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The House of Riona: Micro Homesteading 2025

pollinator

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Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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posted 4 months ago

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Now that we're moved into our little rental house, I'll move forward posting about my micro endeavours here and just make a new thread each year, no more part 1 part 2 stuff, I'm guessing that was annoying. But I feel like I've finally "arrived" as I have a small yard which wraps around the house. The landlord is flexible, but has also cautioned me to not be in a hurry to transform the yard, as she doesn't want it to be "unsightly". I assume this means no killing grass with cardboard, etc.

Learning how to grow more plants, create a composting system, sell vintage+ from my living room, and more, with disabilities.

Survey of the space:
So we have a small 2 bed 1 bath house, about 900 sq. ft., with a small grass yard which wraps around the house on three sides. This plot of land has other units on it too, a big parking lot and some common yard. I have all of my plants right now on the west side of the house, it gets sun basically all day long, so a vast improvement from our balcony at the old apartment which had about 5 hours of very dappled sun daily.
I tested soil depth in the lawn, as I suspected it only goes about 7 inches down before I hit burried concrete, this and the grass make me think raised beds may be the order of the day, for now I just have my pots, but I'm hoping to get started on raised beds this summer. One at a time so as to go slow for the landlord.

I have come to hate moving, it gets harder and harder and its so stressful, packing, unpacking, figuring out how to set everything up. Our second bedroom is my husband's "mancave and storage for camping stuff and hopefully a place for guests to sleep. Both bedrooms are small, the living room is large, but it has to work as: A store, an eating area, a living room and have my computer stuff, so its crowded. I'd hoped to start doing house concerts monthly, myself and another performer or band sharing the time, but I'm thinking there's just not enough room in here, so we may have to stick with outdoor concerts in the warm months, on the east side of the house. We don't have any outbuildings, and our kitchen is big enough but its not big by any means. My husband's blacksmithing goals won't be achievable here unless its all portable and he does it in the driveway, and I don't know where we can work on learning to make mead, maybe in the mancave, but its already getting crowded in there haha. We'll see and do the best we can for all the goals.

We've almost got everything from the old apartment, so soon it will all be here.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Nancy Reading

steward and tree herder

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Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year

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posted 4 months ago

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Riona Abhainn wrote:The landlord is flexible, but has also cautioned me to not be in a hurry to transform the yard, as she doesn't want it to be "unsightly"

Small incremental steps and observation are good permaculture principles...

Thinking about resources (water, sun, soil) zones and linking aspects together (kitchen - compost - food crops) will help you make a garden that works for you and your landlady I'm sure.

If part of the yard is more private you can be a bit more creative there. I love Jen's creative raised beds for example. Forest gardens can be very attractive and many people have the issue of making the front yard look 'normal'
Here are some threads that might give inspiration:
https://permies.com/t/108608/urban-suburban-permie-picture-thread
https://permies.com/t/162909/Edible-ornamental-plants
https://permies.com/t/143914/Edible-Yard-Visited
https://permies.com/t/158069/Suggestions-tiny-lot
https://permies.com/t/189864/Sneaky-suggestions-boulevard-garden

I think having neat edging makes the difference between looking smart and looking untidy (I go for the untidy look myself!)

How Permies works: https://permies.com/wiki/34193/permies-works-links-threads
My projects on Skye: The tree field, Growing and landracing, perennial polycultures, "Don't dream it - be it! "

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1202

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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Tasty greens:
I harvested more chickweed which we ate in a sautey with the caput garlic stem/leaves/premature bulb and some bell peppers. Then I harvested the "daikon radishes" which turned out to be ordinary radishes, my MIL didn't pay attention to which pile of seeds were which that she'd saved haha. So we had the radishes and the leaves in a slow cook with tritip, broth, and bell peppers, which we'll have again tonight for dinner.

I planted some jav. pepper seeds I seed saved from groceries, hopefully they grow, I think the serano I tried planting is finally growing! The cantalope didn't, but I have small baby white pumpkin plants growing now, some things just take longer to sprout than I think they should, haha. Additionally I planted more calendula, and a lacy fiddleneck phacelia. Also added some carrots, because I had a pot of them, but only 2 seem to have survived the move, so I refilled the pot with seeds and will let the ones I have continue to grow until autumn in the hopes they get big. Some of my wildflowers survived the move, barely, and some didn't. There's a section of barkdust, I'm scooping it out occasionally and adding it to my blueberry plant because they like the acid.

Is it true that acid loving plants like barkdust, but all plants like barkchips? As I suspected no fruit set on my Italian plum tree, but it was its first year of flowering so I knew that was a possability because its still figuring itself out.

I'm still going outside to do slug check before bed each night, I need to take Nancy's suggestion and learn how to build a trap for them. Most nights here there are none, but sometimes they're are some. I found my box of disposible medical gloves, I use one on one hand, the other hand I use to feel for the slugs, since seeing isn't an option. Then when I come upon one, I use my gloved hand to pick it and fling it as far as possible into the driveway. Not very permy, but slugs always slime me once they're in my hand, and I have to scrape the goo off and wash my hand multiple times and so glove works better. Once I can make a trap it will help. Plus I want to get a lavender plant, a rosemary plant and a new mint plant because slugs don't like plants with strong smells, and I'll position those around the other plants.

My MIL is coming up on Sat. I'm going to see if she can find some untreated pallets and we'll build a 2 bay compost area.

I hate how the yard is so uneven, I mean normally that is great because its natural, but with potted plants they can't be slanted or else the water will all end up in one spot. I think that, inspite of initial costs, it will make sense to do raised beds, and sure I'll keep the pots at least some of them but they can be less important and more spread out in ideal spots. It will take a while to graduate to the raised beds though, I may hire my MIL to build them for me. I'm imagining wooden sides, that wire mesh underneath.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1202

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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Mint and camamile:
My MIL is here for the day, she brought me mint and camamile to plant, it will help keep slugs away because they don't like things with strong scents. My pumpkin plants have a strong scent, so I figure getting more intense smelling plants will be good. I want to eventually have raised garden beds, still some large pots, and then start using little pots to start plants to sell once my vintage+ business gets going, my change of address comes through on the 10th and establishing residency is the 1st step before I can apply for that type B permit.

Last night we had our first batch of microgreens from our new house in the salad, plus I harvested the nipplewort leaves for it too, I allowed them to bud and only a few buds became flowers for some reason, plus side was seeing what the flowers are like, minus was that the leaves are more bitter if you let the plant grow that far in its life cycle. It didn't "mess up" the salad though so maybe bitter is fine.

