Meal planning when you just don't have time

I'm all about doing things the easy way these days. At least, I still want to do so much stuff, but I just don't have time. For some crazy reason, my baby actually wants me to pay attention to her and play with her. I love that ...most of the time. When we have 2 weeks of laundry piled up, crazy amounts of dishes we haven't gotten around to cleaning, a cat box that needs cleaning, a dog who's pawing at my leg to get my attention, a husband I feel like I haven't had any truly good time with lately, and a need once in a while for a little "me time" (it's important), I kinda wish I had a baby who would play by herself once in a while. It's a joke that's not really a joke in our house that Miss B won't let Mom get anything done. We've tested this. When I'm home, she has tolerance for about one chore each night. Some days, only half a chore. Ask me how many times I've finished making dinner while juggling her. Go on, ask. The answer is, pretty much any time I've made dinner since the day she was born.
The other night I made dinner and, later, committed the cardinal sin of cleaning the cat box after she'd gone to bed. She woke up and immediately began screaming because, as Shane put it, "Mom wasn't within arm's reach." She's getting a little better now because she actually likes tummy time--she's somewhat mobile (enough to grab a toy that's over there but not yet to actually crawl or move more than a foot or two) so that's helping. God help us when she does start crawling because she's never going to be still and I know already she's going to want me to watch her wherever she goes.
You're wondering why I don't do all of this when she naps. Ha! Hahahahaha!!! At the Easter potluck we went to there was another family with an 11 week old. The mom complained that their little girl had "only" taken a 2 hour nap that afternoon. I told her, if my child sleeps for more than 45 minutes I end up checking every 10 to make sure she's still breathing. It happens so rarely that she sleeps longer than half an hour. Last night, ten minutes. She took a freaking ten minute nap. >( So when I'm home and she does nap, believe me I am running around like a madwoman trying to get everything accomplished. Somehow, it's never done. I've started calling my family when I'm walking Dog and Baby (still in the carrier on my chest) because that's the only time I tend to have peace and quiet. I tried talking to one of my brothers when she was awake and about 5 minutes into the conversation he told me, "You have a very loud daughter." Yes, yes I do.
I don't feel that all of this is an excuse to fall behind in certain areas of life, however. Like meal planning and cooking. Not even Baby + finals week (next week) is an excuse to fall behind on that. We're relying slightly more on convenience items (as in, I bought rather than making the graham crackers for Shane's birthday pie crust) but for the most part we're keeping on keeping on in terms of cooking whatever we can. So how do I streamline the process? That part, it turns out, is easy.

1. I was once told that to be a home cook you should either have a lot of recipes in your repertoire or just a few. Why? Because that makes it so much easier to meal plan without having much food waste. If you have only a few meals, you'll use the same ingredients over and over again so that they don't go bad. If you have lots of meals, you'll have plenty of recipes with which to use up the foods you buy. I am a "lots of meals" kind of person. The meals we love and make "often" don't usually get made more than once in a month. In fact, if we do plan for a meal to be repeated in less than four weeks it feels like we're having it a lot.
This system gives me lots and lots of meals to choose from, and lots of ingredients to play with. So I know if I want to make one of these three dishes, I should choose one of the others as well so that I can use up the monterey jack cheese. (Usually the sausage & pasta meal with one of the soups so that we don't have too much soup in one week.) If I have leftover ham, as we recently did, oh look! Super easy to make this ham and white bean soup. And, easy enough that the baby let me do everything but cut up the ham before I had to recruit Shane's help. (Rare. Very rare.)
The other night we had no time to go to the store, but not much food that seemed to go together. Chicken? Grapes? Mayonaise? Almond slices? However, because I had so many recipes in my head it was easy to pull one out and make a delicious dinner that didn't feel hurried or scraped together. (It was curried chicken salad--I added some dried cranberries too, to good effect.) And because I utilized things that were about to go bad (chicken we'd thawed for another meal the night before, grapes that would have been thrown out otherwise) we both reduced our food waste and helped keep our food budget in line.
2. Use that freezer! Shane and I are really, really bad about freezer cooking. Some people are awesome at it, but we aren't. However, while we don't necessarily freeze extra meals all the time, we do freeze parts of meals. For instance, tonight we'll be pulling out some homemade freezer biscuits. When we want some and I have time, I make a fresh batch and just rotate those into the bottom of my big bag of biscuits in the freezer. That way when I don't have time to make more (like tonight) we always have them on hand. They're super easy to pull out of the freezer to bulk up a meal. Tonight we're having bratwursts (in the freezer since our big Costco trip last summer), sweet potatoes, green beans, and biscuits. It'll be a ridiculously simple meal to throw together, but hearty, filling, and yummy.
We did manage to put one lifesaver into the freezer. I accidentally made way, way more filling for burritos than I intended to (mostly, it was the beans and rice I made too much of) so Shane and I spent a hurried half hour assembly lining them, wrapping them in foil, and tossing them into a bag in the freezer. This has been super helpful a few times when the question came up, "What are we going to do for lunch then?" Grab a burrito, as it turns out.
3. Crockpot. I can't say enough good things about our Crockpot. We use it so often, and it always comes in handy. When I know we're going to have a big, crazy week I plan meals that can go into the Crockpot really fast. Not ones that are fussy (they're out there) and require putting in different ingredients at different times. No, I love the ones where you dump everything in and turn it on. I usually do all the prep the night before so that in the morning I can just pull the crock out of the fridge, put it in the heater, and turn it on. So simple.
This is also how we utilize dried beans so much. I soak them overnight in the crock of the crockpot (in the fridge) and in the morning I refresh the water, put the crock in the pot and set it to low. By the time I come home in the evening the beans are soft and ready to go into whatever dish I've planned. I've never had luck just letting a soup with beans in it simmer for hours on end. They always end up somewhat crunchy and unsatisfying.
4. Have the ingredients for a few quick meals on hand at all times. These are mine: chili, pasta primavera, chicken soup, lo mein, chicken fried rice. If it turns out that we didn't plan enough meals and leftovers for a particular week, or if we don't have time or even inclination to go to the store, I can pull out a meal that's easy to make. When we all came down with some awful cold earlier in the year, it was so nice to have the ingredients for chicken soup on hand. I use my mother's recipe, which I could make blindfolded in an unfamiliar kitchen, so it was a cinch to make it even when I didn't feel well. And it really does make you feel better.
5. Plan the easy meals. Seriously. Shane is swamped this week getting ready for finals next week, Miss B has been needier than usual (perhaps another growth spurt? a tooth getting ready to pop out?) and I've been a little anemic yet again (grr!) so I've been drained and tired. Neither of us really wants to cook. So our meal plan has been: salmon (from the freezer) and veggies (also from the freezer) one night; brats, veggies, and biscuits as stated above; BLTs; fajitas; pasta primavera. Super easy and quick meals so that we can feel slightly less overwhelmed. :)
6. Make extra. Sometimes, lots of extra. For lunches, routinely, we do leftovers. It's not really much extra work (maybe a bit of extra vegetable cutting?) to make enough to have leftovers the next day, and when we're putting the meal away we just pack lunch portions for ourselves.
If we know we'll have one or two nights that are super busy, we'll cook one giant meal (red beans and rice, a big soup + bread, or two-three main dishes such as chicken fried rice, egg drop soup, and stir fry) and coast on the leftovers for several days. This has seen us through finals weeks, through Hell Week when I'm doing a FLOT musical, and through the first few weeks after our parents went home after we had Miss B.

By the way, all of this works just as well for breakfasts. Between biking to work and breastfeeding, I need a filling breakfast every morning. But, it also has to be fast. I already put up my blueberry oatmeal banana bread recipe, but I mix it in with other things. When I lack time, oatmeal is always a good choice. But I measure it out and get my toppings ready the night before so that in the morning I can just add water and pop it in the microwave to cook while I feed the pets and change a diaper. When it's not my night to cook dinner and we're out of breakfast food, I'll run around making something easy and quick, like the banana bread. If I have a little more time (like, say, weekends) I'll make something more involved, such as pancakes (which can be refrigerated or frozen for quick weekday breakfasts) or muffins (can also be frozen). This has removed most of the stress from weekday mornings, and I always know that I've got a healthy breakfast waiting for me, a lunch packed up and ready in the fridge.
You'd think that planning this would take time, but it doesn't. In my spare moments--walking to the bathroom at work, during my bike ride home--I'll figure out what I want to and what we should eat in the coming week. Later, I'll ask Shane's input. (It usually goes, "What do you want to cook and eat this week?" "I dunno, you pick.") What do we still have in the fridge that needs to get used and eaten? What do we have in the freezer that we should eat? Ideally, the meals I come up with utilize at least one of those components. When I actually sit down to write out the grocery list, it takes less than 10 minutes. All of this has helped to keep our grocery budget in line and to keep our sanity, even though we've added a tiny human to our household. It means we don't waste time every night trying to figure out what to eat, or getting takeout because "there's no food in the house".

