Re: Hey Farml, Rob, David and All..

<Charlie> wrote in message
> On Tue, 8 Apr 2008 13:04:04 +1000, "FarmI" <ask@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 be given>
> wrote:

>>Sadly yes.  It seems to be universal.  I did once read something written

>>by
>>a baseball palyer written in the 1920s and it was so erudite that I was
>>gobbsmacked!  Can't see any modern day s****tsman writing much more than
a
>>signature on a cheque (check).
>
>  :-)  We manage, and live in, a group home and provide sup****t for
> four people that have severe physical and mental disabilities.  Been at
> it 16 years.  Early on we hired college students part-time for aide
> work.  Surprised was not even the reaction we had to their lack of
> writing skills and thinking abililites, for the most part.  It has
> become even worse in other homes in our agency that still use
> students...hard to believe they are even worse now.

When our daughter went to University, I used to read her draft essays. 
They 
ended up covered in my red pen and she would frequently end up in tears 
because I'd put red lines through pages of rubbish and tell her that it
was 
irrelevant.  She'd whnge that she'd put so much effort into it, etc, etc. 
I'd shoot back that she'd wasted her efforts.  It took about 2 years
before 
the penny dropped and she could produce a halfway competent essay.

Recently she told me that she left High Schol without being able to write 
anything more complex that a paragraph.  Seeng the garbage she wrote in
her 
early time in Uni, I can only agree.  God knows what she did learn at High

School (although she can spell).

>>Snap!  Pissed as newts on most weekends, and incapable of working at
more
>>than a snails pace. And if you ask then to actually
>>think...............!!!!!
>
> Same problem here, though I have to lay alot of the blame off on the
> fact that our rural economy has carked it and a lot of summer and
> parttime work doesn't exist anymore. Physical work.  Now the kids that
> want to work often wind up suffering in Maccas or the effing walmart,
> treated as slaves and never developing pride in a job well done.

:-))  Indeed.  Hard to take pride in slinging shoddy quality goods at 
consumers.

Perhaps it is all related to 'quality'?  I think that as nations we have 
become consumers with no understanding of what quality means right across 
the board.  We don't seem to be able to either recognise or seek quality
in 
anything these days.  We've lost quality in clothing and the fabric
clothes 
are made from, we've lost quality TV and newspaper products.  Furniture is

made of crap plywood and veneer and a coloured stain is described as being

'mahogany' or 'cedar' and no-one seems to know any different.  And on and
on 
it goes.

I'm obviously just getting too old and crabby.

But,
> that doesn't nealry explain it and I agree with you.  Too many years of
> easy times perhaps and mum and dad doling out the goodies instead of
> kids having to help work for their crust and for their extras.

There are too many spoiled kids in this world.


>>>>I love manure.  My husband says I have a **** fetish and I admit that
if
>>>>it
>>>>comes from the rear of a cow, horse, sheep, alpaca, rabbit or
elephant, 
>>>>I
>>>>will collect it.
>>>
>>> Am I correct in assuming you age or compost it?
>>
>>Nope.  I don't bother.  My garden would be at least 2 acres and there is
>>always some spot where it can be put in whatever state it arrives in.
>>Sometimes it's come straight from the horses/cows/paccy's arse and so is
>>stinky, fresh and moist, sometimes it's sat in the bottom of the pile
and 
>>is
>>starting to compost.   How it looks, depends on where it goes.
>
> Hmmmm, hmmmmm......I'm rethinking things and thinking this sounds like
> less handling of the poo.  Thanks.  In this case heeding the advice of
> someone who is full o' **** may be prudent.  ;-)

I've never had the brute strength to turn 'real' compost heaps and 2 
differing lots of cancer have knocked some stuffing out of me as well.  I 
now have to take the line of least resistance.

I have a couple of those upside down bottomless plastic compost bins (for 
kitchen scraps that the chooks don't get) with a lid on top and a couple
of 
tumble composters, but I use the latter for smaller prunings and weeds and

chook poop.  I also have a few big piles of rotting mounds of various 
'stuff' and they eventually get used too.  I also will often just make a 
mound of stuff in an unused section of the veggie garden and then 
kick/shovel/rake it out of the way and plant under it.

I used to try to compost the poop (having read all those British books
which 
recommend 'well rotted manure') but fairly quickly gave that up when I 
realised that
a) it was going to feed the worms and increase my microflora much quicker
if 
it was in contact with the soil where it was needed, and
b) it took a lot of effort and resulted in loss of nutrient under the pile

to get the mythical British 'well rotted manure'.

I also did some research on manure and very quickly decided that the 
nutrient level of all manure, with the exception of chook poop, was so
mild 
that it wasn't going to kill anything but fairly small seedlings if it was

spread on them.  I haven't managed to kill anything by spreading poop yet.

I started with the most appalling soil.  This farm was only cleared in the

1960s and before that it was virgin bush and the remnant bushland round
here 
is fairly stunted unimpresive trees.

Our creek flats are OK and grow reasonable pasture but the house and our 
garden is built on the side of a slope where the unimproved soil is the 
colour of pale yellow of a calf's poop that has a case of the scours. 
It's 
naturally lifeless and wormless.  I now consider how best to feed the
worms 
and how fast I can build up the worm population.

I also am not a neat gardner.  I don't like straight lines or neat gardens

and, besides not having a natural inclination to have a neat/trimmed
garden, 
I also don't have the time as we also own another farm complete with house

and garden and I also have a part time job and multiple other hobbies as 
well.

>
>>As you know there was
>>> a discussion of this a while back in rec.gardens.  I've always been of
>>> that opinion, and only add fressh **** to the garden in the fall so
>>> that it can do its thing over the winter.
>>
>>I top the veggie beds each Autumn and let it do it's stuff, but
sometimes
>>during the growing season I'll use a bag in the veggie garden that I've
>>filled with the more rotted stuff too.  When I collect my poops, I tend
to
>>fill each bag with manure of 'like' composition so have some discretion
on
>>how I can use them in the garden.
>
> I see what your husband means.....you know your ****. ('merican slang
> term)

:-))  Well I do know some ****, but there are whole slabs of other ****
I'd 
also like to know.