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thirsty-for-hq · 4 years

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fell too hard

pairing: tsukishima kei x cheerleader!fem!reader

au: colorblind soulmate au

warnings: a tiny lil bit of angst but that doesn't even count

prompt: (y/n) and his boyfriend broke up, resulting in tsukishima and (y/n) to get closer than before. when karasuno and (y/n)’s school have a practice match, the two first years finally touch for the first time. (the cheerleader factor doesn’t really make a difference in this one)

word count: 2.7K

a/n: hi hi!!! so, i wrote this quite some time ago and thought i'd post it here <(￣︶￣)> lowercase intended! (it’s for the aesthetic forgive me)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

my mom always talked about how blue the sky was, the beautiful colors of the flowers in our garden, or trying to explain the colors to me with feelings. i never understood, because obviously, i never met my soulmate. or maybe i did, i just never touched them.

here comes the scary part - i had a boyfriend.

i had a boyfriend, until the day he realized his best friend was his soulmate. we knew we weren't soulmates, obviously - we touched each other countless times, and still all we saw were shades of grey.

so he broke up with me. the biggest problem was that we were in the same friend group. i hid my pain from them, i didn't want them to worry. even though we weren't together anymore, akaashi still worried about me, which was very obvious to bokuto - his soulmate. it took some time for me, but i opened up more and more towards one particular person in that friend group.

tsukishima kei.

strange, huh? kuroo, kenma, bokuto - then him, of all people? but weirdly enough, we got along well. we teased each other, but it was all just playful banter. and since we lived so far away, we eventually got to the point of face timing every day. despite how cynical and - quite honestly - an asshole he can be, he actually is a very good friend. if he tries, he cares and can be kind. sounds impossible, i know.

and we arrive to present day, karasuno's and fukurodani's practice match. which i wanted to watch, since then i got a chance to meet tsukishima. that's why i'm here, close to the gates, bouncing around with bokuto, while akaashi tried to calm us down. our relationship was more chill now - we could actually talk to each other without me being a childish idiot.

anyway, when i saw the crows walk trough the gates, i yelled out in excitement.

"tsukishima!"

he whole team heard my voice and looked towards us. i saw tsukishima's face pale and he whispered out a small 'oh no'. by the time he realized he should probably run, i was already sprinting towards him. in his last efforts, he tried to brace himself for the impact, but he still fell backwards when i crashed into his chest, hugging his torso. he groaned in pain, leaning on his hands. i scraped my knees on the pavement, but at that moment, i couldn't care less.

and that's because as soon as the contact was made, a warm feeling enveloped my body. it was subtle so i barely noticed it. my head was buried in his chest for a few moments. when i looked up and he finally opened his eyes, i could not believe what i saw.

all i could see was the shining caramel color of his orbs. then his ash-blonde curly hair, the red tint on his cheeks and his milky pale skin. the sky was so bright and blue, the grass so green, it brought tears into my eyes. i couldn't get enough of the way his eyes sparkled.

i sat back on my knees, staring at my hands, then back at him. his face got redder by the second, his glasses sitting kind of crooked on his nose. he fixed them quickly, trying to keep his composure. he turned his face away from me, attempting to cover the very obvious blush on his cheeks.

"never thought you'd make me cry and i wouldn't feel miserable." i wiped my eyes, chuckling at his reaction. he scoffed, standing up and dusting himself off.

"the fact that you're saying that the second time kind of worries me at this point." i pouted, then accepted his extended hand and he pulled me up.

"whose fault is that, exactly?" he clicked his tongue and i couldn't help but giggle. he crossed his arms, his all time stoic expression back at it again.

"why'd you jump at me like that?" i tilted my head to the right with a teasing smile.

"why didn't you catch me?" he clicked his tongue again, clearly annoyed.

"because you're heavy!" i huffed, pointing at him accusingly.

"you're just not strong enough to lift me up, no need to pin it on me. i was just happy to see you!" i stuck out my tongue playfully and he fixed his glasses again.

"we face time every day." i puffed my cheeks out at his answer and he grinned at me.

"that's not the same!" he laughed at my desperate attempt to argue back to him. then i heard familiar voices from behind me.

"tsukishima, you okay? sorry, she can be intense." akaashi flicked my forehead and i whined in pain. i pouted again, not very happy with his action. then bokuto arrived and slapped tsukishima's back very hard. his glasses almost flew off.

"tsukki, my good friend! how ya doin'?" bokuto wrapped his arm around tsukishima's shoulders and he just... stared. he was probably trying not to throw the owl off of him. not that he actually could.

"i'm fine, thank you." his voice was dripping from fake politeness, but i guess bokuto didn't pick up on it. or he just didn't care.

"wow, tsukishima has friends. ...why does that sound so weird?" sugawara wondered, and kageyama answered him.

"that's 'cause it is." he sipped on his milk, his expression unphased. i was distracted by their conversation, so i didn't notice nishinoya and tanaka creep up on me. i jumped when i heard the smaller boy's loud voice.

"are you tsukishima's girlfriend?" i felt my cheeks heat up, suddenly flustered and not knowing what to say.

"i- i uh- i'm no-"

"yes, she is. please stop drooling over her." before i could finish my sentence, tsukishima butted into the conversation and stepped in front of me protectively. i just stared at the back of his head, utterly confused. we may be soulmates, but he didn't even ask me out!

"aw man, how the hell did stingyshima get a girlfriend before me?! this is not fair!" the bald guy yelled, throwing a small tantrum. when my lamppost of a best friend turned around, i immediately questioned his actions.

"why in the seven depths of hell did you say that?!" i whisper-shouted at him, crossing my arms.

"they would've ran around you like lovesick puppies the whole day if i didn't. besides, you looked quite pathetic." he grinned at me teasingly, and my cheeks flared up once again out of embarrassment and anger.

"s-still! we may be soulmates, but you never asked me out!" i managed to keep my voice down so just the two of us hear it, even though i was quite agitated. he raised his brows curiously.

"it's just a title. do you care that much about it?" i opened my mouth to answer, but closed it just as fast, not knowing what to say anymore. he smirked, knowing very well that he won one of our arguments- again. just because i can't get my shit together doesn't mean he's right! i huffed at him, then i stomped over to akaashi with puffed out cheeks and my arms still crossed. there were a few seconds of silence between us before he started talking.

"are you guys really together? you look quite angry." i knew he was going to ask, but it still caught me off-guard. i rubbed my arms awkwardly, staring at my feet.

"not officially, no... and he just told me it's just a title, so i don't know what to think anymore..." it felt weird to talk about my newfound romantic interest with my ex but, at that point, my brain was fried from overload. he hummed in response, and i thought the conversation ended there. guess not.

"you found your soulmate, huh?" his face was peaceful, watching bokuto mess around with hinata. a small, serene smile took over my features- even though they were really loud.

"i guess i did." he turned towards me slightly as his lips tugged upwards in a genuine gesture, making my heart flutter even though i was already over my feelings for him.

"i'm happy for you, (l/n)." that took me by surprise, but i looked up at the vibrant blue sky, instantly calming my nerves, and closed my eyes.

"thanks, kaashi."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"you guys did great!" i stood in front of the gym door, with a big smile on my face. the fukurodani team thanked me, with bokuto jumping right at me. i reacted too slow, and i screeched as he crashed right into me.

"bokuto-san, no!" akaashi yelled, and ran to us to get the tower of meat off of me. i can't say i could breathe, but i tried.

"that was a nasty fall. do you think she's okay?" sugawara asked.

"she's probably dead." tsukishima commented, and hinata freaked out at him.

"shouldn't you be more concerned?! she's your girlfriend!" the blonde giant just clicked his tongue and jogged over to my dead body. even though akaashi already got bokuto off of me, i was just laying still, not moving an inch. i was like a starfish, mostly. then i saw tsukishima's face right above mine - he was bent down, supporting himself on his knees.

"you okay?" his caramel eyes sparkled in the lights if the gym, and it made my breath hitch and my heart pick up. i felt my cheeks getting warmer, which i didn't like one bit. i stood up quickly, looking anywhere that wasn't him. i answered him, cursing myself for stumbling over my words.

"i'm fin- fine!" he snorted at my behavior, and my face turned even redder than before. i dared to glance up at him, and his arrogant smirk made the butterflies in my stomach start flopping around violently. he put his left hand on his hip, teasing me relentlessly.

"can you be any more obvious than that? you fell a little too hard this time, didn't you?" my whole face was beet red at this point, and i felt the blush creep down my neck as well. the meaning behind his words was obvious- to me at least. i had to fan my face with my hands to try and calm down my embarrassment. i yelled at him, desperate to try and stop him.

"i- i didn't, shut up! stop teasing meee!" he flinched at my volume, and i pouted, still fanning my face. he clicked his tongue, despite being quite pleased with my reactions.

"you're so loud. shut up." i huffed angrily, reasoning against him.

"i'm a cheerleader, i'm supposed to be loud!" he flicked my forehead, and i groaned in pain once again.

"well, you're not cheering right now, so there's no reason for you to be." we weren't far from his team, so i heard nishinoya's excited yelling.

"you're a cheerleader?! woah, that's so cool! do you do flips and stuff?!" he hopped over to us, and i felt flustered once again, being put on the spot like that.

"ah- no, i'm a base, i'm the one who catches the ones doing the flips in the air and such... and our uniform is quite tight, i don't think i could, anyway..." i explained, scratching the back of my neck awkwardly. then i saw Nishinoya's face get redder by the second, and his eyes wonder downer and downer, down my whole body.

"cheerleader... uniform... tight..." he mumbled, then passed out, with his nose bleeding. i shrieked, not knowing what to do.

"noya-san!" i kneeled down next to him and put his head on my lap carefully. the whole team looked towards us at my panicked tone. as soon as nishinoya's head hit my thighs, his expression turned peaceful and happy, with blood still flowing from his nose. tsukishima scoffed.

"get his head off your lap, will you. you're making it worse." i furrowed my brows as tanaka and hinata dragged him away, trying to wake him up. i stood up again, very confused.

