Monthly Archives: August 2004

Homemade Butter

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I made my own butter last night and it was really pretty simple. So, here’s the recipe:

- Start with ~1 pint of fresh cream. Pour the cream into a quart jar and close the jar, securing well. SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE and keep shaking it until it thickens. The butter milk will then separate from the butter…you will be able to see it through the glass when this happens. Shake just a little more. Pour the butter milk into a container and save for future use. I actually poured it all through a strainer and let it drain for a little while. Then, put the butter in a container and, if you want, add a little salt (it will help the butter last longer) to taste. And, Voila, you’re done! Next time, I may add some honey to the final butter, mmmmm.

You know, I’ve never seen goat butter, have you?? I don’t see why it couldn’t be done with fresh goats milk either.

Walkin’ Crawley

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Just a quick note for all of you K fans out there: K took her first steps today…3 of them. I still don’t think she will really be walking around well until 15 or 16 months, though. She’s such a mellow child and is very content taking it slow.

Mr. Fusion

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Do you remember in Back to the Future III, when the flux capacitor was powered by Mr. Fusion (a blender that ground up garbage) instead of plutonium??? Well, I am happy to say that our car will soon be running, once again, on garbage!! We have a Diesel VW Jetta and were actually making ‘Biodiesel’ for the car until we moved to Chapel Hill and had to take apart our processor. It’s been hard to have to put nasty diesel into the car after running it on biodiesel, not to mention the cost of diesel!! Well, today we ordered a ‘Grease car’ kit! We hope to have our car up and running on straight vegetable oil very shortly! Basically, we will get waste oil from a local restaurant, filter it, and put it in a seperate tank in the car. The car will be started on regular diesel and once the engine has warmed up (and the vegetable oil is fluid enough), we flip a switch and change the engine over to run on the vegetable oil!! The car actually runs smoother and produces less pollution. The only downside is smelling like french fries :-) (Although, I kind of like that smell, but I will probably be hungry all the time.)

Hooping Mama!!

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I went to a hoop workshop today put on by Spiral Hoop Dance and had the best time!! It was so much fun to get out there and hoop with everyone. There was an informal question/answer session going on while we all hooped. There was also some drumming going on, which made for great hoooping music. I think I hooped for about a hour straight!

some hoopers

Vivian, aka Spiral of Spiral Hoop Dance

Grow Your Own Sprouts

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I remember when I was really young, my mom use to make alfalfa sprouts from scratch. I think she had a kit and you just add seeds and water and wait for them to grow. I’ve always loved the fresh flavor of sprouts and the great nutrition you get from them. So, I’ve been experimenting with making my own. (It’s so much more satisfying to eat something freshly grown!) Basically, this is all I did:
1. Put ~ 1/2 cup of beans (I used green lentils but you can use almost any kind of bean or seed) into a 32 oz empty yogurt container.
2. Cover the container with a cheese cloth and secure the cloth with a rubber band
3. Covered beans with cool water and let soak 2 hours.
4. Carefully drain off the water and place the container upside-down on a plate.
5. Rinse beans with cool water twice a day and return to upside-down position on the plate.
6. Your sprouts will be ready to eat in just a few days!!! Keep in the fridge and use within a week.

kufe

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The title was supposed to me ‘Life’…but I am trying to learn to type on a new keyboard and I keep hitting the wrong keys…so, instead of life, we have ‘kufe’. I like it.

Well, it looks like our plans to build an addition are being put on hold. We finally got an estimate from our contractor and he thinks it will cost twice what we were prepared to pay!! I don’t understand why a big hallway and empty room should cost soooo much!! Plus, our original plan was to use recycled materials and build as much of it as we could ourselves. But, getting building permits for alternative building structures is hard to do and our contractor kept pushing for doing it the ‘normal’ way. And with me starting school next week and both Toby and I already feeling stretched thin, I really doubt we could put in much sweat equity. We don’t plan on staying here for more than 3-5 years, so investing a big chunk of money to make this house passive solar wouldn’t pay off in that amount of time. If we know where we were going once I get out of school we could buy some land to build on. But, we’re not sure…any ideas on where we should invest in the meantime? As for heating the house passively, we will probably put some water barrels in the south facing windows to hold the suns heat and make some heavy duty shades to keep the warmth in during the winter nights. I’m not sure what we will do about growing food indoors. Our original plan was to have the solar hallway full of planting beds to grow food all year long…maybe we will build some planter beds on top of the water barrels??? We’ll see….

