Erika Bailey

I'm always impressed with people who could decide to have kids considering the state of the world.  I couldn't face bringing in another person to fight for scraps in the desolate waste.  I realize permaculture is trying to skip the "desolate waste" time, but lots of people are there already.  Wars over resources make things difficult for everyone--and the kids have little agency.  No kids for me--both for the "green" aspect, and also the exceeding the carrying capacity of the planet.  I try to be a good aunt--both to my actual nieces and nephews--and to the ones that I've become that role to.  I leave that as my legacy.

I got in too late for the poll, apparently, but I have an tiny electric push mower to do the paths between garden beds, fruit trees, and such.  It is 14inches wide, and just barely squishes through some spots.  Not a lot of lawn!  And that is mostly escaped mint, wild strawberries, weeds, and clover.  

Now I wish I had cut some in half to see if it was shaped like broccoli on the interior...

Normally, Maine fall images would be full of colorful leaves, but while at my camp this weekend, I saw bunches of these weird mushrooms...anyone know what they are? They look almost furry!

Plantain and dock, both seem to be best for immediate use.  For later, I make a cream using menthol and camphor mixed in with calendula.  The menthol and camphor are for the itch,  and the calendula helps the skin heal from both the sting and the scratches! It works on brown-tail moth reactions too.

Also have to consider the effects of the Department To Make you Sad.  In a (admittedly dinky) city, I could not possibly get a rocket mass heater installed.  However, heat pumps are a familiar item and easy to get up to code.  If you pair a heat pump with grid-attached solar as I have done, it is pretty smooth.  Alas, not all permies are off grid in a part of the country where being up to code doesn't matter.  Would I like to also have a rocket mass heater?  Of course!!!  But in my house it is not possible.    

I have a grid-tied system of 5.2kw, no battery backup.  I've had it since 2017 and it is awesome!  People in the area have been bitching about how electricity has shot up in price, but mine has remained steady.    I also have a separate system of solar hot water, since my hot water was oil heated when I bought the house.  That I've had since 2011.  I love that it has an 80 gallon tank so that when the sun is heating the water, it heats the whole tank, but in the winter when the panels are covered with snow, there is electric backup that heats only the top 30 gallons.

I must admit, before COVID, this was me too.  Something about eating out being akin to toxic exposure curtailed my desires pretty well!  These days I am trained to eat in season by way of CSA boxes and my own gardening--but I still grocery shop.  I certainly don't grown enough to account for my calories.  However, I have severely cut back on eating even takeout recently, due to change in finances.  I miss the social aspect of eating out still, but don't see it as an option going forward until there is a healthy safe way to do it.  Being immunocompromised is a drag!
On vegetable gluts, or the more frequent fruit ones, I either give excess to friends and family or to a local food cupboard that distributes fresh produce.  They were super excited when I showed up with a few dozen half pints of raspberries!

My house is chilly at the moment, and my go-to for getting myself up to do things that are not sitting warm on the couch is my rice bag scarf.  Long enough to tie around my waist, I microwave it for a few minutes and then I have a portable source of warmth that doesn't require the use of my hands.  I made the scarf, so I don't know if one can buy them or just be forced to do the creation route.  There are baffles sewn in to keep the rice in place, so little pouches of warm don't drizzle down to only one end.  I also put some mulling spices mixed in with the rice so it smells nice!

Looking through the lists folks have made, I have one thing that that hasn't been listed.  I always have a dark colored washcloth.  I find that the most often used items in my car med kit tend to be the bandaids, pain killer (either Ibuprofen or Acetaminophen),  chocolate, and the benadryl.  Since I tend to be known for having whatever is necessary for *insert emergency*, bleeding children seem to be handed to me a lot.  If kids see the blood, they freak out a lot.  If you use gauze, telfa, whatever that is white--it increases the intensity of the redness leading to small kid breakdowns.  Dark cloth hides the blood and lowers extreme reactions.  Then a piece of chocolate tends to solve any number of problems!  This system of reaction also does fine with squeamish adults...