Morfydd St. Clair

Yes, and be glad that leaded gasoline was outlawed in the 70s.  It looks like the vast majority of car exhaust now is not great to breathe, or for global warming, but not heavy enough to drop to the soil and not dangerous if it did.

I would get a soil test anyway, to see how plants will do, and to see if your land was used for anything "fun" in the past.  And if the exhaust is bothering you, maybe you can plant a non-edible hedge to block wind and noise from the road.  But I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Lorinne Anderson wrote:Waving my ignorance flag...what does CSA represent?

I love this concept from a consumer perspective. How would I find something like this where I live (wet coast BC, Canada)?

CSA == Community Supported Agriculture.  Googling "csa vancouver" found me this:  https://eatlocal.org/programs/csa-box-program/  and I assume you can find something more local via similar searches.  Also, I think there's a regional Canadian subforum where you could ask for recommendations...

Silk isn't vegan, sadly, though I agree it makes for great duvet filling.

I think a good bet is hats.  For longer hair, a slick inner cap (again I'd say silk, but high-thread-count cotton or linen would work) to keep tangles down, and then something thicker and warmer over it.

When I stay overnight in the cabin in the winter, it's air-tight enough that eventually body heat + hat + silk duvet + flannel cover (+ sleeping bag when it hits -15 degrees C) is fine to sleep in, and even to get out of bed into not-freezing ambient air.  But to be able to sleep I definitely need to start with a hot-water bottle.

Kenneth Elwell wrote:

Mike Haasl wrote:Related to the mini splits, I already have central heat so I'd only be upgrading it to central air.

My worries with the portable air conditioners is their output.  Looks like they're best suited to a large room, not an entire house.  But if they're efficient enough, two or three of them may be cheaper than a/c.

The floor models are portable, so you could move between rooms, you could take the AC to bedroom at bedtime. The hot air duct isn't insulated, so best to keep it as short as possible

In our rental, there's a big (24KBtu/hr) window unit mounted through the wall.

We had our own central AC unit replaced a few years back, and the installer had 0% financing ( air handler is in the attic, completely separate from our oil fired hydronic heat system). Might be a way to soften the blow of your central AC upgrade or a ductless mini-split installed?
No lost floor space or restricted use of windows, wintertime storage, fewer filters to clean/replace...

Also, 2 or 3 AC units with all the plastic in the cases, ducts/baffles, versus adding AC coil in existing system plus condenser outside?

So, I live in a rented, 400 sqft, 4th floor apartment, so my calculations are different.  Last year I declared that as God was my witness I needed at least a cool place to sleep.  So we bought a cheap (OK brand, no really that's it's name) for 150 euros to live in the bedroom.  German windows are simultaneously cool and annoying, in that they can be opened inward about 6 inches at the top, or entirely to one side, with no way in either position to keep them from slamming shut with wind, or any screens.  For an extra 20 euros we bought a polyester insert that velcros to the window frame and has a zipper that you can insert the A/C outlet hose into.  It's leaky and inefficient but in extremis...  This year we are both WFH so we bought another for his apartment next door (my not-so-hidden reason was in case the original crapped out).  We kept the original running 24/7 to keep the bedroom comfortable and the rest of the place bearable, and had the other one for video conferences in a "public" space when bearable wasn't actually working.

Great?  No.  But I got decent sleep and work time was actually more comfortable than in the "historic building" office that doesn't have A/C.

Which is to say that you can get a lot of use from a cheap A/C, as long as you know what your goals are.  

Bringing up an older thread with points? reiterations? mostly from hippressurecooking.com whose author I totally recommend:

--The Instant Pot doesn't come to the same pressure as a standard pressure cooker (12psi vs 15, iirc) so recipes should be adjusted and sounds like more time cooking for broth
--She totally recommends a splash or more of apple cider vinegar, to pull gelatin and flavor from bones
--She also recommends onion skins for flavor and umami

I can't believe no one's mentioned Chekhov's "The Bet":  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bet_(short_story) , online at many sites for which I cannot vouch.

We read it in high school and, as an unpopular introvert, being isolated sounded like heaven.  Then I went to college and discovered a social life.  (Also, I think what was really appealing to me in the story was all the time to read with no competing responsibilities.  That still sounds pretty awesome, tbh.)

My BF and I have been WFH since the end of February.  I have been pretty happy with him, semi-constant chat/email/video with coworkers, regular phone calls with my mom, and weekly video cooking together with my friend.  But I would have been miserable without another human here, and I was more than ready to be around other people as things opened up.  We're still just seeing a few friends every few weeks, but being able to be around (around! not in!) crowds makes me relax in places I didn't realize were tense.