Unfortunately there were no free pallets at the back end of the Wilco parking lot down where my MIL lives, so building the composting system will have to wait until next time

. I'm envisioning those raised beds I mentioned, and using mint as ground cover, because one can step on it and its fine, it will surround the raised beds and eventually replace the grass hopefully, and protect the raised beds and pots from slugs. I mean its not like we're overrun with slugs, but they love new sprouts and so I just don't want them around. I mean at least snails are edible, slugs are just icky haha. Eventually I want to buy a yard fountain, maybe that will attract a frog or two, but we can't do anything fancy like building a pond, but frogs like eating slugs, so there's that.

I dropped off some more clothing at Village Merchants, the consignment store where clothes go, I had a bit of money in my account so I picked that up while there. I don't really want to sell clothing in my mini shop, so when I end up with it it goes to that store to sell for a percentage. Having vintage clothing to sell from the shop in my living room can lead to that musty smell, which I don't want in my house.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1202

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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So hot here:
While I'm thankful the 90+ degree weather waited until summertime this year, sometimes it shows up early, I still don't like it. Summertime is my favourite season and I love 70s and 80s, but 90s are too hot for me, unless I'm swimming in the river of course. I had my first river swim of the year on Thurs. afternoon with my best friend, I swim and play in natural water every week in the warm months, its something I do for myself that really makes a positive difference in my life, I started being purposeful about this in 2020 to get me through the brutality of restrictions, and have done it every summer since. I've always loved swimming/being in natural water, but this committment to myself and my wellness in this way has been amazing and really good for me, and I intend to continue doing so weekly as long as possible. Its always very sad when that time comes to an end each year, "fake" water like swimming pools just doesn't have the same effect, I mean its nice when natural isn't an option, but it doesn't work as a replacement.

I planted the camameel and another lacy fiddleneck phacelia tonight in pots, as well as planting four clumps of mint on the borders of the yard to get them started. I really hope they can work down into my disaster rocky/hard-ass dirt underneath all that crabgrass. I had to plant them in little piles of compost because I can't really dig into the ground its so hard. There are at least dandylyons in my yard which is a good sign. I hope later in summer, like August? To have at least a couple of wooden raised beds built, and of course a composting 2 bay system. There's a spot in my yard that is barkdust so I'm hoping to convert that into a mushroom patch come latesummer, but that's a few months away and I don't want to hurry it along. I'll keep growing most things in their pots for now but will eagerly await the shift to also having some raised beds in a month or 2.

Because money isn't growing on my plum tree I have to really think carefully and take my time and be realistic about slow going goals. I wish I had a bunch of money to throw at all of the projects and goals I have, but even if I did I don't know that I'd be capable of making it all happen, with my mental health differences small steps work best for me anyhow, so I'll crawl along like a tortus, because the tortus will win in the end anyhow.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Nancy Reading

steward and tree herder

Posts: 11199

Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year

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Sometimes not having the time or money to do something works out best in the long run. As you get to know your property plans may change and then better resources may become available.
Mint tends to like it damper. I worry that if in a 'raised area' of compost it may find it a bit dry. I think it will make a lovely path, though may also try to climb into bed with your plants!

How Permies works: https://permies.com/wiki/34193/permies-works-links-threads
My projects on Skye: The tree field, Growing and landracing, perennial polycultures, "Don't dream it - be it! "

Riona Abhainn

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Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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Warm warm warm:
While we're back down in the 80s now after 2 days of 90+ my new arrivals to my yard are still mad at me. Those four clumps of mint aren't super happy with me right now, and my potted camamele isn't happy either. I'm watering them each day to ease them through, but hopefully we'll get less intense weather for the rest of the week to help them adjust. I also think that perenials like camamele likely don't like being transplanted at this time of the year. So we'll see. You know who's really happy though? My mini white pumpkin plants, they're loving the sun.

I was reading the thread about being okay without air conditioning. And thinking to myself "thank goodness this new house has central air",

So I can keep being air conditioned haha. I am careful about using it sparingly though, less monies spent and less yucky for the environment. We need it some of the time though, because my husband runs warm by nature so he needs to be able to cool down.

I've decided to be less concerned about slugs, we don't seem to have them often here, so I'm going to stop checking nightly. I think if it rains sure, but other than that if they show up they show up and hopefully my plants survive.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1202

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

134

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"Weeds" and the Landlord:
So today I talked to the landlord, after his lawn person took away a bunch of my happy dandilions who were about to bloom. I asked can we leave the dandilions alone? Can we leave the yard alone at least to some degree? My goal is to crowd out the crabgrass by allowing the dandilions to flourish, and clover, and for my mint I recently planted to spread vigorously all over the yard and be useful ground cover. He wasn't buying it, he's convinced that dandilions are bad, even though I tried telling him about how they pull up good things for other plants to use, eating the leaves and flowers, etc. It was rather like I was talking to a brickwall. He at least told the lawn person to not mow my mint, but if it "gets out of control" he might in future. I want to do things in a more permy way than he's used to and he doesn't get it. At least he agreed to have them not spray pesticides in my yard anymore. So I guess that's a win.

The good thing is that he and his wife have some raised beds they are going to bring me to get started on that side of things so I guess I can't throw too big of a fit, I'm hoping that, overtime, he'll start to see what I'm doing here and realize it could be good. Especially if I were to find a way to keep the grass from getting too tall and through diversification practices get it to where the yard doesn't get too dry and become a fire hazard. We'll see.

Today we did some plant ID stuff, mostly in my pots/containers, because the things I wanted to identify in the grass already got destroyed

At least parts of the dandilions still exist, there's no way to get them all

)) Anyways We have more common nipplewort, which will go in the next salad, plus I'll use some of the dandilion leaves that aren't rough yet, as once they're rough they're even more bitter. I found a tiny baby maple tree, which means the ones who were throwing shade on my old balcony must have dropped a seed! So I moved it to its own little pot and we'll go from there. I also found some plants which aren't edible and don't make flowers, and which are supposedly toxic and I pulled those ones, tearing them into pieces to decompose back to the earth. I need to get my composting system figured out, maybe I should just toss things in a bucket for now to sit until I can get pallots and whatnot. I mean its probably better than just tossing stuff.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Joylynn Hardesty

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Location: Due to winter mortality, I stubbornly state, zone 7a Tennessee

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I need to get my composting system figured out, maybe I should just toss things in a bucket for now to sit until I can get pallots and whatnot. I mean its probably better than just tossing stuff.

