Just need to vent...

They're not 'real' ducks while they're still in the shell....

Many people blame those crazy French for gavage-based protein production, but the practice goes back 'a bit further' than that.
At least with ortolans, they eat the whole bird!

Foie gras.
In non-economic terms:
Fatty Liver with a purpose!

To my knowledge I've not partaken in eating song-birds, foie gras, or balut.
I've eaten 'street food' in 5 continents.
Sometimes sober....so I cannot be certain.

Eggs buried in sand....
THAT'S not how it was described to me when I was in West-Pac

 

Kicking the thread for self-checkout mode.

I was on my way home from an appointment when I thought to stop at a Lowe's home improvement box for a bottle of weed killer.

When I carried it up to the front, I was let down to find that none of the checkout lines were open. The store wasn't exactly short-staffed at the time, so it just felt weird that they were pushing self-checkout as policy.

So I put the bottle back, went home and ordered exactly the same bottle of weed killer from Amazon for 23% less.

If a store wants to cut some people out to save some money that's... not great. But sometimes I'll go along with it if they cut me in on the savings.

 

@ weed killer.....
Curious as to what kind they're selling these days.

I've been using water.
I'm a coffee drinker, and so I carry a thermos with me from office to office.

I preheat my old-school 25 year old Stanley with boiling tap water, and pour that out on the few weeds that I'm trying to control. I still have to fire up the weed whacker every now and again, but not nearly as much.
Maybe not the most "carbon neutral" way, but I'm going to preheat my thermos anyway since I only want to run my coffee pot one time each 24 hour period (plus the electric kettle for the water.)
The water method is good (bad) for fire-ant mounds too.....so my insecticide use is waaaaay down.

YMMV

 

Oh, I save the weedkiller for the real problems. The first bottle lasted 7 years. Most of the weeds that die on my land get pulled, lashed by filament, vinegared, blasted by a heat gun or they get the rock salt treatment. When those things don't work I get the stinky bottle down.

Other than checking to make sure it wasn't round-up, I didn't read the label too closely.

I guess I could turn this into a different vent: tool quality

I've just realized that the first bottle of weed killer we got for the house lasted exactly as long as the first weed whacker we got for the house- 7 years.

And I'm kinda disappointed that the weed whacker didn't last longer. It's a DeWalt. Electrically it's fine, but the bump head just won't feed line properly anymore. I looked into repair for it and DeWalt seems to be backing away from the item, pushing a new model instead. Seen a bunch of unhappy comments on the internets. The store that sold it to me no longer sells DeWalt tools.

I'd love to put a new spindle on it or whatever but it is starting to look like I'll need a replacement machine. 7 years doesn't seem like enough.

 

glyphosate is in common use worldwide. Real agriculture, and backyard weed haters.


It blocks a biochemical pathway plants have but animals and fungi do not. So that's a plus. Opinion is varied on whether it is carcinogenic though. I think the product label must disclose. AKA Roundup. Yee-haw.

Groovy envtl alternatives are also commercially available, They can have vinegar, salt (NaCl), bleach, and surfactant (like dish washing liquid soap. Quite easy to DIY.

I had not considered boiling water. Probably will snuff leaves but not roots.

 

The term "weed" is so humancentric. Any plant growing in an unwanted location is called a "weed". I do cut some vegetation in our front and back yard, once or twice a season just to keep the walking path passable and the lawn usable for BBQ and such. But I almost never remove any "weeds" intentionally. Our front and back yard is mostly meadow now, and the far backyard is all woods. The areas of frequent human foot traffic are covered mostly by broadleaf plantain, dandelions, wild chamomile (aka pineappleweed), various short varieties of clovers, and very little perennial rye and fescue. They are very interesting plants in that they can survive foot traffic and they can only thrive with frequent foot traffic and some mowing to suppress the growth of other taller vegetation. If we don't walk on them and don't mow the area, they will be taken over by other tall meadow plants in a single season. I converted more than half of the area that was lawn originally when purchased the property into meadows that way.

 

It's been SUPER effective for me but my use case is drives, sidewalks and landings, and since I'm throwing the water out anyway, I feel that I'm getting 2 bites out of the apple.
It's probably less effective in spot-treating a lush, green lawn for the same reason that you want to be careful using it as an insecticide.
We have a relatively new boxer whose definition of 'edible' makes me lean away from chemical warfare against weeds and fire ants.
She's learned to not bother the ones that are moving, but the little white bits of protein are irresistable (which is the REAL reason that honey bears go to the source.)
So.....I boil them for her.
Makes for some bare spots in the back yard, but you get that with large canines anyway.

