Archive for August, 2008

August 31st, 2008 - Some more canning

Doing some more canning on this long weekend. Yesterday, I picked up 2# of green beans at the farmer’s market–this time from the known organic farmer. They were $1.50/# and in far better shape than the beans I bought last week. The only problem? I should have written down how many I wanted before I went. I couldn’t remember and actually wanted about 4#, in order to make a fully kettle (7 pints) worth. Oh well. I also planned to make dill pickles, so I figured I’d do them at the same time to fill up the kettle.

After the market, we went to St. Vinnie’s to see if I could buy more pint jars–I usually use at least 13 for applesauce, I didn’t have that many left! I recently read someone who paid $1/jar at her thrift store, so I was hesitant. For her, it was cheaper to buy new, since you’d also get a lid and ring with it. To my delight, pints are only 25 cents at St. Vinnie’s, so I was in luck. (Quarts are 50 cents; blue jars–pint or quart–are $1.) I got 24 jars, including one wide half pint and about 8 wide mouths. I thought maybe those would work better for the dill pickles and I don’t have any. I also have a whole bunch of wide mouth lids and rings (bought at garage sales or inherited from Grandma/Grandpa Frost). I got all the wides they had, and all but 4 of the regulars. Unfortunately, my quick glance at each missed two with chips. The other blogger was figuring out how much money she spent canning, but even at $1/jar I wouldn’t figure the jar price into it because they can be used for years and years and years. I have canning jars that are decades old that are still usable! At that rate, they cost pennies. The real cost is the fruit and veggies if you don’t grow them yourself and the lids which can’t be reused.

And frankly, I don’t count the cost. It might not be cheaper (except for dill beans) to buy veggies and can them, but the taste is incomparable! I rarely buy pickles, never buy dill beans, never buy applesauce or apple cider, etc. The taste of the ones I make are simple impossible to find in stores. (In particular, I made chunky applesauce with no sugar, a rarity.) I think my ingredients are likely fewer in number and of better quality as well. Speaking again of applesauce, I leave the skins on which I doubt any commercial a’sauce does.

I also got lucky that a box was sitting next to the canning jars so I had a handy container for getting them home. Next time, I should be sure to bring my own box just in case. I had meant to, but just like with the pounds of beans, I didn’t think about it as I left home so it was forgotten.

So this morning, I made 4 pints of dill beans. One of them hasn’t sealed yet, so it might go in the fridge. Not terribly disappointed in that as I didn’t have any leftover beans this time (in fact, could have used a few more in the last jar). I absolutely adore these pickles but I would probably save the canned ones for the middle of winter, so having an unsealed jar to eat would be lovely! :)

And I made 6 pints of dill pickles. I realized that I easily could make more than 3, so I processed them separately. With pint jars, it took more cutting as none of my cukes were short enough. But I think I’ll prefer opening pint jars–unless Eric ends up loving these. Which I hope he does! But I tend to eat a few pickles for a few days, then forget about them. So a pint jar will easily last a few weeks or a month.

There were a few pieces left over and plenty of brine, so I tossed them in an empty jar along with some carrots and cauliflower. I also did this to the brine from last week’s dill beans. If I enjoy these flavors, I’ll make other dill pickles with excess veggies. Not that I ever have excess carrots–I love them too much. But I’m not a huge cauliflower fan and haven’t been eating up what we got from the farmer. I take them to work, but only like them with dip. But I’d eat them pickled straight up.

It takes 30 (pints)-45 (quarts) minutes for my canner to come to a boil before sterilizing jars. I never remember this year to year, despite having written it down a few times. Hopefully, this summer’s work will keep it in memory!

It would be far easier and faster to have a helper (I remember helping Mom as a kid!). For instance, once a jar is packed, someone else could put in the liquid and on the lid while I packed another jar. With just one person, you are doing all the steps!

I have a glasstop stove and have no problems canning with it (the reason I didn’t try for the first few years we lived here) despite warnings elsewhere. I have never tried pressure canning, but may this winter.

If you are thinking about maybe trying canning, I recommend jumping in. It’s not nearly as intimidating as I thought. And pickles are REALLY easy since you don’t have to cook the main ingredients first. I’m finding pints easier as well. For starters, they take less work and require fewer ingredients to get a good number of them. They also take less water to cover!

My recipes are similar to what you’ll find online and in books. But here they are from my relatives.

Garlic Dill Pickles Rita Frost (my Grandma)/ Ellen Bilstein Hamlein
Bring to a roiling boil:
2 c vinegar
1 c salt
12 c soft water (I just used my tap water)

Pack jars with one head of dill (dry or fresh) and one clove of garlic top & bottom. Fill with cucumbers and pout boiling solution to cover. Leave 1/4″ headspace. Seal 15 minutes in boiling water bath. Makes 8 qts (or 16 pints?)