Book Review: Diaper Free Before Three

I've heard a bit about the book "Diaper Free Before Three" but, of course, didn't really have a reason to read it until now. It was shocking how late people in this country keep their kids in diapers. Are there really normal, functioning children who need to wear diapers until they're ready for kindergarten?! I thought about it and realized that one of my neighbors has a son with autism and he's still in diapers, even though he's at least four. (And from what I've seen and heard, he's fairly high functioning.) It's staggering. Even worse, the cost to people and the environment. All those diapers.
So, I'm behind the general concept of the book. Yes, it's perfectly reasonable to expect most kids to have very few accidents by the time they're 2. And I liked that the author constantly recommended a gentle style of training. Don't scold your kid for accidents, they happen and that will only make them feel ashamed. And I will, indeed, implement a lot (if not all) of the suggestions, including starting Baby Girl on the potty when she's about six months old. I seem to have an amazing knowledge of when she's going to pee, since I regularly open up her diaper only to have her start peeing before I get the next one on her.
I thought that this book was really well researched, involving the history of how we got to this point of potty training so late, the problems caused by diapering so long (especially the emotional ones for both parent and child, and the physical ones), and the emphasis on health throughout. (The author is a pediatrician.)
However, there were plenty of things about this book I didn't like and I'll talk about those more in-depth than the positives because they get less attention. The pluses you can get from any review on Amazon.
First, there's the author's insistence that cloth diapers are such a hassle. "My friend tried to do cloth diapers but gave it up after about a week because it was such a pain to deal with." I've heard this from so many people who basically expect you to fail at using cloth diapers because they're somehow inconvenient. SO ARE DISPOSABLES! Especially considering how much they cost. (Shane has estimated that we're saving, at a minimum, $1.25 per diaper, including the cost to wash the cloth ones. And that's not calculating the savings from using the cloth wipes I made, either.) How many times have people bemoaned the midnight trip to the store because they ran out of disposable diapers? And yet, somehow, they never think that perhaps that makes them inconvenient. But washing diapers? Ooh boy, that's a lot of work! ?? I don't get it. Even when I don't have family staying with us and helping, the cloth diapers have never been a pain to wash.
The author also gets into the environmental factor of diapers for a second. Rightly, she points out that the only truly good option is to get kids out of diapers as fast as possible, since either cloth or disposable use a lot of resources. However, she cites a very old report about the environmental cost of diapers which uses absolutely the WORST kind of cloth diaper use and says that it could go either way, in terms of which is better for the environment. Yes, cloth diapers take a lot to manufacture. So do disposables. However, cloth can be used for multiple children, especially if you wait until an older sibling is out of diapers to have another, or if you have graduated sizes so no two children need to be in the same diapers at the same time. Our diapers have all been used for AT LEAST one other child besides ours, and will go through at least one more before I sell them or pass them along to someone else. In fact, we'll most likely have friends having babies before we're ready for a second, so I'll let them borrow the newborn size until they can collect more diapers or find a style they really like. That makes at least four children for those diapers, cutting down the environmental toll considerably. And, none of us is using a diaper service, the emissions from which (driving to and from picking up diapers, etc.) were counted in the cited report.
Cloth diapers for the environmental win, yo.
My other complaint about the book is about one of the asides. There was a special section talking about girl-specific issues that can come up, and one about boys. This might seem like such a small thing to get upset about, but it's part of a much larger issue. The section for girls mentioned that, at this age, many little girls like to touch their private areas and said that "modesty" should be emphasized for them. There was no such corresponding platitude about modesty among boys who, to be frank, touch their genitals just as much as that age, if not more. It's a thing kids do. A lot. They're exploring themselves. I can understand not wanting them to do that in public, but telling little girls to be "modest" without the same message to boys just makes me see red. All of this message was delivered within a section talking about the fact that little girls are more prone to urinary tract infections. A little girl with dirty hands, touching herself, could easily create the circumstances for a UTI to occur. However, modesty has nothing to do with it! Emphasizing bodily cleanliness is fine, but "modesty" has moral and sexual implications that really, really don't need to be there.
For the record, what I intend to tell Baby Girl (and any future children we might have) is that private parts are for private time. I think this sets the right tone, letting a child know that it's ok to explore their body but that it's not ok to do so in public. I don't want Baby Girl to ever, ever feel ashamed of her own body. I know she will at times, because there's no way I can insulate her against the messages of the rest of the world, but if I can get her off to a good start with regard to body image then I can at least mitigate some of the negativity she will inevitably hear.
I'm done rambling. In conclusion, I would recommend this book, but with a heavy grain of salt. The reasons for starting diapering earlier than most people in the US even think of doing so are excellent and well-researched. The timeline seems reasonable and while starting a kid on the potty before they can walk and talk will mean a bit more work on my (and Shane's) part, I think it will be worth it. At the very least, I won't have a toddler with a profound sense of "bait and switch" as far as expectations regarding peeing and pooping to contend with, and hopefully potty training will be a much more pleasant, uplifting experience overall.

Gift card queen

I'm still plugging along with some of my projects, both for Baby's imminent arrival (less than a month until our due date!) and for other things. For instance, one of my goals for quite a while has been to work on and give away more warm knitted items. Some will go to charity, some to friends. A worthy goal, right? Except I haven't done pretty much any of the projects that I wanted to do. I've been lazy and pushed them off. But, our apartment really is feeling cluttered with stuff, particularly now that we're adding in so much baby stuff. (Holy crap, that kid has a lot of clothes already!) So, one small part of decluttering is to actually use up some of my yarn stash. I have tons of yarn. Approximately six large bags worth. It's silly. What's even worse is that I have a few half-finished projects but would need to buy more yarn to finish them! Oy. So I'm working on the things that I can, for now. I'm making a hat for one of my friends, some socks for baby (and if I can get the pattern right, more socks for friends and family who are having babies of their own), and some Christmas gifts. If I have time, I'd also like to make a quick mobile to hang in Baby's closet. Nothing fancy. I'm thinking I'll just make crocheted balls of different colors and hang them from an embroidery hoop.
I did actually get started on reorganizing our room and closet to make space for Baby. It seemed like such a daunting, cyclical task. I have to do X before Y, before Z, before A, before B...but that one requires X task be finished, otherwise it would be a huge mess. So I finally picked a spot and just started there. All of our baby clothes until about 3 months are washed, organized, and in our closet. Our nice clothes are in the closet in the spare bedroom (since we don't wear them that often) and our everyday clothes are now in the wire cube things next to the desk. (We've used the wire storage cubes as our clothing organizer for years now, rather than a bulky dresser, and it works out pretty well.) Not only this, but it's now doubling as a cat perch, so hopefully our cat will hang out with us more when we're back in the bedroom. (Usually he lurks in the hallway, staring in at me--not Shane, just me--and being a little creepy.) The one drawback to this: this morning he didn't want to let me get my underwear (in a basket in the top cube) and kept batting at my hands. I had to bop him (gently) on the head to get him to leave me alone. (He wasn't hurt, just offended.)
I still need to make and set up the curtains to go over the closet, and we need to move the cradle in. (It needs some wood glue first, just to reinforce it.) We still need to figure out something for where to put dirty cloth diapers and wipes, where to keep baby blankets (the pets have tried to claim them, and I don't want them getting ruined by cat claws or the dog's incessant need to create a nest whenever she lies down), and what to do for changing diapers. We could use some baskets or something to keep a few items in the living room, except we don't have baskets and I don't feel like buying any. (It's not in our budget!) But, I'm sure that we'll get the necessary things done before Baby's arrival and the rest can be figured out after she's here.
Because we had to move things around, it did necessitate a little bit more decluttering. I realized that there were a few clothes I owned which I could part with since I was mostly keeping them around because they're still in fine condition so I might as well, right? Never mind the fact that I didn't like them much and only ever wore them because I felt like I should. Not anymore, they're gone. I also have a couple of t-shirts which I wanted to hang onto but they don't look good on me. So, they're waiting for me to decide if they're really worth storing or if I should donate one and toss the other (not in donatable condition).
I got Shane to help me pull down a box from the spare bedroom closet, one I've assumed was full of his stuff, only to find out that it was full of my things. Even better, when he pulled it down a bag full of empty soda bottles came down with it, which my little brother must have left in the room when he moved out. (Thanks.) And we found two small boxes of the Boy's stuff, as well. The things in my box all went immediately into the donate pile, the bottles into the recycling stash in the garage, and the boxes of the Boy's things are waiting for my parents to take them home to him when they visit. Even just going through that small amount of stuff is making me feel lighter, though. Better. It's amazing how getting rid of stuff can make you feel more organized, even if you really aren't.
This doesn't really help with decluttering, but we do have a number of gift cards that we've received over the years and have never gotten around to using for one reason or another. Generally, it's because there isn't that store in town. Shane's family is big on sending gift cards, but terrible about remembering what stores we actually have in Fairbanks. *Shrug* But, I can't argue that they're not useful. We've just been a bit lazy about using them. I can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but we had an incredibly generous gift card to a certain home store that someone gave us for our wedding. Since we've accumulated plenty of kitchen items we either wanted to upgrade (bread pans, thermometer, measuring spoons) or didn't have (muffin pans, 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup) we went ahead and used it. We got some really nice, incredibly useful kitchen items and spent a grand total of $1 of our own money. (And the things which they're replacing, such as the bread pans, are getting donated.) They arrived only about a month ago and we've already used the least used of them (the muffin pans) three times. You can imagine how often the nice measuring spoons have been used! (Always, always get glass or metal kitchen utensils whenever possible. Plastic ones just suck.)
We also need a humidifier. Our big old one that we have grew mold and we can't find any replacement filters. It's from the 70's (I think), enormous, probably a huge energy hog, and at this point pretty useless. So it's time to get rid of it. But a humidifier is very, very nice to have here. Already my hands are starting to peel and even crack because of the dry air. And that's after a rainy night! It gets much, much worse over the winter. So I used a gift card to another clothing/home store and found a humidifier. With shipping, there was $.24 left over on the gift card so $0 spent on our part. That makes me very happy.
We have other gift cards, including two for other home/clothing stores. I'm keeping an eye out for flannel sheets, since we don't have any and the jersey sheets we got as a wedding gift have already worn out. I'll hang onto them and use the material for other projects as needed, but they've got a few large holes in them that make them not so nice for bedding anymore and that means we're effectively down to two sets of sheets, one for our bed and one for the guest bed. Not the worst situation, but since we have the means to fix it, why not? And, it's hard to argue against having a set of flannel sheets in Fairbanks.

Boom

Me: "She's getting enormous."
Shane: "Stop talking about yourself in the third person."



