Hellodiddleeodlee! Hope you're enjoying summer. Glorious summer. It's here, alright. Yesterday it was over 30 degrees (90-ish F) here - which is unusually hot. And I was working outside all day! Yikes! I drank over 4L of water yesterday. SOOOO needed the water. phew.
So last time I blogged was after Day 1 of the cob oven workshop. Day 2 went awesome; we had a good-sized group of people come out and we got some cob on the oven. I guess I overshot my estimate of how long it would take, but that's okay. Saturday we got 3 batches on the oven, Sunday I mixed up another 2 and Monday I mixed up the last 2. So it took 7 batches of cob to finish the first layer of the oven (which incidentally is 12" thick). Yesterday I pulled the sand form out and removed the newspaper covering the sand, and VOILA - the cob oven didn't collapse in on itself!! It actually held its form and is a beautiful, functional, lovely oven!! I was so excited. I put a fire in it to dry it out (12" walls are quite thick). Even after burning a fire for over 8 hours it was only about 300 or 350 degrees inside; not hot enough for pizza (sadly, for the kids, that is), but it did dry the oven out quite a bit.
This weekend I'll fire it up again and make hubby & the kids some homemade, wood-fired pizza. They'll love it. :) Guaranteed.
So yes, the past several days have been all about the cob oven around here. Yesteday my son and I finished the kids' garden and he planted winter veggie seeds - collards, beets, kohlrabi, lettuce mix, kale. we'll plant some more soon but in this heatwave it'd be best to wait a few days, i think. i'm *SO* excited to have the winter seeds in, though. it's been on my to-do list for several weeks. i weeded the herb garden in the early morning (like 6 - 7:30 a.m.) and watered all the gardens well, although i see the herb garden is already dry. crazy. Early morning is the best time to water gardens because the plants' stomata are open in the morning and after the heat of a long day, they'll be closed in the evening and not as able to soak up the water in the evening. Also, watering in the evening can cause soil temperatures to drop more than if you water in the early morning. So when I am up early (and Sophie makes sure I'm up at ungodly hours, LOL) I try to water in the early mornings. Weed first. Water. Then harvest later in the morning, or in the evenings. Transplanting is best done in the evenings.
I guess that's about it for an update. The 11 chickens are doing very well. We're hoping to see eggs coming soon. Sophie the 11 week old puppy is adorable and very well behaved. She's such a darling. SOOOO sweet. The kids are over at the neighbours playing this afternoon. I'm avoiding my to-do list. LOL
This morning I mixed up a batch of raw muesli, a jar of sesame milk, and some lemon poppy seed energy balls (yummers) - all so that there is raw food ready to go (best to have a few things ready to eat when you get hungry). I also made 2L of green smoothie and drank half.
Alright. That was a long enough quick update. I'll try to check in again very soon.
Love your life and laugh often.
Namaste
~n~
29 July 2009
24 July 2009
CoB OvEn!!
Today was Day 1 of the two-day cob oven workshop I'm hosting. We had four adults (including my husband and myself), and we got lots done. The foundation was built and filled in previously. So today we mixed up a couple batches of cob and levelled the foundation off. Then we made more cob and used it as mortar between old bricks to build a sort of retaining wall for the next step. We placed empty beer bottles on their sides under where the hearth will be; this is for added insulative value for conductive heat. Then we mixed up some clay slip with straw and added that around and on the bottles. This is where we've stopped for the day. I need to build a wooden door tonight.
Tomorrow we have more people coming - maybe as many as 8 or 9 people coming to cob. In the morning, I'm hoping the clay slip will have dried enough to proceed. Next step is to put down a layer of play sand or silica/ashtray sand - nice fine-grain sand for the hearth bricks to sit on. "Kiss and slide" the hearth bricks into place. Build the 16" high sand dome which will form the interior wall of the oven. Cover with a layer of newspaper. Mix cob and begin building walls of oven. Build second layer, adding straw into the mix. At this point, I'll leave the oven for up to a week or at least a few days to let the cob set. Then I'll scrape the sand out of the middle to form the oven's void and then fire it up and.... hey presto - we'll be cooking the world's best pizzas and bread by sunset. ;)
Costs so far:
$50 for delivery of a yard (or was it two?) of roadbase gravel to level out the site
Free: sandbags filled with concrete which were used to build the foundation.
Free: 110 yards (11 dumptruck loads) of fill - about 1/4 of a yard of which was used to fill in the foundation. LOL (Don't worry; we have a plan for the remaining 109.75 yards)
Free: 10 yards of clay subsoil which is what we're using for the cob mix.