I used wide mouth pints, took about 10 4″ quartered cukes per jar.

Crisp Dill Beans Rita Frost/Violet VanDeest EDIT: I think I’ll call these ZING! Dill Beans as they are really, really zingy, or at least the ones I put in the fridge w/o processing them are!
2# small tender green beans
1 tsp red pepper flakes/cayenne powder
4 cloes garlic
4 large heads dill
2 c water
1/4 c salt
1 pt vinegar (why it says pint instead of 2 c I have no idea!)

Stem green beans and snap to size if necessary. Pack uniformly in hot, sterilized jars. To each pint add 1/4 tsp red pepper, 1 clove garlic, and 1 head dill. Heat together water, salt, and vinegar. Bring to a boil and pour over beans. Seal in boiling water bath 15 min. Makes 4 pt. (Note: 1qt jar packed fairly well takes 1.5c liquid.) Notes: Due to time spent boiling, I ran out of liquid for 4 pints.

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August 29th, 2008 - Day 3: $400

If I had an extra $400, I would buy a 16GB Apple iPod Touch. That’s the one that’s just like an iPhone, except it’s not the phone part. We have wireless in most places on campus, so it’s invaluable at meetings! I know because my boss and a coworker both have them. We attend just one meeting in common each week, and invariably something comes up that they whip out the iPod Touch for.

Instead, I just entered a giveway for an 8GB iPod Touch instead. You can enter, too! Unique Blog Design is celebrating their 1-year anniversary with this giveaway. You’ll also get a free WordPress blog design–three more free designs are are also being given away.

Find the money: I haven’t been writing these because I don’t want to do this part. Frankly, I don’t have lots of options for earning or creating extra money that I’m willing to do. Selling items, starting a business, having ads on here. Just not interested. So I’m not going to try to do this part of it anymore.

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August 27th, 2008 - Canning morning

Yesterday, I took some time off work to do some canning. Excited, I had plans for two separate recipes–next time, I think I should go ahead and break it up into separate times even though it did mean less heating of the water. It is hard to keep track of two different processes and I ended up forgetting the salt (AGAIN! I highlighted in the recipe because I did the same thing last year, too, and added it late. This time, I’d already filled most of the jars. Luckily, it’s optional.).

I made dill beans, following Mom’s recipe, which came from her Mom and aunt. I loved these as a child and haven’t had anything like them since we moved from SD. I should have called and asked about the red pepper. I just used cayenne powder, which was NOT the right thing so these might be a bit hot. On the other hand, the pepper is really old so might not be very potent. I called Mom in the evening to ask about it and they use broken up dried red peppers from the garden. I’ll have..wait a sec–I already have some left over from last year! I only made 3 pints (1.5# of beans) and one one pint broke in the canner. The bottom just completely sheared off. That means I lost 33% of what I’d made. (I did not try to salvage it given the extent of the breakage.) In addition, I had a few beans left over, as well as some of the brine, so I pouted them into a jar and put it in the fridge. Mom says to try them in 3-5 days to see what I think. I’m particularly wondering about the red pepper before I make another batch. It’s definitely worth buying more beans this weekend to make another, larger batch. I originally had the idea to make these a few weeks ago when I got beans from the farmer. Sadly, I put it off too long and the beans went bad before I made the pickles. So now I have to buy beans, but they have them for $1.5-$2 at the farmer’s market. Far cheaper than the $6/jar I saw at the store! (And not nearly as tasty, either.)

Meanwhile, I also made tomato juice cocktail. Had to run out to the store Monday night for celery, but the rest of the ingredients (onion, carrot, pepper) came from the farmer. Had parsley in the cabinet. I made this last year but froze it. I think I’m much more likely to drink it canned as A) I don’t have to wait for it to defrost before drinking and B) it’s in a jar which is so much easier to shake up than the freezer boxes. The juice separates quite a bit so has to be shaken before drinking–sometimes even while drinking. Maggie likes it, too. We picked 14# of tomatoes Sunday night so I had to do something with them–and this is a pretty easy recipe as well as yummy. I tried all sorts of different recipes last summer; most of them turned out watery and were only good for adding to soup. This one was spot on. Say, I should ask Mom for her tomato juice recipe. Or did we only get it from the store once in a while? No, I’m pretty sure what I remember came from canning. I’ll have to see–that’s where I fell in love with tomato juice after all! (We drank a 4 oz glass of juice with almost every single breakfast. Mom and Dad still do. I always forget to have it, even when I have juice in the fridge, since I don’t buy oj on a regular basis. So when I do, or when I bring out my tomato juice, it gets neglected. But it is such a good habit!)

