Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

Where Have I Been?!

Yeah it's been a month and yeah I've been up to something WAY cool which is why I haven't posted. It all started with my dad telling me, reminding me, about Uncle Henry's. They live in Maine now and Uncle Henry's is the Mainer place for finding anything from classic cars to livestock. Seriously, anything goes for sale, trade or free.

So I started checking every morning, alas I have no money buuuuuuut I'm checking anyway. I see several things come and go but I'm trying to be good and some of them are too far away. Then it happened, someone put up an item at a price I could manage and bonus it's 10 minutes from the parents place. I called right away, did you know it's OK to call people at 8am in Maine? They get up early up there. I called mom at work, she's in a meeting with the Governor WHOOOPS, but dude who knew mom would have a meeting with the Governor?!? So mom calls back and out of fear that the item would be gone decides to pick it up after work and bonus she's coming down on Saturday anyway so she'll bring it. I call hubby at work to "ask" if I can borrow out of the emergency fund. OK ask is not really the word, there was pouting and begging but when I pointed out it was less than half what a new one was going to cost in a couple months he caved.

I spent the next month learning, swearing, practicing, swearing, reading, swearing and well there was a lot of swearing. It's part of my learning process so shoot me. I did finally figure it out and well I love it. Want to see?

It's a used Louet S15 that came with a skein winder for $200 bucks.















I've been making some yarns.










I've even been knitting it up.



















How cool?! I gots me a new skill in just a month.... now to convince hubby a couple sheep would really love to live in the burbs. I mean we have a lawn and eating is sort of like mowing right?

There are two kinds of women in the world...

Seriously, I'm convinced it's that black and white. Know what else? I think it's all our mom's fault.

One the one hand you have the whiner, complainer, living in fear, so shrill they're almost out of the range of human hearing types.

From them you get " it happened because I was a woman", "don't use that term it's insulting to women", "he might hit me because he's a man and I'm a woman".

On the other hand you have the doer, fighter, fearless, usually don't get along with a lot of other women types.

From them you get "it happened now how do I fix it", "call me whatever you like but I get to do the same", "go ahead buddy take a swing see what happens".

I'm really starting to think the division happens VERY young and most people don't notice. I've been watching my niece since she was born and now that she's a toddler she's started to play with other kids. There is a HUGE difference in how adults react to things that happen on the playground between boys and girls. Girls get doted on and "saved" a lot more than boys.

When my niece falls or takes a tumble I wait before I go over to her. I wait for a couple things. Is she crying? Has she called me? Does she look hurt? My sister does the same. Nine out of 10 times there's no reason to run over there in a panic. It's just a tumble, all kids take them.

Guess what? It's making for a really independent kid who likes to try things. When she falls off the bike she dusts herself off and gets right back on and gives it another go. She's not even 3 and she's all try, try again with no prompting. She never gets pushed around or pressured by the older kids, she stands her ground, smiles and says "no" or "share". When there is crying if over quickly, a hug and a little reassurance and she's ready for more. She doesn't mope and she doesn't demand to go home. She also forgives quickly and wants to play again.

Then I watch the other style of kid rearing and the results. Those mothers that can break the 4 minute mile for every spill their kids takes. Most of the time the poor girl isn't even crying until they see panicked mom running at them half hysterical. Seriously, someone making that face coming at me at mach 2, I'd cry and wet myself too and I'm 35.

These girls start to cry for anything that doesn't go their way. Fall off the bike? Cry for 20 minutes and then they don't want to get back on. It's really learning that failure and fear go hand in hand. They end up not wanting to try anything without cajoling or prompting. They're also the first ones to start excluding others and forming those cliques that all women remember from school. When something happens that they don't like the first thing you hear is a demand to go home.

I'm convinced these girls grow up to be the whiny, PC feminists that always presume to speak for me and mostly just really piss me off. I can see it happening almost like a photo progression. All the strength, defiance, curiosity and joy melting from their faces. They take on this weird aura of victim-hood, they're just waiting for the next bad thing to happen to them for being cursed and born female. It's really sad.

Then I look at my niece who's already trying to walk up the slide instead of the ladder, refuses to be fooled when she knows she's right and wants to play with anyone willing to play with her. People comment a lot on how she's always smiling, always happy and always willing to try anything with a boldness that astonishes. I want to tell them it's because we didn't suck all the self confidence out of her by treating her like some delicate flower. I'm afraid that one they'd be insulted and two they might think I'm nuts.

It's like learning to swim, some people need water wings and floats some people just say screw it and jump in the deep end. I'm glad I, like my sisters, was raised the latter. I'm THRILLED my niece is coming along nicely.

