Kim Wills

I want to make my own notebook/binder of plants I find on my new land so that I can look at it offline to track and remember what I find & where, and so maybe guests can browse it if they want to go exploring when they visit.
I imagine it being a 3 ring binder. I imagine sections for seasons ("It's October, what might I find in fall?").
So, I want a resource online so that I could print out 2-3 pages on each plant: description, look-alikes to avoid, culinary uses, medicinal uses, and drawings. I'd prefer black & white drawings because I'm stingy about using full pages of printer ink. Unless you can suggest another way to add good pictures? Like cut them out of a book...? Maybe I will just have to draw them myself! That's an idea, too. I guess I could take photos and get them printed somewhere... ideas welcome!

If you're thinking, "Just buy a foraging book for your area", I have a couple books on foraging, and I'm happy to have them, but they show many plants I have not found on my land. Sure, I still might find them, but I want to keep record of the ones I *definitely* know I have, and even include where I can find them on my land. I am also working on making some maps, which I would include in the binder (or a separate one) showing things I've planted & where. I've done some pseudo-gorilla gardening ("pseudo" because it's on our own land, but it's just some random lighthearted attempts; hence the rough maps so far, so I can go look for it later). I could even record other things I find myself looking up and then forgetting about, like the occasional insect. I see it again the next year and can't remember if it was a beneficial insect or a pest.
Whether plants or bugs or poops, I simply cannot remember everything about them all!

Does something like this exist? People must do this, right? Like, maybe there are templates or worksheets? I like creating this kind of thing, but it'd be handy to copy & paste from a reliable source.

Wendy Bays wrote:I love dock, seeds, chaff and all. Easy to work with. I have a coffee grinder that I keep specifically for little things like that and it grinds them down and I use it chaff and all.  You can’t taste the chaff.  So, yes, get the benefit of fibre too

Everywhere I've read also says to just eat the papery hulls, too. Last fall I collected 2 paper bags full of stems. I stripped off and picked through one bagful, and lightly roasted it. I still have to strip & sort the other bagful. I invested in a grain grinder because I can't eat wheat and I want to forage or grow grains. Most gluten free items in the store are utter nonsense; they're just whatever white starches they can throw together. I want to eat whole grains & seeds.
Recipes using curly dock seeds (anyone)?
I've looked online but a lot say to mix with white flour.
Any other ways to eat it? I imagine I could sprinkle it into lots of things as a powder, but I'd like to eat whole grain breads & crackers.

Here's a picture of the curly dock seeds in fall. They start drying out before most other plants (you can see fully flowered goldenrod near it; Sept 9, zone 5/6), and they stay on the stems very well, so they're likely to still be forage-able well into winter when wild food is scarce in colder climates.

Ethan Ortane wrote:This is permie gold. Nearly 200 pages of how-to with easy to read instructions on everything you need to know, every step of the way, with drawings. Enjoy.

What a great thing to find and share! Thank you!  I just downloaded it and gave it a peek; not sure if I will actually do it but I'll be reading it for fun, to start.

See, this is the problem with me in social situations. A couple people start talking about books they've read and when they ask me what I like to read.... uh.... "Well, I recently got excited to stumble upon the Peace Corp book on how to dig wells in rural areas. " ..."hmm... so no James Patterson,..." "As for fiction I've read a lot of the Little House Books but not in order-- uh... I'm going to get another drink, want anything?"

Oooh! For the Permie Eco-Scale, we could add what kinds of things people read!

Matthew Nistico wrote:

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:Added note: for gardening work I like 'coveralls', the kind of suit that covers all my other clothes. It has several advantages (keeps clothes clean, can be worn over as much or as little clothes as needed in every season).

I was surprised to read a couple women in this thread decrying that their coveralls don't fit them well.  A lot of women wear coveralls; there must be companies selling them in women's sizes, no?

Maybe it's a matter of body shapes, ie: curves? I'm a "pear shape" which is a nice phrase that means big hips & rear-end. In order to fit my hips without being too tight, I'd need a large size, so for example if I bought something called XL then the hips might fit but the waist and top might be too large & floppy. And/or they might be too long.
Then there's the issue of any jumpsuit-type thing and peeing. You have to pull the whole thing down, which is awkward and annoying. Footsie pajamas seem like fun but not in the middle of the night when it's cold and you have to be almost naked just to pee.

