Freezing My Tuchus Off

The furnace went kaput. My husband is out of town for a week - actually a good thing or he would have insisted on trying to fix the furnace. The furnace repairman shut it down and disabled it - not something he does very often, especially in this kind of weather - because it is a fire hazard and ispumping out carbon monoxide like nobody's business.

Apparently, there was a class action lawsuit against the makers of this particular furnace because it does this. That lawsuit is now closed, however, so I have to buy my own damn furnace.

If this were April - or even March - instead of mid December, I'd say okay, let's just get by with a couple of space heaters until we can 1) install the woodstove, and 2) maybe get the oil burning furnace out in Homero's shop up and running on veggie oil. But either of those projects would take a couple of weeks minimum, and meanwhile all the pipes would freeze and then we'd have a gigantic plumbing mess on top of it all.

Man, bad things happen ion threes all right. First the refrigerator (new fridge, $1,200), then the washing machine (repairman scheduled for monday), now the furnace.

I'm staying with my sister until we can get the new furnace in, so I probably won't be writing much. I still have to come home twice a day to feed the animals and tote hot water out to the goats in buckets. Sigh.

Hello, Goodbye

Goodbye, Sandy and Tutu (and Clove, not pictured). I sold all three goat kids to a Mexican guy who is throwing a birthday party and wants to put on a big ole barbecue. I don't how many people he's expecting, but apparently three goats' worth. I sold the three of them for $200.

I have mixed feelings about this. One - I intended to eat one myself. We were invited to the party, so I guess we'll get a taste, but that's not the same as putting a whole goat in the freezer. It's not that we need the meat more than we need the money - we don't - but rather that it means putting off for another year taking the large psychological step of killing and eating a kid ourselves. I want that task over and done with.

On the plus side, the Mexican gentlemen are going to do the butchering here, and Homero will be watching and learning. I'd like to watch and learn myself, but I think I had better take the kids and get the hell out of dodge for the duration. I made the mistake of letting the girls hear about the upcoming slaughter, and then I had such a situation to deal with! Such weeping and yelling! Such wailing and gnashing of teeth!

It's understandable. It's normal. I am sad myself, to tell the truth. It wouldn't stop me from enjoying a nice roast leg, but I'm not looking forward to seeing my sweet little kidlings killed and skinned. If the girls give me a legitimate excuse to be absent.... I'm cool with that.

Hello to the newest animals on the farm.... bees! This is just a photo I pulled off the web, since my camera cord is missing. But we have approximately the same setup - four hives plus all the ancillary equipment. Yes, you guessed it - Craigslist. Yes, I agree, it's maybe time for me to find a CL anonymous meeting - but in the meantime, I have a new hobby.

Or Homero does. His father used to keep bees and Homero has often expressed an interest in learning. I like the idea of bees for several reasons - honey, obviously. Better pollination of the orchard and the garden. The possibility of income. But mostly, it's the ultimate fulfillment of the self-sufficiency game The self-sufficiency game (love you, Dad).

New Trade Network Partners

Heretofore, the trade network has pretty much been a summer phenomenon. I didn't think there was much going on in the winter. Why on earth didn't I think of hunters before?

A nice man from my church is giving us a few ducks in exchange for some of my sourdough rolls. I told him it seems like the trade is heavily skewed in my favor, but he said "not really," stuffing another roll into his mouth, "I'm always trying to offload ducks this time of year."

The church is shaping up to be a great boost to the trade network - of course that's not the only reason I go (Hi Pastor!!). I'm finally meeting so many of my neighbors. They are wonderful people and I'd be glad to know them in any case, but it's nice that the trade network benefits too. For example, it hadn't occurred to me before to trade equipment, but Mr. B down the road asked if he could borrow the apple press last month. Normally I don't lend it out, but he's a trustworthy, capable soul and a neighbor, so I said okay. Of course he brought it back safe and sound, along with a few gallons of cider. He even made a minor repair on it that I'd been bugging Homero to do. And, several weeks later, when we desperately needed to borrow a flatbed trailer, he obliged.

This kind of thing goes beyond the trade network, of course. It's that quaint old fashioned concept - neighborliness.

Funny I just realized that. Man, I feel ashamed of myself. I've been thinking all this time in terms of "the trade network," and how my family can benefit and save money. Not entirely selfishly of course; I've also thought in terms of the benefit to the environment and to local farmers of buying local... but I haven't, until now, just thought about what it means to be a neighbor.

