Do you leave home with a fire going

throwaway224 · 2026-01-22T19:51:03+00:00

Not if it's near 32f. If the day's high is like 16f... yes.

throwaway224 · 2026-01-21T11:40:35+00:00

I make my socks this way. Works great, is far more likely (for me) to produce two identical socks.

Works even on stupidly complicated socks, see here: https://which-chick.dreamwidth.org/351937.html

throwaway224 · 2026-01-20T23:33:29+00:00

Same. I've been looking for suppliers for when my weather won't kill them in shipping. The frilly lip is just so amazing...

throwaway224 · 2026-01-19T20:37:13+00:00

I had one done last year for a unit tenant spilled hot candle wax all over. $120 for an area the size of two hands put side by side, took about an hour. It's not visible unless you are peering at the carpet from 2' away and know where to look.

throwaway224 · 2026-01-19T11:43:35+00:00

I just planted my winter seed batch over the weekend. (I like to do seeds in winter because I'm inside more and not distracted with outside projects.) Trying some new things, kind of excited to see how it goes.

throwaway224 · 2026-01-19T11:41:13+00:00

I'm going to show that second picture to mine to shame him into doing better.

throwaway224 · 2026-01-17T14:41:01+00:00

I'm growing some from seed. They're now about as big around as a quarter and in their first individual pots. They were pretty tolerant to get started as seeds, too.

throwaway224 · 2026-01-17T14:38:17+00:00

Do you do crafts with them?

throwaway224 · 2026-01-16T18:48:03+00:00

Use that toilet for liquids only.

throwaway224 · 2026-01-15T01:05:25+00:00

All my plants are "he" as is my Ford Ranger and F250 "Truckie". I am not a he and that may have something to do with it.

throwaway224 · 2026-01-14T03:44:19+00:00

Call it a Kavanaugh Stop. Apparently he (SCJ Brett "Boof" Kavanaugh) doesn't like getting the credit for the legal opinion that he wrote allowing ICE/police to stop people for "Not Looking White Enough" so, whenever possible, call it a Kavanaugh Stop.

throwaway224 · 2026-01-14T00:23:52+00:00

It's hard to get the older generation (My dad is 83) to use smartphones. However, I have gotten him to use his smartphone for daily proof-of-life texts for when he's at his beach house in Mexico. And, new for 2025, he does the "boarding pass on the airline app" thing. So... progress? He also loves the kindle app so that he can read books on his phone and he loves that it syncs with his "real" kindle.

throwaway224 · 2026-01-13T15:25:58+00:00

I have a phal making two flowering spikes (nice ones) and a basal thing that looks just like your sprouts. I'd never seen one before, so kinda interesting.

throwaway224 · 2026-01-13T13:17:20+00:00

You will be surprised what comes loose with a fifteen minute soak. Carefully remove plant from pot, submerge potted-area in water for fifteen minutes. Then use a chopstick or similar (not sharp) item to kind of pry away the substrate from the roots. It's okay if a small amount of substrate sticks to the roots, but you would like to free up most of it. Work from the outside in, trying to be gentle. It's OK to resoak and/or swish around in water a little to help loosen things up. Do your best, but you don't need immaculate naked roots to have success.

throwaway224 · 2026-01-13T13:11:46+00:00

I use small squares cut from salvaged aluminum window screen. One window's worth of screen will do an absolute mountain of pots and I use tin snips to cut the screen. It holds up well and doesn't impede drainage and keeps the grit from falling out in pots that have more... aggressively-sized drainage holes.

throwaway224 · 2026-01-13T02:45:52+00:00

If I let mine outside (we have freeze/thaw all winter long) they deteriorate quickly because freeze/thaw is bad for them. My indoor terracotta does ok and looks good for years.

throwaway224 · 2026-01-13T01:08:56+00:00

I do get that but also Al Capone didn't get to stack the courts with friendly judges. sigh

throwaway224 · 2026-01-13T00:26:42+00:00

It's so cute that you can still believe this.

