Tricotomania and more

Although I’ve been working pretty hard, other stuff is happening. The weather has been getting pretty cold at night and went down almost to freezing the other day. The tomatoes didn’t seem to be doing much anyway, so we picked all but the cherry tomatoes (which we’ve covered) and made a whole bunch of green tomato salsa. I don’t like either cilantro/coriander or chili but other people do and it makes great gives. (Yes, cilantro is coriander leaf. And I do like coriander seed. I’m one of those people who think the leaf smells and tastes like soap.)

We also canned a peck of pears and Mat is getting another peck today. We peel them and halve them and put them in a light sugar syrup. Despite Wisteria’s warnings about low-acid foods, etc. I just put the pears in the hot syrup, bring it back to the boil, put them in hot jars, fill them right to the top, put the lids on, and turn them upside down to cool. (Same thing I do with peaches; my grandmother’s method.) Didn’t kill anyone last year but ymmv. I do think that where you live makes a difference, probably, though I’m not sure how or why.

We’ve decided that we should do more tomatoes and beets and possibly beans. Mat was up early so went to the farmer’s market on his own. We’ll see what he comes back with. Tomorrow afternoon might be a busy one slaving over a hot stove.

Tigger has been keeping herself busy and seems to be fine with the level of neglect. Our little co-op has started and this past week it was at a friend’s who is close enough Tigger can go on her own on the bike so she got herself there and back. They were learning about elections, since we are now having one (on October 14th; Becky will keep you up to date better than I will). She’s also been writing like a mad fiend. She and her friend have decided to form a writing club and they spent all Thursday afternoon together writing and illustrating. She’s also been hanging out in her room writing a lot. I see that some of the new stories are up on the blog though I think a lot more has been written.

Tigger has also been working through the next book in the Key To Geometry series. The one on squares and rectangles, which might be the 4th one. There has been some violin practice, too. Her Nana brought her a full-size violin and fixed it up for her. And Tigger has been asked if she can play some sad/reflective music to go with poetry readings that the youth group will do for the Rembrance Day service at church.

Nana and Grandpa have now gone home. Everyone had a great visit. And Tigger has started her choir. Next week basketball and science class start as well as a 5 week babysitting class. So things will be pretty busy and there might be enough structure that I’ll know what day of the week it is

I have some things of my own going on, too. I decided to sign up for a class at church: Eclipsing Empire. It is very interesting. Historical context of Paul’s writings. I had been thinking about it and when I went to sign up, I noticed that many of the folks taking it were people I knew and liked. That helped. And I’m enjoying it. I am also back at my fitness class in the weights room. A bit stiff this week but I think that indicates how good it is for me to do it regularly. And I like the other women there. I’ve identified a 20 minute brisk walk route around my neighbourhood and am trying to do that regularly, too.

Today I think we’ll do a bit of housework and then we are off to a friend’s place for the afternoon. Have a good weekend.

On the assumption that eventually the snow will melt and the temperature will climb to “hot”, we have started planning Tigger’s summer wardrobe. The other day we got out the summer stuff and checked what fit and what didn’t and what she had and what she needed.

One major finding was that she has about a dozen t-shirts that fit. The problem is, I know she doesn’t wear them much. She doesn’t really like a standard boxy T. So, I ordered Generation T from the library. It came today and we’ve been transforming Tigger’s summer wardrobe into one that she’ll actually enjoy wearing.

First up a plain pink t-shirt. I helped her shape the side seams and then she cut the neck and sleeves to work better with the new fitted style. After rummaging through the quilt-fabric box, she added an applique.

Altogether a much more girly top. I can see her wearing this a lot. We used this one as a guide to refit another t-shirt with a design on the front.

Next up her “Species at Risk” t-shirt. She loves to wear sleeveless tops in the summer and has grown out of most of hers. A flick through the book gave us a few ideas for creating some and we picked this style.

This one also had the side seams taken in to fit better and prevent gaping in the chest.

Friends of ours gave her a t-shirt with a very pretty, if ironic, screen-print design. (Friends who know Bristol may get a kick out of the “severn beach” logo.) But boxy doesn’t get worn. So we went for a kind of girly, punk style. I think we cut too many strips off the bottom for strings but it isn’t too, too short.

Before: After:

I don’t have a picture of our last creation but we took a too small tie-dyed tank top and cut it off under the arms. We then took a worn out t-shirt of Mat’s (it was navy blue but looks more grey now) and did the same. The big t-shirt was gathered and sewn onto the little one. We then folded over the tie-dyed bit and sewed it down over the seam to make a double width wide band at the top, and cut off the bottom part to make a cute short skirt. The too-small tank actually makes a good tight band around her hips.

