u/HonorYourGoals

Hi friends,

As part of my 2027 garden plans, I was very excited to plan for a red osier dogwood privacy thicket for our front yard for some privacy/landscaping, but I realized the spot where I wanted to plant them is elevated up from the ground and gets hot/dry even though it’s partially shaded by a maple/faces east. I don’t think they would be happy there, but I’m stumped on figuring out what to do, as I also don’t want to plant something toxic to dogs 🐶, as we have dogs ourselves and get a lot of foot traffic from other humans walking their fur children. Does anyone have a suggestion for a native shrub or maybe some grasses that would grow fairly tall but not become an entire tree, handle the thicker clay soil Michigan has, and not be toxic to an animal if it has berries or seeds that drop? I’m very interested in something that has cool fall/winter interest 🍂 on top of being a good privacy screen in the growing seasons.

Thank you so much! 😄

Hi fellow Ypsi residents,

Not going to name the subreddit that loves to dunk on homeless people every other day (get a life and maybe read a book about systemic racism & generational trauma/poverty, you have six libraries over there and you’re not utilizing any of them), but I just want to say how grateful I am for a community that understands how easy it is to go from flying high to being at your lowest low. There’s an understanding in Ypsi that respect here doesn’t stop because you’re poor or hold a marginalized identity, or because your situation has become dangerous or uprooted. I’ve seen so many mutual aid funds and support for the homeless, for neighbors who have been attacked by police, for people whose lives have been ripped apart by ICE. I am so grateful for all of you. I am so grateful that the love here is not some kind of surface-level marketing scheme. None of us are perfect, but I think there are efforts here that I do not see reflected in other areas, and it brings a collective feeling of good that makes Ypsi better & more meaningful for all of us.

I love Ypsi, and I hope all of you are able to find fulfillment and joy here, even when it feels unbearably hard. I hope Ypsi continues to grow to become a place where love, not enforcement, is the answer, and I am so appreciative of everyone who works to make that a reality, often behind the scenes & unnoticed. You are all my heroes.

And I just want to say that if you’re currently homeless and staying in Ypsi: you belong here, and you deserve to feel dignity. Period.

Due to air quality concerns, Ypsi Pride is rescheduled for Sunday August 30th. Ty to the organizers/volunteers for valuing people’s health, it means a lot. I’m sad it’s being pushed but it’ll be a really fun note to end the summer on & the safety of everyone there is the most important thing, always. So sorry to anyone who can’t reschedule vending or performing for August 30th, this smoke has been a massive, massive bummer for this week (but I’m also not living through my village or land being burned down, so I’m not going to complain).

See you all at the end of this summer 🌈💖 stay safe and please wear a mask if you’re doing any prolonged outdoor time.

Recently I had an interview at my local co-op and I was interviewed by an older white lady who has been running it as a general manager for decades. I’ve loved supporting them for years and have had nothing but good interactions with people who work there, they make great in-house food & have a lot of great grocery items, which is particularly helpful as I’m vegan and sometimes need the specialty stuff. They also have vegan seasonal cupcakes every fall that my partner and I have literally bonded over.

Unfortunately, my excitement of potentially working there was drowned out by a very weird interaction toward the end of the interview. We had been talking for almost 40 minutes at that point. Here’s what happened right after we were discussing the nature of the position and structure of the team (which felt very sloppy and open-ended which was also a red flag):

“Now, let me ask you this, can you take your mask off so I can see your face?”

The way this woman said this to me made it sound like I had broken into the co-op instead of us having a mutual exchange during a professional interview, and I was so caught off guard, my fear of authority just kicked in and I was like “um, yeah, sure” and pulled it down briefly. It was a beyond uncomfortable moment that made me feel almost instantly that if I had told her no, she would not have hired me.

I’m not going to sit here and act like I’ve experienced a plethora of discrimination as a white person, but what happened today was absolutely discriminatory and ableist, on the basis of me wearing a mask. I’m visibly queer so I have experienced odd and even hurtful things because of that, but both my partner and I have now experienced this type of bizarre behavior and treatment purely on the basis of us masking beyond 2023, which is WILD.