Sounds like you are using the valuable system Permies call chop and drop.

'What we do now echoes in eternity.' Marcus Aurelius
How Permies Works Dr. Redhawk's Epic Soil Series

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

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Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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My husband doesn't like dandylyon leaves unless I sneak them in small doses:
So I had enough dandylyon leaves to have them be a principle ingredient in a salad last night, plus some nipplewort leaves, and plus some storebought things. We used raspberry balsamic in order to counteract that some of the dandylyon leaves were bitter. I enjoyed the salad and it was fun to have the juxt-opposed flavours mingling, but my husband ate hardly any and focused on the meat and potatoes and when questioned he said it was too bitter.

I think from now on, I will start "sneaking" some dandylyon leaves into a salad kit, so he gets used to them slowly. He likes nipplewort, chickweed and amarinth fine, just thinks these leaves are too bitter, I mean I told him I'm going to start sneaking them into other salads, but I won't use them as a primary ingredient again anytime soon since he's just not ready for that

Its been neat having an actual house, because we're having people over more often, for dinner or just for visiting. I mean we've always liked having people over, but now it somehow works better, partly because we have more room, partly because no one has to struggle to find our building and apartment number in a complex. We love it! My BIL is staying over for several nights, up from Stayton about an hour and ten min. SE of us.

I feel really confident that we can be happy in this house longterm. Yeah the yard isn't huge by any means, smaller than a typical city lot, but that's fine for me. Because of my visual impairment and my desire to maximize my resources I'm a very thorough person who wants to be on top of things, and so a large yard may never be realistic for me. I'm just thankful to have a yard with amazing sun and no longer be gardening on a balcony or patio, feeling so grateful. Ultimately, I wish I could just cram things close enough together that there's room for me to walk between, but not enough room for the lawn person to maneuver, then I can slowly have things become non-grass and be better. I know I likely can't fully get away with that, but in my area where I have all of my pots so far its a microcosm of what I want, clover flowers, green, not drying out, etc, because the lawn mower can't fit inbetween! Also the yard is small enough that I could honestly crawl around with garden scissors and keep anything that dries out from getting too tall. The landlord is worried about fire hazard, and there are city ordinances, and I get that, but I feel like I can learn to manage it without someone showing up and disturbing everything every two weeks, because its all on a small scale.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Nancy Reading

steward and tree herder

Posts: 11199

Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year

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posted 3 months ago

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I have the same problem with my husband and salad greens. To be honest I probably wouldn't try him with dandelion greens, because I also find them a bit bitter usually. We don't have 'salad' we have 'cold suppers'; as long as there isn't too much raw green leaves on the plate he's happy. More leaves can be finely sliced and hidden under a curry or chilli sauce.

How Permies works: https://permies.com/wiki/34193/permies-works-links-threads
My projects on Skye: The tree field, Growing and landracing, perennial polycultures, "Don't dream it - be it! "

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1202

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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A summer rainstorm:
Fri. and Sat. were rain, and Fri. had some mini downpours, which my plants loved! Except for the allovera, which I moved inside for the duration. I think the plants that loved it the most were my favas, they grew a lot. And the poor dandilions which are trying desperately to get ahead of the lawn person, but can't get there.

The ones tucked between my pots though have a fighting chance. Even though the lawn person puts a damper on some of the goals here, I can still do a lot, so I'm trying to look on the bright side of things. 2 out of the 4 mint plants I planted from my MIL's house took successfully, so I suppose I'll just keep trying to add them. We've got lovely clover flowers tucked between my pots, so probably attracting pollinators.
My husband and I talk about what it would be like to just rent always. I mean i'm mostly open to the idea, but that's because I don't see a future where we realistically have enough money to own. At least not anytime soon.

My BIL stayed over for 4 nights, we like having guests, and its more pleasant now that we've got a second bedroom to put said guests in. Guests are one of those things that are super stressful and yet fun at the same time, I'm very much of 2 minds upon the matter.

So the pitcher plant finally bit the dust. I think when we decide to try again that thing will mostly live indoors and I'll move it around to absorb humidity where possible, they really need that. People say "put it in the bathroom" but I don't want it luring flies into the bathroom yick. So other than that we'll have to figure it out.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1202

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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Performing at Glastonbury Renaissance Faire this weekend in Toledo OR:
So we'll be camping down there and I'll be performing all day Sat. and Sun., just 7 miles from the beach, so looking forward to not-too-cold-and-not-too-hot, weather, looks good, we're right along the Yaquina River so hoping to at least dip in our lower bodies tomorrow evening once camp is set up, might not be warm enough for the rest of our bodies haha, hopefully my husband will do it with me. My husband likes swimming, but dislikes camping, but likes faire. Come over for the day Sat. or Sun. if you're close enough and like Renaissance faires, we're small but mighty. We sleep in the car and set up a canopy behind it for changing etc. and cook to the side. The car is way too cozy aka crowded, so I'm hoping next year we might be able to get some sort of pull-behind trailor, just a tiny one, just enough room to stretch out and sleep in, our car is a RAV4 so we couldn't pull anything heavy.

The mini white pumpkins are growing a lot, at least I should say the seeds came from mini white pumpkins, because my friend tells me that pumpkins aren't always true to what their seeds came from. I have them both growing in a shared 8 to 10 gal. pot, I'm wondering when I need to seperate them and transplant one? Or if they can stay harmonious/ I have never grown pumpkins before.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Nancy Reading

steward and tree herder

Posts: 11199

Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year

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Hope the faire goes well - have fun!

My understanding is that pumpkins are heavy feeders and usually trailing habit vines..I think if they are fed well they will probably do OK in a big pot like that, but might do better in two pots! If they are mini pumkin, maybe you could train them one either side of an archway?

How Permies works: https://permies.com/wiki/34193/permies-works-links-threads
My projects on Skye: The tree field, Growing and landracing, perennial polycultures, "Don't dream it - be it! "

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

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Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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Time to transplant pumpkins: Nancy, they're really getting huge haha, I wonder if they're going to be mini pumpkins or if they're going to be bigger than their progenator. I really need to transplant one to another pot in the next day or 2.

I came home Sun. night from performing at faire to find that my favas are flowering! I harvested a lady's thumb plant to use in salad, with some dandylion leaves, trying to get my husband used to them. And yes lots of storebought lettuce to help him. He said it was a little better this time, so I'm figuring out how many dandylion leaves is too many for him. I have pallots now for my composting system, it will be very rudimentary, a bay for decomposition and then pile finished compost next to it for use. I will have Logan build it for me on Sat. He's not into any of this gardening and building stuff. What he likes is anything about cooking, so he does like cooking what I grow.

