Dorothy Pohorelow

Jay Angler wrote:Has anyone else got good ideas on this one?

My friend has a bunch of carnivorous plants and I'm wondering if fungus gnats would be attracted to them?

I've got some seedlings, so trying to get the dry, but not dead, is going to be a very fine line!

I have seen some folks that will put carnivorous plants among their succulents and other house plants as part of their pest control methods.  Other things to do is get mosquito dunks or bits.  Soak them in water  for a few hours or over night then use the soaking water to water your plants.  The Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (BTI) in the water will attack the larvae while the carnivorous plants or yellow sticky traps can tackle the adults.  

First off be aware that raising chicks is smelly, dusty, and can be very heartbreaking.
You will need a brooder, an incubator and possibly an egg candler or strong flashlight to check eggs for development.

You can make or buy the incubator,  a small 12 egg incubator is probably as big as you would need.   You do need to set up and run the incubator for a few days to make sure it will hold temperature and humidity levels before putting in your collected eggs. (some folks use bluetooth sensors to check how accurate the incubator is)  You want average size eggs for you birds, check for cracks or other signs of damage,  DO NOT WASH just set in a safe place on the counter like a bowl or in an egg carton with the tip down.   When you are sure the incubator is working right put the eggs in the incubator, make sure they are turned at least twice a day (rotate not flipping) and wait until they start to hatch.  Length of incubation, temperatures and humidity levels can all be found in books or online. YouTube is also a very good source of information from building and incubator to selecting eggs and what temperatures and humidity levels are needed at each stage of development.
When they start to hatch leave in the incubator over night.  This keeps the humidity and temps up until every one is hatched and dried off.  Then you move them to a brooder.
For a brooder you can use a large box with a heat plate or other heat source in one end and feed and water at the other.  Put puppy pads or similar on the bottom to make cleaning easier.  And watch your babies grow until they are feathered out and can go outside.  Then comes the challenge of introducing them to your flock.  

A lot of really good information is available on Backyard Chickens and on YouTube.  It helped me get through the hatching our first batch of quail babies.  Sadly we had issues with temperatures and humidity levels near the end and only got 13 chicks from 51 eggs.   But our babies are doing well in their box brooder.

Until you can get a plant or plants established you may want to look into shade cloth.   Yes you would need some sort of structure to hold it up but it could work well for this situation.  There are different levels of shading so so some research before buying.

No need to do them in any specific order.   In fact if you have a multi shaft loom learning the small looms first may make it  more difficult to wrap you head around weaving on the big loom.  
Ashford, Schacht, Kelly Casanova, and Jane Stafford all have free or less expensive classes online.  Many are on YouTube including some that will walk you through making a warp, warping your loom and getting ready to weave.  IF you have a rigid heddle loom add the Yarnworker aka Liz Gibson to that list.

L Gaudette wrote:
You can get low grade sheep fleeces for free or cheap if you can pick it up from a sheep farmer - sometimes they resort to burning them. Or if you know someone who spins (or felts) and starts with raw fleeces you could ask them to save the bits that they "skirt" out.

Unless we are already using them in our garden... not just the wool as mulch but soaking water also goes into the garden since there is no soap in it.   Wry grin living in Wyoming all local fleeces get soaked in cold water for 12 to 24 hours just to let the dirt settle out.  Some are so bad that I have repeated the soaking process up to 3 times before actually washing them.

Tereza Okava wrote:I am sorry to say i can never bring myself to pick them, because i am a ravenous glutton for the snow peas i so desperately wait for all year. I don't want to risk losing a single pea, and so i let the vines grow like nuts. I'm hoping someone can give some magical info here like "the more you pinch off the more flowers you get", which would really be the best case scenario....

Grin there are actually varieties of peas that have been selected for extra tendril growth such as Sweet Magnolia.  They are called hyper-tendrils.  You may want to look into them.

What type of loom are you thinking of?
Navajo type https://weavinginbeauty.com/loomplan.pdf
Inkle type for weaving straps https://makezine.com/article/craft/how_to_build_an_inkle_loom/

and here is a thread about building a large weaving loom  https://permies.com/t/242080/Build-floor-loom-plans-instructions

HUGE changes will be happening to my lot this summer.  If you look at my first post you can see the massive blue spruce behind my house.  That tree was actually in my behind me neighbor's back yard.   A few years back one of our storms damaged a large branch causing it to hang down and slowly die.  Sadly the whole tree seem to be affected with some illness and it has spent the last couple of years slowly getting browner and browner.  This spring there was no denying that it had finished dying over the winter.  Yesterday the neighbor had pros come in and remove the tree as it was a danger to a number of structures both on and off their lot not to mention people and animals.  

We moved into this house in 1992 and ever since it has been a part of our life.  It is almost like we were transported to a new location... our sight line in the back yard has changed, there will be no huge tree providing shade that moves across my yard as the sun moves.  I know it will be hotter and now I will need to learn new shade patterns and probably rearrange my growing areas next year.

I also have about a tenth of an acre and after discovering the book recommended already I have a tiny orchard ie 3 apple trees.  I picked apples because they are extremely versatile from fresh eating, to cooking to cider I felt I would get the most bang for my buck as it were.   I grow bush squash in my small beds, have added vertical planters where I can put greens, beans, etc.   Micro and dwarf tomatoes can work if you are carful which means I have more ground space to dedicate to things like corn... this year potatoes will go in the bottom tiers of the Greenstalks with a some in the front yard.  Since corn needs to be in a block and my raised beds are only 6 by 3 so  I am still deciding where to put that  and of course all the paste/sauce tomatoes I want to grow this year

Mine arrived today and boy can I see why they are popular.  Thank you for your offer.