She then went on to ramble some odd example of how masks prevent her from being able to “know” and recognize people (oooookay?) and then asked if I “wasn’t feeling well”. I told her my partner is immunocompromised and that I do my absolute best to ensure I don’t get them sick (which I was not feeling great about as I had just been manipulated into taking my mask off and also that’s not even close to the only reason I mask). She then proceeded to make a joke about cyclospora and how “you wouldn’t want to catch that” which I didn’t find funny at all, in addition to the fact that you can’t “catch” cyclospora” (I think she was ultimately uncomfortable after hearing my partner is immunocompromised and just said something weird to make herself feel better, which made the whole thing even stranger.)

On top of her being a half hour late to interview me “because she forgot,” not even bothering to pull out my resume or application and then telling me she “didn’t know where it was” and making a weird microagression toward a Black man stocking some milk right before we interviewed, the mask thing just made my decision to work there overwhelmingly and unfortunately simple: it’s a no regardless of whether I get the job or not.

I didn’t expect to be asked to remove my mask during an interview and even though I feel really bad about it, I know that in this very weird world of COVID denial, this is what happens.

I’m writing to tell you plain and simple: do not take your mask off. I don’t care what they say: do not take it off. If someone can’t handle you masking during an interview, the job is not worth your time or wellbeing. I am very, very tired of people giving masks this ominous, suspicious energy. It is very, very hard to mask at work and I applaud everyone here who does it. Ironically if you have an applicant who masks, it shows that they really value the health of their coworkers and that should be a green flag alongside other qualifications, but instead it’s treated like this nonsensical thing that other adults feel they’re allowed to patronize you for.

I’m sad and I feel bad that I didn’t stand up for myself or the health of my family in that moment but I feel steeled to commit to masking in future interviews and job opportunities. I’m just sorry there are people like this out there who use management positions to play God, and I feel bad for all the lovely people at the co-op who work under her and have to put up with her crap, bc I’ve seen multiple cashiers there masking (and I’m struggling to understand how she hired those people but still seems to understand very little about COVID and how damaging it is…).

An employee masking at work should be the least of your problems (aka it’s not a problem at all and in fact, a really good thing for your business) and it’s embarrassing to me how some of the most vulnerable populations of people who are at high risk of dying from COVID would rather be inflammatory, weird and cruel toward those of us who literally do it to protect them. If you’re able to, please have these conversations with the older folks in your life. I hope some of them actually respect you enough to listen and recognize their place in the value of public health and good, because even working at a co-op and being a community leader still doesn’t seem to underline the very critical point of what caring about COVID and other airborne diseases actually means beyond me wearing a mask to an interview.

Hi, if you’re the person with the huge branch down that nearly hit your car, DM me and I can help you move it. I’m sorry if it did actually hit your car but it was kind of hard to see.

The light is also out at Prospect and Cross, don’t be an idiot and blast through it, it’s currently a blinking red traffic light. Give people a chance to take a turn.

Stay safe out there, and stay away from downed wires.

The other day I had to chop down a ton of peony stems from a few peony bushes we inherited when we bought our house last fall. The stems and leaves were infected with some kind of fungus or powdery mildew, and after researching I discovered this is a common problem. I made gardening plans for the future and figured that it wouldn’t hurt to add some non-native stuff, but in the midst of this heat wave, I got mad. I got mad at the culture surrounding non-native horticulture & how much water, time & energy these plants suck up, only for their blooms to last a very short time & provide very little ecologically. I got mad at rich people who obsess over having a garden entirely composed of non-native flowers and shrubs, when they have ample space to not only create large native gardens but to grow food to feed their community on a large scale.

I don’t blame individuals who really love specific non-native plants (I’m a huge fan of dahlias and climbing roses) but I’ve realized that in my lifetime, with the limited space I have around my house, planting a non-native hydrangea is not how I want to move forward for years to come. I don’t want to spend time dealing with non-natives that are so high maintenance and guzzle water with very few benefits. I don’t think everything is horrible right now but the timeline we’re on is convincing me that focusing on non-natives is not sustainable moving forward, and I just can’t do it anymore. At most, I think I’ll reserve a raised bed for some annual cut flowers, but I’m more interested in growing food and sharing it with my neighbors.

I really do love the beauty of flowers but something doesn’t sit well with me if a garden full of plants is more for show than it is for anything else in the context of our environment on a global scale, and maybe if it wasn’t like that, I wouldn’t feel as weird about it, but I think we need to get real as a society about what food systems & our ecosystems are going to look like in our lifetimes.

