Well Hey There

Hi, Blog, long time, no see!

I've been a very bad girl! Let's just say, it's been a busy year so far, but I'm determined to get back into this blogging thing!

I'm not even going to attempt to fill in the fast few months- we're starting fresh from here on out!

OKAY!

So, it's SPRING if you hadn't noticed, and that means being OUTSIDE! HOORAY! This year, I'm determined (lots of determination around here!) to keep myself busy during the summer, AND I've been doing lots of reading, and I am GOING TO FARM. And make lots of changes. So, let's chronicle!

1) This is my new territory, the previously abandoned side yard. No one uses it, it's usually overgrown, and the kids just use the sidewalk to get into the basement. Scooooore. It's southern-facing, sheltered by fencing on 3 sides, and the house on the remaining side, and gets pretty good sunlight during the day. I'm killing the grass with tarps, because I am lazy and hate pulling out live grass. They've been cooking under there for about 2 weeks, so I'm going to check it this weekend and see if I can get started!



We have a tiller on loan from a parent, so hopefully I can figure the thing out (I failed at the push mower last weekend... ugh.)


The narrow part between the fence and the stairs is getting the cardboard treatment, because we don't have another one of those AMAZING tarps that I'm using on the big part. It should do the same job though.

I also made myself a make-shift potting bench!


So what's the P.L.A.N? The plan is this:

2) Clothesline. And, no, I'm not running at you with my arm aimed for your neck (growing up watching WWF makes this my initial reaction too), but I'm going to try to put as much of my laundry as possible on this bad-boy (and there's bad-boy #2 waiting to be put up. Or maybe that one is bad-girl?) I fully disclose here that there are some things that I'm sure will be put in the normal dryer (line-dried towels I've found are pretty horrific. Kind of like sandpaper) and I'll give myself concessions for bad weather, and just laundry emergencies, but I'd still like to use it as much as possible. I even made myself a swanky little clothespin bag (naturally), and I find that I really like folding clothes as they come off the line. Maybe this will help the insane closet situation too (still unresolved.)



3. CSA's. Like whoa.

A woman rang the bell out of the blue last weekend, offering us several gallons of raw milk that she was going to be unable to sell due to a cooler malfunction. She had seen our pigs driving by, and knew that pigs *love* milk, and didn't want it to go to waste. Of course, I eagerly accepted the milk, and after talking to her for a bit, I found out that she and her husband run a dairy between Washington and Sperryville, previously unknown to me. The only dairy that I knew of has a GINORMOUS waiting list; she has open shares. Long story short, as soon as this little lady gets paid, I am high-tailing it up to her place and BUYING A RAW MILK SHARE. Oh. My. God. If you've not had raw milk (and I guess few people have, since it's pretty much illegal), this is milk unlike anything you've ever tasted. Un-homogenized, with a thick topping of yellow cream, and it is absolutely to die for. Susan and I split a weeks' worth of milk from the other dairy last summer while her friends were out of town, and it was deeelish (and, I admit, I totally stuck my finger in the bucket of pig-milk, out of curiosity. Purely scientific, I swear.) I can't wait. Butter. OH MY GOD BUTTER. Gonna make so much butter. And ice cream. I even want to delve into cultured products, like yogurt, and I'm dying to know how to make sour cream without killing myself.

To add to that, our local county list-serv had an add yesterday from an older couple looking for someone to share their CSA share from Sunnyside Farm. They're out of town a lot in the growing season because they're retired, have a house in Maine, etc, so they don't get as much use out of it as they'd like to, and I'm just one person, so there is NO way I could eat a whole share. So we're going to alternate weeks picking up, and split the cost. It works out to be $25 a week. Which is really really good. Sunnyside is actually so awesome, they sell at the White House Farmer's Market.

So that's two strikes off the local eating list: dairy and veggies (plus I think Sunnyside does eggs, and fruit in season), and I still have locally grown/milled wheat from Purcellville Now I just need to trot down to Mount Vernon when I deplete all the meat in my fridge...

Totally unrelated to the subject of farming and sustainability, I've been working on a lot of sewing/crafty stuff for dance! Yee haw! Got my tassel belt started, after THREE YEARS of languishing in a bin of uncompleted projects,


and I finished my first version of my choli ( a sort of crop-top-type thing), though I want to tweak it a bit, and then I still need to make my "real" version (this one was just for practice, but I made it pretty enough to wear!)

