101 Money Saving Ideas: Numbers 42-59

To review:  Totally bogarting this series idea from Centsible Living with Money Mom on the youtubes.  She's awesome!  Watch her.

42 A dollar a pound, all year round.  This was part of hint #32 and I want to expand on it again because it really works. It's a food purchasing GOAL but not a hard line. So, what can you get this week at the local grocery stores for 1$/lb or less?  USUALLY potatoes, onions and bananas are available year round so those can be staples. All are flexible.  E.g. my favorite soup is potatoes and an onion.  About 4 medium to large potatoes and 1 medium to large onion.  Dice them up, add 4-5 cups of water.  Boil until tender. Eat.  It's super good when sick or tired or sick and tired (so basically every day for me since I find my fellow humans exhausting).  Change it up with spices, a diced boiled egg, drop a raw beaten egg in there and bring to the boil while stirring to make potato egg drop soup.  A bit of lemon juice, lime juice or vinegar in your bowl just before you eat it will make this incredibly delicious.  Mexican spices, Italian, whatever you have, poultry seasoning you can never seem to use up, a knob of ginger diced up ...ANYTHING is good in here.  Maybe not sugar but who knows.
The left overs turn into mashed potatoes eventually.

What else is 1$/lb or less this week?
24oz loaf of bread for 99cents...that's under 1$/lb
Pasta is right at 1$/lb and as a dried product, cooked up it is even a better savings.
Remember that principle with dried beans too if you have a way to cook them!  1lb of dry beans will make 2-4 lbs of cooked.  Canned beans are often 1$/lb but not nearly as good a deal as the dried.  If you don't have good cooking facilities, canned are the better deal.
Frozen veggies, 99cents/lb
2 jumbo cantaloupes for 5$...WEIGH them.  You're bound to find a couple that are 2.5lbs or more making them 1$/lb or less.  I'm almost ready to start carrying a little hanging scale and old onion bag so I can weigh at the Grocery Outlet and etc where fruit and veg is all by the piece or bag.
You may notice I left out all sugary drinks.  Those are never a deal even at under 1$/lb because they are not nutritious.  But if you must drink them (and sometimes I must), then pay less.
You probably won't find coffee and spices this low so techniques on those later in the list (probably)

43  No Plastic Days.  Just TRY to spend money without acquiring plastic!  You may not spend at all or you may spend less.  Be mindful of packaging and of the plastic coated receipt paper!   Once in a while I shop online but that is just acquiring the plastic later.  Also, usually can't check mail on a "no plastic day" because of those damn little windows in the envelopes.  Those CAN just be open without plastic like they used to be or your address could be on the envelope...like the old days.  If only.  I spend time when watching a movie or youtubes tearing those damn things out so I can burn or recycle the envelope  Aggravating.

44  Write a letter.  Sure, the stamp costs you something, but it takes up time you might be spending or online shopping, and you get ZERO targeted ads based on handwritten letters.  Your emails, facebooks, texts and cell phone calls are scanned and you get targeted ads.  If you manage to turn off the snooping on your own email/phone, etc, likely the person on the receiving end did not.  And you get targeted ads.  Try even talking by someone's smart phone. I like to say things like "Nutterbutter ice cream sandwich" or "artisan" and watch the ads roll in next time I'm on the internet.  Creepy man.  Targeted ads are more effective, that's why they do them.  So get targeted for things you don't use, at least. And at best, avoid being targeted.   People also love getting letters. 

45  Review your insurance(s).  I try to do this once a year or so and see if there are savings, if a rate deal has been dropped (e.g. I need to take another cheap defensive driving course in order to get money off my car insurance).  Call the insurance agency, not just email and online.  Get someone on the phone.  It shocks them.  They might drop it a few dollars.  Maybe get some easy online quotes and see if you can get something cheaper.

46  Can you consolidate some of your items/tasks/bills and save $$?  You never know.  A few years back I reorganized, culled and consolidated 2 storage units into 1 slightly larger than the previous "big" unit (heh heh) which save 50$/month.  I'm going to try another cull to see if I can minimize it again and maybe get down a size again...though I like the location.  But you say...why have a storage unit?  Get rid of that sh*t! Well, yes, ideally (see #47) I would do that.  But alas, living in 135sq feet and wanting my furniture for the house being built as we type, I have it in storage.  I am a genetic hoarder so have to downsize in phases.  That's what works for me,

47  Get rid of crap in storage units.  This saves you the storage costs.  If you are lucky, you can sell some of your crap and/or share it out to people who will appreciate and use it.  In #46 I get defensive about why I am keeping my crap in storage.  And another thing...about a 5'x5' portion, 11' tall, of the storage is "live" storage where I keep things like off season clothes, extra food storage containers, a gift bin so I can buy gifts when they are on sale.  The stuff outside that goes through periodic culls.  I'm working on it.  #genetichoarder!

48  Drink Tap Water.  Guess what is in those bottles and gallons of water you buy...TAP WATER.  Maybe it's spring water and maybe it comes from somewhere with "springs" in the name.  Much of the time it's tap water.  It's EXPENSIVE.  Drink tap water.  I bring tap water from work to my house because I haven't bothered to get the well tested (house! HA!  I flatter the shed sometimes).  It's not hard.  You fill about 1 gallon a day and bring it home for drinking and cooking.  Live on the streets?  Well, then you have bigger issues.  Chlorine in your water?  Air it out a bit or get a filter pitcher AT A THRIFT STORE.  I also generally found the filters, still packaged, at thrift stores.  Also, lots of people drink chlorine water.  Maybe work with your town if you don't want it in there.
So, how much is it to drink bottled water which is total BS on so many levels....at least refill the goddamn bottle.
1 qt of bottled water is about $1.50, maybe a buck.  I get a gallon of distilled (for the solar batteries) for a dollar or so.  We'll be nice and say 1$/day for buying bottled water.   Cost of municipal tap water per gallon?  $0.002  on average.  That's 2 onehundredths of a cent per gallon for well water?  I spent 19,000 or so on the well and solar to run it (but the solar does more).  I use about 500gallons a week in the summer when watering the garden.  Less in the winter or rainy season.  So, let's call it 250gallons a week...250/7 = 35/day.   I've used the well for 5 years and 6 months or so... 19000/5.5years = $3555 per year/365 9.45/day cost for 35 gallons.  9.45/35 =   $0.27per gallon!!! Already cheaper than buying water!! Woot woot!   It gets cheaper every time I use it.  I don't waste it to drive down the cost. I 'm very frugal with my water usage.  Aquafers are precious resources and one does not save money by wasting water.

49  Change clothes when you get home.  I hate doing this but I try.  Right now it's so HOT that I change into thin pants and tissue thin shirts before working around the property after work. Easier to wash those.  I keep "work pants" hanging on a hook all year round.  Those get washed less and are sacrificial pants.  They are meant to be worn out and stained and grubbed up.  Changing out of "office worthy" pants and shirts saves those.  It means I've been wearing the same jeans to work for years and my office shirts last for years too.  Boring, but cheap! 

