The Tardy Homemaker

Come Visit the New Space!

2009-04-17T11:22:00.000-07:00

I've moved over to Wordpress. Please excuse the dust, as I finish getting everything into place!

Moving to New Digs, I Think

2009-04-14T14:26:00.000-07:00

Since I've been hosting my food blog on Wordpress these few months, I've decided I like the Wordpress platform better than Blogger, so I'm nearly sure that I will be moving this blog to Wordpress in the very near future. Hopefully it will be a smooth transition, but if it isn't you'll know why the blog(s) are messed up!

Finished Quilt

2009-04-14T14:19:00.001-07:00

I finished the quilt in the nick of time. No really. It was at about 2:30am on Juliana's birthday when I finished! I did free-motion quilting with my machine. The quilt is only about 44" x 44", so it isn't huge, but it was still awkward moving it around. I bound the edges using the backing fabric and folding it under, then hand stitching. The batting is flannel sheets that I bought at Goodwill for another purpose and decided to use for this. The back is also a piece of one of the sheets. It's very soft and cozy. There are some imperfections on the quilt top, some puckering that happened when I was quilting it, but the birthday girl loved it and that's what really matters!

Not Abandoned

2009-04-07T18:50:00.000-07:00

Clearly the frequency of posting has fallen off around here, however, this blog isn't abandoned. Yet. Posting to the food blog regularly has been more of a commitment than I thought it would be. I'm really enjoying it though, and it seems like much of my energy has been going towards food anyway, so it's a natural progression.

I've been having a hard time organizing myself, managing my time and basically getting much done. I had been doing fairly well when I had my daily to-do list going, but then my list notebook ran out of sheets and I bought a beautiful new day planner to use as a daily to-do list. Unfortunately, I didn't check the measurements of the planner before ordering and when it arrived, it turned out to be far too large to carry in my purse. So, I puttered along with it on my desk, but not having it hand to write in when I remember something has really not worked out. I've not been using it at all for many weeks now. It's sad to think that the sum of my organizational skills hinge on a silly to-do list, but I think that it might be the truth.

Yesterday, I purchased a cheapo, small, lined spiral notebook with the hope that I will get back into the habit of remembering what I have to do and crossing it off my list.

I'm so behind on things like starting seedlings (probably too late for that) and getting my garden beds finished and cleaning my house.

I got my taxes filed, though, and the quilt is coming along. I only need to bind it now.

I hope that I can get myself in gear soon, so I don't feel like things are falling in around me and I'm becoming hopelessly mired in procrastination.

Birthday Quilting

2009-03-27T12:22:00.000-07:00

I'm not a quilter. I've only made two small quilts in the past. They were Christmas gifts for my older two daughters and they were kind of made by the seat of my pants. They turned out pretty well, despite that and they've been well-loved for several years now and haven't unraveled!

My youngest daughter is turning four in just a couple of weeks. She was a baby when I made them for Christmas of 2005, so I didn't make one for her. She needs one. She's currently making the transition out of our bedroom to the bedroom that she will share with Isabel and her very own, cuddly quilt could help, right?

When I made the quilts for the bigger girls, I did simple 4" squares sewn together using eight different fabrics in their favorite colors. Pink for Maddy (not her favorite color anymore) and red for Isabel (still her favorite color). I can't use the same system for Juliana, because she doesn't have a favorite color. She likes all colors. I decided to choose eight different colorful fabrics and border each of them with solid pink (one of her favorites is she is really pressed to choose one). I hope it turns out well.

Here are the colored squares cut out and placed on the pink fabric for visual reference.

I need to have it finished in two weeks and one day. I hope I can get it done!

Waiting for the Fruits of My Labor

2009-03-19T19:24:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in an earlier post that we were renovating our neglected compost area into a suitable spot for a plum tree. I've been trying to take advantage of the spotty breaks in weather to finish that task up. Our trip to the coast last week used a whole day of warm sunshine, but it was worth it.

This picture is midway in the removal process. It was too ugly to photograph before we started on it. Those blackberry canes behind and intertwined in the chain link fence were so thick. Some were more than 1" in diameter!

I actually have mostly finished the compost area. I (with the help of my husband and oldest daughter) have removed all the pallets that formed the compost bins, all of the compost that was on top of the pallets, the enormous blackberry canes that were behind the compost bin and also the blackberries that were hanging over the bin and clinging to the chain link fence on both sides of it and removed a whole lot of branches from a flowering quince bush (not the fruiting kind) that is in our neighbor's yard and was overhanging wildly into our space.

This is a huge pile of the quince and blackberry vines that we trimmed.

There is still several square feet of area that is covered with black plastic and compost that was under the bin that I have yet to remove. I just pulled it back enough to plant my Greengage plum tree.

The tree looks so tiny, but it's in the ground and I'm so excited!

In another corner of the yard, in a spot that was once completely shaded by a very large cedar tree (which blew down in Dec. 2006) I have planted a Brooks prune.

