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House of Riona, 2026 performances, garden-and-vintage+ yard stand, and etc.

Riona Abhainn

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Posts: 1751

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

228

posted 10 months ago

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Greetings Cascadia comrades, I decided to do this a tad differently this year. My thread about micro homesteading is in the homesteading section, but I decided to divide it and put those general things there, and put specifics here, like when/where I'm performing, when my yard stand for garden goodies and vintage and etc. is open for people to come visit, and any other events I end up hosting here (hoping to eventually host a trade blanket night once a month, etc. but we're not quite there yet)

Its 2026 now, mindblowing I know.
On NYE in the afternoon I busked for tips at Laurelhurst Park, a favourite singing location and made great tips, last chance to sing Christmas songs out and about before people are overtly tired of them haha.

If you live in OR or WA feel encouraged to friend me on facebook, I'm Riona Abhainn there. I do facebook live concerts on there some times.

I was able to have the garden-and-vintage+ stand open the other day when we had sun, I think neighbours are starting to clue in about the whole thing, because things are starting to be bought, it was my second time being open. I've sold things in other formats in the past, had a booth at a vintage mall until said mall closed, etc. but I think this is going to be the best formula for me in selling things. I also occasionally sell larger ticket items on facebook marketplace, but with the way my disabilities work I need my husband to help me with that so we don't do it a ton. I like doing things I need minimal or no help with.

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1751

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

228

posted 9 months ago

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I finished up with my last Christmas singing on the 5th on facebook live. Back to my usual repetoir. I sure love singing the Christmas songs though.

My yard stand will be open on Mon. Jan. 12th, from 1pm until dark, or until everything sells, or until I get too cold haha.
Expect broccoli microgreens that I grow, mini-"boo pumpkin" seeds from my pumpkins, and calendula seeds from my calendulas. Also a handmade blanket chest from MN, and other interesting vintage and/or cool items.
11714 SE Fuller Rd. Portland OR 97222.

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1751

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

228

posted 9 months ago

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With our sunny couple of weeks it was a good time for having the stand open a bit more than usual.
But I realized that my sign could use improvement so when we went down to see my husband's family my MIL helped me fix it.

Back to my usual singing repetoir, some singing on facebook live and I also busked at the plaza in SE Portland on Hawthorne Blvd and 37th, tips were fine, we'll see what happens this week with things since the rain is here.

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1751

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

228

posted 8 months ago

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Continuing to downsize inventory by taking it to consign at the Village Merchants, my goal is to get down to a small amount of vintage+ inventory so it can live in a corner and not take up a lot of space. Once I achieve this I can move forward with house concerts, hopefully monthly, and also hosting Sven's Norse trade blanket games periodically (a game we play at faire on some Sat. nights), but I'd love to do it in the off season for people who either can't/don't get to faires or who just want a barter circle more often.
We're not there yet, but that's what's holding me back, keeping old inventory overstock moving.

Feeling better about the garden/vintage+ stand now that the sign is better and more explanatory. Got all of the calendula seeds I saved divvied up and they're in my selling stuff now with the pumpkin seeds I seed saved. One of the bags of mini pumpkin seeds I put away in my own seed box but the others I've been selling and now folks can buy calendula seeds from me too.
I've been singing on facebook live the last couple of weeks, if you live in OR or WA and want to be facebook friends I'm Riona Abhainn on facebook.

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1751

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

228

posted 8 months ago

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Tomorrow (Sat. Mar. 7th) I'll be opening up the yard stand around 3:30pm, selling calendula seeds and mini-white pumpkin seeds organically grown and seed saved in my 2025 garden for your 2026 garden. And also interesting vintage+ finds.
When I have things that are worth more than what is realistic on the side of the road or if I have things that are uniquely specialized, I sell them on facebook marketplace. I don't do that with most things, because all the posting pictures would be too much to expect my husband to help me with, so I only do it with things which aren't going to appeal to the average passerby due to value or due to nicheness.
I'm Riona Abhainn on facebook.

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1751

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

228

posted 7 months ago

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Lots of good things in March, spring showed up in Milwaukie in early March, I had some good performance gigs in mid March, plus my usual facebook live performances and busking for tips out and about. I performed for a crew of elders at a retirement community in McMinville, and I performed all weekend at the Irish Fest in the Northwest in Lacey WA, which should really be called the Irish+ Fest in the Northwest because its wide ranging and fantasy-filled.

Lately my biggest sellers at my Pop-up yard stand have been my calendula and mini white pumpkin seeds from my plants last year. I'm also still consigning at Village Merchants in SE Portland.

