alderrr

Stephanie Smith, Katie “scout” Bachler and I are...

Thu, 02 May 2013 17:20:15 -0400

Stephanie Smith, Katie “scout” Bachler and I are organizing a homesteading fair. I’m very excited for it.

I just finished two toddler-sized tied quilts for my...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:17:00 -0400

I just finished two toddler-sized tied quilts for my friend Jeannie’s Earthroots’ Festival Fundraiser Auction, to be held in Laguna Hills this Sunday. I’m on schedule to meet my goal of 10 quilts this year.

cross posted from alderrr.com

Tiny quilt, lime (for scale). #aaqi

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 11:59:25 -0400

Tiny quilt, lime (for scale). #aaqi

One of my mini quilts is up for sale on the Alzheimers Art Quilt...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 13:38:48 -0400

One of my mini quilts is up for sale on the Alzheimers Art Quilt Initiative website. $20 and she’s yours.

I signed up to make 6 mini quilts for them in the next six months, and this is the first. Amazingly, the sale of all these mini quilts over the years has funded 14 entire studies.

More at alderrr.com

Just a reminder that I’ve moved. New post about a new...

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 14:07:44 -0400

Just a reminder that I’ve moved. New post about a new quilt up at alderrr.com.

I moved. For more quilting, homesteading, auntie and fermenting...

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 21:10:54 -0400

Thrift store quilt score

Solar slab design from James Kachadorian's book The Passive Solar House

With my nephew

Golden beets

I moved.

For more quilting, homesteading, auntie and fermenting goodness, visit me at alderrr.com.

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I signed up to make 6 mini quilts in the next six months for the...

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 17:09:24 -0500

I signed up to make 6 mini quilts in the next six months for the Alzheimers Art Quilt Initiative. I was inspired by Bill Volckening, who blogs enthusiastically about the project, and by Andrea Balosky, who has made many great quilts for the project.

The quilts must be smaller than a priority mail envelope (9 x 12” or less) and have a mechanism for hanging on the back. They will be sold or auctioned via the website to fund Alzheimers research. These are my first two.

Belated bow ties update: I posted this to instagram a while...

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 21:13:31 -0500

Belated bow ties update: I posted this to instagram a while back, but haven’t posted it here yet.

It’s toddler quilt sized. I’d like to go bigger, but I’m not sure what to add.

My Christmas presents finally arrived in Vancouver. The bottles...

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:47:00 -0500

My Christmas presents finally arrived in Vancouver.

The bottles have lavender and benzoin essential oils in them, and are meant to be mixed with high proof grain alcohol or vodka to make boozy deodorant for my bros. Only, you can’t mail alcohol, they don’t sell high proof grain alcohol in BC, and the highest proof vodka readily available is 80, which is 40% alcohol by volume. 750 ml of Bacardi 151 is $35, down here I can get it for less than half the price, not to mention the $3.99 bottles of perfectly drinkable blush wine.

Living in BC, it seemed true that wine cost $10 a bottle to make and sell, and anything higher than 40% alcohol was outrageously strong and would probably do instant damage. Which turns out not to be true. But, excepting my foiled tincture and deodorant making, maybe a harmless illusion.

Are there fewer alcoholics in BC? Or are the alcoholics better off because they have to spend a lot more to get drunk? Do they spend less money policing drunks than California, per capita? I don’t know.

All of which reminds me of attitudes around gun control too, of course.

physilosophography:

Belated XMAS package from Sis under the ‘tree’. Jan 2nd, 2013.

I am averaging about two quilting days a week right now, which...

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 21:30:12 -0500

I am averaging about two quilting days a week right now, which is less than I’d like but more than I was getting in before.

My big goal for the coming year is to produce a body of work that I can show (on the internet or otherwise) and possibly sell. The two major obstacles so far are other forms of busyness and not knowing where to stop.

It’s a funny thing, trying to make a quilt that isn’t for someone: what size should it be? Should it be a wall or couch quilt—quick and decorative—or a bed-sized behemoth?

[Bowties from suiting and upholstery samples]

Today a local friend, Celene, gave a handful of friends a lesson...

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 21:17:51 -0500

Today a local friend, Celene, gave a handful of friends a lesson in the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes technique (closely related to no knead bread). It was a dry run for a class she will be teaching in sign language next week. I have wanted to learn to make bread for a while, and it was a treat to learn in person instead of from a YouTube video. Afterwards we had a lunch potluck and polished off a fresh-baked loaf. YUM.

Now I have a couple loaves of dough in the fridge that Nathen and I can bake and eat to celebrate quitting grains! But that’s another post.