"what the hell was that about?" tsukishima grabbed my forearm gently and pulled me closer to himself protectively. he bent down and placed a tiny kiss right behind my ear, then let me go and walked away like nothing happened. and i just stood there, dumbfounded, staring at the number on his back with a very obvious blush on my face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

i was walking out of the school, gripping the strap of my bag on my shoulder. then i saw our team's manager and coach seeing off karasuno, as they were about to get on the bus.

it was really late, almost completely dark- the sun was barely peeking over the horizon. i sighed, knowing that i wouldn't be seeing tsukishima anytime soon. i shook my head dismissively, trying not to think about it too much.

the sunset was so beautiful though, with all the oranges, pinks and reds, as the darkness of the night and the stars were already visible at the other side of the sky. i stared upwards, enjoying the gentle breeze and taking in all the color around me. little white specks in the darkness - still shining with the same light as before, if not brighter. i closed my eyes and took a deep breath, tranquility overcoming my senses.

"(l/n)?"

yep, there goes the calm (y/n). far, far away from me.

i opened my eyes quickly, looking to my right, only to see akaashi standing there awkwardly. i smiled at him to let him know his presence was welcome. he walked closer to me, looking up at the sky along with me.

"you're not going to say goodbye to tsukishima?" i hummed at his question, taking my sweet time with the answer.

"should i?" he shrugged, trying to influence my decision in more subtle ways than just straight up saying yes.

"he'd probably appreciate it. you're not going to see each other in person for a while, i assume." i stayed silent for a while. the more i thought about it the more sense it made, but my insecurities still wouldn't let me.

"well, despite him teasing me to death and being really weird today, we're not a couple. i don't think he needs me there." he shook his head disapprovingly, and i bit my lip to stop my eyes from watering.

"no one said you have to make a show. a simple goodbye can feel just as good. especially for someone like tsukishima- he doesn't like flashiness."

i gripped the straps of my bag tightly, and started running towards the exit of the school. the bus was still there, thankfully. he was about to get on the bus, but the loud yell of his name stopped him from doing so. he was the last one there- they were probably waiting for him. i stopped in front of him, panting just the slightest bit. i stumbled over my words, but nonetheless, i yelled once again, with really small tears rolling down my cheeks.

"g-goodbye!" he stared at me blankly for a few seconds, then burst out laughing. i swear to god, my whole life flashed before my eyes. before i could say anything else, he cupped my face and wiped my tears away with his thumb. my brain couldn't decode what was happening, i just felt something soft and warm on my lips, but it disappeared just as fast. he pat my head with a genuine smile, which made my heart do backflips.

"see you, *chiisai-chan." then he got on the bus like nothing happened, loud yelling coming from inside the vehicle.

i just stood there, probably a blushing mess, my stomach turned into an elevator apparently, and i felt like my heart was going to pop out any second. the bus then started driving away, leaving me behind. my legs felt like jello, i thought i might collapse right then and there.

i touched my lips faintly- he kissed me! i was such a mess, and this was just a peck on the lips. what will i do if he actually kisses me?

"you okay there? what happened?" i heard akaashi's voice from beside me and i jumped a little. he raised a brow, quite confused at that point.

"i'm fine... i guess? i seriously have no idea anymore." i buried my face into my hands, sighing with all hope lost. he chuckled, shaking his head once again.

"come on, let's get you home."

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*chiisai=small

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lapishasproblems · 5 years

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“You Two Can’t Be Serious.” (Post-reveal love square fic)

[PART ONE] Next Part>

Inspired by this idea by the genius @livanarose

Also, this is my first ever fanfic. I’ve written stories before, but they were original ideas. Lets hope this works. Enjoy :))

~~~

Alya stood by the front doors of the school, waiting for a certain blue-haired girl who is sure to come late yet again today. She looked around but can’t seem to spot her best friend anywhere. She tried calling millions of times. She tried texting her. Nothing.

The bell rang, and Alya sighed in defeat. She turned and headed for her class, not wanting to come late.

“Good mor...ning.”

Alya’s jaw quickly unhinged and the greeting stopped midway in her lips when she saw the same girl she was waiting for just outside calmly sitting on her seat, right next to—

OH NO

With her own eyes, Alya saw THE Marinette Dupain-Cheng sitting next to THE Adrien Agreste, talking, laughing, as if someone abducted Marinette and replaced her with a more confident double. Marinette was no longer the stuttering mess Alya knew in front of Adrien. She was indeed, sitting there, talking to Adrien, her crush, her crush, with no hints of flustering at all.

This was revolutionary.

Alya didn’t want to hurry the pair, so she stared in horror as Adrien moved closer, leaning in so close that their noses were almost touching. And Alya nearly lost it when Marinette, instead of melting into a puddle right then and there, placed her pointer finger on Adrien’s nose and pushed him away, giggling.

At this point, maybe Alya might turn into a puddle instead

She wanted to continue staring at this beautiful pair but Marinette caught sight of Alya by the door and pushed Adrien away, trying to keep a straight face, failing miserably. Adrien turned to look at what the girl was looking at and his eyes widened when he spotted the redhead by the door, trying hard not to laugh as well. Marinette smiled and said a few words before the model stood up to move to his seat.

Yes, but not before he casually kissed the girl’s cheek, making Marinette only a little red.

Only a little

Remember, this is Marinette Dupain-Cheng we’re talking about.

The baker’s daughter who breaks into a chorus of stammering and mumbling in front of the model who sits in front of her at school.

The sweet girl who turns beet red in front of the one and only Adrien Agreste.

The pretty girl in pigtails who swoons or sighs whenever she makes contact with the boy sitting in front of her in class, including being given—not given, mind you—lent Adrien’s game console for her to use during the video game tryouts.

Alya just wants to die.

From where she was standing, Alya eyed Nino, who was sitting in his usual seat, giving him a look that said ‘what the heck’ and Nino returned her look with another one that said ‘I have no fucking idea’

That said, Alya sucked all the information she received since the past minute and finally entered the classroom with a sunny and cheerful “Good morning,” to replace the one she failed at delivering when she saw the pair earlier, smiling, walking over to Marinette, taking her seat next to the girl.

“Good morning Alya.”

Alya kept her eyes on her best friend. “So, anything interesting I should know about?”

“Well—“

“Excuse me, I’d like to know too.”

Alya turned, finding a furious Nino staring daggers at the two girls sitting behind him. Adrien on the other hand, had turned around to listen.

Alya turned back to the other girl. “Make that the two of us, then.”

Marinette smiled and shrugged before finally letting the bomb drop.

“Well, Adrien and I...we’re dating.”

Alya choked.

Nino looked like someone just slapped him.

Adrien stifled a laugh.

The entire class seemed to be looking at their direction.

“You’re kidding.”

“She’s not,” Adrien answered quickly. “I know for a fact—“

“EXCUSE ME?”

The group turned to find an angered Chloe Bourgeois standing directly next to Marinette, her face completely red.

“This is RIDICULOUS! UTTERLY RIDICULOUS!” the mayor’s daughter yelled for the entire class to hear before turning to Marinette. “You must be using some sort of MAGIC on Adrikins!”

“No magic,” Marinette shrugged.

“UGH! I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS! I swear I will find out your tricks one of these days, DUPAIN-CHENG!”

And with that, Chloe stormed off, back to her seat where Sabrina is.

Alya’s gaze went back and forth between Marinette and Adrien, ignoring the drama. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Yeah, and since when?” Nino added.

“I—uhm...we—“

“Since last—uh, yesterday,” Adrien answered, just as panicked as Marinette was. He nodded. “Right after that akuma attack, wasn’t it?”

Alya couldn’t tell why, but Marinette immediately gave Adrien a death glare. The blonde flinched.

“Well, congratulations, you two,” Nino said, breaking the silence.

Marinette nodded, regaining her smile. “Thanks.”

Nino sighed a “finally” and received chuckles from his friends in return. The rest of the class mentioned their ‘congratulations’ and Alya swore she caught Rose swooning.

“We should go on a double date sometime,” Alya offered.

Adrien chuckled. “We’re not sure we’re up for that yet. I mean we just got—“

“Yep, yep, absolutely,” Marinette cut him off, a hint of pink forming on her cheeks. “A—A double date sounds nice.”

Adrien chuckled a little, shaking his head, glad that Marinette didn’t change too much, despite the event that took place a couple of weeks ago.

“Sweet!” Nino exclaimed.

Alya was about to answer again, but Ms. Bustier came trough the door with a bustling and energetic “Good morning,” that caught everyone’s attention. Both Marinette and Adrien turned to face their teacher, cutting Alya off of any access to more information.

Alright, she gets it. Marinette and Adrien were dating. It was bound to happen at some point and maybe this is finally the time. She, Nino, and the rest of the class knew it. But there was one last thing nagging at the back of her head. Something keeping her from focusing on her lessons.

How in the world did that girl go from being a red, stammering mess in front of Adrien to the confident girl Alya saw today?

I need to go lie down, Alya said to herself.

~~~

“So? How did I go?”

Marinette scoffed. “Oh please, you nearly busted our cover,” she said. “You nearly said we started dating last night after the akuma attack. If I do remember correctly, that akuma attack was pretty late, and no person in the right mind would ask someone out at that hour.”

Adrien looked over his shoulder to make sure the last of his classmates had gone home. Nino was no big deal as the DJ has to do something back at home, and Marinette had literally forced Alya out the door, letting her to go ahead. It was just him and Marinette now in the classroom and he desperately needed to ask her about how they would continue the plan.

“I asked you out at that hour. Maybe we are a little crazy, My Lady.”

Marinette rolled her eyes, trying hard not to giggle. “That’s an exception,” the girl said. “But you still nearly ruined our plan.”

“About that, I’m—“

“Sorry?” Marinette cuts him off, then chuckled. “Of course, you silly cat.”

Adrien smiled listening to her voice and staring at her bluebell eyes while she gathered her things and stored them in her backpack. It was something he’s never felt before, staring at Marinette for so long while his heart pounded so heard he can hear it in his head, making his palms wet with sweat and his stomach churn in a pleasant way.

Before last night, Adrien never saw Marinette this way. Maybe he did, a couple of times when she was Ladybug, but that was before he knew that a certain superheroine he was working with was also the girl who sat behind him in class. He always referred to her as his friend. After they found out, the confessions came, and those weeks were the worst. The boy couldn’t look at Marinette or Ladybug without a pang of guilt in his chest.

Last night was definitely something else.

Since the discovery a couple of weeks back, plus the confessions that followed, and the time the superhero duo needs to let the information settle in, Marinette and Adrien both agreed to mess a little with their friends, their parents, and maybe even Paris itself.

