Archive for September, 2006
September 27th, 2006 - The latest on Shmi
We learned yesterday that Shmi is in an advanced stage of congestive heart failure (cardiomyopathy)–more advanced than our local vet had thought. We have to decide whether to keep her alive on medication (5 doses a day, +2 doses of meds she’s already on for other conditions) or whether to put her down. On medication, her life expectency is probably still less than a year. W/o it, she could die at any time (which can also happen on the meds, just less likely right away).
She’s only 4 years old, so I expected her to still be around when Maggie was in high school.
September 26th, 2006 - My big helper
Yesterday, Maggie helped me dig potatoes in the garden. She did a little digging (not where the potatoes where), moved taters to the pile, fell into my holes, ate some dirt, played with a green tomato, and probably wandered off with a potato or two as well. It was a lovely half hour for both of us! (My potatoes ranged in size from marbles to 6″ long. One plant had TEN potatoes on it! I’m saving one of those to plant next year.) The nice thing about the end of the garden is that it’s safe to let her wander the garden without watching her–she can’t harm anything when nothing is really growing anymore.
I’ve mentioned before that we are teaching Maggie to help around the house (chores). Yesterday along with the garden help, she put the dirty clothes (a set of sheets, pillowcases, and a few towels) into the washer all by herself. Usually, since I bring dirty clothes down in a hamper bag, I put them in and she just does the transfer in/out of the dryer. I think next time, I’ll put them on the floor for her to put in. Also, during the weekend, each time we went in to the laundry room (which is also a bathroom), she eagerly beelined to the laundry basket and started to push it out the door. We were about to leave the house for errands, so each time I had to tell her that it wasn’t laundry time yet. I LOVE that she’s so enthusiastic about chores. (Although her follow-thru isn’t the greatest. She usually gets tired of handing me clothes to fold halfway through. But that’s okay for now!)
I’m still waiting for her to be old enough to scoop poop and shovel snow…. No, actually, I just want her to help in the garden. Those two jobs are Eric’s right now–but he’s probably looking forward to that! LOL
September 25th, 2006 - Pesto again
I finally made pesto over the weekend. I’d been waiting in the hopeless attempt to let the plants grow bigger (at least, that was my excuse once I thought of it after simply procrastinating for a while). Instead, they were dying. I got about half of what I expected. One plant couldn’t even be used at all.
But this may have been a good thing: I made four batches which resulted in 32 cubes of pesto. Maggie and I use 2 for a meal. I still have about 6 from last year forgotten in the freezer. That means we have to eat pasta and pesto 2x a month until next July! That just might be plenty.
September 25th, 2006 - Another reason I like my car company (Honda)
CNN.com - Honda unveils ultra-clean diesel system. The article also describes some of the other green thing this company has done. I was not aware of their environmental commitment when we bought our CR-V, but I am so glad we did!
September 21st, 2006 - Update on Shmi
Shmi came home last night! She did get better overnight on the medication, but next Tuesday she’ll go see a kitty cardiologist who can determine (with an MRI I think it is. Or an EKG? Or something with a lot of letters) exactly what the issue is. The vet believes it’s one of 2 or 3 things all of which are easily combatted with a daily medication (pills, unfortunately). She hung out pretty quietly after coming home. I could see how heavily she was breathing, but she did eat and drink, went up the stairs, jumped on the sink like usual, and joined me for bed for part of the night.
Over the last year, Jedi (one of our boxers) has been sick. After spending a bunch of money on his undiagnosed issue (they couldn’t figure out what it was, but believe now it’s pancreatitis) and noticing the spending for pets soar beyond the budget, I upped it by $200/month. I’d thought I’d just do it till the end of the calendar year. But I think it will continue longer. At least until Shmi’s problems are paid for. It’ll probably cost about $800-900 just for this week and next. Aack. This is one expensive kitty (we spent over $1000 during her first year to diagnose her allergies/OCD).
On the other hand…As I rode home in the afternoon, I was thinking about whether Eric would tell me she was alive or dead. Which meant that until I got home and knew, she was Schroedinger’s Cat!!! I laughed out loud upon realizing this, absolutely delighted. We’ve previusly joked about her being Quantum Kitty and now I think we should change her name. All along, whenever one of us would see her in a cute pose or doing something neat and tell the other person to look…she’d move or stop it. Just like the quantum physics thing about being able to know either where or when something was, but not both. When she was littler (hard to believe since she’s under 6 1/2# right now), we’d see her on one side of the baby gate and then she’d reappear on the other side. It was like she was dematerializing. Now she’s actually S’s Cat…she *has* to be Quantum Kitty!
