February Review for "Anyway" Project

Domestic Infrastructure - these are the realities of home life, including making your home work better with less, getting organized, dealing with domestic life, etc...

• start planning the garden (ordering seeds, etc): inventoried seeds, some old beans went into the soup pot, and I ordered some new varieties to try
  
• convert toilet to low-flush mechanism: not done yet
  

Household Economy: Financial goals, making ends meet, saving, barter etc...

• selling off a Les Paul guitar that hubby doesn't use much (ad posted): still here!
  
• eating down the stores through February to reduce outside purchases (challenge): a few more things off the priority use-up list; spent less than $100 on purchased food!

Resource Consumption : in which we use less of stuff, and strive to live in a way that has an actual future.

• thermal pot cooking: all soups, stews, yogurt making, and rice cooking done in this
  
• walking for shopping and volunteer work (use car as little as possible): lots of walking!
• I kept the art room closed up with the floor vent covered when I wasn't using it

Cottage Industry and Subsistence:: The things we do that prevent us from needing to buy things, and the things we produce that go out into the world and provide for others. Not everyone will do both, but it is worth encouraging.

• "put up" granola for the summer: used up squash likely to go bad before the butternuts do and a half dozen pints are on my preserve shelf
  
• make hot sauce from canned and stored food on hand: did this with some friends and it was a lot of fun
  
• start making custom-sized socks: first pair done and "my pattern" written up
  
• starting next year's Christmas presents by using up my re-discovered yarn stash with a new knitting book I got: no projects started
  

Family and Community: Pretty much what it sounds like. How do we enable those to take the place of collapsing infrastructure?

• co-learning with a celiac neighbor how to make polenta (an economical gluten-free "fast food"!): between weather and health issues for both of us, never got to it
  
• began planning to build an outdoor oven with neighbors: never got to it
  

Outside Work: Finding a balance, doing good work, serving the larger community as much as we can, within our need to make a living.

• volunteer work with Peterborough Greenup's Urban Forest project (GIS mapping and data analysis): did a set of maps and reports for them
  

Time and Happiness: Those things without which there's really no point.

• Nordic walking to enjoy whatever sunshine we have this month and get fresh air: also did some Nordic skiing and snowshoeing with a friend
  
• fiction reading (second-hand or borrowed books): more time devoted to art than to reading!
  
• continue with art journal: also joined the Milliande Art Community for Women while putting together a few journals; have participated in one art swap
  

Week Eight: Eating Down the Pantry

Food eaten:
• leftover lentil soup
• leftover curried veg soup
• beef stew with local grass-fed beef, local veg, home-canned stocks (beef, tomato, and vegetable)
• beef with broccoli with more of the grass-fed beef and rice from last week's stir fry session
• stir-fried veg with shrimp and more rice

I really only cooked three things this whole week for us! We ate everything up with no waste.

I did spend some money on groceries: stock up on milk, sugar, bread, and shrimp and I got lots of remaindered produce: broccoli, tangerines, kiwi, celery as well as some root basics at the farmers market: organic mushrooms, parsnip, carrots, rutabaga, green pepper. Total spent: $25.29.

Now we'll heading into the two week stretch before we go away for nearly a month, so eating down the refrigerator becomes important!

My First Pair of Knitted Socks

This is my first pair of hand-knit socks. I loved the colour way, even though the yarn is acrylic. The right one fits better than the left -- but that's to be expected for a first pair!

I adapted a pattern for toe-up-socks, using the Magic Cast-on by Judy Decker for the toe and a Plain Heel from The Sock Knitter's Workshop by Ewa Jostes and Stephanie van der Linden. I like the Magic Cast-on because I can make a less pointed toe (which fits my squarish toes better!). I like the Plain Heel because it is for a high instep and a wide heel, which I have. It also looks stronger than the more usual short-heels (which fit low insteps fine, but would be tight on me.

The cuff is K2P2 rib, with larger needles in the upper cuff to give a "larger" fit. I still have problems with the cast-off being too tight. But on the next pair I'll be adding a quarter more stitches in the last rib row to give the elasticity I need.

