Winter Again

So, Winter is here again, the days are shorter and the temperature has dropped. Looks like it's time for soup! Hopefully we won't get carried away with the baking this season. It's probably good that the snow is going to keep us in, because I'm so far behind on life. Lots of letters to write, music to make and recipes to try. Made a coffee cake tonight that was ruined by using cheap ginger powder. It made a pecan pie kind of weird, too. Compost. Lesson learned.

Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.

The Sun has just come up over the horizon and is poking through the trees. I'm drinking coffee from South America that was picked by hand, bean by bean. Most of us don't think much about the effort put into out morning coffee/tea by people we'll never meet in countries we may never go to. What if we could only consume things grown in our own region with the occasional import from a few hundred miles away. Not much caffeine in these parts. What if 2 1/2 years from now we can't have these things because Merlin was right. What is we are interpreting the long calender correctly. Enjoy that coffee/tea, that coconut or that avocado and no it may not be for long, asshole.

black clouds even blacker

Is it the phase of the moon or a bad work schedule? Depression normally doesn't come on 'til Winter, but I feel like shit. I want to sell anything related to any hobby I have, because I don't seem to have the time nor the desire. I haven't been outside much in the past few months except for going to and from the car. The garden is overgrown and the basement needs to be sorted out. Turntables, no. Cycling, no. Guitar? I might have seen one or two, maybe three in a closet somewhere. I just need to spend a few days in bed in a soft cuddle. Maybe some fried food. THe soft brush of lips and a light sigh. I don't want to make money for someone else or pay to live in a building that someone else owns. I don't want someone else's booze or food made in a factory. I want the things that I want. ...fuck.

Morning

It's a beautiful morning on Mt. Doom. Drinking some Amaro Gayo and listening to Wolves in the Throne Room and enjoying the after effects of last night's thunderstorm. It's still a bit humid, but at least the Sun isn't trying to kill us! Life out here is so close to perfect that I shouldn't complain. I've thought about this sort of life for so many years and I'm sure in a few more it'll be closer to perfect. Maybe a non-electric handpump option on our well? Rainwater catch systems? Woodstove? Being off the grid and totally self sufficient is a dream of mine. I don't want to support all these companies that drill, pollute the water and air and then sell it back to us at a price that inhibits our ability to pay for health care to fix the damage they caused in the first place. Not having to drive to work would be nice, too. Just living on what's here. Don't get me wrong, as much as I complain about it, I feel fortunate to have two jobs that provide a comfortable living. Especially in a time when so many have lost their jobs, though most people would not consider this living comfortably! We just don't seem to need as much as everybody else AND we could still cut so many corners! Hmmm, woodstove, wood oven, root cellar, no need for clocks. Sounds nice.

Mid Summer

The past few days were horribly hot and humid. At to the fact that we've had lots of company, hangovers and work and it's been rough. There's no reason to show up at 8am with teenagers to put up a porchswing. I like my routine and it doesn't involve being social. Coffee, news, filthy baggy clothes...yes. Company, no. Well, if it's Calum and he's helping me make a kick ass breakfast, that's different.
Anyway, the past year or so I've been stressing out about the whole being vegan/eating local/getting proper nutrition thing. If we lived somewhere like California it would be much easier, but western New York is trickier. Tonight it's pizza, thunderstorms and Hell's Kitchen if the weather permits.

