Full Bloom

Years ago, I went to Japan on a school-related trip.  Until that trip, I was unaware of my stunning allergy to cherry trees.  Of course, we visited in spring, when the trees were in magnificent full bloom.  Breathtaking.  No really... I couldn't breathe.  My throat closed up, itchy and swollen, my eyes waters, my nose itched and my sinuses caved in on themselves.

Up until that point, I had wanted my whole yard filled with them.  Now, suffering from their terrible beauty, I wish every one of them within 50 miles of my house were yanked up and sent back to Japan.

I prefer to enjoy my cherry trees from afar...or better yet, in serene, poetic Asian art.

Another spring gem that I'd like to send back to wherever it originated, the hornet, was spotted spinning angrily above the back door this afternoon.

So....I guess this means it's official - Spring has sprung.

Oh...and the front rug is already covered with pussy willow tufts.  So, there's that, too.  Now I get to vacuum those up along with the already out of control display of fur clumps from various shedding animals in the house.

While I am definitely a fan of the returning sun and blue sky, I could do without a few of these inconveniences.  As it stands, I suppose I am at least happy to know that they lead to warm summer days ahead.

Country Aire COUPON

http://www.livingnaturally.com/PDFDocs/f/fae2ae6fbcaf4964a2a2282f085a9a79.PDF

Click the link above for a coupon good for 10-20% off items as Country Aire.  They are beginning their moving sales!  Rumor has it...the new store will be open in April!  Yahoo!

Try the Y for Free (February)

So...here it is...already February.  Good lord, how does the time fly so quickly?

Anyhow, this means we are on to mini-goal #2.  (I give myself about a D+/C- for last month's goal.  Did pretty well at the beginning and the end, but pretty much sucked in the middle.)

This month:  Fitness and Finances for February!

Works out perfect, too, since we will be doing our taxes and the local YMCA is offering a month of free use.  The bonus is, if you sign up for a membership by the end of the month, there is no fee to join!  Pretty good deal, actually...$75 for two adults (dependents free)...$2 childcare...yoga, Zumba, aerobics, judo, and several other classes included...lowered fees for swimming lessons and summer camps for kids...

So, it sounded like a good idea.

Plus, if I'm paying for a membership, the guilt of paying is more likely to get me to go.  Relying on my own motivation is failure waiting to happen (quickly).

And yes, a part of me is feeling guilty about the s'mores we made at work today (over a candle, with dark chocolate-covered shortbread cookies)...sinful.  And another part of me is a little embarrassed that I purchased 4 boxes of Girl Scout cookies from the adorable girl who asked, with soulful eyes, if I would support her troop.  E'gads those kids are good!

But, I DID go to the Y, and I DID work out.

So there.

And here goes another attempt at another goal...

Local Re-usable Snack Bags!

I really meant to share this earlier. But, as you can see, time has gotten away from me.

I recently was given a link to an Etsy shop for "The Barefoot Seamstress" because a friend of mine knew I was looking for re-usable snack bags and that I prefer to support local business. Plus, while Snack Taxi and Chico (and dozens of others) have a great product...they cost more than I really want to spend ($7.95 to $14.95).

But, I found the holy grail of snack bags....

Photos and Prices available at Buzzy Bee Creations at Etsy.

Affordable - available lined in cloth or nylon - velcro seal - large enough for a good-sized sandwich.

I bought two sets; one for me and one for my son. Becky was so workable - even tried to find Spiderman fabric for my son's bags. She has a well-made product and a great price. I totally plan to buy more as gifts for this holiday season!

Check out her blog:


The Barefoot Seamstress

NEW BUSINESS!!!! Opening July 1 in Port Angeles

I am SO looking forward to this -

A new brewery is opening in downtown Port Angeles on July 1 -
BARHOP BREWERY

2 pm
110 N. Laurel

Website: http://www.barhopbrewing.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Barhop-Brewing/164569466907289

All Hail Hales Ales!

So we went shopping in Silverdale the other day...a periodic adventure to the "bigger city" to get the things we can't find here in town. Our plan was to hit TJ Maxx and Ross (love those deals), JCPenneys to pick up our family photos (Christmas gifts!), and Toys R Us to do our Santa shopping for the kiddo. Then, it was off to the mall to hit Barnes and Noble and World Market...and...Hales Ales Brew Pub (a local Seattle company). What a novel idea...a brew pub in a mall. I can't imagine that it isn't increasing business for the retailers.

