Cheri Ryan

No matter where we lived when I was growing up, dad always built a little pond with a pipe that dripped water onto cement and a few rocks. Si the drip was multiplied by each rock with its own drips. Finally the drips went into the pond.

Always fascinated and drew all kinds of birds in every make and model - lol.

There was rarely a time during daylight when there weren’t any birds who had been drawn by the sound, and then stayed for a drink or to splash around in one of the shallow parts of tge little waterfall. The waterfall structure of rock and cement was only about 24” high. The pond was usually about 5’ long and not very wide-in some places we lived dad made it smaller.

He only put a drain into the last one after us kids had grown up. Before that, he had excited kids to bale out the swampy-smelling water. I recall that “getting to” clean out the pond and become covered in green slime was one of the highlights of our summer.

Build it, and they will come! (Meaning build a dripping feature with rocks to perch on where the they can grab the drips to drink, and one or more shallow indentations for birds to splash around).

Rooibos tea. Pleasant taste, high in anti-oxidants too. We often make ours with multiple tea bogs in a gallon jar of water, placed in bright sun during summer months.

Back in “the ild days” people got together often. Most attended a church and I ts social functions, whether they were devout or merely showed up regularly. For instance, 90% of Americans in the early 1900’s attended a church or synagogue.
Many folks attended dances often and engaged in doing good works with others. The benefits of this social network were that single people came together to DO SOMETHING together. It offered the opportunity to get to know others better without force ng one to commit to a date or dating, then have one or the other stuck with the stress and embarrassment of seeing too many red flags and having to pull the plug on the relationship which was springing from bud to bloom too quickly.

When singles are doing something, they can more safely check out and get to know singles  if the opposite sex without thee major pitfalls of the kinds of messes that befall singles these days.

The old social way of life provided a sort of shopping opportunity. It could often also give some protection as over time itt exposd the users and abusers to full view, if they stuck around a community long enough.

There were downsides, such as too few sngles n an area.

These days fewer foljs are going to church, engaging in clubs or dancng. We are sitting 🪑 n front of oyr computers ir cell phones at hime. It us all too much easy to misrepresent oneself  to others. Even some folks in jail jump on dating sites. It’s a jungle out there when you can even find a single to respond. And then, it’s a no  holds barred event and let the buyer beware!

The old methods still hold the best hope. Any productive venue where folks gather for a
reason, to DO SOMETHING together. A common  interest. Church with its social activities. Dances. AA meetings. A civic group. Dance lessons. Any sort if lessons. Clubs. Re-enactment groups. Somewhere where people actually gather physically rather than a digital mage
online. Save the online chats for the non-dating
part of your life.

This is just the ideas and opinions of a woman born back in “the olden days” (1949)…an intrepid 73 year young gal who has gone down
plenty of blind alleys in life and barked down too many dry wells (grin). Dating is not for  the faint of heart these days!

I use straw bales which don’t require bending over to tend. If one has a handicap, someone else may need to deliver the balesand set them up on their narrow side.

There is an excellent book on straw bale gardening which has guided my efforts. The bales don’t need weeding after “conditioning has heated and killed any seeds they might contain, rhey self-fertilize the plants (once they’ve been “conditioned”) and provide mulch to retain moisture on hot days. They are eady to fit up with a support system for climbing plants or to wrap plastic around to make a mini greenhouse in spring and fall.

Folks in wheelchairs can easily tend a strawbale garden.

For inquiring minds, the book I’ve used which has provided a wildly successful start this year to the veggie garden is “Straw Bake Gardens” by Joel Karsten.

The book also shows how to make your iwn straw bales from weeds with instructions on how to build the tamper to compact things.

(One photo from my garden with the folding chair..the rest courtesy of the book)

Hi all…Sheepspot.com gives info on the rare and endangered breeds of sheep which used to be mainstays for clothing and coarser fibers.

The Southdown breed produces a very doft “nice next to the skin) wool which resists feltng or breakage. I buy my Southdiwn “too” (ready to spin) blended with 35% bombyx silk and already dyed in attractive colours from Sheepspot and spin the sock yarn.

For years I bought commercially spun merino wool sock yarn (with the additional merino/nylon for years and years) but merino simply cannot stand up to the hard wear and tear and washings. Yet most who knit sicks don’t know that Southdown is so hardy and enduring and when blended with 25% silk, is the best option out there for natural fiber socks! I like spinning and knitting, but hate darning socks and I bet most others feel similarly. The downside of the Southdown/silk prepared top? It’s not exactly cheap. I hope to be able to keep some Southdown sheep in future as their fleece is so soft yet sturdy. (They are good for meat as well). They’re a U.K. breed by the way.

Obviously this wouldn’t work for everyone, as this pertains to jack rabbits and big acreage.

We just sort of fell into a solution (quite by accident and sort of on our silly heads) With regard to keeping the jackrabbit population in check. We have coyotes and bobcats on our 300+ acres and a lot of the acreage is just left wild. Found out the jackrabbits limited nicely, to the point of being quite limited, by the coyotes and bobcats. It’s sort of a check and balance.

It became easier to fence in our chickens and give them a good secure chicken house at night, than it was to fence in the veggie garden.

We also have two large dogs who function as heard guardian dogs so they’re not able to roam around the front or back of our house but they’re barking and the smell of their urine seems to discourage the bobcats and coyotes from drawing very near the property around the house. I’ve got four chickens, older hens who don’t run that fast, in the backyard and so far (knock on wood Dash lol) no predators have bothered them. They roost nightly in what I jokingly refer to as “Malibu Barbies First Chickenhouse” at night. I just leave the door to that thing open. So far so good. The chicken house is one of those gizmos that is manufactured in China and you buy it in a box and put it together at home. You can’t get more than three or four decent size chickens squeezed into that thing with all the good will in the world though! Hence it’s name.

