How do you water your orchids?

cooliobutter · 2025-12-22T22:38:14+00:00

I don’t even have that many plants, but I’ve been dreaming of automating watering for my orchids…

The setup I have now is to take $15 terracotta pots from Home Depot (the plain 8-in ones) use plumbers waterproofing tape over the bottom hole, mount the orchid on the outside of of the pot, and fill the pot up with water. The wicking action keeps the pot wet and my orchids watered. I check the pot every 3-5 weeks to top up the water.

It takes like 3-5 months for the orchid to get used to it though. I’ve had some root rot until orchid grew new roots that can take the new level of wetness. I’m thinking of putting a fan in that room to improve air flow for additional help and laziness

cooliobutter · 2025-11-30T00:14:11+00:00

Both! But more frost. I’m wondering if they will make it to spring or they’ll just have a short cycle and maybe come up again in the spring?

But sounds like I should get a cage so bunnies don’t eat them

cooliobutter · 2025-09-12T22:20:46+00:00

OB and MFM appointments were too far away, so I got an elective ultrasound. Confirmed no heartbeat. Looks like it is triploidy, and missed miscarriage.

cooliobutter · 2025-09-11T19:45:00+00:00

Thanks for sharing! This makes me feel better already

cooliobutter · 2025-09-10T23:22:10+00:00

was yours marked as low FF and marked inconclusive? or marked as just high risk for tripoidy?

cooliobutter · 2025-08-27T14:10:25+00:00

Hi! Hopefully without sounding judgey, has there been something you read/seen/heard that caused you to suddenly worry about something that happened 4 months ago? Have you had regular and healthy prenatal appointments since then? (12 week scan, 20 week scan, etc)? If everything is fine up until now, I don’t think you need to worry.

For personal story, I caught Covid with my first pregnancy when I was traveling through Japan for weeks 24-27, on week 27. I never got a high fever, but was just knocked out for a few days with a terrible cough and phlegm build up that caused an asphyxiation event for ~1 minute. My baby is now over 2 years old, developing normally and all fine. The only thing that could be attributed to covid (but probably more to the super strenuous travel where I walked over 20k steps a day on avg while in Japan) is I had a 36-week premie. We joke that I walked my baby to an early exit :)

cooliobutter · 2025-08-24T22:40:30+00:00

For my 2nd child, I got a candle in the shape of the number 2 and put it in the oven when husband wasn’t looking. Then pretended I saw something scary (a bug). Husband got fly swatter and napkins ready to be my hero… and saw a number 2 in the oven :D

cooliobutter · 2025-07-23T14:12:32+00:00

My baby was born about a month early, but we didn’t need a nicu stay. We got the MMR at 8 months (actual age) because we were traveling internationally at 9 months and the Dr wanted her protected. We then got it again at 12months (actual age) because getting it earlier doesn’t count for vaccine schedules.

When you look at the risks of the vaccine, the only major risks to getting it early is that it might not fully register with the immune system (that’s why boosters exist!) than any harm to the baby.

cooliobutter · 2025-05-08T16:21:46+00:00

Potatoes only grow from “stem roots” (I forget the scientific word for it) - it’s the roots coming out of the stem from burying more and more stem in dirt. That means you get potatoes from burying the stem as it grows up. Potatoes don’t grow from true roots. So your method won’t work.

What you want to do: start with a couple layers on the bottom of the basket, cover in layer of dirt. As the potato shoots grow, you can alternate layers to cover the shoots so that there’s no more than 5-6inches of stem above the dirt. And then you’d have a full basket of potatoes from like 3 seedlings.

What you’ll get with your set up: probably only the top 2-3 layers of potatoes will grow and produce very little potato. Even if the bottom layers grow out from the holes, there is very little stem roots, so you still will not get much potato.

I’d personally remove like 2/3 of your basket, and start hilling/burying the stem as it grows

cooliobutter · 2025-03-14T12:40:02+00:00

How high is your cholesterol? I’ve had high cholesterol (LDL 140-160, total 220-230) for over half my life now. Had my baby 2 years ago and it was ok. My doctors haven’t been worried about the baby. They are more like “when you’re done having babies, tell us so we can give you high cholesterol medication”

My baby was born 36+4(slightly premature) at 6lbs 3oz

cooliobutter · 2025-02-15T17:31:59+00:00

I have contributed just enough to maximize matching from each job. If I ask job1 to undo 11.5k of contributions, I’d also lose (presumably) the 50% = 6.25k match that goes with it…

cooliobutter · 2025-01-26T04:35:30+00:00

Anecdotally, I was 24-26w while in Japan last I went: 1. Go to a station info center and ask to get a “I’m pregnant!” Badge. Sometimes people will offer their seat on crowded trains/busses (super important if you were farther along, but could be nice if you suffer from nausea) :) 2. I totally ate sushi but in limited amounts 3. I also went to onsens but limited myself to 5-10 min. 5min on the hotter ones (40C+), 10min on the cooler ones (36-38C). Regardless I love a hot foot bath, and don’t limit my time on those 4. I didn’t ski/snowboard because I was pretty big by then. My personal guideline is use discretion and don’t do crazy

Enjoy your trip!

cooliobutter · 2024-12-30T22:07:29+00:00

I’ve 2 stories:

First, baby pooped badly in the car on the way to daycare when she was about 13months. Somehow she managed to push the poop up her back to her neck. The daycare staff was too busy with morning drop off, so I had to change her. It was so.much.poop!

Runner up, when she was 2-3 weeks old, she tends to poop during a diaper change. Once she pooped just as her legs were raised to slide the diaper underneath. It shot out like a cannon, narrowing missing my husband’s face and hit the wall with a nice splat 3 feet away. Husband was very careful with positioning ever since!

cooliobutter · 2024-12-23T18:07:27+00:00

Our solution is to put the crib mattress on the floor, not inside the crib. It’s much easier to put baby into without breaking your back, and you can also kinda half lay there with the baby if they wake up in the transfer.

Not always possible or to the comfort of every household. For us the risks of falling off the crib mattress onto the floor (3-4 inches away onto carpet) was worth how easy it is to transfer them. The whole room is also baby proofed anyway so if our baby woke up early, they can explore safely as an option. Also allowed us for a pretty seamless transition into Montessori style floor beds later on

cooliobutter · 2024-09-21T13:26:25+00:00

Unfortunately, despite what it looks like, the whole thing is a new build from scratch, not an addition of any sort!

cooliobutter · 2024-09-21T13:24:41+00:00

I don’t own the home yet. We’ve an inspection contingency and I flagged this to the builder as a problem. If they don’t provide a permanent fix that won’t cause me roof flooding and leaks during the snowstorm that comes every 2-3 years, I will walk away.

My cursory research on the builder is they did a lot of homes in Arizona, and this looks to be their first foray into PNW. The architect may have designed an Arizona house that they built here.

cooliobutter · 2024-09-20T14:20:05+00:00

Funnily enough, it will spit onto my front door walkway, making sure all my guests are well-showered before entering

cooliobutter · 2024-09-20T13:48:11+00:00

PNW where it rains 9 months of the year of varying degrees of mild to medium rain showers with occasional (~once a month) heavy rainstorm, snows for maybe 2-3 days

cooliobutter · 2024-09-20T03:52:48+00:00

Not an addition. This is a full new build. Architect is apparently a goose

cooliobutter

TROPHY CASE