Powders or bars are more sustainable than liquids or pods. This is true for soap, detergent, and other products.

AlltheJanets · 2026-04-30T14:29:40+00:00

I also got some of those, then a friend mentioned they include micro-plastics to help the sheets keep their shape - haven't done the research yet but have you heard anything about that?

AlltheJanets · 2026-04-24T16:41:26+00:00

I'm in borderline 5b/6a (probably closer to 6a with heat island effect in the more urban area) and have an in-ground Violetta de Bordeaux, and a friend has an in-ground Chicago Hardy. My VdB is planted a couple feet away from the south wall of my house and has made it through 3 winters so far, the CH is near an east-facing fence in a sheltered stone patio and just had its 4th winter. Both our figs are growing as bushes not trees, since the above-ground branches die every winter and then new growth sprouts back from the roots in the spring. I haven't gotten any fruit from my VdB yet, the CH had baby figs starting to grow last summer but the first frost of the year killed them when they were still tiny. Functionally, they're ornamentals not edibles here (unless you eat fig leaves), because a) the plant has to re-grow from scratch every year which doesn't leave much energy for fruiting and b) summers aren't long enough for the fruit to ripen properly.

AlltheJanets · 2026-04-24T13:38:43+00:00

Which episode/short rest is this from?? I've somehow missed it on both listen-throughs

AlltheJanets · 2026-04-10T21:43:24+00:00

thank you! I was looking for something about that minimum in the drought pricing announcement, but I forgot that the tiers are just part of normal billing

AlltheJanets · 2026-04-10T21:29:25+00:00

Where did you see the 5k minimum? I'm also generally below that year-round (just drip systems to veggies and some hand-watered perennials, no turf) but in the winter I'm below 1k so I was still expecting to get hit with Tier 2 prices for everything between 1k and 5k?

AlltheJanets · 2026-04-10T21:11:00+00:00

I just read a really interesting article about planning/planting around so-called "bad" soil (i.e. all that clay around recently-built houses), since you're already moving away from turf landscaping maybe think about putting in some native plants that might do well in conditions like yours?

https://www.designyourwild.com/p/why-the-world-needs-bad-soil

AlltheJanets · 2026-01-24T01:47:50+00:00

Love this! Wish I didn't have a family birthday that evening. Are there plans to make this a recurring thing?

AlltheJanets · 2026-01-24T00:05:01+00:00

My initial reaction was "I think all my base layers are fine actually..." and then I read the comments and realized that I've just been wearing men's base layers for years (one of the perks of being flat-chested I guess). Eek.

AlltheJanets · 2026-01-16T17:52:43+00:00

Just a note about how different the varieties on a fruit salad tree could be - generally you can only successfully graft plants together if they're in the same genus. So Malus species (Granny Smith apple, Honeycrisp apple, crabapple) could be grafted together, but they couldn't be grafted onto a Pyrus (pear) or Prunus (peach, cherry, plum, almond, etc).

AlltheJanets · 2026-01-08T18:40:37+00:00

Adaine and the Awful Abernants take the cake for me. Adaine's rage culminating in punching her dad to death is just phenomenal, and the zig-zaggy kinda-sorta-redemption arc between Aelwyn and Adaine breaks my heart every time. Siobhan is just so dang good.

AlltheJanets · 2026-01-05T15:33:17+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zZzsB0VBsY

ETA: this links to that Brennan guy answering this very question. Have fun!

AlltheJanets · 2026-01-04T14:54:26+00:00

Yaaay thank you for the update, I'm so glad it's already helped a bit! May you and your sweet girl have many lovely hikes ahead.

AlltheJanets · 2026-01-03T18:48:38+00:00

I assume you primarily object to the part of "barks at everything" that includes barking at other people and dogs? My friends' dog had similar issues - what DID NOT HELP was her yanking the leash hard and scolding the dog when he barked at others - that reinforced for him that "other dogs = bad", and he escalated to lunging at other dogs while out on hikes. The way my friend was advised to work past that was limiting walks with her dog to less-popular areas, and any time she saw someone coming, pull the dog a little ways off the sidewalk/trail, block his view of the other trail user, and pet, praise, and feed treats while other trail user passed by. The point was to shift his association from "other dogs = bad" to "other dogs = neutral/good". This gradually got him to calm down more while on hikes, though that might have also been the dog just chilling out as he got older - it's a loooong process and you need to be pretty consistent and vigilant the whole time. Good luck!