A half day ta work was quite nice. Wish I could work just half time all the time! Will probably do this again in a week or two when the next batch of tomatoes ripens and it’s not Saturday or Sunday.

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August 25th, 2008 - Go outside and play

Thanks to my brother for sharing “Remember ‘go outside and play?’” from the LA Times. This is our philosophy for Maggie–she’s already doing it this summer at just 3.5. The only precautions are an adult has to let her out (the doors are kept secure due to the animals–if we had none, we’d probably let her go out on her own) and the gates are secured (one is locked, the other one she’s not strong enough to open). The article mentions a new blog, Free Range Kids that I think I will love! Maggie can play outside for an hour at a time or even longer. Sometimes she wanders in to tell us something or use the toilet or ask a question, then she heads right back out. Since neither of us are particularly into hanging around in the backyard, we love that she’s independent!

I wish she could range the neighborhood…maybe when she’s 5 or 6. I don’t really like that our neighbor girls (18 months and 7) do–it just seems too dangerous for the younger one and the older one shouldn’t be in charge of her kid sister at that young of an age. At this point, Maggie doesn’t know enough about safety to not have an adult with her outside the backyard. For instance, she doesn’t understand looking for cars before crossing the street. No way will we let her roam before she understands that one! (The 18 month old, for instance, doesn’t get that one either to our occasional horror. Luckily so far her sister has been vigilant.)

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August 25th, 2008 - Book review: Patriots by James Wesley, Rawles

Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse by James Wesley, Rawles is another of those post-apocalypse novels that I love. It’s quite different, however, from the others. This time, the main characters planned in advance! The book follows the apocalypse and the first few years afterwards, with flashbacks to the group’s founding and advance planning. In many ways, the book could be use as a blueprint for planning yourself (and surviving afterwards). The advance planning, in particular is very interesting–everything from one couple moving to land way out West to stockpiling food and supplies to choosing compatible vehicles (for easy maintenance, parts, and repairs). Another difference: it’s an economic collapse instead of war or environmental.

I have two major complaints:

1. The author is a former Army Intelligence officer and obviously a gun fanatic (enthusiast, he calls himself). Large sections of the book focus on guns, ammunition, bombs, and related weaponry, in great details. (There’s even a warning before the book starts about how the making of some of the things in the book is illegal in many places.) I understand the need for weaponry in post-apocalyptic situations. But I’m not really interested in reading about weaponry in such great detail. Despite this being so far out of my realm of knowledge, and interest, it has spurred me to be interested in at least learning how to shoot a gun. Presently, we own no guns and have no plans to do in the future. But if we ever do (Eric has greatly enjoyed target shooting in the past, both when he was in the Army as well as later with his friends in the police force), I would like to take a shooting course. But still, it got very tedious in the book.

2. If you had the choice to plant a garden or face 18 months eating solely from stockpiles which are mainly MREs, who in their right mind would choose the MREs? I was aghast that no garden was planted the first year (the apocalypse comes in the fall, IIRC, maybe spring, but enough time to plant and harvest that first year). One brief mention was made, but nothing was every actually done. Instead, they survived on MREs. From what I’ve heard, these aren’t the most pleasant meals, especially day in and day out, nor completely nutritious. Plus, if you did not know what the future held, wouldn’t it be best to keep the MREs around–they’ll last for years–in case of, oh, say, crop failure? Even a small garden would give you fresh food and variety for a few months, even if you eat everything and save nothing for the winter. Relatedly, they have no chickens, goats, etc. I think this goes along with #1–he obviously knows a lot more about security than about food production.

Oh, yeah, one other recommendation for a survival situation: When you run out of toilet paper, the next step for me wouldn’t be scratchy paper from catalogs (or whatever they used it from), but cloth. Way more comfortable as well as sustainable.

Overall, a fascinating read (excepting the weapons passages I skipped) that seems very realistic. I mostly enjoyed the characters, the plot lines, their solutions to problems, etc. I was definitely rooting for them ALL to survive and thrive. I did not want to put the book down!

Wesley, Rawles website has many details about the book. I read the Huntington House edition, which has been superseded by the Exlibris version which includes 2 more chapters.

