Retract, Regroup, Restart

As recent weeks and months have passed, I’ve noticed that my energy for the various challenges I’m supposedly participating in has evaporated.  Lots of reasons all converging:  extra paid work that is taxing my time, much free time spent getting the winter’s wood in (still ongoing), feeling mentally down (variety of reasons but mostly relationship-oriented), and the fact that my garden is a bust this year, with only potatoes and chard doing well.  I might end up with four or five winter squash total, perhaps four beets, two tomatoes, three jalapenos, one bell pepper.  Time just got away from me and all of a sudden everyone else was harvesting, when I was still looking at seedlings.  As for the blog challenges, they were generally sucking more energy from me in the guilt of all that I’m not doing, than they were enlivening me with the accomplishments I was doing.

And, I realized recently that there are some things — personal paperwork, housekeeping, reading list — that I really would rather be spending my time on at the moment.

So, I’m officially cancelling my participation in just about everything:  Riot for Austerity, Independence Days Challenge, Growing Challenge, etc.  I will of course still have a goal of moving forward with preparations and skills learned for the future, growing and cooking new things, etc.  I just won’t be taking much time to report on it on a regular basis.  Every now and then, yes — every week, no.  And I’m sorry to say that I will probably stop reading many blogs too — my blogroll had gone from ten or fifteen blogs to several dozen on a reader that told me when a new post was made.  I could easily pass the evening online just reading blogs.  While I may still do that now and then, I’m going to try to wean myself from that in favor of time spent on my own projects — sorry, y’all, no offense I hope!

Hopefully this new direction will mean that I occasionally have something to say here other than an IDC report or whining about how tired I am!

A Twist on the Week’s IDC Activities…

The twist is that I’m not at home — I’m in the Bay Area for a week visiting my mom and dad.

Planted: Nothing, but I did buy a potted chocolate mint plant at Mom’s farmer’s market.  I think it will be a container plant at home, but we’ll see.

Harvested: Nothing

Preserved:  Nope.

Stored:  Five pounds quinoa pasta (actually I bought it for a friend who can’t have wheat, but it turns out this contains rice flour in addition to quinoa flour, and she can’t have that either, so I’m keeping it.  I’ve never had quinoa pasta, so stay tuned for me to try this and count it as ‘cooking something new’ one of these weeks).  Dog treats.  Soymilk.

Managed: Nothing.

Prepped:  Four more buckets and gamma seal lids from the co-op.  Plus, I went into the local Goodwill store near Mom’s and found a nice wooden kitchen table for only $25 (marked $49.99 but it was half-off that day!).  I didn’t have a kitchen table and definitely wanted one, so I guess this is a prep, though it doesn’t have much directly to do with being ready for a different future.  I’ll consider it like a ‘tool’ for doing more in the kitchen – you need enough room to spread out and have a work space, right?  OK, now I do…  :)

Advocated for local food economy: Nope.  I wore my Locavore Farms T-shirt to the Mountain View farmer’s market, but no one noticed or asked about it, so it doesn’t count.

Reduced waste: Got showed a better way to string the line in the weedwhacker that was brand new but not working right, so that hopefully it can have a full life reducing the fire risk in my yard, instead of being junk.

Cooked something new:  Yes!  I made cole slaw from the cabbage I bought at last week’s farmer’s market.  I perused recipes online until I got the basic gist of the mix of ingredients.  I wanted something simple, but that also approximated the cole slaws I’ve had before (which is what my taste buds were craving).  I shredded one head of cabbage and one carrot, added salt and pepper and caraway seeds, and mixed it all together.  I mixed together four tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and two tablespoons of white sugar, and then poured that mixture over the cabbage.  I then added two dollops of mayonnaise (about 3 tablespoons total, I guess) and mixed it in — just enough to barely coat the cabbage.  When I tasted it, it seemed to need something sharp-flavored — just a bit more tangy.  So I added the juice of half a lemon.  It made a pretty big bowl, but my mom and I made short work of it — after two meals including it, there’s only one serving left.  I’d still like to add something a big spicier into it — maybe a dash of cayenne?  Or some chopped pickle/relish?  Some of the recipes included some onion, and I didn’t add any, but that’s also an idea.  Anyway, it worked and was yummy!  This worked out well, as I don’t usually eat mayonnaise and don’t have any at home, but since I was at mom’s I was able to use hers.  When I make cole slaw next at home, I’ll probably try one of the no-mayo recipes for a more long-term personal recipe for me.

