Spring has Sprung!

The first crocus is blossoming in the front yard and I've planted my spring garden.  It's official--spring is here!  Yesterday we assembled the greenhouse.  It's a small lean-to that will sit on the south side of our garage, where, even though the neighbor's garage is just 5 feet away, it should get plenty of sun.  The two-person project was not without its challenges.  I had a to-do list as long as my arm yesterday, though nothing was urgent.  I should have known the greenhouse would take all afternoon to setup when A) the instructions were first in Danish, then German, THEN English and especially when the first step--putting some hard plastic binding pieces on the bottom of the main sheets of polycarbonate--took us almost 30 minutes.  Ben aligned and joined the pieces while I deciphered the instructions and located all the parts or pieces for the proceeding step.  Considering neither of us is an engineer, we did pretty well putting the thing together.  Ben walked away with a couple minor puncture wounds, but it wasn't anything a couple cold beers couldn't fix.  Vera slept through most of it, which was amazing.

Today I brought out my spring garden diagram, gathered the seeds I'd thankfully organized over the winter,  and busily seeded my early crops, mostly greens (Frisee, Red Salad Bowl lettuce, Lettuce Mix, Mache (a.k.a. Corn Salad), Red Streaks Mustard, Mesclun Mix, India Tendergreen Mustard, Rainbow Chard, and Brown Mustard Seeds) a few beets (Golden Beets and Detroit Red), and some radishes (White Icicle and French Breakfast).  I labeled the rows and covered the newly planted seeds with hardware cloth to keep out the critters.  Later in the season when the seedlings outgrow the mesh protection and I've removed the coldframe, I will cover the whole bed with floating row cover until everything can hold its own this summer.  The floating row cover lets in sun and rain, but keeps out bugs, chipmunks, and the like.  While I worked Vera happily dug around in the dirt with her mini spade and played with her wind-up caterpillar.

Although I drew what I thought was the final garden layout many weeks ago, I recently decided to add even more beds.  I am more or less squaring off the grassy area in the backyard (so Vera still has space to kick a ball and do cartwheels) and building raised beds.  Currently we have the design from the perennial beds that used to exist on the north side of our backyard.  There are so many advantages to raised beds, plus it's time for the backyard to really look like a veggie garden (don't worry, I've saved a space for the chicken coop).  I'm ordering the lumber today and have scoped out a YouTube video of a chick with safety goggles building the beds herself.  I can do it!

Tonight is the backyard chickens workshop.  Stay tuned!

Adventures in Alternative Medicine

(Note:  Before you read this post, know that it might be a bit more information than you'd like...)

In 1999 when I started freelance writing for the Exchange magazine, a food and wellness journal in Milwaukee, I was introduced to alternative medicine.  Since then I have completely changed how I view health and wellness.  My holistic practitioner quickly sold me on acupuncture after one curative treatment for tendonitis post bike wreck, I regularly have a deep tissue massage for general occupational aches and pains, I practice yoga weekly, and I use homeopathic remedies whenever necessary.  So when I had a stubborn "crinkling" in my ears recently that my doctor confirmed was fluid, I was open to trying ear candling.  You can look it up online and check out plenty of pictures, YouTube videos, and doubts from allopathic medical professionals, but I was game for attempting this alternative method for earwax removal.  I asked my mother-in-law to candle my ear when she was visiting last night.  I knew that she had the skills because I'd heard the classic story from Ben about his mom candling his dad's ear one night on the living room floor (this involves, as you see from the pic, a flame, a long candlelike waxed "tube," and some foil.)  Ben was in high school and one of his friends had arrived to pick him up; he took in this odd scene from just outside the window.  We can only imagine that he was thinking torture, witchcraft, or at least about dialing 911 from behind the nearest bush had there been cell phones at the time.  So I knew Eileen was my girl when it came to candling my ear.  The price of the ear candle was the best $2.39 I've ever spent.  It took about 10 minutes while I lay still with my head on a floor pillow holding the pointed end of the candle steady in my ear canal.  I could feel a bit of heat and a gentle suction.  Eileen blew out the candle when it burned down to a few inches and I went into the kitchen to cut it open to see what had drained.  I'll spare you the graphic results, but let's just say it was right up my alley having had a morbid curiosity all my life.  (Growing up, when my mom would find moldy cheese or other food in the fridge I'd always demand to take a look at it before she threw it away.)  Needless to say, I felt great today.

So while we're talking about alternative health and wellness, I'd like to share a book I'm reading--Make Your Place: Affordable and Sustainable Nesting Skills hand-drawn and handwritten by Raleigh Briggs.  It teaches one "how to craft a sustainable domestic life outside of consumer consciousness."  For people wanting to live more simply, it shows how to create tinctures, salves, and all-natural cleaners, and goes over gardening basics.  It's a charming book and its purchase supports a fellow DIYer.