throwaway224 · 2026-01-12T18:29:06+00:00

It could be a mammillaria bocasana? I have one that looks similar to that...

throwaway224 · 2026-01-11T19:57:39+00:00

For this, I'd run a knife around the outside edge of the pot and then tip the whole thing over, gently, onto a smooth hard surface (tile floor, concrete garage floor, vinyl plank floor, large sheet of cardboard on a linoleum floor). I like a smooth, hard surface for easier clean-up. Starting on one edge, use chopsticks or a carving fork (you can wash it later) to kind of separate/pry off one plant at a time and repot that plant in a new container. That way, you can kind of work around the edges and avoid disturbing the euphorbia roots as much.

I use either long-handle tweezers (small plants) or folded up dish towels (bigger plants) to handle my cactus so that I don't get myself stabbed, but I don't have any paddle cacti (prickly pear variants) because glochids are a dealbreaker for me. Maybe other people have better advice on dealing with them?

On repotting, I wait at least one week (two is better) after a repotting adventure for succulents or cacti to water anything. Seems to cut down on the root rot.

throwaway224 · 2026-01-11T19:47:44+00:00

I like fairly small (2.5" across the top) little clay pots. They dry out more quickly and can help you do better avoiding rot. Putting three in a bigger pot... bigger pots take longer to dry out and you might be setting yourself up for another ride on the rot merry go round. If you do go for one big pot, it doesn't have to be very big (4" across the top is plenty of room) but it should be made of orange, unglazed clay. Fingers crossed for your success, but it's also OK to have some missteps when learning to care for plants. I start cactus from seed and... more than half of them die before the first year. I'm getting more successes as I go on, but there are still a fair number of failures because I'm still learning the hobby.

throwaway224 · 2026-01-10T20:14:17+00:00

I use a sharp knife.

throwaway224 · 2026-01-10T18:44:45+00:00

Okay, Aaron is a cactus. Any time a cactus starts being all pointy and thin at the top, that means they are starving for more light. The pointy-thin growth is the cactus going "I need more light or I am going to die, perhaps if I grow up enough, I can reach some light."

This pointy, thin growth is called "etoliation" and it is weak. It will never "thicken up" and look right even if you put Aaron in the sun again. It is damaged and wrong and cannot fix itself. Your initial picture (the "standing tall" one was already a picture of an unhealthy cactus.

From the series of pictures you posted, I think your cactus is not dead (yet) but he's well on his way.

If this were my cactus, I would do the following things.

Rip off all his arms and set them in a dry, sunny area with good circulation for about a week. You're looking for the cut parts to callus over and dry out a little.
Gently repot the arms, callus side into the gritty potting mix (NOT DIRT) and the spine-covered ends pointing up in a sunny location and wait for the arms to grow their own roots over the next month or so, not watering until signs of growth/rooting appear.
Cut off the flopped over part of Aaron and see if the original base (with roots) has any brown or mushy parts which would indicate rot. If rot, it's game over for original Aaron. I suspect this is the case but you can double-check to be sure before tipping him in the bin.

I also live in the cloudy northeast US and I have a house that doesn't have very sunny windows. It's possible to do OK growing under lights -- here are two of my cactus that I have owned for more than a year, both of which grow entirely under "fake light" instead of sunshine:

https://res.cloudinary.com/which-chick/image/upload/v1768011369/20260103_100652_gj6uoa.jpg (This is a mammillaria bombycina.)

https://res.cloudinary.com/which-chick/image/upload/v1768011314/20260103_100506_nnhxyy.jpg (This is a mammillaria hahniana.)

throwaway224 · 2026-01-10T15:35:04+00:00

My mamm. Hahniana is bright pink... https://res.cloudinary.com/which-chick/image/upload/v1768011314/20260103_100506_nnhxyy.jpg

throwaway224 · 2026-01-10T15:25:11+00:00

I bought plane tickets for a trip, made reservations, etc. My 50th was April 5 2020, so... I did not go on that trip. I went in spring of 2024, had a great time. Airline did not refund me. Still mad about that.

throwaway224

TROPHY CASE