Conserving Artifacts

I love old tools. A lot of these old guys have survived a total change in the world and are still useful. One of the important questions, is how to preserve, restore and protect these wonderful links to our past. My approach is to get data from the extreme ends of the spectrum. One fairly […]

Lettuce as a Complex Environment

I have been harvesting lettuce seed recently. Usually I just put a palm below one of the dandelion like flowers and with the finger tips of the other hand, massage the ripe seeds from the flower. The ripe seeds fall right out, along with a bunch of chaff.

As a child, I used to go […]

Spam Comments

It is currently just an irritation, not really the end of the world or anything but I am getting quite a few fake comments on this blog. The majority are trying to sell drugs. Some are trying to sell online gambling, and others are selling insurance.

Really, I don’t think it would be smart to […]

Two Layer Milk Paint

Here is a method for producing a durable, weather resistant, and lovely milk paint. The secret is PH. Anionic and Cationic layers will cross link and draw to each other. Since wood is acid, first you start with the base coating. Alkali will tend to draw in and bond to acid. Then when the alkali […]

Fire Ants, not all bad.

I am not fond of fire ants, but they did get rid of the chiggers and ticks. I miss the horned toads however. Still It is nice to have them in a corn patch. They will eat one or two kernals from an ear of corn, and will eliminate the worm that would otherwise eat […]