Oh, and she’s also trying to become a poodle. She has little bits shaved off her leg for the IV and one near her neck. Next week, there’ll be more shaving. She looks so funny with her fur fluffy around those areas.
September 21st, 2006 - More on the garden , esp zukes
B. Somers commented that I could run my zuchinni through my food processor and freeze it (Hi! thanks for reading!) I’m one of the last people in the US with a fully equipped kitchen that lacks a food processor AND a mixer! (We do have a small food chopper and a hand held mixer, neither of which is used more than 2x a year.) Since high school, I’ve preferred to use arm power to cook and bake when possible. It all started with making cookies and progressed from there. The only thing I don’t mix by hand is bread since I put it in the bread machine!
So of course I also chop and grate by hand. Sure, it takes longer, but it uses no electricity and gives me exercise. I firmly believe that part of the obesity problem is the difference in the amount of work people no longer do in their own homes. So I’m doing my own little part to help myself out.
Regarding freezing…I’ve done that before, also with pumpkin puree for breads. But both of these veggies leak a lot of water when defrosting. I find it very difficult to make the bread come out right due to all the liquid. I would throw out (and compost) much of the liquid, which has a of nutrients in it. This annoyed me, too. So last summer, I started drying these products. It’s fantastic! I can use them at a moment’s notice as well since I don’t have to thaw them. I usually pour hot water over them 10-30 minutes before use since some liquid is of course necessary for the bread. (Plus, they take up less storage room. And I can give them as gifts. Michael–would you use any dried pumpkin or zuchini? Did you use the other dried veggies I gave you last Christmas?)
September 20th, 2006 - Shmigirl
Please keep my kitty Shmi in your thoughts. Yesterday evening, she had her annual physical but she didn’t get far. She got stressed out and then crashed. They put her on oxygen (side note: I think this part is pretty funny, trying to imagine a tiny oxygen mask on an itty bitty cat!) and discovered that her labored breathing was due to a lot of fluid in her lungs. There’s also something wrong with her heart. She stayed in the hospital overnight. They called around 10 to say she was stable. But there’s still a chance she could die. I won’t know anything until I get home after work because I have some meetings today and I just don’t want to know at work.
She jumped into my arms before going to the vets (Eric took her and Sith–I stayed home and did tomatoes). And the night before, she spent the entire night sleeping on me. Usually, she only does that for part of the night and when I move around, she leaves in a huff. But that night, she stuck to me like glue, even when I turned over. If she does die, I’m glad to have that as my last memories. (And that after she went in her traveling crate, she quickly turned and snuck out and almost got away!) We spent her first year thinking she might die each night (literally, I’d get up each morning and wonder if I’d see her walking aorund) but for the last three years it’s been pretty much okay. If she survives, she’ll probably be on two more daily medications for the rest of her life, but it’s definitely treatable. (I hope they are liquids, not pills. She hates the liquids, but at least I know I can get them in her!)
So, please keep her in your thoughts. As Eric says, we have four pets, but I have Shmi.
September 20th, 2006 - Beginning to end the garden
I’ve been reading about the end of the garden in other blogs and now it’s hitting me. I feel like I just started eating a lot from it only a month ago! Last night, Bryony, Maggie, and I picked all the tomatoes. Maggie put tomatoes in the buckets for us then helped by picking leaves from other plants. It was so cute! I can’t wait for next summer when she’ll be able to follow more directions.
I put the tomatoes in the basement, in hopes that they will ripen slowly indoors. I was going to use large boxes with lids, but Mom said that they would do better in the light. So I used paper box lids and trays from picking strawberries (I so glad I saved them from last year!). I put them on some shelves in the back, but I’m not sure if there will be enough light to check them over. I might have to move them to the front table, but I’d have to clear off the table first!
I picked the last of the beans, which I finally steam blanched and put in the dehydrator. These dragon beans are FANTASTIC keepers in the fridge. For the second time, I’ve kept some over a week in a bag in the crisper and they look like they were just picked!
And the last three Yugoslavian finger fruits came in. When washing them, I remembered that they were said to make neat gourds, and I wish I’d thought to leave one on the vine. Maybe next year.
Two more jalepenos were ripe; there are two or three still green that I left out. It’s supposed to warm up a bit this week, so maybe they will still ripen. I also left out two zuchini; I was surprised that more grew after getting only a few earlier in the summer. I almost ripped out the plant (it grew into the aisle and was a huge hassle) so I’m glad I didn’t bother! There were 3 or 4 growing, but the others withered in the damp and rain of the weekend. I want these two to get as big as possible so I can grate and dry them. Part may also be used in soup stock this weekend (planning a batch each day).
