Plastic-Free February Wrap-Up

It's the last day of February so just a quick re-cap of what the Rodale.com Plastic-Free February was all about:

1. No buying or acquiring new plastic.

2: No cooking with plastic or storing food in plastic.

3: Minimize all other plastic use.

Like most guerrilla environmentalists, I'm pretty conscious of what I use from moment-to-moment and one of my frustrations is always the ubiquitrocity (I made that up:) of plastics. It's hard to get away from them in modern life. I don't grow all my food, so it's even more difficult, though I plan my major shopping trips in the city and Whole Foods where I have a few more choices. Plenty of packaging and plastics there though. Even the produce department offers plastic bags - not a good thing. So in the spirit of improving the conscientious lifestyle, here are three things we'll do very soon:

   1.  Make some lightweight washable produce bags to take to the store. I'll repurpose a white voile curtain I have in the fabric stash.

   2.  Buy a roll of butcher paper to freeze whole fresh produce and make sure all the meats we buy are packaged in paper. Gratefully, Whole Foods does this at their meat and fish counters.

   3.  Use exclusively glass jars in the refrigerator and wax paper for counter wrap. Because I won't have the above-mentioned produce bags to re-purpose.

That's a bit of tweaking that will get more of that plastic out of my life. Whatever else, like bottle tops, vitamin storage, and curious plastic bits and baubles, could turn into a work of art along the lines of Louise Nevelson's famous assemblages of cast-off woods that evolved into huge space dividers. Marvelous things!

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Nevelson :

Nevelson is known for her abstract expressionist “crates” grouped together to form a new creation. She used found objects or everyday discarded things in her assemblies, one of which was three stories high: "When you put together things that other people have thrown out, you’re really bringing them to life – a spiritual life that surpasses the life for which they were originally created."

Same can work for the endless stream of plastics. Time, creativity, imagination, and an eye for composition, and voila!, something to paint in a unifying color and hang on the wall. Could work.

And because I know I'll never be able to keep all those plastic bags from coming home with me, here are some links to help do something usable and creative with the miserable things once they're in your possession:

http://www.frugal-cafe.com/fashion-cheap-chic/articles/threadbanger-recycling-plastic-bags.html
http://greenupgrader.com/3953/bag-another-day-the-best-ways-to-reuse-plastic-bags/
http://www.homesteadweaver.com/plasticbagrugs.htm

And here are more links, including clever ways to use the endless stream of plastic bottle caps:

http://www.chasinggreen.org/article/type-5-plastic-bottle-caps-put-good-use/

Thanks to everyone for sharing your creative ideas!

~~~~~~~
Temps:

Desiderata #8

Beyond a wholesome discipline,

be gentle with yourself.

You are a child

of the universe,

no less than the trees 

and the stars;

you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you,

no doubt the universe is unfolding

as it should.

~Max Ehrmann

Interior shot of Sofia's Dream by Land Wilson

Little Pickle Press sales pitch - the February 25% off promotion ends tomorrow so be sure to stock up on their gorgeous award-winning books, all published in environmentally sound ways. Use coupon code LPPLOVE at check-out. http://www.littlepicklepress.com

~~~~~

 Temps: 

Blink and It's Gone

On a cold and frosty morning like this....

What's a fellow to do except soak up some warm sun?

There’s no need for a piece of sculpture in a home that has a cat.” ~ Wesley Bates
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Temps: 57/22 (it actually got sunny and warm enough to hang out laundry)

Comfort Food

We woke up this morning to a dark and dreary day, with icy snow and very cold temperatures. It makes me so grateful that we have a new cord of wood and a hot meal simmering away on the stove. What is it? Chicken With Dumplings from the Fannie Farmer cookbook and I share the recipe with you herewith:

4-5 pound chicken cut into eight pieces
2 carrots, sliced thin
2 ribs celery with leaves, sliced fine
1 large onion, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons thyme, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon rosemary, crumbled
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Dumplings

2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoons minced parsley
4 tablespoons shortening (I use butter)
3/4 - 1 cup milk

Rinse the chicken pieces, put them in a large pot, and cover with water. Add the carrots, celery, onion, thyme, rosemary, 2 teaspoons salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. When the chicken has simmered 30-45 minutes (the recipe says 20 but that's not nearly enough) make the dough.

