femivore

One of my students called me a femivore in his final essay.  A what?  I only eat females?  I am a female who eats?  I am a feminist (ha!) that eats? What does he mean? 

Being well-trained, he kindly provided a definition along with his specialty jargon. 

Orenstein defines femivores as women who have renounced the consumer culture and have made the home a self-sustaining center of labor and livelihood.  These women typically grew their own vegetables, kept chickens, canned their fruit and stuffed sausages. A majority home-schooled their kids and derived their income by working on-line (Lisiecki).

Ah, yes, that is me.  But who is Orenstein?

Peggy Orenstein is the author of (among other things) a March 14, 2010 article in the New York Times, The Femivore's Dilemma, giving attention-- and a new name -- to those of us that in a previous generation would have been called home-makers. Ree Drummond over at Pioneer Woman is a classic example of a femivore, complete with the Black Heels to Tractor Wheels story line.

It's a great article; you should read it.  It's also a great life-style; you should try it.

My prediction?  All the County Extension courses are going to have record enrollments this year.  If I weren't so busy growing my own vegetables, keeping chickens, canning fruit, home-schooling my kids, and earning my living on-line, I'd apply to the County Extension office for a teaching position.  I actually know where my Master Food Preserver badge is. 

We've been building

We built these lovely chicken nesting boxes:

And this nice chicken roost that swings out of the way for cleaning.

By "we" I mean the kids and I. Dandy helps hold things and Chickadee is a great bit girl (changing from the drill bit to the screwdriver bit). We built these two things without plans which is a big step up for us. Up until now I have depended on written instructions.

While we did this, Jamie ripped out the old interior walls of the creamery (the little building on the right), insulated the walls, installed plywood, and is building the partition that separates the chicken space from the storage part of the room. He is also building a cute wind-protection tunnel whereby they may enter and exit the hen-house (formerly know as the creamery). Dandy installed the trim work along the ceiling. He is right proud of this, as you can imagine.

cleaning dog barf - guest post

My friend Kim at Hiraeth sent me this email. We actually specialize in pee and mice around here, but Kim said I could share it with you in case you need it:

I think it was you who asked a while back about cleaning a mattress or couch after someone threw up. (I hope I remember this right or you're going to think I'm nuts!!!)

Anyway, Ivy threw up all over our bed this morning after she had emptied her water bowl and eaten her chow. YUCK. It was a big, wet mess-soaked the mattress. This is what I did; after I stripped the bedding, I washed the surface of the mattress with warm, soapy water and then got up as much of the moisture as I could with towels. Then did it again. After that, I sprinkled on a fair amount of 100 Mule Team Borax (my laundry booster of choice) and rubbed it in.

I left it there all morning and half the afternoon. When it came time to put the clean sheets and blankets back on the bed, I vacuumed up the borax and it was amazing. No spot. No smell. And it was dry. This wasn't the first time Ivy yacked on our bed and the other time left a stain, so I tried getting the stain damp, applied the borax, waited about an hour and vacuumed. Stain is gone and the spot is clean and dry.

Ta da!

I love it when stuff works.

Heheheh.

the great purging

We are purging. Thus far we have purged the playroom and my office, yielding one big box to give to charity (from the playroom) and a yard & leaf bag full of trash (from the office).

Dandy and I cleaned out 2 of my 3 desks (when I get overwhelmed I just set up a new desk and close up the old one). I now have a "classes I am teaching/my personal writing" desk, and a "pay bills and keep the kids' records" desk, and an empty project table.

I have only just begun the great purging. I refuse to spend my year wrestling with stuff.

this and that

I just submitted the last set of grades for the quarter and am scurrying around getting ready for our field trip tomorrow. We are riding the train down to Seattle to do a little shopping and visit the Science Center. It's mighty cold around here, with temperatures in the high teens and low 20s and significant winds (23 mph and windchill to 5 degrees).

My Gift had to come home from work today to deal with the zillion foot poplar tree that toppled over in the night, taking out 2 goat fences, but no goats.

That's all my news. What's happening at your house?

pretty

Did I ever mention that it is rather pretty where I live? This is the view off our front porch. I love the play of light in the late fall and early winter.




:: one year ago today: Thanks Giving and holiday strata and Ron Paul & Sarah Palin
:: two years ago today: The Menu and We got the power!

final inspection

Very happy to share that we passed final inspection with the Building and Codes department on a building permit we opened 3.5 years ago. One BIG thing to check off of My Gift's list.

feeling so accomplished

Here was my todo list today:

• prep Monday 101 class
• update online class
• package books to ship
• bake bread
• make soup
• cut hubby's hair - boy did I cut it. He doesn't like it, but I do.
• make dinner

And I got it all done! My Gift wanted to take the kids to the park -- which we did -- and then he took us out to dinner, so I have an extra dinner all made in addition to the bread and the soup.