Asheville

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We’ve spent the last 4 days in Asheville visiting family and friends. It’s always nice to go home. I know we have only been gone for a few months, but I really love the place! I’ve never been anywhere else where just driving into the mountains makes you feel more safe and secure. The flora and fauna are amazing, and the people are so laid back and accepting (well, most are). When we moved to Chapel Hill, our plan was to go back to Asheville after school. But, we are really unsure now. We’ve always known that the air in Asheville is getting pretty bad. But, since we have left, it has become even more apparent that you can see the air pollution sitting over the mountains as you drive into the city! I have heard that a lot of the pollution comes from areas west of Asheville, like Chicago, and settles in Asheville because of the way the mountains are situated (Asheville is in a basin). But, I know that Ashevillians produce a lot of pollution on their own. And recently, the asthma rate among children has been skyrocketing…all over NC! Something like 25-30% of the children in NC have significant asthma symptoms! No wonder I started having lung problems when I moved here.

So, now what?? I’m torn between living in a place I have know and love and that has amazing memories, and having to fight for my childs right to clean air (while risking her little lungs)!! Or passing the burden on to others and moving somewhere that has better established environmental regulations and cleaner air to breath.

Chaos!

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Yesterday was a wild day at our house. I’m not sure what is going on with us.

I was in a horribly foul mood and snapped at everyone (even the dog). Everything made me irritable.

K decided she didn’t want to nap. (This is a child who usually pushes you away from her bed while saying “bye-bye”). I tried to put her down for her morning nap and she screamed and fussed! She would crawl out of the bed and sit by the door. So, Toby finally came in and lay down with her until she fell asleep. (She slept for 1 1/2 hours, so you know she was tired). Then for her afternoon nap, she did the same thing. By the time she actually seemed like she was going to settle down, it was time for her to get up anyway…so, no nap.

And, Toby, well he probably spent about 5 hours on the phone yesterday with customers, family, co-workers, etc. Everyone wanted to talk. (For those of you who don’t know, Toby is a computer programmer, which should take very little phone time!!) He was a little peaved, ’cause he felt like he accomplished nothing! Plus, there was a fussy child at his door.

To end the day, we were expecting furniture to be delivered two days ago. Yesterday, at about 4:55pm, we got a call that they would be at our place in 20 minutes. But, they had an 18 wheeler. So, they wouldn’t be able to fit on our road. We would have to meet them at the end of our gravel drive, put the furniture on the top of our car and drive it back to our house (and I am paying them for delivery why??) So, in 20 minutes we went to the end of the road to meet them (5:15). At 6pm they showed up!! I really did want to spend my evening sitting in the car!

Anyhoo, things seem to have returned to normal today. Mercury must have been in retrograde…I’m not really sure what that means, but I’m sure that’s what it was :-)

Hooping

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OK, I think I may have figured out an exercise I can do.

Twice a week, the local co-op has music and food on their front lawn, and every week the Spiral Hoop Dancers bring lots of hoops and dance to the music. They bring extras for everyone else to try. So, remembering how I won that pre-school hula hoop competition and seeing what a great abdominal work out it is, I decided to get one. It’s a little embarassing to relearn the hoop infront of a hundred people. So, we went home and hooped in the rain last night (that sounds a little obscene, doesn’t it?). I still may start swimming again. But, this way, I can work out (and have fun) at home with out having to drive somewhere or pay a membership fee! Plus, in a couple of years, K and I can hoop together!!

Lammas

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Happy Lammas Everyone! Today is the midpoint between the Summer Solstice and the Fall Equinox and has been traditionally celebrated as the first of the three fall festivals (Lammas, Fall Equinox, and Halloween). I was brought up without being a part of any set religion. So, I celebrated the major US Holidays and those of my religious friends. Now that I am a mom, I am trying hard to incorporate traditions and festivals into our lives. I really like the idea of festivals and holidays that help us remember the turning of the seasons and get us a little closer to the earth. So, yesterday, in celebration of Lammas, we made bread from scratch, and today we canned some tomatoes. (Bread was traditionally made on Lammas because the first harvest of grain was usually done around this time; and canning was getting into full swing.) Here’s a picture of the beautiful tomatoes and some pesto that we made from left over basil. Mmmmmm, Mmmmm, good!