Inge Leonora-den Ouden

My son built me a garden shed using pallet wood a few years ago. I am very proud of him. He had to take all of those pallets apart first.
All I had to do was stain it (brown) when it was finished.
Here is it seen from different sides.

As far as I read this thread I think you want a quick and easy solution.
But I'll give my answer anyway. I use my sewing machine to change a flat sheet into a fitted sheet with seams and elastic corners. That involves measuring, cutting and pinning too. It isn't the easy way. And it can't be undone.

I happened to see a modern 'capstan' (a 'winch capstan' it was called) in this video. For use with trees. Starting at 1:31 here:

I don't know if this is an answer ...
This subject made me think of my father. When I was a child I often heard him play the 'recorder' ... [Which I find a strange name for an instrument one has to play oneself with mouth and fingers. In Dutch we call it 'blokfluit' (wood block flute). ]
He did it mostly sitting on the lowest steps of the stairs, because that spot had the best acoustics. He played his own medleys of traditional and classic tunes mixed together. I.m.o. he did it very well. Anyway I liked it.
Back then he didn't read music. He just played.

Much later, when us, children, had grown up and left the house, he wanted to learn to play the piano. To start the piano lessons he had to learn to read music. Let me tell you: this wasn't a success at all!
He also became a member of a choir and that was a much better choice.

Marvin Warren wrote:All this discussion of the minute differences is fascinating, but I'm still curious if anyone has any ideas for terrestrial uses of a capstan. Especially wondering about the video title 'medieval capstan' since I know them from several hundred years later and maritime. What might someone in medieval Europe have used a capstan for?

That question made me try to find an answer. I searched in Dutch. But the only use I found that wasn't for a ship was: to trawl a fishing net through the water (with the capstand on land next to the water).

To do real research takes too much time I don't want to spend on it
I think (but that's my own imagination) that in general they were used for ships (both standing on land and on the deck of the ship). In the Middle Ages the sailing ships were smaller than in later ages, but there were sails and ropes, so the use of a capstand back then is very well possible. Maybe even before the Middle Ages.

tuffy monteverdi wrote:Wow!!!
...

Is there a way to make these work with hands/arms for those without use of legs/feet, I wonder?🤔
...

Sure there is!. But then I don't think of a 'treadle', but a handle to turn around or up and down (even better two handles for two hands alternately).

r ransom wrote:...
Coffee is the only humidity lover that survives, but they are usually clustered together.  The humidity inside the plant cluster is usually 20% higher than house humidity which, even with the kettle, is skin-splittingly low.  Plants have an amazing control over their local environment.

My coffee plants are all together in a 'window-sil greenhouse'; they seem to like it there.
Now I think I need to make a photo, to show that little 'greenhouse' ...

If I could find someone (nearby) who's able to, and wants to, build such a machine I would like to try out a foot-powered kitchen blender (strong enough to make nuts into nut-butter). I do have the book on human-powered low-tech machines (the Dutch translation).
I like such things, but I don't have the right kind of handyness/skill to work with metal and wood ...

btw some bicycles now instead of a chain have a belt-drive. I think that would work well too on stationary human-powered machines.

There must be something wrong ... I didn't get e-mails anymore about boots (like you) posting in their threads. First I thought: maybe they're on holiday.
But it lasted too long. I went to look for new posts at the Wheaton Lab forum ... and indeed, you had new posts!

r ransom wrote:I just gave my house plants their new years water.   Well some of them.  Others probably won't want water for another month or so.  That's where I went wrong for so many years.  I watered to schedule and didn't know they need far less water when they aren't growing.  Now I check on them once or twice a month in the winter instead of watering every week.
....

Your indoor climate must be very different from mine. But I see a woodstove and a kettle on it. So I think that kettle with water on it gives your houseplants the right kind of humidity.
My central heating makes the air in the room very dry. I need to water my plants at least every week.