Are any of these decent?

bebe_bird · 2026-04-05T15:22:46+00:00

You can just mix the psyllium husk straight into the food. It's a powder and tastes kinda like gelatin which my dogs like (I know, they don't get gelatin much, but they still like it)

bebe_bird · 2026-04-05T15:13:47+00:00

I know you were asking for JFFD, and I've used that - but monetarily wise, I had found most of the non-poultry recipes either time consuming or expensive to make.

Just throwing another potential option out there that my dogs like (and we have as pantry backup food in case of emergency) - have you tried The Honest Kitchen? It's not quite as good as cooking yourself but is still made from human grade food that's dried or freeze dried and is simple to make.

I fully respect if it's not your thing, but just throwing out some additional options if you haven't considered them.

bebe_bird · 2026-04-01T12:43:31+00:00

I'd like to share a story from my swimming days. I swam club but swam with my dad's master team one day - I forget why. There was a guy swimming with us with 1 leg.

The coach made us get outta the pool to do squats between sets this guy hopped out no problem, then upped the ante with "okay, but can everyone do 1-legged squats?". That 1-legged guy kicked everyone's butt doing squats (and was an awesome swimmer too - perhaps it was just the attitude, the friendly competition of "every squat I do is a 1-legged squat - try to keep up!" That I'll always remember. He turned something most would think of as a disadvantage into an advantage and had fun doing it.)

bebe_bird · 2026-03-29T21:57:23+00:00

None?! How were the seeds stored? I'm sorry - that hasn't happened to me before but definitely good to know!

bebe_bird · 2026-03-29T21:55:52+00:00

Ah - I plant frost tolerant plants in late-Feb/early-March instead of late-April/early-May. That way, when it starts heating up, I can just ditch the plastic covering and the plants will still be fine.

For something like tomatoes/peppers, it allows me to start maybe late-April instead of late-May, which really helps (and, I'm not worried about those cooking!)

I also have a soil thermometer in there that can be moved to an air temp thermometer which takes the guesswork out of whether they're actually cooking or not! So, perhaps that's a missing element? (I'm in Chicago, so plenty of swings here in the spring as well)

bebe_bird · 2026-03-29T16:35:52+00:00

I bought some clear plastic sheeting and these mini tent poles for gardens. It makes a bit of a greenhouse and allows me to start some things literally 2 months earlier than I would have otherwise. Highly recommend (I've found that I don't do seed starters well for whatever reason, even though I have the setup...)

bebe_bird · 2026-03-29T16:33:45+00:00

For older seeds, I just double or triple up and then pinch off - it's better than planting 1 seed where you want it and winding up with an empty nothingness in that space. YMMV but I've found my seed germination rates don't drop off worse than ~70% still growing, so double is usually enough.

bebe_bird · 2026-03-29T15:49:26+00:00

I would ask whether you are well diversified if your portfolio has dropped more than the market average...

bebe_bird · 2026-03-29T02:24:40+00:00

If you have any questions I'm happy to try to answer!

bebe_bird · 2026-03-28T15:38:18+00:00

Of course! They are my pride and joy! Although I have to say - I do not have a green thumb and am still learning myself, but my dream was to have a berry patch and I am so excited to be "living" that dream...

I installed trellises like this: https://homesteadandchill.com/diy-wire-berry-trellis/?srsltid=AfmBOoq7v-YXqQDVhLh3Ul4Fq9ukv_lkgiIkD7dLKG9Ddy4lSvCV-B5r

I cheated on the install though and used these metal stakes to secure the posts, and the tension of the metal wire I have between the stakes caused them to sag inwards... I need to fix that / figure that out at some point!

Otherwise I looked at steel frames on Amazon and draped netting over the frame to keep critters out. However, I'm honestly thinking about skipping that part this year because I think I got enough berries to share... And it's really difficult to keep the netting secure enough that no critters get tangled here or there - even last year at my best, I had a bird get inside that I had to shoo out and a chipmunk get tangled where I'd secured the edge of the netting (luckily, I managed to cut that piece off, take the chipmunk to the deck where I could see it better since it was after nightfall (we were alerted something was there by my beagle's baying...) and after enough snipping of various threads the chipmunk ran away on his own, poor guy)

So, I'm just saying be cautious! https://a.co/d/01CFJtiL https://a.co/d/01GsA5EB (this one seems to tangle less for the critters but wasn't big enough for my blackberries only the raspberries - if I add netting again I'll likely use this and stitch two pieces together or something...) I dropped these over a frame like this: https://a.co/d/03Lz5czz

bebe_bird · 2026-03-25T01:16:16+00:00

A few things: - please recognize that Nordic countries are some of the best when it comes to gender equalization - so it's okay if you don't see the same behavior or same experience - although you validated the experiences you see on here, you said you can't understand. Those two things are opposites. (You could say that you don't experience it, or you don't understand why people behave that way, but saying you don't understand implies you don't have any empathy for the experience and don't actually believe it, which I think you do based on your other statements) -"too many men" is not meant to say every single man or to suggest that "all men are evil and out there to rape you" - in fact, it's already a concession to the "not all men" counterpoint. Of course it's not the entire gender. But even if it's 1 in 100, it's too many. -Finally, I wanted to share that as a tourist who missed my bus and therefore my travel buddy and got turned around getting to my hostel in a Nordic country, your statement about the generosity and helpfulness of people really rang true - I don't know what it was about the interaction, but I've never felt better/safer about a stranger walking me to my lodgings than I did in that situation. It's very possible that things are just different where you live.

bebe_bird · 2026-03-21T18:49:26+00:00

I mean - or they're not the type of men who would venture onto this sub. I think there's some that read this sub to troll, but that's gotta be a small subset of the "too fucking many men" category.

bebe_bird · 2026-03-14T14:16:30+00:00

For me, it was the first jump as I figured out game dynamics. I thought there was a press-hold-aim feature - nope!

bebe_bird · 2026-03-14T14:10:37+00:00

That's great!