Free: old bricks used for the retaining ring
$8 for a bale of straw
$6 for a bag of play sand
$72 for 18 firebricks for the hearth.
Total to date: about $136. I probably could've scrounged some old firebricks, and picked up a bale of spoiled straw for free if I'd looked hard enough. But I'm happy with the costs to-date. :)
I've been taking pictures as we go, but have no way of uploading them at the moment.
P.S. the chickens are 16 weeks old today. The puppy is 11 weeks old. All are doing well.
Tomorrow we have more people coming - maybe as many as 8 or 9 people coming to cob. In the morning, I'm hoping the clay slip will have dried enough to proceed. Next step is to put down a layer of play sand or silica/ashtray sand - nice fine-grain sand for the hearth bricks to sit on. "Kiss and slide" the hearth bricks into place. Build the 16" high sand dome which will form the interior wall of the oven. Cover with a layer of newspaper. Mix cob and begin building walls of oven. Build second layer, adding straw into the mix. At this point, I'll leave the oven for up to a week or at least a few days to let the cob set. Then I'll scrape the sand out of the middle to form the oven's void and then fire it up and.... hey presto - we'll be cooking the world's best pizzas and bread by sunset. ;)
Costs so far:
$50 for delivery of a yard (or was it two?) of roadbase gravel to level out the site
Free: sandbags filled with concrete which were used to build the foundation.
Free: 110 yards (11 dumptruck loads) of fill - about 1/4 of a yard of which was used to fill in the foundation. LOL (Don't worry; we have a plan for the remaining 109.75 yards)
Free: 10 yards of clay subsoil which is what we're using for the cob mix.
Free: old bricks used for the retaining ring
$8 for a bale of straw
$6 for a bag of play sand
$72 for 18 firebricks for the hearth.
Total to date: about $136. I probably could've scrounged some old firebricks, and picked up a bale of spoiled straw for free if I'd looked hard enough. But I'm happy with the costs to-date. :)
I've been taking pictures as we go, but have no way of uploading them at the moment.
P.S. the chickens are 16 weeks old today. The puppy is 11 weeks old. All are doing well.
11 July 2009
puppy puppy puppy love
ohhhhh are we ever in puppy heaven over here with our new little Sophie! As I posted earlier, she's an 8 week old chocolate lab. I haven't taken any photos of her yet. But we are really enjoying her company. She slept so well last night - from 9:30 or so until 4 a.m., then back to sleep within the hour 'til 7 or so.
The kids are enamoured with her. And they've been really good with her - not giving her toooooo much affection in a smothering kind of way (lol) but just being with her - watching her sleep, patting her gently, chattering away to her.
It's HOT today - supposed to get up to 27 degrees (Celsius). Trying to keep everyone cool and well-quenched.
I suppose that's all the news I have for now...
hope you have a splendid day today!
namaste
~n~
The kids are enamoured with her. And they've been really good with her - not giving her toooooo much affection in a smothering kind of way (lol) but just being with her - watching her sleep, patting her gently, chattering away to her.
It's HOT today - supposed to get up to 27 degrees (Celsius). Trying to keep everyone cool and well-quenched.
I suppose that's all the news I have for now...
hope you have a splendid day today!
namaste
~n~
10 July 2009
the cogs in the wheel of life are turning. things are happening.
Greetings! We have news around here!
First, kids had dentist appts today. One has 1 small cavity, the other has (ahem) 12 cavities... all between teeth. can you say "needs to floss more often?". er, yes, quite (i was reminded that i am responsible for superivision of daily flossing. yes, thanks. i've been errant on that). They enjoyed the appt though- new toothbrush, stickers, floss...
Secondly, our car went in for servicing today. Why do I mention this? Well, at the dealership, the sales mgr had her dog there (a black lab) who has recently had a litter of puppies - chocolate labs. She had 3 of the puppies (they're 8 wks old now) in with the mama today when we brought our car in... and you can just GUESS how completely GA-GA my kids went over these puppies!!! for those who don't know, we have had two labs in our life in the last decade - our black lab passed away of an enlarged heart (unnoticed birth defect) when she was 4 yrs old, and our chocolate lab passed away of cancer last fall... Since when, we have been saying, oh, yeah, we should get another dog.... but no, I wasn't actively searching for a new dog. But when I saw these puppies, my heart strings twanged. AND there's only one left for sale. So I'm hoping (*cross my fingers*) that it will all work out. We'll see. (And, dear sister, before you mention what a menagerie of animals I already have... i'll point out it takes more than a few cats and a dozen chickens to make a menagerie.... at least, i think it does).