I have been preparing to find and buy a room divider for the shop, as we're ready to apply for the home occupation permit. So we need to get our store space ready. My mom found one on buy-nothing locally on facebook and brought it to me, I'm so glad! I may need a second one, we'll see, we need to have some semblence of division between our living space and our store space.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1202

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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Peapods!:
My snap pea has its first 2 peapods! I talk to all of my plants so I told it how proud I am of it

I hope it gets more

We need to get a hose, hopefully tomorrow we'll get one, I'm sending my husband to buy one after work tomorrow night, Having a spigget is a luxury which we now get to enjoy since we're in a house so I can get a hose. I don't want a sprinkler, I love watering everything by hand, I'll just do it with the hose now instead of with a jug, I'll get one of those ends that has a nice somewhat gentle spray option and hold it at the base of the plant.

On Sat. my husband will build me my simple compost bay, my MIL brought me 3 pallots and so that will be the bay, then finished compost will be piled next to it for use.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1202

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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Nieces love the peapods:
My 2 favourite nieces are in town from FL with their mom, my best friend. They're my favourite, but I don't tell them that, and the others don't know. Anyways they loved my snap pea pods! There are more growing too so looking forward to eating more.

So some disappointing things, my mini white pumpkin plant that I transplanted yesterday didn't have a great transfer, its mad at me. I think I'll add more organic fertilizer to it and the other as well tomorrow to help it bounce back. I hate transplanting, I find that only some plants take correctly in their new location and some die. So this is why I transplant as little as possible, like I never start seeds indoors or anything like that. I didn't realize these mini pumpkin plants would get so big, hence my need to seperate them.

I have a bunch of pig weed and amaranth growing, I'll be harvesting most of it for salad and sauteys soon. And I have some surprise doe foot, which will make pretty flowers for the pollinators, leaving it in place to grow its life cycle.

My camameel has its first flower!, friends enjoying taking and nibbling on mint leaves.

Logan wasn't able to build me a pallot compost bay, he watched some viddies on youtube and it looks like we need a couple of other things to make it happen

I was bummed when I got home today. So hopefully this next week.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1202

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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Wilting:
So the pumpkin plant I transplanted doesn't look great, but I think it will rally and grow some more leaves, because its structure is sound and its got new growth. Clearly I will no longer think 2 pumpkin plants, even mini ones, can share space so closely. The one left in the original pot is also feeling less stressed. I have found though that my serano pepper and one of my calendulas and some of my wildflower plants are getting wilty so I moved them to the south and east of the house. As of before everything had been on the west side because that's the most sun. But it also means everything gets the heat-of-the-day sun from 4pm-6pm, which is when our hottest part of the day is around here. I'm hoping that making some shifts in where wilty things are located will assist them to feel better. I also added a bit of organic fertilizer to the wilty plants to maybe help them feel better. Still enjoying peapods. We've had several, but hopefully more will come because according to the internet one plant usually produces at least ten pods, they're subtilely sweet.

I did another salad in which all of the greens come from the yard, pigweed, amaranth and lady's thumb, plus a few sneaky dandylion leaves, my husband will learn to like them if I keep sliding them in haha. I'm disappointed that my blueberry plant won't flower or fruit this year, I think its because of too much shade in the spring at the dappled sun balcony apartment. Oh well maybe a break won't hurt it.

Glad to get some local strawberries at the farmers market last week, plus some proccolini for salad and we'll sautey the rest probably on Sat. night.

The yard, because we don't have the raised beds in yet I still have a lot of wiggle room to move things about and see where they're happiest in their containers.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Nancy Reading

steward and tree herder

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Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year

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If it is hot at the moment, then moving the transplants to a shadier spot is likely to help them whilst they regrow their root system. I don't know if this is what is the problem with your blueberry though. I have a bumper crop (potentially) on my blueberries this year and we're not renowned for lots of sun or heat ....How old is it? Is it otherwise looking healthy and growing well? Pot grown plants are almost entirely dependent on what you feed them, so it may be needing something for flower development.

How Permies works: https://permies.com/wiki/34193/permies-works-links-threads
My projects on Skye: The tree field, Growing and landracing, perennial polycultures, "Don't dream it - be it! "

M Ljin

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Maybe keep watering with a weak comfrey or nettle tea?

I also wonder if your husband would like different preparations of the wild greens? My favorite dandelion dish is stir fried greens with cheese added towards the end.

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

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Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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New hose:
I finally have a hose, its a fancy one my father got me for my early birthday present, its not super long but oh well, at least the part of the yard I can't reach I can still use my water jug but fill up with the hose, which isn't as bad as filling it up with the spigget, which in turn isn't as bad as going in and out and filling it up at the sink, we're making progress in incraments.

Moving the plants to the south and east sides of the house is seeming to work, I also moved my plum tree, and the babies, to the east for morning and afternoon sun. I think some plants just don't like the combination of heat-of-the-day sunshine with the brick exterior of the house on that side. Next to move will be the second pumpkin plant, the one who stayed put in the original pot, as it has some yellowing leaves. Oddly enough my favas are quite happy in their pot next to said west-facing brick.

I'm harvesting the first of my carrots, apparently sometimes they'll die and then you harvest them, I know that doesn't always happen, which is nice because then we can use the feathery tops in stews/soups.
My first calendula is blooming which is fun, and my camamele too, it now has enough flowers to make some tea with.

In the warm months I swim in the river every week, a principle source of wellness and happiness for me. And once a summer I do a float with my innertubes, this year I took my MIL with me and we chose Stayton Bridge to Buell Miller boatlaunch, on the North Santiam where she lives. I get so high off of the negative ions from the water and the rapids, sure I only float stretches with class 2 at the highest, because innertubes, but its always intense and wonderful and powerful.
Nancy, the blueberry plant is healthy, lots of leaves and very happy on the south side of the house, its had I believe four summers, three in my custody, its made blueberries before. I'm okay with it taking a gap year haha.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

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Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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Maieshe maybe you're right re. the bitter leaves.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

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Chamomile flowers and fava beans:
So I cut chamomile flowers to dry for making tea next week, I put them in a tupperware without a lid to dry out in a darkish well-ventilated place, as per the internet, which says it will take a week for them to dry. I've never made tea out of my own flowers before so looking forward to having my best friend Fred over to share it.
And my fava beans have lovely plumpy beans on them! Not totally sure when they'll be ready to harvest, but I've heard that they can just stay on the plant until they're all ready and I can harvest them all at the same time, even if some have started to dry and others haven't. Hopefully that is true?

