The Keys To Weeding

Well its sure is that time of year again. I have weeds popping up all over the place.
I found that this is the best procedure to keep things under control.

• Pull up weeds before they go to seed and self-spread around the garden.
• Try to get the whole weed including the root
• Younger weeds are easier to pull because they haven't established a strong root system
• Wet the ground before weeding and your job will be easier - Better still water after it has rained
• For tap roots like dandelions pull straight up with a little pressure on either side of the stem using a tool with small V-shaped end. If you have a lot of dandelions look for a long handled tool that will help safe your back
• For weeds with shallow invasive root systems, try scraping below the surface of the soil to drag out as much of the root system as possible
• For weeds growing between cracks in pavement, decks, etc., try pouring boiling water over them to kill them. If this doesn't get them all use a weeding blade, a thin blade with 90 degree bend and sharp edge for cutting between stones, bricks, etc. These are also available with long handles if you have a lot of paving stones to clean out
• Use a hoe or 3-pronged cultivator a couple of times a week between rows in the vegetable bed for removing young weeds as they spring up.
• Mulch between plants to help prevent weeds from establishing
• Try to relax about the weeds. A few weeds won't destroy your garden. If you overplant with hanging bushy perennials, weeds will not be as apparent. It's amazing what you can live with if you don't know it's there.

Its all a big pain for sure. But what else are you going to do. Good luck and happy weeding. If you need me I will be out in the yard.

Gas Prices Just Keep Going Up

I was doing some searching on gas prices accross the United States. A good lace to check them is here http://gasbuddy.com/

The site lets you check on prices fluctuations in your area. With the Libya thing who knows where we are headed with this.

I just hope it stopes going up soon, as it is cutting into my vacation fund.

Sifu Lamar Davis Hardcore Jeet Kune Do Scam, Fraud or Real

When it comes to the art of Bruce Lee you just dont know where to begin sometimes. Most start with google and go from there checking up on the top ten instructors. One was the "Hardcore Jeet Kune Do" guy Lamar Davis. He boast a bunch of claims so I wanted to see if he could back all that talk up. First I found and endless amount of forum posts from this guy. That is almost always a bad sign, as those who do this are known as keyboard nijas, and those who just go online bashing are known as Trolls.

I took my questions on Sifu Lamar Davis to his fellow Jeet Kune Do Instructors to see what they thought of him and if he possessed any skills that would be worth me parting with my hard earned money. Most said they never heard of him. The Bustillo group said run away from him, as did many of the Inosanto camp. So I wondered why all the bad reviews on youtube for his videos and all the negative comments on the man from his fellow teachers.

Well here in a nutshell is what they said. The "Jeet Kune Do" that Lamar teaches are moves that Bruce Lee abandoned as ineffective in combat. One of them even said "Lamar like to brag to those students coming from other JKD teachers that "I bet you have never seen this Jeet Kune Do move before from your teacher have you. Trying to make himself look all knowledgeable when in fact the students former teacher did not teach it because it was outdated and ineffective as Lee found and removed it from Jeet Kune Do.

One of the worst things I found was how he continued the JKD tradition of bad mouthing other teachers, and creating hostility instead of working to promote Jeet Kune Do instead of himself and his apparent huge ego.

Looks like I will keep looking for a good teacher. At least this search has put me in the right direction as the people I talked to had some good recommendations.

OK after I posted this got all sorts of email from those telling me who he is certified by. Thanks for the input. He apparently is certified apprentice under Gearald Dill and another one of his teachers sent in a pic of his rank certificate here:

It Just Keeps Getting Worse In Japan

The Japan disaster is reacing accross the globe and touching lives everywhere. Now we learn that the nuke plant workers are being pulled out for their safety.

Workers are racing to bring the nuclear plant under control, but the process is proceeding in fits and starts, stalled by incidents like the smoke and by the need to work methodically to make sure wiring, pumps and other machinery can be safely switched on.

What caused the smoke to billow first from Unit 3 at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant and later from Unit 2 is under investigation, nuclear safety agency officials said. Still, in the days since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami wrecked the plant's cooling systems, both reactors have overheated and seen explosions. Workers were evacuated from the area to buildings nearby, though radiation levels remained steady, the officials said.

Problems set off by the disasters have ranged far beyond the devastated northeast coast and the wrecked nuclear plant, handing the government what it has called Japan's worst crisis since World War II. Rebuilding the northeast coast may cost as much as $235 billion. Police estimate the death toll will surpass 18,000.

Traces of radiation are tainting vegetables and some water supplies, although in amounts the government and health experts say do not pose a risk to human health in the short-term.

"Please do not overreact, and act calmly," said Chief Cabinet spokesman Yukio Edano in the government's latest appeal to ease public concerns. "Even if you eat contaminated vegetables several times, it will not harm your health at all."

Edano said Fukushima's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., would compensate farmers affected by bans on the sale of raw milk, spinach and canola.

The troubles at Fukushima have in some ways overshadowed the natural catastrophe, threatening a wider disaster if the plant spews more concentrated forms of radiation than it has so far.

The nuclear safety agency and Tokyo Electric reported significant progress over the weekend and Monday. Electrical teams, having finished connecting three of the plant's six units, worked to connect the rest by Tuesday, the utility said.

Once done, however, pumps and other equipment have to be checked — and the reactors cleared of dangerous gas — before the power can be restored. For instance, a motorized pump to inject water into Unit 2's overheated reactor and spent fuel storage pool needs to be replaced, said Hidehiko Nishiyama, an official at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

Early Monday, the Health Ministry advised Iitate, a village of 6,000 people about 30 kilometers (19 miles) northwest of the plant, not to drink tap water due to elevated levels of iodine. Ministry spokesman Takayuki Matsuda said iodine three times the normal level was detected there — about one twenty-sixth of the level of a chest X-ray in one liter of water.

The World Bank said in a report Monday that Japan may need five years to rebuild from the disasters, which caused up to $235 billion in damage, saying the cost to private insurers will be up to $33 billion and that the government will spend $12 billion on reconstruction in the current national budget and much more later.

Growing concerns about radiation add to the chain of disasters Japan has struggled with since the 9.0-magnitude quake. The resulting tsunami ravaged the northeastern coast. All told, police estimates show more than about 18,400 died. More than 15,000 deaths are likely in Miyagi, the prefecture that took the full impact of the wave, said a police spokesman.

"It is very distressing as we recover more bodies day by day," said Hitoshi Sugawara, the spokesman.

Police in other parts of the disaster area declined to provide estimates, but confirmed about 3,400 deaths. Nationwide, official figures show the disasters killed more than 8,600 people, and leaving more than 13,200 missing, but those two lists may have some overlap.

The disasters have displaced another 452,000, who are in shelters. Yamaguchi and Associated Press.

It just seems like these people just cant have any good luck at all.

Our thoughts and prayers are with them and their familites.