Anna Demb

Many things struggle to grow in my thin, rocky Cape Breton soil. I seeded daikon/tillage radishes everywhere but the roots don't get very big here. It has reseeded and occasionally I find a big root, in with the gazillion seed pods... (progress?) Lupines seem to grow everywhere here. They're invasive but at least they're pretty and I've read they help to concentrate calcium in the soil.  

Elise, sundial lupin/lupinus perennis is native here in Maine and in Newfoundland so it might be native or almost native for Cape Breton. Pretty easy to grow from seed and it's a nitrogen fixer.

We've been having neighborhood afternoon parties to greet new neighbors. Potluck or something simple like snacks and drinks, so they can get to meet more people at once and the neighborhood gets more cohesive and neighborly. Part of the fun is the hosts walking around the neighborhood and knocking on doors to invite everyone.

Wendell Berry's novels are set in a farming community and are very beautiful. Kinda homesteading. And very inspiring in depicting the unique benefits of small, rural close-knit community.

I don't have a vole problem at this point, but here's a suggestion from fellow Mainer Elliot Colman from a old MOFGA article:

For vole control, Coleman builds small wooden boxes with a removable cover and with a mouse-sized hole on each of two sides.  He places a set trap inside each hole (The Better Mousetrap, from Intruder, Inc., www.intruderinc.com) and adds a long handle for carrying the box. “Don’t use bait,” he advised. “Just spring the traps.” Voles eventually associate the smell of baits with the death of fellow voles; without bait, they encounter a “small dark hole that smells like vole” after the first vole has entered, and they enter the box and run into the trap. Empty the traps daily.

https://www.mofga.org/resources/season-extension/colemans-low-tunnels/

Laura K wrote:I have been thinking about these for what feels like forever but never got around to building them anywhere that I lived. Then my parents moved to Maine, and one time I was visiting them and saw them in their windows! I don't know if they came with the house (not the kind of thing my dad would build, but maybe...), but it was cool to see them being used "in the wild"!

Other than being a little delicate, I love that you can still see out the windows. My head continue to swirl with modifications (usually more complicated and more expensive, but maybe not much) -- solid plastic or plexiglas panels, one that I would like to hinge so that I can still open one of the two windows it would cover......

They are the perfect Kreg jig project!

Yes indeed. Have to say, although delicate, they are also really lightweight, which makes them so easy to handle and use. Just have to avoid bumping them into corners of things when we switch them in and out fall and spring. And if that happens, we've been known to mend them with packing tape.
Also, tightening up the plastic film with a hairdryer is so entertaining.

Here's a little more about DIY window inserts/interior storm windows. We made some for our 1893 Maine house back in 2010, and they are only now needing some new film and weatherstripping. The cost was about $6 a window. At that time, we also insulated the attic and basement, but the window inserts felt like the biggest improvement in comfort, keeping out drafts and chill while allowing the sun in and our view out. What a great investment! With the 2 layers of film, together with the window glass, we get 3 layers with 2 air pockets, like the expensive windows used in passive houses.

You can just push them in and pull them out, so they are easy to change out in fall and spring, or when you need some fresh air in the winter.

Also, they're easy and fun to make if you have a drill and/or screwdriver, a handsaw, a square, and a hair dryer.

Here's a link to directions on how to make them from the man who, it seems, invented them:
http://www.midcoastgreencollaborative.org/Documents/storm_pamphlet.pdf

I haven't had any problem washing rayon with my regular colored wash (hot/cold, fast spin). And though I don't usually iron my clothes, I do iron for sewing, and I have never melted rayon fabric ironing it, even when at a slightly higher temperature than recommended. If I shake it hard before hanging to dry, wrinkles are not usually a problem. Some rayon clothes I've made have lasted longer than 10 years under these conditions. I also like to use rayon clothes from the thrift store to make new ones for myself, and these have lasted for years too without any special treatment.

And I really like to wear rayon because it's so cool and soft.

That being said, if you're buying it new, there are issues with deforestation, and also the chemicals used to make rayon can be poisonous depending on the process. Here's a pretty good article going into the details of how it's made sustainably and safely or the opposite:

https://impactful.ninja/how-sustainable-are-rayon-fabrics/

There are some kinds of old rayon that stain easily and probably fall apart easily too, but what I've encountered in recent decades doesn't have these problems. So my feelings are, rebuilt or refashion from second-hand rayon and fling caution to the wind!

I grow hops in coastal Maine on an arbor we built of metal conduit and hog wire, the ends of the conduit slipped over rebar pounded into the ground. Pretty inexpensive and fairly simple to build if you have a pipe bender. The hops want to grow straight up, so I have to toss them over the top as they get taller. We also grow schisandra and a grape vine on this arbor and sometimes runner beans and squash!

The climate here is somewhat similar to Scotland so they may do well where you are too.

The hops are really pretty, especially when the flowers are hanging down. We use them mostly for tea since we don't brew beer (yet)—I'm interested to try eating the new shoots.

They do spread, but I don't find them anywhere I haven't planted them. I think we've had them about 8 years.

I wouldn't recommend growing them up trees. I originally planted them near some young trees, and they can strangle them and pull them down. So we moved them to the arbor. May not be a problem with mature trees, but you'd have a lot of trouble getting the hops harvest.

I bet they wern't wearing a bra. But to fix it, maybe shorten the dress a little and use the cut-off to make the bottom of the armhole higher. I think I have done that.