Tending, At Ease

Y'allternative queer commie posting about growing things, foraging things, crafting things, working with animals, and sometimes photography. Intolerant leftist -- because fascism and bigotry don't deserve tolerance -- who sometimes posts leftist things. Owner of a German wirehaired pointer named Hermes and a vulpine spitz named Eevee.

[livingadagio]

About Me + Links

Yo, I'm Siren, also known by some people as Aspen. I don't really care which one people call me, so I guess just pick whichever one you like most. I'm 29, chronically ill, disabled, and queer (it/they/any pronouns - in order of preference).

I'm a certified professional dog trainer, and on a hobby level I am also a gardener, fiber artist, photographer, aspiring visual artist, casual gamer, and classically trained singer. I currently have three partners (Selene, Prince, and Az) and two dogs (#Hermes and #Eevee) that you may see me mention sometimes.

This blog is my main blog where I post mostly permaculture, foraging, hunting, farming, ranching, crafting, animal training, and pet related stuff. I may also sometimes post about disability, abolition, mutual aid, civil rights, and social justice.

My other blogs:

@morecourageoustoovercome - Sideblog where I post anything and everything that I don't want to reblog to my main blog for whatever reason or that doesn't fit into the categories of my other sideblogs.

@cryptidsongbird - For reblogging other people's photography. I try to keep this to sourced photos only unless I am reblogging from the original photographer themselves. Feel free to point out stolen or unsourced posts to me.

@daydreamingin2d - Fandom blog, interact at your own risk because I sometimes (rarely, but it happens) reblog NSFW fanart and fanfiction. DNI with this blog if you're not a legal adult by USA standards (18+).

DNI for all of my blogs:

ARAs, tradlifers, transmeds, TERFs, TIRFs, SWERFs, and all other radfems, ace and aro exclusionists, pro-lifers, zionists, people who support the continued existence of the US empire, people who support the police or military, billionaire fanboys, libertarians (including "ancaps"), and bigots of any kind

[livingadagio]

It's finally black raspberry season in upstate NY 🥰

[solarpunkhomesteadzone6a]

T-minus 2 days til blackberry war

You will not win

[livingadagio]

Noooooo, don't say that 😭

I'm trying to ignore the aggressively spreading blackberry brambles right now that popped up in a flower bed in our yard two years ago, which I have been fighting a losing battle against, and which have now spread under our fence and into our neighbors garden as well. They're so stabby and sharp and HUGE, and they grow so freakishly fast!!! Every time I try to kill them they just get even stronger, I'm fighting a hydra over here 😭

NO BLACKBERRIES PLEASE, ONLY BLACK RASPBERRIES 😭

[solarpunkhomesteadzone6a]

Would you... like join an alliance, with me?

(Western NY)

[livingadagio]

We're definitely going to need more people in this alliance to win the fight against invasive blackberries 😂

[livingadagio]

It's finally black raspberry season in upstate NY 🥰

[solarpunkhomesteadzone6a]

T-minus 2 days til blackberry war

You will not win

[livingadagio]

Noooooo, don't say that 😭

I'm trying to ignore the aggressively spreading blackberry brambles right now that popped up in a flower bed in our yard two years ago, which I have been fighting a losing battle against, and which have now spread under our fence and into our neighbors garden as well. They're so stabby and sharp and HUGE, and they grow so freakishly fast!!! Every time I try to kill them they just get even stronger, I'm fighting a hydra over here 😭

NO BLACKBERRIES PLEASE, ONLY BLACK RASPBERRIES 😭

[livingadagio]

It's finally black raspberry season in upstate NY 🥰

[gordiemeow]

215yds/195m, light sport weight, 50% merino scraps (the 21-color rainbow ply) + 50% Bond wool (the white ply)

How it looks in indoor lighting (above) + some in progress shots (below)

[livingadagio]

I think I need to get another shelf rack and more grow lights, because I can not possibly stuff any more plants on these shelves than I currently have lol

[livingadagio]

They just keep multiplying

[livingadagio]

We started with this patch of mugwort over by the fence on the southwest side of the yard that refuses to die

And now all of my neglected garden beds on the far east side of the yard look like this.

Mugwort, mugwort, everywhere mugwort. 🙃

[livingadagio]

The thing about dill is the first time you plant it you will inevitably have some go to seed, and from the seeds that fall to the ground you will end up with more dill than you know what to do with growing back on its own the next year. Inevitably at least a few of those new plants will go to seed too, and the year after that you will have EVEN MORE DILL growing back on its own. Each year you will get more and more plants going to seed, causing more and more dill to grow in that area.

You will never have to plant dill again ever in your entire life (unless you move to a new place lol).

