Did you know?

[Aggie]

Did You Know. People used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken & Sold to the tannery.......if you had to do this to survive you were "Piss Poor"
But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn't even afford to buy a pot......they "didn't have a pot to piss in" & were the lowest of the low
The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be.
Here are some facts about the 1500s:
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June.. However, since they were starting to smell . ...... . Brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting Married.
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water!"
Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof... Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."
There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, "Dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence: a thresh hold.
In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire.. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old. Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, "bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would Sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial.. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.
England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive... So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer.
And that's the truth....Now, whoever said History was boring?

[Aggie]

Cinnamon isn't just for the kitchen. Here are 6+ reasons to use cinnamon in your garden (You can get Cinnamon at the Doller Tree for this purpose )
1. Deter ants
Cinnamon will actually kill ants. The powdery substance will suffocate the bugs when inhaled. The aroma can also make it hard for ants to smell food sources, but it's nontoxic for kids and pets. Win, win!
2. Defeat fungus
When you sprinkle ground cinnamon on soil, it kills fungi. The cinnamon targets surface-level fungi, so you might need to use other solutions in addition to this one. You can use cinnamon to kill wild mushrooms too.
3. Protect seedlings from disease
The antifungal properties in cinnamon make it a great tool for protecting seedlings from rot and disease, also known as damping off. Keeping moisture at bay is key; dusting the seeds with cinnamon and using a doming tactic can protect the seeds until they grow.
4. Root and graft plants
You can make your roses (or other plants) sturdier after cutting and replanting by first dipping them in cinnamon powder, which works like a rooting hormone, a bit. The cinnamon kills off the competition, so to speak, so that your flower can grow better.
5. Heal sick plants
Try sprinkling cinnamon on a plant wound (from cutting or other damage) to speed up the healing process and protect it from further damage or disease.
6. Keep mosquitoes away from the garden
Sprinkle a bit of cinnamon around your plants to keep mosquitoes and other bugs away. They don't like the strong smell of cinnamon, so you can enjoy your garden (even at night) in peace.

[Aggie]

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[Aggie]

[Aggie]

[Aggie]

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[Aggie]

A dime has 118 ridges around the edge. A quarter has 119.

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[Aggie]

If aliens came to earth, what would be the most difficult thing to explain to them about humanity?
(Note: this concept is blatantly stolen from Yuval Noah Harari in “Sapiens”).
-Do you have your report on the planet?
-Aye, sir, we’ve identified the dominant species.
-You’re telling me that this is the life form that rules the earth?
-Oh, indeed, sir. A very successful one, too. In a few thousand years, they went from being a local grass strain to dominating a large chunk of the planet.
-But how is that possible, they appear to be immobile.
-They are, but a few thousand years ago, they domesticated a bipedal ape-species to do their bidding. At the end of their life cycle, they pay the apes with their seeds, which the apes then use as food. The arrangement has been exceptionally lucrative for the wheat. The apes go crazy for those grains, they spend their entire lives trying to get more of it. They not only carry the seeds from place to place, but they exert huge amounts of labor to create a perfect environment for their overlords: removing rocks from the soil, picking every plant that could compete with them, even chopping down forests to give them more sunlight and diverting rivers to provide them with ample water. Then they fetch animal waste in large quantities and carry it to the wheat to nourish them.
-But how do the wheat stalks enforce this if they can’t move.
-They don’t, really, they just refuse to produce grains until they get their way, so they humans do whatever they demand. They’re well trained at this point, most don’t even question it anymore.
-Isn’t that hard on the apes?
-Heavens, yes. They had to devote huge numbers of their own population to carry out all these tasks, and many of them were physically broken, injured or killed in the process. But they apes know their place, sir. They work for the wheat and they consider it to be a noble calling.
-But wait, you said that this was a technological society.
-Oh, indeed. The apes have become so dependent on the wheat that they’ve developed a whole infrastructure to spread and protect it. They learned to make metal implements so they could prepare the ground and harvest their reward. Then they captured other animals to help them with the tasks. Then they created fuel-burning engines so they could spread their wheat overlords still further. Eventually, the feces they shoveled wasn’t sufficient, so they developed chemical methods to keep their overlords fed and nurtured. In fact, they maintain rather extensive production facilities, making compounds that are dangerous and toxic to themselves, because the wheat wants it. At this point, the wheat dominates lands across the world, far away from their initial homeland, because the apes have been so diligent and aggressive in building their colonies.
-Interesting. It’s rare to see servants with that kind of devotion. The wheat’s ability to inspire loyalty is truly impressive. We should seek to make contact as soon as possible. There is much we can learn from them.

[flippr 2.0]

obey the wheat.