Many fall in the face of chaos, but not this one, not today
Some are, for sure, but not all.
I know it’s corny, but thank you for your service. You know we still need your help to keep the fire service a welcoming place for new volunteers. Maybe you could sign back up at your new local in a more limited capacity? The more of us there are the better for everyone.
I’ve never met firefighter who carries a taser. We’ve got our hands full with crowbars, axes, ladders, hose, radio, thermal imaging camera, and air monitors. I legit don’t know where I’d even store a taser.
Maybe it’s fire police who are carrying tasers?
Every volunteer fire/EMS organization in the USA is struggling to keep the trucks filled. Most stations in the country are one or two volunteers away from just shutting down entirely.
If you can show up, please volunteer! My station desperately needs not just firefighters - these roles at my station are barely covered by a few overworked volunteers:
Most fire companies would be thrilled to have someone show up and join as a member with the goal of just doing one or more of these roles. We don’t just need firefighters, we need a whole host of other things to keep the organization healthy and stable. We’ve seen what happens when these roles are neglected: we lose memberhip and when we lose membership we lose the bench needed to keep the trucks filled and ready to respond.
(I will say, if you do try to respond and find the people at the station are grumpy, generally it’s because they’re extremely overworked and lash out because of it. Don’t let them push you away, you are doing this for your community, not for someone at the station)
How do I delete someone else’s comment
🤢
We leave them there and if it’s damaged call a tow truck to come pick it up. If it’s not damaged we’ll maybe drive it out of the way or see if a patient’s family member can come pick it up. Sometimes the cops will just have it towed anyway since it can’t just stay on the road.
The worst Trek is still better to watch than a heck of a lot of other TV
whoooa I never thought of that, genius!
The chard just wouldn’t germinate. Finally I got a few to sprout but they died off within two weeks.
The hot peppers were in 5gal buckets so I could start them early, but they just struggled so much and didn’t survive the transition from inside to outside. Funny because I did the same process with some sweet peppers and they all survived (but I only got a few peppers total from them).
Oh yeah, I also tried lettuce and spinach a few times, none got past an inch high before dying. I suspect that’s because these weaker plants don’t like being planted in a few inches of leaf mulch.
A lot of my failures are due to that it’s just the first year, and the soil was just chopped up leaves and rotting lawn grass with heavy clay below that. Next year I hope the soil will have improved and some things will grow better. I’ve got a mix of of buckwheat, vetch, winter peas, and rye growing in the beds now. I plan to kill that with a tarp in the spring and use the plant matter as a mulch. I hope this will help break up some of the clay and make it easier for the less hardy annuals to establish.
I have very little time to spend on it, so gardening is my super laid back hobby. I come out and putter around, but generally try to grow things with as little effort as possible using cover crops, no-till, and tarps to kill off beds that get too unruly.
Meanwhile I’m also working on perennials to add to the mix of low effort treats. I’ve got a quarter acre yard with a lot of thick clay, so every year is just a good chance to break it up with deep rooted crops and nitrogen fixers.
My dream is in 5 years I’ll have excellent soil for the annuals to thrive, and perennials producing more fruit than I can possibly eat.
Oh I loved it, it was great fun!
I’m very excited to plant more perennials in the spring, this year I started grapes, asparagus, and ground cherries (I’ve heard they reseed easily so basically perennial).
I want to do more in the spring, thinking blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, elderberries, goji berries, maybe currants, gooseberries, service berries, mulberry, cherry, pawpaw, persimmon, and apple.
I figure if even half of that does well, in a few years I’ll be swimming in nightly berry desserts.
Maybe I’ll just improve the soil in the annual beds for at least another year before trying them out again. We will see
My first year, turned my lawn into rows by dumping a lot of mulched leaves on the grass and planting into it. No tilling, no amendments, no fertilizer. Very little weeding. I spent about 25 hours over the whole season on this project.
All in, got 150lb of veggies in 600sq ft of bed space.
Big Successes:
Mild Successes:
Total failures (no harvest):
I cleared everything out and planted a winter cover crop, hoping to improve the soil quality over the winter. I might take next year off also and do another rotation of soil improving crops. I don’t really feel like tilling.
I have pretty good smell, like I can sometimes follow a person’s scent trail, can tell who are related, smell cooking in neighbors houses, etc.
I suspect we would decide that farts are socially acceptable. Lots more people sneak farts than you’d think, and you just get used to it. Calling it out is crass and childish. Same with bad breath, general BO, skin, stuff on shoes. But also mold and yeast in places you wouldn’t suspect. We’d instantly ban all scented soaps, dishwasher detergents, and especially dryer sheets, those smell awful.
I definitely have a higher tolerance for natural smells but much lower tolerance for synthetic smells from the average person.
Sounds like the crabs in Another Crabs Treasure, out there in the gunk grinding for plastic
Keep in mind most firefighters in the USA are volunteers who just drive to the station when there’s a fire - not paid professionals.
My station just hired our first full time paramedics, we have a few part time paid firefighter+EMTs, and some volunteer firefighter+EMTs.
While we’re not getting that many fire calls, the few we get are pretty bad. Like, would burn down a neighborhood bad, because everything is now made from fast burning plastics. Sofas, carpets, house paint, siding, roofs, furniture, and clothes are all pretty much petroleum based. And will burn extremely hot and fast when it catches, spreading to all the surrounding exposure buildings.
My buddy works at Underwriters Laboratories and was saying they just did a burn test that showed the typical house today will catch neighboring houses on fire just from the infrared radiation through their windows. Even if the neighboring houses are soaking wet, the insides can still catch fire through the windows.
So we’re in a jam - we hardly ever have real house fires, but they are extremely dangerous and will burn the whole town down if we don’t get there asap.
Not to mention all the car crashes, hazmat spills, EMS lift assists. I’m sure there’s a way we can improve the situation, but I honestly don’t know what it would look like. The US is a huge place that’s very spread out, I don’t think we’re ever going to fully go away from volunteer firefighters, as much as I think it would be more efficient.
Long story short, if you’re able to lift a 30lb box overhead, the volunteer fire service is desperate in most places. Volunteerism is down like 90% from it’s peak. But most fire stations are entirely volunteer. So there’s a very real need for more folks to pitch in. I’m happy to chat with anyone who is curious and wants to get into it. I highly recommend it, it’s done wonders for my personal life.
I’ve seen this exact same text written to look like a real comment on three different platforms now…
when the pedo sex crime conspiracy theorists finally are proven right… the new conspiracy theory is that it was all just a hoax and there’s no deep state or pedo trafficking rings despite mounting evidence
mighty convenient
Wow wtf that’s suspiciously accurate
buuuuuuut
Modern school is designed to stamp out creativity, compassion, maturity, courage, and critical thinking. It is designed to produce a worker class that is easier to suppress, bully, intimidate, and fool. It accomplishes that goal with ruthless efficiency. Don’t trust me, check out John Gatto, NYC teacher of the year. https://www.cantrip.org/gatto.html
The perfect country to make a bunch of money if you’re young, healthy, highly skilled, and have no kids. If you check all these prerequisites then you are making money like crazy. Just no time off, no flexibility, just working for the man. Everyone else though it’s very hard.
Right by the bridge a few years ago there was a farm you could camp for a few bucks. A very affectionate donkey would sniff over your shoulder for treats
Firefox on Android is pretty good and you can still install an ad blocker.
Yuuup some really low taxes and also a lot of money gets turned into fighter jets and missiles which are of limited use in a structure fire. If they asked me I’d shave off a cheeky 5% of our defense budget and turn it into emergency response but they don’t ask