M Ljin wrote:True that AI is going to lower standards in some ways. Although AI's relative mediocrity is at least better than a bad plumber or bad other expert, and definitely cheaper! Someone I know has been avoiding needing to call electricians, because the AI tells her how to fix things herself and asks the right questions in ways that are helpful.

It has been rolling around in my head that history is defined not by human effort but by human laziness. There are two ways to be lazy (at least). One goes along these lines generally speaking: to work in the office or the factory or wheresoever, all day long, doing little that is really, tangibly valuable and the work being of questionable consequences, and getting tired nonetheless, and then to come home, flop on the couch, snap at your children, and eat a microwaved TV dinner.

The other way is to be grateful for the gifts of nature, grateful for your ancestors and friends and family, and enjoy the gifts that come to you freely from the earth and from your relations, the best you can.

Both involve laziness and work. The first one involves a good work ethic, where you work hard then get tired and can't muster the energy for what is truly important in life. The second requires that one not be afraid of enjoyment. But because so many people are in a state of perpetual inner turmoil, feelings of insufficiency, and self judgement, they choose the former rather than the latter.

I'm glad your friend is smart enough to do some work herself. At least she's the one actually doing it and taking the responsibility for it. I'm sure she knows her own house by now, but I gotta say, my husband and I have seen some crappy electrical work done on houses where things were wired backwards or downright dangerously; not as expected at all. I am cringing but I will tell myself your friend is very intelligent, careful, and is doing just fine!

As for your last point about the 2 types of lifestyles and not being afraid of enjoyment, and being in inner turmoil, with self-judgment & insufficiency.... wow, did you hit the nail on the head for me! That sentence is exactly what I have been discovering about myself lately. I have not been stuck in your first description because I never did fit into it, so I've been a wanderer as far as finances & jobs (always worked or was in school, but changing & searching a lot). I am now learning things about myself at midlife, and after some enormous challenges the past few years I need to shed the expectations I had for myself (feeling pressure from parents & society) and stop the guilt, and the "shoulds", and the "I don't deserve to relax until I've done X, Y, and Z". After a few deaths in the family my life is changing, which includes me finally owning my dad's "hunting cabin" which is a one room house on 50+ acres. Life is changing, and I am changing into exactly what you described in your second description. Really, your description is so perfect!

(Don't get me wrong; I've always been happy and joyful and I make myself crack up with laughter at myself, but at the same time there has always been a droning guilt and judgment in the background, telling me I'm not doing life "right")

Dennis Barrow wrote:

Kim Wills wrote:

Christopher Weeks wrote:

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:AI doesn't have hands!

Yet.

Even if it does, there is no way it will be successful at hands-on things. My husband has been repairing & renovating homes for 40 years and EVERY job is different.

Kim, I agree 100%.
I am retired from being a contractor with decades of remodels, new construction and maintenance work.
I have 4 sons all having their own companies doing this. They each already have over 2 decades of experience, (and still call me a lot for ideas.  I think to just keep my mind sharp. lol)  Each of them will search the net and uses AI to a certain point just to be sure they are looking at all to options for the job.  I have  people asking me for advice from time to time also.  Many of them have already searched for answers on the net and then get really confused.  That is where hands on experience comes into play.

Wow, that's great that your sons are following in your footsteps! My husband still calls the retired old-timers who taught him when he wonders about something. His mind was made for troubleshooting and puzzle-solving, but even still, when there are several options on something tricky he won't commit to a solution until he runs it by someone else (even me; I've been working with him 10+ years). And there we have another thing Ai can't do; toss ideas back & forth while *being there*. I've used ChatGPT for a few things and it always acts like it has the solution, or I do, but then when I add a bit more info it's like, "oh well, now that you mentioned that..." Hopefully your son's Ai experiences are better than mine, lol!

Carla Burke wrote:Hi, Kim. I'm so sorry for your loss. Coal seems like a very sweet boy. Coming at this from a nutritional standpoint, pig ears are fine as an occasional treat, and not terrible, nutritionally, because they offer some cartilage. Unfortunately, they're also high in fat, which is why I suggest them only as an occasional treat.

A better nut butter for dogs would be almond or coconut butter. I don't eat much peanut butter anymore (sadly, because one of my guilty pleasures is Reese's peanut butter cups) because of the mold & inflammation issues, which also affect dogs, badly. Here's a link on that:
....

