Still Hot
I left court with another caseworker today and was driving down the street when the sign listed 114!

I looked at Alaska, Juneau is hiring caseworkers. . . .I am very tempted! I have thought about Alaska for years and years but always was stuck here due to a custody order. However . . . that isn't the case anymore and I can begin to dream about leaving this area. SO, Alaska is high on my list.

Other then that, its a long hot week. I found a few more red tomatoes but alot of the plants in the garden are just wilting under the heat. I left the water on last night and completely soaked the plants, which may have been great for the heat today.

This weekend I plan on making pickles and if it cools off. . . .going blackberry picking for jam.

Pulease somebody end this heat!!!!

H O T ! ! !

We are having one heck of a heat storm here in Oregon. Over the weekend it was about 99, so not so bad. I took the kids to the movies, we went to a creek once only to find it was contaminated with E. Coli . . . ugh. We spent the weekend cleaning out the garage, gardening, catching up on laundry etc.

Then today I head off to work and around 1pm I had to leave to do a home visit with a family. BAM it was so hot I could barely breathe. I saw a sign that said 111! The official temperature was 106, and tomorrow it is supposed to be 107. It is so hot that I find it hard to breathe at times, I feel myself just begin to wilt under the air and heat. . . . I want to go somewhere, anywhere, far away from this heat.

The garden is holding up surprisingly well. The kids? Not so well. Tonight was Kiah's night too cook dinner. She planned spaghetti but somehow forgot to read a recipe. SO, she browned sausage, but then added tomato paste and tomato sauce. She did pick some basil from the garden (forgot te oregano) and added maybe. . . 1/4 cup of salt? Then, sweet baby let it simmer all day so it was basically a very thick salty paste. She tried. . . . oh, and then she baked (yes she baked on a 106 day) some bread to go with it.

She gets brownie points for effort. . .

but we had to order pizza. It was sad. Her heart was broken and she tried so hard but there was no edible way to get that down. I had her try a bite. She spit it out. My heart broke. If I could have ate that spaghetti sauce I would have, but I was afraid of the salt intake for my old hot body. (hot would definately be temperature here. . . not "hot body" in any other way lol)

SO, we are now in a house with AC all day that is a toasty 99 degrees. . . . the oven really helped ensure we are toasty lol

and now, its hot, the gardens watered, the bunnies are cooled down. . . .

Im headed to bed to do it all over again . . . lol

Alaska sounds better every single day . . . .

Today is Thursday. It wasn't a particularly difficult day at work, I did screening in the morning and in the afternoon I had some home visits with clients. Fairly simple visits, and no major drama (which, working in child welfare, drama happens quickly!) anyway, the day was hot, there was a fair amount of driving, one corner of the county to the other. By the time I was driving to pick up Hannah and Jake from the boys and girls club I was really ready to call it a day. Driving home I was trying to figure out if I could get away with fish sticks and tater tots for dinner. There is nutrition there right?

I had a text from my daughter Makiah (13) asking me to stop for milk. Grrr. . . one more stop on a 99 degree day, one more trip in and out of the store with two kids in tow. . .I was not looking forward to getting home and cooking. In fact, I wanted to come home and do nothing. As a single mama of four kiddos though, that just isn't reality.

Imagine my surprise to walk into a cool home (they remembered to shut the windows and turn on the ac!) and the home was immaculate. Floors vaccuumed, counters clean and. . . AND . . .AAANNNDDDD

Dinner on the table! The table was set, ice water was in a pitcher. Kiah had made a salad with garden veggies, lemon chicken and bread and butter. Simple and good! It was SO nice to come home to! Like a mini vacation!

Since Makiah and Katie (15) are home for the summer with no responsibilities, I had asked them to take turns cooking one night a week. So far, its been uhm . . . interesting. I realize that I haven't spent a ton of time teaching my kiddos to cook. Katie did rollups one night, with a fruit salad. Idea was good but they were warm from being out and a lil uhm. . . ya. Kiah one night did a can of beans in a tortilla. No rice, veggies, protein . . . just beans and tortillas.

Clearly tonight, we have improved. I am very happy! I ate dinner, played in the garden a little bit, let the bunnies run around and play, now I am blogging and just about ready to roll into bed and do a bit more reading.

Which, I am reading a book about two sisters who moved to Alaska in the 30's. I have always dreamed about moving to Alaska, I love the rugged sustainability of the region. Growing up in Oregon I have always heard a ton of stories about Alaska. I wanna go!!!!!