50  The clothes/fabric use chain.  When clothes DO wear out and are not shareable, tradeable, donateable, then what?  For me, they get torn into rags.  Seams on jeans and the waste band are usually strong even after the fabric rots.  I use them to tie up stuff in the garden.  Since I wear 100% cotton most of the time, or 100% wool/linen/natural if at all possible, these things decompose into the soil eventually rather than being there as plastic bits forever (functionally forever...who knows when that sh*t goes away?).   The main body of the clothes get used as wash clothes or reusable rags until they are so bad they become a 1 use rag to be trashed.  These are good for engine oil checking.  Or for wiping up greasy spills and then being used to start fires (in the woodstove...not just random locations).  Elastic off bras and undies has various uses as well...tie up tomatoes etc.  But, has to be gathered up as it won't decompose in a reasonable amount of time.  I keep a bag on a shelf near the other cleaning products for clothes that need to be rags now.  I fish in there for what I need when I run out of wash clothes, or am crafting, or need to start a fire and paper isn't cutting it to get the kindling going.

51  Do something while you stare at the TV/Computer/Whatever.  Watching a movie or show or random youtubes?  Do something.  Lately I've been folding boxes for mustard samples. You probably don't need to do that, but maybe you have mending or you like to knit.  I like to darn socks while I watch a movie or listen to a book.  Don't have any that need darning right now but I do need mustard sample boxes.  In fact, I'm blogging this during a work webinar.  Maybe I shouldn't but the webinar has repetitive bits so when something is being repeated, I type.  Then tune back in when it's new info.

52  Sell something you like to make/do.  This is new to me, but I'm testing it out.  I like to make mustard so I started selling it.  I'm tracking the money to see if the cost/benefit works out in my favor. It takes time and space, 2 things I don't have lots of to spare.  But, I like doing it.  And so far the mustard is selling at a local farmers market.  I'm just above break-even right now and had to do a price adjustment so we'll see.  Some people cook meals for those without time or space, others do sewing alterations, manual labor, or whatever.  It doesn't hurt and might be worth a try.

53  Keep Long Term Goals In Mind.  These would be financial related mostly.  Like I want to retire some day.  Every day I spend half what I earn, I earn a day of NOT WORKING because I have that amount of money saved (hopefully with interest) to pay for that day of retirement.  This is above and beyond my retirement fund and Social Security.  Another goal is having a house, garden and land the way I want.  I hasn't been super cheap getting toward that and compromises have and continue to be made, but if I keep going the way I'm going, I will get there debt free.  When I was trying to buy land I had a cost per square foot so before I spent $$ on something, I figured out how many square feet of land I could buy instead.  It wasn't totally accurate but it helped keep the spending down.

54  Gratitude moments.  I take a moment now and then when I get discouraged with the thrift and just want a giant expensive meal out or a 7$ iced coffee on a no spend day.  I use that moment to think through things in my personal life that I am grateful for.  Many of them end up having to do with being debt free and having my spending mostly under control.  Like I'm always grateful for being debt free.  A bad day at work is less bad when you know you COULD stomp out in a huff and not come back and still not lose your home.  So far that has meant I did not have to stomp out because I had a better perspective on things.  It keeps me on track.

55  Everything is a choice.  You are not a victim of your debt, your costs, your job, people/charities begging you for money, any loans you've given.  Everything you've done, including inhaling, was a choice.  So, move on.  Make a new choice.  Choose to pay the debt off.  Choose to forgive the loans you handed out unwisely or to openly ask for the money back or to sue the bastards.  Do it.  Choose to learn boundaries and enforce them with money.

56  Free Fruit!  Nice segue.  Or not.  Fruit is getting ripe right now.  Time to put the apple picker in the car and the eyes peeled for random fruit trees along the road, in people's yards, in parks.  Always ask if the tree looks like someone owns it or in a town park.  And be mindful of pesticide and herbicides that might be on them.  People spit pits out windows for generations so lots of apples and pears along highways, old RR beds, trails.  Many are delicious.  Some are crap.  Taste them if you feel comfortable.  If it looks like the area has been sprayed (lots of dead veg and/or few bugs) then I pass it up.  But often I pick them.  You get pesticides on grocery fruit too.  Wash it.  Make your own choices (see #55).  A friend has a cherry tree and calls people to pick each year.  I go and I share out the fruit and eat some.  Spent yesterday evening picking serviceberries (which are late this year) and eating them.  Some went into vinegar which will preserve them and flavor the vinegar.  I'll get more for several evenings in a row here.  Other berries are getting ripe.  Pick them.  When someone offers you their home grown fruit say yes, and thank you and enjoy and share something back sometime.

57  Free meat!  I help a friend butcher chickens and ducks and will help her butcher whatever comes up next.  I learn something and always get a bit of free meat with the new skills.  Sometimes I invest in meat with her, like when she bought ducks so grow and butcher.  I paid in for some of the ducks and helped with the meat production.  That wasn't free, but was cheap.  Some people grab roadkill. I haven't yet, but I'm all for it and someday hope to run across a fresh kill when I have my knife and something to put it in.

58  Free veg!  It's zucchini time here.  When someone asks if I want some, I say yes and take it.  Fry it, eat it raw, dry it, bake it, put it in soup.  It's good food.  Eat it.  If you have a freezer, shred it and freeze it.  Drying is my favorite because it becomes differently delicious in soups later.  Also just eating it as dried chips is good.  Don't forget mushrooms and other wild food you can gather beyond the berries noted above.  I know mushrooms aren't really veg but I didn't want to do another entry on this.  Enough already.

59  Grow some flavor.  A pot of herbs or an herb garden, some onions, garlic, peppers, or other flavory things in the garden or a pot will help with all that free zucchini.  And with flavoring that potato soup or other cheap food soups.  Herbs and spices are expensive, buy some seeds or learn to start them from cutting.  I hear you can root bits of basil from plant cuttings.  Maybe.  I have thyme, chives, tarragon, oregano, fennel, horseradish, radishes, 2 types of sage...no 3 types of sage, garlic, walking onions, sorrel (wild and garden), and probably more that I'm not thinking of.   Those all really help when I am grabbing a handful of greens to fry up or make salad.  Grab the herbs or garlic tops or an onion leaf (are the green things on onions leaves?  Blades?)  Anyway, it's cheap and healthy.  I have so much thyme I can dry it for the winter and have tasty soup all year. 

Bee-autiful

I'll try to stop with the bee puns, but it's just so easy (see..I didn't say "bee-asy" and I totally could have).

I have an invertebrate ecologist friend...well, his wife and I are on the radio together, and so I know him.  It's not like we hang out on Saturday nights.  Is that what friends do?  I don't know.  Can't be bothered with humans.  Too much fun with the bees.

ANYWAY (any-bee?), he came up and took some boudoir photos of the bees while I was feeding them and inspecting the hives a few weeks back.  Here are some highlights in no particular order:

 Using the hive tool (like a tiny flat crowbar) to remove a frame.  I think you can click on the photos for biggification, but I'm not sure and in trying to check that out, only some of them biggified. 

The frame.  The bees are doing a good job!

