I dehydrated the green beans and bell peppers that I got at the farmer’s market last week. I certainly couldn’t have used them up with all my other produce this week.
Thanksgiving: Turkey meat loaf today. There’s asparagus, kale and arugala for green veggies to choose from and pumpkin pie—my made with an organic pie filling—and well, I don’t know what else yet. I do have two sweet potatoes that would be great roasted, too.
S. is using the day as her day off and she does have to go back to work on Friday. She stopped by later on Thanksgiving and we had some pie together. She loves the taste of the dehydrated red sweet peppers and the dehydrated tomatoes.
No more dehydrated veggies, I ate the rest of them up the day after Thanksgiving!
Moved the herbs to the front porch. They’ll get the sun they should have there until about march or so.
Going now to bake some bread, not breadk that has to be kneaded though. right arm and shoulder are improving a lot. Injuries get old fast!
Peace, shamba
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
November Days Catchup
Nice, cooler weather after a couple of 90 days the past week of so. I've been doing okay with my challenge but I haven’t written anything at all my blog for several days.
Also, when measuring something in my back patio a weekend ago--wall height in one place--I slipped and banged my right shoulder and elbow against the wall. Nothing broken! I was really afraid of some serious injury beyond strain or sprain. I went to urgent Care to have it checked out. They gave me some "nice' pain pills to take to help me sleep since the first 3-4 days were pretty painful and brused all over, er, I was bruised all over the right side. But my arm and shoulder have been improving every day. I used Arnica montana all over where anything hurt and also had some Arnica montana to take for internal use. The moist heat packs they suggested have also been very helpful-3 times a day for 20 minutes.
I've been careful with the right arm but I think it's going to be okay now.
Crooked Sky Farms provides a CSA locally and I think I'm signing up right after the holidays.
I'll have to get a copy of their contract.
My container herbs are growing like hotcakes.
For challenge about 10 days ago:
I pulled all the leftover veggies out of the fridge, onions, sweet potatoes, two red potatoes, 1 russet potato, 3 parsnips, 1 acorn squash, a forlorn turnip and tomato.
The last of fresh cilantro which wasn't going to make it at all.
The cilantro went to garbage, I had used most of it and I want to get a cilantro plant.
One russet potato, 1 red potato, the small sweet potatoes, the turnip, one parsnip and two onions went into a roasting pan with olive oil & thyme and oregano and all got roasted.
I haven't baked sweet potatoes before but not been fond of the whole thing but roasted they are really good!
Anyway all those roasted veggies were extremely tasty and got eaten up in a day.
The other potatoes and parsnips and one large onion got put in a savory Indian spices dish with some canned peas (didn't have any frozen) cumin, turmeric, coriander and chili powder. I'm trying to use more of these spices but I really wasn't sure about this recipe at all but when it was finished cooking it was pretty good over rice. This recipe used up some rice I need to be using up, too.
Peace to all,
Shamba
November 2,
Had lunch with B. today. She thinks that we’ll just scrape by in the economy for at least 3-4 years. She’s quite disgusted the way the whole thing has gone and the government saying these chipper things when there is nothing to be chipper about. She did say no to a depression but looked glum in talking about the whole thing altogether.
I actually went through all my emails in my two accounts, with various personas, and cleaned them all out. whatta job! I get a lot less junk mail than I used to but still there's plenty. I need to unsubscribe from some more lists.
Other outside world news in the past month:
In 2-3 years no more oil from Mexico …
Depletion rate in oil producing countries are faster than anticipated, too
Great recession has cut down on demand, oil prices 147 in July 2008 and then went down to $30 a barrel within 6-8 months and now has come up since summer 2009 now is at around $80 a barrel.
Gas prices are creeping up but are still about mid $2-$3 range after coming way down in fall 2008 as the price of oil fell.
If the economy starts to grow a bit, the price of crude will probably go up! Catch-22!
peace, shamba
Also, when measuring something in my back patio a weekend ago--wall height in one place--I slipped and banged my right shoulder and elbow against the wall. Nothing broken! I was really afraid of some serious injury beyond strain or sprain. I went to urgent Care to have it checked out. They gave me some "nice' pain pills to take to help me sleep since the first 3-4 days were pretty painful and brused all over, er, I was bruised all over the right side. But my arm and shoulder have been improving every day. I used Arnica montana all over where anything hurt and also had some Arnica montana to take for internal use. The moist heat packs they suggested have also been very helpful-3 times a day for 20 minutes.
