This is Why You Shold Read the Terms of Use of Any Website or Forum

I got a Google Alert today on "urban homesteading" that had a link to a forum called "Homesteading Today". Some of you may be member of that forum. I just wonder how many people actually read the terms of use. Basically, there is a clause in the TOU for that forum that gives them exclusive rights to anything you post there, including pictures, and the content of all your private messages.

This is what it says:

Any communication which you post to the Site or transmit to homesteadingtoday.com or to the Site by e-mail, private message (PM), public post and/or other medium can be used by homesteadingtoday.com on a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive license with the right to reproduce, modify, publish, edit, translate, distribute, perform, and display the communication alone or as part of other works in any form, media, or technology whether now known or hereafter developed, and to sublicense such rights through multiple tiers of sublicenses. homesteadingtoday.com may use the information it obtains relating to you, including your IP address, name, mailing address, email address and use of the Site, for its internal business and security procedures.

Yeah, right. Like I'm agreeing to that! NOTICE in the last line that they can use your IP address, name, mailing address, etc....FOR INTERNAL BUSINESS. In other words, they can sell all that stuff to anybody, anytime.

Your information is not safe on this site. My advice is that if you are a member of this site, leave now. If you aren't, don't join.

I was a member of a site called Frugal Living until I noticed that she had sold a column to some newspapers. In that column, she had users' tips that they had posted on the forum. I wrote and asked her how I could keep her from using my stuff, and she pointed out to me that the same such clause was in her TOU. I immediately took down all my pictures and left the site.

To me, this is deceitful. Site owners know that most people do not read the TOU before they click the box and join. Once you've done it, the only way to stop it is to not post there anymore. Everything you have already posted is stored somewhere on their computers, and can be used by them for any purpose at all.

I just feel obliged to try to let people know when I run across such obvious green and deceit. Please read the TOU, and if you have any questions with what you read, contact me.

Poor, Pathetic Green Bell Pepper and Other catastrophes

I moved my green bellpepper plant today. I could not keep it watered for some reason. I think maybe the tomatoes it was planted between were grabbing all its water. So I moved it up to the front part of the garden, right behind where I put the eggplant (which is doing pretty well now). I hope it likes it there better.

I also found that a lot of the bagged mulch has slime and fire ants in it. Admittedly, it has been sitting there for two years, so no wonder. Still, I need it, so I'm dumping it all out onto the carpet for the pathway and letting it dry out. I had to treat some of it for fireants, but the poison won't hurt anything else.

I didn't want to use this mulch for the pathway, so it's just going there to dry, then it will be moved to other parts of the garden.

The danged bermuda grass is coming up around the plants in the side yard, despite my best efforts at mulching with newspapers and wood mulch. That stuff is just impossible to keep under control! I'm going to start spraying the whole side yard with Round Up (not around the plants, of course) to try to get that stuff under control. That side gets a lot of sun, so maybe I can plant something else edible there. I'm thinking of maybe putting the Barbados Cherry on that side.

Welcome Mary's Florida Garden to our Blogroll

I found Mary through a comment on Patrice's site, and loved her blog! You really should go visit Mary Florida Garden. If you like the rest of our homesteading family, I know you'll like her.

Update on the Edibles

We had a cold snap, which stopped everything growing for a few days. The tomatoes are barely a foot tall now, and I'm thinking they'll probably die before I get any tomatoes off of them. I did get a couple of cherry tomatoes off of the Sweet 100 that is still in the pot.

The Ichiban eggplant that I transplanted into the ground is still adjusting. I added lots of compost, but I'm still having to water it almost every day. Maybe it's the wind that's drying it out.

The bean seeds that I planted just as an experiment are coming up. These are Blue Lake Bush beans, and the seeds are about 13 years old. SERIOUSLY! I had them in SC before I moved here, bought them at the feed and seed store, and they've been in the freezer all this time. I was surprised that nearly all of them germinated. I planted them only about an inch apart, thinking they wouldn't germinate well. Guess when they get bigger, I'll have to thin them. Not counting on getting beans from them before the real cold hits, but it's nice to know they're still viable. I'll plant more in January.

The Ice Cream and Dwarf Cavendish banana trees are getting established nicely. The Praying Hands out front has a pup. Most of the bananas out back aren't doing too well, so I may just move them all up front, make sort of a hedge out of them.

The pineapples are o.k., I guess. They aren't showing much growth, but then, they're probably making roots. It will be at least a year before I get pineapples on them anyway.

The starfruit (carambola) has stopped making fruit, probably because the bees are all gone now. I still have about a dozen fruits on the tree, though. The ant poison seems to be working, because the ones I brought in yesterday don't have any ants in them.

The Loquat is in full bloom. I'm thinking of giving up fruit this year and cutting it back. It's really too tall, and I can't get to the fruit at all.

There are still a few Peanut Butter Fruits left on the bush. Taking their sweet time getting ripe with this cold snap. I'll be cutting back the Surinam Cherry this year, so no fruit next year on that.

If I don't get citrus fruit next year (if the blooms all get blown off again) I'm going to give those trees away and plant something else, or maybe just move a couple of them to the front yard. If the longan doesn't bloom this year, I'm going to take it out as well. Eight years is long enough to wait for blooms.

Well, I guess this is long enough. I doubt anyone read this far. Happy Homesteading!