The very thickest of majestic relics @thicklymajesticrelic - Tumblr Blog

I started hanging my clothes outside instead of putting it through a tumble dryer.

I've been kinda worried about gas prices- namely since I live up north and that's our main method of heating the house- so I've been trying to stop worrying and focus on what I CAN do... so I've started by hanging my clothes out on a line...

Apparently, you can hang your clothes outside year round and still get them pretty dry. This was something that people just... did... It makes sense in a way. Like, you're 'freeze-drying' your clothes... You'd still want to use a tumble dryer if you needed them dry like NOW., but... you'd totally be able to dry your clothing without a dryer or even a source of heat...

Going to try making my own laundry soap too. Might as well, ya know? If I can make a five gallon bucket's worth for basically a dollar or two then that's something at least...

Still kind of wondering if I should launder my clothing fully by hand- I've still been using the washing machine and just running the spin cycle twice- and I kinda want to see if I can even do it... Would it really be that hard? Or would it be like making bread where it's not hard exactly, it's just time consuming?

Well, either way, might as well at least try...

#sustainability #solarpunk #laundry #frugal

themurderscene-deactivated20140

and if you turn to ur left you’ll see the emos

rnyselfie

is that my chemical romance?

penceyprepster-deactivated20160

OH MY GOD not every group of emos is my chemical romance stfu tumblr

chxmical-rxmance

but it actually is my chemical romance

losered

this is the funniest fuckibg thing I’ve ever seen

gay-emo-quotes

I’ve…. seen this everywhere except on Tumblr itself. It’s the blessed post.

notalittleatall

Deep contrast between solarpunk, which is an ideology based around living in agrarian self sufficient communes without industry, and solar panels themselves which have the primary advantage of being easily mass producible in factories. Who is working in the massive factories offscreen to make these idyllic farmhouses work

thicklymajesticrelic

...I take this as a challenge to build a power generating grunge DIY monstrosity in my backyard so I can decouple myself from The Man, yo...

All joking aside, I feel you can make perfectly serviceable power generators out of shit you have lying around. Solarpanels just look nicer.

Now excuse me as I quietly build a stupid magnet and copper alternator abomination to make a damn windmill... a salt water battery should work, right? Manganese and graphite rods for the electrodes and a saline solution for the electrolytes, and a permeable barrier for the passage of electrolytes to donate or be striped of electrons? The container could be some kind of plastic laundry bucket or maybe some kind of glass container? It'd be heavy, but since it would be for a house, it shouldn't be too bad to procure a suitable container... or maybe several and daisy chain them together for a nice deep power bank?

Pretty sure that I can make a magnet powerful enough to start generating electricity with some leaf springs and some stripped wire from a busted up car to wrap around it... maybe I could salvage an alternator or two... scrap shops or dumpster diving ought to get me most of what I need. Worst case scenario, I need to go prospecting and refining those materials from scratch, but it wouldn't be too bad to at least create a heat based mechanism...

Now for the assembly of your generator, you could go with a few different ways, but if you're trying to use a primarily sunny location, you can always use a convection still to get that solar goodness. Basically, you use pipes to absorb the sun inside a box that's somewhat insulated with like a sheet of plastic or glass to allow all the sunlight to pass through, trapping the heat, and allow colder air at the bottom to heat up and rise, allowing the air to get pretty damn hot at the top where it will condense that heat into a tank to boil water in then use the heat and pressure to get the steam to turn the turbines. You'd also probably need some kind of pressurizer or condenser, but it wouldn't be that bad to make if you got the iron lying around or some good ole copper and you just need something that mechanically forces the steam into a nice small tube such as a funnel to have it build pressure and move upward as it is wont to do to turn the turbine- though you're really gonna want some kind of steel for the pressure tank at least as the pressure can easily get to a nice and steamy pretty quick, though you can get by with a lower powered version with just some smart assembly...

Steam turns the turbine, the turbine turns the dynamo, and there you go. You got a one hundred percent build able 'solar' panel system to make electricity. It ain't perfect, and kinda assumes you have a good bit of things lying around and some know-how of steam or thermal dynamics , but it wouldn't be all that unreasonable to set up DIY style even if all your making is heat because heat can be turned to steam and that shit will make things GO...

If you're on the coast, you're gonna want to set that up as a windmill, or maybe a tidal mill or water wheel. It ain't all that hard to set up. If you're up north you'd probably want to set up a thermal bank where you can instead of converting that heat into electricity, you turn it into heat and use a large thermal mass like sand to keep you warm since you are probably gonna 'spend' most of that power on heat anyways.

Things to consider.

#solarpunk #wind turbines #energy #One imagines sisyphius glad...

what-even-is-thiss

If speed limits were reduced to like 25-30 mph and most stoplights were replaced with roundabouts then traffic would actually move faster because going 45mph past Walmart certainly feels faster but then you stop at a stoplight every hundred feet and your average speed turns out to be like 15-20 mph but people don’t think that roundabouts are faster because for some reason they only ever replace like one stoplight with a roundabout so people being released from another stoplight down the road like a pack of racehorses all charge into the roundabout all at once and make it confusing and scary to get into it when in fact if every intersection was a roundabout then there would be a steady low density stream of cars all the time instead of a sudden stampede of them and it would also make things safer for pedestrians and cyclists but who the fuck cares about the lives of pedestrians and cyclists I guess and anyways I hate American car infrastructure

thicklymajesticrelic

I propose dropping the speed limit down to 20-35 miles an hour (except for like, an emergency vehicle lane) simply to increase mileage/tire wear/road wear so road construction/reconstruction didn't HAVE TO be replaced so often.

Also!

JUST! RIDE! THE! BUS!