Clod is Catchy

So I'm finally developing my mom's klutz genes. I had hoped to escape but alas they stuck on Tuesday night while I was making dinner. I was chopping herbs and hubby did something weird with the grill tongs out the corner of my eye and I flinched. I quite neatly sliced the fingernail off my left forefinger. An hour and a half in the ER later, I was behind all the people with sniffles and tummy aches that the new MA universal heath plan crap was supposed to stop with my bloody dish cloth (Hey FU Mitt your great universal health plan sucks like everything else you start and then bail on ass-hat no wonder no one wants your for pres., gov., or veep), and I had a nice tetanus shot and what I can predict was a $400.00 band aid. At least I already ate my ins. deductible for the year. On the bright side it hurts like hell and it'll take a long time to grow back. Now if I can just figure out how to knit like this I'll be all set. I could spin but the ER co-pay is going to more than eat my roving spending money.

I'm halfway through the CSA share I'm splitting with my sister. As the summer has gone one the bins have gotten better and much bigger. For $22.50 a week, that's $11.25 each, I think it's turning into a great bargain in addition to all the usual advantages of a CSA.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

It's Been a While...

... so time to catch up a bit. I've started the Christmas knitting, a little late but I'm cranking along. This year it's mostly hats like the one above. The last time I was at the Classic Elite Outlet I found a ball of Rowan tweed and four hanks of Montera Hand Dyed in the dollar bin. It's discontinued and they were probably the last hanks in existence but for a buck who could resist. All four became hats.I like the way the yarn spiraled around the hats. Usually I hate pooling but these came out pretty cool.

The yarn is very soft and VERY warm. I may have to buy some of the regular Montera to make a sweater. Of course that will be next year, my yarn budget is now officially zero until next year.

I also finished a pair of socks I started last April. They've been my carry around socks, living in my purse getting worked on now and then. I won the yarn on the block of my favorite online sock yarn shop( http://www.simplysockyarn.com/ ) and I'm in love with the socks now that they're finished. They might go in the Christmas stash but I'm leaning towards keeping them.

This is the fourth Monetera dollar hat and the only one I'm not super happy with. I just don't like how the colors pooled. On the other hand someone might love it for the same reason I hate it so it'll go into the Yankee Swap.

I did manage to finish two lace projects so far this summer. I had made this Adamas Shawl pattern before but I've given them away. This one is just for me. I love the warm colors and the contrasting edging. I wore it for the first time, well more on where I was the first time I wore it at the end of the post.
I also finished my Baltic Sea Stole. It's in Twinkle Kid Mohair by Classic Elite. I grabbed this with the dollar bin Montera the last time I was at the outlet. It cost less than $10 in yarn to make but it looks like a FORTUNE. I've always had a love hate issue with mohair but this project tilted the scales a lot. I love it to death and I want it to be fall so I can wear it. As much as I love the stole, mohair and August in New England just don't mix.

Now, the bad news. My Nana passed away at the end of July. She was one of the most amazing women I ever knew. It wasn't unexpected, her cancer diagnosis was in January, but it was really fast at the end. She went from doing OK to dire in a matter of days. I think we were all relieved when it was over, she suffered a lot at the end and that isn't how she should be remembered. She did get to die in relative comfort and in her own home and that is at least something.

The usual craziness followed with the wake, funeral and mercy meal. I was really glad to have thought ahead and made sure everyone had good clothes ready to go, except of course my father but that's dad. It was the first time I had been to Mass in years, it was very pretty actually, I really liked the priest who did the Mass and graveside service. The one who came to the wake was a total dud and NO ONE liked him.

One of my mom's cousins hit me at the wake, shut up we're Italian. I made the grave error of telling her son, who I don't think I've seen in a decade, that I liked his full sleeves of tattoos. I guess she HATES them but seriously, they were STUNNING. My hubby didn't like me commenting on them either but I think that was less to do with he tats and more to do with that cousin being just strikingly handsome with really fantastic Italian facial features. Hubby got a big ole "dude that's my cousin" speech.

I've been trying to keep half an eye on my Papa for his sake and my mom's. He's almost 90 and hasn't been on his own for the over 65 years he and Nana were married. He's always been on the klutzy side, that's where the rest of us get it, and well, 90 is kind of old even if you're healthy and active. Also, two weeks after Nana died one of his little, by little I mean 80, brothers passed away and we're kind of worried about his emotional state. Hubby and I try and do what we can without being invasive or coddling him like a child but it's a really fine line. We live closest by almost an hour's drive so checking on him from time to time and some light yard work is the least we can do. Winter worries me a little but I'm sure we'll have a sort of routine before any big snow.

My Papa told me at the wake he wants me to have Nana's cookbooks. The thought of it makes me cry on and off. My Nana taught me most of what I know about cooking, baking, sewing, etc. and I'll be really glad to have them. We're having hubby's BIL make a book case just for them, something nice not a crappy MDF allen wrench thing. I'm sort of avoiding picking them up, when I do that she's really gone and I miss her a lot.

