Accomplishments this weekend:
Saturday – diddly-squat!
Sunday – Planted 7 mums, 3 echinacea, 2 horehound, 2 rosemary, 2 catnip, 2 st. john’s wort, 1 bay laurel, 1 mugwart, 1 stevia, 1 ginkgo, repotted some aloe, started setting up my cold-frame for fall plantings, mowed the lawn, took out the recycling, cleaned the house A/C filter, and blogged. I’m tired! I’m going to bed!
Category Archives: Sustainable Living
My car is a vegetarian
We did it!! This weekend, we finished the engine conversion and we are now running our Jetta on straight vegetable oil!! Well, we actually start the car on biodiesel, and once the engine is warm enough, we flip a switch that changes fuel tanks and it runs on vegetable oil. We are talking with some area restaurants to see where we can get some waste oil from. Then, we just filter it and put it in the car. Toby is working on a website detailing the experience. I’ll let you know when it is up.
Solar Dehydrator
So, after a rainy summer, overcast weather, and two hurricanes I have finally had a chance to try my home-made solar dehydrator, and it worked great!! Our yard gets very little sun right now…lots of trees. But, the dehydrator was out in the sun from 11 AM until 3:30 PM. I tried drying apples and bananas and in only 4 1/2 hours the dehydrator heated up really well. The fruit was about half dried by 3:30 (when the sun went behind the trees). So, if the dehydrator could gotten more sun-hours, I think it would have been quicker to dry the fruit in the sun than with my electric dehydrator!! (The rack of fruit sat inside the upper box while drying.)
Homemade Butter
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.
Mr. Fusion
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.)
Grow Your Own Sprouts
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
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
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.
Cooking with the Sun
I bought a ton of tomatoes yesterday so I can dry them. (We don’t have any producing plants yet, since we just moved. But, I did buy local!!) Anyhooo, I have a food dehydrator, but I hate plugging the thing in and leaving it running for hours on end…what a waste of electricity. So, today I built a Solar Dehydrator!! I’m very excited to use it! It was very easy and fast to build and if it works well, I may try to build one out of wood instead of cardboard. I’ll post a picture when I have it up and running.
Toby got back from Asheville last night! Yay!! It’s nice to have him home! While he was there he harvested the last of the garlic we planted last Fall. So, we now have 7 different varieties of hard and soft necks originating from places all over the world!! Cool, eh??!! I don’t know too many people who don’t like garlic (actually, I don’t know any)! (NOTE: If you are expecting a holiday gift from me and don’t like garlic, please let me know :-))
Sustainable Living
Many of you know that we are trying to live our life and build our home more sustainably. We have converted our Jetta to Biodiesel, we are composting all our food scrapes with worms, we are working on making our house passive solar…So, I found this great site today, Path To Freedom. It’s run by a family that is trying to live a sustainable life in urban California. “Our objective is to live harmoniously and sustainably as possible in the midst of the city. On our urban homestead project incorporates many back-to-basic practices, permaculture methods, and appropriate technologies for our present circumstances. We minimize our car use, buy in bulk, prepare seasonal meals from our garden, and much more! We enjoy sharing our knowledge and helping others develop along their journey.” The website also has links to all kinds of do-it-yourself projects that anyone can incorporate into their lives. You should check it out! It has some fantastic information.
Blueberry Fever/Shellby Update
K and I woke up early and took a drive an hour south to a pick-your-own blueberry farm. Jean and Daniel came with us and we had a blast. The bushes were covered in berries. I put K in her backpack so I could have both hands free to pick berries and while I picked, K reached around me and picked some of her own! The berries were only $1 per pound!! There were also black berries and tomatoes and fresh honey! I am definately going back soon!!
Oh, I also called the rescue center about Shellby and they said she is doing well. Her shell is healing over and will eventually grow back.
And for those of you out there who need a comic relief break. vrrrooooommvrroommmm
Heat Kills!
Ice Cream! Popsicles! Cold water on my head! Something!! It is So Freaking Hot here!! YES! I said FA-REE-KING HOT! I almost melted walking out of the front door! I took my 1 year old to campus to run some errands (we decided to ride the bus in just to see how long it will take when I start school…bad idea) After waiting in the sun for the bus to arrive, K had already started to wilt. By the time we got to campus, it took every ounce of energy for her just to keep her head up. Poor thing! I ran one errand and decided to call it a day. I’m ready for a little cold snap! (or for Ben and Jerry’s to give me a lifetime supply of ice cream to help me through my summers here…whichever comes first I guess.)
I did run out later to get some groceries. I use to like grocery shopping, but it seems like we have been spending a fortune lately. I am trying to be more health concious and buy organic foods, but the prices are outrageous!! I just don’t get why adding less to your crops justifies charging more for it!! Yes, I understand that there are a lot of things that organic gardeners need to do to get good results with their crops, but $2.97 for a FA-REE-KING avocado?!?!? We use to sell our avocados for $0.20 each when I lived in Miami…and yes, they were organic! I’m going to start growing/making as much of my own food as I can, starting right now! I’m off to make some bread!
Starting To Fit In
I’m so excited! I found an organic pick-your-own blueberry farm in the area. Actually, I found a bunch of them. I thought I had missed blueberry season here. It’s also only $1 per pound!! MAN! I could go for 20 or 30 pounds in my freezer!!! Anyone up for a smoothie??
I have also met another natural-earth lovin’ mama and her 14 month old son! I have been feeling kind-of lonely since we moved and I lost my support group of other moms. So, it is extremely nice to hang out with J. and be able to share stories, concerns, and care. She also clued me in to this great website, kneebouncers, that lets kids bang on the keyboard and change images on the screen. It’s really cute! Although, somehow K figured out how to put my computer in sleep mode while she was banging on the keys 🙂 She’s such a cutie!
Worms and Turtles
OK, the worm composter is officially going. We got some worms from a friend but needed to buy even more. We produce so much food waste it was overwhelming the little suckers. It’s pretty amazing how they immediately go to town on the food. We have a lot of ants that are trying to start their own farm in the composter, though. So, I am going to have to figure out how to get rid of them. I may try some vaseline around the legs of the box so they can’t get in.
My dog, Suki, found a turtle (I think it is a box turtle) in our back yard a few days ago. It would be no problem, except she has decided to use the turtle as a chew toy. Luckily she didn’t harm him. So, today, I brought him to a new area on our property and left him with some treats (greens and a strawberry). Hopefully he will be OK.
Worm Composting
This past winter, my brother-in-law made our family a worm composter. I’m not sure where he got the plans, but it is really cool! It is a 4 x 3 x 2 wooden box with a screen underneath to sift out the castings once the food scrapes has been ‘wormified’. It also has a heater built in to keep the worms warm in the winter. I am finally getting around to setting it up and will be getting some worms next week!! I can’t wait to start recycling my food scrapes instead of throwing them away!
The last link is how I found my worms! The woman I spoke with in the Education and Outreach Dept. has worm bins herself and said she would let me have some of hers!! She is also coming out to see the bin that my brother-in-law made, because she has never seen anything like it.