Hi, so I’ve seen a lot of heated discussions online pertaining to planting stuff near a house versus away from it, and as someone who has a few garden beds right next to our home and garage…is it really all that bad? Nothing we’re growing has invasive roots and I recently ripped out a bunch of English Ivy in one of them bc it was growing up our garage (we bought this house last year). I don’t really understand why people think a garden bed next to a house is going to invite rot and insects into their home. I feel like the people advocating for nothing near a house are the same people who think a crisp lawn with zero biodiversity is beautiful, but what do I know lol?

Hi fellow Michiganders,

My partner and I want to test some Room and Board couches but the closest store is in Chicago. Does anyone know if any furniture stores in SE Michigan carry this brand? I’ve done a lot of research on couches and people seem to really love their couches. Ty for any suggestions!

Hi,

Thank you to the people who identified what I thought was sumac growing very near my foundation but is actually a small black walnut. After doing some deep-ish digging, I’ve realized how firm the roots are in there & as someone who tries to avoid herbicides as much as possible (I haven’t had to use them yet), I’m wondering if anyone has had luck by simply cutting a black walnut sapling down over the course of several years until it gave up? I am perfectly happy doing the long game of cutting versus painting on herbicide. Wish I could dig it up and transplant it but there’s no way that’s going to happen.

Thank you for any advice, I’m very sad for the tree but I know if I don’t deal with it our house and a more mature walnut tree will pay the price.

Also I found a lot of weird posts demonizing black walnut trees as “plant killers” and while I know they produce a toxin, I think the paranoia about it is a little weird. I think we need to strive to work with natives as much as possible, because I wouldn’t be cutting this down if it wasn’t near my house.

A few weeks ago I saw a turtle that was sadly run over and hurled to the side of Prospect Rd, going north where that little marshy area is with the high water. It was devastating and it is always devastating to see how many animals get hit in Washtenaw County, but I want to say that if you see areas like this, you can almost guarantee animals are crossing for water and shelter, and you need to slow down. People go way too fast as it is on Prospect (cough cops cough cough) and it is really not necessary, especially when you’re crashing over helpless animals who have no other choice but to cross there to get their basic needs met. What are they supposed to do?

That being said, I really need to thank whoever made the homemade “turtle crossing” sign right by this marsh. I got really emotional seeing it. There’s a lot of bad crap going on in the world right now and seeing that sign reminded me that some people do care and go out of their way to help others, turtles included. So I wanted to post this to say “thank you”. Thank you so much. Thank you for caring. 🐢

Happy Pride to a city I love so dearly. I’m so proud to live in such a diverse and beautiful place. There are lots of Pride events this coming weekend & YpsiPride will be held on July 18th, which is a Saturday. Can’t wait!

Hi,

For anyone doing an early morning commute to A2 from Ypsi, the entire highway is blocked off after this exit and I’m not sure where it opens back up, but I was on my way to work and they had it blocked off with cones/a state trooper. Was definitely a surprise to have to go all the way around, so passing the message along for anyone else heading this way! Give yourself extra time or go a different route.

Hi fellow home owners,

Last year my partner and I bought a very cute midcentury house with our MIL & it was very exciting, I’m still in shock I’m a homeowner. That being said, I know that being a homeowner comes with the big bills when something chaotic happens, and yesterday was no exception.

Our AC was acting really weird & we had some HVAC specialists come out to check it out. When they took apart our outside unit, they discovered that something had chewed up all the wires & the system had all melted together 🙃 the system is 21 years old so it was already on its way out, but now we definitely need a brand-new unit. The pad underneath the unit had also sunk into the ground, so they also told us a new pad will help deter pests. We were quoted around 7k 😮‍💨 which has really thrown a monkey wrench into our wedding plans, but c’est la vie, right? Smashing into our savings like the couple from Up lol.

After living in our place for a few months, we noticed our neighbors have what look like those electric box mouse traps around their garage. We have had zero mouse issues in our house which has been great, but I’m wondering if the mouse issue migrated over to our AC unit, as the unit is very close to their garage. Is there any way for us to mitigate a mouse problem that isn’t directly ours? I do have a friendly relationship with the wife of the family but her husband seems like a bit of a prick & actively works hard to ignore my partner & I as much as he possibly can, so idk if he would even want to work on a mitigation plan with us.

Also, do newer AC units have better structure to prevent critters from getting inside of them, or is that not really going to make a difference?

As an added note, we do have a bird feeder but it’s far away from the AC unit & we have no intention of growing anything edible or putting more feeders near the unit.

Thank you for any advice/wisdom ❤️