This weekend we were blessed with gorgeous, sunny weather, and although it's too early in the season for making hay, that's exactly what we did while the sun shined. We got the perennial bed moved to the back of the yard; now the bees will be facing the flowers. We got the hops moved, and a few rhizomes were cut and packaged to be sent to a buddy of Steve's in Corvallis. And finally, after clearing out where the hops had been growing, I got my three new apple trees planted, which is a load off my mind. The new apple trees came from Dave Wilson Nursery and they look great! I got an Ashmead's Kernal, a Spitzenburg, and a Belle de Boskoop. I hope I love that last apple as much as I love saying it: Belle de Boskoop. Last weekend, I moved the Montmorency cherry, and got the new Lapins cherry planted. The only plants I have left to get into the ground are the new standard blueberries, but I have to amend the soil to acidify it if I want them to be happy. The dwarf blueberries around the bee hive have been productive little things but extremely dwarf, and almost not worth bending over to pick.
Speaking of not bending over, it's four weeks to the date for the marker for six weeks before average last frost for my area, and high time to get seeds ordered. I decided that with last year's delicious filet beans, that I am not doing bush beans anymore, and pole beans are the way for me. 'Denver' were good and prolific, and kept us in fresh green beans all summer long considering that I had only 10 or 12 planted, but they are definitely a young person's green bean. I've tried Romanos, which used to be my favorite green bean, but I found that if you let them get the least little bit 'long in the tooth', they quickly get woody and unpleasant to eat. I didn't have that problem with the filet beans, and only left them on the vine when they looked like they'd make better seed than eating. I'm perusing the seed catalogs now, and I'm probably going to stick to one or two seed companies only to save on shipping. After looking over my seed, I noticed that most were packed for 2010, and since I haven't kept them under ideal conditions, I'd better order new seed to ensure the best germination and results. Plus, I'm still looking for the best varieties of things for my area. Not sure what I'm going to do about tomatoes this year; the best tomato to date were the two German Queens we bought as plants from stupid old Home Depot; I haven't found seed for them yet, and they really performed the best so far. Am I sorry I didn't save seed from them? Well yeah, but I haven't mastered saving tomato seed either, so it's a wash. Maybe it was only beginner's luck but my first tomato harvest was my best. I'd hate to think it will always be that way.
The other thing I want to tell you about is that we recently tried a red quinoa, and it was delicious. I've tried regular quinoa but prefer the red- it's much nuttier in flavor. I knew that quinoa was from South America, and I wondered if it could be grown here. I was skeptical, but lots of South America is just as cold there as it is here, so it was worth exploring. It turns out that quinoa is a cool weather crop! Different websites suggested planting the seed in April, and quinoa doesn't do well in places where the summer temperatures average above 90 degrees (if that's you, try growing amaranth, otherwise known as Love Lies Bleeding, which is a perfectly dreadful name). The best thing I discovered about quinoa, beside the fact that it has a better balance of amino acids than milk so therefore is a better source of protein than milk, is that the saponins that coat each seed and have to be rinsed, rinsed, rinsed off the seed before cooking it renders the seed unsavory to both birds and mammals, so it's bird proof! And squirrel proof! The leaves also make a delicious and nutritious green. There is so much to recommend it that I'm going to try it, even though it doesn't do well in heavy soils- it does best in well drained soils, so I'll try it in a raised bed. I'm going to save some of the organic stuff I found in the bulk section of the supermarket because it's the only red quinoa I've ever seen offered, and organic means that it hasn't been treated with anything. The only thing that might hold up germination is 1) the wrong soil temperature, and 2) it's just plain old seed. So this will be another Grand Experiment in a long list of many.
I kind of hope that this balmy weather holds up for another week and that we have sunshine next weekend, because the rest of the beds desperately need to be weeded. There is a ton of pop weed in the bed with the January King cabbages. I also want to get serious about the new large bed that will get the greenhouse, and there's another section of five each three-foot square little beds that really need to be removed and replaced with one l-o-o-o-n-g raised bed. I'm thinking the pole beans grown on the south side of that so that I can grow summer lettuces in their shade.
And this year I'm doing cucumbers, darn it! I missed having them last year. So much to do, and spring is definitely coming- the hops were barely poking their heads out, which means that the asparagus are not far behind. Could be just the spring fever from the nice weather we're having, but the daffodils and tulips are popping up all over the place too.
This ought to leave me just enough time to find some cheap black buckets for blanching asparagus before it starts coming up. But hooee! Spring will be here before you know it!
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Beer, Apfelwein, and Project Plans
Steve is out in the garage cracking barley for the next batch of beer that he's brewing today, and if I remember correctly, it's a Mexican Amber. He finally figured out why his brews are a little on the malty side; he just bought a new thermometer to screw into the side of his brew kettle and decided to calibrate it against the dairy thermometer that he has been using and an ambient thermometer and discovered that the dairy thermometer is low by two degrees at 60F, which could translate to being exponentially off the higher he gets the contents.
The apple wine he made from commercial apple juice turned out very well. He opted not to use the second pound of corn sugar in the fermentation and I'm glad he didn't, because it's plenty alcoholic the way it is. The commercial apple juice and Montrachet wine yeast fermented into a pale, dry wine, that he carbonated like beer, and it's really a pleasure to drink. It's dry, and crisp, and has an apple bouquet, but it's not over the top in any direction. The good news is, that unlike beer, Apfelwein can be fermented over the summer. Steve wants to try an ale yeast the next time he makes it to see if it will leave a little more apple in the flavor of the wine. I'm game to try it, but I'm pretty pleased with how this batch turned out.
I decided that I needed to turn my goals list into an actual plan and attack it like a project. First I put all the goals into a master list and then listed what can be put on a punch list and taken care of quickly; the low lying fruit, in popular project-speak. Then I decided what is a major project, what the predecessors are for that project and whether or not it's an ongoing project, like the garden.
Today I added a Garden sheet to the plan, and listed out vegetables I want to grow this year, and then I noted important things about each of them: what season or seasons they grow in, whether or not they grow well here, whether or not we like them, whether or not they produce multiple harvests (important when you don't have a lot of time) and whether or not they keep well on their own, i.e., do they keep without canning, drying, or freezing. All this will help me figure out what to plant and when, and where.
In the meantime, here is a link to a cool site with a bunch of interesting ideas and a few videos.
I decided that I needed to turn my goals list into an actual plan and attack it like a project. First I put all the goals into a master list and then listed what can be put on a punch list and taken care of quickly; the low lying fruit, in popular project-speak. Then I decided what is a major project, what the predecessors are for that project and whether or not it's an ongoing project, like the garden.
Today I added a Garden sheet to the plan, and listed out vegetables I want to grow this year, and then I noted important things about each of them: what season or seasons they grow in, whether or not they grow well here, whether or not we like them, whether or not they produce multiple harvests (important when you don't have a lot of time) and whether or not they keep well on their own, i.e., do they keep without canning, drying, or freezing. All this will help me figure out what to plant and when, and where.