I've been careful with the right arm but I think it's going to be okay now.
Crooked Sky Farms provides a CSA locally and I think I'm signing up right after the holidays.
I'll have to get a copy of their contract.
My container herbs are growing like hotcakes.
For challenge about 10 days ago:
I pulled all the leftover veggies out of the fridge, onions, sweet potatoes, two red potatoes, 1 russet potato, 3 parsnips, 1 acorn squash, a forlorn turnip and tomato.
The last of fresh cilantro which wasn't going to make it at all.
The cilantro went to garbage, I had used most of it and I want to get a cilantro plant.
One russet potato, 1 red potato, the small sweet potatoes, the turnip, one parsnip and two onions went into a roasting pan with olive oil & thyme and oregano and all got roasted.
I haven't baked sweet potatoes before but not been fond of the whole thing but roasted they are really good!
Anyway all those roasted veggies were extremely tasty and got eaten up in a day.
The other potatoes and parsnips and one large onion got put in a savory Indian spices dish with some canned peas (didn't have any frozen) cumin, turmeric, coriander and chili powder. I'm trying to use more of these spices but I really wasn't sure about this recipe at all but when it was finished cooking it was pretty good over rice. This recipe used up some rice I need to be using up, too.
Peace to all,
Shamba
November 2,
Had lunch with B. today. She thinks that we’ll just scrape by in the economy for at least 3-4 years. She’s quite disgusted the way the whole thing has gone and the government saying these chipper things when there is nothing to be chipper about. She did say no to a depression but looked glum in talking about the whole thing altogether.
I actually went through all my emails in my two accounts, with various personas, and cleaned them all out. whatta job! I get a lot less junk mail than I used to but still there's plenty. I need to unsubscribe from some more lists.
Other outside world news in the past month:
In 2-3 years no more oil from Mexico …
Depletion rate in oil producing countries are faster than anticipated, too
Great recession has cut down on demand, oil prices 147 in July 2008 and then went down to $30 a barrel within 6-8 months and now has come up since summer 2009 now is at around $80 a barrel.
Gas prices are creeping up but are still about mid $2-$3 range after coming way down in fall 2008 as the price of oil fell.
If the economy starts to grow a bit, the price of crude will probably go up! Catch-22!
peace, shamba
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
News from past few days
October 27th:
In the spirit of taking “extras” into the household in these hard times, it seems I have a few weeks old pretty grey and white kitten in my cat household now! He/she can’t be more than 4-5-6 weeks and seems just a little too young to be away from a mother although it can eat adult cat food and small bites of filet mignon cut up especially for it :)
He kept running to all of my adult cats trying to find his mom and an adult cat to bond with. It seems that my orange Kirby is who he picked. Kirby doesn’t seem afraid of him and tolerates him eating in the same dish he does. The others don’t seem very happy with this or don’t know what to make of it. The little guy cries and runs to the adults for comfort.
He was stuck in a tree in front of my neighbors place yesterday and made his way down the tree fine though when I left him alone. He can’t have been around for more than a day or two. But he knows now where food and a soft fleecy place to sleep are —he moved into the “winterized” cat digs. He may not be a complete stranger to people and may come around to being tamed a little more. As it is now I couldn’t catch him without a trap and the animal places are so full of animals these days although kittens and pretty cats probably have a chance. I can’t think about that too much.
October 26th: Cleaned up the cat’s porch today, scrubbed everything with water/soap/bleach and put down new cat bedding material for cold nights which are coming along about Wednesday this week. Daytimes will drop into the 60s midweek and that means nighttime temps in the 40s.
Homelessness in Arizona is worse than it’s ever been before, on the local news tonight. It has occurred to me that from here on out, if we slide downward economically it will be something that few people functioning in society today in the US will recognize or have too much experience with. Not a happy thought. If t we don’t have jobs for people, we’ll have a lot of unemployed in various degrees of homeless, hungry, sick with chronic illnesses.