After the socks were done, I spent the time to transcribe the techniques and stitch counts I used into a 3 page pattern for myself -- better than carrying around a book and two print-outs! Now my sock knitting can truly travel.

I'm already on the first cuff of the next pair of socks!

Week Seven: Eating Down the Pantry

Food eaten:
• pulled pork with frozen roast and sauce compounded of preserved odds'n'ends on home-made rolls
• restaurant leftovers extended with pulled pork, shrimp, and lots of veg
• lentil soup (from mix) with tomato stock, stored carrots, dried tomatoes and red peppers
• curried veg soup with squash, broccoli stems, zucchini, tomato stock, garlic sauce, quinoa, dried red peppers

I bought some flax seed and remaindered produce, spending a total of $4.27 for the week!

Week Six: Eating Down the Pantry

Food eaten:
• remainder of adobe chicken in tostados and a soup using a number of home-preserved items: corn, veg and tomato stocks, squash, carrots.
• last of the fall apples and some canned fruit preserves in a fruit crisp
• last of the fall carrots in carrot salad and soups.
• pasta with home-canned sauce, frozen turkey sausage, fresh veg

This week was stock-up on a few items: makings for yogurt, brown rice, alfalfa seeds for sprouting; and I used a half-price voucher at a local butcher for some meat. Total spent: $37.82.
I really expect to spend a lot less next week.

The Kenmore is Dead - Long Live the Whirlpool

Back in January our front-loading washing machine stopped spinning out all the water it should from our laundry loads. Hubby took apart things and found some stuff in drain but its removal didn't improve things.

We finally got a repairman in this week. His verdict: the tub casing was broken (and pieces of it had been showing up in our laundry!) and it would cost $400 - $450 to fix. The Kenmore had more or less begun a course of self-destruction in January. After hearing that the machine was eight to nine years old, he recommended we get a new machine. I asked what kind, he said "Whirlpool."

Hubby looked through the papers and flyers we had and searched on the Internet. A store about twenty minutes away was having a scratch-and-dent sale with no sales tax. We decided to check it out. We remembered the trouble we had getting the Kenmore down into the basement and took measurements of the doorway -- we had 26 inches of clearance if we took the door off at the top of the stairs.

We got to the store and all the machines we saw we 26 1/4 inches or more in their narrowest dimension. We didn't see the scratch-and-dent model on the floor; probably sold out. We told the salesman about our size constraints and he took us into the warehouse where there was a row of scratch-and-dent washers, all Whirlpools! Even better, they measured 24 inches at their narrowest. They were smaller than the machine we had, but we were doing maybe two loads a week. Another astounding thing was that the machine used less than 160 Kw a year, figuring that you are doing eight loads a week!

Needless to say we got the machine. It even fit in the back of our CRV. Back home, hubby finished dismantling the old machine. We'll reuse what parts we can and take the rest to the municipal recycling depot for such things.

Getting it down into the cellar was another issue, but the next morning I called my son at work and he agreed to come by after work to help get it down into the basement. He showed up at 5:30 and had even borrowed a hand-truck with his boss's blessing. We had it down and sitting on its pallet (to keep it off the floor -- high enough that even the flood we had in 2004 didn't touch the first machine) in twenty minutes.

The new machine has maybe two-thirds the capacity of the old one. I'm back to separating darks from lights...

Week Five: Eating Down the Pantry

We thrived so well on this last month that we're continuing it this month!

Food eaten:
• adobe chicken with stored potatoes, adobe sauce to be used up, frozen local chicken
• rest of the chili in quesidillas one night and over rice another night
• beef curry (grass-fed beef, canned tomato-curry sauce, various fresh veg on hand) with flat bread from artisan dough
• fruit bars with preserves, stored flour and oatmeal
• pasta with mixed veg, canned tomato sauce, stored pasta, frozen sausage

Stocking up on coffee accounted for most of the $16.11 we spent this week.

February List for "Anyway" Project

Domestic Infrastructure - these are the realities of home life, including making your home work better with less, getting organized, dealing with domestic life, etc...

• start planning the garden (ordering seeds, etc)
• convert toilet to low-flush mechanism
  

Household Economy: Financial goals, making ends meet, saving, barter etc...

