Building separatism

I wanted to make soap but I didn't learn it yet. A soap bar is 60 cents and I can use it for a year so it's a tiny expense. But I am getting progressively annoyed at how much perfume they put in, the scent is too strong and lingers too much. I picked 'Aloe Vera' scent and I can smell it for two hours on me.

I use soap for hands and showers, tea for hair, just a regular dish soap but I use tiny drops so it lasts a very long time. And for laundry I use wild chestnuts, if they're broken and mixed with warm water, they make a soapy water..

When I found her, she put her little arm over her head because the light was too bright! It was adorable! Imagine a little bug covering their little face with their tiny little arm because you shined a horrid bright phone torch in their face like an annoying idiot. It was sooo cute!

I see spiders every day, they're the ideal house critter because they eat other bugs so they clear your house for you. My praying mantis does it too! They're kinda like house guardians.

The giant spider I found in the ruins could be dangerous, and is holding eggs so she's extra pissed at me, but as long as I don't accidentally harm or threaten her, I should be fine.

My thing is I've never gotten hurt by a spider or any bug in general, save for little ant bites and wasp stings, so I don't believe they're dangerous. At the same time I'm so fascinated and entertained by them, I'm always on the lookout so I see them before accidentally threatening them. Creatures that small are not our predators and would only attack us if we put them in a situation their life feels threatened.

House spiders are generally very small and non harmful even if you do swing at them or put your hand in their webs, big spiders are rare. If you have a garden you can get some big spiders there too, also not dangerous, they benefit the garden.

Sunny is at this point bigger, but that doesn't mean she'll win. What's likely happening is Shady noticed how her soil is really nice and airy and wet, so she decided oo I'm gonna focus on root growth first, I could grow into a huge successful plant here so I'm going to establish great roots to become stable first, and then do leaves and fruit.

And Sunny noticed her soil sucks so she went urghhh fine we're growing leaves only, then quickly fruit so I can make seed and get out of this hellhole.

What I don't get, is why is Raindrop so tiny. I planted her two days after Sunny, same spot, and I water her just as much. Is it just because her transplanting time wasn't ideal? Her roots were a bit overgrown in the little pot before I put her out. These two were started as seeds on the exact same day.

I built a little bench from the bricks, in front of the stove, for sitting. In the ruins, I ran into a big pregnant spider so maybe I have to stop clearing them now, it is not polite to disturb a pregnant lady.

I found rocks at the ruins, some very big, and I want to use them for dozens of purposes, but now that I know moving them will make me tired, I'm suspecting I won't be able to do it in one day. Which is annoying.

On the other hand, I messed up with the seedlings - some of them already became leggy. Despite the bright window and the mirrors. It turns out they need direct light or else. I can't keep them out because the heat would kill them, and I get very little sun in the house. Which means I'm now chasing that single sun ray with my tray of plants, moving them every half an hour. It's worth it. I can still save the most. My garden depends on it.

I can't remember where I've exposed my handwriting. Which makes this an ominous message. Who are you and what do you know.

I had an exhausting day biking to town and back so I deserve a little treat! I have some whole oat flakes gifted to me in a cereal, and I foraged for blackberries. Here's the theory of how this is going to go.

Blenders pulverize the oats into powder and this powder is what mixes with water and creates the milk-like liquid. I am going to use a mortar and pestle to pulverize the oats first, let them soak, then use a whisk to mix them in with water. Then strain. It might work.

I'm leaving them to soak for 15 minutes, and in the meantime I'm washing and crushing the blackberries. I'm gonna strain them in. I'd put any other fruit in whole but these have seeds, unpleasant in a drink.

I always add a bit of oil, vinegar, a tiny bit of salt and sugar to taste in the oat milk, so I whisked those in. It tasted just like the blended oat milk! After I strained in the blackberries, it looked just like my regular blackberry smoothie too.

One thing left over: to cool it down. I don't have a fridge, so I closed the jar and submerged it into a bucket of ice-cold well water. I cool my drinking water this way too. It's been cooling while I typed and edited this, gonna try it now.