The author’s last name is written “Wesley, Rawles” which made me curious. I was going to ask Eric if Rawles was some kind of Army designation, but never remembered to. I believe it is his own convention instead of hyphenating his last name. Towards the end of the book, a baby is born who is given a similarly comma-ed name, and the two names are the last names of his parents. Nope: Here’s his own answer from the FAQ: “I use the comma to make a distinction between my Christian name, and my family name. My Christian name (James Wesley) is my property. My family name (Rawles) is the common property of all those that share the Rawles bloodline, and our wives. ”

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August 25th, 2008 - Rethinking breakfast

I’ve been getting frustrated the last week or so that I don’t have enough meals in the day to eat all the fresh veggie meals I want and like. Some of our favorites are salsa (I’ve made two so far) and chips, tomato cheese sandwiches (also adored by MJ), pesto and pasta, and salad. Plus I finally got another yogurt sourdough starter going and love the bread from that. There’s tons of zucchini so it’s the perfect time for zucchini bread.

Over the weekend, it finally occurred to me to rethink breakfast. I ALWAYS have bread (toast or fruit bread) or granola, day in and day out all year ’round. Why not have what’s usually lunch or dinner for breakfast? I can have bread–even though it’s great right now as well–any time of year. I can’t have fresh veggies the rest of the year! So for the last two days, I’ve had salsa and chips for breakfast. I may have a salad another day so I can have something else for lunch.

I just got farm fresh, free range eggs at the farmer’s market, so I might make a salsa scrambled eggs for another breakfast.

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August 22nd, 2008 - Homemade salsa

Last week, we got a bunch of tomatillos from our farmers. I’ve never eating a tomatillo before but had a vague notion they could be used in salsa. So I hauled out the salsa cookbook. The few recipes that included it didn’t work very well for me. One was cooked. One had you roast the tomatillos. One had ingredients I didn’t have. I also looked online. Similar results.

But I was inspired. I didn’t have to follow a recipe! Salsa primarily has tomatoes, onions, and hot peppers, with a variety of other things such as green peppers, tomatillos, salt, garlic, vinegar, cilantro, etc., in varying quantities. So I improvised. I chopped up a large tomato from the garden. About half the tomatilloes (just in case it didn’t work, I could try them in something else!). An onion. 3 cloves of garlic (wasn’t enough). A poblano pepper (it was too much). Some cilantro (started to pick the measly little plant that grew out front, then remembered I had some nice cilantro in the fridge. The problem out front is that I didn’t realize it was cilantro and pulled most of it out as weeds. Ooops.) Tossed in some salt and some lemon juice (since many called for lime juice and we don’t have that on hand). After tasting it, I added another tomato in.

My biggest mistake: I didn’t seed the tomatoes so the salsa is very watery. And I put in too much onion for my taste. It tasted better today for lunch. The heat had softened a bit. Last night, barely 30 minutes after making it, we got a lot of extra-hot (to me!) bites. Maggie stopped eating it entirely after one of them. I hope she’ll try it again tonight. She actually loves Daddy’s super hot salsas, and this is probably medium. (I prefer mild salsa!)

I put some Cherokee Trail of Tears beans in soaking water today and will cook them tonight. Then I can make a black bean and corn salsa! I always remember the one from our wedding–not the taste exactly but that I adored it. I think I’ll need lime juice for it, however.

Side note: my tomatoes are finally ripening. In fact, they’ve been ripening. :( I forgot that I had pineapple ones, and they are a pale yellow. Those were ripe, to my despair, because I lost two as I never even checked to see if they were ripe before! I did get one for the salsa and another on my counter. The red ones aren’t ripening yet, however. I finally just took two off even though they didn’t come easily just s I could make the salsa. We’ve been using some small black plum tomatoes for our sandwiches, which work, but I’ve been looking forward to one slice tomato per slice of bread–and the plum tomatoes it takes more like 1.5 entire tomatoes to cover a slice of bread!

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August 22nd, 2008 - Day 2: $200 Friday August 22

If I had an extra $200, I’d buy some new appliances for the kitchen. First, a new toaster oven. Which I just did Tuesday night. ‘Tis the season for tomato cheese sandwiches which Maggie and I both adore. Monday, when I unplugged the cord, it was hot enough to almost burn. Not safe. Combine that with the broken power button, which has sticks in the on position (hence having to unplug it to turn it off), which broke over 10 years ago (IE, before Eric and I had even met)–it was time to move on. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find one at Sears that was as small as the one we had, so we bought a bigger one with two racks. Won’t fit where the other did so have to rearrange the kitchen. On the other hand, I’ve already used both racks at once so not terribly disappointed.

I’d also get a new microwave. We’re using one that’s about 20 years old, meaning it’s probably terribly inefficient. Sometimes, it doesn’t heat the same way day after day (noticed, for instance, this winter when making hot chocolate day in and day out). But we don’t actually use it very much so have decided to just like with it. We are actually using it a ton these days, so a new one might cut our electric bill a bit.

