About a forty-five minutes ago, we woke up to a loud noise with the bed shaking. A few minutes before that Mia (our cat) came into the room making the strangest meow. Steve jumped out of bed to see if snow had fallen off the roof but didn't see any on the driveway. Neighbors lights started coming on then. Well, now we we know it wasn't just us.
I've tried to find out what happened on the radio & the internet with no luck. Could it have been something else?
More later...
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Winter is Not Over Yet
Another winter storm warning for tonight through Wednesday morning. So that feeling of spring I have been getting while out for a walk isn't true? :-) This time of year is always hard on those of us who enjoy the warmer months more than the cold. Garden catalogs only go so far in holding off spring fever.
We stayed home from the farm again to work this weekend. Hoping to get up there this coming weekend. Steve has his ski trip in a week and a half & we would like to go before that. Work keeps coming in though & we should take it while we have it, right?
Last night we went to my sister's house for the Super Bowl. It was fun talking, eating & watching the commercials. Oh yea, & the game. We were talking about Etsy with my niece & were wondering what kind of luck people have had selling on it. I have thought about putting the dryer balls on it & my sister is making these really cute scarves. Has anyone had any experience good or bad with Etsy?
The weekends we are home, I have been enjoying the birds on our feeder. Here are a few shots from this weekend.
We stayed home from the farm again to work this weekend. Hoping to get up there this coming weekend. Steve has his ski trip in a week and a half & we would like to go before that. Work keeps coming in though & we should take it while we have it, right?
Last night we went to my sister's house for the Super Bowl. It was fun talking, eating & watching the commercials. Oh yea, & the game. We were talking about Etsy with my niece & were wondering what kind of luck people have had selling on it. I have thought about putting the dryer balls on it & my sister is making these really cute scarves. Has anyone had any experience good or bad with Etsy?
The weekends we are home, I have been enjoying the birds on our feeder. Here are a few shots from this weekend.
Even though I don't want squairrels eating all the bird seed, they sure are cute.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Cheesy Chips
Here's another recipe for the dehydrator or a oven on low heat.
If you want to eat chips but want a healthier version, these are it. The recipe is from Alisa Cohen's book "Living on Live Food".
CHEESY CHIPS
2 sweet potatoes
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup Bragg liquid aminos
1/2 cup nutritional yeast (not bakers yeast)
1. Peel & slice the sweet potato in a spiral slicer, mandolin or any other machine that will make thin slices
2. Combine the water & Bragg liquid aminos in a large bowl
3. Marinate the sweet potatoes in the water & Bragg amino mixture for at least 5 minutes.
4. Drain the chips, and then lay them flat on a dehydrator screen.
5. Dust the sweet potatoes with the yeast. The heavier the coating, the cheesier the taste.
6. Dehydrate at 105 degrees for 8-10 hours or until crispy.
If you choose to use a regular oven instead of a dehydrator, set in on it's lowest setting. When preparing raw foods, low tempeatures are used to avoid killing off the enzymes. Enzymes = living food. Living food makes you feel more energized. As we age, or bodies natural source of enzymes are depleted. Add to your supply by eating raw or live foods and feel the energy. Cooking destroys the enzymes. I never had more energy than when I was eating a totally raw food diet and juicing. As most of you know, I cured my asthma & allergies by eating this way. When we move to the farm, I hope to have a hoop house so I can grow fresh greens almost year round and enjoy those enzymes (and the energy). I'll try to post more recipes (both live food & regular) that we enjoy. Heres to your health!
If you want to eat chips but want a healthier version, these are it. The recipe is from Alisa Cohen's book "Living on Live Food".
CHEESY CHIPS
2 sweet potatoes
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup Bragg liquid aminos
1/2 cup nutritional yeast (not bakers yeast)
1. Peel & slice the sweet potato in a spiral slicer, mandolin or any other machine that will make thin slices
2. Combine the water & Bragg liquid aminos in a large bowl
3. Marinate the sweet potatoes in the water & Bragg amino mixture for at least 5 minutes.
4. Drain the chips, and then lay them flat on a dehydrator screen.
5. Dust the sweet potatoes with the yeast. The heavier the coating, the cheesier the taste.
6. Dehydrate at 105 degrees for 8-10 hours or until crispy.
If you choose to use a regular oven instead of a dehydrator, set in on it's lowest setting. When preparing raw foods, low tempeatures are used to avoid killing off the enzymes. Enzymes = living food. Living food makes you feel more energized. As we age, or bodies natural source of enzymes are depleted. Add to your supply by eating raw or live foods and feel the energy. Cooking destroys the enzymes. I never had more energy than when I was eating a totally raw food diet and juicing. As most of you know, I cured my asthma & allergies by eating this way. When we move to the farm, I hope to have a hoop house so I can grow fresh greens almost year round and enjoy those enzymes (and the energy). I'll try to post more recipes (both live food & regular) that we enjoy. Heres to your health!
