have building codes that require no permits or fewer permits/costs to putting up a wood shed rather than a brick/stone/concrete structure.

I've a hazy idea that there might be a loophole in British planning laws that treat a wooden garden shed as a temporary structure, and therefore exempt from the trial by ordeal that is getting planning permission as a private citizen in this country.

Ran power out to the garage from the house on Saturday, with a second conduit placed for the eventual return of power from the solar-electric panels planned for the garage roof.

One step at a time...

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I find myself endlessly fascinated by your career - Stark, in a fit of Nerd-Validation, November 3, 2011

You know what else behaves this way? Assuming that the person will change if only X happens? Yeah. Abuse victims. American liberals are suffering from a case of electoral Stockholm syndrome. - Aly, re: Obama enthusiasts expecting a change-of-direction, after the 2012 election

Yes, I have. But does recycling actually save the recycler money? There is a reason why less gold is thrown into the trash than paper.

I was recently directed to this short how-to on making a slow drip irrigator for your garden by utilizing old soda bottles, that is, by recycling them. Added for interest.

Not planning this for my garden this year, but for some places this might be very useful.

What are you guys doing about backing up prescriptions?

I've been calling them in a week early and putting that week in bottles for emergencies, but it's fairly slow.

It looks differently in USA with wast, empty land that can be filled with trash without poisoning people, plus cheap extraction of resources without much care for sustainability or environment, and different in, say, EU or China with much denser populations, lot less free land, and all easy resources already exploited.

Plus, his rant how Big Brother can't force you to recycle seems both anti-government and false, yes, proper incentives can force people to change habits and unlike what he says are beneficent to environment even if they look iffy at first, uninformed glance. He acts like new resource extraction didn't require transport or as new jobs in recycling were bad

The former residents of Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York and Times Beach, Missouri might disagree with your assessment.

The US started cleaning up its act in the late 1960's. Unfortunately, a lot of damage was done but considering we started from a point of flaming rivers we've actually made significant progress. Certainly, the US east of the Mississippi has a population density comparable to Europe's.

Jacoby is also ignoring that a lot of recycling occurs preconsumer - businesses practice reduce and re-use because it saves them money. They'll sell their waste when they can - that's why, with interest rising in biodiesel, fast food franchises are selling their used fry oil instead of paying to have it hauled it away, in some cases needing to lock it up because in some areas it has sufficient value for scavengers to steal.

Third - it isn't just about saving money for the recycler, it can also be saving money for society. It's a hell of a lot easier to incentivize proper disposal than to have to clean up contaminated water tables. The Superfund has spent over 8 billion USD on clean up and the job is far, far from done.


The government - at all levels - has a duty to protect the public welfare. That seems forgotten at times, but it's right there in the preamble to US Constitution. No, the government can't FORCE you to recycle, but they can give you incentives to do so. There's nothing wrong with that, unless you're anti-government from the get-go.

Destickified due to abundance of stickies in this forum. A thread like this should not need stickies to survive.

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Whoever says "education does not matter" can try ignorance
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"You know, you insist government is depraved for not legislating against what we can see on newsstands, or what we can see in an art exhibit, or what we can burn in protest, or which sex we can have sex with, or a woman's right to choose, but don't you dare try to regulate this deadly weapon I have concealed on me, for that would encroach against my freedom!"
- Sam Seaborn
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Et si omnes ego non

Yeah. Let it maximize its own resources, and survive the future on its own.

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I find myself endlessly fascinated by your career - Stark, in a fit of Nerd-Validation, November 3, 2011

You know what else behaves this way? Assuming that the person will change if only X happens? Yeah. Abuse victims. American liberals are suffering from a case of electoral Stockholm syndrome. - Aly, re: Obama enthusiasts expecting a change-of-direction, after the 2012 election

So if it goes dormant for a time would reposting offend the zombie rules, or should we start a new thread with reference to this one? Quite a bit of time can by between posts here. I'd prefer to return to this thread even if a couple months have gone by but other might feel differently.

The Drought of 2012 and You

Just in case you haven't heard, several major agricultural regions of the world have suffered a drought this year as well as record-breaking heat. Living in the US Midwest I'm most familiar with that one, but Russia, Europe, India and others have also been affected, and China is currently in the third year of drought. This is a global problem.

Food is going to get more expensive. Yes, I know food prices have been rising of late but listen to me: food is going to get more expensive. The places that have historically produced enough to make up shortfalls in other areas are also losing crops this year. Couple that with rising fuel prices and shuffling food supplies around to even out local shortfalls will only drive the prices higher. So, what to do?

