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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

The disposal of nuclear waste is a boondoggle that could be solved by 
the advent of the space elevator.  IMO, that should be the main reason 
for construction of such.  We lift heavy or dangerous cargo, i.e. nuke 
waste, to orbit, where it is picked up by a shuttle or satellite and 
then rocketed into the sun.

Hi everyone, it's been a while since I had a moment to write.  Things at 
work have been very demanding, and I haven't been doing anything 
homesteady at all.  I got my garlic bulbs in the mail yesterday and it 
made me realize how little I have done this year to prepare for next. 
If next year is like this one, I may not have a garden at all.
Let's see...what have we done in the last six months??

We refloored the living area (kitchen, master bedroom and living room) 
of the house.
We re-roofed the greenhouse, removing the UV damaged polycarbonate and 
replacing it with metal barn roofing.  I don't use the greenhouse in the 
summer-I use it mostly as a season extender from January to Spring, so I 
am hoping the extra heat from the roof will help warm it.

I had a garden, but not much of one due to the drought.  We had weeks of 
100+ degree heat, where usually we have maybe 4-7 days of such.
I had some tomatoes and peppers, a watermelon or two, and some butternut 
squashes, but that's about it for the summer garden.  I planted some 
sorghum for the chickens and it worked so well that I will do that 
again.  They love the stuff.  I planted it outside the fence and when it 
bloomed/went to seed, I just bent the stalks over the fence to give the 
chickens some jumping exercise and entertainment.

We lost a few chickens a few weeks back to a raccoon, I think.  Secured 
the fence and we haven't had any more problems.  We had one hen go 
broody and she hatched out 8 chicks, 4 of which are still alive and 
almost grown now.

The turkeys, six mammoth bronzes, are almost ready for the freezer...

I replaced some rabbits so the first breeding will be in December...

We have somehow acquired 3 boats now..one is the woodstrip canoe Ron 
built, a co-worker gave me another canoe-1950's style Herters square 
stern- and we restored that and put a trolling motor on it for fishing. 
 It is awesome.  Also, one day my boss lost it and took his anger out 
on me, and the next day, like an apologetic abusive husband, gave me a 
boat to make up for it and to keep me from quitting.  I'm not stupid, I 
took the boat.<g>  It's a 1978 MFG fiberglass tri-hull bass boat with a 
60hp Mercury on back.  We are cleaning it up and fixing some stuff and 
haven't yet had a chance to put it on the lake.  It's just as well, as 
all the reservoirs here are closed for boating.

The drought continues here in NW Georgia...we are classified as 
"exceptional", being the worst in 100 years.  The ground has cracks with 
less than 1% soil moisture at times.  I think the average is around 12%. 
 Groundwater levels are dropping drastically so we are trying to 
conserve water even more and watch the well closely.
We usually get about 56 inches per year, and October is our driest 
month.  As of today, we have 17 inches of accumulated rain since January 
1, according to the UGA weather monitoring station about 12 nautical 
miles away, and we have 14 inches according to my own personal 
monitoring.  Several times, it rained in town, but not at home.  It's 
hard to garden in such.  We collect rainwater for the animals and 
garden, but when there is no rain....

We have about 1 week of wood, and fire season starts mid October.  We 
have yet to repair the woodstove(needs new flue), so we are really 
grasshoppers this year.  I may have to take a paycheck and buy wood. 
That sucks.

Anyway, that's the update from EarthNSky..just wanted y'all to know that 
I am still here...

Bev


VAN DELL JORDAN wrote:
> I learned about that from an article about grandious
> schemes that never made it, for obvious reasons.  The
> only other one I remember was the mohole.
> Van Dell
>
>
> --- Don Bowen KI6DIU <don.bowen AT earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> > At 9/22/2007, you wrote:
> > > Someone once proposed putting nuclear waste in a
> > > rocket and sending it to the sun.  Might work?
> > until a
> > > rocket blew up on takeoff.
> > And how much fossil energy would that take? 

--
Bevanron of EarthNSky Farm   Sleep well tonight, for somewhere in the 
ocean's depths, MY son is protecting YOUR freedom.