• selling off a Les Paul guitar that hubby doesn't use much (ad posted)
  
• eating down the stores through February to reduce outside purchases (challenge)

Resource Consumption : in which we use less of stuff, and strive to live in a way that has an actual future.

• thermal pot cooking
  
• walking for shopping and volunteer work (use car as little as possible)
  

Cottage Industry and Subsistence:: The things we do that prevent us from needing to buy things, and the things we produce that go out into the world and provide for others. Not everyone will do both, but it is worth encouraging.

• "put up" granola for the summer
• make hot sauce from canned and stored food on hand
  
• start making custom-sized socks
• starting next year's Christmas presents by using up my re-discovered yarn stash with a new knitting book I got
  

Family and Community: Pretty much what it sounds like. How do we enable those to take the place of collapsing infrastructure?

• co-learning with a celiac neighbor how to make polenta (an economical gluten-free "fast food"!)
• began planning to build an outdoor oven with neighbors
  

Outside Work: Finding a balance, doing good work, serving the larger community as much as we can, within our need to make a living.

• volunteer work with Peterborough Greenup's Urban Forest project (GIS mapping and data analysis)
  

Time and Happiness: Those things without which there's really no point.

• Nordic walking to enjoy whatever sunshine we have this month and get fresh air
  
• fiction reading (second-hand or borrowed books)
• continue with art journal

How I Did "Anyway" in January

Domestic Infrastructure - these are the realities of home life, including making your home work better with less, getting organized, dealing with domestic life, etc...

• finishing the plastic on the crawl space insulation - I'm not doing it, hubby is -- and it's dependent on weather at this point Cold weather overtook us and we didn't really get a thaw this month.
  
• sealing up the cellar foundation Only a small amount of work done on this.
  
• sealing up windows in the two storage areas off the kitchen Nothing done
  
• de-clutter and organize art and craft storage Completed and a much more workable space now because of of it.
  
• curtains on the windows of one room for sound-proofing and heat retention Done.
  

Household Economy: Financial goals, making ends meet, saving, barter etc...

• selling off a Les Paul guitar that hubby doesn't use much (ad posted) Still not sold.
  
• eating down the stores through January to reduce outside purchases (challenge) Reduced our outside spending to under $100 -- and that included some stock-up! Also decluttered the pantry and organized "oldest first" use.
  
• set up budget for our next travel vacation The budget is set and the money is being saved so we'll have all funds available before we go so we won't be "spending ahead" via credit card. We'll still use the card, but funds will be in the chequing account to cover it.
  

Resource Consumption : in which we use less of stuff, and strive to live in a way that has an actual future.

• thermal pot cooking Have been using it for soups, curry, stew, rice -- sometimes twice a day!
  
• walking for shopping and volunteer work (use car as little as possible) I've been dressing for the weather and walking is no problem. I also got a lighter, more erogonomic one strap pack which is great to use.
  

Cottage Industry and Subsistence:: The things we do that prevent us from needing to buy things, and the things we produce that go out into the world and provide for others. Not everyone will do both, but it is worth encouraging.

• designing reusable Christmas tags from photos I took of Williamsburg wreaths Done
  
• learning to make custom-sized socks Did the reading and measuring, but have yet to start a pair.
  
• starting next year's Christmas presents by using up my re-discovered yarn stash with a new knitting book I got I've knit a couple of things for myself, but other things are planned.
  

Family and Community: Pretty much what it sounds like. How do we enable those to take the place of collapsing infrastructure?

• co-learning with a celiac neighbor how to make polenta (an economical gluten-free "fast food"!) Nothing done
  
• begin planning to build an outdoor oven with neighbors Nothing done
  

Outside Work: Finding a balance, doing good work, serving the larger community as much as we can, within our need to make a living.

• volunteer work with Peterborough Greenup's Urban Forest project (GIS mapping and data analysis) --> explore using iTree software for them It looks like we'll be able to do a lot with iTree.
  

Time and Happiness: Those things without which there's really no point.

