Monday, September 1, 2008
I'd rather eat meat than vegetables...
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so what does that mean for my garden. Well...due to the fact that I've changed my whole diet lifestyle I have to rethink my garden. Okay...wait...before you get all freaked out by what I just said, let me explain. I am an obese person. Grossly. Or is that grotesque? LOL Seriously though, it's a very real health threat and I have been making changes in my life to change that fact. About 6 years ago I (and my husband) followed the "Carbohydrate Addicts Lifespan Program" (CALP) by Drs. Richard & Rachael Heller. I felt GREAT! I lost a little more than 100# and my husband lost about #70. But I slipped back into my old habits and put it all back on. I know...bad me. But you know, when you're a carb addict, and I am, that's what happens when we fall off the wagon. For the past month we've been "back on plan" (BOP) and I've lost about 20# now and he's lost around #10. I feel MUCH better, I sleep better, I breath better, and I have much more energy. Just imagine how it will be when I'm down to a more human weight again! The truth of it is, I have to limit my carb intake. If I don't things spiral out of control and I gain weight ...FAST. Seriously, I can put on 5 pounds in 24 hours eating carbs. Now, because I want to stay on plan for the rest of my life, I need to alter my gardening plans. That's not a bad thing folks, it's just the way it is for me. No more potatoes, carrots, corn, parsnips, winter squashes, and other high carb, starchy or sugary veggies (I won't miss the squashes, trust me). BUT...I can enjoy all the leafy greens I want (spinach, kale, collards), herbs, radishes, mushrooms (not a vegetables, but I'm listing it anyway), but easy on the onions & tomatoes. What else?..let's see....aspargus mmmmmmmm, eggplant (I need a tasty recipe, I'm actually afraid to try eggplant still), sprouts, green beans, snap beans, wax beans, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, bamboo shoots, kohlrabi, kale, endive, scallions, celery and *shudder* okra...is there really a way to make okra tasty (no batter recipes)? It just looks slimey and gross to me. Oh and peppers are okay, too. There's only one problem with peppers...I HATE HATE HATE green peppers and so does my husband. I'll eat red, yellow, purple, orange and any of the HOT peppers, but keep green ones AWAY!!! To us there is only one non-negotiable, we will never eat, vegetable and that's green peppers.  Once a day I have what is called a "reward meal" (RM) It consists of a large green salad w/ a few other vegetables, shredded cheese, and organic (MSG FREE & sugar needs to be low on the list of ingredients at least not in the first 4 listed) dressing. I usually make my own dressing with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and dijon mustard. Some protien (chicken, turkey, fish or grassfed beef). Cooked vegetables. And...here's the best part...a REWARD! Yup, one goodie, that is porportionate to the servings of cooked vegetables and the protien. All other meals are "carb reducing meals" (CM) and are balanced proportions of vegetables and protien. I often have cooked chicken thighs on a bed of leafy greens. OH...must not forget lots and lots of WATER to drink....I drink Lipton's Tea to Go for now...it's one of the few that is aspartame free (EVIL STUFF!!!!) and I don't have any problems with Splenda (not everyone reacts the same way to sugar substitutes, I'm fine with Splenda though I prefer Stevia ..which is a bit spendy for me right now.) STOP! Now before you go off willy-nilly about how bad this dietary lifestyle is, please do some research, if you're just parroting what you've heard from the heart association or whomever, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH. Funny thing about that....I read an article this morning that I think is worthy to post here...then we'll get on with my gardening plans..hehe. Excerpts from: "Good Calories, Bad Calories: What Really Makes us Fat" by Gary Taubes “Three facts were neglected during this national push for a low-fat diet. One was the upturn in obesity and diabetes rates that emerged as this new nutritional advice displaced the knowledge that carbs were fattening.” “The second was that when researchers actually did clinical trials to test the hypothesis that eating less fat or less saturated fat prevented heart disease, the evidence failed to support the hypothesis. ” “The third fact that was regrettably neglected during the years that we came to believe in the evils of saturated fat was that back in the 1950s and early 1960s, biochemists and physiologists had already figured out what it is that regulates the accumulation of fat in our fat tissue. In other words, scientists have known what makes us fat for almost half a century.” “What’s even more remarkable — and completely ignored in all discussions of obesity and weight since the 1970s — is that we must eat carbohydrates to accumulate excess fat in our fat tissue. It’s only by eating carbohydrates that we can obtain alpha glycerol phosphate, an enzyme that is an absolute requirement for storing fat. This enzyme fixes the fat in the fat tissue in a way that it can’t slip back out through the fat cell membranes and escape into the blood stream. This is why the more carbohydrates we consume, the more fat we will store. The less carbohydrates, the less fat.” “The reason this science was left behind was a simple one. Diet doctors in the 1960s read the same medical literature that I did decades later, and they then began prescribing carbohydrate-restricted, mostly meat diets to their patients. But a low-carbohydrate diet is high in fat, and fat was thought to be a killer. Indeed, in 1965, the same year that the American Physiology Society published an 800-page Handbook of Physiology describing the recent research in the regulation of fat tissue, the research that implicated carbohydrates and insulin in fat storage, the Harvard nutritionist Jean Mayer was quoted in The New York Times saying it would be the equivalent of “mass murder” to prescribe low-carbohydrate diets to treat obesity. Mayer’s reasoning was that these diets were high in fat and the fat would cause heart disease. That’s how the medical establishment has treated it ever since, even after researchers revealed that high fat diets actually improve cholesterol profiles, rather than worsen them.”
