Thistleblooms Rambles

[Bruce]

Did anyone see where Bill Gates is the largest PRIVATE landowner of agricultural crop land.......????

Apparently owned by a non profit foundation he and Melinda created to "provide small farmers in certain countries with the tools they need to produce more crops and adapt to climate change."

Gates Agricultural Innovations
Of note, their 242,000 acres pales in comparison to BIG land timberland and ranch holders
"While these holdings sound massive, they are small compared to large land holdings that include timberlands and ranches. In Land Report's Top 100 list, Bill and Melinda Gates only rank 49th, while Jeff Bezos of Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) comes in 25th and Ted Turner ranks fourth. Top honors go to John Malone, who owns 2.2 million acres of land that includes ranches in Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico."
(From the same article linked above)

DS1 installed the conversion kit on hers, so he can do it again if we convert from electric.

You probably didn't mean to suggest you could convert a given electric stove to gas/propane

The conversion is easy (other than the contortions necessary). The NG dryer we bought came with instructions and the part that needed to be replaced. As I recall the only real difference between the two forms of gas, with respect to the machine, is the diameter of the "pipe". I don't know if NG or propane uses the smaller flow diameter.

 

[farmerjan]

Note that I said "agicultural CROP land. I am well aware that there are many others with more total land ownership.... the timberland and the mountainland will not do much for producing any of the row crops... or human food row crops.

 

[thistlebloom]

I got a ride in today. The weather has been boring. Cloudy and cold but dry. Took Syringa and went up in the mountains to ride on state land so the dogs could go with me.
The sun came out a little, very hazy but I'll take it.

Today's view.

This was an exploratory section we did. It's a continuation of the cut the bulldozer made for the recent fire last year. It's the opposite direction from Heart Attack Hill, and went down then back up and around this knob. We did a bit of bushwhacking. There is no snow to speak of so the going is pretty visible. We came upon this clear area and went down the next hill. There is a lot of possibility for exploring this spring. This wasn't a good day for following game trails, and I should probably not ride alone when I do.

I followed the bulldozer track back and retraced my trail back to the logging road. Played around with panorama on my phone. I think I better keep practicing, lol.

 

[Bruce]

You can have some of our snow. Mr NOAA lied again. He claimed we were getting 1". I ignore that amount of snow. But it added up to more like 4 or 5", had to get the blower out.

 

[thistlebloom]

I'll take it!
We may get some weather action this weekend and into next week. I'm not holding my breath.
The trouble is, we get little dribs and drabs of snow and some pretend winter and start getting used to it, like it's the real thing. Then when we are lulled into weather complacency, bam! it's February and we suddenly get winter and we are in a pre-spring stupor and have forgotten how to deal with the genuine article. I don't like sneaky winters.

 

[Bruce]

We are getting another 4" between now and Saturday. Which means another 2 days of no solar production! 2/3 through the month and we haven't generated even half of what we made last January (which wasn't anything spectacular). Then it gets cold again, down in the low single digits to below 0°F.

 

[thistlebloom]

Remember my footstool project? I amazed myself and finished it.
Of course it did take me about 25 years

Before. (story on page 75)

Dh cut some knotty alder we had left over from putting base board in, and pin nailed it to the old (unsquare) box.
I stained the feet and glued the dowels back in. I just gave it a simple beeswax and oil finish.

After.

Then I made a leather foot pad with my 44 year old Singer Stylist home sewing machine. My machine wouldn't have been able to stitch through the multiple layers of leather, so I made an inner pillow from leftover fabric, stuffed it with down stolen from a bed pillow, and put it into the leather sleeve, then used snaps on the ends as closures.
I would do it differently, now that I know a little more, but it works ok for now. Probably needs a fatter inner pillow and more snaps.
Yes, it does indeed look like a ravioli, thank you Kid#2 for making that observation.

So I met the challenge of not spending any money on finishing it. Except for buying leather needles for my machine, but they can be used for a lot more projects.

It's a handy height for holding a mug of hot cocoa in the evening too.
A mini coffee table, haha.

 

[SA Farm]

That is amazing and looks great! Aren’t you glad you kept it

 

[thistlebloom]

Thanks, and yes!
I told my sister and she has no memory of me buying a footstool with her.
Not surprising since at that time she was a crazy woman, buying old furniture at garage sales and refinishing it to furnish their 100 year old house. She got some fantastic bargains on antiques that way, but it was hard work and she got a little burned out taking layers of paint off furniture to reveal the wood.

 

[Ridgetop]

You probably didn't mean to suggest you could convert a given electric stove to gas/propane

No, the propane conversion kit is for a gas stove. You have to buy a gas stove then install the propane conversion kit yourself or pay several hundred dollars to the installer. DS1 did it in an hour. 1/2 hour was spent in adjusting the flame.