So In What Matters In Jane Austen, The Author Points Out That Lizzie And Jane Are Constantly Going Off

Let's talk for a moment about food prices, inflation, and the nitrogen fertilizer shortage, and steps you can take. We're going to go from food bank to growing your own, so stick around. This is mostly written for people who do not have much, if any, start up money.

To be brief, food prices are high, and inflation is going to mean more people will be struggling. On top of that, there has been a nitrogen fertilizer shortage, and on top of that, China and Russia said they wouldn't be exporting any until June.

I'm not here to discuss how bad it'll be, I'm here to provide some options.

First off, if you have money, donate money to food banks. If you're in a well-off area and your food banks have lots of support, consider donating money to areas that aren't as well off. Food banks can buy in bulk, so they can get way more food for the same dollar, which is why I'm not saying donate food.

Secondly, if you're struggling or even if it would make life a bit easier, use your food bank. If it's coming down to rent or food, go to the food bank and pay your rent. This might be different where you are, but here they get enough support that they really want and encourage people to come get food. If you're not sure, you can always call and ask.

Consider joining a bulk buying club (this is where a lot of food coops started) - people joining together so they can buy in bulk, get the cheaper prices, and then divide it up. If there's not one where you are, consider starting one. Buying in bulk is so much more cost efficient!

Where to grow:

Next comes growing food. If you don't have space, see if there are community gardens that you can join- or start one by asking the owners of vacant land if you can put in a garden. Join your local gardening groups (they're probably on facebook) and see if there's anyone with space willing to let you garden, or make some kind of arrangement.

If none of those options work, look into guerrilla gardening. Two factors for success here are that your plants be located a) close enough to you that you could feasibly walk by them multiple times per week and b) located where they either won't be noticed or won't bother the type of people who would notice. There has been much written about this, read up on it.

Of course, if you're lucky, you have your own yard, and can just grow in the ground there.

What to grow:

We've got a different mind set than many self-sufficiency folks, because we don't have enough time or space to grow all our own food. So, the focus instead is on growing what we can to reduce our grocery bills as much as possible.

What do you eat a lot of? What costs a lot per square foot and unit of time? It's the plants that you eat a lot of AND are costly AND are productive that we're going to want to focus on. Keep in mind that what might be true for my climate might not be true for yours. I'll give you a few examples:

Onions: If you eat a lot of onions, you might be tempted to grow them- but they are usually less than $1/lb and they take the whole growing season to make one harvest.

Kale: relatively expensive to buy, multiple harvests, and super easy to grow while not taking up a lot of space.

Artichokes: super expensive to buy, easy to grow (once established), but takes up a lot of space.

Personally, I grow the kale, and skip the artichokes & onions.

This person actually looked at yield per squarefoot and cost at the store and made a table for it:

The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

The most expensive vegetables in your vegetable garden - The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

Many vegetables can be expensive to purchase by growing the most expensive vegetables in your garden and buying the least inexpensive vegeta

But keep in mind, again, yields depend a lot on climate. In general, fresh herbs, leafy greens, and things like tomatoes are your most cost efficient plants to grow.

Look at what you actually eat and figure out what will be most cost efficient to grow. Don't grow a bunch of cilantro unless you really like to eat it, no matter how cost efficient it is.

Once you know what you want to grow, check out your local extension office/ master gardener program and learn HOW to grow it in your area!

Next: getting and growing food plants

If you're doing this on the cheap, first look to your local free groups, mutual aid groups, seed libraries, and gardening groups. There will be seed and plant swaps where people just want to share and don't particularly want or need a trade in return.

If you get food stamps, those can be used to buy seeds and vegetable starts in some states.

Other than that, I prefer to grow from seed, but I know that can be scary for new gardeners. Give it a try anyway! You'll be amazed.

How to feed your vegetables for free:

The best time to start composting is 6 months ago, but alas. Start composting now. Get coffee grounds, get lawn clippings, get whatever you can, and compost it. Heavy feeders grow well with a mulch of lawn clippings around them. Someone near you has horses or rabbits or something else and would love to give you some manure.

You can also straight up bury kitchen scraps and plant over them and the decomposers will still do their job if you don't have room for a compost pile.

Do you know what the limiting nutrient in most gardens is? Nitrogen. Do you know what you have an unlimited, free supply of?* Just saying, raspberries love it. Look into it and read up on it so you're not just going out there willy-nilly and burning your plants to a crisp.

Also, if you're municipality has yard waste/Organics pick up, there's a good chance they have a very large pile of free compost/mulch some where. Make use of it.

I'm sure there's more, but I gotta get going. Add your thoughts!

