Jaqi LaPlante

Jaqi LaPlante wrote:I have recently come into a mite problem, myself. I've tried soap spray which helps, and I've heard of re-potting the plants after learning about mite life cycles, and how they leave eggs in the soil. I'm getting a game plan together to try a repot and then a Neem treatment after, and keep my focus on hot pest areas until the problem subsides. I also have a stink bug around that I always put on affected plants when I catch the little guy, but I don't even know if they eat mites! Just hoping, really, plus I figure a houseplant might be a good home for it.

A year after posting this, I have found multiple sources saying that stink bugs (and all true bugs) are predatory insects and will eat your mites! woohoo!

I have recently come into a mite problem, myself. I've tried soap spray which helps, and I've heard of re-potting the plants after learning about mite life cycles, and how they leave eggs in the soil. I'm getting a game plan together to try a repot and then a Neem treatment after, and keep my focus on hot pest areas until the problem subsides. I also have a stink bug around that I always put on affected plants when I catch the little guy, but I don't even know if they eat mites! Just hoping, really, plus I figure a houseplant might be a good home for it.

I also love this tool! I call it a claw hoe. I love it for digging weeds that aren't too big, and also as a finish tool after weeding larger ones with the flat hoe. I like how you can use the tines to flick weeds wherever you want without bending down to pick them up, and to rake the up-rooted weeds around other plants to use as mulch.

Has anyone had luck air layering or ground layering with woody lavender shrubs?

Sock Poi, anyone??

If you don't know Poi, it's considered a "flow art" like hulahooping and baton spinning, it's traditionally done with fire, but sock poi is the "practice" version, there's lots of variations of poi. For sock poi, you can use rice/beans for the weight, or tennis balls like in the picture below, tennis balls would probably hurt less if you hit yourself.

For the soap users out there, you could put your bar in a mismatched sock for lathering.

I was glad to see most of my other contibuting ideas were already mentioned, but I did want to expand on Carla Burke's contribution of her tiny dog shirt. I have always wanted to make a vest for a larger dog using mismatched socks, I just thought it would be cute with all the funky patterns you could possibly make.

Catalpa, the orchid tree
Many begonia species too

For clarification, are you asking what can you compost as humanure? Or could you be talking hardware or equipment for the humanure process?

If you're curious about what you can compost, I'd like to add tampons to your list! I think the organic guck-free ones would be best, some of the others might not break down at all.

Trace Oswald wrote:In my situation, it's the lowly headlamp, for the simple reason that most every other tool I have is dependent on that one all winter here.  It is dark in the morning when I leave for work, and it's dark in the evening when I finish work.  I still have lots of work to be done, especially caring for animals.  The headlamp is indispensable.

This post got me thinking! I tend to think in a lightweight backpacking frame of mind, so at first I wasn't coming up with any gear ideas that were "essential," since nature and survivalism can fill in the gaps, but light is definitely essential! I have a "basecamp XL light" created by Biolite brand. It's 500 lumens and 12000 mAh. I charged it with my car battery once and the car had trouble starting for a sec, this light packs a lot of power, it's a power bank too, so you can plug in USB attachments or charge your other tech. The led light also has a color mode that can display a whole rainbow of choices, and there's an app for the lamp that I haven't checked out yet, but I've heard it syncs the light up to music, and there's probably a remote too. The battery lasts for days and I LOVE IT!!

Hi Dave!
The brightly colored lichen you found on 11/13 is called Wolf's Bane, bane meaning that it is poisonous, I think it's gorgeous.
Your scarf is looking cozy!

Hi Paul and Sean!
Congrats on your book, it's awesome!!
I learn so much from you guys, keep it up! <3
Thank you.