We got us a small barbecue/smoker combo which we used for the first time today. Its a cheapish one to start and we'll use it until it dies, but I'm hoping that, when that day arrives, my husband will be confident enough in himself to upgrade to some sort of rockety barbecue/smoker thing. We'll start here though, likely it will last us a while. He wants to make sure something this price is our tester, in case it gets stolen, then we know we can't have anything more spendy. We're not in the worst county, so hopefully it won't be stolen, but obviously even in the safest places things can disappear. And because we live near the mall it means young people who may, or may not, be behaving themselves. But if all goes well then in future I'll aim rockety. It would likely be the only rockety thing we could have since we rent.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

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Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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Performing at Canterbury Renaissance Faire, Jul. 19-20, 26-27, Silverton OR:
Its time for my most lucrative faire of the year, 2 weekends, lots of fun, good joust, in the woods, lots going on. If you're in the area and you're into that sort of thing you should come!

So the simple compost bay is finally built! I'll stir with a broadfork of 3 prongs, next thing I need to buy. And once compost exists I'll scoop it into its own pile for use. Maybe I should get a shovel instead of a broadfork?
Now its time to save up for a Bokashi, that way it can compost the things a compost bay can't, like meat and citris, I want to compost as much as possible, and then I'll pour the Bokashi onto the compost in the bay to quicken it etc. I've heard that one can make their own, but we're not handy DIY types, it took forever to find time to send my husband outside to build the compost bay for me. I try to do as much as possible on my own re. garden stuff, but sometimes I need his help with things.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

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Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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Pumpkin flowers:
Pumpkin plant no. 1 is flowering! I learned that each flower is short lived, and that I need to pollinate them as they can't do it on their own and, though one hopes that the creatures will do it there is a chance they won't.
My pea plant started making snap peas again! Part of it died off but part of it has a bunch of little pods and I've eaten a few more. But these ones don't grow as fast as the first batch.
Getting ready for weekend 2 of Canterbury Ren, Silverton OR, all day Sat. and Sun. my stage sets are in the morning but I wander perform in the hedges and byways all day.

I harvested some powerfully flavourful mini carrots, but I learnt that they can't go in the veggie drawer in the fridge to store unless they're in a container/bag/something,

they withered after a few days and are thus being composted, so disappointing, but I just keep planting more as they get harvested, so there's that.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

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Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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My baby pumpkins:
I have 2 baby pumpkins growing now! They look different in colour than the pumpkins I harvested the seeds from, but I was told that would be likely. I wonder if they'll also be a different size than their progenators, which were those small "boo pumpkins" the white ones. Continuing to hand pollinate pumpkin flowers, and now that my cucumber plant is flowering I'm trying to do so with it as well, though admittedly the flowers are very different so I don't know whether I'll be successful, but the other day a bee buzzed next to my ear, so hopefully that means the plants are being properly pollinated. I think we might get some bees next spring, maybe mason bees, or this type of bee called sweet bees that my MIL told me about, something that will not create freakouts from the neighbours, and something that is low-maintainance for us.

Weekend 2 of Canterbury Faire went great! And then my MIL came and visited for a couple of nights last week, she helped me with a couple of projects for getting the store area ready in the living room, gave me transplantation and composting tips, etc. She also created some stress, but I suppose such is to be expected at this point.

We have some malo plants in our yard, which I'm letting be here, and a couple of "weeds" which I'm letting be here because they make tasty flowers for the pollinators and won't hurt us if we leave them be. My chamemile is blooming again, so I'll harvest the flowers in a few days to go in the drying container with the others for tea. My fiddleneck faecelia are blooming, they're so pretty and have a lovely scent. Calendula continue to bloom and we continue to use them in salads, plus we have lady's thumb again which we're using as well, plus sneaky amounts of dandilyon leaves here and there. Sometimes we have enough greens for not needing to use any from the store, and sometimes we buy salad kits and add in the goodies from the yard, just depends on where we're at in the cycles of things.

I'm concerned about my broccoli plant, planted in late May, it isn't showing signs that its going to grow a head yet at all. My favas are drying on the stalk, that way I know they got as big as possible, rather than risk picking them "early".

This is the second year I've had liatris, and the second year it hasn't bloomed. I think if it doesn't bloom next year I'm giving up on it. My ostrameria failed this year, I'm hoping next year they'll come back, but perhaps they're caput? Only one of the wildflower seeds I planted was successful, back a couple of months ago, I don't know how much of that was my fault and how much was the seeds being too old. I passed them along to a friend with the caviot that they're like 7 years old, we'll see if she has any success with them, I also sent her the rest of the faecelia because she loves them and I got some to enjoy so passing them on.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1202

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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Well we definitely have bees around!: There is a new pumpkin on the plant I thought hadn't flowered yet! This means that even if I miss some flowers and don't hand pollinate them on the pumpkin plants the bees are present and doing their thing! I still want to rent some for next year though, need to look into that. No baby cucumbers yet, just flowers, I don't know how long it takes, definitely longer than the pumpkins.

The attempt at peppers didn't go anywhere this year, they were from grocery store javenero seeds, so maybe they're just not viable, but maybe I just need to try again next year, we'll see. Meanwhile I planted more favas which have started growing alongside the big finished ones, but I'm letting those beans dry on the stalks and leaving them there while the new little guys grow. In the end we intend to make Moroccan bean dip with them all.

My new shovel arrived and I was able to stir/turn my compost for the first time today. We've been adding ash from our barbecuer/smoker combo. We really want to try smoking some meat with it, my husband didn't really do any research and thought cooking meat slowly while wrapped in tin foil counted as smoking, yeah that didn't work, I mean it cooked and we ate it, but it wasn't smoked meat

I busked for tips at a farmers market and also bought us some babaganush and pita bread, which we ate on our swimdate today playing in the river. I swim in the river weekly, or some body of natural water, its healthful and I'd recommend it to everyone who is capable in water.