Garden Bliss

You can tell the garden is in full swing when dinner is whatever I can grab out of the garden and toss into a pot with pasta LOL! Tonight, I came home from dinner, hot, tired, ready to just curl up and sleep but then I realized I forgot about dinner. Four hungry kids staring at me quickly made me jump on it. I found several chicken breasts in the fridge, so I sauteed those up and then went to the garden with a basket. . . Ten minutes later I returned with Zucchini, basil, tomatos, swiss chard and onion. Tossed that into the skillet, and we had pasta. I used the leftover zucchini and mixed it with onion, parmeson, flour and garlic. We then fried it into little patties, YUM!!! We can't make enough of that!

This Buddha statue is in the backyard. I realized that a few tomatos volunteered around it. I decided to let them go, I think maybe cherry tomatos? I'm not sure yet!

Tonights dinner harvest, Walla Walla onion, tomatos, zucchini, basil and Chard that never made it in the pic?

This is my meditating frog. My aunt bought him for me when I graduated college. I love him!

This is Freud, the bunny, who happens to think that my garden is his salad bar

A few more volunteer Walla Walla's. I have been told they aren't compatible growing with beans but they seem quite content here, so do the beans lol!

Blurry pics of the first red tomato's. Heaven!!

Can you say pickles? Lots and lots of pickles!

Cabbage, boy we have alot of cabbage. I am running out of ideas. Usually we throw it in soup, toss it in a stir fry, or shred it and throw sesame oil and soy sauce in it. Now I am running out of ideas fast!

This became tonight's zucchini patties!

Camping

Camping

This is what the point of siblings are. . . to give you forty five minutes of entertainment trying to reach a jump rope that got flung into a tree. The simple fact that my fifteen year old daughter is alright getting on her hands and knees for them to stand on top of. . . that makes me happy. Can you tell I was an only child? Little things make me happy!

Hannah and Jake decided to forego the fishing poles and head straight for the water. They are little water dogs!

A fast and furious game of Mancala. This is one of the favorite camping games. That and "politically correct war". It basically is war but you want to get rid of your cards, not keep them. You have to swap decks of cards with your partner before War, and the cards are peace, love, harmony and unity. Our other favorite camping games are SkipBo and story telling (not technically a game I guess)


One thing that I love about this place in my life is camping. When the kids were younger it was a bit harder because you had a baby (playpen and dirt in the mouth) Toddler. . . Chase them all over. . . Preschooler. . . fun but still alot of hands on work! Now, taking them at six, eight, thirteen and fifteen, they are able to play, occupy themselves, engage in activity, do crafts and just still have fun.

We packed up Friday after work and took off for the mountains. We camp so much that we have three large rubbermaid bins that are prepacked for camping. One bin has gear like fuel, paper, flaslights etc, one has food staples, salt, pepper, oil, oatmeal, etc. The other has dishes, silverware etc. On top of that is the tent, the sleeping bags, the stove, so when we want to go its fast. Load up, hit the garden for whatever produce is there (last summer Jake yelled "STOP THE CAR" and took off. When he came back he was loaded up with a huge cabbage he pulled out of the garden! We chopped it up with olive oil and garlic that night at camp, was so wonderful!)

We went to a campground on a lake that is about an hour away and set up camp. We dove into the lake and stayed there until late, almost dark then came back and roasted hot dogs. After the kdis went to bed I opened a bottle of wine and enjoyed it greatly!

Saturday we went back to the lake for most of the day after having a big breakfast of blueberry pancakes and bacon. That evening we had camper stew (each kid makes their own packet of burger, onions, potatos etc. and then you roast it over the coals). That night we fell asleep fast, no staying up late with a bottle of wine!

Of course today was unloading it all, washing dishes up, repacking and SO much laundry! Thank goodness the day was hot (99 today!) and the clothing dried on the line quickly. I watered out garden which is getting overrun like crazy! Some of the tomato plants are taller then I am (5'5)! Tonight, dinner was simple due to the heat and just being exhausted. We had beef stroganoff and green beans from the garden. I sliced some tomatos (our first! yay!) and some cucumbers (not our first. . . already wondering if I am tired of cucumbers!) We are also harvesting zucchini and soon will have our first yellow crookneck zucchini. Lots of basil (and lemon and lime basil too) and some oregano. What else do we have . . . the kids emptied the carrot patch, but that was probably good as the heat would make them woody. I just can not wait for full on tomato season in another week or two. Fresh tomatos in the garden, warm from the sun, you just can't beat it! Oh ya .. and cabbage. . .I still have about 12 heads of cabbage. They are good but I am just about cabbaged out.

One of our favorite cabbage recipes is shredding it up, tossing soy sauce, garlic, sesame oil, tsp of sugar and sesame seeds. Throw that over the cabbage and serve cold, YUM! Kids eat a ton as well.

So, that is that. . . back to work tomorrow. I have to transport a kiddo from the detention center. I am not looking forward to that. I have such a hard time watching teenagers making bad choices, even when I know they can't really help it. Makes me wonder if I have picked the right career path . . .

