October

Nearly three-quarters of a year have passed since writing. Time has slipped, not only over the year but through the years. It feels as if nearly a century of modern living has slipped away. Our electricity is unreliable. While we do get it most days, everything must be protected from the larger grid because of unplanned power outages that last from a few seconds to several hours. I don't reset the clocks on the appliances any longer. Why bother? It is work that is undone relentlessly.  Other things have slipped even farther back in time. I have harvested our amaranth crop and I thresh and winnow by hand, the bowls and sieves may be stainless steel and aluminum, but the technology is ancient, relying on the sun and wind to prepare a crop to feed us.

My body aches from the last endeavor, a small patch of winter wheat. It was broadcast sown and raked into the soil. Watered and protected from the deer and birds, we wait the three to five days to see if the seed sprouts. 

Today, they say frost tonight. It is late this year, but so is the garden. There are still tomatoes, basil, beans, and peppers slowly ripening in the autumn sun. There will be a scramble to cover the best plants and prayers said for just a few degrees warmer tonight.  

The white pines have let go of their cones. Fresh and sticky with sap, the cones are gathered for fire starters for the winter. Fire wood still needs split and the weeds around the house need cleared to prevent vermin infiltration. Evening comes to soon and so does winter. 

Old Cookbook Menus

These two days of menus come from a 1945 cookbook written by Vera Bradely. The book has an entire years worth of suggestions for three meals a day. It is interesting what was suggested and what actually is achieved in my kitchen. 

January 2nd Week - Tuesday 

Breakfast:  Sliced Oranges, Fine Dark Wheat Cereal, Toasted Raisin Bread 

Lunch: Pork Dice Baked with Macaroni, Baking Powder Biscuit, Lettuce and Pimento Salad, Canned Raspberries

Dinner: Canned Corn Soup, Pan fried Lamb chops, Mint Jelly, Turkish Pilaf, Five Minute Cabbage, Chocolate Cornstarch Mold with Soft Custard.

 

In my kitchen, we have to be carbohydrate aware. Most breads, grains, deserts and sweets simply disappear from the list. Items that no longer exist are canned raspberries, and canned corn soup. So this is what's left.

Breakfast:  Sliced Oranges, Fine Dark Wheat Cereal 

Lunch: Pork Dice Baked with Macaroni, Lettuce and Pimento Salad

Dinner: Pan fried Lamb chops, Turkish Pilaf, Five Minute Cabbage, 

 

Now let's remove what is too expensive or I simply don't have this leftover.

Breakfast:  Sliced Oranges, Fine Dark Wheat Cereal 

Lunch:  Macaroni, Lettuce Salad

Dinner:  Turkish Pilaf, Five Minute Cabbage

 

Not much left, let's go shopping in my frig.

Breakfast: Whole oranges, Wheatena Cereal with Milk

Lunch:  Leftover Potato Leek Soup, Grain and Bean Salad with Veggie Scraps Salad

Dinner:  Chicken Breast and Pepper Stir fry, Rice, Cauliflower, Lettuce Salad

 

What to see the next day?

January 2nd Week - Wednesday

Breakfast:  Raspberry and Orange Juice, Quaker Crackles, Toasted Biscuit, Marmalade. 

Lunch: Canned Corned Beef Hash, Cole Slaw, Cooked Salad Dressing, Yeast Biscuit, Stewed Dried Apricots

Dinner: Tomato Soup, Baked Liver and Bacon, Pepper Relish, Potatos Baked with Butter, Turnip Dice en Caserole, Baked Custard with Carmel Sauce.

 

Becomes the following menu. 

Breakfast:  Frozen Blueberries, Oatmeal, Plain Yogurt. 

Lunch: Leftover Ham and Egg Quiche, Cole Slaw with Vinegar Dressing, Oranges

Dinner:  Hamburgers in Tomato Sauce, Rice, Cooked Broccoli, Lettuce Salad

Is the book still useful? That's debatable since there are so many changes. It is a start place for the eternal question of "what's for dinner?"? Undoubtedly, yes. 

The most interesting part about the book is the organization. Each week has a marketing list that is divided so that you shop every couple of days. This helps with food waste, nothing is bought too far ahead only to rot and you can review your leftovers for substitutions.

The menus are seasonal. I am unlikely to find fresh strawberries in January menus, and pumpkins in June. 

Finally, the menu for the day is on the left hand page and directly following are all the recipes need for that day. Open the book and all the reference material for the day is right there. Need to place a grocery order for the next day? That list is at the very end of the day. Review, rinse, and repeat. Ingenious! 

 The holidays have come and gone. This winter has had more snow and cold than past years. It's all very pretty, but we've been inside far too long. 

I'm still working on finishing up the bathroom renovations. Sewing curtains has been a difficult journey. I think my sewing and knitting hobbies will wind down as supplies are short and very expensive. 

 

 Two days of soapy water and elbow grease have cleaned two rooms. One lamp is out for repairs and another looks like I will find a new lamp shade in the coming year. The house smells clean again.

Tomorrow's work bills and business, some hand sewing and some reading. I want to get most of my books back to the library before the holiday shut down. Tomorrow is another snow storm. Let's see. 

Happy Solstice. I don't do holidays as many people do. I don't do the added labor of decorations and festive meals. I choose as I please and it is more about representation than anything else.

Today, as the darkest day of the year. I choose to clean the morning room in the house. This is the room where I spend my mornings with my coffee and a fifty-yard stare. I deserve a dust free, clutter free start to the morning.  

