I have this neurotic desire to search around Craigslist for jobs. It is as though somehow this allows me to waste time makes me feel productive. Normally there are no jobs which would really be worth the hassle of a complete job/schedule shift. This somehow makes me feel better about not pulling in 2,500 dollars a month. However, yesterday I saw this...

Temporary math teacher needed at our small, non-profit, relationship-based alternative school for students in 6-10th grades. Our student population has typically not been successful in larger, public-school settings and many of our students come from dysfunctional and/or high-risk situations. We utilize a strong, team-based approach. Teaching credential is preferred but not required. Knowledge of and ability to teach math through algebra is required (through trigonometry is preferred). Position also requires demonstrated skills in communication and rapport with alienated, disaffected middle to early high school students who may require very individualized curriculum planning. Experience working with a diverse, multicultural population is preferred. This position is expected to last through the duration of the current school year; there is a possibility of the position transitioning into a regular, full-time position for the 2010-11 school year. Please submit cover letter and resume to......

It is as though a light shone down on my laptop. The inhabitants of the coffee shop all began to move in slow motion and I believe there was choral music in the background which seemingly came from nowhere. Well, perhaps that is a bit of an exaggeration, but this job description could probably not been written to better suit me. Oh fate you fickle mistress!

It is a position which is open immediately. Apparently someone left mid-year. That may sound strange to many who are only familiar with traditional schooling, but some of these kids can be tough! Especially when you don't know what you are getting into. I tend to have a fondness for those whom no one else wants. The snottier, most disrespectful, attitude ridden kids seem to make me smile. Whether that is a curse or gift, I do not know but it probably has something to do with the fact that I was one of the snotty, disrespectful, attitude ridden children. :) Middle-schoolers are my favorite; Jules tends to lean toward the older ones, preferably Juniors and Seniors.

Discussions began between Jules and I. He recognized the opportunity and was amazed the likeness of the job description to my talents. His first response was like mine: apply tomorrow. After really thinking about it, the decision was not that simple.

My main struggle occurs when I think about the teaching profession and recognize how few people there are like me who really want to work with "screwed up" kids. I don't want to work with "normal" kids. They bother me. However, I have my very own un-normal child right here at home which needs me as well. Our un-normal household needs me. My un-normal relationship needs me.









Let me just state upfront, I am not an anti-feminist. When Jules couldn't tell me who Susan B. Anthony was my look of shocked disdain warranted his instant apology. As a child my mother attended NOW (National Organization of Women) meetings and I was very conscious of the fact women have significantly more rights than previously. That being said, I knew we still had a long way to go to hit "equality." The fact I have lived in a time when a female had a decent shot at becoming a president still slightly amazes me. However, much of feminism lately does not seem to be aimed at "equality" as much as women leaving the house. To me this reeks of the idea that parenting, nurturing, and the entire process of household management is somehow a lowly or degrading profession; a burden of some sort. I don't really care if it is a man or a woman, but someone needs to take care of family. In our household it just made more sense at the time for that person to be me. (I will say, however, when I am at work Jules is one heck of a good dad.)
The current state of family in our nation is a bit disturbing to say the least. One of the reasons I so dearly love the "screwed up" children is that what I see in them is a lack of nurturing family. I don't think they are bad kids (most anyway, sometimes there is one that just isn't hardwired right), but they lack any semblance of the idea someone cares about them. In our rush to have women out being "equal" we have forgotten to fill the incredibly important role which women had - tending to house and family. Secondly, it aint easy people! Running a house is equivalent to running a business or managing an entire department. Whether you have one child or twelve, motherhood and household husbandry should never be looked down upon as beneath someone. I'll step down from my soapbox now and focus a bit more about our decision.

I don't know about many others out there, but I find my role as a housewife quite fulfilling and rather important to our ability to keep bills low, stay healthy, and enjoy each other. Sure, I could have a larger income, eat out more, and put our child in fabulous preschool but I don't quite understand how that is helping our household. It seems to me that entire mindset is about avoiding the household. No one would be here during the day as we would all be at work or childcare. We wouldn't be eating meals cooked in our kitchen, picked by our hands, around our table because we wouldn't have time or energy. We would go out to eat and to a gym to exercise. While exercising at the gym our yard would remain a disaster; Jules would be using one machine, I another, and the Barracuda in childcare at a third place. We wouldn't have time for each other because even while at home we would be working to maintain our outside jobs rather than maintaining our family.

There is the argument that come September, when the Spicy Barracuda goes to school, I could get said "Big Girl Job" since I am no longer needed to home school. While this does have merit, it once again causes a shift of priority from working within the household to support our family to working outside the household to support our family. Jules and I have both agreed that we like our lives much better the way they are currently.

This is a cultural shift that I did not find myself ready for. Being raised post-70's feminism the idea that the best way to help our household is to bring in money seems to be a knee-jerk response. When I step back and look at the idea, I now see how it screams "CAPITALISM! CONSUMERISM!" and the like. Rather than bringing in more money, why not help us spend less. Rather than paying top dollar for other people to educate and socialize our son, why not have me do it (after all, I am a trained educator). Rather than buy organic, why not grow it.

So, yes. When the Spicy Barracuda goes to school I will shift my work schedule to days and probably increase to working five days a week instead of four. But, I will do that being a prep cook. This way work stays at work. This way I can come home and focus on the most important part of my life, my family.

Perhaps some time, much later on, I might venture into the work world of those sophisticated "Big-Girl Jobs." However, that might also never happen and I will have a very fulfilling Big Girl Life instead.

See how sophisticated and mature our Big Kid life is! :)

So what does our family do without television? We get our butt-kicked by a five year old who is a Crazy Eights poker shark!

At five points a game I think the final score was Dad - 0, Mom - 5, Spicy Barracuda - 30

Jules and I are both just a tad competitive. An eensy amount. It's not as though either of us has ever been caught being overly competitive. Ahem. Or embarrassed ourselves with any slightly out-of-hand competitive behavior. Ahem. Or has to stay away from particular activities as our son gets older so that we don't mortify him with embarrassment from our competitiveness. Ahem-Ahem.