It was a fine night, just before they finish up patrol, and the awkwardness between the two finally subsided. They made time to talk about it, and were finally official. Chat Noir found the guts to ask which of them were dating. Was it Ladybug and Chat Noir, the superhero duo of Paris? Or Marinette and Adrien, a baker’s daughter and a model who goes to school together? Or was it Chat Noir and Marinette? Ladybug and Adrien?

Marinette wasn’t really into messing with people’s minds, but she thought that it was acceptable, as she and her partner have been saving Parisians here and there from akumas since who knows when. Being superheroes can be pretty tiring too, and this plan of hers and Chat’s might be the way to clear her head from everything.

That is, if she and her black-suited partner manage to carry out the plan flawlessly.

But she started to have doubts as Adrien nearly fluked their cover earlier today.

“So, what’s next?”

Marinette stared at the boy. “Seriously? Let the news sink in before we continue to the next phase.”

Adrien was lost in thought. “How do we let the news sink in?”

Marinette slung her bag on her shoulder. “Well, we told everyone in class and I’m sure that word is going to spread by tomorrow.”

“We definitely got the school covered,” Adrien said. “What next?”

Marinette thought for a while, and so did Adrien.

“You know what?” Marinette asked.

“What?”

“We should go tell my parents—“

“No, my dad goes first.”

The girl scrunched her eyebrows. “What? Why?”

“Well, if my dad knows, soon the media will know,” Adrien said, standing up from his seat. “Imagine the headline news in bold. ‘Model Adrien Agreste’s new girlfriend’. Then we can hide you from the public or disguise you so that everyone will go nuts trying to find out who this girl is.”

Marinette’s lips formed an ‘o’, her eyes widening. “Oh my God, you’re a genius!“

“I mean these people have been too focused on trying to find out who Ladybug and Chat Noir are behind the masks. If you ask me, these heroes need rest too, don’t you think, My Lady?” continued Adrien, winking at her. “These Parisians are up for sooo much excitement.”

Marinette grinned at the boy standing in front of her, now showing her his rather laid-back attitude instead of the flawless designer’s son act he had to put up with during school and any other time during the day when the boy was just Adrien Agreste, another Parisian. After the reveal, she realized that Chat was nothing like Adrien despite the fact that they were he same person, because it was his way to drop the act he’s been pulling when he was his civillian self.

“Bug.”

“Uh, Yeah. Sorry, what were you saying?”

Adrien completely dropped the ‘Adrien’ side of him and went full on Chat Noir mode, leaning on Marinette’s table, bringing his face closer to hers. A grin spread on his face. “You were staring.”

If this was Marinette in control, maybe the girl would’ve melted into jello right that second, but if Adrien can drop his ‘Adrien’ attitude in exchange for his ‘Chat Noir’ one, then Marinette can too.

Instead of pulling away, she leaned even closer, making their nose inches from the other.

“Yeah. Problem?”

Oh shoot, Adrien thought.

He can already feel the heat creeping up from his neck to his cheek, but it didn’t stop there. It went on and on and finally reached his ears. He was trying really hard to regain control, but at that exact moment, the blonde realized that Marinette’s eyes was his soft spot. They were so close, those eyes were the only thing he could focus on.

After what seemed like an eternity, the girl pulled away. “Anyway, should we go now? It’s getting late.”

Marinette stood up while Adrien shook himself off of that daze.

