Archive for March, 2008
March 31st, 2008 - More on making flour
After seeing Maggie’s picture, Mac asked if I’d tell you all more about our flour making. Here you are.
First, some time ago, I purchased The Family Grain Mill from Pleasant Hill Grain. The point to me was to make flour w/o using electricity, so I did not buy the motor base, but you can get it that way. I chose this mill based on reviews from the web. I did a lot of searching and reading about them before choosing this one. I think I found another site that was cheaper, but they had a very Y2K mentality that I didn’t appreciate.
Part of the reason I chose this brand is, as the PHG site says, “The Family Grain Mill is a quality mill. Its precisely machined burrs are made of high carbon steel and last a long time. If you ever do wear the burrs out, they’re replaceable.” The main drawback is the rest of the unit is plastic and the whole thing is made in Germany. The burrs don’t produce heat, so they won’t destroy any nutrients by that method.
I also bought the vegetable slicing attachment. There are no photos of it or how it works. I returned it. The feeder is tiny–no more than 3″ square and I’d bet it was around 2″. Most of my zucchini wouldn’t have fit. Most of my potatoes would have, but only because they don’t grow very large. I would have spent a lot of time cutting the vegetables before putting them through the mill. I’d rather just use a knife or a mandoline.
Especially since I can’t use the grain mill in the kitchen. Our counters have a slight rounded lip plus very little clearance before the drawers. There’s not enough room to attach anything to it. (A pasta maker also didn’t fit.) So I have to grind in the dining room. Not a big deal for flour, but would be very annoying for vegetables. unfortunately, our dining table isn’t the best for this either, and I don’t want to clamp it as tight as possible since I don’t want to damage the tabletop. (I use a jar grip for some protection and grip. We have a great one that’s rectangular and just a little large than the base.) The dining table is also a bit low for grinding, although it does enable Maggie to help. I have to leave over just enough that it’s annoying. And it’s not enough that I can do it sitting on a chair. I meant to try our kitchen stools, but I suspect they will be too high.
Separately, I purchase hard red winter wheat berries from The Red Radish, our natural foods store. I started with just a few cups to try it out. Then I ordered a bag of, I believe, 25#. It’s stored in 2 5-gallon buckets in the guest room (coolest part of the house, without using the basement). They are food grade–and the only place I found that sold them was another natural foods store that carries beer making supplies! None of the home improvement/farm stores I checked had food grade buckets. I was able to get locking (Gamma) lids from there, however. With the increase in wheat prices, I’m kind of glad not to have to buy whole wheat flour each month these days. I’d meant to get organic wheat, but the bag was not marked for this. I will make sure the next batch is–this one might have been, they aren’t sure. Since I already had it home and opened, I wasn’t going to return it.
To grind, I get about 6 cups of wheat berries–which, but the way, is too many as it takes too long–and pour them in the hopper. Then we grind. And grind. And grind. You can grind from fairly fine to quite coarse. My preferred whole wheat flour was graham flour, which is fairly coarse. This time, I went finer, at the lowest possible setting. From stores, I go for graham because I know it has all the good stuff in there. At home, I know nothing’s been taken out! In the end, I cracked the last 2 cups or so because I was sore (sciatica) from the 90 minutes of grinding.
Yeah, it’s not fast! I’m pretty slow and steady, too. There were also some breaks. Maggie went potty. We looked at the garden. We let the dogs out/in. Overall, I spent about 2 hours from start to finish with the breaks. In the end, I got about 6 cups of flour plus about 3 cups of cracked wheat. I measured it all carefully once before, but I didn’t this time.
I believe this model has a flywheel attachment, but PHG doesn’t appear to carry it. If you are interested in the mill, explore the whole page and any links you see. The website isn’t very organized in my opinion and many links open in a new window/tab.
And you can grind all sorts of stuff beyond wheat berries. I just haven’t tried anything else. When the new baby’s ready for food (around 6 months, that is), I will use it on other grains. Last time, I ground them up in the blender, but now I’ll use this. (Following advice in Super Baby Food, we fed Maggie whole grain cereals as her first 5 or so foods–rice, oats, barely, millet, etc.)
