Non-Consumer Photo Essay
by Katy on June 20, 2024 · 23 comments
It’s time for another Non-Consumer Advocate photo essay, because a picture is worth 51¢!
These coins were in the Safeway parking lot this afternoon and now they’re in my found change jar.
My snake plant was having a hard time holding some of her leaves in the full and upright position, so I did a web search on “how to propagate snake plants.” This led me to pull out the longest pair and cut them into two-inch pieces and then wait a couple days for them to form a “callus.”
They’re now tucked into their cozy crib and it’ll be interesting to see if I can grow baby snakes.
And since my hydrangeas are in the background of the last photo, here’s a close up. These were also propagated, albeit by my father in 1998. They’ll turn a pretty blue color within the next month.
It was wholly undocumented, but I hosted a couple neighbors in the newly refreshed backyard last night and served sun tea made in this fancy aesthetic carafe. Made using three random bags of tea and the power of the sun god Ra.
Behold his almighty power!
Happy Solstice!
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
1. Had $5 CVS reward which I used for a box of breakfast bars with no $$ out of my pocket
2. Made a little thank you gift with items I had for an exceptional nurse who cared for me post angiogram
3. My sister gave me a new bottle of Lancôme eye makeup remover
4. Downloaded receipts to fetch
5. Finally got uniforms for work. Too big so back they go
1. Somehow forgot to take my receipt from the self-checkout (which I very rarely use so that people stay employed. Obviously, I need a human to hand me my receipt…) I went back and it was gone. I spotted an abandoned one in a cart and took it home instead. This person bought a lot of brand-named stuff so I made over 1000 points on Fetch.
2. I came upon Clobber Paws eating my one and only lemon basil plant. I literally pried open his cavernous mouth, trimmed the remains up and put them in water. Today there are roots, so I can replant it in a safer place. Good thing he is cute because a while ago he ate my only purple basil plant. I have TONS of green large leaf basil. Why does he not pick on them??
3. I can order our dog food much cheaper than I can find it locally. This week I received 40 pounds of puppy food, their mistake. You cannot feed puppy food to puppy giants because it encourages their already startling growth and messes with their joints. I called, the company told me to keep it and are sending me a replacement. This is $80 a bag. I listed it on Marketplace for $80, which is cheaper than local. A woman contacted me and offered my $100 worth of toilet paper that her husband refuses to use for my puppy chow. My butt is not that particular so I made the trade. I would wonder why someone has that much toilet paper but I always have about five cases around. Too many stories from my father about toilet paper shortages during the war and having to use pages out of books and, finally, leaves. People who know this about me stopped laughing during the pandemic, when they were asking me for some toilet paper because the shelves were empty.
4. Took more books to the used bookstore run by the literacy council. Got a tax receipt.
5. I found a gnarly Starbucks gift card in the grocery parking lot. Cleaned it up and it had enough on it to pay for an iced coffee for the husband. Quite a treat because we go to Starbucks only when we are on the road in the Lower 48.
Apparently Clobber Paws is a gourmet?
And I get it about the toilet paper storage, because I’m the same way. I too was the Queen of TP during the pandemic.
I’d like to see the crown for “Queen of T.P.!”
I envision something like empty TP rolls spray-painted gold and attached to a gold elastic band around the wearer’s head. (Come to think of it, this sounds as goofy as some of the Halloween costumes Amy Dacyczyn used to make for her kids!)
Nah, Amy D. used egg cartons instead of toilet paper rolls to make crowns.
But speaking of toilet paper, I’ve often wondered what kind of flak all those home organizer people must have gotten from their clients when the shortage happened. You know, the organizers who would tell their clients “you don’t need 50 giant packages of toilet paper in your storage room, get rid of 49 of them.” When Covid and the supply shortages hit, the toilet paper hoarders would’ve been in real good shape….except if they followed their home organizer’s decluttering advice and got rid of the stockpile….and then they were having to drip-dry like everyone else. I bet they were furious at their organizers!
No, Fru-gal Lisa, I’m the Queen of TP, not the Queen of Egg Cartons! TP rolls it will be!
“For the regal wiper.”
I am very interested in your snake plant propagation experiment. I have never attempted to propagate a snake plant in. I am trying to propagate a Devil’s Backbone which also requires the callusing of the stems before planting. Unfortunately, this plant has not taken root yet.
In other gardening news, the cardinals have been eating my succulents. I have never had this happen. Evidently, they do this when water and food are scarce. The part of Florida that I live in is in drought conditions. I am keeping the birdbaths filled with water and providing them with other food sources rather than netting my plants. Hopefully, we will get much needed rain this weekend as the tropical depression off the coast makes landfall. Then the birds, the bunnies and I can all enjoy my garden in harmony.
Bee, I too will be interested in the outcome of Katy’s snake plant experiment. I know a lot less about propagating succulents than I do about herbs and vegetables.