 Another Frame.  Another good job.  The black bit where the bees aren't is the foundation that is already in the frame.  It is plastic (sigh...I would like to avoid plastic but decided not to complicate my life the first year so just take it and say thank you and learn to work without foundation in the future) with a layer of beeswax on it.  The wax is imprinted with hexagons to inspire the bees to build comb.  Or to make sure they don't screw it up.

Taking out another frame.  Like my bee ensemble?  I went with just the pith helmet (which is hard plastic and doesn't fit that well) and a net veil (which is strange and exposes the back of my neck sometimes but I'll get used to wearing it), a light t-shirt (which I have swapped out for a white button down shirt (from thrift, obviously).  That shirt works better because it is huge and I can put it on over whatever else I'm wearing, and I can turn up the collar and button it tight, with my pony tail or braid inside the collar.  This is a bit gaggy, but means the veil stays down over the collar.  With the old system of t-shirt and veil, I had one bee get up inside the mesh by my face.  I chased her out but clearly she was not amused, neither was I.

The bees!  And you can see the frame feeder.  It is the black bit I'm pulling out. Fill  1/2 to 3/4 full of 1:1 sugar water until the bees have enough real nectar to survive.  Since this is a totally new hive, both hives, with no comb built upon arrival, the advice is to feed lots. Next year when the bees have the left over comb from this year, they may not need to be fed so much for so long. 

Another frame.  Nice shot Tim!  (Photographer: Tim Hatten of Invertebrate Ecology).  Shows the burr comb...those lumps.  At least I hope it's burr comb and not new queen cells.  I'd hate to have a coup my first season of bee keeping. 

And let's close with a nice close up of the bees.

No, how about a view of the beeyard as the closing shot:

Bee yard...now with more finger!  (Sorry Tim, couldn't help myself).  You can also see the gallon jug (heh heh...I said "jug") with the sugar water feed, and the yellow hive tool I forgot to pick up.  Thank goodness it's yellow or it would be lost by now.  The bees face east for the morning sun to wake them up.  I stacked those cinder blocks myself.  One of my more successful construction projects.  If you ignore how the one hive lists to one side.  You can see one of my apple trees in the background...just below the finger.  The flowers are on hawthorns.  Bees seem to love hawthorns.

Thank you VERY MUCH to Tim and his Mrs. for coming up for the photo shoot.  Nice to have a professional bugman in one's circle of acquaintances.

Well, That WASN'T Frugal!

So today I'm like totally at the radio show.
We (Sally P, Jill M, and I) start out in the production room and then 10 minutes before Peace Radio starts or so, we head into the studio, where the magic happens (or not). As usual, I wen tin early and used the wifi and got info for my movie reviews and something I wanted to report on. I had the report and another web page for the show pulled up on the laptop. When we move to the studio, I just unplug the computer from the wall outlet in one room and replug it in in the other. Well, apparently between production room and studio...separated by a thin wall, a trojan hit my computer. And I don't mean the condom.
A fake "disk scan" window popped up. The graphic was sort of "off" from the Windows defrag icon and the font was a bit off and "scanned" was spelled "scaned"....hmmm. And then, I got a warning that my hard drive was corrupted so I better click the open window and allow the defrag and that a hard drive couldn't be found and that I had no RAM. Hmmm...I checked the task manager thingy and all was well, but there was too much activity for the programs I had open. So I shut it off...and it wouldn't shut down. That's not good.
I tried again. Then I forced a shut down.

After the show I called Pam who recommended I take out the battery for a while to force the computer off and a restart. I did and more of the nonsense. I did manage to download a fresh antivirus freeware program and do a scan. This took over an hour. Then I did a scan and sure enough, trojan. That is now quarantined along with another suspicious program. I did a real defrag and another scan and so far, knock on wood, things are going OK.

Must remember to back everything up! Not clever. AND to make the "restore" disk like the computer has been trying to make me do for MONTHS. Okay... YEARS. If this goes bad before I get it backed up I'm going to have to pay for data recovery or lose my Europe photos and blog backups and all sorts of very important things...like the black bean sweet potato chili recipe that I can find on the internet.

Anyway, I'm staying in Moscow tonight because I have an appointment tomorrow morning and we're expecting CRAP weather. First major winter driving of the year. That's not a time to be on the road. And it was already freezing rain by 4pm today. It's good to have a job. It may not seem frugal to take a hotel room for 50$ when I could drive the two ways for 20, and yet frugality is about spending money where there is value. The amount of stress this is saving me is HUGE.

25 Things

So, I was reading some thrifty blogs as I am wont to do.
One of them had solicited lists from other frugalers (that's people who actively do frugality...frugalees are the friends and families of frugalers. Frugalees suffer from crap gifts, handme down clothes, and chilly houses in the winter (yes, I have a blanket wrapped around my head right now and am considering giving up on my "wait until Nov. 1 to turn on the furnace" deal since with a 20+ mile per hour wind the trailer is FREAKING COLD...I can expect a 15 degree temperature drop between bedtime and getting up time without a wind. WITH a wind, it's going to be closer to 25 degrees and we're only at 55 now. The low tonight will be 34...so, assuming some serious temperature drop BEFORE bed, I'm going to FREEZE. Might be time to admit defeat)
ANYWAY:
Here are some things I actually "do" to save money (later there will be a list of the crap I DON'T do. There will be repeats here and these are not in a good order:

1 I save money...like in a savings account, retirement account etc.
2 No longer pay interest (I've read some folks spend 12% of their income on interest! Wow)
3 Try to eat what I have on hand before it goes bad (need to do better on this...see upcoming pantry inventory). Also, on average Americans through out something like 30% of the food they buy. Wow. Trying to do better than that.
4 Cook from scratch. Ingredients are cheaper than processed food. Also, it has a creative element AND helps heat the house in the winter (though not enough today)
5 Maintain the car reasonable well. Keep the oil changed, but don't fix dents and things (I put insurance payouts for those into savings...other people's insurance, not mine)
6 Drive slower and smoother. In "The Ultimate Cheapskate's Guide to True Riches" Mr. Yeager gave the example of putting a FULL to the brim glass of water in the cup holder and learning to drive so that didn't spill. I haven't done that yet but thought of him on Friday when I picked up a roaster full of runny (and delicious) soup and had to drive it 7 miles on a windy road going downhill. I drove REALLY REALLY smoothly and didn't spill any and probably saved gas. It made me aware that I have work to do on the "smooth" bit.
7 Wear out clothes. I appeared at book club yesterday with holes in the elbows of my sweater. The rest of the sweater, like 99% is perfectly good...and I will patch those.
8 Develop hobbies that save money or at least don't cost much. E.g. canning and gleaning.
9 Use the library (multiple libraries actually...I was surprised to find I was the only one at book club with a library copy of the book)
10 Netflix. I'm not recommending the company in particular, but apparently the cheap love it. I pay 17.99 or so a month and watch usually 6-12 movies per month. If the Plummer library had a better DVD selection, I'd cut back on that subscription.
11 Reuse stuff. I have rags made of worn out clothes. The garden is made largely of discarded wood and containers.
12 Compost. Two systems. This saves on trash and saves on fertilzers and whatnot for the garden.
13 Garden. I'm not sure it's saved that much money yet. I do count it as education, entertainment, and food.
14 Pay bills on time. I went through a phase earlier this year where I would forget to pay the city bill on time. Don't know what that was but it cost 5$ a shot. No more of that.
15 Go shopping in the closet (or in my case the big pile of laundry on the floor of the bedroom or on the couch). When I'm sick of the outfits in rotation, I dig through the closet/laundry pile and switch some things out.
16 Repair things. Like get shoes resoled. Darn socks. Sew on buttons. Replace my own car battery.
17 Walk. when the trip is under 1.5 miles or so, I generally walk. This is easy in Plummer as any trips in town are under the threshold and any trips out of town are longer.
18 Group errands. If I get the car out, I try to have at least 2 things to do. Unless it is a trip specifically for work (and sometimes even then) I do as much as I can where I'm at and park the car while in one town (no towns around here are too big to walk across).
19 Make coffee at home. Cheaper. And better.
20 Put left overs in the freezer if I don't eat them. In fact. I'm going to have to take out some of the freezy packs to get the latest soup ingredients in. It's the last hoo-rah for fresh veg this season so I've been making buckets of things like ratatouille and freezing the remains.
21 Buy staples when they are on sale. This has been serious this month as the Moscow Food Co-op is having a bulk-bins sale for members. I've bought enough oatmeal, flour, lentils, oil, spices, and etc for quite a while. I'll be doing a pantry inventory this week (before the sale ends next Sunday) to make sure I've got the basics. It will mean very little grocery shopping this winter which is always an odd adjustment.
22 Ask for discounts sometimes. I will be increasing this. It's another tip from Mr. Yeager. Sometimes there is a discount. Might as well ask. Since I don't shop much, and haven't had the nerve to ask for a discount at a thrift store, I don't do this much. I'm much better at getting the AAA discount at hotels/motels, asking about the government rate and etc. Motels generally have a better deal than the first price quoted.
23 Delay purchases. I hate it when people tell me to "just buy it" (yes you, Pam, and others). I KNOW I have the money. What I'm deciding is if I really want it.
24 Know my hourly net wage and the "real" wage minus the costs of having a job (see older posts on this) and decide if any purchase is worth the time I have to work to buy ANDstore and maintain the item.
25 Try to be grateful for what I have. That's not too hard since I live near some seriously poor people and have that radio show where we talk about people with much much less that the aforementioned seriously poor people.

North Idaho Depression Tours...Next Stop: The Mission

OK, it's been ages but I've been both busy and without much access to the interwebs. Tonight I'm at the Stardust Motel in Wallace, ID which has wifi...though due to the cinderblock walls, I appear to be mooching wifi from a private residence across the street rather than able to get on the motel's service.

ANYWHO.
I'm here because Jonny (Hi Jonny) is visiting and helping catalog the Cataldo Mission. It's the oldest building in Idaho (1850s) and completely unique in its construction. Also unique: the amount of bat crap we got on our boots when we spent a half day photographing the attic. EEEWWW!

The new blog photo is one Jonny took of me at the radio station. The other peace babes had lives and were not around on the day before labor day so it was just me. I just played music. Mostly classic blues but I did paint myself into a corner with a country segment ending with Dolly Parton's "Potential New Boyfriend".

AND we stopped on the way to the station Sunday to check out some land that should be mine. It's lovely. The house needs work but is livable and there is a well, 10 acres, trees, a creek, quonset building, another building, and possibly a fruit tree along with a large deer-fenced garden area. It MUST be mine...I will be harrassing the owners until they sell to me. Damn them.

AND we did the farmers market. AND we went to part of Paul Bunyan Days in St. Maries. This was all we expected and less. We went for the lawn mower races. Against tradition, these were NOT blindfolded but were for speed. Not nearly as interesting as when they are blindfolded.

Now, I must get back to work. Jonny has taken about 600 photos so far and my photo log is woefully behind.

Taters Taters Everywhere!

KEY-RIPES! (that's "cripes" in emphatic-speak)

So, I planted those SEVEN containers of potatoes with one per bucket and 3 in my recycling bin (funny that I repurposed something I actually used EVERYDAY rather than any one of a number of items of crap that I never touch...oh well...it was the right size and already had holes in the bottom and I can de-repurpose it at the end of the season and make it a recycle bin again).
Anywho, so I keep filling the buckets 'n bin up over the leaves like you're supposed to according to general wisdom on the interwebs and the potato leaves in the more established buckets consistently grow up through an inch of soil/compost literally overnight. Like I bury 3 inches of growth under 4 inches of soil after work and by morning the leaves are up again. I hope there are potatoes connected to all that leafery. Anyway, they look cool and like I'm a super good gardener.

It looks like the kohlrabi in a pot (an alarmingly undersized pot) have come up. I'll have to thin them. The beets in a pot are up (as are beats in the garden). Onions in the garden and the pots are showing good growth and there is now at least one radish attached to the radish tops. That's already better radish production than last year.

The beans are nowhere. I might just stick a lentil in the ground or something because the beans that went in weeks ago are showing no signs of coming up. I've got them under screens to keep the birds from eating them AND I presoaked the beans so they should have started. I'll try again. It's getting late.

The volunteer squash/melon is showing good leafery as well. I know it's a space hog so I hope its roots don't kill any of it's neighbors. Peas came up. About half the ones I planted seem to be up and growing. Next time I'll double plant or sprout them better before planting.

Lots of lettuce seems to be doing well along with the chard. Of course the chard looked great last year but once up bolted immediately so not really an edible crop.

In other news, I'll be on the radio every Sunday for the rest of the summer. The dude who ran the alternate Sundays for Peace Radio sadly passed away so I'm hoping to keep the show going until someone can be found to take over permanently. Tune into www.radiofreemoscow.org from 2-4pm PACIFIC time to hear DJ Sally P and the Jills (though on alternate Sundays it may just be me weeping quietly into the mic because I've panicked about keeping the show going...actually, Sally is helping on the 13th...I think...and I'm sure others will help too).

Life, Loaf and the Blues

OK, that is a horrible pun on one of my favorite Etta James CDs (hope Etta is feeling better! I still want to see her in person).

LOAF:
Anywho, just wanted to share one of my favorite but as yet untested by me websites.
It's the Magical Loaf Studio. It's run by the blogger and now book author at Vegan Lunchbox.

I've had the studio generate a garbanzo-sesame seed-quinoa loaf recipe for me. It's almost the same as the garbazo quinoa stew I made a couple of weeks ago which was delicious. Basically a loaf will only be slightly thicker than one of my stews so how could it go wrong.

For those who don't like veggies (you know who you are...we'll use your code name here: Schmangela), this is a great website. If you go back in the blog to a year or so ago, she was packing lunches for her little boy so they are creative and veggie-resistant tested. Those recipes and blog posts got her a book deal or two. Really, if you are trying to cook veggies or be non-dairy, the vegans are the place to look. They know their veggies and generally know how to cook them.

I'll let you know how the loaf turns out.

Other thrifty/simple projects I've got going:

-- learning to make my own malt. I read it on line and think I can do it. They say it works well to feed the yeast (including sourdough) in bread. Better than sugar. And it has to be cheaper than the local organic (and delicious) honey I've been getting.