So yeah, my jav. plant turned into a third pumpkin plant haha, from a volunteer seed I guess, because it wasn't one of the ones I planted. So even more pumpkins, because it has one, but it makes yellow pumpkins rather than the white ones I planted on purpose.
I'm also enjoying the sour clover that is growing, that's what I call it anyways, I can't remember what its really called. My cuzzies and I used to nibble on it as kids in our grandma's large backyard.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1202

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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Baby cucumbers and Bokashi:
There are now a few tiny cucumber babies on my cucumber plant! And I acquired some daylilies from someone at church, she has too many so I took three and planted them, as one can eat the flowers and roots. Put them all in a giant pot for now. This time I got to eat the mini carrots I harvested, they went into our chicken noodle soup, along with some storebought carrots, and all of our perslane which I harvested for the soup. I think its too late in the year to plant more mini-carrot seeds, but I still have some and we'll harvest them likely in Nov. since they were planted last month.

I've got my Bokashi started, wishing I'd gotten the two bucket instead of the one bucket kit, as now I understand that it has to wait undisturbed for 2 weeks, it can't really do its thing, according to the instructions, as I'm adding new foodwaste in there. I hope the instructions are wrong. Anyways whenever I add more meat/citrus/bones/complex foodwaste in there I pour a bit of the Bokashi bran over it, and eventually I'll need to drain the compost tea out through the little nozzle. I put my first stuff in on Sat. and I hope the instructions are wrong and it can do its process as I add more in. The idea of having to wait for 2 weeks and just hang onto scraps somewhere else to put in later is unappealing.

Well it happened. This year we've been fortunate because we've only had one or two days of 90+ weather at a time, we all hoped that would be all and there would be no longer stretches, as here 3 days counts as a "heatwave". Well we're on day 3 of our first heatwave of the year, and we're all disappointed at not succeding in our local goal of avoiding heatwaves this year. Hopefully we don't have another. Summer is my fave time of year, and I like 70s and 80s, but 90+ just isn't any fun because it feels too hot to me.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

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Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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A big week next week for me!:
Next week, starting with Mon. Aug. 18th we're beginning our 3-week soft opening of the vintage+ shop, I'm calling it Cave of Treasures Vintage Plus. We're going to be testing it out and making sure this is a viable plan going forward. Once we can sit on it and see how it went then we'll plan our hard opening which will start perminency. My MIL is building my signs right now, we can't have too big of a sign because that requires an additional permit which I don't want to have to aim for, life already has too many permits, especially because we rent, so we can't fudge things.

The hours for our first week will be:
Mon. 12:30pm-3:30pm,
Tue. 12:30pm-6pm,
Thurs. 12:30pm-3:30pm,
Sat. 12:30pm-3:30pm.
Why such weird hours? Well we need to do this at times my husband is home, we all agree that, with my disabilities, its probably not wise to have people coming over whom I don't know, they could give me counterfit money or worse, and because I can't see well enough to visually recognize it as well as it being hard to maneuver people paying with card I'm vulnerable to that as well as other things. Am I being a chicken? Probably, but I've given into everyone else's concerns in my life and we're doing this in this way.
We're also not morning people at all haha.

The other great thing next week is that we're having our first house concert, on Tue. Aug. 19th at 7pm, we want to do this each month during the less-wet months, out in the front yard, I'll sing a set each time (Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing) and then after intermission we'll have a guest performer/band for a set. This time for our inogural concert we have Cirkus Pandamonium (Exactly what it sounds like)

)) Suggested $10 donation per person and suggested bring-a-snack-or-dessert-or-drinks-to-share. Kids are welcome. Just know that there will be some songs about intense themes like death, etc.

So if you're in the area and want to come to the shop or come to the concert the address is:
11714 SE Fuller Rd. Portland OR 97222 (right where Portland and Milwaukie come together, in Clackamas County.)

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

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Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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House concert reflections:
So I've had this goal of hosting house concerts for a couple of years now and, since we have a small house now, I finally got to do one! We did it in the front yard and it was really fun in some ways, but in other ways it was super stressful. The result is that, while I'm so glad I got to do it, we're not doing it again, so much for my plans of doing them monthly in the warmer months. Setting up everything/logistics was hard and the putting everything away afterwords was also hard. I think myself and my husband were both overwhelmed by having that many people over at once, the most we've ever had over at once. The older I get the less extraverted I get, which for me is super embarassing and frustrating. But in the last few years its the new reality in my life and learning how to adapt to it and accept it isn't easy. My husband, while social, is an intravert so it was no surprise that he was a bit overwhelmed by such a large number of people here at once. My new house rule is that we're not having more than 4 people come over at a time anymore, except for holidays.

Regarding our mini-store soft opening, its starting out slower than I'd like, but that's the nature of new things, I'm not giving up on it yet though.

We harvested our first cucumber today. The type I have is funny, because it isn't smooth, sort of ridgy, and it tasted better when we peeled the skin, I don't know if that's because it wasn't quite ripe or just because that's how that type works. It got added to our salad with its yard neighbours lamb's quarters and calendula, and mini yellow plum tomatoes from my MIL's garden, plus some spinich which we didn't grow. I do intend to plant lettuce and spinich tomorrow for autumn harvesting.

I'm learning that composting requires a lot more dirt and/or finished compost than I ever thought. Apparently in order to get compost one must add in some sort of dirt/soil/etc. to beget more compost. I also didn't realize how easy it would be to get dries/browns. I figured I'd have too much greens/wets and not enough browns, but the opposite seems to be true, because I can use anything from used paper towels to shredded mail as browns, even paper bags.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Nancy Reading

steward and tree herder

Posts: 11199

Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year

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Catching up.....You've had a busy summer!

Well done on the concert! Having lots of people over is stressful, whether you know them well or not! Maybe you could think on it over the winter and see if the bits that worked well and you enjoyed could be changed into a different sort of event.

Whether the carrots store or not depends on the variety I think, as well as the time of year and the storage conditions. In a refrigerator is actually one of the poorer places as it tends to dry things out - hence the rubbery carrot effect. You could try placing the wilted carrots in cold water for a few hours and they may stiffen back up, but picking them fresh for the dinner as you need them is best of course if you can!

I think that the sour clover you have may be a sort of oxalis or wood sorrel. I gather they can be invasive ( https://permies.com/t/151334/Doubts-Clover-Oxalis-pes-caprae ) so be aware of that.....were you looking for an edible lawn?

How Permies works: https://permies.com/wiki/34193/permies-works-links-threads
My projects on Skye: The tree field, Growing and landracing, perennial polycultures, "Don't dream it - be it! "

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1202

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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Nancy I'd love an edible lawn! It would be amazing if it took over so much that the landlord would have the lawn person ignore my yard every week and leave it alone! Wishful thinking perhaps, as the landlord thinks grass is good. He has ideas about yards that haven't proven to be good ideas, grass good, dandylyons bad, ideas like that.

