Donna Lynn

I recently bought a similar tool that was "silly" at first glance.  A tiny battery chain saw.  The blade is about 4" long.  I had some volunteer black walnut saplings growing up through the base of a well-established lilac bush that I just couldn't get my large heavy-duty hand loppers in to cut down.  This little saw fit right in there and cut those several-year-old saplings like nobody's business.  I only had to be careful not to pinch the blade, which was easy enough since the little saw was easily operable with one hand.  The saw with battery and charger plus two extra chains was maybe $100.   Made me want to wander the property looking for other unwanted volunteer saplings to cut down, or pruning tasks.  I'm so happy with this purchase, as I am not as strong or flexible in my late 60s as I used to be.  

Many of my near misses come with injuries much less severe than they could have been, rather than no injury at all.  

An upstairs window screen was being very difficult to re-install from the inside, so one morning I put the extension ladder up against the house to reach it from outside.  On my way down the ladder, I mis-stepped and fell a few feet, not just to the ground but into the metal whole-house generator housing that was right where I had to put the foot of the ladder to reach both sides of that narrow window.  I twisted my ankle, and it was the day before I was to attend a large event that required a lot of walking with an old friend I hadn't seen in years.  So I borrowed my mom's walker, got my guy to drive me to an herb shop where I purchased some comfrey oil, and then to a pharmacy where I bought a pair of crutches.  It was a lot harder going up and down stairs with crutches in my 60s than it was in my 30s the last time I had to use them!  I was exhausted by the end of the event!  

Another time I was putting some screws into the ceiling of a shed to hang a brooder lamp from for some new chicks due a few days later.  I was using a small two-step stool since the shed was smallish, and of course since I'm short, I was on the top step.  I had one more screw to finish, but I was just a liiiiitle bit too far away to reach easily with the screw gun.  I stretched over instead of getting down and moving the stool.  I overbalanced and fell, and my shin hit hard on the edge of the metal trough I was using as a brooder.  It hurt like crazy, but somehow miraculously was not broken.  I was able to put my full weight on it without extra pain.  Within a couple days my entire lower leg was bruised from just above my knee down into my toes, and over half way around!  Arnica cream helped the bruising heal.  Now I overcome my tendency to laziness and move the darn ladder or step stool if I need to.    

I'm not sure whether I get these minor injuries more easily now due to age, or due to the extra weight I now carry.  Perhaps it's both, so I'm making an effort to drop the excess weight in case "the bigger they are, the harder they fall" is a literal statement as well as a figurative one.

Yen Yus wrote:Hi all

The system has been running for around 5 years now! It's had 0 maintenance so far and has filled up around 20 cm since I first commissioned it. The worms have multiplied beyond my imagination. We've had a lot of rain this year and it's been quite cold but the worms are still doing fine, actually thriving. Also the grey water system has given us many kg of bananas.

If anyone is interested I can post current pics and details. Thanks.

Yes, Please!

Pearl Sutton wrote:

Nina Surya wrote:
Did you get to be a vet assistant with or without diploma's? Asking for ... me!

I did vet assistant many many years ago, and it was basically "Are you a warm body that can clean cages, not freak out with upset animals, hand me things, be useful? You are hired!" No idea if that's still valid, but it used to be that way.

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.  

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.  🤔

paul wheaton wrote:After a lot of visiting with andres today, we are gonna make a slight shift ....

these cards are now "Gardening Playing Cards" for gardeners and homsteaders  ...  

      also, for gardening, homesteading and permaculture

Gotta be honest, I don't think that will go over well.  There are so many things in them that are not garden-related, plus the name just doesn't have the same ring to it as Permaculture Playing Cards.  But I'm sure you have your reasons.   And if you advertise them to non-permies you might get a bit more interest. 🤷‍♀️

Timothy Norton wrote:

Donna Lynn wrote: Would this not disrupt "wanted" seed germination as well?  (I suppose if you planned to plant seedlings started elsewhere this wouldn't matter.)

I believe that would be correct. I would think that it might be worth the effort if you are trying to transform an area of less desirable plants into a new growing space but from what I can read it looks like a bunch of work. The idea is that you need to break up the biomass, incorporate it into the soil, and they even encourage that you tamp the soil in order to trap the fumigant into the soil so that it can do its work.