October 24th-25th:
Half a can of tomato sauce and the rest of the diced tomatoes go into the chicken dinner tonight. I can’t remember why I have the leftover diced tomatoes. Used up a frozen pizza dough I forgot I had it wasn’t past date so I used it for a very simple pizza, tomato sauce and sundried tomatoes. I added some dried sweet peppers. It was okay.
Housing all over the country to go down more in value, according to this Yahoo link.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Homes-About-to-get-much-cnnm-699910894.html?x=0&ref=patrick.net
I quote the part about Phoenix in particular, since I live there.
“ In Phoenix values have already collapsed by 54% and could fall another 23.4%. In both cities, Fiserv anticipates the losses to continue into 2011, but they will be less than 5%.”
That adds up to: 82.4% I just added the whole 5%.
Pretty close to Ilargi and Stoneleighs general prediction about devaluation of residential real estate and within 5 years from the peak to the trough of the market. I ‘m thinking of 2006 to 2011 as the peak to trough years.
Peace, shamba
In the spirit of taking “extras” into the household in these hard times, it seems I have a few weeks old pretty grey and white kitten in my cat household now! He/she can’t be more than 4-5-6 weeks and seems just a little too young to be away from a mother although it can eat adult cat food and small bites of filet mignon cut up especially for it :)
He kept running to all of my adult cats trying to find his mom and an adult cat to bond with. It seems that my orange Kirby is who he picked. Kirby doesn’t seem afraid of him and tolerates him eating in the same dish he does. The others don’t seem very happy with this or don’t know what to make of it. The little guy cries and runs to the adults for comfort.
He was stuck in a tree in front of my neighbors place yesterday and made his way down the tree fine though when I left him alone. He can’t have been around for more than a day or two. But he knows now where food and a soft fleecy place to sleep are —he moved into the “winterized” cat digs. He may not be a complete stranger to people and may come around to being tamed a little more. As it is now I couldn’t catch him without a trap and the animal places are so full of animals these days although kittens and pretty cats probably have a chance. I can’t think about that too much.
October 26th: Cleaned up the cat’s porch today, scrubbed everything with water/soap/bleach and put down new cat bedding material for cold nights which are coming along about Wednesday this week. Daytimes will drop into the 60s midweek and that means nighttime temps in the 40s.
Homelessness in Arizona is worse than it’s ever been before, on the local news tonight. It has occurred to me that from here on out, if we slide downward economically it will be something that few people functioning in society today in the US will recognize or have too much experience with. Not a happy thought. If t we don’t have jobs for people, we’ll have a lot of unemployed in various degrees of homeless, hungry, sick with chronic illnesses.
October 24th-25th:
Half a can of tomato sauce and the rest of the diced tomatoes go into the chicken dinner tonight. I can’t remember why I have the leftover diced tomatoes. Used up a frozen pizza dough I forgot I had it wasn’t past date so I used it for a very simple pizza, tomato sauce and sundried tomatoes. I added some dried sweet peppers. It was okay.
Housing all over the country to go down more in value, according to this Yahoo link.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Homes-About-to-get-much-cnnm-699910894.html?x=0&ref=patrick.net
I quote the part about Phoenix in particular, since I live there.
“ In Phoenix values have already collapsed by 54% and could fall another 23.4%. In both cities, Fiserv anticipates the losses to continue into 2011, but they will be less than 5%.”
That adds up to: 82.4% I just added the whole 5%.
Pretty close to Ilargi and Stoneleighs general prediction about devaluation of residential real estate and within 5 years from the peak to the trough of the market. I ‘m thinking of 2006 to 2011 as the peak to trough years.
Peace, shamba
Friday, October 23, 2009
Heads Up, Oct. 23, 2009
Financial Economic News Below:
Here's a Big Heads Up by Karl Denninger at His Market ticker web site:
Friday, October 23. 2009
Posted by Karl Denninger in Musings at 11:55
Possible Credit Dislocation: Be Warned
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/authors/2-Karl-Denninger
I hope that's the right link to the article.
He uses some language that is very similar to the data Cliff High reports: “money lock up”
“Note that the indications above are far stronger than what we saw going into last fall before the wheels came off. As a consequence if these actions are those of people with real knowledge (and this is not a guess on their part) I would expect the outcome to be worse than what we saw last fall in terms of economic impact.”
Another vip link, I haven't read this webssite before: :
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2009/10/is-fed-governor-hinting-at-stock-market.html
''Is a Fed Governor Hinting at a Stock Market Crash Just Ahead?