In my more general non-local-specific post in the homesteading section I talked about how I'm renting mason bees and leafcutter bees for the first time this year. From a company up in WA called, simply, Rent Mason Bees. I'm hoping they'll be happy with my little yard and pollinate everything anywhere nearby.

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1751

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

228

posted 6 months ago

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Aprilness:
I'm thinking about starting some sort of monthly permaculture meetup group in the Portland metro area, if such a thing already occurs please let me know so I can just go, and not set something up. I've heard there were things going on in the past but I don't know of a present one.

Singing for tips at a couple of different locations this month enjoying the nice weather, plus some facebook live singing. If you want to check out the fun we have at faires feel encouraged to check out my youtube channel, RionaTheSinger

Tomorrow I intend to have the yard stand open starting at 5pm for a while, microgreen peasprouts, mini-white pumpkin seeds and calendula seeds from last year's garden, vintage items and a few artist-made items too.
11714 SE Fuller Rd. Portland OR 97222. (in that liminal space where Portland and Milwaukie come together in Clackamas County).

For more general writing about what I'm planting and doing I have a thread in the homestead section.

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1751

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

228

posted 6 months ago

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It's May Time:
I finally have the living room in as good of order as I realistically expect it to be in, which means I can finally get serious about hosting things here. My plan is to do a house concert once a month in the first half of the month, and a permacultury/barter circly gathering each month in the second half of the month. I'll be starting with the latter, near the end of May, haven't sorted the date yet.

Continuing to busk at various locations and sing on fb live. If you've got facebook and live in OR or WA, feel encouraged to send me a friend request on there.

I decided to explore zero waste for my kitchen dish soap for the sink, bought both the reuseable bottle with pump and filled it up with soap at the Mama and Hapa's Zero Waste Shop here in Milwaukie, I think we want to do some things this way going forward, we want to add deodorant next, but some things I realistically won't be able to handle doing this way because of the way my schizoaffective disorder works, I get freaked out about shampoo and laundry detergent so I need the ones that are sealed when I buy them. But I wanted to at least work on being less waste even if I can't be zero waste, we have to start where we can start.

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1751

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

228

posted 5 months ago

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May permaculture meetup and barter circle:
Okay comrades, I'm hosting a permaculture meetup/gathering and barter circle on Thurs. May 28th at 8pm, running until 9:30pm-ish ideally.
Feel encouraged to bring something to trade in the barter circle, and/or a snack to share. Also feel encouraged to bring your own bowl/plate/utensils if you'd like. If you forget that's okay. Kids are welcome though the event isn't child-centered. We'll visit outdoors if the weather isn't rainy and indoors if it is.
I have a facebook event set up for it. I just called it permaculture meetup and barter circle.
If we meet up inside I would please ask you to leave your animal friends at home, my house is a pet-free zone.

No judgement at this event about how far anyone has gotten in permie goals, we're all at where we're at and learning and growing.
We'll start our barter circle after visiting for a while, so probably at 8:30-ish, at faire we play a barter game called Sven's trade blanket, this is similar though covers a wider variety of barterables. Things to barter at our event can be tangible or intangible. Make sure they're appropriate to talk about around kids, ... unless we don't have any kids show up. But nothing illegal please the goal is for this to become a monthly affair.

11714 SE Fuller Rd. Portland OR 97222 (we're on the border of Portland and Milwaukie in Clackamas Co.).

I intend to have the garden and vintage+ yard stand open tomorrow afternoon, starting at 2pm-ish: pea sprout microgreens, calendula and mini-white pumpkin seeds from last year's garden, possibly calendula greens and flowers for salads, vintage and other lovely finds.
Same address as above.

I've been singing for tips at various places lately, Montavilla farmers market for instance is a really good place to busk because they don't have "official" music and they're kind to buskers. While there I bought some sweet little plants that like shade to plant along my fence, they're all native and so they'll be happy and good for the ecosystem. Wish I could remember the name of the business to give her a shout-out, she's based right there in SE Portland.

I write about more general things in my thread on the homesteading forum, garden, other permaculture stuff, etc.

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1751

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

228

posted 5 months ago

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So the gathering is tomorrow, there's a facebook event which I just called Barter Circle and Permaculture Meetup, not very original I know. I'm Riona Abhainn on facebook if you live in OR or WA and want to be friends on there, hoping to see folks at the event

Other than that: singing, growing things, survived my most recent colonoscopy, walks, I write more about things in the homesteading section in a thread over there with a similar title.

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1751

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

228

posted 4 months ago

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I'll be performing Sat. and Sun. at the Summer Faire in the Northwest in Lacey WA at the Thurston Co. Fairgrounds, Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing as always. Its a day-entry fantasy faire, with free admission (but pay to park)..
Our newly acquired tent trailer is having its inogural trip so we're excited, I think it will be just right for us.