31 weeks, and I'm starting to get a bit weary of being pregnant. Mostly, the waiting. I'm not a patient person in general, and waiting for something so momentous which, really, I can't plan for as much as I'd like (I don't get to pick my due date, or how I'll react to the pain, etc.) is getting tiresome. Even Shane said the other day, "Yeah, now that the shock of 'holy shit, I'm going to be a dad' has worn off, I just want it to start already."
Of course, the aches and pains, the not being able to breathe or bend over very far, the not sleeping well because of all of this, and the subsequent exhaustion are starting to take their toll as well. That might have something to do with my impatience. And still, I am so lucky because this has been relatively easy on me! No health problems for either of us, no excessive weight gain for me, etc. So I do, constantly, remind myself of that. But at this stage, being pregnant will never be easy.
I still have plans for organizing and decluttering and getting ready for Baby's big arrival that I want to set in motion and yet...I have no motivation for most of it. I'm so tired. Can't I just lie down and read for the next two months?
My usual marathon of preserving food is more like a 3-legged race for turtles this year. A bit derpy, not quite sure what direction I want to go, and very, very slow. My laziness has paid off in one way, though: I finally used my food processor in the way it should be used. I had TONS of rhubarb to process, so that I can make Ginger Rhubarb Marmalade (recipe courtesy of my MIL), and instead of chopping or cutting it all by hand I took the lazy/easy way and pulled out the food processor. Because this is exactly the kind of thing we got it for. I feel ridiculous for not using it as much in the past because it made chopping the rhubarb the work of about 10 minutes.
And when I say tons of rhubarb, it's not too much of an exaggeration. Some of this will get given away as gifts, the rest will stay with me and go on muffins and toast and all kinds of other yummy things. Because it's amazing, and tasty, and perfect.
I'm just waiting for the stores to get more crystalized ginger candy in bulk.


Thanks to our recent Costco run, we have tons of food in the house. Other than needing a few perishables every week (fruit, milk) we don't have to buy really anything. We've got two weeks' worth of menu items simply with what we have on hand.
BUT...
Oh boy. Saturday night, we decided to make salmon chowder. It's Shane's recipe, but I generally act as sous chef when he cooks. (He does the same for me a lot, too.) The way we make it, the salmon fillet gets cooked in the oven first, while the vegetables cook and get soft in the soup pot, then the salmon gets added to the soup along with the cream base and everything simmers for about 20 minutes before we eat. Well, Shane pulled out the Pyrex baking dish and set it on the stove, not realizing that he'd left the burner under it on after making the roux. After getting everything set up to simmer, we fed the pets and I decided to do a load of dishes to clean up a bit pre-dinner and BOOM! The Pyrex exploded everywhere. I mean everywhere. The poor cat was gone in a heartbeat, terrified out of his mind. The dog, after one stunned minute, tried to go back to eating her dinner (there were salmon skins in it!) and we had to pull her away because there was glass in her bowl. We even had to throw away our entire pot of soup (16 cups of chowder!) because of the glass that almost certainly got in it. We tried to justify eating it. "Maybe if we chew very carefully? No, no."
To make a long story short, after 45 minutes of cleaning, when it was past 8:00, weary from cleaning and more than a little shell shocked, we decided that instead of trying to thaw something out and start dinner all over again we'd just go out to eat. So much for our streak of frugal meals. And now we're down a baking dish on top of it all.
At least no one was hurt. Shane called his brother later on and started the conversation with, "So, I tried to blow up my pregnant wife tonight...."

Still going strong

I've now reached 28 weeks of pregnancy, which is the start of the third trimester. I'm getting huge. Like, hippopotamus huge, at least in the middle. Seriously. I found the picture I took at week 18, then compared it to the one I took yesterday. I'm about twice as big as I was. And it's making things more difficult, there's no doubt about it. I count the small victories now, such as being able to put on my own socks. Shaving my legs. Grabbing a bowl from a high cabinet. (You'd be amazed how much a baby belly gets in the way of that last one, especially if you're short like me.) I'm taking solace in these small victories because, really, that's what I have left to hang onto as I go into the home stretch. As easy as my pregnancy has been, I can't wait to get my body back. I don't mean my figure, I mean my body. It really does feel sometimes as if I've been invaded by a little parasite which has taken over. It's making my body do strange things which I have no control over. I want to feel like me again.
I do have a couple of large victories, however, that surpass all the others: at 28 weeks, I'm still using walking and biking as my main forms of transportation. Yes, it's getting harder. But not as bad as I feared, at least for walking. I honestly thought that biking would be a bit easier but it's the little things which I didn't anticipate that are turning out to be the biggest problems. Such as the fact that my bike is made for me to lean forward. Normally, this is quite comfortable. Now, however, it makes me feel like I'm being slowly suffocated because my belly pushes up and cramps my lungs even more. So I spend a lot of time with just my fingers gripping the bike handles, palms pushed away to give me just a little bit of extra room. It's either that or lower my bike seat, which would make pedaling that much harder, because my handlebars don't move.
I'm also paranoid about my safety when it comes to biking. I'll see a bump in the bike path and end up thinking, "If I got tossed off my bike there, I would almost certainly land there, and at the very least it would break my arm...." A bit of this is because my balance is off (that tends to happen when your center of gravity suddenly shifts) so I need to assess risks in a different way, but also partly because I understand how bad a fall would be for both of us right now. It's the constant knowledge that my safety means her safety too.
Finally, the biggest challenge is simply to not overdo things. I'm used to having a certain amount of stamina, to doing a lot in a day and not having it really slow me down. I can't do that anymore. I spent Saturday in a flurry of activity: getting chores done around the house, running errands with a friend, yoga, taking the dog for a walk, biking first to a restaurant and then to a friend's house for birthday celebrations, and not biking home until around 1a.m. Even though I got a lot of deep sleep that night (I slept until 10:00), and despite taking naps on both Saturday and Sunday, I spent all of Sunday feeling sluggish. I just didn't want to do anything. Other than taking the dog for a short walk (about ten minutes) and finishing filling the dishwasher, I really didn't do anything all day except lie around and read. Even so, the exhaustion has carried over into today. Although, that might be more because the dog kept waking me up last night than for any other reason.
I am pleased by what I got accomplished on Saturday, though. Among other things, I froze some more local food for winter. I bought two bunches of celery at the farmer's market (comparable prices, better taste, compared to store-bought) on Saturday morning so those got chopped up, blanched, and frozen. This makes life so much easier over the winter. When we need celery, rather than buying one bunch from the store (which will most likely start to go bad before it gets used anyway) we can just dump what we need straight from the freezer bag into the dish. I'll do the same thing with carrots (there weren't many at the market yet) and combine the two in a few cases so that I have what I call my mirepoix starter kit. A little work now to reduce stress and work in the future. I know we'll be especially glad of this once baby arrives.
I also bought two large zucchinis, adding them to the one L gave me on Friday evening, so that I can shred and freeze those in 1 cup portions. It's crazy to me that I actually had to buy zucchini this year, for the first time in four years. But you do what you gotta do. My own squash plants are just starting to put things out, just in time for the frosts to start. (Any day now.) I've got one itty bitty pumpkin, one small zucchini, and three small yellow squashes all just starting. I think I'll move them all inside after the first frost, so that I can at least get my small harvest of them.