March 28th, 2008 - Low Impact Living Calculator
Megan at That’s Swell! pointed me to the Low Impact Living Calculator. It’s like the carbon footprints I’ve seen elsewhere, but focuses on your housing. And at the end, it gives you a list of possible projects. If you’ve already done them, you check them off and your footprint updates.
Megan has at 40 rating, living in an apartment, and I’m delighted to say I have a 51! (Average is 100). Some of the things that help: composting, having just one car, the ancient house, and our newer appliances (since we bought them all in the last 7 years).
March 28th, 2008 - Review of BuyGreen.com
Last month, Fake Plastic Fish talked about BuyGreen.com, which she recommended for it’s natural sponges, such as a loofah kitchen sponge. I’ve been wanting to try some natural sponges, and there was a discount for buying in Feb, so I got
- solar hybrid flashlight
- European sponge cloth
- loofah sponges
- Euro sponge
- Naked sponge
- solar light for a shed
The solar flashlight appears to work fine. But I haven’t tested the time it’ll stay on with a full charge. Nor can I test if it will still work after 2 years. I intend to put it in the tornado kit in the basement. It’s been charging on the kitchen table meanwhile.
I’m mixed on the sponges. Yes, some of them came in just cardboard packaging, as FPF had said. Unfortunately, not all of Twist’s sponges come w/o plastic packaging. The Euro and the sponge clothes were in plastic bags (unreusable). I know why: They dry out and become really stiff once outside the package. The sponge cloth is said to be a replacement for paper towels, so I was expecting something you could put out on the counter and simply grab to use. Instead, I have three pieces of cardboard consistency; they have to be wet to be usable. I cracked one seeing how flexible it was (not). I think the Euro stays flexible, however, so I don’t know why it was in plastic. (I might be wrong–I’m trying to remember and can’t.) The pictures at the website do not include the plastic packaging.
The others, however, stay flexible. I’ve been using the loofah sponge regularly in the kitchen now. It doesn’t scratch non-stick surfaces. I’m not sure it will last as long as our fake 3M sponges, and it’s more expensive than they are. But I can compost it when done. So I’m still happy. I also have one for cleaning the litter boxes. The naked sponge is just like the loofah one, w/o the loofah.
We intend to install the shed light once spring arrives, which should be sometime in May. I should probably test it out, in case it broke in transport. Which reminds me–it wasn’t sent by BuyGreen.com, which doesn’t use plastic in shipping. It was sent by a reseller (the product is from, sigh, China) which wrapped it in bubble wrap and then placed it in a box just barely large enough for it. I’m not sure why the bubble wrap was necessary. There’s no electricity in the garage addition. There is an outlet in the garage, about 10+ feet away from the addition door, another 6 from the addition’s exterior door. I love the idea of a solar light in there. Given that it’s made in China, I’m not terribly convinced of its construction, but I’ll give it a try. It won’t be heavily used anyway.
March 27th, 2008 - Idle Parenting
Planet Nomad has an interesting post about the article Idle parenting means happy children. The article doesn’t mentioned slacker parenting, but that’s another term I’ve heard for this same idea. Basically, it’s all about letting your kids be on their own and not scheduling them and planning their daily lives.
It’s strange, because I also really the idea of tomato staking children, which is the exact opposite. I have not, however, been able to implement it, probably because I’m much more of an idle/slacker parent. Maybe if I, too, had a dozen children and was a SAHM I could do it. (Katie is amazing and I’m really awed by what she does. I don’t actually think I could have a dozen children. I go nuts with just one.)
I don’t completely agree with the article. The manifesto at the end is interesting, but I don’t agree with the alcohol or lying in bed ones, and I’d not push the kids into the yard while I clean the house–the idle parent gets the kids to clean the house! But of course, that takes work to teach them to do so.
March 26th, 2008 - Office after
First, here’s all the paper I recycled and things I threw out
The bookcase.
Notice the books neatly on the bottom shelf instead of piled on my table. Those are the ones I’m inspired to read in 1-2 hours each, plus materials for my course that I probably won’t reference the rest of the semester. And the lack of dead leaves!
