Whoops, forgot those, here they are.  How do I get rid of these negatives BB?

Here are some better pictures from today.  It was earlier so the light was better.  Hopefully these scratch the itch.  

WooooWeee, I didn't realize how fast this chain gets dull, tried to cut a limb and it took WAAAAY too long.  The sharpened picture doesn't do it justice, but I had to use natural light because of my limited electricity.  It cuts much better now.  Good stuff to learn.

Here are some of the dead stand I took down for this pile.  

My black bean and chorizo soup - I'm really bad about following a particular recipe... I mostly just feel my way through it.
Ingredients:
Garlic Cloves - minced
Black Beans - soaked over night
1/2 Yellow Onion - diced
1/2 Red Onion - diced
1 green onion - chopped
1 jalapeno - diced
chicken stock
cumin, red pepper flakes, hot sauce, salt, pepper, and whatever else tickles my fancy.  
You can see some tortillas in the final picture, bread works too, so do crackers, or without... like I said, recipes are something I'm challenged with.

Here is my firewood.  Some additional photos are available from my bowsaw/chainsaw dead tree submission. I've got a LOT of dead trees.  I placed the wheelbarrow for scale.

It is a small area, but the floor was really nasty.  I recently bought the place and it hadn't been cleaned in eight or nine months.

My pictures don't really do justice to how dirty some of these windows were.  There were 7 windows and a door but I'll refrain from THAT many pictures, unfortunately I'm too techno illiterate to do compilation photos.  Window cleaner materials also included.

Much faster than doing it manually.  

Fun fact.  In the stone age, a family group (15-20 people) was able to clear roughly 3 acres of forest per year using stone axes (the figure given was a century to clear half a square mile).

The property I purchased had three structures, each of which needed gutters cleaned.  FREE COMPOST, YAY!!

After felling a few trees with the bow saw, it was time to upgrade.  I honestly don't know how we managed before chainsaws... SOOOOO much faster.  Though it did take a minute to read the users manual.  Again some of the outside flaked off from rot, so the measurement is a bit lower, but even with the loss it is still 6" at the cut (albeit barely).

I took the plunge and bought myself 5 acres.  Much more to follow.  Hopefully I can make a full thread out of my future progress, in the meantime...

The folks in ages past must of been jacked, this was a workout (this an many others).  Where it was cut had some rot and came away when I was sawing so the dimensional picture is circumference (c/pi = d)... roughly 6.4"

First snow over an inch I've seen in four years... good to be home.  

Like so many things, this program has been impacted by COVID-19.  Here is the official word:

COVID-19 has created budget uncertainties for the 2020-21 fiscal year (July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021) and as a result, the Beehive Distribution Program will be deferred until adjustments to the state budget are determined. Beehive Distribution Program applications will not be accepted at this time. As information on the status of the Beehive Distribution Program becomes available, updates will be provided on this website and through the Agency’s social media.

Hopefully, this program will be up and running again next year.

I learned a new skill.  Those videos were very helpful.  I included a picture of my little "helper".

It is a basic white bread from the book, Beard on Bread.  My yeast decided to be a little difficult but it proofed enough that the bread tasted just fine.  

Lemme try this again.  I finished my old dish soap and went out and got some new stuff.  It is BoulderClean and the website says it is gray water safe.  https://www.boulderclean.com/frequently-asked-questions/

I harvested Autumn Olives (sometimes called Autumn Berries), it is an invasive species that happens to also be edible.  They are mostly on the east coast/rust belt, but they are spreading west.  They have even shown up in one county in Montana.  You can eat them raw but it is better to cook them because that kills the seeds and prevents them from spreading further.  I foraged them over two afternoons, ~7.25lbs in total.  They aren't on the list but hopefully the spirit of the BB has been met.

I used my bathtub and a drying rack for this task.  I think people switched to washing machines so that they could remain ignorant of just how dirty their clothes were.  Ick!

I used olive oil.  

