Reading for Pleasure

Life has been stressful lately with the aftermath of moving and adjusting to a new home, house and property issues, Angel's cancer follow-up, a death in the family as well as another member terminally ill and yet another with failing health, and enough pain for both me and my sweetie to drive us into physical therapy for relief. Overlaying all of this is the constant background worry about where we are headed with the economy, climate, and oil resources.

When I sit down to read these days, I have no desire to read about the problems facing our society and world. I don't even really want to read about the solutions or what I can do about it, especially since so many of the projects already on our list are on hold until outside temperatures are cool enough to work and we save enough to buy materials that can't be scavenged.

When I sit down to read, I want an escape from the worry and stress. I want to become engrossed in a book, transported to another world, at least temporarily. I tend to read a wide variety of fiction; as long as it is well-written and interesting, I'll usually stick with it, although I do avoid horror. I have a vivid imagination and enough dark thoughts of my own - I don't need to feed them with other people's dark visions!

I've volunteered several times at libraries and found it was a great way to stumble across interesting books. If I find an author that I really connect with, I'll read everything they've written. When an author I like also has short stories or "novellas" published in an anthology, I get the added benefit of sampling other authors that may send me reaching for the books they've written.

Some books seem to draw me back to reread them every few years and those books are ones that have been gathered from used bookstores over the years to live in my home. I'm partial to Anne Rice - particularly the vampire books, Anne McCaffrey, and Jean Auel. The last two authors often feature strong female characters, which I think is a strong part of their draw for me. J.A. Jance's mysteries with Joanna Brady are good reading, too, especially since I think she nails the character of southeastern Arizona.

I've found, though, that I don't like just any mystery. I need something to connect to. In the case of Jance, it is the familiarity with the region. Another mystery author I enjoy is Diane Mott Davidson, not at all surprising since her lead character is a caterer with a strong affinity for good coffee, chocolate, and rich foods. I wish she existed in real life and cooked for me!

Our bookshelves also sag under the weight of books by Bill Bryson, Kurt Vonnegut, and J.R.R Tolkien, although I'll admit I don't connect with Vonnegut's writing nearly as much as my sweetie.

But, back to cruising the library for reading material. Lately I have simply browsed the bookshelf with new releases to find books; it narrows down the selection so I am not overwhelmed by too many options. Fantasy has been a very strong draw in the past few months, perhaps because it really does take me into a completely different world where I can briefly forget about the problems in this one. I've found a few authors and books I can recommend if you like that genre.

Ilona Andrews - I've enjoyed everything she's written so far and eagerly await coming books. She has a novella in an anthology with three other writers that were enjoyable (but whose names escape me at present).

Gina Koch - I believe she's only published one book so far, but it was fresh and well-written. Her website promises more to come with the same characters.

Glen Cook - I have unfortunately not been able to find his books in libraries very often for some reason. I had most of the Garrett, P.I., series from a thrift store and made the mistake of not holding onto them.

Jim C. Hines - I'm currently reading one of his books and expect to seek out his other publications.

If you like anthologies, check out Pandora's Closet. It has 19 very short stories in it which will let you sample a wide variety of authors. If you're smart, you'll make a note of which ones you like instead of just returning the book to the library like I did.


As you know, I don't accept merchandise from sellers in return for hawking their products. I have reviewed products (and books) in the past, but they are simply things that I have come across on my own. I generally ignore emails from sellers offering to send me free merchandise in exchange for a review, although sometimes I'm nice and respond to let them know of my policy.

Such was the case recently when I was contacted about a new novel with an offer to be sent a free copy if I would do a review (positive or negative - whatever I wanted) about it during the author's book tour. I declined, but said I'd check it out of the library since it looked interesting.

Hot House Flower and the 9 Plants of Desire by Margot Berwin was an interesting read. The story unfolded gradually, like the petals of a flower, leaving me wondering from chapter to chapter where the story was going next. It follows an unhappy woman working in the New York advertising scene on her journey to find herself and what she truly wants from life. The journey takes her to the rain forests of Mexico where she is completely out of her element.

I thought the first half of the book was well-paced and engaging. By the second half, though, it seemed to be racing towards the conclusion and the process of her transformation felt rushed. While the reader may be happy with how things turn out, there may also be a certain level of puzzlement over how it happened given earlier portions of the book. Still, it's an enjoyable read with thought-provoking elements that may leave you wondering whether your own life is on the right course. And you may end up headed down to the local plant vendor to check out the exotic offerings.