[L to R: Claire, Kim, Celene; bread)

Today was a big food day. First, while Nathen was off at his job...

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:25:06 -0500

Today was a big food day. First, while Nathen was off at his job interview, I made my first kimchee, using the kimcheelicious kickstarter backer reward recipe (thanks Jeannie). I used a little bit of thai kitchen curry paste instead of a lot of korean chillis, because Nathen requested a mild kimchee. It should be ready for a first tasting in 5-7 days. (Oh, and Nathen got the job!).

Then, M and K and I had a cooking date — between the three of us we made a giant pot of cauliflower yam soup, K’s husband’s grandmother’s famous marinara sauce (when done right, the spoon should stand up by itself in the sauce), and two pie crusts each, all ready to go in the freezer. We took turns entertaining Ollie and talked up a storm. It was a nice way to hang out, and great way to learn other people’s recipes.

I finally got some quilting action in! In the last six weeks I...

Sat, 10 Nov 2012 20:45:00 -0500

v & l quilt

my quilt

silk sample

ollie's quilt

I finally got some quilting action in!

In the last six weeks I started and finished a lap quilt for Vincent & Lindsay, on the occasion of their marriage (aren’t they cute!), finished the hand quilting on a blanket I made for myself over a year ago (I’d been using it with safety pins in it), made more progress on a silk sample quilt I haven’t worked on in over a year, and today, a year and a half after my nephew Ollie’s birth, I finally put his name on his quilt.

Looking forward to more of same.

The joys of inconvenient

Sat, 03 Nov 2012 21:06:39 -0400

In an article entitled Is it Convenient? Would I Enjoy it? Wrong Question, Mr Money Moustache writes:

Let’s suppose you want the latest iPad. You want it because it is convenient to be able to look at pictures and websites and books and play music around the house. Sure, you already have other computers that do those things, but the iPad is special because it lets you do them while holding it in one hand, sitting on the couch.

Wow, that couch is pretty convenient too, isn’t it? It is comfortable, enjoyable, convenient, and joyful to sit and lie on your couch. In fact, wouldn’t it be best to just lie on that couch all day? Forever? Yeah! Maybe you could even hook it up with a catheter and a bedpan, and a friend or robot could bring you all your food on the couch too. With each release, the latest iPad could be delivered to you, and you’d have the most convenient and comfortable and effort-free life ever.

[…] With proper understanding, almost any consumer purchase (and almost any bad habit) these days, beyond the necessities, should start to sound like a catheter and a bedpan to you.

This idea has really stuck with me, as a way to make sense of my recent choices.

Our life in the desert is not convenient at all. We use a bathroom and shower that are almost a minutes walk from the trailer. Our fridge is half a dozen paces outside our front door. We have no wifi down at the trailer. We spend very little and do a lot of what we can ourselves. And I love it.

All of which reminds me of a fantastic, novella-length David Foster Wallace essay, A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, about luxury cruising. Read it some time.

“Color Squares” design by Jessica Ogden, 150 x 120cm. Likely...

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 03:32:00 -0400

“Color Squares” design by Jessica Ogden, 150 x 120cm. Likely made in india. Source: The Apartment.

Four Things You Probably Don’t Know About Fermenting...

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 19:40:00 -0400

Fermented about two weeks, this kraut was delicious. Those chunks of cement were probably not foodsafe, in retrospect.

No good seals, lousy salt, threw this batch away.

Straining kefir to drink

A wedding gift I'm even more grateful for in light of all this. It will take some learning to use it in the desert, as the water seal evaporates quickly.

Four Things You Probably Don’t Know About Fermenting Vegetables

1. One week sauerkraut is probably not good for you.

I often hear of people eating their sauerkraut after 3-5 days, and I used to wait 7-10 days, but this is not ideal. Kraut and kimchi (the self-brining vegetable ferments) go through several stages of fermentation, and in the early stages (the first 7-10 days) the lactic acid bacteria haven’t yet had a chance to outnumber and defeat other opportunistic, oxygen-loving bacteria and yeasts. Fermenting times commonly recommended for kraut range from 28 days on the counter plus two weeks in the fridge, to 10 - 12 weeks in a cool spot.

In the era of refrigeration we tend to focus on the vitamin and probiotic benefits of fermentation, but it was traditionally a food preservation technique. When fully fermented and teeming with lactobacilli, kraut should “keep” for 1-3 years in a sealed container (substantially less once unsealed). If your kraut doesn’t keep that long, it may not be properly fermented. Lea Harris of Nourishing Treasures says, “You will know your sauerkraut is ready for long-term storage (or to eat!), when no more bubbles appear on the sides or top of your jar.”

