Will It Wipe? Testing Coffee Filters

REMEMBER: DO NOT FLUSH COFFEE FILTERS.  Also, don't drink bleach.

WASH YOUR DAMN HANDS with soap and water for 20 seconds.  The suds strip the virus of its greasy outer layer and kill it.

And now for our 7th Contestant!

Coffee Filters left over from an old coffee pot at work that no one uses because there is a 1-cup type maker now which is producing enough plastic waste to bury that layer of disposable diapers in the landfill...but I digress.

Coffee Filters...I'm using this style for a 20 cup basket:



PREP:
Bit slick, and yet, not smooth.   I find 3 or 4 are a good number and crunch them up a bit.

SCRATCH FACTOR:  3.5/5
Surprisingly NOT scratchy!  I thought they would be because the paper is stiff-ish.  But not bad at all.  Good scrubbing power without scratching.

EASE OF USE:  3.5/5
Don't need any rubbing between hands to soften up, just scrunching and separating into individual filters for more fluffiness.

PAPER-CUT SAFETY:  4.5/5
I can't picture how someone might cut themselves on these, but I also couldn't imagine anyone thinking you could drink bleach to cure a virus...so, assuming SOMEONE could figure out a way to do it, I cut a half point here.

ABSORBENCY:  4.5/5
REALLY good!  Surprisingly good.

CLEANSING POWER:  5/5
You will be clean.

AVAILABILITY:  4/5
Since lots of offices have switched to the single cup brewers with the stupid plastic cup thingies that you have to throw out ...don't tell me they make refillable ones, no one actually uses those in a group office setting because Steve leaves it in there until it's moldy...most offices have a bunch of these stuck in back corners of supply closets and kitchenettes.  Just look around!  If you don't work at an office, I suppose you could buy them but I have no idea how the price compares to TP or other options, but last time I was at the store, there was no limit on the number of coffee filter packages you could buy.  TP, paper towels and napkins were limited to one package per customer.

Coffee Filters COMPOSITE SCORE: 25/30

So, more suggestions please.
Or perhaps someone disagrees with my assessment?

New Bees for 2020

I have 1 hive of bees that did well over winter and are still surviving.  They were "saskatraz" breed, supposedly...bees are notoriously and necessarily promiscuous. 

I tried to order caucasian breed bees, but that got nixed even before the quarantine and travel discouragement, so I went for a local bee source.

Waller Apiary out  of Clarkston, Washington.

The order process SEEMED fine but I did have to follow up on my own initiative to find out when and where I could pick up the bees. 

Today was the day and Clarkston, Washington, was the location.  I combined the trip with a social distance visit to friends in Lewiston (adjacent to Clarkston), a pick up of an order at the hardware store in Moscow, Idaho (and grabbed 2 bags of cheap hinges and one of cotter pins...both things on my list), a bit of gas for the subaru and a pre-planned treat of iced cold brew coffee.

Now to the bee report.
The bees were advertised as 5 frames, a "nuc" in the bee biz lingo which seems to be short for 'nucleus hive', full of honey and brood from a fresh 2020 queen who has been through 1 full brood cycle.

Uh..."full" would not be my term. 
There is precious little honey.  Maybe 1/2 frame total if I put it all together, more likely 1/4 frame but I want to estimate generously. 

ZERO capped worker brood, about 2 dozen capped drone cells (drones are the dudes and only there to mate with some other hive's new queen, they are not what you want to see),  NO eggs, no larvae.

I could not spot a queen and she should have had a big blue dot on her back and been double the size of the other bees.  Hmmm...

There ARE plenty of bees in there so that's good.

Being me, and being old, I sent these pictures and the above info about the lack of eggs, brood and honey to the seller   Beekeeping is a crap shoot, but taking 150$ for something that might croak in a month is not cool. 
I'll give it a week.  I  fed them heavily and will keep up with sugar syrup.  There is plenty of pollen around for their protein source.  If there are no eggs by next Saturday, it will mean the hive is queenless.

There ARE signs that they have a queen.  Those are:
1) they are calm
2) they are organized not randomly running around or flying willy nilly while the frames were moved from the "nuc" box to the real hive box in my beeyard


Only time will tell.

ANOTHER Chicken

Apparently there are lots of a--hole chickens in the world.
I helped at the community garden on Saturday, installing bees there.  Love the bees!

A chicken, they have like 100 chickens and give the eggs to those accessing the local food distribution systems like Second Harvest and sell them at 3$ a dozen to the rest of us.

