Inge Leonora-den Ouden

jaime merritt wrote:I have a plant that I have been growing for several years. I started it from aerial tubers I bought online. It grows really well, but it has only ever produced a handful of pea sized aerial tubers over the entire time I’ve been growing it. I’m curious why that is. I don’t water it very much, and I’m a mile from the ocean on the California central coast. Maybe water is the issue? It never appears water stressed no matter how dry it gets.

Anyone else have plants that refuse to make aerial tubers?

Maybe my Yam is not the kind that makes aerial tubers. It only makes a vine with leaves.

Nina Surya wrote:Ulla, from a tired woman to another, I hope you're feeling better.
Reading your post, I suddenly remember advice I got at the very beginning of motherhood (the advice is applicable to every field in life):
"You can see __________ (insert challenge) as a football field with snow. If you try to clear it all in one, broad stroke, it's impossible. But in smaller passes, you get the job done. Just concentrate on the task at hand."
Good luck!

I totally agree. Maybe I didn't know yet when my children were young (I'm a grandmother now). I do remember it was a busy time. But probably it was back then when I learned not to try to do everything at once, but use 'small steps'. Anyway I know now and even though I have more time for myself now I still do it.

f.e. when a closet becomes a mess inside (I have many hobbies, with materials, you know ...) I don't try to tidy it up all at once. I take one drawer, or the space behind one little door. Everything in there goes out (on the spare bed), gets sorted, only things I need get back, but in a more orderly way.

BTW the question of this thread is 'are you okay?' I can tell you all I am feeling very okay at the moment. I decided not to stay in the house when I start having 'dark feelings'. When I'm outdoors everything feels lighter!

Kit Collins wrote:First, thanks to Permies people...
One disadvantage of soap-less living is that I don't exfoliate as much. I guess soap might soften the skin so that the outer layer rubs off more easily. Just rinsing and light rubbing with water doesn't seem to accomplish this unless I do a long warm soak. So when my skin starts seeming too "thick", or looks a bit grayish, then--the next time I take a warm bath or a hot shower--I will rub my arms, legs, and face with, say, a towel that is a bit rough. That'll get the excess skin off, so I feel "baby-fresh". Might help to have a little strainer in the tub drain in order to catch and discard the skin bits.

As part of my soap-less journey, I discovered the effectiveness of using pumice stones instead of soap. I read that ancient Romans used pumice stones and skin-scrapers instead of soap. I tried pumice stones, and found that they work great at getting tough stains (like dried paint or oil or ink stains) off of fingers. Dried paint on fingers seems to just dissolve when rubbed with a chunk of pumice. Just avoid rubbing the more delicate areas of skin too hard, like the inside of the wrist, because you might break the skin there. Pumice "sticks" are available in a lot of hardware stores in the cleaning section, and natural pumice stones are available very cheaply at Mexican stores where I live. Pumice is sold for the use of cleaning scaling off of toilets or other hard surfaces, but now I mostly use it for hand-washing.

I definitely encourage others now to go soapless. No soap, no problem!

Thank you for the reminder. There's such a stone somewhere in my bathroom, but I forgot to use it.
I think using it will help me with 'exfoliation'. Now in the cold season, being covered in clothes all the time, no problem, but when it's warmer especially my legs can look more 'presentable' if I exfoliate them more often.

I am looking forward to when the days become longer again!
One positive thing here: it's dark and cloudy, but it isn't very cold (around 10 degrees Celsius).
So it isn't hard to go outdoors, getting a little more direct daylight.

This will be a fun little project for some of my leftover yarns. As a colourfull catchitall. Yip Yip!

Mike Haasl wrote:I don't know too much about it but I believe you that fresh is better.  Hopefully I don't have a BB in there that suggests storing it for a while?  I think in a compost toilet system it's a form of storage that's ok because it's converting into something good for plants in the longer term.

I did not yet look at the BBs. This was just something coming up in my mind.

Lindsay McBride wrote:Understandable, how do you propose i do that? I am looking at others in the thread and all I see is a before shot, a beating shot, and a shot hanging. No clocks, some no shadows, just the person's word.

Okay, then your words must be enough.
Now someone can approve your BB.

Lindsay McBride wrote:I challenge that....its hanging on the rail. Thats what the bottom picture is. Maybe it would have helped you see it better had i taken a side picture..but its hanging.

Hi Lindsay. Sorry, but I can't see if it was hanging there for long enough (the requirement for the BB is at least 2 hours).

A have a question about collecting pee to use it as fertiliser (in other words 'give it to plants').
I read somewhere that the pee can only be used fresh. So you either pee right on the plants, or you pee in something like a small bucket and then you immediately give it to your plants.

It seems that when you keep it for longer time some sort of chemical reaction with the oxygen in the air will turn it into something that's bad for the plants ...
Do you know if this is true?
I don't know, but because I read it I decided only to use my pee for plants if there's an immediate way to use it (right from the little bucket I peeed in).