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You know you're a permie when...

 
steward & bricolagier
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...when you have fights with the wasps, and they win.
This is not what it sounds like!

I'm translating their butt waggles, flying loops in my face, etc into words, as I cannot type wasp, even though they were communicating clearly.
I have a kiddie pool I keep water in for the wildlife. It had a bit too much wildlife the other day (mosquito larvae) so I dumped it, and left it to dry out.

I walked out to work, and a couple of wasps flew up to me and said "Hey Lady, yeah, you with the monkey hands to do stuff! The pool is empty! Fill it!!"
I said "I need to mow under it and stuff before I fill it, and I'm using an electric mower, don't want it wet near where I'm mowing. And I want to start where it's hottest and get that over with first."
They said "NO excuses! It's dry! Fill it up! We have stingers and know how to use them and you WILL fill the pool! We KNOW you are who does it!!"

After a bit more discussion with them, I gave in, cleared the area, mowed it well, then put the pool back and carefully filled it. I didn't even have the hose out before there was a crowd in the pool. I was tossing in the solar fountain and such, they didn't budge.
I am wasp whipped   :D
 
Pearl Sutton
steward & bricolagier
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And something that happened a while back, that I keep forgetting to write up.

First, visualize how a silly dog will drink from the sprinkler by biting at the water Numah Numah Numah  (hard to spell that sound!)

I had the sprinkler running by a gate. An adolescent male robin decided it looked like a possible bath, but rain falls the other way... Oh this is weird! He nosed into it, the water was spraying upward into his face. He bit some Numah Numah Numah! Ooh! Edged a bit closer. OOOH! Water up my wingpit!!! He lifted his wing, let it spray underneath, then backed up and preened it a little. I have another wingpit! It got sprayed too. Preen preen preen. Numah Numah Numah! Hmm... If i step in farther... belly!! Backed out, preened that, danced around. Turned his tail to it. OOOH Up under my butt spray!! Whoo! Wave tail, preen, Numah Numah Numah!! He danced in the water for about 5 minutes, getting totally soaked, all the drinks he wanted, then went up on the arbor and preened off well, flapped his wings and wiggled his butt to dry off.

You know you are a permie when that was BY FAR the best thing you have seen all summer!
 
gardener
Posts: 673
Location: South-southeast Texas, technically the "Golden Crescent", zone 9a
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Pearl Sutton wrote:
You know you are a permie when that was BY FAR the best thing you have seen all summer!


I didn't have to see to know it was amazing!

I've spent the past couple of days slowly catching up on all the garden chores that go t missed while I was in another state. I have pictures.

You know you're a Permie when, you carefully tip the bucket, dish, and assorted water containers before rinsing them for their daily refill. Most of them have a regular number of assorted stinging, and opinionated, insects who want to drink and they get upset if you just start spraying.
I've scooped three bees and wasps out of the containers before rinsing and refilling. I spent part of today with a very confused bee crawling on my glove because the water was here, somewhere!

I'm finally getting squash pollination from my bee buddies, so the squash flowers presage actual fruit forming and THAT'S EXCITING! GO, BEES!
 
steward
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Location: Pacific Wet Coast
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... you find a tree frog hiding under a pan you need. You don't want the ducks or geese harassing it, so you move it to the mossy side of a tree, and then use the hose to wet down the moss a little to make sure the little guy will have enough moisture.
 
gardener
Posts: 1230
Location: Zone 9A, 45S 168E, 329m Queenstown, NZ
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When you've run out of toilet rolls, you reuse the flax strips that were previously used to tie bunches of garlic to tie up the lavender stalks😉
20230108_161939.jpg
Bunch of garlic tied with flax strips
Bunch of garlic tied with flax strips
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Lavender stalks tied with re used flax strips
Lavender stalks tied with re used flax strips
 
gardener
Posts: 1804
Location: Zone 6b
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Use up the last bit of peanut butter in the jar...with black soldier fly larvae
20230820_065143.jpg
Dump hundreds of bsfl in there
Dump hundreds of bsfl in there
20230820_083652.jpg
Couple hours later
Couple hours later
 
Posts: 155
Location: Sequim, WA Zone 8b 16” annual rainfall
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You know you’re a permie when you’re driving your rusty pickup down the way and spot a reallly ol cast iron bathtub. SWERVE OFF THE ROAD and scream” I’m stealing y’all’s worm tea factory! …. Errr I mean bathtub!!!”

Lol comes home with another antique bathtub… I’ll do a video on the worm farm build!

https://youtube.com/shorts/qdNbgpw86oU?feature=share

Made my first YouTube video because this thread is awesome.
 
gardener
Posts: 3836
Location: yakima valley, central washington, pacific northwest zone 6b
714
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You might be a permie when...



You create an amazingly simple yet super effect shade cloth set up.  Meet Bob! Wheaton Labs' new helper.  Watch the video about Bob and how he's helped the folks at Wheaton Labs stay cooler this summer.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUcg__3k-IE
 
Megan Palmer
gardener
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Location: Zone 9A, 45S 168E, 329m Queenstown, NZ
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when newbie gardeners take on an overgrown plot and dig everything over, you rummage through their pile of greenwaste and rescue the comfrey roots, rhubarb, French sorrel, overgrown brassica, dahlia tubers and replant in common areas.

