I got a lot done today. I picked up the last two big logs out front and put them on my pole pile. Then I started working on the chicken coop. I actually finished shoveling it out and laying down clean wood shavings by supper time. I put the bedding in the garden boxes, around the blackberries, and around the rhubarb. The chickens were very nosy about what I was doing inside the coop and were under my feet most of the time. I opened the coop window and aired it out well -- I needed to after I took the broom and swept all the cobwebs from the rafters. Talk about dusty! The new wood shavings on the floor and in the nest boxes smell great. I get a lot of pleasure from having a clean chicken coop. I am going to go through my fabric bin and make a nice curtain to hang in front of the nest boxes, and a dark thermal one to hang over the big window to act as a solar curtain. I read about solar curtains in a little book about easy solar projects I bought from Knowledge Publications called Sunshine to Dollars. The coop should stay nice and warm this winter now that I have the leaf bags stacked up around the outside, too. The bags don't go all the way up the outside walls -- just half-way -- but I think what is there is enough of a wind barrier and insulation. I was hoping to get the last of the garlic, potato onions and shallots planted, but I finished with the chicken coop too late. Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow -- is another day. Thanks Goodness for Indian Summer!
I wandered around the dashboard and discovered that missing Followers is an outstanding issue that Google is working on so I will try to be patient. I did have Friend Connect working briefly, but I saw that it, too, was missing when I logged on, so I deleted it and put the Followers widget back on. I hope they fix the bug soon.
Working outside feels so good. I will miss the outdoors when the deep snows come.
Monday, November 09, 2009
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Sunday
Well, I'm not sure what I did, but I finally got my Followers back. I did have to delete the original widget and go with the Google Connect, but I guess you periodically have to upgrade widgets the same as Microsoft forces you to upgrade your version of Windows -- regardless of your wishes.
It was a slow day. In fact, after lunch I actually took a long nap; must have needed it. I'm glad I missed the Chicago Bears losing another game.
I've been reading Sharon Astyk's new book, A Nation of Farmers. I really like it; it's thought provoking and not preachy. When peak oil books get preachy, they lose me. I've read a couple of books about building communities post oil collapse where the models were based in the UK and I couldn't even finish reading them because I got sick of the "degenerate Americans" slant.
There is a part in Sharon's book that discusses how little Americans cook their food that I found particularly interesting. I was shocked at the statistics, probably because I have always cooked and can't imagine people not cooking. Maybe cooking is something you have to learn from parental example; I don't know. My parents were children of the first Great Depression. My father was raised on a farm, and while they were poor, they fared better than my mother did. She was born in rural Louisiana and she often went hungry. I believe that early experience of my mother colored her perception of food. She was always very concerned that there be "enough" food in the house. Food and cooking were very important to her. When she passed away from complications of diabetes the picture we put of her on remembrance cards was of her smiling as she basted a turkey. When I was 17 and started dating, she took me into the kitchen and taught me how to fry chicken; she said it was the only thing I needed to know how to cook. (She was right!) From my mother I learned that cooking was a skill integral to keeping a home and raising children.
Over the years I have refined my ability to cook from scratch. When my husband and I bought our first house, we built garden boxes for veggies and herbs in the back yard and planted elderberries, raspberries, gooseberries, and rhubarb as landscape plants around the fence line. It took me 20 years, but by the time we sold the house, the garden was just beautiful, and my gardening skills and food preservation skills were almost second nature. The freezer was always filled with venison my husband hunted or beef and chicken I bought from the butcher (it's hard to find a good butcher in the city, but not impossible), and I had shelf upon shelf of home canned fruit and beans. I canned and prepared food for the week on weekends. I never had a hard time cooking from scratch. My husband and I worked full time -- he worked nights while I worked days -- and we raised three children, two of which were severely handicapped, and we always had the time to cook from scratch. I think Tom likes cooking better than I do; I'm more of a baker than a cook. It isn't difficult. I think people who don't cook are just lazy; they don't want to make the effort to plan their meals.
Sharon's points about the pros of cooking from scratch are well taken. Many times I had teachers ask me what I did because my children, despite their handicaps, were hardly ever sick compared with their peers. I believe it was because we cooked our food from scratch using wholesome ingredients. We did not fill our kids with preservative laden garbage. Anyway, the book is a good one, and I recommend you read it.
Take care, and have a good week!
It was a slow day. In fact, after lunch I actually took a long nap; must have needed it. I'm glad I missed the Chicago Bears losing another game.
I've been reading Sharon Astyk's new book, A Nation of Farmers. I really like it; it's thought provoking and not preachy. When peak oil books get preachy, they lose me. I've read a couple of books about building communities post oil collapse where the models were based in the UK and I couldn't even finish reading them because I got sick of the "degenerate Americans" slant.
There is a part in Sharon's book that discusses how little Americans cook their food that I found particularly interesting. I was shocked at the statistics, probably because I have always cooked and can't imagine people not cooking. Maybe cooking is something you have to learn from parental example; I don't know. My parents were children of the first Great Depression. My father was raised on a farm, and while they were poor, they fared better than my mother did. She was born in rural Louisiana and she often went hungry. I believe that early experience of my mother colored her perception of food. She was always very concerned that there be "enough" food in the house. Food and cooking were very important to her. When she passed away from complications of diabetes the picture we put of her on remembrance cards was of her smiling as she basted a turkey. When I was 17 and started dating, she took me into the kitchen and taught me how to fry chicken; she said it was the only thing I needed to know how to cook. (She was right!) From my mother I learned that cooking was a skill integral to keeping a home and raising children.