Combine the flour, baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and parsley in a bowl. Cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 3/4 cup milk and stir briefly with a fork. Add only enough of the remaining 1/4 cup milk to make the dough hold together. Into the simmering broth, drop spoonfuls of dough on top. Cover tightly and steam for 20 minutes without lifting the cover.

I have some variations. I cook the whole chicken in broth and then remove it and set it aside. I only use about half the chicken, skinned, de-boned, and sliced, and reserve the rest for another meal. I also save all the bones and skin and use that for a second batch of broth for a future meal (Shrimp Jambalaya on Sunday).

After this modification, I continue as per instructions. The secret ingredient in the broth is the thyme. The marvelous end-result is that the dumplings thicken the broth into a luscious gravy and you then serve that over the sliced chicken with several dumplings centered on top. Add a little green salad on the side, a few candles and a glass of white wine, and you have a Sunday meal. We're having it in ten minutes as the timer is tweeting even as I finish this. Bon appetit, my friends! Wish you were here to join us. I'd probably serve you a peach pie with fresh-whipped cream for dessert, just to gild the lily.

Zero Waste Pasta

One of my greatest irritations around plastic packaging is not being able to buy pastas in bulk anywhere. Is this really such a big issue? Wouldn't it be great to walk into a gourmet deli and ask the person behind the counter for a pound of spaghetti and have them put that into paper bags from bins behind them... or maybe even hanging from drying racks? It seems so wholesome. But, no... instead, this will likely be in my future if I want to go the sustainable route. We actually have a pasta machine, but it's not a habit that's been cultivated here as yet. It never got beyond hubbo's big idea. Hehe.

The closest we can come to somewhat sustainable packaged noodles is from Barilla. They package their noodles in cardboard boxes and you can read more about it at the Zero Waste Checkout blog, a new discovery thanks to Land Wilson, the author of Sofia's Dream from Little Pickle Press. We both work for this marvelous eco-publisher. By the way, you can get 25% off all books there through the end of February using the coupon code LPPLOVE at check-out, so don't dilly-dally.

Getting really cold here - I think the high today was 35 degrees with a low tonight of 15. We'll have another round or two of winter before there will be any gardening at my place.

Got lots of blogging done today, but no other writing. Now must read Donis Casey's newest book, Crying Blood, which Poisoned Pen Press sent me earlier in the week. This is the next in her Alafair Tucker historical mysteries set in Oklahoma c. 1930.

My Day

Need I say more? It was 3PM by the time I got this damnable Trojan virus removed from my computer. Other than this what have I done? Made yogurt and butter. And cleaned the upholstery on an office chair. Big woot.

Temps: 51/16 sunny and windy
Writing: nada

Of Cats and Animal Control

Today is National Spay Day at the Humane Society of the United States, a worthy cause if ever there was one. Click on the link for more information.

Mick and I have a program of our own we've funded for several decades. We started out with two cats - my Sage and Boo from before our marriage - and adopted more from the huge feral colony that lived in the neighborhood where we had our stained glass studio. It was out-of-hand, so as we had extra money, we used a special program that Hamlett Spay and Neuter Clinic offered. We got a live trap from them, did the dirty deed, took them in for surgery, kept them inside to recuperate, and then released them. Many of them were previously owned and abandoned, and became adoptable by the end of the process. We ended up being the owners, of course. (Feel free to imagine a sheepish grin here.)

When we moved to the country, we had sixteen cats, all non-breeding but with special needs. Nine have died over the past six years, and we've replaced a few with local strays... of course, they've been neutered, too. Our mission continues, just in another place and time.

