Nick Mick

I make my detergent using one box borax, one box washing soda, one cup soap flakes or finely shredded castile soap. Only needs 1/4 cup detergent per load. I use it in regular top loader machine.

M Ljin wrote:

Nick Mick wrote:You can make a string for a bow and arrow out of stinging nettle fibers, or raw hide, or sinew. If it’s strong enough for that it will be strong enough for an instrument. I don’t know if it would sound good though.

I suspect that nettle or sinew might be too fuzzy. But rawhide might be one to try, as banjo membranes are made from rawhide so we know it resonates well (whereas a nettle bedsheet stretched out, is unlikely to do so). My impression is that in a string for a musical instrument, the individual fibers, typically, run the whole length of the instrument, hence why horsehair and silk are used but not wool. Or they interlock well enough that they appear as one, coherent fiber.

I don't have any rawhide but if I did I would try it!

You can get rawhide from dog chew toys, they reconstitute in water. You unfold it then cut a spiral to make a string.

You can make a string for a bow and arrow out of stinging nettle fibers, or raw hide, or sinew. If it’s strong enough for that it will be strong enough for an instrument. I don’t know if it would sound good though.

Cats poop anywhere with loose soil, and foxes and coywolves , raccoons, possums, skunks, all  poop in or around my yard. I never bothered to actively compost my dogs waste but instead just buried it in shallow holes in my pounded gravel driveway. The only thing that grows in the driveway are thistles that I’m not going to eat, and the soil is not good.

I have an extendable ‘roof rake’ which I use on my single story house to get snow off the panels. It’s basically a snow shovel on a really long colapsable handle that you pull towards you. I think I got it at Home Depot but I don’t remember. If you can reach it maybe put a tarp over it before snowfall .

I’m a carpenter and I wear wrangler Riggs work jeans. Doing interior work they last about 3 years before they get to frayed. Not sure how long they would last doing concrete or steel work but they are only like $50 bucks.

I have seen some neat mats made from old fire hose which I believe were heavy canvas. Not really a rug but if you need a heavy duty mat that’s an option.

Mullein likes poor soil (think abandoned lot or construction site) but will grow most places that are not too wet. You need two apple trees for cross pollination to get sufficient apples (even a crab apple would work). All of the peach trees that came with my house are dying left and right from disease and pests invade the fruit, I don’t know the variety so I hope yours is disease resistant. Blackberries and raspberries are very easy to propagate by weighing down the branches so they contact soil. Once the roots drop and are strong enough you can leave it to spread or cut the branch free and transplant the rooted cutting.

My pants are held up by what it’s covering.

Kidding, I use a belt even when the pants fit.

There’s the fun ones and then there’s the practical ones. I got three weird ones. First is ‘instant adaptation’ power, second is ‘genetic modification’ power, third is ‘accelerated aging’ power. I like the idea of the accelerated aging one cause then you can make trees and veggies grow overnight. Instant sourkraut, instant vintage wine, instant fat pig for the freezer, instant established ecosystems, instant trash disintegration, instant compost, instant oil spill and radioactive contamination dissipation.