ANYWAY, so the garden boss and I are installing bees and one chicken keeps getting out of the chicken run and into the garden.   The garden boss is threatening to kill it so I say "If she lays, I'll take her"...I had brought my chicken carrier made from an old bee box.   She offered a rooster too but I didn't want to stuff them both in the box.  The rooster is HUGE.

Within minutes of putting her in the run with Brittany and Suzanne, this new hen has a mouth full of feathers and is randomly beating the other two up.  Then she's out and running onto my porch and messing around in the garden.

She's tough and mean so I named her "T-Bone".  She's the head prisoner in the chicken run.  Suzanne continues to be mellow and so far today hasn't bothered to get out.   Brittany is constantly out, but easy to catch.  T-Bone is also easy to catch, but more likely to hide and spending too much time on the porch.  I will warn her that one chicken turd on the porch and I'll be having soup, same day.

The garden boss sent me home with veg that was past human consumption ...except for 2 romaine lettuce heads that were find for human consumption, so I ate those.   Greens, pears, a couple of sweet peppers.  All with lots of mold.  They were from the Second Harvest delivery.  Some were past it on arrival and some just didn't make it to the next distribution date.  The distribution center is on the same lot as the garden and they share staff/storage.   To maintain social distance fewer people can come for food at once and they can no longer tour the building picking what they want.  So, some of the fresh isn't making it.  I think the staff will find ways to sort this out.   When stuff arrives rotten, there isn't hope, and with fewer staff on hand at once (to maintain distance), it's hard to get it boxed up ahead of people coming.  The usual system is people come in and pick what they want, but now it's all car delivery.  Most other food distributions have gone to pre-boxed stuff and if people get say lettuce and hate lettuce, well, throw it out or compost it or give it away.  It might not all get eaten but it will have more of a shot!

I fed the slightly moldy veg to the hens.  They have some wheat berries, are eating worms and things.  I threw in a dead mouse I'd trapped in the garden.  And I have some cheapo bulk oatmeal to get through until I see if they are going to need real feed. 

I got 2 eggs yesterday!  Had them for breakfast today.  Nice!  If the shells get weak I'll go for some pre-fab feed, but they are free ranging so should get plenty of whatever they need.   Lord knows if they eat gophers or mice they will end up fat!

So, off to start on the upgraded coop and to fence off the raised beds that already have stuff planted in them.  And figure out something to keep the hens out of the enclosed porch bit.  I am not capable of making a screen door....but I'm going to try!

CHICKENS!!!! 2020 Edition

So, I got chickens.  These are the ones my friend (HI Cindy) tagged as the chronic runaways so not worthy of her egg business (which is going NUTS during the quarantine...YAY local food!!! )

I have had them LESS than 24 hours.  About 20 hours actually since we put them in my cool chicken carrier in the back of the pick up.  About 18 hours since they went in my crappy coop.

Well, the main runner was already OUT of the chicken run.  She wasn't in the garden yet, but you know, matter of time.   These two are SUPER tame so easy to catch.  Perhaps my new exercise regime is chick'n chas'n. 

Still, really glad to have them.  I need to get some real feed because I actually would like eggs this time.  I may have to make more of a "fort knox" type chicken run.

I think it is the red-necked one in the picture, the one without her butt toward the camera.  So, what would you name a red-neck runaway teenager?  .....  Brittany!   The other one is more mellow so I'm thinking Suzanne.    Welcome to Brittany and Suzanne.  They are enjoying wheat berries, a banana peel and some clementine peels for breakfast. 

Later, they get a mouse I trapped in the upper raised bed.  I had to use some of my pandemic peanut butter ...GOOD organic all natural stuff... to bait the trap.  Must remember to get crappy cheap peanut butter for mouse bait.

Will It Wipe? Testing Mullein Leaves

The usual warnings:  DO NOT FLUSH THIS STUFF!!!  Only flush things you already ate.

AND WASH YOUR DAMN HANDS!!!!!     !!!!!

And now for our 6th Contestant

Mullein Leaves
The plant:



The leaves right now:


Thanks to the commentor who suggested this.  My mullein was a bit too small when the suggestion came in but has come along nicely now.

Bit of a warning...for those of us with super sensitive skin, be sure to test this on your inner forearm before diving in for a real good wipe.   I have sensitive skin...lesson learned.

PREP:
Pick it and it's ready.  Maybe knock the dirt or dust off and any bugs that might be on it

SCRATCH FACTOR:  3.5/5
It IS quite soft but the tiny hairs on the leaves are also a bit irritating for sensitive skin so be sure to rub it on your inner forearm as a test before actual use.  If I had normal skin, I think it would be quite nice.

