Jane Weeks

I love rag rugs! I have one in the bathroom with a matching toilet seat cover. I make mine with old sheets from thrift stores. You're doing great...you'll love it when it's done.

I'm going to remove some of my gutters this spring. I have a wrap-around verandah around three sides of the house, so it protects much of the foundation from rain off the roof. The property slopes down from the house. The eavetroughs aren't properly graded with downspouts in the proper places, so I get rain pouring out of the gutters right by the front door, among other problems. I think I'm going to make a short one, maybe eight feet long, on the verandah roof in front of the door, slightly graded to one downspout. Same with the side-back doors. No more cleaning gutters!

I planted six seeds a few days ago in one gallon pots. I bought them from Foraged Farmed Fresh. He has a facebook page and he's a member of Ontario native plant gardening fb group.

Spinning wheel. Mac desktop using Firefox. Canada.

i recently heard what I think is a great help: If the item were stolen, lost in a fire or whatever, would you replace it?

Marie Kondo has been an enormous help to me in getting rid of so much stuff! I went through most of the categories three years ago, and am only now getting to the cellar. This is an old house (built 1855) with ever-evolving outdoor systems and gardens, so I have loads of stuff, from lumber to hardware that may or may not be useful as time goes by. I've been so glad that I didn't re-home various bits and pieces that came in handy for repairing something. I'm glad that I waited this long to tackle that, but now that I'm fully retired, it's time. I made a blog post back when I first used the method: https://www.smallbones.ca/winter-rambling/

i'm about an hour and a half east of Toronto. We've already had two major snowstorms here and temps well below zero centigrade. I was going to attach a pic, but can't see how to do that.

The book is on my Amazon wish list; may get a second one for my son. $24 on amazon.ca.

My final update on this subject: Last winter I piled lots of straw on top of the holding tanks and everything was fine; no freezing. There's now some more soil on top and I'll add more straw shortly. By next autumn, I think they'll be fine without adding more, but if necessary I will. Thank-you so much for all your suggestions.

You could also make your own vegan cheese. I was a vegetarian for more than 20 years; not vegan just because of cheese. Then I became vegan about 10 years ago after watching a certain documentary. I've made a cheese plate for a Winter Solstice celebration using recipes from https://thegentlechef.com/gentle-chef-cookbooks/non-dairy-evolution-cookbook/. (I bought the digital version.) It was a great hit! I've lost the craving now, but I'll still make some for special celebrations that include vegans and non-vegans.