Lending a hand just because that's what neighbors do, not as part of a semi-formal this-for-that arrangement. Dropping off a load of apples or a few ducks just because you have extra and your neighbor might like some. Stopping off to see how they are or if they need help with a project.

Homero has been offered help with his shop several times already.

I should go see Mrs. B. I know she hasn't been well.

Storm Cloud Earning his Keep

Today our little Storm Cloud has gone off to another farm to try and be a big grown up buck. A neighbor (the turkey lady) is renting him to breed her two Nubian does. $50 for a month at her place. She knows he's only six months old and unproven - but I have seen him leaping on our does, so I think he's capable.

He's never been off the farm before, or away from his dam. We still see him sneak a drink from her occasionally. It's funny how much it annoys Homero - he chases Storm away and says you can be a baby and nurse or a buck and breed, but not both. I laugh and tell him he's just jealous.

Christmas 2009, Thrift Store Edition

Any woman knows, the biggest item on December's to-do list, most years, is going to be Christmas.

I was supposed to be out of town this year - far, far out of town. 5,000 miles out of town, in a different country. Reluctantly, I admit that one of the main attractions of traveling for Christmas is avoiding the whole gift-giving conundrum. My Mexican relatives don't give Christmas gifts, or they only give small ones for the children. They do celebrate Christmas - in a pretty big way, in fact. For weeks beforehand, there are posadas to attend, neighborhood gatherings, fiestas, dances, and parties of all descriptions. The festivities culminate in midnight mass on Christmas eve, followed by a very late (or very early) fancy dinner.

But they don't do presents, which is a relief. Now, since we are not, in fact, going to Mexico for Christmas (sad face), I have to figure out what the heck I'm going to do for gifts. If I had been more industrious earlier in the year, I would have wonderful preserves to give - jams, jellies, jars of cajeta, perhaps, maybe jerky or dried berries. But I was rather lazy this year and pretty much just chucked everything in the freezer instead of doing much canning. I could scrounge up some nice jam to give a few people, but by and large, my pantry is not the solution to my problem.

So where do I turn when I have many gifts to get and few dollars to do it with? Why, the thrift stores, of course! Actually, my family members will tell you, I turn to the thrift stores all the time. Thrift stores supply my family with fully 80% of their clothing (everything but underwear) and most of our furniture, books, and knick-knacks, too. I know every thrift store in town, and which one to go to for which purposes.

Thrift stores each have their own personality, you know, which could easily be it's own post, if not an entire book, but just quickly:

Value Village used to be great, but lately has been stocking the shelves with the cheapest of chinese goods, apparently in a bid to be the lower-rent Target. Still a good place to go for lightly-used clothes, and great for books, but not cheap, as far as thrift stores go. You won't find the real funky stuff here - don't bother to hit Value Village for vintage, for example.

Goodwill is the mainstay and the old standby of thrift stores. Often they are huge warehouses, and you can pretty much walk into one those big Goodwills with an agenda and fill it - something you can't do in most thrift stores. Prices are decent, but getting higher. Also, Goodwill is a true community organization, providing literacy and job training to people of all stripes for many decades now. Shopping there is a community service.

The Salvation Army and Saint Vincent de Paul are the low-end thrift shops in most towns. The stuff is likely to be harder used, but the prices are rock bottom. Also, and I'm not sure why, these places are where you will find the really old stuff, the stuff that came out of somebody's attic after fifty years, the crazy, funky junk that you just can't believe. If you are a serious collector, these are the thrift stores to hit. And of course, these shops support hardworking charitable organizations. Food banks, missions, and hospitals.

In any town there will be small thrift shops that support local organizations and churches, and these places are often quite wonderful. I'm sorry that the names of the ones I know here in town are not coming to me now (I could give you cross streets). These are places staffed by old blue haired ladies and often have the most terrific and surprising inventories. Prices vary widely.

I hit the salvation army thrift shop looking for Christmas tins. All of the tins in the above photo were had for 25 cents each. I plan to fill them with candy, cookies, and fruitcakes and give them as presents. The kids can help me make the goodies and get into the christmas spirit. I just need to find some recipes for dairy and gluten free goodies. These little vintage cookbooks (below) won't help me with that, but I couldn't pass them up. I love these things.

