Samantha Lewis

Here is another wool hair tie in red.   The purple hat I am wearing here doubles as a hair tie.   It is the hair tie I am wearing in the previous image.  I just twist it around my ponytail.  

The quickest way for me is to make a ponytail and start twisting.  I wrap it around and around in a bun and tuck the end in.  If you keep it tight, there is no need for a hair tie.

I also like to do braids.  I have known guys that wear braids all the time.  For me, I wrap them around my head and tuck them in so they stay out of the way but that might look too girly.  

I think the best ever hair ties are the ones I make myself out of wool or silk yarn.    They are strong enough to hold up a heavy ponytail and gentle on my hair.  Once I started making them I have never used those plastic ones again.  
It is a super quick knitting project.  On a circular needle, just make a cylinder about two inches tall and 3-4 inches wide.   It can be bigger if you want or if you have a lot of hair.  I like to decrease as I go to make it a bit of a truncated cone.

This one is actually made of silk.  It holds really nicely.  

If I need to catch a chicken I wait until night and just pick them up off the roost where they are sleeping.  

I put them in a crate until morning.  A cat carrier works well so they are safe and comfortable.

 If it is an especially flighty chicken, I grab the feet while they sleep.   You can just put your hand up under the feathers so you get both legs and hold on.  The chicken may  flap and struggle, just put your other hand over the wings and hold it to your body until you can put it in a crate.    In the morning I can pull them out of the crate and do whatever I have to do with them.

Hello Alison!


I have used diatomaceous earth to kill and repel insects.  I have not tried it on beetles but I have used it on ants, fleas and lice.   I have found it to be tremendously effective.  I would probably give the affected area a heavy dusting of diatomaceous earth.  It is pretty cheap.  I might give the other trees a treatment too just to be proactive.

I would also do whatever I could to improve the overall health of the trees.   You can put nutrient rich mulch in the area around the tree.  That will make the soil healthier and gently give the tree more nutrients.   The parasites will attack the weakest ones.   So make all the trees stronger and they will have more of an ability to fight off the beetles.  
I have a forest of ponderosa pine.  The pine bark beetles came through my area a few years ago.  I lost only the weak trees.   The strong healthy trees are doing fine.  


Here is a link to the Diatomaceous earth:
https://www.azurestandard.com/shop/product/outdoor-garden/gardening-supplies/diatomaceous-earth/diatomaceous-earth-codex-grade/7664?package=GP009

Hardy Yam growing in Pennsylvania!

Here is a little more history on the hardy yam.  

The hardy yam comes from temperate China and can survive the winter in cold regions.  It can be eaten raw or cooked.  It can be used in any way you can use a potato and can even be dried and ground into a flour to make bread.   The hardy yam tuber can be stored for over a year without sprouting.

Here they are growing hardy yams in Tennessee.    He says the chickens love them and suggests growing the vine over a chicken paddock so the chickens can eat the aerial tubers when they fall.

This guy is growing hardy yams over his driveway.  The arial tubers fall of when they are ripe and they are easy to collect.

The hardy yam is such a fun and rewarding plant.  I think they are really beautiful and graceful the way they hang a curtain of leaves and tubers.

Hardy Yam

I used to grow these when I lived in the Pacific Northwest.   They grew great near Seattle where we were in Zone 8.  I grew them for years and they produced a lot of arial and in ground tubers.  They did not have any trouble from pests and seemed to thrive in the ground or in containers.  
They are a really fun plant because they grow quickly and will vine easily on whatever structure you put them on.  

They are easy to share with friends.  You can just pop off a tuber from the vine and give it to a friend.  It will grow in a flower pot or they can grow it out in their garden.  

They would make a fun shady arbor or give privacy to a balcony.

Hello Nancy!

I think it would be fun to knit something like this!




I don't have needles that big but I think some could be made.    I think hardwood dowels could be given pointy ends and sanded smooth.  

I am a lot faster at knitting in the round than knitting and pearling.    I would probably make a large tube and cut it to make a tunnel to cover a row or give each bush its own tube.