Stephen B. Thomas

There's apparently a confluence of several different night sky-related phenomenae occurring the evening of 12th August, and then for a few days afterward.

- new moon
- Milky Way visible
- Perseid Meteor Shower
- 5-planet Alignment

I didn't take well to the speaker's voice, so I skipped to the important part: it mentions when you ought to be outside to observe certain things.

So, if you have nothing to do late Wednesday evening this week (or maybe Thursday morning), then you may want to check out some of these happenings. Enjoy!

A couple more pocket calendar covers. Here's my personal August calendar. It started off as a free-hand doodle. I'm working on more figure cartoon work, so included a human in this one.



Here's the July calendar I made for a friend of mine. I used the "Steamboat Willie" public domain version of Mickey Mouse. That opaque white pen also came in handy for achieving that old-skool cartoon look.



I also made a mini-zine for a niece of mine's 8th birthday. I take a typical letter-sized sheet of paper and fold it into an 8-page booklet. Here's an image from the inside (it's a double-page spread):



Currently working on a September calendar for that friend of mine. I want to have an armoured warrior woman facing off against some kind of monster. We'll see how that turns out.

Coydon Wallham wrote:I guess just encouraging weeds to go wild on it until I'm done building a section should keep it in good shape?

I remember Paul mentioning that when the hugels in the backyard paddock were first established, like 12 years ago, they planted grass seed on it just to have something growing. Personally, had I the funds for it I'd opt for desirable cover crops instead of "weeds" or grass. If I were short on time or coin, I'd just let anything grow, then pluck out what I don't want when it's time to sow in a specific area. It's my personal opinion that it's better to have something growing than nothing at all.

Sometimes you'll luck-out and end up with desirable plants showing up in an otherwise neglected area. We've seen that on a handful of our newer hugel berms that we grew stuff on for a single season (the GAMCOD berms come to mind, here).

Esteban Ademovski wrote:I was really excited to get another turn on the excavator. Today I got 17 minutes of supervised seat time, bringing my total between yesterday and today to 32 minutes.

I think you're doing a superb job so far with Rex, Esteban...! You ought to have plenty of hours racked-up this coming week and then more time going into the winter.

Andrew Greaves wrote:I want to be in the bootcamp. [...] I want to get my  hands dirty, work hard and LEARN!!!

Just wanted to give a shout-out to Andrew in this thread. He's been an excellent addition to the team this week. Thanks once again, man...!

To sum it up: Last autumn I attended an outdoor workshop where I learned about spraying compost tea on various plants. The presenter was very supportive of the idea that one would "extend their microbiome" through the act of spraying: through both the plants they cultivated, but also through being exposed to the spray themselves as they fertilize.

I have yet to try this (we're a bunch of lazy gardeners, similar to what's been noted above, here at Wheaton Labs). But after attending that workshop the idea authentically fascinates me and has never left my brain-space. I think that, particularly if the plantlife in an area is stressed-out by other environmental factors, that this kind of fertilization ought to show a lot more promise.

Annie Harris wrote:These look amazing!  What about name tags for my garden rows? Would be the neighbourhood of 15-20 name tag size with plant variety info - cuz the younger I get, more I forget, and identifying five different garlic or four different onions etc Gets challenging . . . .

Thanks for the kudos, Annie!

I think I could pull that off for somewhere in the neighbourhood of US$25, with shipping included. It's a busy week (new Boots are starting today, literally in a couple hours) but I will contact you ASAP via Purple Mooseage regarding your specifics and an eventual prototype run. I also stress that you'll want some sort of waterproof coating or finish on them if you intend for them to be outside. But we'll chat about that in a bit.

There is a design for an indoor willow feeder. It's implemented in Cooper Cabin here at Wheaton Labs.

Here's a peek:

https://permies.com/wiki/357815/Indoor-Willow-Feeder-plans-Cooper

Sarah McLachlan w/Colorado Symphony Orchestra - Building a Mystery. More live music.

I am immediately intrigued, and did a brief Internet search on the topic. At this website, they suggest:
- diluting it 10 water to 1 honey,
- feeding it to seedlings.

Attracting microbes that you do not want for plants seems to be an issue they mention more than once in their write-up. It's more an issue for mature plants, apparently.

It's a curious situation where you find yourself, in my opinion. But the good news seems to be that a quart a week is all you'll need if you want to remediate the soil.

Best of success to you on this...! I know nothing about your climate, but to have something so potentially rich in plants' nutrients, falling in your lap, seems like a boon anywhere you're trying to help plants grow.