Monday Morsels: Fair and EcoChallenge

This weekend was the Common Ground Fair.  The kids and I love the fair, but Rob grew up in Deerfield, NH (home of the largest fair in New England) and has some fair loyalty issues.  He's never truly appreciated Common Ground and all its goodness.  He usually opts out.  However, this year he was away at a conference the six days prior to the fair so Friday was a guaranteed family day.  

Which meant a trip to the fair all together!   

Some highlights:  

tractoring into and out of the fair

sweet smiles

                      "sledding"

all tuckered out

 
With a second adult around I was finally able to attend one of the many workshops offered at the fair.  I sat in on a bee keeping lecture, and am so glad I did.  I've been saying for years that I want to keep bees, and now I feel ready.  Since Rob seems to be allergic I'll have to keep the bees elsewhere, but a friend has offered space on their homestead for a hive, and I think my neighbor may allow a hive in their field.  I also just read that allergies can be "bee" specific, so he may be allergic to yellow jackets, or hornets, and not honey bees.

I used a birthday gift certificate (thanks Mom!) to get "The Backyard BeeKeeper:  a guide for absolute beginners".  This will be the third book I've read on bee keeping.  I'm also hoping to take a class soon, and plan on being ready for bees in the spring.
And maybe milk goats in another few years (did you see that face?)

Morsels:

* These days its not uncommon for the toilet paper to look like this:

* Kale and I picked and washed an entire sink full of kale (we have a deep sink).  It took about an hour to triple wash the kale, de-stem, blanch, cool, and bag it.  At toddler speed mind you.  In the end we had only 3 quart size freezer bags to show for our work.  Hmm.   As Americans we spend so much less on food than the rest of the world, doing it myself really reminds me what food is truly worth.

* Marley is sporting her short fall hair cut.

*  I finally got around to building this chicken hut to move from box to box in the garden.  Right now its in the bed that once held the onions.  The lucky ladies who get to stay at "chicken resort" will stay for two or three days until the bed is weed, bug, and hopefully larvae free.  Then we'll move it to another bed and send two different ladies on vacation.
I used some plastic netting for the sides, but it ended up being a bit short.  I improvised by stapling our old couch cover over the top of the whole thing, which also negated the need for hinges, and added some shade as well (yeah for resourcefulness).
 

* Rob's niece had her first birthday a few weeks ago.  We weren't able to make it down to NH for the party, but I made this sweet dress and mailed it to her.  Kale was a willing model along the way.  The finished dress has a pink ribbon hem along the bottom.  I can't wait to see pictures (hint hint).

* While Rob was away a few friends came by to knit and chat, and make the evening a little less lonely.  The new coffee table was perfect for our decadent spread.

* September is a different sort of harvest.  Leggy beans, huge cabbage, dark rainbow chard, and of course all that wood.  

* As well as bringing stuff in (from the garden) we're also sending it out.  Rob inspired a little fall de-cluttering by playing "12 things".  We each chose 12 things that we no longer wanted/needed and sent them off to Good Will--or the end of the driveway for a "Free" yard sale.  In the pile were:  an old sink from the backyard, the office chair, many articles of clothing, several books, 3 vases, a small table, some toys, a toaster and more.  It feels really good to get rid of things we aren't using.  And its really nice to have a little less clutter around the house.  

And it was a great intro to the eco-challenge I'm participating in beginning Saturday.  For two weeks members of our UU Church congregation are challenging themselves to be "greener" in one or more areas--you choose your own goal.  Some people have set their challenge to take showers shorter than 5 minutes.  Others have lowered their thermostats, planned to ride their bike when traveling less then 5 miles, and more.  My goal is to  produce no waste for the two week period.  I can already tell I won't make it to zero waste--I don't really have all systems in place yet (ie. I'm still receiving a lot of junk mail that is not recyclable) but I will do my best.  If you want to play along you can go to the EcoChallenge website http://www.ecochallenge.org/.

Or you can just play along on your own and share your successes here!  What will you do for the next two weeks (beginning Oct. 1) to help our planet?  

Please share! 

Monday Morsels

*   It finally got hot here.  Last week we had two days in the upper 80's and while we didn't make it to the beach we did break out the sprinkler and fill the outdoor tub with cold water.

 *  I made Juniper this sun hat to replace the toddler hat she's been borrowing from Kale.  Its still awaiting a ribbon to tie it tight against her head (and allow for size adjustment as she grows).

*  The flowers are truly in bloom now, irises, tea roses, rhododendrons (which I never thought I liked before now) and soon the cosmos as well.  We're bummed that all the zinnias were scratched up by the chickens, but I heard Village Farm has some zinnia flats for sale so we may have to get some replacements.

*  The chickens know its summer and are doing their part.  We have one lady sitting at the moment who is most unhappy about having her eggs snatched each day (we have no rooster, so no worries about possible chickies  growing in there, though the poor lady doesn't realize she's wasting her time).

*  Kale has always loved when I vacuum--good thing since I seem to do a lot of it.  But now, he insists on doing it himself.  Its a little slower but as long as I can put up with the sound for a while he does get a fair bit done for me.

