Bahston.

Monday's tragic marathon bombing has left me completed devastated, saddened, but also curious.

I mean, what kind of idiot bombs the Boston marathon? This is Boston for heaven's sake! And the marathon is a time-honored Boston tradition!

There are books and films based entirely on the rough nature of the city of Boston, and how amazingly resilient and tough Bostonians are.

I am not a Bostonian, though I was raised in the suburbs. My sister lived on Comm Ave in her college years, and I know better than to drive in there if I want to stay sane. I'm not a city person so I steer clear of any city as much as I can, but Boston is in my heart.

While the ridiculous and senseless bombing of the marathon was shameful and cowardly, Boston will grow in love and brotherhood from this. From devastation comes strengthened bonds within your community... as if Boston needed more.

Hold up

We got our garden sorted (for the most part) for spring planting! 

The first spring we were here, we did an 8'x4' raised bed. I was scared of pressure-treated wood, and ended up getting regular old wood. That was a bad idea. The darn thing was nearly rotten by the end of one season! And after all the great soil we bought to put in there. 

Last year, we rigged up our "pit" with 26, yes 26, tomato plants. I was interested in canning a lot in the spring, can you tell? All of our resources went to tomatoes, and we got a great crop! But the structure we used to keep the tomatoes suspended properly was awful.

So we've tried something new this year. We bought $100 of lumber in 2x4s and 4x4s. We bought $40 worth of some hardcore chicken wire. I don't know what you call this stuff, but it's strong!

We put in 4 posts, 12 ft. apart, to create a 12'x12' square gardening area. We left about 4' of an entry way on the eastern side, so we could easily get in and out with buckets if we had to.

We did a rail of 2x4s, connecting the posts, 48" off the ground. We then stapled the fencing into the 2x4s. 

It was actually a lot of fun until Chris accidentally drilled a screw into my finger. It's not that

This is not my garden, but boy, do I wish it was!

bad, don't worry. I swore a lot, did a little crying (I was scared, okay?!), and got right over it.

Later that night, while preparing dinner, one of our cats (specifically Ringo) got very excited in thinking he was getting fed and got underfoot. I stepped on his little baby paw and he got VERY UPSET and bit the bottom of my foot in defense. It wasn't his fault, it was totally mine. I felt so bad!

He was alright, but I wasn't. I had to go get a tetanus shot and some antibiotic for the cat bite. If there's one thing I've learned, and you should learn too, is that cat bites are friggin' serious shit. You can count on them getting infected... and fast.

So now I'm limping around, dreaming of planting my veggies and sitting in the sun. The weather has finally improved, so here's hoping it comes around sooner rather than later!

Herbal Renewal

This year, I want an indoor herb garden. The summers have treated our herbs well, but I don't like having to worry about picking up fresh herbs at the market every week. We go through basil like it's going out of style!

I found this wonderful, elegant solution which I hope will satisfy my need for fresh herbs in the kitchen. 

Perhaps you too can benefit from having a houseplant that you can grow and eat using very little space!

Enjoy!

Weekday Vegetarian

A quick post today.

It's a whopping 4-minute video from TED. Four minutes. I urge you to please just give it a watch. It's only four minutes of your life.



Did you make it through?

Internet high five if you did. And thank you for giving it a try, even if you feel like you've been preached to. 

I shouldn't browse Etsy so much.

Occasionally, I leave the house wearing something completely ridiculous. In fact, it could be argued that I have virtually no sense of style whatsoever. I wear almost exclusively skirts thanks to their universal comfortability, and I don't own one skirt with less than five colors in it. I have all sorts of quirky, ragged clothes that I couldn't care less about wearing in public. I got to thinking about things a little bit.

I was browsing Etsy this morning, looking for a cheer-up gift for myself. (Quick tangent:  Sometimes, when spring takes too long to arrive or I can't see very positive things in my immediate future, I will spend no more than $20 of my paypal money and get myself something unique and happy, so I can look forward to receiving it in the mail and adoring it.)

While browsing Etsy, I realized that women seem to have very interesting notions of how they're supposed to dress themselves. Femininity is warped in a way that I don't fully understand, but that could be attributed to the fact that I was raised by one man and many women (don't ask, long story). 