Making room for baby, i.e. nesting Fairbanks style

Oh my gosh, the endless lists of "must haves" for Baby. Some of them are great, some of them are totally ridiculous. I'll never understand why a changing table is on so many "must have" lists. It's safer and, frankly, easier to change a kid on a mat on the floor or the bed or the couch or wherever you happen to be. Even more ridiculous, a "wipe warmer"--because you simply can't swab your baby's butt with wipes which haven't been heated up first.
However, there are, of course, necessities which Baby must have. Some of these things are even more urgent because of where we live and when she'll be born. A November baby in Fairbanks? I feel a little crazy for doing that. It could very well be -40 by the time she arrives. (Of course, being Fairbanks, it would probably warm up to near 0F soon after, then back down to -40, then hover around -15F, and all in under a week.) Some of the things I see on baby lists make me laugh. "You don't really need more than 3-4 sleeping outfits, and maybe 1-2 hats." HA! That's what Baby is going to LIVE in for the first few months! Onesies will strictly be under-clothes, as another layer to help keep her warm.
It might seem crazy, or paranoid, that I'm thinking so much about how to keep her warm. Keep her inside, you might be thinking. Well, in the winter our apartment doesn't stay that warm. It's old, it's very drafty. The thermostat might say 70F, but away from the thermometer who knows what the temp really is? Sometimes, probably closer to 60F in the bedrooms. So my biggest concern is how to keep Baby warm enough. She can't have blankets to sleep with at first, because they're a health hazard. I would let her sleep in our bed, but we have the pets who also sleep in our bed (and kicking them out now would cause other problems) plus all the blankets which we sleep with. (There was a case of SIDS in my family--not my generation, but a sibling of one of my parents--and it has always terrified me. So I've been reading as much as I can about it and risk factors for it. It helps me worry less.) Since babies can't really regulate their temperature well, keeping her warm is a priority.
So we have stuff that can be ignored, but some still needs to be obtained. That will be fine, we'll figure it all out. Then the problem is, where to put it? And, how do you do all of this on what is, essentially, a negative budget? (Money for this will have to come out of savings.) In a small apartment (I almost said "tiny", but that's not strictly true--our cabin was much smaller--but the bedrooms are tiny so it feels like less space) where will she fit? Accommodations will have to be made in some things, such as needing more storage space for all of the new stuff we'll have to have. I'm not even talking toys, I mean clothes and cloth diapers and such. Books. Bottles, when I go back to work. (And a freaking breast pump. Not looking forward to that.) Heck, even just toiletries (like baby nail clippers and diaper rash cream) and towel space in the (itty-bitty) bathroom. And, doing all of this in a rental where I'd really rather not put holes in the walls, where we can't change too much to suit us better.
So I've been looking around our apartment with a very critical eye. More decluttering! More cleanup! Finding space wherever possible and thinking about how we can rearrange things to work better for our new circumstances. As stupid as it sounds, Baby will be living out of our closet for a while. There are no doors on it (and, honestly, no space for doors) so we'll hang a couple of curtains for darkness (using sticky hooks and a long, thin dowel) and she'll be both easily accessible and we won't have to worry too much about doing things to wake her up, like turning on a lamp. (Most winter evenings, we hang out in the bedroom together anyway, so we'll be right there if she needs anything.)
This also means that we need to clean out our closet. The clothes are no problem, we've already done that. But our closet is stuffed with my craft supplies, mostly yarn. Half-finished projects abound. So one of my goals for the summer is to complete many of those half-finished projects, if only to get them out of the way. I've already started on a couple, and for some I need to buy a few other things before I can finish them, but it shouldn't cost too much.
I think I'm going to be buying a lot of those sticky hooks soon. In addition to the curtains over the closet, I was also going to get enough stuff to put curtains up over our back door (which we can actually feel the heat leaving through around the edges during the winters) and some for the bathroom, to utilize what is currently empty wall space. I have plans, and hopefully pictures will follow soon.
We're not doing much with the spare bedroom right now (other than continuing to declutter and organize--that's where Shane's crap is in boxes and he needs to clean them out) because we'll have family visiting a bunch during the first few months of Baby's life. My parents will be here for at least a week, Shane's parents (and possibly grandfather) will be here for a short time (although not staying with us, since the visits will coincide), and I'm hoping that my brother will come up for a bit toward the end of my maternity leave. After family visits, then we'll talk about turning it into a nursery. We'll sell the queen sized bed that's currently in it, get a better crib (more on what we've got now below), and it should be about that time (4-5 months?) that it's less urgent to have her in the room with us all the time.
I'm slowly identifying our "must haves" and narrowing down the list to specific products that I think will work for us. Because so many family members have asked about it, Shane and I are capitulating and coming up with a baby gift registry. (I'm sort of ambivalent about things like baby showers--not comfortable being the center of attention like that, but understanding that other people are excited as well and want to show their love for us and for Baby. And, honestly, a registry means less stuff for us to buy and it means we get what we need, not crazy crap that we don't have room for.) For instance, an Ergo Baby carrier, which my parents have generously (super generously) said that they wanted to get for us. I did a bunch of research about carriers and decided on this one because it's got the proper seating for Baby (some can cause hip dysplasia), because it has a nice hip strap so that Shane and I don't kill our backs using it, and because of the heavy weight limit, meaning that we'll use it for many years. I already know from my years as a nanny that I love baby carriers (so handy) and really, for our climate, it will be so much more useful than a stroller or even a jogger. Who wants to push one of those through the snow? And, it would be too cold for Baby to go out in one of those during the winter. With a carrier I can snuggle her up to me, under my coat (but with plenty of breathing room, don't worry--no zipping it all the way to the top or anything stupid like that) and take both her and the dog for walks. Even better, since carrying a baby burns more calories than pushing a stroller, it will help me get back in shape that much faster.
We already have a cradle (which my MIL bought for us, and which will fit nicely in the closet), and people have gifted us so many things already. J & L, who are having a boy this time around, gave us a whole load of baby clothes which they deemed too girly to re-use for #2. I sorted them into piles by size last night and we should have plenty of baby clothes up until about 6-9 months. Even then, one of my cousins recently had a baby girl and she has offered to send stuff up to us. At the very least, she's sending a few more maternity clothes and newborn cloth diapers which her little girl has already grown out of. Since her family lives in Texas she was worried that clothes for her girl probably wouldn't work for us (summer baby in Texas to winter baby in Fairbanks? probably not) but 6-9 months is probably about the size our two climates will converge so she'll send up those baby clothes. Because people have been so eager to buy things for us, and give away old baby things they don't need anymore, we haven't had to buy a single thing for baby so far except some of my maternity clothes. We even already have two sizes of snowsuits (courtesy of my MIL) so she'll stay nice and warm all winter when we go out. (Seriously, these remind me of the little brother in "A Christmas Story"'s suit. "I can't put my arms down!" And me being me, she'll probably have four layers on underneath anyway.) I am so, so grateful for everyone's generosity.
Lastly, I am, of course, trying to figure out what I can make that we will need. Things for the apartment (like an actual bumper under the door to keep the heat loss to a minimum, rather than just a towel), and things for baby (hats! sweaters! cloth butt wipes! changing pads so she doesn't pee all over the floor or bed!), and things for myself. And doing all of this on my $0 budget. I've got old sheets which I can cut up for some things (a flannel top sheet--the bottom sheet got torn to shreds years ago--which can be made into said butt wipes and part of the changing pads, a random pillow case which can be made into the door bumper, etc.) and for others I will have to stretch our budget to make room for a few (mostly used) materials. I have a bit of an idea on making a nursing top or two for myself, using parts of clothes I already have but can't really wear anymore. (Thanks, cat, for putting holes in the boobs of my t-shirts.) It's an experiment, so we'll see how it works out, but if not then it's not a loss anyway. What am I losing, a shirt which can't be worn and can't be donated? Oh no!
The one thing that I feel the most pressure about now is time. It's running out rapidly, and while in some ways I am starting to feel like being pregnant is taking forever, I do know that November is going to be here in what will later feel like the blink of an eye. I have so much to do between now and then! I'm starting to resent the time I have to be at work because it feels totally useless. There are so many more practical things I could be doing with my time, rather than sitting at a desk! As well as time, though, there's also my energy levels to think of. It's waaaay better than the first trimester, but I'm still needing more time to sleep than I normally do, and I tire easily. So we'll see how much I manage to get done. If I do get these projects completed, I might actually remember to take pictures to share. Hopefully.

One step backward, two steps forward

It's still crazy cold outside. It's May 16th and there is snow in the forecast. I just...I don't even know what to do with that. Where normally it would be in the 60s or 70s during the days now we're lucky if it's in the 50s.
Last week was finals week. Naturally, it was crazy busy at our house. One of Shane's classes finished the week before, so he *only* had four finals. And to make it worse, he found out an hour before one of them (his physics final, no less) that work this summer is a no go. He'd talked to his boss just a couple of days before about possible start dates, so this was a huge shock. B later took Shane out to lunch to explain. It turns out that B had no idea himself that any of this was happening or he would have given Shane a heads-up. I guess the price of gold has dropped so much in the last few months that they can't find investors for the project anymore, so the camp isn't opening at all. I feel bad for B, too, who has spent all winter working on some contracts and then had to call the contractors to say, "Sorry, cancel all of that." And then there are the contractors themselves, who are now at a loss and scrambling. So, what sort of sucks on a personal level really sucks for everyone else.
We're both looking on the bright side, which isn't that hard. Shane gets to be home this summer, rather than gone 2/3 of the time! He'll take some classes, too, so that he can finish his degree that much faster. And I'm certain that he'll find something else, it just won't be quite as lucrative. So the only downside is the money. I'm sure that if I said how much money he would have made a lot of people would think, "Well that's not so much money." But for us, it would have been a huge boon. We'd already planned out how we were going to allocate the money (some people would see that as dangerous, "spending money you don't yet have", but we were planning what we would save and what we would throw at student loan debt).
I feel like a whiner. We'll be fine. We only have student loan debt, which is manageable, and we've got money in savings. We just won't be as comfortable as we would have been. And I really wouldn't care at all if it weren't for the baby. We've got medical bills which will need paying and my maternity leave to finance. And again, we'll be fine. It's just me, freaking out about all of the possible things which could go wrong. So I'm pushing those to the back of my head and concentrating on all of the things which are in my control, and all of the positives. Like Shane actually getting to be around this summer.
I coped in one of my usual ways, which is to clean. Our apartment looks better than it did all semester, and we got rid of tons of junk. We actually mostly filled the car and took that much stuff to Value Village. (Where I found two pairs of maternity pants for cheap, score!) We got rid of a couple of pots we don't use anymore (now that we have nicer ones), clothes, old sheets we never use, stuff which my brother-in-law and his old roommate left with us when they moved out of state last summer (thanks, guys), and so many other things which made me think, "Where on earth did we get this and why haven't we gotten rid of it before?"
We've got tons of boxes in our garage storage space which I've been hoarding "just in case we move" at some point. Well, there are clearly no moves in our near future now. So I offered some of the boxes around to people. My boss is retiring and moving to Oregon a week later to be nearer to her kids. She and her husband were super grateful to get both boxes and the packing material I've collected, which was lovely. Most of the rest of the boxes will most likely go to friends who are buying a house and moving in June. It's all part of a larger scheme so that we can clean up our half of the garage (until now, used as storage since we couldn't fit the truck in it) so that we can actually park our car in there during the winter.
Our second bedroom, which is almost exclusively used as storage at this point, is also slowly getting cleaned out. I discovered a few things which we can (and should) return to my in-laws this weekend when they're visiting. And hopefully, they will be taking the truck home with them as well.
My brother left a bunch of stuff with us when he went home at the end of fall semester, so I'm going to get my parents to take most of it home with them. Although, I'm hoping that I can convince the Boy to come up here again to both finish his degree and also be childcare for us. (We would work out some sort of payment system, most likely just giving him a break on rent and such if he watched Baby for us when we can't.) So maybe they won't take too much of it, but some of it really should go.
It's amazing how much better I feel when I get rid of stuff. I don't know if I'm "nesting" or what, but I'm looking at things with a very critical eye lately. In the interest of doing my fair share, I've even agreed to go through my books this summer and get rid of some. Most can be taken to Gulliver's to trade for credit on other used books and the rest can be donated to the literacy council. I've even already identified some which I know I won't miss at all, I just hung onto them because when is having books a bad thing?
The one big project I'm hoping I can talk Shane into is going through his old high school keepsakes. His mom brought up boxes of stuff last summer, all of which Shane had packed up right after high school and decided to keep. But, he hasn't looked in those boxes since high school for the most part. Now, ten years later, I'm wondering how much of it is still meaningful? Some things, such as his letterman jacket and yearbooks, will definitely be kept. Those sorts of things are important. But most of it? It's lost its meaning and is now junk. I'm sure that before the summer is over we'll take another trip to Value Village to drop off things.
I've also got a box of stuff that I want to take to the Really Free Market this weekend, stuff which I don't think I could sell or donate, but perhaps I could give away. And I have a bag of clothes which I want to take to the Fireweed Boutique and see if I can sell it there.
Of course, part of this great purge is because there are things which we will need to buy soon. I already mentioned my new maternity pants. I also bought a maternity shirt, also used, since I'm already growing out of some of my regular shirts. I found this shirt at Once Upon a Child, a used maternity/baby/kids stuff store in town. We were over there anyway (it's right next to the shop where Shane buys his beer-making supplies) so I stopped in to check it out. I can already tell that store is going to become my new favorite one in town. Used joggers/strollers, baby carriers (which I know from my nanny experience that I love), bouncy seats, clothes, shoes, cribs, bedding, maternity clothes, toys.... Perfect. And of course, it had so much stuff I don't know why anyone in town would ever want to buy new baby clothes. It also made me wonder how many people don't know about it and just throw out all of their used baby/kid items.
Other than what I need for maternity wear, we are of course going to hold off on buying anything. For one thing, we don't need it yet. For another, we're waiting to see what other people will gift to us. If this seems mercenary and calculating, it really isn't. You just don't know my MIL. One of the first things she said after we told her about the baby was a joyous, "I GET TO BUY BABY THINGS!" And then she sent us a baby gift which she already had waiting. She didn't even know we were thinking about having a kid, just bought it for when we did! (It was a book, thankfully.) The in-laws are visiting us this weekend (yay!) and she's assured us that she has baby things for us. I was only half joking when I told Shane, "Oh God, she went to Baby GAP and bought the store, didn't she?" So, we'll wait on buying anything for Baby to see what friends and family want to give us. (I understand that impulse--you want to do something nice for the new parents!) I'm hoping that I can get my mom to raid the boxes I know she has of mine and my brothers' old baby clothes and send some of them to us. That would be really fun.
Stuff and junk are not the only things on my mind, of course. I finally started my plants (and labeled them this year, I'm so proud of myself!) and I already have cabbage starts popping up. Hurray! I'm hoping the rest start coming up soon. I used last year's seeds so I'm a little nervous that not all of them will be viable. Cross your fingers for me.