In the meantime, here is a link to a cool site with a bunch of interesting ideas and a few videos.
Friday, January 6, 2012
Getting Real About 2012
I suppose that when I drew up my list of goals for 2011 last year, I had unrealistic expectations of myself, even for a fairly industrious person with a lot of time on her hands. I must have figured that I had all year to get this stuff done, what could possibly get in the way? Clearly I didn't consider the possibility that I'd actually find work and have a whole lot less time in which to get it all accomplished. Even though I had half the year off, I didn't get half the list done, although I made a good start on some of what didn't get finished. I wonder if goal setting is like playing horseshoes- does close count?
I will say that, in spite of putting up my list for God and everyone to see and feeling somewhat underwhelmed by my own, what's the word…impotency works here, I still think that putting it out there is a good thing if for no other reason than the darn list doesn't get lost.
Without going over the whole, sordid year (that's what the archives are for after all) I'm going to build 2012's list on last year's list, but I'm going to try to be a whole lot more sensible about it, and try to ground the year's goals in reality.
So what didn't get done:
Build dining nook- that one I have started and the hard part (read: time consuming) is almost done. There is no reason why this can't get done this year (save me sawing off a limb or something) so it's going on the list- I might even get it done by Easter. Maybe.
Get the glass into the cupboards- I'm not sure about this one. At this point, Steve and I are really used to reaching through the doors to retrieve stuff, and only open them when they're actually in the way. The doors may come off altogether- I haven't decided. Pretty much the rest of the kitchen is in open shelving, and while dusty, it's convenient, so I'm undecided. (And before you say anything about an earthquake, Mom, cleaning all this stuff up off the floor will give me something constructive to do while fretting about why the insurance agent hasn't called us back yet.) This one's getting tabled for awhile.
Sew and hang the living and dining room drapes- speaking of getting dusty, all the fabric I've purchased for this project is pretty dusty at this point, so no rush. And having a place to sew is somewhat predicated on getting a few other things out of the way, so this is tabled for now as well.
Get the craft closet in the guest bedroom done- I did manage to get the doors installed for this but that was it. But since having a place to cram all my handwork and bill paying out of sight and locked up is pretty key to getting the guest room done, this is going on the list.
Build the guest room beds- also key to finishing the guest room, so on the list it goes.
Get the second coat of paint on the pergola - this is not actually my project because I don't paint. Trust me, you don't want me to paint. This is Steve's project and in his defense, he did get a lot of paint on the pergola last year, but it isn't finished and it should be, so this goes on the list.
Plant the pergola- some of that second coat of paint went to places on the pergola so that I could have planted it, but I couldn't make up my mind what to plant: hops? grapes? roses? I've finally decided to do grapes after all, so we can get this done this year.
Put together planting calendar for our area- now - this is a tricky proposition, because the darn climate in the PNW is really wacky, and getting more unpredictable every year. The first summer we were in this house (2009) we had two days of temperatures at 106F, with a full week over 100F. The next summer wasn't nearly as bad, although instead of starting like someone flipped on the switch on the fourth of July like usual, it waited until the week after the fourth to start. Then this last year we had hail in May, a long, chilly and wet spring which lasted until the third week of July, and the summer, when it did finally start two weeks later than usual, was in the seventies and low to mid-eighties. It didn't actually even get hot until the second week of August, and then we only had a total of three weeks of what you could call hot weather. I am more convinced that instead of building a calendar for planting, what I need to build is a greenhouse of some sort. I've experimented with various hoop-de-don't houses, which means that I've made a number of half-assed attempts, but The Mother Earth News had a great article this year about building a hoop house, so those are the plans I'm going to use. It will go over the bed that I dug up last year and on which I have a variety of things in various states of rot because I'm composting in situ. So yeah- I know what I'm doing and I know where it's going- both in terms of where in the backyard and on the list.
Eat from the garden every day- *sigh*. The garden was such a bust this year. Such a bust. But oddly, we're still doing pretty well in terms of getting use from it, even though I had a lot of trouble with it and the weather. I still have a lot of garlic and shallots, and those I use almost every day. I have a total of four celery plants that I dug up, wrapped up in paper, and planted in a pot of dirt in the garage, and those are doing great! When I need celery I go out and unwrap one of them and cut a stalk or two off and then re-wrap it. The other night we had the first of the parsnips out of the garden with leftover New Year's ham and they were *awesome*. I have a load of golden turnips out there I'll treat the same way, and we can eat the greens. I have some January King cabbages growing, so we'll see what they do this spring. But I'm bound and determined to do better this year, even while working, so how do I write this as an achievable goal? Put in a realistic garden and take care of it. I don't know what a realistic garden is at this point, but it's got to involve stuff we like to eat, stuff that grows well here, and mostly stuff that produces a lot of food for one plant or for a small space. Sounds like an entire separate post.
Find and buy pastured pork, poetry, and dairy- Steve and I really believe that animals, whether raised as pets or for food, should have reasonable lives and should be raised and slaughtered in a kind and humane fashion (well, not the pets of course) , and that raising them on pasture and field harvesting them is the way to go. Last year we purchased a grass-fed half-steer from Carman Ranch in NE Oregon, and that was a good experience. Actually, make that a great experience. The only reason we didn't do it this year is that we wanted to try pork, and a half-steer is a lot of meat for two people who don't eat it as often as the average American. However, the pork project was not as happy an experience as the beef. It was slaughtered a couple of months early (presumably because the corn supplements were pricey) so we didn't get as much pork as I expected for the same amount of money- instead of being around five dollars a pound, it was eight dollars a pound. Plus, it was corn supplemented, which made me wonder about the whole pasture thing. Then we had an unsettling and unhappy experience at the butchers where we picked it up. I thought about asking my friend Rae to grow a porker for us and our retired-farmer neighbors to our west, but she also had an unsettling experience with a different butcher she used this year. So I'm not sure what we're doing for a meat order this year, especially since we are going through the pork very slowly, possibly because it was cut so weirdly. Maybe having more of it ground up is the way to go- I dunno. We still have two of our own roosters in the freezer (thank you again, Rae) and pasture-raised eggs are not a problem because we've been buying them for awhile from the local fancy-pants grocery store down the street. So I think this year's goal should be to eat all the pork, render all the lard, use all the suet, and then figure out what we're going to do next.
Put together bug-out box for emergencies- I actually did this, but couldn't quite cross it off the list because I got flummoxed by the beer can stove instructions, and a bug out box is nearly useless without a stove. While in Florida, I did successfully make a tuna can stove and tested it successfully, too, so I'll do that one instead and get this thing done. At this point though, I need to go through the comestibles and rotate my stock. A calendar reminder for stuff expiring might also be a good idea, and setting one up for the pantry would be helpful as well, so those will go on the list. In the meantime, though, I've been backing the car into the garage every night, just in case we have to load it, and for the practice. Steve has taken to calling the garage the Bat Cave. I'll be less amused if he starts calling me the Old Bat.
