Ok, so one of the things I vowed to do over the last year, and for the most part have successfully done, is make bread for my family almost daily. Pretty easy - most often I just toss the ingredients in the bread machine, and a few hours later a loaf of bread magically appears! Gotta love technology (especially the lower electricity used in making the bread in THAT device, as opposed to my big oven).
I also have experimented with making my own hamburger buns, english muffins, bagels and more, and yes, I've gotten fantastic results, and it was not too difficult! Remember, I'm of the generation where I somehow grew up thinking that if it didn't come in a bag at the grocery store, you couldn't make it at home. Weird, as my mother canned, made homemade bread and more!
So, while lots of beautiful, yummy loaves have magically appeared from my oven and bread machine, at quite a reduced cost from the grocery store model, there is one bread which seems to elude me - Sourdough. I mean, I have a starter in my fridge, I faithfully refresh it every few days, and it even SMELLS like sourdough. But alas, it resembles something more like a hockey puck, and depending on what I've done to damage it, it doesn't even always taste like bread, let alone sourdough. :/
The first loaf smelled SO yummy, and even tasted yummy, as long as you could get past the fact that it was also gummy, and had NO gas inside whatsoever. Like a big lump of tasty clay. Well, it was my first.
My second and third batch didn't rise when it should have, so in desperation I added yeast (bye bye sour dough flavour), and then I got gassy (air pockets galore) flat clay hockey pucks.
I'll keep you posted on my 'sourdough saga', and hope you cross your fingers for me!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
The Laundry Line
I know lots of my peers remember growing up with laundry lines of some sort or another, and running between the lines of clothes drying in the wind. I remember the feel of running between the sheet lines, and feeling the slightly damp cloth try to grab me on the way through. I had forgotten, however, the fragrance that came with that smell.
My husband and I finally decided to ask our neighbours if we could use the old reel on a pole that they have in the back - it looks as if our house used it years ago, as the reel was pointing our way anyway, and since they weren't using it, we thought it would be good to have someone use it! They agreed, and away to Rona we went, picking up a laundry line kit, and various assortments of pins.
Now, in Vancouver, especially East Vancouver, you see laundry lines hanging out the backs of most of the houses. Perhaps because this is how it is in Europe (China too?), and we have so many of us recently immigrated. I don't know, but I do know that I am used to seeing laundry waving in the backyards of my neighbours, and was just a product of 'my generation' in thinking dryers were the only way to go. Suffice to say that with the latest earth developments in global warming, we have been going back to our roots, and this is one of the ways!
So, back to the clothes line. Ok, so we hung it up. Both of us grew up with clothes lines, although the kind I used was the kind in a box that you pulled out when you needed it, with 4-5 lines in it, and the kind Tom used was the kind we have now - on a reel, a single line looped over. Neither of us had been involved in the hanging of it, so we didn't know much.
First off - it was WAY easier than we thought it would be! Less than a 30 minute project in fact. well, except for the first mishap, which was that I accidentally tangled the spool of cord, and spent about 15 minutes UNtangling it. Not as much fun as we had hoped.
Second, we made a small error, (the package came with no instructions), and put the tightening clamp on the TOP side of the reel. Later, when my clip that kept the lines closer together got to the middle of the line, it knocked all my freshly hung clothes onto the newly laid dirt below (we're leveling and reseeding our lawn below). Hmm. ok - lesson learned (and noted NO where): Put the tightener on the BOTTOM line, and when you start to hang laundry, start with the tightener, and hang next to it, sending it off in front of you..
Ok, that done, I happily used the advice of all the blogs and websites I visited, and hung my laundry the following ways, to great success:
My husband and I finally decided to ask our neighbours if we could use the old reel on a pole that they have in the back - it looks as if our house used it years ago, as the reel was pointing our way anyway, and since they weren't using it, we thought it would be good to have someone use it! They agreed, and away to Rona we went, picking up a laundry line kit, and various assortments of pins.