P.S. if you really do want to look into growing more of your calories, look into potatoes, corn for corn flour (not the same as sweet corn!), fava beans, and dry beans. What will work for your climate might be different.

*pee

Cool ! (Unmute !)

Ok cosplayers, it has come to my attention that a lot of you don’t know what this stuff is. Sit down and let me learn you a thing. This stuff here is called Frog Juice (there’s no real frogs in it). It’s originally for stuff like vinyl signs (my dad owns a sign company, so I grew up with this stuff), but it’s even more useful for a wide range of cosplay stuff. 

Since it’s designed to protect outdoor vinyl signs, it can do a whole hell of a lot. It dries super fast (three minutes until it isn’t tacky) and shiny, so it’s perfect for anything that’s supposed to look like metal, ice, gems, etc. It’s incredibly strong and weatherproofs your stuff against ANYTHING, rain, snow, UV rays (so it doesn’t fade in sunshine), sleet, hail, whatever. It’s flexible too, so your foam will still bend and move with you without cracking. Not only that, but since it’s an aerosol, you can’t miss patches and it leaves no brush strokes, and it goes on so thin you can’t see it’s there. It doesn’t smudge, smear, scratch, or leave fingerprints, so your stuff can go a whole weekend at a con and still look brand new. 

The kicker? It’s cheap, and a can will last you forever. I kidnapped this one brand new from my dad, and I’ve so far used it (in double coats, which is unnecessary, but I like to be on the safe side) on a full set of armour, three pairs of bracers, a top hat, pauldrens, two bows, and a pair of greaves. And there’s still plenty in the can. Did I mention it can also be used to seal foam in a single, flexible coat that can then be painted over, so you don’t have to spend two days messing with glue and whatnot?

TL;DR - If you need a foam sealer, a top coat, weatherproofing, or any kind of shiny finisher, GET SOME FUCKING FROG JUICE (the brand I use can be purchased here: http://www.signwarehouse.com/FL-CC-p-FL-FROG-12Z.html)

DoorDash workers are going on strike tomorrow (July 31st, 2021). They’re demanding tip transparency and a base pay of at least $4.25 per hour. Don’t cross the picket line.

Solarpunk Action Week 2021

It’s that time again, space cadets!

Solarpunk Action Week has been ongoing twice a year since 2019, with every week looking bigger and better than the last. People all over the world are planting gardens, learning new skills, building things, reducing waste, spreading information, taking direct action, and getting their neighborhoods and workplaces organized. We, your humble hosts, have consulted the auguries and scheduled Solarpunk Action Week 2021 for:

April 25th to May 1st!

Mark your calendars, kids

What is Solarpunk?

Solarpunk is  a movement in speculative fiction, art, fashion and  activism that  seeks to answer and embody the question “what does a  sustainable  civilization look like, and how can we get there?” The  aesthetics of  solarpunk merge the practical with the beautiful, the  well-designed  with the green and wild, the bright and colorful with the  earthy and  solid. Solarpunk can be utopian, just optimistic, or  concerned with the  struggles en route to a better world — but never  dystopian. As our  world roils with calamity, we need solutions, not  warnings. Solutions  to live comfortably without fossil fuels, to  equitably manage scarcity  and share abundance, to be kinder to each  other and to the planet we  share. At once a vision of the future, a  thoughtful provocation, and an  achievable lifestyle.”

And what is Solarpunk Action Week?

Solarpunk  Action Week is a week dedicated to taking radical environmentalist and anticapitalist action to make the world a better place.  Previous Action Weeks have seen people starting gardens, learning new skills, making and repairing things, reducing waste, spreading information, getting involved in community organizing

All you have to do participate is begin or continue with an environmentalist, anticapitalist project and talk about it in the #SolarpunkActionWeek tag; it’ll get a lot of signal boosts to connect with other people around the world doing the same. &and follow along on Mastodon at @SolarpunkActionWeek@ecosteader.com

- - -

The previous Solarpunk Action Weeks saw a lot of individual actions, and those were incredible to witness, but we’re at our most powerful when we come together, so your homework for the next 6 months between now and the end of April is: Get organized! If we were able to do so much as individuals back in March, just imagine what you could get done rolling into Solarpunk Action Week with a crew ready to go

If you’re new to organizing, here are some great places to get started:

The Industrial Workers of the World (which has that good good Environmental Unionist Caucus and Southern Coordinating Committee)

Food Not Bombs

Mutual Aid Disaster Relief

Transition Initiative

Buy Nothing Project

Food Not Lawns

Can’t find anything in your area? Start something yourself!

