Renegade Publishing

Today I made African Spice Cookies. :D

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One of today's garden crafts was making a worm bin.  You can buy commercial ones, but they're expensive.  All this took was a few minutes to set it up.

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Did you know that bathing suits used to have buttons? Back when they were jumpsuits or dresses, buttons helped with the fit. And you can still get patterns for that if you're into historic sewing or want to go swimming without exposing a lot of skin. Here's an example of a reproduction pattern from 1872. Thanks to atherleisure for the fun historical tip.

Today is mostly cloudy and cool. Looks like it rained a bit last night; there are small puddles in a few places.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 2/26/26 -- I put out a fresh cake of peanut suet.

EDIT 2/26/26 -- I cut and labeled 4 more water jugs. These will hold native grasses: little bluestem, side-oats grama, northern sea oats, and switchgrass. It will be interesting to see how they do. Potted grasses tend to survive well but are more expensive. Broadcast seeding on the ground has variable results. So if I can find more and better ways to pot my own from seed, that's an improvement. Native grasses attract wildlife with food, shelter, and other resources. Many birds devour the seeds. Some butterflies, especially skippers, and other insects use native grasses as host plants. My prairie garden swarms with skippers and other butterflies in summer and into fall.

EDIT 2/26/26 -- I filled, sowed, and taped the milk jugs. This potting soil was wet enough that it didn't need watering. I thought I had some topsoil left, but I'm out of that; I'll need to restock in March. I put the four new jugs in the parking lot and tied them together.

While I was out there, a honeybee buzzed around, wishing to pollinate me, perhaps attracted to my bright coat. I had to explain that I was not a flower.

I've seen more sparrows and two male cardinals.

EDIT 2/26/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 2/26/26 -- I set up a simple worm bin in the log garden's leaf enclosure. I used an old 5-gallon bucket with a cracked bottom and a hole in one side. This will allow worms to go in and out as they please. I put some leaves inside to start, and packed more leaves around the bucket. Now I have somewhere that I can drop food scraps for the worms to eat, and cover with a handful of leaves. This gives me a place that will likely have plenty of worms when I want them -- such as for dropping into large planters -- and also where I can take a handful of very bioactive material to jump-start pots filled with potting mix with little or no bioactivity. When the bucket gets full, I can dump out the worm castings to use for fertilizing plants, sort out some worms, restart the bucket with more leaf litter, and drop in the worms.

There are, of course, commercially made worm bins that are much fancier and allow access to more outputs. However, these are expensive. Also they trap the worms inside, which is not great for an outdoor setup. This is free and better suited to its situation.

EDIT 2/26/26 -- I picked up the empty trough from last year's mini-water garden and moved it to the log garden, where I surrounded it with extra logs. I have taken pictures of the worm bin and the water garden.

EDIT 2/26/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I heard a woodpecker drumming but didn't see it. I have seen a fox squirrel up a tree.

I am done for the night.

This year I'm doing Community Thursdays. Some of my activity will involve maintaining communities I run, and my favorites. Some will involve checking my list of subscriptions and posting in lower-traffic ones. Today I have interacted with the following communities...

* Posted "Garden Tips" in everykindofcraft.

* Commented in fanfics.

* Commented in fanifesto.

Today is sunny, chilly, and calm -- much nicer than yesterday! :D

I fed the birds. I haven't seen any yet though.

I put out water for the birds.

The snow crocuses are open again.

EDIT 2/25/26 -- I trimmed the north edge of the wildflower garden. Previously I did the west edge.

The male catkins on the hazelnut bush are beginning to open up, but the tiny red female flowers aren't open yet.

EDIT 2/25/26 -- I trimmed the east edge of the wildflower garden.

EDIT 2/25/26 -- I trimmed the south edge of the wildflower garden. I'll still need to clear the middle and rake off the loose leaves, but that's less urgent since the spring flowers will emerge near the edges. In the process, I uncovered the dark purple leaves of a penstemon that I planted last year. :D It won't bloom for quite a while yet, as these are usually late spring to early summer flowers, but already it makes a lovely accent in the bed. The leaves are only about half the size of my hand, but the whole plant is easily a foot across.

In the savanna, the first of the snowdrops have flower buds, but none have opened yet.

EDIT 2/25/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I've seen a large flock of sparrows, a mourning dove, and a fox squirrel.

EDIT 2/25/26 -- I have many dozens of fruit tree seeds just starting to sprout in their bags of damp sand in the fridge. I decided to try putting some outdoors in water jug pots. I have the jugs cut, labeled, filled, and sown with seeds. I still need to tape the seams closed and move the jugs out to the parking lot. I put 5 seeds in each jug. The varieties are Pink Apple, Johnathan Apple, Ginger Gold Apple, and Yellow Pear.

EDIT 2/25/26 -- I taped the seams, then moved the jugs to the parking lot. There I set them in a square with the handles facing inwards, then looped some salvaged string through the handles to secure them. This way, they're less likely to get knocked over. Finally I watered them a little bit.

Daffodils and snowdrops are sprouting in the parking lot. I need to try moving these so they don't get killed by later parking lot work.

EDIT 2/25/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I've seen a male cardinal.

I am done for the night.

Negative Social Ties as Emerging Risk Factors for Accelerated Aging, Inflammation, and Multimorbidity

Negative social ties, or "hasslers," are pervasive yet understudied components of social networks that may accelerate biological aging and morbidity. Using ego-centric network data and DNA methylationbased biological aging clocks from a representative Indiana sample, we demonstrate that negative social ties are surprisingly common: on average, one in four network members is described as a hassler, and nearly 60% of individuals report having at least one. Results show that having more hasslers is associated with accelerated biological aging, with the most pronounced associations observed among individuals whose networks comprise more than 50% hasslers. Crucially, not all negative ties show the same influence: ambivalent ties providing both support and stress show stronger aging acceleration than exclusively negative relationships. Beyond epigenetic aging, hassling exposure is associated with poorer self-rated health, higher levels of depression and anxiety, elevated inflammation, greater multimorbidity, and adverse anthropometric indicators. These findings together highlight the critical role of negative social ties in biological aging as chronic stressors and the need for interventions that reduce the impact of negative social stressors embedded within close social networks to promote healthier aging trajectories.


Loneliness may have high risks, but it is often better than being harassed or outright abused. It's nice to have positive social ties, but they only help if they really are positive.