Here's the Heller's carb addicts FAQ site. So my 2009 garden. It will be primarily leafy greens, spinach, lettuce, kale, arugula. I'll grow some green beans, kohlrabi, brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, and peppers. I'll continue to add more herbs. Oh and I probably should get some onions in. Asparagus is still up in the air whether I'll grow it or not. Yea...that sounds like something to dream about and I have 6 months to get the raised beds in between now and February so they'll be ready.
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Sunday, August 17, 2008
A little of this; a little of that.
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Wow, is it hot or what? It's been pretty hot these last few days or maybe it's been a week, I'm not sure. It's been miserable though. Too hot to do anything, to hot to not do what needs to be done. I got some weeding done around the tomatoes, it was desperately needing a good grooming. Pinned up the tomato plants that were getting too heavy to stay up on their own and had managed to wiggle their vines out of the cages. It looks much better. There's some green tomatoes and lots of blooms. Whatcha think? Think I'll have some ripe 'maters before it starts getting chilly? Tim helped me stake out where the rock wall and koi pond are going to be going. We have it figured out that once things start dying out this fall we'll clear the heck out of the area. I've almost got the plans formed in my head. We've figured out about how much we'll need for the rock wall, but I'm having a little trouble picturing the koi pond area....getting there though. The real work will start in Mar. '09 when we dig out the hill. I'm sure wishing we had a mini-bobcat it would make things SO much easier, but it will all have to be done by hand for now. I've been blessed with a contact here in WA for Cotton Patch geese! Next season I should either have some eggs or at least a trio. I'm hoping for a trio, but will settle for eggs. I have another dozen Dominique eggs in the incubator. I'm sure hoping for the best. This is the last chance for this season. That's it for now. |
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Saffron Crocus are in teh HOUSE!
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Friday I got a nice surprise in the mail! A box full of Saffron Crocus corms! WHOO-hoo! They were sent to me by an online friend where we're both members of a yahoo group. She offered them up earlier this summer for generously low cost. I did a little research and it appears they will grow here in the Pacific Northwest, they just need to be planted a bit deeper than where she lives...almost twice as deep. They need to not get as wet as they would tend to get here, but I'm going to make sure I get to the farmer's market where a fella sells nice cedar planter boxes and I'll plunk them in one, keeping it closer to the house, too. I can hardly imagine having enough saffron to dye any wool with, but hey, it'll be fun to grow at least. Maybe I'll use a few threads in an ethnic dish of some sort, not much into Indian food, but I'll give it a go just the same. Oooh yea, I was able to pick up a REALLY nice old wooden dining table (I'm guessing 40-50 years old) with 5 of the original 6 chairs. One of them is a captains chair at least. I'm guessing the other one was somehow broken and discarded. They're all in pretty good condition, but need a good stripping and refinishing. I took it apart to get it home, but I'll have it together this weekend. I'll take a pic and post it. Then next summer when I refinish it, I'll post an "after" pic. hehe. The chairs will need refinishing and reupholstered, as well. I love shopping for upholstery cloth so I'm looking forward to that part. Should be fun....but I do remember how the stripping stuff STUNG like a million bees...*add to shopping list, RUBBER GLOVES*. hehehe For now it's going to be the craft table in the great room, I'll just throw a cloth over it and then I can start working on the bird toys and their manzanita stand. I have all the parts and finally figured how to put it together. :-) Hope everyone is having a great Summer! Oh yea, Piper is doing great and I have another dozen dominique eggs on the way. I'm going to clean the heck out of the incubator and buy a new thermometer and a humidity guage. |
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Maybe first. Maybe only.
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I've had bad luck hatching out some Dominiques. But yesterday one of 5 eggs started pipping and this morning I had a beautiful chick. I'm very proud of this baby as it's obviously beaten the odds. The next few days are going to scary though, I usually lose chicks in the first 5 days so I'll be holding my breath until Thursday morning. Here's a pic in all his/her glory...now what shall I name the little fluff ball...how about "Piper"? Why? Because I'm starting to feel like having a flock of Dominiques is nothing more than a pipe dream!  |
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Some Pics
Wandered outside with the camera: OZZY: Narragansett tom. He's really struttin' his stuff lately. He's also starting to get his tail feather back that were ruined being in a too small house. I've been picking up some wood lately to build a larger more appropriate house for the 4 turks so hopefully by winter they'll have a place to warm and cozy. Right now they're left out over night in an 8ft high fenced enclosure.  Ozzy again, with the 2 narragansett hens and the blue slate tom behind him. Someday I'll get the blue some girls, for now Ozzy has to share. :-)  Mr. Fluffy Bottoms, a cochin roo. He and his 5 ladies are up for adoption. I need the space for Dominiques and eventually some more Black Javas....and the hens keep destroying eggs. They get plenty of calcium, and anyone with chicken experience knows that more often than not once they start eating eggs, it's hard to get them to stop. I'd cull them, but I made the foolish promise to the person I got them from to not do so...so ... hopefully I can find them a home.  Black Beauty Elderberry: Picked this up last year and it's growing like crazy. I know I need to weed around it, I will. :-) |
Friday, July 4, 2008
By the way, I love my job.
