Nicole Alderman

Your leaf color reminds me of how unhappy I've always been with the trees/greenery I've tried to paint, especially with oil. They were always too vibrant, but if I made them more desaturated, they looked off. You leaves look better than mine ever did, and I'm curious to see what you do to make them look more "natural."

There aren't many reasons for posts to disappear on permies. Usually it's because they're either:

(A) A singles post that the  original poster asked to have taken down, or

(B) Something that didn't meet our publishing standards. The post was rude, spam, fishing, etc.

From Permies FAQ

Why did you delete my post?
Maybe it was spam? Maybe it was a duplicate post? Maybe, just maybe, you weren't following our Publishing Standards. Permies is owned by Paul, and it's his publication. He decides what gets published. He might not decide to publish your post, usually because he doesn't think it's nice. Find out more about stuff being deleted HERE.

My parents have continued making more yard art since my last post. Here's some of their more recent work. I love how they turn these rusty bits of metal into beautiful works of art ♥

Gauging the amount of paint to make/mix is so hard! I'm currently painting at a much larger scale than I usually do, and I'm constantly amazed at how quickly the paint gets used up. It makes me realize why there are so many shades/hues of paint available at the store--sometimes it's just easier to buy the color you're going to need, so you don't have to worry about mixing up a batch and then wasting some because it  was too much--or having inconsistent color because you had to make more.

(I'm currently making a fantasy-themed cardboard pinball machine for the physics class I'm teaching. (All the kids are making their own, and mine is for demonstration purposes). I mixed up my own watercolors to paint it, and kept almost running out, or running out. I'm used to painting small. It's so hard to know how much paint to make for something!)

Phil Stevens wrote:VERILY I COVET YOUR PITCHFORK.

I lucked out! I put "pitchfork" on my Christmas list one year, and my Dad got me this one. He picked the perfect pitchfork! It works great for scooping out duck bedding from our duck house (because of its short handle, you can easily wield it inside an animal house without bashing the handle against the wall).

I can fill a wheelbarrow with just 4 scoops from this pitchfork. It's great!

I've got almost all of the pile moved now. I think I spent 6 hours moving woodchips--but a lot of that time was spend weeding brambles out of my garden beds and paths before applying mulch.

I'm sore from all the hauling, but my joints are all fine. The pitchfork and wheelbarrow are apparently pretty ergonomic!

It's funny that this post popped up again today! When I was driving home yesterday, I ran across our local electricity company trimming the trees on our private road. I asked if they needed a place to dump the chips, and they asked for my number and address.

Today we got chips! But, half of the pile ended up covering our driveway, blocking us in. (Not his fault. Our driveway is narrow, and he actually got very stuck in the mud on the side of our driveway, and it took us 10 minutes to get him out. I gave him duck and chicken eggs to apologize for all the trouble he had!)

Finally, it was time to move some wood chips! We have three different pitchforks, and quickly realized that one with 10 tines is the best. Like this:

The tines are close enough together that the woodchips don't fall between, and the wide pitchfork allows for more woochips to be picked up in each scoop

My husband and kids created a new pile, just to get the chips off the driveway. Meanwhile, I filled wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow and quickly dumped it on the closest garden beds and paths. It took a few hours, but the driveway is now clear, and a lot of stuff is mulched, and my legs are very sore (the gardens are uphill from the pile).

I'll try to take a picture tomorrow.

I also noticed that I can rake with a pitchfork, too, to smooth out woodchips and also to scrape them off the road. It worked surprisingly well!

Matt McSpadden wrote:In the north we say "you guys" to mean everyone in the group, not just males. Similar to the South's y'all. I actually had a teacher get upset with me (it was a college in Virginia, far enough south that "You Guys" was not used) one time when I was planning to have the class all go out for ice cream. She wanted to know why I hadn't invited the girls. As a matter of fact, there was one particular girl I was hoping would come... but that is another story. My intention was to invite the whole class... and we eventually go it all straightened out. And I got a lesson in regional phrases :)

I'm on the other northern coast of the US, and also use "you guys" to refer to any group of people. If I were referring to a bunch of my female friends, I'd probably call them "you guys"!

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I think one of our weird linguistic things in the pacific northwest is that we call land isopods "potato bugs." Most places call them "woodlice" or "rolly polly" or "pill bug"

Nina Surya wrote:Kisses on the cheek.
In the Netherlands we give three.
In Finland: no kisses, but a hug.
In the Combrailles in France: two cheek kisses.
Our Parisian neighbors: four cheek kisses.
And yes, you always begin with the left cheek. Unless you want to have an accident.

Guess the amount of confusing situations

Oh man, this reminds me of when I was around 18 years old, and someone in my youth group brought their cousin from Spain. The Spaniard was being introduced to me, and he gave me a kiss on the cheek. I was absolutely mortified and rather offended. I'd never been kissed by non-family member, and personal bubbles here in the Pacific Northwest are large. I still feel kind of bad for the dude, because I'm sure my reaction was extreme and very unexpected for him!

Diana Sproul wrote:How do we start? I did sign up. I didn’t see any answer in email.

You've already done the first step, which is creating an account here on permies!

The second step is to do a Badge Bit and take the required pictures while you do it. it's nice to start with a super easy Badge Bit so you can get a feel for the submission process (Here's a list of Badge Bits that people think are the easiest).

Once you've done your Badge Bit and taken the required pictures (&/or video), you just post it as a reply on that Badge Bit's thread, and click the "Submit for BB Certification," rather than the normal "Submit" button you used when making this post.

Here's a more in-depth tutorial for how to earn your first Badge Bit.

I hope that helps!

I went and found my post from the 2017 Solar Eclipse thread, because I remember using a colander to see the eclipse, too. I didn't find any colander pictures, but did find pictures of the eclipse in shadows of holey leaves and also in the sunlight filtering through the trees.

Seeing the solar eclipse in the shadows of holey leaves!

Not the best picture, but many of the bright spots in the shade of the trees were in the shape of the eclipse!

It didn't get very dark at our place, even at 90% eclipse, but it was still fun finding all the little crescents in the shadows, and seeing it be dimmer--but no less saturated--in the middle of the day.

I zoomed in this picture that I found in the other thread. It was at 90% eclipse, and you can see tiny little crescents in the shadow of the thimbleberry leaf in the top right corner. But, even with it being so much darker, the colors were all saturated like daylight (rather than the reddish/yellowish hues of sunset or the greyish cast that everything has on a overcast day).