• Nordic walking to enjoy whatever sunshine we have this month and get fresh air Lots of walking and we've had enough good snow that I could also do Nordic skiing this year.
  
• fiction reading (second-hand or borrowed books) Delightful to read to a book of short stories a friend wrote and gave me for Christmas.
  
• making digital photo collages of our year's travels for our scrapbook Got caught up from past trips
  
• start an art journal Began it!
  

Week Four: Eating Down the Pantry

We had a last kick at a great dollar sale at one of our local grocers, so some money went for stock-up of Astro yogurt, frozen fish, oatmeal, soy milk, and bread. We also got some fresh stuff: regular milk, produce, ginger root, discounted wheat tortillas, and tea. I spent $34.30 for the week. Our total spent for the month was $99.87. So $100 to our travel savings for our next trip in March!

I finally got to the falafel and I'm glad I did: they were very tasty with some chutney and yogurt on tortillas.

Food eaten:
• chili with stored beans, salsas, stock, and home-canned chili meat
• oatmeal-fruit bars with canned fruit spread
• chili pie with made chili, pepper jack cheese, and cornbread topping from stored mix
• fruit crisp with canned fruit sauce and stored apples
• pasta with mixed veg, frozen turkey sausage, home-canned sauce
• frozen shepherd's pie
• pizza with home-canned sauce, artisan dough, mixed veg
• falafel from stored mix with stored chutney

Week Three: Eating Down the Pantry

We had a good food week -- sufficient variety and used a few more things that had to go.

Food eaten:
• remainder of lentil soup
• one frozen portion of lasagna
• canned pumpkin in pumpkin custard and pumpkin waffles
• vegetable soup with stored squash, dried red pepper, dried greens, frozen leek greens, dried zucchini, sun-dried tomatoes, canned tomato stock
• mixed-bean soup with ham stock, sausage from fridge, stored potatoes, carrots, and sweet potato, roasted red pepper spread, left-over rice, home-made hot sauce, fresh parsley growing on the window sill
• Algerian flat bread with hummus
• beef and broccoli in black bean sauce over rice: local grass-fed beef, local green pepper, broccoli, on-hand black bean sauce, stored rice
• sweet-and-sour pork over rice: frozen pork, cooked rice, fresh pineapple, vegetable odds-and-ends

The $1 sale was still on at a local grocery store, so a few more things got stocked up: soy milk, crackers for travel. I also used a half-price voucher at Almost Perfect for some hummus mix (great for travel!) and frozen asparagus and sweet potato fries. All told we spent $18.59 for groceries.

Week Two: Eating Down the Pantry

We finished sorting out the pantry: consolidated food items from the metal shelves to the wooden shelves (which, of course, had more space because of the clean-out last week), got rid of a few things, and stored like with like so things are easier to find. The double row of plastic storage has been reduced to one; a container of cloth went to its more appropriate place in the sewing/art room.

Food eaten:

• remainder of lentil soup
• began eating venison summer sausage
• one frozen portion of lasagna
• pizza with homemade sauce (tomato & roasted red pepper) and crust, venison sausage, mushrooms, peppers, cheese
• shepherd's pie: grass-fed beef burger, stored potatoes and carrots, frozen peas, canned cream corn
• homemade artisan bread
• vegetable soup with stored squash, home-canned tomato stock and veg stock, dried greens, dried zucchini, dried red peppers, quinoa, home-made hot sauce
  
• home-canned stew with frozen peas

There was a great $1 sale at one of our local food stores, so a few items that we like to keep a stock of were bought: canned tuna and salmon, canned corn, macaroni, bread and wieners for the freezer. Another store had my favorite yogurt on special, so I bought 3 containers of that. I can make my own, but it's not as yummy. We also got more frozen fish to last us through the winter. Of course the new stuff has been stored "behind" the older stuff. With the other usual dairy and fresh produce, total spent: $35.91

Week One: Eating Down the Pantry

My husband and I went through the bank of shelves in the pantry that is four feet high and eight feet wide. He moved stuff out to the kitchen table one shelf at a time and cleaned the shelf while I sorted. It took us a couple of hours but such satisfaction when it was done!