At my job I get the honor of caring not only for dogs & cats like my previous job, but also for birds, rabbits, rodents, reptiles/amphibians, farm animals (except horses, full grown cows & llamas) and wildlife. Here's a little guy whose parents were killed by some dogs. I never did hear if he made it as he did have some wounds and a pneumothorax, I hope so. He's a River Otter pup....and yea, that's my ugly mug holding him.  |
Friday, July 4, 2008
Smear Campaign
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Poop smears that is. You've read my rants before on the state of food supplies in the United States and unless you live in a cave somewhere in Siberia you know that there has been plenty of fodder in the news regarding my favorite hated subject. What thrills me though, are the blogs posts that my Bloglines pick up ranting about the same and various websites. Here's a sampling. The Complete Patient: The Tomato Illnesses May Be Teaching Some Important New Lessons About the Best Food "The media also report that consumers are acting much more rationally than the regulators. Consumers are heading to farmers markets to buy tomatoes because they know locally grown foods are much likelier to be safe." The PetConnection Poop in food: What’s up with that? by Christie Keith "Now, my little weekend adventure has served to confirm for me that food safety in this country is a huge issue. I already knew that, of course, given the pet food recall and the stellar work being done by the FDA and USDA on the recent salmonella outbreak. But given my track record feeding dozens of dogs and cats of all ages and states of health (carefully chosen and handled) raw diets, I have to guess that the risks of doing so are grossly exaggerated. Not only have they not become sick from eating these foods, neither have I become sick from preparing them (which is more than I can say about eating in restaurants)." OrganicAuthority.com Organic Food and Safety Written by Laura Klein, Publisher "Looking at the number of people who have fallen ill and wound up in the hospital from this salmonella outbreak, I would rather spend a little extra on certified organic produce and know my food is safe rather then risk my life and an expensive hospital bill." Listen folks, it's pretty simple, the food that you buy in the grocery store simply isn't safe. It's produced on such a huge scale that it's nearly impossible to regulate no matter what the USDA or FDA tells us. We've given the responsibility of feeding ourselves and our families over to corporate America, it's a business, period. Their bottom line will *always* be more important to them than our safety. But we deserve that attitude, it's the world we have built around ourselves, over the last 75 years we've given away our power of self to the government that is supposed to PROTECT and SERVE us. Aren't WE supposed to be the government, NOT corporations? Haven't we had our hands held long enough? Are we going to allow the Agribusiness to lead us over the 1000ft cliff blindly? Or are we going to take the responsibility upon ourselves and STOP relying so much on faceless strangers with dollar signs in their eyes to keep us safe? If you can't raise your own food, then shop locally, find those roadside stands, the farmers markets. They ARE out there and I'm here to help you find something close to you. Try these links:    That'll help you get started. But hey, if you still don't think there's anything out there or you're having trouble finding local foods, drop me a line, I'll see what I can dig up for you. |
Monday, May 26, 2008
Late Start, but a start.
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Wandered down to the local hardware & gardening store "McLendon's" , they actually have a pretty nice greenhouse/nursery and selection of gardening supplies. I picked up some Oregon Star slicing tomatoes, a Brandywine tomato and some Navidad grape tomotoes. I'm a little bummed that I didn't get started on some Stupice that Kim gave me, but I have a plan for next year! I also picked up a fennel plant and 4 banana pepper plants. I got all of them planted yesterday! YAY!!!!! I just hope they do better than last year. I think I got things in earlier this year. Tim cleared my little raised bed where the garlic & asparagus were going to go but I'm seriously rethinking it. Not sure about the asparagus, the seeds I planted & grew last year in the pot are actually growing again this year, so they'll be 2 years old. I just can't decide if I want to grow it. I get mixed messages the pros say you can't grow asparagus here and yet I know a few gardeners that have no problem. Anyway, I think I'll plant the garlic as planned (I know, I'm late or early, what can I say.) and a few rows each of carrots and radishes. Oh yea, I also got a cilantro plant to put in with the rest of the herbs. It looks real nice now. Hmm..except I don't the basil is going to do very well. The sage, thyme, and parsley I put in the cedar box are doing great at least. I have a few other things planned for planting. I'll post when I get them done. :-) I'm going to get what I need to make a huge 18x25 garden space for next year. So I need to buy 12 inch wide board and as long as I can get. Then I'll start filling it up with dirt and maybe plant some winter grains, fava or something. It'll be great! |
Saturday, April 26, 2008
I wonder if I'll finish...