Got 1 or 2 friends? You can start an affinity group

Guide to small-town organizing  

7 steps to starting a Food Not Bombs group

Wet’suwet’en supporter toolkit  

And I’m sure people will link to all sorts of other great projects and resources in the rebagels, so keep an eye on the notes!

If you’re already part of a union or a tenants’ association or what have you, even better! Get them in on it.

What can I do?

So many things! You can check out the #SolarpunkActionWeek tag to see what others have done in the past for inspiration. The two dinguses organizing these events have got resource tags full of just so many things you might could do and how to get started on them, here and here respectively. And here are some other fun ideas:

Everything you need to know about solarpunk

Everything you need to know about gardening

Everything you need to know about agitprop

Everything you need to know about antifascist action

Everything you need to know about making and repairing things

Everything you need to know about organizing in your workplace and your community

Learn how to become a street medic

Learn how to repair clothes

Regrow food plants from kitchen scraps

Recycle scrap fabric into yarn

20 plants to grow indoors

Make your apartment more energy efficient

Build a beautiful and functional vertical garden out of your literal garbage

Get out there and invent the future, space cadets, because we have a world to win. I know y’all are gonna make me proud; y’all always do.

If you want to keep up with/support the mods between Action Weeks, here’s our info:

Pops: Mastodon, tumblr (resources tag), Patreon, ko-fi

Natalie: Mastodon, tumblr (resources tag), Patreon, cashapp $NatalieIronside, buy Natalie’s book

—

“We have always lived in slums and holes in the wall. We will know how to accommodate ourselves for a time. For, you must not forget, we can also build. It is we the workers who built these palaces and cities here in Spain and in America and everywhere. We, the workers, can build others to take their place. And better ones! We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth; there is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie might blast and ruin its own world before it leaves the stage of history. We carry a new world here, in our hearts. That world is growing this minute.“ 

–Buenaventura Durruti

Winston Duke as Paz Vizsla

This has been on my mind all day thanks to @jaigrex. Had to draw this.

Author Ken Liu Explains "Silkpunk" to Us

Ken Liu’s new novel The Grace of Kings is a sprawling fantasy set amidst war, rebellion, and border-crossing intrigue. But it also features a truly fresh technological world to explore. Here, Liu explains to us where that technology came from—and just what exactly “silkpunk” means.

Ken Liu talks about silkpunk in his latest novel:

“Like steampunk, silkpunk is a blend of science fiction and fantasy. But while steampunk takes as its inspiration the chrome-brass-glass technology aesthetic of the Victorian era, silkpunk draws inspiration from classical East Asian antiquity. My novel is filled with technologies like soaring battle kites that lift duelists into the air, bamboo-and-silk airships propelled by giant feathered oars, underwater boats that swim like whales driven by primitive steam engines, and tunnel-digging machines enhanced with herbal lore, as well as fantasy elements like gods who bicker and manipulate, magical books that tell us what is in our hearts, giant water beasts that bring storms and guide sailors safely to shores, and illusionists who manipulate smoke to peer into opponents’ minds.

The silkpunk technology vocabulary is based on organic materials historically important to East Asia (bamboo, paper, silk) and seafaring cultures of the Pacific (coconut, feathers, coral), and the technology grammar follows biomechanical principles like the inventions in Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The overall aesthetic is one of suppleness and flexibility, expressive of the cultures that inhabit the islands.”

hello hi whats up so yeah these are some websites i use and they’re really really helpful and as of jan 1st. 2014, they alllll work!!!!! all of them are free, and somethings you could really use, please tell me if you need anything specific ill be glad to give you a link now weep with happiness goodbye -shakes x

download free music

download from 8tracks

watch free movies/tv shows

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free microsoft word?

pretend to type an essay

like the sound of a coffee shop?

can’t remember the name of a song?

when to pee during a movie

convert youtube videos to mp3

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working out master post

winged eyeliner tutorial

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photoshop tutorials

kawaii emoji’s

this can solve any math problem

rainy mood?

wanna know who you write like?

create a fake tweet

upload anything from your iPhone etc. to your laptop

wanna know how stuff works?

learn how to study

learn how to make tumblr themes

the thoughts room

how to love yourself 

watch movies/draw/everything??? with your online friends

create some cool shit

It’s never too late to learn the right way to do things: button sewing technique via imgur → more…

Indigenous Action Media

DIY Emergency Handwashing Station Instructions Zine

We offer this ‘zine in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Spring of 2020. Our unsheltered relatives cannot simply “stay home if they

We offer this ‘zine in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Spring of 2020. Our unsheltered relatives cannot simply “stay home if they are sick” and “constantly wash their hands” as instructed by callous politicians who, predictably, had no plans to ensure the wellbeing of our relatives.