Dip Tube

I'm quite pleased with a simple fix to my hot water tank last night. I'm sure that if I had called the plumber, they would've changed out the hot water tank and left me with a bill for $800, but I ventured to diagnose the symptoms and attempt to squeeze another year out of our 20-something year old tank. The hardest part of the job was turning the old dip tube nipple out of the top of the tank. I had Sylvia stand behind the tank and help hold it in place so I could reef on the pipe wrench. Thankfully, the nipple finally turned without causing damage to the threads or tank or anything else. If I had damaged the threads or the tank at this point, we would've been without any water for the night, and perhaps I would've had to take some time off this morning to plumb in a bypass to the hotwater tank until we could install a new one. At any rate, the dip tube was a perforated, cracked, paper-like, floppy tube when I pulled it out of the tank. The new one went in easy, the plumbing went back together nicely, and about 1/2 hour later the water was coming out of the tap steaming hot. I actually filled the whole tub and had the best bath I've had in a long time. Three great benefits from last nights fix: I learned how to replace the dip tube on our hot water tank; I kept some junk out of the land fill for (hopefully) at least another year; and I spent $25 on parts instead of $800 or so for a new tank and installation.

To Organic Milk or not

About 2 years ago, an article in Harrowsmith magazine referred to a book about food. The book sounded somewhat interesting so I looked it up in the local library and sure enough they had it. "The End of Food" turned out being a stimulating read about the food system in the world, I can't really remember the whole book, but one book has led to another and now I imagine that I have read a dozen or so books relating to food, ethics about food and food production, self-sufficiency, and other related things. I'm not sure where this is leading me. The theme of the books are generally related. Perhaps if there were a united theme, it would be anti-industrialization of the food chain. I cannot say I have read anything that is cheering on the industrial food handling process.

The latest book is 'The Omnivores Dilemma". Now we are debating whether or not we should start buying organic milk produced locally. Conventional milk rings in at about $4.40 for 4L. The local organic milk from Vital Green is ringing in at $6.25 for 2L. So the organic milk is almost 2.5x the price of the conventional. Is conventional milk really that bad? How can we know for certain that the certified organic actually is that much cleaner?

My brother-in-law said today that he knows that at least one of the milk processing plants near here recently had to dump a truck load of milk because of failed bacteria or antibiotic testing, due to 2 positive tests, but has been known to have 4 positive tests, then get a clear on the 5th test and let the milk go through for processing. What is the point!