Kim Wills

Re: MEDICATION  dispensing...
Our local pharmacy offers the free option of pre-packaging each month's pills in little blister packed trays. It's labeled with the date and times you should take them. I got them for my stepmother; they were a little tricky to open but scissors did the trick. They can be peeled if you can use your fingers well; I could do it easily but she could not. The plastic packaging could be considered wasteful, as it becomes trash, but of course we can all weigh the pros & cons for ourselves (or for our older loved ones). If your local pharmacy doesn't do it, larger ones all do.

The pic I'm attaching is not mine; I got it off an image search, from a website that trains healthcare workers (so I assume the patient info is fictitious). I'm just clarifying that I'm not exposing anyone's medical info.

I just read that about 10-15% of the world's texts have been digitized, and not all of that is available to the general public. Some requires pay, such as some scientific journals, as an example.
Also, there is much knowledge that is not in text, it's in people's heads.

It may seem like the internet is infinite, but I wonder how much is redundant? You only need one web page to explain how the heart pumps blood, but I bet there are thousands or millions of attempts, as parts of larger learning materials for different audiences.

Derek Thille wrote:Kim, my only concern would be with ensuring the stumps don't sprout like a coppiced tree.  From your photo, I'd consider cutting the stumps closer to ground level.  If the stumps were living when cut, you may also want to consider drilling down into them to aid rotting - if the trees were already dead, I'd be less inclined to deal with it.  It almost looks like the smaller multi-stemmed tree could be in the way (that could just be an illusion though).  If it is, you could curve your hugel to go around it.

Is that area treed enough for the hugel to be in full shade?  A bit of a rhetorical question, but you'd want to match your hugel plantings to the amount of light you get.  Another consideration is the land orientation - frost will want to move downhill, so you may want to consider whether or not you might create a frost pocket up against your hugel.  I didn't do a good job of that placing the one I built this year and a pumpkin plant paid the price.

Good luck.

Thanks for all those thoughts. The stumps were definitely alive when cut about 3-4 years ago, and they have not sprouted by now, so I guess they won't.
I see how drilling holes or cutting them more could be helpful.
I think the thin trunks we're seeing are all individual saplings, if I remember correctly. Hmm.
The area is in shady woods on a hilltop. I want to grow medicinal forest herbs, and if I need to protect them from deer I was thinking that it's way less fence to enclose a hugel than the same area of flat ground. I figure I could get 2-3 times the surface area.

Thanks again!

Ellen Lewis wrote:Years ago.
Made a heap of branches, centered on a stump, edged on short side by wood rounds set on cut edge.
Had no turf, tried to put mud & seeds on it. Sides too steep but roughly worked. Short-lived clover & buckwheat, soon reverted to nasturtium & pellitory. Never worked for vegetables.
Rounds were stable & rotted away nicely.
Branches are the favorite thing of bermuda grass & poke. I tried to consolidate them as they broke down, but they didn't break down much.
The shade & moisture of the branch pile helped the stump begin to bear mushrooms & now it's almost broken down enough to remove & use the hole for planting.
It's dark out now, so no picture.
Just looks like a weedy mound anyway. 12 or 18 inches high.

Hi! Are you still here?
I searched for stumps & hugelkultur and you're all I found. I was wondering how your stump-pile worked out. Did you ever add more stuff to it? Is it now just barely a lump? How many years before you couldn't tell it was a stump anymore?

I have some stumps in my woods, in particular I have 2 near each other so I thought of making a hugel bed in between them (including on top of them). My logic says it would be a fantastic idea because the stump is still "alive" down underground in a way, drawing water to it, possibly. Or at least holding a lot of moisture. But before I go through the trouble I was hoping for anyone with experience to chip in either for or against it. Maybe there's some decay issues I'm not aware of.

Sadly, due to some timber theft, I am left with about a half a dozen stumps and piles of smaller decaying wood that was too small for them to take (About the thickness of my arms & legs). I get upset when I walk through and see it, so I was thinking that making some of it into something useful would help me feel better. I guess it sounds like I'll be doing it anyway, at some point... but still wondering if there's anything to consider, using stumps.

Thanks to anyone who can give input!

M Ljin wrote:A bit different from baby talk, but I have heard say that the old regionalism for chimney here is “chimbley”. Apparently that’s a common enough dialectical form but I’ve yet to hear anyone use it seriously.

I knew I heard that somewhere! Took me a while, but I found it in print. In How the Grinch Stole Christmas!!
Here is me, my actual self, reading it on video to send to my granddaughter a few years ago. I thought Dr Seuss was just taking liberties rhyming it with "nimbly"; I mean, he outright makes up words. But I guess it was a "real" word! I'm glad you mentioned it!

Fast forward to 5:00 for the page with the "chimbley".

Anne Miller wrote:No baby talk here, though I had a friend when she wanted a favor she would say

`Will you do me a Flavor` instead of favor ...