A new blender. I’ve never been happy with our blender. It doesn’t blend very well unless you only have a cup of stuff in it, which is rather lame. I just put up with it as I rarely use it. The main use is for pesto–which I only do a few times during August/September. Most of the rest of the year it is unused. (I also used it extensively when Maggie was first eating to grind up grains, rice, beans, dry veggies, etc. But I usually only had 1/2 cup or less in there so it worked nicely.)

If there’s still money left, I’d also buy additional pasta cutters for my pasta maker. I LOVE making homemade pasta and it would be fun to be able to make lasagna, ravioli, and a few other shapes.

Find the money: Stop the paid-up additions on my childhood life insurance policy–netting around $50-70/year, or $200 in less than 4 years. (I did this on Monday and this year’s check just came in the mail. In real life, it’s already been sent to the mortgage.)

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August 18th, 2008 - Abundance: $1

I’ve decided to join Millionaire Mommy Next Door in her 30 Day Abundance Project (this shows the project’s posts in reverse order, so you might want to read the first day first. The first day, you get $1, and each subsequent day, you double your money. How will you spend it and why? Is there something you can do today to earn or save that much money? Is there anything stopping you from spending the money in this way?

Day 1 $1, Saturday August 16
If I had an extra dollar today, I would send it to The Elephant Sanctuary for Tange’s Endowment Fund, my personal favorite charity.

When I was garage saling for clothes for Maggie, I made a lower offer on a collection of clothes and saved 75 cents! I hate bartering at sales, even though everyone says you should. However, the lady had come over and told me to make an offer when I started browsing. Plus, it was a way to actually get most of an extra dollar today. Yes, I would have bought the clothes even if I’d been turned down. (Funny part, she first said no, how about $6, then when I said nothing, she looked again and realized the original total wasn’t $6!) Technically, you could say I saved way more than $1 since I don’t buy MJ’s clothes at the stores, but since I never buy brand new clothes for her (unless at garage sales) I’m not going to count that.

Nothing’s stopping me and in fact, I have money set aside for Tange already. I should go send it in. And tack on an extra dollar.

*****
Oh shucks, in getting the links for the first paragraph, I discovered she started with $100, not $1. AND, we’re not allowed to duplicate what we spend it on. So I’m going to up the ante, and I’ll save Tange for a bigger donation. So, let’s do this again.

Day 1 $100, Saturday August 16
If I had an extra $100, I’d buy organic bread or white flour. I decided to actually do so this weekend, as I have spending money, and I’d really like to have organic homemade white bread. I have organic whole wheat, but don’t care for 100% whole wheat bread all the time. Given the current cost of flour, and the amount we use, I haven’t considered going organic in the grocery budget. But I can certainly afford to with my own spending money. But I can’t find it in town–checked the natural foods store and the grocery store. The former said she’d never seen organic white flour. I’ve found it at King Arthur, but it’s not available.

Find the money: Donate items no longer needed for a tax deduction. I just can’t stand selling things on EBay or Craigslist. The hassle and arrangements are difficult for me. I prefer to donate. And we just made some significant donations after clearing out the garage that should net us at least $100 savings on our taxes.

*****
By the way, although MMND started this back in June, she’s only up to day 14, as in the midst of it, they decided to move and did! I’ll try to do it more quickly, 5 days a week, but it is the beginning of the school year so who knows? At least it will be a fun break, especially as the amounts get large in a week or so!

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August 15th, 2008 - Children in Thailand

Okay, I’m a sucker for stories of small numbers of people trying to make the world a better place. Even more so when they make it really easy to help the cause. And when they are helping children. And when they name is the same name as a childhood friend it just make sit even more interesting. Anyway, The Charis Project’s immediate goals are primarily to raise money to help take care of the children orphaned by the Burmese government who have managed to escape to Thailand alone. Their immediate needs are food and shelter. Currently, one man in Thailand is taking care of 40 children he has found in the jungle. Somehow, a couple here in America got together with him and decided to form a charitable organization to assist the children (and ultimately their extended families/clans in Burma). They are even planning on MOVING to Thailand next year.

If you’d like to help change the world, too, donate to The Charis Project. Even a dollar is enough to give one child a meal.

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August 14th, 2008 - Where are we?

I’m so disappointed that I missed this. Tuesday, Eric took Maggie to the grocery store, something he typically does once or twice a week. However, for the first time in ages, he went to the cereal aisle (to get some raisin bran). On one side, sugary sweet cereals. On the other, candy galore.

Maggie looks around and asks, “Where are we, Daddy?”

Woohoo! My daughter doesn’t recognize this grocery aisle!!!!!!