*

The ones I got don't look or smell roasted, they look completely normal; that doesn't mean there wasn't some treatment, it just wasn't roasting.

You know what, now I'm not sure either. I don't think incorrect storage would sprout them, they would need to be very damp to sprout and unless they're directly on wet surfaces, it wouldn't happen. Does this mean there is no human who would straight up try to storage their cereal in a wet condition? No. I'm sure someone out there tried it.

This is my current seedling setup: The brightest window + 2 mirrors reflecting the light from every side so the plants don't get leggy.

The tradescantia plant has been loving this spot, look how much she grew!

I'm currently a month and a half in this house, and I'm on my third day of period. Painless. I've been grumpy the first morning, and stayed in bed for the day, and then the next day I've spent working outside, forgetting I was on the period at all. There was no pain.

It's not like I had no struggles; I has a mild infection, kept stepping on nails, my stove broke down, I could only eat fruit for a week and a half until I made another one; I had a heat stroke, I was trapped inside due to a heat wave, I had to do a lot of physical labour. I still don't know how to feed myself during the first winter.

But none of that stressed me out the way renting, going to work every day and the looming fear of homelesness did. I didn't believe I was gonna succeed in buying the house and kept drowning in anxiety. I still have nightmares about it.

I waded around the dark house to close the windows. Then I peaked outside the front door. The rain was intense, loud. I walked into it, getting sopping wet within a second. Went back in giggling. Changed into fresh pajamas.

I remembered then, I was supposed to cover my stove before rain. It's made with dirt. But I was asleep you see. I felt like covering it now would be too much effort, so this would be a test. If it survived rain, it was well made.

I woke up at 6am, feeling apprehensive. I dreamed the stove fell apart. Creative. I got outside and my eyes anxiously searched for the stove.

It was there, whole and unaffected. Dirt won!

Since it was a day cold enough to be out, I finished it. I left the uneven brick arch, because all of you voted for that, so I was peer pressured into it. I hope you're all happy with your involvement. But as I washed the brick from extra mud, I decided: It's not ugly. I can tolerate it.

Enough soil to plant whatever I wanted, enough little cups to place as many seeds I need, all my seeds with me, ready, and enough land outside to transplant all of it. And I was in my big entry room where I had enough floor space to luxuriate in it.

I ended up sowing broccoli, cabbage, kale and a bit of basil, as a treat. I didn't have any water containers so I put them all in this red laundry thing. I put some seeds in paper towels too, too see which works better.

So she brings me this plastic bag and I instantly know it's not oat flakes but happily take it anyway. Any food is a great gift.

I inspect it at home and it's a badly made cereal mix, they jokingly wrote 'muesli' on the packaging. I understood immediately why she couldn't eat them. They filled the box with wheat flakes, which are disgusting in a cereal. Even I won't tolerate that.

But I knew exactly what to do with it. I poured it on the counter to sort it out.

I thought it would take mostly an hour, but then realized it had both wheat AND oat flakes. And I wanted to separate that. So it took 5,5 hours. I had time. I can't be outside anyway. And at this point I was curious about how much they lied on the packaging. They jokingly implied it's mostly oat flakes.

These are the results:

We have the big majority of disgusting wheat flakes, unbroken oats, raisins, corn flakes, unrecognizable dried fruit, dried banana bits, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, and tiny bits of some nut (packaging implies peanut. Doesn't taste like it.)

I think this is a great stash of stuff! Actually more valuable than oat flakes, if they didn't involve the wheat flakes it would be a great tasting breakfast cereal mix.

Okay so raisins and all other dried fruits, I'm saving in little jars to use as candy during winter. Maybe in cookies too. Flax and sunflower seeds I can plant in spring to multiply by thousands. Oats, I don't like to eat in this whole form so I will save them to try and see if I can make oat milk from them, using mortar and pestle. Maybe oat flour would be easier to make? Wheat flakes I'll save and use in bean/soy patties, once they're smushed, seasoned and fried they'll be good. Corn flakes, and little nut pieces, I'll have for breakfast.