It’s not just for use when Outlook stops working - it’s a useful preventative action you should run occasionally to repair little problems before they become big problems. Anytime Outlook starts running slower than normal, give this a try.
The Problem: When I send anything to my networked printer, Windows XP pops up a yellow confirmation bubble telling me the item printed. How can I turn that annoying option off?
The Solution: In Control Panel, choose Printers and Faxes. Click File, Server Properties, and select the Advanced tab. Near the bottom, uncheck the box for “Notify when remote documents are printed” and also uncheck the box for “Show informational notifications for network printers”.
In Vista, follow the same steps, but uncheck “Show informational notifications for network printers”.
Another great video series from Milkwood, this one explaining how to make compost without too much effort.
Don’t these videos have great music? I also really like the way they use the “Benny Hill effect” of speeding up the video, so you get a good idea of what they’re doing without needing to sit around and watch someone turn a whole pile of compost. Nice opening and closing credits too.
The web pages for each of these videos are worth visiting, as they have a lot of useful info:
analyse your compost components using the Milkwood Compost Calculator to make sure you have the C:N ratio right
if you get the C:N ratio wrong, your pile will either fester and go rank (too much nitrogen) or take too long to break down (too much carbon)
need at least a cubic metre of stuff for the compost pile to work properly
water the site of your pile before starting
layer your ingredients like a lasagne to make sure things are nicely mixed
water each layer as you go: the bacteria and fungi need water to do their thing
cover with a tarp - stops it drying out, getting too wet, blowing away, etc
Making Compost - Part II
turning the compost pile
squeeze a handful of your compost - you should get one drop out of it - water it if it’s too dry
peel the outside of the compost pile to make the beginnings of the new pile, then dump the inside of the old pile onto the outside of the new pile
mental note - next time, shred paper rather than leaving it whole!
white powdery stuff is anaerobic bacteria, which is not really desirable - just keep turning and watering and it’ll sort itself out
the pile should reach about 60 degrees Celcius around the 4th day, then cool down a bit more with each turning until it’s just warm by the time the compost is ready
urine is a good compost activator if your pile is slow to heat up!
Making Compost - Part III
this compost method is called the Berkley Method - it’s fast and easy
ended up with nice dark compost - a little more sticks and lumpy bits than she’d like, but still pretty good
wow, in January Kirsten was planning to starting a new compost pile every week!
By default, Internet Explorer opens Excel and Word files within the browser window. This can be annoying if you want to work with them in the real applications. To get IE to always open these files using the correct application:
click Start >> Control Panel >> Folder Options
click on the File Types tab
find the XLS file type in the list and click on it
click on the Advanced button
uncheck the “Browse in same window” option
click OK to close the Edit File Type dialog
find the DOC file type and repeat the above three steps
Michael is also well known for his coining the phrase and writing the first paper ever on the Soil Food Web titled ‘Soil Ecology and the Soil Food Web’ in 1974
sugar maples, drop leaves to provide a protective mulch
we are told we need to change our soils from their natural alkaline state to a more acidic pH
but the organic matter dropped by the maples hasn’t changed the pH of the soil where they grow
the organic matter is turned into humus
topsoil under the maples is very thin, with only a thin layer of humus
so we don’t need to make a huge change to soils in order for them to support our plantings
these forests provide an example of how we can use permaculture to alter a landscape without a huge amount of effort - we don’t need to completely change the soil in order to be successful
More videos about soil can be seen at the Soil Secrets web site.
I’ve just discovered the Milkwood site - “Two city kids quit their jobs, pull up stumps and journey to a remote, empty, block of land to start an ultra low impact lifestyle from scratch”. Now these are people I’d love to meet!
Kirsten Bradley and Nick Ritar are documenting their trials and tribulations via both traditional blogging and short videos. The videos are great, and they really have a flair for making an interesting short film.
This video is really three different views of permaculture gardens rolled into one. Notes below the video.
Forest Gardening with Robert Hart
Robert Hart was born on 1 April 1913, and died on 7 March 2000. He was a vegan (eating around 90% raw food) who took up farming at Wenlock Edge, in Shropshire.
garden is on the site of an ancient Celtic monastery
inspired by the urge to create a practical solution to world hunger
also cared for his handicapped brother, Lacon, born with severe learning difficulties
“vision was to plant a miniature edible forest to fulfil the needs of a healthy diet in beautiful surroundings”
garden was established in the early 1960s
success depends upon planting in layers to mimic nature
7 storeys
canopy layer: tall, light-demanding trees e.g. mature fruit trees
low-tree layer: short, shade-tolerant trees e.g. smaller nuts and fruit trees, and dwarf fruit varieties
shrub layer: bushes e.g. currants and berries
herbaceous layer: perennial vegetables and herbs
ground cover layer: horizontal spreading plants e.g. strawberries
rhizosphere: underground area, plants grown for roots/tubers
vertical layer: climbers, creepers, vines
Mahatma Gandhi was the inspiration, with his vision of a world order of democratic, self-sustaining small communities
some of the trees have been planted in memory of inspirational figures
This is the first post in my new category, Permaculture. I’m going to link to and provide notes for videos, books and other resources as I read and learn more. And maybe I’ll document some of my own projects when I get some time.