Our 300 plus acres back up to unpopulated wilderness clear to the Sierra Nevada mountains, so there are fresh supplies of predatirs drifting in periodically to eat the rats, mice, squirrels, jack rabbits, quail wild turkeys and anything else that likes to consume grain or garden produce. Again: the two dogs (Akbash and rough coated Collie) have warned off the predators in about a 2 acre around the house.

The only thing that gets through with impunity are the skunks, if I don’t put out minced garlic. Planting the stuff is said to deter them similarly but I haven’t tried that. Now, how on earth can something which puts out such a ripe and lasting odor possibly object to the smell of garlic-lol??

Jin Shin Fee (by Felicitas Waldeck)

The original Jin Shin (Jyutsu) book by Mary Burmeister is attached to courses so hogtied by copyrights nd costs that it can exclude the average person. Felicitas Waldeck is an accomplished master of Jin Shin via the Burmeister company, but she wanted folks to be able to heal each other and those they know. So she published the boiled-down essence of Jin Shin in JIN SHIN FEE.

The book credits Master Jiro Murai and Mary Burmeister, the two who made Jin Shin known to the world.

The book is a "Guide to Quick Aid and Healing from A-Z Through the Laying on of Hands (no previous knowledge necessary. Immediate use on yourself and others") It includes "Important First Aid," the Organ Flows, Symptoms from A-Z, Disease - What do You Want to Tell Me, as well as What is Jin Shin Fee. It is clear and has sufficient illustrations so you can "get" the information and use it.

An example of using Jin Shin Fee in an emergency is: You are driving down the highway and are the first to come upon a serious wreck. Someone is hemmorhaging badly. You don't have any clean towels (and they would probably become quickly soaked anyway and then what).

You recall that Jin Shin says to "repel" energy (and blood coming out), put your right palm down on the area first. I remember this as "Right" starts with "R", just like "red (blood)" does. So Right hand down first. Then left on top of the right hand. As other folks show up to help, get them to gently "pigpile" their right hand down on top of yours, then the next guy, then right and left the person after that and so on up the stack of hands, palms down.

This can actually slow or stop the flow of blood, depending upon how bad the injury AND how many other folks's energies are in that "pigpile" of hands.

Fainting, heart attack, shock, sadness, flu, bad knees...you name it, the book covers it. No equipment required. Just your hands!

For inquiring minds: I have studied Jin Shin and used it both professionally and in my private life for years now. It is one leg of my healing "milking stool" (3 legs total). The other two "legs" are the Chinese energy manipulation (Yuen Method...I learned from Yuen, but do NOT recommend him...you'll learn faster and more from LeRoy LeMouf!!), and "Tapping" as taught by Gary Craig before he went to Ho'oponopo. I do not believe that you can "screw up" anyone with Jin Shin. It is gentle but effective.

Happy Healing!

I was reading the posts about bears and compost piles, and wondering if anyone would bring up a dog. Thank goodness you did!

We live in the northern sierra Nevada foothills far enough away from people that the Bears come down out of the mountains and over the years they’ve gotten pretty darn good in the summer about trying to pick off our chickens and eat the fruit in our orchards. The only thing that has reliably kept them away is our Turkish Akbash dog.

He’s probably 135 pounds. He’s a not neutered and he poops and piddles all around his area. I think the bears can smell his poop and piddle and he has a really deep bark. Akbashes are said to have developed from sighthounds and mastiff‘s. He’s fast, he’s determined, and so far not only the bears have not wanted to go anywhere near him, but the mountain lions, bobcats and coyotes feel the same ay too.

We have a part-time ranchhand living a mile away on the property who has a German Shepherd, collie mix. She’s not all that big. But she’s determined! She’s shorter and smaller than our Collie, but Dusty Rose is a really good critter-gitter! She goes after the bears, and tells them she’s going to bite them and they turn tail and run.

A family member about a half a mile away in the other direction on the property is having a horrible time with bears wanting to get her chickens. Every now and again we hear the shotgun going off and my husband chuckles and comments, “Chrissie can’ shoot straight.” Thank goodness the Bears don’t know that though – LOL. However the gun does not discouraged them other than for the moment. Hearing your dog and smelling it “calling cards“ ground area is what seems to do the best job. I suspect we get a mix of bears that know about human habitation and bears that are really wild because some of the bears surely must encounter people in their long march down off the mountains in into our property and others are probably pretty ignorant about human ways.

Before we got our act Bosch (and his collie companion) a big beer tried to take apart a very solid wooden door with planking reinforcement to get out a garbage can on the other side of the door! In our experience, at least with the Bears around here, putting any food items inside a building is no guarantee the bear won’t take apart the door and go right on through. We were fortunate that the door was so massive that it withstood the bear’s fury, strength and claws. But the marks will always be there.

Try “Kids N’ pets” stain & odor  remover. Safe for puppies, kittens and babies.

I purchase it through Amazon.com. It actually takes the chemical components of odirs apart so that a dog’s excellent nose can no longer detect an old urine spit.

I have used this on clothing which got “skunked” (liberally sprayed by a startled skunk). Worked wonderfully well.

We buy this product by the gallon jug, as Hubbie and the dogs simply will NOT learn to appriach skunks with more care-lol.

Non-toxic, biodegradable and cruelty free says the label. It’s billed as a carpet cleaner, but puppies and kittens should be able to walk on a carpet treated with it, then lick their paws and not be negatively affected.

I haven’t tried it on laundry soap stink or clothing dried with those hideous, smelly, carcinogenic  
dryer sheets…thought I was the inly one who hated “dryer stink” and feel much better to discover that many loathe the revolting smells and toxicity also.