farmcord - Tumblr blog

[farmcord]

a quick guide on how 2 set up a sheet trap! also known as, a good way to just sit in the dark n look at bugs

a sheet trap is essentially a way to attract bugs to u so you can look at them. it's not a kill trap, and you don't have to collect anything you don't want to!

it's a fun way to see what cool bugs come out at night, and useful to find stuff like large beetles who are otherwise very shy.

supplies u need for the trap:

a sheet, obviously. white if you can get it, light colored if you can't.

a rope of some kind

some clothespins/binderclips

a lantern or two

BUG SPRAY, for you. try not to get it on ur hands tho

bug containers/nets

optional supplies:

a camera if you want

chargers for ur phone n stuff

rations to give u power

maybe a friend!

before it gets dark, head out to a spot you think is promising. BEFORE. it is much less fun to set up a trap in the pitch black. ideally, set it up just before the sun starts to set.

do a little research so u know what ur looking for if u have a bug u want to find in mind -- if you don't, set it up wherever! the edges of forests & near water are always fun.

SETTING UP UR TRAP:

find two trees or tree-adjacent objects to tie ur rope to.

put ur lantern on the rope

drape the sheet over it.

use the clips if it's falling off. easy peasy.

tada!

stick around as long as you like. keep an eye on it, you'll get lots of visitors! as the night gets colder, the bugs that are active will change! it's pretty cool.

[farmcord]

Pooka really enjoys how cool the bricks are after we water the plants

[farmcord]

the plague: stay inside

everyone: i must bake Bread, immediately

[farmcord]

What exactly IS a lichen?? Pls im just an artist who only knows that plants are pretty

oh man ive been meaning to do a full crash course on lichens for a long time but in super short terminology, lichens (pronounced like-ins) are the weird multicolored blotches you see on trees that aren’t mosses. you probably see them every day, and they exist on every continent in the world, in nearly every ecological niche, and can live on nearly any solid substrate. they aren’t plants or fungi, but are a ‘superorganism’ comprised of different algae and fungi species (and some other components science doesn’t fully understand yet, including yeasts and bacteria in some species) adapted for the relationship, so at the most basic level, the algae photosynthesizes in return for shelter from the fungal structure, and the fungal structure gets food from the algae’s photosynthesis so long as it provides shelter. to give an idea of how everything is put together in this, lichens are generally organized in ‘layers’, so if you cut a little lobe off one and look at it under a microscope, you usually can see something like this: 

note that lichens have different growth forms and are overall incredibly diverse organisms, so this one is a cross section of the ‘foliose’ growth form where the lichen isn’t 100% all connected flush to the substrate, but also isn’t having a wild time going everywhere. anyway, you can see diagrams and descriptions of cross sections of all the different lichen growth forms here, if you’re interested. in general, though, lichens have a layer of fungi, a layer of algae, and another layer of fungi.

lichen reproduction is….dicey as hell tbh, and we don’t fully understand it still, but lichens don’t really reproduce as one single organism. i’ve gone further into on this blog before (my ‘lichens’ tag is….pretty diverse with all that from over the years) what’s important to know in terms of like, knowing what you’re looking at when you look at one is that the fungal component usually reproduces by means of organs called ‘apothecia’, which produce spores that are dispersed by rain, wind, or water. when you see little disk things on lichens that look like this (Xanthoria parietina):

or this (not disks, but the same thing; species is Graphis scripta):

or– and i get lots of submissions from people wondering about these when they see them –even this (these ‘cup’ fruiting structures are common in the lichen genus Cladonia, and aren’t always strangely tiered like this, but this one is Cladonia verticillata specifically; notice the little red dots around the edges of each cup, those are technically the actual apothecia): 

…those….are the sexy bits. a good rule of thumb for lichens is that if something is poking out from the top, and it doesn’t look like a lobe of the actual lichen body, it’s….usually a sexy bit of one kind or another, although whether said appendage is actually producing sexually recombined things or just shedding clones of itself can vary. like, lots of stuff is going on with lichens, but apothecia are probably the most common sexy bit you’ll encounter. 

anyway. that’s a very short layman’s guide to walking around in the world and seeing The Lads. @lichenaday has a good assortment of Dudes™ for your viewing pleasure, as does the national consortium of north american lichen herbaria. endless entertainment here, let me tell you

[farmcord]

For all our fabric and sewing-crafty farm community folks, if they’re looking for ways to help! Here’s a pattern for self-use face-masks as well: https://hellosewing.com/face-mask-sewing-pattern/. 

Thank you to our server members for highlighting these resources so we could share, and to those who put together the pattern recommendations. 

How to Make a Face Mask for Hospitals and Medical Centers

Hospitals and medical centers across the country are asking sewers to make face masks to protect out health workers. You can google “how to sew face masks for hospitals” to find out where fabric masks are being requested.

Stillwater Medical Center is asking sewers to follow the face mask pattern from buttoncounter.com here.

From Deaconess Health System:

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Citing shortages, Deaconess Health System, including Henderson’s Methodist Health, has asked the public to sew face masks for staff fighting coronavirus.

“This does follow CDC protocols that you can find on their website that if all other supplies are not available, that handmade masks that meet certain criteria are acceptable,” Deaconess spokeswoman Becca Scott said.

