h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I want to see some better proof than "it worked for me once" I was thinking about this post while I was blanching and peeling my tomatoes prior to dicing and canning them.


I'm sorry, did I give the impression I was trying to prove a hypothesis? I thought I was telling an amusing anecdote.

Re energy body: I just can't start on this subject right now. The energy body has nothing to do with the energy cycle going on with the adenosine triphosphate system in the physical body. for energy body read aura and chakra system. Don't believe in 'em? People didn't used to believe in the germ theory of disease either. Or acupuncture, which works with the flow of chi through the energy body.

rotice the a27 turned up a interesting link re earlier comment re mobile phones and such been sitting there for a while untouched shall i delurk there ?

>> Sussex nore into coppiceing hedges A27 used to have competitions along the round (least think its called coppicing where you cut into the tree/bush lay it on its side and weave it in with the tree/bush next to it, nature then takes over and creates the fence/wall line

I think that is hedge laying. What you eventually end up with is a living fence. It is time consuming and a lost art now, though there were local variations of style. I was once in the Midlands on a Day Out with some friends and my ex and they prevented me from going around an exhibition of local hedge laying. Oddly enough, none of them are in my life any more. Bitch that I am.

You can still see places where there are long-healed old wounds on the hawthorn, and the branches have been bent over to grow almost horizontally, but it is harder and harder to see it. I don't think I've seen any newly laid hedges in a decade or so.

I'll keep my eyes out for some to photograph.

Coppicing, as I recollect, is rather like pollarding but nearer the ground. I think it is taking the main trunk out of a hazel tree and some other trees in a woodland to encourage lots of new whippy growth. I'm not 100% sure about it though.

Kerravon would know.

Ben

Where is Kerr? Haven't seen her for *ages*.

I spoke to her on Outpost Gallifrey a month or so back, but nothing since then...

She posted once about t-shirts three days ago, but her most recent post before that seems to be two weeks or so ago.



I do hope she's ok. I'm fond of that girl.

Ben

In the last year or so driving around we have seen newly laid hedges (shropshire I think).
Yup, coppicing is cutting the tree prety much down to the ground and then letting lots of whippy new growth get up (Willow is another that is good for coppicing). Pollarding is where you cut back the branches higher up the trees trunk so new ones grow higher up. This is to stop cattle and other animals that would just eat up the new growth. Doing either of these can lead to greatly enhanced lifespans for the trees concerned (In the UK, the forestry commission have a coppiced lime tree that is 2000 years old!)

sheesh. over 100 posts in the past 10 hours - and only 50 of them were from ben

* tries to grin at ben and only ends up drooling on himself, slightly*

ugh. i've been having problems with my throat - it hurts for some reason lately and so i've been trying all sorts of new and interesting ways to sleep. well, last night i slept so oddly and soundly that 1/2 of my face is swollen and my jaw seems to be off-kilter just slightly; i keep biting my tongue and lisping. i'm hoping it wears off before lunch...

also, i wasn't even born in 1978 so i can't speak of the music.

and as far as oetzi... i don't think he had a grasp on the realities of the world. he seemed to be extremely paranoid and defensive to me.

>> sheesh. over 100 posts in the past 10 hours - and only 50 of them were from ben

*hides head in shame*

Can't think of anything to add to the conversation at this point, so I'll just

SE, are you sure you don't have the mumps?

Oh, hi Lady C. Say, we opened one of the bottles of wine we made last year and it seems to be wanting to make itself into vinegar. Any suggestions on how to keep the batch we make this year from being contaminated by acetobacter?

We just spent all day yesterday putting netting up over the vines so the birds would stop eating our grapes before they were ripe. gwtp got a pretty good sunburn doing that job. I learned how to "crochet" with jute twine.

