Guess where I am this weekend? Hubby and I are playing farmer!
But it just made me want my homestead even more. *sigh*
But it just made me want my homestead even more. *sigh*
Monday, October 29, 2012
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
It was sort of an accident
This was never a serious plan. I didn't wake up one day and go "yanno what? I should prepare for the apocalypse" I didn't read horror stories of the end-of-days being upon us. I never worried about preparing for the worst.
And quite frankly, I've said for years that if a major disaster happens, I want to be sitting my fat butt right on the epicenter. I want to be the first to go. I don't have the drive or ambition to rebuild society. I really don't care to learn how to build shelter in the wilderness and fight off the crazy people and all that jazz. I want to die early if a major catastrophic event happens.
So none of the things I do now are born of a deep-seated desire to be a survivalist. It was more just because I was a bored housewife. I spent a few years as a single woman in her own home with a career and all that jazz. Well, rental home, but home nonetheless. I had to do everything, and I mostly had to do it all Monday through Thursday because I'd spend all weekend every weekend 4 hours away at my then-boyfriend's house. But after a few years, the boyfriend became the husband, I gave up my job and my home and moved into his house. And in a lot of ways it all went downhill from there. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband and in the long run I am better for having him. But in my day-to-day life, bleh. I had no job, no friends, no sense of belonging, nothing to do, no independence, nothing.
So I started searching for things to do that interest me. I like to bake. Hubby likes the smell of baking bread. Put one and one together, and I started baking all our own bread. Sandwich bread, hamburger and hot dog buns, dinner rolls and breadsticks. I can do it all!
Other things have come even more strangely. When I had been searching for bread recipes or other meal recipes (I love to cook) I had seen instructions for making your own yogurt. I ignored them at the time, as they were for plain unsweetened yogurt and we always ate the sweet fruit-flavored stuff. And, really, yogurt's supposed to be good for you, right? So, why bother. But then one day as I was enjoying a cup of sweet fruity yogurt, I actually read the label. It had BOTH Nutrasweet AND high fructose corn syrup. The fuck? That seems a bit much. So I headed back to the googles and researched homemade yogurt some more. Guess what? Totally easy. And, thanks to the GOBS of home-canned jams and fruits in my basement, my plain unsweetened homemade yogurt gets delicious with the addition of homemade natural jams and fruits.
It wasn't any sort of "omg we must eat natural" or "organic is best" or "down with corporations" or "save the earth" or any of that crap. It was more just "why not?"
I'd been canning for years, I started that before I ever got married. At first I just did a couple things, salsa and jalapeño jelly mostly. After the wedding, the hubby was reminiscing about the canned cherries his grandma used to put up. So I started doing cherries. And the apple tree on my parents' farm had a good year, so I canned applesauce. Still only did things that you could do in a boiling water canner. I had a pressure canner, but I never used it. We moved to our new home and there is a wild blackberry patch, so I started canning wild blackberry jam too. Still just boiling water canning.
This year in addition to the bread and yogurt, I decided to broaden my canning skills. I got my pressure gauge tested on my canner, I read my Ball Blue Book and a lot of websites. I found recipes for things we actually eat. No sense in making a bunch of stuff no one around here likes. And as of right now, my canning cabinet is full of salsa, jalapeño jelly, strawberry rhubarb jam, blackberry jam, cherries, cherry preserves, maraschino cherries, strawberry jam, key lime marmalade, blueberry jam, peach preserves, maraschino cherry jelly, blackberry lemonade concentrate, pink lemonade concentrate, chicken, ham and beans, corned beef hash mix, pumpkin, chicken broth, apple pie filling, applesauce, apple butter, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting.
When I told my mom about the adventures with apples recently, she made the comment that "wow if anything happens, you two will be able to eat for a long time!" That's when I realized that I stumbled into semi-preparedness by accident. I'm still not any sort of "I'm going to survive the apocalypse" person, but I have a hobby that I have a lot of fun with, and it provides us with a basic necessity.
And quite frankly, I've said for years that if a major disaster happens, I want to be sitting my fat butt right on the epicenter. I want to be the first to go. I don't have the drive or ambition to rebuild society. I really don't care to learn how to build shelter in the wilderness and fight off the crazy people and all that jazz. I want to die early if a major catastrophic event happens.
So none of the things I do now are born of a deep-seated desire to be a survivalist. It was more just because I was a bored housewife. I spent a few years as a single woman in her own home with a career and all that jazz. Well, rental home, but home nonetheless. I had to do everything, and I mostly had to do it all Monday through Thursday because I'd spend all weekend every weekend 4 hours away at my then-boyfriend's house. But after a few years, the boyfriend became the husband, I gave up my job and my home and moved into his house. And in a lot of ways it all went downhill from there. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband and in the long run I am better for having him. But in my day-to-day life, bleh. I had no job, no friends, no sense of belonging, nothing to do, no independence, nothing.
So I started searching for things to do that interest me. I like to bake. Hubby likes the smell of baking bread. Put one and one together, and I started baking all our own bread. Sandwich bread, hamburger and hot dog buns, dinner rolls and breadsticks. I can do it all!