“Come on, we have people to mess with.”

~~~

Phew, that was pretty long. I have no idea how many words this part consists of but I do hope you enjoyed it. Should I make a part two? And please, leave your advices and feedback. I’d love to hear from everyone.

Thank you :))

#mlb #miraculous #miraculous ladybug #ladybug #chat noir #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #love square #ladynoir #adrienette #ladrien #marichat #post reveal love square #post reveal ladynoir #post reveal adrienette #post reveal marichat #post reveal ladrien #you two cant be serious

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hortascountrysidenotes · 5 years

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Turbulent times

Whilst the human race ties itself in knots - fires in the Amazon, shootings in USA, more posturing by countries wishing to apply pressure on those applying pressure on them, hurricanes and devastation in the Caribbean and those are before the chaos that is the UK, the natural world goes about its business, oblivious to all those predicaments, driven by its innate senses of food, shelter and breeding.

Last time I wrote we had had a touch of autumn - that abated and we returned to summer for the Bank Holiday weekend and the first weekend of September. The farmers have been able to finish the grain harvests and now turn their attention to drilling rape, muck spreading and then the inevitable sugar beet harvest. Little or no rain still in East Anglia - the main pond by the house dry for the first time in many many years - this gives us an opportunity to halve the number of water lilies and remove a couple of rogue bull rushes that still keep appearing after the purge! We can all carry out purges!

We are managing to keep up a good supply of salad again, and the late spinach I sowed is doing really well. However the courgettes have simply given up and mildew is rife. Tomatoes in the greenhouse are over but we still have a few black plum shaped ones that Mr Horta brought back from Ireland - they are good and I shall ask him to prepare the seed again this year. However having seen my brother in laws greenhouse tomatoes I shall not be using grow bags again next year. He uses the same containers with the water trough around the outside but places them over very large flower pots and then on the soil bed in the greenhouse - the roots then can get down into soil rather than being contained in bags and the quantity he achieves is incredible. He does the same with peppers, aubergines and chillies and is getting much better results - not called Farmer Giles for nothing! So roll on next year - its rather like training a puppy - there is always another year to try again!

On the subject of puppies, I have been to see the prospective husband for Mavis - a very handsome yellow chap called Sunny. A super temperament and I am excited about the spring. He lives in Yorkshire so it was easy to call in and meet him on my way south from a wonderful few days in a cottage in the Cheviots. Quite definitely one of my most favourite parts of the UK - the walking is sublime as the paths are closely grazed by stock, so it doesnt have the rugged tracks of Scotland with ankle breaking boulders and peat holes. Very few people about save for the Etal Flower Show which was like going back in time! A lovely little village show - produce, crafts, the Coldstream Pipe Band, masses of dogs and despite coming nowhere in the Prettiest Bitch class of the Dog Show, Mavis and Inca loved their outing and it was good training for them to walk amongst so many dogs and children. Their best friends Maisy and Hattie came too and we had some happy times - Lindisfarne and Bamburgh Castle, the top of Yeavering Bell - one of the highest Saxon Hill Fort remains in England and a lovely walk at College Valley where Nelson’s 2nd in command lived - his widow Lady Collingwood, scattered acorns in his memory forming two oak woods known as the Collingwood Oaks. The valley follows the College Burn right on to the actual Cheviot - the highest hill in the area and one for next time. Lindisfarne was especially interesting - I had no idea (bad) that Lutyens had been instrumental in the rebuilding of the castle or that Gertrude Jekyll had planted a dear little walled garden that the monks used to use. Equally interesting was the link Mrs G had with two children who were drowned in a shipping disaster many years ago - a relative of hers Maria Barton was escorting two children - Field and Flora Flowers back to their homes in Lincolnshire from school in Edinburgh on the packet steamer Pegasus. It foundered on the Farne Islands and despite being so close to the shore, many of the passengers and crew perished. The grave for the children is by the entrance into the Priory. Maria Bartons remains were taken back to Lincolnshire.

Returning to Norfolk via Yorkshire to find a quiet house - Miss Horta has returned to Italy for the autumn. Scout was very pleased to see us and have her pack home. The garden looks pretty and the apples and pears are ready now which is a relief - I had stopped buying apples due to the distance imported ones were travelling conscious of their carbon footprint and that we should eat fruit that is at least from Europe if not Britain.

The days are lovely and the nights cool - my most favourite time. Blackberries are gorgeous. It is perfect for training the dogs and I have done two sessions with Mavis. I think we are breaking through on the actual carrying of game and we are practising a system which seems to be working. Tonight I took all three with the dummy launcher and Mr Horta to help - we did some really good long marks for Mavis and she is getting much better about looking out and not up at me. She has been very slow to mature but I am feeling happy with her progress and what I love most is her enthusiasm and desire to please and do more and more where she was a bit reluctant as a youngster.

In the garden - if you have summer flowering jasmine it needs pruning hard now so it can recover before winter. Lavender can be cut back hard - the daytime sun is warm enough to help it shoot a little before winter. Wallflowers should have been potted on now - they have about a month to go before they are ready to use in winter containers. Keep deadheading dahlias. Winter salad can be sown such as Lambs Lettuce, Winter Density, Purslane and Mustards.

I have pruned the redcurrants as they were desperately untidy with a lot of deadwood - some of which had coral spot on it. Yew hedges should be finished by the end of September and box as well. All deciduous hedges can be cut whenever the weather is right until January and it is nice at the moment to leave the berries for the birds and do them a little later. We have the tree surgeon coming this week to reduce the purple leaved plum Prunus cerasifera, and the yew by the house. I shall also take cuttings this week of Pelargonium Angel Eyes, my standard Geraniums and now that I know it works, the Nemesia Wisley Vanilla which will save me buying them next year. I shall also try the Verbena Sissinghurst Pink - another Sarah Raven special - it has been truly superb but I am sure I can do cuttings rather than buy plugs in April! dont forget bulb orders.

HORTA

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creaturempath-blog · 5 years

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2 + 5

2. Do they have any daily rituals? + 5. Cleanliness habits (personal, workspace, etc.) // @magicalxwarriorsdetailed headcanons

i have @letaunloved to thank for allowing me to brainstorm so much of newt’s morning routine while talking to her…

the primarily ritualistic part of his day comes from waking up . though the time at which he wakes up may vary ( as he’s been up as early as 0440 , to as late as 0530 ) , the procedure of his morning typically remains consistent , save for special circumstance which will be discussed later on . his morning is comprised , as follows …

* wake ( quickly , on his feet within five minutes ) quietly , as not to disturb leta* check on pickett , asleep in the pocket of newt’s coat or awake . if awake , he joins newt for the morning routine * charge the kettle for his tea while he heats water in a separate pot* head to his creatures ( downstairs in his basement is where he has more room , versus in his case ) to begin preparing their meals* diet prep consists of many things happening at once … and so that everything will finish in a relatively simultaneous manner ( everything finishes within ten minutes, due to his practise and precision ) the following order things is initiated & followed… – large pot/s of water put upon the stove , water brought to a boil – variety of starchy or otherwise firm vegetables ( such as beets , yams , asparagus , cabbage , carrots , green beans , squash , etcetera ) placed in water to boil – other vegetables and fruits are peeled ( as necessary , depending upon which creatures are receiving what on a given day – for instance , dougal could eat cantaloupe and appreciate having the rind attached so he may handle the fruit more cleanly , whereas mooncalves ( if treated ) would not be able to wholly digest the rind ) , and scraps ( seeds , stringy pulp , skins ) are placed in a designated bucket* at this point , newt will likely flick his wand to begin steeping tea upstairs – separate pots of water are warmed ( not boiled ) to allow nutrition biscuits ( which newt crafts himself , using specific dietary requirements he has come to understand through his wealth of knowledge and practice ) to soak & soften , seeing as they are dried and quite firm after being cooked . ( reference ) – once vegetables finish boiling , they are coupled with the soft vegetables & fruits and chopped up . ~ there are about 9 kilos of fruit / vegetables to be distributed when it’s finished – all manner of nutrition biscuits are drained & let to sit* with another flick of his wand , newt quickly finds himself with a cup of tea and a scone on a saucer that he can enjoy while he continues working with the diets … or if he’s a bit ahead in his standard pacing , he’ll dart upstairs for a cuppa and come back down – a variety of buckets , bowls , and troughs are brought out , having been cleaned from yesterday’s meals – newt begins distributing the meal materials as necessary , including supplements ( natural ; in their raw or powdered ( dehydrated & ground ) form – no pills , excessively few liquids ) as needed for each creature’s diet . – newt retrieves the “ simple ” meal components that don’t need additional preparation ( the mooncalves’ pellets , earthworms , mealworms , grubs , doxy & fairy eggs , and whathaveyou ) and typically fastens them to himself in some way , usually some sort of sack * newt brings out meats from their cold storage so they may defrost so he can attend to them after he does his rounds* diets are taken with him periodically , as he typically levitates 4 - 6 diets with him as he begins visiting each enclosure / individual creature . he greets them , feeds them , and moves on . * once diets are distributed , he goes back around and cleans smaller enclosures himself to spend more time with creatures as he does so. he gets the attention of the giant dung beetles to have them roll any dung from the large enclosures ( graphorns , erumpent , griffin , etc. ) into the manure pile ( which , thankfully, has an odor-proofing magicked barrier around it ) to decompose* the scraps from fruits & vegetables , and any dying vegetation from within enclosures are composted and , during growing seasons for the various flora of his creatures’ environments , he uses the combined decomposed manure + compost for fertilisation .* once that’s finished , he comes back and prepares his meat diets if it’s not a fasting day for the carnivorous creatures ( to simulate a missed catch in the wild ) before distributing them and cleaning those enclosures .* the entire diet prep process repeats , barring supplements , for evening meals that are stored ( refrigerated ) until they are needed for dinners .* newt typically finishes all of this by 1200 - 1300 , though more closely to 1210 .* he then takes a shower before continuing on with his day

after everything pertaining to diets is done , the order to his day is more loosely set . he likes maintaining a schedule , but for the most part , he has grown flexible enough ( versus a rigid , preferred lifestyle of his youth ) to allow for a bit of spontaneity .

not going to lie i sort of burned myself out writing that top one so this is going to be relatively quick & simple …

newt !! is !! a clean !! person !! in his line of work it’s very easy to get very dirty in a short amount of time , but he’s quick to wash himself as needed . he dislikes the feeling of dirt lingering on him if he’s not doing anything remotely close to creatures , outdoors-y , or the like . he’s uncomfortable in his own skin as it is , so the addition of lingering mud or dirt when it’s not necessary or expected is somewhat unwelcome .

that said , however , clean and hygienic as he is , he has been known for a somewhat disheveled appearance ( five o’clock shadow from not shaving in a morning , perhaps even missing a spot when he does , curly hair uneven due to his habit of cutting it himself , visible scars or cuts on his hands / arms / face , pants too short for his long legs , and other smaller things pertaining to his clothing choice ) to some that meet him .

#magicalxwarriors #☌ headcanon /#(#in case anybody ever wondered #what it was like to make meals for animals in a zoo #... personal experience says ' hello ' in this headcanon #)

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asryakino · 5 years

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Slime Rancher is so much fun guys.... I’m sad I didn’t gt it until the last day of the twinkle slime event, because I got a partial set of chime motes, so I can’t make music properly.

But I’m loving how much the vibe and feel of Viva Pinata it has. It make m incredibly happy to do such simple things such as raising food to feed the slimes and harvest the goods.

Capturing new slimes and making hybrids... It’s so very much like Viva Pinata and I wish there were more games like this, active and not simply an idle farmer.