Notice the addition of a laptop to the otherwise nicely cleared and cleaned table. It’s an XO, as in the One Laptop Per Child! It’s not mine–someone else on campus bought it and loaned it to us to check out.
And the desk areas
March 25th, 2008 - How to decide on a college
This tip on how to decide on a college from The David Allen Company (of Getting Things Done fame, which I just mentioned the other day), is fantastic. The process they recommend includes a very important step I suspect most kids don’t bother with: Purpose. Why do you want to go to college–not why others want you to go but your own reasons. To have fun? To explore? To learn a specific trade? To develop strong relationships? To do research? Or …?
March 25th, 2008 - Making flour
On Sunday morning, Maggie and I made flour. Mostly, I made the flour. She “helped” a few times, but I grind the red winter wheat berries on the lowest possible setting and it’s pretty difficult. In fact, doing 6 cups in on go is too much for me; I hadn’t felt my sciatica for a while until I spent nearly 90 minutes grinding flour. :( I did the last 1.5 cups or so as cracked wheat on setting 3–Maggie could do that all by herself, and that’s what she’s doing in this photo:
While I was doing flour, she sat next to me, eating wheat berries. She loves eating them. I think they are pretty bland–they taste just like flour after all, except they are crunchy. But it was tons of fun for her! And she made pictures with them (much like cloud pictures–spread them around and use your imagination).
March 25th, 2008 - A few other pictures
A few other photos that were on the camera to share.
Here’s my cat Sith.
Here’s what I and Maggie look like. Actually, Maggie’s usually smiling and doesn’t have chocolate frosting smeared all over her face.
March 25th, 2008 - Office before
Here’s what my office looked like yesterday morning.
As you walk in the door, you see the bookcase and plant:
Notice the dead leaves, both on the plant and the floor:
Turn the corner and you see the table next to my desk:
Then there’s my desk:
Ack. I’m so embarrassed now. Seeing it in pictures it looks horrible! Luckily, I cleaned up most of it yesterday. I’ll post after photos once I get the last pile finished up today!
March 24th, 2008 - My Investing Blog: The 29 most frugal things I have ever done
The 29 most frugal things I have ever done - do yours compare to my past levels of cheap? is an interesting read. Especially as I don’t find some of these all that awful. They are written as though they aren’t actually that good of an idea, but I think many are! Two are about making sure to eat leftovers, for instance. Another is re-using shoelaces. I wouldn’t even thought of putting these on my list of top frugal things I’ve done.
March 24th, 2008 - Reading work-related books
This month’s Escape Adulthood podcast has a valuable, work-related tip–how to simplifying reading work-related books. Kim and Jason interview Jason and Jodi Womack, a husband and wife team who help people manage time and increase personal productivity. If you don’t want to listen to the whole episode (and do–there are many others tips about work/life balance), it’s around minute 26. In brief, Jason W. says to read the book four times. Four times? Surely that’s more work than just once! Nope:
- Read the table of contents and the appendix/index. [I don’t think the appendix is correct, but that’s what he said. Usually an appendix gives data or more details about a specific part of the book so it’s all that valuable for an overview.] The point is to get a general overview of the point of the book.
- Read everything in bold–chapter titles, subtitles, call-outs, etc. (Although in some of the lousier business books, this is almost the entire book. I really hate those books. They are oh so lame but become oh so popular.)
- Read the first line of each paragraph.
- Read only those sections that really interest you.
I think it’s a downfall of mine that I rarely read any books about online teaching. I just can’t stand to do it. After 10 years in the field, I know it pretty well. Each new tool that comes out–sure, the technical aspects are different, but the instructional design methodology is still the same. But it means I rarely get new ideas and I can never quote anyone or recognize names in the field. But I think I could stand to read books with this method. I skip the boring parts! I find the interesting parts, and I can modify the process and read an entire paragraph if I want to.
And he’s right. I picked up some books Friday afternoon and started reading one today. In the middle of reading the TOC, I flipped to a particular section. The first sentence gave me the info I wanted (optimal size for an online discussion group: 4-5 students). The rest of the paragraph was fluff I didn’t need.