It was damp all day, so no more Cherokee Trail of Tears beans have dried. Hopefully they will by the weekend or I may bring them all in anyway to dry downstairs (by the dehumidifier). That leaves two pumpkins, potatoes, and carrots. I’m trying to hold out on the digging until the first frost hits so they remain in the ground as long as possible.
September 19th, 2006 - Comments thank you!
Thank you for the comments! Liz said that having to register was a bit of a hassle. I turned that on because without it, I got a LOT of spam comments. Maybe I’ll try it turned off again as the Akismet spam filter seems to be working very well of late. Can’t hurt to try for a day at least. The worst that will happen is 500 spam messages (yes, one day I had that many appear. And I had to change the radio button on every single one of them to delete them). But really, that’s not so horrible to face if the alternative is that that doesn’t happen but people comment more often instead.
September 18th, 2006 - Comments DO work
Loyal readers (if I actually have any other than my brother?), you can write comments. The box around the comment field doesn’t appear, but you can click inside and start typing. Bryony tested it for me last night so I know for sure it works!
I haven’t had any comments in ages except from Michael so I’m not sure if I’ve been boring or if no one is reading my posts anymore. Not sure which I’d prefer it to be….
September 18th, 2006 - Pesto
Last week, Bryony and I made pesto. I intended to finish off the basil this weekend by making a 4x or 5x recipe but didn’t get around to it. Here’s my recipe, courtesy of my Dad:
2 cups fresh basil, coarsely chopped
1-2 sprigs parsley (opt)
1 tsp salt (was too salty this time around. Maybe 1/2 tsp?)
1/2 tsp pepper
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
Combine all but cheese in blender on low for a few seconds, push herbs down with spatula. Repeat until sauce is fairly thin but not liquified. Transfer to bowl, add cheese. Refig or freeze.
I like to freeze it in ince cube trays. 2 cubes covers a pasta dinner for Maggie and me.
September 15th, 2006 - One local summer: last meal
I haven’t had this meal yet, but wanted to be sure to write it up before the challenge ended! Tonight, Bryony (our houseguest) and I will be making soup including homemade vegetable stock 100% from the garden plus bay leaves from work (<1m from home) and vegetables from the garden including all the usuals (tomatoes, onions, beans, carrots, potatoes).
I love the idea of homemade stock so much that I want to buy a bunch of thigns at the farmer’s market to make more. Is it worth it? Or should I just buy stock in the winter if we keep up with eating soup? I don’t know…. I’d rather have homemade, but is it worth the extra veggie cost right now? I’m worried about making too much and not actually eating it. Fresh veggies will decrease soon and I’ll be using dried and frozen ones instead. Will they make as good soup? I’ll probably start making bean soups then, so will probably still be a nice addition.
Speaking of potatoes, since this was for soup, I dug up one of the Yukon Gold plants. (Putting cool-colored blue potatoes in soup kind of defeats the coolness factor.) The potatoes are softball sized! And shaped! I’ve never seen such potatoes! Neither has Bryony nor Eric (nor Maggie for that matter but how many has she seen?). They are at least 2x as big as the potatoes we dug up last summer. I think I have a new process for planting these (if I save any): I planted leftover potatoes that had been forgotten all winter. I didn’t cut them up and they started with foot-long eye roots. I hope the second plant is just as big! And then I will have to decide whether to eat them all (8 potatoes probably) or save a couple for next year. I hadn’t planned to save any but a handful of Blues…but it would be really cool to have giant potatoes next fall again.
September 12th, 2006 - More laundry
Air dried some more laundry this week. This time, I remembered to check how long the dryer took–it estimated 24 minutes to dry the load (we have an digital screen and it counts down the drying time). Usually it’s over 60. Woohoo! Half the energy by air-drying my and Maggie’s clothes, and towels, rags, etc. Now if I just had a better place to hang them and a better drying rack. Actually, I do have a better place–the guest room will be perfect, I think. But we have a guest right now so I’m stuck with the small space under the stairs.
Did something very un-frugal last night–went out to eat. It cost nearly $60! I had loved the meal I had the last time…but decided to have dessert and an appetizer this time. I was quite disappointed. The appetizer wasn’t what I expected and I ate only half (and it cost $7). We got our desserts to go, and they skipped topping mine. The ice cream part was quite boring w/o the toppings. That also wasn’t worth it. I’m not sure if Eric and Bryony liked theirs or not. Although Maggie, as usual, adored the fries! I really wish I’d just made pesto and pasta as originally planned. (Will be doing that tonight instead.)
September 11th, 2006 - All the states I’ve visited in my life (as far as I know)
create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.