I want to expand this “cook something new” category to also include eating something new, even if it doesn’t need cooking or if someone else does the cooking (to expand the kinds of food I know about and can eat).  To that end, I tried a smoothie — I suppose I can’t claim I’d NEVER had one, but it had been years, sufficiently long that I wasn’t even entirely sure what was in one.  When a co-worker raved about the one she got from the wifi cafe, I went ahead and tried one.  Bleah, just not for me.  It was ok while it was all still frozen, but something about the thick texture of it as it melts is unpleasant to me. Perhaps it’s the pineapple juice I don’t like — I might try getting a custom-made one using different juice.  On the other hand, since I don’t (yet, I’m thinking about it) have a freezer, I suppose getting hooked on blended ice drinks isn’t such a smart idea anyway…

Yep, Another IDC Update! What A Surprise!

This past week:

Planted:  Transplanted banana pepper sprouts.  These guys hadn’t gotten any bigger in weeks, but they didn’t die.  It might be too late for them to produce fruit this season, but I planted them anyway.  I planted the whole “tray” the seedlings were in, since I’ve had almost zero success with my transplanting this year, especially with seedlings that are still small.  I dug a hole the size and shape of the plastic tray, then flipped the whole sheet of soil, seedlings and all, into the garden.  Then watered thoroughly, of course.  We’ll see if this is any more successful than the breaking apart each seedling method.  I now understand why doing many seedling per tray isn’t a good idea, and next year I’ll be using individual little pots instead.  One friend who does a gangbusters garden told me that she doesn’t even use the really little divided pots, because transplanting into a medium size pot and then transplanting again into the garden was just too hard on the plants.  So she starts her tomatoes, peppers, whatever in 3″ pots, which are big enough they can stay there until they go straight into the ground.  I’m taking notes for next year.

Harvested:  Apricots, peas

Preserved:  Nothing

Managed:  Mulched the potato bed?  Does that count?

Stored:  Nothing new.

Prepped:  Another firewooding trip with R.  I took home a half cord of top quality lodgepole.

Reduced waste:  The only thing I can think of above and beyond the ongoing composting is that I used yard-trimmed alfalfa to mulch the potato bed.  I spent some time gathering more cut thistles for the next trip to Kate’s, but didn’t deliver any more yet.

Advocated for local food economy:  Wore my Locavore Farms T-Shirt to my job at the library, and it got commented on by someone who didn’t know about the full extent of their farm!  They say their you-pick option will start up in early August, so I’m hot to spread the word about them as much as possible before then.  I also bought some stuff (jam, relish, onions, cabbage, zucchini bread) at this week’s farmer’s market.  Didn’t set up a table or sell anything, as R and I were heading out for the woodcutting day.

Cooked Something New:  Hard-boiled eggs in a solar oven!  Wasn’t sure it would work, but it did!  I just set two eggs in a small dish, no water.  I left them WAY too long (hours!) and they did get a bit overdone, just as eggs would if they were boiled way too long, but they were still tasty!  Next time I’ll pay attention to the time and see how long it takes to get soft-boiled and how long for hard-boiled.

Learned a New Skill:  Nothing I can think of, though R and I did have some challenging conversations this week that required me to interact with him in a different way than I used to.  There’s something about getting frustrated that makes it really hard to explain to someone WHY you’re frustrated, at least in a way that they can hear you and not shut down in self-defense.  We had some interactions where I tried some new approaches to expressing my concerns.  I’m usually a pretty clear-headed communicator, and it was really hard to realize that I had no idea the right way to say things so that he would understand what I was expressing.  I don’t think I actually learned a new skill, but perhaps opened a path that might eventually lead that way.

Yet Another IDC update…

Gee, whatever happened to all those OTHER posts I planned to make?  You know, the ones that are about something other than the IDC challenge?  I have a book to review, the Growing Challenge to report on (photo update soon), and sometimes just some interesting thoughts that almost seem blogworthy…  But each week, all of a sudden it’s time for the IDC report, and I discover I’ve made no other posts since the last update.  Oh well…

This past week:

Planted:  Brussels sprouts, cabbage, pumpkin, sprouted black beans.  Transplanted: Tomatoes, turnips, squash/melon (not sure which – start from a friend), honeydew melon, rhubarb.