The Brooks prune is bigger than the Greengage, but still small. That's our old dog Pepper in the background. Please excuse the messy surrounding yard. It still needs lots of work.

I think I can get one more fruit tree in the space that we have available this year, but haven't fully committed to that idea yet. I better decide soon!

Repair, Not Replace

2009-03-16T12:53:00.000-07:00

In this economy where so many are tightening their belts and in an effort to pull back on the reins of our rampant consumerism, whenever we have the opportunity to repair a usable item we should do that rather than replace it. In order to have a usable item to repair, you generally need to purchase a quality item in the first place.

We generally buy good quality shoes. The result is that we adults can wear them for many years and the girls can wear them for a season or more and pass them on to the younger sisters. This week I had the opportunity to take two of Juliana's shoes in for an elastic repair that had been necessary for a while. I also had to have the elastic replaced in one of my Danskos, thanks to a mischievous puppy. Our local shoe repair shop raised their price on this particular repair to $10/shoe, but even at $10 it is still a deal. I give business to a local shop, I get to keep shoes in use that have lots of life left in them and we don't purchase new shoes with the accompanying price tag, packaging and materials.

Buying second hand is also an option, but I never find what I need, when I need it and my Danskos are only 1 1/2 years old, so they are very serviceable. The navy Mary Jane on the left is probably about 9 years old and is being worn by the third wearer. The purple sandal is about three or four years old and is on it's second wearer, having been originally been purchased for the second girl, not the first. The leather and soles on both are still in great shape. With a little cleaning and polish, all three will look nearly as good as new!

Tagged

2009-03-15T17:56:00.000-07:00

Jen at Under the Big Blue Sky tagged me for a meme and I thought I'd play along since I haven't done a meme for awhile.

What is your current obsession: my thus far losing battle with trying to organize and clean my house

What are you wearing now: (sadly) a pair of sweats, crocs and a black long sleeve tee

Who was the last person you hugged: Isabel

If you could have one super power, what would it be: The ability to stop time

What’s for dinner: hot dogs, sauerkraut, grated beet salad (our version of a junk food dinner)

What was the last thing you bought: hot dogs, sauerkraut, butter, hot dog buns

What are you listening to right now: my youngest daughter jumping and the wind rustling the trees

What is your favourite weather: temperate weather, so mostly spring and autumn

What is on your bedside table: a water bottle, lamp, digital clock and container full of miscellaneous stuff

What is your most challenging goal right now: finishing anything I've started, within a reasonable length of time

Say something to the person who tagged you: Jen, I really admire you for being so devoted to your daughters and being a strong single mama

If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished, where do you want it to be: on at least five acres in the Willamette Valley with meadow and some woods

Name the things you cannot live without: my husband and daughters, books, cheese, coffee

What would you like to have in your hands right now: a Frappucino

What is your favourite tea flavour: I'm not a big tea drinker, but I do like any type of chai when I have a cup of tea

What would you like to get rid of: the extra weight I've been carrying all these years and the clutter in my house

If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go: New Mexico

If you could have your portrait painted/made by any famous artist from any era, who would you choose: Salvador Dali

What is your favorite book? I don't have a favorite book. I read all the time and almost never read a book a second time.

What's the first song on your playlist or Ipod: Die Die Die (The Avett Brothers)

***

The rules:

1. Respond and rework: answer the questions on your blog, replace one question you dislike with a question of your own invention, add one more question of your own.

2. Tag eight (or fewer, in my case) other un-tagged people.

This is who I’d love to play tag with. If they’d like to!

Tonia, Angeleen, Teri

*All of these photos, with the exception of the crocuses, were taken last week on a day trip to the coast.

I've Got Worms

2009-03-03T16:38:00.000-08:00

Our weather has been kind of wacky lately. Instead of fairly consistent rain, we've had days where there were glorious hours of sunshine interspersed with rain. It's really unfair because the sunshine makes you gear up to go outside and do some gardening and then the rain is coming too soon.

I did, however, get out on Saturday and do some much needed work. I've got a compost pile that we built about five years ago, but it's been much neglected. Sure, we dump our kitchen scraps and guinea pig droppings, but that's pretty much all we do. Very infrequent turning and no other care has created an unsightly mess. So, we decided to remedy that this year and clean the compost area up and turn it into a spot where a plum tree will be planted. My husband is going to create a better compost system for me utilizing some 55 gallon drums that we received for free from a customer and making a frame for turning them out of scrap metal he already has in the shop. We have one other open corner which will house a second plum tree.

To rehab the compost area, I'm digging holes in my future garden beds and depositing the contents into the holes and covering with dirt. It's a hard-work kind of job, but under the first layer of compost scraps on the pile, I discovered a rich concoction of compost and a numerous population of worms. What an exciting find, because I'd thought that this neglected pile of waste was just that...waste. Quite a bit of it needs further decomposition, but it's already well on it's way and it's inclusion in the future beds will surely create better soil health and deposit large quantities of worms.