If more people would help with this, there would be far fewer animal control problems in the world. Unless you're on a farm where the natural cycle includes population control via predator and starvation, neutering is the only process that makes sense, not only to control populations but also to control disease. Think about a contribution to your local spay/neuter fund, won't you? Your veterinarian probably is tapped into a program and would be glad to accept a few extra dollars to funnel into this worthy cause.

So now for the fun - here are a few of my furry and lazy children:

Chai is my prodigal cat child who has been lost several times, we think locked into a storage shed somewhere nearby. One time she was gone for six weeks and I thought she had surely been taken from me for good. It was really a miracle when she returned and it took a few weeks for her to get her weight back. The last time she disappeared was only for two weeks. I think this is when my hair turned completely white. I can't even imagine having a human child of mine running away - the excruciating heartbreak and worry of that. It would kill me, I have no doubt.

Scout was one of Mick's faves. He was the last of a local litter that carries the leukemia virus, and all died of it before they turned a year.

Beamer was part of the car club (we give each litter themes) and became ill very suddenly with complications from his feline leukemia. He was a gorgeous and very photogenic cat. But a bully, and I have to say that there is  much less stress in the colony since he left us.

Olivia was Scout's sister - a sweetie - and she died of FeL just after her first birthday. Likely from the stress of spaying. She had a habit of hiding in the bath tub and that's where she went to die one day while we were in the city.

Bentley is another boy from the car club litter - he has feline leukemia and we thought we'd lose him early on because he's a climber, fell from some high place, and broke his jaw! He had surgery, and recovered from the jaw rewiring and a dislocated hip. We're surprised he's still around and healthy, and think perhaps it has to do with his low-stress personality. Maybe the heavy dosing of antibiotics and painkillers during surgery played a role, too. It's hard to know with this disease.

Sweet Elmer - he was my special boy, but we knew early on this little litter wouldn't last long. They had intense rounds of upper respiratory disease (feline herpes) at birth, and compounded with the feline leukemia, didn't have much chance from the start. We did what we could to give them a short but happy life.

Sassafras and his brother Gingko, came with us from the city. They have stories to tell at another time! Sassy is one of the most elegant cats I've ever seen. He's also a talker thanks to Mick, and a source of great irritation some early mornings.

Buddy is the oldest cat we've ever had. He was an abandoned tom cat for years who hung out around our shop and who unfortunately had feline aids and wasn't expected to live. But we had him for 8 years after his diagnosis/neutering and, again, think his longevity is a direct result of a very mellow personality. Nothing stressed Buddy and all the cats we ever had adored him. He was the alpha cat from the day he joined us, and died last year, mostly from the deterioration of old age. I simply let him go without intervention, and he went as calmly and gracefully as he lived. There was a lesson for me in that process that I'll write about soon. I still miss him dreadfully though. He was my sleeping buddy.

Edsel Ford was another one of the car club boys - he was the first to die of feline leukemia, and caught us totally by surprise. That seems to be a marker of this disease - everything is fine one day, and suddenly there's a rapid decline. Edsel's ailment manifested as a crippling of one back leg which turned out to be either a rapidly growing tumor or a clot, and within two weeks he was dead. I miss him - he was an emphatic cat and has his own special story.

Catmandu - adored by all the felines! 













 "Cats are dangerous companions for writers because cat watching is a near-perfect method of writing avoidance." Dan Greenburg

  
Weather: 54/7
Writing: Does this blog count?

Shake-down Cruise

We took the VW Beetle for her first long tour since installing the new motor and here are a few photos en route through the flatlands heading toward Pikes Peak:

It started as a sunny day, Miss Poppy did very well indeed, and we drove home that evening to a steady rain. 120 miles of rain. That cloud must have followed us all the way!

It's a bit cooler today with a stiff wind, but very sunny. All the early morning frost has melted. We enjoyed our chilis poblano at Rudy's in Colorado Springs so much, that hubbs made his own batch which we thoroughly enjoyed today. Ours actually had a better filling. I'll post the recipe on Thursday.

