I first heard the phrase from a friend who went to work for a hot new company during the tech boom. Well, uh, OK. But in spite of its dorky sound, it has real meaning for someone like me.

I’m all over the place. Can’t help it. Always have been. Everything in this world is just so daggone interesting. Especially now. I think I appreciate the computer more than younger people because of where I come from. It’s such a breath-taking span from hot lead type to InDesign, from bulky dictionaries to Google, from rotary phones to the iPhone 5. (Part of my excuse for being so eclectic.)

Back to leveraging: I’d like to sell more books, I’d like to get us more income so we can get out of the 40-year-old scrambling for $$ to pay the printers. I had an idea: to take targeted sections of this blog and turn them into eBooks. Say homesteading. For people interested in homesteading, but not necessarily in Muddy Waters or skateboarding.

You homesteaders and gardeners out there: would you pay $2.99 or $3.99 for an ebook based on a selection from my homesteading posts?  Go down on the far right column and under “Topics,” click on “homesteading.”

I don’t know about a print book. It could be done but might cost too much.

I’ve put up over 3500 posts now. Does it make sense to separate this mass into subjects and reach “targeted” audiences?

“’Our potencies here are off the scale,’ confirms longtime grower Todd Ellison, co-founder of Colorado Marijuana Marketing, a one-stop shop for weed-related entrepreneurs in search of marketing help. ‘I have a guy who taught me to grow, who has been growing since the ’60s. And this stuff blows him away.’ And Ellison agrees. ‘I am almost 40. I’ve got three kids. You don’t want something that is going to lay you out and make you stupid all day.’

Why is dope so strong? Because plants with big, strong buds maximize the profit of the basement grower. Plus, the people who grow it and sell it also smoke it, and they’ve got high tolerances and a deep fondness for its effects. They like it strong.…

…newbies and those who have been burned by strong weed have a few options. They can make sure that the marijuana they are buying is mostly Cannabis sativa rather than Cannabis indica. Sativa is said to be more cerebral, more placid. Indica, on the other hand, is known for inducing what industry insiders refer to as ‘couch lock.’ If you are in your 40s or 50s, the dope you smoked in high school was probably sativa. ‘Most of this country, people over 40, the fond memories we have of way back when, when pot made you want to play the guitar and dance in the field, were of sativa,’ says Kyashna-tocha. ‘We were importing from tropical places. But then we started having indoor production. If you grow indoors, you shift to the stuff that is going to maximize production: fast, short, and big impressive-looking buds. That is indica. The shift went to this more stupefying stoned high.…’”
https://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/03/marijuana_potency_returning_smokers_want_mellower_pot_strains.single.html

I’m tempted to say that this tool is a life changer, but I’m prone to exaggeration, so I’ll just say it’s a game changer. The game being that by mid-day I’m usually rolling with my writing or book layout and don’t like to take the time to make a decent lunch.

   Enter the Blendtec and “green smoothies.” I combine greens plus fresh or frozen fruit, vitamins, protein powder, almonds, hemp seeds and whatever else I see around, turn on the Blendtec and have a delicious drink while working. I do it 2-3 times a week.

   I’m getting fresh-from-garden raw greens — parsley, kale, chard, or lettuce, whatever looks good, plus fruit, protein, carbos, vitamins. There are tons of recipes for green smoothies. I use Gold Standard vanilla whey protein — good flavor, high protein (something like 55 grams in 2 scoops): info here.

   This is a big powerful machine and it can be used for any number of things. It’s nothing like the blenders most of us are familiar with. In addition to smoothies, you can chop, juice, grind grain, and make soup or ice cream.

   I got it for $400 from Amazon here. Expensive, but high quality, highly useful, long lasting.

   For a comparison between the Blendtec and the other super blender, the VitaMix: click here.  You can also do a search for “Blendtec vs. VitaMix” in Google for more comparisons.

   For the CoolTools review of the VitaMix, click here.

“Hello 🙂
I’m passionate about sustainable land design/management and live a low impact lifestyle with my partner Leo, in a yurt on an incredible Exmoor smallholding that is a mosaic of diverse habitats.…
We care for Shetland, Hebridean & Castlemilk moorit sheep, dairy goats, Cuckoo Maran hens and ex-battery hens, black indian runner ducks and a collie called Willow.

   I’m co-founder and run www.saveourwoods.co.uk. Save Our Woods was central in stopping the public forest estate sell-off in 2011 and continues to work closely with government and organisations to achieve the best outcome for the woods and forests of England, public or private.

-hen”

Click here.

Sent us by Alan Whittle