Here’s my “tree nursery,” such as it is. A while ago I was on a walk at a park and came across some various tree seeds. I think it was acorns, some sycamore pods. I also have saved some pits from like, apricots and so on. These I buried in good potting soil and have been watering for several months now. Will they sprout in Spring? Will the acorns I planted last year finally sprout this coming Spring? No idea. I’ll just keep covering these with potting soil, adding organic solid and liquid fertilizer in small amounts at several month intervals, and watering every few days. We shall see. In the meantime the stuff coming up is the only wildflower seeds that were willing to sprout in here, as I sowed them on top.
New Book of Days
Assorted lifehacks and oddities. NO KINGS
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Having grown up with an Israeli family (by the way, Netanyahu and his supporters are… hey, if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all, right? I have nothing nice to say about them) I tend to not have difficulties getting enough water. You grow up being constantly told “drink more water!” and it sticks. Probably the same deal with any Middle Eastern family out there. But let’s say you have issues with that. Well, were you aware that flavoring water is not as hard as it sounds? The issue is actually that you could add too much of something to it instead of too little. Even a really tiny amount of something will flavor a whole pitcher of water in 2 hours or so. Grab a pitcher, fill it up, and consider any of the following additions before you stuff it in a fridge:
a slice of pineapple
a slice of apple
a slice of kiwi
a slice of any kind of melon
one cucumber slice
one mint leaf
half of a lemon slice, or half a lemon wedge
half an orange slice
an herbal tea bag, or one of those “cold brew” type of herbal tea bags with various flavors
To do this on a smaller scale, like in a water bottle or cup, add a splash of (say, one teaspoonful per cup, or two teaspoonfuls per bottle):
any juice
any sugarfree soda
any syrup
lemon or lime juice and sugar for really watered down lemonade
any electrolyte drink
It’s not glamorous but it works, guys -
Nothing too fancy. Just turkey sandwich with pimento stuffed green olives, chips.
Turkey Sandwich
This was made with a fairly ubiquitous sandwich-making appliance, a cheaper version of a panini press on a slant, if you will. Goes well with any juice or with wineIngredients
- 4 slices of bread
- 3 slices of sandwich meat turkey, ripped in half
- 2 tsp mayonnaise, plus optional extra
- 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp yellow mustard, optional
- bag of chips
- 2 pimento-stuffed olives
- 2 toothpicks
Directions
- Plug in a sandwich-making sandwich press appliance and wait for it to heat up, or heat up a skillet on the stove on medium heat and grab a lid
- In a small bowl, mix the olive oil and mayonnaise until it’s pretty much combined
- With a small spoon, using a plate or cutting board to assemble this stuff, spread the mix on the outer sides of 2 sandwiches’ worth of bread. Fill the sandwiches with turkey and spread on mustard, if using.
- Cook the sandwiches in the sandwich press or in the skillet partially covered with a lid, flipping them once if using the skillet, checking often to see if both sides are golden brown and delicious
- Optionally, take the sandwiches off the heat and add some mayonnaise in each
- Serve as pictured, with a side of chips and two pimento-stuffed olives skewered with toothpicks put into the top of each sandwich
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Alright so in my religion (Wiccan/Pagan) it’s considered important to take a lot of showers and baths, preferably baths, before doing just about anything religious or spiritual. Cool and good, except that with limited mobility even taking a footbath or shower can be a really difficult thing. I managed to overcome the shower hurdle somewhat by taking a methodical approach to each step required and planning out the process ahead of time (for instance: 1. lay out clothes, 2. take off shoes, 3. grab towel, etc.) in gruesome detail on my phone in a note and/or written in my planner somewhere. That made those more doable more often.
But the herbal component of some of these things is a lot harder to do. See, herbal baths are traditional in my religion. They’re relatively easy if you can bathe easily. Brew a cup of tea, or make an herbal infusion or decoction, strain it directly into the bath or simmer or infuse the herbs in a coffee filter tied with string, or just make tea as per usual with a bag, and toss out the bag or coffee filter thing. Pour the liquid into the bath as it’s filling and you’re set. You can even just throw a teabag in there without the tag as the bath is filling, let it bob around then take it out before you bathe. You can accomplish this sort of thing in a shower by buying herbal shampoos, soaps, shower gel, etc. if you want, but that has its own hmm, hurdles to overcome. Yesterday’s experiment was to see if I could make showers more herbal-y.