Highlight of the trip was a new cookbook (we stopped by Borders and were happy to hear they are staying open) called Chocolate with 100 fabulous-looking recipes. I simply couldn't resist. We also explored the new Penzey's which had a lovely selection, a totally disengaged wait staff, and way too much plastic. I came home with lovely paprika, bay leaves, and vanilla beans. Very affordable prices, I must say. But way too much plastic - did I already mention that? Why doesn't anyone use paper bags anymore? Or wrap stuff in butcher paper like in the old days? Better yet, let them use Terraskin.

Desiderata #7

Take kindly the counsel of the years,

gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit

to shield you in sudden misfortune.

But do not distress yourself with imaginings.

Many fears are born

of fatigue and loneliness.

~Max Ehrmann

Give Me Three Good Reasons

We're headed to the city soon, since our pile of potential errands has risen to at least six. We don't make the drive unless we have at least that many stops to make. Here's what's on the agenda so far:

• Meet client
• Pick up commission check from another client
• Buy stained glass
• Library
• Whole Foods
• Borders
• Penzeys
• Bank
• Rudy's Little Getaway Restaurant

It's almost like a vacation! It also  makes for a tiring day, so we try to only go to the city once a month.

Here's another example of making everything work three times as hard. I buy butter that's wrapped in wax paper rather than foil. I use the wrappers to grease bread pans, so I don't have to use a new scrap of something to do the job. Then I use the wrapper to start a fire in my parlor stove - best fire starter ever! See? Three jobs for that silly little butter wrapper. Also the reason I don't buy butter wrapped in foil. Now you know, Land o' Lakes. Why doesn't a journalist stop me in the street and ask me what butter I use and why? I'm ready with an answer!

Obviously I'm a true believer that every little bit helps this over-consumed planet we call home. Alas, most days I don't feel I'm doing nearly enough. If everyone did what I just outlined, we still wouldn't be doing enough. I get pretty bummed about it some days.
~~~~~
It rained all 120 miles of the way home. Rain? In Colorado in February? Sustained rain for hours over this large an area of the state? Seems odd to me.

Plastic-Free February Update

Some day, when you look back on what you’ve written, you’ll realize that you have born witness to your life. You’ll be grateful. ~ Susan Wittig Albert

The proliferation of daily plastic use continues - even the throwaways. Anyone who becomes conscious realizes that it's almost impossible to do away with plastics. Yesterday, I mused that a pasta shop where I could buy freshly made noodles that I brought home wrapped in paper... well, no point musing about it. Such a shop doesn't exist anywhere near where I live. The pasta I boiled came wrapped in plastic. How do you buy your pasta? In plastic. How else? I have one friend who makes his own, but he is a rarity.

I don't store my foods in plastic, having bought into glass storage many years past. I still have two sets of Martha Stewart bowls I bought at Kmart probably two decades ago. If I need more, I use Mason jars.

Yesterday, my largely-plastic office chair broke. I asked Mick to see if he could fix it - it was a perfectly good upholstered chair and simply too good to toss. He discovered an interesting thing - it was almost impossible to get into the underneath portion partly because the screws weren't easily removed (matching ones weren't even used!) and clearly, the design was never intended for long-term maintenance. Plastic comes ready-made with a throwaway mentality imbued into ever piece. (Wait a minute. Wasn't the original intent of non-breakables so we could own and use them for longer?) These items are not meant to last, and more's the pity. Next office chair - antique oak swivel on wheels - as soon as I figure out what to do with this one, since I don't need two office chairs.

I've reached a point in my life in which I seriously consider my purchases and ask the question: What if I had to own this until I died? With no storage space available? Would it outlast me? Could I repair it? Can I repurpose it if its usefulness in the current state is diminished? If it doesn't pass the test, I seriously reconsider the acquisition.

These are questions we all should ask when we acquire "stuff". I look at this appliance above sitting in my bathroom, thankfully only borrowed, and wonder if I'll ever use it. It's a paraffin melter for hand therapy. It's been here for a month. It's very plastic. And I'm grateful I can give it back to its owner tomorrow!
~~~~~

Temps: 50/23 and windy
Writing: mostly research

Sunrise Magic

I infrequently am awake at dawn. I'm one of those people who naturally wakes up at 8 AM and I'm blessed to have the luxury of following my natural rhythm. Occasionally something throws my clock off, and that's what happened yesterday when I fell asleep reading in bed at 9:30 PM, then was wide awake nine hours later - well, who wouldn't be? So I got up to make the coffee and walked through my house seeing things I rarely see.