Finish the bedroom- I don't know how much 'finishing' of the bedroom I'll manage this year but by golly, I am getting a real bed this year. This month even, although it will take eight to ten weeks to build. After that, everything gets moved around and I can start on the guest room, once the dining nook is done, of course. And then, once the guest room is done, I'll have a place to sew stuff for the bedroom, so finishing the bedroom has a lot of predecessor projects in order for it to be accomplished. I think I'll just call this one 'make headway on the master bedroom'- a real bed will be a great start.
Redesign and build a hoop de do for next winter- this has been addressed earlier. I'm not designing it, and I think it needs to be done earlier than for next winter if I want to have things like tomatoes and cucumbers and eggplant and peppers. And I do. I want all those things.
Spend 20% less on utilities where we can control it, i.e., gas and electricity- this is a piece of cake and we're doing better than 20%, because of the solar water heater and solar PV system Steve had done this year. He figured out a PV system large enough to send so much power out to the grid during the summer months as to make our net bill at the end of the year zero. In the meantime, we're still careful with the electricity. The big utility action we need to take this year is to get the rainwater harvesting system in- that's what the metal roof was for, after all. This one is going to be my project though, and I need to do more research. I have a general idea of how a system works, but I need to research for our needs if it will be better to have our contractor dig a big hole and bury the cistern, and whether to buy one or have him build one out of concrete or ferroecement, OR have him pour a pad and sit the cistern on top of the pad. The former would be hidden, but require a pump, the latter would be highly visible, but but most likely be gravity-fed. Like I said, I need to research this, which will involve involving Jef the contractor, but it should go on the list.
Reduce active spending- well, we're not really doing all that well here, especially since I'm working, but the new plan is to live on my income, and throw all of Steve's income at the principal and get the house paid off early. This first month of the year that won't exactly happen, because we're buying a bed, but- we'll still try to do as well as we can, and we started this back in September or October, so I can report with some cheeriness that out of the mortgage payments that we make every month (besides the extra principal), more of it's going to the principal than the interest. So I'll put this on the list instead of reduce active spending, because to do it, we will have to reduce active spending anyway, and I think this is a more concrete goal in that regard.
Reduce trash created- generally, we do pretty well in this department, although we're far from the one bag every two weeks goal. Being more self-sufficient would go a long way here, although I don't believe there is such a thing as self-sufficiency. I do, however, believe in self-reliance, so I guess I'd better get more self-reliant about the trash, not that I'll be burning or burying it or anything. The next goal on the 2011 list gets rolled into this one.
Develop several sources of income- table this- I can barely keep up with my job, although I'm grateful to have it. See me again in a couple of years after we get the house paid off though. I might be singing Johnny Paycheck's tune by then, provided, of course, that I can still remember it after I have my stroke.
Fix the irrigation- I should. I really should.
Then there are the goals I crossed off but that later failed: I need to do bees and chickens again, so those go on the list. I'd like to do rabbits, too, but I'm not starting another species until I can successfully raise the others.
I have a few things to do in the garden because I have more trees coming: I need to move the perennials to the back of the yard and closer to the hive, and then plant the hops where the perennials were. The idea here is to give the hops something on which to grow that will provide shade for summer lettuces. I also need to plant the six regular-sized blueberries that I just got at Christmas where the raspberries were, which means I also need to amend the soil there with some peat moss. And I also really want to try to grow some wheat; last year I harvested some volunteer grain that grew from the straw I was throwing into the compost pile, but it made such a pretty shock that I hung it up in the kitchen and can't bear to pull it apart. Plus, I don't really know what it is.
I also have a new project for inside the house- I want to turn the utility room into a walk-in pantry, and I've already talked to the contractor about it. It will be doable, and affordable, so win-win. Plus, we'll be able to move the grain mill out of the garage and back into the house, where it really belongs. And it may be cool enough to extend Steve's brewing year.
And then last but not least- not least, by any means: I miss having a dog in my life, badly I miss it, but I have to get the front yard enclosed first because I don't want a peeing and pooping dog in the backyard where all my food crops are. But in order to enclose the front yard, I have to get the rainwater system in first so that its construction doesn't destroy the new fencing. But a new dog is on the list. Definitely on the list.
Reviewing the list, which is nearly as long as last year's, makes me realize that I've given myself a tall order again that is not particularly grounded in reality after all. But if I can get at least half of it done, I'll be doing better than last year with less the time, so I'll still consider it a win.
Particularly if the chickens are all pullets, and the bees don't die.
And especially if I get the dog.
I will say that, in spite of putting up my list for God and everyone to see and feeling somewhat underwhelmed by my own, what's the word…impotency works here, I still think that putting it out there is a good thing if for no other reason than the darn list doesn't get lost.
Without going over the whole, sordid year (that's what the archives are for after all) I'm going to build 2012's list on last year's list, but I'm going to try to be a whole lot more sensible about it, and try to ground the year's goals in reality.
So what didn't get done:
Build dining nook- that one I have started and the hard part (read: time consuming) is almost done. There is no reason why this can't get done this year (save me sawing off a limb or something) so it's going on the list- I might even get it done by Easter. Maybe.
Get the glass into the cupboards- I'm not sure about this one. At this point, Steve and I are really used to reaching through the doors to retrieve stuff, and only open them when they're actually in the way. The doors may come off altogether- I haven't decided. Pretty much the rest of the kitchen is in open shelving, and while dusty, it's convenient, so I'm undecided. (And before you say anything about an earthquake, Mom, cleaning all this stuff up off the floor will give me something constructive to do while fretting about why the insurance agent hasn't called us back yet.) This one's getting tabled for awhile.
Sew and hang the living and dining room drapes- speaking of getting dusty, all the fabric I've purchased for this project is pretty dusty at this point, so no rush. And having a place to sew is somewhat predicated on getting a few other things out of the way, so this is tabled for now as well.
Get the craft closet in the guest bedroom done- I did manage to get the doors installed for this but that was it. But since having a place to cram all my handwork and bill paying out of sight and locked up is pretty key to getting the guest room done, this is going on the list.
Build the guest room beds- also key to finishing the guest room, so on the list it goes.
Get the second coat of paint on the pergola - this is not actually my project because I don't paint. Trust me, you don't want me to paint. This is Steve's project and in his defense, he did get a lot of paint on the pergola last year, but it isn't finished and it should be, so this goes on the list.
Plant the pergola- some of that second coat of paint went to places on the pergola so that I could have planted it, but I couldn't make up my mind what to plant: hops? grapes? roses? I've finally decided to do grapes after all, so we can get this done this year.