The release with the video, pattern and instructions was posted to the Deaconess Facebook page Thursday morning and is available at www.deaconess.com/masks. A PDF of the pattern is available here and embedded at the bottom of this article.  

Deaconess has “a sample video” about how to make the masks, which Scott said will be sterilized when they come in.

From Forbes here:

Additional Resources for Open Source or Volunteer COVID-19 Projects:

One of my favorite how-to sites is Instructables. The DIY Cloth Face Mask has almost 100,000 views. It is a step-by-step instruction for those who need it. Kudos to ashevillejm.

In 2006, CDC released a Simple Respiratory Mask design using heavyweight t-shirts in its Emerging Infectious Diseases journal. More of an academic post, but some ideas in it.

A Facebook group was formed last week: Open Source COVID19 Medical Supplies. It is worth a visit — in just a few short days there are 20,000-plus members and volunteers.

If you are looking for some research and street-level testing of various materials for DIY mask-making, this post from Smart Air Filters is exceptional: What Are The Best Materials for Making DIY Masks? It also includes a few great links at the end of it.

[farmcord]

Make Do and Mend: Darning

OMG DIAGONAL!!!

To keep it S–T–R–E–T–C–H–Y–!

Why hasn’t anyone told me this?

[farmcord]

As always, we appre-sheep-iate your excellent handiwork with emojis!

sheep pride emojis for @farmcord like or reblog if you use!

(top row, left to right: philly rainbow, trans, bi middle row, left to right: pan, ace, nonbinary bottom row, left to right: aromantic, genderqueer, genderfluid)

[farmcord]

Hey anon, farmhand Andy here! We don’t have anything in the inbox here, but feel free to send me a friend request on discord (flowerfandom#6225) to request an invite! We’re limiting invites to one at a time at the moment to prevent overloading the mod team with a flood of new users.

Hi Pip! Are you a part of the farmcord discord? If so, I was wondering if you could let them know they have an ask sitting in their inbox requesting a discord link! Thank you and have a nice day!

I am a member but havent been in discord in aaaages. I will post this tho bc I think some of them will see it

[farmcord]

Moonshine by Janis Goodman

[farmcord]

actually you know what im gonna infodump about permaculture and sustainable farming for a minute bc it’s been my main hyperfixation for a while and y’all really Ought to Know This because it can, in fact, give you a green thumb as well as extra food to eat, is very cheap, and it’s extremely time management friendly. i only need to work on my garden twice a month, maybe more during drier seasons/if i get more plants.

(also correct grammar and spelling below bc i don’t know about you but i can’t read otherwise.)

Keep reading

[farmcord]

veggie garden so far this year; currently getting about a handful of cherry tomatoes plus one slicing tomato per day. watermelons and peppers on the way

pesticides include cempasuchil, tansy, sunflower and nasturtium flowers, as well as my dog

[farmcord]

Hi everyone!

I'm so happy that Discord is finally back up and we can all get together and talk once more. The discord downtime has brought to light the need to redistribute the Farmcord community a bit, so that we're more resilient! To that end, our next goal is going to be to flesh out the Farmcord Tumblr a bit more.

Luce and Andy (me) are going to be sprucing it up, adding some posts, and making a theme for it. If you have anything you'd like to submit, or questions you want to ask, feel free to do that! 

 If anyone is still having trouble with Discord, please send an ask in at the Tumblr!

[farmcord]

We (@penstab , @justslowdown and I) finally made a farm instagram like everyone has been asking us to for a trillion years! Please follow if you would like to see all farm updates & pics in one place! We have baby goats coming soon so check back in a few days for BABY PICTURES 👀👀👀 🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐

[farmcord]

Hello everyone,

after the shut down of the old sever a team of admin and mods worked hard to recreate the farmstead discord from the ground up. We felt the communication space, shared knowledge on agriculture etc and the sense of community was too valuable to be left to the aether.

We’re back and running, still under construction in some bits, with a tighter grasp on respectful conduct and the decision making by the mods and admin. To all old users: don’t worry, you weren’t kicked!

As you may know or not, the mods of the previous server had issues, but we are unaware as to why the server was deleted. We ask that you be respectful in these times, and the mods have been made aware that lies, slander, and rumors are NOT welcomed, and we have every right to have you leave if you refuse to respect the rules we’ll be putting in place.

To control the influx of people there will be OPEN SERVER INVITES until OCTOBER 3RD 12:30 PM EST after that invites will allow applicants to be added, after mod approval. 

We are making this whole process as transparent as possible for you, but keep in mind that this is a project still under construction with a learning curve and that our admin, Veruca, will have the last word on any decision being made, for our sanity and yours.

Now, here’s what you came for, the invite link:

https://discord.gg/zYG9TDt

Flock together!

Under the cut you can find a more detailed description of what might await you:

Weiterlesen

[farmcord]

HI GUYS this server is for Small Farm stuff including gardening, Crafting, animal care/husbandry (livestock and pets) food & cooking, etc. There's also an outdoors section for stuff like camping and hiking etc!!

Me and Cyril are some of the mods on it along w a few other ppl! IF U HAVE INTEREST IN ANYTHING FARMISH OR OUTDOORSY U SHOULD JOIN!

[farmcord]