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this post. I've started several posts over the last month and none ever saw the "add new entry" button. I've had a lot on my mind, but it all seemed so trivial. I know that I post more for myself and anyone else, just to get out my own flusters and blusters...and yet...I know that a few people read my ramblings. So in that light...I'm giving it another go. I haven't planted a darned thing. Yep, that's right. We're in the middle of an economical meltdown and food shortages are on the horizon...yet I've planted... NOTHING. I'm using the bizarre weather we've had as an excuse. We hardly ever see snow past January and even less past February. It snowed just a few days shy of April and again on April 19th. Freezing nights. Uhm...someone obviously forgot that our last frost date has long since passed. So knock it off already! ok? I know I have to get off my duff and get some thing done soon, before it's too late. I will. *cough*cough*. I think I'm coming down with something. Yea. That's it. Okay, so my husband did find a job finally. A good one at that. He's working through a contractor with the possibility of permanent status with the company he's working with now. *fingers crossed*. That was a big relief. We would have never made it through this month. No way, no how. It would have been the beginning of the end for sure. But we made it. We're getting caught up, slow but sure, with the credit card companies and we'll have them paid off as soon as we can. Never to play with that deck of cards again. Sure, we'll keep a few *FOR EMERGENCIES* but we're canceling the ones that caused us the most pain and financial damage during our crisis. Word to the wise my friends...never do business with Capitol One. In other news, after two years of asking, I was finally offered full time at my job. Which I snapped up without hesitation. I think they were surprised, too. My fibromyalgia can be quite devastating at times and they know it, but I love my job and my career, so I deal with it. I suspect they thought I would decline. I know they wish I worked evening hours and was more available for extra days, but the truth is, if I don't get to bed by a certain time and I don't have at the very least two days off in a row, I'm not going to be able to work at all. Plain and simple. Fibro sucks. I lost my last pet rat. No more rat boys. No more rats for me. I'm done with them and ferrets. These two ferrets are my last. Their lives are simply too short. They break my heart. I'm sticking with the birds and the dogs. Yea, I know dogs don't live long enough either, but that's ok. I have so much I need to get done before winter and I don't just mean the gardening. I need to work on the rest of the hides I have in my freezer so that I can get it cleared out for my next project, which is going to be filling it with various poultry/fowl that I raise. I want the freezer full of birds. At least 2 dozen quail, 3 turkeys, a couple of pheasants, guinea hens and if I'm lucky some grouse. I'm probably going to pick up a dozen cornish crosses (meat chickens) to fatten up for the freezer as well. That should get us through the winter ok. I'd also like to get started on some knitting projects for holiday gifting, but we'll see. Oh yea, the fiber thing is real. True love. I enjoy knitting socks. I love spinning. I still suck at the spinning, but I think I'm getting pretty good at the knitting part. My next project is going to be the Ice Queen, I have to have the perfect skien of handspun though and I know the perfect person to do the spinning...cuz it sure ain't gonna be me! LOL I've already talked to her about it, I just need to make a decision on the color I think is where we left off. There's still one artsy crafty thing I've been longing to try...and I just have a gut feeling about it being something I'll actually excel at with practice. I so want to throw pottery. It's been in my bones...kind of an aching in my soul. I loved working with clay when I was a child and even as a teen. My parents often bought me clay for during the holidays to work with, up until I was an adult. They have pictures of my projects even 40 years later. I love clay and this coming from someone who hates getting her hands dirty. Yes..it's a bizarre thing I have, I don't like dirt on my hands. I wear gloves when I garden. If I get goo or anything on my hands I have to G-E-T I-T O-F-F. I'm not a compulsive hand washer, I just don't do well with yuck on my hands. Anyway...sometimes I dream about pottery throwing. I'm hoping it will be like when I finally started painting with oils...it was like a releasing something inside, it was wonderful...and I was good at it. Someday...but pottery classes right now are too expensive. There's even a place local to me that teaches it. See what happens, I start typing like a monkey chattering in a tree. I need to stop now. Thank you to each and every individual that was so supportive of my husband and I during our financial crisis. I wouldn't have made it to today without your support. |
Saturday, March 22, 2008
The Wedding
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Well, the internet access to the wedding didn't work for me but my new sister-in-law Kristie sent me some wonderful pictures from their Vegas wedding. I'm so proud of my brother and I adore his new wife, so I want to share a few pics.  JAMES & KRISTIE  |
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Making Bagels
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A co-worker came in one day, sat down, pulled out a bagel, toasted it, slathered it with some cream cheese and proceeded to make some almost obscene sounds with each bite. I noticed that the bagels looked a little "different" than what I was accustom to seeing. I asked her where she got her bagels. "My husband makes them for me sometimes," she said. Makes them for her? Makes them? But I thought bagels were one of those secret, secret recipes and the method was only known to those special folks in New York that had been inducted into the secret society of bagel bakers?? The last really good bagel I had was in 1979 when I was still in high school and slept over at a friends house one weekend. I had forgotten until recently that she had said that having bagels for breakfast was a rare treat because her father would bring them back from a business trip in New York. These bagels were dangerous! Getting a knife through them to start cutting was taking life and limb into your own hands. The knife would invariably slip at each attempt to start a cut. I remember those toasted bagels being absolutely delicious!! I had never considered even looking for a recipe, much less believed that I could find one that was genuine. Boy, did I learn how wrong I was! Ever reliable Google provided me with a plethora of links in response to my query of "how to make bagels". My first link clicked was my last. I just liked the authors writing and I felt immediately confident that the method was genuine. However, I recently clicked on another link and will be trying a slightly different recipe and one that claims to be "Real Honest Jewish Purist Bagels" I'll provide both links at the bottom of this post. :-) Today I want to share my morning of making bagels. Last night I mixed the dough, let it rise for the 2 hours, shaped the bagels and put them in the fridge. All according to the recipe I was using. When I got up this morning I turned the oven on to 450F to preheat. Took out my water bath canner and filled it with water and the baking soda. The longest part seems to be waiting for the water to boil!! Once it finally started boiling. I took out my tray of bagels.  I put 5 of them into my pot of boiling water.  Boiled them for 2 minutes on one side and then turned them over to boil for 1 1/2 minutes more. Watching them boil you see them turn with just a bare blush of golden color and puff up a bit. Not a lot, just enough to give you a glimpse of what is to come. After they're done boiling I put them on a rack to drain for one minute.  They're lumpy and bumpy and full of personality. After their minute of draining, they're ready to go into the oven. You want that boil and blast of heat to create the crunchy & chewy outside and soft delectable inside. The baking sheet is dusted with a corn meal and flour mixture. Let me tell ya, if you don't have a good layer of it the little buggers stick like glue to the sheet!  Into the oven they go! I have a terrible oven so I had to make time adjustments so that I didn't end up with over baked bagels. After a while I have a nice pile of bagels with a husband circling like a shark waiting for the half hour to pass before he can pile on his cream cheese and take a bite...making almost obscene sounds with every bite. Ahhhh....success. :-)  How to Make Bagels: By: Jim Berman Real Honest Jewish Purist's Bagels: by Johanne Blank Eat up!! No reason to toast these either!! |
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
First Socks!