Knowing this about each other, we have decided to channel our mildly competitive nature into something a bit more positive than mowing down other players in community intramural events. We have found the greatness of goal setting and listing things we would like to accomplish. Somehow writing down tasks kicks in our competitive natures and we strive to be able to cross them off. With this in mind, we have decided to Riot.
Riot for Austerity are a group of people who have realized energy efficient light bulbs and recycling just aren't going to be enough anymore. Together, they have pledged and are attempting to reduce their global/carbon footprint by 90% of the average American. According to George Minboit, rich, "first world" (I hate that term) countries would have to reduce their resource usage by 94% to eliminate and begin to reverse the largest effects of global warming. Moreover, in his book Heat: How To Stop the Planet From Burning he states that this is an impossibility without government legislation. In his words, "no one ever rioted for austerity."

IS THAT A CHALLENGE, MR. MINBOIT?!

So, here we are, Rioting for Austerity. The eventual goal for Jules and I is to pull our household as far off the grid as possible. Perhaps in three years, we will be a sustaining entity; an island unto ourselves in our urban metropolis. Once we have our household established as sustaining, we can then begin to fortify and create many more connections in our community.

There are 7 categories in the Riot. We are using these as baselines for us to really accomplish our sustainability. The nice thing about Riot for Austerity is that it gives me concrete numbers to work with. (I'm the linear sequential math teacher of the family. Jules is the free flowing English teacher. He doesn't need numbers, outlines, and plans the way I do.)

Garbage: The average US consumption is 4.5 pounds per person per day. Whoa! There is an eye opener. We are allowed .45 per person per day. That calculates out to 1.35 pounds a day or 40.5 pounds a month. I honestly don't know where we are with this one. We have done a lot to try and diminish the amount of trash we throw away, but I don't know any real numbers.

Heating and Cooking Natural Gas: The average US consumption is 1000 therms per household per year. This will absolutely no issue. Using the fireplace to heat our house we are on 99% wood power. The wood we harvest for this is all downed logs. Our National Forest does not allow for tree felling due to safety concerns and current Old Growth Protection Acts. (This is a very good thing!) Even if our four chords of wood were counted we would be at only 80 therms.

Electricity: The average US consumption is 11,000 kilowatts per household per year. That is about 900 per month. We will attempt 1,100 kilowatts a year for our household or about 90 kwh per month. This seems like a crazy thought during this time of year. Being in a slightly higher latitude, right now the sun doesn't even show up for 12 hours of the day. However, I need to remember come a couple of months the sun will grace us until almost 10 o'clock at night. :)

Gasoline: The average US consumption is 5000 gallons of gasoline per person per year. This gives us 500 gallons a year or 42 gallons a month. Jules' uses 45 gallons a month now. This means that even though I don't drive my car much (if we didn't have the Barracuda, I most likely wouldn't even have it) I will need to not drive it at all! This will be, by far, the hardest category for us.

Water: The average US consumption is 100 gallons of water per person per day. Dear Lord! We are allotted 10 gallons of water per person per day, or 900 per month for our household. We come in dramatically lower than this with our rain barrels. Sustainably harvested water doesn't count and that is over 85% of our usage. Soon we will purchase a Katadyn water filter and pull ourselves off completely other than showers/bathing. We still haven't worked out quite how to do that one. Somehow, just not showering doesn't sound all that great :)

Consumer Goods:This one is admittedly difficult to calculate. The average US household spends 10,000 dollars a year on consumer goods. These would include books, gifts, toys, paper products, toiletries, cosmetics, tools, and household goods. We aren't talking about health care, or mortgage, car payments, debt, and such. Mainly this category is for the other extra "stuff" that you tend to buy. We will be trying to spend only 1,000 dollars this year. Um...yeah....that gives us 90 dollars a month.... probably not going to happen.

Jules and I have agreed to not count the items we purchase which are directly household sustainable goods. Our ultimate goal is not merely to diminish our resource usage, it is to be sustainable with our household/community. Let's not loose the forest through the trees. The Katadyn filter we are planning on purchasing to remove us from city water is 1,200 dollars. However, we will never need to purchase it again and it allows us to completely remove ourselves from the city water supply. The mason jars we purchase during canning season are easily 90 dollars a month alone. However, they are used dozens of times before ever needing a replacement. These items we are not counting. The lids for the jars - which are a one shot deal - fall into consumer spending since they are not reusable at all. So, for us, consumer goods are goods which will need to be quickly replaced.

Also, donated items don't count since they are completely recycled. Goodwill, Salvation Army, Church Rummage sales, these don't count. The other items which don't count are ones which will be thrown away if not purchased. In these instances, the use or purchase removes the item from a landfill and keeps it in circulation. Luckily, this is most all of our spending.

Used items only count for 10% of their purchase price. If it costs 20 dollars, only 2 count. So thrift shops, Craigslist, Garage Sales, Ebay, etc. fall into this category. In this way you are once again circulating and recycling items back into use rather than landfilling them. This is the other large amount of our spending. We are a total thrift store, vintage family.

Food: Food is divided into three categories as follows:

#1 Food you grow or purchase locally (within 100 miles) should comprise at least 70% of your diet.

#2 Dry Bulk Foods transported long distances. This would be the 50lb bags of beans, sugar, flour, that you get in the giant brown paper sack or which you get at the grocery store from the ginormous bin. These are whole, unprocessed foods. Super bulk soup mix which contains gallons of sodium and tons of factory processing doesn't count. This should be only 25% of your diet.

#3 Wet Foods such as conventionally grown meat, oils, milk, juice, dairy products, fruits and veggies, all that other canned, processed, and such should be less than 5% percent of your diet. Currently, this category is over 25% of the average American's food. That is scary to me.

After spending the entirety of last year wrangling in our food budget, this will most likely be not very difficult for our family to pull off. Even our bulk flour, beans, oatmeal, and such are all purchased locally. Our chicken, eggs, and dairy products come very close (they are within the our state and the one just north of us). Coffee will be hard for us. We live in the coffee region of the world. We love our coffee.

What does this all specifically mean to our family?
Our household resolution over this next year is to fine tune the couple of areas where the Riot has pointed out we are very close and just need to fine tune - water and food specifically. As well as these, there are a couple of categories we are not maximizing our usage within - consumer spending, garbage, and gasoline. Mainly for our family, these will be the areas we are our goals.

Such an undertaking may seem a bit extreme, but in all actuality there haven't been that many changes in our household to get us to this point. The mindset is what has changed the most. Hopefully in blogging our attempts, we will create a "positive ponzi scheme" as Mary Q Contrarie pointed out so eloquently. I am a firm believer that cultural change occurs one small person, one small act at a time. Without the acts of one person beginning, and another following, and another, why would there be need for any kind of legislation? It is important to us that we show our son the power of personal conviction and living by your ideals. We are not thinking we will change the world, but we will change our lives.

