Proof

Just had to provide evidence that I can in fact move these muthers.

Does this rock make me look fat?

I'm pretty sure that I sometimes make messes just to experience the satisfaction of cleaning them up again. 

Taking the Good with the Bad

The last guava finally ripened and fell from the tree last week. The very next day, our apricot tree started flowering.

In a good year, this tree would be covered in blooms. But there's no way we got anywhere near the 400 hours of chill (temperatures below 45 degrees) that this tree needs to set fruit. Now that the tree has broken dormancy it is too late for any late winter chilling to do any good (and it might even kill off whatever fruits do manage to set). So odds are that this will be the second year in a row of no apricots, or very few. Several of my other stone fruits most likely won't be bearing either, but at least the tropicals are happy. I'll just have to save up the money we didn't spend on heating to buy fruit this summer. 

And When I'm Thoroughly Pooped Out

I watch lectures on uctv.tv.  My favorite series is the Mini Medical School for the Public out of UCSF. I have a little tiny crush on this lecturer.
http://uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=20218&subject=health

As a mother, this lecture on pediatric issues was quite useful.
http://uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=20221&subject=health

I like many of the lectures in the Science category as well. Wanna see some Science Cheerleaders? (They're at about 3:02, if you don't want to hear the rest of the lecture.)
http://uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=19862&subject=sci

Other subject areas include Arts & Music, Public Affairs, Humanities, Business, Education Issues, and Gardening and Agriculture. (I think I've watched every video available in that last category.) The site is searchable and new talks and lectures are posted regularly. I am occasionally disappointed in the sound quality, but not usually. There is often an extended introduction of the lecturer, but it is easy to skip past it.

Anybody know of other sites like this?

Puzzled

So I've found that if I get a solid hour or two of exercise per day, I don't need any antidepressants. I could just do a good workout in the morning and another at night. But I'd really rather just have physical activity be a natural part of my day. If I had a job, having one about 4 miles away that I could cycle to and from would be ideal. Or having a job that naturally involved a fair amount of activity. But for the last two weeks (and the next few, I'd guess) this is how I have been getting my exercise.

The chickens "help out" by eating all the juicy worms I dig up when I remove an inch or two of dead grass/dirt to set the stones in. They've never eaten so well in their fluffy little lives. 

I can set 20-50 stones per day, depending on how large the stones are (they vary from about 15 to 50 pounds- I have Jon move the occasional 75 pound monster) and how easily they fit together. It's like the world's heaviest jigsaw puzzle, with no picture on the box to guide you.

Putting in the stones will help a little bit in reducing the water bill, a bit more in reducing the amount of mowing we need to do, and rather more in making the back yard look like I meant it to be like that, rather than just "Eh, I didn't know what to do back here, so I left it to the bermuda grass." I suppose I could try to make a job of it, but can you imagine the business card? 

World's Wimpiest Stonelayer! 

Two hours per day, maximum.

'Nuff Said

Something I Will Never Need to Make

At least not as long as I live in Long Beach.

This photo comes courtesy of one of my old favorite blogs,
http://www.cityfarmer.info/2010/12/16/ideas-for-christmas/

Steal This Trashy Idea

We usually give homemade jelly to neighbors and teachers for Christmas, packaged nicely with a box of crackers. It's personal, and the recipient doesn't have to eat it right away, so they can spread the holiday caloric orgy out a bit. I don't know exactly how much this jelly-giving costs. Pectin runs about $3 per batch (of around 2-3 quarts of finished product); sugar may cost me about a dollar per batch; the fruit is homegrown, the cost is minor; the lids and rings are another $4 or $5. We only just barely finished using up the jelly jars that came with the house, so that will add a bit to the cost next year. So maybe a dollar or two of cash cost per jar? (The time involved is much more significant, but that's not what I'm accounting for today.)

I do, however, know how much it costs to make the jelly jars presentable as gifts. Gift bags are absurdly expensive. From $1.99 to 4.99 for an 8" x 6" x 3" bag (plus tissue), for a container that may very well be thrown out after one use, and almost certainly can't be recycled. My little green heart just can't quite fathom it.

I used to look for once-used bags at yard sales, but I haven't done much of that this year (my kids are too big for most of the wares one finds at yard sales around here). White paper craft bags are one way to go, but they were sold out when I last needed them. I've tried just tying the jelly jar and box of crackers together with pretty ribbon. No joy. Maybe it's just me, but it looks like a 6-year-old did it. So I've been looking for other options.

Coincidentally, I've also been looking for ways to recycle my kids' juice pouches. Yes, I know, I should be sending them to school with reuseable beverage containers. You do that with an ADHD kid for a year and see how many reuseable beverage containers you go through. We're sticking with the juice pouches.

Last year I realized that mylar juice pouches could be sewn together when I saw bags like this one from online "green" retailers. They really aren't my style, so I never bought one. But I did collect a few of my kids' empty juice pouches, run them through the washing machine and play around with sewing them together. Nothing came of it until this week, however, when it finally occurred to me that I didn't have to use the printed side as the outside.

This is a week's worth of juice pouches. the flat sections are zigzagged together, then joined at the corners with a straight stitch. No sewing with the right sides together and turning them right-side out, however. Mylar juice pouches are too stiff for that. (Now that I think about it, though, maybe I could try a leathercrafting technique and hammer the seams flat...)

The finished product is still a little rough. But don't be surprised if next year's holiday goodies go out in handcrafted recycled mylar bags. Shall we start a trend?