iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 4h

I don’t want to quote this reply to a thread on youth sports but I’m the admin of a youth sports team serving ages 5-18 and I see no evidence of anyone - at least within my team’s sport - asking kids to specialize at age 4. We don’t even ask the high schoolers to specialize.

Screenshot of a reply to a post about youth sports: Yup. The rest of the kids activities are becoming the same. Forcing kids to specialize (or even pick "their" activity) at 4 is a major major problem.

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Even more questions on why Iowa! www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...

Broking said Mesabi intends to submit permit applications for the new plant to the state by the end of the year. But it's also considering building outside Minnesota. The company currently has about 20 jobs posted for a proposed DRI and steel plant in Paducah, Ky.
Broking told MPR News that Mesabi is exploring several locations for possible "downstream facilities," including on the Iron Range.
But he told the Itasca County Board that in order for Mesabi to make such a large investment in Minnesota, the company needs a faster state-level environmental permitting process.
"For an investment where we're going to decarbonize the steel industry, where everything that we're doing is about sustainability, there must be a way to get things like this done efficiently," Broking said.
In addition, Broking said the company needs more competitive state incentives, and the return of mineral leases that Minnesota stripped from Essar after it failed to meet contractual agreements.

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Something about me is that I’ve never been to Florida (and I intend to keep it that way)

A map of the states of the U.S. showing Florida as a never-visited state

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

MSP & MN folks, is there a good place to donate extremely good condition vintage items? I don’t want to send these late 60s items to the thrift store if there’s a theatre dept somewhere that can use them. My MIL tagged & dated two bins full of 40s-80s vintage clothing before her passing, I have more

A stack of vintage afghans from the late 1960s

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

The scale on the loon is really large, I think it would work better if reduced? Fully agreed on a powder room!

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

@wxdave.bsky.social thought you’d appreciate this - I found a monarch caterpillar while weeding the garden a couple of weeks ago. Daughter brought it inside, made it a cozy little home, and it hatched yesterday!

A mason jar monarch butterfly house filled with milkweed and a freshly hatched butterfly inside

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

In this company’s defense, they have a lot of niche patterns (I’m totally using the lupine one on a future project):

A large scale wallpaper pattern depicting lupines

An extra large wallpaper pattern depicting common loons on water

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Incredible things happening in the world of wallpaper right now (for people lacking good taste)

A watercolor-esque wallpaper pattern depicting the Blue Horizon Refinery

A wallpaper pattern depicting the Houston skyline

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Unbothered by smoke No concerns of cyclosporiasis from his salad bar Completely thriving

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

I want to meet these gardeners, because I’m in 4b and most of my lettuce looks like this, and what’s under shade cloth and hasn’t already bolted is bitter as hell. I’m going to shine in September though, watch out (I weeded after I took this pic, the situation was dire)

Some extra lettuce heads that I planted outside of shade cloth bolting in the morning sun, bordered by weeds that hadn’t been touched in a month

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Iron Range glimmer moment: when you’re driving on 169 and “Lay, Lady, Lay” by Bob Dylan queues up right when you’re passing by the Hull Rust mine and the Iron Man in Chisholm

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Related to sweet & spicy, I recently saw these in Canada and kind of regret not buying them

A bag of Old Dutch Canadian potato chips, Hot Honey Pizza flavo(u)red

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

@irisandmaeve.bsky.social finally got to visit Tropes & Trifles today - look who we found hanging out there! My daughter was very happy - thanks for the tip

A very cute fluffy dog hanging out on a sofa at a romance bookstore in Mpls

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

This headstone is in the cemetery of the church I grew up attending - this family lost a set of twins, one child from another set of twins, and I believe another older child. I can’t imagine.

Headstone of multiple Peterson twins who died as children in the early 1900s

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

*stares at this weekend’s Strib, blinking slowly*

Stacked screenshots of recent Star Tribune articles titled “With agents on their streets, Twin Cities suburbs scramble with little information from ICE” with an accompanying thumbnail showing federal agents raiding a residential construction suburban new build and “How to find quality contractors for a new roof” with an accompanying thumbnail of a roofing crew on the roof of a house

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

You know what, Two Harbors is in the IRRRB service area, so yeah - technically it kind of is.

Map or the IRRRB’s Taconite Assistance Area

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

I’m envious of all the ways MSP folks are stepping up for one another, like the volunteer laundry service. Every new announcement has me like the Soviet guy in the hospital window. Meanwhile, at the edge of the burbs: solo patrols and mutual aid network establishment moving at a glacial pace.

"A Child Was Born", 1977. Photograph: Sergey
Vasilyev.

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Santa out here on the Kash Patel special (Yes I did just finally de-Christmas today, thanks)

A Santa shaped glass Christmas tree ornament with tweaker eyes

Santa wants to rip the copper out of your house

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

Fellow Russian bots, repost with an obscure proof of life in MN.