Harvested: Peas

Preserved:  Nothing

Stored:  Nothing

Managed: Nothing

Prepped:  Went firewooding twice this week with R.  We each got a good load.  Nice lodgepole!

Reduced Waste:  Brought another load of thistles to Kate’s for her goats to eat.

Advocated for local food economy:  Sold a few garden starts at the Saturday farmer’s market.  Introduced myself to the other partner in the nearby organic farm and asked her about a CSA — she knew what it was AND seemed interested!  She said doing a CSA takes a lot of organizational skills and time, and she just happens to love that stuff!  And although she has been splitting her time between here and Portland, she says she’ll be around here from April through November next year.  So I’m very hopeful that we might have a CSA in the valley next year!  Wa-hoo!  Also in the local food economy category, someone brought some excess chard into the library, and I took with me what was left when I closed for the day, but since I already had plenty of farmer’s market chard at home, I gave the new bag to the auto mechanic (when I picked up the Geo Metro from getting its new timing belt and water pump).  He was not familiar with chard, so hopefully he and his family got a good introduction!

Cooked something new:  Nothing this week.

Learned a new skill:  Nothing I can think of this week.

Two Weeks of IDC belatedly updated

For the week ending July 6th:

Planted:  Nothing

Harvested:  Peas

Preserved:  Nothing

Stored:  25 lbs pinto beans.

Managed:  Nothing

Prepped:  Firewooding with R, got a half cord of lodgepole (went to him).  Ordered a scythe!

Cooked something new:  Sauteed farmer’s market chard & spinach from R’s garden, cooked like mushrooms with red wine (and onion and garlic and a bit of oil), then a dash of vinegar once it’s on the plate.  Needs more spices, otherwise good!

Advocated for local food economy:  Participated in the farmer’s market, selling garden starts from a friend’s garden.

Reduced Waste:  Trying to repair a weedwhacker instead of junking it after one part broke.  A recently-bought new one is so poorly-designed that it’s about to break as well, and I’m pondering returning it.  Then I bought a THIRD weedwhacker for $13 at a thrift store, am mostly using that.  (all this mess with problem weedwhackers became the motivation to order the scythe!)

Learned Something New:  Tried again using the sprouting screen.  Last time I tried to sprout very old red beans.  One or two sprouted, but most didn’t, and the whole thing just started to ferment pretty fast.  This time I’m sprouting freshly bought black beans.

Then, for the week ending July 13:

Planted:  No

Harvested:  Peas and one tiny strawberry

Preserved:  No

Stored:  No

Managed:  No

Prepped:  No

Cooked something new:  Baked a cake (from a mix) in the solar oven.

Advocated for local food economy:  Wore a T-shirt promoting the local organic farm/you-pick

Reduced Waste:   Started feeding the cat raw ground beef instead of cat food.  Even though the beef comes in plastic wrap and styrofoam, it’s a lot less packaging than can upon can of cat food.  I’ve had to feed him less and less at a time, so that he eats most of it right away and there is less food remaining in the bowl to spoil in the heat.

Learned Something New:  When I went to try the cake in the solar oven, I put it out very late in the day (6pm, and I live hard up against the east side of a mountain range, so the shadows cross my yard about an hour earlier than they do farther out in the valley).  So I left the cake out there all night — I did fold up the wings of the oven, since it was quite windy that night.  The next morning I didn’t have to leave until after 10am and I was hoping the cake would cook by then, but it was still pudding, so I left it while I was away, and came home to a yummy cake late that afternoon!

Independence Days Challenge Update 6/29/08

Another week of progress in some areas, but still too many areas neglected.  Time management is a perennial struggle for me, and when I add in the emotional post-relationship stresses I’m feeling, plus the full-plates-at-work stress (which I don’t necessarily hate, it just leaves me feeling exhausted at the end of the day and un-inclined to focus on other projects), well, it can just get out of control.  Extreme weather can also augment my lack of productivity, as I tend to just “ride out” really hot or really cold weather without doing much productive other than fending off weather-related crises.

All that said, this week wasn’t too bad!  Here’s my report:

Plant something: Transplanted into garden:  dipper gourd starts, and one special bell pepper plant whose variety is apparently is acclimated to Klamath Falls, Oregon, which is not far from here.  Hopefully this means it grows in a shorter season, as we often don’t have enough time to grow bell peppers in this area.