I know there are some folks in the prepper world that think every minute of our time should be spent learning and practicing how to live in a world with less resources, but I think we need to feed our minds and our souls as well as figuring out how to feed our bodies. If you find, like me, that you need some distraction from contemplating TEOTWAKI, head to your local library and check out some books!

Selfishness versus a Selfless Act of Heroism

On my way into the city yesterday, my route was suddenly filled with numerous emergency vehicles making their way towards a column of dark black smoke. I had just turned down a smaller street, hoping to avoid the normal heavy traffic on the larger roads, when I saw the smoke a few blocks ahead, obviously from something that had just begun to burn.

"Not again," was my first thought. Two weeks ago, as I left the CSA, I sat at a traffic light waiting for it to change when a similar black-smoked fire began just a few hundred yards up the road. Thankfully then I was turning so I did not see what was on fire.

Yesterday, I quickly assessed where and when I could get off the road I was on to be out of the way of the disaster response. Emergency vehicles - police cars, fire trucks, a fire inspector, ambulance, and even a police van - rushed to the scene from every direction. Their impact on traffic did not bother me; they are there to help when there are emergencies. What really irritated me were the drivers who would not move out of the way.

When there is an emergency vehicle approaching, traffic is required to pull off to the right side of the road if possible to leave the lanes clear for the emergency personnel to move quickly and safely through the streets. On a divided road, traffic in the opposite lane does not have to pull over, but the roads I was on were not divided. Over the course of the next ten minutes, as I wove my way away from the area, emergency vehicles poured towards the scene from every direction, and numerous cars totally ignored them.

People, an emergency is not a traffic opportunity for you. When the responsible drivers pull off to the side of the road to clear the way, this is not a signal for you to pass everyone and speed on your way. If you did bother to pull over, it is dangerous (and rude) to pull out from the curb super-fast just so you can get ahead of a few cars. Are you trying to cause another accident and create more problems for the emergency crews? And please, when the firetruck and police car cause the light to stay green and they zoom through the intersection in the turn lane, do not think for one minute that it is appropriate for you to pull out behind them and gun it trying to make it through the light, too.

People who hinder the prompt arrival of emergency crews are not only rude, they are endangering the lives of those people that need treatment by the crews. They are increasing the risk of a fire getting further out of control and threatening more lives. They are risking causing traffic accidents that will pull emergency crews from the crisis they were responding to.

For once, folks, do try to think of others first. There may come a time in your life when you need emergency crews to reach you as fast as possible, and then you're really going to hope that all the drivers get the heck out of their way.

As far as I know, traffic delays did not contribute to the deaths of the three people yesterday when a medical helicopter crashed in the neighborhood I was driving through. As a stark contrast to the rude drivers I observed, though, witnesses say the helicopter pilot steered his malfunctioning craft away from the houses seconds before his death as the helicopter plunged nose-first into the ground and burst into flame. His final action ensured no-one on the ground was injured or killed.

Lube Didn't Help...

In an ironic twist, funny only from the perspective of the Universe which seems to be getting a kick out of screwing with us, attempts to apply lube today did not meet with success. My sweetie had just picked up his grease fun from our storage unit and decided to go lube the wheelbarrow so it wouldn't keep squeaking when we used it.

Within about thirty seconds of his heading out, the very gentle drizzle of rain became a torrential downpour. About a minute later, my sweetie was back on the porch with a sour look on his face. The zirc fitting from the wheelbarrow got stuck in the nozzle of the grease gun. No lubrication applied.

He is still, ten minutes later, trying to extract that fitting from the nozzle. It's not looking good. Somehow the wheelbarrow will also need to be repaired.

Whew. He just got it out so at least we won't have to replace the grease gun.

Still . . . I am not amused.

Dear Universe:

You've really been picking on me lately and I'd like to know why. I try to be a responsible human on this here little planet, kind to the earth and its inhabitants, but you don't seem to care. You just keep heaping on the stress and quite frankly I'm getting fed up with it.

Now you've handed me, or rather us, several more big issues to deal with. If you expect me to bend over and take it again, I want some freakin' lube!

Give it a rest already, willya?!

