fluffysgarden

Marking Time

2012-02-07T09:30:00.002-08:00

This is a phyllo-sophical post. Later, near the end, I am going to do something lovely with phyllo dough. But at the moment I am thoughtful about time, timing, and the passages brought by time.
I always seem to be in a rush, and yet it also seems that very little gets done. Most of what I do is not dated or marked in such a way that I can look back and say, "Hey, I built that in ...!" or "We went there in....". So little actions like groceries and banking, getting gas in the car, or cleaning the bathroom are not really marked in a significant way. They are controlled by "routine" which gives them a regular amount of attention. This is an example: I clean out the refrigerator bins before doing a big grocery trip about one time per week. When the routine gets interrupted, the fridge gets stinky with rotten produce scraps. We also pay the bills on a regular (routine) basis. If the routine gets interrupted we get charged late fees. We keep a calendar on the dining table to help us remember the time of month and what day it is. We have been very disrupted for quite some time now and we lose track of time easily. I feel it is a major accomplishment under the circumstances to keep the clothing washed and the bed clean. It is taking both of us to get everything done. And that produces redundancy, which is not efficient. But we are keeping on top, barely, of the emergency things.
In the bigger picture, there is time to do big projects. But if you don't actually start and finish the project, years can go by before a small project really happens. Large projects are even more difficult to schedule and complete. My example: I planned the kitchen for two years and actually started it when the counter collapsed and we had an emergency. It took about two months to complete, except there was a long recovery period in the middle, so it ended up being about 2 years. The kitchen was operable and nice within the 2 months, but the last part of tile and paint and new window took a month after a two year hiatus. This also happened with the living room remodel. The stuff of life, emergency stuff, gets in the middle and makes things take longer. But I can look back and say, "We started the kitchen in 2003, so that surgery would have been in 2003/4." Time marked by big events is easy to remember.
Anniversaries, major events, special trips are my friend. My life is remember in these events and the things that surround those moments. But little stuff, like when I ground that beef or cooked that chicken need to be written down in permanent marker on the freezer bag. Don't worry, the phillo dough is getting closer.
SO, by researching some records, we found that Eduard's father started building the Milling machine project in 1995, but didn't actually do any work on it until 2001, and he was not able to actually work much on it after about 2004 because of health issues. He died in 2009 at 78 years old. The project is about half done even though it has been 17 years since he started it. I could say that maybe he put off the actual work a bit too long, but that would be trite. I have no idea what issues preempted his efforts through the years. I do know that some dreams and projects die on the planning board, or should have died, because we just didn't get around to it in a timely manner.
OK, now it is time for the Phyllo dough part. Timely manner- I have been craving some spanokopita (spinach pie) for a week. I bought the spinach, had the cheese, and thought I had the dough. But, no. So time passed and I finally got to the store for the dough. The spinach has died now because the routine of cleaning the produce bin has been disrupted and I forgot when I bought it. Now I have dough, cheese and no spinach. Argh! This has been my life for the last 6 months. It is driving me crazy. I need lists, routine, order in the chaos. I need spanokopita tonight!!! This is why there is frozen spinach. I know I have some of that, but it is buried in the freezer because there has been no time to clean out the freezer. ARGH!!

Recipe- Layers of phyllo painted with melted butter (about 15). Layer of cheese/spinach mix. Layer of 15 butter painted phyllo sheets. Bake 350f for 40min. Cool for 10 min. before cutting. I use a roasting pan about 9x13 in.
Spinach/cheese mix: I like to cook the spinach to dry up some of the moisture. Then I cool it before continuing. For frozen spinach, just let it thaw and drain (squeeze out excess water). Use one pound raw spinach or one package of frozen spinach, one cup of ricotta cheese, one egg, on small pinch of nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 cup grated romano/or parmesan cheese ( you can also add a tablespoon of grated onion). Mix well and spread on the first layer of phyllo dough.

There, it was worth the wait for the recipe. Now I have to go to the store and get some spinach.

T-day Frenzy Withdrawal

2011-11-16T14:28:00.000-08:00

It is getting closer and I am getting nervous. Getting the house cleaned up, setting out the best service ware, preparing the menu, shopping, cooking, invitation, family conflicts... except this year, it is not going to happen. I am not going to have Thanksgiving at my house. I am nervous out of habit.
I am going to my daughter's house because she and her dear husband have taken the baton and are running the next lap. I am making "appetizers and side dishes". I am still searching for ingredients and special recipes, delicacies and fun ideas. And I have found some very special things.
While out and about last week, my darling and I discovered a new SPICE store in Newport, Ca. Amazing selection, ability to sample and sniff, can buy in small quantities for single use or in bulk. And some very unusual things- like meat cure for making sausages that need to age before cooking. And powdered blue cheese, which can turn that Ranch dressing into something special.
While we wandered around in Newport, we found a cheese store, Vin Goat, and tasted several different goat cheeses along with a smoky blue. These were very tasty and unusual. Made me want to add a few ideas to my cheese making adventure.
And there was the coffee class at Sur La Table. Very enlightening. My coupon expires today and I have decided to use it one last time for a special treat. Like I need another gadget or thing in the cupboard that goes unused for many years.
I promise my children that I will have removed the bulk of this stuff so they don't have to have a giant garage sale after I am gone. But, it is so cute. No honey, not the $300 thing, but the $60 thing.
Then as I was wandering though the recipe ideas, I read something really weird. California has banned the sale of fattened Goose and Duck Livers- Foie Gras. This is so reminiscent of the junk food ban of the 80's. The theory is that ducks and geese are "force fed" to get fat livers for the production of Pate Fat Liver (Foie Gras). Most people who can eat pate are buying pork liver flavored with tiny amounts of other meats because Goose and Duck are sooo expensive here. The duck produces lots of fat around it's skin (same for goose) so making the duck extra fat so that the liver is really fatty seems unnecessary, but some politicians (who can't balance the budget) have at least decided to protect the ducks and geese from the absurdly rich. What about regular duck liver? Like the chicken parts in a whole chicken, can you still get a regular duck liver with your duck? I don't know. Maybe the Pate Patrol will individually remove all duck liver from the frozen birds. I have two lovely ducks in the freezer. One for the after Tday weekend, and one for the xmas day dinner. I am hoping there are livers in the cavity with the heart, neck and "parts". The Pate Patrol doesn't start until Jan. 1, 2012. My ducks should be all there.

Taking Back the Life

2011-11-07T09:33:00.000-08:00

There has been a swirl around me for the last few years. The Chaos has been building to dysfunction level. And now, I am striking back, forcing the clutter into submission, tossing and sorting, and... where did this stuff come from?
I was looking at some things in the dining room and found a box full to the top with jars of every size and sort. None of them looked familiar and I had no idea where the box came from. And inside this box was a collection of lid rims and tops to odd size jars. I had been searching for these and assumed that I had tossed them in a cleaning frenzy. Tossed? Surely not me! I have to admit that occasionally a useful item gets tossed, but not a rim to a jar, unless it is rusted beyond use.
As I sorted honey pots, moved the general debris to the trash, I started to see the floor and realized- I haven't mopped this part of the floor in two years. Made me want to cover it right back up.
Eduard and I grabbed a shelving unit from his mom's house and made a place for his coffee stash- roaster, power cord, green bean collection, aging jars, and coffee miscellany. I stole back the bottom shelf for the honey collection- a two year supply just in case of a bee failure. As I studied this new arrangement, I realized that we have covered a wall that was waiting for "repair". It needed wall patching and paint, and my time has been sucked into the black hole for the last two years, so it never got done. And it won't get done now either. I will have to do it when I can move all the stuff out of the way, which may never happen. At least it is covered with lovely and interesting stuff, so I hope no one notices.
The Wyrmberg towers, tube homes for spinning silk worms, have all been cleaned out now and taken to the garage for storage. The boxes are getting flattened for the recycle bin. The floor is getting swept. The wool processing... well, it may have to stay a little longer. The dining room has been the overflow work room, since the woolyroom is rather a bit too full. I have had looms and drum carders occupying the dining room for months. The woolyroom is still way out of control. Even with things getting sold and moving on, it is way too full. And I still have raw fleece to wash. It can't go into the woolyroom until it is clean.
My spinning wheel collection is taking over the living room. Right now there are three in there. The guest room has a loom and the cotton collection. I haven't had time to weave or spin. I have been making socks for a client, socks for myself and some presents. I am just running everywhere and getting nothing done- except socks.
So back to the dining room- I may actually get that room under control this week. I have repackaged jars, sorted things to get rid of, taken out trash, and cleaned off the table. I have put away the cheese tools, toasted lots of cocoons, and am ready to wash off part of the kitchen counter. I suspect that I may even get a chance to vacuum.
It is beginning to feel a little bit better in there, not so confusing and disorienting from the clutter. I just hope I can find things now. The new "arrangement" with actual floor showing is a bit dizzying. The room looks so much larger.

October Finale

2011-10-31T15:46:00.000-07:00

I have too many projects. We know this. The Eduard and I we, the world who know me we, and the world who don't know me we- We all know I have too many projects. I can't find time to blog about all of them. I can barely find time to do some of them.
This month, I was (and still am) raising silk worms, had a booth at the fiber festival, organized the spin group at the same festival, went to the Palomar Apple festival and did spin demonstrations there, made goat's milk cheese, cleaned up the mess from the festival, made new friends, found old friends, continued helping Eduard and his mom, spent time as a volunteer at UCSD and did laundry. I took a cooking class- first in 30 years. I feel it was a really full month and now it is over. Today is the last day. Halloween and I have no candy.
I do have silk worm cocoons, a silk project to write about, items coming from ASHFORD for my clients, a pile of clean laundry, and most of my kitchen back.
The silk worms are almost done now. I am down to one active box of worms who are not yet spinning cocoons but are close. I have enough leaves to finish the silk worms (I hope, because they pruned the tree). And I am ready to move to the next project- cheese, bread, and Thanksgiving.
I also ordered a new wheel- an electric wheel- just in time for the Power Co. to give us notice of an all day shut down. Well, I can still use the other ones. But I have been really busy with all these different tasks and projects. Now for Thanksgiving, I am trying some new and exciting food ideas. I got these ideas from my cooking class and added some of my own ideas, plus some new equipment. And Presto!- I need to make a list of ingredients and try the ideas before I make other people eat them. One of the items involves a duck- part of a duck anyway. Another item is orange colored. One has marshmallows but is not new. I am very excited to be making these treats and treasures for my family. I haven't been particularly excited about cooking for a long time and this class has gotten me excited again. Enough to take another class- in November, with Eduard. This is a class in Newport on making coffee drinks- barrista style. Macchiatto, frappachino, and that kind of stuff. We don't have an espresso machine. We use the coffee pot for our stuff. But it is possible to make these drinks with regular coffee. I know this and hope that the class addresses this issue.
But now I have to go grate some lemon zest. It is time to make dinner.

Setting Limits

2011-09-26T11:34:00.000-07:00

Some of us enter into things with blind naivety. Like having children. We take it on faith that it is a reasonable thing to do and it has a limited time frame, say 18-20 years. But afterward, we discover that it could actually be 30+ years, or suck up out entire life so that we are chronically sleep deprived. And it is expensive.
Even after doing considerable research, we often fail to consider obvious facts or base our decisions on hope for the outcome. This sometimes leads us to have to compromise during the activity and to the "setting of limits".
This is where I am today. Setting limits. Some of the activities are those I chose and some have been thrust upon me, but whatever caused the start of it, today I am setting some limits.
I do not speak of my wool collection, wheel collection or fiber frenzy. These activities know no limits. What I am speaking of is...worms.
I entered into an experiment on raising silk worms with considerable research and some expense. The anticipated time limit seemed reasonable and the space required seems tolerable. The food was a bit expensive, but convenient as I don't have a Mulberry tree. There was not much information out "there" on this type of food plan, but I knew I could wing it and make it work. And it was only for 4 weeks. This, I could do.
The first failed observation was time. The research suggested that you feed them 3 times a day for a couple of minutes. Clean their waste every three or four days. But with the new feeding system, this didn't turn out to be the case. I feed them once a day and spend about 1 1/2 hours cleaning out the trays of waste. Even with the worm herding system working, it takes more time than I had expected. AND the biggest issue was the 4 week commitment. It is really longer because the eggs have to be out of the refrigerator for a couple of weeks before they start to hatch. Already we are looking at 6 weeks. AND the little buggers don't all hatch at the same time. They can take weeks to hatch. Now we are looking at 8-10 weeks of commitment.
My second failed observation was that those eggs are really small, and the little bit I put on the tray turned into 300+ worms. Not a problem while they are small. I have sufficient room and trays, but they get bigger and the trays will fill the dining room and every flat surface in it. Then the little guys will want to cocoon somewhere and I have gathered less than 50 tubes. I will spend hours rolling paper into little tubes and taping them together to make cocoon condos for the worms. A massive complex for my little dining room.
I think I have enough food, but I am only mixing up a little at a time. I don't have enough room in my fridge for all the food for the worms and food for us people, too. This experiment has "bloomed" into a worm boom.
So that part about setting limits. Well, today I made a decision. I was cleaning the worm trays and decided that any eggs that had not hatched as of that morning cleaning, would go to the composter. I am committed to the babies I have, but after this morning- no more babies. That way, I will at least be somewhat certain that the existing worms will have 4 more weeks to get to adulthood and that there will be enough food and space. I probably tossed 50 eggs with little worms inside screaming, "Wait! I am almost ready!" But since they didn't waive their little heads at me, I didn't listen.
Vermicide? Or setting limits to my commitments. You can judge me if you want but I feel better all ready.

Settling into Summer

2011-07-05T17:27:00.000-07:00

It is really here! Summer, for the first time in two years. I have real peaches and they are ripe and sweet. So it is time to do some canning. I am looking forward to it. It has been difficult to get the garden under control. The weeds are hard to work on in the drizzle and chill wind. It is much nicer when the evenings are dry and lightly cool/warm. Tonight I will mow the lawn, pick some weeds and work lightly in the garden beds. It is pleasant work after the hustle and bustle of the last two weeks.
I have been to Oregon to the fiber festival. Driving, working, shopping, playing, driving, driving, and more driving. Whew! I was glad to get home. Then taking the car to the shop, getting the house cleaned up and stocking in the food and beer for Eduard's party. Plus my other work. I feel like I came home in a dead run and have been running for another week.
Finally, on Monday, July 4th, I collapsed in a heap and could barely get out of bed. The party went on without me, mercifully. I was able to be lazy and drift for most of the day. I have so much to do still and so little energy left. I spent Tuesday cleaning up the kitchen, refrigerator, and cooking the last foods that the party missed. I have a packed week and need to get some control over the chaos. Again, a long nap in the afternoon, helped restore the energy for the evening.
I am pleased with the fleece I bought and all the fibers and toys. And as usual, after running wild for a week, I just want to stay home and play with my new stuff. Hopefully, I will get the work done and have a chance to play this weekend. I need a slow, lazy, warm summer to take some of the hustle out of my bustle.

Strangely Silent

2011-06-20T08:41:00.000-07:00

For several days, I watched in silent fascinated horror as Tsunami waves washed over Japan and people picked through the wreckage for parts of the life they had known. Then the awful truth about the nuclear meltdowns started to drift over, slowly and insidiously, first as full on lies then part truths. Finally, when the initial interest faded, the real truth slipped into the back pages of the news. It was leaked out like the leaking radioactive water. It floated by like a radioactive steam cloud.
In the recent days, I have searched the news for follow up information. There is none, but an occasional paragraph on some world conference on nuclear safety. There is some discussion by world leaders that maybe we should be looking into safer technologies.
The real truth is that the Japanese nuclear reactors are still melting down, releasing outrageous amounts of radiated water and waste into the environment and nothing is really being done to stop it. When Chernobyl went, the US rushed to help dump concrete on the facility to stop the release of radiation. Last I heard, it was marginally successful, but the area is still seriously contaminated and uninhabitable. At least there was a stop. Well, that is what we were led to believe, anyway.
But now, the world has lost interest in this event in Japan. We are poisoning the Pacific ocean, our food, water and air. We are not even watching in fascinated horror as our planet becomes uninhabitable. We are watching baseball, politician's exposing themselves, and a rather messy trial on the death of one baby. Not one person I have spoken to in the last month is aware that this meltdown is still happening.
I am nearing the end of my time on earth. I have had my children, played on the beach, eaten fish, and breathed somewhat clean air. But this is not available for my children and grandchildren. I am so sorry for them I can hardly speak it. And I am helpless to make any difference or changes. I can not make it stop. I am strangely silent and pensive.
As I get ready to go to Oregon, I think about the poisoned salmon in the rivers- they have swum in the poisoned ocean. I think about the poisoned rain that falls from the radioactive mist over the poisoned ocean. There is no safe place on the planet.
This year I will spin wool, knit socks, be with my friends, grow vegetables and fruits in my garden and be silent. The disaster will spread over the world in silence as contaminated products move from one place to another. I cannot knit a big enough blanket to hide under or enough socks to protect my family from the terrors that will come.
So I will continue on, mourning in my depths, for the loss of the future. Silently.

My Grandmother Said

2011-06-01T09:09:00.001-07:00

That there were "benefits" to being deaf.
We were driving down to Mississippi from Missouri to visit my cousin, Leigh. My children were small then, and this grandmother would be their great grandmother. So Great Granny Inez was in the front seat. Little people 8 and under were in the backseat. I got to drive and listen to the whining and bickering behind me.
My grandmother looked at me, askance, and said, "There are benefits to being deaf." Then she removed her hearing aids and took a nap.
I have just finished, again, the painting in the guest room. I did the touch up on the wall where the painter's tape ripped the paint off. And I did the touch up in the oil base window casing, with a small artist's brush no less. As I did the little details, cleaned the brushes, hammered the lids down, I was reminded of my grandmother's words. I now believe that if there are any remaining flaws in the window paint job (and I know there are), I will just remove my glasses and slip into fuzzy vision. I won't see them close or far, due to that age of bifocalizm. And if anyone complains, they won't be invited to stay ever again.

Paint, then paint again

2011-05-31T09:28:00.000-07:00

This was a great weekend for almost getting done with stuff. We worked on the yard and got some trees cut down and the weeds removed, but the pile of wood for the fire wood stack still sits in the yard. And I painted the window frame in the guest room (around the new window). But as I peeled off the masking tape (yes that blue painter's tape) a bunch of wall paint came with it. So now I have to "touch up" before I put stuff back into the room.
We have a phrase, we borrowed from another person, who borrowed it from another person-
"It is done, but not finished." So the painting is done, but the job is not finished. Touch up, clean up, re-arranged. There are many details left to finish. The project will go on for years. Even the living room which is 99% done is not finished. Project started 2008. There are two cabinet doors looking for me and I have the hardware sitting in a box. The dinning room has wall holes to patch and paint. Project started in 2003.
Things seem to get to a "functional" place and rest there for an indefinite period of time while they ripen. The bookcase (2010) is still not filled and organized. The garage boxes (2001), let's just don't go there.
Stuff keeps leaving but the pile doesn't get smaller. Things are checked off the list, but the list doesn't get shorter. Things seem to get done, but there are always some little details left to finish that linger.
Socks on the other hand- get done, get worn, get mended, get washed. I think that is why I love knitting. Something actually gets done.

May 26, and alls well

2011-05-26T09:37:00.000-07:00

Today, another step in the never ending battle against natural forces has moved us forward. The "fix" of the new windows is done. My last post was 2 months back and I was ready to do a happy dance about getting the windows done. Hmmm. A bit premature, I think. I have finished the wall in the guest room, repaired and painted the baseboards, and moved in all the furniture. BUT, and its a cute butt, I have yet to paint the window frame. I need some warm weather so that I can open all the windows and have "adequate ventilation" so that I don't get stoned from the fumes. It looks like this is the weekend for such weather and activity.
I am still trying to organize the "wooly room". Most of the stuff is in it, but in boxes. I have inventoried my Wool collection and still have 8 pounds to put away. I was thinking today about my wool collection and realized that there is no wool shortage here. Maybe there is for other people, but in my house, I have enough wool to spin for the rest of my life. And that would make enough yarn to knit, weave, crochet and felt for the rest of my life also.
I like to knit socks. There is about 4 ounces of fiber in each pair of socks. My wooly room contains the raw ingredients for 1000 pairs of socks. Well, that is an exaggeration. It is more like 500 pairs. But that is just the processed wool. That doesn't include the silk, the fleeces, the alpaca, and the cotton. Or the commercial yarns. As much as I hate to say it, I may have reached the limit.
I am going to buy another fleece at Black Sheep Gathering this year. I can't help myself. The fumes overwhelm my judgment. But I have limited myself to one- one lovely, gray, fine wool, fleece. And of course, the one that is for my students. So that is actually two fleeces, but one doesn't count. And I did sell some stuff this year so I do in fact let some of it go. There may be a little bit of room left in the corner of the closet by the end of the summer.
So back to the remodel issue. The chair for the guest room is too big and will go into Eduard's room (when Sara moves into her apartment). And I will find a nice, rustic chair for the guest room that is a more appropriate size. Then I will finish painting the laundry room which is still 80% painted, but fully functional.
Then I will replace the dishwasher and drinking water system (again). There is the yard- which is a mess and not getting better at any speed. And the new shed. In truth, I think that the "fix it" obsession is a life style rather than a need driven experience. It doesn't seem to matter how much gets done, the list is never shorter. I can think of new things to do faster than I can get them done. Faster than I can save money to do them. Faster than I can organize the last one or clean up its mess. Like buying more fruit trees for the fruit we don't eat, I am acquiring more and more stuff to take care of and have less energy to take care of it.
But the rest that comes with age will at some point end all this. I will sell off everything and move to the senior home. I will play cards all day and let someone else cook and repair stuff. Frankly, I am not looking forward to that. I think I like the constant activity, work, planning and mess. I will post pictures in June of the Guest room when the window is painted and the last picture frame is hung. It is so close, I can feel it.

End of Things

2011-03-28T10:42:00.000-07:00

It is time to post about things that are winding to an end. Some of this has been a long time coming. I will start with the major house (inside) remodeling. We started working on this house the day we bought it. From roof to floors, walls and windows, we have been slowly making it worthy of the next 25 years. Well, after 10 years, we are finally getting the last of the windows done.
We bought the house in 2001 and did the absolute necessities right away- roof, carpet, paint. We did the kitchen window and sliding door, then the dining room window in 2003/04 along with a total kitchen remodel and tile flooring. Most of that work has held up well and still looks great, although the carpet is showing wear. But the roof is good and sound. The kitchen is a dream. And the windows are terrific.
Next we started the living room- 2008. It took a long time to financially recover from the kitchen. In there were cars and other projects that got to the front of the line, but 2008 started the living room. It also was the summer that my mom got sick enough to need lots of attention for awhile. We managed to get the windows done and the fireplace, but the rest of the room got stuck in time. We finished it in 2010.
2011 is the year of the windows and patio. We are doing the guest room window and the remaining bedroom windows in a couple of weeks. That will be the end of the major indoor remodel stuff. Kind of hard to believe. I will actually get the rooms set up and organized and have nothing to do be clean them afterward. The thought is rather shocking. We will have window coverings, and functioning windows. We will have fully painted and clean walls, cleaned rugs, no more tile work.
Wait, what's this I see?... left over wall paper in the bathroom... broken cabinet in the other bathroom... skylight decay.... garage door falling apart.... wait! I thought I was getting to the end of the list. I thought I was going to be done and have some princess time. Will this mess never end?
I am going to go take a nap.

What to do? Rav is down.

2011-03-04T12:14:00.000-08:00

I know that many of you have your favorite sites to chat or check things. News, sports, entertainment, hobbies. I spin yarn and knit/crochet, so I am a part of Ravelry.com. My favorite gathering place for spinny/crafty stuff and I visit daily. I contribute often. So today, it is broken and suddenly I feel a bit lost.
I check the different forums once or twice a day. Sometimes I get caught up in a thread and play for a longer period of time. I was going to have work done on the house today and would be staying home to do things. I just knew I would have some time to play on Ravelry.com. Except, today, it seems to be broken. I can sometimes get to the log on page and sometimes log on, but I can't go anywhere else. Boohoohoo.
Stuck at home with no one to play with. Well, I could spin or knit or work on cleaning up the kitchen or weed in the garden, fertilize fruit trees, saw up old wood, train vines, plant vegetables, mow the lawn... I mean, it is a long list of work I should be doing. And it is not awful work. Still, for some reason, I feel like I am missing my buddies and friends and favorite chatty circles.
I know that Rav will get better and be working by tonight. They always manage to fix whatever server is on the fritz. But that de-railed feeling, like all is not well in the world, has broken my concentration.
So I resolve to work in the garden to take my mind off of Ravelry.com. That way, I can feel productive, get vitamine D, and wait patiently until they return. Sniff.

Microwave experiments

2011-02-27T17:26:00.000-08:00

This is not, I repeat not, about dying yarn. This is about cooking food.
I have never learned how to properly use a microwave oven. I heat water, melt butter, warm leftovers, thaw last minute meats but I have never really maximized the Microwave Oven. So to that fact, we have the smallest microwave they make, hidden in the pantry.
But, a couple of weeks ago, a knitting friend told me about something remarkable that you can make in a microwave and I have been wanting to try it since she mentioned it. I just was having difficulty finding all the ingredients and making the time. I needed $2 worth of stuff and 2 1/2 minutes. Well, actually, the first time takes a little longer, but after that 4 minutes will do it.
This is what it is - Microwave Chocolate Cake. Really, a cake. And it is a single, low fat, low calorie serving.
It starts with a box of Angel Food cake mix. And a box of Devil's food cake mix. Put them together is a large mixing bowl and whisk them with a dry whisk until they are well blended. I am unable to leave a good recipe alone so I added 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder.
Measure out 1/2 cup of the dry ingredients into a microwave safe bowl that can hold about 1 1/2 cups. Add 1/3 cup of water and stir with a fork until really smooth- about a minute. Remove the fork- don't cover the top- stick the bowl in the microwave for 2 to 2 1/2 minutes (depends on how powerful your machine is). Cake is done. Don't burn yourself eating it.
Put the rest of the mix in a zipper bag for later.
This is great, really. I like a piece of cake once and awhile, but not a whole cake. Not 24 cup cakes. Not a store bought piece of cake for $3 with 4 ounces of frosting. Just a plain and simple piece of cake. Now I can have my cake and eat it, too. And make a new piece next week or next month.
So why did it take so long? Well, I had to find an Angel food cake mix. My local store was down to three boxes and they were $4 each. I didn't want to pay that much, because I believed it was a rip off for a cake mix. So I eventually went to a different store and they had them for $1- I bought 3. One mix was for a party I was going to so it didn't count. The other 2 were for this experiment.
You see, my friend was a bit lax on the details of this cake thing. She said. " You mix them together, then measure out some, and mix it with some water and cook it in the microwave." So, like, well, how much cake mix, how much water, and how long? She is one of those cook by sight and feel people. She doesn't measure stuff, or time stuff, she just knows. I, on the other hand, am clueless about mixes and microwaves. I cook almost everything from scratch and measure most of it. I like details. SO, I had to wing it, and mixed this based on a rough estimate of what the box measures would have been in the smaller quantities. Then I had to cook it based on pure luck and the spring back test. At two minutes in my machine, I tested and it was a bit sticky on the top, so I added 15 seconds and tested again. Then one more time and it looked and felt right. So on my low watt, weak and underpowered little tiny microwave- 2 1/2 minutes. IF you have one of the big, honken, power guzzling microwaves- maybe 1 1/2 minutes. You will need to test for yourself.
Well, so much for my kitchen fun. Not much mess to clean up. Not lots of cake to hide or freeze. Just time to make some dinner. At this house, cake is uncertain so we eat dessert first.