Currently my ranch is very utilitarian. I’m not a free range rancher. I don’t like my slimes getting all over the place. So I have corrals of hybrid slimes.

Honey Badgers (Honey-Hunter) Geodes (Rock-Crystal) Kaiju (Saber-Rad) Schrodingers Slimes (Tabby-Quantum) Fireflies (Phosphor-Boom) Unico - (Mosiac-Pink) There’s also the waterfall and a pond, as well as an incinerator of fire slimes that keep getting excited and popping out of the trough to die on the ground in little suicidal leaps.

I’m not much into slim science just yet, but I’m working on gathering resources enough to play with it. I really really REALLY want more slimes and more patches and more of this game. I love it so much right now.

All of my hybrids (save the fireflies) live on the main part of the ranch, with the overgrowth dedicated to being a farm, the lab was housing a whole mess of mosaics where they could blow shit up all they wanted but I blended them with pinks for ease of feeding’s sake. So it’s a pond and a trough for puddle and fire slimes right now, soon to be a plort silo and spare fruit silo for the fire slimes

I FINALLY got a drone so I don’t have to worry about the fire slimes any more. Now I need a second so the plorts can be gathered without me worrying about them.

All of my largos are in pens of 6, and all are on herbivore diets with special attention given so I don’t have to try to farm expensive or slow-growing chickens. (no, really, I made a list and did comparisons to plan out which largos to make based on diet) The Unico and Schrodinger packs are slowest resources with phase lemons and silver parsnips. But only being six to feed is saving me a lot of resources, and once I get them topped off at 100, I can drop the farms to one parsnip field and one lemon tree each instead of two each.

All in all I only have to grow Oca Ocas, Heart Beets, Silver Parsnips, Phase Lemons, Cuberrys, and Mint Mangos. With upgraded gardens, I get more than enough to keep the feeders topped off and the extra goes into the silo for the fire slimes.

Once I top my levels off in the club, I’ll start working on slime science for real and start making my ranch look and operate really awesomely.

I hope some day wee can visit each others’ ranches the way you could visit gardens in Viva Pinata.

#Slime Rancher #My Ranch

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leonum-matrem-blog · 6 years

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@crimson-smirks | here |

NUMBNESS. That’s all he felt now. Trapped between life and death. They didn’t know what he was and even he didn’t know what he was now. He was alive – if you could call it that. He had accepted the queens request to be her champion. An honour that he accepted. She wanted someone dead and there was no one in the seven kingdoms who could withstand his might. He could not remember the name, of the man he had to fight, but he remember what the man had done to him.

He remembered the sun. The heat blaring down on him. His heavy thick armour and his mighty sword that he wielded with only one hand. He was fighting a prince, some foolish man who wanted revenge. Those who seek such a thing where always easy to kill. He remembered his speed. How he moved, dancing around him during their fight, knocking his helmet from his head and mocking him. He only needed to connect once and the fight would be over.

He remembered the prince getting close to him. Slicing the weakest point in his armour in the back of his legs to bring him down and then ramming his spear through his chest. Even with his thick armour the blade broke trough, break his skin and pushing past his ribs and inside him. Any normal man would have been killed there and there – but he was never normal. He lay there, listening to the fool rant on, listening to him pace around him, listening to his footsteps and when he got close, he knocked him down and with one hand chocked the laugh out of him, the other knocked the teeth out of his mouth to silence him and then both hands crushed his head until it exploded.

It was the last thing he remembered. He was poisoned. He was supposed to die, but people have been trying to kill him for decades and they have always failed. The queen. That’s who saved him. That’s who commanded her most loyal servant to keep him alive no matter what the cost – and the cost was high. Yet he lived. Some would have wished for death. Some would have demanded an end to stop the pain, but not him. He was stronger than anyone – this was not how he was going to die. He was saved and in his rescue he was given the position as royal protector of the queen.

Since that day at the gates of the red keep he has protecting his saviour. He has taken a vow not to speak until all her enemies are dead by his hand. He has killed for her. Without question and without hesitation. He had protected her and shielded her from harm and he never leaves her side. His massive shadow looms over her and no one dares step towards her without passing through him. His head would slowly turn as he remained close. Both of her brothers had come to her and both of her brothers had been allowed to leave – that was a mistake.

“He betrayed you.” Each word sounded painful and they were barely even words. He didn’t speak, not since he had risen again, yet there were times where he had uttered words and odd sounds – especially when he claimed the life’s of the queens enemies. The red cloth was tight around his throat and poked through his dark armour as he stood right before her, his crimson filled eyes shifting down to her – she allowed her enemies to freely walk away – when all she had to do was say one single word and he would have killed them all for her – and he didn’t understand why.

Betrayal. The word had never stung so; had never left such a hard pit gorging into the center of her chest to raise bile into her mouth. Broken as the sound had come from the once Mountain Who Rides; broken but no less understood. Did he see it, she wondered, see the way she would bite the inside of her cheeks to stop herself from succumbing to the tears ripping at her eyes the way Catelyn Stark had been rumored to tear at her own when she lost her son. Did Ser Gregor notice the desperate stride she had taken when he left her? When all eyes away did her Protector notice the slump in weary shoulders and the grief stricken numbness that gripped at her throat. A numbness that served as a shield against all that she had lost, or was it an empty space void of a beating heart?

Joffrey, her cherished first born, who’s weight still felt so heavy in Cersei’s arms. He who had shined so day on his Crowning and then fell so pale as he tore at his own throat. Myrcella, her only daughter, who’s hand she could still feel weighed against her palm as the duo walked hand in hand in the gardens. A smile shared between a mother and daughter with the smell of flowers filling up her senses. A smile that died with the gaze upon child’s pale features as a corpse was lifted from that ferry. Tommen, her sweet baby boy, who brought kittens into their chamber and begged to keep it safe from the monsters in the hall. Intent on outlawing beets so viciously and victoriously; until a defeat had Cersei looking upon a crush skull. Each a piece of her heart, of who she was, cut away and burned.

No. Cersei’s arm aligned around her own torso in a possessive embrace. The Gods would not have this one. She could feel her newest child growing stronger, he would be the strongest of them all. They are NOT allowed to rip this one away from her they way his siblings were.

Even if she had to do it alone.

Never betray me again. Her own words echoed in her mind while she recalled the look of Jaime’s back as he walked away from her. Never betray me again. She saw his own eyes harden and his head shake. Betrayal. He had chosen to leave her yet again, in a time when she had needed him most. Had chosen to follow in the steps of that little Monstrosity that killed their mother. That took her father from her ,and in turn her youngest children. He may not have killed Joffrey. Cersei’s eyes now flick up, those tears she had been so ambient in keeping away now slipping onto her cheeks. He had killed Tommen, he had killed Myrcella.

But at the very least Tyrion did not walk away from her.

Betrayal. Now they came, like acid slipping along her cheek. Cersei feels her lip curl while a shivering inhale lifted and fell in heavy shoulders. He would never leave me. A feeble voice whispered to her, a desperate attempt to search for her resolve that once held so steadfast. A faith she held so close to herself. Jaime loved me. Now both arms enclose over her womb, a drowning woman in the middle of the sea embracing her last semblance of life. A sound parted her lips, a cut off wail as the tears could not be stopped. The pain in her chest could not be denied and the ache trembled in her arms. Jaime left us, Jaime betrayed us.

The Queen feels her lips tremble before she speaks with a single break in her voice.

“But I could not betray him.”

#crimson-smirks #| long may she reign | ( canon )#| he's quiet too | ( ser gregor )#| I AM THE QUEEN | ( ic interactions )#(hellooo! i hope it's okay i moved it to it's own post!)#(i also??? hope this was enough to reply too? if not let me know)#(and im sorry if it doesn't match #<3)#(i hope it's good!)#child loss #tw/ child loss #child loss for ts #child loss cw #pregnancy #tw/ pregnancy #pregnancy cw

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marcelapeckova · 4 years

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Copenhagen, Denmark

Copenhagen always lure me - because of its spirit, because of many design spots, because you can breath there inspiration on every corner! Early this October I spent there a weekend and here I would love to share with you some of my highlight from Copenhagen.

If you are design minded traveler, then welcome in heaven :) There no matter to which street you are going to turn, there is always something to admire! Copenhagen is for me a proof that a good design makes people happy! In Copenhagen you can admire well crafted design, enjoy some extraordinary stores and boutiques, visit museums of your dreams or just watch the city architecture and then will never get you bored! It's a rush city but still looking classy! Modern architecture is in respect of classic architecture and it's nice to watch how the city deal with it! Second thing which will definitely got you is the atmosphere! As I mentioned , it's a rush, busy city, but you feel very cozy there. The friendly atmosphere in the streets, coffee shops, restaurants it's absolutely calming there - will make you happy ! Most of the people recognize Copenhagen from old colorful houses and spots like Nyhavn is (this old waterfront is probably the number one tourist hot-spot, but worth visiting nonetheless), but the spirit of the city breath in many other cool spots as well - those which are not in classical tourist guides but are worth to discovered by you!

Well know design brands turn from classical shops where they are selling their products to experience and I recommend to experience it! :)

I recommend to visit for object &Tradition “store” - it's a lovely spot for cup of coffee and inspire a bit in their house! Also HAY house is made to be something special and I promise you, you will definitely not feel like a shopping person! We visited VIPP flagship store to sit on their freshly launched sofa and to get some inspiration for the kitchen. The list of the stores which will give you a different experience is huge and they worth to be visited!

When in CPH, make sure to be ready to discover their perfect bakeries! They are all around you and are serving perfect bread or pastry to go or to enjoy with cup of coffee in busy atmosphere, which is very hospital and warming! On the photos bellow is Lille Bakery - take a bike and make it here as it worth it! The space is extraordinary, the atmosphere there is more than pleasant and the pastry is ... yuuuum!

When you will have a chance, try typical Danish Hindbærsnitter (raspberry slices) - it is a must-try for all the shortbread lovers out there!

Another “must visit” for design minded travelers is definitely gorgeous Danish Design Museum. You are going to find there every design icon coming from Danes!

Make yourself a stop for a lunch and let's continue! :) May I recommend you? Continue in danish way! Try Pariserbøf, it's something totally authentic and typical for this country! This tasty Danish dish consists of pan-fried bread that is topped with a thick beef patty. It is complemented with pickled beets, onions, capers, horseradish, and a raw egg yolk...oh yes...with a beer please :)

What else to do when in CPH? We visited our fav stores, make a nice long walk trough the part, went to see a classical parts of Copenhagen such as Nyhavn is or oldest Copenhagen streets Snaregade and Magstræde situated in Old Town of Copenhagen, we were in Danish Design Museum and we eat well too (as well as we had a few cups of warm coffee on the street) what about something truly cultural? Let's visit Glyptotek. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in the heart of Copenhagen displays ancient and modern art in truly unique surroundings.

Where to stay?

In Copenhagen is many many great, design hotels so you have perfectly wide choice :) We were staying again on a bit extraordinary place! We stayed in the place formerly known as the old Carlsberg brewery. Hotel Ottilia has ben opened by Denmark's leading boutique hotel chain Brøchner Hotels. Nowadays is standing on place where Danish favorite beer - Carlsberg was brewed from 1847-2008. The design of Hotel Ottilia reinterprets the industrial and iconic architecture in innovative ways - the original and unpolished architectural details of the industrial brewery buildings are preserved and in perfect contrast to luxurious furnishing and contemporary design! In some of the rooms are round windows where you can relax.

When you stay in Hotel Ottilia, there is something more expect the design what you are going to love here! In the evening they have there for all guests wine hour (in super stylish bar) and will welcome you there with a glass of wine and perfect atmosphere, that's the first thing and second thing is breakfast in the general! Absolutely amazing space on rooftop of the hotel, wide range of organic food, plenty variants of everything from homemade granola, pasty, cheese, fresh veggie, deserts, tea to champagne (because a day starts with some bubbles is better). If you would like to take a look on Hotel Ottilia. here is a link to their web-site :) https://www.brochner-hotels.com/hotel-ottilia/