So, will this simplify my life by giving me an easier, faster way to read? Or does it make it more complicated because now I have a dozen books on my shelf that I hope to read in the next 12 weeks?
By the way, he claims you can read a book 3-4x faster this way. I’m not sure you are truly reading the book, however. It’s just skimming. Not that that’s a bad thing. I bet this could help in college reading, too.
At the Womack’s website, I also found an a blog post with a audio of just this tip. And hey–he does say it works for college classes, too. And for how-to books.
March 21st, 2008 - Simplifying at the office
Maybe next week, which is spring break for students and classes (but regular staff still work through it unless we take vacation days), I will clean up/clear out my office. It’s not that it’s in horrible shape (compared to some faculty offices I’ve been in!), but it’s getting far too cluttered for my tastes.
The most important question when working on simplifying your office is: What do I need to have in here to do my job?
Paper: As an academic, or at least, having come here straight from getting my PhD, I came with tens of pounds of copies of articles garnered from 4 years of grad school. For two years, they sat in a large filing cabinet (four drawers high, and really long). I never used them. So I weeded out everything that I hadn’t used in my dissertation, which was in the same field as I worked (online education). Another year or two later, after realizing I never looked at those articles either, I emptied the cabinet entirely–of course, the extra space had gotten filled up with other stuff I never used–and got it out of my office. I now I have one filing drawer in my desk. I mostly holds my daily/monthly folders (a la Getting Things Done), a selection of resources I have used in seminars or presentations, employment information (contracts, evaluations, etc.), and issues of Online Cl@ssroom (a newsletter I get–I should put them in a 3-ring binder on the shelves since I have so many now). When I finish my two courses this semester, I’ll also put folders of course material in the drawer–but only after I go through them to make sure I’m only keeping what I need.
I rarely keep paper copies of articles–I read online so why bother having them around the office? I don’t print out emails. I try not to print handouts for meetings sent electronically. If I feel I must do so, I recycle them as soon as I don’t need them (usually, right after the meeting). When a project or a task group or whatever is finished, I go through all the saved paperwork ASAP (sometimes that’s right away and sometimes, of course, it’s not for a while!). I almost always have papers in my recycling bin every single night.
Your mileage may vary on this, of course. I am not required to document what I do nor to keep notes or other materials for most things I work on. So I don’t. Materials from groups run by others–I figure they will keep copies. If I discover I really did need something I recycled, I just contact someone in the group and get another copy. In 8.5 years working here, this has rarely happened. Same goes for email/digital documents as well. I have zero interest in GMail which allows (even encourages) you to keep everything. I don’t want to keep everything!
Books: I checkout most of my books from the library, which is handily the building I work in. I have 5 books on my shelves (three of which I just loaned out this morning). I’m considering buy some more due to extra money I have to spend by July, but they are primarily used to give out to faculty and staff. I don’t need to refer to them but rarely. If I didn’t loan them out, I wouldn’t have any books up there. (I will probably get rid of one of them. I was asked to write a book review on it, but forget. I need to see if he still wants me to do so. If not, it’s gone. I didn’t find it useful and wouldn’t hand it out to most faculty/staff.)
I also have some 3-ring binders of materials. One will probably be gone next week when I clean up. I thought I’d use it as reference materials, but I never did. It’s been years since I went to that training seminar. Another is for search and screen committees, which I’m regularly on so I’ll keep that one. Another is about pinhole photography, written by my boss. It’s a neat book so I’ll keep it. The others–not sure what’s in them! Shouldn’t have things around when I don’t even know what they are! I also have a copy of the faculty/staff handbook which is 2-years out of date so I’m going to get up and recycle it right now. And one magazine: The peer-reviewed journal article Sean and I wrote is in it. (It’s the only one I’ve had published.)
Office supplies: How many sticky note pads do you really need? How many envelopes? Scrap paper? Printer cartridges? Are any of these things that could be stored elsewhere? In my case, yes, we have an office supplies area. I usually only have one or two extras in my office of things I use regularly.
