Devonviolet Acres

[Bruce]

You are done for now Bay, never should have mentioned it! At the very least don't tell it about Devon's printer, it might decide it has run its useful life as well.

Yeah, cheap to buy, every year or two. Dammit just make something that is QUALITY and will last 10 years and charge me twice as much as the cheap ones. Even 3 times. I hate throwing stuff out that COULD have been built to last a good long time.

 

[greybeard]

Hate to tell you this but they are all crappy. They are not built to last. We buy a new printer EVERY YEAR! None of them hold up. We just look for the ones that have a rebate... it ends up a better deal for us. The thing that bothers me is how much goes to the landfills, some stuff is recyclable but not all. Nowadays everything is made to NOT last. Hate it.

I fully agree with this, and like a lot of folks here, I consider myself pretty tech savvy.
The old slow noisy dot matrix printers would last forever tho they were quite limited in their graphics rendering but all the inkjets today suffer in that they have to be used very frequently..preferably once or twice/week minimum. Ink dries up in the nozzles and it's rare that the cleaning function will clear the problem. I have a multi function HP2652 less than 2 yrs old that basically is just a scanner now.

Recycling is a real problem and is going to get worse. Computer boards have enough gold, silver and platinum in them to make it worthwhile for someone to take them, but plastics and even most paper has no end place to go anymore. To be truly recyclable, the object has to have a market and with the price of oil cheap, new plastic can be made cheaper than recycling old plastic.
Yes, there may be containers strategically placed around for things, but it all ends up in a big pile somewhere because it really has no value.
States and cities legislate deposits on plastic containers, but all that amounts to is a tax, because again, once the containers full of 'recyclables' are collected, there's no real 'market' for the material.
China and India used to accept our plastic refuse..'no more..we have enough of our own" they now say..

 

[Mini Horses]

I have an older Cannon that I bought because it was les expensive than ink refill on my other OLD one. I do use it at least every other day for a few to many pages. Works great so far. Yeah, I've got a couple around. This one does fax, copy, print, etc. wired or wireless. Hey, less than $40!!

Don't buy expensive. When this one decides to stop, I just hope it's when the ink tanks are empty and not just refilled.

 

[farmerjan]

There have been several "tech pros" on the radio here that really promote the "epson eco tank" printers. Don't use cartridges, but tanks that you refill and tout the savings of hundreds of dollars for not buying cartridges constantly. They are more expensive but I think the savings of printer cartridges is significant. I have a "cheap" HP that I bought during the black friday sale thing a few years ago. It gets used ALOT at farms and it seems to work good. The only thing is they didn't upgrade any drivers, again the idea that they are made to be disposable, so I have to stick with Windows 7 in my work computer. Can't get updated drivers for Windows 10 or anything. But I am also like @Mini Horses .... buy a cheap one nowadays. It irks me also @Bruce to have to throw stuff away and I was brought up in the "recycling" generation of the 70's "hippies" so I go nuts over all the throw away ideas. I have seen the recycling of plastic go to he// because of no market for it. I am trying to buy less and less that uses plastic, but still, it is very difficult. One of these days it is going to "dawn" on companies, that they are going to have to do something different...
One reason I try to do as much in glass, canning and stuff since it is reusable. And if you use Tattler canning lids you can reuse them too.
But for the printer, I think that a cheap one would be a better bet at this point, if you can't go the route of say the Epson. I have heard from a friend that they are a great printer to use.

 

[Bruce]

Had the same problem with a scanner I bought in 2003. Still worked fine but replacement computers and nope, no drivers, can't be done. Perfectly functional piece of uselessness. Finally took it to the town recycling day.

 

[HomeOnTheRange]

Tattler canning lids

Wait! Why did I not know about these! Do these really work?? Do not want to hijack @Devonviolet thread

 

[Devonviolet]

Wait! Why did I not know about these! Do these really work?? Do not want to hijack @Devonviolet thread

I’ve never heard of the Tattler canning lids. I do, however, use something somewhat similar. I buy the white, plastic, wide mouth, canning lids from Walmart - I think there are 8 per package. Then I buy white, silicone, wide mouth seals. While it may work, I don’t use those to seal when doing long term, water bath or pressure canning. I think the last time I got the seals, I bought them on Amazon.

 

[Mike CHS]

We use the Tattler lids on items we know will be for our own use but we give so much away that we use the traditional lids on the majority of things.

 

[farmerjan]

Yes Tattler lids really do work. The round lid is white plastic, and the seals look like the old red rubber sealing rings that you used with the "bail top jars with the glass lids." The seals are also reuseable if you don't tear them when you pry the lid off. It takes a little getting used to using them, as far as the tightening etc.,and they do COST more.... but they are virtually indestructible and there is no "rusting" if the jars get in a damp environment. It seems to me that the metal canning lids nowadays, seem to get rusty if they get a little bit of dampness. You can go on their website, just google Tattler canning lids. I think they were on e-bay too. I got mine from a lady at one of our chicken swaps... She buys them by the case, then sells them by the package. It was a little cheaper than buying a few packages of them, but I didn't need a case of reg and wide mouth. I wanted to try them and really liked them.
It is best to not put them on jars you are gift giving as most would not give them back, and the rubber seal would get cut/broken when they are being opened. But for your own use, they are pretty much the way to go.

 

[Devonviolet]

We had a busy week, this past week.

It started with us going out and giving all the goats their CDT shots. The original plan was to take each one into the barn, up on the milk stand to trim hooves. But, by the time we got to it, it was time to feed animals. Since I had all the shots drawn up, we just went into the goat yard, and collared each goat. DH held, while I alcohol wiped and then injected each one. CDT - CHECK!!!

The next job that needed doing was to move the 1000 lb round bale, from the 12 foot trailer to the canvas garage, which also needed a new cover, after the old one was shredded in a recent storm. We decided to put the round bale in the garage before putting the cover on.

So, on Tues. I hooked the truck onto the trailer and backed it up to the gate into the back yard. The problem that I didn’t account for, is that the fence is at an angle, and the trailer ended up going about 12 feet to the right of the garage. That meant jockying back and forth (in a small area, going in between two fruit trees) with the 30 feet combined truck and trailer length. The end result was the weight of the round bale, on the trailer hitch bogging the rear tires of our 2-wheel drive truck in the damp, sandy loamy soil. Try as we might, we couldn’t get the truck out. We even unhooked the trailer and dug out the dirt in front of the tires and put 2x12 boards, to drive up onto. Eventually, we gave up and called the insurance company (roaad side service), who sent out a tow truck driver, who wenched the truck out. But that left the trailer in the middle of the yard.

We considered all kinds of options - none of them viable - for getting that round bale into the garage. Eventually, I called our dairy farmer neighbor and asked him to bring his tractor, with a hay spike, to move the hay bale. He was out of town, but said to call the next day and he would do that. So, I called and he said he would do it in the evening. That gave me time to make a batch of my “famous” oatmeal cookies, as a thank you gift.

It took a couple tries, to get the bale off the trailer, but he was able to put it EXACTLY where we wanted it. We then hooked a chain to the trailer hitch and the hay spike, and he dragged the trailer through the gate onto the driveway. I was so caught up in the activity, that I forgot to take photos. Sorry!!!

He was thrilled to get a dozen of the 4” cookies. I told him I sell them, at farmer’s market for $4 each and he was really impressed.

There’s more to the story, but I have to get ready for church. I’ll continue it this afternoon.