It is only when the oppressed find the oppressor out and become involved in the organized struggle for their liberation that they begin to believe in themselves. This discovery cannot be purely intellectual but must involve action; nor can it be limited to mere activism, but must include serious reflection: only then will it be praxis. - Paulo Frerie

To the untrained eye this may seem like a very nice hand towel for the bathroom. I must say that is what I thought when I looked upon my completed knitting project this evening. Winter is my time to knit and I'm always pleased when I actually follow through with a project, regardless of how small. "Oh self," I thought, "What a nice hand towel that is going to make for the bathroom. I'm so glad I now have another one stocked up."


Bell Bell quickly informed me of my complete inadequate understanding of the way things work in this house. Silly me. This is not a hand towel. Oh no. It is a cat blanket. This is Bell Bell's newly hand-knit, red carpet which apparently needs to be laid out upon the couch for her to grace us with her presence. My apologies Princess Bell Bell. A thousand forgivenesses for my ignorance.

As you can see, our cat is not spoiled at all.

When 2009 began, I had been living with Jules for only a couple of months and things were not looking good. For one, I was in school. My income was small but consumption was high. There were always more things to do than time to do them in. There were always more bills than there seemed to be money for. There was always the matter of trying to figure out how to spend enough time with the Barracuda and who would have him when. The juggle was a bit maddening. Something had to change and the change had to be a bit drastic.

I quit school and focused on our household and our life. Though many cringe at the words "quit school" I do not see it as a bad thing. At this time and place in our lives it has been the best thing! School is not bad; I will be going back. But I think it is also important that people evaluate the amount of time/energy/resources/stress going into an endeavor and the actual amount of benefit coming out. In the current state of our family's life, school was an exceptional drain on everything for a reward that was lack luster due to a lack of time/energy/resources and too much stress. Let's face it, if you are pumping thousands of dollars into something you want to be able to have the focus to maximize the experience. That was not happening. What was happening were mini meltdowns and a few phone calls to Jules from the hallway as I sobbed out "Why am I doing this?!?" Instead, I became a student of life and pulled Jules in with me.

2009 was mainly spent focusing on food and water. Here is the rundown on what we learned and have accomplished this year:

Food
Our grocery bills went from $250 (Jules' budget for just himself) to $120 dollars (including pets) due to me being able to make our food, and having the time to store, can, grow, and pick local foods. Man, processed foods just don't taste very good anymore and they are something crazy expensive.

Now when you open our pantry or fridge, there are about eight products which have been commercially processed:

Campbell's Fiesta Nacho Glop: Jules' beloved nachos weren't going anywhere regardless of whatever chemical, preservatized cocktail is inside that can.

Totinos Triple Pepperoni Pizzas: even at only 1 a month the Barracuda would never let us live it down if we got rid of these little pizzas. This is the sort of childhood depravity he would bring up to a therapist during a mid life crisis.

Blueberry Pop Tarts: There are some things that will never be as good homemade. I think Kelloggs has found a way to smuggle illicit drugs into this product for how much I can crave them.

Cream of Mushroom Soup: Soon to be swapped out for home-canned.

Tortilla chips and wraps: they just don't hold up when they are homemade the way the commercial ones do.

Coca-Cola: Jules grew up in the South, then attended college and lived in Atlanta (the Coca-Cola capital of the world). There will never a time when Coca-Cola doesn't live in our fridge. If the Apocalypse were to hit tomorrow, he would find a way to have cases drop shipped to our house via helicopter.

Mayonnaise: Jules' still believes we once had a fight over homemade mayonnaise vs store bought. In my memory the argument had almost nothing to do with this. (Perhaps, that is why it turned into an argument.) In short, he wants store bought mayo and we don't use it enough for it to really matter.

Pet Food: The dog and cat still eat commercial food since both are pound pets with major Post Traumatic Stress, are neurotic, and have issues with change. Bell Bell is highly allergic to grains and will lick bald patches in her fur if she is fed them. Guadalupe will not eat people food. Even meat sauce. Even pizza. Heck, she won't even eat in front of anyone (we hear her munching at midnight). Like I said, totally neurotic. Rather than fuss with it, we just buy their food.

Other than that, everything from laundry soap and floor cleaner to cottage cheese is made in our household. Both Jules and I are so much healthier and have a much greater sense of place now that we know where our food comes from. In many cases, we either grow or pick it ourselves.

We hand dug a root cellar with a shovel, adz, and a couple of five gallon buckets. After all, we need somewhere to store a 50 lb bag of rice and a couple hundred cans.

The garden has expanded to half the yard and we fine tuning our knowledge of specific species we wish to grow. Composting, leaf mulch, and digging have become fairly second nature at this point.

The pressure canner we acquired with my tax return has become a staple investment to our household success. A major part of this last year has been figuring out what to can, when to can it, and if it is worth all the effort. We definitely need more jam. We could go a little less insane on the applesauce, and I don't know if soup will ever be the same now that we can make our own. Insta-Food used to mean hamburger helper. Now it is a can of chicken, some wild rice, and gravy.

Water
We have developed a rain barrel system which is significant enough to provide all the irrigation for our garden as well as most of our household needs. Pulling off of the city water system was never a direct intention when we started out, but it slowly became evident it might be possible. Mainly, we just didn't want to pay the high water prices during the summer.

At this point, laundry, dishes, and toilets are all being used without city water consumption. Enough water has also been set aside for our family to survive in an emergency. Our city tends to have run ins with "boil water advisories" due to various contaminants showing up in the city water supply. It's not so much that we have decided to be come crazy survivalists, but more we have enough water set aside to avoid the frustrations which sometimes come about from sewage overflow due to excessive rain. Boiling all of your drinking/usable water is just plain annoying :)

Lifestyle
We killed our television. Man, was that weird at first. Who knew it was so hard to have a conversation?!

The Barracuda has discovered card games and I think is secretly training to take on Vegas. The boy can play Crazy Eights so well I'd think he was counting cards!

We spent some serious time, and a bit of money, acquiring all the products I never before thought were important life staples. A sewing machine. A pressure canner. A food dehydrator. A garden. Rain barrels. Firewood. Yarn and needles. Time to enjoy my life. My family.

We eat local food, from the local farmer. Her name is Karen. Her daughter is Ashley. They live about 20 minutes from our house and have you-pick all summer long. We now have to know the season our produce is ripe, about how much is necessary to get us all the way through the winter, and the time it will take to process it all. Most importantly we know exactly where it all comes from and exactly what is it because we have done it all ourselves.