Put together planting calendar for our area- now - this is a tricky proposition, because the darn climate in the PNW is really wacky, and getting more unpredictable every year. The first summer we were in this house (2009) we had two days of temperatures at 106F, with a full week over 100F. The next summer wasn't nearly as bad, although instead of starting like someone flipped on the switch on the fourth of July like usual, it waited until the week after the fourth to start. Then this last year we had hail in May, a long, chilly and wet spring which lasted until the third week of July, and the summer, when it did finally start two weeks later than usual, was in the seventies and low to mid-eighties. It didn't actually even get hot until the second week of August, and then we only had a total of three weeks of what you could call hot weather. I am more convinced that instead of building a calendar for planting, what I need to build is a greenhouse of some sort. I've experimented with various hoop-de-don't houses, which means that I've made a number of half-assed attempts, but The Mother Earth News had a great article this year about building a hoop house, so those are the plans I'm going to use. It will go over the bed that I dug up last year and on which I have a variety of things in various states of rot because I'm composting in situ. So yeah- I know what I'm doing and I know where it's going- both in terms of where in the backyard and on the list.
Eat from the garden every day- *sigh*. The garden was such a bust this year. Such a bust. But oddly, we're still doing pretty well in terms of getting use from it, even though I had a lot of trouble with it and the weather. I still have a lot of garlic and shallots, and those I use almost every day. I have a total of four celery plants that I dug up, wrapped up in paper, and planted in a pot of dirt in the garage, and those are doing great! When I need celery I go out and unwrap one of them and cut a stalk or two off and then re-wrap it. The other night we had the first of the parsnips out of the garden with leftover New Year's ham and they were *awesome*. I have a load of golden turnips out there I'll treat the same way, and we can eat the greens. I have some January King cabbages growing, so we'll see what they do this spring. But I'm bound and determined to do better this year, even while working, so how do I write this as an achievable goal? Put in a realistic garden and take care of it. I don't know what a realistic garden is at this point, but it's got to involve stuff we like to eat, stuff that grows well here, and mostly stuff that produces a lot of food for one plant or for a small space. Sounds like an entire separate post.
Find and buy pastured pork, poetry, and dairy- Steve and I really believe that animals, whether raised as pets or for food, should have reasonable lives and should be raised and slaughtered in a kind and humane fashion (well, not the pets of course) , and that raising them on pasture and field harvesting them is the way to go. Last year we purchased a grass-fed half-steer from Carman Ranch in NE Oregon, and that was a good experience. Actually, make that a great experience. The only reason we didn't do it this year is that we wanted to try pork, and a half-steer is a lot of meat for two people who don't eat it as often as the average American. However, the pork project was not as happy an experience as the beef. It was slaughtered a couple of months early (presumably because the corn supplements were pricey) so we didn't get as much pork as I expected for the same amount of money- instead of being around five dollars a pound, it was eight dollars a pound. Plus, it was corn supplemented, which made me wonder about the whole pasture thing. Then we had an unsettling and unhappy experience at the butchers where we picked it up. I thought about asking my friend Rae to grow a porker for us and our retired-farmer neighbors to our west, but she also had an unsettling experience with a different butcher she used this year. So I'm not sure what we're doing for a meat order this year, especially since we are going through the pork very slowly, possibly because it was cut so weirdly. Maybe having more of it ground up is the way to go- I dunno. We still have two of our own roosters in the freezer (thank you again, Rae) and pasture-raised eggs are not a problem because we've been buying them for awhile from the local fancy-pants grocery store down the street. So I think this year's goal should be to eat all the pork, render all the lard, use all the suet, and then figure out what we're going to do next.
Put together bug-out box for emergencies- I actually did this, but couldn't quite cross it off the list because I got flummoxed by the beer can stove instructions, and a bug out box is nearly useless without a stove. While in Florida, I did successfully make a tuna can stove and tested it successfully, too, so I'll do that one instead and get this thing done. At this point though, I need to go through the comestibles and rotate my stock. A calendar reminder for stuff expiring might also be a good idea, and setting one up for the pantry would be helpful as well, so those will go on the list. In the meantime, though, I've been backing the car into the garage every night, just in case we have to load it, and for the practice. Steve has taken to calling the garage the Bat Cave. I'll be less amused if he starts calling me the Old Bat.
Finish the bedroom- I don't know how much 'finishing' of the bedroom I'll manage this year but by golly, I am getting a real bed this year. This month even, although it will take eight to ten weeks to build. After that, everything gets moved around and I can start on the guest room, once the dining nook is done, of course. And then, once the guest room is done, I'll have a place to sew stuff for the bedroom, so finishing the bedroom has a lot of predecessor projects in order for it to be accomplished. I think I'll just call this one 'make headway on the master bedroom'- a real bed will be a great start.
Redesign and build a hoop de do for next winter- this has been addressed earlier. I'm not designing it, and I think it needs to be done earlier than for next winter if I want to have things like tomatoes and cucumbers and eggplant and peppers. And I do. I want all those things.
Spend 20% less on utilities where we can control it, i.e., gas and electricity- this is a piece of cake and we're doing better than 20%, because of the solar water heater and solar PV system Steve had done this year. He figured out a PV system large enough to send so much power out to the grid during the summer months as to make our net bill at the end of the year zero. In the meantime, we're still careful with the electricity. The big utility action we need to take this year is to get the rainwater harvesting system in- that's what the metal roof was for, after all. This one is going to be my project though, and I need to do more research. I have a general idea of how a system works, but I need to research for our needs if it will be better to have our contractor dig a big hole and bury the cistern, and whether to buy one or have him build one out of concrete or ferroecement, OR have him pour a pad and sit the cistern on top of the pad. The former would be hidden, but require a pump, the latter would be highly visible, but but most likely be gravity-fed. Like I said, I need to research this, which will involve involving Jef the contractor, but it should go on the list.
Reduce active spending- well, we're not really doing all that well here, especially since I'm working, but the new plan is to live on my income, and throw all of Steve's income at the principal and get the house paid off early. This first month of the year that won't exactly happen, because we're buying a bed, but- we'll still try to do as well as we can, and we started this back in September or October, so I can report with some cheeriness that out of the mortgage payments that we make every month (besides the extra principal), more of it's going to the principal than the interest. So I'll put this on the list instead of reduce active spending, because to do it, we will have to reduce active spending anyway, and I think this is a more concrete goal in that regard.
Reduce trash created- generally, we do pretty well in this department, although we're far from the one bag every two weeks goal. Being more self-sufficient would go a long way here, although I don't believe there is such a thing as self-sufficiency. I do, however, believe in self-reliance, so I guess I'd better get more self-reliant about the trash, not that I'll be burning or burying it or anything. The next goal on the 2011 list gets rolled into this one.
Develop several sources of income- table this- I can barely keep up with my job, although I'm grateful to have it. See me again in a couple of years after we get the house paid off though. I might be singing Johnny Paycheck's tune by then, provided, of course, that I can still remember it after I have my stroke.
Fix the irrigation- I should. I really should.
Then there are the goals I crossed off but that later failed: I need to do bees and chickens again, so those go on the list. I'd like to do rabbits, too, but I'm not starting another species until I can successfully raise the others.