The Home . . .

Years ago, I lived on four acres of land that was quickly moving to sustainablity. I was "happily" (or not) married, with five children, two nubian milk goats, two bunnies, one dog, one cat and a soon to be flock of chickens. I had a 1/4 acre veggie garden, huge herb garden, smaller medicinal herb garden and was quite content in that lifestyle. Due to circumstances that I prefer to never think about again, I was forced to leave that home with my five children and become a single mother. The following four and a half years were spent in a townhouse while I busted my ass for a degree (Sociology!) and worked full time in a shelter for battered women and later a shelter for teen mothers.

I thought I would never live a sustainable life again, how could I? I am single. . . have a home of kids, live in town with a small back yard. . . it seemed so foreign. THEN I found a website about urban sustainable living. I am in a fairly small town, so I began to figure if they can live sustainably in the middle of a city what am I complaining about in a town? Granted my yard is tiny compared to my former four acres and I work way too many hours a week to milk goats daily but at the same time . . . there is much I can do to lesson my footprint and live life in a far more simple way. . .

Over the past year and a half I have built four garden beds and fill them completely year round. Years ago I laughed at small gardens, now I admire them. In many ways I prefer this style of gardening, my weeds are less, I grow only what we will eat, I have food year round and I don't have to get muddy! I don't have goats, but it enables me to leave to go camping on the weekends, to go fishing, to do festivals and concerts and enjoy my life to the fullest. I can't argue with that!

SO, this weekend was the first weekend home in about a month. We went to my father's home the weekend before (he can bbq. . . BOY can he bbq!) and the weekend before that was camping. By the time the weekend hit the weeds in the yard were a mile high. I spent saturday fertilizing (organic) weedeating, composting, transplanting (how did I end up with 9 zucchini plants?) and making strawberry jelly (16 jars out of a flat of strawberries!) However, I was really missing having a bunny, as they are the perfect animals for small gardens. Rabbits are the perfect recyling machine. . . give them garden scraps and what goes in . . . must come out as perfect fertilizer!

Our last bunny passed away about a month ago, and I have been letting my children's heart rest for a bit, but this weekend I watched the compost pile grow higher and higher and realized it was too much. One trip to the local coop . . . and here is what we came home with . . .

This would be Marx ~ He is hiding between cilantro and swiss chard, happy as can be. My sweet six year old son thought that the garden bed was a salad bar for Marx. . . but alas, Marx quickly was moved to a more appropriate area.

This would be Freud. Yes, we have a sociology/psychology bunny off. See, I have a degree in sociology and my 15 year old daughter Katie just took her first psychology class. . . can you see where this is going? Oh yes. . . we debate for days in this home. It's rather frightening. SO, Katie named her bunny Freud, which of course meant I had to name my bunny Marx.

This is just another shot of Marx . . . I need to show him off the most because Marx is the sociologist bunny, therefore, my favorite . . . he already is proving to be the rebel, Freud is mellow and will cuddle up with anybody, Marx wants to kick and scratch and hop around like mad. He must be an angry proletariat!

SOOO That was our weekend . . . . Gardens, bunnies, Jelly, all good stuff!

Just my intro

I am not new to blogging. . . not at all. However I am new to blogging for the simple enjoyment of blogging. I have a long blog I kept of my teenage daughter's pregnancy. . . the ups, downs, painful and amazing experiences. I still add a bit here and there (though sadfully neglectful lately) however my grandson is now almost three years old, so that part of life has settled into a peaceful rhythm. You can access that blog at www.mybabysbaby.blogspot.com

My other blogs had to do with my own sexuality, my identity, my choices. I won't share that one here because I have learned that sexuality, gender, life in general is just a series of movements along a spectrum. Some days I am convinced I know it all, other days I am aware of my pitiful limitations of knowledge in the area of gender.

My other blog had the ups and downs of being a single mother with five children pursuing a college degree. The days I almost gave up, the times I made honor roll, the exciting graduation . . . but now I have found that life has settled . . . and I had nothing to blog about.

Then, it hit me. . . I have everything to blog about. I have built my life into near perfection, well, for me anyway. See, for many people my life would be interesting, boring, too exciting . . . too mundane. . who knows? For me, it is just right. . So, I thought I would blog about my daily activities, my children, my little garden, my job, my pursual of a masters degree *me, the kid who dropped out of high school!*

I can talk about my joy when my beans sprout, or my son makes a new friend, when the bunnies give good fertilizer or I get out of having to go to court at work. I can talk about the amazing children I have or how my grandson snuggles next to me and calls me "amma" That. . . is what this blog will be about. . . .simple sustainable bits. . .