Donna Lynn

Christopher Weeks wrote:I’m not gonna call this a favorite, but last week we made a big batch of chive pesto and last night I made deviled eggs with the leftovers. They were good, but not great.

These would look ghoulishly good on a Halloween platter!

Timothy Norton wrote:

Nina Wright wrote:Any recipes for without mayo?

I have not tried, but I'm musing here so take it with a grain of salt.

I wonder if greek yogurt or sour cream would be a close substitute? It may require some 'dressing up' with spices and accoutrements but I could see those working.

I'd experiment with mashed avocado, pureed cucumber or red bell pepper (fresh or roasted) or celery or carrot juice, maybe with some puree, unsweetened plant milk (or dairy cream,) and so on.  I've used pureed cucumber (without the seeds) mixed with cashew cream to make a sour cream-like base for raw spinach dip... so just think of flavors you like and think of how to make those things into the consistency you need.  It won't be just like mayo, but could turn out to be even better!

Anne Miller wrote:I have never used a recipe.

Boil eggs.  Peel. Cut in half, scoop out yolks, mash yolks.

Add Miracle Whip Salad Dressing, dab of mustard.  Fill egg white halves.

Eat and enjoy!

OMG Anne, were you my secret sister?!?  That is how my mom always made them, and how I prefer to make them now.  (I took a batch to work for a pitch-in, and my boss was quite upset that I didn't use a set recipe he could take home to his wife! 🤣)  I've experimented with regular mayo, keto mayo, aquafaba, garlic salt, cayenne, horseradish, Dijon mustard and so on, but always come back to good ol' Miracle Whip with plain yellow mustard to taste.  Maybe some salt and pepper if I'm not feeling lazy.  It's how I make egg salad too.

Although I have to say adding pickle juice as mentioned above sounds interesting... I may try that next time.  I already add sweet relish to my tuna salad and just a bit to grilled cheese sandwiches, and I love the flavor it adds.  

Rick Valley wrote:I'm going to be 74 before Eggsmash, so by then any hair long enough to tie back will be WAY back- my ponytail is 'bout as fat as my little finger now, so maybe I'll stop trimming my beard- once I grew my beard long, but found if I wasn't paying full attention during dinner I started eating it. (my beard) That just doesn't work well. And now I have a wide collection of hats/bandannas you name it, because getting your scalp sunburned is off the pain chart, and besides, you don't need sunglasses so much. I did see a cartoon about male pattern baldness which advocated just getting a face tattooed on your bald top so you can tilt your head down: so you'll be facing whoever you're talking to! Looked about right in the cartoon. Maybe I can get my beard long enough I'll be able to part it under my chin and do a "comb up and over" ?

My guy has a skinny tail now too, he gathers it up on top of his head for sleeping, and ties it low in back for daily wear unless he wants to look santa-like with it flowing around his shoulders.  He has a thick beard, which he also puts in a "ponytail" to keep it out of his mouth when eating and sleeping.  (He just uses the black elastic thingies.)  Another heavy-bearded guy we knew parted his in the middle and made two thick braids.  It looked decorative but very masculine -- viking-like.  

None of this solves the chrome-dome situation, but my guy doesn't give his thinning top or growing bald spot a thought -- he's earned this badge of experience as much as I've earned my grey hairs.  Think of it as a sign of wisdom!  Or you could tattoo a lifelike brain with cut edges of scalp and skull around it where your hair ends 😁  That would be so much more fun than a face!  To look more youthful if that is your goal, you could do what a friend who started balding in his early 30s did:  he hated the "horseshoe look" so much he just shaved his whole head.  That way it looks intentional, and you can keep the beard.

For my clothes dryer, I just never run it on the higher settings, except for the first 10-15 minutes if I have just bedding in there or something like that.  That way the heat that goes through the duct is never hot enough (I believe, I haven't actually checked with a thermometer) to catch lint on fire.  I'm trying to use the clothesline more, and even hung a wooden fold-out drying rack on the wall over our bathtub for winter use, plus we have an old towel rack that I can set as near the woodstove as I like for faster drying (and in true permie style, this stacks functions by raising the humidity in the house in winter as a byproduct.)  But until I phase over completely, the good ol' electric dryer saves the day, so I'll keep using it and keeping the heat settings medium to low to avoid the fire hazard, as well as cleaning the lint trap after each use and cleaning the outside part every few years.