Friday, February 5, 2010
More CAFO (Factory Farm) News in Wisconsin
I hope Matt Johnson from the Vernon County Broadcaster doesn't mind me reprinting his editorial piece from this weeks paper. It is so important for everyone who opposes factory farms to make a comment or show up for the listening sessions in Wisconsin. Here is the article...
Public Has Its Chance to Address State’s Flawed Livestock Siting Law
by Matt Johnson, Managing Editor.
Anyone who has had a disagreement with the state’s Livestock Facility Siting rule (ATCP 51) will have a opportunity to tell the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection about it.
DATCP is holding four listening sessions on ATCP 51 -- in Dodgeville, Feb. 18; in Eau Claire on Feb. 23; in Oshkosh on March 2 and in Wausau on March 3. If you can’t make it to one of those sessions, you can e-mail comments to michael.murray@wisconsin.gov, fax them to (608) 224-4615 or mail them to DATCP, Attention: Mike Murray, P.O. Box 8911, Madison WI 53708-8911.
There isn’t a listening session within two hours of Vernon County. That’s good for folks from DATCP who are staffing the meetings. Because if there were a hearing on this matter in this county, DATCP would have to listen to a firestorm of negative comments about this law, which allows large-scale livestock operations to operate with virtually no oversight.
How do we know this? The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources explained it in detail to the Vernon County Board of Supervisors in May of last year.
If you will recall, the Vernon County Board was in the midst of discussing whether or not it should go on record as formally requesting an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) seeking a permit to operate in the county.
To get input on the EIS, the board invited Thomas A. Lovejoy, of the Department of Natural Resources Environmental Analysis and Enforcement Supervisor out of Eau Claire, and Robert Rohland, the DNR’s Environmental Specialist for Watershed Management out of Black River Falls to speak.
What did they tell the county board? In a nutshell, that requesting an EIS or attempting to get the state to even recognize that the county’s karst geology might not make for a good place to site CAFOs was futile.
Lovejoy said that any entity applying for an ATCP 51 permit to run a CAFO simply had to meet the application standards. If that happens, they get a permit. There’s nothing any local government can do or say about it.
“If standards are met, the permit gets issued,” Lovejoy said.
Now, about those standards... They do not adequately address differences in Wisconsin’s geological make-up and there’s virtually nobody in the state of Wisconsin inspecting CAFO sites.
Rohland said a CAFO should be inspected by state officials twice a year. However, he said that "problems" have led to CAFOs being inspected by state personnel just once in a four-year period.
"It’s an area we’re trying to improve on, but everyone has had to make concessions in tough economic times," Rohland said. "The DNR isn’t immune to state cutbacks."
So, anybody who applies for a permit and meets the criteria gets one. Then unless the place explodes or leaks enough manure to kill fish or poison people, basically nobody is checking on them.
As we reported in May, after the county board meeting, Rohland specifically asked people interested in ATCP 51 to attend legislative sessions about the law and explain to state officials the problems with it.
Here’s a problem... The watershed of Jersey Valley Lake has been flooded with manure at least three times since 2005. The DNR knows this. How many citations has the DNR issued regarding these manure runoff events? Zero.
In March of 2009, after a manure runoff event was reported at Jersey Valley, the Broadcaster interviewed DNR water quality biologist Cindy Koperski, who works out of La Crosse. Koperski said that eliminating the manure runoff was something that needed to be controlled by farmers or by DNR enforcement.
When asked about greater enforcement or adding manure spreading rules, Koperski said the state had limited resources. About improving enforcement, Koperski said, “That’s not going to happen.”
Agriculture is big business in Wisconsin. It’s the lifeblood of Vernon County. We’re an agricultural community. Not every CAFO owner or operator is a bad actor. There is a place for big ag in Wisconsin. What ATCP 51 doesn’t do is allow people to make a case that the place for a CAFO isn’t here on our fragile karst geology. DATCP has no business continuing or expanding a livestock siting law that takes local control out of the equation. This is especially true when the Department of Natural Resources has so exhaustively explained it doesn’t have the ability to enforce the law.
DATCP has no idea the lengths people in Vernon County have gone in an effort to get the state to notice that ATCP 51 is flawed. Grassroots groups have formed, people have protested, community meetings have been held and the local government has been redressed. We’ve been told there’s nothing that can be done about it.
Well, now the time has come for DATCP to listen up, but you have to tell them. Nobody will do it for you.
—Matt Johnson
Perfectly stated Matt. Thank you.
Public Has Its Chance to Address State’s Flawed Livestock Siting Law
by Matt Johnson, Managing Editor.
Anyone who has had a disagreement with the state’s Livestock Facility Siting rule (ATCP 51) will have a opportunity to tell the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection about it.
