Whoa!

Today at 6:25 pm:







The local media referred to these as "lime size" hail stones, heh heh.

A Shady Front Porch Spot

Meadowlark (http://justwanderingthrough.blogspot.com/) with the encouragement from Hermit Jim (http://hermitjim.blogspot.com/) posted a very nice bit about her front porch and patio and requested that we do the same. While this isn't my full time front porch in town, this is the front porch (and a work in progress, no doubt) that resides at the Home Place, which I visit as often as possible:

Not fancy by any means, but still my favorite place to be. Thanks to Meadowlark for the inspiration!

Building a Stalk-Roofed Shady Spot

Daughter #2 graduated from University of Houston today! Two down, one to go. .. congratulations, Jamie! We are so proud. Now she's on to graduate school...

Since Jamie decided to skip graduation, we took a quick trip to the Home Place. We were greeted by this lovely rainbow when we arrived. It's a little tricky to spot it in the photo but it was brilliant and bright in person. We ran into rain, hail and high wind during the drive down, but it was lovely anyway as this area really needs the rain.

Before we left town late Friday afternoon, David picked up a couple of sacks of Quikcrete. I got off work early so we could head south. Our goal during this trip was to build the stalk-roofed patio. We've been intending to start this project for a while, but something always seemed to get in the way. The long-term goal is to create a large rock patio and a large roof area over the RV so we can catch water and have shelter from the sun. But we wanted one section to have a more natural look, so we chose to cover it in yucca stalks. The metal-roofed/water catchment structure will come later.

Early Saturday morning, we made sure we had plenty of water on hand (and coffee, too - check out the percolator) and setup a temporary shelter. We expected a high in the afternoon of about 100 degrees, so we wanted to have a shady spot for breaks. David filled the solar shower bag and placed it in the sun so we could shower later. When he picked up the Quikcrete, he also got a deal on some solar garden lights (3 pack for $9.99 x 2 packs), so he unboxed those and put them in the sun to charge. We are hoping these lights will let us put away our Coleman propane lantern for a while.

I dug a couple of post holes. I thought the ground would be rock-hard, but this was much easier than I expected. David attached some 2"x6" boards to the side of the trailer. These boards will support the thicker yucca stalk bases. He mixed the concrete and poured, and together, we set the posts. The posts will support a 10' long 2"x4" to hold the thinner end of the stalks.

We planned to take a mid-day break during the hottest part of the day and get back to work as the evening cooled down. At nap time, the wind picked up a little. I guess there were some strong gusts, because when we woke up, we found the temporary shelter had traveled toward the seasonal creek. Such is life in the desert. RIP tent frame.

Saturday evening, the concrete was firm so we continued work on the structure. David secured the 10' long 2"x4" to the tops of the posts. Then, I picked stalks (from our previously gathered stack) and he nailed the base of the stalks to the structure.

See the thicker stalk base secured to wood on the trailer (you can see the 2"x6" pieces that David attached to the side of the trailer):

The thinner stalk ends resting on the 2"x4":

We ran out of longer stalks, so we stopped to gather a few more, which took a couple of hours.

On Sunday morning, we finished the stalk-roofed structure. The rock patio is still a work in progress and will take several visits to finish. It's work to gather, select and set the stones, but I really enjoy doing it.

Late Saturday afternoon, the wind picked up and some clouds formed above the mountains. We got a few sprinkles, but the rain never reached us. The temperature dropped enough to require warmer clothes and a jacket. I'm glad we are always prepared for weather surprises. The rapid changes in weather are shocking! The solar shower was warm and felt great at the end of the day, even though the outside temperature was in the high 50s.

Total cost of this project, $7.78 (!!) + tools and materials already on hand:

Yucca stalks for the roof, stones and sand for the rock patio - free, gathered from our property

5 gallon bucket for mixing concrete - free, snagged from the bed of Russ's pickup (with his permission, of course)

Wood for framing - free, rescued from the dumpster a few months ago

Hardware - we already had nails, screws, and tools (shovel, hammer, pick axe) on hand so I didn't calculate the cost

Ladder - David forgot this important item, so we made do with a chair (don't try this at home!) - how much is one good argument worth?

Water - hauled from home

Quikcrete - 2 bags, $3.59 each + tax = $7.78

A centipede checking out the yucca stalk pile:

Sunday morning - drive home. David has to be at work at 3:00!

"Homegrown Revolution"

Think you need to move to the country to fulfill your dreams of having a farm and growing your own food? Think again... and watch this "Homegrown Revolution" video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCPEBM5ol0Q

Thanks to this lovely inspirational and informative blog: http://goingoffdagridjanice.blogspot.com

Happy Mother's Day, all you moms out there.

