elizabeth mae brown

Lee here, from mostly NY lol, Watertown!!  Which is almost Canada by some standards
Born in Oswego, went walkabout till I was in my 40s, came back, farmed, off-gridded, etc.  Now renovating 1870s duplex to be a landlady in my retirement, 4 dogs, hoping to add poultry, with suburban forest gardening under way

Jay Angler wrote:I think it's very important to recognize the huge difference between a "working corset" and a "tight, tiny waist" corset. The former supports the back using many of the same principles as a lumbar back brace for men working in heavy labor jobs.

Be aware, if a corset is supporting muscles, those muscles aren't working. It would be important to have strengthening exercises to try to strengthen the back muscles as opposed to being completely reliant on the brace if at all possible (this depends on diagnosis for example).  

As someone who finds bras extremely difficult to fit, I may well try the corset approach at some point.

I shifted to almost exclusively corsets about 3 years ago when the Covid 'gift' that keeps on giving was causing excruciating pain and tenderness across my upper back and shoulders.  Needing a 36dd or more (thanks Ma..NOT) made bras really hard to put on, anything requiring upper arm strength and mobility was misery. Corsets aren't much harder to put on and left my upper back/neck free for voltaren, tens pads, muscle hook, massage gun etc.
surprise!!  Way more comfy and I haven't gone back to reg bras even though physically I don't have a problem putting them like I did.

so- I can't imagine how a corset would have to be built and tightened for it to keep you from using your back and core muscles.  if anything, it helps me with my posture.  I babysat for a kid decades ago who had to sleep in a plastic shell thing for his spine- a corset is not anything like that.  guys who wear a belly wrap back support brace don't need special exercises to help them with their back...

there are almost Zero custom corset makers anymore- I just bought a dozen different makers and styles and found some that really work great and are super comfortable.
a real corset for function ( not Ren Faire or bedroom play) is sturdy cloth with wire braided almost, to be rigid but flexy

corsets suck for hiding them under modern clothes- they make weird lines across the upper back and if they are the long-line type they can fall below a shirt or sweater, but for corral-ing excess boobage they are primo!!

any questions, hit me up!
Lee

I think I qualify as a real woman as I have been married a couple times and I have given birth to some live 2 legged creatures who mostly turned out to be pretty cool humans.
So here's what I have to say about this. I was raised in a divorced family. My dad doesn't do construction. My mom was very poor and had to do everything herself because we couldn't afford to pay anybody ( unless it was making the furnace turn on again or something along those lines)
I have the advantage of being 5'7 and somewhat broad-shouldered weighing in at about 150 most of my life. Now I'm old and fat and I don't want to talk about that. But as a kid I remember learning how to use my body to get things done because no one was around to help me. So I moved bedroom furniture by sitting on my butt, putting my feet against the wall and pushing things with my back. And even though I don't think I'm super physically skilled, I learned to be practical. Plus I have a really excellent sense of physics in my brain and I have kind of an engine er's mind. So, seeing how things go together is easy for me but I know I've seen people who could not put a puzzle together or could not untangle the Tangled ring game or even girls who had a really hard time getting the clothes to stay on their paper dolls because you have to get tab a into slot b and some people are just better at that than others.
I guess what I'm saying is you can't lump all women real or not or all men real or not into a monolithic group because people are intrinsically better at some things than others. So building things and using tools might be more difficult or more stressful if you're relying on a skill set that's not strong for you like body mechanics or being able to see a straight line. And I'm not kidding about that. I had a really hard time in my teens being able to see a straight line and the only thing that got better for me was practice. Now I can have just a few dots on a board and use a skill saw and get a good straight cut. But I have paid young men to come over and ended up with some crazy scalloped edge nonsense out of a really expensive piece of advantech plywood and that really made me sad 😢😭
There is a trade-off in tools and even though the current skill saw that I have is the most expensive and probably among the heaviest. It is a Milwaukee and it is a real tool and by real tool. I mean buying the cheap stuff at harbor freight is fine. It's a good way to learn. It's a good way to get things done that just have to get done. But if you're going to need a tool for a while and you're going to want to try to get any good using it. Sometimes the tools that cost more have better qualities that make them easier to use. Any person who has tried to cut something in a kitchen with a knife that was too short or too dull or the wrong knife for that kind of job will understand it's the same principle...
So that's my ramble for now. Hope some of this helps somebody somewhere somehow
Also happy New Year!

well not give all of her away.  but my vinegar learning process is growing more mother than my containers have room for.
anybody want some? how do I get it to you still alive?
talk to me puckery people...
      Team Tart,
             all you potential Mother Cutters you....!!!