Palmolive Pure and Clean.  The bottle says it is biodegradable, for what that is worth.  

I wasn't aware of this technique.  Gave it a whirl and it worked!

It was hard to accumulate enough dishes without driving my mother completely insane, she hates a clutter.  The black pot was where I kept all my soapy water and I took great pains to minimize the rinse water, though I couldn't keep track of exactly how much I used.

I used linseed oil on this shovel after it was sharpened and the rust was removed.  You can tell I've had it for a very long time from the wear patters at the tip (and that the primary user is left handed).    

I had two knives that needed it.  Pictures from each attached.  

Hatchet Sharpening.  It belongs to my mother and she asked that I don't make it "too" sharp but it still cuts paper without too much force.

Thank you, once I'm out of quarantine from my travels, I should be able to start getting after a few others.  So exciting!

Todd O'Brian wrote:For those casting about ways to do this there are a lot of options.  Too many to cover in a single post.

For small dollar commerce you can get paid to take surveys.  I used Prolific, which is for academic researchers to gather data for their studies, but it is not available everywhere.  You will usually get less than a dollar per survey, but they are short.  A quick google search will reveal any number of small dollar options that companies are willing to pay to rent your eyeballs and attention span.  Attachment below.

For mid dollar commerce, if you have a bachelor's degree you can sign up to help students by answering homework questions.  I did this for Study.com for a few months, they pay $5/answer but it was college level stuff and worked out to about $8/hr once I got good at it because the answers need to be detailed.  It does have the added benefit of helping you brush up on your old academic skills if you feel like you need it.

Finally, for full-time commerce, if you have a bachelor's degree and are a native or near native English speaker, you can get an English as a Second Language certificate and do online tutoring.  This can pay anywhere from $15-50/hr depending on your qualifications, experience, and any sort of niche that you can fill (IELTS, STEM, Business, etc).  I've heard rumor that it can get higher than that but this seems to be the market consensus rate.  I haven't done this personally but I have known people who did it full-time and made decent money.

When I posted this originally ya'll weren't doing air badges.  I live in the US but get paid in Pound-Sterling (80.03 GBP = 105.98 USD) by today's exchange.  Do I qualify for the badge?

It works for me, thank you!

I absolutely adore Ruth, Peter, Tom, and Alex and have watched all of these.  I cannot overstate how excellent they are.  In addition to the farming documentaries they also helped build a castle in France (Search: Secrets of the Castle), ran a Victorian style pharmacy (Search: Victorian Pharmacy), taught us all about the early era of locomotion (Search: Full Steam Ahead), and did Christmas Specials for most of the Farm Seasons including a stand alone documentary for Christmas on a Tudor Estate (Search: A Tudor Feast).  Thanks to this post I also saw that there is one on the Edwardian Larder, which I am definitely watching tonight!

That is strange, I don't appear to have the option to add bumper stickers.  Here is a screenshot of what I see in the profile view:

Followup question:

My father, who lives in Stepford-esk, dense, suburban development that makes my skin crawl a little, reported that many of his neighbors are forgoing their usual ornamental landscaping in favor of edibles this year, so much so that the local garden center was out of seed packs for most veggies.  I realize that most everyone here does that already but has anyone else seen an atypical change in their neighbor's or community's gardening habits?  

Here in Vietnam, even if the big cities, most everyone keeps a vegetable/herb garden on their portion of the sidewalk, balconies, and/or roofs.  Ornamental plants are only for special occasions (lunar new year, weddings, funerals, etc.).  The trees that line the street are also mainly fruit trees that had sidewalks built around them once development came to town, so there doesn't appear to be any change in my part of the world.  I even saw a family harvesting and shelling tamarinds on the main drag through town today.  