Chris and I watched a program on PBS last night about Pancho Barnes, who, I am ashamed to admit, I had never heard of. This was a woman in my eyes. She was strong, resilient, and confident. She didn't wear feminine clothes or classy shoes, and maybe that's why I had never heard of her. History doesn't smile so well on women who didn't fit into their little box of what society expected from them, and I suspect Pancho was one of those women.

I wonder what women think they should exude in public with their attire. For example, I often look at heels and chuckle at what a great psychological feat of masculinity they represent. Women, jacking themselves up 4-6 inches into the air, walking around on their tippy-toes simply because men told them they look better that way. What kind of women would willingly do that? If it weren't for men, would we even consider doing this? Some women say they like how they feel, but is that because they genuinely enjoy walking around dangerously on the balls of their feet, or because they know men like it?

Needless to say I don't wear heels. I don't feel comfortable or particularly feminine when I do wear them, but then I'm not a dainty woman. While I have do grace, I don't have a classic feminine grace. I wear flat shoes that I am comfortable in, so I can do my work and live my passion with both feet firmly on the ground. It seems more sensible to me, but I recognize that's not a universal perspective. Some women enjoy teetering needlessly on the balls of their feet.

I'm sure saying all of this out there in the wide world will score me some negative points with some people, and that's cool, I'm not advocating burning our bras and trashing our shoes. 

I would love to see women more confident in their femininity that wasn't originally defined by men, but defined by themselves. It definitely exists out there, and you don't have to be unattractive to men to accomplish it. 

I'm sorry if my opinions have offended any of you in any way. I just wanted to sit down and talk about it someplace because looking at all the pretty little fashion finds on Etsy was bothering me. There's no shame in being a strong, confident woman. We should all strive to nurture the inner Pancho, alive and well in all of us.

Mass Saves Energy Audit Program

One of the biggest events of this winter here at the house was our energy audit, provided by our local utility company. We got a flyer in the mail about this program, which we had been really interested in since we bought the house at the end of 2009. We've known there was very little attic insulation in the house, but we weren't sure about what was in the walls. We decided to look into the audit, since it was free.

Now that the whole process is complete and I've had time to reflect on the experience, it turned out to be one of the better things we've done in home ownership.

The energy audit itself went really well, but took a lot longer than I thought it would. Two and a half  hours of close inspection later, it was determined that we definitely needed attic insulation and wall insulation. The auditor/inspector works for an impartial entity, so he stands to gain nothing from this assessment. There was also a second quality assurance guy present who made sure that the auditor performed his job right. I didn't get a phone call about the quality assurance guy coming to the audit at our home until about 4 hours before the appointment, so that was kind of wonky, but still, nice to have.

The energy audit, for anyone who happens to stumble upon this in search of reviews, was pretty neat. The gentleman, who I'll call "Ted," was very thorough and informative. The program that we looked into is administered by MassSaves, and Ted worked for Honeywell. Not too sure about all the intricacies of all the corporate stuff, but I was very nervous about getting taken advantage of.

I asked Ted how the program worked, and why they'd cover so much in renovations/upgrades to our home. MassSaves will cover up to $2000 in work in your house, effectively. They look at your windows, your heating system, your insulation, and all sort of other stuff. We only really qualified for insulation upgrades since everything else in the house is up to date for the most part. 

Ted explaining that when the utility company helps pay for your improvements, they can write off their costs in helping you. I think there's something like benefits and rebates for utility companies to cash in on if they help their customers go green too, but I can't say with any certainty. Either way, it benefits the utility company to help you out, even if they lose in utility billings.

I was nervous, but now in retrospect, I would recommend that anyone in the area should seriously consider this assessment. They switch out your light bulbs to CFLs for free, they replaced our thermostat with a programmable one for free (ours was only 3 years old), they take a look at your faucets for aerators and will replace them for free (!!), and unlock a bunch of awesome rebates from the state. If you are a customer of a contributing sponsor, and there are a few recognizable names if you live in Massachusetts, you are already paying for this service on your utility bill. You should use it! It's free, and you don't have to get the work done if you don't want to.