I love the lick mats, slow feed bowls, puzzles and toys that make them think and figure out how to get to their treats. It gives them something to occupy their minds as well as their bodies & time, helping them to get through stress & anxiety, and helps with their loneliness, at least to a degree.

You mentioned giving him old towels and such to just tear up - I think it's a good possible 'toy', because it satisfies his need to chew and helps him cope. You could also take old fabric, tear it into strips, and braid it - maybe coil the braids into a mat (think braided rug style), which would take him longer to destroy, too.

And that bed you've made for him ROCKS!!

Thank you, for all that great advice and the throne compliment! I will keep the peanut butter issue in mind; he does appear to have some stiff joints judging by the way he gets up after a long time laying down... kinda like an older stiff person. I actually don't let him go down the stairs until he's moved around a bit and looks looser. He wasn't even doing stairs a year ago due to obesity. We got him from 106 lbs down to 95 lbs in a few months. I think he's supposed to be around 75 give or take?

I did sorta what you said with fabric. I was moving some of his "mommy's" clothes and he was sniffing them like crazy so I cut a tshirt in half and rolled up part inside another part and tied it a few random ways. He liked it. I think I'll save some of her clothes instead of donating them all. It's sad, but he likes them, so I hope I'm helping not hurting him mentally.

So far I tried: The knotted t-shirt. He loved it but got bored of it soon.
Perforated beefhide flats. He made very short work of one, in like 10 minutes. I wondered if he swallowed pieces that were too big so I didn't give it to him again yet; he has been pooping as usual every day so I assume it didn't cause a problem.
I'm looking at lick mats. The thrift store didn't have any. But I found a cool puzzle and a neat piece of labradorite for myself... HEY! That's the kind of dog he is! HAHAHA

Christopher Weeks wrote:

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:AI doesn't have hands!

Yet.

Even if it does, there is no way it will be successful at hands-on things. My husband has been repairing & renovating homes for 40 years and EVERY job is different. Plumbing & electrical aren't always found in the expected places; older homes are a Frankenstein of repairs done over 80 years with different materials; studs aren't always 16" apart. Does Ai know what's on the other side of a wall? Does it know to find a roof leak by imagining "what if I was water, where would I run down to before actually dripping?" and see where there's a bump that throws it off the expected path? (and do that backwards, actually)
Can Ai climb a ladder and determine what kind of small animal is making that kind of hole and where it's living and how to catch it and repair the hole with the appropriate material that *that* animal can't chew through but not until the babies have left and nothing is living in there anymore? Can it make suggestions to a customer that enhance accessibility for their disabled teenage daughter to start doing things for herself and be helped with some things while having privacy and independence at the same time as well as redecorating for her in a culturally hip way because we see she wants to grow up and her parents are still treating her like a child, so we give sensitive suggestions that make them feel like they're the decision makers even though we're winking to the girl on the side and she's smiling and everyone is happier? No, it can't.
I'm just getting started!
Ai ain't human, and will never replace some things.

What I'm afraid of is the quality-bar being lowered. It seems many people believe Ai can equal or outperform humans in many areas. Customers sometimes look up their problems on YouTube or Google, and think they have the answers when they call us. They tell us what they need or want. Then my husband starts rattling off why that solution won't work for them, or is not the best idea. Some contractors or handymen would just do what they ask, possibly taking a lot of money for a sub-par job. Sometimes they think they "need a whole new" thing for $3000 and my husband says, "Well you can get one if you want but I can fix this one for $300." There are usually options, with pros and cons, and the answer might be different for different people. We almost never walk into a job and just do what the customer says. We can't help brainstorming with them and working as a team with them, and 99% of the time it is appreciated.

Ai will cause people to settle for "good enough" or mediocre, and without interaction with experienced humans, people will not get the best jobs done or get what is truly best for them.
That may happen, because people won't know that's what they're getting, but it will be a sad day.
That's what I mean by the quality bar being lowered.
Robots will seem to be helping but will cause us to live like robots because they are simply not human and can't interact like humans.

Jay Angler wrote:

Eino Kenttä wrote:... So yeah, in order to avoid breaking the universe while retaining my ability to plant things at all, I'm forced to say always. Maybe I'm overthinking this though. Just a bit...