Harvest something:  First, R brought me five tiny strawberries from his garden (that was my garden last year, strawberries I planted).  That was the entire harvest and it was very nice of him to bring them to me.  Also I ate the mesclun mix I was growing in a pot — it didn’t get nearly as big as I expected, but perhaps that’s how mesclun mix is.  And with the heat it was getting leggy and planning to bolt sometime next week.  It wasn’t enough for a salad, but I added it to an existing salad and it was very tasty!  Harvested some comfrey leaves to dry.

Preserve something:  Those comfrey leaves are drying in the dehydrator.

Store something:  Rainbow rotelli pasta.

Managed reserves:  Nothing this week.

Prepped:  Finally, after months of waiting — I bought a Geo Metro!  We finally got an appointment for a smog test.  It had some valve or vent that was clogged that took an extra $200 to fix, but then it passed the smog test.  This car will double (or perhaps even triple) the mileage I’m getting, though I’m afraid to tally up the insurance, registration, etc, to see what my REAL savings is (’cause I’m not getting rid of the truck just because I’ve added the Geo).  I consider it an important part of “walking the talk” and demonstrating to my community as well as my literal gas savings, so that would have to add in to the equation as well.  I’ve only had it for 2 days, so no mileage results yet, but I plan to top off the tank tomorrow so that I can start my tracking.  Also under prep:  bought a Grundig crank AM/FM/SW radio for $7 at a yard sale.

Cooked Something New:  Not really, but since I’m not aware of having eaten mesclun mix before (I probably have in restaurant or potluck salads, but I wasn’t aware of it), I’ll count that.  Especially since I’ve been disappointed several times in the taste of lettuce varieties I’ve grown, and this stuff I really liked!

Advocated for local food economy:  Well, I did set up a table at this Saturday’s farmer’s market, but I was selling books and movies that the library is trying to get rid of, so that doesn’t count except socially!  However, I did learn that our one local certified organic grower has you-pick options!  And he’s only about 25 miles away!  He’s named his endeavor “Locavore Farms” which is also highly encouraging.  Here’s his website just because I gotta say how pleased I am to learn what he’s doing: http://www.lxw.com/LocavoreFarms/ 

I plan to go up and see his place, maybe volunteer a little, get to know them, and DEFINITELY go get some you-pick stuff as it’s ready!  And speaking of volunteering, the other local food economy thing I did this week was my monthly volunteering to sort co-op orders.  This month’s effort is particularly notable since, due primarily to my submitting my order at the last possible moment and putting it in a mail slot that the co-op guy forgot to check before calling his orders in, I personally received *nothing* from the order this month!  Oh well, as long as the economy doesn’t collapse before next month…  :o

Reduce waste:  I’ve been snipping scotch thistle which are exploding on the property I rent.  I told the landlady that I did NOT want the county spraying to kill them, so that obligated me to deal with them somehow.  I’ve been snipping them down with long-handled loppers, though I suspect that I really need to dig them to keep them from resprouting.  But no time for that now, they’re putting out seedheads, so lopping is faster.  The waste reduction part is that today I loaded the back of the pickup full of thistles and took them to Kate’s house.  Kate has goats, who love to eat thistle!  I suppose I could have just left the thistles to dry and decompose in situ, especially since they are scattered out in several fields, but I think the seeds can germinate even when the plant is snipped before the flowers have opened, so it would be better if I burned or discarded the plants.  Eaten by goats is the best deal, as it not only reduces the waste I have to discard, it also reduces the amount of feed Kate has to provide them.

New skill learned:  Well, I’m getting the hang of cutting down thistles without getting poked — er, make that without getting poked AS MUCH.  Nothing I can think of beyond that this week.

 

Independence Days Challenge Update 6/23/08

I decided to follow Sharon’s lead and switch the end of the challenge week to Sunday.  So reporting will be either Sunday evening or shortly thereafter.  So, this week I get to count two weekends!   Hehehe…

Planted: seed into garden:  5 color silverbeet chard, texas grano onions.  Transplanted seedlings into the garden:  buttercup squash, 5-color silverbeet chard, texas grano onions, sprouts from neighbor’s spring onions, Ping Pong tomato (tomato exchange with friend), principe borghese tomatoes, butternut squash, delicata squash, jalapeno (trade from friend), thai green lettuce, cilantro, cayenne pepper, detroit dark red beets, cabbage, brussel sprouts, cauliflower.