In our experience, after the auditor finished up, it took 2-3 weeks to get his report. His report had all the data he determined for our home, and a quote on how much it would cost to do ALL of the work, which I think is optional. For example, if you're told you need wall insulation and attic insulation, you can chose to do just one of the two jobs if you only have money enough for one.

We don't have cable, but I have Mike Rowe in my heart 

We opted to get air sealing, attic insulation, and wall insulation since we had enough money in our budget for all three, with the help of Mass Saves and our local utility company. At the end of the day, it cost around $1100 for all three. The original cost without the help was $3100. 

It's definitely worth looking into if you own property. I don't really know how it works if you come in under the $2000 mark. I think you may have to pay a very small amount of it... best to read at the website or ask your auditor. 

What took the longest was the energy audit. Once we agreed to the $1100 worth of work, the contractors called us within a week, and had the job done before the end of the month. Perhaps I'll write more about that process at another time, but for now, even if you don't live in Massachusetts and want to look into this, ASK YOUR LOCAL UTILITY COMPANY! It seems a lot of states have a program similar to ours!

If you're curious, just leave a comment and I will do my best to answer your questions. I recently found out that we can write off $500 of the costs on our Federal tax return for 2013 as well (I hope I understood that properly)!

Maple Syrup-y Goodness!

Hey y'all~ I've been awful about this space. I can't find the time these days to keep up.

The finished product :)

We're in the midst of refinancing our mortgage to take advantage of these wickedly low interest rates before they climb again. The housing market sure seems to be rebounding, which is welcome and happy news. We're also facing multiple car issues on not just one, but both of our aging cars.

We own a Nissan Sentra and a Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo, neither of which are at their prime. The money and time has been bleeding out between all the different things we now need to take care of.

But at the same time, I've been busy boiling down ridiculous amounts of sap from the one maple tree. Huge vats of sap get boiled throughout the workday, with a vintage wall vent and a standing fan to aid the steam out through the house. I'm pleased to report that here has been absolutely no damage caused by this new late-winter hobby!

Thus far, I've managed to fill a dozen 5 oz. bottles with the stuff. Chris raves about it, but I'm not entirely pleased. I've been tasting and managing it for weeks now, and while it's insanely delicious for coming straight out of a tree, it's not perfect in clarity. I would like very much to have a more efficient filtering device outside of an old, rigged, coffee filter. The niter (aka "sugar sand") is a pain in the ass to work around, so I think I have to perfect that in a more efficient way.

Snow on the last day of winter - a shot of the kitchen window
which is always full of plant life

But overall, I'm really impressed by the results. The time and effort required for this hobby seem to be exhaustive if you're working a full time job outside of the home. I'm lucky to be able to set a 20 quart pot on the stove top and walk away into my office to work for the day.

I plan to share the syrup with my friends and relatives, in hopes of promotion a DIY mentality about how things are done. With a little healthy curiosity and a can-do attitude, I swear, anything can get done. Including making your own maple syrup from a maple tree!

If you're curious about the namesake of our maple syrup, it's a nod to our neighborhood, and our city. This maple syrup was produced by a tree less than 20 yards away from my house, on my own property, in the city. This impressed me more than anything else. You have our many thanks, maple tree!

Just in case

So my friends think I'm a crazy survivalist, and they think I'm boning up on my zombie apocalypse skills. Which, let's be honest, they make fun of me for, but will be promptly breaking down my door if the zombies ever do show up. They mention this television show (which I have the luxury of not knowing about), and think I should be on it because I have a set of skills that only pioneers of days of yore would be proud of.

My most recent adventure has been in the soap department; specifically the laundry detergent department. It's more of a revisit. We stopped using homemade laundry detergent a while ago because it just wasn't getting the job done to my satisfaction. I decided to shelf the whole process until I was feeling ambitious again.

We ran out of detergent one day, and frustrated with having to constantly buy Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day, I decided to try the detergent again.

It consists of just three ingredients:

• 1 cup of borax 
• 1 cup of washing soda
• 1 bar (~4.5oz) of shaved soap; I used Ivory because it was collecting dust in the linen closet.