Tired, angry, frustrated Chile

*****************

To the readers of this blog:

My apologies for going dark today but I had to take care of a few administrative details and wanted to do it all at once.

I also have a question for any technical type people out there. I am getting repeated hits every day from one particular ISP on the main blog page only, approximately every 1 minute 3 seconds for hours at a time. Can anyone tell me what's going on with this? Any way to stop it? Thanks for any help on this.

It's a Dog's Life

Angel is completely obsessed with round-tailed ground squirrels.


They taunt her by digging holes in her yard and popping up while she's stuck inside.


When she is allowed outside, she has to check out each and every single hole in the yard. She likes to stick her snout down in the holes and snort.


When I call her to come back in the house, she ignores me, preferring instead to lounge by a hole.


What she's really hoping for, I think, is one of the squirrels to pop its head up while she's laying there.


These little guys are too smart for her. It's very hard to get a decent picture with my little camera. This one didn't move for five minutes while I stood motionless hoping to get a better picture.

All day long, the ground squirrels run around in the yard, across the road, and in the neighbors' yards. They play, chase each other, climb up the mesquite trees to get the beans, and hang out....until the camera comes out and then all you see is the tips of their tails as they bolt down their holes.


Maybe I'm going to have to lie on my belly right in front of a hole in order to get a good picture...

Is the Unpacking Really Almost Done?

I'm getting closer and closer to unpacking the very last box in my new house. Usually I unpack much faster than this, but anyone who's kept up with the blog since I moved back in early April knows there's been a fair amount of drama in my life this year.

Impatient to finish getting settled in, my plan was to finish organizing the storage area last week and spend this entire week setting up the office/exercise/guest room. Well, plans change according to the latest drama, so when my mother-in-law got some bad health news, we decided to go pick her up and have her stay with us a few days. Clearing the floor in the office/exercise/guest room became the top priority.

Amazingly, I did it. I thought it would take me a week to unpack the last few boxes in here and organize the closet but I tackled it in one day. Everything may not be in the place it will stay forever, but all of the boxes in this room are gone. Sure, there's a huge box of paperwork I need to sort through and file - since I have not filed anything in months - but that box is safely tucked away out of sight for now.

I still have to finish the storage area but that won't take but a couple of days at most. The only things I have left in boxes are the art and decor for the house. Now that almost all the rest of the house is settled, I can unpack those and find the best locations for them. It's hard to believe I'll soon be able to completely shift my attention to other things on the to-do list.

Big Rain Fills Wash

Yesterday, I finally had a nice sunny morning with enough time to get a big batch of rice cooked in the solar oven. The weather has been uncooperative lately with partial cloudiness and wind on a regular basis. Partial cloudiness in the morning is not what one wants during the monsoons.

The best storms build up when it is clear and hot early in the day. By mid to late morning, puffy clouds are building on the horizon which by early to mid afternoon turn into dark threatening clouds. Eventually the accompanying wind brings the scent of imminent rain to one's nose. Then it's time to move indoors.

Big raindrops began to fall, about four times larger than the average rain drop. I quickly hurried the dogs outside for a last chance to do their business before the storm. Good thing, too, because within a few more minutes, the rain was pelting down. The wind kicked up, with gusts up to 45 mph, blowing the water off the roof rather than allowing it to run into my buckets. This kept up for a good bit of time, during which I ran out onto the porch to belatedly try to cover up a few things. In just a minute or two, I was drenched due to the wind blowing rain across the entire porch. Hopefully everything out there will dry out in a day or two.

I called my sweetie in town to ask how the weather was down there. Usually it would be a simple matter of logging onto the Internet and checking a centrally-located weather station at the University of Arizona. However, I'd unplugged the computer when the lightening and thunder started up, and then the power went out a few minutes later. My sweetie complained that it was hot and sunny in town.

This is very typical for our monsoon rains. He checked the weather forecast and it called for "isolated thunderstorms" with some heavy rains and wind. My sweetie was able to see from the satellite photos that the storm center was north of our house, and was really dumping the moisture up there.

The next time I looked out the window, I noticed a truck passing very slowly on the road. Hm, that's interesting. Then I noticed another car stop and then proceed slowly by. The next car stopped, the driver got out for a minute, got back in the car, and turned around. By this time it had dawned on me that there must be water in the wash. It certainly had not rained enough locally to cause the wash to fill with run-off water but the rain up north drains down my direction.