Experiment 3- fail

2011-02-23T16:15:00.000-08:00

Today was dye day with the Lichen and puff ball brew. The lichen in one jar and the puff ball in another, were each soaked and brewed for 30 days in ammonia water. They each created a pale russet to pink colored fluid. I performed the dye ritual at low heat on a selection of pre-mordanted yarns and I got- zip. Nada. No color- not even pale yellow. A total waste of good ammonia- well not total waste as it went to the compost heap to be fertilizer, but a total waste of time. The lichen remaining in the collection bag was then simmered in plain water for about an hour (low heat) and the dye ritual was repeated on fresh yarn- golden-ish color across the board. We have wash fast, and there is a chance of light fast. Definitely more compost material. Puff ball was the same as the lichen in ammonia- nothing.
So a recap of the experiment to date suggests that Tea Tree is a winner, yellow mushroom was very golden and kind of stinky, the eucalyptus bark was very rust colored, and all the others were pale and washed out looking.
Then there was the Indigo dye class- blue, very blue, very messy, very expensive. A good education in social misfits and antiquated colorants.
Sometimes you need to do things you know are not what you want to re-enforce your understanding of why you want what you want in the first place. I want simple, easy, predictable, permanent, convenient, reasonably priced dye products that don't stink, pollute the water ways, or dye my hands blue when I rinse them out. Yo! I am un-natural.

Kitchen Experiment- 2

2011-02-08T09:55:00.000-08:00

The first kitchen experiment dealt with Mordanting and some yellow mushrooms from Jack in The Box. There was also some interesting play with my Tea Tree bush and the Macadamia nut tree.
Now that I have some yarn pre-mordanted, I am ready to play again. Eduard and I went on a field trip and collected- Pussy willow flowers, dried wild buckwheat, bark from eucalyptus trees, puff ball fungus, shelf fungus, and lichen.
Today, in the kitchen, I brewed some pussywillow by boiling/simmering it for 1 hour, straining the broth, then simmering a collection of pre-mordanted yarns for 30 minutes. Nice outcome. Didn't smell awful. Not hard to do. Washfast. I will check for light fast when we get some sunshine.
Next, some wild buckwheat. It is brewing as we speak. But I have also started some other brews. Some of the lichen is soaking in a jar with ammonia added. Same for some of the puff balls. Different brewing techniques create different results, just like different mordants. Now some of the buckwheat is also brewing in ammonia.
I haven't decided what to do with the shelf fungus. It needs to be pounded to break it up, soaked in something, and probably boiled outside. Some of these things are a bit stinky to work with. So I thought I would see if ammonia works with the puff balls before I try another fungus.
This is the type of play I like to do when I am at home sorting through papers and feeling crushed by the weight of "stuff".
But in my defense, I will say that last night I spent two hours tossing and sorting. A full paper grocery bag of paper trash went out, and an equal size one is by the fire place waiting to burn. Two boxes of Office supply stuff got sorted, more things got into the donation box, and 10 inches of stuff got put into the file cabinet. I vacuumed more of the room and can actually see that the moving of the file cabinets will in fact happen this week.
So that is why I allowed myself a bit of time in the kitchen to play. I have tagged all my sample yarns from my experiments and am proceeding to write up my notes.
Unfortunately, the house does not look any better for all the sorting and tossing. Except for the shower, which I cleaned yesterday.

Cartharsis

2011-02-07T07:24:00.000-08:00

Catharsis- It just may not be all it is cracked up to be. There is supposed to be some sense of purification, cleanliness, and new found freedom associated with Catharsis. But that is not what I am feeling. Maybe I will feel it later, when the process is completed, but at the moment it is a gut wrenching, fatiguing, time consuming, exhausting feeliing.
We are cleaning out the "office". And since the garage is full, most of it is getting burned, tossed, donated, recycled, and composted. Eduard has moved the bulk of his large pieces into his new, separate office. I have moved my computer and chair. We are wired and functioning. But the stuff still in the room is daunting. I have tossed or burned about a two foot tall stack of papers this last week. I have gathered another foot tall stack to donate to a school. Eduard has been sorting and tossing also. So far, the amount of stuff coming out of the closet piles up faster than we can dispose of it. Where did all this shit come from before it went into the closet?
And every piece has to be examined and judged- trash or burn, keep and file or toss, is this picture really worth saving? Will I miss it in 10 years? Will I just let my children dispose of everything? (I know you are out there breathing a sigh of relief right now, knowing that I am doing this so that you don't have to.)
Eduard and I have not yet had a fight over any of the work or the speed with which we approach this job. We are both committed to this project. Yet,..pause.. I feel like this purging process is making my entire body react. The dust is making me sneeze and cough. The lifting is fatiguing. The sorting is dredging up old memories and stirring old emotions. And there is a little bit of fear because I actually can't remember where I got some of this stuff. AND worst of all, there is so much stuff I would rather be doing. I feel that I am missing out on lots of fun because I am busy filling the landfill.
I am sure, when the purging is done, I will feel better, cleaner, and worthy of the new organization. But the process is ugly and time consuming. So there is some history here that can be contributed to this process.
In my childhood, we never moved from the house my parents bought in 1956. And things would accumulate, like at all houses. We had an annual cleaning that involved moving the furniture around in the room to try new positions and to clean the old spots. In this process, all old stuff was tossed or packaged to be stored. I did something similar with my children's rooms right before Christmas every year. But the biggest purge came when we moved. There was the moving truck and the donation truck and often they both got full. I have done this several times.
Eduard and I don't want to move, but we never really got moved in when we married. The moving van came to his house, but not the donation truck. He also does not have the annual purge history so things pile up for years. I have been trying to continue the annual cleaning/sorting thing, but I have been lax. More comes in than goes out. I have been cleaning out my closet and drawers regularly. I got rid of books when the new bookcase was done. I have also come to know that I am not going to sit around and wait for Ebay sales or garage sales to get rid of stuff- it is the donation truck for me. This year we purged the Christmas stuff from the garage (all my stuff). We purged books (mostly mine). I have worked down stuff from the kitchen (mostly my stuff). We got Sara moved into the dorm and had her sort out all her stuff. I have cleaned out old towels and sheets, kitchen linens, table linens. I have sawed up most of the wood around the house that we wanted to burn.
We have been purging for a really long time and it seems that it will go on forever. The office purge is not the end, either. We still have to approach the garage.
As I clean and clear, I am developing a resolve to avoid shopping. I know this does not bode well for the economic recovery, but I just don't think I want to do this again- and I definitely don't want my children to have to deal with my mess. No more buying in bulk. No more saving something because it might be useful some day. No more stockpile, hoard, and re-purpose. I want to do the projects I already have and not start a bunch of new ones.
There! I am beaten down by the purging process. I only want to plod through the rest of the job to the end and collapse in a pile on the clean floor of an empty room. Stuff 1- Jeri 0

Camoflage

2011-01-26T12:39:00.000-08:00

CAMOFLage- This is what we are getting- Camo Yarn. So far the Mushrooms have developed a deep golden color on all mordants except the chrome which is a pale yellow/gold. The Macadamia is soft beige; the Tea Tree is deep green or rosey brown. And the copper mordant by itself makes a soft turqouise. With yarn like this, we could hide in the forest forever. Well, maybe not deep winter when some of the trees lose their leaves, but most of the year.
I have found that the mordants, while making things grab the color quickly, have not had much affect on color or washfast/lightfast ability. The real change came in the Tea Tree when the Alum and Copper grabbed the green. The un-mordant yarn took a rosey brown.
All things considered, this has been a good experiment. And there will be many more. I am creating mordanted swatch pieces so that I can test small quantities of colorant material in all the mordants at one time. I still need to get some iron and tin samples made, but life moves at its own pace- these are not close to the top of the list of things to do yet.
I have pretty much decided that the professional chemicals are still my favorite- as I have yet to go get the cochineal bugs. But it is good to know what is in my yard and what it can do for me.
I also have come to realize that as a society we are so spoiled. The yarn I am using was spun on a machine. I do make my own yarn, but to make this much just for test swatches would have been really hard. The chemicals are already reduced and in their simple form I need. I could go get some copper and vinegar, but hey! I didn't have to steep the plants for days in wood ashes, either.
This is a fun thing, and I don't have to do it for a living every day. None of us do. We all have lovely, colorful clothing and fabrics at our fingertips, with great ease and variety. As I spin the next fleece, plan the next sweater, knit the next socks- I am so glad that I am not making every piece of textile my family needs. I would be out of my mind sewing, weaving, spinning, knitting, dying, and collecting bugs. In fact- I am going to take a nap today, again, because I can.

Color from my Garden

2011-01-24T13:28:00.000-08:00

My current thing, well there are many things that are current, but this one is about wool and dying. Not death dying, but getting color into the wool by some complicated, unnatural process. There is also cheese, bread, garden, spinning, knitting... the Things going on here are numerous. Any time I can combine things makes life simpler and more rewarding.
So back to my current thing- dying wool with natural plant materials found around my home. Yesterday, I dyed some yarn with Macadamia nut hulls. Since I have a macadamia tree, it seemed to me a good idea. Walnut hulls are the tried and true plan, but I don't have a walnut tree. SO- Macadamia it was, and it created a lovely, soft, yellowy beige with no mordants. It is wash fast, but I haven't completed the light fast test.
Then I cut some of the flowers from the New Zealand Tea Tree/bush and it made a beautiful red water. I added some vinegar and the red nearly disappeared. The wool dyed a soft, reddish brown and is washfast- still working on the lightfast test. So that brings us to the current pot of stuff.
I am mordanting the current yarn in Alum/Tartar. This process involves simmering the yarn for an hour in a solution of Alum (aluminum salts) and Cream of Tartar (tartaric acid). After the yarn is mordanted, it will be simmered in the red water bath from the second collection of Tea Tree/bush flowers to see if the pre-mordanted wool keeps the color better.
I also have a collection of mushrooms that I harvested from a nearby location. I am hoping to extract whatever color possibilities the mushrooms may have this week and dye some wool with it. After wandering around the house looking for mushrooms, I am sorely dissappointed in my landscape. Last year, mushrooms were abundant. This year, zippo. But I have other plants that offer possibilities.
Leaves, twigs, flowers, roots- I am looking for plants with color chemicals that will grow in my yard. As I am not a serious botanist and my yard is not a scientific laboratory, I am doing what I can with what is "natural" here. I suspect that I will have an abundance of - earthy brown, lazy yellow, and mild beigish pink. But when white becomes tiresome even that little selection is delightful.
Some of my friends are taking classes in dying with indigo. I am relatively certain that it is not growing in my yard, yet. Nor madder, for that matter. But the things that I do have are exciting. There is a cactus down the street, positively covered with cochineal bugs. I am planning on scraping them off into a pot soon. And I am going to explore other mordant chemicals- chrome, copper, tin, iron. Eventually, there will be some color variety that I can say is natural to my surroundings.
But right now, we are looking at some serious brown conditions.

Doors, beds, floors, walls

2010-12-06T08:44:00.000-08:00

"Well, well, well," she said to herself as she admired the finished work.
That is really a lie, because nothing is ever really finished. This weekend we "finished" the living room, for now. The doors finally got installed on the cabinets and to my distress, the design I thought would just work fine needs a bit of fine tuning. So I ordered two more doors to "finish" it better and now must go get two more handles. This work will be done in January or February 2011.
Then, Eduard finished and assembled the cabinet/secretary that he has been refinishing for a year+. It is in place, but we haven't moved most of the office stuff into it. It will be a working secretary and move the bills file, office tools, and little stuff out of Eduard's desk. This is a good plan because his desk will someday be in his separate office in the pink room. But not yet. So there is no hurry to get the stuff organized into the secretary.
After the secretary project got out of the garage, I immediately claimed the space for the bed that is leaving the Wooly Room. In fact, I started working on it today. I had to find some Ashford information anyway, so I started moving out the boxes. Now the lovely living room is completely full of boxes and looms. I moved the mattress from the bed to the other bed (stacked) so that my princess can sleep on two mattresses this winter break. And the rest will go out tonight into that little space in the garage.
Stuff is shifting. The long table will be in the Wooly Room, with two cabinets and a shorter table. And, of course, all the boxes and looms will go back in. Someday, the rest of the bed will go into the guest room. I am aiming for spring- but my aim hasn't been real good lately.
We started this phase of the living room remodel in March 2010 and I expected it to take a couple of months. December 2010 and we are almost done. So maybe the guest room will take a bit longer. It involves a window redo, carpet cleaning, paint, and closet build ins. I have the furniture already. So maybe it will only take 4 months. I really should start working on it now if I want to get done by summer.
There is only so much of me, and I have so much to do, so it will get done when it gets done. In the meantime, I ordered a cabinet for the dining room. It will be built to match the living room bookcase and will replace two of the cabinets that are in the room now. I will have room for my canning jars, knick-knacks, big tools, and linens. It means taking everything out of the china hutch again so that I can move it out of the way while the work is done. Maybe that job will be done by spring. Regardless, it is going to be a long and busy winter.

The Cheese Stands Alone

2010-11-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

I have been busy beyond my wildest dreams. And I have had some really wild dreams lately. My dear sweet dragon and I wandered off to China to visit my son and to have a real escape for the first time since, well, ever. I want to really enjoy the empty nest while I have it. And I have been preparing for and recovering from that for a month. Then we had to do some sharing, and spinning, and then I got sick.
Now I will work the election, recover from that and start again on the cabinet doors (still in progress).
But in the meantime, I have been making cheese. I have started collecting goats milk and making goats milk cheese. This is a new culinary adventure for me, although, I had made yogurt, cottage cheese, buttermilk, and yogurt cheese before. Then I did some mozzarella, yum. And ricotta, yum. And a Feta, which was better on the second try. This time, I am doing hard time. I have a Romano and a Cheddar aging.
I have to wait for 6 weeks before we have any idea if there is good cheese for January. As much as I would like to be organized enough to make these things for xmas presents, I just can't seem to make a cheese in August. Upon reflection though, it really doesn't matter if the cheese is ready for gifts in December, because the people I share cheese with will love it whenever it is ready. My family, on the other hand, gets See's candy.
This brings us to a discussion about Family and Holidays and Gifts, always a tricky subject. I can not send cheese to China, so Scott gets something else. My mom believes I am poisoning her, so no cheese there. My dad and step-mom prefer ingredient labels that say low sodium. My brothers would throw it away after a few months in the refrigerator, when the good intentions wear off. Eduard's mom would sample it but doesn't cook much now.
My daughter will get some cheese. And my friends. And they don't care if it is after Dec. 25. I even have a person who is willing to buy some (under the radar since I can't legally sell food). So that brings me to the question of how much cheese should I actually make for my personal consumption and home cooking use, gifts, friends? Is 10 pounds a year enough or too much? I think if it were just me, 6 pounds a year might be a bit skimpy as I really love to eat cheese, so some of the cheeses don't need aging, like Feta, so they don't have lots of planning involved. But 10 pounds is probably more than we could eat in a reasonable diet. Then I start remembering the ricotta in the lasagna and the spanakopita.... we really do eat a lot of cheese.
Well, it is really stretching my future planning to fantasize over my cheese skill when the first hard cheeses have dried for three days. Let's just slow this bus down and wait for the results. If I am really able to make some good, hard cheese- then we can talk about the future and how many pounds might be in it. But for the present- the cheese stands alone on the cheese board drying as I rub the salt on the rind and turning it every few hours.

Making A Dream Reality

2010-09-20T12:41:00.000-07:00

It is easy to dream of something. You can chart it out, draw pictures, plan and try to act out the characters. As many of us know, the reality does not always become what we had hoped and dreamed it would be. Sometimes it is really close and we are happy enough. Sometimes, it just misses completely what we expected. But there are a few occasions when it lives up to our hopes.
I have purchased several homes that needed help. Most of them I have fixed up while I lived in them, but never really planned on living there a long time. They were never my "dream" homes in progress. They were just fixers until the next fixer. Buying fixers is kind of a habit after awhile.
When Eduard and I bought this home, it was a fixer. I loved the lot it was on and the overall size of the home. It was right for the two of us. Unfortunately, there were 5 of us, so it was in reality- too small. We made do, though. The first phase of fixing up was the emergency treatment so that we could actually live there. It was really bad when we bought it.
The second phase was to turn it into a dream home. This part took lots of planning and would in time take lots of money. We started with the Kitchen because the kitchen fell apart and needed attention first. We did windows, gutted everything, re-wired, new cabinets, new floors, new ceiling, new lighting, new counters, new layout, new appliances- new, new, new. The Kitchen/dining area was about 1/5 of the house so we were on our way to making a dream home come true.
The kitchen has turned out to be a wonderful dream come true, after a few nightmare moments during the reconstruction. The appliances were not as wonderful as I had hoped they would be, and we are having to replace some of them already, but for the most part, after 7 years, I still love it.
The second big remodel adventure has been the living room. Like all of our projects, we start them and some disaster happens during the construction. The project ends up taking three years instead of three months. In the kitchen, I had a surgery during the remodel and it took me two years to finish the tile work. The baseboards ended the dining room at the seven year mark. I am still doing the touch up painting. So it was not a surprise that we would get the windows into the living room and my mom had a stroke. This took up lots of my time and there was no time to wait for construction people or cabinet people to give bids and return calls. But his year, at the two year mark, we had a bit of time to work on the house and pushed forward with the plans. Half of the bookcase/entertainment/carpet plan got mostly done in April. More of it got done in August. The end of it will probably get done in October. But so far, I am totally loving it. It is the living room I always knew this home would have. It is the dream come true.
I am waiting for the doors for the cabinets. But in the meantime, we have the most wonderful carpet and squishy padding for playing on the floor in front of the fireplace. We have places to put our "stuff" so that it looks organized and neat. It is a joy to keep it clean. It is airy and well ventilated. It is spacious and inviting.
Now that there are just the two of us, the house feels just the right size. And after almost 10 years, I still love it and want to stay here 'till the end.

Marking Time

2010-08-24T10:32:00.000-07:00

I was working yesterday with my cabinet installers and one of them had done some work for me when he had just graduated from high school, 2003. We had a little reminiscence moment. But then I started to remember all the things that I have tied to that particular year. It was a really busy year- with surgery and difficult to finish projects. The kitchen started in 2003 and ended, well, yesterday. And that is only mostly done because I have touch up wall repair and painting to do still. But I could actually say that we are 99.9% done. That last little bit being such a small amount of the whole project.
I have other major events that mark time for me, too. My wedding to Eduard is coupled with the purchase of this house in my mind. It is all in the same year. My trip to Europe with my children some how got stuck in that year, but it was really the following summer.
There is a blank area of fuzzy memories which becomes really clear at the Kitchen remodel of 2003-10. Somewhere in this large date, all jumbled together, is a foot surgery, hysterectomy, neck injury, Scott's graduation from college, Bryon's foolish meltdown, the new garden beds, and Lorrie's death. The fact that Sara is starting college (moving to the dorms) and on the edge of her own stupid meltdown is like the punctuation at the end of a very long sentence. When I try to remember anything in that mess, I can't find a foothold for dates and times. Forever, Stefanie's wedding will be the year before the baseboards, instead of 2009.
So this brings me to a very important information point- Always write the date on the lid of anything you have canned. Why? Well, most home canned goods are good for one year (two if you are really brave and it is a high acid item). As we took everything out of the cabinets (so that we could do the baseboards), I found lots of stuff from 2006, 2007 and 2008. I didn't even preserve anything for 2009. That was the year of the wedding and I was too busy with stuff. But now, rather than put all this expired stuff back, I am dumping and washing. I do not want to risk any illness from my own foods when there is so much out there that is fresh and new. So I have dumped 2006 applebutter, 2007 pickle relish and 2008 applesauce.
What happened to those years that I didn't have a chance to cook with these things? I actually can't remember much of those years at all. Somewhere in there Stef bought a house, Scott went to China, and my mom had a stroke. Eduard's dad died. But aside from big punctuations, I can't remember much of the time. We built garden beds and hauled top soil- but I can't tell you when. The seasons came and went, kids moved on, chickens became dinner- but when?
This promises to be a remarkable year for Eduard and I. I will try to remember it better. It is starting with the end of the kitchen remodel and the end of childhood. It is starting with the beginning of Eduard/Jeri with no kids at home and time for each other at last. It is starting with a trip to China and some Thanksgiving Duck.
I think the end of 2010 is going to be the beginning of a very good year (s). I hope I can remember it in 2011.

Gopher!

2010-08-08T10:19:00.000-07:00

Well, that just about says it all- except that it is really Gophers. When Eduard and I returned from Oregon, we had May, June, and July gloom to keep the garden in stasis, but we also had a gopher attack. Gopher(s) got into the raised beds- which I had not lined with wire mesh because we had never had gophers. But now we do and they are terrorizing my garden. In some ways, the tunneling and churning of the soil is good, but the eating of the roots and plants is bad. So we have launched a gopher control program.

First thing in the program was to try to trap them. Failure, dismal failure. This must be a second or third generation intelligent gopher because the traps mean nothing to it. Just covers it with dirt until it snaps, then goes around it.

So in desperation we transferred all the edible plants to an unaffected bed to see what the gopher would do next. There are plenty of weeds and grasses in other areas of the yard, so the gopher just went into another area to wait for something good to eat. Between the weather being cold for a long time and the gopher hovering under the possible vegetables, I decided not to plant anything at all. But this is just too depressing for me.

The next idea was to remove all the dirt from the beds and line them with wire like we should have in the first place. And this we have been doing. Bed one got finished one week ago, and planted with potatoes, beans, onions, garlic, and other small things. It is doing very well. The turning of the soil, with a bit of amendment and fertilizer has made it the wonderful dirt that I loved when it was new. And I am excited to have Chinese long beans climbing up my bean tower. They are the red ones and will make lovely stir fry.

The second bed got finished yesterday. It had some onions left in it, but I haven't had time yet to plant. It needs some amendment and fertilizer before I replant the onions and start the next set of plants. I am hoping for a short season pumpkin, kabocha, and some cucumbers. If we get any warm weather at all, it will be between now and November, so I am attempting some seeds that are from short season areas. Russian melons. New England pumpkin. And a Japanese Cucumber and squash. It is possible that the nights will stay dry enough that the mildew will hold off. But if not, at least I have tried.

Bed three has been dug out, but not lined with wire. That will happen over the next week and the dirt will be returned to the bed next weekend (or sooner). In the meantime, the gopher burrowed over to the herb garden that is near the patio. Must be the same guy, because the traps are useless. But I am hopeful that we will be able to corner the bugger and flush him/her out.

I hate to resort to poison, because gopher is low on the food chain and will kill the birds of prey that eat it. I am not really too concerned about the coyote who also eat gopher, rat, squirrel, rabbit, cat, dog, small children, and garbage because they are not endangered and drink the beer that I put out to kill the slugs and snails. They can eat all the poisoned rats they want.

In the meantime, I am sorting through my seeds and giggling like a child at the thought of having some vegetables again. I needed this moment in the dirt to make me feel alive.

Weary and worn

2010-08-02T22:25:00.000-07:00

I was looking through my clothing so as to make a donation to the thrift store, and I realized that most of what I own doesn't look nice enough to go to a thrift store. It all looks very worn and tattered. In fact, I would say they look like rags. And I have worn every hole and tear into them with hard work. I am pretty worn, too. So how does one revitalize oneself. Can I purge something to make myself more allert and energetic? Is there some special food that brings glow and perkiness (without crossing the danger line)? Do I just need to spend a few hours at the spa, a game of tennis, maybe a stroll on the beach? How do I shake off the fatigue of a lifetime of work so that I can feel that Joie d'vivier.
I have found ways to escape and hide from stress. I can meter out my remaining energy for high priority needs. But how do I get that special bounce back, that spring in my step, that little float that comes with my head in the clouds.
I am feeling weary, and looking like my tattered old clothes.
I think I need some time off. Real time off. Away from people needing stuff. I am giving this some serious thought.
In a conversation today, I realized that I am the one who continues to say yes to other people taking up my life and energy. I have realized this before, but I always slip back into the roll of - well, mother superior. Maybe it is time to just slip out the back of the cloister and let them take care of themselves. Or better yet, take care of me. Maybe I could just stay in my room in bed all day and play games on my cell phone, talk to friends, and polish my nails. I wouldn't need any clothes for that, at least nothing nice. Maybe I could just read and knit something for myself.
Well, it is a very nice thought, selfishness. I think I feel a headache coming on. Maybe, when it goes away, I will go buy some new clothes.
I actually know that I won't do this, but sometimes just imagining it helps me feel better. Now I am off to bed for real. Tomorrow, I have a lot of stuff to do.

