How to Build A Vegetable Garden The Wildlife Can't Get Into

You and your family can build a simple vegetable garden that is keeps animals out!

Our Squirrel Proof Vegetable Garden  After  4 Years Is Still Holding Up!

If you and your family want to enjoy fresh vegetables but can't because the squirrels are eating your garden. Where I live there are a lot of wildlife like squirrels, rabbits, and birds to name a few. This simple garden will keep these animals out.

This design is for 8'x 1' x 4' garden. I reused a lot of wood I had lying around. Here is what you need.

1. If you have an area currently with grass in it, remove the grass for the size of the garden being built.

2. Get  4 - 2"x 6" x 12'  wood. Cut the wood to 4 - 4' and  4 - 8'. Thats only 4 cuts! (In this design since I had 2"x 6" already I am just stacking them on top of each other to get 1' ft height and will bury part of box.

3. Assemble the wood using whatever you want. Once you have assembled both boxes join them together one on top of each other with mending plates. (Of course you could have bought 2' x 12" x 12' to start, then it is simple 4 cuts and join the pieces) but as mentioned I had old  2"x 6" laying around)

4. The wood frame that holds the chicken mess is 2"x 2". Buy 3 - 8' lengths and cut 1 into 2 - 4'. Join them together. One way to secure the corners is to use flat corner braces. Buy 4 of them and screw them in. You could secure/strengthen the corners in other ways.

5. You need 5 - 10' long 1/2" PVC piping to hold up the chicken wire and secure to 2"by 2" base. Buy  10 plastic clamps to secure the piping to the base. Use screws to secure clamps to wood.

6. Add the chicken wire to the box by putting it over the top of the piping and piping stapling it to the sides of the 2" x 2"  frame . Then use plastic ties to secure the chicken wire to the PVA piping.

7. Secure the top to the bottom by putting on 2 hinges on the outside of one of the long sides.

8. Buy quality soil for the garden box and you are ready to go,

We have had our box for 4 yrs now. Thanks to my daughter Kate for helping put in the original garden box. Our son Dylan now is building a second one.  A lesson learned is to not use the plastic netting to cover the box. It lasted one year and the crows ripped right through it. Chicken wire is not fancy but it works.

The squirrels and rabbits have not been able to get at the garden and we have enjoyed the fresh vegetables from it.

Go ahead and make your own squirrel proof garden.

Monorail Inc 1956 Trailblazer Monorail, Test Track Video at Arrowhead Park, Houston Texas

Muriel Goodell, Father of the Modern Monorail in North America Test Track

1956 "Industry on Parade" Is a newsreel segment on the Houston Arrowhead Park demonstration monorail by Monorail Inc. The monorail was called the Trailblazer. President of Monorail Inc was Muriel Goodell, is considered the father of the modern monorail in North America. This monorail was built and operating three years before the Disney monorail built by Alweg started to run.

Canoeing on the Mill Pond, Speed River, Hespeler, Ontario, March 25, 2020

A great healthy activity for the whole family. We did not have much of a winter so the pond is already shallow. Stay along the outside of the pond and enjoy the beauty. Parking at lot at the end of Spring Street. The dock may or may not be in. Does not matter you can enter your canoe in at Little Riverside Park, which starts at the end of Spring Street. Simply beautiful. Dylan and Paul Langan

Worker Safety and Chemical Disinfectants

Using Disinfect Spray in Iran

With the widespread concern over the coronavirus, more people are talking about and using chemical disinfection. 
 
From a worker safety perspective here are some basic things to know about disinfection.
Disinfectants are intended to kill microorganisms. They may also be hazardous to humans and the environment, especially when concentrated.

The use of disinfectants can impact worker safety both directly and indirectly. Direct exposure to a hazardous chemical may result when a disinfectant is used inappropriately (for example, if a worker fails to wear personal protective equipment when diluting a concentrated chemical).

Indirect impact on worker safety can occur as a result of an exposure to viable pathogens when an inappropriate product is selected (for example, if a disinfectant or product that kills vegetative bacteria only was used against a non-enveloped virus), or if an effective product is used inappropriately (for example, diluted too much).

Workers should learn about the products required for disinfection of the agents with which they will be working, including recommended directions for use (including application method, contact time, personal protective equipment, precautions, first aid, and disposal) as well as chemical characteristics (such as the toxicity, chemical compatibility, storage stability, active ingredient identity and concentration).

Much of this information is provided on the product label. Some manufacturers may also be willing to share reports of efficacy testing for their products.

Given that product effectiveness depends on the active ingredient(s) as well as the identity and concentration of other ingredients in the formulation, it is difficult to make generalisations about contact times and concentrations needed to kill specific pathogens. Users should therefore choose a registered product, read the label before using, and follow the directions for use carefully.

Manufacturers are permitted to test their own products to demonstrate label claims. Therefore, it is prudent to consider whether manufacturers’ claims are consistent with the recognised characteristics of the active ingredient and with current research published in peer-reviewed scientific journals such as the Journal of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.

When selecting a disinfectant, check the label for a Drug Identification Number (DIN XXXXXXXX). Drug Identification Number (DIN): A DIN is a computer-generated eight-digit number assigned by Health Canada to a drug product which has been granted market authorization in accordance with the Food and Drugs Act and Regulations. The DIN uniquely identifies the product and must appear on the marketed product label for all drugs authorized for sale in Canada.

Users of disinfectants should be aware of potential incompatibilities with other chemicals. For example, chlorine-releasing compounds should never be mixed with other chemicals because doing so may cause the production of toxic chlorine gas.

In a future post we will:

• look at the definition of words commonly used when talking about disinfection;
• discuss the types of chemical disinfectants and the pros and cons of using each;
• examine the factors that affect germicidal action.

Paul Langan

Paul worked for 25 years in occupational health and safety in the federal government. Part of his responsibilities was to develop and implement a laboratory safety manual. Chemical Disinfectants was a chapter in that manual.

#coronavirus #disinfectants #safety

How effective are your health and safety committee objectives?

It is no secret that one of the main ways to measure the effectiveness of your health and safety committee is to assess the quality of objectives they set and complete each year.

I have often heard it said that since the health and safety committee is meeting all the legislative requirements, they are working effectively. Certainly complying to the legislative requirements for health and safety committees is important. However, meeting occupational health and safety legislation is just a minimum requirement for measuring committee success and it does not measure how effective the committee is in the workplace.

Read the whole article at: https://www.thesafetymag.com/ca/news/opinion/how-effective-are-your-health-and-safety-committee-objectives/187099

Is Your Workplace Inspection Checklist a Shopping List?

Throughout my career in health and safety I have promoted the idea of not necessarily adding new elements to your safety program but doing the existing elements effectively.

Workplace inspections are an essential, proactive part of an overall safety program that has been in place for decades.

Have you audited the effectiveness of your workplace inspection procedures (WPIs)? Do you have an audit tool that could measure WPI effectiveness? What critical points should be on the audit checklist? Click HERE to read the rest of the article.