Projects

We know threee very pregnant mamas, and we have a whole host of cousins who are having birthdays this week - in addition to Owen - so I have been busy making gifts.
A crocheted wool star blanket for Baby Tuggle:
Another star blanket for Baby Owens:
A cotton and silk night and day blanket for Baby Ring:
A collection of hand-dyed silk scarves:

Some as playsilks for Owen, one for Baby Ring's blanket, and some for a few superheros and superheroines who are turning a year older soon.
I dyed the wool with Wilton food dyes back in January. I was really pleased with the results of dying and with the star blankets using this pattern. I dyed the silk scarves (from Dharma Trading Company) using a similar method in large pots on the stove so that I could stir them every few minutes. I just loved the colors. For the night and day quilt, I backed a midnight purple scarf with blue cloud flannel and added a decorative border. For the capes, I just sewed a hem and threaded a ribbon through each one.
I hope these things bring the recipients as much pleasure to use them as they did for me to make them.

Trout With Vegetables

Abram cooked up this tasty dish Saturday night. It is based on a pan-fried trout recipe from Martha Stewart's Entertaining. She suggests using whatever veggies you have one hand. This combination was good, but I'm sure that there are lots of other great ones. We used a wild-caught, steel head trout with the skin (vitamin D!). Yum.
Here I have an opportunity to share one of my favorite kitchen tricks: When preparing asparagus (which is coming into season in this hemisphere), the best way I have found to remove the tough ends without wasting any more than necessary is to bend the ends and snap them off. I have never gotten tough stringy bits in the asparagus preparing it this way.

Trout With Vegetables
1.5 lbs trout
1 onion, peeled and sliced
3 potatoes, sliced thin
2 small bunches of asparagus, chopped into 2" pieces
lard or bacon drippings
salt and pepper

In a large cast iron pan, saute onion and potato until they are tender and slightly browned. Add asparagus and fish and cook until asparagus is tender and fish flakes. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.

What's white and spotted and red all over?

Owen.
Yesterday, I noticed a couple of small, red spots on his tummy, just above his diaper. Before nap time, he had a very loose poopy diaper. Neither of these seemed particularly odd or alarming. But by bath time (picture above), the spots were much bigger and they were all over his trunk - tummy and armpits and back - and he had smaller ones on his arms and legs.


This morning they seem to have gotten bigger but not more numerous (second picture). He doesn't feel hot at all, so I haven't taken his temperature. He has had a bit of a sniffy nose and cough for a couple of weeks, but it seems like he's always got that. This last round I attributed to trying to reintroduce ghee (clarified butter) back into his diet. Abram also pointed out that he had a bit of a rash around his mouth this weekend. At the time, I thought it was from constantly wiping his nose. Now, I'm not so sure.???
So, I'm wondering if it's rubella (German measles). Mom suggested possibly measles, but Owen hasn't had a fever and seems to be feeling just fine.
I don't want to be alarmist, and I don't think that there is much we need to do for Owen. But, I also feel an obligation to let others folks we have recently been in contact with know too. So, what to do??? what to do???
We canceled Owen's dental appointment this morning, and I need to call the doctor to see if he thinks we should bring Owen in for diagnosis.
I'll keep you posted.

Update 3/25/09: They didn't have any other appointments before Owen's already scheduled one for this afternoon. The doctor seemed to think it was possibly an allergic reaction to something or some virus - nothing to worry over, so I think we'll leave it at that. The rash has faded to a very pale pink in most spots - almost unnoticeable.

Hiking

Abram is on spring break this week; that means he can devote his time to research and writing rather than preparing for classes, grading, and teaching. Yesterday was just too beautiful to waste on bookish things, and Abram has made good headway on his CAMWS paper and has submitted his Waltharius translation and commentary with a new publisher. So we headed out to Susquehannock State Park, about 20 minutes south of Lancaster to enjoy the (almost) spring.
Near the Susquehannock River, we saw lots of buzzards and learned to identify eagles, buzzards, and osprey by the shapes they make during flight. Buzzards make a V shape. Osprey make an M shape. Bald eagles are almost flat. Their all BIG amazing birds.
Owen enoyed sticking his hands in a creek we passes by.
We hiked a few miles through lots of chestnut oaks, rhododendrons, and mountain laurel (the Pennsylvania state flower). They, of course were not blooming yet. We also spotted a couple of redbud trees just about to bloom - spring!

Corned Beef and Cabbage

Tracy came for a visit this weekend. We went out the to farm to get milk, eggs, cream, and yoghurt. For dinner, we served a corned beef that had been soaking (or, is it corning?) for a while. It was really quite tasty, and we will definitely do this one again. The hardest part is getting a beef brisket; it's a large, tough cut, so you don't seem them all that often. We got one from the grass-fed place at the market.