Now, in Vancouver, especially East Vancouver, you see laundry lines hanging out the backs of most of the houses. Perhaps because this is how it is in Europe (China too?), and we have so many of us recently immigrated. I don't know, but I do know that I am used to seeing laundry waving in the backyards of my neighbours, and was just a product of 'my generation' in thinking dryers were the only way to go. Suffice to say that with the latest earth developments in global warming, we have been going back to our roots, and this is one of the ways!
So, back to the clothes line. Ok, so we hung it up. Both of us grew up with clothes lines, although the kind I used was the kind in a box that you pulled out when you needed it, with 4-5 lines in it, and the kind Tom used was the kind we have now - on a reel, a single line looped over. Neither of us had been involved in the hanging of it, so we didn't know much.
First off - it was WAY easier than we thought it would be! Less than a 30 minute project in fact. well, except for the first mishap, which was that I accidentally tangled the spool of cord, and spent about 15 minutes UNtangling it. Not as much fun as we had hoped.
Second, we made a small error, (the package came with no instructions), and put the tightening clamp on the TOP side of the reel. Later, when my clip that kept the lines closer together got to the middle of the line, it knocked all my freshly hung clothes onto the newly laid dirt below (we're leveling and reseeding our lawn below). Hmm. ok - lesson learned (and noted NO where): Put the tightener on the BOTTOM line, and when you start to hang laundry, start with the tightener, and hang next to it, sending it off in front of you.
Ok, that done, I happily used the advice of all the blogs and websites I visited, and hung my laundry the following ways, to great success:
- Tops are hung from the bottom, bottoms are hung from the top. (i.e. shirts upside down, pants from the waist).
- Hang colours inside out to keep from fading.
- Hang towels and sheets in half, and then clip the corners onto the line. Then clip only the back side in the middle, leaving the 'windside' free - this makes a lovely billowing effect, that dries it really nicely too.
- Hang socks with one clip connecting only the back side of the sock (so the air gets in faster). I tried hanging the sock over the line - it dries too slowly. I also tries clipping both sides of the ankle, and it left that part wet too.
- Hang rags over the line, with one clip in the middle only - they seem to dry fast enough (maybe because they have a looser weave than socks?)
- Don't be afraid of the rain or clouds. You don't need the sun to dry your clothes. We're in the Pacific Northwest, and even though it was cloudy and a little drizzly all day the past few days, the clothes on the line still dried within a few hours. Never underestimate the power of a little breeze! If it rains, the clothes on the line will get an extra rinse cycle for free! YAY!
- Hang your shirts on the hanger, and you might not even have to iron them! Also, it takes up less space on the line. Oh, and it's faster and easier to remove!
- Keep a small drying rack inside your laundry area for your 'unmentionables' - underwear, bras, you know - those items. Or, just keep them inside your fence. No one really wants to look at what they can't normally see on you - or if they do, you might want to be nervous! The last thing you need is a panties stalker!
- Run your towels/jeans in the dryer for about 10 minutes, when they are almost dry on the line - this makes them fluffy and soft, and you are still saving a ton of energy.
- For fluffy clothes, I usually put them into the dryer when I take them out of the washer, and dry them as long as it takes me to load the next load of laundry. it warms them up, fluffs them, and makes it easier to grab them to put them on the line. I'm still saving lots of energy, but it basically acts like a fabric softener, and I still get the fluffiness.
Monday, June 16, 2008
My Small Part
I'm just starting up this blog now, as I know that my family has been changing how we live dramatically over the past year, and I wish that someone had a concise site that really illustrated some of the 'best practices' they had gone through and the best resources they found.
We are a normal, urban family, living in a city of 2+ million people, and are striving to make less of an impact on the world every day. I'm going to chronicle some of those changes, and philosophies on this site. I hope you find it worthwhile!
We are a normal, urban family, living in a city of 2+ million people, and are striving to make less of an impact on the world every day. I'm going to chronicle some of those changes, and philosophies on this site. I hope you find it worthwhile!
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