Straight razor shaving

We've been trying to using less and less things that come in packaging. Anything that must be used then discarded or even recycled. For example disposable razors. Now, we have been using just disposable razor heads for a while, rather than the entire razor being tossed. We even switched to shave soap that must be lathered with a shave brush (think old school here), thus reducing any shaving cream cans or tube waste. In our constant strive to do more, straight razor shaving was the only way to go. Unless we wanted to be really hairy, which suits me just fine. I shave once every month or two.... go hairy girls it's good for you! But, I still shave, I can't seem to go all furry. My legs I don't mind so much since really it's just your legs but I have a harder time with my under arms going caveman.

This is Jacobs first shave with the "Sweeney Todd". He did really well! It does take more time because it's a huge learning curve. I didn't get a picture of me shaving my legs for the first time, mostly because I didn't want of picture of me in my nickers online. But it went well, I didn't cut myself accept for a tiny nic on my knee that didn't even need a bandaid.


The razor we opted to buy is the only one made in the U.S.A. all other straight razors are manufactured elsewhere mostly, germany or china. We wanted to support our economy not someone else's. The blade is forged by Hart Steel, each blade is marked with the artisan's initials. The blade we received has TV stamped on it. Pretty cool!

Skills to Learn

I got this idea from Crunchy Chickens blog, she asks about what skills you would like to learn this year. Some of the many she listed I do want to learn but they require more space. I mean things like large animal husbandry. But it got me thinking about different skills we are already on track to learn. For example, we are already signed up for beekeeping lessons. Some of the skills I took from Crunchy's list but some I've added.

• beekeeping
• animal processing
• knitting/crocheting
• beer/wine/cider making
• soap making
• expanding canning knowledge to include more veggies
• gardening
• indoor seedstarts

I'd really enjoy knitting my own socks, hats, and gloves and even dish rags. That is the skill I am most eager to learn as it might keep me busy inside this coming Jan/Feb. I borrowed a book from a friend yesterday but it assumes you know the language. So I might have to get a knitting for dummies book from the library so I know what in heck is going on. What skills do you want to learn this year?

Planning....always with the planning

Oh man have I been planning this garden, I got the bulk of my seeds from Seed Savers Exchange. But I still need to order a few from a local company called Irish Eyes. I intend to put up another tab next to "about us" and list all the seeds, where they came from, the fruit tree varieties, and herbs. I have my list of what seeds need to be started indoors and which can be direct sown outside. The list is quite impressive and daunting!

We're going to use the downstairs bed frame as a seed starting table, but getting that set up is going to take some work. Jake and I went to Home Depot last week and bought 4 of the 4 foot fluorescent "shop" lights and 2 different spectrum of bulbs. It was pointed out to me that "grow" lights don't list the spectrum of light, this way they can charge you more for it! Or if you just get 2 different spectrums, say a light that is more yellow and a light that is more blue... voila, grow lights. So that is exactly what Jake and I did, thus saving ourselves about 10 dollars per bulb! I plan on using egg cartons as my seed starting container ( thanks to homegrown evolution for that idea ). But I will still need to order the 4" plastic pots to move them into when the seeds need transplanting. Not sure what I am doing about that yet, or where I plan to buy all those pots from. Once we get our grow shelves set up I will take some pictures of them. Poor Jake had a hard time earlier this week, I made both manicotti and lasagna earlier this week and he only got 1 meal! I decided to freeze the rest of it for future meals. My Italian, pasta loving guy I think shed some tears when I put them in the freezer. :P Hopefully everyone has a happy and safe new year a head of them, ours is going to be EPIC!

Solstice Gifts

Yesterday was a hard day for some reason. Major ups and downs in the day, but break down to break through right? The highlight of the day was the gifts I received. These five presents came on the longest dark of the year, an egg from each girl. I don't suppose the timing of that happens to often, but lucky me!

Kombucha Brewing Update

Well after brewing sweet tea and putting the sludge of a purchased Kombucha bottle into our jars. We now have two growing, slimy, and weird looking Mother cultures. On this coming monday we'll have been growing these Mothers for 2 weeks. I am not sure when we can begin brewing Kombucha for our actual consumption now that we have our Mothers. I still have more research to do on that. But in the mean time. Pictures of weirdness.

Food and Consequences

Updates

It's been nice and busy for a while. I love that. Of course, I've had the

crafty pants on so that's probably why.

Busy making checkbook covers, envelope pillow case's, oven mitts and an apron. I sewed drapes for our downstairs windows and made a fabric door for our laundry room which doesn't have a regular door. With all the scraps I've been steadily expanding my furoshiki collection.  


We opted this year, not to get a tree. Instead we've decorated our norfolk pine, placed some holiday lights around and called ourselves decorated. Going low key this year seems to be on our agenda. All of our wrapping paper this year is cloth, I've tried to get funky pretty patterns that can be reused again and again.

These are the 12 days of Christmas. We've had these "bulbs" since I was a little kid. Mom gave them to me last year and I put them on our tree. But since we don't have a tree this year, I found another way to hang them! These are our LED lights so I don't feel bad about plugging them in. Plus it's a really tiny string of lights.

At least one more of the red stars is laying. Plus Curious has started laying again. Her molt took 2 months almost to the day from her last egg in October to the one she laid late last week. We are getting just about 2-3 eggs per day. It's nice since I have had to buy eggs since I sold WB and Bee back in August. 