The fabric is a hand block-printed piece that my high school art teacher gave me. When I was in high school. Like, 6 years ago. Or more. And I've never touched it.

I had *just enough* and had a lot of fun making sure that the patterns mirrored, and even that the little trees went the same direction (even under the arms!)



I'm also about to do a little fixing on one of my favorite hoodies. It's white (I know), and it's had a stain on the pocket forever (obviously), so I'm going to cover the pockets with some super-cute fabric I picked up yesterday at a quilt shop in Warrenton to cover all my sins...

After that, I'm going to recover this ottoman that I picked up off the side of the road, with some nice red waffle-weave-ish upholstery fabric that I bought a while ago and since forgot my plans for...

Sebastian approves!

So, productive weeks ahead!

Spectrum

It's an extremely blustery day outside, and there's absolutely NO point in shoveling snow in 40 mph winds, so I've been cooped up all day, keeping myself busy by working a little on cutting blocks for my quilt.I've been scouring the fat-quarter bins at Joann's to supplement my scraps, and now I think I've probably got enough to make a decent-sized lap quilt. There's no way I'm making a queen-size quilt (yet.) So here are pictures of the pieces, spectrum style, and then the few pieces that I haven't cut out yet (can't lie, the wrists are killing me!)

Reds

Yellows

Greens


Blues


Neutrals


Big Schtack o' Fabric

Sometimes...

Life is so much better with conversations like this:

LaserPanda: okay
LaserPanda: so someone just called and asked
LaserPanda: "can i have the department where you buy your stuff at?"
Saraswati7286: wtf?
LaserPanda: Parts.
LaserPanda: THey meant parts.
Saraswati7286: wow
LaserPanda: they remembered the word department, but not the word parts
Saraswati7286: lol
LaserPanda: they were not embarassed at all when i asked, "do you mean parts?"
Saraswati7286: lol, sad. so sad.
Saraswati7286: <3 ky
LaserPanda: I know. Really, how can you go on without living here?
Saraswati7286: I don't know. I die a little bit inside, every day
LaserPanda: You're just in virginia now tho, you still get your monthly mullet requirment.
Saraswati7286: :-( not really
Saraswati7286: I can't remember seeing one
LaserPanda: thats wrong, your body must be atrophying.
Saraswati7286: i think so
Saraswati7286: explains being depressed
Saraswati7286: lack of mullets
Saraswati7286: do you think I could get a supplement?
LaserPanda: Without seeing X many mullets a month, the brain stops producing the chemicals that make us happy.
Saraswati7286: dopamine?
LaserPanda: Serotonin
Saraswati7286: oh that one
Saraswati7286: yep
LaserPanda: There is a graph somewhere plotting levels of serotonin and the number of mullet's sighted at a walmart at 3pm on a sunday.
Saraswati7286: LOL
Saraswati7286: god that would make me so happy
Saraswati7286: Doctorate research?
LaserPanda: Perhaps. It is an under-researched field of study
Saraswati7286: I'm seeing "Nobel Prize" for Mullet Research

Oh Dear.

It's been. A while.

Sorry about that. Just haven't been in the chatty mood??... Or more like: I've been crafting my fingers to the bone and haven't thought about blogging about it!

Best thing to happen to me this week: Double whammy!

1. Ridiculous amount of snow days. 2 days of school all week! AND THE SNOW IS BEAUTIFUL. Let's see what I say about that tomorrow when I have to dig myself out...

2. In conjunction with part 1, I got my yarn winder mere HOURS before the snow started falling heavily (yes, maybe I went out in the *light* snow *twice* to check my PO box. Don't judge. I am in love. Little cakes of yarn EVERYWHERE.

I also got this book all about hiding veggies in your foods. Granted, it is written for parents to hide veggies from their *children*, but I never find myself wanting to eat a whole lot of veggies, and I WANT to, so I think this is the best, if not most pathetic, route for me. Tonight, I made carrot macaroni, and I have to say it was pretty darn good. I didn't measure at all, just cooked some carrots (one was uncooked, because I started pureeing it before I realized they should be cooked first...) and threw them in the macaroni, doctored it up with some more milk (I put a LOT of carrot, which made it a bit dry), butter, and some Cabbot extra sharp. Dee-lish!