The poster’s shoulder and clavicle, in front of a window with snowy trees in the background

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

I know they probably don’t care about blending in, but kind of amusing that this guy is in ground zero for the region of MN with camo hats and work boots and he just blew his cover anyway Is he off his shift at Minntac? Ope, nope

Screenshot of an alert about an agent being at an Iron Range home improvement store

Dork ass agent who is clearly from out of town looking confused in a Menards

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

They could’ve walked literally two blocks from the Pickle to one of the shops in town and interviewed the owner (my wedding photographer!) who stocks the shop with cheeky progressive items like this:

A red ball cap with white embroidery that says “Tylenol made me autistic”

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

Definitely do not recommend combining grieving and funeral planning with local and national current events Zero stars

The bro I’m straight up not having a good time meme

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

At a drive thru lights display and a staff member asked me if I wanted a roadie. Wisconsin!

A hillside full of trees wrapped in Christmas lights at a Wisconsin farm, with a line of cars driving through

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

Quietly ordered my own birthday cake this year, because I saw it and liked it and I’m a grown up and I can do what I want. It’s lingonberry! A lingonbirthday cake!

A lingonberry layer cake with a spring of candied rosemary on top

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

An ode to my washer, which died yesterday: Goodbye washing machine You lasted 17 years You washed my kid's cloth diapers And a couple of spilled beers You survived longer than expected In a planned obsolescence world I didn't want to replace you this week But that's what the universe unfurled

A messy laundry room, an old LG front loader washer with a bad drain pump, and a bunch of wet towels from cleaning up the overflow from manually draining said washer

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

The injection sites on her lips are janked, but that office decor might be worse. Girl, WYD, at least push those lamps away from the edge of the mantel.

Karoline Leavitt in her office in front of a fireplace with two chinoiserie lamps teetering at the edge of the mantel

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

I saw this at KBIS a couple of years ago and have much to say. First, you're limited to porcelain or sintered stone for counters, and both are hard to fabricate well. Second, I could see the appeal in a small kitchen but the control panel eats a full drawer. Third, how TF is this cooking friendly?

touchscreen control panel of the invisicook mounted inside a drawer

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

Shout out to St. Joseph’s Indian School for this alarming plea that seems like it was created in a lab specifically for Catholic ladies with dementia

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

This is what my mother-in-law’s mail looks like after cutting an annual check to her diocese for the last two decades. Toward the end of her time living alone, she thought they were bills that needed to be paid.

A stack of mail from nine various charities asking for donations

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

My brain is short circuiting looking at this NWS expected snowfall map for the western UP. That is a lot of snow for a short window of time.

A NWS expected snowfall map of northern WI and the far western counties up MI’s UP showing an expected snowfall range of 28-41” for ironwood, MI/Hurley, WI

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Important update: not sure what’s going on here, but I feel like whoever runs the print shop might have a couple of stories about this person

A vinyl banner hanging in a yard that reads “LOVE will lead the WAY” next to a hanging American flag

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

My favorite part of the drive to my husband’s hometown

A two lane highway in northern MN surrounded by fir and poplar and towering white pine trees

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

I have no idea what happened today but here is a cat sleeping in the sun next to some pumpkins

A dark gray and white cat snoozing peacefully inside a greenhouse on a sunny afternoon, nestled next to some pie pumpkins, on top of a burlap covered table

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

Happy Reformation Sunday to the Lutherans wearing red, drinking weak coffee, and waiting for the organist to drop the bass on A Mighty Fortress like Jason Mendoza at a Skrillex concert

A Lutheran church worship note page with the closing hymn (A Mighty Fortress is our God) circled

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

Here’s a crappy picture I took through the windshield of Hwy 4 between Duluth and Biwabik. Caught the poplar/tamarack peak color overlap and it was lovely.

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

Best smell in the world? Baby heads Second best smell in the world? Pine duff

The base of a very large white pine tree. The ground is blanketed with pine duff. In the background is a creek and cedar trees.

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

There is so much more! If anyone ever read the texts between me and my friend (who also left the studio, source for townie insider info), they’d be have to block out a day just to process

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

With grocery prices climbing, every garden harvest after average first frost date feels like winning the lotto. Dropped a batch off at the food shelf to share the wealth. 🌱

A sink of freshly washed baby sweet orange peppers, red bell peppers, and hilariously thicc and stumpy carrots

A garden basket full of kinda raggy looking late season tomatoes (paste, slicing, and beefsteak); a bowl of cherry tomatoes; a bowl of currant tomatoes with some unusual cherry tomatoes mixed in

Mason jar vases full of freshly picked basil

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

Like they were tailor made for this exact look!

Late 80s/early 90s Dolly Parton wearing purple eyeshadow

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ye olde prickle factory @pricklipear.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

I need you to 1) see this vintage Western Heritage suit I saw at an occasional boutique this weekend and then 2) think about who exactly would be able to tell you anything while wearing it (answer: nobody)

A tomato red vintage Western Heritage pantsuit hanging on hanger. The jacket has wide lapels, white piping, white embroidery, and nobody could tell you nothin if you wore it

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