And??
Since a weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, then that definition is absolutely humancentric.
I have found that broadleaf plantain, dandelions, wild chamomile (aka pineappleweed), various short varieties of clovers cause more allergic reactions to the ladies in my orbit, and they also sport a menagerie of indesirable pests including tics, mieces, ground hornets, spiders, etc.
TICS would be reason enough since no fewer than two of my extended family and one close friend have been sickened (according to their doctors...)
Diseases that can be Transmitted by Ticks:
(according to the Googles)
Lyme Disease. ...Anaplasmosis. ...Babesiosis. ...Ehrlichiosis. ...Powassan Virus Disease. ...Borrelia miyamotoi Disease. ...Borrelia mayonii Disease. ...Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF.)

On my beautiful 5 acres of paradise, I split things with mother nature, and I take my chances, but for my city digs, it's whatever was present in the yard when I bought the house.
If I were smarter I would carry an eppy pen since I'm also more allergic to insect stings than average, but I have a smart watch with a geezer function.
Besides....
If I let my neighborhood lawn go fallow, I would probably garner unwanted attention from some of the neighborhood Karens, so it's easier for me to whack it down with a lawnmower semi-periodically.
I've seen coyote, fox, opossums (on and off the half-shell) and raccoons and other wildlife in the neighborhood, so they don't seem to mind......

....well, except for the part about being chased by the pooch.....

 

Self checkouts - I will use them.

At Sam's Club two Saturdays ago it was wall to wall people -I had been talked in to accompanying my wife and youngest child on this shopping expedition and immediately regretted it as soon as we entered the parking lot.

Turns out at Sam's you can scan the items you are buying with your smart phone ( I have a flip phone but the wife and child have smart phones) - so- my wife and child scanned the items while they shopped and paid with a credit card they had stored on the Sam's mobile website. We then exited with a full shopping cart that was checked out and paid for as we shopped. We bypassed the 15 person deep checkout lines. If you are familiar with Sam's they have an exit door person who will then quickly confirm your purchases with a scan and sight check - and then you are on your way. I was impressed- it turned a nightmare checkout waiting and scanning fiasco into a non-event. I am now an official fan of this method of checkout.

 

Self Checkouts:
I prefer them.

Automated Checkouts:
Even better.
I can still use self checkout for cash purchases when this is desired.

Most of the people who complain about self checkouts eliminating jobs would never dare take a job as a cashier.

 

And??
If tics and other living organisms had the same "rights" as humans, I am sure humans would be the first on their list to be eliminated and irradicated. Mankind has caused far more destruction to mother nature and caused harm to fellow co-inhabitants of this planet.

BTW, I am not a member of PETA. I am not even a vegitarian. Just a member of very selfish humans. LOL

 

I used a self-checkout at the grocery later in the same trip. When everyone's busy, it can help.

But I still think it's a bit silly to have literally every other position staffed to the point of people standing around discussing weekend plans and leave the checkout closed. That's the bit I didn't like at the hardware store.

 

Mother nature is awesome.
As far as oversized egos I think we as humans are the undisputed champions - I might question if any human does as much good for the earth and planet as even the lowly earthworm.

 

A city in the south of our state is trying to ban gas mowers and other gas-powered yard equipment, maybe taking after Cal?
SoPo to mull mower, leaf-blower ban

Now, if we did not have such an obsession with a tidy, neatly trimmed monoculture of green lawns, we never need to ban such equipment. Especially in a place where the grass is brown 6 months out of the year, there are far better (economically and ecologically) landscape options.

I love the Japanese moss garden. But creating such a beautiful garden in a city lot and maintaining it is very labor intensive. Fortunately, in our yard, nature takes care of itself and presents us the beauty without any human intervention.

Here are a few photos I took from our own all natural moss garden. LOL

 

Love your rocks and bamboo Zen Garden. I have planted several varieties of bamboo in our yard, but none took off. Once established, they can be tenacious and sometimes very invasive.

 

There are locales where bamboo is banned because it is so invasive.

 

Yes. Basically they need to pay you wages to do their job. If I'm not getting a saving, I expect someone to do that work for me.

Also, I hate self check-outs. It's OK for a single item, but for a big shop it's horrible. Yesterday, one of my things didn't register as the right weight, so the checkout froze until it could be overridden by a member of staff. I had to wait three minutes for someone to turn up.

We have two big traditional supermarket chains, Coles and Woolworths, and the discount chain Aldi. My local Coles has switched to almost all self-checkout. And it costs more than Aldi. My local Aldi is all traditional manned checkouts. So unless I'm only getting one or two things, I go to Aldi: it's a more pleasant, relaxing experience.

I'm not sure that's true.

I complain about it. And I worked as a supermarket cashier through the last three years of school and all of university.