M Ljin

I think mulching with whole logs is a perfectly fine thing to do as well. After all, this is how soil is built in the forest. They are habitat for snails and such, but also beneficial and edible fungi, salamanders, and ring-necked snakes. Very rarely, I have noticed, does one see an abundance of slugs on the forest floor. (However, the forest slugs and snails can be very big and pretty!)


I’m hoping to do more log mulching over the fall and winter.

I also have the resources of pond and river muck, very fertile, in great abundance, as long as I have the strength to shovel and carry it up the hill, which I usually do with a bowl on my head. They would be a good substitute for compost in building a hugel.

I agree with Anne. I feel that nice clothes, good essential hygiene, and othersuch are often sufficient. Combing and brushing one’s hair, the more the better, helps distribute the oils in an even way. Basic healthy eating is a good start, and foods like burdock, nettle, and so on are good for the skin and hair. Others too. Brush your teeth with a stick. I do sometimes wish I had some nicer, more handmade, natural clothes, but that is what my great wheel is for! (If I can fix it one of these days! The drive band keeps slipping off because the wheel is off center.) (Still need to figure out the loom situation.)

I have sometimes felt the need to bathe with herbs like fir or honeysuckle, but not too often. I do think being warm and sometimes bathing in warming or purifying or otherwise medicinal herbs is necessary and beneficial. Taking care of ourselves, as homesteaders, suddenly becomes a matter of immediate importance. I find that time shifts to being abundant, whereas energy is a precious resource. Failing to take care of oneself—not eating enough, not being warm enough—can really mess with the ability to do the essential everyday tasks!

I cannot remember where I read it (somewhere on Wikipedia) but remember reading that Scythian women would grind up cedar, cypress, and frankincense in water, and apply it to their bodies for a day. Neither the men (who used sweat lodges remarkably similar to those of Native Americans) nor the women would bathe in water. (I found a mention of it here. Sounds like Herodotus wrote about it: https://amonbe.org/beauty-secrets-from-central-asias-ancient-nomadic-heroines/)

My latest idea that I’ve just run out to test is to see if shellacking a plant fiber cord could benefit its sonic properties. After all, they used to use shellac as a natural plastic!  

I also wonder if the shellac may increase the strength of the materials. It’s very sticky and rigid when it dries. I know that a waxed cord resounds better than one that hasn’t been waxed, but wax doesn’t seem to make a cord any stronger.

I thought that soles for shoes seemed like the perfect use for this knotty piece of willow.



So I sawed through with a bowsaw and split the remainder:



I’ve also a perfect dismantled pair of jeans I think would work well for this. I am not sure, however, if I want to have two layers of fabric, or what the outer layer would be. More jeans? Something tougher? I am probably going to wax the fabric, as I live in a wet, muddy, snowy part of the world.

That happens!

Since nibbling around burnt bits didn’t fully satiate me, I made another batch, making sure not to add any roots unevenly. This is one of my special seed grown white potatoes that roots at the nodes, grows from cuttings, has purple eyes, makes spectacular flowers, and overall is a very special potato. I should be saving them for seed, but my regular potatoes aren’t ready yet! Despite a frost coming in, they’re still green.

Sometimes they grow gigantic, but these white potatoes were planted a bit late so they’re small. They are also knobbly like a sunchoke.

The last one I saw was back in August. It was on the way into town for a music festival when a gigantic rainbow reached all over the town. Both ends were visible “touching” the ground, and it was exceptionally strong and clear. It was the most spectacular one I’ve seen to this day. I don’t see them too often but they happen!

New fried roots again! Sunchoke, potato, carrot and a little onion. And then some apple mixed in.

I should not have added so many in a batch, nor added more after the initial amount. Some of them are burnt. Oh, well. At least those ones can fertilize the garden!

I wish I knew of some good quince bushes. I do have a friend who moved here from a ways away and goes back regularly, who usually brings back a few bags of quinces, which I’m grateful for. I’ve planted the seeds and they grow like weeds, but I’ve never seen a mature bush around here fruit for some reason. It’s strange; they’re plenty hardy, and I knew someone who lives up in the chilly highlands who often had a good crop of them. But not here.

This lady seems to like gut strings. Maybe the quality of the strings differs based on the experience of the maker, as with so many things? It could be they’re using a different technique too.



This is a tagelharpa with a string comparison. The horsehair definitely sounds different. I wouldn’t say worse. Darker, higher pitched. Interesting and beautiful in its own way.

A lovely video on how to make gut strings by the medieval technique!

I suppose that in a bowed instrument, gut strings will be naturally more durable. But when brushed with the fingertips as in lute playing, that may work too.

Overview of the video:

- Soak sheep guts in rock alum solution to give them a basic PH.
- Rinse until all salt and alum are rinsed out.
- He slides the gut onto a scissor blade and then cuts to give them a flat rather than round shape.
- The strands are twisted together on a jig made of four boards in a square, with holes on them. Half a clothespin is used as a handle to twist the guts together. Some strings are made with two guts, some three, etc. They are kept quite wet through the whole process.
- Then they are cut from the jig and let to dry for three days. They are smoothed out with scouring rush, before being oiled with olive oil to protect them from moisture and give them flexibility. After this they are ready for use.