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Winter eBiking
  • The old ice cream brain freeze feeling, only it doesn't stop till you stop cycling...

    I get by with a snood under my helmet pulled down to my eyebrows and another from below pulled up over my nose. But then I've not cycled in lower than -3C, I think.

    Maybe you need a full face helmet and goggles? Money aside...

  • These Bricks Can Absorb Traffic Noise - Thesis Presentation on Helmholtz Resonators
  • Can we not just get rid of the traffic instead?

  • What would you repot this basil into?
  • My mouth πŸ˜ƒ

    Probably worth potting on once into a slightly bigger pot, the extra food should encourage some new leaf growth, but in my experience they flower and then senesce.

    Don't split them, the added stress will encourage flowering.

    Might be a factor of living well north of the equator and shorter days (Scotland), but overwintering is not something that's possible for us. It's an annual plant: grow, flower, seed, die.

    Better to sow more seed or buy another supermarket pot and pot in on straight away so it never gets a chance to be stressed by lack of nutrients.

  • New study definitively confirms gulf stream weakening
  • Ice age? No. Western Europe will have cder winters and hotter summers.

  • Eco friendly loofah alternatives?
  • Tried to grow them in our greenhouse and failed. (Scotland)

    No idea where to buy them, just pointing they're quite hard to grow here.

  • To worm farm or not to worm farm?
  • Yeah, we move ours into our glass house over winter. I also made it an insulated jacket out of plasticky padded envelopes and duct tape πŸ˜€

    It's come through temperatures of -7C that way. The worms will all go deep and huddle to stay warm.

  • To worm farm or not to worm farm?
  • I'm assuming a worm farm is what we call a wormery in Britain. The main thing about wormeries and bokashi is they can take cooked food waste, that's not usually advised for composting.

    So in part I think it depends what your source material will be.

    Our wormery can get a bit whiffy, though it's not noticeable until you take the lid off to put more stuff in. Still, not sure I'd want it inside. Bokashi seems designed for indoors.

  • How often do y'all turn your compost?
  • Every couple of weeks during the summer, once a month over the winter. Used to do it weekly, but decided I should probably let it heat up more between turns.

    I do it by getting a fork and properly turning and mixing it. Very physically demanding!

    I only really have the one 800 litre bin though. I think the let it sit strategy works better when you have 2 or more, just layer well and let nature do the mixing!

  • using milk cartons in construction
  • Ours go into the recycling. Not sure what they get recycled into. Have a vague memory of them getting shredded and mixed with resin to make insulation boards.

  • In-ground (worm) composting?
  • How long? Months if you want it not to smell much at the end.

    The liquid that comes off should be diluted, 20 to 1, and used as a plant feed, yes.

    The solids left behind might be harder for you to deal with, I put them in our compost bin with everything else. You could try mulching around your plants perhaps.

  • In-ground (worm) composting?
  • I can suggest an alternate use for the buckets with a lid. We do 'roman composting' with a couple. Put all the thing's you don't want in a compost heap - dandelion roots, grass roots, weeds with seeds on etc in the bucket then fill with rain water and leave it well alone, because it will really stink if you poke at it πŸ˜„

    You can pour liquid off to use as a feed, the solids should be well rotten after a few months and stop smelling so bad. I usually chuck them in my normal compost heap. But I guess you could try them as a dressing.

  • far north composting?
  • I live in Scotland, so no where near that cold or much snow. But making sure it's got the minerals to keep microbial growth going should help it generate it's own heat. We can buy a product called rock dust here, it's ground up volcanic basalt - side product of quarrying - wide range of minerals in it. Mixing some through before covering it should help.

    Another thing that gets it cooking is wood ash, needs to be a pure wood fire obviously. You can also go the extra step and make biochar to mix in - you'll get some ash with that anyway.

    If you live near the coast a bit seaweed is a good addition too.

    I try to turn my own compost regularly and it's gratifying to see the steam rising on a cold day 😁

  • adrinux adrinux @slrpnk.net
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    Comments 12