Except you missed the bit about light being both a wave *and* a particle, so is a straight line *really* straight?

Well, a straight line of crops is made up of many seeds, so it is both particles and wave/line. Ha!

Unless... unless you planted vines, which may grow together and become one tangled chaotic long row. The particles turned into waves which from afar look like one long straight line. Oh no.


As for the real question, I would prefer to never plant in straight lines. If I had the space I would plant in arcs (like a letter C) so that I could reach many plants from one spot I kneel in. Maybe they could be back to back with other arcs, making a sort of sunshine design from above. An arc of peppers, an arc of tomatoes, etc. Or rows of arcs back to back, offset a little to fit together better. I've never tried it, just thinking out loud.

Nancy Reading wrote:First, I'm sorry for your loss Kim. Coal is obviously also missing your parents. He won't know what has happened, just that his pack has gone. Labradors in particular love to look after their pack. Unless he can sleep he probably just won't be happy by himself. Is there anyway you can get him a companion to look after? It doesn't need to be another dog, a cat will do. Dogs tend to be very accepting of different people forms (2 legs, 4 legs all good).

Failing that probably something that he has to work at to get the food at will be best. You can get puzzle toys for dogs that they need to solve to achieve the reward. I've also heard of something like a lick mat which the treat (like peanut butter or yoghurt) is put in a nobbly plate so they can lick it for a long time without running out. You'd ned to make sure Coal wasn't likely to eat the mat too! This is a UK version, I expect you can get them in the US too:

Thank you for your condolences. As for getting another animal, we're only going to continue living in their house another year or so, or maybe until Coal passes (my husband says we're in his house, and if my dad could say anything he'd say the house and world revolves around Coal and we are merely his caretakers!). If all goes well we may end up living in 2 places back & forth for a while so pets aren't on the table unless we live in one place where we could open a door and let it out (I'm allergic to cats, so it'd be a dog if anything someday). He was used to having the TV on 24/7 as well, and LOUD, lol, but we got rid of cable and now we leave a radio on a talking channel with the volume low in another room so he can sort of choose it or not. Maybe the voices help? Not sure.

The lick mat or puzzles! Yes! I've seen them, I wonder why I didn't think of that!
TIMOTHY and DOUGLAS - Maybe I could freeze peanut butter in those! I've seen them in thrift stores at times. Freezing something lickable is brilliant!!

You guys are ALL great with your suggestions.

PIG EARS - I saw those and wondered what they were like. Do they get soft like rawhide? I think I might try rawhide in some form, especially if the perforations help. Seeing that he leaves little pieces of things makes me feel like he's in control of what he swallows. In fact, now I remember when I was burying pills in his food he'd sometimes back off, do a little thing with his mouth, and spit out the tiny pill onto the floor and continue eating! So he's not the "wolf it down" type. He had no interest in cow patella, I think it was too round and big. He doesn't seem to care about hard things, in fact his 2 bottom canine teeth are broken, so biting hard things isn't ideal anyway. He'd need to chew on the sides of his mouth.

FABRIC - I'm not too worried about teaching him it's ok to tear up other fabric because #1) he's 12 and pretty set in his ways, which is fine because #2) luckily he doesn't grab stuff that's been off limits except socks, because my dad used them as toys, putting a tennis ball in them and tying a knot. Also, when he's alone he'll be downstairs in his old home, which is already doggy proof; our stuff isn't there. He learns 'NO" after being told only 1-3 times. He was only told 3 times not to jump on our white couch, and now he never does it anymore. (stiff black hairs do not come out of white fabric easily, turns out, lol. I put a blanket on it but he likes to rearrange blankets and towels, scratching at the area). So maybe I can do a sloppy sewing job on some rags stuffed with other rags, to mimic the little dollar store stuffed animals my parents used to get him.

Oh! I made him a throne last year!!
I was so proud! We had to get rid of a disgusting big old couch (his favorite bed!) to make room for a hospital bed, and my stepmother was NOT happy about it for many reasons, so I made Coal a new bed of his own. I purchased a good quality dog bed for his size, which has a washable cover. I then cut the wood the size of the bed, and went kooky with the jigsaw. Yes, I know "Old King Cole" is spelled differently. He LOVES it! This bed stays downstairs in his domain.