Case in point, I had a small grow bag with just a little bit of dill in it a few years ago. Some of the seeds from a couple of those plants somehow (chipmunks) made their way across the yard into this bed in front of the house, and I have not needed to plant any more dill in the last three years since.

[livingadagio]

I've had constant palpitations as a symptom of POTS for years, basically as long as I can remember having POTS. Last year I had to be switched to a med that isn't a beta blocker since beta blockers cause my already awful fatigue to become EXTREMELY awful fatigue (apparently very common with MCAS, which I have a referral to be evaluated for). One of the common side effects of that new med though (ivabradine) is increased palpitations. It made them STRONGER.

At least before I was medicated I could eventually tune them out sometimes. When I was on propranolol they went away completely. Now they are so bad that I can't ignore them, and it's a 24/7 thing. The feeling of my heart pounding and skipping is so strong it feels like my entire body is constantly pulsing with it. It's all I can really focus on sometimes (like rn, hence this post venting about it lol). It literally snatches my attention away from other things because of how uncomfortable it gets.

The palpitations get even worse when I lay down which makes it difficult to fall asleep or relax, especially because I also have intense pulsatile tinnitus (which is incredibly mentally distressing for me), and I swear the two are somehow connected and make each other worse. Constant intense pounding and fluttering heartbeat in my ears to match the constant intense pounding and fluttering heartbeat in my chest. My POTS symptom-related anxiety that went away entirely when I was on propranolol has been steadily creeping back in because of it too.

Unfortunately when I told my cardio all of this her suggestion was to add on a low dose (which was actually the dose I was already on before) of propranolol to deal with the palpitations... 🙃

[livingadagio]

Plant shelf? Oh, yeah, that's actually my anti-depression shelf.

[livingadagio]

Anti-depression shelf has a lot more friends on it now

[livingadagio]

I've got enough spider plants, burro's tails, and other various rooted succulent cuttings that I am thinking about setting up a little roadside table out front and trying to sell some of them to free up space on my shelf and get some extra cash so I can buy more dirt and more plants and maybe a second plant shelf lol

[livingadagio]

Plant shelf? Oh, yeah, that's actually my anti-depression shelf.

[livingadagio]

Anti-depression shelf has a lot more friends on it now

[livingadagio]

You don't NEED an expensive wheel, a set of combs, a drum carder, or commercial dyes to spin wool or to process a fleece, guys. If you want them that's one thing, but they are not a requirement to get into spinning your own wool or processing fleeces yourself. I am a disabled spinner with literally no income who can only get tools and supplies very infrequently because of holiday gifts or people giving me free things, so trust me I would know.

You can spin wool on cheap or easy-to-DIY drop spindles, you can use cheap dog slicker brushes as hand carders, combs are literally just nails set into wood handles if you're up for DIY-ing, you can safely dye fiber with natural dyes from your yard or kitchen (which is what I do), etc.

There are plenty of cheap or even free ways to engage with spinning as a hobby. Do not let anyone try to tell you it's expensive to get into because you need this or that specific pricey tool or product, or because good quality fiber/fleeces are more expensive to buy and only lower quality fiber/fleeces are affordable—which is absolutely not true btw. All the cheap fleeces I've gotten have still been very nice quality fiber for making wearables with. You can even get nice quality fleeces for free sometimes if you make friends with shepherds online or irl who are trying to offload them because they have too many to deal with, or who have no desire to process and/or sell their fleeces themselves.

I got into spinning with a cheap $10 drop spindle that was just a rough, round piece of wood stuck on a dowel rod. That was all I used for my entire first year of this hobby, and it worked perfectly fine. I still primarily use my drop spindles now even though I have two wheels (thanks to gifts from people). They're convenient to use anywhere, they're what I'm used to using, and when you are used to using spindles they are not really any slower than using a wheel. Wheels are not "better" than spindles, they're just pricier lol

Also, speaking of gifts, when people in fiber arts hobbies tell you that you can get a lot of stuff for free from older people looking to pass their stuff on or from people looking to de-stash, we mean it. I got an entire set of very nice wooden knitting needles (my very first set of needles) and a bunch of nice natural fiber yarn more expensive than I could ever hope to afford for FREE from someone I know from tumblr who wanted to de-stash. I've had shepherd friends I made online offer me free fleeces that they didn't have a use for. Gifting really does happen if you put the energy into looking for and making connections in your hobby of choice.

Fiber arts guilds and classes for fiber art hobbies will often have people looking to get new folks into their hobbies or shove off some old supplies taking up space in their house onto someone new. If you are in a place that has a local fiber arts guild (look it up and see if you do, you might be surprised) they probably also have equipment you can use—drum carders, spinning wheels, looms, etc.