2. An anaerobic environment is crucial, and just keeping the cabbage under water may not be enough… or maybe it’s fine!

Although salt, temperature and moisture levels all play a role, the only real difference between what pathogenic and probiotic bacteria can tolerate is oxygen; lactic acid bacteria thrive without it, and pathogenic bacteria, yeasts and molds need some oxygen. If the surface of the water is exposed to air, even a little bit — even if you just unscrew the lid to release pressure — mold can grow. With some kind of airlock system, the ambient and dissolved oxygen are used up within the first week or so, and gasses created during fermentation are able to escape without new oxygen getting in.

Most of us new fermenters learned from Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions [1999], Sandor Katz’s Wild Fermentation [2003], or someone downstream of those books. The emphasis was on the DIY accessibility of fermenting. The attitude was, “use whatever containers you’ve got, the good bacteria will triumph.”

In his recent book, The Art of Fermentation, Katz advises scraping the top layer off nasty-looking kraut (he cites friend who had a batch with maggots on top!) because you might find beautiful kraut underneath. The bloggers, on the other hand, many of whom are interested in ferments for dealing with gut problems, seem to agree that any mold visible on the top of your kraut will have roots all the way through, and is grounds to throw out the batch (incidentally, the USDA agrees with them).

In a recent blog post about the anaerobic controversy Katz maintains, “No particular type of vessel is critical… People have been fermenting vegetables for millennia in crocks open and closed, in pits and trenches, in sealed and open vessels… The only critical factor is that the vegetables be submerged under brine.” Sandor, incidentally, has AIDS and considers fermented foods to be an important part of his healing.

In the olden days, people could have created anaerobic environments by burying a crock underground, or using oil seals or animal skins. And they may have eaten small amounts of mold with their ferments. Today, the most recommended air lock containers are the Pickl-It jars, water-seal crocks, and wire-trap canning jars (aka Fido and Le Parfait jars).

Check out Sauerkraut Survivor for microscope and pH test results comparing brine from these and other common methods. (Oh, and some people are saying the home-made airlocks aren’t really airtight. Any brewers care to weigh in?)

If it’s true, this airlock business applies to kefir as well. I’ve been fermenting milk kefir for 24 hours with a piece of fabric over it. Hrm. Oh yeah, and if you’re fermenting meat or kombucha you DON’T want an anaerobic environment. But that’s another story.

3. Fermenting should be done in the dark, as light can kill beneficial bacteria (here’s a tutorial for cute jar covers, if you don’t have the cupboard space).

4. There is currently a heated controversy over the use of Fido jars for fermenting.

One camp says theyare a cheap and foolproof way to create an anaerobic fermenting environment, with the added benefit of producing fizzy ferments. The other says they trap too much Co2, which creates an unhealthy environment for the very lactic acid bacteria you are trying to cultivate, destroys enzymes, and may explode.

That about sums up the state of my research. It used to be so simple!

My brother Cory makes apps for a living. His most popular is...

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:31:14 -0400

My brother Cory makes apps for a living. His most popular is CatPaint, a photo-editing app that lets you add cats to any photo. A new update, posted today, lets you buy expansion packs: cat heads (pictured), box cats, and fine art cats. I like where this is going.

Nathen and I are staying at my parents house in Vancouver....

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 01:57:40 -0400

Nathen and I are staying at my parents house in Vancouver. There’s lots to look at here: my plants (still alive! babyhead planter from clayflower22); a kale forest in the back yard (plus sorrel, raspberries, peas and lots of herbs); library books (make do and mend); an art object my mother made; pottery Robert made when he was little.

Last night we watched The Artist Is Present, about Marina Abramovic’s retrospective of the same name, in which she sat in the MOMA and made eye contact with visitors. I thought the documentary was well done with a light touch — I learned more about the making of the performance, but not so much more that it took away from the work itself. I came away pondering and feeling good in my skin.

I wish I could go to this show in Milwaukee (links added....

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 00:17:08 -0400

I wish I could go to this show in Milwaukee (links added. You’re welcome).

Throw:

Great Lengths of Innovation in Modern Quilting

September 21st – October 12th

Featuring quilts, quilted accessories, and mixed media works from artists Maura Ambrose, Sherri Lynn Wood, Julie Floersch, Greely Myatt, Cindy Friedman, Kit Lang, and Valerie Joy.

Pictured: Mod Mood by Sherri Lynn Wood

There’s a shed we’d like to move up the road when we...

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 16:21:32 -0400

There’s a shed we’d like to move up the road when we get home. It’s much smaller than the barn pictured — just 10 x 18. I wonder how many people it would take to pull off a human-powered move?

(via Amish Move Barn By Hand - Mission to Amish People)