I've heard that one from several people throughout my life! I just asked my husband about it because I know he has said it. He thought it was from an old ice cream commercial but I couldn't find it.
I did find:
- Ellen DeGeneres does a game with her audience called Do Me a Flavor where they guess if an ice cream flavor is real or not.
- Lay's is doing (did?) a campaign called Do Me a Flavor where they asked the public for potato chip flavor suggestions.
But I feel like I've heard it all my life, which dates back before those 2 things.


My son had trouble saying "K" so words like cookies and doctor kit came out as "too-ties" and "dot-ter tit"
I'd get to see a good laugh (or a suppressed one) when I'd send him over to a guest to say "do you want to play with my dot-ter tit?" and they'd have no idea what he meant.

He also couldn't say refrigerator for a while so sometimes I still might say "fridge-ee-ator" to him.

Oh, and a pharmacy we'd pass by when he was learning to read was called Peter Pan Pharmacy. He'd say Peter Pan "Price-mary". So sometimes I'll say price-mary instead of pharmacy.

Kit Collins wrote:.....
One disadvantage of soap-less living is that I don't exfoliate as much. I guess soap might soften the skin so that the outer layer rubs off more easily. Just rinsing and light rubbing with water doesn't seem to accomplish this unless I do a long warm soak. So when my skin starts seeming too "thick", or looks a bit grayish, then--the next time I take a warm bath or a hot shower--I will rub my arms, legs, and face with, say, a towel that is a bit rough. That'll get the excess skin off, so I feel "baby-fresh". Might help to have a little strainer in the tub drain in order to catch and discard the skin bits.
.....

I use a body brush. I have a hand-sized oval one for my whole body, and a smaller one with a pumice on one side and a brush on the other for my feet. Once in a while I scrub my feet really well, and then while my cuticles are still soft I push them back with my fingernails. "Pedicure" done, lol.

Baking soda and vinegar hair:
As for my hair, lately I've been using shampoo since I moved and didn't have my usual toiletries with me, but I'm going to start my favorite method again:
In the shower, I put about a tsp-TB of baking soda in my hand and drizzle some water on it, making a paste. I rub the paste onto my scalp. It feels rough; definitely something to get used to. I rinse it out. Then I pour a 1/2 inch of apple cider vinegar into a cup, add shower water, and pour it through my hair. I leave it while I wash my body, then sorta-kinda rinse it out. You can leave it in; it won't smell once your hair is dry either way.

I have a transition period when I switch off shampoo, like some others said, where it feels sticky or weird. My advice during the first couple weeks is to NOT wash it (I mean even with the baking soda and vinegar; never use shampoo again) unless it visibly looks greasy. Bear with it and only wash it if you'd be embarrassed to be seen, lol. After 2-3 weeks I fall into a natural timeframe of washing it about twice a week.

PS - Don't use the baking soda labeled "Fridge and freezer". It is a lot more coarse - as coarse as salt - and doesn't turn into a paste as well, and feels like some of it stays on your scalp.

This topic has been big for me. I'm taking over my dad's former hunting property, where "they told 2 friends, and they told 2 friends, and so on, and so on..." (old shampoo ad reference). The neighbors my dad's age are either deceased or have no interest anymore, but their kids and grandkids and friends would continue coming to hunt. They didn't even know my dad. Not cool; I'm not a hunter but in my dad's world you meet the person and say thank you and offer them some meat if you get anything, or offer "if there's anything you need" to an old man whose property you're hunting on.

Once the whole surrounding area knew about "the cabin" (it's not really a cabin, just a small one room house), there was not only hunting but breaking & entering (one time it resulted in me arriving to a gas smell! Someone climbed in the window and bumped the stove knob!!!), and breaking into the shed, and even timber theft!! My dad didn't want to cause a fuss because it's a seasonal place and we're "outsiders" (even though he bought the place in 1989, before some of those people were born! The entitled little twerps).

When my dad passed in 2024 I did the following:
- Made friends with the 2 neighbors adjoining us. One was already mowing the lawn for us but we started inviting them for a bonfire and hanging out every time we're up there. The husband is a very large man, proud of how he looks intimidating even though he's a teddy bear, so we told him he is the only one allowed to hunt there, and he has our permission to kick anyone else off if he runs into anyone. He was very happy to do so, he doesn't want those kind of people causing trouble next door to him either! We pay him for maintenance and alerting us of anything of note. They offered us use of their outdoor hand pump well if our electricity ever goes out again, to help ourselves to water any time. I gave his wife a ride; the guys traded advice on how to fix things. We're good

- I walked the perimeter, posting legal POSTED signs, closer than the law requires. I also bashed down 3 deer blinds (old wood planks propped or nailed across little trees). There was even a small platform with a hole, with a metal ring in it like a latrine. Gee whiz, next time I went up there, that was gone. They obviously came, saw, and took some of the wood & the ring to use elsewhere. They got the message. (along with signs and purple paint)

- I noticed where ATV tracks entered a field and I put a yellow rope with a POSTED sign, and a sign that politely said that illegal activities have been reported on this property, "borders are closed", thank you. (haven't seen ATV tracks since; I think it was young people or neighbors cutting through and they genuinely don't want trouble)

-  got new locks & made the outside of the house look different than when my dad was in charge. (cut back more brush, spiffed things up, put out a decoration or two)
- Walked through the woods and randomly put surveyors flags, especially where the timber theft occurred. If the person comes back they know we are aware of it.
- Sprayed purple paint along borders when I posted signs. It's not a purple paint state officially, but I'm on the border of one, so it can't hurt.