Sounds like it to me.
These are truly remarkable words coming from inside the Federal Reserve. Reuters has the details:
U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh on Tuesday called gains in Asian and U.S. stocks noteworthy and wondered whether those increases signal a return to financial normality after a wrenching crisis or raise the prospects for asset bubbles.
Stock markets in a number of Asian economies have posted hefty gains in recent months, Warsh said while moderating a panel at an Asia economic policy conference hosted by the San Francisco Federal Reserve.
"This is a remarkable move, certainly the U.S. has also seen a remarkable increase in asset values," he said
This is as close to a warning as you are ever going to get from a Fed governor ''
Worse than last fall Denninger implies.
I wish I could just go take my money out of the CU and put it somewhere else, except that there isn't somewhere else? I'd wonder about treasuries at this point.
*sigh* shamba
Here's a Big Heads Up by Karl Denninger at His Market ticker web site:
Friday, October 23. 2009
Posted by Karl Denninger in Musings at 11:55
Possible Credit Dislocation: Be Warned
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/authors/2-Karl-Denninger
I hope that's the right link to the article.
He uses some language that is very similar to the data Cliff High reports: “money lock up”
“Note that the indications above are far stronger than what we saw going into last fall before the wheels came off. As a consequence if these actions are those of people with real knowledge (and this is not a guess on their part) I would expect the outcome to be worse than what we saw last fall in terms of economic impact.”
Another vip link, I haven't read this webssite before: :
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2009/10/is-fed-governor-hinting-at-stock-market.html
''Is a Fed Governor Hinting at a Stock Market Crash Just Ahead?
Sounds like it to me.
These are truly remarkable words coming from inside the Federal Reserve. Reuters has the details:
U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh on Tuesday called gains in Asian and U.S. stocks noteworthy and wondered whether those increases signal a return to financial normality after a wrenching crisis or raise the prospects for asset bubbles.
Stock markets in a number of Asian economies have posted hefty gains in recent months, Warsh said while moderating a panel at an Asia economic policy conference hosted by the San Francisco Federal Reserve.
"This is a remarkable move, certainly the U.S. has also seen a remarkable increase in asset values," he said
This is as close to a warning as you are ever going to get from a Fed governor ''
Worse than last fall Denninger implies.
I wish I could just go take my money out of the CU and put it somewhere else, except that there isn't somewhere else? I'd wonder about treasuries at this point.
*sigh* shamba
October 23rd
First of all: We've passed into the astrological sun sign of Scorpio. :) This is my sign and I love it!
Second, not much to report about the leftover food challenge this week: Had too many tomatoes earlier in the week and I dried them in the Tulsi oven. I sliced them in half this time rather than quarters. This worked well, I thought.
No real leftovers today, Friday, so I will be making a whole new meal or two for the next two days. I have fresh produce that I'm using up steadily now that the tomatoes are dehydrated.
Third, something I read the other day, it was this week:
Housing all over the country to go down more in value, according to this Yahoo link.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Homes-About-to-get-much-cnnm-699910894.html?x=0&ref=patrick.net
I quote the part about Phoenix in particular, since I live there. “In Phoenix values have already collapsed by 54% and could fall another 23.4%. In both cities, Fiserv anticipates the losses to continue into 2011, but they will be less than 5%.”
That adds up to: 82.4% I just added the whole 5%. I ‘m thinking of 2006 to 2011 as the peak to trough years that residential housing prices have fallen.
Peace, shamba
Second, not much to report about the leftover food challenge this week: Had too many tomatoes earlier in the week and I dried them in the Tulsi oven. I sliced them in half this time rather than quarters. This worked well, I thought.
No real leftovers today, Friday, so I will be making a whole new meal or two for the next two days. I have fresh produce that I'm using up steadily now that the tomatoes are dehydrated.
Third, something I read the other day, it was this week:
Housing all over the country to go down more in value, according to this Yahoo link.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Homes-About-to-get-much-cnnm-699910894.html?x=0&ref=patrick.net
I quote the part about Phoenix in particular, since I live there. “In Phoenix values have already collapsed by 54% and could fall another 23.4%. In both cities, Fiserv anticipates the losses to continue into 2011, but they will be less than 5%.”