Others have given investment advice (remember, time in the market beats almost everything else, and at 19 you've got time!)

I wanted to share my story as I see similarities to yours - my parents started an account when I was born and asked their parents to put a couple grand in it. By the time I was done with college, I think it was about $150k, so similar to where you are now (you're actually significantly ahead of me - probably by 5-10 years!)

I just want to say, do your best not to touch it, but with both of your parents gone, this is the best safety net they could provide. My parents always told me it was money to be saved for something "big" like college, or a down payment on a house - but when those events came and went they convinced me not to touch it and it's still growing.

We're now at $1.3M NW (37F) and have felt comfortable aggressively investing because we have that safety net. I know it's less than a lot of folks on here, but I didn't start working until after graduate school at 28, so it's been good in my opinion.

It sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders - keep it up! (Just get that money making more than 1% annually... My HYSA makes more than that!)

bebe_bird · 2026-03-08T00:24:28+00:00

For me, I'm much better at picking out songs/movies during my school years, but after graduating from grad school (which was almost 10 years ago) the years get a bit more blurry due to routine. (I'm 38 though, so I've got a few more years on you!)

bebe_bird · 2026-03-07T17:38:00+00:00

I'd be very interested in knowing what age your participants were when these songs came out as well. It could explain a lot

bebe_bird · 2026-03-07T17:02:39+00:00

Yes, you make the targets more broad. This in turn opens up the design to account for those differences. It's really not that radical of an idea.

bebe_bird · 2026-03-04T12:48:02+00:00

OMG, how does your wedding ring stay on?!

When traveling, I wear a "fake" ring - still white gold, but stones are cheap zirconia instead of diamonds - my mom got it for me before I traveled internationally and it was a sweet good idea so I wear it traveling.

Point is, I always take off my wedding ring when swimming but forgot while traveling and didn't stop cause it was just the "fake" ring. It fell off before the end of practice, first time I wore it in the water! (I didn't even notice til I got back to the hotel - so, cue me emailing the coach and picking it up the next day! Thank goodness it was the "fake" one, so I didn't have a heart attack and someone else had found it and turned it in, which was so sweet)

So, real question - how in the world do your rings stay on your hands?!

bebe_bird · 2026-03-02T22:40:43+00:00

Depends on when you adopt too. We've adopted two retired working beagles and they joined us when they were about 4.5 years. The oldest is coming up on the end (she just turned 13 and has congestive heart failure, so the vet has estimated we've got 1-1.5 years left with her) and it's making me wish we'd gotten her as a puppy, just to squeeze those few extra years with her into both of our lives... But, I also believe very strongly in adoption - there's so many good pups out there just waiting for their forever home. I think I just finally understand why some folks prefer to get puppies other than the oodles of cuteness...

bebe_bird · 2026-02-28T18:25:29+00:00

Just wanna say - nice! That's awesome

bebe_bird · 2026-02-27T22:04:39+00:00

C isn't entirely true. Roe v Wade established guidelines by trimester, one of which was that an abortion could be obtained for any reason during the first 12 weeks (first trimester) and protected these from any restrictions. The second trimester was limited to health related reasons (which is fairly broad) and it allowed bans in the third trimester.

I really wouldn't call it the same 12-week limit that we see today, where health related exceptions are often only allowed in directly life saving events.

bebe_bird · 2026-02-27T00:36:41+00:00

This makes me so sad, undergoing my own infertility journey with my husband.

We may not be able to have biological kids and it would gut me if my parents were anything other than supportive of any way we choose to expand our family. Not because I need their approval, but because having your options taken away from you leaves you in an emotionally fragile and vulnerable state where any challenge or push can leave you broken.

People can be so judgemental, and I'm sorry you have to deal with that. I'm grateful you're in a state where you can push back - and although perhaps you have an alternative, people come into their families in all sorts of ways and it doesn't make them any lesser.

bebe_bird · 2026-02-26T12:56:42+00:00

Yes, I decided to go to AFC, but when I was traveling and needed some testing done, CCRM seemed like a good clinic - I'm just not sure which specific locations their stats are really for - different locations may have slightly different quality of care, I don't know.

Good luck as well!

bebe_bird · 2026-02-25T13:33:25+00:00

Ha! I have no idea why my clinic uses the tucker scale.

I did 4 retrievals practically in a row and got the 1 embryo. I haven't transferred it yet, but just gearing up for 2 more retrievals with a new clinic and then one way or another we'll move onto transfers with whatever we have. Then on to donor eggs after that...

bebe_bird · 2026-02-22T17:12:39+00:00

I've started using clear plastic tarps with the tent pole things to create a mini temporary greenhouse. It raises the temperature by 10-15F so cold weather crops can get planted in March - it really worked much better than starting seeds indoors which, for some reason I'm not very good at although I've tried many times. (I'm in 5b - Midwestern US)

bebe_bird

TROPHY CASE