Or monorail, subway, or train, or other public transport! If we put even a QUARTER of the money we spent on the fuel, tires, repairs, and other systems so 'everyone can have their own vehicle' then it would be MUCH better infrastructure!

I GET that some people are uncomfortable with other people around, or have social hang ups with being around people, but the reality of the situation is that at least people in a bus/train car/subway are also just as nervous/weird! Just mind your own damn business and you should be left alone! Headphones!

And if you're rural, you know that many rural communities have some sort of ride share or even struggling bus system?!

'Oh, but what if some drunk/high/on drugs person gets on?'- GOOD! I would prefer that person NOT DRIVE! And if there's an accident or someone is hurt, then there is usually a first aid kit on the bus somewhere and the bus driver or their assistant is usually trained on what to do.

'But what if it's filled with screaming toddlers and infants?'- Okay? So what? Turn up your headphones? The kid is obviously having a worse time...

'What if someone young who probably shouldn't be riding alone gets on?'- Okay? If someone is running away, or just playing hooky or what have you, wouldn't you want them to go via a safe transport system rather than their own or in someone's car?

'I can't smoke on the bus...' Okay, yeah, buddy... if you can't go like, an hour without a smoke, then you need to cut back...

I'm just saying that using a public transport system, or supporting a public transport system, is gonna be better for the infrastructure/planet/what have you in the long run...

throwitonthepilethesecond

For what it's worth, in the US it's mostly that The Bus is the closest you'll get to 'locked in the Mutual Suspicion Room with a rotating cast of people you've never seen before and never will again'

thicklymajesticrelic

...planes, as in airplanes...

Just ride the damn bus.

waxenneat

This was a man, dressed as a plant, making pigeon noises at people walking by. I said hello, asked if it was okay to take his picture, and then asked why he was dressed as a plant. He said, “I’m just working through some stuff. Thank you for asking. No ones asked yet.”

anekie

I’ve been dealing with stuff the wrong way.

thicklymajesticrelic

...if you live in a rural area, watch out for moose/deer/bears, but otherwise... good on this guy for taking care of his mental health!

I'm gonna try sprouting the full whole cumin seeds. I wanna see if it's possible to get them to sprout. If not, I guess I wasted about a teaspoon's worth of cumin...

#cooking #gardening

lexicals

People visiting when I'm doing demonstrations with the guild: Oh it's so good that you're Carrying On The Tradition. I bet it's really nice to Reconnect With Your Ancestors by using Traditional Crafts that No-one Alive Has To Use For Real Any More, How Very Interesting and Noble Of You

Me: Haha funny coloured string go brrr

batbetbitbotbut

#There's a longer rant here about the broader alienation from production the global north has and how there's this kind of. #Fetishisation of The past and how it was So Hard Then but of course no-one has to make their own clothes now! #No-one has to rely on wood fires any more! Oh wouldn't that be such a hard life how noble these people were. How humble and poor #When like. These things are still very much integral parts of life in many places #just not the ones considered important by people in the imperial core

#And these are the same people who shy away when I offer them a spindle and say try it; it's not hard I promise #Humanity has been doing this for millenia across cultures and distance. And I think some of it is fear of failure but there's also I think #probably some fear of losing the mystery of it #The artificial distance between you & the person who had to spin to make everything they wore and for their family too #I think maybe that scares people a little. Idk. Or maybe they're just scared of embarrassment

#All this to say no I'm not spinning to Commune With My Ancestors. I'm spinning cause it's fun. You should try it too #And maybe you'll gain an appreciation for how our relationship to labour has changed from the people you see as so distant to you #Or maybe you'll just have some nice yarn

thicklymajesticrelic

Me: *immediately after trying to hand sew something for the first time* This is so hard... I now have an incredible respect for anyone who does this. My fingers are in PAIN!

Also me: *stares intently at a piece of fabric sheets going on clearance at the Wal-Mart* ...sewing isn't that hard. I can do it. I could totally make something out of this (yet to be) scrap fabric... The fabric is a bit thin but it ought to be fine by quilting tying the fabric together in about two or three layers...

Also, also me: *cackling to myself as I complete my first embroidery project which was an absolute nightmare because I made SO MANY mistakes but I did it, I licked it so it's MINE now* I now know how to use string and a needle and I'm going to make it everyone ELSE'S problem! ...I bet I could-

And so it continues.

We tend to forget that while it is hard to try to do new things that are apparently foreign to you, if you are audacious and stubbornly persistent enough, you can trick yourself into PRACTICE and it will become easy to you.

People, and many people today, still use roughly 1/3 of their time in clothing manufacture and repair. Because it needs doing. Same with growing the food you eat.

These skills are not far from us. I once read a book about sheep rearing and suddenly a LOT of shit that I thought was weird about society suddenly made sense. We just need to practice them.

...I also like to imagine my ancestors watching me and while confused with my choices, approving of me to adorn my clothing with symbols such as the Peace Sign, slogans like 'food security is best security'/'grow a garden', and over all repairing my clothing so it can last a bit longer.

...even if the stitches are a bit crooked.

#signal boost #making clothes #sewing #sustainability #grow a garden #the audacity to FAIL and keep going

Seed potatoes

Got em.

Letting them rest on a shelf in my kinda too humid house so they can chit (get more eyes which are the root feeler things it needs to get water) and managed to get about 10lbs worth. Hopefully, it will spread to multiple plants so they can propagate and become my crop.

Potato patch is also decided and will be made shortly as they chit. Going to try the 'no-till' method where I just kinda hill em up continuously. Know where I can ask a feed store for any spilled barley straw to use as mulch...

Wish me luck.

#potatoes #seed potatoes #gardening #sustainability