Old Dogs

2010-07-16T08:26:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, you have to re-tool. That means learn a new skill in today's market. But it also means getting some new tools, like a new washer and dryer. OR it could mean a new computer program. Maybe even some new industrial equipment for an antiquated plant. But for me, it is a new washer and dryer and all the mental re-tooling that goes with it.
I bought some new appliances- a brand I have never used before. The room needed to be remodeled first, so I tooled up and laid down some tile. I painted, too. Then, after properly exhausting myself, I attempted to use my new washer without reading the manual. This is not a user friendly machine. It is not intuitive. When you actually fill up the machine with clothing, it is way over full. You can only really use 1/2 of the capacity. Not so super large as it was said to be.
Then, having over stuffed the washer, I needed to dry this damp stuff. Again, 2 1/2 hours of dryer time and still damp- over full. We had to take about 1/2 the clothes out to get anything dry. Did I read the manual? Of course not.
It is hard to imagine needing to mentally re-tool in order to do laundry. What is so hard about it that I have to read up and study? Still, this is a new system and I am an old dog with many years of simple machinery. I kind of expected to push a button and have my washer do the rest of the job, just like my old machine.
But, I think I am not so old that I can't figure out how to do this. I will read the manual and practice until I am able to wash clothing and dry it in a reasonable period of time. Even if I have to wash one piece at a time until I find the correct size for the washer and dryer. Eventually, I will become friends with these new GE help mates.

Winter Thoughts

2010-07-09T08:42:00.000-07:00

For the middle of July, I am deep in Winter Thoughts. You know those dark, cold places where old issues sleep and old fears shuffle around waiting for that vulnerable moment when they can steal just a bit more of your warmth. It doesn't help that our weather has been more winter than summer, too. Today there is no drizzle, but it is overcast and cold again. The fruit is rotting on the trees and the trees are starting to go dormant. There has been no sun, no warmth and they are thinking winter thoughts also.
My dark places have been stirring and it is hard to keep them quiet. This is because of events during the last couple of days that have turned some of our world into a strange dance full of tears and sadness, confusion, and rushing to try to figure out how to re-arrange things. Sara's mother died.
Sara is my step-daughter and now she is a partial orphan. Eduard has stepped up to be a full time dad, but Sara's step-dad is having issues with this. It is hard for him to let go of the control of Sara he has had for the last 8 years. And it is hard for Sara to let go of her mom's house, stuff, ways of doing things, routines. She is trying very hard to figure out who she is and what she needs to do. All of this stress and confusion has created that moment of vulnerability that encourages those dark moments to come forward.
But we are pushing back and trying to keep the world moving toward "functionality". So as I look out on another gloomy, cold summer day, I am thinking about Sara starting school in 6 weeks- College. Dorms. Holidays. Hustle and bustle. I am thinking about my room remodel in stasis, my garden in dormancy, my laundry that died, my wool that wants washing, my various appointments and projects. It is keeping me busy enough to ward off much of the darkness.
But sometimes, when I am alone, I hear the dark thoughts calling me. I have decided to knit them a pair of socks- Winter Thoughts socks. At least their feet will be warm while they whine at me.

My Discoveries, finds and prizes

2010-07-01T08:36:00.000-07:00

I am back and tired and still unpacking. I had a wonderful time. I want to do it again in about a year.
This year, again, we found the lovely honey lady- Jackie Vandersys- and bought some delicious honey from Bear Mountain Honey. Yum. Always a high light of our trip. The honey is part of our constant reminders of our trip as I make granola, bread and desserts from it all year.
And of course, there is fleece- three part fleeces this year. I bought fleece and split it with people for the first time, so that I could have more than one color. I had determined that I could only have one fleece this year and it was all so pretty. So I have 1/2+1/2+1/3= 1 because the gray one was very small.
Then I did some shopping for friends- roving, roving, buttons, sparkle, roving, roving. I spread a bit of joy in Oregon and some down here. So now I am sprinkling the gifts out a bit at a time as I find my friends.
I also did some unusual shopping in Eugene. We had an opportunity to visit a thrift store where I found a yarn score for $1.50! But that was just a little diversion. The big fun was the fiber swap. We scheduled it for 5ish and it was over by 5:15p. People came with fiber rejects and left with a new toy. I put some alpaca, Shetland, mohair, white weaving yarn, Wensleydale curls, and misc. stuff out on the table and a pound+ of cotton roving with a bundle of possum snuggled itsway into my bag. Now I have a bunch of fun to play this summer. Well, to be honest- many summers before I even get half way through it. I truly have a fiber overload. But that is not all the fun we had.
After we left Oregon, we headed to the Big Tree. The redwoods were calling us to visit, so we camped in Prarrie Creek State park and walked with the giants. They are so beautiful. I wish I had managed to get up there earlier in my life. I would love to be able to hike more in the trees. We saw elk and slept next to a babbling stream. It was just the beginning of mosquito season so we were able to sit out for part of the evening without too much distress. It was cool and overcast most of our trip, but very pleasant anyway. We walked through some of the trails, saw bannana slugs, examined lovely wild flowers, then wandered on. Humbolt. Eureka. and eventually Petaluma.
Petaluma was quite a find in itself. I never realized how lovely that little town is. We went into the old part of town to the Seed Bank- Baker Creek Heirloom seeds west coast store. I just love their seed collections and I found some lovely short season items for my weird weather. They turned us on to a great yarn store and Thai restaurant, Knitterly and Sea, two separate locations. But the thought of a yarn store/restaurant is appealing.
At Knitterly, we found some size 0 bamboo circs on sale, a lovely glass button to match my thrift store yarn, and some sparkly stuff for my spinning projects. While we were there we chatted about their roving collection (mostly for felting) and that they were having a dye workshop that weekend. They clued us in on a great hotel nearby.
Then we ate some of the best Thai food I have had at Sea. A black noodle dish with pork was probably my favorite. It was a bit like Pad Thai, but with wide noodles that were made of Wild rice. Lots of vegetables too. Everything was very fresh and home made tasting. Yum- just from the memory.
On the last day, we hit a few wineries in the Sonoma/Carneros region. We snagged a Pinot Noir or two, and a couple of bottles of California Olive Oil. Best find- Fig Balsamic Vinegar. Now I know what is going to happen to this year's fig crop.
Then we came home and, LO!, there is a pile of stuff on the floor. The laundry is done. The bulk of stuff is put away, but there is still a pile waiting for some attention. And the yard is screaming for some weeding/mowing and fruit picking. Work. more work. and a moment to remember the fun parts. But I have to say that I am really enjoying those fun parts. Every time I sniff the fleece, I drift back to the trip. It was really nice.

Happy Trails to you

2010-06-14T10:45:00.000-07:00

Fluffy is about to go on the road again. It is time for the annual pilgrimage to Oregon for wool and honey. Oh yes, I know, there is wool here and honey, but that misses the important point- Oregon, trip, not home. I am running away with my friends to a fiber festival and three days of fuzzy goodness, spinning, demonstrations, wooly smells, camping and cooking out. This is followed by 4 more days with my sweetie in the woods and trails wandering back home.
Lots of driving, lots of filming, lots of sightseeing. Pretty soon, after living here for 55yrs, I will actually have seen most of the state of California. I think there is a little corner up in the right top end that I will probably miss, but the rest of it will be pretty well known by me.
I have seen most of Arizona and I don't live there. Probably been to 2/3 of Nevada and New Mexico. I have seen the top half of Texas, all of Missouri, all of Mississippi and a bit of Indiana. I have explored all of Hawaii, too.
Why has it taken so long to really get to know my home state? Could it be that the state is so long and 50% boring? I think it is because of the desert. A big portion of California is desert or near desert. And now that the water is turned off, most of the growing area is returning to desert. That makes for a really long boring drive up the middle. It starts to get interesting after the first long day- when you have left SanDiego/LosAngeles behind and have passed Sacramento heading north. The northern valley is a bit nicer/less desert than the southern end. The mountains start and then you are in Redding- Mt. Shasta, and fishing lakes. Trees become a natural occurence. Along the coast, I start to fall in love right about the north side of Santa Barbara all the way to the Oregon coast. For me, there isn't much interest in the middle so a trip through the state is a multi-day adventure. It can't be done on a weekend.
The fact that California is so large and divided has made it difficult for me to really get to know it. I have gone to SanFrancisco/Oakland a few time, but when you fly- you don't really explore. Need a car to get out and about. I have gone to the wine country north and loved it, but I only got a couple of days before having to run home.
A really important thing to note here, is that this is the same problem for people who live in the North half of the state. They don't get to see the south part much. Our state is really two separate states joined by a desert with very little population. It is hard to know and respect the needs of each end. I think, though, that my trips north to Oregon give me an opportunity to get to know the whole state and meet the neighbors in the north. I am looking forward to the Redwoods and Humbolt. I want to know you better, Siskyou.
But right now, I need to pack my bags and stuff them in the car. See you soon.

The Process of Change

2010-05-17T15:27:00.001-07:00

I think the process of change is like carving a mountain into a statue. Or maybe it is like the slow and constant errosion of a sandy bluff. You either need big equipment to make even a dent or you need constant nagging pressure until there is a great collapse.
We have been changing our living room. The big equipment of doors and windows, cabinetry and electrical work have been the earth movers reshaping our environment. The nagging, well, I think that has been me. Constant pressure to get a little done at a time until it is time for a big push.
This week we saw a partial slide in the bluff. To do the final electrical work, we needed to remove some old wall unit parts. We have been emptying it for some time, but that sucker weighed a ton and we had to move it out. To where? Right now it is on Craig's list as it sits on the side of the house under a tarp. I think I hurt something. But we got it done and I believe that I am healing now. We also moved a large coffee table, a decor piece in the dining room, and all the other furniture slid around the room a few times while we worked. The last piece (for now) went into the wooly room to become a wall unit for the wool collection. There is one more piece to match it. That will go to the wooly room in time, but right now, it is holding the stereo system in the living room.
After the electrical work was done, I patched holes in the wall, textured and painted, cleaned up dust and crud, and did a touch up paint on the fireplace front. Things are looking rather spiffy, if I do say so myself. Then we had a stereo/tv/speakers wiring test- Failure, danger Will Robinson, Failure. Arms flailing, sad face.
The picture quality on the tv, with the expensive cables and extensive wiring was crapola. After some thoughtful trouble-shooting, my main man found the problem. The connection between the vcr and stereo was causing interference and making storm surf in the picture quality. This was remedied with some high tech optical wiring. Now we have great picture, great sound, and tv antenna. Yes indeedy, no cable here. We almost never watch the tv so some of this may have seemed silly, but sometimes we watch the news or a movie. We want things to work when we decide to actually use them. Antenna is good for us, and cheap too. So now for the first time in years, the antenna is connected to the high definition tv.
Little bits are getting done. And in the wake of the landslide, there is clean up to be done. Today, I was organizing the wooly room into the new cabinet. Well, of course, things had to get all tossed around in order to get it into the room and things must get reorganized after the move. So part of today was reorganization. And part was a temporary/permanted settlement location for the boxes from the farmer's market. Since I won't be there for two months, I need to put stuff someplace and stop tripping over it. And I need to be able to get to all the wooly wonderful stuff for my business and work. This has now left a large gap in the living room floor. And in the dining room wall. Space to walk with out tripping and room to move around the chairs.
This is change- open space in an organized style. Not clutter and piles. Not stacks. Not dust. Part of me is determined to keep it this way and part of me wants to fill it up with new stuff. There is still a long way to go before all the work is done. The new baseboards and wall cabinets, carpet, front door, bookcase doors, thorough cleaning, new light fixture are still on the list. Much nagging still to do before the next land slide.
But the change in the room is moving forward. And the change in me is struggling to keep up. I am working toward an organized, clean living room that is easy for me to take care of. Where I can do a bit of work, entertain friends, exercise on the floor, and control the chaos. Now I have to make me fit into that room. Much nagging left to do there, too. But I have promised this to myself and I am indeed working on it. As this year progresses, I am cleaning out clutter, cleaning deeply, and keeping it clean after it is organized.
Now, I want you to picture a scene in the movie, Wall-e. I am cleaning this little spot and the camera pans out to show the entire planet covered in trash. This is the great landslide that hangs over Eduard and I for when our parents have to "let it go". The amount of stuff that will try to find a home in our house is overwhelming. We are practicing saying "no" and holding the door shut. This is also a process of change. Instead of incoming, we are working on deflection. I give all the world fair warning. The beanie babies/barbie dolls and collector plates are coming to get you.

Remodel part deux

2010-05-01T11:32:00.000-07:00

The bookcase is in, well except for the doors, but the handles are in. It took two tries to get the handles in, but finally they are perfect enough for me and I have picked them up. And the doors have made it to the cabinet guy who is suddenly busy beyond his wildest nightmare and hasn't gotten a chance to work on Part Deux- the entertainment unit.
But somewhere in there, I know I asked him to do the baseboards for the dining room and finish the living room to match- 80 ft. Finally the dining room would be finished- 7 years. Then, I actually looked at the dining room.
I have lined one wall (14ft) with cabinets for dry and canned goods, a bookcase, and a china hutch (full to the brim) with stuff stacked on every top. I have stuck the no-longer-needed living room cabinet in there for storage. I have stacked my boxes of jars and meat slicer, meat grinder, pasta maker. We have a little table against the window.
OH SHIT! I have to move it all out so that I can have baseboards. What was I thinking?
Today I have spent three hours packing the china hutch and filling a little niche in the wooly room. I have managed to extricate a small box of stuff for charity. I have identified several more boxes of stuff to go to charity. I have not done anything with the stuff on top of the cabinet or the dry goods. I am currently overwhelmed and need a break. I have collected so much shit, uh, stuff over the years that I just like to look at, that I can't stand to look at it. Stuff must go! Soon.
So that brings me to my other collections. I have been discarding wool that I don't want. Some to the trash, some to other spinnners, some to the market- some of it I used as packing matterial for the china. I can now find the bed in the wooly room. What about in my bedroom? Well, I did go through my clothing and pulled out two bags full of stuff. And in the pantry I tossed a bunch of stuff that had expired.
I was thinking about all the stuff at my mom's house, and how I don't want any of it. I started thinking about my stuff and about my kids (and Eduard's kids) and how they won't want any of it. Is there anyone out there who really wants any of it? I know the thrift stores are full, the landfill is full, the storage units are full, the cars are full, the houses are full. When the boomers go, where will all the stuff go? The entire country is full. We don't actually have to make any more stuff here because there is enough stuff for several generations- except computers for game playing, of which there is never enough.
So, as I contemplate my next step in the remodel- I am going to oust stuff rather than gather it in, so that my children don't have to deal with all this stuff. I want to live a cleaner, less cluttered, more organized life. I want to actually use some of my (5 sets of china) dishes, (7 tea sets) (200 Japanese little bowls and specialty sushi trays) serving ware, and (2 16 place stirling silver sets) utensils.
I am going to sell a spinning wheel, too. I have embarrassed myself by exposing my clutter and really need to get rid of a few things.

Progress

2010-04-08T09:48:00.000-07:00

April and the spring cleaning bug has hit me really hard. It seems to be spreading to the whole family. My brother wants me to help clean stuff out of my mother's house. She doesn't want to do that, but the bug has gotten to my brother. I think he should clean out his own house. Or maybe he has and there is nothing left to organize. But for me- my house is a mess and I have got to get some control really soon.

We have been working on a Living Room remodel for the last two years. We are finally making some progress toward getting it "done". I have done the tile work, repaired the wall from the electrical work, and had the 10 foot by 10 foot book case unit built and installed. I cut the carpet (temporary measure until new carpet is in) and we started putting in the books last night. That is 7 giant boxes of stuff and three piles off the floor and out of the way. The bookcase is almost full and we haven't even started on the garaged books. Or the DVDs. That means some things have got to go. If they can't fit in the bookcase, they can't stay.

To make sure that the sorting was equally distributed, I have claimed 1/2 of the bookcase as my space. I will have a section for crafts and resources of interest to me. My favorite casual reading books will have a place, too. My music, my dvds, my my my....Just the thought of having all my stuff in an organized single location is getting me really excited. Last night, I found a book that I wanted to get rid of. I am sure that I will find many more that won't get to stay. But just knowing that I can put them all into a single location where I can use them and put them back has me in a twitter. And I want to design the space so that I can also display some of my favorite KnickKnacky things. Not much, just little bits of personality leaking out. But I haven't had much room for any of that and I want just a tiny bit.

So that brings me to the next phase- Cabinet Number 2 (3 and 4) on the TV side. The other side of the room will have a TV area, with some low shelving for pillows and blankets, a doored cabinet that is also a window seat, and a shelving unit for the stereo (and other stuff). That part will be in around the beginning of MAY and then the carpet will go in. I am beginning to believe that there will someday be an end to this room remodel.

Just so that you can have some perspective on my patience, we started the Kitchen/Dining area in May 2003. Most of it was done in May 2005. But the last part- baseboards for the dining room- languished. Now with the new cabinets getting done in the living room, I requested baseboard for that room and the dining room. The dining/kitchen remodel will be complete in 2010. Only 7 years. After the carpet, the living room will still need the new front door (with new hardware) and entry way light fixture, a small electrical outlet, and the antenna cable re-route before it is "done". I will be sewing some new pillows and a seat pad for the window seat.

I am hoping that the living room remodel is done sooner than 7 years from the start date. But in the mean time, I will be dedicating myself to cleaning out some stuff and getting the room organized. At least until the spring cleaning bug wears off.

Remodelling is not Cheap

2010-03-26T14:15:00.000-07:00

Well, we started this right after we bought the house. New roof, carpet in most rooms, paint all the inside, plumbing repairs, and general overhaul. Two years later, we did the "Kitchen" and dining area. New windows, cabinets, counters, appliances and tile flooring and stripped the popcorn ceiling. There was some basic maintenance along the way too, but mostly, a remodel. Finally, in 2008, we started the living room- FIreplace insert, windows, side door,... delay... Life sometimes gets in the way so now it is 2010 and we are continuing the remodel of the living room. Bookcase cabinetry, wall unit/window seat, maybe a library ladder, custom handles (in Pewter), really nice carpet, a bit of tile work, new front door, lighting adjustments, and some paint touch up. But there has been some "maintenance" along the way, too.
Each of these remodeled rooms are running about $40,000. I admit, the cabinetry is something more like furniture, but these are big ticket items to do these rooms. We have also got some landscape work planned for a patio remodel and patio addition at the new door. And some additional fencing, a new garage door, and windows in the rest of the house. About three more years down the road (hopefully less), we will do some bathroom rework in the master bathroom.
Overall- the remodeling will cost about 1/2 of what we paid for the house. And I am not sure that it will add all that much to the re-sale value if we decide to move someday. But it will add a great deal to the comfort value of the home we are living in. I think livability is the most important thing about a home- not just re-sale value. Already, the fireplace insert is paying for itself in comfort and warmth in the winter. The new windows keep the outside noise out and the temperature more constant. They are a dream to maintain and use. I think Eduard and I will really love the finished living room.
And the rest of the house? Well, we will get there sooner or ? well sooner I hope. But the living/entertaining areas are what I want to finish and live in first. So we will look at the other things as time and money permit. Just for now, I am loving the newness of our living area and the excitement of having it get done, sometime in the next 2 months.
And I feel a bit pampered with some of the "specialty" items we are getting. I just want to thank my sweetie for letting me have the expensive, custom, sculptured handles for the cabinet doors. Smooch. And I didn't buy the most expensive ones, either.

Out with the Old

2010-03-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

Every year at this time I find myself wanting to air out the house, do some heavy cleaning, and throw stuff away. Ok, maybe just move it to the garage. But the items will eventually find their way to the thrift stores around town. Sometimes, though, I actually throw things away. This is a remarkable thing for a compulsive hoarder like Fluffy.
Today I was in the kitchen when the "urge" struck. I looked at the pantry and thought about all the interesting things I had wanted to cook but lost interest before I cooked them. Or the spices I tried but didn't like all that much. Stuff that I just had to have, but then forgot about. And what about all those canned goods that we just never got to (from 2006). I firmly believe you should not keep your canned goods longer than your tax records. So I am cleaning out the panty.
Today, I filled the gray dumpster with unloved, uneaten, and unremembered things. Unfortunately, I am not done. There is at least one more dumpster full to go. Because I have three pantries and I am a compulsive hoarder, this mood better last for at least a week.
But there are other old things going, too. I went into the garage and got rid of a pile of Old. And we are getting new carpet- that will be lots of very old when they are done. Our living room carpet is at least 15 years old. And then there is the old paint that has dried in the can. Old spackle and drywall compound. Old tiles.
What about those old clothes? I did buy some new stuff right before the wedding. There must be some old stuff to go out. And a couple of pairs of old shoes. Old slippers. Old pajamas.
We got rid of the old blinds last week. How about some old towels, and old sheets and old...
Umm. I actually use those old towels and sheets for projects, so maybe not them.
Damn! I think the urge is wearing off.

Gummy Mousse

2010-03-07T17:05:00.000-08:00

So this blog entry is in chocolate brown type, because we here at the garden have been experimenting with Mousse. I have made many Moussi? Miesse? Mousses? in my cooking life. Some were the Atkin's high fat, no sugar, no carb type. And the regular Melted chocolate and whipped cream type. What I wanted was one with flavor, texture, some sugar, mouth appeal, aroma, and moussey appearance and lower fat, but not fat free.

So, I will start with the failures. Gummy Mousse. My first try had coffee, milk, chocolate, sugar, whipped cream, egg yolks, egg whites, vanilla, and gelatin. A whole tablespoon and a half of gelatin. This was due to a mis-print in a recipe that I took to alter. Jeri's test kitchen suspected that this was going to be a problem at first glance, but the use of gelatin has been spotty in my life, so I wasn't sure. Then the mixture started to get rubbery while it was still kind of warmish. That should have been a real red flag. But after mixing stuff together, it set up as a solid mass with a distinct bounce -- almost a boing sound. It had great taste, though. The color was right, smell was good, mouth texture -- way off. We ate it anyway, because we are brave and foolish. But we were sure that it would not be a success even in the little kid world. So we went on.

The second failure was the chocolate soup. I repeated the recipe with 1 "teaspoon" of gelatin instead of the 1 1/2 tablespoons. Even after chilling the mix before adding the final ingredients, it would not set up or even get thick enough to tease me. After blending in the whipped cream and whipped egg white, it was syrupy. After chilling for hours, it was soupy. Chocolate flavor was good, like melted ice cream, but the texture and eye appeal was a total loss. It is hard to toss the ingredients out. We sampled a bowl full each and washed the containers.

The third try got me what I wanted in texture and eye appeal (and of course flavor). I will continue to work on the carbs and fats, but we are on the right track.
Here is the recipe:
3/4 cup cold coffee sprinkle on top 2 teaspoons plain gelatin to soften for about 30 minutes.
1 cup milk and 3 1/2 oz semisweet chocolate ( I used Trader Joe 72% dark). Heat this over med/low heat, stirring constantly until the chocolate melts.
Continue heating and add
1/2 cup sugar, stir until dissolved.
Continue heating and add
Softened gelatin in coffee, stir until dissolved.
Continue heating until mixture reaches about 130 f. Nowhere near boiling, but hot to the touch. I use a meat thermometer. Reduce heat to low.
Separate the yolks and the whites of two large eggs. Place the whites in a whipping bowl with 1/8 teaspoon salt. Leave on the counter to come to room temp.
Take the 2 egg yolks and stir them gently, adding a couple of tablespoons of the hot chocolate mix to temper them. Then stir the egg yolks into the hot chocolate mix stirring constantly for three minutes. Turn off the heat. Let this sit for 10 minutes, then refrigerate until it starts to thicken (20 minutes or so). It needs to be cool to the touch or cold, but not too solid. Like a thick syrup.
Beat the egg whites with the salt until stiff peaks form.
Using the same beaters (don't need to wash them yet),
Beat 1 cup of whipping cream until soft peaks form, then add 2 tablespoons sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Continue beating until stiff peaks form.
Gently fold the chocolate into the whipped cream until well incorporated, then fold the whipped egg white into the cream mixture until well incorporated. Pour all this into a 2 quart pretty serving bowl and chill for three hours. If you are not going to eat it right away, put plastic wrap over it to keep it from drying out.
Now I need to find the calorie count on
2 eggs, 3 1/2 oz chocolate, 1 cup milk, 1 cup whipping cream, 2/3 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons gelatin. This is divided into 4 or 6 servings depending on your diet.
My next plan is to try it with fat free whipped topping or a sugar substitute. And I want to see how it works with Agar instead of gelatin for my vegetarian buddies. Not all at once, but over a period of time I will test out these different ingredients.
Ok, so you have guessed the truth. I am just having a chocolate craving and I want any excuse to eat lots of chocolate mousse. No really, I am trying out these recipes to see if I can make something that tastes really good and doesn't trash my blood sugar. I think I am getting the texture part down and will be moving to the lower sugar and fat part soon. Wish me luck and try the good recipe if you are in the mood for a chocolate treat. It really is lower in sugar and fat than straight mousse, already, and it is quite tasty.

New Children in the Garden

2010-02-08T11:05:00.000-08:00

It is always exciting to have something new happen in the garden. Whether it is a new plant, shrub, tree, or flower- even a new bench- it is exciting to me. Last fall, we ordered a couple of Pecan trees. I am unsure whether they will do well here, but the write-up on them indicated that the climate would be acceptable. And we have good drainage in the soil. That is important because Pecans don't like wet feet or wet leaves. We found one that could deal with the coastal fog well, so we are pretty confident.
Our soil is compacted sand. You can eventually dig a hole in it by scraping away 1/2 inch layers, but it is not very fertile or chemically rich. So, we dug as best we could. Other trees around us- Macademia, peach, apricot, pine, citrus- all have found a way to get a grip on this soil. I have great hopes for these pecan trees and their ability to tap a way into this soil. But just in case, we amended heavily. That way the roots have a reason to grow and it will seem easy at first.
That was the bulk of our weekend work. We had two new babies for the orchard. There was some other work too, like harvesting onions and turnips, gathering wood and debris from the last rain, but for the most part we have been relaxing with the trees and garden. We did most of the pruning a few weeks ago. Put out a bit of fertilizer for the avocados and citrus. Then we just closed our eyes and forgot about them.
So imagine my surprise today when I found the first PEACH BLOSSOM. Yes! Pink and pretty and that means- fertilizer, raking, and no time to spray for curl. How did the time get past me? Is it really blossom time already. Well, the apple is in bloom, but it blooms year round so I haven't really counted it as a time piece. But the peach is my Spring alarm clock. And it went off just as we were planting the pecans.
Nap time is over and the garden is getting exciting with new trees, new fruit, new leaves, and new energy. I think I am about to wake up from hibernation, too. I am ready to have lunches outside and barbequed dinners. But I have to admit that I don't yet have the urge for spring cleaning. Maybe next month.

