Aotearoa Daily Kōrero 11/08/2023
Dairy farmers should be planting trees on 90% of their paddocks right now or at least starting the paperwork at MSD.
But instead they are howling in protest about any farms being converted to Forestry! Apparently, if any land that can be used for Dairy, is not, it is a travesty. Just ask any Diary farmer (at least in Southland).
Trying to turn Nelson into the Gold Coast!? Just hope they build well back from the coastline...
I'll make a suggestion - take it or leave it - but I can vouch for it 👍
Go "No Dig", I've been doing this for a while now and can say it is one of the easiest and best ways to garden. To get started you need cardboard (or similar) and either buy in compost or work on making your own. Obviously, no digging is required. Simple as...
I highly recommend spending some time watching Charles Dowdings' youtube channel - he has books too, but the detail on youtube is all you need.
The soil I've developed with this method is so much better than I have ever had before, and I just don't find the need to use any chemicals/fertilizers. We buy very little/no vegetables now! The quality of our veg. has improved using this method too. (Shit, that almost sound like I'm trying to sell you something - I'm not... 😜)
Having moved to Southland around 10 years ago, I've seen the ongoing denialism of Diary Farmers and Councils that this is/will/must happen. It is near on impossible to have a discussion about it, as you simply get dismissed, usually with comments in the form "what would you know, we've been farming like this all our lives, we know what's best". Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.
The Southland District and Regional councils have been heavily weighted with dairy/sheep farmers, even though farmers make up only a small percent of the population. Their voice, at the moment is simply too loud, I'm not sure how it got so loud (money talks?), but it is very hard to tone it down, so others can be heard.
Having grown up in a different place, but on/around farming (crop based), I believe it would not take all that much to switch from Dairy to plant based farming. After all, Dairy and Sheep farming requires growing grass/swede etc., much of which is reseeded/grown each year.
The biggest issue is the will and re-education of the farming community and building infrastructure and exports to support the switch. Unfortunately, many in the farming community are not well-educated (source: Census) in anything other than the farming practices that they have learnt "on the job".
Many rely on Frontera or fertilizer companies to tell them how to best manage their farms, and most just reject whatever the Government tries to impose, even though it is typically for the betterment of all.
Personally, I think it will happen quickly. I suspect there will be a sudden collapse or forced change that will be devastating for many. Frontera, with its export strengths, may be able to lead the way to a more progressive/stepped change, but they need to get moving, and soon.
There are some innovators now, but without significant infrastructure, they struggle to get a foot hold. Many don't know that Oats were grown in quite a large way many years ago in Southland, before Sheep then Dairy took over - all driven by the almighty dollar. So when the value of milk drops (as it is right now), and another crop becomes more profitable, or perhaps becomes more acceptable in our current climate change - we will see the change that some of us are hoping for...
Bigpipe 12.5
In the just short of 10 years I've been with them I can't recall an outage (maybe one a long time ago but unsure). I've never had to contact them about any issues and they just stay out of the way.
Fairly recent switch from ADSL2 to fibre was uneventful, just had to change fixed IP address (which I get free) due to IP range change. That one contact process was smooth and informative.
I did have to ask for the SMTP port to have the filter removed when I switched to fibre - no problem and no questions asked. All online, no need to phone, with quick response.
Can't fault them and their price is fair for the service. $79/mnth unlimited. Cheaper on fibre than ADSL2 (-$10).
Exactly what value do NZ farmers bring to the world?
If you are talking Dairy, most of their production is exported and consumed as luxury food - if it disappeared tomorrow, the world would not suffer!? (~3 percent of the world's milk solids) Dairy is one of the most inefficient ways to produce "food". We could do much better producing plant based food for export.
Considering the damage to our waterways, the environment in general, and Climate Change - there is NO value in that.
Per Capita is the correct measure to use in my, and many others' opinion - there is no other fairer way to attribute the effects.
Bringing in another 5 million people into the country would see our Carbon Emissions rise... Removing a good portion of 5 million dairy cows would see a rapid and significant reduction!
I pull the NIWA UV data/graphs into a website for local UV details (by permission from NIWA). All working as it has been, so perhaps the issue was with the app. No help, but sounds like you found a solution.
I haven't read your previous post - perhaps that's the problem, but I'm a bit confused by this post.
