Thank you so much for this, Katie! (Sorry it has taken me so long to say that!!)
Monthly Archives: August 2007
house skin
When I asked Toby what they did yesterday while I was at work he said “It was a pretty slow day”. Yeah, right!! Continue reading
building and building
Check out what my man made me today!! Once in a blue moon he gets in a serious organization mood… so I encouraged this by asking him to make me something to better organize my tinctures (this is my home stash… the stuff at the office takes up a large closet :-))Â All alphabetized neatly from A to Z… oooh I love order!
Here’s the progress at the house… walls are going up. Interior walls down stairs, interior and exterior upstairs. Here we are framing out some of the upstairs walls.
Above and below is Toby and Eden framing out a window above the stairwell.
And here I am, so beautifully gracing another window above the stairwell… I think I should have taken off the tool belt and put on the stiletto heels to really get the full effect!
Here’s Toby in the window that will be above the bureau. (Stilettos would have made all the difference here, too :-))
shroom medicine
A good friend of mine called me this morning. She said she and her two boys were out mushroom hunting and found some Ganoderma tsugae (or Hemlock Varnish Shelf). It’s closely related to the Reishi mushrooms and is used in a similar way medicinally. So, she asked if I would like it. I said of course, thinking I would make a little medicine for the winter. WELL, a little medicine would be the understatement of the year! They brought in 8 mushrooms ranging in size from 3 inches across to 2 feet!! Absolutely beautiful, stunning examples of Ganoderma tsugae!! So, right now, they are on the stove. I chopped them up (while they are fresh and I could still chop them, ’cause they get hard as a rock if you let them dry) and put them in a pot of water. They will simmer until the water is reduced to a thick, dark brown concentrated liquid. Then, I will measure out the liquid and add enough alcohol to make the final product 35% alcohol. Then I will put the mushrooms back in the liquid and let it sit for 4 weeks to macerate. After that, I’ll strain the mushrooms out and voila! This process helps to extract all the medicine available in the mushrooms.
Above are the smaller ones!!
The two largest mushrooms (below) I saved to dry and hang on the wall… one at my house, one at the clinic. If I need them later, I can process them, but I really like the idea of hanging them on my wall (a little energetic/home immune support :-)) Yes, that is my foot in the pictures for size comparison! (I don’t have small feet, by the way!)
Today’s Haul
Toby and I headed out today to pick up the shower and some wood for exterior (upstairs) siding. On the way, we stopped by the Habitat store to see if there was anything new and got a great haul! We picked up another antique door (this one for our bedroom) for $25, a cast iron kitchen sink in great condition for $75 (retails new for $400), and a jenn-air gas convection oven for $125!!! The oven is between 6 and 9 years old, but is in great condition. We found similar models on the internet for ~$2000!!! Wahooo!!
Right now, I’m enjoying a little popcorn snack that I’ll share with you, since you asked…
Pop up some popcorn in a little olive oil (we use the stove instead of a microwave). Then add a splash of tamari (enough to get some flavor but not so much as to really wet the popcorn). Sprinkle on some nutritional yeast (I like lots… add it to your taste), and a dash of spirulina. A really yummy treat with lots of minerals and B-vitamins! (Well, Toby thinks it’s gross, but I love it!!)
Bottles
Oh, I forgot… Here are all the bottles that we will be incorporating into the cordwood walls. We’ve put all of them into a big bathtub with soapy water to try to get the labels and dirt off. We mostly have clear, green, yellowish, and blue. I have two red ones that I got at an antique store. If you have any cool colored or funky shaped bottles in your house that you would like to include in the walls of our house, I would be honored to have them! I’ll put a little note inside with your name, so you will be preserved in my house forever 🙂
Cordwood!! Wild foods and Chickens.
Toby laid down our first cordwood pieces today! Very Exciting!! Here he is, putting in the first piece!!
This is our friend Eden who has started helping us build. She is working with the mortar here. It is a mix hydrated lime, water, and sand, and should be a nice white once it is dry. That will help to brighten things up inside (as opposed to a dark gray mortar). this wall will be a part of the mechanical/mud/laundry room.
Here is the same wall from the outside.
I also ground down all the plants that I harvested a couple of weeks ago. I don’t know if it is worth the effort. The Lamb’s Quarters only made 6.5 ounces of flour, the Aster 5.5, and the Yellow Dock ~4.5 ounces. The Thistle I had to trash because I couldn’t grind it up fine enough and I was worried about getting little sharp thistle pieces in our food. So, for all the effort in gathering, drying, and grinding them, I think it may be a better idea to gather a little each year and use the wild green flours to supplement and increase the nutrients in the ones we buy.
Have I mentioned that Suki (the dog) and Sweetie (the Houdini chicken) have come to an agreement? I don’t know how or why it happened, but Sweetie, who continues to escape her coop, roams all around the yard and Suki doesn’t bother her. She hops back into the coop to lay her eggs and then gets out again! So, we decided to try to just open up the coop, during the day while we are here, and let all the chickens roam around. Suki seems to be fine with it. She will occasionally give chase to one of the chickens, but there have been no casualties and the chickens love it! In fact, when we don’t open the coop up early enough, all the chickens are trying (and often succeeding) to get out! They have even been going back to their boxes in their coop house to lay their eggs! Crazy chickens!