Hoo boy! No wonder the cars were turning around. This may not look like much water, but it takes only six inches of flowing water to sweep a car right off the road.

You'd be amazed how many people do not understand the power of water. In fact, the cost of rescuing people who insist on driving across flooded roads finally prompted the state to pass the Stupid Motorist Law here. People who drive around barriers blocking off flooded roads and subsequently need to be rescued can now be billed for the cost of their rescue.

Flash floods come quickly, especially in situations just like this storm where the heavy rain was miles away. You can see an example of a typical Arizona flash flood in the 40 second video clip at the bottom of this page. Check out the other monsoon videos on that page, too. This one from the flash flood in 2007 shows the Rillito River which is a completely dry wash about 10 feet deep most of the year. I was walking along the path by this wash when it started to crest over the top during that storm. My friend and I watched a huge cylindrical tank the size of a semi-truck trailer go bobbing down the floodwaters, almost crashing into the bridge before being sucked down under it.

There were no signs or barricades put up on the road by my house, so I just kept my fingers crossed that nobody would get swept off the road into my wash. Until the water subsided, only the bigger vehicles attempted the crossing; smaller ones turned around to try to find another route home.


Here is a picture of the water rushing off the road into the wash. There is a drop-off of several feet into the wash, but the running water was almost up to the level of the road.


My usually dry sandy wash was a raging torrent of muddy water. While this was exciting to see, it also made me just a wee bit nervous.


Just a few hours later, the water had subsided to the barest of trickles down the wash. The dark color you see on the surface of the sand is iron. It brings back memories of playing with magnets as a child, dragging them through the dirt to pick up all the iron particles.


You can see how the wash has been scoured clean. I'm sure glad we hadn't tried to plant our berries (raspberry, blackberry, and boysenberry) down on the banks yet. We probably would have planted them too low and they would have been swept away. They need to be planted near the tops of the banks, probably in the fall to give them time to get really well-established before the next monsoon season.


Before we do much gardening, we need to see what happens in a few more big storms. It's supposed to be stormy through the weekend.

edited

Dear Jerk in the Parking Lot

Perhaps you did not realize it was 105 degrees outside today while you were cruising in your nice, cool, air-conditioned, gas-guzzling SUV. Perhaps you were too busy texting to notice the woman trying to cross the parking lot with both arms full of groceries. In any case, thanks ever so much for making me stand and wait on the super-hot asphalt while you slowly made your way by, looking for the perfect parking spot close to the store.

Signed,
The sweaty woman with the melted groceries

***

Why is it that most drivers in parking lots are so insensitive to pedestrians? I always give people on foot the right of way when it is very hot outside. Or when it's very cold. Or rainy. After all, as soon as I park my vehicle or my bike, I'll be on foot, too, and sure hope someone will have the slightest sense of decency and the courtesy to let me get inside before melting, freezing, or getting drenched.

I've noticed this is even more of an issue where I live now. A large percentage of the population northwest of Tucson is retired and many of them are wealthy. Many of these folks project an annoying sense of entitlement and it is not at all uncommon to have them cut you off on the roads and in businesses.

I can't help but wonder if this is a green banana phenomenon - like they don't think they have enough time left to wait their turn in line. Sheesh, old man, do ya really want to spend your last moments paying for groceries you're not going to get to eat? Why not? I guess it's better than spending your last moments waiting behind the freaky woman with 10 packs of recycled toilet paper and 50 pounds of bulk rolled oats in her cart!

To quote Robert Heinlein again,

... a dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than a riot.

Buyer Beware

After house-shopping for a couple of years, we lucked into finding this house for sale in our price range and with the extras that we had hoped to find, namely an acre of land in a smaller community but close enough to my sweetie's employment to be workable. However, we have paid a price for this affordable home, one that we knew to expect with buying a foreclosure.

The news is full of horror stories about trashed-out foreclosures and, indeed, we'd seen some houses like that on the local MLS. When we looked at this place, we were relieved to see that it appeared to have avoided the total destruction that many houses suffered. Over time, though, we've come to suspect that the situation was a little worse than we initially thought.

