L. Johnson

Amy Gardener wrote:I took a walk this morning by the river. Picked up the biggest boulder I could carry and walked it about 1/4 mile back to the car. Brought it home and wedged the marker in the garden for this difficult moment. I’m waiting for news about a person I cherish, hoping the worst is over. Enough said. Thanks for this thread L.

I'm here hoping with you.

Eric Hanson wrote:I have had two physical maladies that struck me in the last 2 weeks.  About 2 weeks ago I exacerbated an old back injury.  I just got into my van an I heard/felt a “pop.”  I needed to get a steroid shot to bring the swelling down.  It feels better now but for about 3 days it was really painful.  

Today was my 1st day back at school—students come tomorrow.  Near the end of the day I hit my head—hard!!  I have a mild concussion and a little goose egg on my head.  I still have some things to get done but looking at a screen is a little difficult right now.

Eric

I wish you swift and thorough healing Eric.

Stacy Witscher wrote:As many here know, I lost my grandson a few years ago to SIDS. Now, my oldest and youngest are both pregnant and while I am thrilled, I'm also terrified as are they. I find myself crying more and more. If we lose another baby, I doubt that many of us will survive it. So, somedays I'm okay, and some I'm not. All I can do is hope. I'm not religious and haven't found comfort in many of the things that religious people say to me although I know that most of them mean well.

Colored by my own experiences I'm always anxious about just about everything involving people I care about... so I do what I can do with what's under my control and try to do my best and not live in fear, and I try to let go of what's not in my control, because worrying about that is pointless.

I can only imagine losing a child. My anxiety makes me imagine losing my children sometimes, but all we can do is cherish the time we have together.

Comfort may be hard to come by, but learning to accept and live with loss is something most of us can do.

I hope you have more okay days than not!

Cam Lee wrote:I took another picture with both anchors in, but I don't want to submit another edge case if it absolutely must be a picture or mirror. I was just assuming since the post above mine was neither a picture or mirror, but got approved. Could someone weigh in on whether my sword mount counts for this BB?

There was more than the usual staff discussion on your submission. Asking for feedback is totally reasonable.

There were three aspects that made it challenging.

1. It was not a mirror or picture frame.
2. You couldn't see the two anchors in.
3. It was agreed that it was not actually level. Note that the lines on either side of the bubble are there to help the eye see the actual center, where the bubble should be. It's not level merely by being between the two lines. The photograph must allow us to see this clearly.

Your submission also led to clarification of the requirements.

I would post a more traditional framed object for the purpose of this BB.

Thanks for your concern. I am - okay.

Grief comes in waves.

They're usually smaller as time passes, just as ripples in a pond.

I'm learning to be still and watch the water. There will always be more ripples, from rain and hail, but also from kids swimming and skipping stones.

Life is full of all shades of experiences. The bad ones give us more room to understand others and the compassion to do what we must to help.

A lot of permies are high achievers with big goals and a lot of work.

Aspiring homesteaders might be feeling overwhelmed by the realities of trying to get out of the 9-5.

Maybe you've got other stresses, I know I do.

Check in here. Maybe you don't want to burden your family and friends with your grief. You can share with someone though.

I've lost a lot of friends to early deaths and more than a few of those were suicides. I'm going through a wave of grief right now. One of those friends reached out to me but I didn't know how to help.

I hope you can get the help you need, because we all deserve a chance for happiness, and I feel a huge gap in my life where all my friends used to be.

Even if it doesn't seem that way sometimes,
You are loved. You are wanted. You are needed.

In my mind permaculture is not a growing method, but a design framework based on observation and nature.

I would say the best way to practice permaculture is too take some dedicated time to watch your growies and the space they're in and just let it soak in. Then maybe take notes about key factors like light, water, wind, visitors, etc over a long term, at least a year.

pete davis wrote:sorry, no experience, only with charring pinus radiata stakes to put in ground to the compare how the charred and non charred versions last.

fyi great article here on why it is yakisugi not shou sugiban

https://nakamotoforestry.com/yakisugi-or-shou-sugi-ban-learn-what-you-should-call-it-and-why

Huh, I never looked into it, I always just assumed both were correct, since one is the kun-reading and one is the on-reading.

The Japanese wikipedia indeed only has "yakisugi" as a reading. That's usually fairly telling.

Nevertheless, it has been loaned into English as shousugiban for quite a while now, so the mispronunciation is probably not going to disappear easily.

The reverse is true in hilarious ways about lots of English in Japanese. Oh the laughs we expats have sometimes.

I see an opportunity here!

If you have to protect your garden from squirrel type critters, then you could take the time to set up your raised beds to be easily netted by spacing them for arched supports or the like. Setting up for nets makes it a lot easier to grow brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, etc) and other vegetables that are notoriously preyed upon by caterpillars). Some critters won't be stopped by nets, but it should help with many.

A large portion of my young cabbage, kale, mustard greens, broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts get eaten by caterpillars before they mature enough to harvest. I don't have nets... but this is why I'm suggesting it anyway!

Then again, I don't know how well nets will discourage squirrels/chipmunks. They might just chew through or burrow under.

Two types of thread being discussed make this a little wonky... haha

If the cap screws on it will have screw threads. These are made with screw taps in the appropriate diameter, nothing particularly special.

I think you could pretty easily do a friction fit cap too though.