This year gave us concrete evidence of a long suspected truth. The Barracuda has a thirst for knowledge which is not normal. He also has retention level which is not normal and an analysis ability which is not normal. This year his school gave us back test results to prove it. Figuring out school for this child has definitely taken a lot of 2009 and still is a bit sketchy. He is progressing through his studies well and still amazes his father and I regularly. He can now ride a bike on only two wheels (instead of four), can make a fire all by himself, set up his tent to camp out in the back yard, and is honing his skills with his tomahawk.

At the same time our son is putting together complex concepts, he is still acting like an insane 5 year old child. This is a constant reminder for us as parents, knowledge might be a the third grade level but emotionally he still has quite a ways to go! "Take a deep breathe..." is a sentence I am learning to say to myself quite frequently.

The major lesson seems to have been that you need to do it right the first time. We now invest in products which will stand the test of decades rather than months. The sewing maching, the mixer, the clothes we now wear, are Bernina, Kitchen Aide, wool or Carhart. Out is the stretch denim, the discount store, the slightly middle of the road model. We no longer buy trendy; it is all about practical. The idea is that once done well will save so much more in the long run.

All in all, quite year. Much has been done, but it is just enough for us to realize how much more is left out there. Together we are redesigning our life and creating a new one. It is exciting and hopeful, if not teetering on bits of scary here and there. Hopefully the lessons which have carried us through this year will help us maximize the next one.

Uh. Well, Winter Break is almost over. Jules goes back in one week and that means the slothful gluttony of sleeping in has to come to a close. It has been rather enjoyable though.

Holidays are always a bit odd for us. We are not really on the Jesus-Was-The-Son-of-God side nor are we positioned on the mass consumerism side. As a result, we do not do Christmas. It isn't that we are opposed to Christmas; it just doesn't fit our family. There are Christmases with the grandparents which contain all the presents, sparkling trees, and fan fare for the Barracuda. But, for us, we are a Solstice family. I grew up in a small mill town with three Jewish families. Having now identified ourselves as a "Solstice Family" I completely understand what it must have been like for those children to have been in a "Jewish Family."

So let me explain just what all it means to be a Solstice Family. Solstice refers to the position of the planet as it orbits around the sun. There are two solstice days of the year and two equinox days. These are the days which mark the official changes of the season. Summer Solstice is when summer officially starts; it is the longest day of the year. Autumnal equinox is when autumn officially starts. Vernal equinox when spring officially starts. You get the idea. Basically it is when the Earth has moved another quarter around the Sun and the year is progressing. So the Winter Solstice marks the shortest day of the year and the last quarter of the Earth's journey.


In holiday terms, we celebrate the Earth resting after a long hard year. It is a quiet time for us to appreciate all that has come and gone, all that we have accomplished, and all the work which has been done well. We feast, enjoy each other, and celebrate the time as a family. Jules is off of work and we can see him during the day. We can sleep in, hunker down in front of a fire, and snuggle up together. There is no discussion of God or creation myth, though they are not specifically excluded. We just tend to focus our celebration more on taking a break from a hard year of work, and the recognition that another is to come. It is more the concept of how grateful we are for all that we have and can share with each other.

Over our Solstice, the Barracuda wakes up exceptionally early and comes to snuggle in bed with us. He will crawl in under the covers and snuggle for about a half hour before going to play computer games in his room. I secretly love this. Pretty soon he will be far too big to climb into bed with us, so for now I relishing our little man. Jules and I sleep in till an obnoxious hour and then we walk down to coffee. Nights we make a fire, play card games together, and enjoy our dinner talking all about the fun things we can do together the next day. It is a wonderful reconnection for our family.

There are no trees for us; no decorations, no Santa, elves, or North Pole. Suprisingly, there are also very few presents. The family gets one large gift for all of us to share. The gift is intended to bring us closer together and gives us a year to grow on. Last year, we received Guadalupe and she has been quite a wonderful contribution to our household (even if sometimes I consider turning her into a very nice, furry pillow). She has been quite the lesson in patience, responsibility, and companionship for the Barracuda. She will also rip the face off of anyone who might hurt my boy and that makes a mommy sleep a little better at night. As you can see from the picture, she isn't spoiled at all.












This year, we gifted ourselves with music. The Barracuda has always had a thing for music. Somehow it is just in his blood. He didn't get it from Jules or I, but we very much enjoy trying to foster this love in multiple ways. Jules received a much anticipated banjo, I promised myself more time to play my neglected guitar, and the Barracuda got his very first guitar. The Barracuda has been perfecting rhythm with a bongo style drum. He can play along as I play my guitar and can find the rhythm in songs from our Ipod. We figured this year he can begin to learn strum patterns and possibly the fingerings for chords. As a family we can begin creating music together.

So what does our family do without television? We build an 8 foot catapult and launch miscellaneous objects (basketballs, baseballs, the Barracuda's shoe) over our side fence and into the neighbor's yard.

Uh, yeah....it was really cool!

More and more, I'm realizing that this whole urban homesteading thing is a trade off. You can't always use the route which takes less energy without completely encumbering your life. You can't always take the most environmentally friendly option without taking so much time that the work becomes infeasible. In such instances I am forced by sheer practicality to do a trade off.

The major trade off in our house is with laundry. Starting in about March, we can dry our clothes outside on the fabulous umbrella stand drying line. The whole family likes the therapeutic slowness of both hanging the clothes up and then taking them down. It is a process which cannot be done quickly and forces you to enjoy the warm breeze in the sun. Something about drying clothes this way just oozes summer. The trade off comes in that without the rain, the barrels we have are used to water our veggies and not wash our clothes. No rain means the clothes will dry outside, but there is no excess of water for all the other tasks of our household. Though there is physically enough water which falls from the sky during the rainy season for us to stockpile for the summer, we would have to have barrels all over our yard in order to store it all. So, once it hits about October and the excessive rains set in on goes the dryer. A major bummer. (Though I'm looking into year round drying outdoors. We will see.)

Likewise, this time of year (the rainy season) there is plenty of water to use. We can wash all our clothes with rainwater. The task of carrying five gallon buckets of water through the house might sound to some like a completely cumbersome idea. I quite like it however; it is much cheaper than a gym membership.