There is still a stack of t-shirts in the living room to be transformed tomorrow or another day. Tigger was really excited and she did all the sewing (on the machine, which she is quite comfortable with). And I’m glad that all those t-shirts will actually be worn.

Since my last post, Liz has created a separate blog for One Local Summer. Go subscribe to the feed (or bookmark, or whatever you do) and be inspired with cool recipes, etc. using local food from different regions.

I started thinking about this in about January, but it is definitely not a New Year’s resolution. The timing is more of a coincidence. And ideas are still percolating so we’ll see what might actually happen. As you know from my posts on career advice, I am well prepared to take interesting turns on the path of life, possibly abandoning a goal in preference for some new one, or at least the possibility of interesting scenery along the way.

This particular little turning in the road seems to have been inspired quite haphazardly by someone mentioning reading John Seymour’s Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It. I can’t even recall whose blog I saw this on but I immediately checked the library catalogue and ordered a copy. Having looked through it, I decided it was the sort of thing we should probably own. And discussions of various aspects of the book ensued.

We already grow enough vegetables that we don’t need to buy any all summer, and we are able to freeze some (though not enough to last through the winter). My partner loves to garden and has been experimenting with various ideas for producing a lot of veg on not a lot of ground for a while now. I even recall that there was once a book on permaculture hanging around our house (though not this house). Most of our friends are amazed at what we can produce in our little city garden. (It has to be said that we don’t give much space to grass.)

And we have both been involved in the Green Party (not here, and him more than me) and in discussions of all kinds of things with friends in those circles, particularly when we were still students. We guaranteed a loan for a housing co-op some of those friends started many years ago. And I even recall being interested in Education Otherwise though this was long before we had kids.

My partner’s family also kept chickens (in town, no roosters allowed) when he was younger and he frequently talks about how he would like to do that again, though I don’t think it is allowed in this part of the city (since amalgamation some parts of the city are rural so I’d probably need to read the zoning by-laws pretty carefully to find out) and we have no space.

We are now seriously discussing the possibility of moving out of the city, growing more veg and fruit, and keeping some animals. My partner would just launch right into that but I am being more cautious. To begin with, I’m a city kid. I am not confident that I really understand how much work is involved and I am well aware that it is often hard, physical work. I need to get a better sense of that. I also want to live somewhere where at least some of the neighbours have some values in common — organic, environmentally sustainable, and quite frankly a bit hippy-ish. We don’t plan on having a big farm nor on producing much more than we need so it would be great to have neighbours who were interested in sharing equipment (and work) and perhaps trading some produce. This is all pretty vague and sometimes sounds quite utopian. I would like to be more confident that it is realistic before we do anything crazy like sell the house.

So we are starting to walk down that road slowly. I encouraged my partner to join the Canadian Organic Growers since he does garden organically. I figured that getting involved in that would both increase our knowledge and provide opportunities to meet folks with some common values. As I understand it members range from city folks like us (the local chapter even runs a course on Apartment Gardening Organically) to quite large organic farm operations. I am also hoping it might lead to opportunities to learn more about farming through helping others locally. Maybe we’ll also learn more about where we might buy land locally when we are ready to do that.

The bread baking is part of this overall shift in perspective and lifestyle. I now bake bread regularly (about every 2nd day) and we don’t buy any. It fits into our daily routine (such as it is) and I actually enjoy kneading. I’ve stopped experimenting, though I might go back to that.

I have also been thinking about making my own yoghurt. I have done this in the past and my recollection, though fuzzy, is that it wasn’t that complicated. I found some instructions (Google is my friend) that seem way more complicated than that. But when I tried it how I remembered it, it didn’t work. So I might have to get more scientific about it.

And my partner has made some cheese! That was motivated by an article on the food pages in The Guardian (he reads that on-line, they do not form part of the print version of the Guardian Weekly). Finding rennet was not that easy but another quick google search turned up a relatively local cheese-making supply place that even offers workshops. His first attempt at Ricotta was rather tasty. We are using commercial organic milk (which is what we normally drink) and it seems to be working fine.

I have to admit that for him the best part of the Seymour book is the bit on making cider. It seems to be the easiest sort of alcoholic drink to make yourself and it is rather hard to get good dry cider in these parts (we have found a couple in Prince Edward County and in the SAQ in the Ville de Québec).

As I said, all of this is mulling. There isn’t anything that really resembles a plan or goals or a timeline. But it is a direction that we are moving in and it is starting to influence other decisions that we are making. I still think that I am a crazy city girl who has no idea what she is getting herself into. And I’m aware that my farming cyber-friends have family connections to farming and the place they live (sometimes through their partners) which must make a difference, no matter how frustrating they can be at times. (Though not all of them do.)

When I started this post, I noticed that it is my 200th post on this blog. This is kind of amazing to me.