jess Ó hEalaighthe

Garlic might work if you like eating the green chive that sprouts out of the cloves and aren't growing it elsewhere already. My indoor humidity is similar to yours, temp is comparable too. In the winter here garlic sprouts just sitting on my kitchen counter and even sometimes in the fridge without any attention or care. Could be something to put in an awkward or un-utilized space in your setup that doesn't need much attention, or if you do give it some care maybe you can propagate lots of tasty garlic to cook up with your greens in a pan and serve as a side or over some grains/rice, maybe topped with an egg... Yummy!

Dearest Paul,

Tommy the tumour has sorely underestimated you.

I don't know you, but I read your content and I think anyone who has would agree that you are perhaps one of the most fantastically stubborn individuals to have walked the earth.

My heart has little doubt that you will overcome this Paul, and that it will become a great victory and a badge of honor for you to wear.

Big Respect for coming out with this online.

It sounds like you know exactly what you need to do so, with any luck, lots of cool permie people will come lend thier incredible energy in person and in the private forum to support you as you work to overcome this challenge. I hope you can have many days spent in the sunshine talking, tinkering, laughing and dreaming big together with people who are bonkers about all your favorite permaculture things - as soon as and as much as possible!

I have little to offer you other than my gratitude and respect, but here is a quote that I feel has relevance here:

"Be selfish in your recovery"
-an addictions counselor

F%&$ Cancer and good luck sir.

I have used several powdered or cream type abrasives for cleaning stoves, including just plain old baking soda, and I can say that honestly regardless of what you use you can get a good result by doing the following:

1. Take a cloth and wet it with warm or hot water and ring it out so it is not drippy. Use this to wipe off loose debris. If there is lots of fresh grease on the stove that's not burned on you can repeat this step a few times to remove most of the grease. There should not be any pooling water on the stove when you are done, we need it to be mostly dry for next steps.

2. Sprinkle the stove with abrasive powder use lots where it is very dirty but don't worry about putting much or any in places that are clean.

3. Using a cloth that is wrung out really well, or a new cloth that you wet only a little at the portion which will be making contact with the surface when you scrub, buff the whole surface with strong circular motions. You want to use a cloth that is just wet enough that the powder sticks to it when you wipe, if the chunks of powder get pushed away instead then it is too dry. If you end up with flowing sludge instead of a chalky film then that's too much water and you'll need to wipe it up and probably add more powder. You should get a pasty build up on the cloth and keep using this portion as you attack the corners and crusty burnt on things.

4. Check for water marks that are not coming off. If there are some stop buffing and let the chalky film dry. Once it is dry Buff off with a dry cloth. Usually this works fine, if not you will probably only notice the marks when the stove is wet so not a total loss of your effort.

5. Wipe down once or twice with water to remove traces of powder and dry well to make it shiny. If it looks good, you're done!

6. Is there still some burnt on black stuff? Use a flat edge scraper tool on a flat top to remove this. On other stoves you can use a steel wool type scrubby, the plastic ones are more forgiving because this will scratch the enamel and you have to be very mindful of where you apply pressure and how much pressure you are using. Decide If you are cool with a little perma-dirt or a few asthetic surface scratches. Whatever you do don't scrape down to bare metal. Additionally, as you continue to clean the stove regularly over time any remaining blackness will reduce In appearance so don't tire your arm out or damage your stove trying to make it perfect in one go.

6. Wipe off the scrapings and clean your tools. all done!

Main takeaways are that you need an abrasive and to keep your wet- dry ratio proper when buffing, see step 3 for details.

Also works great for sinks. Happy scrubbing!

The smoke where I live was 9 to 10+ on the air quality index last week (scale only goes up to 10). When I was walking home from my bus stop I noticed that the air was SIGNIFICANTLY clearer by the manual spray wand car wash. It has 3 bays with 2 cars per bay and is always busy.  It was a welcome relief after waiting 30 minutes outside for my bus to come. I think the car wash may have been working as a giant humidifier, all the water in the air was trapping airborne particulates and dropping them to the ground. Therfore I think it is possible that a misting system might offer relief to outdoor critters, the trade off being that now all those airborne particulates will drop onto surfaces including food and the critters themselves, so this would have to be considered in the design of such a system.

If I may, I would caution that the word 'disguise' has somewhat negative connotations in this context. Yes, perhaps many of us use clothes to blend in or go incognito... However I don't think one should have to feel that they are covering or limiting themselves by doing so, nor should anyone feel like they have to hide thier true expression of self from others.