I was surprised how little there was that had to go: a couple of items past their expiry dates and a couple of pest-infested containers. I moved all of the pasta out of bags and boxes to sturdier glass, heavy-duty plastic, and metal containers. We've not seen any mice in the pantry this year (though a couple died in our trap under the kitchen sink), but this should protect some stuff that was pretty vulnerable otherwise. I consolidated a few packages of things. I also wrote on the kitchen white board things that are a priority to use up.

Food this week that used up some things:

• lasagna: I had the cook-before-use lasagna noodles so I made a big lasagna with tofu, cheese, grass-fed beef, dried veg, and -- of course-- three pints of homemade tomato sauce. We had two meals of it this week and one lunch for me; two containers for two more meals went in the freezer.
• corn-tomato soup: I had two lunches out of this using a corn chowder mix I had on hand with some left-over stewed tomatoes
• lentil soup: I had some mix I bagged up a couple of Christmases ago as well as some dry sausage and more dried veg. With this years tomato stock we got a very hearty and nourishing soup out of it. We have one more evening meal and couple of lunches left.

Groceries actually purchased this week: milk, half-and-half (I use it in making yogurt), organic mushrooms, red and green peppers, zucchini. Total spent: $11.53 The milk and mushrooms should last us two weeks.

Knitting So Far This Fall

I was watching so much television this fall, I decided to do something useful while doing it. Besides, I was taken by the opening of a new shop on Water St here in Peterborough called Needles in the Hay: they stocked Briggs & Little yarn! Briggs & Little is a yarn mill in the Canadian Maritimes. They take wool from sheep herders and spin it; some can go back to the sheep farmer if he/she want; the mill sells the rest. The heathery colours are particularly nice.

When I lived in Nova Scotia, there was a cluster of sheep farmers about 15 kilometers up the road from me who I got to know quite well. I learned to spin from them; I got raw wool from them. One woman, Janetta Dexter, specialized in collecting double-knit patterns and knitting double-knit mittens from her own yarn. In a double-knit mitt, colours are carried behind the face of the knitting. This produces a very warm mitten.

She published a small booklet of just the patterns. Later she shared them and some others in Flying Geese and Partridge Feet by Robin Hansen. The patterns you see here, starting from the top left and going clockwise, are: Shining Star (front) and Fleur-de-Lis (back), vertical strip on mitt body and Peek-a-boo on the cuff, Salt and Pepper in the wristers, Candlelit Windows in reversed colours, and Northern Star.

After the third pair of mittens, I found my old stash of wool! So the green and white pair are knit from that.

After Christmas I want to start making socks. I have books, needles, and sock yarn on the way.

The Wrap is a Gift

These bags contain presents. These bags are reusable and were made from off-cuts when I remodelled some old drapes to smaller curtains for my husband's studio. The tags are reusable too! I designed some tags in Inkscape, using some vintage Santas off the Internet, and laminated them. Names can be written on with dry erase markers, then later wiped off and used next year.

The Mouse Count Begins

Every fall mice invade the pantry and undersink area. We have an old porous foundation and that's how they get in. This year my husband is sealing it up so the invasion has come late, but there must still be an opening or two they can get through.

In the past I've put out mouse bait and poison cakes. The mice just seem to make a mess of them and pass on the word that there's tasty treats to be had inside this house.

Last year instead of spending money on bait I got a couple of old-fashioned traps. I had some peanut butter that was starting to go stale so a dab of that became bait. The first evening we're sitting in our living room and we hear a SNAP!. Sure enough, there's a mouse in the trap under the sink. A day later we had one in the pantry. Once the trap was sprung, peanut butter gone, and so was the mouse -- one up for them.

Last year's score: Me: 4 Mice: 1.

After the fourth mouse, we never saw trace of another.

Two days ago I saw mouse sign under the kitchen sink. Last night I set out the traps. The old peanut butter is even staler. This morning I had a mouse. The trap is baited again.

It's a great way to use up old peanut butter.

Doing a Door-crasher

Today (a Saturday) Staples here in Canada had a door-crasher on 500 GB external portable drives for $40 (25-30 per store) and netbooks for $150 (25-30 per store). I went to the farmer's market and then made my way over to Staples at 8 am.