And just in case you've been tracking the VERY LONG ToDo list in my sidebar, tomorrow I have a hair cut scheduled and will get to check off the last thing on that list from September 8th.

my new toy: KitchenAid cooktop

Isn't she pretty? Last April my cooktop died and we replaced it with a spare that my Dad had in his barn. Well it was leaking and one knob barely worked (we had to use pliers) and finally that knob wouldn't turn at all. Unfortunately it was stuck in the 'on' position. Or maybe I should say fortunately, as finally Safety Inspector Husband declared it unsafe and took it out.

We headed in to our Scratch and Dent appliance dealer and came home with this good-looking fast-cooking 4 Burner, Stainless Steel Architect® Series II KitchenAid cooktop with both a low simmer burner (left rear) and a quick boil burner (right rear).

And speaking of appliances, I got both "clean the oven" and "defrost the freezers" off of my to-do list this week. Yeah me!




:: a year ago today: rant: television

appliances, kitchenaid

right this very minute . . .

. . . some very fine men are in my basement clunking and thunking and running power equipment and doing all that is necessary to replace the secondary converter on our furnace which means we will have heat in the main part of the house later on today. We are rather weary of hauling wood.

news

Quick newsflash.

All of the garden is either in the ground or in little egg carton seed trays in the house. We have labored mightily and are very proud of our work. By the way, we are right pleased with our Seeds of Change purchase. Thus far we have had 100% germination on all indoor starts: tomatoes, zucchinis, squashes, radishes, lettuces, spinach, etc.

I have a cooktop again, thanks to my Dad who just happened to have a functioning gas cooktop in his barn: Dad's handy that way. The cooktop is cosmetically challenged, but it cooks, so I don't really care what it looks like.

My long-time yearning for a wormbin has been consummated thanks to Dad -- again -- who cajoled a friend into sharing one with us. We've been cooing over our little baby worms all weekend and are very relieved to report that they are eating well. Thus far we are ever so impressed with The Worm Factory's set up and care & feeding manual. More wormy blog posts later.

Chickadee has bilateral strabismus correction surgery on Tuesday in Seattle. I am sternly resolved to not fret about it. So if you have any scary strabismus stories to share, just don't.

blogging is out ~ gardening is in

Don't expect much from me for awhile. We turned 216 square feet of sod yesterday and have 108 left to do today, then My Gift can till it. A very kind coworker of his loaned him a rototiller and is also sharing two-year old manure with us.

Last week I was asking, what is God trying to teach me? as my appliances were falling apart and all sort of needs were popping up with no money to meet them.

In the chaos of 2007, we grossly overspent our income, so this year we are paying for it. We are on a Just Say No! campaign. I spent NOTHING last week, not a cent. Yes I did use some gasoline, but I bought nothing. We are clearing with one another all our purchase in advance; this week I'll be buying laundry detergent and sunscreen. I figure that ~~ as it takes 30 days to change a habit ~~ it will take us about a month to move our thinking from Do we need it? to Can we afford it?. The answer to the latter trumps the former.

Anyway, when one is trying to spend nothing and the cooktop dies and the garden needs to be tilled and the seeds need potting soil and there is an anniversary to celebrate and so on and so forth, it is easy to start fretting.

So what is God trying to teach me? As best I can tell it is that He will take care of us. I know that in my head, but it is harder for my heart to remember it, especially at 1:00 in the morning as I lay away and fret. (lie away? argh. If you have a good trick for sorting out lay/lie do let me know, gently of course).

Rotortiller? check
Potting soil? Mom
Cooktop? friend coming over this morning to look at it.
Anniversary Celebration? Mom again (dinner and Kottke tickets: Mom's cool that way)

Fretting? I just have to say no.

what next?

So about an hour after we got home last night I encountered a dangerous-smelling odor in the back half of the house. I shouted "run to the neighbors" to the kids (who instantly obeyed - yeah for evacuation plans that work), got the pets out, turned off the one remaining heater and the stove and called 9-1-1. They came out and found nothing. I had left the doors open as I fled, and as it was very windy yesterday, the house had aired out already. Nevertheless they turned off the gas and left it off. No heater, no hot water, no cook-top. Whaa Whaa Whaa.

This morning the Gas man came out and found two leaks -- neither in the area of the intense odor -- but good to know about nevertheless. He fixed the leak near the water heater and turned the cooktop off forever. At least we have hot water and heat in the bedrooms. Cooktops? Who needs em?