The Fluffy Addiction

2010-01-15T08:14:00.000-08:00

I am washing the last alpaca fleece this morning while I get ready for my spinning group, and I am thinking about my fluffy addiction. I believe in my heart that I can in fact spin the wool I have within my lifetime. I am in control of my environment. I have a grip on it. Yet, there is a sneaking suspicion that I may be deluding myself. I just tagged a 4oz skein for the market and realized that I have not spun anything else for sale in 4 weeks. I have only been spinning about 4 oz a week lately and at that rate, 1 pound a month, it will take me a year just to spin the alpaca- nothing else. And what about the other stuff, baby camel, or Yak/merino, or more of that lovely white Cormo-ish stuff. Plus all the other fun fibers that have come into my life- Wensleydale, Shetland, Merino, AnnieFannie Columbia, Beauty Berries, etc. I have colors, I have textures, I have silks and soy.
I have tools and bags of stuff, and they have escaped from the wooly room and invaded the entire house. Everytime I try to herd them back into the room, they start playing with me and I lose my conviction. I want to just sit and play with them all day. They know they have me whipped, too. Just peaking out of their bags they call me to play and the day slips away from me. If I made a slip cover and stuffed all the bags into it. I could make a wall-to-wall bed of bags of wool.
So how do I stop buying? How do I get myself to keep my conviction that I have enough fleece? This is the plan- I must spin 2 pounds of wool products a month, at least 1/2 of it for the market. And it must be from the bags of fleece, not the pretty prepared stuff. Then, I must make at least one item for the market and one item for me (or family) per month from the yarn. This way, I will in fact spin the wool I have, within my lifetime, and not drown in a pile of yarn.
This is the new year's resolution. It started with washing the new stuff, which is almost done. And I will send out some of the old stuff that still needs washing to be processed at Z. Then I will identify all the projects that I am going to make from the yarn. Then I will plan an attack on the spinning work so that it matches the stuff I need to make.
That means I will be spinning Shetland and alpaca this coming month, making a couple of apples and a rug. But what I really want to do is spin the baby camel. So maybe just a little bit of that, too. And the baby alpaca silk blend. Just 2 oz. And maybe I will get a couple more bobbins. Then I could start some weaving, too. That project is already spun and ready to warp.
I can see that this is getting way out of control already. The yarn and wool is calling me and confusing my helpless brain. Must fight the urge. Must, maintain, contro.....

Feelin' good, feelin' fine

2009-12-21T12:23:00.000-08:00

It is Yule time and I am feeling very happy and bouncy. My work is nearly done (for other people, that is). I have myself and my sweetie to do things for. That is almost to selfish to imagine. I have been vey busy with other people all year, so now I have only a few little things left to do and I am free to play. It feels good.
I have knitted and woven and spun great mountains of things and have given and sold them. But I am still enjoying spinning and knitting and weaving. I am about to start baking cookies and doing some holiday cooking. I am looking forward to the last and darkest night and the slow but regular return of the sun. My garden is growing spring veges and my trees are dormant. Life is relaxing and calm.
I really needed this, too. This has been a really busy year, and next year will be busy too, so I am resting while I can.
Everyone, you will just have to take care of yourselves while I sleep and refresh myself. I am napping for the next two months. Then, if I see my shadow, we can talk about spring. (snore).

The Party is Over, back to work

2009-11-20T08:48:00.000-08:00

It has been a long year. And it is not yet over, but I am seeing it wind down now. Last night I put my son on a plane to return to China, where he works and lives. This marked the end of a very long party. But it also was the end of some other events along the way. The activity and tension levels have been very high all year, and this appears to be a turning point.
Last year, we (my daughter and many other people) started planning her wedding. My job was "details" and "surprises". There were many but mostly near the end. So the impact was not readily noticeable. I had lots of time to spend on my mother, and E's parents and sibbling. E's father's health collapsed in the spring and this pretty much started the ramp up of tensions. We spent lots of time with E's mom, and cleaning up some of the details with her, then we traveled to see his sister. It was a nice vacation, but it had considerable emotional stress connected to it. Work on the house, the yard, my mom, my business choice all started to complicate our time, plus the growing number of lists for the wedding.
Finally, the wedding shower kicked off the "rush" of activity. All the little house details that we had ignored became big issues. Then there was the "organization" of the wooly room. In October, my son arrived and all the "work" became meaningful. The family, my family, was gathering for the big day. And then the wedding happened. And it seemed to be over, but there was still so much to do. And then the visit ended. And as I look back, it seems like a fog of activity- so much you can't really see any one thing, but there is a lot of stuff in there.
Now, as my son is flying home to China, and I am recovering from a long night of driving, I am starting to melt into a soft puddle.
I started cleaning up the mess of the year long party, and I am very tired. Emotionally tired. Happy, but very tired.
I am looking forward to routine and dark, cold winter nights. I need to hibernate for a month.
Unfortunately, that is not what happens. What really happens is we have to get back to the work of living. So, the laundry is happening. The kitchen is happening. And all the activities of life are happening. But the fog is thinning, and I can see things more clearly.
I had a really good time, but I am glad it is slowing down. I want to spend time focusing on my home and husband. The party is over. Everyone- go home.

My Christmas Present

2009-10-03T15:35:00.000-07:00

This is a story about my Christmas present. Not for this coming Christmas, but for Last Christmas.
While we were in Solvang, last November, 2008, I stopped at my favorite fibery store- Village Spinning and Weaving- (plug for the great store, yes!). I found a Joy spinning wheel in the window (a single treadle which I wanted more than a double treadle). And I found a Schacht Flip loom. I had wanted to learn to weave and I thought a small loom would be great fun. But I don't have lots of space and a little folding one seemed like just the right thing. It came home with me and I put it in the wooly room.
I knew it was in there, but as the days went by and things piled up (and stuff piled up), it got buried. Periodically I could hear it cry out for me in muffled tones from under piles of washed fleece, but there just wasn't any time for learning something new and having fun.
The new Joy spinning wheel went right to work, though. And it snickered at the box and chided it. The wheel was the more important new toy so the box got ignored. Well, that wasn't really true. They are both important, but the wheel I already knew how to use. And I could do something with it right away. So the box gathered dust and waited patiently.
Then the wedding plans and parties, house cleaning and re-organizing, medical issues and visits to relatives- all took up the time. The box waited patiently, muffled sobs.
Today, I was cleaning the wooly room. It got to the top of the priority list, finally- my son is coming home for the wedding and will stay with me for awhile. I stuffed the fleeces under the bed, moved some things around, stacked stuff in the garage and, Lo!, there was the box. After a moments thought, I took the box into my bedroom. I didn't want to stack it in the garage or stuff it in a closet. I wanted to actually get out my Christmas present and use it. Sometime in the future, when I was not so tired.
Then, after I had vaccuumed, dusted, stuffed and reorganized- I wanted to sit down and rest. But, instead- I got the box out and opened it. I could hear the little loom squeal with happiness- finally some light and air. After staring at it for bit, and reading the instructions a couple of times, I decided on a project and started to assemble the loom. The first part was easy enough, but then I needed to "warp" it.
It took a couple of times, but I did get it warped, and I have woven the first inch on it. I like the little fellow and am still thinking of a name for him- definitely a boy name like "Flip Wilson" or "Flipper". And I can see many wonderful projects coming down the path. I want to make a bag for him to match the one I made for the Joy. I have enough fabric left. And I think he would like something more comfortable than a box.
So that is the story of my Christmas present. It has taken almost a year to open the box. I am really glad I did. I will take it to the wedding with me so that I can weave in the evening after dinner at the lodge. I think he will like that, too.

Those pesky little details

2009-09-28T11:50:00.000-07:00

I decided early on that I would not be in charge of any of the large details of my daughter's wedding. Actually she decided that for herself, but I didn't argue with her. She got the site, arranged the accomodations, found an officiant, tasted cakes, secured a chef and menu, bought a dress, designed the rings, ordered the invitations, made a guest list, tried on shoes, contracted a photographer, and has been tracking all this stuff for a year.
I have agreed, nay, more like insisted, that I take care of small details- like wedding music. Very small details, like hemming a bride's maid's dress. And some minute details- like baking 300 cookies. There are lots of these details, which is good because I like to make lists. So this is the list of known details-
Public Address system so that we can hear the officiant and wedding couple.
Decorative boxes (decorated by me) for the 300 cookies- to go at each place setting (Appx. 90)
Stereo system with speakers for the wedding hall.
Ipod loaded with selected music for the night.
Binding rope for the wedding ceremony. (Research materials and shop for such)- sew for 4 hours.
Altar and altar cloth.
Containers to take home left overs, ice chest and ice.
Continental Breakfast for 40 on the Saturday morning of the wedding.
Hemmed aforesaid dress.
Research wedding music- find musicians and contract said performers.
Custom ordered, hand crafted wedding book for my sweeties (I love it!)
Host wedding shower. (and clean my house twice, before and after)
Hand made special gift for the bride- still in progress.
Mail invitations with instructions (by Google Earth) on getting to the site.
Data base and spread sheet with RSVP information and label program for Said invitations.
Regular attendance update to the Bride and Groom for their records.
Clean up guest room for my son, so that he can stay and play with me.

As we wind through the last weeks before the wedding, many of these details have been completed and are starting to get "boxed" for the final trip to the wedding site. Each box has a label for its contents. But many things need to wait until the last minute- the last minute details, like buying food and ice.

Yet, in all this planning and shopping, fussing and making, gluing and sewing, spinning and knitting, tasting and listening- in all of this, no one has said anything about who will get the marriage license.
I hope someone remembers. That is not one of my details on my list.

A Wonderful Party

2009-09-17T10:20:00.000-07:00

Is going to happen at my house. A Wedding Shower for my daughter. I am really excited. And with that excitement comes- house cleaning. Well, more like a remodel, than just a cleaning. This is the story.
Last year, in July we tore the living room apart to put in new windows and a door. Our plan was to have bookshelves built in, move the entertainment area to the other side of the room, get new carpet, pour a patio slab, re-route the water lines to the back yard, paint and patch the walls, and settle in for xmas. About a week after the windows got in, my mom had a stroke event. And life got really complicated. Eduard's father started slipping very fast toward his end from his emphysema, and his mom's cancer started growing again. Our project screeched to a halt and we have lived in chaos for 15 months.
So it is just not possible to have everything done by the Wedding Shower this Saturday. But it is possible to clean it up a bit. We boxed up some stuff and got the dining room into a semi-permanent configuration. We re-arranged the existing furniture to simulate the completed configuration of the living room. And we threw out lots of stuff. We have been cleaning for a week and it is beginning to look really nice. Just a few more details in the kitchen and we will be presentable.
Part of this re-organization included some new equipment. I bought a new vacuum cleaner. And I think I really like it, so far. I also put the exercise bike back into the bedroom- and have actually used it again. The Bedroom got some re-org clean up as well and is a much more pleasant place to visit. I have a stack of tile in the garage waiting for its moment of installation, but that won't be until after Thanksgiving.
All in all I think we have been working our butts off. But it is a really nice result for all the work.
Now fast forward, because my computer crashed, I ran out of time, and the party is over. I am just now getting a chance to finish this blog entry. Can you believe it? It is time to clean the house again. Damn! And the list of stuff for the wedding is on the top of the plate of priorities. Well, life is busy, and happy. It was a good party. The house was beautiful and clean. We had enough chairs. Eduard was granted sainthood by my ex-mother-in-law, in front of her son (my ex). My daughter and son-in-law(en potentia) have been properly celebrated. It doesn't get any better than that. So I will clean up and stop complaining.

Windows Corruption

2009-09-14T09:31:00.000-07:00

Lately, my old Mac hand-me-down has become very temperamental. I have a new Mac laptop to replace the old baby, but I haven't had time to clean off my desk and transfer files, and dock, and learn new stuff. And it has been busy being a "portable" unit for most of the summer.
So today, I couldn't log on to blog because the memory was corrupted. Had to turn it off and back on. It had been on for about 1/2 hour and done mostly nothing. On any given day, I have to do this little procedure 5 or 6 times. Applications crash, spinning pizza of death, frozen keyboard, won't wake up from nap, can't find mouse, ... lots of annoyance.
As I was waiting for it to re-boot, I realized that the old Mac sits right next to my old PC/Windows unit. There may even be a latent network connection between the two, even though the PC has been off for two years. I am beginning to think the PC is trying to enter the brain of my Mac and channel Windows issues though it. It is leaking little commando electrons though the cabling and slowly infiltrating my OS, bit by byte. The parallels are just too suspicious.
Naw. I am just getting paranoid. But I must say that it makes me nervous to think about the possibilities. An entire world, taken over by WindowsOS.
But now I think I need to go back up my disk, just in case I have another Windows moment.

Selling my Stuff

2009-08-24T11:29:00.000-07:00

Sitting in the pop-up tent, table of wares, notices, coin box. There I am selling my yarns at the farmer's market.
On Sunday, I have an all day plan. Pack up the car, set up the booth, wave and greet and occasionally sell something, pack up the car. I sit and spin, teach spinning and drop spindle, talk wool and fiber prep. I am meeting people, growing my spin group, and playing with my friends. So far, three of my spin buddies have come to sit in the booth with me. There will be more I am sure.
I taught a sweet lady to drop spindle this last Sunday. She bought a spindle and roving. Now I need to make more spindles- ordered parts today. She wants to come and sit in the booth also.
I have knitted string bags, sock yarns, and knitting classes. They will want to sit in the booth also.

Soon, it will be a community booth and I will need more space- 4 is pretty much all I can handle. And I will need to start charging so I can pay my booth rent. But it is really fun to have a community of spinners and knitters out in the open air/shade all playing together.
Now to get some of them to buy all that pesky yarn.
Or pay for a class on dyeing wool. Or to help me card all that fleece.
Well, there is time I suppose in the future for that. Right now, I am recovering from all that fun.

All the Good Stuff

2009-07-15T13:07:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago, I had to write about a fluffy disaster and the terrible stench it created. But today, life is not so smelly and there is joy in Woolville. It took an arsenal of cleaning products to beat the stink into submission, I had to throw away some wool (always a difficult thing for me), and the bathroom sparkles like the sun. My hands and feet no longer waft pungent and I have moved on to other projects- Dying roving.
But I need to digress and get caught up on the good stuff of June. I got to go to Black Sheep Gathering (BSG) again. There were many things on the way, so it wasn't all about me, but it was good nonetheless. We met lovely people in San Jose, we laid Eduard's father to rest in a cool glen at Val's house and we found a nest of owls at the honey farm. Such good film footage, such nice people, such a pleasant week of travel.
At BSG, I got to work in the Wool Show, with the wool judge, Mark Eidman, I won first place on Max's socks, and bought 2 lovely fleeces. There were friends from So.Cal. and new friends from Ravelry, and lots of great things to buy- I did buy some, but I was careful not to over indulge. On the way back we had a great drive with Eduard's mom and Daughter. We were relaxed and happy, though it is a long drive. I was energized to get back into my wooly world even more than ever.
I have started dying again, not just for myself. I have several pounds of roving that needs a color coat and some packaging. I am hoping to get that out and sell it soon, so I have now completed about 14 packages of product. I am having a dye class in August and some of late July. And I am busy washing and dying fleece. Knitting, still doing that, but on a more "just for me" level. And knitting for Eduard, too. I want to focus on myself for a bit.
Yes that is what happens when I start having fun. I want to keep doing it. So you can find me in the kitchen- not cooking, not canning- but having a blast with the color blue.

Way Wrong or why modern invention is good

2009-07-13T08:40:00.000-07:00

I have many things to talk about lately. I have been very busy and done many wonderful things in the last month. But what I am going to talk about first is something that was way wrong.
As you may have noticed, FLuffy has a wooly obsession lately. I have purchased fleeces which I wash and spin, then I dye the yarn and knit with it. So this last spring, I bought 4 lovely fleeces from Descanso, and then in Oregon I bought 2 more lovely fleeces. I have finished washing the Black Shetland and a portion of the Columbia. I have always done just a bit at a time until it was all done, using hot water and modern, chemical, hard water tolerant detergent- Orvus. It really works well on the fleece and the plants tolerate the surfactant well. I dump the water on the plants when I can. So this year, I got caught up in a line of bull and I am sorry to say, "It Stinks!"
The old books I have teach about using water and Urine (Yes I am talking about Pee), to clean wool fleece. There is a soaking process and a long rinsing process and then the wool is spun for weaving with some of the grease in and then it is soaked in acid, and finally washed in hot water to shrink it a bit. Gasp! Well, I don't do that stuff. I wash in hot water with strong detergent, rinse several times, dry, card or comb and spin for knitting yarn. It is grease free when I start to spin it. And it is washed again when it is yarn. There is no acid, the vegetable matter is hand picked and carded out. This is modern efficiency.
So this process that was being discussed on Ravelry, is about soaking a fleece for 7 days in soft water so that it ferments. It is called the Fermented Suint Method (FSM). I had all this lovely Columbia fleece (because there was 10 pounds of it) and I thought I would try some in this method. I discussed it with others who had done it first.
Soft water- got some. Dirty fleece- got that. Big opaque covered tub- yep. Time-7 days or less- I started. After 5 days it didn't look like any fermentation was going on, but it smelled awful- it was supposed to. At 7 days I had to take it out and rinse it. So today, I laid out some screens and started to rinse in cold water.
The first thing that went wrong was I got a couple of drops of the soak water on my arm and hand. I almost fainted from the awful smell as I lifted the fleece out into a bucket. A few drops got on my foot. Then I hauled it to the screen area and turned on the water to rinse it. I rinsed for a long time and the fleece was absolutely filthy, not to mention stinky, and still greasy.
So now it needed a hot water, soapy bath, just like it always had gotten before, but with the additional fragrance. I hauled a bucket full of stink into the bathroom with my Orvus. Yes into the house bathroom.
I decided to use the shower so that I could pump the water out to the trees. The stench was nearly overwhelming but I got the first two bags to soaking in the soap and hot water. I tried to wash off the little splashes.
I took a shower in the other bathroom. When I was done, I still smelled like an exploded porta-potty, so did the bathroom. The other bathroom with the soaking fleeces was a toxic waste zone.
I am now on the second washing of both the fleece and me- I will have to scrub the entire house with windex to kill the smell later- the smell permiates every room. (Honey, work late tonight).
Oh, it doesn't stop yet. There is still some fleece that needs to be hot water washed laying on the screens. There is a tub of offal next to the back door, and a layer of sludge in the shower. Of all the times I have washed fleece, I have never had such an awful, offal experience. Never, Never, Never will I do this again. It was a terrible practical joke and I am sorry that I got caught up in it.
After I clean the house, and recover my sense of smell, I will write about the good stuff that happened, but right now, I have made a mess and I am busy trying to clean up.

Refocused

2009-06-25T09:27:00.000-07:00

Fluffys Garden, fluffy... garden... fluffy, fluffy. Hmmm.
For the last two years, Fluffysgarden has been more about fluffy and less about garden. Part of this is because the the Wool Addiction and part is because of the chicken affliction. Well, chickens are fluffy in places, but they are mostly garden destroyers. I have not focused as much on the growing things because the little birds would terrorize the sprouts, roto-till the seeds up, and in general re-distribute the soil and mulch.
I had managed to scratch a bit out of the beds- tall things mostly and things they chickens didn't like. But this year, there are no more chickens. I am restoring the beds and planting great yummy stuff. We had lettuces, celery, carrots, peas, onions, cabbage, brocolli and fava bean already. Now I am planting the summer garden and hoping for some squash and long beans. It has been more rewarding to do this work knowing that the chickens are not going to dig it up. I had forgotten how much I love the soil and eating the fresh veggies.
The Wool Addiction is still going strong, though. It takes up lots of time- washing, carding, dying, spinning, knitting..and..weaving almost. This year, we drove to Oregon to the Black Sheep Gathering at Eugene. I spent two days in Wooly bliss- fondling fleeces, stroking roving, investigating blends and tools. I left with a car full of fleece, roving, honey and people.
Honey? that is not fluffy you say. Well, I have to admit that fluffy has a sweet tooth. I say I bought it for my husbear, but really does he need 60 pounds of honey? I also bought 60 pounds for my friends and re-distributed between Oregon and So.Cal. Most of them bought a 5 lb jug or two, but I buy in cases and get good prices for them. Thus, we have a year supply of sticky sweet stuff- a by product of fluffyness.
So for the fleeces, wools, blends, batts, fluff balls- I am re-energized in my Wool Addiction. I have been spinning up older projects to get them done so that I can wash and spin the new and exciting stuff. I am cleaning my drum carder and getting ready to address the last of last year so that I can get on with the new and knit with the old. I am passionate and inspired.
I am not yet ready to balance the Fluffy with the Garden. I think it will take the rest of this year to settle back into the garden cycles and get the beds re-organized. But I am up for the job and looking forward to a chicken free environent full of fluff and good eats.
Now, for a bit of greasy wool and some thoughtful spinning.

Jonesin' for the wheel

2009-06-12T13:06:00.000-07:00

I don't often have this feeling. Tense, distracted, anxious, calculating, restless. I am aching to get a chance to spin. I don't often have this feeling because I would normally just sit and spin for awhile each week. But, it has been several weeks since I last spun. Too many things to do. Too much work, planning, packing, sorting, building, sewing, knitting, writing, cooking, calling, digging, washing, just too much stuff to do. Part of the planning was to get stuff on the sticks so that I had something to knit while we travel. I started three projects. In the process, I had to clean out some stuff in the wooly room and dig my way to the storage bed.
After I made a narrow path to the bed, the bags of fleece started whispering to me- "Spin me." " No! Spin me!" I took the Kiwi out and all my partially full bobbins. I plied until the bobbins were clear and put the Kiwi away. But the whispering didn't stop. Everytime I went into the room, the fleeces were rustling restlessly expecting to be taken out. One of them fell over and spilled a bit of fluff at my feet. As I gathered it back to itself, it called to me. "Touch me, feel me, spin me."
I gathered up the bobbins, the Joy and the fabric to make a bag. I got the sewing machine out and some sewing tools. I noticed that I was becoming tense and nervous in the room. But as I sewed the bag, I was not nervous at all. It was creative and useful and cheap- I was very happy with it. I started to fill it with the Joy, some bobbins, some tools, and some rovings. That is when the Jones started. Touching the roving made me very excited and anxious. I wanted to spin it right now. I wanted to unload the whole bag and spend the rest of the day spinning. Maybe into the night. Maybe all the next day too. Then I realized that the last time I actually spun anything was at the end of May. 2 1/2 weeks with no real wheel contact. The plying took but a moment and was only to clear off the bobbins. But real spinning, the feel of fiber slipping gently through my fingers, the soft smell of sheepyness, the gental whir of the wheel- it had been a long time and there was no time now to do it. I was packing for the trip. I would not spin for many more days. The anxiety was building and I started trying to find ways to sneak in some spinning- any spinning, even on a drop spindle.
That is when I realized I was Jonesin' for the wheel. I was in withdrawal. The fiber addiction had me down and writhing in discomfort as I calculted when I would next get a chance to spin. Friday night? Saturday at the meeting? Drop spindle in the car instead of knitting?
And the wooly room wasn't helping me at all. The color bottles and the white roving tried to convince me that there was time to dye a bunch for the road. The black fleece was saying, "Finish me, I am almost done. There is a sweater trying to get to you." My silk was making soft breezy sounds and the soy was reminding me that It was New and Exciting. What would I spin if I had the chance? I had packed about a pound of stuff, but I wanted to pack another pound- but why. I would not get enough time to spin 2 pounds of stuff. The Alpaca was saying, "Let me just touch you for a moment. You know you want to."
Yes, I want to. Yes, yes. No. I need to mow, and water, and do laundry. I need to cook dinner and pack the coffee supplies. I need to empty the car and wash the windows. I closed the door to the wooly room hoping that the phrase "Out of sight, out of mind" would help.
I am resting gently now. I am closer to being done packing and have most of the errands done. I am breathing softly and evenly and have clear thoughts. I will spin tomorrow on a drop spindle at the meeting- some white merino should be nice. Something thin and satisfying, and soft. Yes, I know. I gave in. But I just love the feel of the fiber.

Hobbies or Nightmares

2009-06-03T11:24:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it is hard to tell.
I love to try new things but I very seldom continue with the intense interest that is the hallmark of a new project or hobby. That high level of energy and time can just suck the life out of you and take over your whole world. And there are just too many things I want to do to invest all of me in a single, hobby black hole. Multiple black holes? Stop sniggering.
So, I love to spin and because I spin, I have great volumes of yarn. I wash the fleeces and spin, I buy rovings and spin, and I blend fibers and spin. I have a folder of beautiful shawl and sweater patterns. I am developing my own pattern for a leafy thing. I have books and tools and way more stuff than I can finish in a lifetime. I have a lathe that sits forlornly in the garage, covered with raw wool fleeces. Fleeces waiting to be washed, tools waiting to me used, yarn waiting to be useful, a garden waiting to be harvested. And what am I doing while all this is waiting- spinning? Well wouldn't that be nice.
Actually I have been obsessed with making a pair of socks to enter in a judged show in Oregon. The socks were too small for Eduard, so they will be for Max. A calculation error that made me quite annoyed. I lovingly spun a tiny, tiny thread to three ply for socks knit on size one needles. I have given myself a stiff neck, punctured my finger, and nearly gone blind. Did I mention this was a black wool? Yes, spinning and knitting black is very hard to see. I can only do it during the daylight hours. And there were cables. Just slap me. Big chunks of days have been spent on these socks- from spinning to knitting to filling out forms and documenting- so that I can give them to a 5 year old.
I want you to know that I actually love knitting socks, but not all socks are created equal. I did not love these socks. Now they are done and I am writing up the forms for the entry. I look at the socks and they don't look so wonderful or special. They don't seem like award winning socks, high quality yarn, or such a lovely design. They are well executed and sized for Max, but I am disappointed. They are not for Eduard. They didn't use up lots of yarn and fleece. They are not so wonderful that I can look at my waiting tools and other hobbies and justify the time spent.
This has been a nightmare pair and I need a break for a bit. I have some large yarn for making a felted pumpkin bag on big needles. I have some lovely hand spun lace weight for a beaded shawl. I have three bags of soil amendment and a waiting garden. I have a wooly room in a state of chaos and the house is in serious need of cleaning. I have 5 looms waiting for reconstuctive surgery. And, I am having dinner guests tomorrow.
I need to push my hobbies aside and struggle out of the gravitational pull so that I can get my house in order. Last night I dreamed I was walking through a park in Solvang with Eduard and I had forgotten to get dressed in the morning. I was strolling through town naked with my drop spindle, spinning. Usually, when you get the "naked in public" dream you feel embarrassed about your naked body. Not me. I was annoyed that I had forgotten my clothes, but talked to people about the spinning anyway.
So, today is a new day, the socks are off the sticks, and I am going to start cleaning the house. Laundry, kitchen, garden, bathrooms, living room. I am going to fight the urge to bring out the wheel, start another project, lounge in the wooly room stroking my stash. Really. I promise.
Edited update- Blue Ribbon, Max has the socks now.