By the time I got the camera out, all those worms started digging back into the compost!

This Small Kitchen Won't Stop Me

2009-02-22T17:44:00.000-08:00

Several months ago, when a friend came to pick up a kombucha scoby, she was peering around my kitchen and suggested that I post about using a small kitchen to produce so many things. It's a suggestion I would never have thought about and it's also an interesting subject. I think that it's easy to think one needs a large space in order to cook from scratch or do any of the other types of things I do in a kitchen. It would be wonderful to have a large, roomy kitchen with lots of storage space and huge expanses of counter space. It's not a necessity though.

I do a lot in my kitchen, in fact, sometimes I feel like I live in my kitchen. I make dinner six nights per week, daily breakfast and lunches, soap, baked goods, condiments, roast coffee, collect kitchen waste for the compost pile, ferment various things and dehydrate, freeze and can food in the summer and fall. All of these things happen on a mere nine linear feet of counter space and part of that is occupied by a microwave.

When I decided to post on this subject I thought I would get my kitchen all spiffy for photos, but I finally realized that it probably isn't going to happen. My counters are almost never uncluttered and certainly never completely clear. That being said, let me take you for a little tour of my small kitchen and please politely ignore the messy counters.

This is the counter space in my kitchen. There's about five feet of counter space to the left of the sink and about four to the right. The right counter space is kind of a holding area. It's where I store stuff that I can't figure out where else to put, like my two round cast iron griddles and my cast iron skillet which don't really have a home if I have many stove burners and the oven occupied at the same time. I use the long stretch to the left of the sink for all prep and cooking activities, coffee roasting, fermenting and coffee making. The right basin in my sink holds my yellow Tupperware compost trimmings container and is also a holding station for all recyclables before they go to the main recycling area in the basement.

This is the other side of the kitchen. It has one set of cabinets, refrigerator, oven, and a small table that holds onions, garlic, utensils and potholders on the top and my wok, cookie sheets, large cast iron griddle and cooling racks on the bottom. You can see my menu board to the right of the doorway and my open office door to the right of that. To the left of the refrigerator is my pantry, which is small. It's only slightly wider than the width of the door and slightly taller. The kitchen is too narrow for a small island, so there's nothing in the center.

We are lucky to have a basement and I have an extended pantry area down there, where I house my home canned goods, bulk purchases like sugar, beans, rice and canned goods like tuna and coconut milk and canning supplies and surplus jars. I also have a full sized upright freezer and a second small refrigerator down there. An additional storage space is a 3'w x 1'd x 4 1/2"h shelf in my office, right off the kitchen, for my kitchen appliances (mixer, food processor, etc.), a few cookbooks and empty jars that I use frequently for storage.

And that's it. It's not a large area, even all combined, but I do great things in it. I'm not the world's best cook, but I'm pretty decent and I make a lot of things for my family besides meals. You don't need a huge area to do the kinds of things that I do. If you have a small kitchen and it's been holding you back, just jump in and do it. Get rid of the things that you never use to open up space for the things you will use frequently and you might have to adjust to the fact that counter space will never be completely empty!

Menu Board

2009-02-19T10:34:00.000-08:00

This is a board that I picked up at Goodwill for $4.99. I decided to to put it in service as our nightly menu board. This helps my family to know what we are having for dinner, which cuts down the questions a lot and assists my table setters in deciding what should go on the table. Plus, it coordinates nicely with my yellow walls, though the color of the walls is somewhat washed out in this photo. (That's the result of copious amounts of sunshine coming through my west windows. Don't let anyone tell you the sun never shines in the Pacific Northwest in the winter!)

Shortbread and Ice Cream for My Sweets

2009-02-16T18:32:00.000-08:00

We don't make a big deal out of Valentine's Day here. I'm all about the love, but I think it's far better to demonstrate how much we love each other by treating each other with love and respect every day rather than buying cards and chocolate one day of the year. Those things are nice, but getting and giving them doesn't make me feel more loved. I do usually make a nice V-Day dinner, because that's just what I do. I love to cook. I made the last package of steaks that we had in the freezer, garlic chevre mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus. I finished it off with this dessert:

Strawberry ice cream and this shortbread. It was simple, but so good.

Fresh Chevre

2009-02-10T15:02:00.001-08:00

It's not all taxes and filing and paperwork and puppies around here. I made some fresh chevre on Sunday.

Chevre is so ridiculously easy to make. Warm up milk, add bacteria, let milk sit, sieve it and hang it and voila, you've got cheese!

Nothing to Post

2009-02-07T10:48:00.000-08:00

I know this blog hasn't been full of interesting things lately, but that's because my life hasn't been full of interesting things. Besides the new food blog and the new puppy, the things that are occupying my mind and time are tasks of drudgery, like filing paperwork, both personal and business, for the past five months or so and getting receipts and bills in order so that I can give all of our tax stuff to our accountant. Another necessary, un-fun task is cleaning my office and getting all the residual kid stuff out of here to make it solely a business office for my husband and me rather than an office for me and a school area for Maddy (she's got her own desk area in her new room). This entails sorting though, tossing, donating, re-organizing and cleaning years of crafts supplies, coloring books, detritus, office supplies and paper work. I'm tired just thinking about it.