While most are hot chocolate drinking, sleigh bells ringing fools. I am the greater fool with the hot soapy water bucket and the window cleaning spray. I look forward to sorting my seed collections and my winter sewing. 

Happy Solstice. 

 

Life in this country has gotten incredibly difficult. All our systems are at a breaking point, leaving me very little time for anything else including blogging. Case in point: A prescription problem has strung itself out to 4 days of my following up between parties who should be talking to each other. If I had a paper script, it would have been handled withing 30 minutes. Now, because of the fear of fraud, medication misuse and I don't know what else, I am out of medication and not assured that it will be in today. Now, granted, what I need is crucial, but not life threatening. How does this happen? I have the luxury of following up by phone, computer, app and in person, but what about some who can't? Dear Lord, what has happened to us. 

Don't get me started on groceries, insurance, and energy bills. We are lucky for now, but I get how many people are broke. Not short-term cash flow, but broke. I have enough for now, but there is no extra. Extra is cheese, coffee, gas, and heating oil. We think twice before we go anywhere, turn the heat up or have more than one cup of caffeine per day.  

Moving on, today is some household repair jobs, splitting more wood for the fireplace and maybe some sewing. Dinner is turkey pot pie. The days are so short I am considering doing only two meals a day. 

Grocery bill is paid. Protein sources for this week are eggs, smoked herring, lentils, beans and cheese. There are a few things in the freezer and we will be eating those down. Lunch today was leftovers and tonight's dinner is also leftovers. For Saturday, I think it will be re-fried beans with eggs.

I planted the garden again today. First garden went to the ground hog, second garden went to frost, third voles...this will number four. Five will not be happening as the growing season is too short. I'm stocking canned goods as I write to make up for the difference.

There are no bees this year. Last year, the yard and flowers hummed with activity. This morning I was able to hunt up two bumblebees in the cat mint and nothing else. We're in trouble if we don't have native bees. 

Today's project is to continue to repair the bathroom door. Some how having a door on the bathroom is priority number one now.  Why now? Why? (Sarcasm!) 

 Setting a new postal box post is today's project. Digging a hole at the street side is not my idea of a good time. The traffic is relentless and often inattentive. One step at a time is the motto.

 First the placement calculations, the x-y plane of the earth if you will. X marks the spot. The depth of the hole will give the the height or z position of the post box. The tolerances are +/- 1 inch in the distance from the street and +/- 2 inches in the height placement. This is interestingly difficult for a first time hole digger like me.

I really wish I could just weed my flowers.

The reward for good work is more work. I need not say more. I really don't have time for anything else. 

Garden work has begun. There are seedlings to transplant today. 

A septic system needs attended to. I hope it is just a pump out as anything more will put us in a bind. 

Grocery shopping for the cat is moving up on the list.

I did conquer the power miter box and the paint tin. Today, I boil hinges.

Good news. I found the perfect pattern for new bathroom curtains on the internet. Bad news. I need to get it off the webs and onto paper.

I'm out for a cuppa. Keep calm and carry on. Ta for now.  

Today, I conquer the power miter box. This thing scares the hell out of me mostly because the instruction manual has disappeared and I never read it.

Yes, I read those things and carefully go through a products features. Otherwise, I feel as if I'm operating a black box. The product controls me rather than I control the product. Computers have become this way. There are no detailed instructions and therefore when problems happen I am lost and I panic. The item is usually turned off and never touched again. 

I have a love affair with 1920 through 1950 technology. I wasn't even alive then, but I seem to understand these items.

I'm off to answer these questions.  "Do we even have an instruction manual?" or "Does the manufacturer assume the user magically comes with prerequisite knowledge?"

See you soon.

Repainting the bathroom was supposed to be a weekend project. Wash the walls. Paint. Done.  The room threw me a curve ball.  I started by washing the walls and removing all the loose paint.  The room revealed itself to be a much larger project.  I was stopped dead in my tracks for about 12 weeks. The despair was overwhelming and I froze.  We had a bathroom without a towel rack or loo roll holder along with scraped paint and holes for 12 long winter weeks. 

I felt like a deer in the headlights. There were many skills I had some knowledge and practice but I was hardly confident.  I started slowly. I patched the holes, then sanded.  Stripped trim, patched more holes and more sanding.  It felt like the room was falling further into disarray.  The dust was creeping into the rest of the house.  The common room, bedroom, and hallway were filled with renovation flotsam and jetsam and drywall dust.  Finally, I turned the corner.

I could paint.  First coat was a primer sealer and even with the window open, the fumes nearly killed me.  Next came two coats of wall paint, the color is light green peanut butter.  Yep, light green peanut butter is the wall color.  Don't come for me. It matches the tile which stays. This room had too many colors and textures for me. Everything was slightly off because items had been replace one at a time over decades and everything was a "that's close enough" match. So instead of contrast between tile and wall, they now match more closely.

The trim will stay the original color, "french lentil" but some of the trim needs to be replaced and the vanity is going to be painted. The vanity was knotty pine and it's brown clashed with the Spanish tile flooring. The flooring stays. I hate it. It was installed poorly, but taking it up means a wholly different level of DIY. This is just a refresh job. The goal is to make the bathroom livable for 5-7 years.

Today: Empty the vanity, remove the hardware, and wash it down. Sanding is next and oil-based primer should be used too seal the pine knots from showing. 

Let's see how far we get. "Come on you can do it"' I tell myself, "This is just cleaning on steroids."  Actually, I have to face the hoarding in this house first. Empty the vanity! Give me strength. See you soon.