Then we went and dropped off a meal at a friend's house, who's just had her fourth babe. Nothing like holding a week old baby to get that biological clock ticking LOUDLY in one's ear. good GRIEF. my daughter was so SMITTEN with this little babe - improvising & singing her lullabies and gently stroking her mop of dark hair. SOOOOO sweet. and my GOSH didn't my 5 yr old look so BIG and grown-up next to a wee one!!! yes, it was a lovely LOVELY visit.
And tonight I finally got my act together and posted on our local homeschooling networks about a cob mixing workshop party here to get the cob oven built. I'm hoping to garner enough interest from people I've met - I'll post info on the local bulletin boards at our community mailboxes and phone people who've said they'd come help when it came time to mix... hopefully I can get a dozen people to come each day and we'll have the oven functional before the August long weekend. (that's the plan, anyways).
Today I enjoyed:
First, kids had dentist appts today. One has 1 small cavity, the other has (ahem) 12 cavities... all between teeth. can you say "needs to floss more often?". er, yes, quite (i was reminded that i am responsible for superivision of daily flossing. yes, thanks. i've been errant on that). They enjoyed the appt though- new toothbrush, stickers, floss...
Secondly, our car went in for servicing today. Why do I mention this? Well, at the dealership, the sales mgr had her dog there (a black lab) who has recently had a litter of puppies - chocolate labs. She had 3 of the puppies (they're 8 wks old now) in with the mama today when we brought our car in... and you can just GUESS how completely GA-GA my kids went over these puppies!!! for those who don't know, we have had two labs in our life in the last decade - our black lab passed away of an enlarged heart (unnoticed birth defect) when she was 4 yrs old, and our chocolate lab passed away of cancer last fall... Since when, we have been saying, oh, yeah, we should get another dog.... but no, I wasn't actively searching for a new dog. But when I saw these puppies, my heart strings twanged. AND there's only one left for sale. So I'm hoping (*cross my fingers*) that it will all work out. We'll see. (And, dear sister, before you mention what a menagerie of animals I already have... i'll point out it takes more than a few cats and a dozen chickens to make a menagerie.... at least, i think it does).
Then we went and dropped off a meal at a friend's house, who's just had her fourth babe. Nothing like holding a week old baby to get that biological clock ticking LOUDLY in one's ear. good GRIEF. my daughter was so SMITTEN with this little babe - improvising & singing her lullabies and gently stroking her mop of dark hair. SOOOOO sweet. and my GOSH didn't my 5 yr old look so BIG and grown-up next to a wee one!!! yes, it was a lovely LOVELY visit.
And tonight I finally got my act together and posted on our local homeschooling networks about a cob mixing workshop party here to get the cob oven built. I'm hoping to garner enough interest from people I've met - I'll post info on the local bulletin boards at our community mailboxes and phone people who've said they'd come help when it came time to mix... hopefully I can get a dozen people to come each day and we'll have the oven functional before the August long weekend. (that's the plan, anyways).
Today I enjoyed:
- a banana and a cup of sesame milk-chia pudding for breakfast
- just over 2L of water throughout the day
- 2.3L of green smoothie for lunch (0.3L @ 10:00, 1L ~11:00 & the other ~1:00). In the smoothie I put: one bunch of beet greens, 2 tsp of Enerex greens powder, 1/4 tsp camu camu berry powder, 2 squeezes of raw amber agave nectar, 4 bananas, about 2c of frozen strawberries, water... I think that was it.
- for a snack: 3 raw chocolates (I have no more in the house (thankfully); I took some over to my friend's)
- for dinner - a green salad with green leaf lettuce, a little green pepper, a tomato, some purple/red cabbage, about 1/2c of fresh raspberries, and some (non-raw, but organic) salad dressing. colourful and delicious.