Things I Saw Today...

While I was out enjoying the sun.

That Homero has made good progress putting up the walls of his shop.

A confused rhododendron.

Mount Baker.

Giant mushrooms on the lawn - about eight inches across.

That somebody has dug up the roadkill deer.

I wonder who?

The Mountains Are Out!!!

After what feels like weeks of solid rain.... zero solar units...... generalized greyness and never quite getting all the way dry.....

THIS IS WHAT I WAKE UP TO THIS MORNING!!!

Hallelujah. I love living here. I also let the animals out this morning. Since it still hasn't frosted heavily, the grass is still green and alive, so they may as well eat some of it before it dies. Look how Poppy has grown! She makes her mom look like a midget horse.

Steps Toward Sustainability

Craigslist has been good to me lately. Last week I found some items I've been looking for for quite some time. These big white cubes are 250 gallon food-grade plastic tanks. They have steel cages around them so they can be stacked, and you can screw them together so they make one 500 gallon tank (et cetera). They also have spigots on the front so water can be drained easily. These are not easy to find; they show up rarely on Craigslist, and often are unusable because they have been used to store something noxious or else they are very expensive. I lucked out; I found a guy who had 8 of them. He was selling them for $100 a piece - already a good price - but when I offered $700 for all of them he accepted. Also he took $50 to deliver them, which I thought was extremely reasonable. These particular tanks were used to store soy lecithin, which is a food additive naturally derived from soybeans. It's completely harmless unless you are allergic to soy. I'll obviously be washing them out with a high pressure hose before I use them to store water.

I know. It's been raining here for weeks on end, sometimes torrentially. The idea that I might need to store seems totally ridiculous. It always does this time of year. But all I have to do is think back to last August. Anyway, these are for the future. Do I think I will enjoy unmetered water forever? No, I do not.

Actually, I only get five of them for water storage. Homero gets the other three for use in his biodiesel production.

This is my other find. I've been wanting a woodstove for a long time. Currently our only heat is propane, and that is not sustainable long term. Also I don't have any way to cook in the event of a power outage, and I'd like to have one. A woodstove fulfills both these purposes. It's a little rusty, but I can clean that up and paint it with the special woodstove paint. It's been sitting in some guy's garage for about ten years and now he's tearing down the garage. He says it was in perfect working order when he put it out there. It only cost me a hundred bucks, so I can't go too far wrong. The only question is where and how to install it. But that is for another day. Getting it into a pickup, hauling it home, and getting it out of a pickup and into the playroom was enough work for one day.

These are small steps - they are only purchases at this point. All I've done so far is shop. Getting the tanks hooked up and made into a functioning rainwater catchment system will be a job. Ditto installing the woodstove. Recently I purchased a handgun, with an eye to butchering. That's still just a purchase too - I haven't fired it yet, much less used it to butcher a goat or a pig. But gathering materials is the first step of any endeavor, right? You can't make an omelet until you have some eggs.

Local Thanksgiving A Success!

My local thanksgiving feast was a great success. The turkey, although admittedly a bit tougher than a conventional bird, was delicious, and exactly the right size. The beef roast my brother-in-law brought was terrific. These were the big ticket items, and they were both raised within a few miles of me (the beef across the street).

I tweaked the recipe of my wild-rice dressing to include more local items (hazelnuts instead of pine nuts, and dried cherries instead of raisins.).

The potatoes were local, too. So was the pumpkin, and the eggs in the pie.

Of course, some items cannot be omitted and cannot be obtained locally - yams. Wheat. The wild rice. Cranberries. Coffee. But these items are becoming a smaller and smaller percentage of the feast, and local items are getting more and more important.

And the apple cider, I almost forgot! It was decent - not, I must admit, the tastiest hard cider I've ever had, but it wasn't bad, and it was rawther strong.

All in all, a good time was had by all. Thanks to everyone who came and made it a wonderful time!

A Fine Day

... for the fridge to break.

Now What?

My damn free-range, organic, pasture raised, heritage breed, locally raised turkey doesn't fit in any of my stock pots. I'm trying to brine it overnight, not just for better flavor, but because I don't have room in the fridge. The turkey is spending the night in the shed, legs sticking out and all. I covered it with plastic wrap, and that's just going to have to work.