September 8th, 2006 - Drying laundry
For reasons I won’t go into here, we don’t hang laundry outside to dry and always use our electric dryer. A few months ago, another blog talked about an indoor drying rack she had that could hold an entire load of laundry. I’m a bit skeptical about drying laundry indoors in the summer due to the humidity it would add to the air but filed the idea away for winter time. I don’t have the rack she has, but I do have a drying rack intended for sweaters and such. So yesterday morning, I decided to try it out. I was surprised that by evening, the clothes were dry! It held a bit less than half a load of laundry (most of the load was sheets which couldn’t be put on the rack anyway). I’m definitely looking forward to using this until summer hits again as we can always use more humidity in the winter time inside. We have a whole-house humidifier on our furnace and even that isn’t enough.
I honestly wouldn’t have guessed that the clothes would dry that quickly, especially when so close together.
The company she bought the rack from is currently not selling them. It sounds like they are selling their company to someone else but no details are provided yet. Their rack has some other advantages over my rack than just fitting more on it: It’s smaller when folded, folds more easily, and has narrower bars/lines so that clothespins work better. Mine is a large metal rack; some of my pins are too small for it. I have to use twist ties to keep it upright because otherwise someone could knock into it and cause it to crumple to the floor (something I have a tendency to do when nothing is on it at all!). It takes up more space when folded and is rather awkward to hang up (the only place I can find for it is on the wall in a closet area, and I’m always worried I’ll bump it and knock it down).
September 7th, 2006 - Roasted veggies
The other day when I made a roasted veggies stock, I also roasted veggies for eating. I’ve never done this before and it turned out quite nice. The one mistake I made was including tomatoes w/o coring/seeding them. It made everything quite wet and so took longer to roast. I included peppers, potatoes, onions, carrots, zucchini, and tomatoes. Over it went some lemon juice, salt?, garlic, pepper, basil, and olive oil (recipe from BH&G cookbook). I’d like to find a more flavorful marinade to use next time.
I ate a few of them cold but the best has been wraps. My workplace makes a great roasted veggies wrap, but I’m not sure of the ingredients. That was my inspiration and my version has been lunch or dinner most of the week. I’m using whole grain tortillas (not local, but healthier than the local ones), a bit of homemade tzazki sauce (homemade yogurt, garden cukes, and dill from the farmer’s market), layered veggies, Muenster cheese, and sometimes lettuce. It’s been just delightful and something I will look forward to making next summer now.
September 1st, 2006 - Toothbrushes
About 6 months ago, we bought a powered toothbrush for Maggie, on the advice of our dental hygenist. I noticed a while ago that the brush needed to be replaced. But I cannot find replacement heads for any brand of children’s powered toothbrush anywhere! I asked at the dentist office this week, and they don’t sell them nor has the hygenist been able to find heads for the ones she has. Had I found another brand with replacements, I would have been willing to throw out one base to switch brands. But to buy an entirely new one every 3-6 months just to replace the brush seems like an environmental no-no.
So I finally remembered to look online. The company sells heads for $5/2-pack plus $4+ shipping. I couldn’t find any websites that sold them until I looked on EBay. One person was selling 2 2-packs for about $5 including shipping. WOOHOO! I hope I can find more; I should probably get a reminder search sent to me. I hope she’ll use this toothbrush till she graduates to larger heads. At 4 heads per year, that’s a lot of brushes to find! I should also request that Target stock them, since they sell the base units.
September 1st, 2006 - One local summer: week 10 I think
Last night, I made a lovely, delicious, beautiful vegetable soup! The only non-local ingredient was the starting broth. I’ve had very bad luck with broths so have thrown out all that I made over the last year. Found another good sounding recipe in my crockpot recipe book, so I’m going to try that tomorrow. If it works, I’ll have another soup that night with 100% ingredients locally!
My soup included, all from my garden unless noted:
* dragon carrots
* dragon beans
* purple potatoes
* orange pepper
* tomatoes (unsure of the varieties)
* zucchini
* corn
* onions (bunching green onions we never ate which have grown into nice pearl onions; Eric loved them!)
* basil
* bay leaf (not from my garden, but from a plant in a colleague’s office at work. I’m inspired to plant my own now. It was so much cooler to use one like that!)
Maggie and I also had bread with our soup, homemade of course! All three of us enjoyed the soup, which is a rarity. I’ve made some pretty awful soups over the last couple years. I made sure to write down the ingredients and process so that I can duplicate it! I used another recipe but modified it quite a bit so that I was using the veggies from my garden. I also skipped the pasta (not local) and I boiled the potatoes before adding the other veggies. They were larger pieces and I worried they wouldn’t fully cook.