Also, the birder and bird artist Julie Zickefoose reports that the cardinals on her place in Ohio have been eating her sugar snap peas. Looks as if there’s a lot of drought going around.
And something (probably a deer) managed to get through or lean over the screen of dill surrounding my four Tuscan kale plants and eat the tops off three of them. Two may recover, but the third is DOA. Grrr!
Florida and weather seem to never be shy of the drama! At least cardinals are beautiful.
Good luck with the plant propagation!
I *think* we have a solution to keep the squirrels out of our raised garden beds. Fingers crossed, because they keep destroying my plants. The strawberries need a different solution (clearly, because the squirrels tore through them yesterday. Creative thinking & experimenting needed.)
We have so many veggies on the plants right now! Looking very forward to harvesting cucumbers (DS17 favorite) & …. garden tomatoes. There is nothing like a fresh garden tomato.
Thanks. I’ve got nothing to lose! Sorry about your strawberries.
My noisy little dogs have convinced the squirrels to not linger in the backyard, which is good for the garden if not relations with the neighbors. 😀
Yesterday I took some donations to Goodwill, having cleaned out the last overlooked bit of storage space in the house in my 19 months of decluttering. While there, I bought a bowl for the dogs, as they are fed twice a day and we use a lot of bowls — we do not keep food out for them free choice because the older dog is a canine Hoover. Also bought the last of some 23 ounce jars of applesauce and cans of olives at Dollar Tree.
It’s super hot here, so I took a reusable bottle of iced tea while making my rounds of errands. Rack dried laundry in record time on the back porch and mended more dog toys.
That’s a really good price for applesauce! I’ll be near a Dollar Tree today, I think I’ll stop in to see if they have that deal.
It is Lucky Leaf unsweetened. I had wondered if it was a stock overrun from a grocery chain because it suddenly showed up in bulk on the shelves when the DT stores usually sell only the four packs of single serve cups. I managed to buy a dozen jars by going to two different stores several times. It has a use by date late in next year, so all is good.
I love applesauce so I bow down to your dedication to snap them up!
Your found change is about equal to all change I have found so far this quarter. It is sparse these days.
This morning I found an old socket wrench while walking. We have picked up sockets over the years. I throw them in the scrap metal bucket. When we have a bunch I give it away. I like to be recycled but don’t want to do the work.
Our hydrangeas are flowering and the heat is making them droopy so I will water them again tomorrow.
This is an unusually large amount, which is why it was so exciting!
I’ve been able to pick about a dozen or so small tomatoes (not all at once, of course) from the volunteer plant that grew out of the compost pile. This is my first vegetable gardening success, and I’m really thrilled! The plant is droopy in the heat, so it may not be long for this world despite my watering it every day. It’s got 10 or 12 more little green tomatoes on it, so hopefully I’ll have some more to munch on. Yum!
The basil I planted in the patio planter seems to be working — I got it not for its herbal properties, but because I’d heard its smell wards off mosquitoes. My two aloe veras are looking good on either side of the front porch steps and I hope they will start spawning babies at some point. I used to have a lot of aloe vera and I’d repot the offspring and give them as gifts. Right now, my coleus that I pinched from the mother plants are doing well so I pinched another cutting; the lady farmer who sold them to me said you just pinch ’em off and put ’em in the dirt and they’ll root. I weeded the ivy bed and need some more starts of English ivy, and I’m going to try and expand some flower beds as to not have to mow so much grass. (Most of the grass has died, anyway.)
Let me know how that snake plant propagation goes — I just might get me a plant and try to grow more from it!
I love aloe vera, but somehow killed the one I had, likely from overwatering. English ivy is considered a huge no-no here, as it’s so invasive, which is too bag because it’s such a classic look.
Ah, sun tea! Very popular around the US, but I like my tea very strong, and I tell people I like my tea boiled! (I know that’s not the optimum way to drink it, but I’m used to it that way).
1. I lost 30 lbs. in the last 18 months. I was as surprised as could be that making some small changes over the course over several months (stopped eating breakfast, watched out carefully for portion size, started cooking more at home in the evening, mostly gave up red meat and pork) really did work, and the pounds came off very slowly and I didn’t feel deprived.
2. Referencing #1 above, gave up (for the most part) red meat and pork, which are really expensive.
3. Been watching YouTube videos about how to take in clothing–specifically tops. One thing I noticed is that dressing in clothes that really fit (instead of all of my old baggy things) has made me feel better and increased my motivation.
4. Found a fee-only fiduciary financial planner (hourly fee-based) to help us with figuring out the quagmire of retirement. She answered some vexing questions and assured us that we are ready. Gave advice on how to maximize Social Security.
5. Eating out sparingly.
Thanks for all you do for us, Katy!
Drip dry . . . shudder.