To clarify, we have two heaters, one in the old house and one in the addition. The old house heater is still out-of-commission.

What is with my appliances this year? fridge? heater? dishwasher? cooktop? They appear to have made an evil alliance with servicemen. Well I am done with it. We are not spending any more money that we don't have. If it breaks, we will do without. I'm saying this loudly so that the remaining appliances will know that any wamby-pamby behavior will not result in any extra attention. Only positive behavior is rewarded around here. HRMPH!!!



appliances

3 cords of wood

$150 bucks for 3 cords of mill ends, delivered. I feel so much warmer already.

etsy earrings

Well I have opened an Etsy shop to sell earrings to raise money for our furnace. Take a peek, will you, and let me know if they are too expensive? too cheap? too frou-frou? too plain? too whatever?

snugglybuns

Two of our family members are quite pleased that the furnace died and that we are using the wood stove daily.

c-c-c-c-cold

It is 52 degrees in the main part of our home right now. BRRRRRrrrr.

We have not arranged for a replacement furnace yet as we are trying to get our credit cards back under control after all the damage we did in December with our very high deductible. Which of course renewed itself on January 1, right before a very large series of expensive tests to make sure that all the December problems were resolved.

With warm weather coming (we think) we hope to make do with our wood-burning stove and lots of outings. Yesterday was spent on Lummi Island with my sister in her (borrowed) vacation cabin. Today we are taking refuge at Gma & Gpa's.

Got heat? We'll be coming to see you too.

condemned

I'm sure I blogged about the fridge and its off-and-on performance. We did the whole Easter meal with a large block of ice on the top shelf of the fridge as the cooling feature was taking the weekend off; I may have overlooked blogging about last week's expensive repair (faulty thermostat . . . duh!). Or about the expensive repair on the dishwasher (glass in filter). And you do recall the car blowing up on the way to Children's Hospital, don't you?

With all that, don't you think it's a bit much to have the furnace guy come out today and condemn our furnace? He shut the gas off and everything and then asked me for $100.

Elle and Captain Smartypants are coming for lunch today. I do hope they dress warmly.

property tax bill

Remember this post? The bill came. We may just have rice to eat. $1500 increase.

(sigh)

the great vacuum review

I probably need a 12-step program for vacuumoholics. I have 7, not counting the shop-vacs. In order of seniority:

1. I really like my Oreck Classic Vacuum Cleaner which I bought in 1995. I like it because it does the job well and is -- as advertised -- only 8 pounds. This means that my children can easily handle it and I can use it even when I am wimpified by arthritis or asthma. It's also very handy for staircases. Once every 4-5 of years I spend $40-60 dollars on maintenance and a bit on bags.

2. Second up is the little cannister vac that came with my Oreck. I think they call it a Buster and it works fine. Nothing special, yet no complaints. Because the little bags cost money, we save this for things that can't be swept, like cleaning out the couch crevices.

3. iRobot Roomba: early model, named Robbie. Oh how I love my Roombas. I don't quite think they were manufactured with rooms as furry as mine in mind, but the Roombas do a fine job. They zip around and vacuum while I am in the tub, or blogging, and there is something very gratifying about having a robot vacumm. I feel like Mrs. Jetson. I spend more time that I want to cleaning out furmats from the wheels, but as most people do not have 6 housepets, this is probably a flaw of our home, not a flaw of iRobot.

4. iRobot Roomba more recent model, red, named Robin. Robin takes care of the main floor, Robbie does the upstairs.

5. No-name purple no-bag cannister vac. At first I thought these bag-free vacs were the best idea yet, but this one has taught me that disposable and replaceable bags act as filters to protect my non-disposable non-replaceable motors from small children who want to vacuum up, say, flour or talc, or - even worse - damp flour or damp talc.

6. Dirt Devil Extreme Power Stick: This was the one we all reached for, it does a great job on fuzzy corners and small spills and touch-ups on the area rugs. The cannister is easy to empty and the whole thing is light-weight. It is a bit loud.

7. Swiffer Sweeper+Vac: this is the new kid on the block, sent to me as a present from Swiffer. I like it a lot. It is basically the Dirt Devil with a dustpad attached, so all the fluffy furry dusty stuff clings to the pad and the other stuff goes into the cannister. It puts a better shine on the floor and runs a bit quieter; the cannister is easier to open and close. Thus far, I'm favoring it over the Dirt Devil which may move upstairs to help Robbie with the kid fuzz.

So there you have it. More than anyone really wanted to know about the state of my vacuums.

:: edited to add that you can learn more about Swiffers at Maid's Express' Swiffer Sweeper review.



vacuum