Catie George

Thekla McDaniels wrote:I have a lot of wind, though not as hard as tou, but I find that the wind is hard on the young plants.  I have been trying to think of physical structures that would slow the wind, shelter the plants.  

So far all I have come up with is pallets joined at the edges in zigzag.  And long “berms” of stacked corkwood.  And T posts pounded in and upright poles and branches sort of woven in to parallel horizontal wires attached to the T posts.  I guess a giant brush heap might work.

Good point about wind, physical barriers, and baby plants!!

I tend to buy cheap plants that are essentially rooted cuttings. I like to protect them when they are young from  weed whackers, bunnies, etc, with old tin cans. The Saskatoon that died was the only shrub where the tin can was knocked off over the winter, and the tip-killed plants were dead above the level of the can, and are resprouting from the base. Makes sense that the tin cans acted as a windbreak.

 We did have an unusually harsh winter, with colder-than-rated for my zone weather with no snow on the ground, after a bad drought. Fingers crossed things aren't as hit next winter when better established.

Update:

I managed to kill all of my hardwood cuttings, thanks to unexpected life events last spring.

My focus for my windbreaks is changing a little from strictly beauty to prioritizing native plants.

I've been horrified at how few pollinators I have here - I'm surrounded by farm fields and thickets of invasive shrubs, with little value to native pollinators.  I have been having pollination issues on my fruit, and it's not uncommon for me to not see a single bee or butterfly the whole time I am in my yard. It's a little better this year than last year, bur still shocking. I don't think it's a chemical issue, as I have a ton of birds and usually a ton of amphibians.

Lilacs - lilacs live here, I have some that came with the house, and they are invasive and grow wild here, I don't really want to add more, as my mom is quite allergic to the scent.

Viburnum - very good idea, although maybe likes more water?
spicebush good idea, will keep an eye out

I didn't follow my own advice and tried 2 stone fruits on clearance last spring - over the winter, one died and one almost died.I definitely should work on more windbreaks before trying stone fruit again.

In my first windbreak/fruit bush area, One Saskatoon died, the other has grown a lot and is happily suckering already and is producing its first fruit! I intend to propagate it, but it will be too tall for the front. A few other things have survived but aren't thriving yet, lots of tip die back over the winter. One of the U Sask cherries is suckering, the other is forming fruit. Honestly, a whole fenceline of Saskatoons and bush cherries would make me very happy...  

I started on the back wind break - most of my willows also died, thanks to the black walnut. One hybrid willow has made it, as have 2 cedars and a black raspberry.

I've started grocery shopping every 3 weeks. Sometimes 4, if I stop by the local tiny store for eggs and milk. I hate grocery shopping, and have been developing an increasingly elaborate system to avoid it. Sadly, my local store is more like a convenience store than a grocery store, with double the cost of a normal store, tiny package sizes, and doesn't stock most things I eat.

I keep a running list on my phone of things I am short of, plus always-buy items.
I put a star beside items I am completely out of, otherwise I wait for a sale. I have started to organize some of it by shop - my tea and international foods comes from one shop, I tend to buy meat at another plus a specific condiment, a third is good for gluten free bread and household goods, a fourth for canned goods, a fifth for dish soap, a sixth for gluten free flour and soy sauce... Etc. Some stores I go to every other trip, others maybe once a year. Some items might end up on a list for months before I buy them.  If I list what I tend to buy at those places and grab them while I am there, then I don't have to go back!

If I have an appointment in town, I'll grocery shop then, otherwise, Flyers run Thursday-Wednesday, but you can see the Thursday flyer online on Wednesday. On Wednesday morning, I try to glance at the flyers for BOTH weeks to decide if I am shopping that day, or waiting a day.  Then I go into town, and sometimes hit one store, sometimes 2 depending on the sales and what items I am completely out of. Once I'm in the store, I check out in store meat/dairy/fruit sales, and buy whatever appeals. I am a good enough cook I can make something tasty from whatever is cheap that week plus pantry staples. I find it fascinating that I have no interest in 95% of the items in a grocery flyer. When I get home,  meat goes mostly into the freezer, usually after being cut and portioned out.

I find I save money this way - I save gas, I save on impulse purchases, and I also don't end up stopping for coffee or a snack as often. A list is critical, otherwise I forget I'm out of something, and end up driving back sooner.

As I do this longer, other than eggs/milk, I often reach the 3 week mark and really am not desperate for anything. I have enough long term staples to last longer, and even milk, I have evaporated and dried milk, so it's not really an issue.

I sometimes go grocery shopping with friends, it really doesn't work well!  They want to wander the aisles and get a few things for dinner, while I'm grabbing a dozen cans of tuna and half a dozen pounds of butter because they are on sale, and keep checking a list! I also struggle with grocery shopping with my mom, who wants to walk down every aisle and talk about random things we see, rather than my strategy of shopping the outside, then checking my list for whatever I have missed and ducking into relevant aisles. By the time we have walked every aisle, I have impulse grabbed several things and am WAY too tired to want to bother checking my list to see what I have missed, and inevitably, get home and realize I forgot something critical.  