- Put up new house numbers and several signs on the tree at the foot of the driveway (POSTED, and another sign about illegal activities being reported, and a "smile you're on camera")

In addition, we spread the word with everyone we could (even the guy who came to fix the electric bragged about a deer he got there!!). We told my dad's friend's wife & grandson that "the family" no longer wants hunting, explaining about the breaking & entering & the timber theft. People seem to take it seriously when I mentioned those things. I even said to one person nicely, "yeah, I wouldn't want anyone getting in trouble for something they didn't do, so just spread the word the whole place is off limits" and they took an attitude like, "oh wow, thanks for telling me".

BTW, as soon as we'd say my dad passed, some people would immediately ask if the place was for sale, even before saying "sorry for your loss" or anything. That showed who our potential friends aren't.

We're installing wired cameras on the house this year. Dead batteries are not useful.


If anyone is having trouble with trespassers and is ok with lying, I gotta say that the timber theft bit seemed to get people's attention. Tell people you've had timber theft, or poaching, or breaking & entering (or something illegal & believable for your land) and you wouldn't want any trespassers getting in trouble if it's not them, so best stay away. This worked well with neighbors and acquaintances (and even on the phone with the tax assessor! "oh, wow, sorry to hear that" "yeah, so spread the word if you know anyone who's been hunting there")
I'm not looking to get anyone in actual trouble, I just want them to stop, so this is a friendly, chatting, "I'm on your side" peaceful first attempt.

M Ljin wrote:Go Botany is a resource for identifying New England plants, but it can be good for just the plants and information even if the dichotomous keys might not work for other regions. https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/ The pictures are in color though.

Also look at Native American Ethnobotany https://naeb.brit.org/ and Plants for a Future https://pfaf.org/user/default.aspx. The last one may be much closer to what you are looking for.

All resources are going to be slightly different and the uses may not line up with your experience. (Some books say black nightshade, Solanum ptycanthum, is poisonous--I eat as many as I can get every year! More recently it has been more or less proven that this statement is generally speaking false.) Maybe it is a case of filling them in with your pen as you find them and learn about them? Similar to how some herbalists keep a "materia medica" notebook.

When you are in a deeper relationship with these plants, you will not need a book to remember their uses, identification, etc.; it will be like seeing a friend, recognizing their face, and remembering their name, personality, connections, home, etc. Deepening our relationship reveals which plants agree with our digestion best and make us feel healthy and well, it reveals how they might be harvested sustainably, and so on... and it takes time! Don't worry if you can't memorize all the plants right away. It will come with time.

I would agree with Jack's statement but put it in regular case... foraging is not scary if you do it with proper respect for your life. Most poisonings, I have heard, have to do with someone eating something unidentified on a random impulse, not people trying to pick an edible plant and mistaking it.

I wish you a good foraging journey!

Thank you for that wonderful statement about getting a deeper relationship with them. Yes, it is definitely true that I have gained a relationship with the few plants I have spent time with: read about them, found them, harvested the parts I wanted, saved their seeds, made them into something (plantain salve, lip balm, teas). Don't get me started on how mullein magically appeared when I needed it, though it was never on that land before! It became my best friend! But I know my brain and I really feel the need to mark down things about them. I collected dandelion root and curly burdock root, and a few months later when I was having them as a tea I thought, "why am I drinking this again, lol?"

The way I want to copy & paste is similar to writing it down myself; just pick the info I want to include. I don't care where it's found once I know it's on my property, for example. I don't need to care if Pliny the Elder used it for gout, lol... and I want other family or friends or even whoever lives on my land after me to know what they can find if they need/want to. So I think cutting & pasting to fit my needs could be useful.

Thank you for those links, I am going to check them out!

Jack Sato wrote:Hey there!

I'm relatively new to foraging myself, yet I have found a plant identifying app. I think it is pretty nifty because it identifies the plant, sometimes, and gives me the basic information for me to look it up. I connect the dots from there and build my dossier of suspect plants lol.

Obligatory safety statement: PLEASE DOUBLE VERIFY EVERYTHING YOU FORAGE.

The foraging books: not every book is going to be rounded out with everything you find. is it native, invasive, something that hasn't been found before? there are so many variables.

I would reach out to a local horticulturist, I hate to say it, but no one is gonna know whats in your backyard better than you!


Cheers! I hope this helps a little!

I was using an app but
1 - My phone signal isn't great in the woods. We'll switch carriers eventually, but not sure if that one will work well either.
2 - I can't copy & paste and print from my phone.

And don't worry, I triple-check everything if I plan on ingesting it, particularly searching for lookalikes. Last spring I got confused between curly dock and burdock (and some other things with "dock" in them). I waited til fall when their stalks shot up tall and the dark brown stems & seeds of curly dock became very obvious! I am overly cautious, especially in an app that has random humans identifying things, thank you!