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August 12th, 2008 - Workshops

My brother is correct, the workshop in the back of the garage doesn’t actually need electricity to function as a workshop. Perhaps I should have also added that there are no windows and hence no light except that which comes in from the doors. That, actually, is far worse than the lack of electricity for a workshop, to me.

That’s why we only use it for storage. So far–I bought a solar light this spring. But sort of forgot about it and now it’s just one item on a long list of things to do around the house this summer.

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August 8th, 2008 - Our little carnivore

Despite my desire for her to be a vegetarian, Maggie prefers to be a carnivore. Which is why she doesn’t eat a lot of food perhaps since we rarely serve meat. When she does get meat, it’s all she wants to eat. But, since I will eat only organic meat (preferable grass-fed and free range) and Eric agrees that’s a good idea for her as well, and it’s rather expensive, we simply don’t have meat around much. (Eric is a different story–he will eat cheap meat from the grocery store.) (Relatedly, I just read Granny Miller’s post about why she raises her own meat animals and she nicely explains why I try to eat only organic/pasture raised meat. )

Since she likes to eat meat, we want to be sure she knows where it comes from. Although she is rather doubtful of it, she does know that burgers come from cows. (She’s a bit confused on this point, as she also thinks that our veggie burgers come from cows.)

This weekend, we’re going to the county fair. Part of it is a petting zoo of farm animals. Eric told her about it today. They went through a number of the animals each of us would get to pet such as a pig and a chicken. Then she says, “And I will say thank you to the cows.”

Surprised, Eric queries her, “Why?”

“Because they make hamburgers!”

Wondering if she’s thinking that cows sit around making burgers with their hands, he says, “Maggie, hamburgers are made OUT OF cows.”

“I know. They are made out of little pieces of cows!”

“OK. And yes, you can say thank you to the cows at the fair.”

So she both knows where her meat comes from AND she wants to properly thank the cows for providing us the food. I love her!

We need to take her to Cattleana Ranch again so she can see the cows we actually eat. (And are eating for dinner tonight. Eric picked up burgers at the Red Radish.)

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August 8th, 2008 - The garage

Last weekend, we finally did the annual spring cleaning of the garage. I know, we’re a few months late. Oh well! We’re so delighted with how it looks that I want to share pictures. No, we don’t have the best looking garage in the world (far, far, far from it). But maybe it can inspire a few other folks to clean things up. In particular, after 6 years of being annoyed with the lack of places to put things other than leaning against the wall or hidden in a couple drawers (which mostly couldn’t open because of tools leaning on said walls), we bought a number of organizational tools. That’s mainly what’s in the pictures.

workshop

First, let me explain the layout. We have a detached garage which is technically for 2 cars, but only 2 compact cars. Which we don’t have. So we use about 1/3 of it for bikes and mower and such stuff, plus storing recyclables. This area generally gets pretty trashy in the winter as we don’t take time to store things properly. The previous owners built a “workshop” on the back that is a little shorter than the garage and about 8′ deep. There is electricity in the garage–one outlet and the garage door opener. Although it enters from the workshop, there is no electricity in the workshop itself. IE, it couldn’t actually function as a workshop, despite it’s name.

tools left tools right

These first pix are in the workshop. The white wall is the former exterior back of the garage. Newly painted when all the lead paint abatement was going on. The tool hangars are just what I’ve always wanted–but it took Eric four stops to find them! We first got something at Menards, but it was all aluminum, and didn’t cinch, so it would have worked only for items with handles not just poles. He spent a couple hours the next evening running around to all the hardware stores to find the right item, finally at Lowe’s (which we avoid since it’s a new big box retailer in town). Woohoo! All these tools used to be a pile against the wall next to the door instead. In between the tools is the doorway to the garage (just barely visible in the first pic).

garden tools

Just inside the workshop door (the one to the outside, not the one to the garage) is an old cabinet that I’ve used for gardening tools and supplies. The tools were in front of this cabinet before, meaning I could barely use the cabinet. Now it’s free and clear! And many of the hand tools are out of th drawer and hanging up. The fancy organizing tool for this job? A bunch of large nails! We also got a few hooks, which the green bag and whatever’s next to it are hanging on. We still need to find something for Maggie’s gardening tools, which don’t have holes in the handles, so they need some kind of double hook. Or to have a hole drilled in them; then I could loop some cord for hanging, just like some of my tools already have. You can see that we haven’t completely cleaned this area up yet.