There was a good cluster of folks there already and I saw my neighbor Sherry there. She had commandeered a teenage friend of one of her kids to join the line with her so she could get two netbooks (there was a "one per family" limit). She'd driven by the store at 5 am and seen 4 people there, so she went home for some breakfast and then came back. She'd already made a Tim Horton's run and gotten a box of Timbits for the crowd of about 20.

We gabbed about a bunch of things so the time went fairly quickly. At least it was 1 degree above freezing (Centigrade) rather than the -15 C it'd been throughout the week in the mornings. Sherri's feet were still getting cold though. I was wearing my Blundstons and doing fine. That's what she want to get; another friend of hers swears by them as well.

About ten to 9 they passed out coupons for the drives and netbooks. Though people were clumped around the door, we all knew who had been there first and things were really orderly (that's how Canadians are!).

Once I had my coupon, I went to my car and had some of my coffee. Then I went inside and one clerk had a stack of drives at her register so people who just wanted those could go through the line fairly quick.

The shiny black drive is sitting on my desk now waiting for hookup to I can transfer stuff from the 320 GB drive to it. The 320 drive then becomes my private storage drive and the 90 GB drive I was using for storage and backup will be dedicated to backups (and consequently not hooked up and running all the time).

A Thermal Cooker Trifecta

Soup This past Sunday was the Quaker potluck in a space that doesn't have a stove, though it does have electrical. Rather than get out my crock pot, I used my thermal cooker for soup. It also had the advantage of being a deeper pot so there is less likelihood of leakage while transporting. Another Friend brought chili in an oval crockpot and he had some mess to clean up.

The soup was based on the harvest I have on hand: tomatoes ripening in newspaper, delicta squash in storage, canned tomato stock, lightly salted vegetable stock, dried chard, and dried zucchini slices. I add some mixed dal and curry and produced a hearty, warming soup for lunch. After bringing it all to a boil, I set the pot in the vacuum sleeve, closed the insulated lid, and went for an hour long walk. I checked the seasoning when I got back, brought it to a boil again, and set up for Meeting. The soup cooked through meeting and announcements and all but two servings was joyfully consumed. I put those two servings in the fridge and rinsed out the cooker preparatory to its next use.

Rice Once I got my thermal cooker and found out how easy it was to cook rice in it, I donated my rice cooker to a thrift store. It was also far easier to clean and you never have to worry about it burning. It takes 45 minutes to cook brown rice in the cooker. Just bring 2 cups of rice in 3 cups of water to a boil, set it in the sleeve, cover and forget it. Supper got a little bit delayed, but the rice stayed fluffy in the cooker. We always use leftover rice in fried rice, under stir-fries, or perhaps even in a rice pudding. After supper I put the remaining rice in a container and cleaned out the cooker for its next use.

Steel-cut oats Usual recipes for steel-cut oats (the oat grains are cut into pieces rather than rolled flat) call for a half-hour boil. There is also the ease with which the oats will cling and burn to the bottom of your pot. I used the same proportions of water and oats as called for: 4 parts water to 1 part oats and did up 2 cups of steel-cut oats for a week of breakfasts. I also added hemp hearts, nutritional yeast, ground flax seed, and wheat germ (a round teaspoon of each per quarter cup of oats) as I do for my usual oatmea. I brought this to a boil and set the pot in the vacuum sleeve, closing the lid. After 4 hours they were nicely cooked through. It was bedtime then, so I simply took the pot out of the sleeve and set it in our "walk-in" fridge (the enclosed porch in December - March).

I moved the finished oats to containers this morning (Tuesday) so I could used the thermal cooker for tonight's supper of Southwestern stew. To used the oats, I microwave them for 2 minutes with fruit then top with some yogurt -- a very hearty, rib-sticking breakfast!

December list for the Anyway project

Domestic Infrastructure - these are the realities of home life, including making your home work better with less, getting organized, dealing with domestic life, etc...