But, it has to be done. I can't even contemplate garden planning til I get this burden off my shoulders. I wanted to get it done before my new computer arrived almost a month ago. Obviously that didn't happen, but I need to get on it now, because spring is right around the corner and I need to get seeds ordered and the garden planned!

Another Addition to the Family

2009-02-05T14:03:00.000-08:00

This is our new puppy. She doesn't have a name. We are all picky about names and unfortunately can't agree on one yet. She's half lab and half springer spaniel. Like a baby, she sleeps a lot, but she also plays a lot when she's awake. The girls are really enjoying having her around and she's pretty sweet.

UPDATE: She has been named. After weeding through name after name and having many ideas rejected, she is called: Stella. Lucy and Betty were at the top of the list as well, but Stella won out.

100 Things About Me

2009-02-02T14:37:00.000-08:00

I've been working on this list for a very long time (since before September). I hesitated to do one, but I always enjoy reading others' lists, so here goes.

1. I got married when I was 18.

2. I grew up in New Mexico in three different towns/cities.

3. I've never been to college.

4. I've got three daughters, but I would like to have one more child. I'm the only one who would, though, so we are pretty much done.

5. I've only had two employers in my whole life.

6. I'm a mostly stay-at-home mom now, though I run our welding business with my husband.

7. At my last job I worked with a guy named Smurf. He really legally changed his name.

8. I am illogically afraid of tsunamis.

9. I don't know how to swim.

10. I don't vaccinate my children anymore.

11. I've never done illegal drugs, not even smoked marijuana, not even once.

12. I would try marijuana if it wasn't illegal. I'm not anti-drug.

13. I've never been really drunk.

14. I don't like wine or beer but do enjoy cocktails.

15. I love cheese. Any cheese, I think. I've never tried a cheese I didn't like.

16. I am passionate about healthy foods and local eating.

17. I would have a home birth if we had a fourth child. I wanted to have a home birth with Juliana, but the insurance situation made it unaffordable.

18. I'm a Christian, but don't currently attend church.

19. I homeschool my girls.

20. I have seriously contemplated harvesting snails from our yard for a dinner, not out of poverty, but out a of an adventurousness and desire to use what we have at hand.

21. I don't like to make phone calls. I really only talk to close friends and family on the phone.

22. I often wonder how old friends are and what they are doing.

23. I hate to see "K" used in place of "C", in such things as creative, creamy, etc. It's not ~~kute~~ cute. It's annoying. I wish "K" would never be misused again.

24. Grammar mistakes are a pet peeve of mine. Especially the misuse of apostrophes. If I had more time I would write letters to companies whenever I see this mistake in their signage or advertising.

25. I make my own soap from lye and oil. A lot of people are afraid of trying it. I was too for a couple of years, then I decided to just do it. I've been making soap regularly ever since.

26. I like to do things for myself. If I can learn to make or do something that I won't have to buy or rely on somebody else for, I generally will learn to make or do it.

27. Thinking about taxes creates an unpleasant physical sensation. I hate paying taxes and everything associated with it makes me very anxious. I don't even like to drive by my accountant's office.

28. I like to have my morning coffee in a very particular fashion. It makes me cranky if things don't go the way they should in regards to my coffee routine.

29. I'm naturally a night person and I don't go to sleep early easily, even if I've gotten up very early in the morning.

30. I am very competitive.

31. I love to play games but I don't like sports.

32. I recently found out that a good friend and former co-worker that I had lost touch with died last June. I was shocked and very sad.

33. This friend is the one who told me I should take a pregnancy test when I was just newly pregnant with Maddy. I didn't have a clue I was pregnant, but apparently she saw something change in me.

34. I'm scared of death.

35. My family and friends and even myself dying sometimes occupies my thoughts at night.

36. Especially after I've had a baby.

37. I believe I've experienced a very mild form of postpartum depression after each birth that manifested itself in a several week long period of general hopelessness and fear and anxiety that started every evening and disappeared in the morning.

38. I married my husband after only knowing him for about 10 weeks.

39. We've been married for 13 years now.

40. I'm a procrastinator.

41. I love to read. I'm always reading a book and I usually bring a book everywhere I go, or at least have it handy in my van. You never know when you'll have a couple minutes to read!

42. I only read one book at a time.

43. I almost never read a book a second time.

44. When I was five I wanted to change my name to Cindy.

45. I used to hate the color of my hair when I was growing up.

46. I really like my hair color now.

47. I hate the thought of my hair graying and I see more and more of them popping out.

48. I don't dislike gray or silver hair on other women. In fact, many women look lovely with it, but it worries me personally.