And in the main garage, here’s a shot of the drying rack for the onions and garlic. It’s an old screen from our front porch when it had cool old windows (that didn’t work well and were covered with lead paint).

bikes

Last but not least, while I had the camera, I shot my bike and Maggie’s, plus her Trek bike trailer, since I’ve mentioned them before. You may be able to make out the lovely interior walls of the garage in the shot. If you can call them walls. That’s being generous. There are just various pieces of wood (mostly thin particle board) put up here and there, plus one nice section of peg board, except that it’s on the driver’s side where we park the car, so not very useful. And we can only part the car there, because the other side, the one with the bikes, has a beat up floor that includes some, for lack of a better term, potholes. Someday, we’ll replace the floor.

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August 7th, 2008 - Painting the den

For the last two weeks, we’ve been having the den painted. We thought it would be 2-3 days. It took 9. We called in Reeves to do it because we’re 100% certain there was lead paint underneath the wallpaper. (I don’t have a pic of the wallpaper, but it was really old and falling down. We took down the old doorbell a couple weeks ago. The paper behind it hadn’t even faded. Durable, but ugly.) Plus, we just aren’t very good at painting and I refuse to tape our woodwork again (there are like 14 corners per window or something like that). The den, AKA Eric’s room, is the only room that hasn’t been refinished something in the last 30 years (although the kitchen is likely right around that point!). So it’s about time….

That paint wasn’t in great shape. And, as we found out, there were lots of cracks (expected) and even a hole:

den 1

Ralph spent the first 3 days tearing off the wallpaper, putting up a bonding agent (which had to be redone many times due to the amount of wallpaper glue–as we expected and told them to expect given the living room), and fixing the holes (they had to cut out one area it was so bad) and cracks.

den 2

Then he skim coated it all on Thurs. It took way longer to dry, despite the heavy duty fan in there for hours (and overnight). They had planned to put up the orange peel coating in the afternoon, but couldn’t. It was hot and humid outside.

den 3

Then he got an abscessed tooth early Friday morning–sudden and requiring something like 6 stitches. So nothing was done Friday.

Monday, they put up the orange peel. That hadn’t dried by evening, as I found out when asked to check it. Everything was dry, except one small area that I put my fingers on. See how well they covered the woodwork and floor. Far more than we would have done if doing this job on our own. I appreciate the care that was taken.

den 4

Tuesday, it got the primer and the first coat of paint, Sherwin William’s Derbyshire (just like the street my Mom grew up on), in their low VOC version! (Couldn’t get the no VOC one as the color was “too dark” for it. It did not look dark with one coat and we were afraid.)

den 5

Yesterday morning, the final coat was put on and most cleanup was finished, with a bit left for this morning. Ralph also said he could put the woodwork back on that was removed for the floor refinishing. Way cool! (unfortunately, we still have to have someone else come in for the living room as it’s too crowded with the den furniture for Ralph to do it this morning.) I like the color; haven’t asked Eric yet.

den 6

At some point in there, the ceiling was painted white, too. I have no idea when. All of the ceilings in our house are white. Except for the two that are drop ceiling tiles like you see in office buildings. (The LR, DR, and den also have ceiling tiles, but the kind that are attached to the ceiling itself.)

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August 7th, 2008 - Peter Piper picked a peck of purple peppers

And AnnMarie picked one purple pepper! How could I forget it in the list of what’s in my salad yesterday (and today, minus the tomato). First pepper, but there are at least three more purple ones and little greens ones on the other plants.

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August 6th, 2008 - Tomatoes!

Yesterday after dinner (eaten outside due to great weather after a hot and humid day), Maggie and I checked the garden for raspberries. We only found two–one itty bitty one and one big enough to share. Walking back through the garden, Maggie didn’t want to go out, so I pulled a few more weeds. Then, I discovered what I’ve been waiting all year for: two ripe tomatoes! They were black plums, so only 4 bites each. Maggie and I shared one and the other went into my salad this morning.

Speaking of which, is it still a lettuce salad where there are more other veggies than lettuce? Today’s contains: greens, basil, dill, summer squash, carrot, tomato, broccoli, cauliflower, onion, peas, green bean, Dragon’s Tongue bean, and flowers (3 kinds).

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August 4th, 2008 - Storing homemade pasta

It occurred to me today that there might be an easier way to make homemade pasta than doing it the afternoon we want it for dinner: Maybe you can store it! So I looked online, and sure enough, eHow.com provides the answer. I feel pretty silly for not thinking of this before. We love the homemade pasta, but in order to eat it on weekdays, I’d have to start it as soon as I got home. On the weekends…well, Saturday’s my “day off” (meaning I usually run a lot of errands and do home projects, then don’t want to work for dinner) and Sundays often Eric isn’t home (he goes out to dinner and a movie with the guys). So we have only made pasta a couple times since I bought the machine back in the late spring.

But now…I can make it Saturday morning or one night AFTER dinner and store it. Woohoo!