The newbies are shown all the treasures in their plot when they take it on but sadly, they don't listen or perhaps don't care.

However, their loss is my gain. The overgrown brassicas and sorrel got transplanted to the chook run, a couple of clumps of comfrey planted under a new nectarine tree and most of the roots brought home to slice and dehydrate to make a salve.

20230902_181606.jpg
scrubbed comfrey roots ready to slice and dehydrate
scrubbed comfrey roots ready to slice and dehydrate
 
Megan Palmer
gardener
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Location: Zone 9A, 45S 168E, 329m Queenstown, NZ
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You are more excited to be given the scraps and bones from butchering the deer that your hunting friends shot so that you can cook and feed it to your chickens, than the meat they give for you to eat yourselves.
 
gardener
Posts: 503
Location: Winemucca, NV
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:)
FB_IMG_1694641811911.jpg
[Thumbnail for FB_IMG_1694641811911.jpg]
 
gardener
Posts: 3230
Location: Western Slope Colorado.
655
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Who made that wonderful stick pig?

That could go in the what do do with a pile of sticks thread😄
 
Cat Knight
gardener
Posts: 503
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Thekla McDaniels wrote:Who made that wonderful stick pig?


I found it on social media. I think the story was an art student was transitioning to homesteading and did that when they were told to stack the logs that had been cut.
 
Pearl Sutton
steward & bricolagier
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....when thrift store shopping is fun because the employees either ask "what IS that thing? We wondered!" or say "Oh neat, you know what that is! We were wondering if anyone would know and buy it!"
And the other half of it, when you can text permie friends pictures of odd stuff at the thrift store, and they reply "Yes please! All of them!!" or "ooooooh! YES!!!"  

 
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You know you are a permie when you get excited by seeing a mushroom in the yard after a big storm. I ran out to identify it, and was sad to find out it was a styrofoam ball that the storm blew from someplace.
I wanted a mushroom
 
Pearl Sutton
steward & bricolagier
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when you are very tired, almost done working, dragging a tarp heavy with weeds... and you go around a preying mantis in the grass (I think she was pregnant!) but fail to give right of way to a big grasshopper.  I have preferences in bugs to be nice to.
 
Melissa Jones
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Melissa Jones wrote:You know you are a permie when you get excited by seeing a mushroom in the yard after a big storm. I ran out to identify it, and was sad to find out it was a styrofoam ball that the storm blew from someplace.
I wanted a mushroom


You know you are a permie when you are mowing and are excited because you are pretty sure you saw mushrooms this time. Baby ones. I will hope.
I want mushrooms.
 
Posts: 315
Location: New England
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Pearl Sutton wrote:....when thrift store shopping is fun because the employees either ask "what IS that thing? We wondered!" or say "Oh neat, you know what that is! We were wondering if anyone would know and buy it!"
And the other half of it, when you can text permie friends pictures of odd stuff at the thrift store, and they reply "Yes please! All of them!!" or "ooooooh! YES!!!"  



Last time that happened to me I bought a "waterless cooker" being sold as a "camp cooker" for $3. I use it about 3x a year to make an entire meal in one pot. I love my instant pot, don't get me wrong, but the waterless cooker came with a rack and 3 triangular pots that sit atop it. I can cook a chicken on the bottom and all the veg on top, one burner, one set of fuel. Total win!
 
gardener
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when you're headed on a work trip to a fancy place and plan all of your free time around the old town farmer's fair (i took the whole day off on fair day! this fair has been going for a thousand years!) and the 3 community gardens in the city where you'll be staying, instead of doing the check-off-the-sightseeing-list tour with everyone else.

and instead of prepping/planning before i go, i'm going to spend my last free day tomorrow in the garden planting corn (it's spring and supposed to rain every day while i'm gone, i'd be nuts not to) and transplanting cucumber starts. If I need to pick up something in Italy, so be it: if we want pickles and sweet corn, gotta get moving!
 
Cat Knight
gardener
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When you let the weeds run rampant in the backyard and thrice this year a neighbor tells you that they're impressed by your green thumb because they've rarely seen such a lush area.

I don't always have the heart to tell them my "green thumb" is just really good at growing bindweed. Oh, well, it keeps the bumbles happy.
 
pollinator
Posts: 424
Location: New Hampshire
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Pearl Sutton wrote:....when thrift store shopping is fun because the employees either ask "what IS that thing? We wondered!" or say "Oh neat, you know what that is! We were wondering if anyone would know and buy it!"
And the other half of it, when you can text permie friends pictures of odd stuff at the thrift store, and they reply "Yes please! All of them!!" or "ooooooh! YES!!!"  


I had this experience at a Boy Scout yard sale.  I found an Erathway Seeder with plates for $6.00.  They asked me what it was since I was so excited to buy it.
 
master pollinator
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Cat Knight wrote:When you let the weeds run rampant in the backyard and thrice this year a neighbor tells you that they're impressed by your green thumb because they've rarely seen such a lush area.