49. The whole issue of aging worries me generally.

50. I'm scared of the possibility of ghosts existing.

51. I like road trips.

52. I haven't been on a road trip for 2 1/2 years.

53. I love dense fog.

54. I would like to be more knowledgeable about herbal medicine and eventually make more of my own remedies and grow more medicinal herbs.

55. We are planning on raising rabbits for food in the not-to-distant future.

56. We'd eventually like to live on several acres and grow larger portion of our own food.

57. Sometimes when I'm driving by myself and listening to music I feel just for awhile like the girl I was back in the day.

58. I used to dislike lists but now I have lists everywhere. Several shopping lists, a daily to-do list, a task list...

59. I love to sing. I would maybe sing in a public setting if I didn't have extreme stage fright.

60. I'm very glad that we planted honeysuckle in our back yard, because in the middle of summer when our windows are open I can smell it while laying in bed.

61. I don't like fruit that much, but I do like some fruits a lot.

62. I really enjoy cooking and baking.

63. I don't like doing laundry.

64. I do like using a clothesline and I finally even got a wooden drying rack for using in the winter.

65. I cloth diapered all three of my children.

66. I used to dislike eggplant, brussel sprouts, and beets. I now like all three.

67. Despite all my fears, and there are many, I'm pretty adventurous in some things.

68. I'm an adventurous eater. I would try almost anything (edible) once.

69. I've lived in Oregon for more than a decade. The climate suits me.

70. Our 70' cedar blew down in a storm two years ago and now I'm always worried when we get high wind in the winter.

71. I love Greek food.

72. I got had orthodontics in my twenties and now I have a nice straight smile.

73. I've never had a cavity.

74. I cry easily, but wish I didn't.

75. My husband is my best friend.

76. I love aprons.

77. I have an excellent long-term memory. If I've known you for more than a few months, I'm sure I remember many things that have happened that you don't.

78. Having an excellent long-term memory can be embarrassing when you remember people that don't remember you or remember a lot of detail about people you don't know well or haven't seen for a while. I can make you look like a stalker to retain that kind of information, but for some people it's not a choice, that memorization just happens.

79. My short-term memory isn't as good as it used to be. (See #58.)

80. I drink raw milk with no fear of illness.

81. I have a Frappuccino habit.

82. I think hickeys are gross and tacky.

83. I think I might be the only person on Facebook not connecting with their old high school and college friends.

84. I'm almost never sick. I have a strong constitution.

84. I'm a word geek.

85. My vehicle doesn't represent me. I actually don't like it at all, but it's what we have and it's paid off and runs fine, so I can't complain too much.

86. I wish I could travel more. I'd love to be exposed to more of the world, first-hand.

87. I took three years of French in high school and my husband is fluent, but we never speak to each other in French.

88. I have very detailed dreams, most of which I can still remember when I wake up.

89. I haven't seen my sister in eight years.

90. We live across the country from each other.

91. We aren't estranged, just broke.

92. I'm very shy, but I wish I weren't.

93. I didn't attend my 10 year high school reunion, though I promised and crossed my heart I would when Lisa Smith pressed the issue in my senior year of high school.

94. I don't generally swear. I'm not averse to swearing I just usually don't. Unless I've rammed my toe into a chair or sliced into my finger. I've sworn on those occasions.

95. I have a problem with time management.

96. I'm still close with one of my former step-sisters though my mom and her dad divorced more than a decade ago.

97. I was casually waiting for a Mormon missionary to come back from his mission when I met my husband.

98. In high school some of my best friends were Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses.

99. I miss seeing luminarias at Christmas time.

100. My paternal grandmother died when I was almost 10 and I still miss her and feel gypped that she didn't get to stick around longer, because I think she would have loved seeing what has happened since she left.

My New Blog

2009-01-30T16:45:00.000-08:00

Don't worry, I'll still have this one. And I'll now have more time to actually keep this one updated, too.

My good friend Sheila and I are collaborating on a focused, local food blog, Mindful Plate. It's been a long couple of weeks and I've finally got it mostly the way we want. I first started out experimenting with Movable Type after another good friend, Angela, installed it for me and showed me some of how to use it. After much gnashing of teeth I finally came to the conclusion that Movable Type is powerful and useful for some people but it wasn't the thing for me. I don't have the level of coding knowledge necessary to get the site looking the way I want and to maintain it, nor do I have the time to learn and get up to speed on what I would need to know. I also wanted to be able to do it myself rather than having to lean on Angela. She's a busy lady in her own right.

So, Plan B. I switched over to Wordpress.com. I was able to get things up and looking like I wanted and had a considerably easier time. In the future, I will upgrade to Wordpress.org and migrate the whole thing to my server. In the meantime, I need to catch up with things that were neglected around here.

Please, visit the new site, bookmark it and let me know what you think!

