Tereza Okava

I thrift scrubs when I travel and I agree entirely. They wear hard, wash easily, and are everywhere. If I'm washing the dog or working in the garden, chances are I'm wearing a scrub shirt.

Certain brands have more pockets and are worth looking for if you thrift seriously-- there is a brand called Ohmm scrubs that is AMAZING, the shirts have at least 6 pockets, half zip. (To give you an idea, I have one of these shirts I keep specifically for when I travel internationally, because I can carry all my important stuff on my person in those pockets.) And they wear like iron, I beat the heck out of these things and they still look great.

Ra, I have great results from food-grade spices, and coriander/cilantro is one of those herbs that make my life happier, so wooohoo!!

I went to a permaculture/agroecology meetup last weekend, the kind of thing that feeds my soul. I got to not only support a bunch of rural homesteaders (buying their cachaça, sausage, cheese, sugar, etc) but also talk to the seed savers. I missed the seed swap, but I did manage to get some great prospects for next summer, along with some ideas of things i should be foraging.

I talked to a guy who had job's tears seeds for sale and learned that it's highly recommended as forage for livestock (I just know it as an invasive pest.... but when I have these giant rabbits who can eat around the clock, that sounds like just what I need!). The little voice in my head said, hey, we've seen that around lately, and so yesterday I kept my eyes open when I took the dog out for his walkies. Got myself a pocketful of seeds and will try planting it in the marginal spaces of my garden (some borders in shady spaces near the walls where I don't plant).
Of course, only in August/September, as now we are officially in winter and those seeds probably won't do much right now.

oh my. I dont have any helpful suggestions but I feel for you. I have a handsewn quilt that my aunt made out of scraps from the clothes she made for herself. I found it in my mother's basement when she moved and took it back home with me. It is one of those foldover-triangle type things that each triangle is sewn together, so no quilting per se, but some triangles have started to pull apart, some triangles have deteriorated.... obviously after being neglected in the basement for decades it got washed (and I do wash it every few years)....
I decided I would just enjoy its life, and not worry about its appearance. I have oversewn the failing seams with a crisscross on my machine (as if it were an overlock stitch) in matching colors so it's not super apparent, and every few years there's a new line that needs reinforcing. If you look closely you can see this frankenstein stitching, but from arm's length it's just more crazy in a crazy quilt. Totally not "the right way" to repair, but the quilt got a new lease on life.
Big props to you for trying to fix it the right way. Me with my cheapskate tendencies, I'm thinking it might be easier/cheaper to thrift a comforter and after you take the back off, just stitch it on there and quilt directly, but again, I have to do everything the wrong way..... :-)

Yes, leaves and roots (rather, the trimmings and ends of the roots, as we people eat the good parts of the roots).
I find that some rabbits like burdock leaf more than others- my younger (4 month) girls won't touch it unless they're really hungry, while the older rabbit enjoys it.

I'll specify it is not an every day thing-- we eat burdock root every few months, and I pull off leaves as they need to be removed to stop shading my sorrel. But I've never had any problem with it.

(by the way, they LOVE the root trimmings and ends, and imagine they'd be thrilled to eat as many of the roots as I'd give them. It is right up there with banana peels for rabbit favorites.)

I don't use a bread machine, but to me the recipe seems to have a lot of liquid.
Any bread recipe I use that has 3 cups of flour has at most 1 cup of liquid. On top of that you have an egg and a good lot of butter, and that much brown sugar usually adds to the liquid more than that quantity of a flour might, for example.

(i agree with your 1 t and 1 envelope seeming about right for instant dry yeast)

and I would absolutely salvage it by adding more flour.

Hopefully someone who uses a machine can hop in with a proven recipe.

Theodorin, I hope the replies here have given you some peace of mind. Even if you've been doing it forever, there are still years that kick everyone in the behind.

I've moved climates and spent a few years fighting against weather/bugs/sickness etc before learning that the best plan, especially nowadays, is to look at long-range weather to make bigger decisions (going to have a wet summer, entirely skip stuff that will get mildew, for example) but still to try a bit of everything every time.

Another thing I would like to suggest, as you're just starting-- TAKE NOTES. Especially as I get older I find myself not entirely sure about whether that summer was really hot or not. I keep a garden diary in the summer about overall trends- lots of rain, not much sun, how it affected us, pests, what came up and when. It helps a lot for planning the following year. I just now, maybe 12 years after establishing this garden, feel like I have a handle on what to do to get a reasonable amount of food for us.

Judith Browning wrote:
I think what I consider cool weather is not the cool weather needed for these beans?
I know that most of our green beans won't set beans above 95F and that cow peas and long beans don't seem to mind the heat.
Apparently scarlets need maybe 60F to 70F tops?
Other than for those striking red blooms I'm not sure they are worth the space here if they are that finicky....not a perinniel here either.

for me (9b) scarlet runners and christmas favas are winter crops. I would let yours stay in as late as possible into the fall as possible even after the others are done. your hyacinth beans will like as much heat as you give them, but at the first sign of cool nights will begin to look like they're done-- and then your scarlet runners may start looking a lot happier in comparison!
(I stopped trying to grow them, as unseasonably warm falls meant that they just struggled until eventually it was too late. They're beautiful but I have limits)

I have been on a bit of a rye bread making kick lately. I grew up eating rye bread and moved to a place where it doesn't exist, and every so often I get a hankering....
My daughter has decided she also misses it, so we've been making it every week and introducing her friends to what a good seeded sour rye tastes like.

My original recipe involves boiling a potato and making a sour wet starter that sits for two days before adding the rest of the flours. Lack of preparation led me to substitute that business entirely with the same volume of sourdough discard, which made a fabulous bread (which we could eat that same day!).

Nice cauliflower at the veg store and freezing outside tonight, so i dug out some sausage from the freezer, fried it up with onions to make some gravy and made spatzle alongside the cauliflower and sausage.... Some nice carby goodness to keep warm!

I would add to Nancy's wise response: things can vary a lot, so consider your space as well as your environment.
You're getting answers here from all over the world. I have heavy tropical clay and garden year round-- any organic matter I put in vanishes almost immediately, but because we don't have the flood of deciduous leaves that temperate climates have in the fall, I need to rely heavily on animal manure.
Other places freeze hard in the winter and can pile up deciduous leaves. Have a good look at what is being done (and has traditionally been done) in your area and feel free to ask specifics-- we have Permies posting here from all over.