Anne Miller wrote:Are you trying to make something scented like cologne?

I feel isopropyl alcohol will have a chemical smell you may not like and will be drying on the skin.

Something far less scented than cologne, which is usually scented oils in alcohol. Think 'a few drops in a bottle of shampoo " with the goal being a similar level of scent to holding a steaming cup of tea under your nose.

I think this is something older generations were much better at.

My mom, raised on a small farm, is MUCH better at this than I am. Her mother was even more practical!  For example - let's use this ditch (dug to keep water out of the basement) to raise up the lawn tractor to look under it. Let's use this slope to offload the lawn tractor from the trailer instead of a ramp. This piece of plywood (used as a ramp for the shed), makes a great temporary table top while we sort out the shed.  She is much less limited by 'but I don't HAVE a ______' than I am.

Maybe it's as things become more commercial, we have been convinced that items have one purpose, and we need to buy or make more items for more purposes. It kind of reminds me of those kids who insist that "Doctor Barbie" can only ever be a doctor, but the genetic Barbie next to it, can be a doctor, a princess, a farmer, an evil witch, or a magical fairy.

Some function stacking I've found include:
Using a clothing drying rack to dry garlic/onions.
Using my pour over coffee filter for filtering maple syrup
Using a wheeled workbench in my garage for dragging seedlings in an out while hardening them off.
Using an old screwdriver and an old chisel, as dibblers for popping seeds and small transplants in the ground.

I am trying to ask myself, when I think 'oh, I need to buy a ______" what other item I have, that's 'good enough" even if not perfect.

Function stacking is an excellent way to both save money, and avoid accumulating even more junk.

I'd like to try making herbal extracts, more for their scent than for any medicinal purpose.

I have switched hand soap/shampoo/conditioner brands in the last year, because I found another brand that is unscented and significantly cheaper, and works  as well or better...I'm extremely sensitive to scent, so everything in my house is unscented, with the previous exception of my lightly scented shampoo (which I also used as hand soap). Honestly, I miss that brief hit of scent.

The brand I was using makes the only scented products I could tolerate - looking at their ingredients, I suspect that's because they use extracts instead of oils to hold the scent, meaning that they don't leave a residue on the skin. So scent was released while washing, but didn't linger to irritate me later...

My favourite scents  are generally pine, spruce, thyme, rosemary, citrus, lemon balm... Most of which I could grab from my yard.

I could go out and buy a $20 mickey of vodka to try making extracts with  - but I have a bottle of isopropyl in the cupboard.

Anyone tried it? Any downsides?

I suppose the alternative is vinegar, but I haven't found vinegars hold scent as well as alcohol.

If the logs are well limbed, and the terrain isnt too bushy, I'd haul them out using a rope and a timber hitch.

It's a tightening hitch that's easy to release, and doesn't slide much (use a rougher rope), but tightens so you can pull logs behind you while walking somewhat upright.

I find wheeled contraptions more annoying than they are worth a lot of the time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timber_hitch

Jay Angler wrote:

Catie George wrote: I suppose theoretically hostas are edible, and would enjoy being under a fruit tree and suppress grass.  

I'm told, some are yummier than others. My sister says the bunnies agree... and the deer ate mine before I knew to taste test them. Sigh...

I always forget that not everyone has a very diligent dog to discourage bunny/deer visits.  Well, them, and a healthy local raptor and coyote population. I have never even seen a deer near my current house.

What about a native viola species? Most are edible, they are very pretty, and they are great for early pollinators.  

I suppose theoretically hostas are edible, and would enjoy being under a fruit tree and suppress grass. Maybe they have slug issues in your area?

I have added garlic chives and Welsh bunching onions to my garden, way too early to see how they will perform at weed suppression.

I treated myself to some single pigment water colours this winter. Have been occasionally dabbling again and reached the point where not being able to get the darkness I wanted was my biggest annoyance while painting, with a close second - grabbing the wrong colour from a crowded palette.

Working on trying to be more "painterly" and "loose" - not overworking, and suggesting rather than feeling like I need to paint every detail, and not correcting every single tiny 'mistake' with shapes. Also playing with limited palettes.


I saw a goose standing on a hay bale while I drove today. Made me laugh, decided to paint it. First attempt was a horrible mess that took me an hour including a ton of sketching and erasing.  I am not sharing it!

Second attempt took 5 min, zero sketching, and IMO begins to achieve what I am going for.  Absolutely not to scale, but probably to scale with how big the goose thinks she is!

Paint colours : Prussian blue(PB27), English Red (PR101), Golden Yellow (PY120). Not the right blue/green combo for  the bright spring greens I wanted, but the red and blue makes a lovely, unexpected black! Would be a good fall palette.