That morning light is magical. I can understand why some people love the dawn. I bet most of you are morning people, huh? What's your favorite thing to look at first thing?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Temps: 60/18 very windy
Writing: 750 words

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will fall frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself. ~ D. H. Lawrence

I, however, was a bit saddened to get this gift on the back porch this morning. A female woodpecker, probably a Northern Flicker, who was likely looking for breakfast on the ground when she became food for one of my cats. Mother Nature seems dreadfully cruel to me, and like most humans, I resist the natural course of events. I love my feline family (and family they are, being childless). They just do what is natural - hunt - and I like that they keep the rodent population down, but I don't like that they occasionally go after birds. My neighbor who puts feeders and bird baths out, doesn't like cats at all and that worries me a bit more. The potential human cruelty is more worrisome than anything animals mete out.

What is Peak Oil Anyway?

Recently my nephew who is newly in the Air Force, asked me about Peak Oil. He still doesn't quite understand what it's about, and that isn't surprising. There are a lot of people who don't quite get it. I started doing some research to find sites that might simplify the idea and communicate it on an accessible level.  I found these videos and found them to be very good. One is embedded and you can click to view. Then go to the two subsequent links to hear the rest of the lecture by journalist Brian Kaller as he speaks to 300 teenaged students in County Kildare, Ireland about peak oil and climate change.



Climate Chaos

Back to the Fifties

Please watch all three and really think about them. Then consider how you can start changing your lifestyle to accomodate the future of this planet. I'd be willing to bet Mr. Kaller is right on the money.

Temps: Gorgeous 64/22
Writing: 5 pages

Happy Valentine's Day to My Sweet Husband

Some of the more romantic lines from literature just for you:

I risk the wrath of Disney copyright lawyers for love!

"When you fall in love, it is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake, and then it subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots are become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part" - "Captain Corelli's Mandolin"

" Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same" - Emily Bronte

"If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you" - A A Milne

"Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be." - Robert Browning

Desiderata #6

Be yourself.

Especially do not feign affection.

Neither be cynical about love;

for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,

it is as perennial as the grass.

~~~~~

Today is also Go Red Sunday to raise awareness about women's heart health. Thanks to Lee for bringing it to my attention! 

Greer Studios Design

Vienna Coffee and Milk

Here's a little taste of home for Liza. We drove to the house to get milk from her Mom. I love getting milk and eggs from local sources! That's Road V looking East.

A view looking toward town. I know there's a water tower over there and I'm just to the right. Below is their dog, Daisy, on the roof! This is one of the more sensible houses in the area - bermed!

Here's the milk from the gorgeous Brown Swiss cows who must have been in the barn today. I will never get tired of skimming a good pint of cream off the top of each of these gallons. On the menu this week is kefir, yogurt, and maybe some mozzarella for heart-shaped pizzas on Monday.

Here's me with my red Beetle... which unfortunately got a bit dinged up getting pulled out of the garage. More on that story later. You can see one dent on the back fender. The front looks a lot worse! I didn't do it! Yes, I wear red Crocs. What's it to ya? :D

Nice warm day today, and I got a huge load of laundry out on the clothes line! Oh, and Vienna coffee with Mozart today. I wanted a change from our usual Saturday tea.

The recipes for those little pink meringues are at the Little Pickle Press blog.

What about you? How did your day go? Do anything fun and special?

A Day With Rodney Crowell

I have to tell you that reading about Valentine's Day in the news all week is really starting to make my stomach turn. Is it just me, or does anyone else out there think there's more to life than sex?

Acclaimed country and cross-over musician, Rodney Crowell, thinks there should be. He's always been one of my favorite songwriters and guitarists, but I haven't really heard any of his recent work until reading about his newly released memoir, Chinaberry Sidewalks. Then I heard his cover song for the 2008 Sex and Gasoline (lyrics at link) album and was really impressed. This father of four daughters sings to the modern issues and is just as worried about society as a lot of us are. Listen to this:



Yeah, there's way too much sleaze out there. Garbage in, garbage out is how it works when you're dealing with brains. When sex is at the top of your list of things to focus on, you're either very young and driven by your hormones (which is completely natural), or brainwashed by Madison Avenue hype. Oh, gee, that could never happen. The media couldn't possibly have that much mind control. Or could it?
~~~~~
Temps: 39/9 and lots warmer for the next week
Word count: 1,000