Brine recipe:

Put two gallons fresh cold water in your largest stock pot. Separately, on the stove, boil a quart of water with a cup of sea salt, a half cup (or so) of brown sugar, a few cloves, allspice berries, garlic cloves, sage leaves, bay leaves, and a teaspoon or so of fennel seeds and mustard seeds and black peppercorns. Stir to dissolve salt and sugar. Add to large stockpot along with a couple of dozen ice cubes.

Add ridiculously expensive turkey. Curse when you realize it won't fit. Manipulate turkey through several full revolutions and bring to a stop breast down. Cover with plastic wrap. Mutter "if they don't like it they can go take a flying fuck" and pour yourself some chardonnay. Put stock pot and turkey out in the shed and close the door to protect from coyotes.

Proceed with pumpkin pie. These came out gorgeous. I feel so sorry for the no-dairy/no-gluten people. They have to eat tofutti with blueberries for dessert.

P.S. I love the trade network. The turkey-people have Nubian goats and want to breed them this year. I brought a photo of Storm Cloud, our insanely pretty spotted buckling with me to pick up the turkey, and they say they will happily trade us turkey for his stud fee. YAY!

Gentlemen, Start Your Ovens!

The cooking has begun. Today I am baking pumpkins and making puree. I decided on a pumpkin custard (made with goat's milk) for the no-gluten/cow milk people. Also I will have a regular pie.

I am also making the cranberry sauce today. I don't have an actual recipe, but I have an idea. Orange-vodka cranberry sauce with cloves and pepper. We'll see. If you're going to experiment with Thanksgiving dishes, cranberry sauce is a good one. If you mess up the yams or the stuffing, you might have a mutiny on your hands, but nobody cares that much about cranberry sauce. Plus you can always have a can of jellied as backup.

I would like to make the rolls the day of, of course, but when you work with sourdough, you bake on the sourdough's schedule, not your own. I have to bake today. But I am doing a slow-rise in the refrigerator, so I probably won't actually bake until tomorrow morning. Then I can wrap them up tightly and they'll still be soft and delicious on thursday.

Tomorrow I will probably make pie dough and put it in the fridge. The turkey gets picked up on wednesday, and I'll most likely brine it overnight and leave it out in the shed. Then on the actual day it's just bake the turkey and yams, make the mashed potatoes and the green salad.

Oh and the pie and custard.

And I forgot to put in my timeline, clean the house.

That could take all week.

Giving Thanks: Not As Simple As It Seems

I am hosting Thanksgiving this year, for the first time in about six years. In my family, there is always a tussle for the right to host major holidays. My mom, although it is beginning to be a bit of a strain for her, would still like to host Thanksgiving, Easter and Christmas every year, and sees it as her matriarchal right to do so.

My sister and I each want to have Christmas morning at home with our own kids, though we are happy to travel the hundred miles (over the river and through the woods) to Grandma's house for Christmas dinner. We go to Mom's for Easter because she hides money in the eggs and puts on a hell of a spread, so that just leaves Thanksgiving for the three of us to arm-wrestle over every year.

My sis hosted last year, and even managed to convince our brother and our dad to fly in from the far-away places they reside. It's my turn, though I will have to be satisfied without Dad or Gene, since they can't fly out every year. I haven't hosted any holiday since we moved to this house, so I'm particularly thrilled to do it. I called Thanksgiving back in August.

Due to either misunderstanding, forgetfulness, or downright orneriness, however, it appears that Mom will be hosting her own Thanksgiving and won't be coming up here. It's the first time we haven't shared this holiday in years. I'm sorry about it, but not sorry enough to cancel my own plans, which would mean dis-iniviting several people who are coming from out of town. Apparently we are each too stubborn to give in. But in all fairness, I must point out that she was stubborn long before I was even born, and I got it from her.

Well, all of that is one type of Thanksgiving consideration. The next type is all about the food. Every single person who will be at the table has some kind of strong opinion, religious conviction, allergy, health consideration, or just plain prejudice about the food. Without naming any names or passing any judgement (seriously: I know these restrictions are all either health necessities or deeply held beliefs) , here is a list of the foods which one or more people on the guest list must avoid:

Peanuts

Pork

Shellfish

Gluten

Dairy

Artificial colors

Additionally, to satisfy my own idiosyncratic views, we will not be serving any industrially raised meat, and we will be trying to procure as many foods as possible locally. At first glance, this may seem like some serious restrictions. I thought so at first. However, none of my guests are extreme enough to insist that the foods they cannot eat be entirely excluded from the feast; only that they be clearly labeled (actually it just occurred to me, I am the most extreme person by this measure, as I intend to entirely exclude industrial foods from my feast.). In actual fact, the options are wide open.

