Well, this is really not much of an update and it is so late, it almost won't count.
I've just been wading through back to back bugs here (of both kinds - insects and covids —love saying that plural! Groan. Ha! Doesn't seem fair, does it?) But these updates are devoted to what I DID do, to keep my head together. So, miraculously this past month, I managed to output...
HGM - Ch.18 √ - DONE - How to Get In? - After a grand attempt at materializing her B, C or is it now D(?) plan, Hettie might just finagle some kind of hap-hazard entry into the Bogh Queen's Bothtulo with pure nerves of steel and her spunk. She's finally found it. But does it look like the freedom she's counting on?
Otherborn: Earth's Crust Survival (Online link for WP Beta readers via DM and doing weirdly all right on Kindle Vella, who coulda known? Priority now, for both platforms, June on.):
OB - Ch.23 √ - DONE - Maddie is challenged by Donny in controlling the gang, but a massive explosion sets the whole camp on edge.
OB - Ch.24 √ - DONE - In a surprise twist of gang need, Maddie and Fin are permitted along on their first 'scavenge', Donny's crew grow more hostile when Fin tries to protect Silas; and a surprising event has them racing for Camp.
UPCOMING: Summer: We'll be preparing—after a break in end-May—for our Wattpad KnightsofDystopia profile's Otherborn books later this summer.
I'm thinking, our WP "In the Wastelands Alone" can begin as soon as we include all the previous episodes on the Vella "Earth's Crust..." to run right up to WP 'Wastelands' which will then carry on in its interim stand alone sequel. (Two serials, side by side or sequential: Wattpad and Vella.)
** I did (TY) notice the formatting mistake with no paragraph breaks in the Beta copy of 'Earth's Crust' for those of you reading, and I will try to get these most recent chapters included and fixed with new Inbox links for feedback on what's happened so far.
Mad Skills & Crazy Times: Personal Backyard Updates
I don't know how the rest of the world's making out with weather this year so far. Seems like a ton of dramatic swings everywhere. But so little sun as we have here doesn't help with growing our food. For us it's been continual cold, cold, cold and rain, rain, rain. Run out for sunbath—two minutes, get wet—aaaand... run in.
And I've had the sneaking feeling since last fall that this year would go from an extended long cold period directly into too hot... so neither the plants nor our bodies are going to love that. I haven't even made up solution help yet, however all our cooler crops went in on time so 'we're good' for piles of salad, the broad beans are thinking to flower, garlic and onions started all well and mounds of potatoes are much on their way.
But I promised you SLUGS!! ... So woop... here it is...
Mad Skill #4: Swiffer Your Slugs?
Did I mention stay focused on keeping things alive? Well that is the challenge...
Slugs are such brats... We picked up BY HAND over 10,000 last year.
If you miss them, they'll be all about your tiniest seedlings and your juiciest plants. Their favourites are my favourites! And those don't last 'a blink' overnight in the spring! All the work's down the drain before you hardly get started: tiny shoots, onions, choi, cucs, etc. just coming up—all gone right away. So you can see that's no kind of a match.
However, I'm not about killing, but that's just my thing. Not every slug hunter around has the same love of creatures non-human, so the slugs don't fair as well in their hands.
My official biological even ecological pest control knowledge here is zero. I have not even got around to looking their full life cycle up. And my garden's organic, so chemicals—out!
So what—!? What do I do?
Well, for my part, on sheer mathematical probabilities hope, I wander around checking and weeding and toss them far as I can into the woods. I speculate, unless they develop a homing instinct in two seconds flat, target—my plants, that usually only one quarter of those 'might' head back over this way. They others have to head out in other directions, right?
So, now I'm down to one quarter, but that's just out of those that I've found... so really not half, and I'm not the Chief Slug Hunter here. My poor partner is out every morning and night in the dark with his obsession eyes on, checking for more. And he's not as kind to the slugs as I am, so I DO try to option as many as possible with the Slug Escape Flight Plan, before he has to--er--do what he does.
And the next best trick I have in my stupid heart rescue for slugs is to just leave dark plastic pieces laid down over a hollow or hole in good earthy spots, where they'll head as soon as the sun starts to warm. So easy to grab them in groups though from there.
... and... down to thrity-five percent with these things together.
THEN, we use—the miracle tool! This is so fun!
I said last year we picked up 10,000—by hand. Well, turns out... if your instincts gravitate to a short white / yellow pole that you find in a thrift store, and it has a white more flexible perhaps eight inch split tongue at the end... That could be a 'slug swiffer' I'd say for sure. (Some people attach it to a new cleaning head and use it on floors, but I'm sure it doesn't mind other uses as well.)
It has a valuable purpose in life! Turns out, it is THE prime and most perfect tool for collecting of slugs. Just poke, slide 'em on or into the tongue and voila! Then, they'll slip back off and into a cup.
Bang-oh! You've got them—less time and less trouble to boot, and the hunting's more fun, as you'll have your Swiffer spear tool in your hand! You warrior, you! (It doesn't hurt them, to my mind and plan. It's tongue is much softer plastic, slides over their squishiness middles. *That's of course if you don't hurt them after you do painlessly spear them right up.)
However, the tiny babies are the worst of the slug world, both to locate and stop. They do the most damage, and don't stick in the 'tongue'... so this just requires eyes, unless you have ducks with more eyesight than mine.
By the time it's starting to warm to over 5 degrees celsius (41 F) regularly at night, then your slugs (which I never saw till the last five or six years) are all moving around and only get smarter, I think, as they grow.
I'm saying there's not really an answer out here, and the only way we could wind up with some food that we want to eat by ourselves is to put any seedlings (new seeds and those not yet grown tall enough to have a slug-hardy stem) UP onto a surface, in trays of seedlings onto outdoor plastic display tables or on large benches of wood, tree trunk slabs or slatted wood kind of shelves (that slugs cannot climb).
Yes, our yard looks just that odd! But I'm fond of our food.
Beats me though why the slugs always come to the window and doors—those too are wood. 'Looking for my partner to even the score' is what I've said to him—it's what that's all about. ;)
That's it for now. I might report more on this season's slugs. I'm sure you'll be thrilled. We'll see how it goes. I know we can't wait! Ghah. :)
Changing Our Hearts
Could we, can we, might we, in need, change the hearts of people all over the world? I'm seeing signs that we're banding together. How about you? Any more caring responses to issues of need that you notice in your area too?
Unbelievable times!
Blessings from Mearth,
Cheers 'til next update!
≈ We WILL all be on the same page when our hearts unify.
* Updating frequency: continues erratic.
Thanks for reading,
≈ Wez
Be in the stillness...