The timings great as I just made my first batch of pesto for the year. I’ve been putting it off, although there’s been plenty of basil and we got the cheese a couple weeks ago. Last year, I did it all at once, taking 3 hours! I just didn’t want to spend 3 hours making pesto just now. Then it occurred to me (aren’t I just brilliant today?) that I didn’t have to do it all, I could just make one double batch. A cinch to complete, and I have about 1.5 cups of pesto in the freezer. (The other 1/2c is in the fridge awaiting pasta.)

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August 4th, 2008 - Some day, just for you, Uncle Monkey

Sock Monkey tutorial. I can do this! I’ve made other dolls, just with regular fabric. It’s the exact same principle, just with a sock instead.

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August 4th, 2008 - Garden harvest

Last weekend, I harvested the onions. I’m not sure how many I have this year. I didn’t buy a bag of 100, and never counted them! I planted about 15-20 as green onions (some of which are still growing!). I’m figuring around 80; maybe I should count them now.

Yesterday, we harvested the garlic. Eric loosened the row with the pitchfork–thank goodness he did it. It’s been very dry (despite watering Saturday morning) and the dirt mainly came up in huge chunks. (And then it poured last night. And thundered and lighteninged for hours in the middle of the night.) I again have way too much garlic. Two years ago, I tossed some very old garlic “seeds” (the bits that come from the flower at the top, they aren’t really seeds but will grow garlic) at the end of the garlic row. (They came from Gramma Paulukonis, who died in 1995. So they were over 10 years old.) Last year, they grew a little bit, forming one small clove each. I didn’t do anything at the end of the summer, and they continued to grow this year. They are still fairly small, but had multiple small cloves. I can’t believe something that old still grew!

I will dry it for a week or so (in the garage) and then bring some of them in to work to give away. I ended up throwing out probably half of last year’s garlic when it wasted away this spring. I will also try drying some to make garlic powder. We don’t actually use much garlic powder, but it will be interesting to try.

I dried some shallots and onions this weekend. Put the dehydrator in the back of the garage due to the smell. We left the car in the driveway, too! The first day it was pretty strong, but the second day was barely noticeable. I’m guessing the garlic will be worse, as the shallots aren’t terribly strong-smelling. These were all from the farmer. I’ve been using shallots in my dressing/dip, but it takes me a while to use the dip up so I got backed up quite a few shallots. I chopped them up for drying. Dried, they made up less than 1 cup! The onions came Saturday. I knew I wouldn’t use them any time soon, plus if drying didn’t work out, I wouldn’t be bothered if I lost a few I hadn’t planned on anyway. It was suggested to try them sliced, but I don’t think it worked too well. They took a lot longer to dry than the chopped ones. And the only thing I use sliced onions for is onion soup (which admittedly, I’ve made just once, this past winter. But we liked it and plan to make it again.) So I may as well chop them next time–we throw dried onion from the store into things all the time anyway. In fact, I use it more often than fresh onions because we usually use so little onion at one time it’s easier. I should probably dry a lot more onions. I put the thermostat all the way down to 95 (if I have the time, dehydrating is healthier if you don’t attempt to cook the foods with heat!) and it took maybe 20 hours total. I had only two sheets of each kind (the chopped ones on solid sheets). I think I took the chopped ones out after 15 or so hours. The slices might have done well with more time; I figure I’ll toss them back in when I do the next batch.

I also chopped and froze green onions. This will probably work quite well…except that my freezer smells oniony. :( I don’t’ know if it’s just from the freezing time (I put them on a cookie sheet) or the bagged ones as well. I’ll have to check in a couple days and either double-bag the onions and/or put some baking soda in there.

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My Adventures in Simple Living

Archive for August, 2008

August 31st, 2008 - Some more canning

August 29th, 2008 - Day 3: $400

August 27th, 2008 - Canning morning

August 25th, 2008 - Go outside and play

August 25th, 2008 - Book review: Patriots by James Wesley, Rawles

August 25th, 2008 - Rethinking breakfast

August 22nd, 2008 - Homemade salsa

August 22nd, 2008 - Day 2: $200 Friday August 22

August 18th, 2008 - Abundance: $1

August 15th, 2008 - Children in Thailand

August 14th, 2008 - Where are we?

August 12th, 2008 - Workshops

August 8th, 2008 - Our little carnivore

August 8th, 2008 - The garage

August 7th, 2008 - Painting the den

August 7th, 2008 - Peter Piper picked a peck of purple peppers

August 6th, 2008 - Tomatoes!

August 4th, 2008 - Storing homemade pasta

August 4th, 2008 - Some day, just for you, Uncle Monkey

August 4th, 2008 - Garden harvest

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