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And while we’re on the subject of crappy things-

Published by Helen on February 9, 2009 in Crafts. 1 Comment

We had a really crappy screen door:

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We got it about 5 years ago and it was okay for about a year. Last year I decided to re-screen it because the cats had destroyed it by climbing it. Instead of buying new screening I thought I’d be tricky and screen each section separately with small pieces of screen that I already had. That worked for about a week - the cats didn’t climb it because the screening was so unstable - but a 2 year-old fell through it and popped out the lower left section. Yesterday I decided to give it one last chance - the weather was great and I just wanted to be able to get some fresh air in the kitchen if I had to be inside at all.  I took the whole thing apart again and glued and stapled a sheer curtain in where the screening would have been.  I reinforced the bottom half with some chicken wire but so far the cats are not wanting to climb it. I had the door open all day today again  - but even if the door is closed it looks really cool from the inside.

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Resolution-

Published by Helen on February 8, 2009 in Environment and Shopping. 6 Comments

We’ve had our latest coffee maker for about 2 years. It still works - kind of - but the lid has water trapped in it and about half of the time you have to unplug it and plug it back in to be able to turn it on. Oh yeah - and when you pour coffee it makes a puddle beside your cup no matter how you hold it or twist the lid. The one we had before it lasted about 2 years too. I started looking around online for coffeemakers that would last for more than 2 years - but that ’s not all! Since I was making a list of possibly unreasonable demands I also added:

1. Makes hot coffee - I want to be able to put milk in it without it going lukewarm.

2. Makes strong coffee.

3. No plastic parts in contact with water/coffee - I can taste it and know it isn’t good.

We’ve used a french press (strong, but not hot enough) and tried the cold brew method (strong,  great for iced coffee , but a hassle for not-hot-enough coffee.) I’ve had everything from a $20 Mr Coffee to a $70 stainless thermal carafe coffee maker.  I know this all sounds whiny and spoiled - waaah - feel sorry for me with my coffee maker problems! But really it is just one more example of the disposable crap mentality that I don’t want to be a part of. I don’t want to buy a new crappy coffee maker every 2 or 3 years, I don’t want to throw away a  broken crappy coffee maker every 2 or 3 years. I could quit drinking coffee, but then I could write this post about crappy pencil sharpeners, crappy dishwashers, crappy cars, crappy socks - this is bigger than the coffee maker. I just want something that does what it supposed to and does not need to be replaced regularly.

Okay - deep breath -  in my studies on the interwebs I came across electric percolators. Several reviews I read mentioned that the percolator in question was purchased to replace a percolator that had died after 30+ years of daily use. Others mentioned how hot the coffee was - or how strong! And guess what? A lot of the percoltors I saw had no plastic parts! I looked around on ebay but didn’t find anything reasonable, so finally I chose a percolator on amazon and put it in my cart but didn’t buy it right away.

A few days later I found this percolator at goodwill:

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I thought the cord was missing, but it was wrapped around the stem inside. There weren’t even fingerprints on it - it had never been used! It was $8.78, I feel like I have a piece of artwork in my kitchen, and it makes steaming hot, strong coffee. If you visit me in the next 30 years I’ll offer you a cup.

Our Giving Tree

Published by Helen on December 9, 2008 in Chatter. 4 Comments

Remember last year how we cut our xmas tree from our yard? We left about 2 feet of the bottom of the tree there to re-grow - which it is and doing well - and it looks like it will be ready to cut again next year.
This year’s tree is another tree from our yard. It was our xmas tree 8 years ago too, when it was a 3 foot tall tree growing in a pot. At the time we had two-year-old twins and were going out of town for the holiday so we didn’t want anything complicated. My sister who was living in Charlotte, NC at the time helped us decorate the tree on Thanksgiving and we planted it in the New Year. It has been growing outside our front door since, and had reached about 18 feet. Scott stood on a tall chair and cut 8 feet off the top -it is a leyland cypress like last year, they tolerate pruning really well - but you’d never even notice that the remaining tree had been amputated.

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This is my second year with a homegrown tree and I still think the idea of it is revolutionary - partly I feel like I’m getting away with something but mostly I wonder why I didn’t think of this a long time ago. But the kids think it is totally normal. When we passed some artificial trees in a store recently, Hazel (with all the scorn and lack of perspective a 4 year old can muster) said, “Why would anyone BUY a FAKE tree? They can just cut one from their yard.”

Granny squares

Published by Helen on November 25, 2008 in Chatter. 2 Comments

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I made this granny square blanket after much conflicted thought.  Granny squares are fast and easy and great for experimenting with color and using up small bits of yarn , so what is not to like? Well, I see so many granny square blankets at goodwill, I feel like I just added to the population of an unwanted species.  Spay and neuter your granny square blankets!

On board-

Published by Helen on November 5, 2008 in Chatter. 0 Comments

I’ve been wanting a way to display recent pictures  - not anything permanent like frames - just something for the cute current pictures that are always coming through. So today I got a piece of foam insulation from the shed:

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Then cut a piece of fabric to cover it.  I looked all over for some tape but couldn’t find any, so I just stapled the fabric to the foam board:

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Then I wrapped some yarn around it and stapled the yarn where it crossed and stuck the pictures in:

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I plan to change out the fabric seasonally and we’ll use tacks to add things other than pictures. It only took a few minutes to make from stuff I already had -  I think we’ll get a lot of use out of this!