Changing things up - New grocery habits

First of all, Shane got home way earlier than expected. When I talked to him Thursday he said he'd be home by Tuesday evening. By Friday, he was saying he'd be home Saturday evening. And then he was home by about 3:00 on Saturday. It's lovely to have him home and know that he's going to stay home for a while. Our dog still thinks he's leaving soon so she's alternately all over him for affection and pouting. The cat, well, he's still just pissed that he's not allowed total freedom yet. (Five more days!)
So, I once again have access to a vehicle for shopping. Kinda. I got used to looking around the house first for ingredients, and then as a last resort going to the grocery store. So I wanted to continue that. Shane seconded that because the truck hasn't been running well for a while and the problems seem to be getting a bit worse. If it's idling, there's a strong possibility that it will idle too low and stall. Sometimes it has a hard time starting up after that, which sucks when you're at an intersection and people behind you are honking. Just as bad, there's a knocking in the engine, though only really when we use one of the gas tanks. ?? I know nothing about cars, so I'm not sure what any of this could mean, other than we should try to drive as little as possible. I'm cool with that.
So, I'd planned things so that we would just make it until Shane came home. That was planning for only two people, however, and not three. So almost as soon as Shane got home, while he was still unpacking, we all started brainstorming recipes we wanted to eat soon. The guys focused mostly on "what sounds good" whereas I focused a lot on "what do we already have that should be used?" type foods. (Don't worry, they're yummy too. I'm just not going to depend on craving a particular food on any given day.) Then I made a shopping list for everything we need. It was huge, since we came up with approximately three weeks' worth of dinners/lunches, and I also wanted to stock up on a month's worth of dry goods.
I don't want food to spoil, however, so I've prioritized eating the fresher foods in the first week and moving on from there. Anything involving lettuce is getting eaten this week, with the things involving bell peppers following close behind. (A loose meal plan is: sandwiches, taco casserole, pasta primavera, fajitas.) Meals involving root vegetables and frozen veggies are next. (Fried rice, salmon chowder, "Lazy Sunday Casserole", squash and spinach stuffed manicotti, because I couldn't for the life of me find giant pasta shells.) Lastly are the things which utilize dry goods, frozen goods, and (home) canned goods. (Chili and cornbread, spaghetti, salmon patties.) We might finish it all with pizza, if we have ingredients for it. But we'll see. After all, Thanksgiving is coming up, and our trip to see my in-laws!
A lot of these things utilize the dry goods I got. I found a recipe for refried beans which I'll use in the taco casserole. I'm also planning to cook up (in the slow cooker) a big batch of the black beans I got. Most of them will be used in the chili, but some can be frozen for future use. Maybe in this "Southwestern 2-bean chicken" recipe? (Don't ask me why Tex-Mex is so popular in our house right now, I don't know.)
Also, many of these things are using goods we already have around the house. I didn't buy much meat because most of it is stuff we already have in the freezer: ground moose, salmon, a few sausages, and a little bit of chicken.
Of course, I don't just plan dinners. The Boy buys his own breakfast stuff, and Shane doesn't really eat breakfast, but I do. And as good as it's been for me to eat oatmeal so much recently, it's nice to get some variety. I've found a recipe for overnight oatmeal, I got some good things to add into smoothies (like flax seeds), and over the weekend I made these breakfast cookies. (Delicious, and I'm impressed that I found a banana in our freezer.) If I run out of all that and still don't want to eat just oatmeal, I have the ingredients to make knock-off Lara Bars and peanut butter granola.
These aren't even all of the meals I could make this month using what we have on hand. After all, there are only two salmon meals on the docket. We could do a moose roast. I had a vegetarian red curry I was planning on making before Shane got home. (He's not a fan of curry, or of vegetarian cooking.) We have moose steaks which could be cooked up with some potato or sweet potato fries and a veggie on the side. I have three pumpkins but am only planning to use one of them this month (in the manicotti), so I could come up with something else for those. In the past, I wouldn't have thought about these things because I would have been far more concerned with questions of what we want to eat rather than what we have to eat. Shopping htis way will force me to be far more creative.
We're definitely still going to need to get some groceries between now and the end of the month. I wish we didn't have to, but we will. The way we've been eating apples I'm sure we'll need more of them, as well as some dairy (we've been milk-drinking fiends) and probably some more chicken. However, I think this is a far more efficient way of meal planning than the "week-by-week" method I had going before. We'd either plan not enough, or too much, we'd run out of ingredients and thus have to go to the store, or we'd have too much and some of it would go bad. This way I can be assured of very little waste.
Less food waste also means less money wasted. I'll have to wait until we get to the end of the month, but I'm almost certain that shopping this way will save us some money. The big trip cost a little under $175, and unfortunately we already had to go to the grocery store again. (Hey, I'm new to this!) I forgot the bell peppers and didn't realize that we were out of booze. I'm not much of a drinker so that didn't occur to me. Shane's happy that he can drink something again (camp was dry--he'd have been fired if he was caught with alcohol) so he wanted something to sip on in the evening.
I've budgeted $400 for the month for groceries. I know, to frugal livers in other places this will seem extravagant, especially considering how much food we routinely keep in the house. However, this is Alaska and I'm feeding 3 adults, a small dog, and a large housecat on this budget. (Yep, pet food is included in that amount I spent--about a month's worth of canned pet food.) This will also be the first month I've tried it this way, and the first month we'll all be home. So we'll see how tight the budget ends up being.
If you're curious, I've started using a budgeting app called EEBA on my iPod. It's free and it's supposed to be like the envelope budgeting system. That is, you "give" yourself a certain amount of money and when it's gone you're not supposed to spend anymore for the time frame you've set. I just find it handy for keeping track of things. You can set the categories you're budgeting for (I find a "rent" category stupid to do because it's the same amount every month and I know I'm going to pay it, but an "entertainment" budget to keep track of what we spend out with friends or on our hobbies is quite handy) so it's really customizable. I wanted to try the Mint app (also free) but you have to attach at least your bank account to that and Shane didn't like the idea. (For those who are interested, I researched it and there haven't been any security concerns. I even talked to my dad, who works in a security field, and he thought it seemed no more dangerous than online banking.) I think Mint is better for a comprehensive look at your personal finances (check out the Mr. Money Mustache review) and EEBA is decent enough for an actual dollar amount to strive for. You have to type it in every time, and it gives annoying little hints (I've set the time frame for one month but it calculates things as if I'm going to spend a certain amount every day; according to it, I'm behind by half a month in my spending and it's giving me a little frowny face) but it's nice to have it set in my head when I go shopping, something I can look at to help me stick to the amount I want to spend.

Does "layering" have to mean sweaters?

