atthe philadelphia airport waiting toboard
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Saturday, September 8, 2012
on to ireland
hello from the phoenix airport. i am on a layover enroute to dublin. this morning i left thethe house at 3 a.m. keith is such a good sport being the driver! connectingfrom pxo to philadelphia where i will meet up with my sister gail and her family. so in one24 hour period iwil go from the granite of tje sierra to the ricefields of sacramento to thepalm trees pf phoenix, then a forecasted th7nderstorm in philadelphia and get off a plane tomorrow morning in green ireland . stay tuned for more adventures!
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Rising costs of fuel and food
If you haven't been to the grocery store in the past week, you are in for a rude surprise. Prices are up. Along with big jumps in fuel costs, the drought is also being blamed for this sudden rise. Fuel costs jumped here on the West Coast the same day as the Bay Area refinery "problem." Now that tropical storm Isaac is winding up, many of the refineries on the Gulf coast are shutting down. Guess what, even before that oil could have made it to market, fuel prices have gone up again.
I fueled up on Sunday and here in Amador County, regular unleaded was going for anywhere from $4.09 to $4.19 a gallon. I talked to my son last night -- he is a senior at Humboldt State on the far north coast of California. Regular gas there is $4.50 a gallon. Having made that drive many times, I can understand why fuel is so pricey there. But here on the west slope of the Sierra, a stone's throw from the refineries, we frequently endure some of the highest fuel prices in central California. Often, our gasoline prices will be 20 - 50 cents higher than nearby Stockton or Sacramento; while at the same time, we have a high unemployment rate (14.2% in May) and those that are employed are generally under-employed in the service sector -- store clerks, manual labor.
I can across an interesting online article on Grist this morning on nutritional values of food. The authors surveyed about 1200 common foods and ranked them for nutritional content and national average prices. You can find the article here: http://static.ewg.org/reports/2012/goodfood/pdf/methodology.pdf
What this all boils down to is if you want to save money on groceries, go back to whole foods and make your own convenience foods. Ditch the mix and get out your own mixer. While a cake mix may seem like a deal at two bucks and that can of frosting may be on sale for $3, you have just spent the equivalent amount on a sack of flour and sugar. A decent loaf of whole grain bread without high fructose corn syrup rang in last week at almost $5 a loaf. A sack of flour and some yeast will run you about the same and you can make about 6 loaves of bread. Throw in some wheat flour and your cost will go up a bit, but your nutritional value will sky rocket. Yes, bread making does take some time, but you can mix up a batch of refrigerator dough and grab off a wad of dough when you need a loaf of bread and it bakes up in no time. Or spend an evening making up about half a dozen loaves of bread for the freezer.
Instead of a bag of frozen boneless chicken ($10 - 2.5 lbs), stockup on whole chickens when they go on sale. Generally, whole chickens have not been injected with sodium or other plumping fluids. I can make that whole chicken last 4 meals for two or three people. The first night, I roast the whole chicken and we slice off the breast meat. Next night, thighs and legs. Next night, I either cook down the remaining carcass/meat and make soup or a chicken pot pie (two more meals).
Future installments: baking to save; produce; and grow your own veggies
I fueled up on Sunday and here in Amador County, regular unleaded was going for anywhere from $4.09 to $4.19 a gallon. I talked to my son last night -- he is a senior at Humboldt State on the far north coast of California. Regular gas there is $4.50 a gallon. Having made that drive many times, I can understand why fuel is so pricey there. But here on the west slope of the Sierra, a stone's throw from the refineries, we frequently endure some of the highest fuel prices in central California. Often, our gasoline prices will be 20 - 50 cents higher than nearby Stockton or Sacramento; while at the same time, we have a high unemployment rate (14.2% in May) and those that are employed are generally under-employed in the service sector -- store clerks, manual labor.
I can across an interesting online article on Grist this morning on nutritional values of food. The authors surveyed about 1200 common foods and ranked them for nutritional content and national average prices. You can find the article here: http://static.ewg.org/reports/2012/goodfood/pdf/methodology.pdf
What this all boils down to is if you want to save money on groceries, go back to whole foods and make your own convenience foods. Ditch the mix and get out your own mixer. While a cake mix may seem like a deal at two bucks and that can of frosting may be on sale for $3, you have just spent the equivalent amount on a sack of flour and sugar. A decent loaf of whole grain bread without high fructose corn syrup rang in last week at almost $5 a loaf. A sack of flour and some yeast will run you about the same and you can make about 6 loaves of bread. Throw in some wheat flour and your cost will go up a bit, but your nutritional value will sky rocket. Yes, bread making does take some time, but you can mix up a batch of refrigerator dough and grab off a wad of dough when you need a loaf of bread and it bakes up in no time. Or spend an evening making up about half a dozen loaves of bread for the freezer.