It's a huge restaurant. When we got there at 5:30, it was fairly empty, but by the time we left, it was packed - a line of customers waiting to get in.

The review? It was good. The food was good (D. had the pot pie and I had a Reuben). The beer was, of course, good, too. I tested the Super Goose and the Aftermath Imperial IPA, finally settling on the the Super Goose because the Aftermath was a bit sweet for my taste. D. tried the Wee Heavy Winter Ale and the Cream Special Bitter, enjoying both.

The menu is a pretty traditional pub menu...lots of comfort foods and items that go well with beer (duh). A few highlights: Sweet Corn Cakes, Smoked Salmon Chowder, Rockfish and Chips, Troll Porter Meatloaf, Bangers and Mash, Alehouse Brisket Stroganoff, Smoked Brisket. Of course there are pizzas and sandwiches and burgers and stand-by appetizers like nachos and wings. Portions and prices were acceptable. The most expensive thing on the menu is the Top Sirloin Steak (10 oz. is $19.25). But most dinners range between $8 and $15.

The ale selection is nice...something for everyone - pale ales, IPAs, ambers, porters, seasonals, cream ales, and barleywine. You can get 5 oz. samples, 10 oz., 14 oz., 16 oz., and 20 oz. mugs.

What did I like best? Hales commitment as written on the menu. Here's a taste, in my own words. They use fresh, whole unprocessed ingredients, locally grown produce, dairy and fair-trade sustainable products when available and devise their menu to follow the season, so that ingredients can be bought from in-state and close to home. They have no deep fryers. Their jojo potatoes are baked, their fried chicken is pan-fried, and their fish and chips is grilled. It finishes with: "Mike and Kathleen's philosophy is simply to support your local community, make and serve the best product possible at a fair price and think about and participate in the world we all live in." Then they list the company's they purchase ingredients from: Liberty Bay Bakery, Essential Baking Company, Charlies Produce, Boar's Head Meat, Corfini Gourmet, Painted Hills Natural Beef, Grounds for Change Coffee, Cascioppo Brothers Meats, Darigold Dairy Products.

So, overall...they get my seal of approval. I'd definitely go back.

Hydraulic Launch Refuse Trucks in PA!!

This is one of the COOLEST things I've heard about in a long time!

D. and I had his father and grandmother over for dinner the other night (homemade 13-bean and ham soup - yum!), and my father-in-law, who works for the city, told us that Port Angeles is the first city in Washington to incorporate hybrid garbage trucks into the fleet. Our town is now the proud owner of two Peterbilt "Hydraulic Launch Refuse Trucks".

So, you might ask...why am I so jacked up about garbage trucks?

Let me just share a few of the crazy-awesome facts - as shared by the city's equipment services supervisor:

--75% of the energy usually lost as heat and friction to the brakes is recaptured as hydraulic pressure.

--Brake replacement costs will be 2 to 4 times less then a comparable refuse truck without the HLA (Hydraulic Launch Assistance) system.

--The City of Port Angeles's average refuse fleet fuel consumption this year was 2.8 gallons per hour. Over the 10,000 hour design life of our trucks, that means we will use 28,000 gallons of diesel. Using only today's price of $3.10 a gallon we will burn $86,800.00 in fuel over that time. That 28000 gallons of fuel also represents 532,000 pounds of carbon expelled into the air in the form of carbon dioxide.

--With the 30% fuel savings the HLA is expected to get, we will save 8,400 gallons of fuel, $26,040.00 and reduce carbon emissions by 159,600 lbs. over that same 10,000 hour time period.

I want to make sure that I give credit where it is due. The HLA (Hydraulic Lift Assistance) system in these trucks is manufactured by Eaton, who claims that the system "delivers 15-30% better fuel economy in many applications while reducing emissions."

For more information on the HLA system...check out their website:

Eaton

The 350 Tree Challange

Okay, so I'm a little slow on the uptake, and I have definitely been remiss in my postings. No excuses. I think I just fell apart there for a month or so.
Something about the beginning of the school year that makes me feel somewhat like a submarine preparing for a battle. I went under. I stayed there for quite awhile, and now...periscope up! Just note, even though I have not been posting, it does not mean I have not been living up to my goals.