SE, when I read that I thought you needed to see a doctor, particularly as you already had a sore throat.

i've been vaccinated for the mumps and besides, there really is no treatment for it, just the side effects (i.e. the long list of things that could go wrong if you have the mumps).

anywho, the sore throat is still there but my jaw is back where it's supposed to and the swelling is down already.

the problem with my sleeping is if i am dead tired, i usually don't move -at_all- during the night- this has resulted in many a scary morning where i can't feel my arm (usually my right arm) at all, or my leg is asleep. most of the time my back just gives me hell because i've slept on a lump or a wrinkle in the sheet. so that's what i'm pegging my swollen face down to.

Get thee to an ENT doc Sporky.

a long term sore throat really ought to be looked at by a pro.

I recall a scary night when I had slept on my leg wrong and awakening needing a trip to the potty, got out of bed and promptly fell heavily since the leg did not work and then lying there all in pain since I positively whacked my little toe on the bed leg and thinking panicked and still half a sleep: "Oh, God, my leg is paralyzed, no, if it was paralyzed would I be feeling this agonizing pain from my toe, well what is WRONG with my leg it won't work. Oh, it's asleep on me (as I began to feel the pins and needles of awakening blood flow). Funny now, not so very funny right then. Fortunately I did not break the toe, only bent it severely.

hmh, we disinfect all of our equipment just before we use it. You can either use bleach or campden tablets. Just be sure you rinse thoroughly. Be sure your locks on the fermenting jars are tightly sealed. The only time we've had vinegar instead of wine was when air got into the mix while it was fermenting.

When will your grapes be ready?

We have four rows of grapes: marechal foch, chamborcin, beta, and boca noir. The beta did not set many berries this year, too cold during the blossom season, all the pollinators were slow and staying at home.

Of the other three rows, since this is their third year of life we only allowed them to keep 10-15 bunches of grapes each vine so that they would continue to grow roots.

One row is almost ready to pick, probably will be by the end of the week. The other two rows are going to be ready in a couple of weeks.

We spent a pleasant (read HOT) 5 hours yesterday deploying nets over 2 rows of vines w/ grapes in order to keep the birds out of the berries. Today as soon as gwtp gets home from the sawmill we will be doing the other row.

Sore throats

90% of them are due to viral or bacterial infections, which sort themselves out yes you can give them antibiotics but it just reduced the length of your symptoms by 24 hours and exposes you to the risk of side effects. The ones to be worried about are peritosilar abcess, glandular fever and oral thrush which can be the sign of something more serious. It takes about 20 seconds to sort one from another by a 'quick look down your throat'.

Would I go to a doctor with a sore throat? I'd probably get a colleage to have ae quick look or look myself in a mirror. If I was feeling generally unwell I would put it down to a virus or bacterial infection and not bother wasting the time off work. If it didn't get better after a week or so then it's more likely to be something serious rather than a waste of time.

Insert obvious disclaimer here about how I can't actually give medical advice online.

I moved out of my Hospital Residence today. I have given the GMC £300, and I am now offically a fully registered Doctor, instead of a Pre Regisitration one.

*puts own name into GMC search engine and admires the new change in status*.

Which is rather cool, my new job's in public health which as far as I can work out involves no evenings or weekends, so I don't care what I actually do during the day! Then Obs and Gyne for four months, which I'm a bit nervous about, and Emergency Medicine for Four months (which I'm fairly confident I can do).

And I now have a PC back, which is good, it's time I got on with revising for the MRCP (membership of the Royal College of Physcians) Part 1 exam, which seems to involve paying another £200.

Per Go.

Ouch, no one 80% of people fail it first time.

best of luck sea!

Spam plants. Now why didn't...erm.. don't know where that was going.

*Train of thought now leaving brain station.*

Teuch, can you remember the name of said estate, or whereabout it is?

Ben, as someone who's looking at forming an online community to make a community stickier, how does one make it sticky, exactly?

for hmh.

Your perception forms your reality, and I had just found that band's videos online, which I hdn't seen for a couple of years. I often get all caught up in I.

hmh, you can talk to me about chakras and chi all night, I love to listen to things I know nothing about. (helps in some of the fields I've worked in)

right, quick wander while the suns shines, and I'll be back soon.

M