Houseplants- Aloe Vera

I'm not a big fan of "Interior Decorating" or whatever they call it. But I do like plants. Especially if they're useful- look, smell, taste (that's a big one), or have some other medicinal use.

(NOTE: Looking for info about Aloe Vera pups/ shoots? See here)

Unfortunately, the only houseplant I have right now if aloe vera, or at least some type of aloe.

These are really easy to propagate, meaning start growing. (Usually plants propagate by seeds or cuttings.) Aloe vera sends out little parts of itself that come from the base called "pups", sort of like if a tree sent out a branch from its base. They do this a lot, too, especially when they are old. Rip off the "branch" of aloe vera and stick it in a pot...and whella, it'll grow. Seriously. Just rip it off- but again, think of the tree. If I were to remove a branch from a tree, I wouldn't go cutting down the trunk- try looking at the pictures, that should help.

Try to get a nice green pup, about 3-4 inches long. See if your neighbor has one. If you can't convince them to give you a pup, tell them it's actually healthier for the plant if you remove the pups (less competition for resources).

The tricky part is when you stick it in the ground the plant will start turning a dull purple-brown color...during this stage it doesn't grow. It's trying to get roots and stuff again, so just give it some time. Could take a couple months, actually. But when they start turning green again you know you've gotten past the hard part.

They're supposed to be good medicinally...rip off a leaf and break it open so you get the juice and you can rub it on your sunburn or whatever burn you have. But I haven't been burned so I don't know about that. And it's also supposed to be good for your body if you eat it- but I think it tastes bad. It also moisturizes your skin; they sell aloe vera facial masks.

Don't water them too much, though. They're succulents, same as cacti. Note: If they turn purple-ish, and there are brown shriveled tips or brown shriveled leaves that are dying at the bottom, you haven't watered it enough. Again, don't super water them- it will take a little (actually a lot) of time (roughly a month or two) for it to look nice and green again.

Let me see if I can get a picture of mine up.

NOTE: Clicking on the pictures gives the full screen view.











EDIT 4/28/09: More pictures.


Aloe with 2 pups- can you see one near the front, and one on the let just barely peeing out? When they get about 3-4 inches tall, I can pull them out and plant them. All I have to do is yank them from the base.



Aloe that's purple- I thought I had too many so I pulled this one out of the soil (you can sorta see how the roots aren't rooted).


Aloe with pups (2) on the left...they're almost ready to be pulled off. Again, just yank from the base. You could use scissors, if you want.

Retreat

Retreat Jan 1-4 09

Through life and all our work, sometimes we squeeze out God. And, being the little good boys and girls we are, we find 30 seconds before we go to sleep, and think, Hey, this is a great time to connect. And you wait for 10 seconds and you think, Nothing? I’m done then, and you fall asleep.

And naturally, without God, things, at least our feelings, go down. We start to be spiritually lost and stuff and we start drowning in the sea of our sin and our helplessness. So we’re like, maybe games, work, friends, money, family, and other stuff will get us out of this mess we’re in, but we just throw ourselves deeper and deeper in the hole we’ve dug.

And then you finally cry out to God in the midst of your darkness, and you yell “Where are you!” and you curse at his inability to save you and help you and comfort you until you really turn towards Him and find out that He’s been watching you run from idol to idol, shaking his head sadly, with his arms wide open waiting for you to hug him back. And then you do…and everything is…better than okay.

The thing I realized at the retreat is this: God will not answer when we call Him- He’s already done that, and He will if you honestly do- but rather when we earnestly seek Him we find that He’s gone as far as He could and He’s just waiting for you to take that step toward him.

EDITED 11/30/10 to add this line:

Looking back at this almost 2 years later, I suppose that what I was trying to say in this rambling was that God has never left me; rather, when I thought God had left me, I was really just letting go of God because I didn't have time for Him...

Sad, sad story...

My Pet Peeve

You know what my greatest pet peeve is (a pet peeve is something that gets you really mad)?

It's this:

For sure, no doubt. In case if you can't recognize that (you poor sheltered child), that is a security type code that some websites have put on so that no spammers (like computers that advertise website) won't get on or for some other reason. What you have to do is you have to type in that code onto a little strip they provide, press enter, and then you're let in.

Unfortunately, as you can tell, these codes are really hard.

Is that a "m"? 2 "n"'s? capital "L"? capital "I"? lowercase "i"? is that an "L" and an upside-down "V"?

Feel the pain. Feel it in your squinted up eyes. Feel it in your brain. Feel it in your very most being.

Feel the pain of a stupid security code.



NOTE: I couldn't figure out what it was. I had to refresh the page to get a new code.

Powerful Quote

"Life is too short to worry about life."
-Anon.

Actually this was said by someone at retreat but I don't know who.
Hopefully I can get some retreat experience posted up here soon...