Instead of a bag of frozen boneless chicken ($10 - 2.5 lbs), stockup on whole chickens when they go on sale. Generally, whole chickens have not been injected with sodium or other plumping fluids. I can make that whole chicken last 4 meals for two or three people. The first night, I roast the whole chicken and we slice off the breast meat. Next night, thighs and legs. Next night, I either cook down the remaining carcass/meat and make soup or a chicken pot pie (two more meals).
Future installments: baking to save; produce; and grow your own veggies
Friday, June 29, 2012
Pre-Industrial Age Textile Research Project
I have been a busy gal this past week. I am in Pennsylvania visiting my family and conducting some research for an education scholarship I was awarded by the Golden Gate Weavers Guild earlier this year. My focus of study is pre-industrial tools for home textile. Last week, I visited the Home Textile Tool Museum in Orwell, PA http://www.hometextiletoolmuseum.org/ . What a fabulous gem, filled with the most amazing barn looms, spinning wheels, and flax production tools.
On Sunday, I visited the Goschenhoppen Historians' Museum in Green Lane, Pennsylvania. http://www.goschenhoppen.org/ Another hidden treasure chronicling the day-to-day lives of the early Pennsylvania Dutch.
Watch this blog for photos!
On Sunday, I visited the Goschenhoppen Historians' Museum in Green Lane, Pennsylvania. http://www.goschenhoppen.org/ Another hidden treasure chronicling the day-to-day lives of the early Pennsylvania Dutch.
Watch this blog for photos!
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Typical Sierra Spring
Thursday night, the weather changed and temperatures dipped down into the high 30's. That is Mother Nature's punishment to me for my impatience! During that false spring last week, I planted most of my tomatoes. I should know better.... When I did the same thing last May 15, my tomatoes had 8 inches of snow cover them and subsequently had this nasty black spot fungus. They did eventually recover, but were stunted most of the summer.
Yesterday, we had what is famously, or infamously called "wintry mix." That means the temperature is too warm for it to really snow and stick, but way up in the sky, it is cold enough. We had some sleet mixed with corn snow, while the temperatures bobbled between 38 and 42.
The first rumble of thunder alerted me to impending tomato disaster, so I hustled out and improvised a tent over the tomatoes, eggplants and artichokes. A few years ago, I picked up a couple brass headboards that were sitting at the end of someone's driveway with a "free" sign. Pushed into the soft ground, then tented with some visqueen, they made a quickie row cover.
When I checked my little deck greenhouse, it seemed a tad chilly in there, so I dug through the Christmas decorations and found a string of the traditional mini lights (not the new LEDs) and rigged them up inside my tiny greenhouse.
I bet this will look really festive at night! The greenhouse was a bargain at Raleys, for $59, and will hold quite a few trays. It will not hold up to any snow load, so the broom is handy. In the open center, I have rolled in a cast off rolling cart from the dumpster of a local hardware store. That rolling cart triples my growing space and easily rolls out.
If you are wondering what is in the blue dish pans, that is my latest horticultural experiment with hydroponic barley fodder for my aging horse. More on that in the next post.
Yesterday, we had what is famously, or infamously called "wintry mix." That means the temperature is too warm for it to really snow and stick, but way up in the sky, it is cold enough. We had some sleet mixed with corn snow, while the temperatures bobbled between 38 and 42.
The first rumble of thunder alerted me to impending tomato disaster, so I hustled out and improvised a tent over the tomatoes, eggplants and artichokes. A few years ago, I picked up a couple brass headboards that were sitting at the end of someone's driveway with a "free" sign. Pushed into the soft ground, then tented with some visqueen, they made a quickie row cover.
When I checked my little deck greenhouse, it seemed a tad chilly in there, so I dug through the Christmas decorations and found a string of the traditional mini lights (not the new LEDs) and rigged them up inside my tiny greenhouse.
I bet this will look really festive at night! The greenhouse was a bargain at Raleys, for $59, and will hold quite a few trays. It will not hold up to any snow load, so the broom is handy. In the open center, I have rolled in a cast off rolling cart from the dumpster of a local hardware store. That rolling cart triples my growing space and easily rolls out.
If you are wondering what is in the blue dish pans, that is my latest horticultural experiment with hydroponic barley fodder for my aging horse. More on that in the next post.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
More on How I Spent My Sunday
More pictures from live fire training today:
grass was still green
Practice shelter deployment -- scratch to mineral soil
Shake and bake!
Everybody secure
Time to extinguish
Brandon, Jeff, Rich
Roy and Bianca scrub the hose
Captain Kris - we trust our lives to you!
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