Dealing with the bank that owned the house was rather interesting. I'd rather have dealt with an individual seller, but by that point, we were pretty much out of options if we wanted to get a home and start the process of getting prepared for the future. When our offer was finally accepted, after a nerve-wracking bidding process against the other two potential buyers, the bank's contract stated that we were welcome to inspect the property and inform them of any deficiencies or needed repairs, but they would not do a damn thing about them. If we didn't like that, we were free to walk away from the purchase, taking our earnest money with us. In other words, "take it or leave it."

We did the inspection on our own and noted missing light fixtures, screens, screen doors, closet doors, and even the mailbox. There was a single towel bar in the entire two-bedroom house. We did not bring these deficiencies up with the bank because, heck, they weren't going to fix them anyway so why make the process take any longer?

We were surprised in the final walk-through to find the missing light fixtures had been replaced. There was a comment on the hook-up and inspection sheet from the electric company that they must be in place for the sale, so I guess the bank actually sprung for those. Of course, the front porch light fixture was a different style than the original, leaving a big patch that needs to be repainted, but that's simply cosmetic and we'll get to it eventually.

Once we moved in, though, we started taking note of some other odd things. Arizona has hard water and it leaves spots on bathroom fixtures, yet every single faucet fixture for the sinks and tub looked sparkly clean. They were all new; cheapest ones available but new. Hm, had the old owner perhaps removed all the faucets when he was kicked out for the foreclosure? The oven is not original to the house. It is obviously a scratch 'n dent model, and we now suspect that it, too, was installed after the bank took possession.

I worried initially about sabotage but my sweetie assured me that we would be able to see anything significant. In the last few days, though, we've stumbled across two things, minor but obviously intentional, that make me think we need to continue to be vigilant. This weekend, my sweetie had time to finally look into why the front phone jack was dead. After some time investigating, he found the wire coming into the house had been pulled out a bit, cut, and then pushed back into the hole. This could not have been accidental.

This morning, I decided it was high time I vacuumed the spider webs and dust out of the floor vents. I can't do a thorough job like the professionals who clean duct work, but at least there wouldn't be so much crud blowing up out of them every time the air conditioning came on. After I was done, I dumped the contents of the mini Shop Vac into the trash. I wasn't terribly surprised by the dirt, lint, fur, and pebbles; after all, this stuff is going to fall into floor vents occasionally. What did surprise me, though, were the half-dozen cigarette butts. Huh? How freakin' rude! I'm kind of grossed out now and wondering if the jerk shoved anything worse way back into the duct work.

I'm thrilled we did finally find an affordable place but I'd much rather be outside playing in the compost than cleaning up after the last tenant!

80 Gallons of Rain

I was so excited at the end of June and then again on the first of July when we got a little bit of rain. Usually the summer rains begin around the 4th of July so I took the earlier storms as a good sign. I even hoped, after two days in a row, that perhaps this would be the pattern for our new locale: rain every summer day!

Ha. It didn't rain again until yesterday. As if to beg forgiveness, however, it rained three times - early afternoon, late afternoon, and then early evening. When the first rain started, I rushed out to put a few buckets under the edge of the roof and put the new rain gauge into the ground in the middle of the yard - not a permanent home, but good enough to measure for the one storm.

Once the rain got going and water started flowing off the roof, I adjusted the position of the buckets to take advantage of the four places where most of the water seems to come off the front of the roof.


One of the heaviest flows is right over the stairs. Rain gutters will eliminate this problem eventually, but for now the buckets keep the stairs from getting quite as slippery.


When the rain started again later, I scrounged up more buckets and containers, including a 33 gallon trash can and an 18 gallon plastic tote. I emptied a lot of the buckets into the big can to make room for more rain. Unfortunately the wheel section collapsed under the weight of the water.

There wasn't much we could do for the evening rain, so the buckets overflowed some.

The rain gauge this morning showed a total of .2" for all of yesterday. We collected about 80 gallons of water in our containers. The garden will probably really enjoy being watered with collected rain; well, not as much as when it actually rains but the plants can't be too picky!

Illiterate Cyclists?

After seeing so many folks on bicycles blow right past STOP signs, one has to wonder at the rates of illiteracy among cyclists. Some also appear to be color-blind as they behave identically whether a stoplight shows green, yellow, or red.