You say:
when it’s moist, like now, the outdoor humidity would be close to 100%. Thus, it would almost be impossible to get it <60% indoors, unless you would heat it to 25c +
But then say:
In the living room it’s 21c @ 55% which is almost the same absolute humidity as outside:
These two statements conflict?
Side Note: Less than 60%RH is the recommended acceptable indoor air quality.
If you flushed your house when the temperature outside was 11C outside @ 98.9%RH and then warmed that air up to 21C you should have a RH of around 54% as you have said you do. If you flush your house when it's 9C outside @ 100%RH then warmed that air up to 21C you should have a RH of 48%. So a little temperature difference can make all the difference.
Sorry, I've probably missed something, and it sounds like you know all this. Just comparing our experience where we typically run the heat pump at 18-19C at night when we are awake and let it idle down to 15C when asleep. Typically, (but not always) flush the house during the day and maintain around 48%RH. Perhaps, overall, the air is a little "drier" down in the South?
You probably know this?
Ensure you "flush" you house with cold fresh air once a day if possible. As this cold air is reheated it becomes much drier (relative humidity).
Living in the South of the South with a very soggy winter we are able to maintain around 50% RH with just a heat pump for heating and no dehumidifier.
I use sakura running on Debian (on a Chromebook). Did some searching and testing a while ago, and this one fit my purposes the best. Pretty simple but includes tabs, which even though I use tmux, I find helpful to separate out work flow sometimes.
I haven't found any emulation problems to date for what I do. man page|github
So many to choose from, though.
This doesn't apply to the Skinny situation, though. Skinny "top up" as required when the plan rolls over every 28 days. They call it "Set & Forget". But when your card approaches expiry, you're guaranteed to have your plan run-out and have an inactive phone (as happened to me). At least this only happens every 3 or so years, with the expiry of the card. Something that simply does not need to happen?
I wonder what the legalities of not accepting "valid currency" are, if you can call it that in this situation?
Balmy 7C in the south of the south, minimum of 4 overnight, no frost :P
I should confess that there were other reasons I left as well e.g. lowing interest rates, poor communications. Also note that with the account I had at the time, there were not "Plastic" cards that came with the account - this was an online only transaction account.
The Digipass dongle felt like it was designed for a child, very small with small buttons, which had very poor tacktile response, leading to lots of missed numbers and having to go back and re-enter. Having to dig it out every time you wanted to move money between accounts or out of accounts. Entering codes for EVERY transaction. Secure yes, convenient no.
There in lies the problem - the balance between security and convenience I guess?
Not useful to make everyday purchases is it?
I think Two-Factor Authentication is already part of the solution i.e. there are some transactions I do now that require a code sent by text as part of the transaction, but it can't be the full solution yet. Why, because there are still plenty of people who don't have mobile phones (many in other parts of the world). In its current form it's certainly not convenient for day to day purchases etc.
Skinny is good value, not considering leaving them, but the expiry thing is crap. I've not experienced it with anyone else (oh, their online chat system sucks too, especially if you get kicked off and have to start the process all over again).
I was with Robobank a while back and they had a little dongle (Digipass) that generated access/security codes, i.e. 2FA, on all transactions. It was f'ing awful to use and was the reason I left.
Could have been worse if they asked for "mashed"!
Dip in the temperature in the South of the South Island today, down to 2C overnight with frost this morning.
You ain't never tried my mum's cheese scones 😜
Finding amazon.com.au to be offering some of the best prices for many things at the moment, with free international shipping on spends over $50. I'm finding I can often purchase the same product for 1/2 or less than I can purchase locally. Happy to support local, but not when I'm being fleeced!?
As an example; I'm planning to make some cabinets and bookshelves and need hinges, wood glue etc.. A large bottle of wood glue, purchased locally and delivered, will set me back $141 - on amazon.com.au I can get it delivered for ~$76. Even better for hinges, that I either had to buy in multiple small lots or huge lots (which I didn't want) locally. Even the huge lots were more expensive!
Anyway, worth a look if you're spending $ in these 'tight' times.
Yep, it can be tough. I've got a shredder and quite a few trees which need trimming every year - pretty much anything I can put through the shredder gets turned into compost. Grass clippings get things really going. I've had temperatures above 70C in my compost heaps. Over time, you get so much more leafy green excess that your ability to make more compost increases.
Note: I have, at times, added urine to the mix - it sounds off, but it's actually good (unless you're taking a cocktail of drugs that don't mix well with plants/worms/bugs etc.).