saucy!

Well, the applesauce turned out well! As usual, we severely underestimated the amount of applesauce that half a bag of apples makes.

Oh well!

We got two quarts of out it.. not that bad. We still have a half bag to do tomorrow, as well as 3 pie pumpkins. I think I'm going to make homemade pumpkin pie filling and then freeze it for my Halloween party! That way I won't have to be baking pumpkins and peeling them and food processing them on the day of the party haha!

mmm mm applesauce!

Urban Homesteading

Ashes sent me a wiki entry on Homesteading-

"Currently the term 'homesteading'^[1] applies to anyone who is a limb of the back-to-the-land movement and who chooses to live a sustainable, self-sufficient lifestyle. While land is no longer freely available in most areas of the world, homesteading remains as a way of life. A new movement, called 'urban homesteading', can be viewed as a simple living lifestyle, incorporating small-scale agriculture, sustainable and permaculture gardening, and home food production and storage into suburban or city living."

I think this is roughly my goal. I'd like to produce some of my own food, turn most of my yard into either a) gardening space for growing food or b) native plant areas that mimic (somewhat) what plants might naturally grow here. I also am trying to eat "seasonally" or with seasons in mind. Of course, that's not as easy as it sounds. It doesn't even sound easy! But here's some of the things I've been working on:

• Trying to choose previously owned, sustainably-made or re-purposed furniture whenever possible. All that we bought new (furniture-wise) for this house was our bed frame and that was made by company that re-plants a tree for each one it uses, and uses parts of Rubber Trees that are going to be disposed of!

• Shopping at the farmer's market, Ypsilanti Food Co-op, or Whole Foods/Trader Joe's. That's where I get 90% of our groceries

• Canning and preserving food that is in-season now for the winter, when it will be unavailable

• Had my own community garden plot this year!

• I try to support local businesses whenever possible, whether its buying furniture, buying food, buying art, etc.

• Hope to transform my yard and leave only about 20% grass. The rest will be raised-bed gardens and native plant areas!

• 90% of the household products I buy (toilet-paper, cleaners, etc) are organic or non-toxic

• Used No-VOC paint (FreshAire from Home Depot) on most of the new rooms we painted!
  

In general, I try run everything I buy by this test: Is it either local or environmentally friendly (it's hard to find both!)?

Anyway that was a rant! Just meant to post some pictures of our latest canning adventure: Butternut Squash soup, Apple and Ginger Marmalade, and Apple butter! Yum!

busy weekend!

This weekend was Mike and my anniversary, so we shlepped to A2 to a bed and breakfast to get out of the house for a night- It was fun! The inn-keeper? reminded us of Ruth Fisher from Six Feet Under so that made it even better. It was nice to have a saturday off with Mike. We walked into A2 and went to Shalimar, our favorite of fav Indian places, went to TTV, and then got some Mo Mo Tea.

Missed the little kitties! Sara stayed over on Friday, and Ashes and I pickled green beans on Friday- they look pretty awesome :) Was a beautiful, fun weekend- nice balance of friends and family and kittens!

I was thinking about all the cool stuff that is going on in my life, and I wanted another way to share, besides Facebook, and talking in a monologue to people for hours. I've started a few blogs before but I always write one entry and then I forget to update.. ever again.

Since this is not topic specific, maybe I will update more?

This has been a very busy year for me, and it's also been one of a lot of fun and loving and learning and doing stuff! Doing-wise, I graduated with my Masters in Social Work, Mike and I got married and we got our own apartment for the first time! I have a pretty great job at Girl Scouts that I like too, which is nice after 500 years of school.

There are a lot of activities that I began to get into this year that I have really enjoyed; canning (with Ashes!) eating local food, having a community garden, learning about seasons and what food grows when. I think these help me to feel more connected to life and like I am becoming more of an "informed consumer", and maybe also less of a consumer!

Jen and Jesse have been great friends to me, especially this year- it has been great to see so much of them and I hope we can continue to see more now that they have moved to A2!

There are also a few big things coming up that I am very excited for; starting my position as a Commissioner for the Human Relations Commission for the City of Ypsilanti, buying our first home right near downtown Ypsi, living with Sara again (and maybe Shana) and being a pet owner!!!

I've also had a chance to reconnected with some people this year that I fell out with a bit during my last year at Eastern. That was a really stressful year for me, and I kind of ignored almost everyone and just tried to plug through and get done. Luckily, Sara, Shana and Ashes still like me. I've really liked being able to get to know Ashley more during our canning adventures, getting together with Sara, and spending almost ALL my time with Shana, although now Shana moved and left me :)

I'm really excited to live with Sara. Sara might not know this, but she is one of my favorite people. I haven't made the time to see her like I want to and like I should. It should be a LITTLE bit easier to see her when she lives in our house! I think it will be nice to have a Sara-friend to come home to and spend time with, and I'm looking forward to getting to know Sara even better. Ultimately, I'm hoping our cats could date.

and the most exciting thing right now- KITTIES!!!!!! We are taking care of two baby kitties; Helo and Athena. One of our friends' friends found them on her doorstep, when they were about a week old! They are sweet little lovies. I was NEVER a cat person- I always had dogs and fish and birds and rats and turtles and birds growing up, haha, but never cats. But our cats are the sweetest little kittens I've ever seen. They're loving and friendly and it's really fun to see them develop personalities and grow up with us! I already have an unhealthy attachment to them, and Marie might have to fight me to get Athena from us when she's old enough.