I also got a bread maker at the thrift store the other day for SIX DOLLARS. Because the stars have certainly aligned in my honor. I made one batch of whole wheat (with really nice locally-grown wheat), but it turned out heavy as a brick (mom did warn me about that...) so I'm making some white now, and I'll play around with mixing in the whole wheat later. The bricks will now become an extra-special "HOLY CRAP ITS COLD" treat for the chickens. They don't really like snow, so I figure they could use it ;-)



Bread, V 1.0

And now I'm too tired to type the rest. We've now been plowed out, and I'm thinking about escaping to town, because I've been stuck here since Thursday.

Blogs are for:

Procrastination

It's Sunday night, which means tomorrow is Monday. Which is my day off, right? Yes. But I still have to give the students stuff to do while I'm gone and Susan fills in, which means I need to make one Latin vocab quiz and some Greek/Latin Roots study sheets tonight. Luckily, it's only 8:35. What is going on with the time anyway? Maybe it's because I got up at a reasonable hour today (and that was still 10:30), it has just dragged on, which I really shouldn't complain about. Except that I was going to use that time to do laundry. And the washer is on the fritz. Well damn.

I did however, dye my hair! It's dark again, as I tend to change my hair color seasonally. It still isn't dry all the way, so no telling how it looks. But its *dark*. I also hacked at the bangs, which were in some serious need of TLC. Biggest problem with bangs: you want them to stay one particular length, but hair grows, imagine that. I feel like I cut them every week. Maybe I do?

We just fired our first load of pottery this weekend, and I'm pleased to announce that everything made it through alive! Woo! Eme's mom has a kiln, and offered her services, thankfully. Eme's mom also used to pot professionally, which makes me feel quite dumb, quite frequently. I mean, I took pottery in high school and college, but I am by no means a potter. She talks to me about all kinds of crap that she assumes I know... and... I don't. S cracks? What in the hell are those? Especially doesn't help that we weren't ever really taught how to fire.. that would have been rather handy. All of my pieces look at least slightly better than the students', which makes me feel very good. Though some of them had much more creative ideas, or came very close to matching skills with me (obviously not hard to do...) I still haven't made anything on the wheel... which is weird. That's what I liked best in college. I actually hated all of my handbuilt stuff... Guess I need more practice! Ok, so photo shoot time!

My magic Box! Probably better than the one I made in college. Maybe because I just left it as a square, rather than slamming the living hell out of it. I love that the lid ACTUALLY FITS, and the dots & wood grain sides came out stellar. The other are not as exciting (top is fine.)


A Mayan tile. This actually means something. But I've forgotten what. Maybe it starts with a z?? Other than the fact that I forgot whatever in the hell it means, I like this little guy. Thinking about painting him rather than glazing (possibly the box too) because I want more detail. Glaze always runs into each other... Mainly cause I'm probably bad at glazing.


This little piece is almost an exact copy of the pin that I bought from Lori. I have no defense except that I wanted to try it out. Brilliant idea Lori. Obviously much more successful when it's in one piece. Also, I have no idea how she managed to get the safety pin to stay in the back (it's embedded in the clay.) Maybe she didn't play with hers before firing.. hmmm...


I hate to be crude, but I think this pot looks like big ol' pieces of poo. I can't help but think that. Otherwise, it's actually fairly symmetrical **cough, fairly, cough** and I like the outside as coils and inside being smooth. Except that it looks like poo.

This pot doesn't even deserve a picture that's in focus. ITS THE LEANING TOWER OF PISA. How in the world did I make it that crooked? And why did I not wad it up and throw it back in the bag? We'll never know...


I title this piece "The Aliens Have Landed, and We Have Their Ships." Just so that I don't ever get cocky about my creativity, it's nice to have examples of how bad things can go.


But then there are those things that you LOVE. Like my MAYAN SALSA BOWL. I don't know how into salsa the Mayans were, but right now I could pretty much eat the stuff through a straw. And I made this pot with the full intention of filling this bad boy full of salsa! Made to my exacting, salsa-eating specifications, it boasts a bowl neither to shallow, nor too deep, and adorable little tripod legs that I AM SO PROUD OF. I am obviously the queen of scoring and slipping. In other words, I rock. I fully admit that it is not even all the way around (handmade coil is almost impossible to make even) but the walls are straight and THE LEGS STAYED ON. I am stoked, obviously. A little food-safe glaze, and we'll be in salsa Xibalba! (On second though, I don't think that's a good thing...)