I don't have an answer to your specific question, but I did see a red flag you should at least consider.  If neighboring lots are being logged, your water source may move, become silty, get blocked by something... Assuming Madi's mom will let you look, I'd recommend walking through your upstream area and thinking about what the impacts might be in coming years.  You also may want to hold off on any permanent work until you've seen a year's worth of the new behavior.

But congratulations!  This sounds like a great new adventure!

Nicole Alderman wrote:

So, brown, green, and denim tend to be my base colors. Due to my complection, I can't do pastels. Or lighter colors. I just looked washed out.

I find it hard to find colors that I like and that look good on me, because it's harder to match to brown than it is to match to black. I generally try not to buy any colors that don't match the other clothes I wear. This is hard, though, because these shades aren't ones in stores unless it's fall (pretty sure these are all "fall colors"), and I do nearly all of my shopping at Thrift Stores, anyway. Basically what this means is that whenever I'm at a Thrift Store, I wander through the clothing section. If there's nothing in my size that matches what I wear, I don't buy it. So, 75% of the time, I don't buy anything. But, sometimes I run across a bunch of clothes that work (probably because someone my size with my style donated a bunch of stuff!). So then I buy everything I can.

That does complicate things, but what a lovely set of colors!  If it helps, blacks can clash too.  (A mild amusement at the outdoor goth festivals - raise and lower sunglasses and watch how peoples' outfits change w/ and w/o the filter, especially when the sun is bright enough to bring out allll the underdyes.)

Nicole Alderman wrote:
My hard thing is that I often forget to change out of my nice ("city," not-on-my-property) clothes and then I go out and end up working and rip a whole in my shirt, or stain my pants. It drives me nuts.

For me it's that I get to the garden, start wandering around looking at what's changed before working, start tidying, and get a nettle or thorny branch across my ankle.  Or the wildlife starts invading my shoes...

I just posted (in a radically unrelated forum) that I once told a therapist that I wanted to figure out how to merge my aspirations to be the best:  yuppie, hippie, and goth: which wasn't working, and most of my problem was wardrobe space.

I've been in kind of a capsule wardrobe for a couple of years because I'm fatter than I want to spend money on.  (I did come into a bit of money a few years ago and went to a store with a personal consultant.  Everything I got talked into has been donated except the fabulous jeans, which I wore into holes in unfortunate places and which now live at the garden.)  

Current-ish capsule wardrobe, when I was going to work at a semi-casual software company:
--Pants, mostly jeans, neutral as possible
--Blouses, cotton, silk, linen and/or blends thereof, including polyester, all as long as it's breathable and washable.  Mostly black, some jewel tones, button front and at least elbow length.
--Knit tops, mostly black, not skin tight
--Blazers, mostly black, or cardigans, usually expensive bought second hand
--Hoodies given from work events - not classy, but work-friendly
--Scarves in bright colors - mine are my expensive folly, but there are tons of gorgeous cheap ones too
--Socks and boots for winter
--Ballet flats or loafers for summer (these are almost like being barefoot, but tidier)

Now that I'm WFH, I usually swap out pants for my long gothy skirts after the small thrombosis scare.  (Skinny jeans and sitting for hours on your grandma's dining room chairs don't mix, folks!)

For grungy work I wear whatever jeans are hanging on the bedroom door + either a knit top or a Tshirt from the BF (his capsule wardrobe is black Tshirt + jeans).

For garden work I wear whatever has been moved to the garden, including jeans with unfortunate holes and shoes I've abused into pieces.

To work out (ha!) I have a box of athletic bras and leggings, and I steal a Tshirt from the BF.

I like long skirts lots, but previously avoided them for work because they don't play well with rolling office chairs, and I like shorter skirts too, but have outgrown my expensive black tights and can't motivate myself to spend the money on the quality I like.

To note:  My "capsule" wardrobe is what I use day to day.  It all fits into a wardrobe about 80 cm wide and as tall as me.  I have a second wardrobe, fully 2x the size, with gothy and formal clothes for those kind of events, plus some capsule-y + gothy pieces that I'm too fat for but delude myself I'll fit into again.

I don't want to pretend to have answers, just what has sort of turned out to work for me.  Were I again a size 4, I'm sure I would go mad with power and explode my wardrobe with all the cute frivolous things.

I've always wondered about interplanting rhubarb and asparagus, as the asparagus comes up early and then is tall (but doesn't block the sun) where the rhubarb is lower for the summer.  I suspect asparagus wouldn't like the regular digging up needed for rhubarb, though.