Harvested:  Nothing.

Preserved:  Nothing.

Stored: Dog food.

Managed:  Tried to order more buckets and gamma seal lids from the co-op, but my order got lost until after the deadline – will try again next month.

Prepped:  Got major tuneup/brake job on truck.  Since I’m in the process of buying a Geo Metro, the truck is becoming more of a tool for the future than for daily transport.  Bought a half cord (split with ex-boyfriend) of firewood, from friends who are trying to clear for fire safety around their newly built house.  Cut/loaded another half cord (again, split with ex) of dead lodgepole and white fir from nearby Forest lands.

Cooked Something New:  Made rhubarb sauce using local rhubarb bought at the farmer’s market.  Brought the sauce to a potluck where it was poured over hand-cranked vanilla ice cream.  I had two tastes of it, but that’s all, because the potluck host asked to keep the remainder of the jar when I left!  (it was good)

Foster Local Food Economy:  Participated as a seller in a new farmer’s market for my community.  I sold squash starts that I had bought from Azure Standard (bought them in 6-pack each, decided 4 of each was enough for me, sold 2 of each).  Also sold bell pepper and cayenne pepper starts I’d grown from seed, plus also a few aloe vera babies sprouted from my houseplant.  It will be a month or more before there is much in the way of produce coming from local gardens (so far, lettuce, spinach, rhubarb is about it) so I offered the seedling starts just to help the market get going.

Reduced Waste:  In addition to kitchen composting and using urine for garden fertilizer as well as deer repellent, I took what I thought was a dead laptop in to local repair guy, who is reviving it.  I will either keep it and use it, or sell it or give it to someone, which will not only postpone it going to the landfill, but will hopefully avoid someone (me or someone else) buying another computer as soon as they would have otherwise.  Used leftover catalogue CDs from library as deer/bird repellent by suspending them above garden fence (as promised several times already, photos coming soon).  Attempting to feed elderly, tooth-challenged cat moistened dry food (which we have lots of) instead of canned moist food (which has lots of packaging and also spoils easily in the heat).  This is only partially successful, since the cat changes his mind daily about what he will eat…  I arranged my one day per week in the County Seat for the Forest Service project to be the same day that material needs to be shuttled between the main library and the branch library where I (also) work — now I shuttle the deliveries each way, since I’m driving that route anyway.  This is a win-win:  no one has to make a special trip over the hill and back, as they were before, plus I get my mileage paid for even though I need to go anyway for the other job!

Learned a New Skill:  Nothing I can think of.  Oh wait, I did learn how to start a balky lawnmower by removing the air filter, squirting in gasoline or starter fluid, balancing a flat rock over the air filter opening, holding down the safety handle, pull-starting the machine, then while still holding the safety handle, removing the rock and replacing the air filter, using a screwdriver one-handed to tighten it…  Think it’s time for a scythe, eh?

Independence Days Challenge update 6/13/08

Planted:  Nope, only transplanted, for the farmer’s market — bell peppers, cayenne peppers, aloe vera houseplant babies.

Harvest something:  Nope again.

Preserve something:  Triple nope!

Store Something:  Sheesh, didn’t I do *anything* last week?  It felt like an incredibly busy week, but I guess not in the categories of the challenge.  Didn’t store anything new.

Manage Reserves:  Erm…  Gah.

Prepped:   Major fence progress!   It’s close enough to done that tonight I planted some stuff (that will count on next week’s report).

Worked on Local Food Systems:  Prepared seedling starts to take to first farmer’s market saturday (I’m writing this saturday evening, it went great, but again, that’s for THIS week… :)  I also brought some cayenne starts to my herbalist friend.  I also participated in a symposium held last weekend that, while it didn’t focus on local food, it did focus on local community sustainability in a sense, and given that gas has hit $5 in the valley here, the conversations drifted toward local food on various occasions.

Reduced Waste:  Continued transforming urine into deer repellent.  Have been using fruit tree prunings as vertical extensions to the fence (photos soon, I promise!)

Cooked something new:  The garlic bread I mentioned last week was actually made on Saturday so it should have been counted as this week, but I forgot.  Nothing new this week — due to the conference and some other activities I ate out a lot this week, and just made “same ol’ same ol’” beans and rice or salad when I was at home.

Learned a new skill:  Made newspaper peat pots in which to sell seedlings.  Followed the basic steps determined from googling a couple of sites.  Went pretty well!