Much like with the toilet, I had no frame of reference as to how much water our washing machine used. You just pull out the little knob, close the lid, and it does its thing. I will preface this by saying, we don't have an energy efficient washer and it definitely isn't a water efficient model. It is an older top loader. The capacity isn't teensy, but it isn't like some of the newer ones that can wash 7 pairs of jeans at once. We get about 2 giant Jules sized pairs and a few other things. It is just a standard household washer.

At this point in the rainy season, our rain barrels have been cleaned and the bleach water has completely cycled through. When you fill a bucket, it is completely clear, non-bleachy smelling water. So I figured I'd try it for clothes.

I turn all the knobs as if I was going to do a standard load, put the clothes in, and pull out the knob for the basin to begin filling with water. I then quickly push the knob back in. At this point, the washer is now ready to fill with water. Normally it would be filling itself, but I now manually fill it. (This will not work if you have a front loading washer. There is no way to manually fill your washer as the whole water sensor and fill system is different and computerized.) I thought maybe a five gallon bucket of water, maybe two. Well, no. Our standard household washer takes almost 4 full five gallon buckets of water to fill. That's almost 20 gallons a wash. Holy Crapoly! That is 100 gallons a week on a busy week. It is at least 50 every single week. To be able to easily mitigate that much water usage seems a no-brainer.

I fill the washer up to just under where it would normally stop filling itself. The detergent goes in and I pull out the knob. Usually the washer fills itself for only a second or two more before the water sensor kicks telling the washer it is full enough and the cycle starts. For the most part it is almost exactly the same as when I did it before. This way is only slightly more labor intensive, but I have a feeling it is going to kill the water bill a tad.

Let me add a little bit here about washing machines. Many companies are phasing out top loader machines. They are seen as outdated and not as swanky. Not only that, it is very difficult (if not impossible) to make a top loading machine water efficient. (The water efficiency doesn't matter as much to us since we aren't using any city water.) However, you can make them energy efficient and there are a few companies still doing that. Many of these top loaders are available for tax incentives and rebates through state and federal programs. So, if you are like us and do not want to drop the cash (or household remodel) necessary to hook up a water barrel cistern/system but still want to be energy efficient, a top loader is where it is at.

One thing is for sure, washing clothes this way is definitely helping my biceps.

When I woke up this morning it was 12 degrees outside. It is now a balmy and positively smoldering 18 degrees. We are not projected to get above freezing today and haven't broken freezing all week. Supposedly, by Friday we are going to be skyrocketing up to a high of 37 degrees. Whoo Dolly! Break out the shorts!

When I went out to get water for the dishes yesterday, the nozzles wouldn't turn. It took me a second before the realization occurred that I shouldn't force them. It appears that all five of our 55 gallon drums are frozen solid. Complete ice boulders. When Jules and I first discussed attempting to pull off of city water for the majority of our household, this concept came up. However, it was dismissed because how on earth could our temperate zone get cold enough, long enough, without any rain/snow/freezing rain to cause a 55 gallon drum of water to freeze tight? We would be using them; water would be cycling. We don't get snow here, and even when we do, it isn't like it is that cold. Well, this year it is. Last year we had 3 weeks of completely snowed in. We're talking feet. Our city completely shut down. Even though we were going stir crazy (we were saved by a crazed break for the grocery store to pick up formula for the neighbors) we still had water.

It appears one of the drawbacks of having the barrels raised on a stand is that the frigid air can circulate around them, causing a complete lack of insulation. If they were placed directly on the ground, the dirt could keep the bottoms slightly warmer and possibly keep the lower portion of the barrel able to still freely flow. With some circulation you might be able to prevent the complete lock up of the system.

Luckily our auxiliary barrels get sun for about 6 hours a day. They have managed to thaw out in the centers enough for me to cycle some water and keep them running. It isn't as though the water doesn't come out of the tap, but in January we are going to attempt an even further removal from city water. We hadn't planned on the concept of having 85 percent of our water unattainable due to being frozen. If it thaws at all this next week, I'm going to attempt to acquire three more auxiliary barrels and fill them as fast as possible. This will put our total count at 12. Next year we might try to figure out a way to have them slow drip, however that might actually work out for the worst. If the water forms icicles and expands in the spigot, it could bust clean. We would have no way to fix the barrels or drain them. When the weather warmed the foundation of the house probably couldn't take that much water all at once.

So, for now, we will hunker down with our fire and slowly circulate any water we can. I will say, though, learning to live with the seasons puts you so much closer to what is actually going on around you. There is no denying just how cold it is outside (that would be hard to miss regardless). However, the time frame of the cold has a different perspective for me now. Before, it was just the flip of a household switch. We'd go to bed in a warm house, wake up in a warm house, and only experience the cold when going to and from the car. To realize that in almost 168 hours the temperature hasn't been above 32 degrees is a concept which would have been foreign to me before now. Nature now impacts my life daily, time has a new feeling, and I'm experiencing the world through a new perspective.

Having a large tree in our front yard means a few great things. The main one this time of year is leaves. We are rolling in leaves. There are leaves in our compost bin. There are leaves in our street. There are leaves keeping our strawberries warm at night. There are leaves in our fallow garden beds. There are leaves and leaves and leaves.

Before our urban homesteading, I never really thought much about how much you can do with a large pile of leaves. They are an amazing resource that is so often overlooked as a nuisance. In our household, leaves are a family affair. We all don hats, gloves, and sweaters to go out and manhandle the leaves into appropriate places. They fall for a good month or more, so there are many to go around.

Our non-food waste compost bin gets them first. The Barracuda scours the yard for any large sticks, dog toys, or other items which might not get along very well with the lawn mover. Jules then plows over them with the mower cutting them into little bits. The leaf bits are layered into the bin with about an 18 inch layer of leaves, six inches of dirt, 18 inches leaves, six inches dirt, etc. In the spring when it comes time to do planting the compost will be ready.

The next place for our leaves is into the wheelbarrow to dump on the strawberry patch. Strawberries can't handle much by way of cold. They begin to harden themselves off when shorter days begin and after a few colder nights, but sometimes nitrogen depletion can cause them to weaken instead. After one or two nights below freezing, covering strawberries with some form or mulch or row cover can greatly improve their chances of spring production and an injury free winter. They gained the name strawberries because straw has always been the preferred mulch. Our household is a bit low on straw, but oh do we have leaves! So wheel barrow after wheel barrow of leaves get dumped onto the strawberry patch to provide a nice blanket from our icy, cold nights. The Barracuda is partial to helping spread them out.