Over the years I have refined my ability to cook from scratch. When my husband and I bought our first house, we built garden boxes for veggies and herbs in the back yard and planted elderberries, raspberries, gooseberries, and rhubarb as landscape plants around the fence line. It took me 20 years, but by the time we sold the house, the garden was just beautiful, and my gardening skills and food preservation skills were almost second nature. The freezer was always filled with venison my husband hunted or beef and chicken I bought from the butcher (it's hard to find a good butcher in the city, but not impossible), and I had shelf upon shelf of home canned fruit and beans. I canned and prepared food for the week on weekends. I never had a hard time cooking from scratch. My husband and I worked full time -- he worked nights while I worked days -- and we raised three children, two of which were severely handicapped, and we always had the time to cook from scratch. I think Tom likes cooking better than I do; I'm more of a baker than a cook. It isn't difficult. I think people who don't cook are just lazy; they don't want to make the effort to plan their meals.
Sharon's points about the pros of cooking from scratch are well taken. Many times I had teachers ask me what I did because my children, despite their handicaps, were hardly ever sick compared with their peers. I believe it was because we cooked our food from scratch using wholesome ingredients. We did not fill our kids with preservative laden garbage. Anyway, the book is a good one, and I recommend you read it.
Take care, and have a good week!
Tidbits and Dumplings vs. Mashed Potatoes
Well, I'm really getting frustrated with not being able to fix my Followers widget here on the blog. I did try to use Google Connect, but that showed up as a blank, too, and so I deleted it. I am not too keen on Facebook take-offs anyway, especially as I really don't like Facebook. I have a Facebook account but just can't seem to get into the "social networking". Maybe I'm more of a hermit than I think I am. I am glad I was able to upload and embed the bowling ramp video though.
I've been working hard to finish raking up the leaves and picking up brush in the "fire safe zone" around the house while the weather holds. Indian Summer kicked in today with temps in the 50's F. I didn't even need a sweater to work outside. I almost got to where I could work on the garden boxes in back of the house, but Tom decided he wanted to go to the American Legion fund raising dinner so I had to put off the garden boxes till tomorrow. I sure hope I can finish all the field work.
The dinner was GREAT. There was a steady stream of people either coming in to eat or taking out orders. There was sauerkraut, dumplings, gravy, pork tenderloin, biscuits, and choice of chocolate brownie or pumpkin tort for dessert -- all served family style and all you could eat. You should have seen the kids chow down. I was flabbergasted at Lara, and even Ed didn't need much prodding. What was even better though was that Tom had gone to the Legion Hall yesterday and made the dumplings with a bunch of the guys. It was a nice outing. This dinner was the Hall's biggest fund raiser event for the year. The Hall doesn't have a handicap entrance, but we were able to get Lara's wheelchair down into the basement eating area ok as it was only about three steps. The competition between the Butternut and Park Falls Legion Halls was funny, as well: Each Hall placed an ad in the newspaper right next to each other. Butternut bragged that they were "all you could eat" and had "dumplings", while Park Falls served "plates" and "mashed potatoes". The argument was that you can eat mashed potatoes any day, but dumplings were "special"! LOL.
Have you seen the documentary, Food, Inc., that just came out on DVD? It was good; I actually thought it would have more bite to it, but it is worth watching, if you get a chance to see it.
Be safe!
I've been working hard to finish raking up the leaves and picking up brush in the "fire safe zone" around the house while the weather holds. Indian Summer kicked in today with temps in the 50's F. I didn't even need a sweater to work outside. I almost got to where I could work on the garden boxes in back of the house, but Tom decided he wanted to go to the American Legion fund raising dinner so I had to put off the garden boxes till tomorrow. I sure hope I can finish all the field work.
The dinner was GREAT. There was a steady stream of people either coming in to eat or taking out orders. There was sauerkraut, dumplings, gravy, pork tenderloin, biscuits, and choice of chocolate brownie or pumpkin tort for dessert -- all served family style and all you could eat. You should have seen the kids chow down. I was flabbergasted at Lara, and even Ed didn't need much prodding. What was even better though was that Tom had gone to the Legion Hall yesterday and made the dumplings with a bunch of the guys. It was a nice outing. This dinner was the Hall's biggest fund raiser event for the year. The Hall doesn't have a handicap entrance, but we were able to get Lara's wheelchair down into the basement eating area ok as it was only about three steps. The competition between the Butternut and Park Falls Legion Halls was funny, as well: Each Hall placed an ad in the newspaper right next to each other. Butternut bragged that they were "all you could eat" and had "dumplings", while Park Falls served "plates" and "mashed potatoes". The argument was that you can eat mashed potatoes any day, but dumplings were "special"! LOL.
Have you seen the documentary, Food, Inc., that just came out on DVD? It was good; I actually thought it would have more bite to it, but it is worth watching, if you get a chance to see it.
Be safe!
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