What I really need to clean is my cooktop vent fan filter!  The fan runs but has never pulled steam up into itself, so I'm hoping using the tips in this thread to clean the filter will help with that.  It is always possible, though, that the cheapo handyman the prior owner used to do a kitchen remodel never actually vented the fan to the outside properly.  🙄

I look forward to permie degreaser solutions added to this thread, as my guy's high-fat carnivore diet is sliming up my kitchen with all the animal fat, and I'd love a less-elbow-grease and less-paper towels solution to this perpetual mess.  I let the dogs lick off the dishes before I wash them, but I don't really want to teach them to stand up and lick the glass cooktop and surrounding countertop... although I have zero doubt that they'd learn quickly and be thrilled to "assist!"  

I love these holders secured with a stick.  The nice thing is that you can make them yourself from leather, stiff fabric, metal, or recycled plastic if you're into that sort of thing.  The sticks are nice made out of wood or metal.  You can cut a simple strip of leather, or tool metal into a bun-shape to fit your volume of hair.  You can design and decorate it to make it feminine, masculine, or plain and functional.  It can hold a ponytail, a bun, or that in-between thing where you gather a ponytail, then twist it and fold it up and clip it all to the back of your head.

I bought a small amount of bulk seed for forage kale a couple years ago to scatter in our large turkey area, since both they and the chickens seem to love kale when I give them a few leaves of Lacinato or curly.  Either someone found and ate the seeds among the un-mowed field vegetation, or they simply failed to sprout.  Or the turkeys found and gobbled the seedlings before they had a chance to grow to a noticeable size and re-seed.  (We only had four turkeys in a maybe 1/3 acre enclosure, and they were getting supplemental feed as well as foraging lots of different greenery and bugs.)  I didn't spare the kale seeds a whole lot of attention, so perhaps it was my benign neglect that did them in.  Anyway, that has been my experience.  (Zone 6 Mid-Michigan.)   Perhaps if I had actually pushed each seed down into the ground it would have done better, but I had so much seed to scatter that it didn't occur to me to be so fussy with it.  

My experience is probably not much help overall, but as a result of it, I'd suggest properly sowing a portion of the seed just to see if that makes a difference.

Joshua Myrvaagnes wrote:I can't off the top of my head think of one single time I've ever convinced anyone to actually take action on a permaculture technique, but I have been doing a process that helps people get motivated (find inner motivation, actually) to do something for Earth care, and I helped someone inspire himself to shave a cat in Saudi Arabia (it was suffering in the 115 degree heat).

Yikes, I sincerely hope that guy only shaved the belly of that poor cat!  A friend's new girlfriend convinced him to shave his Norwegian Elkhound in the US Midwest summer, and the poor dog got a horrible sunburn!  If an animal is truly suffering from the heat, shaving their belly is enough for them to cool off lying on the earth in the shade, or a cool tile or stone floor indoors.  

Please do not shave an animal's back and sides if they are going to be exposed to sun at all.  And if you completely shave an indoor pet, make sure they have enough warmth over night since they won't have their natural temperature-regulating fur.  (Try sleeping naked with no sheets all night when you're used to wearing clothing and/or using bedding, and you'll understand.)

To what others have suggested (horseradish, asparagus, strawberries, reseeding greens, and walking onions/garlic) I'd add comfrey, squashes that will grow from seeds left on the ground as rotting fruit, and black walnut trees.  Black walnuts spread like weeds here, and provide nuts for protein and fat, sap for syrup, as well as containing anti-parasitic compounds in the green hulls.  Just keep them out of any areas you want to cultivate (this can be done every few years or so) due to the juglone produced by the roots after the trees are several years old.

I second everyone who's mentioned coconut oil (topically or orally) and, the real winner, a raw whole-prey style diet.  Just raw meat is not enough, they need raw bones and organs too for complete nutrition.  I feed my two dogs a raw diet, and although we've had ticks a-plenty here this year, they rarely come in with any, and when they do, those often are not even attached.  They are, I think, going on 5 years old now, large dogs, and still act like puppies, full of energy, with no health concerns.  

I met a feral-ish cat once who had bad-looking skin on her lower back with lots of fur missing.  I managed to get her to let me rub coconut oil on it while petting her a few times, and it seemed to help.  If she had been comfortable enough to come to me regularly I'm sure she would have fared even better.   I think her issue was more like mites or mange rather than allergies, though.  Diet change first, then being proactive about what they come into contact with in their environment (including toxic flea/tick gick!) would probably help more with allergies.  I had a cat once who turned out to be allergic to her plastic food dish!  I swapped it out for a ceramic one, and her chin abscesses cleared right up.  Oddly, a veterinarian suggested that possibility to me.  Who'da thunk it?  I haven't used plastic dishes for my pets (or people) since then, only metal or ceramic.