Well, if you put in a garden this year you might be a little ahead - might. After all, gardens are also affected by drought. Mine certainly was - I lost over half of what I planted, some items wiped out entirely. There is still time to get fall vegetables in, but realistically, this is the sort of thing that impacts the backyard grower as well as the professional farmer.

This is the sort of situation where having the means to put up and store food is a very good thing. Assuming you have that capacity, here are some suggestions:

If you can find a deal on vegetables at your local farmer's market or grocery store buy them and can or freeze them. Likewise, stock up on any frozen or canned foods that go on sale.

If you find grain products on sale stock up on them. The US corn crop is half gone already, and more may be lost. Russia's wheat has been slammed. Asia is also in drought, so the rice crop is in danger. Last year's crop is what is on the shelf right now, and there is some impetus to move old stock, but once it's gone the next crop, half of what it would normally be, is going to get expensive.

Farmers who raise livestock are going to reduce their holdings. This will mean a "pulse" of relatively low-cost meat will hit the shelves as slaughter produces a temporary glut, after which prices will rise sharply. If you're a meat eater, that dip in price coinciding with the slaughter is the time to buy.

Of course, if you do stock up you need to take care of your larder, lest you lose it to time and decay. The problem is, most of us urban or quasi-urban dwellers don't usually plan to store copious amounts of food at one time. The average freezer can only hold so much. There are several alternatives. You can obtain a chest or upright dedicated freezing unit. This enables you to preserve food as close to fresh as possible for a considerable time period and take advantage of sales to stock up in bulk. You can buy canned goods, which can be stacked, stored under beds, and so forth. It's not the best nutrition, but it lasts years and is resistant to deterioration. Finally, you can purchase dry goods like pasta, which if kept dry and stored in vermin proof containers can last months or years. If they get wet or chewed they're no good, though.

Finally, even if you can't do a lot of storing, doing some will help out with your own food bill. If, for example, you stock up on vegetables when they're cheap and freeze them it will leave more of your food budget for, say, milk when it gets pricey (and milk will cost more in the near future).

Keep posting in here, replying to a thread with new information has never violated the necromancy rules.

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Whoever says "education does not matter" can try ignorance
------------------
"You know, you insist government is depraved for not legislating against what we can see on newsstands, or what we can see in an art exhibit, or what we can burn in protest, or which sex we can have sex with, or a woman's right to choose, but don't you dare try to regulate this deadly weapon I have concealed on me, for that would encroach against my freedom!"
- Sam Seaborn
------------------
Et si omnes ego non

I probably should have thought of doing this a bit sooner, but this seems like it might be a valuable addition to the thread.

On a related note: I'm a big fan of hurricane straps for your roof. The link shows a variety of these straps and how they attach to the roof, as well as a link to a supplier site with more information.

If you are building new construction have these added, even if you're not in a hurricane-prone area. When added during construction they are relatively cheap but it can mean the difference between riding out a high-wind storm safe and snug with only shingles lost vs. having the roof peel off your house and your residence being a total loss. They're becoming more common in my area, despite our location 2200 km from the ocean because we get winds equivalent to those of a Cat 2 hurricane from time to time even if we don't get the full hurricane. A roof with this can even stay on the house during a lower-end tornado, the EF0 through the lower end of EF1 on the Fujita scale.

If you bought an already built home find out if you have these or not. As the link says, installing them may or may not be practical. If you can get them installed at an affordable price then do so. If not, use that knowledge when deciding whether or not to evacuate in extreme weather.

I don't feel like reading all 6 pages of this thread right now, but a useful resource for DIY projects/recycling and all that fun stuff is

instructables.com

Like any site filled with contributions by anonymous internet goers, you should use your own discretion at what projects you choose to take on, but there is a lot of good stuff on here. Admittedly, the site architecture can be a bit clumsy and difficult to navigate. Good sections to check are "Outdoors," "Survival", "Gardening," "Finances," "Life Hacks/Life Skills", etc.

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"Spare me your space age technobabble, Atilla the Hun." -Zap Brannagan

"It means they could've done some freaky human/demon hybrid thing." -Nightstalker, on Nazis

I know there are other firearms owners here, Hodgdon has put up a website with lots of reloading data for free:

http://data.hodgdon.com/main_menu.asp

It doesn't cover everything but it will save you some dollars. I used it to get into reloading and that may be a consideration for others like me who intend to hunt. Reloading also saves you money in the long run, depending on the calibre.

HDS also clued me into a great beginners guide to casting your own:

http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_Contents.htm