With the temperature in the 20s this morning, it's definitely time to be thinking about layering to keep warm. Living in Fairbanks, and either walking or biking year-round, has made me very aware of my layering. During the winter I can get an approximation of the temperature from the size of the steam cloud that forms when I open the door to let the dog out in the morning. Often this also means another trip to the bedroom to either grab another layer or put one back. Layering isn't just a good thing to do, it becomes an art form at that point. Knowing exactly how much to wear to keep yourself comfortable, and how to be comfortable in any situation, is very tricky. Who knows what the day might bring?
Let's face it, we don't always have control over what the temperature is. My office is always, always chilly. If I go other places, sometimes they're too hot. But even when we do have control, it can be good (environmentally and budgetarily) to keep the temperature down. Mothers everywhere tell their children to "put on a sweater" when they get cold. I'm sure most people are sick of hearing that advice and I know some would prefer to keep the heat up rather than wear a sweater. Honestly, wearing so many clothes around here can make the best of us a bit weary by the end of winter. When you're pulling on your longjohns yet again or deciding which of your sweaters to wear yet again it's easy to start daydreaming about swimsuit weather and shorts and tank tops. Spring is the time of year when you're ready to say, "Fuck it! I'm turning the heat up to 85!"
Layering doesn't always mean longjohns and sweaters or flannel shirts, however. (Although flannel shirts are amazingly comfortable.) Today I'm wearing two layers: a tank top and a light shirt. The tank isn't visible to anyone, but it's helping to keep me warm nonetheless. My office is perpetually cold and when I was getting dressed this morning I realized that, even with the sweater I planned to bring, I would probably be chilly. I forgot the sweater in my mad dash out of the house, but because I have 2 layers on already it's not such a big deal today. (If I got really cold I could always put my fleece jacket on.)
On Pinterest I keep seeing all these cute outfits which people (or magazines?) have put together and they often involve layers. A tank top and a sweater, or a long-sleeved shirt and a scarf. Layers not only add warmth but they can add something visually interesting to your outfit. One navy blue thermal shirt is much like the next, but add a pretty scarf and it looks instantly dressy and more interesting. Sure a scarf might not be the warmest thing in the world, but it could make the difference between being slightly uncomfortable and being comfortable.
As the temperature drops I'll start layering more and more. It won't be unusual for me to leave the house with 3-4 layers on top, at least 2 on my legs, and 3 on my feet. (Plus gloves and a scarf or cowl and a hat, possibly even putting up my hood for an extra layer on my head and neck. But that sort of goes without saying.) Most of these layers won't be visible to others but they'll be keeping me toasty warm.
When you layer your clothing, it's also much easier to turn the temperature of your house down and save a bit on heating. I say "clothing", but at home it doesn't even have to be that. There's a reason slippers were invented and it sure wasn't for their looks. We both have sheepskin slippers with rubber soles which my in-laws gave us. They're perfect, soft and warm and comfortable and durable. The rubber soles also mean that we're not ruining them if we have to step outside to grab the dog when she's being a pest, or something like that.
One of our favorite things in the winter is to wrap up in a big blanket. Shane will sit at his computer wrapped up in one and I'll frequently read in bed (with a pet or two snuggling in) to keep warm. If I'm up and about, I've got a robe or a blanket with me. The advice your mother gave you to put on a sweater doesn't actually have to be taken literally. Finding a comfortable way to keep warm is key. For me, that often means something loose. Having so many layers on during the winter is not only bulky but it can feel constricting. When I'm home, I wear loose, comfortable clothes and I'd rather throw a blanket around myself than put on a sweater. Again.
Finally, don't forget the power of a hot drink to warm you up. Tea, hot cocoa, warm cider, mulled wine, hot buttered rum, warm milk with honey, whatever. It's now chilly enough that I look forward to starting my pot of tea when I get to work each morning. Holding the hot mug heats my chilled fingers and feels comforting.
After writing all of this, I realized that I'm actually excited for the cold. Not just the snow, but the cold itself. It bothers me when I'm cold, but I guess I sort of like it when the temperature dips. I'm much more appreciative of all the things that help to keep me warm, such as a filling meal of pot roast (I have one in the slow cooker right now) or just waking up with the dog curled at my side. The little things in life become so much more meaningful when faced with such a formidable force of nature like extreme cold. It makes me proud of humanity's resiliency, that we can face it and (sort of) conquer it. And it makes me proud of my own resiliency. If I can do all of the things I do in this place, what can't I do?

Coming Along

The last few days, looking at my shelves and peering into my freezers, has shown me that I've done a lot so far. 1 gallon of local broccoli for winter, over 3 gallons of pitted and frozen cherries, plus five cans of cherry preserves. 8 jars of cucumber pickles, 9 small jars of fireweed jelly (sort of), a gallon and a third of blueberries, 1 quart of raspberries, a pint-ish of cranberries, half a pint of my own peas, 2 cups of zucchini, some grapes and peaches.... All this, of course, it just "so far". I haven't even started preserving carrots, celery, or anything like that. I do still want to can more things. I haven't started preserving tomatoes at all. Or the rhubarb. I've been freezing it just until the weather turned a bit cooler and was more favorable for standing over a hot pot of boiling water. That time is rapidly approaching.
It's still quite hot in the evenings and everyone's been talking about how inverted the summer was. Usually July is our hottest month and August starts off rainy and ends chilly. Well, this year it was July that was cold and wet but August is turning out the be gorgeous. Chilly at night and in the mornings (I left the windows in my bedroom open last night and that was a mistake--I didn't want to get out of bed this morning because it was so chilly!) but the days and evenings have been pleasantly hot. I hope that this last bit of summer really pushes my garden into overdrive. My cherry tomatoes have started ripening (I have a recipe in mind for some of them!) and I've got another couple of zucchinis growing. My pumpkins are getting bigger, and I've been collecting some nice fat peas every couple of days. I'm still holding off on digging up my potatoes, giving them as long in the ground as possible to grow big. The herbs need to come inside, though, and I've been trying to remember to cloche the celery at night.
This week is turning out to be crazy, though. Softball ended last night and I only went to one of the two games because I had to get other things done. (Glad I went, though, because it was fun!) Trying to organize berry picking trips, and taking care of the cat (his antibiotics finished last night, but he's still limping from his injury), normal household chores (I had to water all of my garden buckets last night and as the watering can was filling up I was frantically running around to put the clean dishes away then load up the empty dishwasher again, rushing outside to water and fertilize in between--I sat down for a grand total of ten minutes, to eat dinner, from just after lunchtime until 10:00 at night) and trying to get everything organized for our trip on Sunday. As if all this wasn't enough, two good friends are having birthdays this week so two evenings will be spent celebrating them, and I need to get gifts. (My best friend's birthday was two weeks ago and, as we both always do, I still haven't ordered her present. It's ok. Last year I got my birthday gift from her when she came up for my wedding...six months after my birthday. It's how we roll.) Don't worry, any gifts I get will totally fit with my principles. ;) And these are happy things. Busy, but I wouldn't miss out on them for the world.
You'd think I'd be more organized, with so much going on, but no. I keep thinking, "And on this night, I'll get such and such chore done!" but either it doesn't get done, or I realize I have something else going on that night.
Not that this is a complaint, mind you. I love being this busy. I love getting to see my friends this much, and knowing that I'm going on vacation next week gives me that little push to fight against my natural lazy tendencies.
Even if I wanted to complain, Shane worked a 17 hour day yesterday, and will probably be working about the same today. With that comparison, I feel decadently lazy. Poor guy! All this on top of being sick, too. But water samples wait for no man, I take it. He called me at about 10:30 last night from his office phone, and he still wasn't done with work. When I said how much it sucks he shrugged it off and said, "At least I get paid for all this time." And for him, too, having the trip to look forward to, and knowing that he gets to come home in time to celebrate our friend's birthday on Saturday (a friend who has been out of town all summer) helps immeasurably.
It seems like I've done so much, but there's much, much more I need/want to do. As impossible as it seemed last year, I need more canning jars. I have plenty pint size jars (I think--there should be more out in the garage) but I could use more half-pints and quarts. I knew I had more quart jars but couldn't find more than a couple. Well, last night I got out a bunch of stuff to make scones (I tried a new flavor--walnut & chocolate chip, AMAZING!) and realized that I've been using them to store things in. Like my chocolate chips. When I looked in the cupboard I found one more holding some dried fruit way in the back, and one more holding some pasta. Ah-ha! I've transferred those dry goods to other, non-canning jars. (On the rare occasions I buy juice, I buy the organic stuff in glass jars and save the jars. They're super handy for holding dry goods from the bulk section and with the labels ripped off it's easy to see when I'm running low on something.) I figure the quart ones will be best for most of the rhubarb, since what I tend to make rhubarb into is either pie or crisp, and that requires a lot of rhubarb. For just the two of us, I use pint jars for tomato sauce. I'm hoping to can at least 15 jars of tomato sauce this year. Six last year got us halfway through winter, and that far only because we rationed them. If I do get 15, I'll probably end up wishing I'd put up more like 20-25!
I did discover something forehead-slappingly simple, though. I thought I needed to get a food mill for ease of making tomato sauce when I saw online someone mentioned using a blender, then straining the tomatoes to get out the seeds and skins. Wow! Why didn't I think of that before? I know, I know, blenders use electricity and food mills don't. I'm sure I'll get a food mill at some point, but I was dreading trying to find someplace to put it in our tiny and already overstuffed kitchen. Besides which, I'll be canning tomato sauce with a friend so it will be efficient in that way. We're going to wait until after the hunting trip, hoping and praying that my tomatoes ripen before then so that we can use them as much as possible and supplement with the (expensive) farmer's market tomatoes.
Finally, I want to organize the freezers better. I'm hoping that I can make the fridge-freezer for produce, and have the other one mostly open for meat and fish. This depends on whether or not we get a moose, of course. It might end up being a moot point. But even if we come back empty-handed, we still need to figure out what exactly we have in the depths of our freezers, and eat it. I found some caribou jerky the other night that I didn't realize we have. (I'll probably dig it out to bring on the road trip.) What else might we find back there? So that is one of my projects, most likely for after we get home.