So thankful for summertime, my favourite time of the year! In summer I swim/play in natural water each week. I can't recommend this enough as its incredibly healthful physically and emotionally.

Having the garden/vintage stand open when I can. Lately been singing at plazas for tips, at a private tea party (yes I do private events) and on facebook live, if you want to tune in send me a facebook friend request. I'm Riona Abhainn on facebook. Anyone can watch even if we're not friends though. I tend to only take friends who live in OR or WA on there, unless your facebook name is familiar to me from here, then I'd make an exception.

So I've come to the conclusion that hosting events at my house isn't for me. I'm disappointed in myself, as I always thought I'd be better at being the hostess with the mostess, but reality would indicate that I'm not. The attempts I've made at such have been really stressful rather than bringing me joy. Sure its easy to have a friend or 2 over at a time for dinner or to stay overnight, but having bigger events is harder than I'd thought it would be.
While I'm disappointed with this realization about my shortcomings, I need to make peace with it.

For more general info on what I',m growing etc., I have a thread on the homesteading forum.

Next year I'm definitely going to buy pie and just have one thread that appears both here and in homesteading, I did that for half of last year and it worked better than having these 2 seperate ones.

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1751

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

228

posted 4 months ago

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So SummerFaire was good fun and our tent trailer did great. Furthermore last weekend I performed at Glastenbury Renaissance Faire down in Toledo OR on the river and we definitely had rain, and I definitely got to see how my tent trailer does with wet. And it did pretty well, only challenge was at the zippers a bit of water got in, but not bad. And inspite of some weather difficulties tips were good. At faires I get paid by the event but also put out the tip basket etc.

So my experience with renting native bees has been looking up. I ordered both mason bees and leafcutter bees from Rent Mason Bees and though the mason bees imerged and all flew away and ignored the nesting box, the leafcutter bees have been more amenible and have taken up residence like they're "supposed" to! The company is based out of Bothel WA and its a neat thing to participate in, adding more bees one household at a time.

This week I went and sang for tips at South Waterfront Farmers Market, it is set up as a long strip along the road next to the park and so one can sing in the park and then enjoy the market afterwords. The park and market (in South Portland) is an oasis among tall buildings and urbanness. Farmers markets, whether I'm singing there or not, are always enjoyable and I'm thankful there are so many neat ones in the Portland metro area.

You can read more of my general growing-things commentary on my thread in the homesteading section.

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1751

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

228

posted 3 months ago

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I just finished performing 2 weekends at the Canterbury Renaissance Faire in Silverton OR. Its my most lucrative event of the year and its a really special faire because its the first faire I performed at many many years ago and the proprietress and her family do such a good job running it. In my experience the best faires are those owned by an individual or a family or 2 close friends. Faires that have a board tend to get very dramatic and stressful more often.

Continuing to enjoy my frequent river swim playtimes, so many wonderful and free river accesspoints around, including but not limited to: Riverside Park (Clackamas), Elk Rock Island (Milwaukie), Swiftshore Park (West Linn), and George Rogers Park (in Lake Oswego on the Willamette). A few days ago my husband and our friend and I went swimming at Elk Rock and on the hiking trail we found a cherryplum tree fruiting, we each tried a cherryplum and it was the best cherry I've ever had, I'm not a huge fan of cherries generally, so I guess being more like a plum made it tastier.

Speaking of plums I harvested ornamental plums recently from the tree across the street from my father's house, my favourite plum variety they're sweet and sour and little and tasty, best harvested in early to mid July, earlier for more sour, later for sweeter. I've come across a lot of people around here who don't realize that these mini plums are edible. I've loved them since I was a kid, plus they have very special and treasured memories attached to them for me.

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1751

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

228

posted 2 months ago

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I finished out July by performing as part of Milwaukie Porch Fest, I love that places around here do this, the only good thing from covid lockdown. I had a small, but interested, audience. I also performed that week at the Epilepsy camp for a group of kids aged 7-16, out at Rockaway Beach, we made it into a beach day and performed for kids that evening, they were dialed in, great audience.

August has sucked brick though, the only singing I can realistically do right now is on facebook live, and I'm doing it off screen. This month has been full of disabilities/medical/etc. bullshit which will hopefully be improving after my upcoming surgery at the end of the month. Until then though things are limited for me and that's demoralizing to say the least. And I can only go in the river up to my knees right now because of infection risk.

I think my leafcutter bees are pretty much done, I'll be sending their block full of eggs, and the mason bee block which they all abandoned, back to the Rent Mason Bees company next month. Will I do it all again next year? Not necessarily, I'd recommend everyone try it for a season to see if you like it though.