I have a few things to do in the garden because I have more trees coming: I need to move the perennials to the back of the yard and closer to the hive, and then plant the hops where the perennials were. The idea here is to give the hops something on which to grow that will provide shade for summer lettuces. I also need to plant the six regular-sized blueberries that I just got at Christmas where the raspberries were, which means I also need to amend the soil there with some peat moss. And I also really want to try to grow some wheat; last year I harvested some volunteer grain that grew from the straw I was throwing into the compost pile, but it made such a pretty shock that I hung it up in the kitchen and can't bear to pull it apart. Plus, I don't really know what it is.
I also have a new project for inside the house- I want to turn the utility room into a walk-in pantry, and I've already talked to the contractor about it. It will be doable, and affordable, so win-win. Plus, we'll be able to move the grain mill out of the garage and back into the house, where it really belongs. And it may be cool enough to extend Steve's brewing year.
And then last but not least- not least, by any means: I miss having a dog in my life, badly I miss it, but I have to get the front yard enclosed first because I don't want a peeing and pooping dog in the backyard where all my food crops are. But in order to enclose the front yard, I have to get the rainwater system in first so that its construction doesn't destroy the new fencing. But a new dog is on the list. Definitely on the list.
Reviewing the list, which is nearly as long as last year's, makes me realize that I've given myself a tall order again that is not particularly grounded in reality after all. But if I can get at least half of it done, I'll be doing better than last year with less the time, so I'll still consider it a win.
Particularly if the chickens are all pullets, and the bees don't die.
And especially if I get the dog.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
I'm Excited!
I'm excited because, after ten years of marriage on a decent enough (king-sized Stearns and Foster) mattress on a metal frame with no head board, Steve and I are finally going to buy a real bed! Part of the reason we're finally getting around to this is that we've been lost in a king sized bed and discovered that even in the summer when we're not plastered together trying to keep warm, a king-sized bed is still way too much real estate to devote to sleeping, so we're downsizing to a queen. This will give us a lot more room in the bedroom to move some stuff around. Another reason is for the feng shui aspect- a bed that surrounds you in wood gives you more control over your career. But in the interest in local production and better sleep, we're going to buy an Englander mattress, which are manufactured up the road in Tualatin, Oregon. That is the mattress on our day bed and I l-o-v-e sleeping on this mattress. When I really just. can't. fall. asleep, I go out to this bed and fall in and asleep almost right away. Really.
And I think I found the bed, too, and I'm more excited about that than anything else. Made of sustainably forested hardwoods using old-fashioned joinery techniques (read: lasts a lifetime or more), the company is in southeast Portland and seems to have a pretty square head on its shoulders. I mean, how could you not love a guy who describes himself as 'founder and head slacker'? Plus, I just really like this bed.
All I have to do is convince Steve that this is the right one for us.
And I think I found the bed, too, and I'm more excited about that than anything else. Made of sustainably forested hardwoods using old-fashioned joinery techniques (read: lasts a lifetime or more), the company is in southeast Portland and seems to have a pretty square head on its shoulders. I mean, how could you not love a guy who describes himself as 'founder and head slacker'? Plus, I just really like this bed.
All I have to do is convince Steve that this is the right one for us.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Homesteading Update 14 December 2011
Things have been pretty quiet on the homesteading front lately, which is primarily due to the weather being strangely cold and dry for these parts right in the middle of the rainy season, and my working an average of fifty-plus hours every week, which doesn't include the commute. It's cold and dark when I leave in the morning and cold and dark when I get home, and I'm pretty wiped out by then anyway, so not a whole lot is getting done around the homestead. I have been working on the dining nook on and off, and have the back panels done. I probably won't pick that up again until after the holidays.
Tonight Steve bottled the Apfelwein he brewed four weeks ago using Ed Wort's Apfelwein recipe. We bought six gallons of Tree Top apple juice cheaply at Costco just for the purpose of brewing them into a potent potable. The wine should be ready in about three weeks, maybe a little longer with these cold temperatures. I'll let you know how that goes.
In other news, this month's electrical bill showed that we used 6.3 therms in December of 2011, partly because we're not using the dryer, and partly because the solar panels have been producing more energy than we anticipated for this time of year because of all the sunny days we've been having. I should say we used only 6.3 therms, because last year we used 12.7 therms, so this December's use was slightly less than half of last December's use. Pretty good.
I'm happy about it anyway.
Tonight Steve bottled the Apfelwein he brewed four weeks ago using Ed Wort's Apfelwein recipe. We bought six gallons of Tree Top apple juice cheaply at Costco just for the purpose of brewing them into a potent potable. The wine should be ready in about three weeks, maybe a little longer with these cold temperatures. I'll let you know how that goes.
In other news, this month's electrical bill showed that we used 6.3 therms in December of 2011, partly because we're not using the dryer, and partly because the solar panels have been producing more energy than we anticipated for this time of year because of all the sunny days we've been having. I should say we used only 6.3 therms, because last year we used 12.7 therms, so this December's use was slightly less than half of last December's use. Pretty good.
I'm happy about it anyway.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
I Didn't Miss The Turkey And Here's Why, or- The Long Awaited Red Cabbage Post
Steve and I stayed home this Thanksgiving because there was some work that needed to be done on the car, and the Friday after Thanksgiving was the only day I wouldn't need it and he could get it done. And with just the two of us, I didn't feel like messing with the whole turkey dinner thing, so I made Rinderrouladen and red cabbage, and we had that with whole wheat Spaetzle (and gravy).
Rouladen just means 'rolls' in German, and they are easy enough to make. I'll give you my recipe for them, which is probably the same as everybody else's, and I'll give you the recipe for my red cabbage, which isn't like everybody elses, and I'll give you Steve's recipe for Spaetzle.
The hardest thing about making Rouladen is finding the right cut for it. Fortunately, Portland has a German deli that also does Rouladen. If I couldn't find a proper Rouladen, I would get my hands on the biggest roast I could and cut it into three-quarter inch slices, then make a butterfly cut from one side of the slice (on the small side of the slice, not the flat side) at one third the thickness, turn it to the opposite end and make another butterfly cut so that it's kind of like a capital N, and then flatten it out and pound it thin and even. Thank goodness I don't have to go that extra step, but I could if I had too.
Spread the Rouladen out on a platter and smear it with some spicey mustard (like a teaspoon, but it really isn't rocket science).
Then lay a couple of slices of bacon on the mustard, some very thinly (very thinly) sliced onions, and then a dill pickle spear on one end. I used scattered capers this time because I couldn't get at my pickles, but dill pickles are traditional and now that I've tried capers, I think dill pickle spears are better for this dish. Start rolling the beef around the dill pickle spear and roll the whole thing up.
Tie up each of the Rouladen into a little bundle.
Brown them in a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil (I use grape seed oil).
When the Rouladen are brown all the way around, pour in enough water to come half way up their sides. Grab a pancake turner and scrape all that lovely fond off the bottom of the pan. Throw in a bouquet garni (in this case fresh thyme, parsley and celery from the garden, and a dried bay leaf), put a lid on it, and simmer it for an hour and a half, turning the Rouladen a couple of times during the cooking time. While the Rouladen are cooking make the red cabbage (see the recipe below).