Instead I think it is more positive to think of clothes more like tools.
IE: use the right tool for the job
Clothes are tools we use to protect us from occupational hazards.
Clothes are tools we use to protect us from weather.
Clothes are tools we use to communicate.
The varying amount of things humans communicate through thier choice of dress across cultures, groups, professions, and genders through history is too expansive to list for me. However, I think the takeaway is that even if you didn't mean to communicate much of anything with your attire, each person is going to read something into what you put on because of our history and evolution as a social species with pattern recognition and heuristics.

But it doesn't have to be complicated or sad. Dress for the social weather just as you would the natural weather, for instance black at a funeral, dressy clothes at a wedding, tidy work appropriate clothes at an interview. What is your task today that involves peopling? Who is it with? What would those people be comfortable or uncomfortable with? Are you looking for things to go smoothly and efficiently or are you looking to cause some friction?
Form Follows Function.
No matter what you wear you are still you, dress for what your function is each day, never feel like you are lessening yourself or otherizing yourself by doing so. Chances are what you need to get done is more important for the world than expressing your individual unique-ness while you're at it**, so wear the right tool for the job and don't let it make you feel fake or bring you down, because utilizing the knowledge that looking or sounding a certain way can expedite certain tasks in social settings is not a crime, but rather an inherent component of our species that I imagine likely predates spoken language.

So I think, to tie back to the thread title, maybe Clothes do not make the person, It is thier Choices - yet we do (generally) choose our clothes.

** I say this while understanding that for some individuals the ability to freely express thier unique-ness in all or most cases is more intrinsic to thier well being than it is for others, and I fully support you guys too, especially when historically and even still today many people/groups are killed over a matter of what amounts to a simple and harmless form of self expression. I salute your bravery, you trailblazers of the different, the weird, the unknown, the misunderstood, the new and frightening.

Maybe this is all common sense to you permies, but just in case it helps someone I thought I would add it.

Dale Hodgins wrote:
......
I'm not sure what the reinforcement is in the picture below, but just imagine that thin, light wood runs along the same spots. It would really stiffen things up, without adding a lot of expense or weight

If anyone's wondering, the stuff in the picture Dale was talking about appears to be foam core. It kind of has a similar heft to corrugated plastic or those 3 panel presentation boards used for school science fairs.

This is a neat thread Nicole and I am always amazed by your talent. Anyway here's some things I hope help bounce ideas around: (haven't read the whole thread so sorry if I repeat anything )

1. If you don't want to use wood you could make  cardboard logs by layering strips of the same size on top of eachother (4-8 layers perhaps?) and either gluing them or wrapping them, riveting... however you want to fasten them. Then you could use these logs to make a 'timber' frame and attatch cardboard 'drywall' to this or even wrap the frame in fabric.

2. Is it possible to stitch cardboard together using say left over bale twine? I think if you used a strong stitch like  on a leatherworking project it would be flexible but strong-ish. This would be tedious but if the kids are old enough to stitch it would be good practice on those motor skills and they could build protoypes of armor or any other inventions they can imagine. If they have the attention span it would be a neverending project to build structures this way and can be done with free materials.

3. Cardboard scratchers for cats and bunny rabbits might be a fun way to add a curved element to the playset. If you google it you could make one yourself or get one from the dollar store. Maybe for a hill or a bridge?

4. Paper towel and toilet paper rolls are good sized tunnels for lego-men. you could also cut them up and make awnings or other curved details. Or for a medim sized doll you could cut a tp roll lengthwise and add a handle to the inside of the curve thus making a shield which can be colored on/ customized by kids.

5. Pet Bunnys enjoy renovating card board castles designed specifically for them. These are made without the use of tape/glue because if the rabbit eats it it can kill it. Some of these have two levels and are modular so I think they may be a good thing to look at for structural inspiration and to save on the amount of materials needed.

6. 'Slat together' construction.  If you cut small slits into the edge of the cardboard you can insert the edge of another piece (picture those foam play mats) You can use this method to join flat pieces to get sort of a log cabin effect on your corners or you could cross hatch a bunch of skinny pieces and cover them in large flat pieces to make a panel for a floor that is light and strong. (Picture like a wine bottle shelf in a perfectly sized box)

7. Other materials that might be fun to incorporate: wire clothes hangers and old t-shirts?? You can make a DIY cat tent (easily find on google)  using them but maybe you could make a super cool removable dome or roof for your castle with the same method. (Pick a light colored shirt and it can be drawn on with markers or can let light inside the castle)

8. Multiple Shoe boxes inserted into a larger box is a quick way to make a multi-story with lots of rooms (go to a shoestore and ask them to save you a large shipment box plus empties and you should get stuff that fits together nice with minimal rigging) close up the lid and toss anywhere when kids are not using it if you don't put fragile stuff in the design.