We have a couple of cookbooks, and its fun to do recipes from them, we did a drink recipe from our The Witcher Official Cookbook, too lemony but the premise was reasonable and my husband liked it. Anyways the trouble with recipes is that they always involve so many ingredients and there's a cost expenditure each time we want to try one haha. It works better to team up with a friend and split costs, that's how we made Babylonian Lamb Stew last year from our Tasting History cookbook, and my goodness it was amazing and the recipe was from 1700 BC, I think Nicole Alderman would like that cookbook.

I'm Riona Abhainn on facebook if you want to friend me (OR and WA people only please)

I have a more general thread in the homesteading section on here.

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1751

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

228

posted 2 months ago

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Day 4 post-surgery:
In the recovering process which is said to take 2 weeks and I'm hoping that is indeed all it takes. Still experiencing pain etc. but at least now its because of the surgery rather than because of the problem haha. Still limited on what I can do, but able to go out and do "simple" things. No playing in the water at all though until the 2 week mark. Hoping I can sing on facebook live toward the end of the week though, this time in the picture rather than hiding off to the side like I did that one time earlier this month haha. Hopefully I start looking better/more like my usual self soon.
I'm not supposed to bend over or even squat, and my husband has to help me by doing some of my usual tasks in our household. We have a set division of labour here, but its been disrupted so things have had to shift for a while.

I'm Riona Abhainn on facebook if you want to be my friend on there.

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1751

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

228

posted 1 month ago

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So my life finally feels like its back on track. The pain and other complications are gone, but its possible that things won't ever fully be back to how they were before stuff went sideways. The dr. says its possible that improvement in the offending body part could still occur, I hope it does. At any rate I feel like me again and I'll take that, even if its never quite my old normal, that's how disability life goes sometimes, you treasure what you _can do and when it becomes a tad less you do your best and work around it, but its improved from how awful it was in Jul. and Aug. and honestly I can choose to be content with that.

I performed at the Shrewsbury Renaissance Faire last weekend on the edge of Monmouth OR, King's Valley. Lots of fun of course and it really reset me and made things better for my outlook. Definite rainage though.

This coming weekend I'll be performing at Realms Unknown, a fantasy festival in Woodland WA, Fri, Sat, Sun. If you've ever been to Faerieworlds back in the day that is what this festival is rather like, including cool art installations, evening concerts, usual fantasy faire stuff during the day, lots of fun! People can get day passes or camp all weekend.

If you live in OR or WA (or if your name on facebook is the same as here so I know who you are) feel encouraged to send me a friend request on facebook. I'm Riona Abhainn on there

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1751

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

228

posted 1 month ago

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Its autumn here now, though we're having Indian summer so there's that! Hoping I can get in one or two sneaky extra times in the river before the weather acts like autumn. Can't go all the way under yet but can hopefully go up to my shoulders, not going to try to go all the way baby again until Dec. when we go on our Florida vacation, being careful about the surgery area still.

Faire season is over here, so my performances will be smaller and less exciting for a goodly while until faire season comes back again. Last night I performed at the food cart taproom in West Linn OR, like many food cart parks the carts are renting space and there's a taproom there too. I've busked in front of it before but this was my first time performing inside in a official capacity. Result: Honestly tips are about the same when I'm doin' it guerilla style out on the sidewalk, plus there were some mix up issues with my timeslot etc. so I think I'll go back to just doing it out in front instead of inside during official evening concert time. Its harder for me to get there now though because the bus no longer goes out there, stupid transit cuts. Hoping the next long session in '27 will replenish transit funding so we can get back the areas the bus cut recently the only way I can get to non-bus areas is if people I know take me and I like being able to get there on public transit when possible.

I need to send the bee stuff back to Rent Mason Bees. We really should have done that today but I totally spaced it. Its interesting how each year my mini pumpkins change just a little. I got the seeds in '24 from the white pumpkins we decorated with, last year I grew them and they were cream coloured and still mini. This year they're sort of yellow and slightly bigger haha.

I love how sorrel pops up in a lot of my gardeny spots, I nibble on it as I work on things.

I love going on walkabout journeys all over the metro area, finding surprises and exploring and contemplating life along the way. Recently I went out to Beaverton to buy coral bells for my garden and went exploring in that area and came upon a walking/biking park with a tree that had pretend flowers "planted" at the base and sparkly streamers wrapped around the trunk and a skateboard and stool to use while visiting the park. I bet some kid around the corner came up with this idea and it was so sweet on a warm afternoon to plop my ass down on that stool in the shade for a bit. I love happy surprises like that.

I also write a thread on the homesteading section with more about what I'm growing etc.

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

it's a teeny, tiny, wafer thin ad:

the next generation of humanure

https://www.richsoil.com/willow