For example, last night, we had a lovely dinner at Michael's Divine Dining with our family. The service, as usual, was wonderful. The food was, indeed, divine. The wine, the company, the dessert, the child's behavior, all was excellent. I love that Michael's does such a superb job of using local foods to create inspired dishes. Since it was Crab Festival this weekend, I caved and had the Dungeness Crab special. I thought the sight of the whole crab might freak my little guy out, but he thought it was great and helped my crack the legs and dip them in butter. A real hands-on meal.

On the way home we stopped by IGS (a local grocery that has been in business since 1959 and that carries a wide array of necessary items, from fishing bait, to bananas, to crab pots, to reflective wear and hunting licenses. And...a decent selection of microbrews and wines. D. selected a six pack of Hale's Red Menace (Seattle) for himself and a bottle of O'Reilly's pinot gris (grapes grown in Washington, wine made in Oregon) for me.

We enjoyed our nightcap as D. did his nightly perusal of online news. On our local paper's site, we came across this article about a local group planting trees in an effort to raise awareness about global climate change.



You can read the article here:

Goal to Plant 350 Trees by this Sunday

and visit this link (350.org) to find out more about the challenge and where it came from.

I haven't decided which kind of tree...but I plan to participate. Every little bit helps, and I love to see concerted efforts like this, especially in my neck of the woods.

If you live in the area...I'll see you at Sunny Farms or The Greenhouse Nursery (both on Hwy 101 between Sequim and Port Angeles)...we can pick out trees together!

Red Rooster Market

I went searching for a website for the Red Rooster Market so I could add it to my "Locally Speaking" list, but it doesn't appear that they have one yet. Instead...I found an article from back in April when they first opened. If you haven't had a chance to stop in, please do! It's small and has some room to grow, but the staff is friendly and knowledgeable and a great deal of what is sold in the store is of local origin. Nice little place.

Red Rooster opens today in Sequim -- Port Angeles Port Townsend Sequim Forks Jefferson County Clallam County Olympic Peninsula Daily news

Berries are ripe for the picking!

I'm lucky enough to live in a rural area where berries grow all over my yard, wild, without any input from me. Since I don't really have a green thumb (mine's sort of a bruised mix of black, blue, and yellow), I feel fortunate that nature has taken over for me in this regard. And what nature hasn't done, the local "U-Pick" farms have.

A few weeks ago, a friend and I got together and headed out to Graysmarsh Farms to pick strawberries for jam. It was my first time going strawberry picking, and even though the season was at its end, we managed to dig out 16 pounds of very ripe berries, cover our fingers in red, and keep track of a roving 2-year-old who seemed more interested in running up and down the rows and eating whatever he picked (I'm convinced that these farms should weigh small children before they go in and then once again on the way out to determine how much parents owe).

We pooled our berries into one giant bucket and headed home to get canning; which turned out to be way easier than I had expected.

Supplies we gathered:
1) berries
2) pectin (the regular kind, not the low sugar)
3) sugar
4) two very large pots
5) canning rack
6) lots of towels
7) tongs (a few pairs if you have them)
8) a few large spoons
9) jars, screw-tops, and new sealing lids

Here are the steps we took:
1) put the sealing lids in a crock pot to heat while we worked
2) heated water in one of the large pans for the "sealing" water bath
3) cored the berries and got rid of the stems
4) smashed the berries up in large bowls
5) measured out 10 cups of berries and 10 cups of sugar (we used significantly less than the recipe required because we had very ripe organic berries which tend to be much sweeter than regular store-bought berries
6) put in the requisite amount of pectin for a double batch (I believe this was two whole boxes)
7) heated the mixture in a large pot until it rose to a rolling boil
8) set the timer for one minute and let the mixture continue to boil
9) removed the mixture from heat and skimmed off the top layer of foam
10) poured the berries into jars (all the way to the very top of the jar, leaving no room for air once sealed)
11) capped the jars with sealing lids and screw-tops (using hot towels to hold the jars, being careful to keep the outside temperature of the jar the same as the inside)
12) placed the jars inside the canning rack and lowered into the water bath (boiling water in another large pot)
13) set the timer for 10 minutes
14) removed the jars and let cool...listening for the lids to "pop" signaling the the jar was now sealed
15) started another double batch

Because we used various sized jars, we ended up with a few half-filled jars. We went ahead and sealed these, too, but we just put these right in the fridge for immediate use.

We also ended up with enough berries to do one more single batch, but ran out of pectin. So, we just poured the smashed berries into a ziploc and made the final batch a few days later.

That brought us to a total of 24 jars...5 full batches.