Independence Days Challenge Results 6/6/08

Planted this week:  Pumpkin, carrots.  (Still working on the deer fence, so I’m not planting my starts yet, but seeds are ok because the fence will be ready before the seeds sprout.)

Transplanted this week:  Peas — the peas I’d planted in a pot were 6-7″ tall and very healthy looking.  I put them in the ground.  Last I checked (yesterday) it was still unknown whether they would survive — they weren’t looking good, but were still alive 2-3 days after being transplanted.  Maybe digging a pot-sized hole and plopping the whole soil mass into one spot might have worked better — instead, I planted each sprout in a row next to the others, which meant a bit more handling of each sprout than perhaps they liked.  There really was no need to plant peas in a pot indoors, it was just an experiment to see how they did as compared to the ones outdoors.

Harvested:  Nothing

Preserved:  Two more onions in the outdoor dehydrator.

Stored:  Nope.

Managed:  Finally went to pull the last remaining root cellared carrots from the sand bucket, and it was too late.  There were only two small ones and two others that were honestly hair-like in size, and the tiny ones had molded and the small ones were very close.  I decided they were all post-consumer, so into the compost they went.  The only root cellared produce left from last year now is jerusalem artichokes, and I haven’t dug through the bucket sand to check on them, because I don’t really like them that much, and I don’t plan to grow them here.  Though, I just had an idea — maybe I’ll plant a row of them, about 5 feet outside the garden fence.  If the deer and ground squirrels don’t eat them immediately, they’ll grow some nice tall stalks which can function like a second fence!  Ah, well, can’t hurt, eh?

Prepped:  When I went to the “junkyard” shop in the County Seat to buy a used washing machine on Monday, I noticed some unopened boxes of canning jars, and a stack of several mini bread pans.  I was in a hurry that day, but when I returned to town on Thursday, I went back to check.  The boxes of jars were still there, and three of the bread pans.  I bought them — one case of widemouth quart jars, one case of pint jars, one case of half-pint jars, one case of mini (4 ounce) jelly jars.  All unused (though old and dusty).  All with lids.  All for $25.  Including three mini bread pans.  I didn’t know the going price in the stores for this stuff, and the junk place told me they try to sell them for half the new price.  Even if I paid a little more than half, that’s okay.  Even though this area is not full of peak-oil-aware people, lots of people here cherish their “old fashioned” skills like canning, so I reasoned to myself that it would be unlikely to find this stash at a yard sale (though I really don’t know, and will continue to keep my eyes open for more).  I’m not a canner, and don’t have immediate plans to learn, but I recognize good tools and supplies for the future — whether because I will eventually want to learn the skill, or whether so I can barter with those who do can, doesn’t really matter.  Now I have the beginnings of a canning stash!

More prep:  Nearly done with the garden fence!

Advocated for local [food] economy:  Nothing particular this week, though still had some conversations about the upcoming farmer’s market

Cooked something new:  I retried millet for breakfast, and it worked this time!  I had definitely undercooked it the other time.  I drizzled a little olive oil on it, as recommended by something I read, and had some for breakfast.  It didn’t taste bad, but wasn’t very appealing to me.  I made myself eat about half of a big portion, then put the rest in the fridge.  An hour or so later I was hungry, so I tried again — put some soymilk on the rest of it, rather like one might for oatmeal.  Somehow, that made all the difference to me (I’m very texture and temperature oriented when it comes to food) and I snarfed up the rest!  The only downside is having to plan ahead to soak it overnight.  I didn’t notice much of a milky or oily coating that came off during soaking, so someday I might try cooking it without soaking it, to see if it’s really as bitter as what I heard.

More cooking something new:  I made garlic bread for a potluck at the next door neighbors’ tonight.  About the simplest thing in the world — butter, garlic, bread, oven — but I’d never made it before!

Variation on cooking something new — EATING something new:  I don’t believe I’ve ever had rhubarb before.  So recently during lunch at the wi-fi cafe, I saw they had some rhubarb tart, and I had a piece.  Yum!  Now the next step will be to buy some stalks and cook something with them.  I do have the sprouts growing, but they will not produce stalks this first year, I don’t think.