-- rehabed one of the worm beds and got about 2 gallons of fully processed worm castings. That means it's pretty well straight poo. No discernible remnants of the paper or food scraps that went into the bed. This is a bit late to be changing the bedding and kind of hard on the worms because it gets too acidic from their wee and is too dense for them to move about nicely. I feel a bit bad for the worms, and yet, it is extremely good plant starting compound.

-- planning the garden. The 4foot square will be expanded this year. It will be at least the 4foot square plus all the containers I have. I might add another 4foot square. I had a long super boring meeting on Thursday and used the time to plan out the plants I need and what I'm going to try to start in the house (tomatoes and peppers). Probably will fail again with the starts but I learned quite a bit from my spindly starts last year. The best place to get them going would be in the bedroom window but I'd have to rearrange and find somewhere else for the nice furniture and that isn't going to happen.

And much much more.
(the meeting is the "blues"bit)

LIFE:
OMG! Dolly Freed totally called me at my house...well, trailer. She's got a sinus infection but will still be on the show tomorrow. I hope she doesn't do damage to herself with just a 20 minute interview. We'll go easy on her. She sounds just like she did in the old videos.
For those who don't know her: She wrote "Possum Living" when she was 18 in 1978. It's about being self-sufficient in the suburbs and going your own way rather than being part of the rat race. She went on (after having only a 7th grade formal education) to college and grad school and NASA...seriously. Then stopped all that nonsense to get back in the world she liked better and be an environmental educator. She's a hoot and a half and should be a great interview tomorrow.
For more info on her:
http://possumliving.net/
She's great. I think we'd be bff's if we lived in the same area. She lives very frugally so that she can do what she wants. Has virtually no interest in knickknacks or worrying about what the neighbors think and of course she likes nature. My favorite little anecdote about her right now is when her mother came to live with her and her family for a bit. Her mom brought decorative pillows and tchotchkes so to retaliate, Dolly put bats in her mom's bedroom. And when her son asked why his friend's parents were paying for college while Dolly and the Mr. were not paying for his college, she told her son that his friend's parents must love their kids more.

If you have a few minutes at 2:10ish pm tomorrow, tune in online to www.radiofreemoscow.com to hear the interview...unless Dolly's sinus infection gets the best of her. Let's hope it doesn't.

Ow...

So, this Berne and Barb's Fat Camp I've been attending...
OK, it's not a fat camp, but Berne and Barb should TOTALLY run a fat camp.
They've invited me biking the last two Thursdays afterwork.
They each own a catrike :













Berne let me try his last year and that is why I bought a trike this year.
So, we're old people on trikes. Sad. Yet fun.

ANYWAY. The first ride was 16 miles on flattish ground. Well, the second ride was about 16 miles...8 uphill and 8 downhill. OW. I could walk the next day, but my outer thighs hurt. There must be muscle under the fat. They'd be OK until I tried to get out of a chair. Then OK until I tried to walk. Then OK until I tried stairs. I think I went a bit beyond my capabilities.
Still, going downhill for 8miles was great! My trike has something Berne called "roll resistance" (something my midsection does not have). So, even downhill I had to peddle a bit. Something about the mountain bike type tires and blah blah blah.
AND the first mile or two uphill seemed awfully difficult until I figured out that I'd left the parking brake on. OOPS! The rear brake can be set to keep the trike from rolling around while parked. It creates quite a bit of drag while biking.

I'm pretending it's a new workout technique. Biking with brakes on for more resistence.

Still, I'm pretty impressed at how far I can go for being in such crap shape. Definitely need to get the yoga activity back to keep these new muscles long.

Speaking of biking. This guy:
http://www.tylerboudreau.com/
is staying at my trailer tonight. He's biking across the country and needed somewhere between Spokane and Moscow. That would my trailer.
He says he was not a distance biker until now. I guess he will be now. Probably helps to have been in the military and in generally excellent shape.

I haven't read his book because I suck...but I'll get to it. He'll be on the radio show tomorrow so tune in.

Merry Xmas

It's Christmas Eve and I've just suffered a great tragedy...I broke the little tool that came with my "loomtastic" knitting loom that I got at the thrift store. I had finished my second hat (see photo) and was trying to be all fancy with a different knitting pattern on my third one. Just when I was thinking "wow, this is too tight" the little tool broke. I think I can use a crochet hook or maybe a nutpick, but I'm just being bummed for a bit. Sad.













Sorry it's sideways. But I have limited technology. I'm on dial-up from the trailer and since I glued the phone wire into both the caller ID unit AND the phone, I'm using the curly phone wire that normally goes from the phone base to the hand set. So my super fancy laptop is being run through the base unit of a cheap translucent purple phone, a cheap translucent purple caller ID unit (with a dead battery), and then into the wall jack. Pretty sweet and efficient.

I went to the luxurious Plummer Public Library today to download free internet services. Between the 2 I have 20 hours of internet surfing per month free...though at least 19 of that would be spent waiting for stuff to load on the dial up. But there are starving children somewhere with no internet so I'm not really complaining.

I AM also watching the BEST deer hunting movie ever. Escanaba in Da Moonlight. Right now, we're at the fart scene. It's probably on youtube but no way do I have the time and patience to get youtube videos on dial up. Just look it up yourself.
For those of you who have seen it just say quietly to yourself "one potato, two potato, more" over and over. Then end with "That explains my dream."

I'm in Plummer, Idaho and it's snowing again. I shoveled for an hour today to clear the car out of the drift that had RE-buried it. I've had about 2 feet clear on all sides. I don't think it will last. I warned El Kid that he may have to hop on the casino bus to get down here. The bus has gotten through the worst snow during this whole event. But cars are littering the ditches.

Just in case I haven't mentioned it yet...sometimes it's good to work for the Tribe (that's not a metaphor. I work for an actual Indian Tribe). Every fulltime employee got a Pendletonchristmas present from the Tribe! No wonder they switched to a potluck over the big dinner. I'd rather have a Pendleton anyday.

I've opened a couple of presents already. The one from Aunt Billie came a bit mangled so I opened it to see how the gift faired. It did fine. It is a HANDMADE!!! reversible tote bag in multiple animal prints. I LOVE it. I feel like I need some shiny stretch pants, big glasses with a sparkly glasses chain, a sweater with a sequined cat on it, and BIG hotrollered hair. I've been using it for everything. Groceries, taking packages to the mail. It's awesome. It came with a coordinating scarf! I will never be badly accessorized again. Now if only I could put together a basic outfit worthy of such accessories. I'll try to get a totebag action shot.

Aunt Marcie sent a TON of delicious spices and spice mixes. The most exciting one to use will be the sandwich size zip-top baggie of spices labeled only "HOT". She also sent some spiced mexican hot chocolate mix which is delicious and should make incredible mochas (speaking of which, I should start grinding some coffee if I want a cup tomorrow).

Sher sent many gifts. She recommended I open on in particular early since we had so much snow. I did...SNOW SHOES!!! AWESOME (I must use them while carrying my animal print tote). BUT Sher is under the impression that I'm thin. So I've sent them back for a larger size more suitable for a woman of my...um...well...fat. I should get the replacements in 2 or 3 weeks. I would be just too awful to be out snowshoeing and sink up to my hips having the shoes now working as anchors rather than floats.