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Okay, I already posted these on my Ravelry but thought I'd toss them up here as well. I knitted my first pair of socks! They're for my darling husband, whose fave color is orange, and he loves them! They match, too! hehe I used Lamb's Pride Worsted and size 5 bamboo needles.  I've already started my second pair of socks. These are for me, using ShoeFly Sock yarn in Ruby Redmond. It's 80% merino and 20% nylon. I'm not sure how I feel about the nylon but the lady at Allyn Knit Shop recommended that I use it when knitting socks. We'll see! |
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Crashing
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Things have gotten ugly here. A week ago Friday Tim went to the PSNS job fair in hopes of getting on with the shipyard and a new career choice. He's leaving his bachelor's degree in media arts behind since it's been almost 8 months since he was laid off of his job and the unemployment benefits have officially run out. We've had to borrow money from my parents and the credit card companies are calling regularly since we're only able to pay the mortgage, car payments and utilities. Even money for food (critters and us) is tight her than a frogs butt. *sigh* For now he's looking at just about anything except fast food, LOL. If he gets on with the shipyard it can take time, time we don't have, so maybe Lowe's Home Depot, Staples, Office Depot or Costco are hiring locally...anything will do for now. He's not happy about it (except the prospect of the shipyard), but things are critical, so he has to buck up and do the right thing. Get a job, any job. 3-4 panic attacks are my daily grind. I'm better on the days I work so I don't have to think about things. Sanity saver: Knitting. Can you believe it? I watch the tube and knit, keeps my mind going in two directions, leaving no room to stress out. But I love the knitting. I just finished the first sock of my first pair of socks. I'm doing it!! I am LOVIN' making socks. I so want the book "Sensational Knitted Socks" by Charlene Schurch, but it will have have to wait until I can spare the money. Dreaming is free though, right? My dad lost all but one of the chickens I hatched out for him last year so he gave me some $$ to buy more eggs. At least that will feed the hatchaholic in me. I'm hoping I can get a good deal on some Rhode Island Reds for him. He gave me enough that if I DO get a good deal I may have some left over to get some Delaware eggs for me. *crossing fingers* If not, I'll just get his eggs, no big deal. My turkeys are amazing. They're so beautiful!! The toms display all the time. I'm watching for eggs from the ducks and turkeys so that I may be able to hatch some of them, too. Garden time is around the corner. I'm off tomorrow so I'm going to go out and evaluate my garden beds to see how they survived the weather. It's been a little over a week since our last snow so I'm hoping that's it until next winter. I think I might try using milk jugs as miniature greenhouses to start some seed if everything looks okay. I have to figure out how to squeeze some $$ out to get some seeds. I have quite a few on hand but I still need: Artichokes Green Beans (bush) Carrots Cucumbers Corn (popcorn) Parsnips Dill Basil Cilantro Sunflowers Adzuki beans I want to go through Heirloom Acres, their seeds look like I can afford them. I'll figure it out one way or another. I'm excited about the coming season...scared too since we're not doing well financially. Things will change....for the better...they just have to, right? |
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Fiber-holic
Knitting and spinning has taken a serious foot hold!  |
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Of Illusions and the Phoenix
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It's not always a happy moment when what you thought was true turns out to be not. I've always thought of people who consider themselves "homesteaders" as being honest, ethical and full of integrity. That illusion has been torn asunder. Maybe I expect too much? Maybe I was delusional from the start? I'm honestly not sure. You see, over the last oooh...4 or 5 years off and on I've been a member of a certain homesteading type yahoo group. I left it about a year ago after one of the members/moderators was unceremoniously slighted, demoted and what wholly amounts to as "shamed" with nary an explanation. To this day she is clueless as to their reasons and understandably, she quietly exited the group. A true loss to the members of the group and a blow to her. This particular individual is a fine human being, intelligent, industrious and above all generous with her knowledge. What disturbed me then and what disturbs me now is that her name is treated with more disrespect and revulsion than the Harry Potter character, "he that