Keeping It All Together

I felt I needed a book dedicated to my urban homesteading notes, which have become prolific lately.  I decided to make a simple book.  One of my past crafty stages involved bookmaking; a college photography instructor turned me on to this art as a way to display photos. On a shoestring budget, I managed to gather most of the needed supplies including a bone folder, awl, and binding thread.  My interest gradually died off, probably for lack of time.  A couple years ago I took a bookbinding class at the Bay View Book Arts Gallery (BVBAG) housed in the old Hide House complex.  Since then I've been keeping a box of scrap paper in my craft corner.  I save everything from the vellum envelopes they put your stamps in at the P.O. to beautiful hand drawn covers from seed catalogs and interesting images from magazines.  My homesteading book's cover is made from an artful local organic flour bag (I knew I'd saved it for something), the inside cover is an R.H. Shumway's seed catalog cover, and I have tucked in other pocketed pages like a tiny brown paper sack from buying screws at the hardware store.  I alternated lined paper and sketch paper so that I can make notes as well as draw pictures.  I bound the book with a beautiful twig I just clipped from our cherry tree and a small rubberband that only shows on the back of the book.  It's not permanently bound so I can add pages later as I get inspired.

Sunday Dinner with Friends

We enjoyed another wonderful Sunday dinner with friends last night.  My goal with Sundays dinners has been to keep them simple--prepare something I would anyway on a Sunday evening--but invite friends over to share the meal and conversation.  Our friends surprised us by bringing a couple bottles of the infamous homebrew that was to make its debut on this upcoming dudes camping trip.  But we got to taste a little bit before that.  I was rather impressed.  If I had to solely drink my own homebrew in the future (hint, hint Ben) I could definitely enjoy something like the nutty, slightly hoppy flavor of this English Brown Ale style.  Bravo Gentlemen!

I also tried a new dessert with some of our wild foraged black raspberries mixed with organic blueberries.  I made a few substitutions based on what I had on hand and thought it turned out well.

Gluten-Free Upside Down Cobbler
Adapted from The Gluten-Free Gourmet Makes Dessert by Bette Hagman
Makes 6 servings

1/2 c. butter or coconut oil, melted
1 c. all-purpose gluten-free flour
1/2 rounded t. xanthan gum
1 T. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1 3/4 c. sucanat, divided
1 c. milk or soymilk
4 c. fruit (sliced peaches, plums, or apples; blueberries, raspberries, etc.)
1 T. lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Use an ungreased 9" x 13" baking pan.  Pour in the melted butter/coconut oil. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, and 3/4 c. sucanat.  Stir in the milk, mixing just to combine.  Pour over the butter/coconut oil but don't stir together.  Place the fruit with the lemon juice and remaining cup sucanat in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.  Pour over the batter, but don't mix.  Bake 40-45 min. or until top is lightly browned.  Serve warm or cold.  Top with ice cream, whipped cream, or creme fraiche.

I'm turning into my mother.  This would not be the first time I've uttered this statement.  When I initially found myself cleaning the house before going on vacation, singing or humming a song around the house all day, and writing essays for pleasure, I knew I was my mother's daughter.  Lately, as I think more seriously about urban homesteading dreams and realize that I should spend time evaluating what I can reasonably make instead of relying on outside sources, I am once again reminded of my mother.  When I was growing up we'd go mall shopping and nearly every item of clothing in which I expressed interest she would say, "I could make that!" and we would move on, which is the last thing a teen girl trying to keep up with fashion wants to hear and do.  In fact, my best friend in high school had a mother with the same syndrome so when she and I would go shopping together (once we could independently get ourselves across state lines to the nearest mall) we'd browse the juniors section and mock our mothers saying, "I could make that" (Shame on us! These women are angels!)  I went through different phases growing up when I was proud to wear something homemade.  But there was definitely a point when I felt ostracized in confessing my mom made my clothes while the other girls donned the latest designer labels.  But when my mother made two beautiful, unique prom dresses for me, people were definitely impressed.  Now sewing for oneself is totally en vogue and I'm so proud to say that I, or my mother who still makes things for me or Vera, sewed or knit a piece that I am wearing.  And I am so grateful that she passed this domestic skill on to me.  Nowadays people pay big bucks to learn something they wished had been handed down.

Today I finished a pair of cotton baby booties for a friend who is expecting her first child this summer (I hope you're not reading this.)  Vera seemed a bit jealous of these cute scuffs.  I copied the pattern from Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones, which I found at our local library.  It was somewhat easy to follow, though at one point I thought I was smarter than the pattern and went my own way only to spend time ripping out my mistake.  With some patience I've finally completed them.