The compost bin and strawberry patch take care of most all the early blustery days. However, now that we are into December, most of the leaves have fallen causing both strawberries and compost to be quite full. The last place the leaves go is into the raised beds to condition the soils for next years planting. Though there isn't much by way of nutritional benefits to leaf mold, it causes great water retention in the soils. Being able to retain more water, gives our plants an added benefit over the summers when no rain falls. Secondly, leaf mold provides a wondrous place for micro-bacteria, fungi, and earthworms within the soils. So, though it does not directly provide much to the plants, indirectly the benefits are numerous.


Our raised beds get a layer of leaves, and then a small layer of dirt over the top to keep them down. Just before the snow kicks in, thick black tarping from the hardware store will be nailed down over the whole bed to keep the weeds, various critters, and Guadalupe out. It will also help keep in the heat to allow everything to cook down nicely.

The Barracuda's favorite part of this whole "yard work" thing is being able to stomp the leaves down before the dirt goes on top. Stomping, or even standing, in any of the raised beds usually elicits me screaming out the kitchen window something to the effect of, "What are you doing?!?" or "Get out of there!" When it comes to the leaf mold, I encourage it. The Barracuda is heavy enough to crunch up the leaves and compact them enough to keep the wind away, but far lighter than Jules or me.

Throughout the process of our leaf dispersal, Guadalupe supervises. She is quite fold of wrestling with the Barracuda and loves it when he throws piles of leaves at her. She wiggles about in them, tosses them with her nose, and they cause her to sneeze. Another favorite activity is gnawing at any fallen sticks which the Barracuda has piled up and then trotting around with a stick placed in her mouth quite proud of herself to be in the front yard. In general, she has a grand time.

The Barracuda is right there with her when it comes to enjoyment. Many breaks are taken to run around with each other, throw leaves about, and play competitive games with how fast we can rake or how large a pile we can make. After all, all work and no play means that he doesn't want to come out and help. Currently, doing yard work is merely part of being a member of our family. It is expected for him to come and help.

So far, he hasn't figured out yet that this is work. Hopefully we can keep that up a couple more years.

So what does our family do without television? We make atlatls (ancient dart throwers) and fletch three foot long darts so we can practice killing pizza boxes in our backyard.

Jules can fling a dart upwards of 80 yards.

My mother is teaching in Dubai. As a result, I have inherited the holidays. This isn't really a bad thing, but it does mean that life this time of year gets a bit scattered. Thanksgiving and Christmas weren't too forgiving this year either as I work the beginning of every week (Sunday-Wednesday) and both fall on Thursdays. As such, there has been much early preparation and a significant amount of thought put into what exactly I can do four days early. Luckily with all the canning we did earlier this year, there isn't too much to buy or too much to cook.

Being quite the American family, we combine people from all over the United States, people from various relationships, and people from different families all around one table. Personally, I like the Barracuda growing up with this idea that we are all family and we can all sit around one table and be thankful together. It does make the menu a bit crazy at times though.

Jules is very Southern in some things he likes to eat. This means creamed corn, cornbread stuffing, biscuit and sweet potatoes. Lindy is my father's long-time girlfriend and she likes food which is very 'normal.' That means no fancy seasonings or exotic dishes at the table. A co-worker of ours as well as our neighbor, might come over and neither eat meat. This means lots of vegetable choices which do not contain chicken or turkey stock. My brother likes traditional favorites. My father is partial to his Swedish roots which means the sweet, Swedish rolls which have always been at our table. I personally like lighter, healthier fair. Oh my goodness this has been quite interesting to plan.

It all worked out quite nicely though. Food was good, very plentiful, and most of it came from the cellar previously canned. Out of all of it, we didn't spend much money and had quite a bit to be thankful for.

In our household there is no discussion of Pilgrims and "Indians." We do not discuss everyone sitting down to a feast, and all the thankfulness, and all the charity, and all the grace. We have always been honest with The Barracuda and a historically accurate description of Thanksgiving would require massacres and small pox blankets to be discussed. He is five and that is quite unnecessary.

We focus on thankfulness and on family. Family (in our household) is not biological. Family are people who love and care about each other regardless of genes. On Thanksgiving we are thankful for people, for friends, for all that we have and anyone who might need a place at the table to sit.
It meant sitting in front of the fire place eating, laughing, talking and drinking till everyone was exhausted. It also means that whether or not Jules is the real other half of the Barracuda's genes are doesn't matter. Whether my father is married to his long term girlfriend is completely moot. Coworkers, ex-coworkers, neighbors are all friends and thus family in turn. It makes for quite a warm house filled with warm hearts.

In the end, we all wound up thankful for quite a bit. When asked by his teacher to list three good things in his life The Barracuda wrote this: (He uses Jules and dad interchangeably.)

"My room and my toys and my family. My room is a good thing because it has my bed so I can sleep. It is my room, now. When I didn't have my dad, I just lived in another house. I didn't have my own room, because I didn't have a whole family. I shared my room with my mom. Now, my room is just for me. My room is a good thing because it keeps my toys. Because I get to do cool stuff with them. I get to play with them. I get to do lots of stuff with them. I haven't always had lots of toys because when I was at the other house I didn't really have a room. I didn't have many toys or things because our room was small and always messy. Now, I'm living in [Jules'] house and it has all my toys in there and now I have my own simple room. We live at [Jules'] house now because we moved from the other house. I like that house because it is all fancy and we have our dog and our cat. My family tells me what is right and what is wrong. I like my family and I love my family. My mom cleans up the house and my dad goes to work. I love my dad because he does stuff with me and he comes to get me from when I play at other people's houses. My dad's job is to keep me safe. I love my mom too. She takes me to the coffee shop. She protects me and looks out for me."

This summed it up pretty darn well for Jules and I as well.

Paper towels are incideous things. They are so simple, right there, and easily thrown away when they get all gross with something you never want to touch or think about again. However, they are also completely overused. When potty training Guadalupe, you dang well better believe there were many paper towels used to pick up certain disgusting messes. But, when it comes to something as simple as wiping down The Barracuda before he goes to bed, before he eats a snack, before he comes to sit down at the table, before he does most anything (he is the dirtiest five year old boy) paper towels are a complete waste. The same is true for wiping down counter tops, or when eating a meal.