Hypothosis

2009-05-23T08:44:00.000-07:00

Hypothosis- do fresh eggs from spoiled, free-range chickens taste better and can it be cost effective, while living in a suburban environment and using easily available support products.

Facts gathered- 1. Taste is subjective. The color of the yolk is definitely deeper and brighter and generally, the participants thought the eggs tasted a bit better. We do not possess the equipment to test for actual vitamin and food values so there is no attempt to prove that the eggs are actually "better" in that area.
2- Cost- Cage and pen materials $250, Dr. visit $400, cost of chicks $21, Costs of hay and bedding material $50, feeding equipment $100, food $240 ($10 mo.) Total - $1061.
We used PVC pipe, wire, chicken wire, bird cloth, steel posts and a manufactured shade tent. We recycled some equipment and lawn furniture for the roosts and nest boxes. The birds mostly ate wild bird seed mix and free range grass/bugs/down fruit/most of my garden. Medical expenses could be avoided by simply eating the sick chicken, but it was part of the learning experience to try to heal the poor thing.

Actual egg production- I didn't count every egg, so the number is an estimate based on the average number of eggs layed during their laying life in the experiment. There are periods of time when chickens do not lay- youth, brooding, moulting. One started laying at 5 months old, one at 9 mo. one at 7 mo. One layed no eggs while broody for 3 months, one layed no eggs while moulting 3 mo., one was an inconsistent layer.
Bieging- 60 eggs Q- 320 C- 200 Total- 580 eggs.
Apprx $1.83 per egg.

The experiment ended last night with about 3 pounds of prepared meat and a large bag of feathers.

Conclusion- chickens are very fun pets, lay tasty eggs that cost a fortune, make a mess everywhere, and get up very early. I prefer them to dogs or cats, but do not want to continue the experiment any further.

Just say "No!"

2009-05-20T09:52:00.000-07:00

Say it loud. Say it often. No more borrowing, no more taxes, no more outrageous spending, no more water wasting, no more gas guzzling, no more electricity surplus, no more trash dumping, no more, just no.
Well, this is getting serious, so I need to lighten it up.

Eduard and I are trying to figure out how much water our trees really need. And how many trees we really need. We no longer have enough water for non-performing test trees. So we are planning to remove the two avocado trees. One produces a not high quality fruit every other year, and the other has produced 6 since we moved here 8 years ago. Even after the chain saw discussion it just won't take me seriously. So this summer, we will cut them both into firewood size and let them season for the winter fuel. And there is the candelabra apple. Last year it had about 6 apples and the last one, in November was acceptable. But overall the tree is a loser. I would rather have the water for the other high quality producing trees. So that is three identified trees to the axe.
And then there are the chickens. Well, we will be doing some traveling soon and need to find a different arrangement for the chickens. So, Eduard and I are, uh, it is rather difficult to say, but we are in fact carnivorous people, so, umm, we are going to eat them. There I have confessed. It was the plan all the time and I need to keep to my commitment. Chickens for two years, then stew. So, that is the case and it will happen soon. Say no to chickens, for awhile anyway.
And then there is the wooly room. Just say no to more wool. Well, this is where I draw the line. There must be more wool, always more wool. I can't live completely austerely. I need some comfort items. I will have wool. And I will spin and make yarn and knit and weave and crochet until the entire house is insulated.
Sometimes, I just need to say "Yes."
The election is always a long hard day. I worked from 5am to 11pm and I am still really tired. So I am going to say yes to a morning nap, a hot shower, and a piece of chocolate. Yes, yes, oh yes. I will save "no" for later.

The Current List

2009-03-16T10:28:00.000-07:00

The current list of things to do is so long that I really don't know where to start. I can't seem to prioritize anything. Stuff comes to the top in crisis and more is added to the list every day. Because of this situation, I tend to ignor everything until it becomes a crisis. This is not pro-active behavior.
Awhile back, we moved a piano and spent a couple of weeks recovering. That was just our bodies. The house is still recovering. Most of the wooly room is usable, which means I can find things and get to them- but I would not say it is pretty. And bit by bit the dining room has gotten usable. We have stereo, and speakers, and most of the table, and a little piece of the counter top. I moved Cabinet 1 a couple of weeks ago and sorted through it, tossed some stuff, and re-organized. Today- Cabinet 2! Yes, I did. I sorted out old jars of jam, tossed shelf expired items, reorganized the jar boxes, and made the ultimate sacrifice- threw away empty glass jars.
Not all jars are created equal. Jars for home canning have heavier glass bottoms and uniform threads and opening sizes for clean lids and rims. But I had saved many jars of various sizes and makes for other types of storage- like dried beans. As I collected the proper canning jars from thrift stores or relatives, I neglected to get rid of those unequal jars. Some of the jars I saved were because they had interesting shapes, or a picture of Italy embossed in the glass. But today, I cleaned out many of the old, interesting jars and recycled them for the last time. I found some canned produce from 2004- gone. Old jam that no one really liked- gone. What about that tomato pickle that only I eat, sometimes- mostly gone.
So now, my cabinet is moved and reorganized. My jars are nearly organized and clean for the next season, and I realize that once again I have canned far more food than we really eat. We are awash in apple sauce. We have peaches aplenty. And there is tomato sauce for gallons of spaghetti.
Guess what you are having for dinner, honey. Bean soup, spaghetti, peach cobbler, apple spice cake, a variety of jams on toast. But not all at once- I still have three months before it is time to make more applesause.

Black Friday the 13th

2009-03-13T12:46:00.000-07:00

There were many things on the list to do. Once was to mail the clean wool to Zeilinger's to be made into roving. But the more I thought about it, the less I wanted to mail it off. I have a drum carder and carding tools. I should, say it again- should- , do this work myself. So I rearranged the priority list again.
I got out the drum carder and started on the Red dyed Shetland, then did the purple, and finally finished the green. About 1 1/2 pounds. Then I opened the box of "not sent to Zeilinger's" wool.
It is white-ish in an oatmeal sort of way, and it did look inviting, but part of me wanted to play a bit before working again, so my thoughts went black.
Dyed black wool.
Dyed black on Friday the 13th. Bwaahaha. And a couple of black silk hankies to go with it.
I have used some of the other colors, but I have never dyed black. It is kinda redish purpleish grayish so I added a little greenish. Oh, maybe a bit too much color for the amount of wool, but I can always dye a bit more to soak up the color.
After about 20 minutes in the hot bath- I took some out to test the color run qualities. Awful- ran like a demon. So back into the bath for about 1 hour. Finally, color steady- no running. Black takes longer than other colors.
But the black silk is really pretty and took up the color in a snap. Next time- more black silk. That stuff is really going to be a hit with my other fibers.
Everything is hanging out to dry now- the pot is in the sink waiting its turn.
And the box, well it is not empty- imagine that. There is still about 2 pounds of wool to card. And I am tired. So I will card another day and take a nap today. My creative juice has used up all my energy. But when I get up- there will be black and it will be good.

Field Trip

2009-03-09T08:29:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, when I am not playing, I am a spinning teacher. Well, that is like playing with other people, but sometimes I also make money. Not much, but a little. And when my students "graduate" from my beginning class, they often become my spin buddies. We get together for spin days, show off our newest projects, chat about fibers and techniques, explore other machines.
Last week, my spin buddies and I went on a field trip. We went to the Riverside Convention Center to a spinners and weavers conference. We just went for the day, to shop and explore. It only costs $10 for a day pass and we got to go to the Gallery, try out every machine there, be in a spinning contest, fondle and drool over lovely fibers, and shop. Parking was free, we took our lunch and ate at the tables in the center.
At the spinning competition area, you could sit at the wheels and try all kinds of different fibers they had in a basket. Some were long wools or silk blends, they even had dog hair roving. Ok, stop laughing. It's true. Dog hair roving.
Because this was geared toward weavers, there was plenty of yarn for sale in very large quantities. There were some of the most beautiful woven shawls, all kinds of hand made wooden parts and tools, dyes, rovings, and specialty items.
So, I was bad. I shopped. The group bought some items with the idea that we would share some between us, but I also bought just for me. I bought 8oz of prime Cashmere roving-$35. I bought a package of Ashford merino/silk just because I wanted to try their stuff- $15. There was the cotton/linen stuff -$6 and three little bags of Fox- not real fox, it is cotton like Linen tow. Very fun looking. A bobbin, always need another bobbin, and Silk. We were getting the silk to split up. 1 pound of Bombyx for $60, 1 of Honey Tussah, $48. I ended up with 5oz of each and the others split up the rest.
After all the money changed hands, products were sorted, gas estimated, dinner finished...I had a $125 Saturday, and a lifetime of fun memories.
I love my spin buddies. And I am really interested in playing with my new toys.
Later, when we meet again, Maggi will be partway (or maybe done) with her beaded shawl, and Juli will have done some blending with the silk, and Jan will have spun some of the Alpaca she won in the contest. We will have show and tell, while we spin and chat and remember our fun field trip.
I don't remember school field trips being this much fun when I was a kid.

Letting It Go

2009-03-06T09:16:00.000-08:00

Ok, I said it out loud. Now I have to follow through. I am letting somethings go. Oh, you don't know how difficult this is. A couple of weeks past, my sweetie and I moved a piano, a giant potted plant, and a bunch of bedroom furniture (daybed, trundle, bedding, etc). In return, I collected my full bed frame and Stef's full bed and linens. It didn't end there though. All the mass of stuff in the guest/wool room had to come out and all the stuff on the piano had to be moved around. And then all the spaces needed to be cleaned. And all the stuff needed to be reorganized. Yes, that word organized is buried in there and cleaning.
So this is where things stand. That very night I got the corner for the bed cleaned and the bed frame oiled and set up, the bed installed on it, and the bed made. I put away bedding and threw all the wooly stuff on the bed. Day two- I died from the pain of moving furniture- repeat for several days.
After about a week, I started working on the dining room chaos. I cleaned and moved 1 cabinet. I took all cooking related items from the guest room closet and moved them to the dining room (consolidation). I threw away a bag full of stuff. And then she rested, again.
After about a week, I started on the wooly room again. I have sorted and arranged. I have calculated and designed. And what I have is a bed full of bags of wool that need to be carded and spun. I have several projects in stages of completion. And I have stuff that is on the edge- not in a good way. So a great bag of stuff went to Amvets last week. And today, I am making a very hard decision. One of my very first fleeces, Big Mama, the dirtiest sheep in the world, has already been skirted, washed, and 1/2 thrown away. I kept 2 pounds to continue picking and carding. But I have lots of lovely Merino I would rather spin. Some is already roving. Big Mama keeps moving down the list, never getting closer to the top, never getting done. I think I would rather shear a new sheep than work on that stuff.
So I have decided to let her go. And I promise I will never do another sheep like that again.
Getting rid of fleece, fuzzy, soft, comforting fleece, the most lovely addiction in the world, that is so comforting and sensual, uh, where was I? Oh, yes! getting rid of fleece, that I have spent so much time on, skirting and washing, sorting and fretting over, touching lovingly, stroking, uh, fleece, uh. Well, you can see that it is very difficult to let it go.
If I post it on Ravelry, someone will want me to mail it to them and I would have to box it, and handle it and fondle it, and it just wouldn't happen. So I am going to stuff it in a plastic bag and send it to the dumpster. And then I will be one bag lighter, but a world of work will be gone.
It is not a complete loss, because a couple of pounds of Big Mama has been used and spun. But there is a part of me that abhors tossing fleece. Even free fleece. So if I am a bit moody for a couple of days, bear with me. It is a hard thing to do.

Things old and nearly forgotten

2009-03-04T16:34:00.000-08:00

Time it was and what a time it was, I have a photo graph. Preserve your memories. They're all that's left you.
There are things that we do in this world that are unexplainable. Why would some people put so much effort into a project for their posterity, with no guarantee that posterity will even know about it, let alone about the effort? The hope of a better future? A wish that all children will have a better world. A time when hopes and dreams require so much energy that thought is pushed aside by the brute force of it.
Many came to a new world for a better life. Many came to a new town for better jobs and opportunities. Many came to a new University to make a statement and a place for it. Many chose one opportunity over family, friends, and history.
It is not good to look back and wonder what would be different had I taken another path, or withheld the energy at the time for something else. There are choices and consequences and rewards.
My children had wonderful rewards. I had wonderful rewards. And for 25 years, others had wonderful rewards. I don't regret the energy spent, the time committed, the sweat and stress endured. In that moment, I made decisions for my life and the lives of many others and I am still proud of them.
I won't cry for yesterday, there's an ordinary world, somewhere, I have to find. And as I try to find my way, to the ordinary world, somehow I will survive.

It is time again

2009-02-02T13:35:00.000-08:00

For blooming trees. The Golden Dorsett and the peach are blooming. The avocado is blooming. And the loquat is, too. Oh! and the macadamia. The apricot will start next month, then the figs will leaf out. And lastly, the pears and other apple. Some of the bushes are starting to get happy. I have flowers on the blueberries, leaves on the lemon verbena, and my bulbs are up.
I have been working hard on my vegetable garden beds. Some of the lettuces have sprouted, and snow peas. There is still much to do, but it is getting to be spring in a real sense. I am actually looking forward to it. Life is joyful.

Things you have to do,

2009-01-09T07:43:00.000-08:00

But you don't want to do them.
I know we all put off things that are unpleasant. We make excuses for why they can wait. We make our lives too full to make room for them. We forget them, heehee, well not really, but we pretend we did.
So I had promised my DR. that I would have this procedure two years ago and I have been putting it off for that long. When I promised him again in September, I actually scheduled it for January so that it was far away and the calendar was clear.
Wouldn't ya know, the calendar got full, but the procedure was embedded with priority. Every other relative scheduled something for around that time, too, but mine got scheduled first- priority. I staunchly held my ground even though 25 things could have bumped that procedure. My DR. will never know how difficult it was for me to get there and get it done. If he had a clue, he would be so proud of me. But he will just look at the results and check it off as another thing on the list done.
What I am trying to learn is : The real priority is my health and longevity, not someone else's. Enlightened self interest, selfishness, or just plain reality. If I don't take care of myself, no one else will.
Colonoscopy. Probably the most distressing of all the procedures I can think of. But Colon cancer is a killer and is gaining ground on our generation quickly. If a person has a colonoscopy early enough, the pre-cancerous polyps can be removed and the cancer is stopped. I believed my Dr., really I did. And I wanted to take care of this, but it is a very distressing thought.
There were only two polyps and they were removed and sent to be analysed. I am colon cancer free for at least 10 years. Now it is time to stop thinking about my butt and get back to work.

fluffy obsession

2008-12-11T08:59:00.000-08:00

I have fluffy obsession. All things fluffy. Feathers, fur, light thoughts, whipped egg white, soft bread, dust bunnies. The first year of spinning I didn't do this. I had one fleece and a drop spindle. Then there was the roving from Julie and a bit of Wensleydale and a gift of Alpaca. I didn't really spin much unless I had something I wanted to make with the yarn.
Then there came a Fleece opportunity- Shetland for $5 each fleece. Well, who could pass that up. And Ebay had Alpaca for $5 a fleece and no one else bid. I received a gift of Mohair fleece. Suddenly I had a world of fleece in my garage.
I thought I had enough, but I really wanted to have just a bit more- a Merino, so soft. So I went to Black Sheep Gathering 2008. And bought more Wensleydale, ALpaca, and 2 Merino. I couldn't wait to get them ready for spinning. I didn't even have a plan for what they would become. I just assumed they would be socks, eventually.
But fluffy thoughts took over. I was washing and spinning Shetland and the end of the fleece was nowhere in sight. The fleece goes on forever. And then some dying happened- that's color by the way. And more spinning. More washing, and carding. Then the carding machine, and a portable wheel, and a loom..... !!! All this fluffy-ness is starting to get heavy. I have an entire room devoted to fluffy-ness and I have no place in it to work. I use the dining room for that, or the living room. My fluffy-ness is spreading like St. Augustine grass- creeping into every crack and crevasse. Every room has little fluffy fuzz bunnies on the floor. They stick to my clothes like weed seeds and follow me around. They are in my hair, and food, and rough spots on my hands.
But I have finished processing (wash, pick, card) One whole Alpaca fleece, one whole Merino fleece, and one whole Shetland. I have a wall of yarn, a bed full of yarn, and lots of bags full of carded fluff. I have knitted all the projects for the Holidays- and still I have yarn and fleece.
The obsession part (oh I know you think we already covered that when I bought all that fleece to start with). Well, the obsession part is that now that I have completed processing three fleeces- not spinning mind you- I am thinking about the next fleece. What color or type of wool? How many? When is Black Sheep again? How much can my room really hold? Can my vacuum cleaner withstand all the work? Argggh. Why can't I be happy with the mass I have. Certainly it is fluffy enough.
So I will wear my award winning socks and think on this (while I spin). I truly have enough fleece to last at least 4 years. I can spin, weave, knit, crochet until Sara graduates from College. If I can just keep the fluffy thoughts confined to my one room, I will be ok. Until June.

December Babies

2008-12-05T15:49:00.000-08:00

A Baby was born on December 2, 2008. He is related to me, distantly, but still has a large impact on my family. My parents are now Great Grand Parents. In my world that is a rare thing.
Many of the children I know, don't know their grand parents. Great grandparents had been long dead before the children came. Grandparents died while the kids were young. This is because many of my friends chose not to have children until they were in their late 30's. And so had their parents. So a grandparent started at age 60something or later.
My husband's sister waited until she was 40ish. Now her parents are quite ill and the children will never really know them or much about them. Great Grand parents you say, "Ha, it doesn't happen now."
But somewhere down the line, a glitch, a misfire, a bit of genetic throwback- and, Lahren had a baby when she was 20 and my parents outlived the survival curve.
Good news, though. I can pretend it didn't happen and my younger brother is a grandpa. Serves him right. My exhusb is a grandpa, too. Ha. And I am in no hurry to babysit.
So you, my children, don't hurry. I have a few years until I am 60ish. I can wait. I have no need to become a Great Grandparent somewhere down the line.

Not fast enough

2008-11-26T08:06:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, you have to act fast, on impulse; she who hesitates is lost. But, for us chronic procrastinators things sometimes work well, too.
I didn't kill the Pettingill Apple tree. There was one small apple left on it and I waited until Max was here. We picked it together and sampled it cautiously. This was November 10th-ish. And to my great surprise, this apple had sweetness. This means that the apple blooms in May and takes 6 months to mature. It is now losing leaves, 15 days later.
I have decided to let it have one more year and I will sample the apples in November. It still doesn't have the texture I would like, but it isn't a complete failure. I would not recommend this apple type to anyone because of its long maturation period and the fact that there are so many better choices now. But I may not cut it down. It is an heirloom after all. Or so I am told.
But there are other things one usually does on impulse, too much thought causes emotional problems. So, we had a couple of new chickens- bantams. One turned out to be a rooster, a white silky roo. He was beautiful with black skin, burgundy chops and comb, blue ears and a blackpearl beak. Silkies can't fly (wings too small). I found myself kind of liking him, even though I had sworn "no roosters". So he started crowing at almost 6mo old and at first it was only occasionally. Then he started attacking the other chickens and asserting himself and crowing all the time.
Well, rather impulsively, I decided (with help from my sweet husband) that the Roo had to go.
This was the first chicken we slaughtered- ever- and we did it well, according to the book. I took the meat that I wanted and froze it, but I am not sure I can eat him yet. Too much though causes emotional problems.
And that (with all the other chaos of family, friends, and work) was November. Now I am going to settle down to some fine cooking and house cleaning. There are some squashes calling my name and a few pies on the list. I don't want to hesitate. Growling tummies are pacing at the feed door.
Enjoy a great meal, be cozy with loving family, and show thanks by driving safely and being gracious for a whole day. It is good for you.

Pettingill Apple Review- Bad news

2008-10-01T10:28:00.000-07:00

I always have great hopes for the different trees I plant. It is a commitment of time, money, space and energy (not to mention water and fertilizer). And, if you make a bad choice, you have to start over and wait for the new choice to see if it is better.
SO, I researched the low chill apple trees. I read reviews and advertisements and planting guides. And the first apple tree I planted was the Golden Dorsett. This tree is incredible for the coastal San Diego area. It fruits 2 or 3 times a year. It has large abundant crops. It is ready June 1 but keeps on the tree for a whole month. Then there is another crop for Thanksgiving and it blooms again (but I don't let that one fruit because we both need a rest).
The only draw back for the Golden Dorsett is that it turns to sauce when cooked. It doesn't have any structure left- so it doesn't really work for Pie.
I was hoping that the second apple tree- the Pettingill- would be the fall pie apple for me
The Pettingill was advertised as a coastal low chill apple. The fruit would be ready in Late summer to early fall. It is redish with some green in the skin, shaped like a Granny Smith.
OK- now for the reality. The tree grew like crazy- long straight branches, no fruit spikes or buds. I pruned heavily. More growth, late dormancy, long dormancy, wouldn't bloom for 3 years. Finally, it bloomed and set 1, that's right just one, apple. It fell off in August- sour as can be. This year it bloomed well, for a long time and set about 12 fruits. One fell off in early August. The others grew large and turned very red. So, at the end of August - first week of September really, I pick 4 to make a "test Pie".
The "test pie" was very sour even with lots of sugar- it was almost too sour to get down- we tossed 1/2 the pie. And to make it worse, NO TEXTURE. Again we had a sauce apple. Not juicy either. We waited on the other apples to see if we had just been too early.
Late September, I picked one very large, very red apple. It was light so I was certain there was little sugar or water. And I was right. It was too sour to eat. I sliced it thinly and nibbled a few bites, but it just couldn't be eaten raw. I tossed it.
Now it is October and there is one apple left to taste. But I already know the answer for this tree- Applewood smoked bacon and sausage. I am not talking about turkey stuffing, I am talking about killing a tree. For me, this is one of the hardest things I can do. I have 5 years invested in this tree and it is a complete disappointment.
SO- this is my review. This Pettingill Apple tree is not what it is claimed to be. It has a higher chill factor than is listed in the advertisements. It flowers irregularly, sparsely and sets very little fruit in the San Diego Coastal climate. The fruit it does make is not edible. On the good side, it makes excellent long straight branches for wands and kindling. There is abundant wood for applewood smoking of smoked meats and fish. The leaves are glossy and large and the birds don't want the fruit either.
I recommend saving your money for something better and passing on this tree. It isn't even good as a pollinator for other trees.
Ok. There I have said it. Now, where is the chainsaw? I have a job to do.

June, July, August blur

2008-07-25T10:26:00.000-07:00

Well, uh, um... It has been some time now hasn't it. Let's see. Oh, yes. June 18, a Wednesday, I left at 5:30am for Eugene, Oregon. We (Julie and I) drove for 18 1/2 hours and stayed over night with Ona in Cottage Grove. We got to bed about 12:30am and I don't remember breathing in the night or anything else, but we woke up about 8:30. After showers, breakfast, a romp with the turkeys, and some porch time, we went on to Eugene to set up camp.
It was great to get the tent up and get a feel for things like showers, bathrooms, and various venues before dark. It got dark about 10pm so we had lots of time to wander and see everyone setting up their booths. Then we had all day Friday to find stuff and watch judging, and goof off. We met wonderful people, saw exciting demonstrations, and generally loved the day- including the cold/hot shower that afternoon. It was a pretty hot day and the cold shower part felt really good to me. Eventually, we found the hot spot on the knob and continued with warm/hot showers.
I found a place in Oregon selling wonderful raw honey and bought 2 gallons for my sweetie. And a bunch of fleeces, and silk cocoons, and bamboo and flax and.... uh, I ran out of money and had to stop. I took some wonderful classes, though. And my socks won 3rd place. They were touched by Judith McKenzie, the goddess of all things spinning and knitting. And they were deemed worthy. She hand wrote a note about how to improve things and I don't think I will ever remove it. The socks go into the shrine.
Then we drove home- 18+ hours with a hotel in Redding and fires all over California- Hot, hot, hot. And a bunch of good looking forrestry fire personnel, too.
At home life hit the fast lane- Spin group, Sara week, unpack, get house ready for new windows, get Scott back to China, Bills, wash car, recover from drive, visit mom, Eduard's car service, and 4th of July. Apples! Oh did I make applesauce and dried apples, then the peaches started. There has been so much work and cleaning, people to take care of and visit, stuff to put away and move to new places. I can't really even remember all that we have done and are doing. Life is just too busy.
So today, I am still canning and drying peaches. This is the last weekend, I hope. Mom went to the hospital July 15-22, with a near stroke experience and stayed there a week- I spent almost all week with her. Then she went home and has to relearn how to take care of herself with a walker. I am still trying to catch up from the week in the hospital. Taylor's getting married, Lahren is having a Boy! The month is ending and I haven't had time to call or schedule my cabinet maker for the living room. Plans on hold for now.
But I can mark some progress- I have washed all of the Wenslydale fleeces, the Moorit Merino, and the Black Merino. That leaves the 4 Alpacas and 3 Shetlands. My guest room is full of washed fleeces and I am spinning every night for at least an hour. Much cheaper than therapy. I am going to the gym. I am canning and dehydrating. I dyed some Locks and sold some. I am keeping up with my email and friends and home family. Two rooms of the house are pretty clean and we can park in the garage again (one car).
I am going to make a new year's resolution this year, that I don't want to do so much for other people. I want to focus on my own health and needs. I want to exercise more and lose some weight. I want to sell some of my handspun yarn and go to another fiber festival. I may give up my Renfaire activities and focus on other events for awhile. I am just getting more selfish with my time and energy. I want more time with my sweetie, real time, time-off time, vacation time, hammock time. I want to slow the wheel down.
But for today- the last of the black merino is getting washed and there are peaches waiting for me.
Cobbler to you, my friends.