Aunt Chris (lots of Aunts...) sent many things as well. Two of these said to open before xmassanta or elf with a red outfit, white face (two black dots for eyes) and a tall red hat. Here's a lame phone photo of it in action:














Tomorrow I'll open the rest. I'm sure they will be as cool as the first batch.

El Kid got me some toys (don't know if I put that in a previous blog and I don't have time to wait for another window to open so I can check). My fave is the ice tray that freezes dentures! So it looks like you have grampa's uppers in your drink. I'll have to bring that to work.

OH, and my office mate and his wife, Sally of Peace Radio on Radio Free Moscow with me, gave me a harmonica, a t-shirt, and homemade toffee. Excellent.

Ok, bad things are happening, like the cursor has disappeared. So I'm going to close now. Sorry for typos. No time to spell check.
Blanket for our so I could enjoy the contents during the holiday. I did and I am. One is a straw-crafted mobile of little reindeer or something. very cute and hanging from the ceiling fan in the kitchen of the trailer. The other was a very very cool conical candle in red, white, and green made in such a way that it was a little

Of Cars and Crap

Oh for pete's sake!
So, I'm on the way to Moscow, Idaho--not Russia, today to get some holiday shopping done, pick up groceries, and be on the radio. As I am always early for EVERYTHING, I left the house at about 7am.
By 8am, I'm sitting on the side of the road waiting for a tow truck. The dash lights had been wonky for a day. Then, they went REAL wonky. Then the car started chugging and slowing down. Then, I pulled over and called a tow truck. They wanted to know where I was. It was so foggy I was unsure, other than the mile marker on the highway (yes, I pulled WAY off the road).

The tow truck guy and his wife...and their dog...came for me. They were very pleasant. Thanks to my habit of buying AAAplus, I have 99 miles of towing up to three times a year. So I got a 33 mile tow to Moscow, where my most excellent friend Maia picked me up. We got brunch, then some craft supplies, then over to her place where she and her sister and brother-in-law gave me one of their cars to use until I can get mine sorted out. How amazing is that?
Not only are they funny, they are so sweet. It's a new subaru with 120,000 fewer miles than mine (that's right FEWER). They are willing to sell if mine is a goner, but I'm so attached to Betty (my subaru) and want to drive her 400k miles just like the elder we work with who drove a similar subaru 400,000 miles. It recently passed away.
Sometime tomorrow I need to decide how much I'm willing to spend on the repair. Always a tough decision so I'm going to have them run a full diagnostic and check on the thing. If there are a bunch of things about to go bad...well, then we'll see. But if it's just a few hundred more dollars in repairs for another many thousands of miles, I'll keep using the car.

Environmentalist and frugal principals say to "make it work, make do, or do without". Doing without a car is a slim possibility. It would be monster inconvenient and probably impact my job too much. So, we're starting at the other end and trying to "make it work".
Here's hoping.

The word from the mechanical husband of a friend is that the wonky lights could be the alternator going out. That's not that bad. You'd expect to replace that at 200k miles (Betty has 205k miles). So let's pray for that.

Frugality says also "don't pour money down a rat hole" (that's either frugality or one of my Grammas). Hmmmmm....
Keep in mind that Grampa once replaced the manual transmission in a POS pickup truck with an automatic, then replaced the bed (rust), and I'm pretty sure the engine. We used to tease him that while it occupied the same space as the original vehicle, he'd replaced the entire thing and thus it was a different truck.
So I'm genetically inclined to repair perhaps beyond the bounds of reason.

THEN AGAIN...how do you know when you've hit the point of spending more on repairs and hassle, than you would buying a different car? You don't know until after.
Also, a different car can have problems too. I hate that.

OK, on another topic, just because I haven't done a "No 'Poo" update lately...the hair is fine. I dropped my good hairbrush in the trash in a public bathroom the other day so I haven't been able to brush it as much as I'd like, but it's still doing fine. Not itchy even with the change in the weather.

OH! And, yesterday I accidentally made a super good vegan pot pie.
I had roasted root vegetables earlier in the week and needed to recycle them creatively.
So, I grabbed a pie shell that I'd had in the fridge at the trailer for a while.

Put the bottom crust in the pie pan.
Put in 3-4 cups of left over roasted root vegetables (sweet potato, regular potato, onion, carrot--seasoned with rosemary, thyme, oregano, salt, pepper--roast until tender).
In a sauce pan, fry some chopped garlic in oil (I think it was 4 cloves or so).
Add a tablespoon of good vegetable bouillon mix (no salt kind), a quarter cup of nutritional yeast flakes, a quarter cup of flour. Stir and fry that together a bit.
Then add enough water to make a thick gravy. It was probably about a cup or a cup and a half.
Into the gravy, put a cup of black beans (because they are left over and frozen in the freezer), some corn, and some green beans (all salvaged from the freezer).
When the frozen beans/corn have heated through in the gravy, pour the mess over the veggies in the pie shell.
Top with the other pie shell. Seal the edged and bake until you think it's done.
I left it in the 350 degree oven while I cooked some squash so probably 45 minutes or an hour.

It is seriously good. El Kid thought it had meat in it...heh heh. He came back for more before bed.

And good night.

Running in Circles

I've had one of those weeks!
El Kid needs wound care every 8 hours so it's hard for me to get anything done! First thing...clean a wound. Right when I get home from work...again. Before bed .... again with the wound.
Some people would find structure in it. I find it interrupts my valuable ME-TIME. Is that selfish?

Oh well. he can't help it and he's doing really well with it all.

It's been similar at work. I have things that MUST be done because it's the end of the fiscal year for government types. So, all other projects stopped for a week to get budgets sorted out.
Then there were big issues with a budget so other budget work stopped to deal with crisis budget.
THEN there was a field call that was an emergency that only I am qualified to work on. So the crisis budget got set aside to deal with the field emergency. Field emergency done. Back to crisis budget, back to regular budget close outs.
And then, deadlines were missed.

Oh well. Nothing can be done about it now!
Good think I cook ahead and put stuff in the freezer. 2 days this week I took plastic containers out of the freezer and was not entirely sure what was in them. I'd get home and deal with the wound and then see what had thawed out (both were chili...different kinds). At least we had something decent to eat and plenty of it.

I didn't even have time to go to yoga this week or meditation. MUST get back on that next week. I'm starting to get even crankier than usual. That could be all the chili too. Lot of fiber. Is that too much info?

This weekend I have the radio show so that will be nice. We've got too many guests again, all cool. So I won't have much airtime but I had lots last time.

That's all for now. There wasn't really a point to the post today other than bitching. But, I'm still ahead of Pam and the flood blog and that's what's really important...winning.

No 'Poo Update: I took a break at work to wash my hair and it is all fluffy and wavy and pretty.

Cherries and Berries.

I'm posting from the office so will keep it brief...and it's during my break anyway.

This last weekend I went huckleberry picking and got almost enough for a batch of jam. I supplemented with some frozen berries from last year and I must say...it is some jesus jam!
Several jars didn't seal right so I'm eating one and distributed the others. I don't want it to go bad. Gotta eat it up.