I don't always have the heart to tell them my "green thumb" is just really good at growing bindweed. Oh, well, it keeps the bumbles happy.



LOL, Cat! That sounds very like my "green thumb"!
 
May Lotito
gardener
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Location: Zone 6b
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Jealous of the people having tumbleweeds showing up at their doors. I could make a bunch of biochar from the free carbon!
Screenshot_20231019_154819_Chrome.jpg
Tumbleweeds
Tumbleweeds
 
gardener
Posts: 2108
Location: Zone 8b North Texas
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Your children ask you to clean out the numerous glass bottles, plastic and other items you are saving to reuse.
 
pollinator
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Location: Northern UK
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You observed the flower beds the previous owner of your garden established and the only yield was stinging nettles and you said: "yay, fertile soil."

Your husband moved the left over sand, gravel and pallets from a completed scheme to the side of the house until you find a use for them so passers-by wouldn't think it was a scrap yard.
 
master steward
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Location: southern Illinois, USA
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When I realize my schedule doesn’t look like the schedule of my neighbors….build wood shelter, put up firewood, finish chicken coop, put new cover on high tunnel ….
 
pollinator
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Location: south-central ME, USA - zone 5a/4b
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John F Dean wrote:When I realize my schedule doesn’t look like the schedule of my neighbors….build wood shelter, put up firewood, finish chicken coop, put new cover on high tunnel ….



... clean RMH fly ash, harvest sunchokes, transplant more daffodils around latest apple trees ...

 
pollinator
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Location: RRV of da Nort, USA
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Tristan Vitali wrote:

John F Dean wrote:When I realize my schedule doesn’t look like the schedule of my neighbors….build wood shelter, put up firewood, finish chicken coop, put new cover on high tunnel ….



... clean RMH fly ash, harvest sunchokes, transplant more daffodils around latest apple trees ...



....jack up sagging deck so sunroom doors and windows close, remember to run gas stabilizer in all summer vehicles, remove all debris from driveway before snowblower chokes on it, ready all winter-use outbuildings with protected food storage for inevitable onslaught of rodents, position snow fencing and garbage dumpster to minimize snow-drifting at top of driveway, place all root-cellared apples, potatoes, etc in a way to efficiently sift out the decaying items over winter, remove a few more roosters that are inducing a maniacal homicidal (poultricidal?) cackling laughter in my wife's animal feeding routine..... :-/
 
master gardener
Posts: 4237
Location: Upstate NY, Zone 5, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall
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You know you are a Permie when you barter with locals and you start paying for chiropractic sessions with home made pickles. (Not me, my neighbor!)
 
Pearl Sutton
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...when you have to take apart your printer after it ate a big spider, and find all kinds of dead wildlife in there.
I suspect if I sprayed my garden and the house, I'd not have quite so many 6-8 legged things in my computer accessories.

Bug in the system is a permie thing?  :D
 
Tereza Okava
gardener
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Absolutely!
I permanently switched from desktop computers with the tower on the floor to laptops ten years ago when we moved to this house and I discovered that USB slots are the preferred hidey holes of the brown recluses here... probably advertised in Spider Monthly as warm cozy luxury condos.
 
Rusticator
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....when you decide it's time to get guineas to do the dirty work of protecting you and your other critters from both ticks and copperheads, come spring!
 
Pearl Sutton
steward & bricolagier
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...when you read a cookbook and mentally substitute ingredients as you read recipes enough to see  what you might like to try. "Korean Chives" reads as "Walking Onion greens"   :D
 
Jay Angler
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You go to visit your sisters several provinces away knowing they will have a "please fix it list".

Item 2 was replacing the battery clock mechanism in a homemade clock. Sis had a replacement unit, but it didn't have the same shaft size. The hour hand just fit. The seconds hand is a lost cause and on this clock, not necessary.

However, the minute hand is needed. It's a special shape. There's a rotary tool on the bench and whooot it's got a ball mill. Wait a minute - just because I'm on holiday doesn't mean I get to be stupid. Off to my luggage to get my safety glasses! With them safely on my face, I got the second hand to fit - not as neat as I'd like, as I really needed a smaller ball mill, but it's heading over for testing.

But seriously - who other than a permie would make sure they packed their safety glasses? Maybe I should say specifically, a permie who requires prescription safety glasses. They're hard to fake!
 
Timothy Norton
master gardener
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You know you're a permie when your partner reminds you that a project you want to do might in fact complete a BB and not to forget to document it.
 
gardener
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When you become a teen and realize spam isn't rich people food!  All our food come from the cellar, a glass jar or the freezer.  That makes spam a delicacy.  My perspectives have changed drastically since I started working with the rest of the world.
 
master pollinator
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Timothy Norton wrote:You know you're a permie when your partner reminds you that a project you want to do might in fact complete a BB and not to forget to document it.


Aside: this also indicates you are fortunate to have an awesome partner, and that makes life so much easier.
 
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