EASE OF USE:  4.5/5
Zero prep, just remember to pick it before the situation becomes a crisis and you are doing the potty dance.

PAPER-CUT SAFETY:  5/5
I couldn't come up with a scenario where this plant could cut me so...100% safety!

ABSORBENCY:  3.5/5
Not terribly absorbent, better than say shiny catalog paper but less than real TP

CLEANSING POWER:  5/5
Excellent!  Scrubbing action good but not sharp.  Thick leaves mean no poke-through.

AVAILABILITY:  4/5
This is the availability for ME.  Your availability will vary.  I have 36 acres of weeds and the mullein is plentiful.  The bees like it too so I'm not working very hard to get rid of it.

Bold Name of Tested Product COMPOSITE SCORE: 25.5/30

So, more suggestions please.
Or perhaps someone disagrees with my assessment?

Will It Wipe? Testing a Local Newspaper

One more time:  DO NOT FLUSH alternative wipes.  Just don't.

AND WASH YOUR DAMN HANDS!

And now for our 5th contestant:

Local Newspaper
I picked up a free local newspaper.  Now I really know why Gramma called hers "the county wipe."  Definitely more useful on the hind end than as a news source.

PREP:
Takes a bit more rubbing and twisting about to soften up, but 1/4 of a full double-wide page seems plenty for a #1 job.  Don't be too forceful with the softening process since the paper is flimsy.  Maybe do the whole double sheet at once.

SCRATCH FACTOR:  4.5/5
Gets nice and soft!  But make sure the ink is dry.  Just saying.

EASE OF USE:  3.5/5
Takes a bit longer to prep and a bit fragile, but not difficult to get it ready and if you do a full double sheet at once, ease of use goes down because you get wipes for one prep session.

PAPER-CUT SAFETY:  4.5/5
You can barely get a paper cut with unprepped cheap local news papers, and we're talking the matte finish pages here, not the shiny ads. 

ABSORBENCY:  4/5
Quite good!  Still not as fast as real TP on the soaking up, but better than grocery sacks.

CLEANSING POWER:  5/5
Excellent cleaning, especially if the ink is dry.

AVAILABILITY:  3.5/5
This is variable.  I pick up free versions when I'm in town, so I have to remember to stop at the free newspapers bin on my biweekly mail and grocery run.  The recycling center is closed for now, but when it is open, I have more newspaper than I know what to do with.  Another thing is, I use newspaper for many things. Like scrubbing out the greasy frying pan while it's still warm.  Then the greasy paper can be burnt in the stove.  I'm switching over to less desirable TP-alternatives for my frying pan cleaning.  Printer paper works in the pan well.  That saves more newspaper available for wipage.

Bold Name of Tested Product COMPOSITE SCORE: 25/30

So, more suggestions please.
Or perhaps someone disagrees with my assessment?

Will It Wipe? Testing Grocery Bags... PAPER Grocery Bags.

Remember: WE are testing WIPING, not flushing.  DO NOT FLUSH THESE THINGS.  Throw them away in a trash can or trash bag.  If you have a pet, you will want to use a covered metal can in a cupboard.  If you have a toddler...best of luck.

AND: WASH YOUR DAMN HANDS.

And now for our 4th Contestant

Used Grocery Bags...the paper ones


PREP:
The usual rubbing around to bring the nap up and make it softer.  It helps if it's been used a few times so it's already softening up.  ALSO...you won't need an entire full size grocery sack for each "go" unless you are having some sort of intestinal drama.

SCRATCH FACTOR:  4/5
With proper prep, it's quite good really! I mean, it's not the lotion filled pillow like top of the line nonsense, but I haven't used that in so long I don't even REMEMBER it.

EASE OF USE:  4/5
Easy prep if you have slightly worn out bags around.  Ripping off the right amount is not a problem.

PAPER-CUT SAFETY:  4/5
Unless you leave the handles on or forget to soften up the top edge, it will be hard to do yourself any damage with this option.

ABSORBENCY:  4/5
 GO SLOW.  It IS absorbent, but it is not the "quicker picker upper".

 The strength factor is excellent.  There will be no surprise finger poke-through with paper grocery bags.

CLEANSING POWER:  5/5
Excellent!  I mean, I use them...DIFFERENT ONES...as scrubbers for cast iron pans so I knew they could take warm grease and crusties out, now I know more things they can take out.

AVAILABILITY:  4/5
Just say "paper please!" and there you are.

Bold Name of Tested Product COMPOSITE SCORE: 25/30

So, more suggestions please.
Or perhaps someone disagrees with my assessment?