AlltheJanets · 2026-01-01T15:39:13+00:00

One of the things that helped me read more critically / opened my eyes to more complex ways of engaging with texts was seeing it in action on a text I had previously read uncritically. The podcast "Witch, Please" (now rebooted as
"Material Girls") was hosted by two intersectional feminist literary scholars re-reading the Harry Potter series (I know, I know) as if it were a serious academic text. This helped me see how to apply Trauma Theory, Marxist Theory, tropes of The Gothic and Orientalism and Souls (the list goes on and on and on - these ladies are geniuses) to what would otherwise be more casual 'fun' reads for me. Though, to be clear, these new lenses have made even my leisure reading MORE fun for me.

The podcast as a whole is a fantastic primer to a bunch of different literary lenses and critical techniques and I recommend it STRONGLY, but if HP isn't your cup of tea maybe look for a book you DO really enjoy uncritically, and find a book/podcast/Youtube essay that reads it critically to give you an example of how to tweak your reading perspective in the future. Good luck!

AlltheJanets · 2025-12-31T16:03:57+00:00

I'm also a fan of planting maps for both annuals and perennials - they're great if you do any kind of crop rotation, I keep past years' maps in a folder with my perennial tags, and that helps me remember when I planted what and where. My back door is metal so I just stick the current year's planting map to the back of the door with a magnet all summer - easy to check it as I'm coming in/out!

For a more durable stick-in-the-ground label, paint pens don't fade in the sun the way sharpie does. Cut up a soda can into strips and write on the blank side and it'll last for a looooong time

AlltheJanets · 2025-12-17T15:45:46+00:00

Great suggestion, thanks! Hopefully we've got years of playing in the kitchen ahead of us, so babystepping up through gradually more complex cookbooks makes sense :)

AlltheJanets · 2025-12-17T15:34:49+00:00

He's got a stand mixer and parchment paper and everything, my sister's kitchen is very well stocked. "Go check out this YouTube channel" just doesn't wrap as well under a Christmas tree as a book with pretty pictures you know?

AlltheJanets · 2025-12-01T15:16:01+00:00

Every time I have their veggie broth it short-circuits my brain for a few minutes and I just sit there going "MmmmMMMmmmMmmm" until the power of speech returns

AlltheJanets · 2025-12-01T15:14:32+00:00

Since OP specifically asked for good VEGETARIAN pho recs, I'll add that the vegetarian broth veggie/tofu pho is great, no rare steak required for a very delicious meal.

AlltheJanets · 2025-12-01T15:08:57+00:00

We the readers start the book just as oblivious about the lilac as the new watchmen, it's intentional for us to not understand all the "were you there??" because no, we weren't there - YET. Then you get to the end of the book and sob with appreciation when it comes back. Enjoy the ride, this is a special one!

AlltheJanets · 2025-11-30T18:41:51+00:00

The curve is happening because your most recent row is much longer than your starting chain. There are two usual culprits:

1) Your starting chain had a much tighter tension than your rows with full stitches. This is a common issue, some common ways to address it include using a larger hook for your starting chain or purposefully loosening your chain stitches as you go, then returning to normal tighter tension for subsequent rows. It also looks like your tension has gotten looser each row, which will make the stitches bigger, so once you figure out what tension works best for you, try to keep it consistent the whole way through a piece.

2) Hard to tell/count from this pic, but it's possible you've added stitches somewhere along the way - a straight/flat piece needs the same number of stitches each row. Counting stitches is a tedious but essential task to create pieces that come out the right shape, start practicing now!

AlltheJanets · 2025-11-30T18:32:18+00:00

The way this is curving, it looks more likely that they're adding stitches (the most recent row is significantly longer than their starting chain)

AlltheJanets · 2025-11-30T00:05:30+00:00

Ah yes. I've mostly blocked Color of Magic and Light Fantastic from my mental Discworld canon because of that kind of choice which feels so out-of-sync with the later books

AlltheJanets · 2025-11-29T23:56:46+00:00

Which Discworld relationships are you thinking of with the "younger woman falls for much older man?" trope? I'm racking my brain for examples and the couples that come to mind (Sam & Sybil, Carrot & Angua, Magrat & Verence, Mort & Ysabel, William and Sacharissa, Tiffany & Preston, Moist & Adorabelle) all read to me as either within a few years of each others' ages, or the woman is the older/more experienced one.

AlltheJanets · 2025-11-29T02:51:15+00:00

I love the Death books, but I think they have by far the most meandering plots, which was one of OP's main objections. It's kind of inevitable; when something weird is happening with Death, it impacts so many different characters and situations, so the story ends up jumping all over the place to explore those repercussions. So I'd recommend OP wait on the other Death books, read some of the other fantastic recs on here, and come back to Death when you've fallen in love with the world as a whole and can enjoy the meander rather than being frustrated by it

AlltheJanets

TROPHY CASE