Cobbler Recipe: Oven at 425f
This can be made with the cake part under the peached or over the peaches. Under gives a soft, moist cake part and over gives a crusty top.
4 cups fresh sliced peaches
1 cup water
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1/2 up to 1 Cup sugar
1 Tablespoon corn starch

Put the water, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and peaches in a large sauce pan. Stir and heat until sugar is dissolved and comes to a boil. Turn off heat.

1 1/2 cups flour
6 tablespoons butter or shortening
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons Baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup milk

Mix flour, salt, sugar and baking powder together in a mixing bowl. Cut the butter in with a pastry tool, a knife, or a fork, like for pie dough. Stir in the milk until a medium soft dough forms. Kneed the dough for just a little while (two or three pushes with the heel of the hand). Spray a deep baking dish with non-stick spray or rub with butter.
Maked little rounds or cakes (about 1 inch high) and lay them in the pan. Cover with hot peaches and syrup. Bake 30 minutes.
OR
Put peaches into the baking dish and roll dough out gently to form a cover for the peaches (like a thich crust). Prick or cut holes for the steam to escape. Bake 30 min.

You can spice the peaches with cinnamon or use 3 drops of vanilla. Some people serve it hot with ice cream. Yum!

So Much to be Happy About

2008-06-10T10:47:00.000-07:00

Life is good. The Guest room is clean and my guest, Son, is arriving on this Saturday from China. I am very excited and happy.
I leave on the 18th for Oregon, and I am almost packed. Camping items- check, clothing items- check, food items- check, spinning items- check, money- write a check? Well, there will be some cash and visa along the way as well. But I am gathering my great pile in the living room and will be starting to pack the Van on Friday. If life got any busier or more exciting I would have to stay in bed and hide.
Everyday, I check the BSG forum on Ravelry for more info about Oregon, foods, restaurants, weather, friends meet ups, fiber processors. I have toys to share, a book for samples, a camera (digital) and one with film. I have my tools, my toys, and my stuff almost organized.
So why so much excitement? This is my thing. Gardens, wool, cooking. Well, knitting, crocheting and sewing, too. And maybe chickens, and remodeling the house. Uh, did I mention refinishing some furniture? And the lathe of course. Um, I think I have too many projects. I should scale back a bit. Like, maybe I won't clean house any more...
Ok, I will just spin less often and leave the chickens alone.
When I get back for BSG, I will have pictures to post.

Why isn't there more time?

2008-06-01T16:29:00.000-07:00

This is not a real question. It is one of those ones you throw out when you are frustrated or just can't think of what to say. I have been spending lots of time on Ravelry, in forums, and searching for patterns, and learning new things, and meeting people, and selling fleeces, and PMing, and playing silly word games, and planning my trip to BSG (Black Sheep Gathering). I have also been washing fleeces, spinning wool, knitting socks, cleaning the guest room, buying a new car, working on taxes, doing spinning demonstrations, getting ready to work the election, helping friends, running errands, fielding relatives, and generally splitting my time into small fragments trying to get everything done. The list grows daily instead of getting smaller.
Electrical work on Monday, start Scott's car, pick up rental car, lunch with Eduard, haircut, gas, money, RX pickup, and laundry, collapse at 8pm. 5am up and out for election- until midnight. Wednesday, DMV paperwork with Julie, drop off rental car, 99 ranch, boxes from Stef, and collapse - maybe knit/maybe spin, work on guest room.
E and I have been creating a display place in the guest room so I can hang my skeins of yarn and start getting some control over my stash of fleece and yarns. I can spin much more than I can knit, and I can wash much more than I can spin, and I can buy much more than I can.... well, let's not go that far, but we can say that I have to live another 50 years so that I can finish spinning all my wool. So something this simple takes quite a lot of time. Buying stuff, cutting , sanding, drilling, painting, and mounting on the wall. Then cleaning off the stuff on the bed in bags and finding all the skeins and hanging them. Each handing hook represents about 2 pairs of socks. After all that work, it is good to show off some of it.
I am about 1/2 way done cleaning up the room. There will be a place of Scott to stay when he comes on June 14th. I am also trying to get my stuff together for BSG as I leave on June 18th. When I get back, I get a bit more time with Scott, then I get to tear the Living Room apart for the new windows (which is why there is electrical on Monday). No matter how hard I try to get organized and clean things, I am really just moving it from one place to another until the construction is over. I expect a mess until after the winter holidays. But in the meantime, my wool will be happy, I will be making socks and presents.
I want to take this moment to thank my loving husband for all the help he has been giving me lately. He has been weeding, building things, and cleaning stuff. He has been lifting and sorting and chasing chickens. He has built this wonderful rack for me and been very patient with my fiber addiction. He is a darling sweetheart and I love him very much.

Time to plant, time to sew

2008-04-03T10:14:00.000-07:00

Well, I have been planting peas and lettuces and carrots and all that spring stuff. I have been chasing gophers and chickens and all the wild stuff. I have been making fences, gates and repairing sprinkler things. And today, I wanted to clean house (did I really say that?). But instead I redid some tax stuff for my son and washed the patio. There is so much to do I am in a spin. I am not even sure I can make a list. You see, Friday starts the RenFair madness. People are staying here during the week, I am spending all weekend in the booth, and there is so much still to do. I feel over whelmed. Prioritize keeps hitting me in the head and bouncing off. I am having difficulty seeing which things are "first things first".
So I am going to start with me- I need a Dr. Appt for next week. My annual thing. And then Eduard- socks and granola and enough food in the fridge that he can get by without my cooking. Tax extension for us.
Then chickens- gotta get the gate up and the bird cloth over the top of their yard.
Then garden. Always the garden seems to get left behind now and even the house is behind that.
My garden hopes have been to plant the potted pomegranate, move some soil away from the window and into a box, weed and mow, and fertilize. It will be next week I hope.
I am not sure what has happened to my days. They are going so quickly and so little gets done, yet I feel so tired and busy. Something should have gotten done but I am too tired to even look back at what. SIGH. I want more days, more energy, more time ( or maybe just less to do). I am thinking of a gardener to help get this stuff under control.

Fluff, Wooly Fluff

2008-03-12T07:51:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been in the garden repairing sprinkler and drip parts, re-routing watering hoses, and getting ready for some major home remodeling of the house and yard. We are getting new windows in the living room. We also got a new fireplace insert. We will be having custom built bookcases and new carpet. This will take up the rest of the year. After I am done painting the whole living room again, we will consider a new front door. Another room down and done. There will be a side patio leading to the hammock arbor. (Smiling face with a bit of smirk).
That said, it means that Fluffy will spend lots of time outside relaxing and indoors working. But I hope to keep up with my garden, too.
My lovely daughter just bought a "fixer" house. We will work hard at her house for about three weeks solid, then collapse in exhaustion. She will move into a clean and pretty home, mostly functional. And I will be working on her garden too. She has trees. Trees in need of love and attention. But I will make her post her garden news on her own site.
I haven't yet corralled the chickens, but they are getting a fenced yard soon. I want my patio back without the poop.
Then there is the fluff. I have acquired 5 lovely Shetland fleeces. That means I am washing wool and hanging it to dry on the patio. Little bits of fluff get left for the birds to build nests. There are little fluff puffs all over the yard where the birds pull it apart and drop some. My little birds have Thrummed nests (a knitting term).
Food- oh yeah, I am supposed to grow some. Well, I have found that E and I don't eat as much as we used to eat. There are fewer people, smaller portions, and my garden is actually working for the two of us. Peas and beans, carrots and celery, fennel and potatoes. It is very warm here right now, but we will cool off again soon. All my seeds are sprouting like crazy and the advanced plants are growing well without the chicken attacks. Looks like Kohlrabi in about two weeks and lettuce this weekend.
Fluffy is happy.

Spin Friendly

2008-02-08T10:11:00.000-08:00

Garden time! I have planted Fava (broad) beans and Snow peas, lettuce, cabage, potatoes, carrots, radishs, Kohlrabi and spinach. I have netted some of the beds with bird net to keep the chickens out. My asparagus is coming up and I have started moving some of the old beds to make way for a window remodel project.
It has been very cold and rainy, but I have found time to do some gardening.

AND I have been making saurkraut. This is a German word for pickled cabbage. But is it not just cabbage you can pickle. Any Kohl vege - broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, greens, brusselsprouts. So I mixed red and green cabbage for my first batch and got pink Kraut. It is very tasty. Recipe will follow.
Kimchi is also a Kraut, with other stuff in it- like hot peppers, daikon radish, chinese cabbage, mustard greens. Hmmmm. good.

I am still spinning and knitting socks, remodeling the house, chasing chickens and working for the election as a Trouble Shooter. But now I am getting into the dirt a bit too.
I will be giving spinning demonstrations at my Local Yarn Store (LYS) Common Threads on the 15th with Julie of Natasha's Hand dyed Roving. I will have my wheel and some of my hand washed fleece there as show-n-tell. There will be an announcement in their newsletter and email system. It would be fun to play with others. I don't meet many other spinners. It is a stay home sport.

But back to the Kraut recipe. This starts with equipment.
Equpment- glass, ceramic (no lead) and stainless steel will work. I have a soup tureen with a lid and a stainless pot with a lid and a plate that fits inside the pot. Zipper bag full of salt water. Plastic wrap.

Shred, chop, slice, dice. It all works. For Brusselsprouts just take off the outer leaves and cut in half.
In a large bowl, mix 5 lbs . shredded or chopped cabbage ( or combo of stuff) with 2 tablespoons of kosher salt. Put about a pound in a pot and tamp it down (potato masher works great). Add next layer, tamp, layer, tamp until you are out of stuff or pot is full to 1 inch of top.
Make a brine solution of 1 tablespoon kosher salt and 2 quarts water. Pour some onto cabbage until cabbage mix is under brine. Push down with masher to make sure cabbage is submerged. Cover with plastic wrap- push down to touch water. Place a plate ontop of plastic wrap or a zipper bag ful of left over brine. This forces the cabbage to stay under water. Cover with a lid or towel (to keep out bugs and air).
Place in a cool (50-65 degree F) area. It will take 4-6 weeks to make the kraut ferment.
You must check it every couple of days to make sure the Kraut is still wet and under water. If air touches the brine it makes a skummy stuff. Spoon it off and keep going.

After about two weeks the kraut is starting to get sour- lactic acid from fermentation. Hmmm good.
You can eat it at any time. Rinse off some of the salt and eat it fresh or cook it with apples and onions. As the pot gets low, mix up more cabbage and salt. Take old kraut out of container with juice. Layer new stuff and put old kraut and juice on top- like a starter. Second batch should take less time to ferment. As the weather gets warmer, the Kraut ferments faster (which is why Kimchi is fermented under ground).

I keep mine in the garage because it is a bit aromatic. Eduard's car doesn't complain, much.

Being home is expensive

2008-01-22T07:36:00.000-08:00

Some people may think that staying home is a low expense entertainment, but I know otherwise. Staying at home gives you time to see all the stuff that needs to get done. And some of that stuff costs lots of money.
This weekend we did some "home improvement" shopping. We had talked about it for a year, but the time had come as we sat in our cold house, rain tumbling outside. We went shopping for a fuel efficient fireplace insert.
Background is important here. We have a regular furnace in the attic. It is the forced air type. But I can't stand the smell and dust it blows about. So it has never been turned on. I don't see any point in trying to cut off rooms with inefficient vents, then heating the ceiling. Most SoCal housing it not designed for fuel efficiency or effective heat and cool control. The weather is mild and utilities used to be cheap.
The weather is still mild.
So, we decided (or I did) that an efficient fireplace would make the living area warm and friendly for three months a year, and the other rooms could be heated with small electric space heaters. Then we could sleep in the coolness I like. I am still working on warming up Eduard in the mornings. I may put a small electric heater on a timer so that he can get dressed without shivering.
So for the living room fireplace we bought a wood burning fireplace insert- which is a free standing firebox that is fuel efficient and meets the epa standards for emissions. It has a blower to warm the room and seals off the draft from the chimney. The door closes so there is no CO2/Co or smell blowback. It is recessed into the fireplace so that little hands have a harder time touching it (even though we don't have any little hands). It recycles its exhaust until it is thoroughly burned so there is no smoke blowing out the chimney. It costs $3000 installed. Ow.
And that's not all.
We agreed on new windows- double pane. One side is a bay window with seating, and the other is a sliding door into the garden. Fluffy approves of quick access to the garden.
But that is not all.
Books cases. Yes, built in bookcases and entertainment unit. All around the window will be bookcases and the entertainment unit so that we can sit on the couch and see the fire, window, and TV. The other wall will be floor to 12ft ceiling bookcases with a rolling ladder.
But that is not all.
Carpet. We may finally get new carpet in that room. It was the only carpet we saved from the original purchase of the house. Coarse and bumpy stuff that wears like steel. Much of the house is tile floor, but the floors we crawl around on are carpeted. I like to crawl around in front of the fire.
And one more thing, the old brick around the fireplace might have to go- we are still thinking about this. I kind of like the brick, but not the plaster facade that goes with it. There is no mantel either. I have always wanted a mantel, but I don't know why.
At this point I have identified about $25,000 worth of work- on one room.
Did I mention we also went car shopping?
Fluffy needs the spring now! I must get back to the dirt so that I quit spending money. Seeds are cheap compared to staying home.

Fluffys been distracted

2007-12-10T14:33:00.000-08:00

It has been quite awhile since the last post.
I have a new (well not so new) computer. My Sweet Guy got a really nice new one and I got his really nice old one. It needed some work, but it is very nice. We be Mac'n now, at Fluffys.

But that was only one distraction. I have discovered socks. "Of course," you say. "It is cold outside." but that is not what I mean. I am knitting socks. I started spinning wool (a fluffy thing it is, too) about 1 1/2 years ago. And I have crocheted some things like blankets and such, but then I decided to make socks. I got some double pointed needles (dpn) at a thrift store and looked up instructions online- Socks 101. But it wasn't very good. SO I bought a book- sensational socks- that I read about online. That was very good. Now I am making lots of socks. Baby bootie socks, demo socks, my socks, his socks, girl's socks- almost all from wool washed, combed, and spun by Fluffy herself. And dyed with food color. I am about to venture into the chemical dye world, as the Koolaid and food color dye is quite inconsistent. The Koolaid smells great, though. And the commercial dyes have a better color selection. Then a friend gave me a pattern for leaf socks- way cool. Embossed Leaves pattern, from Interweave Knits Winter 2005/6.
So I haven't done much blogging. I have been learning about my not quite new machine. I have been writing a Muffin Book, and I have been spinning, coloring and knitting.

Of course there was also Thanks day, chicken issues, car trouble, and the girl's new boyfriend. All very exciting and time consuming.
You may have noticed that there is no gardening right now in Fluffysgarden. Well, I have pruned a couple of trees, netted in a bed to keep the chickens out, and hired a group to install a new fence at the back. I have drawn plans for the Fireplace/living room remodel and started back at the gym 2 times a week.
I have only baked one batch of holiday cookies, but have been sending little instructions to China for others to bake.
I have also cleaned out things to donate, worked on a baby quilt, and cleaned house (rarely, but it does count).

Did I mention that I also had to learn how to take the pictures and upload and all that?
Fluffys little brain is full for now.
Next : beans- I am thinking about Chinese long beans. I am thinking about spring and getting the garden ready. I may be close to done with socks for now- well, soon, maybe.

That Time of Year

2007-11-13T12:24:00.000-08:00

Yes, it is. That time of year when I have to put all my jars and dried foods into the pantry so I can use the table top for Thanksgiving. You may think this is an easy task, but I need to get organized first. Everything is dated so the oldest stuff gets moved to the front and the new stuff is at the back. That means taking every thing out and repacking. While it is out, I might as well clean the shelves. Hey, there is some really old stuff in here! I might actually have to throw some stuff out! Or cook it up really fast into something special.
Well, it will take me several days to get it all done. I just made a batch of Granola- enough to last through the Holidays. And I have started inventory for the great Feast. I have started gathering specialty items for decoration and, most importantly, I have a menu plan.
I hear you saying it. "Turkey and what?" No Turkey here. We have duck every year. After years of throwing away nearly whole turkeys, I poled the troops and discovered that no one liked Turkey. So the alternate white meat- duck- gets the center stage at our house.
But the other dishes are still a big hit. Pumpkin pie, sausage and apple stuffing, sweet potatoes, home made bread, and candied cranberries are always on the table. We often try a new vegetable each year. This time, I am going to let someone else come up with a special treat. It is best to off load the side dishes so that guests feel they contribute, so we will have to see what shows up. Mystery dinner.
But I know my part and am prepared to prepare a Feast from nuts to pie. That is, of course, if we can find the table.

Unpacking

2007-10-29T16:18:00.000-07:00

Some of the fires are still burning, but not near us. We escaped this time. But the disruption and devastation were unbelievable. Still are unbelievable. Freeways- our arteries- were closed for days at a time. The smoke was so thick you couldn't see the car in front of you at a standstill, let alone at 70mph. And if you can't drive 70mph why go at all. Most of the businesses were closed for a full week. Hospitals were on emergency only basis to have bed room for smoke inhalation injury and burn injury patients.Grocery delivery was cut off to the large stores. Gas stations ran out of gas.
My friends arrived from Oregon while the freeway was still open. Eduard's cousin arrived from Colorado while we could still pick her up from the airport. Then, the fire near us started moving north and we were out of danger. Wednesday was a good day. I started unpacking.
There are things we don't admit to people very often, but I must admit that I am not the best housekeeper anymore. When I grabbed some of my framed artwork, I realized it was filthy dusty. When it was time to put it back, it all got a really good cleaning. It took me just a few minutes to toss all the stuff into the car, but it took hours to unpack it all. Thursday was a long dirty day. And almost all the stores were still closed.
So for fun, my Oregon friends and I washed and spun wool. We knitted and showed off our latest creations. We tried to keep quiet and not exercise in the foul air. We played in our way while the soot drifted slowly down. On Friday we had a very heavy dew which congealed the soot into sludgy mud all over the ground- but no longer in the air.And on Saturday we had a light drizzly rain. Now the air was breathable and the ground was toxic.
I have washed off the cars and as much foliage as I can reach with the hose. I have tried to clean up the walkways to the house. And next, when this has all come to a stop, I will clean the inside of the house. It smells like an ashtray. There is soot in every windowsill. The carpet has a black path. And every surface has some gritty stuff left on it even after I wipe it down.
I will be done by Thanksgiving. But for now I am happy to have dirty carpet and dusty windows. Some people don't have anything left. My prayers reach out to them. My thoughts and hopes are with them. My garage sale will be soon because I need to share with them. Sometimes when you start cleaning you realize how much stuff you don't want anymore.

Environmental Catastrophe

2007-10-22T17:23:00.000-07:00

Last summer, my friends in England were under water. Severe flooding cut off their water supply and power for many. Fortunately, my friends didn't lose their homes, but did get a splash of inconvenience. They were collecting rain water so they could flush their toilets. They were gathering drinking water from community water tubs. And for bathing, well let us just say that it was rare.
Now it is my turn to have disaster at the door. San Diego and parts of Los Angeles are burning up. Once again we are at the critical fire season and watching our friends and neighbors evacuate. But this time, we are on evacuation watch also. This may seem hard to understand as we are only 2 miles from the beach. Where are we to go? Into the surf? To the south of us, it is burning. To the north of us it is burning. To the east of us it is burning. And to the west of us we have a coast line and beautiful waves. We also have guests arriving tomorrow and Wednesday. And how can I possibly save all my produce! And my chickens!! and my trees!!!
Well, we have actually started packing the most important things and unfortunately the trees and produce will not get to go. BUT I am taking the chickens!
Most of what there is in the world is replaceable, except our lives. So I will take my loving husband and myself, enough necessities and semi-precious things, and my living buddies (with their food and water). Many people got the call at 5 am yesterday. We have been on notice all afternoon, but it is not mandatory yet. We are very close to the safe zone so we want to wait until the last minute to evacuate. But if the call comes, we will have to go and wait until the danger has passed.
For those of you who got the care package, you might have to send one back.

Planning Ahead

2007-09-28T11:28:00.000-07:00

When we moved to this house, it already had a few fruit trees. That was part of the attraction even though they were not all something we would have planted. So far we have removed four trees that were in distress or completely inappropriate for our climate. And we have added fifteen (two of which failed) which leaves us with nine more than when we started. Sometimes it is hard to know for certain what will grow in your soil and climate. Our soil is sandy, hard packed sand, and ancient eroded beach cliff. There is a high salt content remaining and a scarcity of nutrients. It is a struggle every year to mulch, compost, fertilize, mineralize, and water adequately. But some trees are very happy here if I try hard enough.
I was looking at my Fruit calendar and realized that I have almost a fruit tree or shrub for every month of the year. In January, I get citrus- Lemon and Lime, and could probably have a navel orange. February still has lemons and limes. In March, we get Loquats. In April, there are Loquats and Strawberries (which are not a tree, I know). And in May we get Blackberries and the start of Blueberries (which are a tree or shrub). In June, we have Apples and Avocados. July is Peaches, Plums, Oranges, and Apricots. August is Asian Pears, Oranges and Grapes. September is Figs, Pineapple Guava. October is Pomegranate. And November is more apples. And December, well that month is reserved for chocolate which doesn't grow here. All this fruit, coupled with all that I save from the harvests, keeps us fruity all year long.
You might think that I have enough. But I am always on the look out for another fruit tree. Our Plum tree is dying and will need to be replaced with something that is not a Stone Fruit type tree. Maybe that Naval Orange I was thinking about. And one of the Asian Pear trees just doesn't get enough cold time, so it is going to a friend in a colder climate zone. I could move a grape that doesn't get enough heat. Maybe something exotic and tropical?
Well, if I find a fruit tree to fill in that February spot or one that can compete with chocolate in December, I will keep you posted.

Pestos and Pastas

2007-09-26T09:49:00.000-07:00

The Fall season is my party time. I mentioned this before, but not in much detail. When I party, it isn't always having lots of people over and doing loud, fun things. Sometimes it just means that I am doing fun things I like and not spending very much time doing things for other people.
Take socks, for instance. Most of the year I am so hot that I can't wear socks or long sleeve shirts. In the Fall it is cool enough to dress in wooly things, at least in the mornings and evenings. So I have started knitting some nice socks with the wool I washed and spun earlier this year. I have taken my sweaters to the cleaners. I am getting ready for some serious cool time.
This time of year is also good for baking bread and pastries. It is good for roasted meats and chicken. There are things I make ahead so that I have them ready as I need them. I make pestos. Right now, I have harvested the basil and completed "Sun Dried Tomato Pesto" and the regular "Green Pesto". This is great for stuffing mushrooms or tossing with Pasta and left over cooked chicken. It can turn a regular boring meal into something quite special.
Recipe time:
Sun Dried Tomato Pesto
1 small can tomato paste
2 oz dried tomatoes
1/2 cup walnuts
2 tablespoons pine nuts
1/2 cup olive oil
1 (up to 2) cups fresh basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
5 cloves garlic

I like to cut the dried tomatoes into strips with the scissors. Add all the ingredients into a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Some people like less basil so that the pesto is redder.
For regular "Green Pesto" add 1/4 cup more olive oil and leave out the tomatoes and tomato paste.

After you have made this, you need to store it. You can keep it in the Fridge for about two weeks with olive oil covering the pesto and a lid over the top to keep the air off. You can also freeze it in 1/2 cup portions for about 6 months- thaw in the fridge over night.

And you need to use it. The standard pasta with pesto works as a side dish. I mix 2 tablespoons of it with 1 cup bread crumbs, 1 egg, finely chopped veggies and then stuff large mushrooms- bake for 20 min. 350f. Then there is stuffed chicken breast (slice open breast to make a pocket and fill with tomato pesto and a slice of prosciutto or ham. I also sometimes just melt a bit over the top of a piece of meat or chicken. When I get lazy, this is how I make nice dinners with very little fuss. Try it also as an appetizer. Make a little pie dough tart with a teaspoon of pesto and a teaspoon of cream cheese- bake 350f for 20min. Green and red comes in handy in a couple of months. Put a cooked shrimp in there, too. Really fancy. See, very easy and mostly already done.

So now it is party time. Bye- gotta knit some socks.

Autumn 1, Harvest 2, Party 3

2007-09-20T12:22:00.000-07:00

Second Harvest is my special time of the year. I usually have a bit of a spiritual rebirth before setting off on the Holiday Season. So this coming Sunday, my sweeties and I will again hit the beach for some meditation and a beautiful sunset. I will try to make some special treats to eat and bring some candles and incense. Then I will get back to work. There is still so much to do.
I have been winding up the garden. I thought I would have a fall bunch of stuff, but the chickens ate it all. There are only a few cucumbers and some celery left, and the sweet potatoes. But that is enough.
We are getting eggs now, so those vegetables are being invested in Chicken Production.
I have been spending lots of time at the gym, swimming and using the weight machines. This is to improve my body tone and lose weight- so that I can spend more time in the garden. I have also been spinning wool and dying it lovely fall colors. It is amazing how much stuff there is to do all day that is not in the garden. I have even started cleaning the house a bit. Gosh! It has been a long summer and the house really shows it.
Well, it is time to go to the gym. I think the garden will just have to wait a little longer. Maybe next week.

SunChoke

2007-09-05T12:08:00.000-07:00

In my garden, I try all kinds of interesting plants. Some of them I try because I have eaten it and liked it. Some are because I can't find it in a store. Others are because store bought types are just too expensive or not very tasty. I finally decided to try Sunchokes (Jerusalem Artichokes). In the market (when you can find them) Jerusalem artichokes are about $4.00 per pound. They look like small, knobby potatoes. They are low in carbohydrates and taste a bit like water chestnuts. I have eaten them raw in salads, cooked like potatoes, and put them in Spinach dip instead of water chestnuts. So I decided to try growing them. The Garden reference book said they will grow anywhere in Northern America. It also said they are invasive and thrive on neglect. Oh, I can do with some neglect!
So this is a picture of the Sunchoke in flower. It is about 8 feet tall. The seeds should be viable, but you can never find Sunchoke seeds anywhere. Apparently if it goes to seed it makes less bulb. But I am OK with that because I want the seed, too. So I will let some of them produce seed.
The Sunchoke is harvested in the winter after just about everything has been eaten. It can tolerate some soil frost and keeps well in the ground. If you cut the stalk off at about 6 inches high you can easily find the spot where the bulbs are.
These seem to be very happy here. The grasshoppers are loving it too, but the plant seems to grow faster than the bugs are eating it. I am hoping for a modest first crop and about an ounce of seed. After I find out if the seed is viable I can share it with my friends. We can replant and enjoy a plant food that has been in our country for thousands of years and no one now knows about.