Moodling and Writing

I've been moodling and writing and moodling and writing all day. Nothing is close to being finished, but this is part of the process. Back and forth. A little moodling. A little writing. Eventually it'll all come together.

I took some time this afternoon to bake bread and make a meatloaf dinner. Mick is working on four stained glass church windows and when he's with the creative muse, he's in another world. I drag him back for meals. He does the same when my muse grabs hold of me. It's hard to explain The Muses to outsiders who aren't creative types. But they're as real as we are, and when they beckon, the artist answers. It's not something to question.

It's a bit warmer today, and tomorrow it should warm up enough for snow to start melting. I have to pick up milk before my farmer friend cuts me off for good! Getting milk from the neighbors is too much of a treat for me to risk losing. Another friend's chickens are laying again, so we have local eggs, too.  Good ones, with yolks the color of burnished gold.

I'm off to make raspberry chocolate chip meringues. Recipe will be at the Little Pickle Press blog tomorrow.

Temps: 29/3 anticipated high tomorrow 42 - yay!
Word count: 500

St.Valentine's Day Planning

I can't resist trying this recipe today, just for practice, you know.

Chocolate Chai

4 cardamom pods, cracked

1 (4-inch) piece cinnamon stick

4 whole cloves

1/4 tsp. anise seed

2 - 4 (1/4-inch) slices fresh ginger, peeled (see note*)

2 cups water

2 black tea bags

2 Tbsp. unsweetened natural cocoa powder

1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups milk (or unsweetened almond or soy milk - see note**)

3 Tbsp. agave syrup, honey, or stevia, or to taste

Place cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, anise seed and ginger in medium saucepan, add 2 cups water, and place over medium-high heat. When water simmers, cover, and simmer over medium-low heat for 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Add tea bags, cover, and steep for 4 minutes. Remove tea bags, cover, and steep brewed tea with spices for 20 minutes. Strain to remove spices, and return spiced tea to saucepan.

In small bowl, whisk cocoa with 1/4 cup of hot tea until dissolved, then add to tea. Mix in vanilla, and almond or soymilk. Heat chai over medium-high heat until steaming. Sweeten to taste then pour into mugs, or divide chai among 4 mugs and sweeten it to taste individually.

*Note: Ginger root varies in thickness. If you have a fat piece, 2 slices may be enough.
** I don't recommend soy milk as it's known to be an endocrine disruptor.

Makes 4 servings.

Per serving: 120 calories, 3.5 g total fat (0 g saturated fat), 21 g carbohydrate,

4 g protein, 1 g dietary fiber, 65 mg sodium.

It'll be great sipping as we watch our favorite Valentine's movie, Chocolat. We ordinarily never watch TV or go to the movies, except on holidays when we watch a favorite video. How about you? What's your all-time favorite love story?

***

"Until, one winter day, a sly wind blew in from the North..."

Temps: 19/-7 

Word count: unmeasurably online :/

Snow Day

Temps: High of 4/ Low of -9 with wind chills -15 to -25 It is very cold with an anticipated high temperature of 53 for Saturday. Hard to believe.