I guess that would be everything from my weekend spent in motherland of Nordic design! However, if you have any questions, please, don't hesitate to write me, I will be happy to share with you my experience!

Wish you a lovely day! Marcela

#travel #copenhagen #denmark

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weightloss18-blog1 · 6 years

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Is Juicing Actually Healthy? A Doctor Explains

New Post has been published on https://designweightloss.com/is-juicing-actually-healthy-a-doctor-explains/

Is Juicing Actually Healthy? A Doctor Explains

Is Juicing Actually Healthy? A Doctor Explains To juice or not to juice, that is the question While many health-conscious people have embraced juicing, I say its a trend thats best embraced lightly

Although it might surprise you, I think of a tall glass of fresh-pressed veggies and fruit as an occasional treat—like an indulgent dessert—rather than an everyday choice As with most quick-fix health crazes, there are always at least a few downsides to consider Heres some food for thought to help you consider how to juice smarter—or whether to do it at all: Juice can be a sugar bomb Most bottled juices have enough sugar to stand toe-to-toe with a can of Mountain Dew

It doesnt matter if theyre organic and refrigerated or conventional and off the shelf Juices made from fruit, as well as veggies like beets and carrots, can add up to liquid dessert that sends you on a blood-sugar roller coaster Granted, with some very fresh, minimally processed juiced drinks, youll get some quickly absorbed nutrients But the sugar spikes and troughs that come with the package typically arent worth the ride Juice isnt the best source of fiber

Juiced fruits and veggies are virtually fiber-free—all that good fiber gets left behind in the base of the juicer and tossed out Thats a problem because fiber helps boost gut health and facilitates waste removal Although some think of juicing as a digestive aid, many people on juice cleanses actually often have a problem with constipation! Juice wont keep you full OK, so weve established that your juice has a ton of sugar and not a lot of fiber

But its also missing fat and protein, both of which are key to feeling satiated Without fat, protein, and fiber to fill your belly and signal to the brain that youre done eating, youre going to get mighty hungry, mighty fast Juices nutrients dont last long How fresh is that bottled juice? The sell-by date will certainly give you a clue, but its not going to tell you how potent the nutrients in the bottle still are Unfortunately, the nutrients that you hope to imbibe with every sip start degrading the moment they are exposed to light and air

In other words, if that drink has been sitting on your desk all afternoon, you may be getting far fewer antioxidants than you think Juicing can be wasteful Not to get up on a soapbox, but taking an armload of food that could feed a small family and pulverizing it down to liquid form is, to say the least, wasteful To be a bit kinder to the earth, you might want to consider eating the majority of your produce instead of juicing it How to make juicing healthier:

In a perfect world, Id say lay off the juices and eat as much whole food as possible However, if decide you are going to drink a juice, here are some key tips to follow Make it yourself! That way, you can control the ingredients, portion size, sugar content, and freshness When juicing, be sure to: Skip high-sugar fruits, such as pineapples, mangoes, bananas, etc

Go heavy on the greens Use lemons, limes, green apples, ginger, mint, and turmeric to add guilt-free flavor Keep in mind that juicing for weight-loss or detox is not a healthy approach, nor is it sustainable Instead, try an elimination diet If youre buying an off-the-shelf juice drink, read the label:

Check how many servings there are per bottle Some bottles have two to three servings, and you can wind up drinking far more sugar than you intended Check the grams of sugar per serving If its more than 6 grams, skip it altogether or cut some of the juice with seltzer or water Check the grams of fiber

Many bottled juices have none at all, which is bad news for your body, particularly if you’re trying to keep blood sugar stable Be sure the drink is made with certified organic, minimally processed ingredients If youre ordering at a juice bar, be sure to: Look for organic ingredients, so your drink is as free of chemical pesticides as possible Ask the barista not to sweeten your drink with fruit juices like apple, orange, grape, and so on

If you prefer a sweeter drink, add a little stevia or touch of raw honey

#A #Actually #Doctor #Explains #Healthy #Is #juicing

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powderwoolen6-blog · 6 years

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What is a paper pot transplanter Australia and the way does it works?

As a small-scale natural grower, transplanting can be one of these back-breaking, knee-scabbing tasks that makes you grudgingly clasp down to obtain those yellow onion, brassicas, lettuces in the ground. There has been a number of improvements to try and make the job simpler and save your fingers, again and legs, but if you don't buy a direct or water wheel transplanter for the tractor, you’ll likely devote onion-planting time on your own knees. Nevertheless, there is one more tool available, and it is one of the most efficient and intelligently-designed transplanters I’ve seen: the particular Australian paper pot transplanter. Taken by hand, without any motor, it's a Japanese instrument that was produced for the sugar beet industry. An organic farmer coming from Wisconsin, David Hendrickson, learned about the particular tool although visiting Japan. He started small farm operates, llc so he or she could importance the device to The united states, and it has been gaining popularity on small farms ever since.

The particular paper pot transplanter Australia works similarly to a direct seeder in style. There is a furrower in leading that makes any trough, the plants are fed via a channel to decrease into the trough, and you will find two wings that press the earth back across the plants. 2 wheels in the tail finish lightly lightweight the soil around the vegetation. Instead of a seedling hopper, there is a large tray room for the tray of transplants to give out of. The main element part, and namesake, of this layout is the paper pot tray that the seed are grown into. This particular little paper “pots” are in reality loops of paper connected into a chain that looks much like a honeycomb. The paper containers unchain as you slowly move the transplanter, feeding themselves through the transplanter. One of many really cool things about the particular paper pot transplanter is that you can apply it many different crops. The paper string pots can be obtained in 2, Several or 6 inch in-row space. The length of in-row spacing is determined by the amount of paper chain between each cell. Each and every paper pot tray has 264 cells. You can also figure out your own seeding prices in the cells, and further space out of the seeds to more preferably suit your plants. The transplanter is commonly used for onions, leeks, scallions and shallots. We’ve furthermore used it regarding broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, early plantings of fairly sweet corn, tulsi, lettuce, and herbal treatments. The paper is actually allowed in licensed organic production, holds up properly until re-planting, and then decomposes once in the floor. We’ve had various success with all the dryness of the paper pots once you plant- if they are soggy and damp, they don’t string out as well. Click here www.paperpotplanter.com.au/ to get more information about paper pot planter Australia.

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thecoroutfitters · 6 years

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Written by R. Ann Parris on The Prepper Journal.

Our world has changed enormously in ten, twenty and fifty years. It’s night and day from a hundred years ago. How we reach each other and share information is mind blowing. We now know things about illness, waste, and chemicals that make us shudder a little at the past. We’ve seen fisheries and industries rise and collapse.

However, some things have stagnated.

In many ways, mainstream food production is one of those areas. We may use GPS and computers to help us source, plan and site things, but largely we’re doing it the same way we were at the cusp of the Green Revolution. Even small home gardens are regularly set up much the way a farm and large-scale crops are, and have been since the 1940’s and earlier.

We largely grow in straight rows of the same thing, in big squares of bare earth, walking or driving up and down those rows throughout the season.

I’m a fan of history and historic methods, and the lessons we can take from old ways. I’m a huge fan of things that stand the test of time – like the venerable revolver and 1911. Some things, however, don’t age all that well, and some things require a set infrastructure.

In a personal crisis or a nation-altering event, we may lose access to the cheap fuels and chemicals that allow us to grow that way. We can increase our capabilities and resilience by changing that, sometimes in very simple little ways. It starts with breaking out of those boxes we’ve grown up with.

Capitalizing on Contours

Whether it’s large grain or orchard terraces or a small backyard garden, a steep hill or a patch that appears mostly flat, working with natural contours can significantly aid us in reducing both labor and physical inputs in our gardens, no matter what gardening method we choose, tractor to hand tools.

One, we’re not fighting the shape the land wants to be (or has adapted to). Two, those contours make excellent use of rainwater.

In many case, even bare-earth tractor-farmed plots are oriented crossing the face of a hill. It keeps rain from sluicing off our hill, which limits our irrigation needs and keeps more soil in place. Add in raised beds, key-lines, small trenches, berm-swale sets, or beds and materials designed to help further slow that water as it runs down the slope, absorb more of it, and reduce its evaporation, and we can further limit the time, effort, and pumped water of irrigating.

Finding the contour of land can be accomplished with a few sticks, some string, and something relatively heavy – or, you can stick your standard construction level on the cross spar of an A frame.

The frame is fixed. It “faces” the slope, with the heavy thing (or bubble) tilting or hanging straight. When it tilts, you’re at a different elevation. You scoot one foot until it hangs straight. Mark that spot for both feet, pivot your A-frame on one foot, and adjust the other until your string hangs straight and even between them again. Then you mark that spot, too. Repeat across the area you’re mapping. That’s the dig-build-plow line.

Really, that’s it. That’s as complicated as it has to be.

Mark out how wide you want your rows working uphill or downhill, including the width of any bounded-bed or terrace-wall materials and tire or foot space, move down, and repeat the process of finding the contour line.

Sometimes hardscaping or construction will be required, timbers or longer-lasting CMU to hold the “terrace” line. Sometimes you can do straight earthworks, whether it’s a home orchard berms or terracing for larger-scale production. In other cases, such as the still-bare and the straw-mulched veggie beds above, you can go totally “unbounded” and just build up or dig in as-is.

Maximizing Space

Sometimes in the name of mechanical efficiency, we lose usable space. The quarter-acre pond above is one example of this. An undulating star increases the “edge” or “margin”, and doubles the amount of plantable space in comparison to a circle that covers the same area. Even if the “star” was reduced to fit within the margins of that circle, a designer can get 1.25-1.5 times the plantable space on the edges.

That’s just the defined edges of a pond. The star can then be replicated moving away from that pond with obligate and facultative plants filling in each level by height.

Even the shape we prune our perennials to can affect how much yielding surface they offer.

In comparing hedgerow styles, a traditional or conventional hedge with a “flat” face loses a quarter to half the sun-catching capability and harvestable area of shrubs or trees that are left with rounded individual faces. That difference increases further when the tops, too, are trimmed to round or spear upward.

Add in an undulating planting scheme (zig-zagging instead of straight line) that takes half again the surface area (say, 6’ deep instead of 4’ for a line of shrubs) and you not only reap the increased surface area per plant, you increase the number of plants you can fit, just like in the pond example.

Rethink Access

On the small scale of gardening, there are all kinds of ways to maximize planting space. In many cases, it’s by eliminating as much access area as possible. Circular “wagon wheel” and “pie” garden designs do this well, but there are other options.

We’ll reap the biggest benefits – ground level or raised – by making those footpaths permanent. When the beds stay in the same places, they aren’t compacted. That allows for better water infiltration and aeration, which limits how much of our irrigation runs off or evaporates from the surface. It also allows roots to expand faster and easier, making for healthier crops.

However, we reap the spacing benefits and limited seasonal compaction even if we do re-till seasonally or annually and shift where our “beds” are within our growing space.

Congestion Planting

We can also gain space and reduce compaction by altering how we plant inside our conventional square corners.