And I must say, the jam is outstanding...I'm completely motivated to do pickles and tomatoes now (should be sometime in August). The tomatoes are an especially high priority...several months ago, Devin found an article about the lining of canned tomatoes releasing chemicals (BPA) into the fruit because their high acid content eats away at the inside of the can. Of course, there is debate over this...some people think it's fine (I actually found a comment that read: "Hello! If they sell it, it's fine!" and was mildly frightened about the mental capacity of this individual), others think we're all going to die if we eat them. I prefer to avoid the debate altogether and just make it myself. Avoidance plus self-sufficiency is my chosen way of dealing with most situations like this.

Anyhow, jam is great...we made 24 jars of various sizes, some for us and some to use as gifts.

But what else can you do with berries? Deserts, of course! The day before last, I took the little one into the back yard and picked huckleberries, blackberries, and black caps - pretty decent family quality time.



D. made shortcakes, home-made whipped cream, and heated up the berries with a little sugar. Delicious! It was the center-piece of our meal that night.

(Back from "Retreat") Puget Sound Farm Guide

Oh goodness...I'm finally back from the depths! Days and days of writing and learning and not sleeping. The Port Townsend Writers Conference is anything but a retreat, though it takes place in a retreat-like setting: tiny rooms with nothing to take your focus from the task at hand (writing), classes in sparse rooms with like-minded folks, and breath-taking views to be appreciated between readings, craft lectures, free-writing, etc. By day 6, I was about done in, saturated, and highly motivated to get home and continue the thread.

So, here I am, back - anything but refreshed, but definitely intellectually invigorated.

One of the most helpful classes I attended was one on blogging for writers. Over the next week, I plan to implement some of what I learned - starting with the new "more search friendly" blog address (http://onesustainablechange.blogspot.com/). I've also linked my blog to Twitter and Face Book, in the hopes that the circle will grow more quickly. The blog name will remain "one", and all the of the content is still accessible.

Interestingly, I learned that making my blog more "search-able" will make it more "troll-able", which, hopefully, will help editors and publishers find me! So, pass on my link, share my blog, link your blog to mine.

As a side-note...I must comment on how hard it was to find places to recycle at Fort Worden. It surprised me, since it's a part of Port Townsend, which seems like such a progressive, earth-friendly town. I complained to the management, who seemed genuinely concerned by the absence of recycling stations, as well. Maybe they'll add some bins.

And I found a great guide in the coffee shop - a must share:

2010 Puget Sound Farm Guide (Farms, Farmers Markets, CSAs and U-Picks!)



You can get one by visiting Puget Sound Fresh - A Program of Cascade Harvest Coalition.

The Cascade Harvest Coalition can be accessed via internet by visiting www.cascadeharvest.org

This guide provides a listing of all farms in the Puget Sound area along with the services they provide, the farmers markets and their hours of operation, maps and farm descriptions! It's an invaluable resource!

How far does your food travel?

I suppose I didn't used to think about it. I just perused the produce, picked what I wanted, visited the butcher and chose the least fatty cut of beef. I thought I was being healthy. I ate fewer carbs because I'd done some research on how that could make me gain weight. I started eating real butter and gave up margarine. I started avoiding sugar substitutes and began scrutinizing labels. Every year, I learn more.

This year...one goal is to avoid imports (of all sorts) and choose local food options. This isn't always easy (or possible, for some things like spices and seasonings). For example, I'm not giving up olive oil, and since I haven't seen any local olive trees, I think it's safe to deduce that I will have to continue getting that from across the water. But...I'm sad to say, that while shopping at Sunny Farms the other day, I came across a beautiful bin of plump Brussels sprouts. They looked perfect for dinner, and since we haven't had them in a while, they'd have been a welcome change. But, gasp, lo-and-behold...the sign above designated them "a product of Mexico". Doh!

So, I had to pass them by and settle for some scrumptious looking bib lettuce for a salad. Not as exciting. Especially since our local Brussels sprouts are so yummy. Guess, I will just have to wait until they are in season. Besides, a natural consequence of eating in season is that it sure makes it easier to support your local farms...or you could think of it the other way around: supporting your local farms naturally leads to a season appropriate diet.

So for now, it's green beans (which I'm not a huge fan of). And there will be strawberry picking and freezer jam this week.

If you're at all wondering why I worry about the travel distance of my food (other than supporting local farms and such), check out this link:

Food miles: How far your food travels has serious consequences for your health and the climate




Counting down the days...like a little kid...until "writing camp"!