*  I ordered this little book a while ago.  It is all hand written on the inside which might make you think it would be a pain to read, but its really not.  It has directions for making all kinds of household cleaning products as well as advice on gardening.  We made some face wash last week and are hoping to do some tooth powder this week.  If it comes out well we'll have no more tubes to throw out.

*  These are the perfect recipes for Wylie since one of his favorite activities is creating "experiments" that involve mixing all kinds of kitchen ingredients to see what happens.  Usually nothing (unless baking soda and vinegar are involved) but now we get face soap!  

*  The kids set up a terrarium weeks ago and have been in search of just the perfect inhabitant.  "Claude Hopper" (who we later learned was Claudia) was perfect for the job.  We gave her plenty of slugs and a few earth worms which our books said she would enjoy.  I never saw her attempt one, but when Wylie caught a huge housefly and dropped it in she didn't waste any time.  Toads may look lumpy, but their tongues are fast!
She has recently been returned to the great outdoors, well fed and unharmed.  We now have a resident frog.

*  Kale is sporting some new Mama made tractor pants salvaged from an old shirt of Uncle Casey's.  At first he didn't seem to care about the tractors on the hem, but recently has been picking them out himself to wear, shouting "trat-tor, trat-tor!"  Love that.

*  I started this sundress for Juni last summer as a birthday gift and just now got around to finishing it. This one is made from a pair of curtains found at Good Will.   Surprisingly it still fits, and while it didn't come out as well as I hoped she still loves it, which is really all I could ask. 

*  With all that rain this spring I'd forgotten what a nice place our front porch can be early on a sunny morning.  I've been having my coffee/tea out there along with a few furry friends and have decided it is one of the very best ways to start the day.

Happy Monday to you!

Crackers and More

This week I've made a few more steps to reduce the amount of waste coming into (and going out of) our home.  First, we made crackers.  A few weeks ago I stopped buying crackers because they are not only expensive, but overly packaged.  And it turns out they are a waste of money because they are basically made of flour and water.  Admittedly we have not yet found a recipe we love--but we've eaten almost all of the three batches so far.

We've tried one batch of whole wheat with cheddar--good but cooked a little too long, one gluten free savory cracker that would have been great except for the baking soda--I'll try them again without it.  And one gluten free graham cracker like crackers with vanilla and cinnamon.  I'll post some recipes when we find some we really love.

gluten free granola,     basic granola,       homemade crackers   

I also modified our usual granola recipe (I use the recipe from "Horn of the Moon Cookbook" by Ginny Callan) and used puffed rice in place of the oats.  It was great, and gluten free.

I finally got around to sewing a few bags for bulk and produce, and put them to good use right away.

 I tried making a few other handi-snacks such as the tiny cinnamon rolls (above) made with honey, almonds, and flax.  They were super yummy (according to the kids) the first day, but got too hard afterwards.  I just made these with some extra bread dough--but now that I know crackers are way easy I'll stick with those.

I had to dump my first batch of Kombucha, but the second one worked.  I bottled and drank the first today!  I love the G.T.;s brand from the store, but after seeing the "scoby" from my home brew I was more than a little bit scared to taste the stuff (it really looks terrible).  But it was good--and way cheaper than the nearly $4.00 a bottle I was splurging on once a week.  I got almost 4 bottles from my half gallon jug, which is enough for me right now.  Rob has so far not been willing to even try it--but maybe I'll wear him down.  I bottled some of it in beer bottles from Rob's home brew beer supply and was mid-bottle when I realized we had to leave for Wylie's dulcimer lesson (more on this later).  I was half way to the car, bottle in hand when I realized I shouldn't drive with a beer bottle in my cup holder--even if it didn't contain beer.  Maybe next time I'll just use Ball jars.

Not related:

The chicks are getting big fast and have begun jumping out of their enclosure (this leads to an alarming amount of peeping from all chicks--sufficient for us to rush to the mud room to find the escapee).  We've been trying to contain them by balancing a jacket on a tall boot draped over the top--despite how it sounds this was not a bad solution.  But this afternoon I found an old piece of netting and was able to replace the jacket with this (still held aloft by the boot) and hold it in place with bungee cords.   I realize they will need something else to live in soon.  We've been planning on building them a separate chick enclosure in part of the chicken run as soon as they can move outside.  But with the forecast of snow (arrhhg!) this weekend it sounds like it may be a while.

Also Rob was away for a couple of days for work (bummer) --but came home with an 8 foot steel gate for our garden  (yay!).  This may not be every girl's idea of a great gift, but I am psyched.  It is silver and backed with fencing (to keep out said chickens) and I love it.  Unfortunately it is 2 feet too short--but the fence is not up yet, so we'll just move one of the posts a bit.  I use the term we loosely here, and in most matters of hard physical labor. (ie.  we cut all our own firewood, we cleared the land ourselves, we'll be putting up the fencing any day now...)  My friend Jenny reminded me recently that good management is crucial to any job well done.  I couldn't agree more.