I'm also a big fan of potato soup, mine is spicy and made with beer and cheese.  My favorite soup, however, has to be Hot and Sour.  My recipe is based on a Vietnamese recipe but with many Americanizations to overcome certain missing ingredients (and I'm not a big fan of fish):

Onion, Carrot, Celery, and hot peppers, garlic, ginger, hot bean paste, and about a quarter of my spice rack get simmered in olive oil.  Then I toss in the chicken (or veggie) stock and bring to a slow boil.  Separately, I combine soy sauce, red wine vinegar, sugar and a little flour (to thicken) and whisk well.  Then you toss everything together and keep with the heat.  Last thing I do is I add thinly sliced chicken and slowly drizzle some beaten eggs both of which will cook almost as soon as they hit the soup.  

I'm curious to see if the recently imposed social restrictions (closed restaurants, loss of income, stay and home orders, etc.) are affecting what people are choosing to eat.  Have your dietary choices improved because you are cooking at home more, have they taken a step back as you load up on items that last longer in the pantry (maybe electing to eat junk while you binge listen to the Permies podcast), or would you rate them as unchanged?  Would you say that these changes have been dramatic or subtle?  What would you say is the most prominent reason for the shift?

For my part, I'm pretty sure I'm not doing myself any favors but it isn't drastically different.  I think the largest impact is that I am not walking as many places because there is nowhere to go.  My income hasn't been so severely impacted that it changes what I buy, but restaurants here tend to be healthier than my home concoctions.  One of the big impacts in the positive column that we've seen in my corner of Asia is that there is much less air pollution than there was last year, still plenty, but less.  

Cool video, she definitely has a flair for the spectacular!  I found myself wondering, what she meant by "treating" the bamboo? Here is a video that explains the treatment process using a different one of the methods described in Mr. Smith's post: .

The Formula they used was 30L water, 1.5kg Boric Acid, and 1.5kg Borax.

An alternative to the plastic sheeting is polycarbonate sheets, which are a more rigid clear plastic (from the side it looks like cardboard but it is made of plastic).  Because of their rigidity they can be cut to the size you need with a saw or a stout razor blade and can be screwed into the existing frame in the same manner that the other panels are attached.  They last longer and will resist the snow load better than regular greenhouse sheeting but are more expensive.  As for instillation, I guess it comes down to how much you trust the frame... You'd have to get on the roof, more than likely, to secure whatever you pick into the greenhouse's frame.  Since it survives the snow it should be fine but you'll have a better idea of the frame's structural integrity than I could even try to guess.

For those casting about ways to do this there are a lot of options.  Too many to cover in a single post.

For small dollar commerce you can get paid to take surveys.  I used Prolific, which is for academic researchers to gather data for their studies, but it is not available everywhere.  You will usually get less than a dollar per survey, but they are short.  A quick google search will reveal any number of small dollar options that companies are willing to pay to rent your eyeballs and attention span.  Attachment below.

For mid dollar commerce, if you have a bachelor's degree you can sign up to help students by answering homework questions.  I did this for Study.com for a few months, they pay $5/answer but it was college level stuff and worked out to about $8/hr once I got good at it because the answers need to be detailed.  It does have the added benefit of helping you brush up on your old academic skills if you feel like you need it.

Finally, for full-time commerce, if you have a bachelor's degree and are a native or near native English speaker, you can get an English as a Second Language certificate and do online tutoring.  This can pay anywhere from $15-50/hr depending on your qualifications, experience, and any sort of niche that you can fill (IELTS, STEM, Business, etc).  I've heard rumor that it can get higher than that but this seems to be the market consensus rate.  I haven't done this personally but I have known people who did it full-time and made decent money.

I concur with everything that has been said.  I also do not use water or salt in some of my pickle recipes.  I do, however, make my brine 50/50 Apple Cider to Rice Vinegar so that the former does not dominate the taste of the cucumbers and because the later is cheaper where I live.  The additional benefit to using vinegar only is that you can reload the jar once you've eaten all the yumminess.  Just realize that if you reload (especially with watery veg), each successive batch will become more diluted so you can only get away with it once or twice before the preservation benefits (and the taste) begin to slump off.