Here is my provisional menu:

- A pasture raised, organic, heritage breed turkey which I bought from my neighbor down the street.

- A beef roast (Sister's family is bringing it) made from free range, pasture raised beef from another neighbor.

- Wild Rice dressing - not local but yes organic, gluten and dairy (hereafter, G&D) free

- baked yams, ditto

- mashed local, organic potatoes - will have dairy, but clearly labeled.

- Hard cider from apples we pressed ourselves (Thanks, homebrewin' boys!)

- local organic braised greens (G&D free)

- sourdough rolls from my 75 year old starter (has gluten, obviously)

- local pumpkin pie (has D&G)

- tossed green salad

I have invited everyone to bring a dish, and I'm sure they will, so I have no doubt there will be plenty of acceptable food for everyone. There are two things I think I should figure out: a G&D free dessert (maybe baked apples with raisins and maple syrup?) and a G&D free gravy, which is tough. I could use arrowroot, corn starch, or tapioca as a thickener. I could use wine, water, or stock as the liquid. I can google it, I'm sure.

There's one more consideration. It's hard for me, as the hostess and just as myself, Aimee Day, Modern American Woman, not to put all the emphasis on laying out a massive spread. There's a part of me that feels I will have failed unless everyone rolls away from the table groaning. That's always been the measure of success at my mom's (and most American's) Thanksgivings. Is everyone sated nigh to sickness? Are all the belts in the house loosened? Okay then.

But surely there is more to this Holiday than that. We call it a Holiday - a Holy Day - don't we? Why is this day Holy? What are we giving thanks for?

Certainly, this day is a day consecrated to giving thanks for all that we have to give thanks for, and that will be personal and private. Perhaps a loved one has recovered from a serious illness. Perhaps our marriage has survived a crisis or our job has been saved. Surely we will all have our individual thanks to give. But also, we have our communal thanks to give.

It is not an accident that Thanksgiving happens in November. It is, at base, a harvest festival. We give thanks for the fruitful Earth, that brought forth this bounty - enough to feast upon, and enough to carry us through 'til spring. We will not forget the animals on the tables, and we give thanks for them, for their death, for our life. We give thanks to the men and women who worked the earth to raise our food, whether those men and women are farmers far away or are us, ourselves. We salute their sweat and their strong arms. We rejoice in our own hard work. We give thanks for the gift of foresight, that led us to plan and to plant way back in March or April, and that allows us to put away for the winter or for hard times. We pray for the foresight and the wisdom and the strength to be better stewards of the Earth, that she might continue to provide for us and for our children.

We give our thanks that we are here, together, alive. That we have food to eat. That though the darkest time is upon us, yet we have hope for the future - spring, yes, and all the springs to come. We have faith. We give thanks for faith.

Look! Up in the Sky! It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's.....

A flying calf hutch!

We knew the windstorm was coming. We took precautions. As usual, we parked a car next to the trampoline and chained them together (this is since the trampoline hit the roof year before last). We brought in the kiddie pool (which we have fetched from the neighbor's field once already), loose tarps, anything like that.

But it just never occurred to me to tie down the calf hutch. For those city folks among you, a calf hutch is about nine feet in diameter and maybe four feet high. Weighs perhaps 100 pounds. Looks like a UFO as it is gliding silently over three fences and across a state highway.

It's back. And tied down. There's another windstorm predicted tonight.

Homebrewers Make Good!

Hooray! Several weeks ago, a couple of college age homebrewin' boys came to press apples with me. Even though I have burned in the past by homebrewers who take all my juice and never deliver the promised cider, I decided to take a chance on these boys. What the heck, I already had a freezer full of juice. So instead of taking 50% of the fresh juice (my usual take), I asked for 25% of the finished product back. I figured odds were 50/50 I'd never see them again.

But on friday, they showed up! With 24 bottles of hard cider! They said they had just bottled it, so leave it at room temperature for another couple of weeks, but it should be ready to drink by Thanksgiving.

I'm SO glad I'm hosting this year!