DATCP is holding four listening sessions on ATCP 51 -- in Dodgeville, Feb. 18; in Eau Claire on Feb. 23; in Oshkosh on March 2 and in Wausau on March 3. If you can’t make it to one of those sessions, you can e-mail comments to michael.murray@wisconsin.gov, fax them to (608) 224-4615 or mail them to DATCP, Attention: Mike Murray, P.O. Box 8911, Madison WI 53708-8911.
There isn’t a listening session within two hours of Vernon County. That’s good for folks from DATCP who are staffing the meetings. Because if there were a hearing on this matter in this county, DATCP would have to listen to a firestorm of negative comments about this law, which allows large-scale livestock operations to operate with virtually no oversight.
How do we know this? The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources explained it in detail to the Vernon County Board of Supervisors in May of last year.
If you will recall, the Vernon County Board was in the midst of discussing whether or not it should go on record as formally requesting an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) seeking a permit to operate in the county.
To get input on the EIS, the board invited Thomas A. Lovejoy, of the Department of Natural Resources Environmental Analysis and Enforcement Supervisor out of Eau Claire, and Robert Rohland, the DNR’s Environmental Specialist for Watershed Management out of Black River Falls to speak.
What did they tell the county board? In a nutshell, that requesting an EIS or attempting to get the state to even recognize that the county’s karst geology might not make for a good place to site CAFOs was futile.
Lovejoy said that any entity applying for an ATCP 51 permit to run a CAFO simply had to meet the application standards. If that happens, they get a permit. There’s nothing any local government can do or say about it.
“If standards are met, the permit gets issued,” Lovejoy said.
Now, about those standards... They do not adequately address differences in Wisconsin’s geological make-up and there’s virtually nobody in the state of Wisconsin inspecting CAFO sites.
Rohland said a CAFO should be inspected by state officials twice a year. However, he said that "problems" have led to CAFOs being inspected by state personnel just once in a four-year period.
"It’s an area we’re trying to improve on, but everyone has had to make concessions in tough economic times," Rohland said. "The DNR isn’t immune to state cutbacks."
So, anybody who applies for a permit and meets the criteria gets one. Then unless the place explodes or leaks enough manure to kill fish or poison people, basically nobody is checking on them.
As we reported in May, after the county board meeting, Rohland specifically asked people interested in ATCP 51 to attend legislative sessions about the law and explain to state officials the problems with it.
Here’s a problem... The watershed of Jersey Valley Lake has been flooded with manure at least three times since 2005. The DNR knows this. How many citations has the DNR issued regarding these manure runoff events? Zero.
In March of 2009, after a manure runoff event was reported at Jersey Valley, the Broadcaster interviewed DNR water quality biologist Cindy Koperski, who works out of La Crosse. Koperski said that eliminating the manure runoff was something that needed to be controlled by farmers or by DNR enforcement.
When asked about greater enforcement or adding manure spreading rules, Koperski said the state had limited resources. About improving enforcement, Koperski said, “That’s not going to happen.”
Agriculture is big business in Wisconsin. It’s the lifeblood of Vernon County. We’re an agricultural community. Not every CAFO owner or operator is a bad actor. There is a place for big ag in Wisconsin. What ATCP 51 doesn’t do is allow people to make a case that the place for a CAFO isn’t here on our fragile karst geology. DATCP has no business continuing or expanding a livestock siting law that takes local control out of the equation. This is especially true when the Department of Natural Resources has so exhaustively explained it doesn’t have the ability to enforce the law.
DATCP has no idea the lengths people in Vernon County have gone in an effort to get the state to notice that ATCP 51 is flawed. Grassroots groups have formed, people have protested, community meetings have been held and the local government has been redressed. We’ve been told there’s nothing that can be done about it.
Well, now the time has come for DATCP to listen up, but you have to tell them. Nobody will do it for you.
—Matt Johnson
Perfectly stated Matt. Thank you.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Feel Better Tim!
This morning my daughter Kristin called to let me know her husband Tim was in the hospital recovering from an emergency appendectomy. It was all so sudden. Yesterday the day before he was experiencing pain and when he went to urgent care they admitted him to the hospital for surgery. The doctor said it was a good thing he didn't wait any longer to come in. The surgery was done laparoscopically so hopefully he won't have as long of a recovery time. Kristin felt pretty helpless though with Jaelyn being a few weeks old and the surgery being done in the middle of the night. Tim (the good daddy that he is) didn't want her to come to the hospital with Jaelyn. The good news is he is doing fine. He's home recooperating now and in some pain, but it could've been worse. Here's to a speedy recovery Tim!
A Great Dehydrator Recipe
The other day Chris at "A One Acre Homestead in Ohio" wrote about wanting to upgrade his dehydrator. That got me thinking about a really good recipe that I haven't made for a while. It's from the book "Living on Live Food" by Alisa Cohen. Here it is...