What Happened to Feminism?

There was a time when feminism was about empowerment and equality, when women wanted an equal chance to win or lose as long as the rules were the same for all. Women didn't want to be dictated to, coddled or protected. They discovered that they could accomplish anything men could...do any job, be the boss, run a company, fly a fighter jet. So, when exactly did women decide to take a 180 degree turn into whining, fear, need, and blame? I must have missed the memo.

More and more I've noticed that people who identify themselves as feminists fear and demonize men. Men are scary, men will hurt them, men need to learn that they are scary vile creatures who need to behave in certain ways so as not to frighten the delicate sensibilities of women. Wow, flashback to the Victorian age.

Now, I got into an argument along this line over at a certain web site and after just having my mind blown by the responses and wanting to "be nice" I simply gave up. This is my house, and I don't have to be nice so here's the thing .... some of these women are so entrenched in the culture of victim-hood that every offense is and attack and a victimization. Basically, they blame men for their own failings and behaviors. They place expectations on men that they themselves would, hopefully, bristle at immediately.

One example is the idea that one can sexually harass up the chain of command. Can't happen, it's about power and the one in power cannot be harassed by an underling unless, and here's the crux of the matter, they allow it. If someone works for you and they're being crude you need to be assertive and use the authority of your position to correct their behavior. If you allow it to continue unchecked IT'S YOUR FAULT. If you cannot function because of an irrational fear of men who work for you attacking you after an admonishment you need medication and therapy. You also have no business hiring anyone for anything. Seriously, is you need that much hand holding just have someone do these things for you so as to save yourself and everyone else a whole lot of unnecessary grief.

Another fine example, OK there's nothing fine about it really, is that men should behave in particular ways to avoid frightening or offending women. I actually saw pulling over in a car referred to as a "scary male behavior". Excuse me but feminism started with the ideal that men could not dictate to women how they should behave just because they were women. Now it's OK to dictate to men? Respect runs both ways. If they can't dictate to us we can't dictate to men. It's called equality. Wasn't that a core belief of feminism at one time? When did a double standard and demonizing men become the rule?

Then there's the fear factor. When did it go from take back the night to living in fright? The idea that any man at any time can turn on you is not only irrational it's bigoted. It also sounds frighteningly familiar. It sounds like what southern whites said about blacks in the dark days of slavery. Feminism was based on the idea that bigotry based on sex was wrong. That includes bigotry towards opposite sex, ladies.

All the evil in the world is not the fault of men. Criminals commit criminal acts, merely having a Y chromosome is not a factor. If you cannot Girl Up in any given situation it's not the fault of men, it's yours. Your fear, your failing, your inability to function cannot be blamed on whatever man happens to be handy. Bad things happen to everyone, some people cope and some don't. To try and rationalize blaming men for your inability to cope isn't feminism, it's the antithesis of feminism. Please do me a favor and call yourselves something else. I'd suggest man-hating castrating harpies. Wait, isn't that what men feared most the movement would become way back in the 70s? Congratulations you've set the movement back over 30 years. Seriously, turn off Lifetime, put on your big girl panties, and stop whining. I want my movement back.

Knuckles and Marrow and Shanks OH MY!

Well, I went to pick up our yearly beef and pork this past Saturday. There's good news and bad news. Let's start with the bad.

My sister moved so we tried a new farm. We found one in NH halfway between us and ordered a whole cow and a whole pig. I sent in my deposit and the Monday before our scheduled pickup the woman who runs the farm called to go over the cuts. Strike 1 - the price went up 20 cents a pound. Now last time I checked I sent a deposit at a set price and that should be my price. She said it was the butcher that went up and felt bad, etc. OK I'll let this one pass because small business have it tough in a good economy and energy costs are through the roof and I'm not surprised the butcher went up those freezers cost big bucks to run. My sister wanted to put the date off for 2 days but the farm was unable to do so because of freezer space so I told my sister she better figure it out because my freezer won't hold a whole cow. Freezers, remember the freezers.

On Wednesday I called my father's mechanic, he's had the minivan for 3 weeks it only needed an inspection and I REALLY need it on Saturday. Well he FORGOT and said he'd take care of it ASAP except his inspection machine is broken. OK dude you've had it for 3 weeks and I really needed for Saturday because there's no way I'm fitting 800 pounds of meat in a Thunderbird. Did I mention Dad also flaked on the date? I have to pick up his share as well as mine. I only sent the freaking deposit in the Spring, it's July now, the date hasn't changed.

Mechanic man promises the van will be ready by Saturday, I should mention he fears me, this has to do with me pretty much kidnapping him from the garage when a van he just fixed died in the driveway and I dragged his butt to the house. There's nothing quite like a 5 foot 2 inch chubby Italian housewife ordering your ass into a car in front of your customers and employees and reading you the riot act. He pretty much tries to avoid pissing me off.

