Whole lotta workin' goin' on!

I am very pleased to announce I have joined the ranks of the employed again! I am working at a small, locally owned pet (mostly dog and cat) supply store here in Hillsborough aptly named Paws at the Corner owned by Lisa Wells.  Lisa is all about good pet food (not the kind you get in box stores or grocery stores full of corn, soy, wheat . Hey, that's a lot like people food in grocery stores too!) that helps your pet maintain their optimum health so you're not spending money at the vet. She's the  Rock Star of pet nutrition and good local hook-ups for training, vet care, grooming, etc.  It's been fun to meet loyal locals and their dogs, as well as listen to how Lisa helps people find the right food for their pets.  She's my guru.

The other exciting thing about my job is Steve gets to come along!  Lisa has two beautiful shop dogs: Aspen and Izzie.  Aspen is the official greeter of all people and animals.  Izzie is the official babysitter of Steve.  They play like that for an hour or so and then Steve passes out for a while.  Sometimes we check to make sure he's still breathing.

The other thing I'm working on (and loving) is a class in homeopathy.  Finally a medical system I like! Homeopathy believes in treating the whole person (physical,  mental,  and emotional) and not treating individual symptoms.  For each person's complaint there is one single remedy that works best for that individual person and it's rather akin to being a detective to figure out which one.  Very cool stuff.  It was more popular that allopathy (medicine as we know it) in the late 1800's in this country. Sadly enough, the money thrown at developing prescription drugs also went into maligning the homeopathic tradition.  According to some studies, it's pure quackery.  Then again, homeopathic remedies aren't expensive and you don't want to give people one remedy for their depression, another for their eczema, and yet another for their bursitis - so why would the medical community and big pharma want to support that? If you're interested in finding a local practitioner or a study group, please check out The National Center for Homeopathy.

I am having another craigslist adventure.  The peeps broke the washing machine by overloading it with blues on Tuesday night.  The poor motor was killed in the process.  The good news is I was too exhausted to be very upset about it.  The bad news is we have no clean clothes and where the washing machine is located in our house is about as inconvenient as it gets.  It's in a corner closet at the far end of our wee bathroom.  We'll be pulling out the dryer and lifting it over the sink to put it in there.  Not looking forward to that.  I was hoping we'd have a new machine today, so I cleared all the stuff off my cool antique hutch and drying rack in the hallway, but it seems I should have waited. Sigh.  The peeps are psyched because we'll be having fast food tonight (Subway, that's as fast as I get and I'm not thrilled to be doing it either) so I can move the hutch and rack out of the hallway for tomorrow and leave the dinner table covered with antique tchotchkes.

I'll let you know how it goes.  I'm not sure how one knows if they're buying a reliable washing machine on craigslist...

Back to food and wellness

Here's a local website that delivers fresh, local, organic produce to your door!  It's not produce from one farm like a CSA, it's a group of farmers with varied meats and produce.  I just found out about it!
Organicfood2you it's more expensive that Weaver Street (and that's saying something) but if you go together with other people you can receive a 5% discount on your order.  How cool is that?

This week I found out I'm behind the pop culture times again.  I thinks it's because I never really watched Oprah.  Kris Carr was diagnosed with a rare and incurable stage 4 cancer in 2003.  She went on a "deep healing pilgrimage" and is still here talking about it!  A lot of what she's talks about food and health wise are things I already know and practice.  I'm not sure I'll ever be into enemas (flashbacks to surgery when I was five!), but I'm all about detoxing and green foods, so you never know!

I was doing pretty well exercising before the back injury/tooth removal/severe cold/burn and then with the holidays I got back into baking.  I had a three week affair perfecting a chocolate scone recipe.  It's top-notch, but I didn't need all those scones.  Last week I HAD to make a Ukrainian poppyseed cake and then regretted we ate it in two days (mostly me, I admit it).

Richard and I have given up alcohol (before the holidays) and I'm happy to report I'm sleeping better.  Well, I would be but for Steve's small bladder. I'm back to bursting (45 second bursts of running with one minute fast walking recovery for 17 minutes) and it feels good!

Today I woke up with a severe headache from dehydration.  I realized yesterday my total fluid intake was a pot of English Breakfast Tea (I shared) and a glass of water at lunch.  Duh.  In order to cure what ailed me today, which includes mental/emotional angst as well, I drank lots of hot water with lemon, practiced meditating and yoga which I haven't done seriously for years.  Boy have I lost flexibility!  I still had the headache for most of the day and was mighty blue for most of it, but I think I'm back on the upswing.

I'm thinking bursting three days a week and yoga the other three and I'll be well rounded.  Meditating is something I should go back to doing whenever I can.  My mind needs practice being still.