In a 12’x6’ area, if I plant something with a one-foot spread in single rows (so many people still do) and use a 1’ walkway, I can fit three rows – 36 plants. By changing to a “bed” system with 1’ walkways outside a 4’ central bed, I can squish those rows together and add a fourth – 48 plants.

By planting that bed in a staggered or diagonal grid instead, I only get 42 primary plants, but I also gain 12 generally 6”x12” spaces from the undulations.

That could be an additional 12 plants by controlling spread for edible chickweed and mallow, or it’s a dozen marigolds and thyme to encourage pollinators and discourage pests. In corner spots it might be sinking a little trough for chives. Or, each space could hold 8-18 turnips or beets or garlic heads, a strawberry plant, a few large onions, or 10-24 radishes or spring onions. All kinds of options.

Those options and increased yields scale, up or down. Those of us who prefer 30-36” wide beds gain similar benefits even with that smaller bed width per area.

Shipping pallet gardens and 4’ or 5’ square “patchwork” or “chessboard” beds defined by footpaths of stone, boards, or mulch are other options. Both can also make use of very small and odd-shaped yards, just like half-circle and circular beds, or contour-hugging beds.

If your reach is long enough, shipping pallets can be slid together to make longer beds as well, with the boards providing nice kneeling spaces between plants without compacting soil, and have the added benefit of limiting some of the weed space.

Mandalas & Keyholes

Another example of maximizing space is a “keyhole” bed. Traditional keyholes are round, but the concept applies to square-based beds as well.

The general concept is to eliminate walkways as much as possible. The slot and bulge of the keyhole allows access to most or all of the bed with an absolute minimum of space used.

Like some of the other round-bed methods, it also has the advantage of creating a garden space that can be lovely as well as practical – nothing wrong with multipurposing.

Images: Toby Hemenway, Gaia’s Garden – Mandala gardens & suntrap incorporating keyhole access concepts to increase planting space and efficiency.

Efficiency for the beds can be further increased by combining them into a system of keyholes, or mandala gardens. The general premise of a keyhole can also be extended in length to fit needs. They can be further nested within hugelkulture mounds or shrub and tree lines to create a suntrap or develop a windbreak.

They can be ground-level, bounded or unbounded, raised using timbers or bricks, or, for a little reuseit fun, made from things like salvaged filing cabinets and their drawers, or using storage totes to create sub-irrigated containers in a system.

There’s also an “African” or “composter” style of keyhole bed. In that case, the round access nob is filled with an in-situ composting tube.

Space-wise I find them less efficient. Since they lose that central access point, they have to be smaller because you have to be able to work around the outer edges. That also takes away the opportunity to overlap them into a larger system.

That said, they are fantastic for arid environments.

Breaking the Garden Box

There are lots of options for maximizing our production, with pro’s and con’s to each, individually and in comparison to a square plot with straight-line rows or beds. These are really just a few, and really just a snapshot of each.

For many of us, a combination of contouring, congestion planting in beds or conventional field plots, and a variety of beds and smaller containers are part of our continuing and expanding systems. Incorporating multiple methods and styles allows us to work most efficiently and reap the most benefits by crop type and section of land. The variety is like having a well-stocked pantry or gear rig.

They’re all just tools on our belts, though. We have to use them to know them. Getting started, now, whether it’s new-new or just a new style or method, breaking ground or expanding, is always going to be the only one-size-fits-all when it comes to growing.

The post Gardening: Break Out of the Box appeared first on The Prepper Journal.

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bodizwonder · 7 years

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Inside the Lab That’s Quantifying Happiness

In Mississippi, individuals tweet about cake and cookies an terrible lot; in Colorado, it’s noodles. In Mississippi, the most-tweeted exercise is consuming; in Colorado, it’s working, snowboarding, mountain climbing, snowboarding, and biking, in that order. In different phrases, the 2 states fall on reverse ends of the habits spectrum. If you had been to assign a caloric worth to each meals talked about in each tweet by the residents of the United States and a calories-burned worth to each exercise, after which totaled them up, you’d discover that Colorado tweets the very best caloric ratio within the nation and Mississippi the worst.

Sure, you’d be forgiven for doubting individuals’s honesty on Twitter. On these uncommon events once I destroy a complete pint of Ben and Jerry’s, I most assuredly don’t tweet about it. Likewise, I don’t attain for my cellphone each time I strap on a pair of skis.

And but there’s this: Mississippi has the worst rate of diabetes and heart disease within the nation and Colorado has the best. Mississippi has the second-highest percentage of obesity; Colorado has the bottom. Mississippi has the worst life expectancy within the nation; Colorado is close to the highest. Perhaps we’re being extra trustworthy on social media than we expect. And maybe social media has extra to inform us in regards to the state of the nation than we notice.

That’s the proposition of Peter Dodds and Chris Danforth, who co-direct the University of Vermont’s Computational Story Lab, a warren of whiteboards and grad college students in a good-looking brick constructing close to the shores of Lake Champlain. Dodds and Danforth are utilized mathematicians, however they might make a fairly good comedy duo. When I finished by the lab lately, each had been in working garments and cracking jokes. They have an abundance of curls between them and the wiry vitality of continual thinkers. They got here to UVM in 2006 to begin the Vermont Complex Systems Center, which crunches large numbers from large methods and appears for patterns. Out of that, they hatched the Computational Story Lab, which sifts by means of a few of that public information to discern the tales we’re telling ourselves. “It took us a while to come up with the name,” Dodds informed me as we shotgunned espresso and gazed into his MacBook. “We were going to be the Department of Recreational Truth.”

This 12 months, they teamed up with their PhD scholar Andy Reagan to launch the Lexicocalorimeter, an internet instrument that makes use of tweets to compute the energy in and energy out for each state. It’s no mere social gathering trick; the Story Labbers consider the Lexicocalorimeter has vital benefits over slower, extra conventional strategies of gathering well being information. “We don’t have to wait to look at statistics at the end of the year,” Danforth says. “This sort of data is available every day. We can tell if a public health campaign to invest in school nutrition is changing the way people talk about food or engage in activities.” For instance, what if Michael Bloomberg’s proposed ban on sodas bigger than 16 ounces had gone by means of in New York? Using conventional surveys and hospital studies, it will have taken years to measure the influence. But if the Lexicocalorimeter was tuned finely sufficient to precisely measure the adjustments in soda habits by neighborhood, then public well being officers may use it to focus on investments and modify the marketing campaign to cut back weight problems much more successfully.

Playing round with the Lexicocalorimeter is illuminating and sometimes horrifying—a glimpse of the unvarnished American character. Click on a state, and it shows the 200 phrases that made the largest distinction in that state’s calorie counts. In Louisiana (#48 in caloric steadiness), all people’s consuming chocolate, cookies, shrimp, and cake. Everybody’s consuming, interval. It’s one of many solely actions continuously talked about. In California (#12), they dance, run, hike, and bike, however they hardly ever sit or lie down. In my dwelling state of Vermont, the meals on the tip of all people’s thumbs is bacon, which might be an enormous a part of why we devour barely extra energy than the typical state. (In our protection, we additionally spend an inordinate period of time tweeting about beets, broccoli, and bananas.) Despite that, we’re pretty train obsessed, with—you guessed it—snowboarding main the best way. (We crush it on sledding, too.) All this provides us the third-best caloric ratio within the nation, behind Colorado and Wyoming. And certain sufficient, the well being numbers match: We have among the lowest charges of diabetes and weight problems and one of many highest life expectations.

In basic, all states are extra alike than we’d prefer to consider. “Watching TV or movie” is the most-tweeted exercise for each single state within the union, and “pizza” is the most-tweeted meals for each state besides Wyoming (cookies) and Mississippi (ice cream). Where a state’s particular person character actually shines is within the meals and actions talked about far kind of than common. Texas (#36) can’t cease tweeting about doughnuts; Maine (#5) is hooked on lobster. In actions, the mountain states do lots of working, the South is a strong block of consuming, New Jersey is all about “getting my nails done,” and Delaware distinguishes itself with “talking on the phone.”

Dodds and Danforth acknowledge their strategies are usually not excellent. The butter on the lobster doesn’t get counted. There’s no approach of calculating if someone ran 1 mile or ten. But while you’re speaking tens of hundreds of thousands of tweets per day over the complete vary of demographics, the inaccuracies even out—at the least as a lot as they do in comparison with the opposite, equally flawed methods of measuring society’s consuming and exercising habits. As Dodds factors out, the numbers communicate for themselves: The Lexicocalorimeter correlates extraordinarily properly with charges of diabetes and weight problems. “The ridiculous thing about this,” he says, “is that it works.”

We stay in unusual instances. “People leave so much of their id on the web,” Danforth marveled to me, “and they share it openly. That’s enabled a whole host of new instruments to try to understand what’s predictable about our behavior. And it turns out a lot is. As much as we think we’re really complex, people have very structured ways of behaving. The way we move around the earth is very predictable. The way we use language is very predictable.”

For instance, Barack Obama’s approval scores over his presidency strongly correlate with the sentiment of tweets about him 3 months upfront of the approval polls. In different phrases, in case you’d been a savvy politico with a instrument for measuring tweets, you’d have had precious intel months forward of anybody else. “It’s an amazing time in social science because of the data available,” Dodds says. “It’s opened up a window that we absolutely did not have access to before.”

(Courtesy of the Computational Story Lab)

That’s the thought behind the UVM staff’s Hedonometer, which surveys the nation’s tweets every day and calculates a happiness rating for every. The staff had individuals charge 10,000 phrases on a happiness scale of 1 (unhappy) to 9 (joyful). Most phrases are impartial. The happiest words are “laughter” (8.50), “happiness” (8.44), and “love” (8.42). “Hahaha” will get a 7.94, placing it a bit increased than “kisses” (7.74). The largest negatives are “terrorist” (1.30), “suicide” (1.30), and “rape” (1.44). “Shit” will get a 2.50, “bitch” a 3.14, and “fuck” a surprisingly respectable 4.14. Fuck yeah! “Swearing is really important,” Dodds says.

All this provides as much as a mesmerizing sine wave monitoring the nation’s temper from 2009 (the fledging of Twitter) to the current. “One of our goals was to provide a snapshot of the public’s response to something,” Danforth defined, “the texture of the day.” Most common days fall right into a slender band with a mean happiness stage round six, although Saturdays are persistently the happiest days of the week and Tuesdays the grumpiest. There’s additionally a day by day sample, with happiness ranges hovering round 5 and 6 a.m., once we’re all newly optimistic in regards to the day, after which plunging all through the morning and night as actuality units in, reaching a trough of despair round 11 p.m. “The wheels kind of come off,” says Dodds. “We call it the daily unraveling of the human mind.”

You can even parse this by state. The happiest state is—unsurprisingly—Hawaii. The backside dwellers are, as soon as once more, Mississippi and Louisiana, although Delaware will get a stunning bronze for melancholy. The West is joyful, each coastal and mountains, whereas the South and Midwest are sad. Only Tennessee bucks the pattern, an island of smiles in a sea of Southern gloom.

The happiest day of the 12 months is all the time Christmas, when the Hedonometer spikes as phrases like “Christmas,” “happy,” “family,” and “love” flood the ether. The 5 unhappiest days since 2009: the capturing at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the Boston Marathon bombings, the Orlando nightclub assault, the capturing of Dallas law enforcement officials, and the election of Donald Trump.

National happiness will not be constant. We had been fairly joyful from 2009 to 2011, regardless of the Great Recession. Then our temper darkened from 2011 to 2014, however we got here out of it: The Hedonometer surged! The 12 months 2015 was a comparatively joyful 1, and the nice emotions stored getting into 2016—till the election took over. Since then, indicators have been rising that one thing horrible is occurring to the American psyche. We’ve by no means been so erratic, with the usually easy blips of the Hedonometer beginning to twitch like somebody failing a lie-detector take a look at. And as of this writing, we’re sinking into an unprecedented malaise.