In come these snazzy little numbers I have begun to stack in the bathroom and probably in the kitchen as well. Made from 100 percent cotton Lily 'n' Cream Red (a.k.a. Poppy) they do the trick quite nicely and knit up in only an hour or so. The pattern is simple, just a standard stitch; no yarn overs, slip stitches, or knit forwards. Two balls of Lily 'n' Cream will yield 3 washcloths making the price just about a dollar a piece. Being so cheap and quick to knit up, if they get stained in the kitchen it isn't a big deal.

Also helpful is the slightly lacy pattern of holes and raised nubs. The nubs not only scrub off the Barracuda, the holes help when he then throws the discarded washcloth in a wet heap in the bathroom or other corner of the house. I've found they dry quickly and can be used several times in the bathtub (provided there is hanging up and no heap throwing) before I need to throw them through the washer.

There is probably a name for this stitch, but I do not know it. I call it "twice knit" since "double knit" was already taken. I stumbled upon the concept when I was making a blanket of various patterned stitches and I needed another one. After repeating the same technique for three or four rows I decided I like it. Now it is used regularly.

It is another wonderfully simple pattern. This one doesn't even require purling! All that is necessary is to knit each stitch twice. You knit it once, standardly, then place your needle back under the stitch and knit it again. Doing this over and over, creates a lacework pattern.

You need 1 skeins of 100% cotton yarn, 2 size 8 knitting needles, and about an hour.

Cast on 36 stitches.
Knit the first row.
Twice knit all remaining rows until 9 inches long (or desired length).

How to Twice Knit
First, knit your stitch normally. You can now just slide it back onto your left needle and knit it again or you can follow the pictures below. I found it faster to use the method diagrammed below, but either way works. Once the stitch has been knit from the left needle to the right needle, stick your left needle back under the stitch (the one you just knit).
Now, you should have something resembling the first image below. Next, wrap the yarn around the right needle (the bottom needle) as if you were going to knit the stitch normally












Once the yarn is wrapped around the bottom needle, hold it with your finger so you can pull the yarn under.
Now slide the bottom needle (still holding the wrapped yarn) to the front and through the stitch.
Slide the stitch off of the lower needle, and you are done. By knitting each stitch twice you are adding an extra row to each stitch before you hook them together. This is what creates the holes and gives a lacy effect.

Jules is having a hard week. You see, he began using Copenhagen tobacco around the age of 15. That would be around 20 years ago. Having a disastrous childhood (he would personally admit this) I cannot blame him. However, there is now a small boy in his life. A small boy that idolizes his father, that asks way too many questions, that began taking a drink of orange juice and spitting it back into the bottle to "be like his dad." Jules has said he wanted to quit multiple times, it was his New Years resolution last year. He has weened himself back from like 12 dips a day to only 3. He made it through a trip home without going insane, killing anyone, or over-using his tobacco rations. I am incredibly proud of him.

Now he has decided to go cold turkey. We are on day 5. I say 'we' because a little known fact to anyone who hasn't personally experienced it is that the entire family quits tobacco.

There has only been one meltdown, some snippy responses, and a few "Damn child!" mutterings late a night when the Barracuda has long since gone to bed and cannot hear. In general, it is going fairly well. I am very proud of him, his students are very proud of him, and the Barracuda really enjoys having an entire feedbag of candy laying around the house.

So what does our family do without television? We spend an hour and a half rocking out to YouTube, dancing around our living room imitating Michael Jackson and going "Whoo-Whoo!" and "Aint no body's business!"

Someone is going to get a fedora for Solstice and this is definitely going in his senior yearbook!

Homemade laundry detergent appears to be a very personal thing. There is always the matter of your water: hard or soft, mineral content, well or treated city. Something in this mix will make whites dingy for some people and sparkling for others. There is the matter of consistency: gel, powder or liquid. There is the matter of heat: hot water wash or cold. There is fragrance: do you want one, do you not, do you want multiple fragrances. There is the matter of size: what will you keep it in, big batch or small, how long does it keep. Oh there is just so much more than when you walk down the grocery isle having to consider only a couple of options and knowing there isn't really one that "won't work." Most all of the Internet recipes I have seen involve the same basic stuff, but somehow the order or amounts make a very large difference. So try a few, keep some Tide on hand for the ones that don't work out, and know that most every single recipe I have seen costs only a dollar or so for the entire batch. Embarking on this highly personal mission requires a bit of reconnaissance into the lives of others and so I give you our laundry soap recipe.

To answer the questions above we have soft water, treated by the city (soon to be rain water), and the previous liquid made our whites dingy. We switched over to gel and now are very happy. All of our clothes are washed in cold water so powder won't do because of the whole dissolving issue. We are only slightly into the fragrance thing. A small fragrance is what we have decided upon, so that our clothes will smell clean but not overly smelly. We store our soap in a 5 gallon bucket and thus make large batches. However, the latest recipe (the keeper) is much smaller than the previous dingy whites recipe.

There aren't many pictures with this post because the process was so highly simple I couldn't really think of any pictures which someone would need. Pictures, I felt, would be a bit demeaning. Most everyone I know can grate, heat, dissolve, dump, mix and let sit without photo instructions.

Ingredients
1 Fels Naptha soap (you will use 1 1/2 cups of grated soap; a little less than half)
1/2 cup of Borax
1/2 cup of Washing Soda (washing not baking)

Tools
cheese grater (mine came from Goodwill for a buck, make this your permanent soap grater)
Any old pot or pan which can hold at least 8 quarts (totally reusable)
BIG bucket (at least 2 gallon)
Wooden spoon, spatula, large stick to stir contents of bucket
Regular spoon to stir contents of pot

Directions
Grate the Fels Naptha on the smallest teeth of the cheese grater. It will take more time to grate, however it will take much less time to melt. After trying it both ways, you save time with the smaller teeth.

Heat Boil 2 quarts of water. Make it really, rapidly boiling, crazy hot. Mix in 1 and 1/2 cups of the finely grated Fels Naptha.

Dissolve Turn down the heat to medium (this really likes to boil over and get everywhere on the stove) and stir until the soap dissolves. You want it completely dissolved like bright yellow, watery mustard. If it doesn't dissolve now, it won't in the washer.

Dump in the 1/2 cup Borax and 1/2 cup Washing Soda. The mixture will thicken almost immediately. You can feel it as you stir. However, it will not be like gel, mayonnaise, or honey. It is still very much a liquid. Simmer over medium to low heat for 5 minutes.

Mix Prepare 1 quart of hot water into your big bucket. Add 1/2 the yellow soap mixture. Stir till it completely combines. If you dump all the soap in at once it tends to separate due to the temperature difference. Dump the rest of the soap in and stir really well.