Now I'm betting some of you reading this either don't understand why I complain about this or actually do this while riding your own bike. Let me point out why this concerns me and why it should concern you: it is not safe because it is not predictable. Traffic signs (and laws) help make the behavior of all vehicles, including bicycles, predictable. If all vehicle operators know what to expect from the other vehicles on the road, the chances of getting into an accident are reduced.

Imagine if there were no laws and no signs. Nobody would know what anybody else was going to do from moment to moment on the road and there would be utter chaos. You would not know if the car in front of you was going to stay in its lane, speed up or slow down, suddenly turn - either direction, or perhaps decide it was time to come to a full stop to look at the map in the middle of the road. Yes, there are people that drive like this all the time, but thankfully not the majority (yet).

Generally, you know at a STOP sign that each vehicle will stop, hopefully check for other traffic, and proceed when it is their turn or is safe. When a cyclist blows through a stop sign, they put themselves and others at risk. I've seen and heard vehicles come to a screeching halt to avoid hitting cyclists that ran a stop sign. Cars swerving to avoid the bike that suddenly whips in front of them can also end up hitting the curb or other cars, causing injury and/or damage.

Please, if you ride a bike, be predictable, be legal, and be safe. Yes, it's a pain in the butt to come to a stop on a bike and then have to start back up. But, you know something? The same could be said of stopping a car. Coming to a stop and starting back up uses more gas than continuing at the same speed without stopping. Does that mean drivers should start running stop signs to reduce their carbon emissions? Uh, no. (They should start riding their bikes instead!)

Cyclists, also keep in mind that drivers tend to judge all cyclists based on the experiences they have with any bike on the road. If you do not obey the traffic laws, are rude or inconsiderate, they often assume all cyclists are the same and treat them accordingly. It's not fair, especially considering the rude and dangerous drivers we cyclists encounter on a regular basis. So make the effort to be a good influence on the road whether you are biking or driving. It's the smart thing to do.

Cantaloupe Ice Cream

Do you remember the Donvier Ice Cream Makers? I paid $30 for one when they first came out years (decades?) ago. Talk about an easy way to make ice cream with no mess. Low energy, too. Just stick the cylinder in your freezer for a day - and almost everyone reading this blog has a freezer, even if just the little space above their fridge - and then add your ice cream mixture and crank occasionally until ready.

I liked my Donvier so much that when they later started showing up in thrift stores for $5 or so, I'd snatch them up to give to friends, along with my favorite ice cream recipes. I probably gave away at least half a dozen over the years.

One summer, I tried a new ice cream recipe every single week. The one I was most dubious about - cantaloupe ice cream - turned out to be our favorite. Since it is currently melon season at my CSA, I decided to make this recipe tonight.

Now, you may remember that I had frozen lots of water in case I had to store food for a while before converting my new freezer into a refrigerator. When that became unnecessary, I left one of the tubs of ice in the chest freezer to keep it full. A few days ago, I put the Donvier cylinder in the freezer; the only space available was above the tub of ice.


D'oh! That was a mistake. When I first put in the room temperature cylinder, it must have melted a little of the ice. Then it refroze, securing the cylinder onto the top of the ice. I already had my ice cream mixture made when I discovered this. Rather than give up, though, I just used the Donvier right there in the ice. The gasket that goes on the top rim of the cylinder doesn't have to seat into the white case. The crank handle fits into the gasket, too, not the case.


Half an hour later, we had tasty cantaloupe ice cream. The cylinder is still frozen in the ice so I'm going to let it sit out all night to thaw. Maybe I should blow a fan across it to cool us off!

Want the recipe? Here it is.

Cantaloupe Ice Cream
2 cups cut cantaloupe
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey or brown sugar (honey is tastier)
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups soymilk (Non vegetarians may substitute milk. Using 1 cup milk and 1 cup half-and-half will make it richer and creamier.)

Place cantaloupe, lemon juice, sugar, honey, and vanilla in blender.
Blend on low speed until cantaloupe is pureed.
Blend on high speed until mixture is smooth.
Add soymilk and blend to combine.
Pour into ice cream maker and freeze.

Solar-Cooked and Local Holiday Meal

Today's Fourth of July meal was mostly local, mostly solar-cooked, and all vegan.

• Corn on the cob from the CSA - previously steamed in the solar oven and then frozen; reheated in the Tulsi solar oven.


