Su Ba

I’ve used ivermectin successfully for ear mites in the past. I’ve also had good results with fipronil (aka- Frontline).

Ivermectin treats a variety of parasites, both internal and external. Not all types of course, but quite a few. I use it routinely for scabies (aka-sarcoptic mange), which is quite common in my area.

I was raised using cloth hankies. Then switched to Kleenex because I hated that wet snot ladened hankie in my back pocket. It’s just a thing with me, I guess.

I now use the finger-on-the-side-of-the-nose-blow method (I’m usually not out in public, I’m on a farm by myself) then follow up with toilet paper. I fold up a few pre-made squares of toilet paper and put them in my back pocket. I’ll pull out one when I need it, then since I’m invariably working on the farm, I’ll use a square and then bury it in the soil for the worms and soil microbes to "compost" it for me. If not on the farm, I politely just use the toilet paper and replace it into the opposite back pocket for later disposal.

Your meals look great!

Just chiming in with a "me too".  

We grow and sell dragon tongue beans for our community farmers market. When we first started with them, very little sold. We ended up donating 20 pounds of them to the local soup kitchen each week. So we changed tactics and made up a bunch of little baggies of them to give away as samplers. We now have enough re-buyers to sell those 20 pounds a week.  

My personal favorite way of eating them is as a salad or snack. I steam them until they are tender though still somewhat firm. Cool them in cold water, then put them into the frig. For a dinner salad , I chop them into bite sized pieces and toss them with a little sesame salad dressing.  Great cold salad!  

A fairy tale—-  once open a time, in a different world far, far, away, there was a farm girl who loved to fly and visit others’ farms and botanical gardens. She so much enjoyed these adventures that she would usually fly to neighboring islands once every month, and to the far away countries once a year. Oh how she loved it, bringing home special prizes of exotic seeds and plants (of course, abiding by import and quarantine rules). She gladly spent her time between trips saving money for her next trip by happily selling her vegetables & fruits, eggs, lambs, goats, and rabbits.

But things began to change. Seats got smaller and uncomfortable. More passengers got crammed into the airplane. Carry on luggage got more restrictive. She had to pay for her checked in bags. Free meals and snacks on the plane disappeared, and what was offered at high prices was essentially crap. She couldn’t even take her own sodas or juice through the check in process for drinking on the plane. And the check-in process could take 3 hours to get through the lines. The fun was gradually being squeezed out of flying. Soon she found herself just flying locally from island to island because the fun had died.

Then an evilness descended……COVID. She watched so many of her friends return from trips, suffering from Covid. Being elderly and with pre-existing health problems, she was concerned. Was it worth taking the risk, and possibly end up with a long hospital stay? Even possibly end up with distressing "long Covid", or even possibly die?   So she restricted her trips to one neighboring island, using an airline with small prop planes and small passenger numbers to reduce the risk.

Then along came 2023. Absolute heart wrenching disaster!  Lahaina burned!!!  Lahaina was her Maui Island "home away from home" for 10 of her trips a year. Watching what happened, having friends lose not only their homes and businesses but also people that they knew, watching while it all was destroyed just broke the farm girl’s spirit. Knowing that she would never enjoy those businesses again, never see the old feeble guy who would ride the rickety bike to the wharf, never watch the crazy guy talking to invisible  people, never buy an ice cream cone for the elderly bag lady, never invite the hotel resident cat into her room at night, never again….never again….never again. The farm girl’s heart was permanently broken beyond mending.

So……….. I have not flown since June 2023.

Frankly, there’s not one single best book for me. Over the decades I bought lots of gardening books of all sorts, including old time  farming and food production, old time skills….in addition to more modern stuff. There was no way of googling something or searching YouTube. So I read everything that pertained to food production, picking out and applying the "gems" to my own efforts.

Lovely ladies!  Great photo!

I’ve found that populated areas where people had to depend upon walking, settlements tended to be about 2-3 miles apart. From what I’ve learned about my own region of Ka’u Hawaii, that tends to be true, though individual houses were also scattered between "villages". So using 3 miles from my home as the basis for my observations, here’s the skills/trades I’ve find :

Herdsmen (sheep)
Rancher (cattle)
Orchard man (macadamia nuts)
Coffee farmer
Commercial electrician
Welder
Machinery operator (backhoe, excavator, tractor, etc)
Beekeeper
Baker
Aviator (helicopters)
National Park ranger
Poultryman
Artist
Quilter
Florist
Acupuncturist
Physical therapist
Farmer
Fisherman
Hunter
Guy who’s really good at figuring out what’s wrong with your cellphone or computer, and fix it if possible. And he helps us do things on the internet.
And me ,who is retired from veterinary medicine and now  into homesteading.

I know all almost all the neighbors within 1 mile, but after that, it’s hit n miss. So I’m missing a lot of skills that might be out there.

Being rural, my immediate area contains lots of folks who have what I’ll call "seat of the pants" skills’. Most of them have built at least part of their own houses, barns & shed, and furniture.  We put up our own fencing. Paint our own houses. Lay down tile floors. Put on a new roof. Do basic plumbing and electrical. Install a wood stove. Do minor car and appliance repairs. Chainsaw trees. Maintain the solar and water catchment systems. Butcher out an animal. Make a farm gate.  And the neighbors are very willing to help other neighbors with these tasks.

Bob, I eat the tender, lush, young dandelion leaves. Older leaves are not only tough, but very bitter.  Young lush leaves have a bitterness too, but not overwhelming. Wilted with a hot bacon vinegarette, I find the combination enjoyable.

A friend just told me of a thing I do that people think is totally odd—-  I’m purposely growing dandelions in my greenhouse.  When I lived on the Eastcoast, dandelions were a weed that everybody spent plenty of effort to get rid of. Now here I am growing them. By forcing them to grow rapidly and luxuriously in a greenhouse, they make excellent greens for a salad. Served with a hot bacon dressing (that wilts the greens). They are really yummy.