Hope this helps someone out there get the brain juices flowing.

William Grotts wrote:In the link it states "They can also be used to build extremely strong structures that are inherently resistant to most hazards that would readily destroy a stick-frame house."  How earthquake resistant are they for locations like here in shakey Oklahoma?
RileyG

Hello, I have heard that earthbag can survive 0.8 g earthquake.

Here is a link to a paper where they tested the shear strength of different kinds of earthbag walls:
https://buildsimple.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/estimated-shear-strengths-ce.pdf

This is an example of an eathbag build in a region with lots of seismic activity in Nepal (lots of construction pictures):
http://www.earthbagbuilding.com/projects/nepalschool.htm

Also i think modern earthbag building was pioneered by Nader Khalili in california, which as we know rests on a fault line, and his earthbag domes are actually code approved for seismic risk regions. You can probably find some useful info at his CalEarth website too.

Creighton Samuiels wrote:

Or if you are truly looking to get stuff done on minimum data; you can turn off automatic image loading completely or use a non-graphical browser.  (I didn't know that the web had photos until about 1995, because I did almost everything in Lynx)  Such non-graphical browsers include Lynx, Links and Links2 for the GNU/linux and Mac OS X set, and WebIE & ELinks for the Windoze users.

https://merabheja.com/12-text-only-browsers-for-browsing-in-slow-internet-connections/

If you are at the point where you are disabling images in your browser you could also disable CSS, I haven't tested how much this will reduce your data usage but I think I would try this before switching to a non-graphical browser, then i can turn things on and off without having to install yet another browser on my machine.

(In case anybody doesn't know CSS stands for cascading style sheet. Basically the website's css file is the presentation layer of a site, so backgounds and fonts etc. You can still easily see the actual content of the site with CSS turned off.)

Hello. I am on a rental property in the city. my goal is to do some work to improve the soil quality and grow plants to attract/help bees.

I am wondering if anyone knows more about the relationship between the bugs and birds I have seen on the property thus far:

-The most predominant life is ants, there looks to be one colony with the mound in the back corner of the south/east flowerbed and tunnels extending all along the east wall of the house.
(have never had any inside the house).
-There was also a wasp nest inside the north wall of the house via the bathroom vent. they were coming inside sometimes while we were doing our business,
so we got rid of them and sealed off all the entrances we could find. killed two small brown spiders (living in the upstairs and downstairs bathroom respectively) in the process.
only other spiders i have seen on the property are dandy-long-legs, usually outside on the north wall of the house but once there was one in my clean laundry basket.

-when the snow had finally melted there was lots of lady bugs in the yard as well, but only for a short while.

-In early summer there were some small birds nesting on top of some kind of power box on the north wall (we think the box gets warm and that's why).
Other birds i have seen are magpies (chillin' around the trees on the west side of the property and the trash bins), and another small brown bird common throughout the canadian prairies,
I think they are called barn-sparrows? (they hang out on top of a hedge on the south-west side of the door right against the house. top of hedge is dead where they sit.)

-There is a family of jack rabbits living in the back alley usually chillin' in the neighbor's yard (babies were born there) and when they were small they'd hide under the shed sometimes.

Life i do not see: bees and worms.
bees are rare in the city period, no sign of worms surfacing after rain storms and no robins foraging for them in the yard (there are some robins in the city though).
I also don't see squirrels on the property but there are lots of melanistic (black) squirrels in the city.

Does anyone know if the wasps were a food source for any of the birds etc.?
Why did the ladybugs disappear after like a month? how long do they live?
There weren't that many spiders around for such an old house even before we sprayed for the wasps..I thought ants attracted spiders?
We are starting to have cold days now and usually lots of bugs come inside during this time but I haven't seen any mass exodus of bugs.. maybe because of all the holes we sealed to keep the wasps out?

I have done some research on vermiculture, but not sure i can introduce worms and have a worm tower because I have ants in the only flower bed with space, and the bed is also full of broken glass.

In regards to the ants I haven't noticed any indication of aphids but will be checking the nearby plants when the ants come out again in the summer.

Sorry for so many questions! any Advice on how to work with the above life forms for a better environment in the yard is super appreciated!