• Veggie hot dogs were heated in a pot of water in the Tulsi solar oven, and put in whole wheat buns with chopped refrigerator sweet pickles made from CSA cucumbers, ketchup (not homemade), and mustard.


• BBQ beans were almost all local. Roma tomatoes were cooked into pulp in the Tulsi solar oven yesterday and then the skins and seeds were strained out. At the same time, a chopped sweet onion braised alongside them. These were combined this morning with some seasonings, vinegar, and brown sugar. The sauce simmered for several hours in the Sunlight Cooker while the pinto beans - from the CSA - cooked in the SunOven.

All this tasty food was washed down with homemade prickly pear lemonade from the juice from locally harvested prickly pear fruit and lemon juice, both preserved in ice cube form in the freezer.

This is Independence

Hand-washing cloth wipes and cloth pads



Line-drying laundry



Growing food locally



Cooking with the sun


These are just a few pictures of independence.

Independence from using natural resources to make disposable products.
Independence from using clean water once and sending it off as wastewater.
Independence from using petroleum products to grow and transport food long distances.
Independence from using nonrenewable resources for cooking.
Independence from building more landfills and using petroleum to transport waste.

How are you declaring your independence today?

Purely for Fun

Besides standing out in the first rain of summer (earlier post today), what do you do purely for fun? This question is especially directed at those people actively "prepping" and making changes in their lifestyle to use less energy, grow or locally source more of their food, become more self-sufficient, build community, and so on. These activities have their own rewards but sometimes are not enough for a satisfying life.

What do you do for pure enjoyment that has nothing to do with increasing your self-sufficiency or decreasing your impact on the earth? Oh sure, I know some of you find all the enjoyment you need from making jam from those fresh blueberries picked on a nature walk, pickling your own home-grown peppers, chopping wood for winter, feeding and watching the chickens, and such. But for those of you who need the occasional break, what do you do?

Do you write? Read? Draw or paint? Go for nature strolls just for the heck of it, not in search of edible or medicinal plants? Watch the birds? Make music? Listen to music? Whip up a non-local totally unsustainable dessert? Go to sushi classes? Learn a new language?

My passion lately has been reading. I've always been a voracious reader but have also gone through times where I've barely cracked a book in ages due to lack of time or energy. Recently, though, I can't get enough of reading books in the SciFi/Fantasy genre. There are a lot of new authors out there writing well enough to get my head out of doom thinking for entire evenings.

What's your pleasure for pure enjoyment?

First Summer Rain

My sweetie removed everything from our little mini-shed to level it. When warning him that we'd better get everything back into it because it was clouding up, he assured me the dewpoint was not high enough yet for the monsoons to start. I looked dubious; clouds were quickly darkening the sky. He wasn't feeling well but said he could put the things away later. Out of concern for him, and potential rain, I insisted we do it immediately before I left for the afternoon.

About half an hour later, I headed into the shower to rinse off. Already undressed, I cocked my head and listened carefully after hearing a few odd plinks on the metal top to the exhaust fan. Yep, it was raining alright.

I threw on a robe and went to inform my sweetie that the rain had begun, rain that didn't care what the dewpoint was. I bit down, hard, on my tongue to avoid saying, "I told you so" about the need to put away the shed's tools. (I admit that I did "tell him so" later. After years together, you'd think he'd have learned to listen to me when I get a feeling about such things.)

We walked out onto the porch and watched as the rain began in earnest.


In no time at all, water began dripping off the porch roof.


It puddled on the ground below. We probably won't get our rainwater harvesting set up until fall when the temperatures drop again and we can work outside for hours without risking heat exhaustion.

I went back inside, rinsed off in the shower quickly, got dressed, and headed outside to wander the property to see how the water was moving across it. There wasn't much accumulation yet so we mostly just got wet and enjoyed the fresh smell of rain. We walked along the road and watched where water flowed together before heading into our wash, the lowest point on our half-mile chunk of road. Sure wish I'd gotten those berries planted along the banks already!

The rain drops suddenly picked up volume and speed, absolutely soaking us with huge drops. We returned to the porch, noting a section with drips coming through the roof. (Add another repair to the weekend to-do list...) I dried off from my second shower. After a few minutes, there was more water flowing down the drive, running off towards the drainage points on the property.

We may be in the arid Southwest but it still gets muddy!