Remove the Rouladen to a plate and thicken the stock in the pan to make a gravy. I use a tablespoon or two of arrowroot powder dissolved in some cold water because I have a boatload of bulk arrowroot powder, but you can use cornstarch dissolved in water or flour dissolved in water. Arrowroot powder and cornstarch can be dumped into cold water and stirred up- they behave very similarly. Flour, however, you're better off starting dry in a small bowl and adding enough cold water to make a paste, and then adding enough water a little bit at a time to thin it enough to be able to pour it. If you make a paste first, you shouldn't have any lumps. (This method works great with crepe and Dutch baby batters- I mix the eggs into the flour to make a smooth paste and then add the milk a little bit at a time until it's all in- no lumps.)
Once the gravy is done, you can put the Rouladen back into the pan to keep warm in the gravy until you're ready to serve it. Just keep a lid on it on low.
So while your Rouladen were cooking, you should have made your red cabbage. I have zero pictures, because they didn't turn out, but that shouldn't stop you from trying it.
Paula's Red Cabbage
In a large saucepan on medium low heat, brown a few cut up slices of bacon or small cubes cut from a slab of bacon. Remove the cooked bacon and set aside but save the fat.
Dice a small onion and saute that in the bacon fat.
Shred a small red cabbage about the size of a very large grapefruit. Once the onion is translucent, dump the shredded cabbage and cooked bacon into the pan with the onion and toss the cabbage around in the fat to coat it.
Add the following: one cup of beef stock (or a cup of water and a boullion cube), 1/3 cup of red wine vinegar, 1/4 cup of blueberry preserves (the traditional fruit and sweetener is a diced apple and a few tablespoons of honey, but my way is to use the preserves, so you get whole fruits, and to reinforce the red color- it's not strictly traditional but it is my recipe), 1 bay leaf, 1 one inch piece of cinnamon stick, 1 piece of blade mace (or some fresh ground nutmeg), a pinch of ground cloves (whole cloves are too small to fish out later), a small pinch of caraway seeds, and four juniper berries (the last two are optional). Mix it up and taste the liquid for a balance of sweet and sour. Put the lid on it and set it to cook for an hour.
After the hour is up, take off the lid and fish out the bay leaf, cinnamon stick, and blade mace and discard them. Then take a tablespoon of very soft unsalted butter and a couple tablespoons of flour and mash them together until they resemble cookie dough. This is sort of like a beurre manie. Pull pea-sized balls of dough into the red cabbage and lightly stir them in. Put a lid on it and set it on the back of the stove to keep warm while you make the Spaetzle.
Steve's Spaetzle
Bring a large pot of water to the simmer and add some salt (like for pasta).
It helps a lot to do this in a stand mixer:
Beat together: 4 eggs, 2 1/4 cups flour, 1 teaspoon salt, freshly grated nutmeg and freshly ground white pepper (not black- if you don't have white, skip the pepper), and 1/2 cup of water. Beat it until it strings off the sides of the bowl.
It should make a stringy, thick batter, not a dough, and will be really sticky.
Spoon the batter in batches into a Spaetzle maker and squeeze it into a barely simmering pot of salted water.
When the Spaetzle rise to the surface, they're done. It will happen pretty fast so be ready for them. Remove them with a slotted spoon or spider and keep them in a warm serving dish. It helps to keep them from sticking by stirring a tablespoon of butter into them.
To serve dinner, fish the Rouladen back out of the gravy and carefully remove all that string. Plate them with the red cabbage and Spaetzle, and then ladle gravy over the noodles and beef. *
I probably shouldn't have written this post before bedtime because now I'm hungry again.
* Some people like toasted, buttered bread crumbs on their Spaetzle, and some people like some minced onion sauteed with those bread crumbs. Just sayin'.
Rouladen just means 'rolls' in German, and they are easy enough to make. I'll give you my recipe for them, which is probably the same as everybody else's, and I'll give you the recipe for my red cabbage, which isn't like everybody elses, and I'll give you Steve's recipe for Spaetzle.
The hardest thing about making Rouladen is finding the right cut for it. Fortunately, Portland has a German deli that also does Rouladen. If I couldn't find a proper Rouladen, I would get my hands on the biggest roast I could and cut it into three-quarter inch slices, then make a butterfly cut from one side of the slice (on the small side of the slice, not the flat side) at one third the thickness, turn it to the opposite end and make another butterfly cut so that it's kind of like a capital N, and then flatten it out and pound it thin and even. Thank goodness I don't have to go that extra step, but I could if I had too.
Spread the Rouladen out on a platter and smear it with some spicey mustard (like a teaspoon, but it really isn't rocket science).
Then lay a couple of slices of bacon on the mustard, some very thinly (very thinly) sliced onions, and then a dill pickle spear on one end. I used scattered capers this time because I couldn't get at my pickles, but dill pickles are traditional and now that I've tried capers, I think dill pickle spears are better for this dish. Start rolling the beef around the dill pickle spear and roll the whole thing up.
Tie up each of the Rouladen into a little bundle.
Brown them in a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil (I use grape seed oil).
When the Rouladen are brown all the way around, pour in enough water to come half way up their sides. Grab a pancake turner and scrape all that lovely fond off the bottom of the pan. Throw in a bouquet garni (in this case fresh thyme, parsley and celery from the garden, and a dried bay leaf), put a lid on it, and simmer it for an hour and a half, turning the Rouladen a couple of times during the cooking time. While the Rouladen are cooking make the red cabbage (see the recipe below).
Remove the Rouladen to a plate and thicken the stock in the pan to make a gravy. I use a tablespoon or two of arrowroot powder dissolved in some cold water because I have a boatload of bulk arrowroot powder, but you can use cornstarch dissolved in water or flour dissolved in water. Arrowroot powder and cornstarch can be dumped into cold water and stirred up- they behave very similarly. Flour, however, you're better off starting dry in a small bowl and adding enough cold water to make a paste, and then adding enough water a little bit at a time to thin it enough to be able to pour it. If you make a paste first, you shouldn't have any lumps. (This method works great with crepe and Dutch baby batters- I mix the eggs into the flour to make a smooth paste and then add the milk a little bit at a time until it's all in- no lumps.)
Once the gravy is done, you can put the Rouladen back into the pan to keep warm in the gravy until you're ready to serve it. Just keep a lid on it on low.
So while your Rouladen were cooking, you should have made your red cabbage. I have zero pictures, because they didn't turn out, but that shouldn't stop you from trying it.
Paula's Red Cabbage
In a large saucepan on medium low heat, brown a few cut up slices of bacon or small cubes cut from a slab of bacon. Remove the cooked bacon and set aside but save the fat.
Dice a small onion and saute that in the bacon fat.
Shred a small red cabbage about the size of a very large grapefruit. Once the onion is translucent, dump the shredded cabbage and cooked bacon into the pan with the onion and toss the cabbage around in the fat to coat it.