Buried Treasure

2009-01-23T19:29:00.000-08:00

Look at these fingerlings I dug out of my garden yesterday! There were only enough for one dish of roasted potatoes. Too bad I didn't get them planted earlier. I planted them in late summer/early fall, so I was so excited to get anything, but still...I would have liked more. They were so fresh and delicious. Pulling potatoes up in January. Who would've thought?

Using the Crockpot for Breakfast

2009-01-19T10:47:00.000-08:00

I'm generally not a crockpot kind of gal. I find that it leaves my dishes with a smothered flavor, especially if I'm doing a meat or chicken dish. Soups usually turn out well enough, but not nearly as good as in a pot or dutch oven, so I rarely bother using my crockpot unless it comes down to the issue of not being home in the afternoon or evening to start dinner. In a pinch it's worth using. The only exception I had found to this was cooking beans. It does a great job with those. Now I have another use for my small crockpot. Breakfast.

Those of you who know me in real life know two things about me. I'm usually late and I'm not a morning person. That doesn't bode well for morning appointments or making breakfast at a reasonable hour. My ~~hubby~~ husband frequently has to leave in the morning to get to work. He could cook something himself, I suppose, but it just doesn't happen, so he usually leaves with only a cup of coffee in his belly.

I've long wanted a rice cooker with a built-in timer to make hot breakfast cereal, porridge, if you will. I've not wanted another appliance taking up space on my shelf or to spend the money. Last week I had a bright idea. Put the cereal into a crockpot with a spoon of yogurt and some sugar and spice and then hook that up to a timer on the outlet and program it to come on in the early morning hours and shut off mid-morning. This gives the grains a chance to soak overnight and release some of the phytates* and allows us to wake up to a pot of hot porridge. It stays warm for an extended period of time in the crockpot, so people can serve themselves as they wander down. So far I've only tried rolled oats, but I am planning on trying whole wheat farina and steel cut oats this week. The rolled oats have gotten thumbs up from everybody in the family.

*I'm not sure if the presence of sugar and cinnamon inhibits the soaking process. I should probably check on that.

Good Things to Come

2009-01-18T09:56:00.000-08:00

I know that things have been slow around here, but I've been installing everything onto a new computer and cleaning my office to accommodate it. That has been one heck of a job and it's not even finished yet, mostly the office cleaning part, but I still have a couple more things to get onto the computer, too.

After my computer and office are good to go, I'll have more interesting things to post. I even have a new, focused blog launching with a friend very soon.

So, stick around please!

Beekeeping Victory

2009-01-17T09:36:00.000-08:00

This past week, Maddy followed up her letter to the editor with a petition and in 2 1/2 days she was able to gather 27 signatures. On Thursday she wrote a letter to accompany her petition and asked city planners to continue to allow beekeeping in the city limits. We dropped her package off at the city planning office right under the 5:00 deadline, confirmed that it would be entered as public testimony at the meeting that evening and crossed our fingers.

This morning's paper has details on the meeting and the fact the the city planners voted unanimously to keep beekeeping legal in our city limits with NO restrictions! Many ban opponents showed up in support of beekeeping and only one ban supporter testified! That one supporter was the author of the wacky bee feces letter.

This was an excellent example for Maddy that if you do get involved, change is possible and that it's very accessible to get involved at a local level. She is considering taking up the poultry and rabbit keeping issue next.

Budding Activist

2009-01-12T09:38:00.000-08:00

I mentioned before that we got a letter in the mail encouraging us to go to our next city planning commission meeting to voice our opinion against the passionate supporters of beekeeping in the city. Well, we are supporters of beekeeping in the city. I guess that letter missed it's mark. What the letter did do is fire Maddy (12 years old) up to do something. The letter was actually ridiculous. Citing facts that we might not know about bees, including the fact that bee feces can be a costly nuisance. What? I've never noticed a problem with bee feces. The letter was clearly grasping.

So, Maddy wrote a letter to the editor, got it emailed just a minute under the deadline and was published in our local paper's Saturday issue. She was so proud and excited to see her name in print and realize that she, even a kid, had a way to reach people on an issue that was important to her. Our neighbor even called to congratulate her and told her that he wouldn't be able to make the planning meeting because he had to go out of town. The next step that she is planning on is to create a petition against banning the keeping of bee hives in our city limits and get as many signatures as she can before the meeting and enter it as public testimony.

This is all without our urging. She's just decided it's an issue that is important to her and she will try to make her mark.

Elvis is Here

2009-01-11T12:00:00.000-08:00

It's not all frustration and angst around here. We have a new guinea pig to succeed Elvira. Meet Elvis:

He's a handsome little guy with chocolate brown fur and white stripes, with a small orange spot on his forehead. His name is a tribute to the memory of Elvira, aka Elvie. We searched far and wide for a female companion for Cookie. We searched humane societies, guinea pig rescues (none within driving distance), and pet stores. No females were to be had. The theory is that many were purchased for Christmas presents.