Kai seems to have some really tough calluses on only a few of her pads. I took her to the vet last week and she said to just monitor it and try to soften the skin. So we've been soaking Kai's feet in the tub.... she gives us dirty looks the whole time. Today I covered them with 'vet wrap' and a vitamin E soaked cotton ball. So she prances when she walks. If they start to crack and bleed it can get serious, so I'm trying to be preventative. At this point it's not bad, but if the growth continues and gets faster she'll have to go in for a biopsy on those pads to see what's up. The puzzling thing is, she has no other symptoms that would indicate any disease. She's just being special. :D

Recycling for Cash

How cool would this be? My city doesn't participate but I am going to search more about it and see if they can sign up for it. That would allow EVERYONE to recycle and make a greater impact. CNN's website won't allow me to embed it into this post so here's a link to the video. Recycle Bank

It Begins Again

Drying for Freedom

I can thankfully say I can't remember the last time I used my dryer. My mom scored this drying rack at a garage sale for me so I now have 2. I use them indoors all winter, it takes longer for the clothes to dry but I am glad to do it! Yes it doesn't look beautiful to the average person, but free drying looks really beautiful to me. A movie is coming out about hang drying clothes, it's called Drying For Freedom. Here's a trailer... check it out.

Kombucha Brewing

Ever heard of Kombucha? I hadn't until a blog I follow, Small-Measure, posted about her own Kombucha brewing. Kombucha, pronounced Com-Boo-cha has so many health benefits it's hard to list them all. Here are some links to some websites I found helpful. Check it out and see what you think. Kombucha Fuel Food Renegade (how to grow a S.C.O.B.Y) Food Renegade (Kombucha health benefits)


We've decided to grow our own Kombucha mother rather than purchase one. I started the process last night, it should take about 8 days to brew a batch, from there we'll be drinking this lovely stuff everyday. It's supposed to be 75 degrees for adequate fermenting, since I keep my house at 64 degrees that's not really helpful. I've got them in the oven with the oven light turned on. That keeps the oven at around 78 degrees. We'll see how the fermentation goes!

Thanksgiving Lessons

I learned a lot this year about what it takes before you sit down to the meal. Jake and I did Thankful day by ourselves this year. Before yesterday I didn't have any grasp on what truly goes into that dinner. The stuffing being made the day before so it has time to soak up the juices, how much brine you really need for a 12 pound bird, the art of gravy making. This year I had my Mom's help the day before, showing me the stuffing recipe that is my grandfathers, passing it down. It felt oddly formal, I have it now, I am also the keeper of this recipe. The big day arrived, I had myself and Jacob, only two to dance around the kitchen and make the meal. Jacob was telling me he enjoyed watching Mom and I on Thanksgiving's past, how we seem to intuitively know where the other person is, a well choreographed dance. I had to learn to tell Jacob where I needed him, he is not as comfortable in the kitchen as I am, however, he is my dishwasher extraordinaire. We pulled it off beautifully. The bird cooked in 2.5 hours about 2.5 hours faster than I thought it would. Nothing was ready because.... um I am pretty sure I have 2 more hours. Apparently brining a bird makes it cook faster? The 20 minutes before we pulled the bird out of the oven was a scramble. I didn't stuff the bird so I had to cook the stuffing on the side which has to cook for 40 minutes, just enough time to let the bird sit and cool. Never cut into the bird right out of the oven, it will dry out. I needed to cook sweet potatoes, and I was planning on roasting some root veggies and squash to go with the meal, that didn't happen. I did roast the veggies but they were eaten as leftovers since they didn't make it to the table. I forgot about the cranberry sauce that I had made the day before. So this is what we ate: Turkey, stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes (one was able to cook in time), dinner rolls, water and wine. Since the bird cooked much quicker than anticipated we ate "dinner" at Noon. So later in the day when it was dinner time we had Thanksgiving Supper. Which managed to have everything on the plate the first meal intended to have. All in all a fairly successful day. We were lucky enough to give thanks to the farmer who raised this bird. Gary and So at Rocky Ridge Ranch taught this bird to drink (which turkeys aren't born knowing how to do) they raised, fed, watered and sheltered this animal. When it's time was up the death was done humanely. I said thank you to Gary personally for raising this bird, and sent a silent thank you on Thankful day. Knowing where your food comes from gives it more meaning, a relationship. Everything accept for the sweet potatoes and cranberries was grown by someone local or made by me. Putting the time into this meal makes me appreciate past Thanksgivings even more. I would come over and help on "the day" assisting in gravy making, mashing potatoes, or setting the table. But none of that adds up to choreographing the meal yourself. I realize now what my Mom does days in advance, even what she must do to get the bird in the oven before we arrive. I look at this traditional meal with new eyes and I am Thankful for that.

Peace of Winter

I love looking outside and seeing it snowing. It just makes me feel restful. A reminder that I don't really need to be anywhere. Slow down, wake up and look alive, the Mother is hard at work. I've been doing some crafty stuff lately that I am actually kinda proud of. My version of sewing is usually hemming (horribly at that) or some other form of straight sewing. No fancy stuff. Well I have been attempting to branch out. I am glad I have Jacob's help because he helps me "see" the steps involved. If I can't find a great tutorial or even if it is good but I still don't get it, he does. Jake will use objects or sometimes the actual project and show me what to do. Crafty honey! I am thinking about taking a beginners sewing class in January, but I have to see about my shoulder first. I don't want to schedule or reschedule anything just yet. Peace. Enjoy the snow.