Jennifer Pearson

Maple syrup, for health reasons. I have IBS and honey makes it worse. Flavor-wise, I slightly prefer maple too.

The Saving Our Seeds ebook looks really interesting, because I've only saved Solanum seeds before and this year I'm looking to branch out into other taxa.

There are several other topics that might be interesting to me as well, except that I have some auditory processing issues that make it difficult to learn from recordings. C'est la vie!

Gina Jeffries wrote:Ugh, morning glory (bindweed). It's everywhere, I hate it with the burning fury of a thousand suns. It chokes everything I plant and there is no getting rid of it short of hiring a priest. (Unless one of you lovely people has an idea?)

I have an idea, but it's pretty much the opposite of getting rid of it. Look at it through the lens of "The Problem is the Solution"; morning glory juice was used in the processing of Mesoamerican rubber. You could try making your own rubber using morning glory juice to cure the latex into rubber! The traditional source of latex is rubber trees, but if they don't grow in your area latex can also be extracted from dandelions.

You're not necessarily going to have the same exact species of morning glory (or of dandelion) that the research was done on, but plants in the same genus usually share enough similarities that something is usually possible, just maybe with lower yields or lower quality. (Or maybe higher yields or quality; you never know, because not a whole lot of research has been done in these areas.) It could be a great research project, adapting natural rubber processing to plants that are well-adapted to your area. Might even be a thesis in it, if you are or know a graduate student. And there's a breeding project in it too, selecting plants (both morning glory and dandelion) to optimize for rubber production. Aside from the academic cred, this also has the potential to localize rubber production in case the distribution network breaks down (for the preppers), or just to minimize transportation emissions (for climate change concerns).

I find most modern jewelry physically uncomfortable. Rings are either small enough to cut off my circulation or large enough to impinge on the neighboring finger. Chain necklaces pull on the hairs at the back of my neck, and rigid torcs dig into my clavicles. Bracelets aggravate my tendency towards RSI. Earrings are fine, until I forget to take them out before going to bed and wake up with a sore spot.

This pretty much leaves me with beaded necklaces, pins, and hair jewelry. I love me a baroque (cultured) pearl rope, though that length is for fancy-dress occasions, not daily wear. The baroque pearls just look more down-to-earth than the perfectly round ones. And a have a small collection of hairsticks. Would like to make my own some day.

Greg Martin wrote:How do you make 7 even?

Take away the "s"

Mathew Trotter wrote:Well, I've been wanting to do some weaving, and the neighbor definitely has some English Ivy I could clean up. I feel a project coming on...

I've got plenty of English Ivy too, if you want some of mine! (Please, help yourself. Take all of it.)

My house has indoor plants that help with air quality. They don't help much with particulates like wildfire smoke, but they're good with many gases. A combo of a filter for particulates and plants for gases should cover your bases.

I originally voted "everything", but then I watched your video and remembered how much I dislike working with thick & thin yarns. (This is a little bit inconvenient for me, since as a beginning handspinner I haven't yet achieved the consistency I want.) I noticed that you have a vintage sewing machine and cabinet. Are you planning to make any videos about the care and feeding of your machine in the future?

Can't speak to how you want to teach your own kids, but if you're interested in outreach to kids from non-permie families, have you considered summer programs? Plenty of parents like to pack their kids off to summer activities, and summer camp is a traditional place to learn about nature and crafts so it won't inspire as much push-back as trying to integrate ethnobotany into a school would. You'll probably need to be able to pass a background check because you'll be interacting with kids, but try reaching out to your local summer camps (Scout or otherwise) to see if they'd be interested in having you drop in to lead workshops, or even join the staff full-time.

"How to avoid poison ivy/poison oak" is always appreciated at camps where those plants abound. "Nature walks" are good for identifying both noxious and useful local plants. For "craft workshops", consider what the final project will be. Making an object to show off to Mom is a nice concrete goal that can integrate multiple skills.

Order of layers can make a big difference. A wicking layer like linen next to your skin keeps you from getting clammy, but it doesn't do much for warmth. A nice lofty layer like down or particularly fluffy wool/camelid creates lots of space to trap air inside for insulation... but it doesn't actually trap the air, it just creates a space for it. The air can still flow in and out of those spaces to chill you. A lightweight wicking tight-weave like silk taffeta on top traps the air inside the insulation layer so it keeps you warm.

If you have a heavy layer on top, it squishes the insulation layer thinner so it won't work as well. If your windbreak layer is next to your skin, there's no space between you and it to trap any air in.

Down is a better insulator than wool, but also more vulnerable to squishing by heavier top layers. (If you have both wool and down layers, put the down on top of the wool.) Hollow-core camelid fibers like alpaca are warmer than wool. Wool, however, is the only one that still works when wet. (This shouldn't usually be a problem indoors, but if you have a particularly drafty house in an area with dense fog it might matter. Or if you are really prone to night sweats.) Cotton is generally pretty bad for warmth; it absorbs moisture rather than wicking, and it's one of the heaviest fibers per unit volume. If you don't sweat much, though, cotton flannel can be pretty nice because the fuzziness helps stop cold drafts from sneaking in around where your head sticks out from under the blankets.

That's all I have for keeping the top side of you warm. Modern mattresses usually do a pretty good job of keeping the bottom side warm, but are not necessarily the most permie solution. When looking at alternatives, bear in mind that your own weight can easily squish the air out from the insulation layer underneath you, and that cold drafts underneath you are just as bad as cold drafts on top.

Maybe a solid box bed to stop drafts, filled with a down mattress for insulation. With a rope bed across the top to support your weight so that you don't squish the down.