Add the following: one cup of beef stock (or a cup of water and a boullion cube), 1/3 cup of red wine vinegar, 1/4 cup of blueberry preserves (the traditional fruit and sweetener is a diced apple and a few tablespoons of honey, but my way is to use the preserves, so you get whole fruits, and to reinforce the red color- it's not strictly traditional but it is my recipe), 1 bay leaf, 1 one inch piece of cinnamon stick, 1 piece of blade mace (or some fresh ground nutmeg), a pinch of ground cloves (whole cloves are too small to fish out later), a small pinch of caraway seeds, and four juniper berries (the last two are optional). Mix it up and taste the liquid for a balance of sweet and sour. Put the lid on it and set it to cook for an hour.
After the hour is up, take off the lid and fish out the bay leaf, cinnamon stick, and blade mace and discard them. Then take a tablespoon of very soft unsalted butter and a couple tablespoons of flour and mash them together until they resemble cookie dough. This is sort of like a beurre manie. Pull pea-sized balls of dough into the red cabbage and lightly stir them in. Put a lid on it and set it on the back of the stove to keep warm while you make the Spaetzle.
Steve's Spaetzle
Bring a large pot of water to the simmer and add some salt (like for pasta).
It helps a lot to do this in a stand mixer:
Beat together: 4 eggs, 2 1/4 cups flour, 1 teaspoon salt, freshly grated nutmeg and freshly ground white pepper (not black- if you don't have white, skip the pepper), and 1/2 cup of water. Beat it until it strings off the sides of the bowl.
It should make a stringy, thick batter, not a dough, and will be really sticky.
Spoon the batter in batches into a Spaetzle maker and squeeze it into a barely simmering pot of salted water.
When the Spaetzle rise to the surface, they're done. It will happen pretty fast so be ready for them. Remove them with a slotted spoon or spider and keep them in a warm serving dish. It helps to keep them from sticking by stirring a tablespoon of butter into them.
To serve dinner, fish the Rouladen back out of the gravy and carefully remove all that string. Plate them with the red cabbage and Spaetzle, and then ladle gravy over the noodles and beef. *
I probably shouldn't have written this post before bedtime because now I'm hungry again.
* Some people like toasted, buttered bread crumbs on their Spaetzle, and some people like some minced onion sauteed with those bread crumbs. Just sayin'.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Drying Rack for the Homestead
My Homesteader drying rack from Forgotten Way Farms arrived almost two weeks ago and I finally put it together today. We're drying two and a half loads on it as I write (the other half load is on the English rack in the kitchen). It comes unassembled with instructions so that the shipping isn't as expensive as it would otherwise be.
I really like this rack! It does take up a chunk of the living room, and maybe not everyone wants to devote part of the living room to drying clothes, but that's where we had the room (this rack is huge), and we're determined to make changes in our lifestyle at the pace we want to, rather than making forced changes later in life. Change before you have to, is the maxim to which we're ascribing. We get used to living 'simply', as it were, and we'll already be used to it when supply tightens up or our incomes are reduced. If none of that happens, we'll still have saved a lot of money living this way.
But back to the rack. The only criticism I have, which is pretty minor, was that the instructions had a couple of problems where the instructions didn't quite jive with the pictures, which almost stopped the assembly altogether until I figured it out. The key is to stick with what the picture looks like, because they're right. Once I had that part done, the rest of it went together pretty quickly. Something that might make assembly a little easier for anyone thinking about getting this rack is to put a piece of ¾" wood underneath parts that don't touch the floor to make it much steadier to work on. Also, if you have a speed-loading chuck on your drill or impact driver and a phillips driver bit, it will make fixing the screws into the dowel ends go a lot quicker, and there are a bunch of them. Screwing the ends of the dowels in actually took more time than assembling the rack!
All in all, I think this is a great product, and I'm glad that I purchased the largest size they have.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Running Away For The Weekend: Seattle
Steve and I ran away to Seattle for our anniversary and had a crazy good time, starting with the train ride from Portland to Seattle.
The Portland train station is in pretty good shape on the interior, and the outside is covered in scaffolding because they're working on it. It's heartening to see the train station being taken care of.
The line that runs between Portland and Seattle is called the Amtrak Cascades. We opted for business class, and I'm glad we did because aside from there being a little more room, when you check in your seat is assigned and you get to board when they call for business class. With coach, you have to stand in a long line to get your seat assignment and then you have to stand in another line to board. You also get a voucher worth a couple of bucks in the bistro car with a business class ticket. Upgrading our tickets to business class was $32 for the pair and this was for round trip, so I think it was worth it. It was very comfortable. By the way, I learned a couple of things on the train: 1) staying awake on the train is next to impossible, and 2) screaming, obstreperous children are just as annoying on the train as they are on a plane. The difference is that on the train, Mommy can cart the kids off to the bistro car to distract them, which is merciful; on a plane you're trapped. (Don't get me wrong- it's not that I don't like kids- I just really like my hearing.)
The Cascades line runs along the Puget Sound for awhile. We were incredibly lucky to get such a beautiful day for our trip.
Arriving at Seattle, I saw the cars up there on the left. They turned out to be antique Pullman cars, and I wish I'd taken pictures of them when I saw them because they were gone on Sunday when we came back. I asked about them and was told that some people have private cars that they pay a fee to Amtrak to be able to hook up and get hauled around. Which sounds pretty sweet. Actually, being able to afford to buy your own Pullman would be pretty sweet, come to think of it.
Once you get into the city, you can ride public transportation for free in the city center during the weekdays, so we hopped a free bus to within a block of the hotel, which was a cinch to find because it's across the intersection of Spring Street and 5th Avenue from the Central Library. The Vintage Park Hotel is one of those little boutique hotels, which I find I like better than the big chain hotels. The hotel itself was remodeled in the mid-nineties, and in fifteen years, it's showing a little bit of wear and the decor is a little dated, but by and large, it's still a great hotel. The staff was wonderful; after asking us the reason for our visit to Seattle and learning that we were there to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary, they sent up a bucket of champagne and strawberries and chocolate on the house. The concierge handled our dinner reservations for the in-house restaurant Tulio, and when we came down for dinner, the restaurant also treated us to a glass of champagne.
Tulio is a really nice little restaurant, and they too took really good care of us. I loved the cozy and elegant interior, but due to my being a crappy photographer, I couldn't get a decent picture of the interior for you. The only picture that turned out decently was the beet salad, which was delicious, but then, I like beets. Our waiter, Alfreddo, was very attentive and helpful; he recommended a nice glass of wine to go with my duck breast; he steered us to a terrific dessert (the pistachio semifreddo with shaved chocolate and candied orange peel), and he even got the email address of the chef (Walter Pisano) so I could ask for a couple of recipes. He was there when we needed him and made himself scarce when we didn't. Probably the thing that I appreciated most was that he made us feel welcome and that he seemed to be glad to be helping us. Not a lot of waiters make you feel that way.
