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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 1h

There's another way to approach this -- make the pockets part of the patch itself.

Photo of large red rectangular embroidered patch, red with white "Canada" lettering.

View of underside of the Canada patch. There are pieces of 1" velcro sewn on to make an enclosed area below the patch.
A blue plastic Umo transit card is partly inserted into the velcro compartment.

Photo of the large Canada patch attached to a big square of tan-coloured velcro loop, that's been sewn onto a backpack accommodate patches.

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 1h

I added these black velcro strips (also the soft/loop side) to my cargo vest a couple of years ago. They seem to work just fine and are very secure -- haven't lost the items sealed under the embroidered patches yet.

Close-up photo showing two horizontal black velcro loop (soft) attached to a black vest pocket. A hand is reaching to open the slot between them.

Photo showing two large embroidered patches (the Ghostbusters and Hellboy BPRD logos) with velcro hook backing, attached over the slit between the horizontal pieces of black velcro loop that create the hidden pocket,

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 1h

#TapirCrafts I've experimented with a couple of ways to carry small items out of the way but still accessible. Velcro hook and loop with adhesive backing can be very useful, but if you get the sew-on type like this you can make extra pockets to stash things like emergency cash, credit card, or a key

Photo showing orange-red anorak with pieces of 2" wide red velcro loop (soft side) attached to the left breast and the chest pocket in front. There are large embroidered patches temporarily attached to the velcro.
Each velcro piece consists of two horizontal 2" velcro strips, of the same length. White arrows on the photo show where to stitch the velcro onto the garment -- around the edges, excluding the ones that meet in the middle of the patch.

Photo showing chest area where the two velcro strips are attached. A Canadian $5 bill is partially inserted, showing the unattached edges of the strips in the middle

Close-up photo of the two horizontal velcro pieces over the left breast. A plastic transit card is partly-inserted into the slit between the velcro pieces. The large embroidered patch showing an Indigenous raven has been detached and is resting higher up.

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 1h

Mom or Dad because the staff are overworked).

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 1h

Besides the job, there's also the unpaid stuff at workplaces (organizing events like holiday parties or charity fundraisers etc.), and the "task creep" if you're looking after school-age kids (volunteers for extracurriculars) or elders (pressure for families to come around regularly and feed/bathe

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 2h

I got one of these dough whisks when I went past Lee Valley Tools for the bike counts last week. Despite the name, these ones are actually made in Poland. I think this biscotti recipe may be in the future! I'm pretty sure I have a bottle of anise oil. www.allrecipes.com/recipe/17241...

Screen cap of Lee Valley Tools listing for Danish dough whisks. Photo shows two implements with long wooden handles and multiple loops of heavy-duty steel wire. They are resting across a stainless steel bowl that has some dough in it.
Source:
https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/kitchen/cooking-utensils/whisks/69506-danish-dough-whisks

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Reposted by Lisa Kadonaga

Mike Rothschild @rothschildmd.bsky.social · 9h

The completely coordinated and manufactured "James Talarico in rehab" fake story is proof that the far right knows he's a real threat to win in Texas. There's no reason to run such a massive smear campaign against a guy with no shot. He's a threat, and they're scared as hell.

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 5h

I don't think it's good advice -- so, carry on with the nap!

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Michael de Adder @deadder.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Full throttle by @deAdder Substack: deadder.substack.com/p/full-throt...

Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 6h

p.s. the salmon cakes recipe (with the 2 cans) makes about 30. The barberry meatballs -- I forgot to write down the weight of the family-sized package of ground pork, but the tray measures about 26 cm long x 21 wide by 3 deep. A lot depends on the meatball size, but I got about 4 dozen out of it.

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 7h

I was so busy rushing around getting everything arranged on tables etc. that I didn't realize at first ... I imagined my glasses lying on the road, getting flattened by cars, but it would have been rude to jump up and rush out of the middle of the memorial service, in front of the grieving widow.

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 7h

When I was getting out of my landlord's car with the food, my new eyeglasses in their case fell out of my pocket. Later on my landlord found them on top of the car. I guess some kind passerby noticed them on the sidewalk and put them up there so they wouldn't get stepped on. Thanks!

