What else do you collect?? 18 18

[Albert Thurgood]

I collect antique rugs. Luckily I have ran out of floor space so can't buy any more, so I am filling up gaps in my EC and SA collections.

They have a history going back over 2,000 years. There are over 10,000 recognizable styles - so more than there are comic book titles. Like comics, they are also ephemeral. They are hand-made and are made anywhere from nomad's tents to city manufactuaries.

Here is the last one I bought. It is at least 140 years old, and of a design I have never seen in any book or museum.

This is what it looks like - it is bigger than it looks: 11' x 5'5". The dealer likes it so much, he still has it on his web site:

 

You could just imagine that in a palace painting by Frazetta (eg Eerie 23) or Barry Windsor-Smith, who is a big fan of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, who flourished about the time this was made.

Edited February 14, 2021 by Albert Thurgood
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[PopKulture]

I was sorting through some boxes of “thick books” recently, which generically belong to the family of dime novels. This cheap form of fiction was the precursor to the pulp boom. Here are some Nicholas Carter novels:

 

Edited May 12, 2021 by PopKulture
spelling!

[Bronty]

On 2/12/2021 at 2:28 PM, adamstrange said:

Nehi orange and grape soda!  I haven't thought about those in years.

Now I know what the fudge Radar O’Reilly was referring to.   Never seen one.

[D84]

1/6 scale figures or as I call them, my "Man Barbies."

[N e r V]

54 minutes ago, Bronty said:

Now I know what the fudge Radar O’Reilly was referring to.   Never seen one.

I’m more of a Fanta person with orange soda but I’ve seen Nehi at some grocery stores. Walmart for sure. No doubt Amazon carries it too.

Edited May 12, 2021 by N e r V

[Bronty]

Not in Canada they don’t - at least not that I’ve seen.   Cool to hear it’s still on the market

[cheetah]

I collect seeds.  Granted, not to keep but to grow trees for reforestation.  This is the culmination of a week of collecting and processing seeds from the Talamanca Mountains in Costa Rica.

[Flex Mentallo]

4 hours ago, cheetah said:

I collect seeds.  Granted, not to keep but to grow trees for reforestation.  This is the culmination of a week of collecting and processing seeds from the Talamanca Mountains in Costa Rica.

I read that an area of reforestation the size of France has taken place over the past decade [far outstripped by deforestation of course, but still a hopeful sign.] How are efforts progressing where you are, Jeff?

[cheetah]

On 5/13/2021 at 4:22 AM, Flex Mentallo said:

I read that an area of reforestation the size of France has taken place over the past decade [far outstripped by deforestation of course, but still a hopeful sign.] How are efforts progressing where you are, Jeff?

Thanks Michael.  Costa Rica is typical for a lot of places in that reforestation consists mainly of monoculture plots for agroforestry.  Teak and African Palm probably make up 70% of the reforestation work in Costa Rica.  For the work I do, it is entirely native species that I hand collect the seeds, then germinate and grow them for a year until they reach about 1 meter in height.  Then we either plant them on my own property or donate them to the People of Boruca for their reforestation efforts.

We have grown over 50,000 trees that have been planted in southwest Costa Rica so far and hope to plant another 25,000-30,000 trees this year.  I purchased two power augers to take back to Costa Rica that should increase out planting capacity by over 600% this year.

[cheetah]

This is my tree nursery when it was first set up five years ago, and what it looked like in December 2020.  I think we could grow as many as 100,000 trees each year if there were active projects that could use them.

[Flex Mentallo]

Remarkable. Are you seeing a return of absent wildlife in the canopy and undergrowth?

[cheetah]

1 minute ago, Flex Mentallo said:

Remarkable. Are you seeing a return of absent wildlife in the canopy and undergrowth?

The bird life has been the biggest change so far.  The number of species in the recovering pasture has nearly doubled and I recently found a species that had not been recorded within 80 km of the area before.  There is an ocelot that lives on my property that comes to visit whenever we do planting.  We often find his tracks next to fresh holes when he investigates things at night.

[Flex Mentallo]

22 minutes ago, cheetah said:

The bird life has been the biggest change so far.  The number of species in the recovering pasture has nearly doubled and I recently found a species that had not been recorded within 80 km of the area before.  There is an ocelot that lives on my property that comes to visit whenever we do planting.  We often find his tracks next to fresh holes when he investigates things at night.

Do you see monkeys where you are?

[cheetah]

I have two troops of white-faced capuchin monkeys that live in the surrounding forest.  They’ve been as close a 25 meters to my house.  Lots of howler monkeys in the surrounding forest but they don’t get as close to the house as the capuchins.  Squirrel and spider monkeys occur at a lower elevation do I see them on the road to my house but never close to my property.  I grow a couple of species specifically as good sources for the capuchins.

[cheetah]

One of the local capuchins I managed to photograph.

[Flex Mentallo]

1 minute ago, cheetah said:

One of the local capuchins I managed to photograph.

Great shot! I think some species there are endangered?

[cheetah]

1 hour ago, Flex Mentallo said:

Great shot! I think some species there are endangered?

There are a lot of endangered species on the Osa Peninsula which I can see from my house but I only grow one species, cocobolo, in my nursery.  Almost all of the really rare things need mature forest to thrive so planting them in fallow pasture is never successful.  Give me a few years and I will start with the rarer things.

[Flex Mentallo]

1 hour ago, cheetah said:

There are a lot of endangered species on the Osa Peninsula which I can see from my house but I only grow one species, cocobolo, in my nursery.  Almost all of the really rare things need mature forest to thrive so planting them in fallow pasture is never successful.  Give me a few years and I will start with the rarer things.

I look forward to further updates!

[cheetah]

51 minutes ago, Flex Mentallo said:

I look forward to further updates!

I guess it’s like starting out with modern and copper age trees then progressing to golden age stuff. 

[Flex Mentallo]

1 minute ago, cheetah said:

I guess it’s like starting out with modern and copper age trees then progressing to golden age stuff. 

The pedigree is evident.