u/SoggyMeatloaf69

Suspicious Booth at Orem Farmer's Market

Today I went to the Orem farmer's market. There was a booth giving away free bags of fertilizer for gardeners.

I got a few bags, and the first thing I noticed is that the handout in the bags is 100% AI (photo attached).

The ingredients in the fertilizer are roughly specified, it just says things like "Ancient Marine Deposits (Lake Bonneville)."

Their name is TC Alliance Foundation, registered as a 501c non profit. With a self proclaimed mission: "Terra Community Alliance Foundation partners with Indigenous nations to restore degraded lands using nutrient-rich minerals and regenerative practices."

After digging a little deeper, I think I've uncovered some type of crypto scam or money laundering scheme.

ANYWAYS..

According to the IRS website, in 2024 their nonprofit supposedly owns $135 million of mineral rich soil amendments. Whereas, they have only paid out $11,000, most of it going to the Phillipines.

This vaguely lined up with what the guy at the booth told me. I asked why it's free. He said that they sell this fertilizer in large quantities to farmers, and they are giving it away as part of an education program. And of course tacked on the "spreading regenerative agriculture" bit to make it sound wholesome.

But this is partially why I am also suspicious. As someone who is a regenerative gardener, I would NOT recommend someone to apply a mineral blend or a microbe enhancer. I know that our soil is naturally rich in minerals, and adding organic matter will unlock those. And likewise with the microbes.

But ANYWAYS...

Also on the original flier, there is text that says "Mineral Tech Holdings." Using a phone number on their IRS form, I was able to connect them to a website called Mineral Tech Holdings.

This website, just like the TC Alliance website, has very vague photos and claims about being a supplier of mineral fertilizer.

Gemini was also able to find a number of suspicious looking websites containing mentions of TC Alliance Foundation. These websites seemed to be selling adspace and also promoting a cryptocurrency called ETHTC.

On one of these websites, it specifically says:

"The mission of the non-profit TC Alliance Foundation is to educate individuals and businesses about the benefits of using the PulseChain cryptocurrency network to build your business income and obtain what you need, as we enhance the PulseChain community’s growth and cooperation."

Genuinely, I don't even know what I just uncovered. Do we need to get Reckless Ben on this case?

A histogram of 20,000 Fitbit users weekly cardio load. Interesting stuff!

Source:

https://arxiv.org/html/2508.11613v2#:\~:text=Figure%204%20shows%20a%20histogram%20of%20weekly,several%20weeks%20(n%3D19%2C946).%203%20Cardio%20Load%20Targets.

So 2 months ago I planted a small Netleaf Hackberry in my food forest. It's native to Texas and the Southwest, as well as along the Colorado River. I'm giving it a try in Central Utah.

The second photo is the native range of Netleaf Hackberry.

This week I added a deep pipe irrigation system, to help the hackberry grow deeper.

It's an easy weekend project that can benefit trees long term. Has anyone tried it? If so, let me know if you think it was worth it.

I made a video about the deep pipe, check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSqpDkRwXAY

This week I added a vertical pipe in the ground to get water deeper into the soil.

It's an easy weekend project that might benefit a tree long term. Has anyone tried it? If so, let me know if you think it was worth it.

I made a short video about it, check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSqpDkRwXAY

I'm planting a 1500 sqft food forest in Utah.

This same area used to be a lawn. Which means people have been extracting fertility from this soil for years. I'm using chop & drop as a strategy to quickly rebuild organic matter in the soil.

Most other yards around my house keep it very clean. Landscapers come and pull every weed and rake every leaf from the surface of the soil. That strategy only works as long as they have cheap fossil fuels to keep providing fertilizer.

I made a video about my strategy, check it out if you're interested!

https://youtu.be/WmQXU9R_DYI

So, I pulled the dishwasher out, noticed some melty stuff on the cable here. At first I thought it was purely from the wire insulation melting. But then I noticed the spot on the dishwasher, where the cable has been pressing into. Seems like the black stuff on the cable is from the melted stuff on the dishwasher.

Context:

• 120V system
• Gaggenau 200 series
• Dishwasher still works
• Currently the dishwasher has to be jammed against this plug to sit flush. So it pushes the cord into a 90 degree angle, and as you can see in the picture, its pushing the outlet itself backward too.

Questions:

• Do you think this is caused by the heat from an electrical problem in the cable, or heat from the back of the dishwasher?
  • Now that I'm thinking about it, if it was the heat from the dishwasher, all the rest of the black stuff would be melting too.
• How much of a fire hazard is this?
• Could it be reducing dishwasher performance in some way?

I'm thinking the best move would be to have an electrician recess the outlet, and order a new power cable. But I wanted to get some thoughts and opinions from people if that's a good idea or if there's other ideas. Thank you in advance.

Utah State University this year. Nothin' says America like monoculture.

This is maintained entirely by a pair of robot mowers in the picture.

Since September 2025, my Lymow fleet has mowed over 3 million square feet, logged 824 hours of mowing time, and covered nearly 69 acres of grass.

What surprised me most wasn't the time savings, it was the consistency.

The robots mow twice a week, every week, so the lawn never gets ahead of itself. Instead of mowing long grass and trying to force stripes into it, the entire property is constantly maintained at the same height. The result is striping that's incredibly precise and uniform across every slope, contour, and corner of the property.

This area used to take me about 4 hours per week on a tractor. I haven't touched the tractor since September. The robots have given me back almost 100 hours of mowing time already.

People always ask if robot mowers can handle hills. Looking at this picture, I'd say they're doing just fine.

The craziest part is watching them create perfectly parallel stripes over the entire property with RTK/GPS guidance. No overlaps. No fatigue. No "good enough" passes at the end of a long mowing session. Just even uniform stripes as far as the eye can see.

I never thought I'd be saying this, but after living with them for a season, I have zero desire to go back to spending my weekends on a mower.

Anyone else running robots on larger properties?