aahhh, Summer

I live two different lives. Not because I want to, but because my brain and heart are not always moving at the same pace. I'm fully aware that living a modern lifestyle, while convenient and entertaining, is not the best way to achieve longevity. Eating locally is smart. Period. If we don't use so much energy to move food around or breed food to travel or artificially ripen foods we'll be better off in the long run. I love avocados and cashews and almonds. Coconut? Yes please! Living in the North East and eating a local vegan diet takes some planning years in advance. I'm also aware that many jobs are not sustainable, but I made the decision years ago to re-enter mainstream society and that requires work. Maybe if I made a full time commitment to dumpster diving and bartering again I could make it work. Would I feel right taking the chance of not being able to by Ed's medication to keep him alive? No. I still have to pay rent. It's no longer only my decision. Besides, squatting in the US is a pain in the ass sometimes and I don't think Dawn or the cats are really into it. So, here I am with my beat up notebook and pencil looking like a twitchy creep randomly jotting down words and scribbling pictures while trying to have a normal conversation with you or a customer or just alone in Greenstar or in my car trying to figure a way out or how to start another business that's a little less destructive than the last one. The answer is on the tip of my tongue. Sure, I seem to have figured it out every few weeks and then move on to a new idea. It makes look lazy, unstable, scatterbrained or whatever. I just completely cycle through things with out ever having to go through the physical motions. Sometimes I wish I were three people. Or maybe none at all. Shit, it would solve the problems of starting another band.

veganism and the environment

I always gave people shit about not being vegan, but being concerned with the environment. Second hand leather, silk, wool etc. would send me on a tirade about giving a shit about anything. It's embarrassing that it took years to realize that being vegan doesn't always mean you are doing the right thing. So many non animal products are made from PVC other shitty materials that are more environmentally hostile than using second hand leather or some other animal product. I wish we could find another alternative, but it seems that we always find a substitute that is more harmful in some way. I wish that organic cotton or hemp would suffice during the Western New York winters, but that's not the case. We use rubber muck boots, plastic rain coats and pants, synthetic gloves, and all sorts of other materials that are killing the planet as a whole. I don't want to wear animals and I would never buy them. How do we go about this?

stupid last frost

About a week ago there was a mild frost that may have killed about half our tomatoes. Fortunately, so many other things are doing well. There are dozens of beans, potatoes, onions, garlic and radishes that are thriving. The corn and melons were rushed so they might not do so well. Next year I don't think I'll till by hand with a pickaxe and a hoe. It was a great idea, but it didn't work so well. Oh, and I snapped the hoe in half!

beans-n-things

The garden is moving along quite well. We didn't allow ourselves enough space so we are planting around the perimeter. Things like squash that take up more space are outside the fence as is corn and more onions. We're thinking about setting up the area behind our house for next year which would be about four times the space we're using now. Why go to the store if you don't have to?

back to the garden

We got a good amount of root veggies in the ground a few days ago, but can't put much more in yet due to a frost advisory tonight and last night. There's plenty to do, though. We still have to weed the other half of the garden space and the roof had to get finished up on our porch today. Before we know it we'll be canning, drying and pickling!

Monday has finally come!

This weekend we rolled out the espresso cart for the Saturday market and we got a right good spanking! Everything went well considering the cart had some weird curse rendering the user cranky for a time. Sunday was long and boring, but it was the first Sunday market of the year. I'm a little worn out and don't know how easy it will be to keep all my normal in store shifts. And, somewhere during this busy summer, I have to find some time to play music with the grind/death drummer that I recently met. Fortunately there's always time for metal. Oh, the garden has to start this week, too. Holla!

big saturday

Had a nice long day slinging coffee at the market today. 80 and sunny all day with some macro lunch, good company and and only ran out of things a few times. Looks like the weather is going to be nice for a while now which will hopefully lead to a interesting summer. Maybe some outdoor shows? Maybe I'll get my shit together and meet some folks who have similar musical ideas and get things moving. I need to play shows before it all ends in 2012. Am I just to old? Tell that to Wattie.

Aaaahhhh, day off.

Slept well. Actually, slept late. I got up at 8:30 this morning and would usually be up around 6:00. Feels good sometimes. I stumbled out of bed and got ready to feed the cats when I noticed Deimos them nosing around my bag that I left on the bench by the front door. I guess Chrome bag is the new catbox. It had a large amount of cat piss in it along with my laptop bag, new shirt from Strong Hearts Cafe, a thermal, and many other items. I was just informed that Euronymous puked up his breakfast on the rug in the living room and to top it all off...IT'S SNOWING!!!! And now breakfast. Cheers!