If you’re not sure what it is, Wikipedia has a good background article on permaculture. In a nutshell, though, it’s a philosophy of land use that seeks to mimic natural ecologies so that land can be productively used indefinitely, without degradation or the need for external inputs.
The word permaculture was coined in the 1970s by two Australians, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. It is a portmanteau (blend/contraction) of the term “permanent agriculture”, as well as “permanent culture”.
This first video is a great introduction to the concept. Bill Mollison explains the history, development and ideas behind permaculture.
In case it disappears from Google Video, a lower-quality version is also available at YouTube (broken into six parts):
we haven’t earned the right to go to the stars yet
“You wouldn’t welcome anybody who’d laid waste to their house and wanted to live in yours.”
some background/bio on Bill Mollison - was once a tree cutter!
at one stage, Bill walked away from society “disgusted with the human race”, but he returned after a few weeks after having decided to fight to improve things in a positive way
forest as a model of a working system
diversity makes the system highly adaptable and at the same time highly productive
“If we lose the universities we lose nothing. If we lose the forest we lose everything.”
all political systems (and most kings) through history have moved their countries towards desert
the ideas behind permaculture arose out of questions that had been asked by people in the 1890s, 1930s, 1960s about why society, with all its tools and resources, keeps falling into holes of its own making
permanent agriculture = permanent culture
we should build with living resources, not steel and glass
(10:00) shows how to set up a productive permaculture garden on a small apartment balcony to provide 1/5th of the food required by two adults
grapes grow well under the balcony above - no rain means no mould!
“most cannibals only eat strangers”
the rise of monoculture
today, over half the world’s agricultural production consists of just four crops: wheat, rice, maize and potatoes
over-simplification of nature (monoculture) gave rise to huge outbreaks of single pests, diseases
(15:00) agriculture as a continuation of World War II
since 1940, 70% of our soils have been destroyed
40% of the world’s water has been poisoned by agriculture
permaculture design integrates plants, animals and humans into a living system
every element of the design has many functions
1978 published “Permaculture One”
began designing farm systems for other landowners for free for 2 or 3 years (hundreds of properties!)
moved from designing to teaching others how to design - Permaculture Design Courses (PDCs)
permaculture lies between disciplines, connecting them together
permaculture groups started working to spread the word to the mainstream e.g. participation in agricultural shows in towns all over Australia
“modern agriculture is not a system for producing food, but for producing money”
“no-one yet pays for the damage at the end of the chain”
(22:10) demonstrates the creation of a simple potato patch “the best use for a newspaper”
“digging causes weeds, weeds cause work”
planting is a lot easier than weeding, and if you have enough plants in there is no room for weeds
untidiness in the garden is good, natural order
(25:40) description of swales for water retention to avoid droughts
88% of Australia’s water runs off the landscape and is wasted
an animal is a mobile part of the forest, not separate from the forest
(28:00) guilds
get chickens out of battery cages and factories, and back into the garden where they can work for you
up to half of the system can be used to feed your animals, which gives much better results than buying external feed
in terms of energy cost, food would be about 95% cheaper if it were grown in the city (transportation, processing, packaging, retailing, etc costs)
we’re 3 days away from starvation at any time
(32:00) shows a suburban home design along permaculture principles
food and flowers all year long
beehives in the yard
lawns are a “green cancer”, completely unproductive, expensive to maintain, a waste of resources
(35:20) mangrove swamps are the most productive environment on the planet
rising sea levels are going to wipe out large areas of coastal cities (but maybe make them more productive!)
TVs watching nature films, 4WDs taking people to the wilderness - we could have it all in our own yards
Bill keeps planting seeds around the place like a “guerilla gardener”
(38:20) discusses genetic engineering and its unknown effects
scientists are basically sociopaths
only 3% of the planet’s water is fresh, and most of that is trapped in ice
3 inches of leaf litter in a forest can absorb 1 inch of rainfall
rainforest can be looked at as a lake
forest evaporation forms clouds, forest bacteria become nucleus of ice crystals in clouds, so forest actually create rain
(42:45) farm in Queensland, turned from infertile ex-farmland into a productive environment
creating bush corridors to bring back birds and animals
(45:00) work in the third world to help restore food production
third world populations weren’t able to transition from hunter-gatherers to gardeners, leading to famine and desertification
the people have all the resources they need, just lack the information and skills to do it themselves
these third-world projects will become models that will need to be applied in the first world
(47:00) housing developments designed along permaculture principles
it’s time to stop calling permaculture an “alternative” movement, it needs to become part of the mainstream
gardening and food production should not be regarded as a side pursuit
(50:00) visits a garden that has been abandoned for about 3 years, yet is still productively growing plenty of food