Janie Brackett

I remember the first house my parents bought. I was almost a year old when we moved in and stayed for five years.

The subdivision was built to be housing for the shipyard during WW2. Most of the houses were two bedrooms. These were what we would now call starter homes. Everyone had tiny yards.

But most everyone had gardens!

It could be my imagination or miss remembering, but I recall front flower beds with “specimen” plants: tomatoes!

The regular garden was in the backyard. A neat, little patch of flower bed in the front yard would feature two or three tomato plants.

When we moved to the new (to us house) we had a larger yard. Behind our property was a junk yard.  The immediate neighbor was a little old lady that loved watching our chickens. She could sit on her back porch and see them beyond her garage.

Needlessly to say, my father put in a larger garden.  He kept bees in the chicken yard. The chickens were happy to eat any bugs around the bee hives.

Anyway, in the new house we didn’t plant vegetables in the front yard. I grew up “knowing” that having a garden was important.

Between “life” and depression, I don’t always plant a garden area these days. I tell people that you can plant a tomato in a bucket on your front porch if that is all you can manage.

Zero experience here, but I’m guessing a new server smells kinda plastic-y.  At least until it has a chance to breathe and off-gas.

While we are all happy with ourselves, could I suggest a Dailyish with more information about PIE?  Even though I just bought a case of Building a Better World books and donated to the new server, I would be game to buy some PIE. Maybe next payday would work better for me…

I feel like a follow up email reporting how great the server project went should (could?) have a nice plug for the PIE.

I just ordered another case of 64 books.

My supply of books to sell or give away on my eBay store is just about depleted. For the record, no one has bought the book through my store. However, I add the Better World book in the package with any orders I mail out.

When I “only” (usually) used Priority Mail, there was no additional charge for me to add free items to the order. Priority Mail covers up to 70 pounds domestically and up to 50 pounds internationally.

Ground Advantage came out and it goes by weight like “regular” First Class mail. Once I add the size of the package, differences in weight under two pounds seems to cause little change in the price I am charged for the mailing label. So, I still try to send books. Added bonus is it makes a great protector inside the package to keep the ordered book safe from the package manglers!

Now that I will have a renewed supply, I will carry more books in my vehicle that I commute to work.

Permaculture for the win!

Hey everybody! I’m on a bucket list trip with my mother. We just docked in Juneau, AK. Mother mentioned to a crew member that she has many birds on her 20 acre property.

That led to me telling the crew member about permies.com. I wrote it on my “business card”.  She was delighted to know that there is a website with all this information. I told her to look up the book.

I guess next cruise I need to bring a dozen books…

Last year I made a “keto friendly” blueberry pie.

Crust: pecan flour and butter.

Filling: frozen blueberries and cream cheese.

No bake. No sugar.

My mother liked it. My brother immediately griped that it needed sugar. “Add it to yours. Try some whipped cream on top.” He still complained but it wasn’t “for” him!

Strawberries work as well but if frozen they need to defrost some. Either berry gives a nice tint to the cream cheese.

Update.  Today was super busy at my store but I finally had the chance to give a young man a copy of both the Better World book and the SKIP book. I only know him as “that guy who always wears cool shirts” and he was very happy to receive them.

Infecting more minds with permaculture!

I have bought two cases of books from permies. The first case went to the Husband’s coworkers and our family and friends. The second case has been slower to give out. When I make a sale on eBay, I typically send a copy of the book with a note “free book with purchase”.

I try to keep a few copies in my vehicle since I started working at TSC. I scribble “permies.com” on lots of paper and urge customers to have a look.

I have been neglecting the email reminders for permies and got really far behind. After the new year I hope to purchase my third case of Better World books. Just keep plugging away at this. We will find the regular folks and infect them with permaculture!!!

I learned a lot of these same tips from my re-enactment days (www.sca.org). Even inside a tent, put the toddlers in a pup tent. This keeps their bedding contained and maintains a warm space around them. It also helps to keep the wildlife out. There’s nothing like being awakened by a field mouse trying to take some of your hair!

I have had a few times with no heat. The worst was waiting on a heater part while we had snow on the ground that week. Teenagers that would babysit for us came over to help watch my girls and help bring in some firewood. We celebrated getting done with sodas that were refrigerator cold from the dining room.  

OK. Let’s keep up the good work and keep sharing tips. I’m eager to learn more!

While selling my adult children’s books, I have been slowly sowing seeds! Infecting minds!

I have a small shop on eBay and I mostly sell books. Many a person has ordered manga from me and also received a free copy of Build a Better World. It is rare that I cannot make the book fit, but mailing an LP vinyl record was one occasion.

I have the Build a Better World book also listed for sale in my shop. There haven’t been any takers, but I hope it dispels the “what the heck?” a little bit.

While I volunteer at our Friends of the Library bookstore, I try to hand out copies to interested folk. “It’s a free book from me. You don’t have to pay for it,” usually results the book going to a happy new home.

Glad I finally had a moment to share this with you. Have a great day!

r ranson wrote:Let's talk Pin Cushions!

Which got me thinking, what do I need from a pincushion?

I bought a bunch of these basket pin cushions when dollar stores had just started. I gave away a bunch as presents that year. The one I kept for myself served me well for over 30 years, but it was sun bleached and starting to look sad. When I disassembled and remade, I took pictures for my FB friends (a couple of them received those long ago gifts).

I took the original apart. It looked like factory floor sweepings was the filler. Yuck. The fabric was just a circle. I cut new fabric, stuffed with cotton batting, and tacked shut with a doubled thread. I decided glue wasn’t needed. The cotton batting had been bought to line a costume for hubby, but we lined the ironing board instead. We will get more mileage out of the ironing board. The oval cut-aways worked wonderful in the old basket.

Basically it cost zero in materials to fix this pin cushion.

I have another basket and some more “innards” to make another pin cushion, but I have set that aside for awhile.

Remember to be careful if you take apart an old pin cushion. I found several needles “lost” inside.