- and, er, two chocolate chip cookies this evening. no, not raw. They contained white flour (albeit organic) and some white sugar. And yes, I felt like crap afterwards (no, not GUILTY, but just plain crappy after consuming refined sugar and flour, etc.). This is why, unlike how I grew up (where there were ALWAYS cookies in the lemon-shaped cookie jar on the counter), I RARELY make cookies to have in the house. I'm just not at a point yet in my relationship with food where I can feel confident in my ability to make healthy choices as often as I'd like to (yes, admittedly, that means "all the time"). I can still hear the cookies taunting me from their kitchen hideout, crying out "resistance is futile!" in their little cookie voices. I hear you, you darn cookies! Leave me ALONE already!!!!!! I don't want to eat you. Go away. Just go AWAY! (Could someone else just eat them and get them OUT OF THE HOUSE ALREADY?!?!) do you SEE what i have to deal with?! and darn it, I always do so WELL all day controlling those old food habits, but come darkness, what the heck happens to Will Power?! Where does HE go?!?! Certainly isn't supportin' me none, come darkness. No sirreeeeeee.
07 July 2009
today's raw food journal/intake
Hmmmmm.... What's new around here...
only 1L of water today. usually i have at least 2, preferably 3.
breakfast:
1L of smoothie (1/2 bunch kale, 2 tsp Enerex greens powder, 2 bananas, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, a few medjools and a squeeze of raw agave, and water = 2.25L of smoothie)
lunch:
the rest of the green smoothie (just over 1L)
snacks:
some fresh cherries & a few small raw chocolates (which had bits of goji berries, raisins, maca powder, and nibs in them). and two mugs of herbal tea (chamomile-peach), most enjoyed in the company of a good friend.... :) (good company makes for good digestion, wouldn't you agree?)
some wild berries from around the yard - huckleberries, salmonberries, wild blackberries (they're TINY and soooo sweet!), and some raspberries from the garden.
dinner:
zucchini "pasta" with raw (arugula/basil) pesto, raw 'parmesan', and red pepper, and then a tomato diced up with sea salt & fresh basil. deeeeeelicious. sooooo good. rather garlicky.
skipped out on exercising today. it was a rainy day and i was more interested in spending the morning with dh and the afternoon over at a friend's. :) tomorrow, no excuses. MUST exercise. as far as mental stimulation, i've been making plans today for the fall - plans of raw food classes i could offer, of e-books and articles i'd like to write, of things i'd like to plant in the garden for winter eating, of juicefeasting in the fall for an extended time, all kinds of plans.... so i'm quite happy with the mental stimulation i gave myself today. :) enjoyed the day, as lazy as it was/is.
i had rather high personal expectations for my 200nd post. LOL but i need to get the kids to bed; rest assured, all is well in my world. :)
namaste
~n~
only 1L of water today. usually i have at least 2, preferably 3.
breakfast:
1L of smoothie (1/2 bunch kale, 2 tsp Enerex greens powder, 2 bananas, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, a few medjools and a squeeze of raw agave, and water = 2.25L of smoothie)
lunch:
the rest of the green smoothie (just over 1L)
snacks:
some fresh cherries & a few small raw chocolates (which had bits of goji berries, raisins, maca powder, and nibs in them). and two mugs of herbal tea (chamomile-peach), most enjoyed in the company of a good friend.... :) (good company makes for good digestion, wouldn't you agree?)
some wild berries from around the yard - huckleberries, salmonberries, wild blackberries (they're TINY and soooo sweet!), and some raspberries from the garden.
dinner:
zucchini "pasta" with raw (arugula/basil) pesto, raw 'parmesan', and red pepper, and then a tomato diced up with sea salt & fresh basil. deeeeeelicious. sooooo good. rather garlicky.
skipped out on exercising today. it was a rainy day and i was more interested in spending the morning with dh and the afternoon over at a friend's. :) tomorrow, no excuses. MUST exercise. as far as mental stimulation, i've been making plans today for the fall - plans of raw food classes i could offer, of e-books and articles i'd like to write, of things i'd like to plant in the garden for winter eating, of juicefeasting in the fall for an extended time, all kinds of plans.... so i'm quite happy with the mental stimulation i gave myself today. :) enjoyed the day, as lazy as it was/is.
i had rather high personal expectations for my 200nd post. LOL but i need to get the kids to bed; rest assured, all is well in my world. :)
namaste
~n~
03 July 2009
Anyone else celebrating bonbon week?
LOL.... didn't you know it was bonbon week this week? oh, if only. I'm afraid it wasn't truly bonbon week, but you'd never know it by the number of raw chocolates I consumed. honestly, you'd think it really WAS bonbon week around here. and it's not just me - i make a batch of raw chocolates and they are gone gone GONE soooo quickly. EVERYONE loves them. :) ohhhh, but they're healthy, I keep telling myself. I'm sure one would be, or maybe two. But four or five? Probably not so much.
