Monthly Archives: July 2007

Score!

Posted on by

Toby and I had to drive both trucks out to the Habitat store today for their half off all doors and windows sale!  We were able to pick up a front door (with a nice big window), back door, 4 interior room doors (antique looking!), all of the closet doors, and 4 big windows for $144!!!!!  The antique doors are solid 1920’s looking doors that had an old price tag on them of $150 each (we paid $5 each!).  Under one coat of peeling paint is a beautiful dark reddish wood!  So, we’ll sand them down and see what we get.  We also got two triangle shaped windows that will fit together to make a square, and one large trapezoid.  We’re going to try to do something artistic with them 🙂

I have occasionally written herbal articles for a regional paper called New Life Journal.  Each month they do an article on green building going on in the area.  Usually the houses, that they feature, though beautiful, are fairly large and expensive.  So, I mentioned our home project to the managing editor and she said she would be interested in doing a feature on our house when it is done!  We haven’t done the calculations yet, but I think we will have it all done (including solar stuff) for under 100K (maybe well under that, but we’ll see).

So, today is day 11 of the fast.  Physically, I’m still doing fine, but I really want some flavor in my life!  Everything makes me drool… Watching Kaia eat her animal crackers… Smelling a BBQ… anything.  Only 3 days left.  We’ll, then all I get is orange juice for a day and a half while I get my digestion going again… THEN, I will make a delicious, scrumptious, nutritious, vege, seaweed, miso soup! MMmmmm, I’m drooling again!

Day 8

Posted on by

Day 8 of the fast… a little over half way through!  Physically, I’m having no issues.  It’s not hard to do.  But man, I am craving food!  Especially carbs!  I have to stop myself from grabbing a snack from Kaia’s bowl every time she is snacking on something!  (Those bland animal crackers just look so good!!)

Toby has been experimenting with some new recipes… healthy things, and I’m really excited to try them!  It’s actually nice to have cooking going on while I’m fasting.  It makes the home feel warm and cozy.  I want to try the food, but I have to remind myself to be patient and that I will get to try it sooner or later.

6 more days…

Today’s harvest

Posted on by

As part of this fast, I want to start not just eating healthier, but more sustainably. Both Toby and I have talked about wanting to harvest as much as possible from our land. So, I got this fantastic book “From Crabgrass Muffins to Pine Needle Tea” by Linda Runyon. She lived in the Adirondack Mountains for 13 years without electricity or running water. She learned how to feed her family by harvesting, cooking, and preserving the wild foods that grew on her land. The book talks about lots of great plants, how to find them, along with recipes and nutritional values of the plants. (She’s coming out with a revision in a few weeks, so hold your horses if you want one.)

So, I’ve been inspired to harvest some of the foods on our land right now. Below are Lambs Quarters and Aster hanging up to dry.
harvest1.jpg

The top bag is Yellow Dock seed, and the bottom is Bull Thistle leaves. All of this stuff is going to be dried and ground into flour.
harvest2.jpg

Here are some steamed Bull Thistle Flowers. These I tossed in the freezer until I’m eating again.
harvest3.jpg

It’s interesting how I’m fasting to try to make food less of an issue in my life, yet all I think about when I’m fasting is food! Today (day 4) has been good. Yesterday I was sneezing my head off and very snotty. Today, my lymph is a little swollen and my head feels heavy. There’s lots of processing going on. 10 days to go…

Hoop Path Workshop

Posted on by

I spent this past weekend in Carrboro for a hooping workshop and I have wanted to post about it, but I don’t know how to put it into words. When most people think of hooping, they might imagine just spinning this circle around your waist. But hooping has become so much more, especially after this weekend. Baxter, the hooper who taught the class, got into hooping after he had a shoulder injury. It was his method of physical therapy. But, through that, he had developed his own hoop mythology. So for three days, we learned about the story of the Maidan (pron My-dan), who hooped to get closer to the spirit wind. He is an amazing story teller, and I really felt myself becoming a part of the story. We learned about the belief, strength, and grace it takes to hoop (and do anything in our lives for that matter).

There were 3 three hour workshops, a fire ceremony and hooping on Sat. night, and a Hooper’s Ball on Sunday.

As you can see, on Sunday, we really got to cut loose and strut our stuff! (that’s me on the right with the big white feather on my head):-) I’ll get some video footage up soon…
hoopersball.jpg

hoopersball2.jpg

fasting

Posted on by

I am on the second day of a fast right now.  I decided that I wanted to create better food habits for myself so I’m going to fast (doing the master cleanse) for 14 days and then start my food habits over.  I have a huge sweet tooth, and whenever there is food, I always eat more than I need to be full.  I get this thing in my head that if I don’t eat it and enjoy it right now, I might seriously miss out on something.  So, I stuff myself a lot.  I also want to start having more greens, veggies, and whole foods in our diets.  Toby decided to do it with me, which is nice.

I did this once when Kaia was 2, just to have a nice cleanse after having been pregnant and breastfeeding. But, Kaia didn’t like it.  She couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t eat with her.  Now, she is just curious and wants to talk about foods and what makes a food a healthy food.

So far, things are good.  My energy has been fine, I’m not too hungry.  Although, I am craving the taste of food and the feeling of chewing.