Neighbours: So we're building a friendship with one of the couples in one of the duplexes on the property. On this piece of land there are 2 little houses (one that we live in) and 2 duplexes. This couple moved here right before we did back in spring. He is learning to garden and gave me some extra soil which is helpful. Even though she isn't into gardening she was excited about the microgreens I brought over for them, I grow them in a jar in the window all year 'round. I'm thinking about getting a second jar growing, that way I can stagger them and maybe sell my excess in the little living room shop if we can justify continuing it after the three week test period. I'd need to get another jar screen for another jar to get going.

Harvested the mallow leaves to add to a salad kit we had for lunch, plus my microgreens. Even though we're on day 2 of a projected 5 day heatwave I planted some spinich and lettuce seeds and some more snap peas, hoping to harvest all of them as autumn crops. Here in my area autumn doesn't show up until Oct. Sept. is latesummer and though it is starting to get cooler by the end one can still swim in the river up through the end of the month.

Our friend Ariana took us to a new-to-us swimpark which I've been meaning to try, Elk Rock Island here in Milwaukie, you walk through the woods down the hill to the river, where a meadow full of bees and tiny flowers leads to the water, and there's a seasonal island, in summer its a penninsula full of trees. We found vulchers and a school of tiny fish, which is a good sign for the Willamette River. When I was young it wasn't very safe to swim in, but in the early 10s (when I was in my mid-20s) they finished a large sewer pipe project and made the water a lot safer for swimming, and I've been swimming in it ever since, it was a great victory for us here! Should I include my swimming exploits in these posts? I mean I do it every week and it isn't strictly permaculture, but being in good relation with the earth is part of permaculture, so maybe its relevent. I think it is, so I'm going to start including it going forward.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1202

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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Creature Feature:
So at night sometimes, in the middle of the night, we hear this scratching/tapping sound outside at our side door. Its scary because we're not sure what it is. At least we now know it isn't coming from our attic. Anyways we're both too chicken to open the door and find out. Theories are that its either the skunk that the neighbours told us about (my husband saw a skunk dead on the side of the road unfortunately, but maybe there are a couple around here so one is still alive?) or perhaps a neighbour cat who wants us to let it in. The other crazy thing that happened proved to not be a creature at all, but I sure thought it was one. So a few nights ago it started happening that if I put my hand in my tiny wood sorrel patch to pull some to snack on, I felt this horrid feeling which felt almost like static shocks. I thought maybe a mystery insect had taken up residence in there and was beating its wings or kicking me with its lil' feet angrily and it was scary and I could hear a sound almost like a quiet tiny clicking grasshopper. And when I watered it didn't help. So I had my husband look in the daylight and do some quick research, turns out its the plant itself! The tiny seed pods pop when touched and throw seeds out. Isn't that interesting? My other patch of "sour clover" doesn't do that, so maybe different types of sorrel are just different.

We got a bigger barbecue/smoker, at huge discount by stacking bargains, price was originally $200 and we spent $30

)) So we'll find a new home for the little one we bought earlier this summer. We haven't tried again on smoking meat, we'll get there though.
The daylilies have taken, they're shooting up green sprouts. Cucumbers are coming along, pumpkins are doing okay though not as plentiful as I'd hoped. I think next year we're going to rent a mason bee hive to mount on the side of our house, it will help everyone in the area.

Today we went to Riverside Park on the Clackamas River, I swam and my husband sat in his camping chair with his feet in the water, his ankle hurts. Anyways we made a fun discovery, that small schools of minnows, while they won't eat the dead skin literally off of your feet like those tropical fish at spas, they will eat the dead skin off your feet if you scritch it off yourself into the water!

My husband thought that was so nifty. His feet are notorious.

Upcoming hours at my living room vintage store soft opening:
Fri. Aug. 29th 12:30pm-8pm,
Sun. Aug. 31st 6:30pm-8pm,
Tue. Sept. 2nd 12:30pm-8pm.
11714 SE Fuller Rd. Portland OR 97222, you can park vehicles in our driveway area in front of the house behind my husband's car.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Nancy Reading

steward and tree herder

Posts: 11199

Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year

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Interesting about the sorrel seeds popping at you. I get that with bittercress. It is a persistent annual 'weed' that seeds intself around in my plant pots. It grows and goes to seed so quickly, but if you disturb the plant at all the ripe seed pods explode throwing their seed into adjacent pots. Luckily it is only small (and edible!). I can imagine that it could be quite disconcerting in a bushy plant though!

How Permies works: https://permies.com/wiki/34193/permies-works-links-threads
My projects on Skye: The tree field, Growing and landracing, perennial polycultures, "Don't dream it - be it! "

Robert Ray

gardener

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Location: Cascades of Oregon

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Slip in some fava leaves into your next salad, they are a mild green.

Our inability to change everything should not stop us from changing what we can.

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1202

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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Permy Claus is coming to town:
So tomorrow I finally get to meet Paul Wheaton, as he is in the area for a few days. Myself and my husband are going to a potluck about 25 min. from us on the edge of a small town, at the farm of another member here. We're bringing organic grapes for people to snack on, there will be rocket oven backyard pizza, and I'm looking forward to it. My best friend Fred, when I told her about it, started singing Permy Claus is coming to town and he's bringing plants, etc. like the song Santa Claus is coming to town haha.

Robert I recently heard that about fava leaves, I wish I'd known that though before they basically died on my first batch of plants. I have two more plants growing though that I planted in late July so I think I'll harvest the favas quicker from those once they grow before frosty nights take over. And thus I'll get the leaves on those ones.

I brought one of our cucumbers to my father and he ate it straight rather than putting it in salad, he loved it, even though the skin is slightly bitter, it being a pickling variety. We're going to enjoy one soon in our next salad. One of my pumpkin plants is still flowering, so I'm hoping for a couple of more mini white pumpkins for my porch come Oct.
Our landlords brought their extra garden boxes to us, its a weird set up, there are two layers, the bottom layer doesn't seem like it would get enough sun, so I'm going to make it my mushroom patch, we're sending away for some oyster mushrooms to start in mid Sept. apparently they take about a month to grow, I'll use either barkdust or straw as the substraight, and cover them up for 2 weeks and then what little sun they get shouldn't hurt them for the next couple of weeks so I've read. The top section has multiple square planters in it, further investigation and thought is required here. I don't think I'll plant out the top layer right now, but in Feb. or March I'll get it going.