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 7h

and got lost in the darkened streets behind the Legislature when he was trying to remember where he'd parked. People seemed to like the salmon cakes -- the widow asked if she could take some of the leftovers home after, which given the situation is a huge compliment. Recipe in the alt-text.

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 7h

#TapirCrafts We were asked to bring "finger foods" to the memorial for our late neighbour yesterday. It was a pretty long day, 6 hours (including setting up before, and me washing dishes etc. after). Plus my landlord and I drove around looking for one of the attendees, who has cognitive issues

Photo showing a pair of red silicone baking trays, each with a dozen round depressions (2" across and about 0.5"deep).They're sitting on a shallow steel baking tray.
Each depression is filled with batter, and there's a green sprig of parsley or basil leaf sitting on top as decoration.

Recipe -- Salmon Cakes for Bill
(modified from Joy of Cooking "salmon puffs"

Pre-heat oven to 350F
Take approximately 2 cups canned salmon, skin and bones removed if possible. (I used 2 cans of Cloverleaf pink, 150 g -- so the volume doesn't have to be exact.)
Stir in 1 cup breadcrumbs (I used local Polestar Bakery white sourdough, though French or even regular white bread would probably work too)
*Variant -- 50/50 bread and crushed dill-flavoured potato chips, I used Old Dutch Creamy Dill.
Stir in 2 Tbsp lime or lemon juice, and 2 Tbsp melted butter

Season to taste (I added white pepper)

In a separate bowl, beat together 2 eggs and 1 C milk.
Stir this into salmon mixture. It doesn't have to be totally smooth, but the smaller lumps should be broken up.

Pour the batter into a silicone baking tray with cup indentations, or a regular well-greased/oiled tray.
The book said to bake 45 min, but these shallow 0.5-inch cups only took about 25 minutes. They were light brown, above and below.

Photo of an earlier batch of cakes, showing a pair of red silicone baking trays, each with a dozen round depressions (2" across and about 0.5"deep).They're sitting on a shallow steel baking tray.
Each depression in the left-hand tray is filled with batter, and on the right-hand tray some of the depressions are empty, showing how shallow they are.
The cakes have already been baked (this time I sprinkled some dried parsley on top).

Photo showing a stainless frying pan with a round metal cake rack sitting in it. On the rack, a bunch of meatballs (about 1 to 1.5" in diameter) have been placed. The meatballs have small dried red berries (barberries) mixed into them.
They've just come out of the oven so the meat is a bit browned, and fat has dripped down from the rack onto the metal frying pan surface below.

Barberry Meatballs

One family-sized tray of regular ground pork
Blend in 2 Tbsp of crushed fennel seeds, dried thyme to taste (maybe 1-2 Tbsp?), black pepper, a couple Tbsp lime or lemon juice, 0.5 C of dried barberries
(I used a couple Tbsp of dried onion flakes, though finely chopping and frying fresh onions would probably work too. Though these are optional, in case people are allergic or don't like them. I also decided not to use eggs or breadcrumbs, in case of allergies.)

You can let the mixture sit overnight to mix the flavours, or just have it in the fridge for half an hour then roll it into balls 1" or a bit more across. It'll shrink a bit when it's baking. If you're going to use these as finger food on toothpicks, you probably won't want them to be too big in case they're difficult to eat.

Pre-heat oven to 400 F -- they should take about 15-18 minutes to cook through. (A lower cooking temperature means they're in the oven longer and could dry out.)

I decided to put the meatballs up on a rack so some of the fat could drip through and then be disposed of, but it's not super-important.

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 8h

Hooray! The flowers are very pretty. I looked them up -- I guess they're also dispersed by wild birds. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsicu...

en.wikipedia.org

Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum - Wikipedia

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 8h

back indoors because the temp could go down to 6 deg C tonight. I planted some more seeds on Oct 2, just to see if I can grow them through the low-light months of the winter. (These are mail-ordered from a company in Nova Scotia.) www.incredibleseeds.ca/collections/...

incredibleseeds.ca

Peppers Hot

Heirloom Heritage Open Pollinated Hot Pepper Seeds great for organic gardens in Canada available from Incredible Seeds, a Canadian seed company located in Nova Scotia, Canada.

