Katie | Salt & Rook

A ladybug on Joe Pye Weed

Green lacewing on Joe Pye Weed

Joe Pye Weed is the life of the garden party. Ladybugs AND lacewings 🐞

Heading into spring #2 for the deer-resistant dry shade garden. They ate some jacob's ladder and peony buds but otherwise left things alone. Now I'm working on the dry full-sun garden. Added sage, artemisia, mountain mint, and salvia. Will add a vibernum, too.

I use Snapchat with some friends! Or group texts. Most of my friends are either parents to young kids or have successful careers (many are doing both) and don't have time to keep up with new tech 🫣

K

Another day, another reminder of why I quit most social media to focus on my real life 😂

I never once said scientists knew everything, but you're acting like you do. Don't be upset with me because you didn't understand the study that you quoted to me to support your thin argument. Maybe get off the Internet for a minute before spreading misinformation. What a weird hill to die on.

Also, I tried an NHA mouthwash but recently had to give it a break because I had an allergic reaction to it! Which was a surprise to me. I'm all for having alternatives for toothpaste, filtering out fluoride from water if they choose, etc. But I trust the public health experts on this one.

Fluoride and IQ A newly released report from the National Institutes of Health says fluoride in drinking water at twice the recommended limit is associated with lower IQ in children.

Here's what that study actually says: "A newly released report from the National Institutes of Health says fluoride in drinking water at *twice the recommended limit* is associated with lower IQ in children." (Emphasis mine). Here's an NPR article that discusses it: www.npr.org/2024/08/23/n...

Right. It's a combination of factors. But fluoride helps when habits (whether diet, hygiene, or both) fail. And you could still have teeth that are resistant to cavities even if your parents did not. I have green eyes even though both my parents have blue eyes. Genetics are fun like that.

You are probably benefitting from a combo of good genetics AND hygiene practices. For those who don't have the first two (one is luck; the other, education, money, and access to care), fluoridated water can literally be a lifesaver.

Elevating this thread. If implemented, this would be a disaster on so many levels: for universities, for healthcare professionals, and - of course - for anyone who needs healthcare (aka, all of us)

Thank you ☺️ I realize there's (waves around) a lot going on but I am excited about our cabinets! Not so excited about finding out the price of cherry plywood once we're able to get it supplied 😬

Here's a bit more about what this space looked like before, and our in-depth post about the kitchen in the early stages of our slow renovation. saltandrook.com/2023/02/05/s...

To the left: a photo from a kitchen in a large historical estate with wood drawers and glass front cabinets. To the right: a digital rendering of wood cabinets in an early 20th central style.

Kitchen cabinet rendering on the right, inspiration on the left. We have cherry lumber on hand but are still sourcing cherry plywood (🙃). Going a bit off-script from a typical early 20th century kitchen, but not too fancy. #oldhouselove

A kitchen ceiling with 3 different styles of lights.

A reminder that you absolutely DO NOT need can lights for a kitchen. Or any room, for that matter.

Anyway. Currently researching a Benjamin Moore paint color that pairs well with cherry cabinets and white trim. I'm all ears for suggestions. Right now my front runner is Brandy Cream.

OH GREAT 🫠 I do have a good alternative in Wegmans. But name brands are extra expensive, and their house brand items are terrible. Late stage capitalism is fun to navigate as a consumer trying to make ethical purchases!

Love this. I started shopping at Trader Joe's because our weekly grocery bill at Wegmans was getting out of hand. Now I spend about 25% of our weekly grocery budget at my local co-op market (LOVE my co-op), the rest at TJ's, and buy household items online from sustainable B corps 💚

Stacy is the person who inspired me to make my own old house blog. She's been a consistently good community leader for years, so I'm so happy to see this 🤍

I have gotten complaints from my IG followers that in the last 24 hours Meta has: removed them as my followers and prevented them from refollowing, is not allowing them to view my stories and whenever I use words like abortion, my views crash by 80%. WILD.

The r/centuryhomes and r/oldhouses subreddits seem like good, existing communities. And supporting the bigger & more respected influencers here on Bluesky and their own websites/blogs. Moderating a community (whether Reddit, Discord, etc.) takes a ton of time and effort.

Our shower was out of commission for 2 weeks. Worked fast because it was our only shower & we kept our cast iron tub!

I totally hear you. My gut tells me that IG is about to take a downward spiral. I saw an influx of right-wing/tradwife content getting pushed to me after Zuck's announcement, so I think the censorship of progressive content / pushing of right wing content will only get worse. We'll see.

Now Discord is interesting! And I'm fully off Instagram (permanent deletion 👋) - I'm testing this as a substitute!

YouTube video by Immy Lucas Low buy year...my priorities have already changed

"I really don't think I'll get many offers [for sponsorships] this year because I'm doing a low-buy year. And that's not very sellable, is it?"

I followed Immy on IG right before I left. I now subscribe to her YouTube. Love her insights on the tension between content creation and sustainability.

You guys I swear I'm not the only old house / reno account that moved here 😂

We might be early enough to create our own community hashtag 👀 I know #oldhouselove was an OG old house Instagram hashtag (if you can remember when hashtags mattered) but might need to research a bit!

It's SO refreshing! Already hearing some nightmare stuff about people not being able to unfollow or block *certain accounts* on Meta platforms 😵‍💫 so glad I'm out.

Hooray! Yeah, we'll see how this works out. I kind of love the simple interface. Images and a short caption! Sometimes just words! It's refreshing to me. Who would have thought?!

If you came over to Bluesky from Instagram to follow our old house reno - welcome! There seem to be fewer bots here and I don't feel like my brain is melting from Reels 🫠 so that's a huge plus!

A white enameled cast iron farmhouse sink with brown stained beadboard behind it.

Enameled cast iron farmhouse sinks are dreamy. BUT! They are also ✨ high maintenance ✨ so choose this option wisely. Currently cleaning mine. I love the way this fits in our unfitted kitchen layout but ... It's a bit of a diva.