Angela Wilcox

We have a local pizzeria that has a huge arcade/game room. Guests put $1, $5, $10, $20 bills in token machines and out comes the tokens to use on the game machines.

One year I was blindsided by trick-or-treaters because I had forgotten it was Halloween. We had some tokens left over from a recent arcade trip. I gave these to the little goblins, who usually shouted as they bounded off my porch, “Mom look! I got Gatti’s tokens!”

They are reusable, not sweet, and you can wash them if Covid concerned.

Deem

Mull

Yes, please.

Welcome Anne. Thank you for sharing.

Along with many of the aforementioned, I put a splash in deviled eggs along with minced pickles. Where I used to live, it got poured at the base of azaleas and rhododendrons for the most beautiful plants!

Birthday Parade
For our year three birthday parties we made a parade. Party guests brought a “vehicle” such as a tricycle, wagon, stroller, pull toy. Party-goers decorated them with stuff we provided: bandanas, flowers, leaves, sticks, stuffed animals. They either drove in the parade on their trike or pulled/pushed their animals in the wagon/stroller. Or an adult pulled them in the wagon. We had a long driveway and marked the middle with chalk so there were two “lanes” to look like a road. They went around and around many times.

Cupcake Walk
We also did a cupcake walk-a hybrid of a cake walk/musical chairs. We drew chalk circles big enough that a human could stand within and drew a few more than the number of expected guests. You could use rocks/sticks. In the middle of the circle we drew a letter of the alphabet, but you could place something from nature as long as each circle contained something unique. I had a bowl with bits of scrap paper that had alphabet letters written in each one. Like calling for Bingo. You could write the nature objects on the papers.  

Make cupcakes or other treat
Guests stand with their own circle
Play music
Guests follow each other stepping/jumping/hopping from circle to circle in the same direction (or not)
When music stops, everyone stops on a circle
Pull out a slip of paper and call out a letter. Winner gets a cupcake and continues to play.
Keep playing until everyone gets a treat.
I rigged it and when I pulled the paper, I just called out the letter I wanted to so every round had a different winner.
Nobody gets “out” of the game and everyone wins!

Bubbles
We made homemade bubbles with dish soap and glycerine, which made tough, long lasting bubbles. We put bubble solution in a plastic tote a few inches deep and made wands with wire coat hangers. We also used kitchen utensils that had holes, like slotted spoons, sieves, salad spinner. The best wand was a baseball cap dryer rack. We all dipped “wands” in the tub and spun around making looooong bubbles. Here is a link to making bubbles with or without glycerine and lots of outdoor activities https://artfulparent.com/bubble-printing-bubble-snakes/

“5. I have little personal experience with blue, as I am in KY, so hopefully someone else can chime in on if they have seen them growing side by side, etc.”

Hello fellow Kentuckian! I am about 1.5 hours south of you. My forest encircled meadow has numerous stands of bird planted, wild elder along the edges that produce black-hued berries, and a stand in the meadow, also bird planted.

My question is, should I clear out black berries, honeysuckle, sumac, other woody plants and small trees around the elder that is touching it, even vining on it, to allow them to grow wider and ease harvesting? We have prolific ticks and chiggers in this area and I usually get the worst of it when harvesting. Or do I leave the neighboring plants in the spirit of a permaculture food forest? Are the elder plants and other plants helping each other grow?

Some of my elder is 15-feet tall, so I have to loop rope on the stems and gently bring them down to my level to harvest.  

Hi John and welcome! Thank you for blessing us with your knowledge and experience.  

Wow! Thank you, Darrell and Permies for this awesome gift. I look forward to studying the book and using Darrell’s wisdom and experience as I design an attached bioshelter to my earth sheltered home.  Oooh! I might just have to take a road trip from KY to see Three Sister’s Farm and the bioshelter in action, if I may?