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 8h

They're in 4" pots and would probably be bushier if I used larger ones, but I was curious to see how they'd do in very small containers. Given that, I was surprised they put out this many fruits. They've been outside for months to take advantage of a sunny SW-facing wall. I decided to bring them

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 8h

They are probably as tall as they're going to get. The mini Thai Hot pepper on the left is a few weeks younger than the Matchbox pepper, still flowering. Its fruit isn't quite as long as the SE Asian bird's eye peppers used in Laos etc., but I wanted tiny peppers and I seem to have them now.

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 8h

#TapirCrafts update -- I planted a couple of these mini hot peppers this summer. A bit later than usual, because I ran out of windowsill space and had to wait until I could move those other plants outside. I wanted to see if I could grow actual hot peppers in a 4" pot, so I didn't transplant up.

Photo of two small hot pepper plants in 4" green plastic pots, sitting on a wooden stair rail with the white stucco side of a house in the background.
The Matchbox pepper plant on the left is about 45 cm (18") tall, with a half-dozen finger-sized chili peppers that are starting to ripen to red.
The mini Thai Hot pepper on the left is about 35 cm (14") tall, with tiny green 1-2 cm green peppers and some white flowers.

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 9h

I'm pretty sure it was a Frantics radio sketch where a guy is bragging to his skeptical friend about training his dog to mix Manhattans, and at one point has to remind the canine "stir them, don't shake!"

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 12h

Hope you're feeling better soon!

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 12h

with my grandparents. My cousin's named after him.) But there are plenty of Americans who suffered and even died during the Red Scare. And now McCarthy's spiritual descendants are cozy with Putin, and the GOP isn't saying a word about it. Hypocrites!

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 12h

It's oddly funny that he'd rather be seen climbing into bed with the Russians, than teaming up with the Canadian prime minister. The irony -- people's careers were ruined (and worse) by the merest suspicion that they might be Communist sympathizers. (Like this guy whose family was friends

en.wikipedia.org

E. Herbert Norman - Wikipedia

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 12h

Nice -- though it's pretty far north (and inland) so the winters are long and dark. I remember some of the people working at the port of Churchill, around the same latitude, told me they'd go to Mexico after the shipping season ended. If you keep an apartment in Arizona ...

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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 10/10/2026

Happy Italian Heritage Month, New York. Here’s continuing to fight for Vito Marcantonio’s vision of a government that works for all working people.

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

I guess some of these old crop varieties were useful after all!

Diagram shaped a bit like a tree, with broad branches and skinny roots. The top indicates the number of varieties of various crops available from commercial seed suppliers around 1903.
At the bottom are the number of these varieties in storage at the National Seed Storage Laboratory (indicated name change in 2001 to the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation).
For example, the number of tomato varieties went from 408 to 79.

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Dale Chapman 🍁 @decmusicology.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

We have a winner lol

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

If I went to a comedy show and a performer said something like this, I'd be sitting there silently looking at them. Waiting for a suitable moment so I could leave. And this guy is a head of state, talking to his constituents.

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Yes -- they're far enough north to be into the peat bogs, and apparently some of the fires burned all winter, under the snow.

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

in my bathroom so he can have some peace and quiet (away from my landlady's cat). With luck her husband will be able to drive the bird to the local wildlife clinic tomorrow. They're outside of town so it'll be less stressful for the bird than me going on multiple buses.

spca.bc.ca

Wild Animal Rehabilitation Centre (Wild ARC)

Treating 3,000 wild animals annually, the Wild Animal Rehabilitation Centre, or Wild ARC, is the only wildlife rehab centre on Southern Vancouver Island.

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

We have to go to a neighbour's memorial later today, and I had put the last batch of salmon cakes into the oven when my landlady came down in a panic. A "fancy bird" had crashed into the living room window. I think it's a varied thrush. Picked him up with a towel and put him in a cardboard box

allaboutbirds.org

Varied Thrush Identification, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

The Varied Thrush’s simple, ringing song gives a voice to the quiet forests of the Pacific Northwest, with their towering conifers and wet understories of ferns, shrubs, and mosses. Catch a glimpse of...