Too much to do and not enough time to go to work

The past two days have been nice and warm with yesterday winning out because it was sunny as well. Though I did spend the morning inside rebuilding parts of one room and rearranging part of the kitchen, we did get a lot done outside. We raked the garden, which doesn't sound like much, but it's about 30'x50' and full of huge rocks! We finished the fence except for the gate area and I was able to add to the trails a little. 14 or so garlic plants came up already, although next year we'll have to plant more since that will only last a month or so. The sprouts are more than ready to get outside for the year. It's so satisfying to get these things done after being shut in for so many months.

Chugging along...

AS Spring rears it's head, I realize how far behind I am in life. Winter has definitely made me a bit lazy, but with everything coming back to life I feel a bit more motivated. Our starts are almost too tall to stay in their trays, but with another dusting of snow on it's way we can't get things into the ground quite yet. The construction of our porch is also about too start. At this point we are pulling nails from some reclaimed wood and the fun part should start in the next few weeks. Actually the fun part will be sitting on the porch in the afternoon during a thunderstorm with tea and a book, or grilling seitan out of reach of direct sun during a mid Summer day. I'm mostly happy that our six months of Winter is almost over.

Spring?

Well, it looks like we finally made it past the frostiest part. This Winter has been way too long. Now we get to be wet for a while as the Spring rains bring everything back to life. It'll be nice to see all the trees and bushes turn green and yellow and pink and all the wonderful colors of plant life. Our seeds are sprouting indoors and soon we will start working the garden. Our greens have sprouted as well as broccoli, cauliflower, peas, tomatoes and a few others. This years we are going to put a fence around the garden to keep Ed from using the potatoes as a cat box. Soon it will be time for bbqs and bonfires!

Will Winter ever end?

The weather has been getting warmer lately so naturally the garden planning has started along with thoughts of nature walks, biking, bonfires and bbqs. When I got up this morning there was something akin to blizzard outside! We had gotten a couple of inches and continued to snow on and off all day. It all a part of living out this way I guess. So, to help us to forget about the outside I baked a dozen vanilla agave cupcakes and some basic chocolate cupcakes with a bowl of chocolate buttercream frosting for the both of them. For dinner I decided on pizza. Actually, it was going to happen because Hell's Kitchen is on and we're an old married couple that has weird routines. It's going to be fairly basic so that I can same some of the ingredients for either a mini lasagne or eggplant "parm" in the next day or so. We decided on spinach, onions, crumbled tempeh and our version of ricotta(block of tofu, 1/4c or so nutritional yeast, 1TBSP vegenaise, 1 1/2 TBSP Celtic sea salt, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp basil, 1 1/2 tsp garlic podwer, 1 TBSP olive oil, and a splash of soy milk. Blend well in processor.-The measurements are an estimate since I usually only measure when I bake!)

Full blown snowpocalypse.

Winter is in full swing and the garden is covered in snow. All that is visible are the stakes marking the garlic and asparagus. This year we are going to double the amount of hot peppers and probably plant all of our squash around the border of the property to maximize growing room. I'm hoping to take advantage of things already growing in the area such as burdock, dandelion, red clover, wintergreen, blackberries, etc. We've gone through almost everything we grew last season so we are going to work a little harder this year.

the new year

So, it's been a while since my last post due to the holiday season and other random things. This year I hope to lean more towards the healthier side of vegan cooking as well as keeping things simpler and more local. Yesterday we had a simple potato dish for breakfast.
1 T Earth Balance
1 T olive oil
1/2 Spanish onion, diced
1 quart fingerling potatoes sliced into 1/4 inch thick discs
1/4 cup veggie stock
1 t paprika
2 t dried rosemary
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400F. In an iron skillet on medium melt EB together and olive oil. Add onions and cook for about five minutes. Add potatoes and coat with oil/onion mixture. Turn heat to medium-hi, add some salt and broth and continue to mix for a few more minutes. Remove from heat add stir in paprika and rosemary then place in oven for 20 minutes or until potatoes get soft and begin to brown.