That adds up to: 82.4% I just added the whole 5%. I ‘m thinking of 2006 to 2011 as the peak to trough years that residential housing prices have fallen.
Peace, shamba
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
October 21st
I did another batch of sundried Roma tomatoes this week. These were halves and they seemed to talk a little longer to dry, I didn’t try to help them along with electric heat I just let the sun do all the work.
In the kitchen overn, I made Chili cheese Grits without green chiles—didn’t have any again-- but added some oregano, black pepper and put a green chiffonade from greens on the top of the cheese when it was done! It sure looked pretty with the green and yellow-orange together.
I also ordered some small cooking tools from amazon today: 2 cooling round racks that will fit inside the crockpot and pots for solar ovens, one square cooling rack that will fit all the pans as well and a chimney starter. I wasn’t going to spend money on much before the end of the year but if they are cooking tools I can use in many ways and I don’t have anything like them well, okay. And I decided on the chimney starter because if it works then I’ll learn how to better use the grill.
And you know, if our money is going to deflate or inflate or just go “poof!” in some banking blowup or meltdown then I might as well have physical tools that will be around for a few years. As soon as I got a good grater, I actually grated more things: for example, I love grated carrots in salads and on the side.
The safety deposit is almost completely empty, I got everything out to look it over.
Peace, Shamba
In the kitchen overn, I made Chili cheese Grits without green chiles—didn’t have any again-- but added some oregano, black pepper and put a green chiffonade from greens on the top of the cheese when it was done! It sure looked pretty with the green and yellow-orange together.
I also ordered some small cooking tools from amazon today: 2 cooling round racks that will fit inside the crockpot and pots for solar ovens, one square cooling rack that will fit all the pans as well and a chimney starter. I wasn’t going to spend money on much before the end of the year but if they are cooking tools I can use in many ways and I don’t have anything like them well, okay. And I decided on the chimney starter because if it works then I’ll learn how to better use the grill.
And you know, if our money is going to deflate or inflate or just go “poof!” in some banking blowup or meltdown then I might as well have physical tools that will be around for a few years. As soon as I got a good grater, I actually grated more things: for example, I love grated carrots in salads and on the side.
The safety deposit is almost completely empty, I got everything out to look it over.
Peace, Shamba
Saturday, October 17, 2009
October 17th
1. Dried about 6 sliced up bell peppers in the dehydrator I got last winter at Linene’s N things when they went out of business. I ran it overnight and it seemed to work fine. I will try this with one of the solar ovens next time I dehydrate something just to see how it goes with the same kind of peppers. I don’t know how hot the electric dehydrator gets, I’ll have to check the instructions that came with it.
2. I’ve got the dehydrated bell peppers next to the solar sundried tomatoes.
Later in the day: I went to Safeway for a couple of things. The parking lot was packed a lot more than even a Saturday midday. So, what’s up there? A big promotion and lots and lots of prices marked down significantly.
They had some houseplants and flowers out I front for sale including several herb plants. I picked up a little sage plant, organic and locally grown, it said. I love the smell of sage. It makes me think of Thanksgiving and Christmas and sage stuffing in turkey! So, I brought it home.
I also got some more well priced Roma tomatoes to sun dry and got some kale to use this coming week. I've tried some kale before and it was okay. Better than the mustard greens were anyway.
Now, I've decided I want a catnip plant and I better find out if any particular herbs or plants are poisonous to cats. I hadn't thought of that before.
Peace, shamba
2. I’ve got the dehydrated bell peppers next to the solar sundried tomatoes.
Later in the day: I went to Safeway for a couple of things. The parking lot was packed a lot more than even a Saturday midday. So, what’s up there? A big promotion and lots and lots of prices marked down significantly.
They had some houseplants and flowers out I front for sale including several herb plants. I picked up a little sage plant, organic and locally grown, it said. I love the smell of sage. It makes me think of Thanksgiving and Christmas and sage stuffing in turkey! So, I brought it home.
I also got some more well priced Roma tomatoes to sun dry and got some kale to use this coming week. I've tried some kale before and it was okay. Better than the mustard greens were anyway.
Now, I've decided I want a catnip plant and I better find out if any particular herbs or plants are poisonous to cats. I hadn't thought of that before.
Peace, shamba
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