PESTO STUFFED MUSHROOMS
Served warm out of the dehydrator, these are heavenly. They taste like soft, breaded, cooked, stuffed mushrooms.
18-22 button mushrooms, washed & stemmed
Stuffing:
1 cup walnuts
1/2 cup pine nuts
2 cups basil
1/2 cup olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1. Place mushroom caps top side down on a plate
2. Blend all stuffing ingredients in a food processor until smooth.
3. Scoop a small amount of suffing into each mushroom cap
4. Dehydrate at 105 degrees for 5-6 hours, or until soft.
I know, you are thinking 5-6 hours? I don't have time for that! So prepare them the night before and stick them in the fridge and get yourself a timer & set it to start 5-6 hours before you get home from work or where ever. Believe me, it's worth it. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. :-)
PESTO STUFFED MUSHROOMS
Served warm out of the dehydrator, these are heavenly. They taste like soft, breaded, cooked, stuffed mushrooms.
18-22 button mushrooms, washed & stemmed
Stuffing:
1 cup walnuts
1/2 cup pine nuts
2 cups basil
1/2 cup olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1. Place mushroom caps top side down on a plate
2. Blend all stuffing ingredients in a food processor until smooth.
3. Scoop a small amount of suffing into each mushroom cap
4. Dehydrate at 105 degrees for 5-6 hours, or until soft.
I know, you are thinking 5-6 hours? I don't have time for that! So prepare them the night before and stick them in the fridge and get yourself a timer & set it to start 5-6 hours before you get home from work or where ever. Believe me, it's worth it. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. :-)
Monday, February 1, 2010
What a day!
So, my day was going along pretty good, then I needed to go run an errand for work. Since Steve & one of the other employees were on a job, I went back to tell Keith (yes, that's the same guy who lost his wife then bragged about the money he was getting), and he was intently studying his sexy girl calendar instead of working, UGH! He had it off the wall flipping through the pages. He didn't hear me open the door to the shop because his radio was on. Busted! I hope I embarrassed the heck out of him. He didn't go in the break room for his break this afternoon, so he must have been afraid I'd say something. I'll let Steve handle that one if he wants to. At least I didn't catch him doing something else, if you know what I mean.
The good news I have is that my sister is going to work one day a week at the shop. This will give me some down time, which I really need. My brain is on fast mode all the time. I feel scattered, not grounded. I am a creative person but can't get my thoughts together long enough to be creative. So one day a week, she will come in & I will stay home. This helps us both out. The pharmacy she worked for closed last year when Walgreens came to town and we all know how hard it is to find a job these days. So she will get some extra money & time out of the house & I will get...we'll see. I hope to get some peaceful meditation, my creative juices flowing, help my memory problems by not being so busy...and on & on.
I have been thinking a lot lately about our plans. We worked again at home in Illinois so didn't make it to the farm. The way the economy is right now, I'm not sure we'll be able to sell our townhome or the business building. That puts a holds on the big plan for now. I guess I am starting to accept that this might not work out as we planned. A big delay anyway. It is great that we are busy workwise. A very fortunate problem to have. So I feel guilty when I get sad about the farm. So many are out of work & here I am feeling bad about a dream that many people cannot even fathom. I think I just need to get my mind around a new plan & go with it. It's not like we will never live there. So we have been talking about it lately. I just hope we are not to old to enjoy it once we get there. We will still keep working on it, but might not live there anytime soon. Maybe it will give us more children & grandchild time which is a great thing. See, I am already out of my "funk"!
The good news I have is that my sister is going to work one day a week at the shop. This will give me some down time, which I really need. My brain is on fast mode all the time. I feel scattered, not grounded. I am a creative person but can't get my thoughts together long enough to be creative. So one day a week, she will come in & I will stay home. This helps us both out. The pharmacy she worked for closed last year when Walgreens came to town and we all know how hard it is to find a job these days. So she will get some extra money & time out of the house & I will get...we'll see. I hope to get some peaceful meditation, my creative juices flowing, help my memory problems by not being so busy...and on & on.
I have been thinking a lot lately about our plans. We worked again at home in Illinois so didn't make it to the farm. The way the economy is right now, I'm not sure we'll be able to sell our townhome or the business building. That puts a holds on the big plan for now. I guess I am starting to accept that this might not work out as we planned. A big delay anyway. It is great that we are busy workwise. A very fortunate problem to have. So I feel guilty when I get sad about the farm. So many are out of work & here I am feeling bad about a dream that many people cannot even fathom. I think I just need to get my mind around a new plan & go with it. It's not like we will never live there. So we have been talking about it lately. I just hope we are not to old to enjoy it once we get there. We will still keep working on it, but might not live there anytime soon. Maybe it will give us more children & grandchild time which is a great thing. See, I am already out of my "funk"!
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