Nobody is lying to you by saying fiber art hobbies can be done affordably, and that they can even produce affordable supplies for your other fiber hobbies (in the case of spinning, which my original post was about). It's the truth. Fiber arts are pretty affordable to get into compared to many other hobbies. There is a lot of available help to be found both in person and online to get into them. Beyond acquiring the very basics needed to do the hobby, they are really only as expensive as you make them.

[owlspinningyarns]

the best resource for getting started in spinning as well as continuing in handspinning is the community. you will learn so much and we love to answer questions, often with infodumps.

[revukanfendrenim]

i have a question

as far as i'm aware there's no general fiber arts guild in my city. there's a national spinning guild and national quilting guild and i know of a local queer knitting circle and there's little crochet/knit groups in the neighborhood houses. but no general fiber arts group or guild

do you have places to find them? if someone were to set one up where would they do that?

[livingadagio]

You don't NEED an expensive wheel, a set of combs, a drum carder, or commercial dyes to spin wool or to process a fleece, guys. If you want them that's one thing, but they are not a requirement to get into spinning your own wool or processing fleeces yourself. I am a disabled spinner with literally no income who can only get tools and supplies very infrequently because of holiday gifts or people giving me free things, so trust me I would know.

You can spin wool on cheap or easy-to-DIY drop spindles, you can use cheap dog slicker brushes as hand carders, combs are literally just nails set into wood handles if you're up for DIY-ing, you can safely dye fiber with natural dyes from your yard or kitchen (which is what I do), etc.

There are plenty of cheap or even free ways to engage with spinning as a hobby. Do not let anyone try to tell you it's expensive to get into because you need this or that specific pricey tool or product, or because good quality fiber/fleeces are more expensive to buy and only lower quality fiber/fleeces are affordable—which is absolutely not true btw. All the cheap fleeces I've gotten have still been very nice quality fiber for making wearables with. You can even get nice quality fleeces for free sometimes if you make friends with shepherds online or irl who are trying to offload them because they have too many to deal with, or who have no desire to process and/or sell their fleeces themselves.

I got into spinning with a cheap $10 drop spindle that was just a rough, round piece of wood stuck on a dowel rod. That was all I used for my entire first year of this hobby, and it worked perfectly fine. I still primarily use my drop spindles now even though I have two wheels (thanks to gifts from people). They're convenient to use anywhere, they're what I'm used to using, and when you are used to using spindles they are not really any slower than using a wheel. Wheels are not "better" than spindles, they're just pricier lol

Also, speaking of gifts, when people in fiber arts hobbies tell you that you can get a lot of stuff for free from older people looking to pass their stuff on or from people looking to de-stash, we mean it. I got an entire set of very nice wooden knitting needles (my very first set of needles) and a bunch of nice natural fiber yarn more expensive than I could ever hope to afford for FREE from someone I know from tumblr who wanted to de-stash. I've had shepherd friends I made online offer me free fleeces that they didn't have a use for. Gifting really does happen if you put the energy into looking for and making connections in your hobby of choice.

Fiber arts guilds and classes for fiber art hobbies will often have people looking to get new folks into their hobbies or shove off some old supplies taking up space in their house onto someone new. If you are in a place that has a local fiber arts guild (look it up and see if you do, you might be surprised) they probably also have equipment you can use—drum carders, spinning wheels, looms, etc.

Nobody is lying to you by saying fiber art hobbies can be done affordably, and that they can even produce affordable supplies for your other fiber hobbies (in the case of spinning, which my original post was about). It's the truth. Fiber arts are pretty affordable to get into compared to many other hobbies. There is a lot of available help to be found both in person and online to get into them. Beyond acquiring the very basics needed to do the hobby, they are really only as expensive as you make them.

[owlspinningyarns]

the best resource for getting started in spinning as well as continuing in handspinning is the community. you will learn so much and we love to answer questions, often with infodumps.

[rederiswrites]

Curious babies watching me work.

[rederiswrites]

Nap time.

[kiiyarayne]

As promised in my last weaving post, a closeup of the pattern I'm doing for my shoelaces. weaves up really fast, looks cute, what more can I ask for?

[mindflamer]

nobody talks about how humiliating it is to have chronic fatigue before you know what fatigue is 😭 just going through life constantly miserable & feeling like you are failing everything but you can never explain why beyond saying "i'm too tired" which just sounds pathetic & like you don't care (it shouldn't but it does). tired is what healthy people feel after a long productive day & they restore it with sleep. fatigue is your body never making the energy in the first place