shall not be named". Any reference to her in a group posting is deleted from the archives without a word. When the event took place any questions regarding "what happened???" were ignored or met with disapproval and snotty remarks. All posts regarding "the event" were summarily deleted swiftly. It was all very "hush-hush" and the victim was not even allowed to face her accusers. No trial by jury, no explanation or chance for redemption allowed. No, I am NOT suggesting redemption was needed...what I am saying is that someone who as far as they know did NOTHING wrong was hung in the town square without an explanation or the opportunity to defend herself IF NEEDED. So I left the group as well. I figured anyone that would do that to someone they claimed to respect, admire and even love then they were a dangerous crowd to be sure. I was sickened, truly sickened. If I felt that miserable can you imagine how SHE felt? She is someone that deserves accolades and admiration for how she's handled the whole situation, with far more grace and strength than I could ever muster. She rose from the ashes of her own destruction and has proven without question that she is cut from a far finer cloth than those who tear her down. She's proven that again and again. Recently I rejoined the group under the illusion that a) they have changed b) they had files and urls that I needed. I was wrong on both accounts. There's a funny thing about people who are morally and ethically bankrupt....they get worse. Unlike the Phoenix they do not rise from the ashes of their destruction, instead their ashes scatter to the four winds losing more of themselves with the slightest breeze. They are worse. The owner spends most of his time reposting files and information that he's already posted before, there is no "homey" feel to the group, it's very structured and sterile with a gestapo flavor. If anyone dares to post something the moderators deem inappropriate (even if it isn't) the offender is slapped down quickly. I looked over the files and was disheartened to find either files that were empty or articles stripped of credit because they were written by "she who shall not be named". Some of her files are in there, but very few in comparison. I also watched the group posts that came through, one particular post was an article that was copy/pasted from their files...and the authors name stripped. I checked the files, yes the article was still there...with the authors name stripped. I wrote the author to verify she penned the article. Indeed she did. I wrote the owner of the group asking the simple, non-combative question, "Is there any reason that the author of the article is not credited." I received back a nasty response, one that was not deserved and my ability to read the post and find files for the group was insulted. You bet I unsubscribed! They have no morals, no ethics and no respect. I say this with sadness of one group of several thousand homesteaders. Thank the internet gods for the alternatives, but I will tread carefully from here on out. |
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Snow .... again!
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Snow isn't one of those weather phenomenons that happens a lot in this area...usually. But here we are with our 5th snow in the last 6 weeks (maybe less). I'm home from work since I can't get up the road that leads out of our driveway. I thought I was gonna make it this time, since I got up the worst part of it then slid into the bushes when cresting the smallest hill. That was it, if I can't get up without sliding I sure am not going to try the 60 degree angle going DOWN for half a mile. I hate calling in to work that I can't make it. It makes me feel guilty and evil. The person I would be relieving has been there since 10 o'clock last night and I hope they were able find someone that lived on flatter terrain that could make it in to relieve her. *Sigh* I can't do what I can't do. As soon as Tim is working again I'm going to trade my Neon in for something less...skateboard-ish. On a positive note, the snow is beautiful. I hear it started around midnight 1am and it stopped around 7am. Then it picked up again and is coming down! It's supposed to turn to rain but I sorta hope it doesn't, it will though. It's so pretty, it's a wet snow so weighs down the tree branches somethin' fierce. I was outside when I hear the ominous ccccrrrrrrraaack of a branch as it busted and fell behind our shed. It was dark and couldn't see where the noise was coming from so didn't know which way to run, that was a little scary. We were still standing when it was quiet again and found out where it fell once it was light. Now I'm back to daydreaming about spring. I was so sure it was on it's way...guess it took a detour. |
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
New Hope, New Beginnings, New Year.