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I'm just imagining Ike's reaction if he heard about this.

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Mike Rothschild @rothschildmd.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Most Americans don't want civil war or martial law. Not for Trump or any other politician. We want to raise our families and live our lives and watch football and be left alone. This isn't Paris in 1789. We want suburban boredom, not to storm barricades. People are tired of this and want it to stop.

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I wanted to compliment David Horsey on the detail of not showing a twin-rutted road in the cartoon. (This anachronism often shows up in movies and TV shows set in the pre-automobile era. In reality the ground between the wheels would be churned up by the hooves of the draft animals.)

One-panel colour cartoon by David Horsey. It shows a rural landscape with a dirt road leading out of frame to the right, over grassy hills towards rock outcrops with scattered conifers, and mountains on the horizon.
A wooden cart with solid wheels, labelled "AI Regulation" is drawn by an ox labelled "Congress", with a medieval peasant in a hooded cloak holding the reins. Overhead a missile labelled "AI" is jetting past.

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I've never been -- it's pretty far up north. My former landlady was up there for some kind of community consultation work, back in the 90s. Though I've heard that the town's had some economic issues since then (affected by the 2008 crisis, when the mills shut down).

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Too bad there isn't a character limit for this very limited character.

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Bill Day @billdayart.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

UNDERWATER GOP

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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

This is a disaster. The ethics committee in Denmark that approved the Guinea-Bissau study which will withhold the birth dose of HepB vaccine “had never considered medical studies before but it changed the rules in order to vote on this one”. Four members of the committee have resigned in protest.

theguardian.com

Controversial vaccine trial touted by RFK Jr gets go-ahead in Guinea-Bissau

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Reposted by Lisa Kadonaga

Hoodlum 🇺🇸 @nothoodlum.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Nailed it. 🔨

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

p.s. one advantage to trimming the point this way is that it leaves the last hole in the knife handle free for a lanyard.

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

This is the first pocketknife I've owned with a "flipper" (the projection at the blade base that helps with opening). Push down with your index finger, and use the thumb stud to open the blade the rest of the way. I can see that this could be useful if you only have one hand free to open it.

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

The Gordon skeleton knife has been featured in a lot of "discount EDC knife review" videos in recent years. There are some complaints that the manufacturing isn't consistent, and some people got models with stiff pivots that don't open single-handed. I guess I got lucky because it works for me.

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

By the way, this specialty metal file (double cut on one side for fast removal of material, and single cut on the other for accurate smoothing) is for sharpening garden tools, and is good for projects like this.

leevalley.com

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

The knife was in fairly good condition though the previous owner had sharpened it at some time. It took me a couple of hours to saw through the blade with a carbide hacksaw, and another day or so to reshape the shortened tip into a blunted shape. I then resharpened the whole thing.

Photo showing opened knife on a countertop, blade pointing to the right. A solid metal clip is visible mounted on the handle, fastened near the base of the blade. A piece of masking tape has been installed on the edge of the blade, to protect it (and me) during hacksaw and file use.
The tip of the blade has been sawn off.

Photos from eBay listing, showing the knife as posted by the seller. In the main photo it's partially opened so the blade is at a right angle to the handle, and the original clip point is visible.

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Lisa Kadonaga @tapirtrouble.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Another knife modification. I trimmed this secondhand Gordon type so the clipped tip isn't as pointy. This is a common mod for knives that may be used in unstable situations like onboard small boats, or as a beginner tool for a child, or if you're using it in public settings. #TapirCrafts

Photo of 3" Gordon (Harbor Freight) skeleton-frame matte steel utility knife, opened on countertop. It's pointing to the left. A thumb stud and flipper (extension at the base of the blade that aids in one-handed opening) are visible.
The tip of the knife has been altered, removing the clip point and giving a more sheepsfoot (blunter) appearance.

Ad for Gordon 3 in. Skeleton Frame Pocket Knife, labelled "ends Sep 30 2021". It has a photo with the open knife, showing the sweeping clip-tip.

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