It is an option, but I think the usage is rather niche?

I also wonder if, as with juglone, the brassica seeds themselves are immune to their own germination suppression tactics...  If this were the case, then seeding in forage kale, if it was able to grow and go to seed, should yield stronger growth of itself in succeeding years, unless tilling in the biomass is actually necessary to achieve the full effect.

Timothy Norton wrote:Brassicas produce a sulfur containing substance known as glucosinolates which help inhibit weed seed germination when the plant is chopped and tilled into the soil. I've been told that the mechanism of action is known as biofumigation.

Would this not disrupt "wanted" seed germination as well?  (I suppose if you planned to plant seedlings started elsewhere this wouldn't matter.)

Thekla McDaniels wrote:Thanks for all the reminders of things I haven’t done for my dog.

Great Pyrenees.  A big girl!  About 16 months at this point.  She started getting something on the tip of her nose.  I just thought it was the mud at first, or high elevation sun.

The funny patch spread up the top of her nose towards her eyes.  Then she had some funny spots around her eyes.  The rate of spread accelerated.  By the time I got her to the vet the insides of her ears were inflamed and weeping, and she had patches all over, and between her toes….

It’s a condition called pemphigus.  It’s an autoimmune condition.  It’s subsided quite a bit, mostly because of the cortisone pills.   Prednisone.  I hate giving her prednisone, it has dire and extensive side effects.  My opinion on prednisone is that it’s only appropriate in life or death situations, but that’s what this is!  Without the prednisone I think she would have no hair, no skin, probably be dead by now. I am very gradually decreasing the daily dose.  And using quality of life as a guide.  

Remarkably she doesn’t appear uncomfortable nor to be suffering a decreased quality of life, has only a small patch on her nose, we’re back to the starting place.

But all these reminders  about calendula, plantain probably comfrey, all the skin supporting herbs might feel good and help the skin and hair maintain themselves.

And yes, I give her a “quality” diet but I am sure I could improve it by studying this whole thread intensively!

Thanks so much !

For the curious, it is not advisable to give varying amounts of prednisone, or other corticosteroids.  It’s a powerful hormone and tied to our circadian rhythm rhythms.  The best possible strategy is a constant dose at a specific time.  Our (mammals) cortisone levels are naturally highest in the morning on arising.  That’s the time of day I give her dose.  In autoimmune conditions you start off with a large enough dose to suppress what ever you want to suppress.  Stay at that level to see an improvement, then very carefully, begin to taper off.

I had a friend who years ago had some inexplicable painful skin thing.  On prednisone for more than a year .  She wanted to get off it.  Had to convince the doctor who liked the results of it.  But she described to me what the internal experience was to just taper the daily dose by a small percentage…..

My mental picture is that there’s an equilibrium which allows the healing, and the idea is to decrease the dose without upsetting the equilibrium.  Then stay at that dose until the body has adjusted to the lower levels of the drug before again reducing it.

The vet said “ sometimes they get over it”. So wish my darling Sharkie all the luck in the world.  She’s a YOUNG dog.

Oh Thekla, I feel for you!  Decades ago I had a Great Pyrenees mix who started with that same small spot on her nose.  It started to spread, so I took her to the vet.  He gave me some prescription cream after diagnosing her with a staph infection.  The symptoms spread to her front legs, so I called the vet and he simply said to up the dosage of cream.  It continued to spread to her backside, and she began to become infested with maggots under her fur.  I'd heard that they only ate dead tissue so I was confused.  I took her to the emergency vet, and they said her skin was literally dying.  To save her would have cost thousands of dollars I didn't have, and she would've had to have been on steroids for the rest of her life.  I wish I had known about homeopathy back then... I might have been able to save her before things got so bad.  

I wish you the best helping your Sharkie heal and live a long healthy life!

Thekla McDaniels wrote:Something is not working right in the tech world

I keep getting notifications about a new post, but there isn’t a new post.

I don’t have any idea what is going on but it’s happened multiple times in the last few days.  I’m going to “stop watching”.  

Great going guys, getting this far!

I've had the same thing happen recently, not with this thread, but with several others.