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Whew! We made it through the holidays! It was a rough one with Tim out of work, but I have learned SO MUCH through this season. Dec. '06 we had a terrible windstorm that knocked down trees and put a hole in my koi pond. I thought then that next December couldn't possibly be as bad. I was WRONG! Dec. 2nd '07 brought us a few inches of snow followed by Dec. 3rd that hit us with a deluge of rain that caused some very serious flooding in several counties. My own county lost a few bridges and mudslides that took out a few houses. We were lucky, although the odd fall of rain and wind resulted in a few leaks in the roof and around some windows. We've not had any leakage since then. You can see a slide show of the flooding HERE The pics of Gorst are about 500 yards from where I work. I live in Belfair and I have dear friends in Tahuya and Seabeck. We spent Christmas Eve with my brother and his new fiancee'. They had a small dinner (11 people total). My parents, my husband and I, my brother, his fiancee', his fiancee's sister & her husband and I think the other two people were the fiancee's sister's husband's parents or at least mother and stepdad (I really don't know for sure about the fella). Oh yea, and the two sisters mom from Philly. I really like brother's fiancee'. I was very worried about him when he and his first wife split., my brother loves deeply and I could see his heart was broken. I could be wrong of course, but that is the way it all seemed to me. Somewhere in all that he met his new girl....he's so happy and I'm so happy for him! She's so sweet and I can see clearly that she understands the importance of family. She's a good woman for my little bro. It was a nice dinner and though the two are vegetarians they served a nice roast (from my parents cow), delicious roasted vegetables (my husband and I discovered we LOVE parsnips) and a killer sweet potato casserole w/pecans. One of the appetizers she made was a positively DIVINE plate of 3 different cheeseballs. So good I had to have the recipe. It's a Martha Stewart recipe!!! (I'm not a MS fan). We didn't care for one of the flavors so when I made it for our New Year's Eve munchies I just split it in two instead of three, making Tim's favorite and mine. So we each got our own cheeseball..hehehe If you have been reading my blog, you'll be able to guess which one I was head over heels! I had to work Christmas day so we left the "party" early. As hard as I tried, I wasn't in a party mood anyway. Christmas day brought us SNOW!!! Yes, we had a white Christmas. I don't remember having a white Christmas since 1971 and it felt special and magical! The roads were mostly clear and I didn't have any problem getting up the hill toward home...a very steep hill for about a 1/2 mile. After work we went to my parents. Much to my surprise it wasn't just going to be are usual gathering. My cousin Tom and his lady (Tom is living in the basement apartment that Tim and I spent our first 4 years of marriage in), my brother and his fiancee', her sister & husband, and her mother. It was strange, but wonderful at the same time. I am not the most social person in the world, add to that my stress and worry about Tim's unemployment and new people...I was not exactly at my best. I felt terrible that I suck at social situations. I just get so nervous and self-conscious about my faults and failings. I usually feel like the big dork of the day. Haha. My co-workers have been amazing during this financial crisis and every time I think about what they did I get teary eyed. One of my friends got up a collection and gifted me with a very generous gift card to Walmart. My husband and I were able to fill our kitchen with food, it was getting to be pretty darned slim pickins. We did get a few fun things, like the Simpson movie and a game that would make it so Tim could play online with me. Other than that it was pretty much all necessities. We spent A LOT. But now I don't fret about what's going to be for dinner. There is no way I can thank them enough and when I do say thank you I feel like it's so little. They all mean the world to me, their thoughtfulness and caring is simply over the top! My parents gave us a waffle iron (which I wanted badly) a pie crust shield (no more burnt pie edges!) a Henkel's offset bread knife (I've wanted one for a few years, not many more Henkel's I need!) and a gift card to World Market where I picked up a micro...uhhh...zester thingie? Anyway, the blade thingie like a cheese grater that I can use for nutmeg and such and a French Coffee Press. We spent the rest of the wally world card on some food for new years including a nice fat turkey that is currently in a brine that I picked up at World Market. I know I could have put a brine mix together myself, but I figured what the heck...ever try to locate juniper berries anyway??? When I made a saurbraten I couldn't find any to save my life except online. My little bro gave us check and I was thoroughly touched, "use it how ever you need it" he wrote in the card. Which, we did. :-) I also ordered Deborah Madison's book "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" (link in right sidebar), what a wonderful book. One of the vets I work with loaned me hers last summer when she was determined to get me to eat more vegetables. She turned me on to a way to cook asparagus where not only could I stomach them I *ENJOYED* them. But then I had to give the book back and I've wanted to try some squash and other vegetables but have no idea how to make them palatable. So now it is January 1, 2008 EIGHT! Can you believe it? Although '07 was a truly rotten year it's one that has taught me a lot. It taught me how wonderful most people really are, it also taught me to not be attached to *things*. Sure, I enjoy my "stuff", but the most important things are not *stuff* they're our friends and family. The teachings of the Asatruar is really starting to take hold in me as well. *gracious smile* I do feel more prepared for my homesteading goals this year due to the lessons of '07. How about you? |
Friday, December 14, 2007
Some weeks deserve reflection.
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I've never been a great blogger, only when the mood strikes me. I have friends who blog everyday, reminding of how my sister kept her "dairies" when we were younger. I'd always try to write, but it never took hold of me like it did her. She had the "need" to write about her days, her dreams, and her pains. Cathartic, I think is the word, and it's never been that way for me. I just do it....to do it...when the mood strikes me. Today is no different, but my inspiration is a 180 degrees different than normal. You see...I'm not someone who has a lot of friends. I don't like to go shopping with gal pals, chit chat over tea and crumpets, share recipes, go to the movies, or anything like that. Venturing outside of my home space is very trying on me, going to work is just something I have to do in order to pay the mortgage....ok, yes, the bonus is that I love my chosen career, so that does make it easier. But I prefer my cocoon, my safety margins. I've always described myself as a misanthrope (A misanthrope is a person who hates or distrusts humanity as a general rule. ...) I don't hate people as much as I find them untrustworthy. I've never felt better or superior to people either. I've always simply felt...different. Today set me