Canning... for Dummies and Cheapies

Look at the beautiful tomatoes that we got through Freecycle! They were Freecycled through our local food bank and they had so many, they required that anyone getting tomatoes take an entire flat, so we did. Times two. Plus one flat of tomatoes on the vine. We shared them with lots of people and ended up with many to keep. Let's see. I've made fresh salsa (and a recipient even made some delicious pico de gallo for me) and al fresco pasta sauce. What to do with all those tomatoes... Can them!?!?

I'm not a canner. My Mom was a canner and my Aunts and Grandmothers were canners, but not me. I didn't have an interest in such things until recently, so I missed a rare opportunity to learn how to do so many self-sufficient things from the masters, er... mistresses. And now they have all passed. Regret. When my Mom moved in with us, I instructed my sister to get rid of unnecessary kitchen stuff, so her canning supplies were gone, thankfully to a good home. More regret. Fortunately, I have a new and already dear friend, Brenda, who I can turn to now to learn this stuff. She's a jill-of-all-trades and an expert in so many things related to sustainability and living off grid - a woman I truly admire. Anyway, I found some videos on http://www.canningusa.com/ to help me muster the courage, to think that I might be able to do it without killing my family, and Brenda and her husband, Russ, walked me through the steps via several phone calls. Check out the canningusa website if you are new to canning.

Realistically, I knew that my first attempt at canning might be my last, so I didn't want to invest much money in this project. I already had about 1/2 dozen Ball jars in good shape (I use these for iced tea and lemonade). I was short the required supplies, so Brenda loaned me the large stock pot, I used tongs in place of a jar lifter (carefully). The pot needed a wire rack to hold the jars off the bottom, which I didn't have, so I used rocks and pebbles and some cookie cutters I had on hand. I learned this trick from the wonderfully informative Backwoods Home website (http://www.backwoodshome.com/).

I bought new lids and rings at the local grocery store. Total investment? About 4 bucks.

Making do with rocks and cookie cutters - check out the Scottish Terrier cookie cutter in the pot. That's the cookie cutter I use for homemade dog biscuits.

Cooling the blanched tomatoes in ice water

Cooking the pasta sauce with onion, my favorite peppers - poblano (on sale here - 3 peppers for a dollar - wow!), chopped garlic, basil, oregano, garlic powder, paprika and black pepper. I didn't add any salt because we are trying to cut back. I'm wearing my Mom's blue demin apron with a red Texas on the front. I think she would be proud! David helped me remove the stem ends and score the tomatoes for blanching.

The finished product!

The verdict? I truly enjoyed canning and will do it again. I still have 1/2 box of tomatoes, so I ran out today after work and bought a set of new jars, a large stock pot and some additional supplies so I can continue on my own. I spent about $22. Not bad.

Electricity Bill and a Family Update

My closest friends know that I have this crazy mission to see how low I can get my electricity bill. It started when I got a bill in the $85 range, which was the lowest I had seen in... maybe ever. Anything below $100, especially an $85 bill, was unfathomable to me a year ago. I had the big house, and even though it was almost new and energy efficient - radiant barrier roof, double pane windows, lots of insulation, energy star appliances - my electricity bills were high. The house we lived in prior to that was older and not energy efficient, and my bills were very high, which is obscene (and shameful). But part of the reason was all the equipment that was required to manage Mom's illness and that equipment had to run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. After the $85 bill, I got a couple of +/-$65 bills, followed by two in the $55 range, and my most recent bill... (drum roll)... $46.29. I'm so proud! We put our tv & peripherals on power strips and (I yell about making sure we) turn everything off when we are not using it; we put a CFL bulb in our "night light" that we keep on at night, put our front porch light on a motion detector and we've been diligent about unplugging our phone chargers or other things with fantom loads. i don't use the clothes dryer, unless you count the clothesline in my backyard. But, as I write, my a/c is running. I don't use it often, but it's just plain hot!

Which leads me to the family update - Jamie and AJ broke up. They were engaged for a couple of years. I'm sad. He's a good guy and we all have the same interests in simplifying our lives, being outdoors, hiking, camping, etc. We will miss him. The relationship had just run its course. The good news is that Jamie and Tessa are coming to Alpine for the summer. Jamie is graduating from University of Houston and considering grad school close to our home. We will be thrilled if she decides to stay for the fall semester. She has decided not to walk at graduation, and I'm sad about that. I really wanted to watch her get that diploma. But it's her decision and I support that. We have an RV that the girls will stay in. I'll be watching my electricity bills go up some since the RV will be hooked up at our place for now. But that's ok. I'll use this as an opportunity to educate them about the power of making one small change, like a powerstrip on the tv or unplugging phone chargers.

We are going to the storeroom to start cleaning it out. I'm going to be Freecycling some things, but my Mom's things are still in there, too, and family hasn't come yet to divide things up. We are also getting a few things out of storage so we can build an outdoor kitchen. It will be made from recycled items and we will re-purpose things we already have. Again, following my mantra... DIY and on-the-cheap. I'll post photos as we work on it.