But now I'm out of raw cacao butter (which is probably a blessing!) and payday's not for several days, so I'm thinkin' there's gonna be some withdrawwwwwwwwwallllllllll comin' on soon.
boooooooooo hooooooooooo hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
that makes me sad.
but seriously. i've been reading Duane Elgin's Voluntary Simplicity book lately and it's really resonating with me. The concept of simple living - of, first of all, living a life in accordance with one's values... Naturally, this requires actually spending time thinking and discussing what values you'd like to live your life by... and I wouldn't hesitate to say that there are any number of people who live on automatic, who don't ever self-reflect or take the time to set meaningful personal-growth goals in life. I wouldn't doubt that there are people out there who really couldn't articulate what values they are aspiring to live by. Voluntary simplicity - living not in poverty, but with conscious respect for the finite resources our planet has to offer (i.e. taking only what you need, ensuring everyone on earth could theoretically do the same) - this type of lifestyle creates the space in our lives to examine our values. It allows us time to reflect on concepts like right-livelihood, right-speech (one I see I need to think about more as I prattle on here... honestly, which words here are superfluous to the intent of my message? How could I pare down my thoughts to essentials?), relationships, and more. Yes, choosing voluntary simplicity is very thought-provoking.
I liked the message in the book that it is in the small things - the seemingly insignificant things - that we each do that make the collective difference. It's nice to remember that. Sure, it might not seem like we're making much of a difference, but collectively we are.
LMAO... okay, I start the post talking about gorging on chocolates this week, and go on to talk about voluntary simplicity. IRONY, people, IRONY. And no, it's not lost on me. LOL Okay, well, I will admit that part of the message I am getting from Duane's book is also about moderation in food consumption. About eating only what your body NEEDS to replenish and fuel itself. (er, where does chocolate fit into that?! besides, cacao, VERY sadly, is not locally grown) Recognizing that with each indulgence I become a "have", which creates a "have-not" somewhere else on the planet. Being mindful that there are others who live their entire lives without their basic needs being met. Recognizing the interconnectedness of us all on Mother Earth, the impact of our choices on other living beings, on the Earth itself. Yes, our choices do indeed have an impact. You - your choices - are not insignificant.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant?"
Actually, who are you NOT to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others...
~nelson mandela~
But now I'm out of raw cacao butter (which is probably a blessing!) and payday's not for several days, so I'm thinkin' there's gonna be some withdrawwwwwwwwwallllllllll comin' on soon.
boooooooooo hooooooooooo hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
that makes me sad.
but seriously. i've been reading Duane Elgin's Voluntary Simplicity book lately and it's really resonating with me. The concept of simple living - of, first of all, living a life in accordance with one's values... Naturally, this requires actually spending time thinking and discussing what values you'd like to live your life by... and I wouldn't hesitate to say that there are any number of people who live on automatic, who don't ever self-reflect or take the time to set meaningful personal-growth goals in life. I wouldn't doubt that there are people out there who really couldn't articulate what values they are aspiring to live by. Voluntary simplicity - living not in poverty, but with conscious respect for the finite resources our planet has to offer (i.e. taking only what you need, ensuring everyone on earth could theoretically do the same) - this type of lifestyle creates the space in our lives to examine our values. It allows us time to reflect on concepts like right-livelihood, right-speech (one I see I need to think about more as I prattle on here... honestly, which words here are superfluous to the intent of my message? How could I pare down my thoughts to essentials?), relationships, and more. Yes, choosing voluntary simplicity is very thought-provoking.
I liked the message in the book that it is in the small things - the seemingly insignificant things - that we each do that make the collective difference. It's nice to remember that. Sure, it might not seem like we're making much of a difference, but collectively we are.
LMAO... okay, I start the post talking about gorging on chocolates this week, and go on to talk about voluntary simplicity. IRONY, people, IRONY. And no, it's not lost on me. LOL Okay, well, I will admit that part of the message I am getting from Duane's book is also about moderation in food consumption. About eating only what your body NEEDS to replenish and fuel itself. (er, where does chocolate fit into that?! besides, cacao, VERY sadly, is not locally grown) Recognizing that with each indulgence I become a "have", which creates a "have-not" somewhere else on the planet. Being mindful that there are others who live their entire lives without their basic needs being met. Recognizing the interconnectedness of us all on Mother Earth, the impact of our choices on other living beings, on the Earth itself. Yes, our choices do indeed have an impact. You - your choices - are not insignificant.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant?"
Actually, who are you NOT to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others...
~nelson mandela~
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