The plan

Apparently, it's not just me. This really does seem like the end of summer, and there was an article in the Daily News-Miner about it. It hasn't frosted in my area yet, but it's certainly been quite chilly in the mornings with the sense that frost is right around the corner. I've stopped wearing shorts to bike to work in and have instead been pulling on long pants and my fleece. Without gloves, my fingers have been getting red with the chill. So now is not only the time to enjoy the last of summer activities, it's the point when it really hits home that summer will not last forever. Snowy days are approaching, and fast.
I'm trying to do one thing every day to get ready for winter, now. Even something as small as freezing a few peas. Really, all I've gotten put away so far can be classified as "a few peas". This is my biggest single-day haul yet:

All those peas doubled what I'd already had. Meaning that I now have one serving of (shelled) peas stored by for winter. We have been eating some fresh (especially Shane) but I see now how naive I was to think that I could get gallons of peas from so few plants. There are still plenty of small and unripe peas out there (less than I should have, since something has been out there eating them!) but if I fill one quart-size bag I'll be happily surprised. That amount of peas would last us, oh, a month or so. I could have planted my entire garden space full of nothing but peas and still not gotten enough for winter! I'm going to need to seriously think about this for future garden planning.
No problem with the varieties, however. I wish I'd marked better which ones were snap peas and which weren't, but I'm figuring it out. Only one of the three types of peas I bought does't have edible pods. I mean, all the pods are technically edible but you need to peel the inner flesh out from the Lincoln pods. The Alaska peas and the snap peas are both edible, and those are the ones Shane prefers to munch on. I'm liking the AK peas for their all-around utility. Edible pods, nice fat peas. But the Lincoln peas have much larger pods and, therefore, more peas. So I'm glad I got both of the varieties.
In the picture, you can also see three zucchinis. Small ones. Those are the only zucchinis I've yet harvested. Ugh. I've got at least one more (even smaller!) growing outside. But this is my most pathetic return on zucchinis ever. It must be something about this summer. Too wet and rainy, perhaps, although that wouldn't explain why some people around here are having great squash summers. Not enough sunlight where I've placed my zukes? Or something. Oh well. We'll just have to eat something else for the winter. I shredded those three zucchinis and froze them, which yielded about two 1 cup servings. Enough for two batches of zucchini pancakes, so I'll save those for a morning when I need a pick-me-up.
I do have some nice fat winter squashes growing. I think they're pumpkins, but I'm not certain because of course I forgot to label them. They're getting bigger than tennis balls, though, and I've been trimming off small ones to ensure the biggest ones will have enough nutrients to ripen. If I get three large-ish pumpkins (this variety is supposed to be about 7-9 inches long, I think) I'll be very happy!
I got two more beans (yes, I've been harvesting them in ones and twos) and these might very well be my last ones. My bean plants (all three of them) didn't do very well. Oh well. Buying beans won't be the worst thing in the world.
And I think I'm going to need to ask my mother-in-law for more rhubarb this year. Not that that will be a problem, I think. Unless she needs it all for more rhubarb wine. :) (It's tasty stuff.) When I got to L's house this weekend we'll see if we can harvest some more of her neighbor's rhubarb. I cut some stalks from my plants last night so I have a full quart-size freezer bag just from my own garden. (And since my plants are so young, I'm very pleased with that.)
All of the plants which are doing well in my garden this summer, with the exception of my tomatoes, are winter hardy ones. While the rest of the country is dry and baking, we're getting rain and cold. So much for beautiful Alaskan summers. I put a big clear plastic garbage bag over some of my tomatoes last night, but only some. Should I actually cut the bag open to lay over the whole plants, or should I leave it as-is so that it's still usable as a garbage bag later? I'm leaning toward cut it open.
My peas and squashes should keep going until it gets very chilly. Hopefully I've got about a month and a half for them to keep growing. My cabbages, too. I'll dig up the potatoes as soon as the plants start succumbing to the cold, and if I have to I'll find a place to bring my tomatoes inside and figure out what techniques I can use to ripen them. My celery is, amazingly, not doing too badly. I covered several of the plants in those milk-jug-cloches I made, so they're sort of topped with mini-greenhouses. They are NOT a fast-growing plant, so I'm really hoping that I can get another month or so of growing time out of them.
So what, besides gardening, am I doing to get ready for winter? Well, there's the foraging. I still haven't posted about the fireweed jelly I made, but there's lots of it. I already wrote about blueberry picking, and I have more blueberry picking trips planned. I haven't picked any raspberries so far this year, and it's getting toward the end of the season. The plants I saw didn't have that many anyway, and this week when I might have convinced myself to go out, it was miserably rainy.
I've got plans with a friend to make gallons of tomato sauce to can, and I keep putting by cherries whenever I can. I got bunches of basil from the farmer's market which I made into pesto and froze for quick and easy winter meals. It was tasty enough that I'm going to buy more basil this weekend, and finally use up what I've grown on my porch.
I've been airing out the apartment, but I haven't yet hauled out our winter things or the winter blankets. Those aren't needed quite yet. But when the door is open, if I'm sitting and reading I've found that having a light blanket over myself is lovely. And I've been wearing my nice warm slippers in the evenings. The fan, sitting in the hallway, seems like a bit of a joke now.
And there's always more to do. I'm trying to hold back the fear that I'm simply not doing enough to prepare for winter. I won't get it all done, I know, but I also know it won't be the end of the world.
If it seems like I'm focusing so much on food, I am. I suspect that this winter I won't be able to get to the store all that often. Shane will need the truck for commuting to and from work, so when he's gone I'll most likely be left vehicle-less. The more food I have stored away, the less of a disaster it will be if I can't get to the store for a while. And yes, I do have wonderful friends whom I could call on to give me a ride. But I don't want to be a burden to other people, either. Walking to the store wouldn't be horrible some days, but once it dips below zero I'm not going to want to do that terribly often.
I would like to see about cutting out the grocery store almost entirely. HG Market has veggie boxes all winter, sort of like a CSA only not from one specific farm. They try to get things as locally and organically as possible, which I like. (And yes, even in winter here there's some local food. Chena Hot Springs uses geothermal power and heat for their greenhouses, and there are several hydroponic "farms".) Shane mentioned a while ago that he wouldn't be opposed to ordering the veggie boxes for the winter, but we haven't actually sat down to talk about it. I'm hoping that we could do that, and then it would reduce my trips to the actual chain grocery stores to (I think) about once a month for grains and such. Or most likely, once every three weeks when Shane is home.
Little by little, I am managing to extricate myself from most of the conventional food system.
There is one week coming up which will sort of be an exception to my "one thing every day" goal. We're going moose hunting on Shane's next off-week, in two weeks. We'll be going down to the Kenai Peninsula with a friend, then out to Shane's family's cabin. Cross your fingers that we actually get something this year! We're running quite low on moose meat, and I am not looking forward to having to buy beef.
I will not be hunting, by the way. I'm going to visit with the family, and hopefully do some berry picking.

Feeling a little failure

I have a confession: last night, we ordered Chinese food.
Doesn't sound like a failure? Well, to me it sort of is, and I should probably explain why. When Shane is gone, I get to eat whatever I feel like. (You know, within my own make-it-yourself, locavore-if-possible personal rules.) Usually, this means sandwiches. (Why heat up the kitchen, since it's summer, just for myself? Why waste the electricity?) Since the food they give Shane at camp isn't the greatest, I feel like he should get to eat whatever he most wants when he's at home. Usually, this means whatever we want to prepare. But he's actually been sort of wishy-washy about what he wants to eat so far. I didn't do a big grocery trip last weekend because, well, I didn't have the energy for it for one thing (damn cough!), but I also didn't know what we'd be making. I prepared one meal for Sunday, when he'd be getting home, but didn't have meal prep beyond that. So last night I got home from work and one of the first things I asked was, "Should we go to the store? What do you want for dinner?" He said, "I honestly don't know." As we sat there trying to think of what we might want to eat, and what wouldn't heat up the house much (it was over 80 degrees--blech!), and what would be easy to prepare, Shane finally suggested, "Why don't we just order Chinese?" And I said yes. I knew that there were all kinds of reasons that I didn't really want to order Chinese, but it wasn't until the food arrived that I thought, "Oh, yeah. All the Styrofoam packaging. And the plastic packets of soy sauce, and the plastic-wrapped cookies. And where on earth are the vegetables?"
I really should have planned better. I should have come up with a backup plan in case Shane didn't have any preferences. I've been making excuses for myself about being exhausted from this cold--which I really have been, and getting myself well is priority number one. (I can't do anything else if I'm ill!) But I know that I could have done better.
This morning we ran out of bread, so I'm going to make more tonight. As of this morning, it wasn't quite as hot as yesterday so hopefully it won't be ridiculous to heat up the oven and the house. In fact, if we get some rain I'll probably take the opportunity to make this a baking night and get some other things done (scones!) so that I have backups in the freezer and I don't have to bake later on other hot days.
I'll need to pull out my big book of recipes again and try to figure out which meals are great for summer. We should eat some grilled salmon sometime this week, but what else? I hate having more than one meal in a week that's ruled by the Meat portion. What else could we grill that's perhaps more veggie-centric? After I make bread tonight, we'll probably make some of our favorite sandwiches and use a bit of my homegrown basil.
One of the biggest keys to getting more sustainable is having a plan, I've found. I really feel the lack when we don't have one. Which isn't to say that I plan everything out, or that everything goes according to plan. (Just look at my gardening--that never goes according to plan!) When I make a "meal plan" for the week, I don't plan out which nights we're going to make what because I don't know which days are going to be too hot to cook/bake, or if something unexpected will crop up. But it is nice to have that plan so that I know what ingredients there are on hand, to know what I can make without a trip to the store.