Personal things: This is what’s mostly in my office. Of the 6 shelves on my bookcase, only two feet are taken up by work materials (the books plus a few computer-related things). The rest are pictures, crafts items, toys, my high school and college diplomas (grad school’s on the wall), and other odds n ends. And a Zen garden. My desk also has stuff like lotion, cocoa, tea, and books. I used to have another bookcase, but a coworker borrowed it in December and hasn’t returned it. I’ve decided I don’t need it back.
I hate cluttered areas. I love having a clean and clear office. And next week I will again.
March 21st, 2008 - Buying locally–pet stores
I’ve been thinking a lot about buying locally, that is from locally or regionally owned businesses. Part of that has been ongoing, part of it most recently because I’m reading Big Box Swindle, which is so scary I had to stop reading it in the evening because I thought I’d have trouble reading it. (I’ll talk about the book more when I’ve read it. I don’t think I’ve finished more than a couple chapters, if that much. It’s about how big box retailers are taking over America, and what that means to us as people and economies. It’s stuff I’ve known, but hadn’t seen so well laid out in one place and with data and research to back it up.)
This week, I ran out of hairball treats for the cats. We used to always buy these at Petco or Target. Starting this week, we buy them at the local pet store. We used to buy dog and cat food there, too, but all the animals are on special food that we buy through out vet. They didn’t carry the typical treats–the ones just like other cat treats except with hairball oil. They only have PetroMalt, which comes in a tube. Hmmmm…a bit a messier, but okay, I’ll try it since I want to support this store.
The cats loved it this morning. And I realized that the packaging is better than the typical treats. First, the tube is metal–although I can’t recycle it, I believe that some day our landfills will be dug up for metal resources so I fell better about metal than plastic. And secondly, the outer package is cardboard, which goes straight to recycling. Typical treats come in plastic pouches which aren’t good for anything. Plus, the cats can eat through the plastic and cause a mess. (Pi did it once before and ate almost an entire bag of treats overnight.)
Next, I have to start trying the downtown hardware store as a first stop instead of a last. This one is harder for me to bother with, because it’s much smaller so I’ve not had luck in the past (except that in other circumstances, it was the only place that had what we wanted). And our other option is Menard’s, which while a chain is a regional chain with headquarters about than 50 miles away. So buying from them isn’t like buying from Lowe’s (which recently got tons of money to build a store, right next door to Menard’s which has been here forever. I bet Menard’s didn’t get tax breaks to move to town decades ago.)
March 20th, 2008 - The frugality of being sick
Since the past two weeks (plus a bit) was consumed with being sick, I thought it would be interesting to comment on some of the things we did while sick that either helped save money or how we spent more than usual.
Saving money/being frugal
- We didn’t go the grocery store except for quick trips because we had no energy. We most ate what was in the house.
- The only other shopping we did was for medications, so no money was spent on household stuff either.
Frankly, when you are sick, you usually aren’t very frugal:
Spending more money/not being frugal
- We bought dozens of bagels because it was easy to buy and easy to eat. Honestly, we didn’t have energy to come up with what to fix for meals and Eric often ate nothing but bagels all day. They aren’t too expensive (about $7/dozen) and they lasted about 3 days/dozen.
- Medications! Luckily, we have a good prescription plan. However, we spent about $50 for cough drops, cough syrup, antibiotics, codeine cough syrup, and whatever else was prescribed. In just two weeks! And that doesn’t count the Tylenol and decongestants we used that were purchased before.
- I turned the heat up to 67 every day I was home, compared to the 65 it’s normally at. Except when it went up to 68 or 69 on a couple days when we were at our worst.
- I spent about $10 on parking at work. ($20 if you count the fact that I used up my old 5x use pass and bought two more.) The first week, I took the car twice but I parked on the street as it was only a few hours. The next week, I took the care at least three times because I took Maggie to/from preschool as Eric was too sick to do so (he was on the codeine at the time). I’d swear I drove more than that, but can’t remember now.
- During a sale the week we got sick, I ordered a music book. It came in the day I came down sick and I figured I’d just go the next day before the sale ended. It took me two weeks. So I didn’t get the free book I could have if I’d gone in during the sale. [I did, however, remember to use the gift card to purchase this one. Forgot for the books I actually bought during the sale.]