And just because Steve is my BFF these days.  Here's a little video of him, he's figured out how to use a pull-string on a cat toy.  Tiger-Cato and Button never liked it,but Steve thinks it's the bomb!

Making mozzarella...yum!

This past Christmas I asked for cheesemaking kits from The Cheese Queen.  Everyone that I've told that  to looks at me oddly.  Do you think that means cheesemaking isn't at the top of everyone's list?

So far I've made ricotta and mozzarella to put in my favorite spinach calzones.  The hardest part about cheesemaking for me is throwing away the whey.  A gallon of milk yields about three-quarters to one pound of cheese and almost seven pounds of whey. There are recipes for making pizza dough out of whey (which I did for the calzones) and last night I boiled my manicotti in it and is worked fine.

Here's what mozzarella looks like after the rennet is added and it sets.



After you slice it in the pot and stir the curds around for a while you lift them out with a slotted spoon and have a lovely, silky, puffy pile of curds.



Then you dip the curds in very hot water and stretch them like taffy.  After a bit you have a luscious hunk of mozzarella! How amazing is that?!





This is the leftover whey.



See what I mean?  That's a lot!  I'd save it, but that would take half gallon canning jars and more storage space than I will ever possibly have in my lifetime.

Because I'm playing with cultures again, I remembered all my kombucha and kefir making from last year.  I didn't save my kefir grains, so I ordered some more and they arrived yesterday.  My kombucha mothers have been living in the back of the refrigerator in a tightly sealed Mason jar.  When I took them out they looked and smelled the same so I made two batches of tea and their brewing their little mothers out!

Today I'm dyeing twenty more skeins of yarn for Cozy!  I can't wait to see the "re-do" of the place.  Deb and Emily are working hard to everything ready for re-opening on Friday.  I'm very thankful they're letting me have more space for yarn.  It should keep me busy for a while!

There's an Eowyn sized hole in my house

and heart.  I've stuffed it with Steve.



Isn't he adorable?!  His dad is Australian Shepherd and his mother is a walking hound.   He could herd cows or hunt deer - a multi-purpose dog if you will.  My hope is that the brains of his dad will outweigh the calling of his nose when needed.

He's pretty darn smart.  He knows "sit" and is working on "shake", "down", and he understands "no" but isn't wedded to the idea.  We're working on it.  They say the hardest part of leash training is keeping a hound's nose in the air instead of on the ground.  Honestly, I have no idea how you do that.  Other than holding a treat out in front of him the whole time, Steve's nose is positively glued to the ground.

His skinny little tail bobs adorably while he scampers down a trail.  All he does is try to win Mac's favor, but it's not working.  I remember when Mac did the same thing with Eowyn.  It took a little while but finally Eowyn started playing with him (a.k.a. trying to chew on his head).  We used to call it the Mac and Eowyn Show. Maybe Mac's not done grieving yet.

Here's a favorite picture of Mac and Eowyn in action.  No dogs were hurt during the photo session.  Someday maybe it will be Mac and Steve...

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

There's been a lot of death in my life this year.  That is death in a spiritual sense. Death to old ways of doing things, to phases of life, to friendships, etc. There have been a few births too, but mostly death.

The biggest non-tangible thing I lost this year was my self-confidence.  After deciding to leave my job of twenty-two years (all for very good self-care reasons) I was confident and secure that I could find something else with all my varying abilities to survive.  This has not been the case.  This has been a very sharp blow to my self-esteem and confidence. I've known work done with hands and heart is less valued than work done with degrees, but to have strangers look at my list of skills and not realize the experience and ability that I have is frustrating.



The second biggest loss came Monday, my sweet Eowyn died.  I found her nine years and eleven months ago one morning at work.  She was in someone's garbage at house down the street with a broken chain (an actual short lead, not a tie out chain) around her neck.  She was so skinny when my friend Mel and I put her on the porch to hold her until Animal Control could come she slipped between the rails. When they finally arrived the guy took one look at her and said, "Well, we'll take her in but she's got two strikes against her already.  She's part chow (black spots on her tongue and fluffy chow-like fur with pricked ears) and she's pregnant.  If she passes the personality test, which I think she will (she was lying on her back and he was rubbing her belly), no one wants a pregnant dog." I asked him if I could think about taking her and he said he'd leave her and if I called back he'd come and get her.

After wrestling with the pros and cons I decided to bring her home.  The peeps and I were all very into Lord of the Rings at that point and as she was blonde Eowyn seemed the perfect name. She was very submissive and sweet with the peeps.  And ravenously hungry.

The next day I brought her back to Durham to take her to the vet.  Mel and I were walking her on the street in front of where we worked and a car zoomed up to the curb and called, "Nala!" A woman got out of the car and said, "That's my dog, we've been looking all over for her! That's my daughter's dog."