Let Sit put the lid on and let it sit for 24 hours.

That's it, all done. It takes about 15 minutes total and then waiting for it to set up. We use 3/4 of a cup per load. A full cup if the laundry is scary and needs lots of help. The bucket usually lasts us about 4 months. The Fels Naptha gives it a wonderful, slightly lemony scent. It works out very well.

Figuring Out What You Like
When I opened my bucket the next morning, the soap was like Jello. Personally, I found it way too dense. I was picturing the stuff that comes out of my nice, brightly-colored, plastic container which I bought at the store. Other people I have spoken with really like it this thick consistency. This is a very personal part of the whole process. For me, I boiled another 3 quarts of water till they were rapidly boiling, crazy hot, and dumped them in. After stirring a bit to make sure all had dissolved and combined I let it sit overnight again. In the morning I added 3 more quarts of water. At this point, I was satisfied with my slightly runny gel (like dishwasher soap). I'm pretty sure the next time I make it, the same thing will happen. However, I am still going to let the soap set up, and add the hot water in increments so that I get the consistency right. Due to this not being an exact science you have to play around with it a bit to make it your own.

Acquiring the Stuff
Fels Naptha has been around forever. It is usually found on the same isle and the Borax in with the cleaners. For some reason (I don't know why) it isn't on the laundry isle with the other soaps. It literally says "Heavy Duty Laundry Bar Soap" on the wrapper. However, many stores have just stopped carrying it. If you can't find it locally you can still find it on the Internet with the Dial website. It only costs about 1.50 a bar (though you have to purchase a minimum of 8) and you use about 1/2 of it for each batch of soap.

Washing Soda is another product that seems to be disappearing from shelves. It is normally in the laundry isle, as that is its main use. If this is not something which can be local acquired you can still get it through Arm & Hammer via the Internet. If you are deciding to do homemade laundry soap this is a product that is in most all of them. Even if the above recipe isn't something which works for you, the rest of the box will not go to waste.

I haven't had any problems with Borax. This seems to still be something that people realize is important to have around the house. Perhaps it is due to the fact Borax has a bajillion uses for cleaning and disinfecting. This is another product which is in most all the homemade laundry soap recipes I've seen. As well, Borax cleans a bathroom like no other product I have ever used. That includes all the fancy ones that Jules had in the cabinet before I lived with him. If you still haven't yet, buy it, use it, and love it.

You can acquire all three products from Soaps Gone Buy if you need to. Many appear to be available through Amazon as well.

Ebay is one of those reasons the Internet can be considered an amazing revolution. By eliminating the middle man you are allowing for people all over the world to interact in exchange of goods which they no longer want, but realize others might still have use for. In this way, not only are you saving large volumes of product from a landfill, but you are empowering people to find solutions outside of the "Big Box" stores. Secondly, you are forced to trust the goodness in others and see that most of the population are good, upstanding, positive people who do not wish to merely "make a buck" or take advantage of another person.

With so much negative press and "fear mongering" in the media, it becomes easy to always assume the worst. Equally problematic is when one begins to assume the worst, their good intentions of self preservation begin to landslide into not helping others for fear of negative consequences. This can cause a complete breakdown in the positive help which a community is supposed to provide. Small areas of reasonably safeguarded trust, such as eBay or Etsy, help to restore this idea that if you trust another (and they trust you) a mutually beneficial relationship can blossom and community can be built.

However, many such handlings can go awry. As wonderful as the concept of trusting the good nature within each person is, some people have questionable intentions or a downright deceitful attitude. Sometimes, things just don't go as planned regardless of either person. As such, the buyer does need to beware and the consequences measured. In the "Seller Info" box you will find a number next to the seller's name. This number indicates how many items they have sold before. You preferably want someone who has done this over 100 times. This means they aren't new to the workings of eBay, to packaging and mailing things, to organizing money and items. Secondly, their feedback rating should be in the 90% or above range. Feedback is listed directly under the name of the seller. After every item is purchased people have the ability to give positive, negative, or neutral feedback along with written comments. This is a wonderful added checks and balances system for eBay. By clicking on the number if items the person has sold, you can see the feedback from other purchasers and gauge whether to trust the seller.

Completely Random Seller. Photo Courtesy of Google Images.


Buyer consciousness was once again reinforced and relearned by me with the debacle of my sewing machine. Oh wonderful Ebay, all looked good. However, if being completely honest with myself, I was being cheap. Rather than spend a large sum of money on a sewing machine which I would never have to replace and would suit all our family's needs for many years to come, I chose to go with a very scaled down model. Still a good machine, but definitely not the top of the line. I don't know why I did this. It was very much the kind of decision my father would have made. If it is one major lesson I have learned with Jules and our house is that you save your money to do it right the first time. Pressure canner, Kitchen Aide mixer, our safe, our firearms, all of it. You do it right from the beginning and don't need to do it again. For some reason I had momentarily forgotten this in an attempt to save money and I caused much more hassle.

Needless to say, the sewing machine I purchased a couple of weeks ago on eBay didn't go as planned. First it just plain didn't come. We waited. Jules checked when we purchased it. I stopped being ansy, yet couldn't shake a feeling things weren't right. More than two weeks later a mangled box appeared outside on the doorstep. The sewing machine.

Now, I assumed an item which cost $100 would be adequately packaged. Afterall, the Pyrex which I have purchased has all been far less money than that and packed beautifully! Moreover, this sewing machine is renown for being steel bodied, sturdy, and remarkably strong. But, when opened, it was broken. One of the main supports was snapped to the point of the machine now wobbling and unable to be used. There was virtually no packaging in the box whatsoever. Major Bummer!

The goodness of others prevailed, however. The seller was notified by Jules and refunded our money. Whew! Refund in hand, I decided to stop being cheap and just buy a good machine. Not a low end, really nice, no upgrade necessary, top of the line machine. It cost well over four times as much, but my Bernina 910 is coming in the mail. This time we went with a seller who knows what they are doing, who has had the machine professionally serviced by Bernina, who has a 100% positive feedback and has sold over 5 thousand items, who (in short) relatively assures us a good result.

I will never speak to the person who owned this machine before me. She will never know my son or Jules, but she will have provided them with clothes and quilts for many years to come. It is a rather odd concept to consider how much help a perfect stranger can provide, but what better definitions is there of community?

Say Hello to our family's newest member...


I think I shall name her Gertrude.