First Fruits

2007-08-25T19:42:00.000-07:00

In the Hebrew Bible, the sacrifice at the altar was usually the first born male lamb or goat or calf. This is because the first one to open the womb was considered the best and purest. But there are also other issues around first fruits. It is the one most anticipated and when it shows up you want it right now. So to offer it is truly a sacrifice because you must show self restraint and wait for number two. First grains, first fruit, first animal birth, first child. All were the best of the offerings.
So today, one of my chickens laid its first egg! I don't know which of the two did it. I wasn't watching. It is a pale brown egg, rather elongated, and about the size of a medium egg (1/2 the size of an extra large).
I am very excited and hope that my chickens continue to produce lovely eggs now for the next two years. Two years is the normal production duration for most chickens. After that they just hang around and eat bugs and make noise.
But today is a good day to celebrate a first fruit, greatly anticipated, lovingly cared for, and offered as only a chicken can. The chickens are eggsactly 4 months old to the day.

Disruption in Paradise

2007-08-23T20:06:00.000-07:00

My garden is my favorite hobby. It is also a major source of my daily nutrition. Sometimes it is my exercise program. And sometimes it is my companionship. Today, Fluffysgarden is thoughtful about things that we have taken for granted, loved and lost, or seen to completion.
We are running out of water. Most of the country is flooding right now, but we are drying up and burning down. 1/2 of our water will be cut off in the next two years. The price will zoom up, the quantity will fall low, the garden will need special attention to water conservation. I have already started those plans to save used water for trees and plants. I have drip and soaking hoses and have eliminated the lawns in back. My final push will be to eliminate the lawn in the front. What I hope to have is Trees instead. Trees provide shade, fruit, resting places for birds, flowers, wood, and soft green light. The barren spaces of dead lawn won't seem so awful if there are trees. I can deep water them and keep them alive without too much evaporation. So we have taken clean plentiful water for granted and now we must find another way.
I also have a project that is coming to completion. Well, it isn't really a project. My son is moving to China for 3 years to teach English. He has graduated from college with a BA and is looking for something different. I am glad to see him strike out on his own and try something new. I will miss him, but I may also go visit. I have always wanted to see China. I will try to miss the Olympics. It is a thoughtful time- happy for him and sad at the same time. But I am looking forward to the empty nest (almost). Conflicted.
So as I weed and plant and think, I see great changes in the future. Some of it is frightening and some of it is challenging and some of it is just plain annoying. But the garden will go on, because I will find a way to make it happen. There is just too much wonder and joy out there to let a little bit of change chase it away.

What Flower Fairies really do

2007-08-19T16:53:00.000-07:00

Late August has an interesting collection of produce. Beans, corn, pumpkin, squash, celery lead up the vegetable list. The fruit is much different than the normal stuff, though. We have Asian Pears, and black seedless grapes, and Mission figs, and oranges. I will be making raisins from the grapes, and I may have enough figs to dry some for next year's chutney. I usually juice the oranges and make smoothies. But the pears are fabulous right off the tree. They are crunchy and sweet.
Asian pears have special needs during the year. They usually need more cold weather than we get, but this year we had lots of cold. They also need help with pollination. Every two days I would go out to the trees with my paintbrush and help spread pollen. Many of the flowers didn't have all their parts, so this was actually necessary.
I told my husband I was out in the yard having sex with the trees.
He is OK with it. He really likes the pears and is willing to sacrifice some of my sexual energy for the cause.
This is what flower fairies really do.

First Harvest Production

2007-08-17T09:26:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a couple of weeks since the first of August, and I did in fact have a beach picnic to celebrate. But it has taken this long to get the picture ready for my blog.
As most of you wonderful gardeners know, we only store the surplus. During the growing season we eat like little piggies. So my picture is not truly complete. I also saved some of my produce in the freezer, so it isn't in the picture either. But this will give you a good idea of how I spent my summer vacation. Applesauce, apple butter, apricot jam, chutney, blackberry jam, tomato juice, onion jam, and [dried apples, apricots, peaches, vegetables, seeds, herbs, bulbs,], and granola. Frozen peas, beans, peaches, purees, onions, and blueberries.
Hmmm. I get tired and hungry just thinking about it.
My grandmother used to can every summer. Then she would be afraid to eat what she produced. When she died we had to toss about 6 years of produce that had sat in the cellar for 10 years.
There are several types of processes and certain foods benefit from each kind. It is important to eat all of the canned produce within one year (jams can last 2 years). Always mark the production date on the lid.
Jams, jellies, and acid based foods (pickles)- these foods can be safely sealed in a hot water bath situation. Sugar and citric acid provide adequate acid to stop fermentation and BAD bacteria. Hot pack the food- which means put it into the sterile jars hot (except pickles). A boiling pot, water to cover jar, clean, sterile lid, boil about 20 minutes (pints- add time for quarts). If you cold pack it (put it into sterile jars cold) you need to boil it for about 30-40 minutes (more for quarts).
Other foods, like beans, carrots, corn , etc, need salted water and up to 40 minutes in the boiling water bath. This actually cooks the food in the jar and the salt prevents possible bacteria from growing. At this point a pressure cooker could be useful.
Anything with meat in it poses a special problem and should be cooked in a pressure cooker. Jams actually have a problem with the pressure cooker, because the higher heat destroys the pectin.
This is why the freezer eventually took over my kitchen produce. Frozen meat, fruit, and tougher vegetables taste almost like fresh when cooked. And when I need canned meats or fish, or vegetables- I actually buy them. I am not foolish enough to think that I really can be totally self sufficient in today's world. Freezer foods should be used within 6 months (3 for meats or fish).
Dehydrated foods- fruits, vegetables, meats- should be used within 6 months also. I have never made beef jerky that lasted that long, My daughter dried about 20 apples and ate them all within about 2 weeks. I have dried many things and if they are still around after 6 months- it means I didn't really like it or use it much.
This brings us to Plum Jam. You may say that it is not on the list above, and you are correct. After making several gallons of plum jam, my family decided that they don't like plums all that much. I am still trying to use up jam that is 3 years old. This is how I decided to do it- Plum Teriyaki Sauce.

PLUM TERIYAKI SAUCE
1 cup plum jam
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 or 3 minced garlic cloves or (1 heaping teaspoon garlic powder)
1 inch piece of fresh ginger grated or (1 heaping teaspoon ginger powder)
1/2 cup water or (apple juice, wine)

Marinate cut up beef or chicken over night or at least 4 hours. You can skewer the meat with veges and BBQ, or stir fry. Boil the used marinade for 15 minutes to reduce it somewhat and use it to brush skewers or pour over rice. This is very sweet and pungent of garlic and ginger. You can heat it up with a tiny bit of cayenne pepper. You can use it over fried tofu and you can use it as a marinade for beef jerky. Mostly, you can hide the plums and they family will think it is wonderful.

Needless to say, I don't can plums anymore. But someday, when I use the last jar of jam, I might.

Beans, beans a beautiful fruit

2007-08-11T19:28:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I like to try different things just for fun. It comes of having enough that you can play with your food. So when I went bean crazy, I tried a bean called Hestia. It is a scarlet flowered bean, like a runner, but bred into a bush bean. The flowers are truly beautiful. Some were red and white, or red and pink, or red and red. The pods were rough and thick and had a bit of a bitter bean taste. If they were young enough, they tasted ok, but they took about 10 minutes longer to cook than a Roma or regular green bean. I decided that they were passable for my taste and extremely pretty as plants, so I decided to save the seed for next year.
When I planted these beans, the seed was not remarkable. Frankly, I didn't pay much attention. So, as the pods matured, I started opening some of them to see how the seed was growing. I was shocked by what I saw!
At different stages of growth, the beans were bright, bold colors of Pink, Mauve and Puce. They had purple and white spots, or blue and white spots. They got an incredible size over time, as large as a broad bean. And as they dried, they turned a purple/brown with dark spots. In this picture, I am showing a bowl full of beautiful beans and some of the Roma and Hestia on the plate. The Hestia pod had between one and four fully developed beans. The pods could get very long, but not all the seeds would develop. If you let the pod age to a yellow/green, the seed might start to sprout in the pod (as some of mine did), so I started harvesting them early while the pod was leathery but still green. As they air dry, they turn brownish or purple and shrink quite a bit, but they still have the spots. I have not yet cooked or eaten just the beans. I am having too much fun looking at the pretty colors.
The plant itself is a bush type, but not like any bush type I have ever grown. Each plant made about 10 branches with flowers, leaves and pods about 2 or 3 feet long. Of the string of 10 or so flowers, only two or three would form pods. Of the pods one would have lots of beans and one would have only one bean. There might be two immature failed pods.
They take up lots of ground space because they don't run up a pole- they spread out. Two or three would fill a 5 gallon pot. So, I had planted them wrong. The Roma bush should be behind in the trellis and the Hestia should be in front to spread. But they were strong growers in our funny weather. They are still making a few flowers after 3 1/2 months. I have collected enough seed to last for a couple of years and I still have pods on the plants.
I will plant these again next year, and spend some time tasting just the beans at different stages. After all, they were supposed to be food, not just toys.

Culinary Poverty

2007-08-03T13:48:00.000-07:00

As I gather and dry herbs for the winter, I am reminded of my childhood days. My family didn't have a garden here, but my grandmother in the mid-west did. All of the cooking I ate and learned to cook was suspiciously lacking herbs- even parsley. So I did some investigating years back and I discovered some interesting facts about our country.
There has always been great international cooking available for the wealthy people. They could afford spices and chefs and baby vegetables and fresh herbs. But the bulk of our country was not wealthy. Many barely had enough plain food to eat. Many had to scavenge greens and roots from the sides of roads- even to eating young fern sprouts. And most of the spices had to be imported. The USA spent many years in isolation paying off various wars or avoiding wars. There wasn't much in the way of imported goods until after WW2. We even had a government plan once to be self-sufficient in the area of sugars by growing sugar beets and maple trees with government subsidies.
Cooking styles became very simplified- you cooked what you could grow and you grew the most calorie dense things you could. And after a couple of generations, the taste of herbs was forgotten. Cookbooks didn't teach them either. The ingredients were scarce or too expensive. Soon seeds and plants were unrecognizable except by the most wizened. And lately, herbs have become a symbol of ancient healing medicine men and witchcraft specialists.
I am not talking about strange foreign herbs like cardamom or ginger. I am talking about everyday type herbs like fennel, parsley, oregano and thyme. When I read through some of the old cookbooks, I am amazed at the few sparse references to seasonings, spices and herbs. If they were mentioned at all, they were 1/2 teaspoons of dried gray dust. So I broke with tradition and learned to cook with herbs and spices. Then I started growing fresh herbs and found the taste so remarkable that I can't use dried ones any more, unless I dried them.
I routinely toss a handful of dried oregano into a meatloaf. I chop cupfuls of parsley for my tabbouleh. I have fresh bay leaves and sage year round. I am now so spoiled that I can't imagine life without herbs and spices. So I am leaving a recipe here for those with fresh parsley and celery:

Tabbouleh Salad

1 cup Bulgar Wheat (dry)
1 1/2 Cups boiling water.
Soak Bulgar wheat in boiling water until soft and chewy (20 min.) Drain off excess water.
2 tomatoes , chopped
2 ribs celery with leaves, chopped
2 green onions, chopped with green parts
5 radishes, chopped (no greens)
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1 or 2 cucumbers, seeded and chopped
2 cups parsley, chopped fine
Dressing- 1/4 cup olive oil, 2 tablespoons lemon juice (or wine vinegar), salt and pepper to taste
Toss all ingredients together and chill one hour. Serve on a lettuce leaf.

Bulgar Wheat- you can make this at home if you can't find it in a store. Get sprouting wheat (whole raw wheat grains) and soak it in water for two days, changing the water once each day and night. Dry out the wheat grains and gently toast them in the oven on very low (200f) about 1/2 hour. Chop the grains in a blender just until they are well cracked but not powdered. Cook them in boiling water for about 10-15 minutes until soft but still separate. Drain and cool. Use immediately.
Enjoy.

More than Just Gardens

2007-08-02T10:48:00.000-07:00

There are more things in this life than the garden. Did I say that? Well, it is true. Sometimes there is cooking, or cleaning, or enjoying time with friends (and family). In our home, I am usually in charge of the garden, food, cooking, planning of such things, securing such things, and distributing such things. But a really good life also has entertainment that is not food. The Playing is the thing.
Playing what? Playing at what? Well, that is the job of the Entertainment Director- my husband Drakonis (aka Eduard Schwan). Drak has a music collection that spans decades. Opera, Symphony, Rock, Jazz, Classics, Mood, Synth, and easy listening. Usually he ignores Country or Disco- but there are a few things he can tolerate.
On weekend mornings, Drak puts on some beautiful Concertos, or Mozart's Requiem, or Bach's Variations. Then we have a lovely breakfast on the patio. He is in charge of the music. He also plans the out of home fun things like movies, operas and music events. He has even been known to plan trips to the park or hiking trails. And though there are times when he is very busy and forgets to plan stuff, for the most part we have a very lovely life with a balance of activity, serenity, companionship, and solitude. All this is mixed with work and play, food and frolic.
So lately, my Drak has been working very hard on a project. He not only plays CD's, he also writes music. And he also makes computer generated movies. He has just completed and released on DVD his "Dance of the Technoids" music video. This has been a monstrous project for him, considering he also works 40+ hours per week and is raising his youngest teen, Sara. But he has tamed the beast and is now relaxing from the stress and basking in the glory of having his music in the market. If you want to see his beautiful face, http://schwansongs.blogspot.com/ is the place.
His is my sweetie and my best friend- I love him and his music. Now, it is time to party!

To Veg or Not to Veg

2007-07-30T11:41:00.000-07:00

Is that the question? No. What is a vegetarian?- that is the question.
When I was growing up, I pretty much knew there were animals, minerals and vegetables. That is not really the case anymore, but for most things it still works. I think yeast is in some other class now, but I don't spend much time worrying about it. SO, I always thought that a vegetarian was a person who did not eat meat- no chicken, fish, or animal flesh. But I did think that milk and eggs were OK, since they were not flesh. OH, NO! I was wrong. It is NO ANIMAL PRODUCTS- because little boy cows are killed to keep the milk flowing and little eggs are chicken embryos waiting to hatch. Hmmm.
This is a bit harder for me because I really like cheese and eggs, and because the soybean is pretty yechy to me unless you go to extremes to make it taste better. I can eat young soybeans- well cooked with a bit of salt- but the other stuff like soy milk and soy cheese, tofu, etc. Well I just don't like it all that much. It could never be a big part of my diet. Also, there is all that balancing of proteins that has to happen to make sure you get all the essentials. Eggs would make it so much simpler, and not everyone of them is a little embryo waiting to get out. But then...
I found out that it isn't just about vegetables, but they must be RAW vegetables. Not steamed or stir fried, but very raw and fresh. The life force of the plant is transferred to your body to sustain you when you eat raw fruits and vegetables fresh picked now. Every minute they are off the plant, they are losing their life force until they are pretty much useless after three days. Grocery stores are bad because the fruits and vegetables are like little mummies by the time they get to you. I have to admit that fresh fruits and vegetables taste the best, and I like a lot of them raw, but I also like them cooked. And I am not so sure about that life force thing. Part of me still believes in calories and my own ability to use them.
So, lets go back to that Ovo/lacto Vegetarian concept (eggs and cheese and veges). This is probably the most common of the vegetarians I know. I can cook a lot of these foods and love them, even though I eat meat, too. But lately, there is another type of vegetarian- Pescatarian. This is eggs, milk, FISH and vegetables. And then there are some that just don't eat RED MEAT. They claim to be vegetarian, too. I mean Chicken/egg what's the difference. And Buddha thought oysters were OK, so all fish must be fair game.
And to make it all worse, everyone changes their minds every year. If you want to lose weight you can't be eating all those vege/fruit carbs. People you thought were one way, gain five pounds and become the other way at a drop of the fork. Just as I get a great bunch of recipes for my friends and family, I find they are flapping the steaks on the grill and eating store bought mixed green salad.
The definition of vegetarian seems to be "I think I am, therefore I am."
So I offer no pretense, I have no convictions, I am not making a statement. I eat animal flesh, animal products, vegetables and fruits that have been processed, grains not sprouted, and yeast. But I do try to minimize my impact on the earth as best as I can. There are many meatless meals. I am not wasteful- the carcass and bones become soup. I make the next dinner with the leftovers. I compost as much as possible. And I am grateful for every little animal and plant (and yeast) who gave its life for my meal.

Switching Mental Gears

2007-07-29T12:45:00.000-07:00

Today was the last of the peaches and apples. Whew! July was a busy month. Now that the fruit is at a slow down, I can think about what is still left to do and it looks like Vegetables are the big winner.
Those beans that I went crazy about are now Beaning their little hearts out. I need to blanch and freeze several bags of beans. And the tomatoes are all over the counter waiting to become spaghetti sauce. The 4 ears of corn will be ready in about two weeks. The second crop of Asparagus will be ready in about two weeks. Red cabbage? Yes, there is one left. Celery, parsley, fennel. While it is on my mind, I could also start reworking some of the spent beds. Except that now the weather has decided to become summer and it is very hot and sticky here. All I really want to do is lay around in the shade and sip iced tea.
We are approaching the first harvest festival. If you weren't sure, the Pagan seasonal clock puts mid-summer right around the summer solstice. 6 weeks later is the first Harvest festival. Then the Second Harvest at mid-September. And the final Harvest festival at the end of October. By the end of the Harvest seasons I am one pooped out cookie. I usually don't plant too much for the last harvest. There are some winter squash, late peppers, last tomatoes, bits of this and that. Since I don't have to harvest acres of corn and hay, I usually blow that one off. It is too hot here to grow much in late September, but I do start my Fall garden of cabbage, lettuce and broccoli at about that time.
But there are some interesting things coming up. Asian pears and figs come in September. Then the last items on the harvest list are Jerusalem Artichokes and sweet potatoes which I harvest in December. By the time I get the sweet potatoes out, it is time to plant again for the spring. This year, I am trying to let the Jerusalem Artichokes make flowers and seeds. I have not grown them from seeds and want to see how they do.
In December, I find if I clean out one bed and re-work it with compost and worm castings, it will take me about two days. I can then start to stagger the beds in plantings. Once the beds are in full growth, I only re-work areas as plants come out and new ones go in. Most of the Fall time is spent cleaning up spent brambles, weeding, and pruning citrus trees.
So back to that first harvest festival- August 1 or 2, I think. I am going to take a long, well deserved rest from the garden and the preserving. I am going to dance and play at the beach. Then I am going to go home and eat steamed veges and simple biscuits. Then, late at night, when no one is looking, I will dance naked under the moon. (No pictures, please.)

Nearing the End of Peaches and Apples

2007-07-26T21:02:00.000-07:00

It feels strange to get close to the end of the peaches. I wait all year for them. I rejoice at the blooms, fret over curl, clean up dropped leaves and fruit, prune and fertilize- all for that three weeks of bliss. The smell of the ripe fruit is bliss. The taste of the brown sugar sweetness is bliss. The mass quantities of stored produce is bliss. The look of the fruit on the tree is bliss.
Now, I am almost done processing surplus and every bag of frozen or dried peaches is carefully allotted to a future month for muffins, ice cream, fluff, or cobbler. Yet, the memory of that 3/4 pound perfect peach, juice running all over my hands and chin, still warm from the sun- hmmm. It makes me long for the next year even as this year finishes.
My husband doesn't really like peaches all that much. He will tolerate peach ice cream, and sometimes Fluff- but he generally doesn't eat them out of hand. Aha, you say! More for me? Yes, that is a logical extrapolation, but my little cherubs help themselves to the surplus. They benefit from the stores and the baking. My family comes out of the woodwork sniffing, searching, whining.
Tomorrow, I make a birthday cake with homemade peach ice cream. This is the cap on a dinner for 10 for my husband's sister and her family. Max will be 3, and I am mid 50's. I am hoping to have the slightest bit of control over the last of the peaches. I am not ready for my family to help finish off the season- I want the last ones all to myself.
Then I will patiently wait to do the happy dance next spring.

Singing with Chickens

2007-07-25T20:41:00.001-07:00

I know you have read me chatting about being with my chickens in the garden. So now it is time for you to meet Custard. She is a Dark Cornish at about 3 months old. The other one is Quiche, but she is not in this story.
Custard is very friendly, a lap chicken so it seems. She likes to sit on me, be near me, play with me, and sing to me. In the morning she wakes me up with her songs. This is not crowing- she is not a rooster. This is singing. If you go to this url - http://www.schwansongs.com/SchwanSongs/ChickenSong.html - you can see and hear her.

Custard is a bit of a scaredychick. She needs to be close to the other one or me at all times. If I go into the house she wants to go in, too. She will sit on my arm and pose. She will let me pet and hold her for short periods of time. She runs to me when she is frightened by the hawks over our yard. She eats from my hand and wants to check out everything I am doing when I work at the outdoor table. Custard is named for an Egg food. I don't think she is every going to become Coq au Vin because she has sung her way into my heart. Begawk!

Just Peachy

2007-07-23T20:33:00.000-07:00

I have the most wonderful Apple tree. And I have the most wonderful Peach tree. Honestly, I love all my trees, but I am particularly impressed by this Peach tree. I have no idea what type it is, except that it is freestone, yellow flesh, ready in July, and keeps well on the tree for about 3 weeks. This last feature gives me lots of time to figure out what to do with 300 peaches.
These are not your little two bite peaches. These peaches weigh in at 1/2 pound each and they are bigger than the palm of my rather large hand. And the stone is rather small, so you get lots of peach.
I have been giving away peaches to favored friends, dehydrating peaches, freezing peaches, pureeing peaches, cooking with peaches, devouring peaches- I am inundated with peaches- And I am still dealing with the last of the apples. I am not even close to the last of the peaches.

But, I have been exploring some wonderful peach recipes that use lots of peaches. I have one muffin recipe that uses 1/2 cup chopped up dried peaches (about 2 peaches fresh) and 1 1/2 cups pureed peaches (about 3 peaches). It is so moist and flavorful that I want to make it often even though I can only eat so many muffins before exploding. I have been pureeing peaches and putting it in the freezer so that I can make this later in the year. I will let you in on a really good secret, psst, whisper, this is a nearly fat free, no sugar added recipe full of bran and whole wheat and peaches.

Peachy Bran Muffins- (modified from the Secrets of Fat Free Baking, by Sandra Woodruff, RD.)
2/3 cup wheat bran
1 1/2 whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar substitute (I use xylitol, but you can use Splenda or sugar or maple sugar)
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 cup pureed fresh peaches
1 egg (or 2 egg whites)
1/2 cup chopped dried peaches
(1/3 cup chopped pecans- optional)
Mix the first 4 dry ingredients together. Stir in the peach puree and egg until just moist. Stir in the chopped dried peaches and nuts. Spoon into baking cups lined with paper or sprayed with non-stick spray to 3/4 full. They don't rise much. Bake at 350F for 15-17 minutes. Makes 10. After baking, allow to sit for 5 minutes before removing from pan. Serve with whipped cream cheese- uh, so much for fat free.

I would need to make this recipe 40 times to use up all my peaches, sigh. That's a lot of muffins. So I have to do other things with the peaches.

This is a Peach Fluff recipe-
Peal and slice 5 large peaches. Lay the slices in a single layer on a wax paper lined tray and freeze for 12 hours or more. (This can be done months ahead and the frozen peaches can be stored in zipper bags.)
Place frozen peaches in a food processor with 1 tablespoon Brandy and process until they are a finely chopped frozen peach snow. Keep them frozen, you might need to do it in two batches and put the first batch back into the freezer. (You can do this part ahead and keep it frozen in the zipper bag.)
When you are ready to eat this- Take the frozen peach snow and 2 tablespoons sugar (or substitute) and one egg white and process it again in the food processor until it starts to fluff up (the white is getting beaten). This might take a couple of minutes.
Spoon it into pretty bowls and eat it with a vanilla cookie or two. It might serve 4 people, but around here it only serves 2. (left overs can be frozen- right!).

I have been planning to send some of Fluffysgarden to friends who are far away and under much water, but I am waiting until the weather clears a bit. I want the postal messenger to get through. Just in case Daughter of the Soil and Caroline are reading, we are thinking of you in your sogginess, and wishing we could bring you here to dry out a bit. If there is anything we can do from afar, please let us know.

A Fluffy Home Companion

2007-07-20T20:16:00.000-07:00

We all need friends. Apparently, so do vegetables. Why else could someone write a book about companion planting. My plants have lots of friends- bees, birds, chickens, me- but they also seem to need other plants that are, you know, ... friendly. I have given this considerable thought over the years. I know you think that it is because I have way too much time on my hands, but the truth is I am an intensive gardener. Nay! Make that extreme gardener.
The idea of intensive gardening was developed for people with big needs and small space. It requires deep soil, lots of fertilizer and water, layering of roots and planning for light and air needs of plants. Essentially, you look at your space and plant things together so that different layers of root space use the whole bed without tangling up with each other. And the plants are tied up, staked, or balanced for different heights so that shade loving plants are under taller ones. You need to place the bed in such a way to insure lots of air circulation and water from ground level so that leaves don't get wet and encourage mold. Since you can't get in between the plants to weed and fertilize, you have to fertilize in the watering system and weed as plants are retired. It is the Science of Gardening for the excessive/compulsive personality.
With so many plants in one little space, I suppose they should be friendly with each other, so as to get along well. So, how can you tell if they are making friends and enjoying each other's companionship? It is not like they invite me to the party. I don't even think they notice me at all. It would seem to me that most of my plants get along out of sheer necessity. I have four eight foot by four foot beds that are one foot deep, that is one foot of rich top soil. Each bed has a mass of plants- beans, corn, celery, fennel, ginger, garlic, parsley, tomato, potato, squash, pepper, cucumber, and cilantro. The only unhappy member of the party was the cilantro- which bolted as soon as possible but made wonderful coriander seeds. I am not even sure it was unhappy. It attracted bees, looked beautiful, and made great bunches of seeds.