Later that day, I went cherry picking at a patch spotted by a friend's son. They were lovely pie cherries. I got them home and was going to jam them and freeze them the next day. Well, first, I felt the need to pour them all over the floor. Being frugal, I picked them up and washed all but the ones so covered with hair that it looked like they were wearing wigs. Then I left them to soak while I pee'd or showered or something.
When I got back, there was a WORM poking out of almost EVERY freaking cherry. Bastards. If I hadn't seen them, they would have disappeared in the canning process and no one would have ever known. But as it was, I did now and I got grossed out. All cherries are now on the compost pile (the pile, not in the worm bed...I don't have enough worms to eat 30 pounds of cherries).

Fortunately, it was only 9:30am by then so I got myself together and went down to another friend's house to pick bing cherries. The picking was great. He needed to prune the tree anyway so he would cut off a branch and you just sat and pulled the cherries off it. I got a ton in a short time. I took Monday off of work to deal with the cherries.
They made 20 jars of jam, 3 trays are dehydrating as cherries, 4 trays are dehydrating as fruit leather (with added protein powder...great for camping) and 2 quarts are frozen. I only picked for about an hour. It was great.

Then it was off to errands and the radio show.

I almost bought a buttload of blueberris to make into jam yesterday but though better of it. I'd rather pick all the fruit myself if possible. It's so much better when the stuff goes right fromt the plant to the jar, skipping the 2000 mile trip in a truck.

Sorry there are no photos.
And it could be while before I can post again. Haven't made any progress on getting the home 'puter fixed.

The Best Porn Ever (because it's not really porn)

A friend just forwarded me this link:
http://www.sundancechannel.com/greenporno
I was already a little in love with Isabella Rossellini (except for that time she was doing my boyfriend, Gary Oldman, but we worked through that) because she has crooked teeth and is not underweight.
Now, I am deeply in love with her. How cool do you have to be to make short films about snail sex?

I think I learned more about reproduction watching these shorts than in sex ed.

I'll probably try to talk about these on Peace Radio on Sunday. Cool.
I didn't get to do movies last time because we liked our guest so we just kept talking to him. This time maybe we'll get back to our regular features.

Enjoy the short films and I think they are safe for work for everyone but Angela. I say that only because I know one of my emails got her in trouble once when a coworker hacked into Ange's email then had the balls to confront Ange about the content of said email.

Why Am I SOOOO Sleepy?

Why AM I so sleepy?
Is it the total lack of sleep because I fret when I lie down for some rest?
Perhaps. Too much going on and worrying about Iowa and about the childcare issue. Oh well.
This too shall pas.

The kid and I went to his cousin's graduation today. As graduations go, it was pretty good. As sitting on a piece of wood goes, it hurt my butt.
As having an outfit that fits goes...I didn't. Oh well. such is life.

ANYWHO...the OTHER reason I'm so sleepy is going out to the bar in Plummer, Idaho. Bobbi's Bar. And listening to "The Cary Fly Band" (not a single youtube video for these folks...their renown knows mostly bounds). They were fine. Most of the band members showed up. A sort of generalized 70s-80s cover band. I don't remember the exact songs they played. I remember they were late and LOUD. Not unlike the crowd at Bobbi's.

If you've ever seen the movie Sordid Lives (and you should...really), you have seen this bar. It is exquisite in its dumpness. Total crap, small town "just get me, drunk, laid or punched" sort of place. They shoved one of the pool table to the side so the band had a corner to set up. The band used the wood stove to set their beers on (in the winter they must have to hold their beers because the bar's only heat is that wood stove). Juanita (you can see her at about timepoint 2:15 in the clip linked to the "sordid lives" above) was there. Actually 2 Juanita's were there. One was behind the bar serving booze and smoking. I'm surprised she could lift her hand there were so many rings on her fingers and she had GIANT FAKE nails in some color that matched her leathery hide, but had sparkles in it.

Holly (the friend) and I went at about 8:30pm because the band was starting at 9pm. It was us, Juanita-1, and 2 people at the bar. Another guy came in, then a group of people who appeared to be a family (the family who drinks together...well, they usually get in a giant fight and break up in the parking lot). The family ordered 2 "buckets of beer", one was "lite" for the ladies, and shoved tables into an arrangement to accomodate themselves near the dartboard. They played darts, ordered more buckets of beer, and laughed and hugged and screamed and seemed to be having a fine time.

Then 3 people came in. Among them, Juanita-2. The 3 people were 1 heavy-set woman, a heavy-set guy, and Juanita-1...underweight and overwrought. They took a table right in front of the stage/corner/stove. Adult beverages were ordered. Holly and I were up at the bar so could not see the people well. Holly watched the soundless TV with the blaring jukebox, later band, as the sound track for some show called Can You Duet (the link is to a "duet" I saw on the show and am now glad I did NOT hear), which may be the stupidest thing on TV if it's as bad with the sound on as it is with the sound off.

I was turned around in my chair (not a proper stool that spun, but a tall barstool like you get at cheap home improvement stores with a back on it and non-spinning) to watch the action. Juanita 2 was the star, though the dart family made for good commercial breaks. Juanita-2 fancies herself QUITE the little dancer. She is little, I'll give her that. She was trying to dirty dance around the small bits of open floor space but she had no rhythm or talent or moves or anything. When the band was tuning up, she started bootie dancing the bassist. She would back up to him (interfering with his ability to bass) and rub up and down and do what she apparently meant to be "sexy" moves). She'd do this for a while than go sit down again and drink more. She continued when they started playing songs and I don't think the bassist appreciated it, but it's not like there's security in Bobbi's. If you need someone beat up, you better call your family or bust a bottle yourself.

When dryhumping him did not get the bassist to pay her attention she would try screaming from her seat. When that didn't work, she grabbed her left foot with her hand, while seated, and stuck it straight up in the air then waved it around. Put it down. And repeat (lather, rinse repeat).
It was striking and about as subtle and going up to him and screaming "stick it in!" in his face.

None of this looked to be leading to getting Juanita-2 laid. So, she moved into high gear by getting lower class.

She got a chair, one of those classic cheap bar chairs (Pam, these are the mates to the chairs at Silver Springs restaurant in Wisconsin). Shiny vinyl seat and back rest. The back has a sort of squared off loop of metal around it with the upholstered part stopping short of the top of the loop leaving a grab-handle affair. They stack well. So, not a sexy chair is the point. Juanita-2 grabs one of these and pulls it in a small clear spot and tries to do an "air lapdance" to the chair. She's grinding around it as if she's a stripper and there is some invisible big tipper sitting in the chair. This is sad. Then she falls flat on her face, completely sprawled out with legs tangled in the chair legs somehow. This is sad and funny but I don't want to get beat up because something tells me Juanita-2 is a scrapper (it might be her broken teeth), so I don't laugh. She picks herself up off the floor with some sort of moves as if it were part of the air-lap-dance event and gradually gyrates (remember, no rhythm, our girl is not a dancer of talent, but one driven by need...the need for...uh...) back to her table and sits back down and keep drinking as if nothing happened.