reflecting on that and my opinion about humanity in general. Having friends is a lot of work. You have to cultivate it. Which to me means that you have to plant the seed of friendship (your trust), feed and water it to help it grow, and deal with a whole lot of fertilizer (don't want the HSB crew to come after me if I use the word I mean, LOL) that's supposed to make it stronger. I'm not saying any of that is a bad thing, but it IS a lot of work. I never had to do that when I was younger. My father was in the military and, of course, we moved around a lot. I would start in a new school, make a few friends and then I'd be moving on to the next station. I was GOOD at making friends. I never knew I was missing out on the art of KEEPING friends. So for most of my adult life a friend would come into my life and it would last about as long as my father's duty stations...2 years. It was as if friendship had an expiration date on it for me. In 1993 I became friend with someone and it lasted, ohhh...about 5 years. I moved 30 miles away and she was sinking into her old addictions and suicidal tendancies. Too much work for me, I can't deal with alcoholics, drug addicts or psychosis at all. My ex-boyfriend of 14 years (a story unto itself) was a gravelly disabled manic depressive; I have family members who were/are alcoholics or drug addicts. I just don't have it in me to deal with their problems...I can hardly handle my own! The sad part of this story is that she is gone now, she died in May of '02. She was found in her bed and had died in her sleep, after her body gave out from the prescription pills and the alcohol she washed them down with had taken their toll. I didn't find this out until January of '06 when her husband responded to a Dec. '06 holiday card and letter that I had sent her. I was devastated to say the least and I'm still in a lot of pain about that..."what if" seems to be a big part of my life. Anyway, this is a whole lot of typing for what is probably a boring piece of doggie-doo but I'm writing this for me more than anyone else. Today was .... interesting. Chatting with the vet, while she performed surgery, about friendship, misanthropy and communication. That was the start of it. Then a co-worker, that I call friend, gave me a box of food to take home...something we truly needed at this point of his unemployment. I was embarrassed and a humbled at the same time. "Go home and make some cookies," she said. I'm amazed at how people have been through this financial crisis. My friend Kim brought food for us and our critters. My parents opened their freezer to us on a few occasions as well. But it's not just the food. It's the emotional support, the kind gestures, the encouragement to hang on. It seems to come from all avenues in my life. Online, offline, my parents, my husband, people who don't even know me. People who may not even know that they've made my day a little brighter. The person on Freecycle who gave me the pressure canner, the driver who let me in the lane of the traffic jam, the co-worker that smiled or laughed at one of my lame jokes. These things lift a person up. My husband received a letter from the employer that laid him off letting him know that he had finally obtained his "secret security clearance" for his job. That's not something they would spend time and money on if they didn't intend on bringing him back when the work picked back up. Sure it doesn't help us NOW and he can only hope that someone responds to the many resumes he sends out weekly or that the one place calls him back for a second interview, but that letter gives us hope. Hope that this lay off isn't for much longer. He wouldn't even mind if he got called back the week he started a new job! But it's those things that make me feel better about humanity. Okay, wait...it's all of these things that make me take a closer look at cultivating those friendships, keeping them healthy and strong. It's all of these things that takes away that doubt and hesitation ...and attitude...that friendships are just too hard to maintain. |
Monday, December 10, 2007
Canning Excitement
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I'm SO EXCITED!!!!! Tomorrow after work I get to pick up a canner/pressure cooker that I saw on Freecycle. YAY!!!! I wasn't able to do some of the canning I had planned due to Tim being laid off of work and I couldn't afford the pressure canner. But now I CAN can!!!!!! Hehehe. |
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Been awhile, eh?
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Yea, I know I'm slippin'. I don't have a grand excuse for not posting, plain and simple, I just didn't feel like it. Tim is still looking for work. The credit card companies are starting to call and we're making payment arrangements with them to get us through. I've been learning to be a bit more creative preparing meals to help the money stretch and still have something palatable. The bank we have our cars financed through did a wonderful holiday thing where we were able to send $40 each car enabling us to skip December payments. Hopefully we can catch up on the CCs this month although the electricity bill is double the normal amount since it's been really really cold here. I am sure everyone has heard about the flooding here in WA and we happen to live on the Kitsap Peninsula in Mason County, in one of the areas hardest hit with the rain we had Dec. 3rd. We're fine, we live top of a hill and our only real danger is that we're about 10 feet from the edge of a pretty steep drop. If anything we would have mudslides to worry about taking our house. But I felt secure the entire time...even when the roof leaked and two of the three front room windows leaked. Not long, I think it was just the way the rain was being blown. It's rained and not leaked since. The flocks are doing just fine. I have some pictures and video of the snow that preceded the rainstorm so I'll get those uploaded eventually. The inside flock is just dandy also, running a bit low on food but thankfully I have a friend that will help us out if we need it in that department. This has been a rough year, what with husband getting laid off, one of my ferrets died, one of my rats died, one of my birds died, my wolfie had to be put down due to cancer, my flock of chickens is down to almost nothing...I've lost every single new chicken hatched or purchased this year, my health is taking a turn that is concerning me (with no medical insurance!)...next year just has to be better. One good thing...very good thing...important thing...that has happened this year is that I was finally able to meet a dear internet friend that I've known only online for 7 years. It was THE BEST DAY OF THIS YEAR. I was totally comfortable with her, I didn't withdraw into myself and not talk...she's like a long lost sister to me and I love her dearly. I'm so glad to have finally gotten to give her a big squishy hug and talk to her for a few hours. :-) I have to tell you that I'm EXTREMELY excited about Winter Solstice I will start the 12 days of Yule late Friday Dec. 21st. I'm currently working on my "plan of ritual" for the days/nights, but I know so far that I will have an outside fire burning all through the day of the 22nd and if it isn't raining I hope to keep it going until day break of the 23rd, but we'll see. The breaking of winter is coming!!! Plus I hope to have a conversation with my grandmother, whom I miss deeply. |