Halloween 08

Published by Helen on November 1, 2008 in Chatter. 8 Comments

We carve our pumpkins on Oct. 30th because the warm weather here in Ga makes pumpkins turn to mush in about 48 hours. This is the first year that I had no input on any of the pumpkins.  I did the labor of cutting Hazel’s, but she decided on and drew the design and the boys needed no help from me at all. I tried to add my own little creative touch to Hazel’s but she made me remove it! Next year I’ll have to get my own pumpkin.

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We’ve all been into the series Avatar: the Last Airbender and this year the kids and all their friends were going to go as characters from the show.  I give the boys a deadline, usually October 1st, after which they are not allowed to change their minds.  (Their choices are usually obscure and specific and I need time to gather materials and figure out how to execute the designs.  I think you’ll see what I mean.) Hazel and all of their friends changed their minds about the Avatar costumes, but Dashiell and Ray didn’t mind at all.  Hazel inexplicably decided she’d be a bat and that she’d wear clothes that she chose and I’d just make her wings and ears. Last night was much colder than most Halloweens, so I was able to convince her that she needed to wear more than a t-shirt and shorts.  Our compromise was this felted wool sweater with the arms cut off.

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Ray decided to be the character Sokka, and decided that he wanted to dress in his battle uniform.

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Dashiell was Zuko - after he joined up with the good guys.

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Fall Haul-

Published by Helen on October 29, 2008 in Chatter. 1 Comment

Yesterday we went to my friend in Athens’ house.  We transformed 5 gallons of basil plants into about 5 cups of pesto, caught up while the kids played, and traded all of the things that we pick up for each other when we buy in bulk.

I have some things stored in her huge basement, so I also picked up my bin of Halloween/ fall decorations. I had forgotten about many of the things in there so it was like a huge present to open this morning.

This guy was in there too - I picked him up at goodwill last year and gave him a coat of black spray paint to make him scarier - he even had a googly eye when I bought him! He is hard to photograph so I took him outside for his photo shoot- Merrill this one is for you!

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Halloween through the years-

Published by Helen on October 26, 2008 in Holidays. 2 Comments

I recently scanned a bunch of pictures of Halloween costumes.  It is really funny to see the changes in the kids and their interests over the years.  It’s also funny to see the progress we’ve made on this house in the backgrounds!

(And yes - I do make their costumes myself except for the obvious things like the superhero pajamas and Darth Vader head.)

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Today’s crafty project-

Published by Helen on October 21, 2008 in Chatter. 4 Comments

Someone stole my Obama sign on Sunday night.  It was just one of the plastic/wire frame signs, but we live on a blind curve on a highway and there is nowhere to pull over where I planted it.  I just figured that no one would think it worth the effort to stop and risk being barelled into by someone coming around the curve at 60 mph.

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But this sign will take  an even greater effort.  It is 3/4 inch plywood, almost 3ft x4ft and weighs about 35 pounds.  I have to paint the other side now, build some legs to hold it upright and remove some of the nails that are sticking out on the other side. . .

Change over

Published by Helen on October 2, 2008 in Gardening. 1 Comment

Today I put away my spring/summer living room curtains and put away the spring/ summer decorations and got out the fall/winter stuff.

Then I got out my fall/winter bag and cleaned out my spring/summer bag and put the necessary stuff into the winter bag.  In case you’re getting the impression from all this that I’m super organized I  took a picture to prove otherwise:

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These rocks in my bag were from our trip to MI this summer. The were picked up on the beach and put in my bag and rattled around at the bottom for the last 4 months! The acorns are only a week old ;-)

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Another changeover from summer to fall. These are the last (?) of the Italian tree tomatoes with the crocheted pumpkins I got out this morning.

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My garden has experienced a few changes too. Most notable is the change in scale - I used to have a few reasonably sized raised beds. I now have what I half-jokingly call my Y2K garden - and it is huge! This is the kind of vegetable gardening I always wanted to do but some combination of babies, jobs, and trying to sell the house prevented it.  Oh, and an enormous ancient peach tree that was in the middle of this space is now mostly dead and 80% of the branches dropped off or died this summer so a lot of real estate that was shady is now sunny.

Summer veggies are (mostly) gone and the winter crops are going in. I’ve planted clover and a cover crop mix in some of the beds and in others I added a lot of composted chicken bedding and planted onions, radishes, carrots, kale, collards, broccoli, bok choy, parsley, cilantro, lettuce, turnips, spinach, fava beans, snow peas, and garlic.  I have more than 1 variety of most of the veggies, so the variety list is actually a lot longer.  Some of the veggies I’ll have to cover with a floating row cover or some type of cold frame, but most will be fine through the winter here.

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This is my main carrot bed - interplanted with radishes.  I dug the soil, placed the raised bed and filled it with good soil, compost and sand so my carrots will have room to stretch.