- I got stressed out about things that didn’t get done. For instance, the week I got sick I realized that there was just over a month until the wedding and I couldn’t get my dress altered until I had shoes and a bra. I got the shoes the day before getting sick. Then I had to wait 2 weeks before I could go bra shopping. Drove me nuts that I had to put it off. If I hadn’t gotten sick, I wouldn’t have gotten stressed. (Or, if I’d done this as soon as the dress came in instead of forgetting about it.)
March 14th, 2008 - Have I mentioned how much I love A Way With Words?
Oh, wow! Martha Barnette, the co-host of A Way With Words, commented on my post about the podcast. I’m just thrilled to pieces! I’m sure she’s not a regular reader, but it’s always cool that someone famous tracks back and comments when you mention them.
Okay, so that’s a grand total of twice that’s happened. But each time I just find it really cool.
March 13th, 2008 - Podcatching: Great Lives
Great Lives is another BBC production. Each episode asks a famous (or somewhat famous) person to talk about someone they believe led a great life, widely defined. The most recent one was a mountaineer talking about another mountaineer who tackled very dangerous climbs back in the early part of the century. I, of course, found this one fascinating.
Shoot, it’s over until April. I wonder if I can get the past episodes–there’s Katherine Mansfield and Groucho Marx!
March 11th, 2008 - Dumped: BBC America reality TV show
A new reality TV show, “Dumped,” from BBC America looks very intriguing. 12 people are promised an eco-reality show…and it ends up being 4 weeks at the local dump.
I’m completely flabbergasted by one contestant: He wears his underwear only ONCE before tossing them. Can you imagine buying that much underwear?
It’s on Sunday nights–I hope the first one wasn’t this past Sunday, but I have the feeling it was. Perhaps it will be repeated?
March 11th, 2008 - Podcatching: This American Life
This American Life is one that probably doesn’t fit the focus of this blog, but I’ll write about it anyway since I listen to it. It’s a weird mix of a show. The typical format is to select a topic then have 2-4 “chapters” each of which is an interview or monologue or something with someone different. Some are from past shows repurposed for a new topic. Sometimes I love the topics, sometimes I hate them. I really didn’t like the Love episode for Valentine’s Day. The first was a long monologue by a guy that said it was a letter to his wife he’d written late at night on his 70th (or such) birthday. I kept listening because I figured it had to get better–they guy was a jerk and didn’t even like his wife very much anymore. In the end, it turns out the speaker is an author and I was led to believe this wasn’t real! I kind of wondered–what 70 year old man writes a letter that takes 30 minutes to read aloud? And I never got the idea that he loved his wife anyway.
But then there was the fascinating one about supers (the guys who run apartment buildings in NY), and my brilliant Plan, which included a guy who became a physicist and is figuring out time travel all because his Dad died when he was a kid and he wanted to be with his Dad again.
March 10th, 2008 - Podcatching: Fresh Air
Fresh Air is a daily NPR show of interviews. Usually each day has one topic, with 1-6 parts, but sometimes it range widely. Since there are 5 hours a week, I usually listen to only the most interesting ones. And they are very wide ranging on every topic–movies, the environment, politics, war, new books, human suffering and God.
Here’s part of the website description: “Though Fresh Air has been categorized as a “talk show,” it hardly fits the mold. Its 1994 Peabody Award citation credits Fresh Air with ‘probing questions, revelatory interviews and unusual insights.’ And a variety of top publications count Gross among the country’s leading interviewers. The show gives interviews as much time as needed, and complements them with comments from well-known critics and commentators.”
March 7th, 2008 - Podcatching: A Way with Words
I adore A Way with Words. I used to rarely get to hear it because it’s on Sunday mornings. Eric got me hooked on it–he was often listening to it when I got home from church! It’s all about language–where it comes from, why we say things the way we do, history, pronunciation, regional slang, grammar, and all sorts of other things! The hosts don’t always agree with each other, which is fun. They have tons of knowledge in their head and at their fingertips.
I’ve been sick for a week. That’s why nothing’s been posted. A horrible cough. Eric has it too, but worse. The codeine cough syrup has really helped me.