Corned Beef and Cabbage With Veggies
Corned Beef. . .
1 gallon water
1 cup sea salt
12 cloves garlic, crushed
3T. pickling spices (mustard seeds, juniper berries, crushed bay leaves, etc.)
6 bay leaves
beef brisket

Bring water to a complete boil, and dissolve salt. Let cool. Place brisket in a very large, non-reactive (non-metal) pan, add garlic, pickling spices, and bay leaves. Pour cooled brine over meat and seasonings. The meat should be completely covered (or floating) in brine. Cover and refrigerate for approximately 2 weeks, turning periodically

. . . . with Cabbage and Veggies
Corned beef from above
3 potatoes
3 turnips
8 carrots
large onion
small head of cabbage
water

Discard brine and spices. Place brisket in a pot, and cover with water. Bring to a boil; reduce and simmer about 2.5 hours. Peel and chop potatoes, turnips, carrots and onion. Add to pot and continue cooking until veggies are tender - about 1/2 hour. Chop cabbage and cook with some of cooking liquid from other pot until cabbage is tender. Reserve the broth for later cooking. Slice brisket across grain, and serve hot with cabbage and veggies.
Serves: an army

Birth Circle - Update

Tuesday night we had our first birth circle meeting. We had four mamas and made plans for our upcoming meetings. We decided to use a guided discussion format (a la LLL - you know the style where someone comes up with questions that stimulate discussion on a chosen topic). While this is not what I'm used to, I appreciate the insight the more local mamas had on what they thought other folks would respond well to. I did come up with a bit of one of these for the meeting - Mad Libs: Hindsight is 20/20. Here's a few:

If I had only known how important ________ would be, I'd . . .

If I had only known how much my baby would ______, I'd. . .

If I had only known how little my baby would ______, I'd. . .

Okay, so not exactly like Mad Libs, but you get the idea.

We are going to rotate topics yearly so things don't get too mundane. We also brainstormed ways to get more ladies there, and are excited about the possibilty of teaming up with some other local groups to get screenings of some birth videos. In the more distant future, we'd like to set up some panel discussions with midwives, OBs, and doulas. We will definitely need to have a better attendant base to justify asking a whole group of professionals to come out for free to talk to us. We also discussed about the fractionated sense of the birth community here and are hopeful that we can help people make connections. I'm am stoked.

Poop!

Owen has been interested in the potty for a while. A long time ago, we were catching poops first thing in the morning, but he got rather resistant to being on the potty about the time he started walking. It sat mostly unused for quite a while, and after Christmas, he had a renewed interest in it.
And then not so much.
I've just been following his lead.
Owen really enjoys potty books from the library, so we check out at least one every week. This morning, he wanted to sit "on the potty". . . "in the livin'room" (actually he meant the spare bedroom) when we took off his night time diaper. So we took the potty into the spare room, and he sat on the throne and directed me to make things out of the Duplos. Nothing was right; I just couldn't make anything right to save myself. Finally, I decided I wasn't going to take it anymore and told Owen he could keep sitting on the potty but mama needed to have a break. I went to get breakfast started, and here came Owen, dragging me back to the bedroom saying, "poop, poop, poop!" I smiled and hoped for a potty poop while bracing myself to clean the carpet. To Owen's delight and mine too, the poop was all in the little potty "just like Joshua's" (from a library book on potty learning). He sat back down just for this picture. (We also took a picture of the poop, but for Steve's benefit, I won't post it.)

Birth Circle

The first meeting of the Birth Circle - Lancaster County is set for Tuesday night from 7-9 PM at James Street Mennonite Church. I have a couple of ladies who have said they will be there for sure, and I hope there will be more. I'm hoping for about 10 or 12 ladies. Fewer than that would mean there wasn't much interest and I'd feel like keeping us going would be an uphill battle. More than that, and we won't have enough space. I also think more than 15 or so people would make a conversation difficult.
So what are we going to do?
I am planning to meet a lot of similarly-minded mamas in this area and hope that we can get some organizational stuff done. We'll need to decide on leadership and how we would like meetings to be run and stuff like that. But I also hope that this first meeting will have at least some birth talk! So, how do I get that started? I have yet to decide on how to get a bunch of strangers to talk about birth. I am thinking of having a list of questions to pose as jumping off points for discussions. Now I just have to come up with those questions. If you have any suggestions, do send them my way.
I'll let you all know how the first meeting goes and update you on the questions I come up with if I think of anything good.

Fennel Soup

Okay, it doesn't look like much, but you get a picture anyway. It was really tasty. We have added another food - potatoes, and Owen and I seem to tolerate them just fine. This soup was especially satisfactory for someone who's been hankerin' for some creamy goodness. It would have been even better with some real cream, but for now, that creamy texture will tie me over. This is based on a recipe from Nourishing Traditions, but as you all know, I only take recipes as suggestions. Here's what I did:

Fennel Soup
1 bulb of fennel, washed and chopped
2 yellow onions, chopped
4 T. ghee (or butter)
1 t. fennel seeds
3 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 quarts of stock
1/2 t. pepper
salt to taste

Bring to a boil and cook ~3o minutes until all vegetables are tender. Blend soup, and salt to taste. Serve hot. Makes ~5 servings.