Learn a new skill — Other than the new cooking, let’s see — I got pretty creative in my fence construction this week, and it seems to be working well (though no real test until there are garden yummies growing inside, and I see whether the deer get in or not).  By the way, since I’m on the topic of keeping the deer out of the garden, it’s time to talk pee  :)  I’ve switched from using a large bucket to using a small coffee can, for collecting urine.  Pretty much every day I take the can outside and empty it.  I had been emptying it onto the compost, but I realized that I produce a lot more pee than I do the other components of compost, so I think I was overdoing it!  Just when I was at a loss as to make good use of that resource, and was about to return to flushing it away most of the time, a friend mentioned that the scent of human urine was a moderately good way to repel deer.  Not as good as the scent of mountain lion urine, but…  :)  Since this is good mountain lion habitat, I definitely don’t want to lure one unnecessarily by offering their own scent!  But I have been using my own, poured on the ground around the outside perimeter of the garden fence.  Again, no way to measure success until there is something inside to tempt the deer, so we’ll see.

Update on last week’s skill:  the beans I’m trying to sprout have one or two sprouts, but most beans aren’t sprouting.  Remember these are really old beans.  I’ll give it another several days to see what happens before abandoning them and restarting with fresh beans.

Reduced waste:  I’ve been remembering my cloth bags at the grocery store lately.  Carried my water bottle to a BBQ Thursday night and again to a speech/dinner Friday night.  I even remembered to decline the straw BEFORE I’d opened its little package, when I had iced tea in a restaurant in town Thursday.

Challenges, Challenges

For the last year or so it seems that it’s been popular for bloggers to offer challenges.  At least the bloggers that I tend to read.  Participating in a challenge works really well for me, psychologically.  It’s a good way for me to get motivated to do something I’ve been wanting to do anyway.  I often feel bad when I decline to join a challenge, even if it’s clearly unrealistic for me or even if it’s something that doesn’t even interest me!  There’s just something about being challenged…  maybe that’s how young boys feel when they ‘double dare’ each other to do something?

I’ve joined several challenges recently — some that last a year, some that last a month, and one that will last 3 months (Diva Cup Challenge).  I’ve explained in earlier posts, at least a little bit, the Riot for Austerity and the Growing Challenge and the Independence Days Challenge.  I realized I better explain the others.  Michelle at Green Bean Dreams came up with the “Be A Bookworm” Challenge for May.  We participants each read one or more books in May that were ecologically oriented, or about learning to live simply or be more self-reliant.  This challenge has now continued on into June — maybe it will just be an ongoing thing — lots of us are always reading a book or two!  Crunchy Chicken has been trying to encourage women to stop using disposable menstrual products for a long time now.  She’s a particular supporter of the Diva Cup.  Recently she held a drawing where the winners would get free Diva Cups.  But the catch was, anyone who entered the contest had to agree to use the Diva Cup for the next three months, whether they won the drawing or not!  Now Chile has offered the Quit Now Challenge to give up an addiction for a month, in the name of increasing self-reliance and with the idea that eventually, lots of the things we are addicted to won’t be available any more, and it will be a lot less stressful to quit those addictions now, than to do it in a time of turmoil.

Each of these challenges has a “button” I’ve posted over on the right-hand side of the page.  (However, some of them seem to disappear regularly and only sometimes can I figure out how to get them back, so if you can’t see them all, that’s why).

Anyway, here are my updates for the challenges I haven’t been otherwise reporting on:

Diva Cup challenge:  I bought one, but it arrived too late for me to use it in May.  Once the time comes in June and I get a chance to try it, I’ll report how it goes!

Be A Bookworm Challenge:  In May I finished reading The Forager’s Harvest, which I started in April, and then I read two other books:  Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, and Plenty.  Here are my reviews of these books:

The Forager’s Harvest, by Samuel Thayer. I didn’t read all the plant descriptions, only the ones I was familiar with or that I thought would be found in my area. However, the introduction is so powerful that it’s worth getting the book (at least from the library) just to read those few pages. He describes foraging for food in terms of its history – that is, the cultural path that has gone from foraging as the only option (originally) to the current time where not only do most people not forage for food, but it’s actually acquired a negative reputation: “only poor people forage” is the implication now. He also describes in rather blunt language what he thinks is wrong with other edible plant books, and which ones he thinks are worth having as references. He’s pretty persuasive in that area as well.  Definitely worth a peruse!