• finishing the plastic on the crawl space insulation
• sealing up the cellar foundation
• sealing up windows in the two storage areas off the kitchen
• de-clutter and organize art and craft storage
• curtains on the windows of one room for sound-proofing and heat retention
  

Household Economy: Financial goals, making ends meet, saving, barter etc...

• selling off a Les Paul guitar that hubby doesn't use much (ad posted)
  
• starting a monthly savings plan for charitable donations
• starting a monthly savings plan for travel funds
  

Resource Consumption : in which we use less of stuff, and strive to live in a way that has an actual future.

• Christmas baking using what I have on hand or have canned
  
• batch cooking
• walking for shopping and volunteer work (use car as little as possible)
  

Cottage Industry and Subsistence:: The things we do that prevent us from needing to buy things, and the things we produce that go out into the world and provide for others. Not everyone will do both, but it is worth encouraging.

• making some heat bags for gifts
  
• Christmas baking and preserves for Christmas gifts
  

Family and Community: Pretty much what it sounds like. How do we enable those to take the place of collapsing infrastructure?

• teaching a celiac neighbor how to make no-knead gluten-free bread
  

Outside Work: Finding a balance, doing good work, serving the larger community as much as we can, within our need to make a living.

• volunteer work with Peterborough Greenup's Urban Forest project (GIS mapping and data analysis)

Time and Happiness: Those things without which there's really no point.

• Nordic walking to enjoy whatever sunshine we have this month and get fresh air
  
• fiction reading (second-hand or borrowed books)
• making digital photo collages of our year's travels for our scrapbook
• plan some future art collage work
  

November wrap-up for Anyway project

Domestic Infrastructure - these are the realities of home life, including making your home work better with less, getting organized, dealing with domestic life, etc...

• getting the tin roof done on the back of the house done except 2 pieces of flashing
  
• finishing the plastic on the crawl space insulation carry over to next month!
  
• sealing up the cellar foundation carry over to next month!
  
• build a cold closet in the heated basement may carry over to next year because I can't decide exactly where to put it
  

Household Economy: Financial goals, making ends meet, saving, barter etc...

• selling off a Les Paul guitar that hubby doesn't use much ad has been posted
  
• finding cheaper house insurance (done! and savings have gone to charity donations)
  

Resource Consumption : in which we use less of stuff, and strive to live in a way that has an actual future.

• reduce daytime light use as much as practical we're both getting better at this
  
• batch cooking have used my thermal cooker lots
  

Cottage Industry and Subsistence:: The things we do that prevent us from needing to buy things, and the things we produce that go out into the world and provide for others. Not everyone will do both, but it is worth encouraging.

• knitting socks for myself, mittens as a Christmas gift I gave up on the sock pattern after I broke a bamboo needle; did finish one pair of mittens and started another
  
• putting together some baking mixes for Christmas gifts made up some bean soup mix for gifts
  

Family and Community: Pretty much what it sounds like. How do we enable those to take the place of collapsing infrastructure?

• teaching a celiac neighbor how to make no-knead gluten-free bread not gotten to the gluten-free yet, but she did learn how to make the wheat no-knead bread for her family
  

Outside Work: Finding a balance, doing good work, serving the larger community as much as we can, within our need to make a living.

• volunteer work with Peterborough Greenup's Urban Forest project (GIS mapping and data analysis) entered one inventory area of tree points; starting to investigate use of iTree (free from the US Forest Service) for them
  
• volunteer work with the Festival of Trees' Green Team (we sort recyclables out of the festival's waste stream, saving upwards of $3000 in tipping fees so more money goes to Hospice, Hospital, and another health agency). worked the Teddy Bear breakfast; also came home with some great reusable stuff for Christmas decor and wrapping that they were going to put in the landfill
  

Time and Happiness: Those things without which there's really no point.

• Nordic walking to enjoy the fall sunsets and warm afternoons found a new trail that takes me to a good grocery story with an LCBO next door; also walked to my Quaker meeting twice -- these are half-hour each way walks. Feels great!
  
• fiction reading (second-hand or borrowed books) finished two books
  
• making digital photo collages of our year's travels for our scrapbook ran into some computer issues so had to spend time and energy on those - continue to next month