And the band played on.

A few more people filtered in and as usually, the only person who showed interest in me, was a young woman with a mullet. She stared at me quite a bit. She's cute enough in her tapered ankle black jeans and black t-shirt with either a harley or beer logo (I couldn't get a good look without risking getting a date), but even if I were desperate to switch teams, something is telling me I can't handle the Bobbi's Bar lesbian.

It's after 10pm now and Holly asks Juanita-1 when it gets crowded. This is a bar known for its brawls and so far all we have is a drunk chick face down on a dirty floor. That could be any sorority party anywhere (or a Wagner wedding). Juanita-2 says at 11 or midnight. We take off at about 10:30 and walk the long block back to my trailer. There are several cars full of people parking in the street (which is also the parking lot) and getting pre-drunk on their cheap hooch (cheaper hooch) before going in. At some point in the evening I saw a guy bring in his own beer (a tall boy) in his own beer coozie.

I only ordered a pepsi. Juanita-1 gave me a disapproving hiss while she poured it. Holly assumed the pepsi would be free in that "designated driver" kind of way. I doubted it as Bobbi's appeared to be more of a "you make your choice about driving and just pay me for what you drink" kind of place. I don't think Juanita-1 thought my $2.50 pepsi with grey ice was worth my use of her cheap stool.

I so so so wanted to go in the bathroom just to see it but I was too afraid. If I ever go back, I'll check it out for you and report back.

In more important news...the flooding in Iowa continues and the pictures are horrifying. I have no further info on childcare.

P.S. I hope someone can listen to the radio show tomorrow.

Radio Days

Today was the radio show, Peace Radio, on KRFP Radio Free Moscow. It was pretty cool.
We had a phone interview with a woman from Coeur d'Alene who is up on the Blackwater purchase of a local business and wanting to get into training law enforcement. As peaceniks, we're officially against what we see as (note that this is our opinion and we get to have one) a fundamentalist christian mercenary group training our peace officers.

And, Dave Peckham from the Village Bicycle Project was with us but mostly just wanted to talk about peace stuff and protest, not his bike project even though that is very cool.

We're on again in 2 weeks and I might be by myself without the support of Jill and Sally. Usually I'm more of a sidekick, not the center of the action. But, I've got quite a bit of pent up topics so will try to cover the 2 hours mostly on my own. It should be fun. If y'all have music that would go well on Peace Radio, please send a link.

As for the No 'Poo update: Did a baking soda scrub with apple cider vinegar rinse today. Didn't have time to brush it out before leaving for the show and it got quite fluffy as it dried in the car. It's very rainy so that made my hair even fluffier. it's brushed now and has more wave than it's had since I lived in Kentucky.

Where Are The Recycled Containers?!?!?!?

So I'm in Moscow Idaho for my bit on the Peace Radio show on Radio Free Moscow and make the most of the trip with a bit of shopping at the Moscow Food Co-op.
They USED to take in used plastic containers like yogurt tubs, margarine tubs, cheese tubs,...you get the idea. There were none to be found and mine were full of stuff in fridge so I had to GET A NEW UNUSED CONTAINER to put my tofu in! Dang it!

I noted when checking out that I hated taking the new container but couldn't find those they usually have that have been returned and run through the sanitizing bit on their dishwashing machine. Turns out, the health department decided this could no longer happen. CRIPES. The check out person said that I could still bring my own containers (which have NOT been run through an industrial dishwashing machine's sanitizing cycle), but they were not allowed to accept them, wash them, and put them out for re-use. This is stupid, but I understand that the Co-op cannot mess with the health department. This is the same health department that admits that if one eats in restaurants in Idaho, one should probably have the hepatitis vaccines that are available.

I do not buy plastic containers and since I eat mostly homecooked food and no dairy, I don't come by them naturally. I got them from the Co-op's recycled containers program. Now where will I get them? I'll be notifying a few friends to keep their lidded yogurt and other tubs for me.

I've already started taking some of my lunch stuff in mason jars so I guess I can increase my use of mason jars and the containers I have. It looks like the co-op IS allowed to recycle glass jars so I'll try to use those when necessary rather than the new plastic containers.

Really, this is such a drag.

I was going to blog today about people who have piles and piles of totebags, and still feel the need to buy new ones specifically for groceries. But that will have to wait (...if you've given me a grocery sac or other carrying device know that I appreciate it and use it. But don't get me anymore, please).

Lovely Day Trip but soooo not eco...

Today the boy and I took a trip up to Republic Washington to see some of his relatives. It was a gorgeous drive through mountains and valleys. The relies showed us around some cool lakes and campgrounds. Sunny and in the 70s the whole time.

But, alas, I burned a great deal of gas and will again tomorrow to go do a radio show about peace and justice. The driving is one of my major non-eco practices. I don't know how to get away from it without giving up those things that maintain my sanity (such as it is).

I'll keep the car in good shape. I've cut back on the trips to Moscow, Idaho and I rarely drive in the evenings after work, or on a day when I'm not working or making a roadtrip for a specific purpose. I'm better than before, but not as cool as that guy in Wisconsin who gave up driving all together to protest the price of oil.

The trip today was also for the boy's mental and emotional health so I'm hoping that makes it better!

On The Radio...

Today was radio show day.

Every other week I'm on a show called "Peace Radio" on KRFP Radio Free Moscow, out of Moscow, Idaho. You can stream it from this site:
http://www.radiofreemoscow.com/. The station is all volunteer community radio. There are one or two "paid" people like the station manager, but the pay is so low it's worse than volunteering.

I'm actually on this show due to an error. My officemate John came to work and said that his wife Sally had said I was going to be on the show! The show was just getting organized by the Palouse Peace Coalition (http://www.palousepeace.org/) with which I'd been tangentially involved.
I started wracking my brain to remember if I'd committed to something. I couldn't remember saying I'd actually DO anything, but e-mailed Sally, the wife in question, just to see if I had.

It seems there is another Jill who had committed to helping on the air, but by this time, I was pretty interested and said I'd come on and finally settled on doing movie reviews for peace. That has expanded to pretty much anything I'm watching since any joy in life tends to promoted peace, love and understanding.

I've branched out and also do some of the interviews on the air, a bit of pre-recorded stuff and even learned to run the board...more or less. The other Jill mostly runs the board but Sally and I can do it if pressed.

Sally, me and the other Jill have become the core group for the show and we're over a year into it now. When we started another peace coalition member ran the boards and we tried rotating the "dj" duties, but it didn't pan out for the long term. The group of three seems to work well and a woman named Miriam comes about 2/3rds of the time to do a bit for kids at the end of the show.

We have a few listeners...especially my sister and my friend Jonny because I call them and make them listen and then tell me I was great.

The show is a nice outlet for my liberal diatribes and I get news that I don't hear elsewhere. The other Jill usually brings in headlines. Sally does book reviews and most of the scheduling as well as many of the hosting duties.

If anyone out there in Blog-land (hi pam!) would like to listen to the show, check us out every other sunday (we were on today), from 2-4pm Pacific time. Unless we couldn't make it that day or we go two sundays in a row and throw the schedule off...the station is pretty casual about that.