Generally, I plant seasonal plants together. I don't pay any attention to rows and spacing. Some plants are comfortable when close to another and the others find a way by falling over or choking someone out. I always let a few last season plants go to seed. The flowers attract bees. And in the winter I refurbish the bed with compost, worm castings, and aeration. Winter here is about two weeks in December, so I work fast. During the growing seasons, I work an area where the plant has finished and install a new plant or seed in that space.
Really, when you think about it, the plants have to get along because they have no choice. It's put up or shut up. Lately, it has been very quiet out there.

Year 'round Goodies

2007-07-08T13:53:00.000-07:00

As you may well be aware, my garden produces more than I can eat in a single season. I would have to consume apples day and night to use all the apples, so I preserve things. I have dehydrated apples for pies, teas and snacks. Apple butter, Apple Sauce, and Apple leather. But apples are only the beginning of the bounty. There are apricots, peaches, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, lowquats, oranges, lemons, grapes, Asian pears, figs, pineapple guava, plums, tomatoes, pomegranate and occasionally avocados. And vegetables, too. And Herbs, don't forget the Herbs.
So now as the peaches and plums arrive, and I am still wallowing in apples, I realize there are things from last year that need to be eaten, too. Some are still in my freezer and pantry. I have been canning blackberry jam and apple products for a full week. Most of the blackberries and strawberries are out of the freezer and done on the plants, so I can write those crops down as done. But the others are just getting into full swing.
Dehydration is a great way to deal with produce and herbs. I am drying parsley, onion, garlic, anise, fennel, spinach, bay leaves, thyme, oregano, celery leaves and stalks, lemon grass, lemon verbena, mint and lemon balm. Later I will dry grapes, figs, ginger, green beans, tomatoes, lemon and orange peel, and basil. By the time autumn rolls in I will be packing away sweet potatoes, pumpkins and other squashes, and organizing my myriad of jars and packages. It reminds me of Badger's house, in the "Wind in the Willows". Baskets and jars everywhere, bags of stuff everywhere.
But sometimes, about now, I discover unused things that need attention. I found old dried apricots, dates, and figs- then I remembered why. Chutney! I had been saving them for Chutney. So today I made four jars.
Chutney recipe:
8 oz slivered almonds
1 pound carrots, peeled and shredded
1 cup chopped dates
1 cup chopped dried figs
1 cup chopped dried apricots
1 cup raisins
6 large cloves of garlic, grated
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
2 cups cider vinegar
2 cups brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons powdered mustard
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon salt
Mix all ingredients together in a 6 quart pot. Cook over low heat, covered, stirring frequently, until quite well cooked (about 20 minutes). This preparation is quite dry while it cooks the carrots, you may need to add 1/2 cup water during the cooking. When the mixture is bubbling all over, spoon it into hot sterile canning jars, tap or stir out air bubbles, and seal. Process in a boiling water bath to cover for 20 minutes. Makes 4 pints (16oz jars). This keeps for a year, but ours never lasts that long.
When this season of canning is done, I will take a picture of my production- stacked and labeled and ready to store up. It is quite impressive and tasty, too.

15min of Morning

2007-07-03T12:20:00.000-07:00

I got up late today, 6:15 am. I wandered about the house a bit before I let the chickens out. I sipped coffee, chatted with my sweetie, and made a list. I bagged up the dried parsley, lemon peel, orange peel, apples, and celery leaves. Then, at about 7 am, I went to the garden. Chickens and I got busy with the day. I harvested blackberries, mint, lemon verbena, lemon grass, late Fava seed, apples, blueberries, and tomatoes. I cleaned the herbs and got them into the dehydrator for the next round, then fixed myself some breakfast. I weeded for about an hour and trimmed some leggy plants, stirred the compost, planted some new seedlings and poured a second cup of coffee. At 10 am, I took a break and did some knitting in the shade of the patio. The chickens didn't want to go into their pen yet. I talked on the phone for 30 min. to an old friend. I had some toast for lunch and shooed the chickens back to their pen, which I cleaned and restocked with food and water. It was 11:30 pm. Time to go in and do those indoor things. At 11:45 my son came into the house. He had just gotten up and wanted to do some laundry. He was quite proud that he got up before noon, there was still "15 minutes of morning" left.
I am too tired to notice much lately, but it seems a terrible waste of a day to sleep that late.

Hidden Harvest

2007-07-02T10:12:00.000-07:00

Well, I am currently up to my crock in produce. I have started the apples. We are way past pie and into applesauce, apple butter, and dried apples. And there is the Apricot harvest that my mother-in-law surprised me with- jam, dehydrate, cobbler. And there are the berries- jam, freeze, dehydrate. And the Tomatoes- sauce, dehydrate, Bruschetta. And herbs, and onions, and garlic, and.... Well, all I can say is lids. I had to buy a bunch of lids for my jars. And the month of July also brings Peaches. My kitchen is becoming a commercial produce processing plant. Every surface is covered with produce, equipment, and production in stages of completion.
So that brings us to the Hidden Harvest- seeds.
Hmmm. I heard you say it. Seeds are things you buy every year to get the garden up and going. Like pumpkins and cucumbers and lettuce. But I can tell you that there is a great big harvest waiting for you in your garden that is almost too small to see.
Every year I let a few lettuce plants go to seed. They produce enough seed for years of lettuce, but I try to use it up each year. Not every seed is viable and it doesn't stay useful for a long time. And I try to save a few beans, peas, and definitely squash seeds. This year I also got some coriander and spinach. There is always dill and anise and chard. Onion, yes there is some onion, too. And Tomato. Peppers, I forgot peppers. And flowers of course- like tagetes and calendula, Peruvian lily, fragrant narcissus, Watsonia and wild Gladiolus. I have a collection of small jars full of seed for next year.
So how do you go about collecting this Hidden Harvest? There are many opinions about this. One is that the plant must be completely dry before you collect the seed. Some say when the plant is yellowing. Others say don't do it at all because the outcome is "iffy". Me, well, I harvest beans and peas when the pod gets leathery before it dries and splits. I smear tomato seeds on Paper towels when they are ripe enough to eat raw and let them dry. I collect pepper seed from green or red peppers depending on when I think about it. I grab the onion flower when I see the black seeds start to show and put it in a bowl to finish drying. I break off the downy, yellow stalk of lettuce and whack it against a white sheet- mature seed falls into the sheet. I pick off the ripe seeds of Fennel, anise, dill, celery, parsley, coriander while they are still a bit green/yellow (if I wait the birds will get them all). Snails also like seeds, so you have to get there before the snails. But sometimes you can just toss the seedy stalks onto the garden soil and let them seed themselves under the mulch of the parent plant. This has worked for many thousands of years.
I take a personal pleasure in collecting seeds. It is a time consuming activity and a package of seeds from the store can cost as little as 10 cents when it is on sale. But when I collect seeds, I feel like I have gotten a little something special from the garden. And sometimes I get something I can't get anywhere else.
I have a piece of my friend's garden in my garden because I took some of her beet seeds before she moved away. I think of her there. I have Fava beans from my sister-in-law. She let me have two and they parented all of my seeds. I have chard that has been successful for 5 years. I only save the red ones and now they all are red. I have unusual seeds for unusual plants and usual seeds for usual plants. And some seeds I wish I didn't have at all.
But not all seeds are good to gather. Hybrids- like tomatoes, corn and cantaloupe- don't breed true when they cross pollinate. The next crop may be something awful. Pumpkins are like that a bit, too. They start out huge but breed down to small naturally, and they lose some color and flavor.
You have to know what you really want before you save the seeds. Sweet corn seed is probably best purchased each year, but popcorn can be saved easily. "Developed" tomatoes are usually hybrids and should be bought each year, but cherry tomatoes and yellow tomatoes breed true. And Saving seed takes up space. You have to thoroughly dry the seed in the air. A dehydrator will kill the germ. You have to check for bugs and larva. You have to store it in a jar or bag and remember where you put it. AND you have to want that vegetable or plant next year in your garden.
So that is it for seeds. Not real hard to do, but strangely satisfying. Someday I may actually try breeding something special, but for now I just want a little extra from my garden experience.

Compost and Gophers

2007-06-22T12:02:00.000-07:00

This blog starts out as a story about compost, but it is really about gophers. Well, it is about more than gophers and compost, but you have to read it to find the inner meaning.
Awhile back, when I was a young gardener, I started composting. I would dump my green waste and vegetable trimmings in a pile and watch it rot. Then I got sophisticated and got an old ComposTumbler from my husband's sister. She said it wasn't very good and they were getting rid of it. They had had it two years. It had a poorly designed lid system and would fall open with only about 5 pounds of stuff in the tumbler. It was still under warranty, so I called the company and they replaced the Tumbler assembly. It had been redesigned within those two years. I also started reading about composting. There are the greens and the browns. There is hot and not. There is the stir, tumble or stare method. But what a compost pile really needs most is Nitrogen. The little bacteria need nitrogen to do their job. Then the bacteria die and the nitrogen returns to the soil. This is one of the reasons that compost is so good for your plants.
One article I read suggested putting lawn fertilizer into the compost. Another suggested a balance of greens and browns and grass clippings (which are full of lawn fertilizer). One article said household ammonia is really good. And one guy said, "Just pee into the compost." I read this one to my husband and his son. My stepson immediately said, "This was obviously not written for squatters." We howled with laughter, and to this day, I still tear up thinking about it. But I was never very successful at getting the boys to regularly assist in Compost Production. Ultimately, I went to worm composting which didn't require additional nitrogen.
So, this brings us to the squirrels. Oh, no. Not the gophers. Not yet. Squirrels, we have a bunch. They sneak over/under/and around the fence and go for the bird seed scattered by the birds at the feeder. Then they attack the trees and strip the fruit. When I was an idealistic young gardener, I thought they were kind of cute, but when I watched them stripping the trees I became enraged. I went to the garden store and sought out some environmentally correct method of squirrel disposal. Poison. Oh, no. Not poison. It kills more than squirrels. It kills hawks and dogs and fish and maybe me. So I found Coyote Pee. Apparently, if you spread the scent of predator animals around your yard, the squirrels will keep away. I bought it and sprinkled a circle around the yard. It was pretty expensive and you don't really get all that much. And it washed away with the rain and you get to sprinkle again, and again, and again. The squirrels didn't seem to notice much, either. They continued eating birdseed and fruit. They came up on the porch. They ate my tomatoes. When all of my parents are dead I will write a book, but for now let us just say that my mother in law loaned us a bb gun. We named it Squirrel Spanker. It actually scares the squirrels enough to train them to not come in our yard, but it isn't strong enough to kill them. And it works on Ravens, too.
I know, you are still waiting for the gophers. So, we didn't really ever have a gopher problem until this year. And it is not just us. The neighbors are growing gophers also. The first one killed a fig tree by eating its roots while I was unaware. Then it headed for my Apple tree. I was in a panic. I dug up its trails, flooded with water and headed for the garden store again. We bought traps and poison. After an intensive week of flooding, poisoning and trapping, we finally caught the pest. It was as big as a squirrel and died in a trap after running from the water. But it didn't eat the poison. It would push the poison up to the surface ground with a bunch of dirt. I would come out in the morning and find gopher poison (think rat poison) all over the fresh soil. After we killed that one, all was quiet for awhile. Now I have some chickens. They are just two months old. And I let them run all over the yard eating slugs and bugs and grass and just about everything. And just about the time I had forgotten about the gophers, a new one showed up. It was using some of the old gopher's runs and was headed for the Apple tree. I can't use poison. The chickens will eat it when it gets pushed up to the top. I have only traps and water now, so I started the flooding process. The next day there was a new hole that was open, no dirt plug. And strangely enough, it started me thinking about Coyote Pee and Compost.
Needless to say, there is no predator as terrifying as a human, so I sprinkled a little in the hole. The next day, there was no new evidence of gopher activity. I sprinkle again, and still no activity. I was so relieved.
Well, the story doesn't end here. The next day we found a small gopher hole in the garden by the tomatoes. It is too far back for a squatter, so I think this is a job for a man. I will let you know how it turns out, later.

Inbetween Seasons

2007-06-18T15:56:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the garden is confused. I know that doesn't seem right. How can a garden get confused? It doesn't think. But just as you get to the crossing of seasons, the garden acts confused. It is too warm for cool weather crops, but the warm weather things are not sure either.
Take corn for instance. In early spring it is warm enough to plant corn seeds. They sprout and start to grow. Then the cool, wet evenings kill the little sprouts. Too damp, they whine as the die. So now you have to wait for another warm spell to get those little seeds to sprout. Aha! They can sprout now, because it is June 20ish and it is SUMMER. Corn takes a long time to grow and lots of water. It will be ready to eat in late September, which is Fall. Why can't it be ready in the Summer when I really like to eat barbequed corn? Because those little spring sprouts thought it was winter again in early June and died. They were confused to death.
Lettuce is also a bit confused. It likes cold weather, but it will bolt and go to seed if it gets too warm. Some of my lettuce bolted in the spring warm moment and I had to pull it out. But some of it didn't buy into that fake summer. It waited a few days and kept being nice lettuce as the weather got cold again.
Our evenings have been somewhere between 50 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and our days have been between 60 and 70 degrees F. Mushroom weather. Great for making saurkraut or Kimchi. Also, great for slugs and snails and slime mold.
So how can you deal with this strange Spring weather? What kind of food plants can tolerate it? Well, I have found that many Mediterranean plants like this type of weather. Fava beans, fennel, onions (short day), garlic, chard, potatoes, and lettuces. But there are also some plants that have been "developed" for this climate. San Diego Tomatos seem to tolerate the cold nights better than heirlooms or beefsteak types. This type of tomato seems to have been "developed" for mildew resistance. Right now I am getting palm sized red and yellow tomatos from plants I put into the ground in late February. Not a spot of mildew in sight. Last year, the cold nights killed just about everyone of my tomatos. And, this variety seems to need less heat to set and ripen the tomatos. Heirlooms need lots of heat for long periods.
So now I am getting tomatos. I just bought and planted some Basil plants. There is fresh garlic to dig up. And I am off to buy some Sourdough bread- It is buschetta time.

Bruschetta- Mediterranean Salsa

Two large Red tomatoes and one yellow one
3 Tablespoons Extra virgin olive oil
3-4 large cloves garlic- crushed or minced
1 Cup freshly chopped, shredded or torn Basil
Salt/pepper to taste
few drops of Balsamic Vinegar
Mozarella or provolone cheese
Sour dough bread slices (6)

Chop the tomatos into 1/2 inch chuncks. Toss with minced garlic, olive oil, shredded basil and a bit of salt and pepper. Drizzle with Balsamic. Put it in a pretty bowl with a serving spoon.
Slice or chop the Mozarella or provolone. [Sometimes I use Fresh mozarella or buffalo milk mozarella. These are packed in water and are very soft. They tend to make the bread a bit wet.]
Toast the bread lightly. Put some cheese on the bread and return to the toaster oven or regular over to melt the cheese (about 10minutes at 400F) or you could use the broiler and watch it constantly.
When cheese has melted, remove from oven and cool just a few minutes. Cut the cheese bread into 2" pieces and serve with the bowl of tomatoes. Spoon tomatos onto bread and eat. Excellent with white wine and maybe a quiche.
Mmm. I gotta go get some sourdough bread right now. Bye.

Garden Therapy

2007-06-14T08:30:00.000-07:00

Wellness of mind and body is partly related to what we eat and partly related to what we do. And partly related to genetic material. I am genetically predisposed to wanting to be outside my house. It must be that way because I see a general trend of indoor people and outdoor people. There is sanity in both places, but I would go nuts being in the house too much, just as some others get disturbed if they are away from their inner rooms for too long. There is joy, safety, entertainment, comfort and relaxation outdoors, too.
In my garden, I contemplate the joy and beauty of the world as well as how much work it takes to make that happen. My natural environment would look like blowing dirt and scrubby sun burnt stubble if I didn't water, fertilize and nurture. San Diego County is a coastal desert and expensive imported water is what colors it green. There is considerable work to do in weeding, planting, mulching, hauling, mixing, harvesting, preserving, repairing, fertilizing, mowing and trimming. Some people hire this work done- but for me it is Therapy- Dirt Therapy.
Lately, I have been in need of much Therapy. The inner rooms are having some problems, so I find myself escaping to the garden. I have long chats with my chickens (Custard and Quiche). I welcome the morning rabbits as they eat the lettuces, I feed the little birdies at the feeders, I love the neighbor's cat who stalks the little birdies, and I talk to my plants. I harvest the apples and plan dinner around the garden bounty. Lately, we have been having a lot of pie. Apple Blackberry pie. I have blackberries, blueberries and strawberries in the freezer for later and the berries are not done yet. I have peas and Fava beans in the freezer and the Fava beans are not done yet. I have lettuce, celery, turnips, potatoes, fennel, and green tomatoes. The oranges are ready now, too. I can plan some very wonderful meals which I want to eat outside on my patio in the cool of the evening when the work is done. Then I take a shower and go to bed exhausted. It is beginning to sound like escapism, rather than therapy. I can avoid the issues of my inner rooms by staying outside and playing with the chickens. But at some point I must go in and deal with the mess.
Laundry, bills, children in trouble, dishes, broken things that need repair. These are all waiting for me to come in from the garden. So how does the Garden Therapy actually work? Well, hmmm, while I garden I contemplate my anger at the child in trouble and devise a plan of action to correct the situation- it is good to have a plan. I think about the broken parts and decide if I want to do without it or repair it. Sometimes I realize that I just don't need that thing and I toss it rather than mess with fixing, or I get something different. Bills just get paid, and laundry just gets done, and cleaning gets done a little at a time. It is just not overwhelming when you spend lots of time outdoors. Like the seasons, all housework is a continuing thing. It is never done. So I often take pleasure in the parts that are done and the sense of practical functioning that is happening. There is a pile of stuff on the floor of my bedroom waiting for action of one kind or another for over a year now. But I am pleased that one of the items got taken care of last week, while three more were added. It is a simple mind, yes.
Well, so much for inner rooms and garden chat- I have beans to plant. I need to get out of this room and get some fresh dirt. My chickens are calling. Begawk!

Maybe I Don't Know Beans

2007-06-07T09:43:00.000-07:00

This year, when I ordered seed from a Seed Catalog, I went Bean crazy. I think I was craving green beans. I ordered Roma beans, bush beans, pole beans, runner beans, and yellow beans. Later I got a catalog for heirlooms and lusted over long beans- next year.

I also ordered snap peas and dug out my old, saved Fava beans. Snap peas, snow peas and Fava beans like cooler climates, but the peas can get mildew if it is damp. I planted about 100 snap peas. In an other area I planted snow peas. And I planted a bed of Fava beans. The snow peas did very well when planted in February, but started getting mildew in late March. By late April, they were done and gone to compost. I got a couple of pounds of snow peas before they died. The snap peas got planted a bit later, grew like crazy, and started getting mildew in early April. You just can't get away from the wet, cold fog here. Still, I was able to harvest about 8 pounds (no pods) of fresh peas for the freezer. I actually do better with snow peas in the fall when it is dryer. I may try that with snap peas, too.
Fava don't seem to be bothered by the fog or cool dampness. Bring it on. They are now in full production. So, what can you do with a Fava Bean, especially when you have and 8 ft by 4 ft bed full. Well, this brings us to an interesting part of the garden experience. Even though it looks like a lot of beans, it isn't very much. Most of the Fava bean is compost. I only like the seed part. I don't eat the pod, although some say you can eat the young ones, if you are desperate. Each day or two, I can go out and collect a bunch of Fava beans, shell them, and end up with a cup of fresh beans. And a mountain of pods. Since there is only the two of us often for dinner, I will just boil them for about 3 minutes and serve with salt and butter. But if there are more than the two of us, I have to get creative. Make rice and toss in the beans in the last 5 minutes of cooking, like peas. Butter, salt, rice and beans. Side dish. Add them to Chicken curry, like peas. Peas, carrots and Fava. Onions, Artichoke hearts, fennel, peas and Fava with salt and butter. Ok, I'm done. And the Fava are about done, too. Very short season, those Fava. And now I have a mountain of green manure. What to do with all that green stuff.

Beans and peas are nitrogen fixers. Their roots make little nodules of nitrogen rich tissue. Rip out the plant and you throw away the nutrient. Cut off the plant and dig in the roots and plant new stuff. Put the upper plant in the compost bin or worm bin.(I have both.) In about 6 to 18 months, dump the composted material back into the bed and stir. Or, plant squash right in the aging compost. I actually have a squash plant growing in my compost. I think it is a pumpkin. It is growing out of an air hole in the side of the compost bin. I keep it watered and watch with curiosity.

More Fava bean information: Fava beans make a chemical that is often called L'dopa. It is used for people with Parkinson's and some other brain problems. It is present in very small amounts but might react with some medications. Also, there is a syndrome called Favism- like an allergy that can kill you. Some people cannot eat Fava beans. If you are not sure, ask your Dr. or eat a small bean and see if you get sick. Some recipes suggest that you cook and peal the skin off the Fava bean. The skin is about half of the bean. What is left looks like a green pea (size and color). I eat the skin. It turns pale green when cooked and the inner pea is bright green. Very pretty combination.

For my climate, Fava bean is a winner in the cool weather bean/pea contest. Peas suffer from mildew and Fava ignores it. Fava is just about the same as a pea in use and taste. I could have planted it about a month earlier, too.

Backpacking Old Guys

2007-06-06T10:53:00.000-07:00

My husband and I are backpacking old guys. Once a year we dust off the packs, sort through our mountain of gear and divide up the weight. I keep giving him a bit more each year. As I age, I don't stand on that absolute equality platform as often. (Long rant for another time here).
So our backpacking is a solitude thing. We get away from the kids, cars, dogs, boom boxes, smoky fires, and drunk adults. You can only carry so much beer up that mountain with all the other stuff.
And our backpacking is an independence thing. We can carry it all, make it all, and do without some. Do we shop for special lightweight gear at expensive sporting goods stores? Sometimes. And we shop at Walmart, too. Our tent was from Target. Our cooking pots from Walmart. Our clothes are from our closet, whatever we usually wear. Our sleeping bags and mats and cooking stove are from REI, the expensive store. But we don't ever buy that prepackaged food stuff. This is Fluffysgarden after all. We make our own. We grow our own. And we sometimes buy it at the grocery store.
I have made beef jerky, chicken jerky, apple leather, yogurt leather, and dehydrated vegetables for our stew dinners. I also make granola and granola bars, but this time I bought them.
We often indulge ourselves with brewed coffee and Kahlua. We mostly lay around and listen to... nothing. San Jacinto is a dry place. There are not very many birds and almost no other animals. There is a water source about a quarter mile from our camp area and the stream flows through a meadow. In the evening you might catch sight of a deer at the watering hole, but we usually don't. No bears, mountain lions or snakes, either.
To be dreadfully honest, we lay around for two days because we are so tired from the hike that we can't do anything else. Then we have to carry it all back down the hill and drive home.
I love this trip and look forward to it every year. This year we bought a new fangled water purifying unit at the expensive store. I have no idea how it works and we leave in two days. This is what adventure is all about.

Apples on the West Coast

2007-06-02T07:03:00.000-07:00

There are a few apple varieties that do well where there is almost no chill. Chill factor is the number of hours where the temperature is less than 45 degrees Fahrenheit. The Dorsett apple requires almost no chill, but others may require up to 600 hours in the dormant season, or that the soil freeze to one inch deep. Dorsett apples are happy in coastal May gray and June gloom. Mild winters start them blooming in late January, and the fruit is ready in May and June. Then they bloom again and the fruit is ready in November. And then they bloom again, but I pick off the blooms so that they will bloom in January.

The apple qualities of Dorsett are a bit different from other types of apples. The apples often will fall from the tree and need to sit on the counter for about three days before sweet enough to eat out of hand. They have a sweet tart taste and good crunch. If you bake or cook them, they completely collapse and have no texture- great for apple butter, apple sauce, baby food- but not pie. Except for certain types of pie- layered pie.

Layered Pie

Pie crust to make a top and bottom for a 9 inch deep-dish
4 Dorsett apples, about the size of your palm and slightly green, cored and chopped (not sliced). I like the skins, but you can remove them if you want to.
1/3 Cup sugar (or substitute like Xylitol or Splenda Baking mix)
3 tablespoons flour
1/3 cup apple juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon clove
Mix the chopped apples with the sugar, flour, juice and spices. Layer it in the bottom of a dough lined pie pan (9 inch deep dish) and dot with two tablespoons of butter.
Next layer is some other fruit- like berries. Mixed berries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries- frozen or fresh. You will need about 1 ½ cups of berries tossed with 3 tablespoons sugar or sweetener equivalent.
Now put on the top crust and bake it at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes, then lower heat to 350 for 50 minutes to one hour .
When the pie cooks, the apples collapse into a solid layer and the berries sit on top. You get the great taste of berry pie and the fullness of apple pie. All you need is a scoop of vanilla ice cream to totally blow your diet.

I also use the Dorsett apples in apple muffins, apple bread, and apple salads. I have cooked them with cabbage and onions to dress up a pork roast and I have put them in apple sausage stuffing at Thanksgiving.

Having two crops a year is very interesting. The first crop is gigantic with large apples, lots of them. I have to pick off about 1/3 of the set apples so that the remaining ones get large. The second crop is about 1/3 as many and they are much smaller. I try to pick off about half of the set apples so that the remaining ones can get a bit bigger. Keep the tree well watered and fertilized all year long. It takes lots of energy to make that many apples.

This tree is self fertile and compact, but not for a pot. After six years in the ground it is about 6 feet across and six feet tall, but the trunk is very thick. It is suitable for a small yard even though I have a large yard and numerous other fruit trees.

I highly recommend this tree for serious apple lovers on the West Coast.

Garden review

2007-06-02T06:44:00.000-07:00

This is my garden web page. I want share my reviews about different plants, garden stores, gardening styles and other backyard information for my micro-climate in Encinitas, Ca. I hope you enjoy the information.