Simply combine all the dry stuff in a big bowl, and taaa daaa, you have the best laundry detergent you will ever use. Seriously. The best. 

The stuff I was using before was a liquid version, because herp, I preferred it for some reason. This powdered version of detergent is amazingly tough and cleans up things that I didn't think it would clean up. My sheets are remarkably clean and comforting, and they're actually clean. Like, you know, no annoying or overpowering scents that trick you into thinking the sheets are clean. 

I should mention that instead of fabric softener sheets, in conjunction with this detergent, I use white vinegar in the wash as a fabric softener. I just pour maybe 1/2 cup into the little reservoir on the washing machine and nothing comes out stiff or crispy. I throw it all in the dryer, as usual, and enjoy.

Now if only I could get my friends to stop being so terrified of lye so we can be sure they're clean when the zombies arrive....

oh, hello

The snow from the blizzard in early February
drifted up waist-high at our breezeway door

Hello everyone, it's been a while! Big surprise, right? Honestly, I'd have thought winter would have gotten to me more this year and I would have typed up more about the going-ons in the house.

Luckily, I'm not quite at my winter blues quota! I've been so busy that things have been moving straight towards spring without too much delay.

Quick update on how our vegetarian/vegan thing has been going (since it's really the thing that's been keeping me so occupied): Chris has hit his plateau, we think. He's reached his "ideal" weight according to BMI measurements. He looks fantastic, but I think he'd like to try more yoga to loosen up. He's on his feet all day at his workplace so I suspect some serious stretching could help.

I've almost crested my 50 lb. loss mark. It's kind of hard to believe. After my friend's death in September, it was hard to clear my mind to make any kind of real progress. After New Year's, I came back with a vengeance. I've lost about 15 pounds since New Year's alone, so yeah, feeling pretty good. After the initial 35 lbs lost from switching to a (mostly) vegan diet, it was a much harder fight to get the weight off. I use MyFitnessPal to help me clock everything and to get a better idea of what I'm putting into my body. It's worked wonders for me, and it seems to have a fantastic community.

The tube from the spile carrying maple sap to a
collection bucket

Meanwhile, of course, I've been making and creating. This year, I tried my hand at tapping our large maple tree in the back yard thrice to see if we could make maple syrup. I use maple syrup as a sugar substitute in a lot of circumstances, particularly with tea. It made only a little bit of sense to try it. Really, I was just curious about the whole process, and it was cheap enough to try.

So far, after about 2 weeks of having the taps installed, I've successfully boiled down about 10 gallons of sap (and counting) for maybe a quart of maple syrup thus far. Once I clear the sugaring season, I'll post more about the experience.

The cats are all well, though five is way too many, honestly. So much for having kids in the immediate future. We've got some plans for another major road trip in September 2014, if we can manage to scrounge enough cash away.

I hope as spring comes around and we get the garden going again, I'll find the time to post more here to share with you. There's always something brewing around here...

2012

Hey look at that, we're all still here despite people speculating the world would end on the 21st. I'm starting to hear that some people are saying the world will end tomorrow! Good times.

Despite all the gloom and doom predicted more and more lately, I've been pretty busy! I've been battling a fairly decent bout of seasonal affective disorder, which really doesn't feel like a "disorder" to me, but I suffer the short days none the less. A little vitamin D goes a long way.

I've been sewing up rugs and knitting up things like mad, and I feel the need to continue to do so. My work has also been unusually busy, so I find myself struggling to keep up with this space. I'm not someone who likes to sit around and do nothing, so my time is rarely slowed down enough to write something out, unplanned.

There are so many things I'd like to write about, if only I could find the time. The Newtown shootings is one of them, but I'm always a little nervous about writing about something so saddening and controversial out here.

I've also plateaued with my weight loss, but that's more or less my own fault. I'm not working hard enough on it, but I can understand why.

I'm working on writing a pattern for a faux aran sweater that I love, and I'm trying to knit up something that I've wanted to knit for a while. The needles have been warm lately.

Hopefully, in the New Year, I'll have organized my time a little better and will share the things I've been doing and making with all of you.

Have a safe and happy new year!