We ultimately decided to purchase a male, breed one litter for a female companion for Cookie and then we will either subdivide the cage and keep Elvis on one side, give him away to a friend (Maddy has one pet loving friend in mind already) or use the proceeds from selling the other babies to either purchase a second cage to sit next to the girls' big cage and house Elvis or pay for altering him. We will have a bit to decide. I figure we could expect to have babies anytime after mid-March. We haven't seen any action going on, but then again we don't watch them all day and apparently it is difficult to tell when a guinea pig sow is pregnant.

Does anyone want to reserve a couple piggies for pets?

Always Swimming Against the Tide

2009-01-07T16:35:00.001-08:00

Since Friday night, I feel like I've been having to gripe, complain, ponder, vote and feel frustration over many issues that are important to me and that are being attacked. Some of them are ongoing but some are newly arisen.

It started out with a segment on 20/20 called Extreme Parenting. There were four segments on the show, the first was about orgasmic birth, the second was about Reborns (very expensive and lifelike dolls, which some women collect and treat like real babies), the third was about extended breastfeeding and child-led weaning, and the final was home births. This show was upsetting in many ways.

The first segment wasn't too bad. A little uncomfortable to watch, but it was refreshing to see labor and childbirth presented in the media as something other than one long scream fest.

The second was strange and rather insulting, because I don't consider women who carry around like-like dolls and treat them as they would real children mothers. Why was this in a program purporting to be about parenting? How can one parent a doll?

The third segment made me angry. They portrayed women who nursed their children longer than a year or so as freaks, basically. Some of the women featured were nursing six and eight years olds, which is some what uncomfortable to watch and fathom, but the truth is that it isn't unnatural or abnormal physiologically; it's just uncommon here in the US, so it's suspect to most people. They featured a woman who was tandem nursing 2 1/2 year old twins. Is it really that strange to be nursing a 2 1/2 year old? The interviewer asked demeaning questions about extended nursing being selfish on the part of the mother and perhaps damaging to a child. A psychologist worried that this wasn't allowing a child to learn to self-soothe, which made me wonder how many parents allow their child to self-soothe anyway? Is using a pacifier self-soothing? How many parents placate their child with a bottle, cup of juice, candy, video game, TV show or even a hug? Those certainly aren't self-soothing techniques. How many adults self-soothe? A child should turn to a parent for comfort and reassurance! I imagine that most mothers would be uncomfortable and tired of nursing a child past two or three and certainly at six or eight, but just because one is personally uncomfortable with it or wouldn't do it, doesn't make it wrong or damaging. On 20/20 message boards people were accusing mothers of nursing older children of child pornography and some mothers have been investigated by CPS. I find those accusations disgusting.

The final segment was also anger-inciting. 20/20 kept showing different home birth scenarios without clarifying that some were unassisted home births and some were midwife attended births. They compared it to birthing on the frontier. They accused mothers who chose to home birth as selfish. Yet, they didn't present any actual facts. No figures on mother or infant mortality rates in our country (very high infant mortality rates) versus industrialized countries where home births are more common (much lower infant mortality rates) were included in this "report". It was sensationalized editorial, not journalistic reporting.

I generally like John Stossel's view because he is quite libertarian, but I was disappointed with this. I can't think of him the same way again.

A few other issues I needed to address were through Change.org. I voted in favor of these topics: legalize raw milk, stop the NAIS (National Animal Identification System), and save handmade toys from the CPSIA (Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act). Voting on these topics before January 15 will give them more votes and move them higher in rank. The top 10 topics will be presented to President-Elect Barak Obama at a National Press club event on January 16.

These issues are important to me because our family drinks raw milk. We believe that clean raw milk from pastured cows and goats is the best and healthiest milk that we can consume. Here in Oregon we can legally buy raw milk, but it has severe limitations. In other states it isn't' so. Farmers can be prosecuted for selling this whole food! Consumers should be able to choose what foods they will and won't buy. Whole food products shouldn't be illegal to sell or purchase.

The NAIS is an identification system that will eventually require all animals in the US to be tagged and tracked, at a cost, of course. Besides being intrusive, this will be burdensome both in time and money for small farms and backyard farmers. Would many people still keep a small flock of chickens for their personal use if they had to register them and pay a yearly fee? These laws all seem to work in favor of large agribusiness.

The last topic I voted on is not only for handmade toys. It is really an issue that will affect all items sold for children. This includes books, toys and clothing. The issue is basically this: lots of big corporations have outsourced their manufacturing to plants overseas and many items are produced cheaply and now have safety issues. In response, Congress passed the CPSIA (Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act) in August. The problem with this act is that it is very broad and was passed quickly without much thought being given to the ramifications. It includes products that are being resold, so consignment and thrift stores that are reselling children's clothing won't be able to do that any longer. (We buy lots of our kids' clothing second hand!) Moms and dads and small business that make handmade toys, diapers and children's clothing and can't afford to have all their products tested will be forced to sell illegally or shut down their business. Parent won't be able to sell their children's used clothing on Ebay or to consignments stores. It's a nightmare. Large companies violated our trust and now everyone has to pay the price of testing or close up shop. It's an unimaginable nightmare for stay-at-home moms who help make ends meet by sewing diapers or small toys and small businesses who do a lot their business in children's resale. The Handmade Toy Alliance has a good website on the law, it's details and how you can help fight it.