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. They are talking about shifting manufacturing to be sustainable, ecologically. They emphasize the importance of manufactured items being designed to be deconstructable at the end of their lives, and the resulting pieces being used again and again, indefinitely. They divide all components of manufactured items into two categories: biological nutrients and technological nutrients. Biological nutrients are organic materials (animal, vegetable, mineral, water, etc). When they are not contaminated with technological nutrients, biological nutrients can be safely composted (ie discarded), returning their nutrients to the soil and becoming food for some other species in the ecosystem. Technological nutrients are processed metals or chemicals, toxins, fossil fuels, etc.  When not contaminated with biological nutrients, technological nutrients can be retrieved at the end of a manufactured item’s life and re-used at an equally “high” level in another manufacturing process. In order to be able to 100% safely compost biological nutrients and 100% re-use technological nutrients, manufactured items must be made with this cyclical future in mind, and designed so that the biological and the technological can be completely separated. They also talk a bit, favorably, about shifting to a service economy, where the manufacturer maintains ownership of an item, and contracts with the customer for the service only. This is an idea that’s been tossed around for a few years now — for example, instead of buying a refrigerator (which you then have to discard at the end of its life, putting not only volume and toxins into the landfill, but “discarding” valuable materials that the fridge was made of, that now need to be mined/processed again to make more for the next fridge), you might instead buy “refrigeration services”. The company selling you this service will install a refrigerator in your home, but they maintain ownership of the machine. You are paying for the service the machine is providing. When the machine dies, the manufacturer will remove/replace the fridge, and it will be in their economic interest to retrieve and re-use the components of the fridge (metal, plastic, coolant, insulation, etc), instead of just taking it to the dump. I can see the benefits of this approach, but it’s not without its problems too. What they are describing in Cradle to Cradle makes complete sense to me in concept, but I did feel a sense of sadness as I read, in that I think it’s too late for the paths they are suggesting. I just don’t think we have the economic robustness or the resources available to shift/rebuild the infrastructure in the way that would be necessary to follow their route.  One last note: the book is printed using the principles they espouse – the ‘paper’ it’s printed on is actually a form of plastic, that can be fully re-used at the end of its life as a book. A side benefit is that it’s waterproof! As someone who does much of her reading in the bathtub, I can tell you that I felt reassured by that, in case I dropped the book in the water (which I didn’t). :)  On the downside, though, the book was heavy for its size, and bound in a way that made it hard to hold open with one hand. I suppose in the long run that’s a minor detail. This book was not a fast read, it’s a bit dense, but not overwhelmingly so. I heartily recommend it.

Plenty, by Alisa Smith and JB MacKinnon: Finished it tonight. Thanks again to Michelle at Green Bean Dreams and Katrina at Kale for Sale for their generous drawing in which I won this book! I won’t review this book since others have (posted on GreenBean’s site), but I really enjoyed it! I’ll be offering it directly to a few friends, then when they are done with it, I’ll be donating it to my local library so others can enjoy it.

For June, I’m hoping to read “Farewell, My Subaru” if I can get it from the library in time.  Whatever book I choose, I’ll mention it here.  I’m also still in the middle of Michael Pollan’s “Second Nature” and I will for sure finish that in June.

Quit Now Addiction Challenge:  Okay, for the month of June, I have three areas where I will alter my behavior to quit an addiction.  First, I will limit my internet usage to four hours a day.  I know that probably sounds like a lot, but I’ve been spending well more than that online recently, so that would be a healthy step back.  The exception, of course, is when I’m using the internet to do paid work.  I also have to remember that I don’t watch tv, I don’t generally use the phone — internet is where I get my news and entertainment, where I stay in touch with friends and even family.  I think four hours should be enough to continue the things I think are actually valuable, but it will limit the mindless part of my online time and force me to plan my time better.  Second, I will not drink anything carbonated.  I don’t drink regular soda, but I do have a fondness for Crystal Geyser juice squeeze (grapefruit flavor), and instead of having it occasionally as a treat like I used to, I’ve gotten into the habit of drinking it more often lately.  Third, I will not have any snack chips in June.  Again, I used to eat none of those, but over the past year or two I’ve started eating rice chips, tortilla chips, even potato chips now and then.  They’re not all horrible nutrition-wise (in particular rice chips aren’t so bad), but I’ve let my consumption go from occasional to frequent, and I want to get away from that.  I’ll start by not having any in June.

So, if you’re in the mood for a challenge, follow the links to some of these sites and sign up!  Or, offer your own challenge!