DIY seedling pots

Because the *&^% voles were eating or killing (by tunneling around) our corn seedlings, hubby wanted to try germinating the corn in little peat pots instead of directly into the ground. But, you know, those things ain't cheap.

Another option would be to make our own biodegradable pots. We've seen ads for little wooden paper pot makers that are beautiful and, we're sure, work nicely, but it bothered hubby to pay $20 for two little hunks of wood.

So, I tried to duplicate the process by using a small round jar, but they just didn't sit right because the bottoms were bunched funny.

It was then that my super-powers at origami came to the rescue. *snort*

I have a small book on origami that I bought about 22 years ago.

I've since bought several more origami books but this one remains my favorite for its simplicity and color photos.

I used the instructions to make a vase

and produced cute little boxes that sit flat:

I used newsprint that I got from our local newspaper (they sell roll ends for really cheap) because we'd prefer not to have the ink from printed newspapers in our soil.

I'm so pleased that origami can be done for something useful. I used to make pretty, but useless, things like flowers instead....like this lily (hubby still has several of the ones I made in his office; it's sweet).

Because I don't want to violate copyright laws by showing you the instructions from this book (although I recommend getting a copy of it if you can find it; it may be long out-of-print), if you want to make a similar origami vase/pot, I suggest you find instructions at Origami Instructions.

Do you make your own germination pots or use peat pots or neither?

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

A variety of things

First of all, the first 2 photos are in response to Gracefruit's post asking about one's favorite pots and pans. This top one is a cast iron chicken fryer that is good for pretty much everything we need to fry.This next one is an all-purpose 6.5 quart pasta pot that boils water really fast. It's light-weight so I'm thinking it's aluminum with a stainless steel coating. I think we'll be really sad if it ever broke for some reason.We spent a good part of the day yesterday processing apples and peppers to dehydrate them. I washed everything, dh sliced, and the kids ran the apple peeler as well as placed the slices on the dehydrator trays.Here are the peppers, all dried and shrivelled.The kids, bagging them up.Well, back to cleaning bathrooms...

"Happiness depends upon ourselves." ~ Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)