Friday morning's breakfast was at Belle Pastry on the corner of Spring and Western. This is a picture of the goody case. Steve had the chocolate croissant (pain au chocolat, as I learned in high school) and a ham and cheese croissant, and I had an almond croissant. This place is well worth seeking out if you're in Seattle.
Okay, yeah, we did the tourist thing. I got a picture of the sign, naturally, but nothing of the interior. Pike's Place Market is a huge tourist trap, of course, and there's a lot of kitschy-krappy stuff there, but, and this is a big but, the food stuffs are gorgeous. The fish and meats and vegetables and creamery goods were so beautiful I told Steve we are getting a place with a kitchenette the next time because I want to cook with this stuff! One of the girls at the Belle Pastry told us that she buys all her vegetables there, and I could see why. I even found nice chanterelles for as little as $6.95 a pound, which believe me, is a great price for chanterelles. (Finding them for free in the forest is way better, but you do what you can.)
This is the shop across from the market, and is really part of it. I grabbed a chicken gyro there- spicy and delicious.
Dinner Friday night was at Purple at Fourth and University, and it was good too, but the size of the dining room which was cavernous, made it really, really loud. I also experienced something a little weird that I've never experienced in a restaurant; the seat in which I was sitting, which was just like every other chair in the place, was high enough that my feet didn't reach the floor, and there was no rung on which to rest them, so they dangled throughout my meal. Not too comfortable, on a couple of different levels.
Saturday we wandered back to the market to buy some things we saw, and then wandered up Pike which was a much gentler slope and easier for me to walk. By the time we got back to our hotel, we were in need of a restorative, and we managed to catch Tulio's manager on the way into the restaurant. He was kind enough to allow us into his closed restaurant for an espresso, which we had at the bar. It was precisely what I was hoping for, which was a relaxed cup of coffee in a nice setting. Sitting there, we decided to have dinner there again that night, rather than having to go out again, so we made reservations. The manager asked where we were from and why we were in Seattle, so we told him, and were treated again to another glass of champagne at dinner, on the house. We didn't have the heart to tell them that it wasn't that night, but oh well. At least we learned that they are nothing if not extremely gracious.
The next morning we walked down for breakfast at one of the Seattle's Best coffee houses, which was unremarkable, and then popped down the block to the Walgreens drug store for a couple of items. I missed the group of Asians in leathers that Steve saw, but the fellow that checked us out had a rather feminine afro hairdo, three lip rings, and a luridly colored skull tattoo on his right hand. This probably wouldn't have been as memorable as it was if he hadn't been helping another store employee argue with an old man in a track suit about the price of the cheap wine on the shelf, and that in itself wouldn't have been so memorable if the old man in the track suit hadn't been wearing, and I am not making this up, a purple velvet pimp hat with a leopard hat band. We got out the door and halfway across the street before Steve said, "Wow- that was a freak show," to which I agreed. Freak show was the only way to describe it.
We got back to the hotel, finished packing and checked out. Because the day was so sunny, and it was all downhill from the hotel to King Street Station, we decided to walk the ten or so blocks there. It turned out to be a really civilized and pleasant thing to do and we were both glad we did. At the station, we had time to get a good look at it, and it was depressing how bad of shape it was in. Fluorescent lighting dangled on wires from what had been a beautiful, ornate ceiling.
I was really appalled.
This is one part of the station that hasn't seen too much damage from the ill-advised and ill-conceived modernization that plagued it in the seventies.
But the good news is that it turns out that the station is in the process of being restored. The station was started in 1904, from designs by Reed and Stem which was the same architectural firm that designed Grand Central Station in New York, and was completed and opened in 1906. In 2008, the station was purchased from BNSF (Burlington Northern and Santa Fe) by the city of Seattle for the sum of ten dollars, and it's the city of Seattle that is restoring it. Ridership is up in Seattle, and the Sounder commute trains also use the station. From the pictures of the plans, it should be really beautiful, and much more user friendly.
I think we're going to have to run away to Seattle again. And again and again. What a good time!
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Ten Years Before The Mast
 |
| The mast and me, five years in |
"Well treat it kindly. It's a stranger in a foreign land," I replied, which was something my dad always said when presented with the same statement.
"Don't say that anymore- that's old," said Steve, who knew I didn't mean it, but was tired of hearing it just the same.
"Okay. What was this thought of yours?" I asked.
"Marrying you was probably one of the smartest things I ever did."
Damn right, I was tempted to say. But really? I've been saying for years that marrying Steve was the smartest thing I ever did.
Teaching him how to yeast bake was the second smartest thing I ever did, and convincing him to brew his own beer was probably the third smartest. But I digress.
Steve and I were married ten years ago today on the front porch of a friend's mother's old victorian on the St. Johns river in Jacksonville. We were both wearing our jeans and Birkenstock sandals. This same friend's father presided over our ceremony. His sartorial splendor consisted of jeans and sneakers on the bottom half, and a tux and tie on the top half. He had renewed his notary status just for the occasion, and I still feel that our wedding was perfect.
I'd do it over and over and over again, just the same way, for all the same reasons.
Happy anniversary, Honey Boy.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Insulating Ourselves Against the Cold
After the new metal roof, solar water heater, and solar PV system were installed, the very last portion of the roof project was to get the insulation beefed up, which is just what we did.
The first thing the fellows installing the new insulation did was to install the bird box baffles, which essentially provide a channel for the air coming in from the vents under the eaves (called the bird boxes) to flow into the attic unimpeded and out the ridge vent. They hold back the insulation from covering the bird boxes. Once the baffles were in, they blew in the new insulation, and here it is.
It's pretty high now. And it works really well. On most nights, with outside temperatures in the forties, we were now losing one degree Fahrenheit in warmth inside the house. On nights where it dipped into the thirties, we were now losing only two degrees. After observing this for a few days, it occurred to me that we will probably be able to heat the house comfortably with a fire in the morning, and a fire in the evening, which means that our firewood should be easier to make last longer.
There is no telling how cold or severe a winter we'll have, although by all accounts, it should be a lulu due to another La Nina event, but I think we're in pretty good shape.
Better than I initially thought, anyway.
The first thing the fellows installing the new insulation did was to install the bird box baffles, which essentially provide a channel for the air coming in from the vents under the eaves (called the bird boxes) to flow into the attic unimpeded and out the ridge vent. They hold back the insulation from covering the bird boxes. Once the baffles were in, they blew in the new insulation, and here it is.
It's pretty high now. And it works really well. On most nights, with outside temperatures in the forties, we were now losing one degree Fahrenheit in warmth inside the house. On nights where it dipped into the thirties, we were now losing only two degrees. After observing this for a few days, it occurred to me that we will probably be able to heat the house comfortably with a fire in the morning, and a fire in the evening, which means that our firewood should be easier to make last longer.
There is no telling how cold or severe a winter we'll have, although by all accounts, it should be a lulu due to another La Nina event, but I think we're in pretty good shape.
Better than I initially thought, anyway.
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