Mildly related to the subject of Xibalba (pronounced like Shibalba. Close enough right? I love when people throw out x's just to fuck you up.) Friday was our Dia de los Muertos Fiesta (yes all you good little DDLMosians, it ended many many days before that, but hey! Fridays are good party days!) The kids made an altar, lots of papel picado, and we made a feast worth of the gods! Mole, tortillas, beans, rice, guacamole, churros, and sugar skulls abounded! The altar was extremely touching; I wish we could keep it up all year.


I was especially touched by it because my kitty, Gato (irony of the name/holiday?) was put to sleep on Tuesday. He had chronic kidney failure and was way past the point of return. It was nice to send him off with such honor. (He's also buried in an extremely beautiful part of the farm, under towering butterfly bushes, and sheltered by a gigantic white mum. Sleep well, little boy.) I'm still in denial I think, but it's made me realize that I need to shower the kitties with affection every second they're with me. He was also an awesome cat, and I'm sure the universe will bring him back to m in one form or another. He was just too good to lose.

Going back to the altar, Zoe's dad had this little gem from a trip to Mexico:


I. Adore. It. I want one. I will make one (Sculpey maybe? Papier Mache is too lumpy and uncontrolable.) I especially love that the eyes are named Pedro and Lupe (as is evidenced on the top of their heads.) Some day... sigh. I did make my own papier mache head, and he is hilariously adorable, but I forgot to take pictures! Maybe later? Anyway, this post is bordering on bcoming a book, so I will leave you with this little gem:

Goodnight All!

Time for happy thoughts

Like funny penguin socks (how in the hell did I make this underlined!?) in time for cold weather

Pajama pants for Dia de los muertos! OLE!

And snuggly, happy cats.

And hours and hours on Cyanide & Happiness.

It is a good day.

Interesting...

So, mom was diagnosed with hypothyroidism lately, and, after hearing her account of the symptoms associated, I'm starting to think that I should get tested too. Out of curiosity, I found this checklist of symptoms, and here are my answers:

I have the following symptoms of hypothyroidism, as detailed by the Merck Manual, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, and the Thyroid Foundation of America

__X__ I am gaining weight inappropriately
__X__ I'm unable to lose weight with diet/exercise
____ I am constipated, sometimes severely
__X__ I have hypothermia/low body temperature (I feel cold when others feel hot, I need extra sweaters, etc.)
__X__ I feel fatigued, exhausted
__X__ Feeling run down, sluggish, lethargic
__X__ My hair is coarse and dry, breaking, brittle, falling out
____ My skin is coarse, dry, scaly, and thick
__X__ I have a hoarse or gravely voice
__X__ I have puffiness and swelling around the eyes and face
__X__ I have pains, aches in joints, hands and feet
____ I have developed carpal-tunnel syndrome, or it's getting worse
____ I am having irregular menstrual cycles (longer, or heavier, or more frequent)
____ I am having trouble conceiving a baby
__X__ I feel depressed
__X__ I feel restless
__X__ My moods change easily
__X__ I have feelings of worthlessness
__X__ I have difficulty concentrating
__X__ I have more feelings of sadness
__X__ I seem to be losing interest in normal daily activities
__X__ I'm more forgetful lately

I also have the following additional symptoms, which have been reported more frequently in people with hypothyroidism:

__X__ My hair is falling out
__X__ I can't seem to remember things
____ I have no sex drive
____ I am getting more frequent infections, that last longer
____ I'm snoring more lately
____ I have/may have sleep apnea
__X__ I feel shortness of breath and tightness in the chest
__X__ I feel the need to yawn to get oxygen
__X__ My eyes feel gritty and dry
__X__ My eyes feel sensitive to light
__X__ My eyes get jumpy/tics in eyes, which makes me dizzy/vertigo and have headaches
____ I have strange feelings in neck or throat
____ I have tinnitus (ringing in ears)
__X__ I get recurrent sinus infections
____ I have vertigo
__X__ I feel some lightheadedness
____ I have severe menstrual cramps

Hmm... so that's 26/39. Or 66.6%. I'd say that's a majority. So. Gotta call the doctor and see if I can schedule a blood test and if they cover that (YAY NO INSURANCE! I love it. Ugh.)

Right now, I'm at the tail-end of a horrific migraine, so I'm going to give the cat his fluids, take a bath, and go to bed.