And the final issue that requires my attention is our city's beekeeping and small animal keeping ordinance, which is being reviewed and likely revised. Receiving a letter in the mail today from rabid beekeeping opponents advising me that there was a very vocal and passionate contingent of people who think there's nothing wrong with beekeeping in the city has reminded me of my obligation to write an letter to be entered as public testimony during a public hearing next week. Beekeeping should be allowed in the city, bees are vital to our food supply. I also need to gripe about the proposal to change the allowable number of chickens, rabbits, ducks and/or geese from 12 to 2. What can a flock of two of anything provide (besides companionship)? Two chickens can't provide eggs for a family, two rabbits can't provide meat for a family. In this faltering economy, I believe our vegetable gardens and and small animals are going to become more important for providing sustenance to our families.

I don't know how many of you have made it this far in the rant. I am angry and tired because I keep having to raise my voice to be heard to defend basic things like access to healthy food and the ability to purchase second hand clothing for my children. I just needed to let some of it out and champion a few important issues. Not that these are the only important issues, there are still very big ones like getting our troops out of Iraq now, repealing the Patriot Act and restoring our civil liberties and alternative energy and reducing our environmental impact.

Be Your Own Roastmaster

2009-01-07T10:41:00.000-08:00

I was talking about roasting my own coffee yesterday with a friend and this morning I realized that I don't have a coffee roasting tutorial on my own blog. I had posted one on a now-defunct homesteading blog last year, but not here in this little space.

Coffee roasting is quite easy, it is far more economical than buying roasted coffee, it is fresher and if all that weren't enough, there is less packaging involved, thus less waste.

Around here organic roasted coffee goes anywhere from $9.99-11.99/pound. I buy ten pounds of green coffee beans at a time and pay $3.29/pound. When I roast it, it dries somewhat during the roasting and I end up losing about 17% of the weight of the coffee. So, factoring that loss into the price per pound, my roasted coffee ends up costing $3.96/pound. Not bad for sustainably (not certified organic) grown coffee and my green coffee bean supplier has a direct relationship with the grower. I buy the green beans from a local merchant (Caravan Coffee) so I keep dollars in our local economy.

If you want to roast coffee, you can buy a fancy roaster. Just Google "coffee roaster" and you'll get roasters starting at about $99 all they way up into the thousands. If you want to cut costs further, you can use a cast iron skillet in the oven, a stove top popcorn popper with the handle that turns the contents, or an electric popcorn popper. I use an older 1970's electric popcorn popper that I picked up at Goodwill for about $2. It needs to be a specific type of popper. It should have a very rigid plastic lid (the newer ones use a softer plastic that will melt at the extended high temperatures in roasting the coffee), it should have a vertical interior with air vents for the beans (or popcorn) and it should spin the beans when it is roasting them. The spinning motion keeps the beans moving and prevents the oils in the beans from burning and eventually igniting. This is my popper/roaster:

Here's my method:

I pour 3 ounces of green coffee beans into my popper/roaster. Put the lid on, position a metal colander under the spout to catch the chaff blowing out and plug it in. I turn the timer on for 12 minutes. Turning the timer on is not strictly necessary for me because I stop roasting my coffee based on listening to it, but it helps to remind me how many times my coffee has "cracked".

Coffee cracks. It is part of the roasting process. It sounds almost like popcorn popping and the cracking stage lasts for about 20 seconds or so, in my experience. After about six minutes, this is what it looks like after the first crack. It is starting to turn from green to pale brown. Keep roasting it.

After about six more minutes it cracks again and smokes a bit. I stop roasting immediately when I hear the second crack. This stops it right about city roast. If you let it go for a minute or so after the second crack, the oils will really start to release and turn very, very dark brown and you will get a French roast. I like mine at city roast, it works well with my particular bean.

When your coffee is roasted to your desired roast, dump the chaff out of the colander and then pour the coffee into the colander.

It will still be very hot and roast just a little more from that heat. You can stir with a metal spoon to cool it more quickly, or just let it sit and cool and roast a bit more and factor that into your final desired roast.

It takes about 12 minutes to roast a batch, but it depends, sometimes it is a little longer and sometimes a little shorter. That's why I listen for cracking rather than go by the timer. I also don't remove the lid during roasting. I want to keep all the heat in there and roast it consistently. I only removed the lid for this tutorial, but if you are roasting your own in this type of popper, you'll probably want to keep the lid on for the whole time.

After it is cool, you can grind it whenever you're ready and enjoy a delicious, fresh cup of coffee. I'll take mine with cream and sugar.