That is, in case you consider the Hedonometer. On the face of it, measuring one thing as intangible as happiness sounds absurd. Yet, as with the Lexicocalorimeter, the Hedonometer matches “real world” measures such because the Gallup Well-Being Index (which polls individuals on issues like life satisfaction and private well being) and the Peace Index (which surveys charges of homicides, violent crime, and incarceration).

History is stuffed with ideas—from longitude to time—that appeared imprecise till the suitable instrument got here alongside. Even temperature, which to us appears goal, was thought-about unmeasurable for hundreds of years. “People thought you couldn’t do it,” Dodds says. “Because it’s too multifaceted, and the first thermometers were awful.” But finally our devices improved.

Dodds and Danforth see no cause why happiness can’t even be quantifiable. “We’re carrying around these phones that are sensing so much of our behavior,” says Danforth. “Tone of voice. Who we talk to. The types of words we use. We’re trying to push on a few areas and see what’s predictable, both on the population scale and for individuals.” And what they’re discovering is that our telephones have turn out to be surprisingly good devices for taking our emotional temperatures. “Can we tell you’re about to experience an episode of depression based on your social media behavior? Maybe your friends can’t see it, maybe you don’t even realize it, but you’ve started to communicate with a smaller group socially, or you’re not moving around the earth as much.”

By analyzing the tweets of each depressed and wholesome people, the Story Lab has developed algorithms that may precisely establish melancholy months earlier than precise diagnoses by psychological well being practitioners. They’ve even achieved it with Instagram, discovering that depressed people usually tend to put up pictures which can be bluer, grayer, and darker. Their technique outperformed skilled practitioners at figuring out beforehand undiagnosed melancholy. The lab is now partnering with a psychiatrist at UVM who hopes to make use of the algorithm to go looking the social media historical past of ER guests (who give their consent) to foretell suicidal habits.

One of the clearest indicators that the Hedonometer is on to one thing is how properly it really works with media apart from Twitter. The Story Lab has analyzed the phrases in 10,000 books and 1,000 film scripts, and it precisely kinds the feel-goods from the nihilists. Sex and the City is the cheeriest film of all, powered by phrases like love, smiles, wedding ceremony, lovely, and, sure, intercourse. At the underside of the listing now we have grim fare like Commando, Day of the Dead, The Bourne Ultimatum, and Omega Man.

Yet for grimness, none of these can contact Outside’s masterpiece of masochism, “Bury My Pride at Wounded Knees,” by Mark Jenkins, about competing within the 2010 Death Race. I requested Reagan, Dodds, and Danforth to take the emotional temperature of 49 classic Outside stories, which run the gamut from Steve Rinella’s joyful paean to Argentinian steak (“Me, Myself, and Ribeye”) to Jenkins’ mudfest, which begins “I unintentionally pitchfork a clod of manure into my mouth” and goes downhill from there.

(Courtesy of the Computational Story Lab)

Beyond a bit’s general happiness rating, the Hedonometer permits us to chart its emotional journey. Here’s “Into Thin Air,” maybe the last word Outside basic, which begins off joyful (Everest journey!), plunges a couple of 1/3 of the best way by means of the story as Krakauer reaches the perilous Lhotse Face (“It was here that we had our first encounter with death on the mountain”), soars on the midway level (summit!), after which tanks far and quick as storms transfer in, errors are made, and other people die.

Not solely does the fall-rise-fall emotional arc of “Into Thin Air” properly mirror the Himalayas, nevertheless it additionally occurs to be a great instance of a basic narrative arc. Riffing off Kurt Vonnegut’s famous talk on the shapes of archetypal tales, the Story Labbers got here up with six arcs that tales are inclined to observe: Rags-to-Riches (rise), Tragedy (fall), Man-in-a-Hole (fall-rise), Icarus (rise-fall), Cinderella (rise-fall-rise), and Oedipus (fall-rise-fall). Encouragingly, an evaluation of the bestseller lists discovered that the extra complicated narratives (Cinderella and Oedipus) are inclined to promote higher than the less complicated ones.

This fall, the UVM staff might be engaged on teasing much more tales out of the information we share: Can monetary crashes be predicted forward of time? When does pretend information trump actual information? How does a society choose the story it tells about itself? The questions are removed from trivial. “Humans are storytelling organisms,” Dodds says. It’s how we study who we’re. As the Story Lab will get even higher at discovering the alerts in our noise, let’s hope we like what we uncover.

Source: fitnesscaster.com Source: Bodiz Wonder

#Bodiz Wonder #Bodiz Wonder - Wonderful Life

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yesilovehorses-blog1 · 7 years

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A Look at Pony Club's Feeding Rules

New Post has been published on http://lovehorses.net/a-look-at-pony-clubs-feeding-rules/

A Look at Pony Club's Feeding Rules

Try feeding at least 50% of the horse’s daily ration as some kind of roughage, ideally from grazing on pasture.

Photo: iStock

When not working as an equine nutritionist I serve as the regional supervisor of the Sierra Pacific Region of the United States Pony Clubs (USPC). My love of equine nutrition started when I was a Pony Clubber in England, where I first learned about feeds and feeding.

II thought I would share with you the rules of feeding as they appear in the “Pony Club D Manual of Horsemanship,” along with my explanation of each rule’s importance. Our youngest Pony Clubbers learn these rules for good feeding, and we all would do well to remember them as we manage our equine partners.

Here’s an overview:

Rule #1: Feed small meals often.

Horses in their natural setting eat for many hours a day and, as a result, they constantly secrete stomach acid whether they are eating or not. Additionally the equine stomach is relatively small and functions best when no more than about two-thirds full. The small intestine needs time to digest and absorb nonstructural carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. If meals are infrequent and large, these nutrients might reach the hindgut where they can disrupt microbial fermentation with potentially negative consequences.

Rule #2: Feed plenty of roughage.

About 60% percent of a horse’s digestive tract volume is dedicated to the fermentation of roughage, which is why horses are known as “hindgut fermenters.” Keep this in mind to maintain digestive tract health. Try feeding at least 50% of the horse’s daily ration as some kind of roughage. Ideally this roughage should come from grazing on pasture; however hay, hay pellets, beet pulp, and other alternative roughages such as soy and almond hulls work, as well.

Rule #3: Feed according to the horse’s size, condition, age, breed, temperament, and the work done.

A horse’s nutritional requirements are a function of body weight and physiological state. So, a horse in hard work has higher nutritional needs than one at maintenance undergoing no forced exercise. As we all know, some breeds are easy keepers (think native breeds of pony, mustangs, Morgans, etc.) while others are harder keepers (Thoroughbreds, for example). A Thoroughbred doing the same work and the same boy weight as a Morgan will likely need more feed.

Some excitable horses burn calories and have greater requirements because they spend their days pacing the fence line or just worrying about life in general. A horse with a body condition score of 8 (on the 9-point Henneke scale) will need fewer calories than one that condition scores as a 3. These are all factors that need to be considered when making a feeding plan for your horse that will allow him to do the work you ask of him while maintaining an ideal level of condition.

Rule #4: All changes in feed should be made gradually over 10 days to two weeks.

The hindgut’s microbial population and enzymes released in to the small intestine need time to adapt to nutrients in new feeds. You might think you’re not making much of a change going from one batch of orchard grass hay to another, but in fact the chemical composition of those two hays might differ significantly and require the horse’s digestive tract to adapt. Sudden changes can lead to excess gas production and diarrhea, and the risk of colic is elevated for about three weeks after a hay change. Ideally try to slowly substitute the current hay with the new hay. Any grains or commercial feeds should also be changed slowly to allow the small intestine to adapt to changes in starch, protein, and fat levels.

Rule #5: Feed on a regular schedule every day.

Horses can be creatures of habit. Large variations in feeding times can cause stress and increase the risk of conditions such as gastric ulcers. However, I would argue that feeding at the exact same time each day is a recipe for future problems should you ever run late. I recommend feeding within a window of about an hour each day. This way should you ever be caught in traffic or suffer some other delay your horse will not be anxiously waiting for you. For example, feed at random times between 6 and 7 a.m. for your morning feed versus always feeding at 6 a.m. sharp.

Rule #6: Feed only good quality hay and grain.

Feed that is dusty can cause respiratory issues as a horse inhales dust spores. Mold can cause digestive and respiratory distress. Hay can become moldy as a result of being baled with too high a moisture content, and sack feed might get molding because of humid storage conditions. Hay can also contain objects such as trash or potentially poisonous contaminants such as snakes or botulism. Always check your hay closely before feeding it! You might find bugs in your grains especially at certain times of year, and remember that feeds like soaked beet pulp and hay can spoil, especially in high temperatures. Keep a close eye on all your feeds to reduce the chances of digestive distress.

Rule #7: Keep fed tubs, hay feeders and water buckets clean.

Dirty tubs and buckets can harbor molds and might even be vectors for disease transfer. Wash and scrub all feed tubs and water buckets weekly with dilute bleach rinsing well.

Rule #8: Clean fresh water must be available at all times.

As mentioned in Rule #7 this means frequently cleaning and scrubbing all buckets and troughs. Check water sources at least once a day to insure they are free from debris. We all know the horse who thinks his water bucket is a handy place for manure! In cold weather make sure that buckets and troughs have not frozen over. If using electric water heaters, check all connections to reduce the risk of a short circuit or other issue that might lead to a barn fire.

Rule #9: Do not ride when your horse’s stomach is full.

Give your horse least an hour after feeding grain before heavy work. However, insuring some roughage is in the stomach while riding is a good idea, as it helps to buffer stomach acid and acts as a protective layer reducing the splashing of acid within the stomach during exercise. This might help reduce the risk of your horse developing gastric ulcers.

Rule #10: Salt should be available at all times in the form of a salt block or loose salt.

Many horses have cravings for sodium, and consuming sodium helps to stimulate thirst keeping them hydrated. Because dehydration is a cause of impaction colic providing, salt can be a good form of cheap colic insurance. However, despite having a craving for salt, few horses actually use salt blocks. An 1,100-pound horse at rest in cool weather has a daily requirement for the amount of sodium provided in 2 tablespoons of table salt, which would be the equivalent of consuming 2 pounds of salt from a block each month. If your horse is not going through that much salt on his own, I recommend adding salt to his feed in addition to always having block or loose salt available.

Rule #11: Know how your horse normally eats.

If he’s usually a voracious eater and you arrive to find food has been left or he becomes picky, this should raise an alarm that something might be wrong. These could be signs of colic, gastric ulcers, hindgut disturbance, or dental issues. Whatever the cause it requires further investigation.

Rule #12: If horses are fed in a group be sure that each is getting enough to eat.

Groups of horses have a pecking order and the horse at the bottom runs the risk of not getting enough to eat and being chased away from the feed. Be sure to provide multiple feed locations. If offering piles of loose hay or haynets, provide more piles or nets than there are horses and spread feed out, well beyond kicking range.

Another related issue: the dominant horse getting too much to eat, which might lead to obesity. Use weight calculations, a weight tape and body condition scoring to keep track of your horse’s condition and make management changes as necessary.

These days U.S. Pony Club isn’t just for children on Thelwell mounts. Pony Clubs are open to everyone, adults and western riders included. If you want to learn more about how to look after your horse in a fun and social setting check out USPC’s website.

About the Author

Clair Thunes, PhD

Clair Thunes, PhD, is an independent equine nutrition consultant who owns Summit Equine Nutrition, based in Sacramento, California. She works with owners/trainers and veterinarians across the United States and globally to take the guesswork out of feeding horses. Born in England, she earned her undergraduate degree at Edinburgh University, in Scotland, and her master’s and doctorate in nutrition at the University of California, Davis. Growing up, she competed in a wide array of disciplines and was an active member of the United Kingdom Pony Club. Today, she serves as the regional supervisor for the Sierra Pacific region of the United States Pony Clubs. As a nutritionist she works with all horses, from WEG competitors to Miniature Donkeys and everything in between.

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