"How long has she been missing?"  I asked.  I noticed Eowyn didn't look excited to see her.  No happy tail wag or straining on the leash to get to her.

"Three days!"

"I found her yesterday right there." I pointed to the house next door.

"We live in the next house over."

Suddenly I remember seeing Eowyn.  Tied on a three foot chain to a Dogloo all day, every day. "She's starving and she's pregnant."

"Oh.  You can keep her then.  She ate her last litters. We usually keep her in the basement when she's in heat."

I was absolutely horrified. I knew dogs would eat their litters if they didn't think it was safe for them, or if they were starving and I decided there was no way she was going back to them.  Even if this woman changed her mind. I told the woman I was taking her to the vet in a few minutes and needed to walk her.  She continued talking to Mel while I took Eowyn further up the street.

After a trip to the vet, where I was reassured that since Eowyn was now getting food and attention, I should keep an eye on her during her labor, but things would probably be ok.  She was right!  Eowyn was a loving, diligent, doggie-mama.  She birthed eight puppies (their were at least three different dads) and she went on to have a long, happy life.



 There's an Eowyn sized hole in my house now.  I miss the sound of her breathing (snoring much of the time), walking around the house, sleeping on the bed with me, and going for walks. She gave my life a rhythm and was very comforting when I was getting used to being "single" on the days I didn't have the peeps. She came along at a perfect time in my life. I'll miss her.

 

New yarn on Etsy

On Monday I dyed ten skeins of yarn. They are finally dry, detangled, and ready to show. Here is a picture from my phone:

 

 There's another blue (more muted) that went up on Etsy, but didn't fit in the bowl that I really like. I also made some new labels I'm hoping will work better than having tags flop around.
 

 In knitting news, I'm working on Abyssal in a wool/silk blend I bought long ago for something else entirely. I find casting on tedious when the numbers get that large, but I'm almost done with the fourth repeat of the pattern and will soon head into short rows.

 Morgan is home from school - yesterday with a fever and bodyaches - today with a massive head ache. He's been in bed all morning and looks pathetic. I used to kind of enjoy when the peeps were little and sick (especially Morgan) because it was the only time he'd sit still and snuggle with me. Now he's too large to snuggle, but it still breaks my heart to see him so miserable.

There's been a request for mac and cheese for dinner from Chicky.  At her dad's house it comes out of a box and she reminded me I haven't made any in forever.  That's an easy fix!

Another internet party where I'm arriving late, are you there already?

The amazing indie dyer and spinner Sarah and I communicate almost daily by rav mail (a.k.a. Ravelry for those of you that have lives strangely unencumbered by fiber).  We've been doing this for years and have never actually met in person. We have video chatted once, and talked on the phone a couple times when I went MIA in the wool world for a while. Anyway, she is a fabulous friend and hooks me up with all kinds of things I should know about, but don't.

Yesterday's revelation was Paperback Swap - What the wool? Exactly people, just like the name implies you exchange books (and also CD's or DVD's) for free.  Honestly, what could be better?  I heart books, but sometimes I heart impulse buys and I have a slew of books I read once and will never read again.  I signed up (easy peasy), posted 18 books, got two credits for two books and someone is waiting for me to print a shipping label and mail a book to them.  If someone orders one of your books you agree to pay the postage and mail it.  That's it.

Of course, I've already created a wish list with all kinds of cook books and a few knitting books on it. There is a tricksy part where they make new books available so if you were weak and tempted you could click that button and get exactly what you wish for immediately, but I'm not falling for that old trick.  Patience, Grasshopper.  Someone may suddenly decide to cast aside all their Jamie Oliver or Interweave Press books.  I shall wait very quietly...

While I'm waiting quietly I've been playing with some new dyes I bought.  They've got their pros and cons, but I do like the end results. The skeins working on some drying outside before they come in for the night.

Today was only a ten skein day because I had other things I needed to do before the peeps get home.  Namely burst for the first time in two weeks and get groceries.  My leg is now healed enough to run, wear pants instead of skirts, and have a small dog sit on my lap.  Mac is just as glad as I am that the healing is happening. Although he does look pretty snug on his down blanket.



And just because the Homesick Texan where I virtually live these days, posted a recipe that looked dangerously delicious I'm making Oyster Cracker Crack.  Thank you Lisa Fain, my children adore you!

Seasoned oyster crackers
Ingredients:
1 pkg. 12-14 oz. oyster crackers
1/2 cup of canola oil
1/2 tsp fresh dill weed
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp lemon pepper
1 pkg. ranch dressing, original (do not use low fat!)

Method:
Preheat oven to 250 degrees
Mix oil with herbs and spices
Put crackers in a 9 x 13 inch pan
Pour oil and herb mixture over crackers, gently stir
Cook in oven for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally



Tomorrow when the fibers are dry there shall be pictures!