Disturbing

so i’ve know of a couple o’ppl kilt by blade

HHD 02-19-25

Good morning and welcome another edition of Hunky Hump Day.

First, the music. This came up in conversation, and the n00bs hadn’t heard either one.

Now for the hunks. Birthday boy Kris Polaha.

Emergency Tuesd’awww Poat

Good morning! I didn’t see anything in drafts for today so here is a cute animal.

Have a spectacular Tuesday and think about how awesome your life is.

MMM 633

Morning all. Happy President’s Day.

Aftermarket accessories, but the rest of her is real. Her name escapes me at the moment, Brazilian iirc.

Not Tired of Winning

Our Big Tent Party could very well get much, much bigger with RFK’s outline for agricultural change, with cutting edge science indicating that improved soil health is a vital element of disease prevention in humans.

Eliminating the policies that kill small farms, as well as encouraging regenerative farming processes, are just plain good ideas that I thought would never happen. Large scale farms, while important sources of food, use processes that are exacerbating soil loss. Their practices, while amazingly productive, use toxic chemicals to produce food from dirt that acts as merely a substrate, not fully functioning soil. We need to restore more soils to health, if we want to be healthy too. There are already a number of farms that are doing regenerative farming at a large scale, increasing fertility, improving deep water infiltration, and restoring land quality.

Some “Heal the planet” types who suffer from TDS may be able to overcome it with changes like this. I don’t see how you strive for this outcome for years and years and then reject it when you see it being implemented by someone you don’t like.

20 years ago this would not have been a "conservative (read: corporatist)" plan. But corps and politicians working together to relentlessly shaft the middle class has made this moment of bliss possible. Arguably one rare case where culture/ values is downstream of politics. https://t.co/ig6VXAJQXm

— Miss Lumps, if you're nasty (@LumpishKnobs) February 15, 2025

I’ve been gradually learning about regenerative farming. The productivity, as well as pest and disease-suppression is off the charts (apparently), when the principles are understood and acted upon. This is a system that is beyond mere organic food production. I’ll be implementing more of these principles in my garden this year. At this time I already have minimized soil disturbance by not tilling, I keep the soil covered with organic mulches, I plant intensively, I no longer perform the traditional Autumn garden “clean up,” and I plant cover crops occasionally.

Plants do not simply imbibe ions from the soil; they take in large molecules as well as microbes of every description, which colonize every part of the plant and even act as an immune system. We are better nourished not only by the increased nutritional content of plants raised on living soils, but our microbiome is also nourished by the important microbes and enzymes that come through the plant to us.

I love this guy. He is involved in helping RFK develop policy now. SO STOKED.

Another one, interesting discussion, eventually gets to the point about the connection between our health and soil microbes.

A key practice for increasing the living portion of soil is to plant many different families of plants. Everybody brings something different to the rootzone party, and different kinds of microbes will begin to proliferate in the rhizosphere.

At some critical point there is a moment, called “quorum sensing” where the various microbes- bacteria, fungi, microalgae, etc- become even more efficient at creating nutrients and enzymes for plants to use, by suddenly working as a team. Some microbes that are good at producing certain compounds take over that function from others, and there is reciprocity of materials and productive function across the entire spectrum of microbes. At that point, the farmers who have observed this phenomenon report that their crops shift into high gear and become virtually bulletproof. From Brave’s AI assistant:

Quorum sensing in soil microbes refers to the process where bacteria communicate and coordinate their behavior based on population density. This mechanism allows microbes to collectively decide on actions such as nitrogen fixation for plants, which is beneficial for soil health and plant growth.23

Dr. Christine Jones, a soil ecologist, explains that in the microbial world, quorum sensing involves density-dependent coordinated behavior that regulates gene expression in the microbial population and/or in the host plant or animal.4 This means that when there are enough microbes present, they can work together to perform tasks that are more effective when done collectively.

Research has shown that bacterial quorum-sensing molecules play a significant role in the rhizosphere, the region of soil surrounding plant roots, where they facilitate communication between bacterial cells or populations and plants.5 Understanding and leveraging quorum sensing could potentially enhance soil fertility and plant health through improved microbial interactions.

This year I will increase the diversity of my cover crops to at least 8 different plant families, dig some more water-retentive swales in strategic places, add some more perennials to my garden, more flowers around the edges, and possibly change from mulched paths to living paths. I also may be adding chickens either this year or next. Still need to build the coop.

Water is the critical component of all such schemes, of course. Here’s a video with ideas about regenerating dry landscapes and dead soils:

And another one with basic principles of regenerative gardening:

Have a lovely remainder of your Sunday.

Misty Memers

BBF

Hello, and welcome to Big Boob Friday.

Your model for today was born July 13th, 1999 in Australia. She stands 5′ 5″ and sports some 34-H traffic stoppers. Please say g’day to Miss Dakota Jade.

Mini-meme

This car pulled in front of wiserbride & I a few days ago. I immediately started cracking up. Wiserbride didn’t know why.

I still love her.

The Return of TrunkMonkey©

Trump, Musk, Pete!, Hawaii Chick, TOM!!

HHD 02-12-25

Good morning and welcome another edition of Hunky Hump Day.

First, the music. Git on down wif yo bad self.

Now for the hunks.