Thekla McDaniels

Hans Quistorff wrote:

I wonder if a fruit tree would be happier with a bunch of dandelions under it than a bunch of grass.  

Probably and when partially shaded they make larger less bitter leaves. So if they come up in the mulch around a tree I let them grow.

Does it have to be either or?

Seems like grass and dandelions together would be fine, and some comfrey, and some legumes alfalfa has very deep roots, white clover stays low…..  

How are you people pulling up dandelion roots, or otherwise harvesting them.  

This is something I have never been able to achieve.

And will the same methods work for chicory and other taprooted plants?

Thank you 😊

I don’t know about darkening with age.

Did you buy premixed commercial shellac?  To extend shelf life, they may have added some weird or toxic gick.

If your old chairs are shellacked you could get the old shellac off with just high proof ETOH.  Do your old chairs appear to have darkened?

Were you able to find shellac in your region?  I had to order on line.  Best place I found was “shellac shack”.  (He is located in Oregon so the shipping is pretty quick for wet coast and for Colorado). The man there was very helpful on the phone and has lots of information on the website.

He would probably be quite generous with his experience.

Shellac is used in foods and medicines.  Doesn’t seem like a dangerous substance.  The alcohol you dissolve it is is probably more risky!

Wow, R, you’re getting some nice paintings!

I’m not a painter, and I don’t know if this is common knowledge.  I had an assembled ashford spinning wheel to finish, and I followed up on a mention of shellac.  It’s a resin excreted by an insect.  You can buy it in flake form, just dried bug stuff.  You dilute it with ETOH.  It comes in different colors.

It dries quickly.  When you put another coat on, prior applications can be re dissolved.  It’s transparent and dries glossy.

When you were describing the attributes of your new medium, it was a lot of the same language as shellac.  Not the same qualities, but interest in the same things.

Just in case it’s useful information…

A lot of commercial poppy seeds have been radiated. That decreases the germination rate drastically! If you buy organic poppy seeds, they should not have been radiated.

I think it’s worth mentioning that if you’re planning to try to grow the seeds from tomatoes or squash or melons and such, it is worth buying the organic ones. The commercial grade produce isn’t always GMO but organic produce is never GMO. One problem with trying to get seeds from GMO produce is that the seeds may not be viable. There are forms of genetic modification that make the plant unable to produce viable seed.

When you buy fresh mushrooms, sometimes at the bottom of the stipe, there are little tiny filaments holding on. You might be able to use them to get mycelium started in a growing medium.  I have heard of people making a kind of mushroom slurry and using that to inoculate their substrate.

Sometimes the dried mushrooms still have the spores in them, and if you know how to germinate the spores and grow a jar of spawn, you could inoculate a substrate to grow mushrooms. It’s kind of technical, but not that hard. I would recommend doing a lot of research and having everything ready so that if you get a chance at some mushrooms, you’ll be ready to go.

https://www.firemountaingems.com/jewelry-supplies/wire-wrapping-wire/steel-wire/

Link to fire mountain website wire page.

For those who want to skip searching the local hardware and craft stores.  

Another idea:
Beading pliers and wire.  Might be a great tool to have around.  I think the wire comes in different diameters, it’s made to be bent and shaped.  

Tereza Okava wrote:I'm so glad this thread was bumped!

As I'm repairing my clothes they're lasting longer and longer. The hardware is failing.
Like many people, I have large button collections, so that's under control.
What's become a real issue for me lately is zipper pulls.... Does anyone have any brilliant ideas for zipper pulls that are slightly more elegant than, say, zip ties or paper clips?

The “charms” on wine glass markers, do you know what I mean?  A ring that goes around the wineglass stem, and it had a distinctive figure of some kind…

You might want to switch the ring which is kind of flimsy for a strong split ring.

It might be a challenge to find one small enough to go through the space on the zipper, but🤷🏻‍♀️ in my region, most hardware stores have a section of “open stock” where you select from the little boxes.  If you had the zipper piece with you you could check that.

It’s nice to have the option of moving heat sources outside during hot weather, isn’t it?

I wanted a bread machine, myself 30 or 35 years ago. I found one in a thrift shop as well. It worked well and it made good bread but after a while, the bread seemed extremely boring. Identical texture, identical flavor. After six months, the bread machine went back to the thrift shop. My daughter was about eight at the time. I taught her how to make bread and she became very good at it.

Maybe something about soil carbon, or participating in the soil carbon challenge.

How about wooden cut out flowers, bees, birds.