Are You a One in a Million?

wow. 10 million. that’s only twice as many as the state of Alabama.
Also, I guess I never realized just how far the pop gap is between US and Canada.
Looks like Canada and Mexico growing slightly faster than US proportionally.

2 Likes

We may be growing somewhat faster. 40 years ago we were about 25 million, now we are supposed to be 35 million. The government policy of trying to bring in a quarter million immigrants yearly boosted the population (And undermined organized labour and wage growth in the middle class)…

Like in many developed nations the old stock population is having fewer kids in response to over work and expense, the immigration has provided a work force and economic growth for taxation and corporations.

4 Likes

I looked up population density. (p/km2)

Alabama: 33 (same as US in avarage)
Sweden: 21
Canada: 3.5

And I thought we were pretty spread out. I knew Canada was not very populated but that number surpriced me.

2 Likes

Lots of grizzly bears and snow up in them thar parts. Yahh yu betcha, uh huh.

3 Likes

What those numbers miss is that most Canadians live within something like 100 miles of the USA boarder. There is alot of mostly empty space in northern Canada atleast that is what the tourists from Canada say around here.

4 Likes

Yes, most Canadians live in a few large urban complexes, the great majority of the population within 100 km of the northern US border. ( 60 75%.) Nearly 21% of Canadian citizens were born somewhere else. The influx has been so greatly concentrated in urban centers that in my observation it is changing the quality of English spoken in those centers. Unfortunately many of these centers of population have little regard or interest in the rest of the country, it’s history, national parks or culture. In my small city we have had a significant influx of foreign labour to work in a meat processing facility, whereby after a few years they could gain citizenship. The result hasnt been overwhelming, and has greatly improved the cultural diversity. Particularly the Spanish speaking people have incorporated very well, very culturally similar in many ways.

Getting back to Jo’s observation of population density, the greatest part of that territory is arctic barren grounds, mountain, or endless boreal forest dotted by perhaps 1 million lakes. And perhaps 1 billion mosquitoes and black flies for every square kilometer of the northern forest. :slight_smile: But the reality is apart from a few urban stains, you generally won’t find one person per square kilometer even in very good farming country. A quality I greatly appreciate.

5 Likes

Hey Garry, if you could warm it up a bit I might just come on up. hahaha I can handle mosquitoes (I did grow up in south central Florida) and emptiness, but how do you stand those long cold winters? Yah aye.

1 Like

Ha! I wondered just where AdminChris had split off and “parked” these lines of topic-drift.
Very appropriate here.

I’ve had my nose rubbed recently into three ways hammering-down standing up-and-out problem “nails”.
The surprise hen hatched out in dead last winter batch had matured into problems. Small, small hens laying small, small eggs. Do NOT want them breeding and passing on this progression-down. Their brother roosters growing large, aggressive, turning into rapists. The older hens started coming to me complaining to get these out-of-contol over-aggressive off of their backs - literally. Main egg production down with the hens all so bothered. One. Two. Three. Then a fourth and back down to just old grandad rooster and his most gentlemanly 1st-gen son as a backup.
Second occurrence. A wondered onto us guinea fowl rooster been hanging around for ~18 months. He chases cars. He chases cats. He dares to chase the dogs. They chase back. He would stare for hours at the challenger reflected in the chrome trailer hitch ball.
Then . . . he started pestering sitting hens. And once hatched would not lay off pestering the mother hens and baby chicks. Cost me four chicks dieing. Stupid bird never figured I’d one day have enough of his shenanigans and switch to a two foot longer stick.
Third incident(s). Wifie working. Hip/knees hurting has left it to me to do the garden over-planting thinning out.
Ouch. I hate playing god. Needs musts, sometimes.

So . . . . what in the hell has this all to do about woodgasifing, eh??!!

If you’d graph out human endeavors we’d all be widely above and below a “mean, median” line. We’d all be outliers.
Odd-ball data points screws up the pretty picture graphs and predictability. Unsettles the mundanes.

And as widely divergent one-in-a-million folks it should be expected that our individual viewpoints vary so widely from each other.
Always remember as energy-making divergent’s we actually have THAT in common.
And as sticking up nails, beware being perceived as a problem by hammer-solutioners! Wanting everything, everyone to be smoothed out, and flat, and secured down. Made over into good sheeple.

J-I-C Steve unruh
.

5 Likes

Very interesting chicken and guinea rooster psychology writing there Steve. Fun watching these creatures ways isn’t it?

3 Likes

Garry, Canada sounds like the place to start a way out back homestead as long as the mosquitoes don’t bite in the winter time, polarsquitoes. I can see myself there.