Long story short, if/when I do this again I’ll brew just one cup of green tea, let it cool, and put that in a plastic (or if I’m feeling like living dangerously, just in the same mug) bottle to take into the bathroom with me along with a washcloth for a shower. Or two cups of decaf green tea, cooled and poured into two plastic bottles, for same. To read the long story as to why, read on.
Here’s what I did. Green tea is considered “lucky,” but it’s also great as a beauty treatment. One cup is for drinking. I added 3 teabags to that one cause I like tea. Second cup is for pouring over hair to give it more shine and a light fragrance. Bowl is for dipping a washcloth into in order to put it on while in the shower. Makes sense so far, right? Well, I brewed it up. Here’s where it started to all go sideways. I gingerly took the boiling hot cup into my room for later, the boiling hot cup and bowl into the bathroom, and quickly learned they both needed folded washcloths underneath to avoid scalding the bathroom surfaces. Whatever. Shower time. The plan was to turn off the shower water in order to use the stuff, but no way, too cold. Meanwhile, the bowl and cup had retained their boiling-ness. Much additions of lukewarm shower water later, it was sufficient to not scald me, so I proceeded with the plan: stepping a bit away from the shower’s main spray to dip the washcloth into the mix and put it on. I was quickly reminded why the skin is used for transdermal applications of medicine, such as nicotine patches, because the caffeine set to work in increasing heart rate and making me Uncomfortably Energetic. (Would not recommend this if you have heart issues or medical issues that could cause problems. Would also recommend thorough research and a doctor’s approval on any herbs you use for anything like this, including baths.) I proceeded anyway, adding shower water to the mug and pouring the still really hot liquid over my head. Without rinsing any of it off, as that would also rinse away the skin benefits and hair benefits, concluded the shower. Experiment kind of a success.
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Well, gardening in Texas is kind of a drag. Watering chores can get crazy, so here’s this solution. I took a foodservice former pickle bucket that was very well washed, and poked a hole in the bottom with a thumbtack. Then I poked another hole in the top of the bucket with the thumbtack so the water in it would get pushed down by air pressure and through the bottom hole over time. This is actually the second version I made of one of these things. The first version had three thin nail holes I pounded into the bottom of it and it also has a lid. That one’s been working okay, but the drip rate is too fast. I would ideally like this water drip rate to last oh, maybe half a week. To fill either of them, you just drag the hose over, fill them up, and put the top on. The first one I made drains in about 18 hours. It does help my tree sapling stay alive without obvious signs of water distress if I fail to water every single day. So I’ll see what happens.
Update, October 8, 2025: It works really well. There is green grass and fluffy soil beneath this thing and surrounding the area is dead, parched earth and brown cooked grass. And the tree it’s helping to keep alive is doing good. In fact it’s almost working too well, there are asters growing 3 foot high near it and butterflies they’re feeding. I gotta mulch more!
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This is a bunch of Dopp kits in my backpack – two are pictured, one is not, and all three look different. One is for hygiene things, one is for medications, and another one (not pictured) comes with a strap so I can carry it at my hip for easy access to everyday items when I’m not stowing it in the bag. This solves the problem of having to dig through the contents of the entire backpack for one thing. I also packed a pillowcase in it for laundry to bring back home.
See, a backpack is something you can take with you just about anywhere, unlike a suitcase or duffel bag. In fact I’ve done this before on plane trips and greatly enjoyed not having to wait at the luggage carousel. And Dopp kits are more durable than packing cubes or pillowcases, so you don’t need to worry as much about ripping them in the rigors of travel. So far I’ve taken this thing on one trip and I am liking the results a lot. I have now added a couple more small cloth bags for stuff to package in there to try to reduce the digging-through-the-backpack hassle even more, and an additional canvas tote bag so I can now schlep more things more easily if I find them on the road..
Some more hints on packing more stuff into a backpack:
I swear by rolling up clothes, not folding them. Except for jeans and hoodies, which can be folded flat and packed closest to the back area of the backpack and/or rolled and shoved in the very bottom of it
If you have food things, one bag for mess kit things and one bag for foodstuffs is probably the way to go. Or, keep packaged ready-to-eat things in the exterior pockets
Anything to do with water will probably leak. Store things accordingly
Pen pockets, laptop pockets and notebook pockets are very nice to have. But this is a backpack, and it’s easy to forget you have non-waterproof things and breakables in it. Try not to ruin your things by throwing it around and you can carry all those things in it.