Other things have come even more strangely. When I had been searching for bread recipes or other meal recipes (I love to cook) I had seen instructions for making your own yogurt. I ignored them at the time, as they were for plain unsweetened yogurt and we always ate the sweet fruit-flavored stuff. And, really, yogurt's supposed to be good for you, right? So, why bother. But then one day as I was enjoying a cup of sweet fruity yogurt, I actually read the label. It had BOTH Nutrasweet AND high fructose corn syrup. The fuck? That seems a bit much. So I headed back to the googles and researched homemade yogurt some more. Guess what? Totally easy. And, thanks to the GOBS of home-canned jams and fruits in my basement, my plain unsweetened homemade yogurt gets delicious with the addition of homemade natural jams and fruits.
It wasn't any sort of "omg we must eat natural" or "organic is best" or "down with corporations" or "save the earth" or any of that crap. It was more just "why not?"
I'd been canning for years, I started that before I ever got married. At first I just did a couple things, salsa and jalapeño jelly mostly. After the wedding, the hubby was reminiscing about the canned cherries his grandma used to put up. So I started doing cherries. And the apple tree on my parents' farm had a good year, so I canned applesauce. Still only did things that you could do in a boiling water canner. I had a pressure canner, but I never used it. We moved to our new home and there is a wild blackberry patch, so I started canning wild blackberry jam too. Still just boiling water canning.
This year in addition to the bread and yogurt, I decided to broaden my canning skills. I got my pressure gauge tested on my canner, I read my Ball Blue Book and a lot of websites. I found recipes for things we actually eat. No sense in making a bunch of stuff no one around here likes. And as of right now, my canning cabinet is full of salsa, jalapeño jelly, strawberry rhubarb jam, blackberry jam, cherries, cherry preserves, maraschino cherries, strawberry jam, key lime marmalade, blueberry jam, peach preserves, maraschino cherry jelly, blackberry lemonade concentrate, pink lemonade concentrate, chicken, ham and beans, corned beef hash mix, pumpkin, chicken broth, apple pie filling, applesauce, apple butter, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting.
When I told my mom about the adventures with apples recently, she made the comment that "wow if anything happens, you two will be able to eat for a long time!" That's when I realized that I stumbled into semi-preparedness by accident. I'm still not any sort of "I'm going to survive the apocalypse" person, but I have a hobby that I have a lot of fun with, and it provides us with a basic necessity.
Monday, October 22, 2012
Did you miss me?
I love how blogspot lets you keep your site even if you only post a dozen times in a year. Nice.
So... is it time for an update? Let's go through my old posts and see where I am now.
Still invisible. I'm about 10 lbs down from my highest point, although that's 7 lbs higher than I had gotten to in the last year or so. Struggling. I've gotten away from the podcasts, and maybe that's part of the problem. I've forgotten about Persistence, Patience and Practice. Also not exercising regularly, although I have been working on finding workouts I don't mind. More on all this later.
I have made progress on lunch though. Lots of paninis and shit made up ahead of time and wrapped up and stowed in the freezer. One goes into the toaster oven, and I have a good lunch that isn't a pathetic sad affair at home or a lonely expensive affair out.
And I've actually made progress on those Springtime Fantasies too! No, I haven't started gardening (and we're coming up on November, so I'm probably not going to start any time soon) and I still don't look so good in a sundress (although, oddly, the hubbster seems to think I do. weird) I have canned so much I'm just about out of empty jars though! I experimented with pressure canning this year. And.....
I discovered "homesteading".
This is going to be a huge post (and well past my bedtime) if I go into all of it right now. But I have learned that homesteading doesn't have to be off-grid self-sustaining Little House on the Prairie homestead. Make your own homestead. And I'm in LOVE with the idea! So many things. I'll be back soon with details.
So... is it time for an update? Let's go through my old posts and see where I am now.
Still invisible. I'm about 10 lbs down from my highest point, although that's 7 lbs higher than I had gotten to in the last year or so. Struggling. I've gotten away from the podcasts, and maybe that's part of the problem. I've forgotten about Persistence, Patience and Practice. Also not exercising regularly, although I have been working on finding workouts I don't mind. More on all this later.
I have made progress on lunch though. Lots of paninis and shit made up ahead of time and wrapped up and stowed in the freezer. One goes into the toaster oven, and I have a good lunch that isn't a pathetic sad affair at home or a lonely expensive affair out.
And I've actually made progress on those Springtime Fantasies too! No, I haven't started gardening (and we're coming up on November, so I'm probably not going to start any time soon) and I still don't look so good in a sundress (although, oddly, the hubbster seems to think I do. weird) I have canned so much I'm just about out of empty jars though! I experimented with pressure canning this year. And.....
I discovered "homesteading".
This is going to be a huge post (and well past my bedtime) if I go into all of it right now. But I have learned that homesteading doesn't have to be off-grid self-sustaining Little House on the Prairie homestead. Make your own homestead. And I'm in LOVE with the idea! So many things. I'll be back soon with details.
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