Quiet Block

This is a quiet block I made for Electra, um, almost 10 years ago. I've also seen them called busy blocks - pleasing because of the alliteration. They keep a baby busy and quiet, at least for a little while. This one has a zippered pea pod with 3 peas - the yellow one is a nod to Mendel,

. . . a flower pot pocket with a couple of flowers to plant, a shoe with a string to tie - or rather untie,

a lion with a tail to (un)braid, a squirrel with an acorn that hooks on his paw, the tree, or in his hole,
and a cowboy with velcro-ed chaps, a buttoned vest, and and lost hat that snaps on.After Electra was too big for it, it was passed through Roman and Keiko and now to Owen. I really enjoyed making it one summer during college, but like most things I make, you couldn't pay me enough to make one. I've had requests and offers, and I made another one a few years later. As a gift. It takes a lot of creative energy and a fair amount of time to make things by hand. I like to make quilts or blankets for new babies, but I just couldn't bring myself to sell them. If I charged enough to make it worth my time, effort, and materials, no one would buy them, and if I didn't charge enough to cover those, I'd resent it.
So back on topic, Carolyn wanted to know about sewing. Most of the sewing I do is much more utilitarian - PJs for Owen, diaper covers, curtains, mending. For the last 10 years, most of my sewing has been on a great Dial N Sew that Sharon gave me when I was making the dresses for my bridesmaids. It belonged to her grandmother and has been an awesome machine. I really appreciate what a great gift it was every time I use it. It is strong and can sew through anything, but it also does nicely on finer fabrics for delicate projects. It has a variety of single-color embroidery stitches you can do too.
If I were needing to buy a machine to do basic home sewing, I'd look into a good, older (1960's or 1970's) used machine from a sewing machine repair shop. They often sell them all oiled, adjusted, and ready to go. I like computers for writing blogs but not for sewing. All the computerized ones I've looked at are outside my budget and don't seem sturdy. The home sewing machines from 40 years ago were made of steal - for real - not plastic, and you can often find them well under $150, sometimes under $100. I would highly recommend the Dial N Sew's but there are lots of others, so just ask the folks at the shop. Another bonus for buying one at a shop is that they can do your servicing (should be yearly, but I'm looooooong overdue) and any repairs. Look for one that has forward and reverse stitching, a zig zag stitch, and if you're adventurous, some embroidery stitches. I like mine in a cabinet of its own. It is more ergonomic than setting on a table, and your entire work surface is level. Another personal preference of mine is a foot pedal rather than a knee "pedal" (not sure what it's called). The machine I use had the pedal mounted for knee use, but I just unscrewed it from the cabinet, put it on the floor, and have never looked back.*



*This entire post has been written using only my left hand!

Pertendin'

Owen has been doing a lot of "pertendin'" lately. Friday I lost him for a few minutes and found him up on the bed in the spare room feeding a doll his snack of pears and talking to her about some very important matter. If rule #1 is Let sleeping babies sleep, then surely rule #2 is Don't disturb a content child. I checked back in a few minutes later, and Owen informed me that the doll had "poopie diapah, needs a fresh one." So, of course, I obliged him with a diaper cover and a clean, dry diaper of his own and helped get her suited appropriately. The diaper hadn't been on her 3 seconds before he announced that it was now wet. Playing along with the game, I took it off, pretended it was now a new fresh one, and put it back on.
Nope, that wouldn't do. She needed a real, fresh one. So off he ran and came back with another fresh one and a sposie too. We decided to use the cloth since sposies are only for night time around here. She had quite a few changes in the course of only 10 minutes, but the game finally wound itself out. Thank goodness; I can't keep up with that much laundry!

Saturday morning he had a good time making pea soup for the same doll and a purple bear in his kitchen using the 2" peas from a quiet block I made for Electra. After he was finished cooking it, we were all cautioned to let the soup cool because it was too hot to eat; it was "steamin'." The pears and the pea soup were the doll's introduction to solids, I was glad they seemed to agree with her as she is now wearing diapers that need changing.

Home Brewing and Wine Making

We started our first batch of wine in January. It's a Chianti.
Last weekend, Tracy visited and we started another batch of beer - an Oktoberfest.
While wine takes about 6 weeks to get to the bottling stage, beer is much quicker. They were both ready to be bottled this weekend.
Friday night we bottled 47 bottles of beer. They should be ready (for Abram - I'm still not doing wheat) to drink in about a month.
Saturday night, we bottled 31 bottles of wine which should be ready in a month or two. I really liked this - even more than the beer. Seeing all the lovely colors of bottles (saved by us and from Freecycle) and shapes of bottles filled and corked gave me the same fuzzy feeling that seeing a shelf full of home-canned garden colors does.
I also liked using the corker. It's a lot easier than using the beer capper.
Our next adventure in this arena will be to do an all grain (no extract) kit of beer.