If it’s not waterproof, you should probably be carrying a trash bag in it just in case it rains, to cover the bag with. Nothing’s worse than damp clothing on a rainy day
Good quality reclosable plastic bags inside each Dopp kit are great for things like toothbrushes, soap, packing out your trash, and more -
Alright so after more tinkering in the kitchen I’ve come up with a sweet and a dry version of nonalcoholic wine. I make no claims for their gourmet qualities but they do at least taste like wine. Both should be safe for pregnancy. Here are the recipes.
Nonalcoholic Dry Red Wine
This should be safe for pregnancy but if you aren’t sure, ask your doctor. Omit the cranberry-grape juice blend to make “white wine.” Scale up as desired. Source: newbookofdays.comIngredients
- 1/3 c. sparkling apple cider
- ½ c. strong green tea, preferably freshly brewed then cooled and preferably Japanese
- ½ c. cranberry-grape juice blend
- 9 drops lemon juice, preferably freshly squeezed
- 9 drops lime juice, preferably freshly squeezed
Directions
- Gather all ingredients
- Mix into a cup, or if using a scaled up recipe, into a pitcher
- Keep refrigerated until serving
Nonalcoholic Sweet Red Wine
This should be safe for pregnancy but if you aren’t sure, ask your doctor. Omit the cranberry-grape juice blend to make “white wine.” Scale up as desired. Source: newbookofdays.comIngredients
- 1/3 c. sparkling apple cider
- 2 tsp strong green tea, preferably freshly brewed then cooled and preferably Japanese
- ½ c. cranberry-grape juice blend
- 3 drops lemon juice, preferably freshly squeezed
- 2 drops lime juice, preferably freshly squeezed
Directions
- Gather all ingredients
- Mix into a cup, or if using a scaled up recipe, into a pitcher
- Keep refrigerated until serving
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This is probably not that groundbreaking but here’s how I play solitaire with real cards. This presumes you already know how to play solitaire say, on a computer. The smaller sets tend to fly all over the place so these are full size cards. There are five stacks to the right of the draw pile, stacked up with five facedown, then four facedown on the right four stacks, then three facedown on the right three stacks, til getting to one facedown on the rightmost stack. Flip over the top card of each of the five stacks, and use the bed to the left or the right for ace stacks. Then draw three cards from the deck and only draw from the top down of the draw pile. For the next draw, another three cards. Flipping over the draw pile is done until success in reaching all four stacks from ace to 2s or until there are no possible moves left. The hardest part is not fidgeting so the cards stay in more or less the same place til you move them. This game is also called Patience.
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July 21, 2025
The idea here was to make sangria but not sangria. It was a base of sweet tea. I added:
3 or 4 half slices of washed lemon, you know, they look like half moons
1 apricot, washed, pitted and sliced (if you’re in the Marines or superstitious about apricots and their supposed bad luck you could use a peach instead, though I am not and happen to like apricots)
Half a pink apple, washed, pitted and sliced
I actually was using about 3 cups of sweet tea then I diluted the rest with water but wouldn’t recommend that as it diluted the flavor. Dunno what I was expecting, LOL. Better to use just sweet tea. Serve it over ice or serve it plain. Try it with other fruits if you want. Store it in the fridge, wait a few hours, and see how you like it. -
Have you ever come home from work or school or whatever and are too tired to fix a meal but still want something quick? Here’s something I’ve been making since high school. I normally make it in a coffee mug to get the proportions right but as you can probably tell, I’m a little scatterbrained. So please ignore the fact this is in a glass and has too much almond milk. Here’s the recipe.
Halve a banana and put both halves in a coffee mug. The ripeness of the banana is really important. Try to get one that’s precisely ripe
Add a splash of almond milk and mash it up well with a fork
Gradually add more almond milk, and a drop of vanilla extract, mashing the banana against the sides of the mug
That’s it.
Over all the years I’ve been drinking this stuff I’ve tried to improve it with things like honey, cinnamon, cocoa powder and whatnot but the plain stuff is still in my opinion the best.
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New Book of Days 