So there was something living in one of my self-watering reservoir containers, every day the same 2 holes would appear in the soil, inspite of me filling them up. So I think I finally got rid of the thing, I filled the reservoir all the way up and so maybe it drowned, or something I don't really know, but it doesn't stink yet, so I think we're good? Maybe it just got tired of me filling up its holes, maybe a vole?
I know we have either rats or bunnies because occasionally I find a turd, but Fred thinks its a bunny because of the half-eaten snap pea pod a couple of months ago, or maybe its the mystery skunk.
Whenever we have slugs they're usually baby slugs, so I've decided to try and not worry about them. I guess if none of my lettuce, snap peas, spinich or radishes grow for autumn harvest then I can get angry at them haha. I did plant the autumn radish seeds a few days ago. The mint is flowering and beginning to spread. The chamomile is finished, I harvested the last of it and its drying for another batch of tea, I can't tell whether its the perenial or annual version, I've heard both exist, so I'll leave its pot alone as though it will come back in springtime.

Well we're done with the soft opening for my shop. Even though it wasn't as successful as I'd hoped, other people are telling me one should give a business six to eight months before giving up. So we're moving forward with the permit process to fully open, hopefully we can go in on Tue. next week.

My first batch of Bokashi should be ready on Sun. Initially I ignored the instructions and kept reopening it and adding things to it, but no decomp. was going on, so finally I obeyed the instructions and left it alone for 2 weeks sealed up. Excited to see how it did and pour it over my compost pile outside. And then start filling it up again. I made the mistake of not buying the 2 bin system, now I realize why it was a mistake.

What I've learnt though is that I can do a two pile composting system outside too, I'm about ready to cover one pile with dirt and let it set, while I start building another pile next to it.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1202

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

134

posted 1 month ago

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Sandy the Squirrel:
Well I figured out what's digging holes in all of my containers, and displacing and/or eating all of my seeds planted for future autumn harvest. This squirrel. My BIL saw it one morning when he spent the night, I named it Sandy because it lives where it doesn't belong

And she doesn't like pumpkins as we already figured out. I'm not ready for autumn yet, but I put it on my porch because I won't let her ruin my life, I'll add the others come Oct. once they're maximum mini-pumpkin sized.
Anyways she has also started stealing my carrots, so I'm headed outside to harvest the rest early, before she gets them. Only one radish sprout has survived her ravaging. But in trade a surprise fava is coming up, as the second batch I planted is flowering. Additionally some hearty plants that continue to grow overwinter for early spring harvest have started, hello again chickweed and dead nettle.

So we had a nice time last weekend visiting with Julia's family and Paul, Liv, Jeremy etc., doing a bit of a farm tour and having dinner altogether. Really fun to meet Paul, and other permies members, in person. I think I successfully planted Paul's walking onions, but I'm afraid the sunchokes got a bit squishy before I got them in the ground

Since the garden hose doesn't quite reach all of the back yard I've turned it into "the dry garden", where things live which only need occasional watering, I put the possibly defunked sunchokes and the walking onions back there, and moved my alovera back there too. I'll have to bring the latter indoors once the rainy season starts.

I have a kombucha squash from the neighbour, which supposedly will be ready in Nov./Dec.? I put it on the south side of the house to maximize sun as the days grow shorter, we'll see what happens, I need to do some research. I also figured out why my broccoli plant won't make heads, because its from my sprouting seeds, so it isn't bred to make a head haha. We'll eat the leaves in a salad one of these days, and yes, I still successfully grow microgreens and I feel like I've gotten really good at it, I can get three batches per jar now.

This week I got sick, but at least we got to go to Southern Lights Park and I got to play in the creek after a walk. I can't say much else about this week which was good, a lot of really hard things, big life disappointments, some plans will have to change. I'll be ready to talk about it in my next post, but not yet.

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1202

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

134

posted 1 week ago

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Shifting from summer to autumn:
Its autumn now here, I have harvested my mini white pumpkins and they're decorating my front porch. I've concluded that there aren't enough bees around here and my efforts to pollinate the pumpkins myself didn't lead to high yield. There's enough to decorate my porch though and I'm content. No more carrots, watching the favas, the calendula are still producing. Getting the swing of Bokashi and surprised that my "normal" compost pile stays so ... small over time, but there's only 2 of us so there's that. The landlord gave us a wooden thing that holds pots, almost like a shelf thing. We're ordering oyster mushroom spawn this week, and growing medium, hopefully it won't be too late in the year to grow them, we'll see, other things sort of took precident.

So due to a very underwhelming soft opening for my living room vintage selling business idea and the prehibitive cost of the permitting we're giving up on that dream. It was very hard for me to admit it wasn't phesible, as I'd hung onto all of my inventory from my vintage booth. The vintage mall it was at closed at the beginning of the year and I'd hoped to make a solid go of it as a home business with people coming over to shop. I can't do it under the table either because if we got written up our landlord might not choose to allow us to renew our lease, and this is the best living situation my husband and I have had and we need to be able to keep it longterm.

So we're having a garage sale on Oct. 10, 11, 12th, 12:30pm until dark. Fri. all priced items are half off, Sat. and Sun. all priced items will be 75 percent off. Unpriced items will be in boxes labeled with a price, like the $1 box has items in it which are $1 each, etc. We need to get most/all of the inventory outta here to make way for new ideas.
11714 SE Fuller Rd. Portland OR 97222.

So what will come next? Maybe a mini pop-up outdoor stand from time to time with garden-related things, a few items, maybe cocoa or lemonade, like a grownup lemonade stand? We'll see.

I did my final swims and dips to finish off the freshwater swimming season. Unless we have some Indian summer days the swimming season is over (though we'll be going for a beach day later this month, because our beach trip earlier this year wasn't quite warm enough for me to boogieboard in the ocean and I try to do so each year, so we need to go again. Ocean currents aren't as dependent on air temp. as the fresh water, so the possability of swimming lasts a tad longer.)
I performed at the Realms Unknown Festival, a big fantasy faire, last month, lots of fun for all. Other than that, facebook live concert and plaza busking.
Another frustrating thing, I teach a peer support-based mental health class each week at a hospital, but budget cuts mean my class will be ending, as will the associated pay. I'm losing a lot of things that I care about in my life. So Sept. has been hard regarding that. But at least I still have some things and hopefully new oppertunities will arise with the arrival of Oct. and autumn..

I do Celtic, fantasy, folk and shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, pirate campouts, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube

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