Well after 2 months of 7 littles we are down to 5. Hopefully after next weekend it will be 3 littles and 2 bigs. That's still 1 too many littles but at least I can see light at the end of the tunnel LoL

watertown ny- the lower Canadian annex
north of the Tug Hill Plateau
south of the Black River and Ft Drum
east of Lake Ontarion and west of the ADK blue line

another look at your post-
i would call that T-111 siding, it's not MDF in case you care.   It's still a mixture of wood and glue and can hold moisture especially as it ages
not sure of the climate but see if you can figure out why that side is more damaged than the others.  wind?  is that side slower to dry out? more prone to wind-blown rain? is there more open area, less tree protection from wind driven rain?
heat? bugs need heat.
less roof overhang?
did the builders use a sloped top on the horizontal band in any other places?  or has a prior application of caulk peeled off?

the more you can figure out why, the better prepared you are to know if it will become the same problem elsewhere...

going on with the comment about bugs- I've had a place with carpenter ants.  They like to live where they can borrow in moist wood to excavate holes in which to lay eggs over winter and be protected from extreme cold.  I've had a place with carpenter bees- they actually eat wood but I don't think they'd eat old glue/wood products.
I think your best bet is to find out what is in there.  See if that is as much a problem as the birds.  The holes might not be your biggest problem.  There's a problem solving technique called like the 5Q process, where you state each subsequent problem and find it's source, and keep digging until you have an overview of the situation, not just the immediate issue.


1st issue- holes from woodpeckers
2nd issue- what's the food source?  Bugs
3rd issue- why are there bugs?  what are the bugs up to?
4th issue- what ARE those bugs up to?  are they infesting any structural wood?  are the destroying insulation?  are they making paths for other problem critters?  like wasps, mice, mold, air currents....
5th issue- why did the bugs show up?  is there inadequate overhang from the rain etc?  is that area of wood damp because rain water sits on the horizontal band and seeps into the particle board?  that's my guess.  the birds stand there because the bugs are there, not because it's easier perching.  woodpeckers can walk up almost any vertical surface and stay as long as they like- super good grippy toes....


if there is a bug infestation and you need it gone, there is boric acid used in carpenter bee holes- you squirt basically roach powder in the holes and then close the hole by tapping a short chunk of dowel in and hit it with a hammer.  
for carpenter ants the same boric acid mixed with antifreeze and poured around the ant trails makes a tasty treat that they walk thru and get on their exoskeleton, it sticks, goes along wherever they go, and you get the crystalline boric acid in their homes.  the crystals slowly scratch thru their shells and they 'bleed' to death.  that's an easy way to think of it.  do some research on what the boric acid does to birds if that concerns you.  my guess they would get very little of it in their system but I'm no ornithology person.

if the wood rot is extensive my suggestion is REMOVE it. don't cover it up.  think of a sponge if you put it in a plastic bag and walk away.  nasty.  mold and god knows what else...growing inside your wall.  Please don't.
some temporary rigged scaffolding, a sawzall, cut that stuff out and remove anything else that is damp, run horizontal nailers across the vertical studs.  make the nailers at least as deep as the dry siding below. nail NEW siding over the nailers and it should come down just OVER the lower siding.  caulk the seam.
voila!  you no longer have a surface to hold water.
paint EVERYTHING

also-
hold a voodoo dance that asks the woodpecker gods to move along a few miles...


good luck
lee

Solstice babies!!!

my current kids- Kara, my 5 year old 50% elkhound 25% border collie 25% cattle dog with our new man of the house- a 100% Norwegian elkhound I went to get only to find he was actually a dog needing rescue so here we are- a loving, fantastic, spunky, brilliant, occasionally devious, currently massively pregnant momma and her 2 year old younger man / puppy-daddy Loki.