Tag Archive | personal: homesteading

Stair Sprints, Personal appearance, and Firewood!

Jan4

I recently posted my resolutions for 2013.

In keeping with the New, Improved Lyn, I have been doing sprints of the stairs at work on lunch.

My cardio fitness is pretty… unfit, really. So stairs are hard. But it’s gratifying to find out that they get easier every day. Just another minute a day, every work day (with some backtracking on Mondays, so it’s like:
5-6-7
6-7-8-9-10
9-10 (this part is presumed; I started last Wednesday).

Not only does this burn calories and warm me up (two things I need at this job!), but it’s helping me get in shape for this (Buttermilk Falls)

and these (Taughannock Falls)

and these (Robert H. Treman State Park)

and these (Watkins Glen State Park).

In other news, I’ve been thinking about my wardrobe. One of the things I want to do this year that I forgot to put on the list was – pick one outfit that really looks the way I want to look, and make it happen, buy, sew, whathaveyou.

I’m also trying (one day and not posted so far) to take pictures of my current outfits, in both vanity and to encourage myself not to keep wearing the same 8 outfits. Both ideas kind of spurred by The Uniform Project.

In completely other news, have I mentioned how happy having a giant pile of wood behind my garage makes me? It’s like… totally non-liquid assets. Solid assets. Security. It fills me with warmth.

And then it fills me with warmth splitting it, hauling it, and stacking it.

And then it fills me with warmth in the wood-burning stove.

And then emptying the ashes.

Isn’t that awesome?

<3

What about you? What will make you life better?
What fills you with warmth?
What makes you more the you that you want to be?

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Late Harvest

Dec28

So, Wednesday – that would be the day before the major snowstorm, but certainly after a bit of snow – I went out into our garden and pulled the leeks out (most of them), and cut the parsley, sage, and oregano back to the ground.

Parsley is amazingly resilient stuff! It will do just fine as long as you brush the snow off. But with a food of snow coming… it was time for it to get cut.

I used this idea and rolled it into a log, which went into the freezer.

Oregano and sage went into freecycled little jars, topped off with cheap (barely virgin at all) olive oil. That’ll go in the freezer after T. rearranges the freezers this weekend.

The leeks? Deep fried and eaten. Delicious.

I love that it’s December and I’m still pulling things out of my garden. 😀

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/437816.html. You can comment here or there.

Lyn Action Ficure, complete with chainsaw, axe, and canning jars

Sep19

It’s been a busy time around Casa Thorne.

It’s autumn, which means that the tomatoes, cukes, and everything else are all coming ripe, so it’s canning time (Apples will be another month, and we won’t have many at all this time, due to the wonky March-April).

In addition, we just got 2.5 cord of wood delivered, so there’s hauling and stacking to be done.

And I’m working on prettifying the foyer, which, like everything else around here, means making it uglier first!

In addition, I started a new serial…

/falls over/ sleep nao?

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Already Wednesday, avec les pommes

Oct19

Yesterday, we made applesauce.
Monday, we made applesauce and apple cake.
Sunday, we made applesauce.
Saturday, we got lost on an Epic!Quest! for apple cider.
Tonight, we will make applesauce. And maybe can it.
(the makeshift canner (our giant pot and a steamer rack from the Chinese food store) will hold 8 quart jars. Our next-biggest pot will hold about 8 cups of applesauce. So batches.)

There hasn’t been as much work on this house this week, but we got a Giant Order Of Stuff from Lowes yesterday (incl. the stuff for the closet, window molding, log rack supplies, door molding, drywall, insulation… and a chest freezer) so there will be Stuff to Do once again. Also, mudding and painting. This bedroom is taking a lot of mudding.

~~
Read The Kiss, from [personal profile] ysabetwordsmith‘s mid-month Monster House Fishbowl, from my prompt.

Read a short Addergoole fanfic, by cluudle!!

Read Ghost Story, by Rix-Scaedu

~

And someone is trying square foot gardening & Lasagna gardening together!

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Tuesday Morning, Still full

Oct4

Yesterday for dinner we had a sort-of-goulash made from tomatoes Mom left when she visited, and apple crisp made with apples from our tree. There’s a sense of happy homeyness about that that I love.

I patched T’s jeans the other day, and I’ve been looking up canning and other food-preservation. It makes me feel like I’ve come full circle. Which (along with a conversation with cluudle) has brought me to a thought I had in college, a magazine I wanted to publish.

The ideas are a little vague after *cough cough* years, but, loosely – a sort of practical Mother Earth News / Foxfire / different ways of doing things. Both how-tos and, if I get brave enough, histories and interviews.

If I were to do something like that, what sort of thing would you be interested in reading about?

***

haikujaguar posted a call to cover artists so that she can begin a list of cover-artists-for-hire.

Autumn’s story written to comments/linkbacks/donations to Meeks’ sketch of Autumn is still hanging out there, waiting for more love.

***

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/making_grape_juice/ Grape Juice! (we have a lot of grapes)

http://www.etsy.com/listing/53092763/yarn-wreath-felt-handmade-door?ref=sc_2 I love argyle. I may have to make this.

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