[compost_tea] Re: Language

From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 10:52:38 -0400
Hi Ted -

Again, I appreciate your thoughts, but -

It would really help for you to get a copy of the Compost Tea Brewing Manual.  Everything you asked for, Ted, is in that book.  The list of the terms you want defined, the list of thing important to making good tea, plus a few things more, is in the book.

It would have been fine for you to list the important things you are thinking about, but do not take me to task about what I should have been doing, when in fact I have done it.  You need to be looking at what I have already written. 

I did a list of terms for the list serve some time back, but poeple being people, they do not go back to find them in the archives.  Chris did a whole compilation of the important factors in making tea, and no one revives that book. 

How many people checked out the archives when they joined the list?  It just isn't human nature.  Those of us on the list serve who serve as the guides need to accept that people will be people, and one function of a guide is to answer very similar questions over and over for the newbies.  When a guide has had enough, ignore the question, and hope some other guide feels inclined to answer. 

It's why I am happy to have Jeff, Kirk, the other Kirk, you, and others answering questions.  Spread the work around. 

Just try to NOT to slam others in your e-mails.  There is no need to make comparative statements.  You should not tell me what I need to be doing.  Espeically when I've done it already. 

There is no need, for example, to say that you are surprised that Elaine has not already done something about the chlorine/chloramine question.  Why do you have to make statements like that?  Are you trying to make me feel guilty? 
Are you trying to scold me for not doing something that you want me to do? 

Your behavior does not impress me in any way.  Perhaps you will now say that you didn't mean the statement in that way.  Then write the statement in a way that will not be mis-interpreted. 

But you have been critical of so many people, so many times in the past, that I, and I think others, take your comments as being critical of others.  If you don't want us to take your comments as destructive criticism of others, you have to change the way you write. 

Try being positive for a change.  No degrogatory comparisons of your work with others.  You make mistakes, I make mistakes, oh surprise, we're human.  Shock!  Amazement!  We all cut you breaks, try cutting the rest of humanity a few breaks too. 

It's just that I've had enough of the constant snippy little remarks about what I should do, what I haven't done, about the fact that you don't think testing is necessary, but of course testing is needed.  Judicious testing is required if you want to move forward in the most efficient manner.

But how do you know what the m,ost judicious testing is?  Please, work with a Soil Foodweb Advisor, they can help you.  Look at the SFI website, find the closest one to you, check them out, talk with them, and get your answers from them on what testing is needed, when.  We recognize that you aren't millionaires.  But we aren't rich either.  So, be wiling to pay for the help you get, or the help won't be there when you need it next time.  We all have to eat. 

If you go back in the archives, you will see that we went through an extensive examination of the chlorine/chloramine question several months ago - hum, like last June.  Tom J. gave a great exposition on the subject.  Go back in the archives and find his explanation.  Or e-mail Tom J and talk with him about it. 

I even said at that time that I bow to Tom's greater knowledge, and that if people wanted to understand chloramine in water, they needed to talk to Tom.

I just reminded them, as I have said to the list serve at various times, that if you want to KNOW whether the organisms were harmed by something, test tea made without the chemical in question, and then test tea made with the chemical in question.  Then you know. 

Same for soil - test the soil BEFORE using chloramine treated water, and test again after using the chemical water.  Then you know what that chemcial does to the organisms.  Do you have resistant organisms, or not? 

If your brewer stinks, and you look through your little microscope and see lots of bacteria and fungi, it is not ood tea.  Those are dead fungi you are looking at. 

How often has a dead accountant helped anyone out of their troubles with the IRS?  The body is there, but it cannot perform it's function. 

Anaerobic conditions kill the beneficial organisms - no beneficial fungi, no beneficial, nutrient-cycling protozoa, no beneficial nematodes.  You can have bacteria out the ying-yang, but they alone cannot give you the results you want to have. 

ACTIVE organisms are what we need, and you cannot tell activity using a bright light microscope. 

Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
SFI Corvallis, OR
SFI Port Jefferson, NY
SFI Lismore, NSW, Australia
SFI Hilversum, The Netherlands
SFI Cambridge, New Zealand
SFI Culiacan, Mexico
SFI Jerome, Idaho
http://www.soilfoodweb.com

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Received on Thu May 06 2004 - 11:29:03 EDT

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