6 responses to “They’re Baa-aack”

1. Ralph Tzu ⋅

   August 23, 2011 at 1:42 pm

   The mystery ‘rooms in my banana pot keep coming and going. Mine are all white, and on occasion the sun seems to kill them but they still look alive. When I water the pot they sometimes vanish in a puff of smoke which I guess are the spores they keep growing back by.

   I have some twisted tan ones that periodically grow back on an old tree stump in the yard. The sun usually kills them off, but eventually they come back too.

   Has anyone ever tried one of those mushroom kits they sell? They seem to run around $35 or so and need a fresh log to grow on. I am much of a mushroom eater so I couldn’t see spending the money, or finding a fresh log to cut.

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2. Ralph Tzu ⋅

   August 23, 2011 at 2:43 pm

   Wow, not long before this post I felt the house shake. Things shook for a while, so I took a walk around the house to see what was going on. The TV announced the Virginia earthquake and answered the question for me. They also announced that at least around Va cell service seemed to be out, but text messaging seemed to be functional. From what they said on TV people were evacuating gov’t buildings in DC, and probably other places as well.

   In short order after hearing the news reports I thought of all the podcasts I listen to about survival and ‘prepping’- being prepared in case of some unexpected event, or even an expected one. The shaking house became a reality check- these things can happen to us at home and totally unexpected. Check out the following link:

   http://www.itsadisaster.net/samples.html

   I ordered the PDF download of “It’s a Disaster” a while back- about $2.50 if I recall. It’s worth much more than the price. Check out the sample and get a copy for yourself. Print out the full download and keep copies handy. It has advice on what to do in various situations such as heat, cold, snow, floods, and earthquakes to mention a few- the things you never really think about until it’s too late. Also advice on how to prepare ahead of time.

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3. Ralph Tzu ⋅

   August 23, 2011 at 3:00 pm

   Another flashback to all those survival shows. You can’t rely on cell phones in an emergency. Text messages are more likely to get through than a voice call. Confirmed by TV saying loss of cell service in Va, an email from work stating phone troubles in the NY office, and difficulty getting a text message back to a concerned friend- it took 3 retries but my text reply finally went through. Also, if anyone still remembers right after the 911 attacks much communication including cell phones was intentionally shut down for security reasons. Cell phones can be handy in an emergency, especially for text messaging. Even if texting fails, you can still throw them at attacking zombies.

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   • I. Gardener ⋅

     August 25, 2011 at 4:48 pm

     Last week the landline phone we ordered in case of emergency arrived. Now just have to take it out of the box and check it. Hope I remember to do this before an emergency.

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4. Ralph ⋅

   August 26, 2011 at 5:34 pm

   If the phone has a power plug chances are good it won’t work if you loose power- unless it says otherwise. A cordless will probably not work without utility power.

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   • revelgardener ⋅

     August 26, 2011 at 5:44 pm

     Not cordless – old fashioned. I got kinda nostalgic when I saw it.

     Sent from my iPhone

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