3 Likes

Just 3 generations back much of this region was homesteaded, and vestiges of that culture are still present, and accessible for those looking to follow the path. Unpopulated land rich in natural resources, I feel quite lucky to be here.

And no winter mosquitoes. No mosquitoes at all that matter from fall frosts to late May. In my experience cold is easier to manage for than too hot.

And no Lyme disease ticks, or Zika virus, or any other nasties.

My neighbour to the north just sold his property, almost 2 full quarters, a 1970’s bungalow, 2 heated shop buildings on concrete floors, an open machinery shed, cattle corrals, roughly $185,000 Cdn.

Open land is cheaper yet.

All that and free health care with citizenship, at least so far. Practically pays to be here. :smile:

4 Likes

I think that comes from a saying reputedly from Japan, the nail that sticks out should be hammered down. Sounds like fascism to me.

1 Like

Yep. Yep.
A “good” rooster does a little seduction dance around the hen.
The hen then either allowed to say; later dude, I am busy now, bugging. Or, hunker down saying, lets go for it right now.

Same day as I reduced down the full size roosters I caught a bantee rooster chasing down one of the new small sized hens and raping her. Damn. The parts do not even match up.
One less bantee rooster then.
Surprise, surprise. My one laying box egg pecked problem went away with him gone too.

One-in-a million folks all tend to be aware, observant folks, willing to Do something about what they perceive in the world around themselves. Needs must.
J-I-C Steve Unruh

5 Likes

Just reading through this thread again, and Steve has spoken the truth. I am stuck with fuel availability problems and this was a given right from the get-go for me - no wood lot here. The answer for me initially was big cheap straw bales, but I’m am coming to see straw comes with a whole new set of problems to overcome, mainly it sticks together when burned, any kind of gravity fed system is euchred starting at the pyrolysis zone where your fuel all starts welding together into a solid mass.

Thinking again of wood, I run smack dab into the realization of just how many tandem axle loads I’d have to haul down from up North. I could hope to get lucky with local wood, but that’s not a workable plan. If I bought a Provincial wood permit, I could secure the wood I’d need, but it would be 4 hours worth of driving for each round trip, and I could haul about 2 cords at a time. Technical limit per year is only 7 bush cords (although word is there is no physical verification of how much of the slash pile you brought home…)

I’ll be pelletizing whatever fuel I settle on for a few reasons. To heat and drive, I’d need a good 22 tons per year to comfortably cover everything. This is easy with straw, but seriously compromising with wood.

This leaves me pretty much with making pelletized straw work somehow to enable real world, long term viability - and I have a few ideas to try. I feel the “wood sweating” involved for me even on just a time basis alone is not realistic for the long haul.

2 Likes

People that do tree trimming and removal are sometimes looking for a place to dump the wood, I get about a cord sometimes two cords of wood for free every year just from one person. I burn it in the fire pit in the back yard, love those fire gatherings with friends.
Bob

2 Likes

In my area, firewood goes for $300.00+ per bush cord, so no one is giving it away for free. It becomes a valuable revenue stream for anyone generating it as a byproduct of their business. I do have access to a lot of scrap wood, but processing 20+ tons of that stuff makes me wonder if driving 4 hours to get dry nail-free slash pile wood is any worse!

When I cleaned my gasifier out to rebuild the fire tube and all, I found nails in it from when Chris was buning wood pallets nails and all, before he built his wood chunker. It did not seem to hurt it burning wood with nails. There are lots of pallets to be found too. Maybe not in your area.
Bob

1 Like

All wood preparation or charcoal or any material you decide to use, will take time and effort. I don’t understand your situation very well, but I’m thinking build a gas powered Rebak chunker. Drive as big a truck and possibly a trailer the two hours to the slash piles , and chunk it on the sight. This should give you larger loads per trip. Tom c

1 Like

Hi Tom, I’d probably do just that except with a chipper. I have a truck that is rated to tow 13,500 lbs, and a tandem axle that can carry 5-6000 lbs.

I could always get a bigger trailer too. For now, I will concentrate on straw and see what becomes of it. I don’t mind the work, it’s the time that is a problem.

I do have experience with switch grass and weeds. Golden rod is interesting and would have been next on my list.

There is a gear pellater but it make a waffle not a pellet. You end up with some kind of useable fuel. I never tried one.

I was able to gasify switch grass pellets with an open top gasifier. That would be for thermal use. Still had a bit of tar in it. Not easy but if the temp was right it wouldn’t slag up. I do not know if it was practical. Some straws might be easier. I do not remember what traw was low in ash.

There was a baler that rolled a tight dense puck like the size of round firewood. It sawed the puck to length.

Are you looking for heat or engine fuel or both?

3 Likes