Broken and overgrown.

Shane got home last night and after a while he asked me how the garden was doing. I explained that I'd been out weeding for over an hour that afternoon before sending him out to look at it. He came back inside laughing and said, "That's after weeding? Hahaha!" Thanks, dear. (And he wonders why I want a raised garden bed when we have our own house.)
It got so completely overgrown while we were in Hawaii that now I'm fighting an uphill battle. However, I did find a little hand rake style tool that helped out a lot. It didn't get the more established weeds, of course--those had to be pulled by hand--but the new little ones that have cropped up came right out with just a few rakes. It's fantastic. Especially since I still don't have much energy right now. Last night was the first night since getting home during which I managed to get more than four hours of sleep before waking myself up coughing. I got a whole six hours of sleep before that happened!
And our dishwasher broke. It must have happened while we were gone, somehow. I don't make that many dishes when it's just me in the house, so I didn't have a full load until Saturday and when I tried to start the dishwasher, nothing happened. I tried again yesterday and still nothing happened, so I called the landlord. Then I did the dishes by hand. It's really not so bad, except that there is apparently a hole in one of our sinks. So we have a large canning jar under the hole, and a plastic tub (from our cabin days) in the sink. Since we don't have a dish drainer, I simply put the dishes back in the dishwasher to drain and dry.
By myself, and especially because of my cold (I haven't been eating much--a couple pieces of toast and some soup each day, lots of tea with honey) I don't make that many dishes. With Shane around, well, we'll see. He HATES doing dishes by hand, and gets really grumpy about them. I might just take over that chore entirely until the dishwasher gets fixed, simply to promote household harmony. The landlord is supposed to be coming over either today or tomorrow to take a look at it, but he warned me that if he has to order a part it could be next week before the dishwasher gets totally fixed. Oh well. Technically, I think doing the dishes by hand saves water--if you're washing them the way they're supposed to be done by hand. One sink full of soapy water, one full of clean water.

Not wasting food

It's been a whirlwind week so far, for both of us. Shane went back to work Monday morning (leaving at 5:30) and hasn't worked less than a 12 hour day since then.
I've been working 9 hour days to try to conserve as much of my vacation time as possible for when I can actually spend time with my husband and family. I'll be doing the same (or possibly even working a couple of 10s) next week when we get back. I'm hoping to use less than 3 days of vacation time for the 5 1/2 days we'll be gone.
But we're going to Hawaii! I'm so excited. To see Shane's wonderful aunt (who is letting us stay with her), to see my friends get married, to see the tropical island again and swim in warm ocean water...it will be bliss. And best of all, I get to spend a bunch of time with Shane and with my brother. I'll even get a chance to know my brother's girlfriend a bit.
Even with such a short trip, though, there's a lot of planning involved. Not only finding a pet-sitter and someone to drive us to the airport, packing, and working a lot, but also making sure we're not wasting food. Over the weekend, when Shane and I went to the grocery store together, I bought a bunch of fruit. He ended up asking me, "Can you eat all of that? Are you sure?" The answer is a definitive yes, because I have the last of it packed for lunch. After I eat dinner tonight, the only thing we'll have in the house which could go bad is some celery, and I'll probably eat some of that with my dinner before blanching and freezing the rest.
Of course, this means that on top of everything else I'll need to do when I get home, I'll have to go grocery shopping. But I would have had to do that anyway, since this food would have gone bad before I got home. This way it's just not wasted.
I am rather proud of how perfectly I planned it all, though. I made a wrap sandwich for lunch today (we don't even have any bread left) and ended up using some of my homegrown spinach in it because all of our other leafy vegetables and things which might have gone into a sandwich have been eaten (or were so old that they'd gone moldy, like the avocado I bought, darn it!). Now I've harvested from my garden stuff: a few spinach leaves, 2 beans, and 7 pea pods. Not bad for the beginning of June in Fairbanks!
The packing is the only major thing I have left on my list. I haven't started yet, of course. I wait until the last minute so that the pets don't have as much time to freak out. They're freaking out anyway because Shane's gone, so I really don't want to add to that. I'll pack tonight, and I'll have to do some digging for the clothes I want, since truly hot weather is a rarity around here. Thankfully I have a few sundresses, two of which my MIL bought for me, one from Italy, and one from the last time Shane and I went to HI. (He bought me a dress, and I bought him a shirt.) Since we won't be gone that long, everything will easily fit inside my hiking backpack. I have a dress that will be great for the wedding itself, and I'll be packing a total of three pairs of shoes. (One pair of flip-flops, one pair of walking sandals, and my ballet flats.) Now is also when my Nook is going to come in most handy: I'll download some free books from ListenAlaska to put on there and won't have to worry about running out of things to read. The only actual book I'll bring will be one which I'm returning to my little brother, via my middle brother (who's coming to the wedding). That middle brother will also be bringing a couple of books to me, one return and one loan. :) Ah, Sibling Post. Love it.
In addition to everyone we'll see in Hawaii, we also get to see my MIL. We had to stop in Anchorage no matter what, so we made it a rather long layover and my MIL will drive up to have lunch with us. Not only that, but she's giving me her old iPod Touch. It's not at all old, but she got an iPhone and decided that she didn't need the iPod anymore, so she offered it to me. I tend to be the type of gets an electronic gadget and uses it until it starts to break. This is the case with my old, first generation iPod Nano. There was a recall a while ago because so many of the first gen ones broke, and they replaced them with newer ones. But I never did that because mine worked just fine. Well, now it's not. Some of the buttons are dying, and the sound goes off sometimes. I would want it replaced anyway soon (running without music is unbelievably boring!), so it makes me happy that I can replace it without either spending a lot of money or buying something new.
Talk to you later, folks!

The informal economy

Sharon Astyk linked to a rather great article about the informal economy recently, which is worth a read. In case you don't know, the informal economy is any economic activity which isn't reported to the government. Like the barter I made the other day with my friend--she brought me some big pots for planting, and I let her go through the stuff my brother-in-law left with us and take what she wanted. (Not that either of us thought of it as "bartering" then--I think we were both just relieved to get rid of stuff we don't need and don't have space for.) Or when people here "shop" at the transfer station. Or my little brother's summer "job"--chopping up the trees my parents had taken down at their place (for fear they'd fall on the house during a storm--a distinct possibility) and selling it for firewood. (He won't make enough just from that to report it to the IRS.) Babysitting counts. Having a friend repair your sink/vehicle/bike/toilet counts. Giving away your zucchini/eggs/knitted sweater counts. Even volunteering counts as part of the informal economy, which is sort of crazy to me but it does make sense.
Sharon Astyk claims (and from her, there's probably lots of facts to back this up but I don't know where they are) that the informal economy makes up over twice the activity of what the formal economy does, worldwide. Regardless of whether that's true or not, it does make up a significant portion of worldwide activity. Think just of the barter economy worldwide--it's huge. In communist Russia the underground economy was what kept people from starving to death in greater numbers. And it always goes up when the economy gets worse, or when there are outside hardships imposed such as rationing.
Think about the people you know, and how much you might be contributing to the informal economy. Remember, it doesn't have to be something you do for money. Maybe you watch a neighbor's kid for a few hours while she takes her baby to the doctor. Maybe you barter with friends (hello, jewelry swap!), or make Halloween costumes for the kids you know. It's rather staggering when you total it all up, isn't it?
In a lot of ways, I think it's impossible (and needless to say, stupid) to completely avoid the informal economy. Not that I think you should "steal" money from the IRS by not reporting income when you legitimately should, but it seems to me to be more an indicator of community involvement than anything else. If you're not involved with those around you, even just neighbors, then of course you'll go to the store and buy something new rather than asking around to see if you can borrow or barter for it first. When you're involved in your community, however, you learn where to look for something used, or who to ask if they might have something. I needed a stud finder for a project at home and borrowed one from J, rather than buying one myself. It's something he needs, but doesn't use constantly and is easily portable. Why should I buy my own?
Moving toward a more communal mindset of what you "need" will be a great thing if we can make it into a national paradigm shift. There are so many things that we "need" only a few times, or once each week. Like the stud finder. Or even bigger things--do you need a lawnmower of your very own, or could you set up a communal one with your neighbors? What's the point of having four houses with four lawn mowers that need to be stored rather than used a majority of the time? What if instead you set up a schedule (the internet would make this so easy) and had people sign up for time slots instead, and shared one? Less money, less hassle, and less maintenance for each individual involved.
In some ways this type of community sharing is growing. Think of community gardens--they're popping up everywhere, even here. There's a new one at the university, on the defunct Fairbanks Street bridge. A community garden is the perfect use of that space--it was a road until the bridge fell below code for use by vehicles. It was closed off and turned into a walking path instead, with grass where there used to be pavement. And now there's a community garden on one side to make it even more productive and useful. The shared space has taken on new meanings. Would people have thought of doing something like this when times were good? Probably not, because there would be no need. If there's one thing humans are good at, it's focusing on the immediate needs and wants rather than the long-term goals and needs. But the bad times have upsides to them--this community garden created a dual purpose for a shared space, which will increase the efficiency of land and production, as well as increase the use of that space. People who might not have had a garden before, because of a lack of land (apartment dwellers) or not having the right area for a garden (one of my coworkers snagged a raised bed because her yard has too many trees and nothing but lettuce grows in her yard) are now able to produce their own nutritious food.
I'm sure there are people--even lots of people--who think that the underground or informal economy is bad or evil. But it brings more efficiency and sustainability to our system than the formal economy ever has, and for that reason alone I'm proud to say I'm part of it. I'm "bartering" more of my brother-in-law's abandoned kitchenware (and a tub of ice cream, but my friend doesn't know that yet) for pet-sitting when we go to Hawaii. :)