Nina Surya

There's only one food I really, truly don't like. Belgian endive. People keep telling me I haven't had it cooked right...
Apparently an oven, cream and cheese are needed.
Following with interest.

Yes, easiest I've come across are calendula seeds, the hardest I know are milk thistle seeds.
I had to have welder's gloves on to get to the base of the flowerhead without agony from the sharp prickly points of the plant, then dislodging the seeds was another ordeal, they sat tight! If anyone has a trick for loosening the seeds from the flowerbase, I'm all ears...no, eyes.

We have a wooden box, much like in Anne's photo, with a removable front and a sheet of corrugated roof panel to keep the rain out for sawdust.
I've also used plastic feedbags (doggy food) to store sawdust in. Would work for sand and wood chips alike!

I've always loved Rosemary and Sage as fantasy girl names ( I have one boy ).
Seconding the suggestion to go with a more usual name as the first name, and a magic name as the second one.
My child has abandoned his first name, and changed it - even in the birth certificate - to only his previously second name ( Ilo = joy in Finnish).

I also always liked the names my grandmother and her siblings had; the whole bunch had qualities as names, or very descriptive names;
for the girls Lempi = love, or favourite (!), Lahja = present, Helmi = pearl
for the boys Arvo = value, ...I can't remember the other ones, but you get the picture!

But for permaculture-y names I'd go with nature names; flowers, trees, herbs, and maybe waterthings; River, Sade (=rain in Finnish!)

Enjoy the naming game, and let us know the result(s)!

Donna Lynn wrote:
Same for me, basically.  I was in 10th grade and thought I'd hit the jackpot working with animals... then I found out the vet paid less than legal minimum wage because "so many people want to work with animals that I don't have to pay that much and always have a waiting list."  I did everything from clean cages to assist in surgeries.  By the time I quit to pursue extracurricular school activities I felt that I could do a spay surgery by myself, I had assisted in so many.  There were downsides though, such as too many healthy pets being "put to sleep" just because their owners paid for it and might get upset if they saw their former pet enjoying life in someone else's yard after they paid to have them killed.  I begged to take home one dog who was friendly, gorgeous, healthy and playful.  Of course my parents would have nixed it even if the vet had said yes, but the vet eventually gave him the lethal injection after we played with him and gave him love for several days after he was dropped off for euthanasia.  

Thanks, Donna, for lifting the veil to for me to peek to the other side.
That euthanasia-thing is heart breaking!!

Donna Lynn wrote:I've always been a jack-of-all-trades, master of none.  I can learn just about anything and run with it.  Except glass blowing.  I totally sucked at that no matter how hard I tried.  My best piece was a mistake that I refused to toss into the glass recycling bin, then several of my classmates tried to imitate my mistake so they could make a similar bud vase. 🤣

I've worked as a nanny, a cleaning woman, a veterinary assistant, a secretary, a machinist, a carpenter, a computer programmer, a painter, a Photoshop illustrator, a dumpsite manager, a mortgage loan processer/closer, an expediter, a beachfront condo resident manager, a caregiver, and a commercial food preparer (not in that order.)  And probably a few other things tucked in between.  After a few years, other things just looked more interesting than the thing I was doing that I had mastered and then grown tired of.  The factory maintenance carpenter job was the best and longest lasting, because I always had new jobs coming in that were a bit different from the others I'd done, and many repairs I had to figure out on the fly.

Hmmmm, do people like us have a version of committment issues?  I think I prefer being called a polymath, but the thought occurred to me so I figured I'd throw it out there.  🤔

Hi Donna,
I'd love to see a photo of your bud vase
I think it's not so much of a commitment issue as a boredom issue - I get bored if the thing I do gets too obvious. I love to learn a new skill and get better and better at it. Variation keeps me going.
Did you get to be a vet assistant with or without diploma's? Asking for ... me!

Congratulations November promotees!

Mike Kenzie wrote:From infancy to 9 years old I was raised deep in the forest on the edge of a small rural town. Through my daily trips into the forests after school & on the weekends, I experienced a childhood that was immensely happy & I felt utterly fulfilled.
/quote]

Much like Mike, my childhood was happily immersed in living with trees and watching animals.
But then, from my teens to 2007 I was exploring the city jungles...
In 2007 I suddenly found myself having a back yard, which at that point was more like a literal sandbox.
I was pouring through books to understand how to get other flowers than poppies to flourish and why my tomatoes were a tangled mess (didn't know one should tie them up until my neighbour told me) and found Gaia's Garden. Shortly thereafter I found Permies. After being a lurker for a long time I finally started posting as well

I love the fact that in Nature things "click into eachother" in multiple ways. Trying to multiclick in my life has made things more interesting and fun

Two small things:
1. there should be a space between the words takes and less on the card.
2. I love the look of log houses where at their corners, where the logs 'sit in each other'. Is it possible to add an image (detail) of such joinery? With moss between the logs for insulation?

Thank you Jay and Burra!