making borders with plant matter still produces an eye catching result. Looks even better when I sweep the walk! haha So to go out and actually buy a border is rather silly when you can get one for free.
Palm trees make great borders also. Although if you have energetic people who like to balance their way across, they tend to slide out of place.
Moral of the story, don't buy plastic borders. Don't buy borders at all. It's not about being cheap, it's about reducing the need for a factory to build said borders, a truck to transport such borders, gas and oil to put in the truck to transport the borders, air pollution due to the truck transporting borders. The need for uniforms for employees that drive said truck or factory, which in turn reduces the need for sweat shops. On and on the crazy behind the store scene rabbit hole goes. The amount of waste generated simply to produce an object that we don't need is astounding. Then there is the impact of the store its sold at. Then we use gas and oil to transport it back to our houses. So you can see that by fully examining the true impact of each of our actions we quickly discover that we aren't as "green" as we thought. Really we would have to leave a lot of our current destructive patterns behind in order to solve many of the issues within society. It's a big leap, one many aren't willing to take. So I say lets walk it. I'll present over the next few weeks a step per post on something you can do to reduce your harmful impact. Simple things like acquiring your own borders for free.
The truth is that our current system is flawed and many if not all elements of it need to be reworked from the ground up. If we start being mindful of our impact, if we live by the command: "love thy neighbor as thyself," our world will change. We can still have society without all the harm. We can set it up so where humans are everything thrives instead of dies. We just need a shift in priorities.
We have the technology and understanding now to produce as much food as the population of a city needs within that city. We can do this without chemical pest asides. We are currently literally poisoning our air, water, food, and earth. It's not helpful to any of us. If this is progress then I'd say we need less of it till we can couple it with wisdom and understanding. It's mindless to continue to destroy ourselves and everyone else. We should stop, for the sake of whoever is after us. We should have THE BEST TIME EVER in the process. :) camp fires, forest games, forest art, food, friends, and fresh air. Hope, vitality, stories, new experiences and more. This isn't some crucible, it's more like a game. If we own our blatant stupidity and wrongdoings instead of pretending we are better than we are, we can begin to change. Ok we are all wrong, lets move on to the solution without all the guilt and blaming. We can finger point all day but lets look in the mirror first, it starts with us. So this week I challenge you all to secure for yourselves clean water to drink and shower in. Water free of chemicals like Chlorine. A simple challenge and with it a challenge to educate yourselves about whats in your water. What is in it? What does that do to you, to your environment and air. Where does the stuff that's in it come from? How is it produced and any waste products. Put a list of everything in your drinking water next to the sink as a reminder till you do something about it.
Great school project for kids. Although they will quickly ask us adults why we are still poisoning the water supply.... I guess we can just tell them it's what we do.
On to mushrooms ...
Mushrooms, they are everywhere right now. This particular one grew on a tree stump. Many of the polypore that grow on trees here are safe for making tea. Just remember - There are old mushroom hunters and there are bold mushroom hunters but there are no old bold mushroom hunters. Some mushrooms are toxic enough to kill you if ingested.
An example of the polypore part. if you look closely you can see the tubes or "pores".
These mushrooms play a vital role in wood decay. They help feed the forest. A healthy forest has mushrooms. Some popular polypore tea mushrooms that are great for health - Rishi and Turkey tail. The genus that will likely kill you - Hapalopilus.
My family helped me process some bamboo for a hut that may be built by the end of the week.
First the cut bamboo was stripped of side branches
Then a small fire was made
Then the bamboo was passed through the fire slowly but not so slow that it would pop. Each segment of bamboo will make a nice loud pop noise as the pressure increases due to heat and likely steam within each chamber.
After being heated the color changes a bit. I'm not sure how well this method works or if we did it "right". Time will tell. Sometimes it's good to just take a general idea and run with it. In the process of failure you can learn lessons that you may have otherwise missed.
Word of wisdom -
Experience is a great teacher, losses are simply the tuition. - Jonathan Alspaugh
Video of the day
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