So, now it's Saturday morning and I send hubby down to get the van. Hmmmm it was taking a long time then my cell phone rings and the part for the inspection machine has just arrived. A half hour tops he SWEARS. OK, I'm miffed but it's manageable we still have a hour until we have to leave. I started getting the coolers ready to load into the van, we have 4 large coolers to keep the meat frozen on the drive. Hubby of course isn't home in an hour, did I mention the garage is less than a mile away? WTF is going on down there? My sister has called 3 times, my father twice, we're late and there's nothing I can do about it.

Hubby finally pulls up a half hour after we are supposed to be on the road. Apparently the car threw a belt as he was trying to leave the garage. They had to wait for the part and now we're good to go. Well not good, hubby says not to call the garage Mechanic man was VERY sorry and owes us a favor. In other words Mechanic man and hubby fear my wrath at this point and they're covering for each other a smidge. I make sure hubby has told Mechanic man that I need this van for moving hundreds of pounds of melting meat and I'm not pleased.

About 40 minutes into the drive my sister calls again, she's bored, I tell her 10 more minutes we'll be there. She says there's another issue. Strike 2 - the meat is NOT, I repeat NOT, FROZEN. OK WTF didn't I HAVE to pick up this meat today because they didn't have freezer space? Wasn't the price hike for the energy costs going up for the freezers? Oh, and the pork isn't ready. It was supposed to be but it's not. Sister dearest asks what she wants me to do and I tell her I have to think and we'll talk about it face to face in 10 minutes.

Now, I'm usually pretty fast on my feet but I've already had a heck of a morning and my brain was a little fried. At this point I'm also pretty cheesed off. In fact, I'm about ready to tell the farm lady to go perform an unnatural act with one of her animals and hand me my deposit back or I'll see her in court. Seriously gas is over 4 bucks a gallon and this isn't a short drive. On the bright side I had 10 minutes to cool off before we got there.

Of course it didn't last long. They said the butcher had a freezer issue and while the meat is quite cold it's not frozen solid yet. OK I paid for FROZEN MEAT. I dunno where this lady found this butcher but he really needs a slap and a boot in the rear. Next, in order to try and appease me, they offer to hold the meat at the farm until it's fully frozen. W T F?! Didn't I just HAVE to pick up the meat today? Weren't they short of freezer space? Didn't I go through a morning of hell with this stupid POS van of my father's to even get here today when I HAD to be here? Oh and let's consider the money in GAS I used for the freaking drive. I'm now approaching apoplectic and hippy health nuts or not I'm plopping my fat rear outside the front door and having a smoke while I consider my options.

After some negotiating and a LOT of apologizing we got a 50 credit off the bill for the gas and a promise that this would NEVER happen again. Here's the thing, not every customer is willing to write a 3,000 check for meat, I have a little leverage, they want to keep me. So we load up my van and sister's van and go off on our merry way. Thank god for the coolers and my thought to being ice packs JUST IN CASE.

Think it's over?? I wish, just wait.

So my sister drives off and hubby backs out and steers us towards home. Suddenly there's a weird but ominously familiar flappy thuddy sound from the engine. The noise is quickly followed by a funky smell. We threw a belt. Same belt that got put on that morning by Mechanic man. Just some advice here, NEVER let the BOSS fix your car. Have one of the employees do it, the boss always does sucky work. So I have hubby turn the van around and go back, we only got about 100 yards anyway. I call my sister on her cell and scream for her to come back. I scream because I'm losing my cool and my mind at this point and the super spotty cell service is not helping, she can barely hear me.

So my sister pulls up beside us and we pop the hood. It's not easy to see into the engine of a van and while we can't spot the problem the funky smell is pretty strong. Did I mention I just loaded this van with hundreds of pounds of beef that cost me thousands of dollars and that it was supposed to be frozen but isn't? I should add here that despite the fact that they had months to anticipate the cost of the meat neither my sister not my father actually had the money. I had to write a whopper check to cover for everyone, who needs to pay the property taxes anyway right? I'm also going to point out that the above family members make SIGNIFICANTLY more money than hubby and I'm a housewife. It's been a good month if he have money leftover for McDonalds, seriously we're kind of poor.

I didn't want to risk losing the meat if the van didn't make it home so we loaded the hundreds of pounds of meat into my sister's van, she of course lives in the OTHER DIRECTION, and head towards my house. Poor hubby is left on his own to wait for AAA. Just when I'm thinking nothing else could possibly go wrong the light at the only intersection we have to get through goes wonky and my mother calls. So while my sister is trying to navigate the intersection my mother is playing 20 questions the spotty cell service version. Move 2 feet no signal, 2 more it's back, fun for the whole family. It finally ends with me telling my mom that I left the door open and she needs to go in, sit on the freaking sofa, turn on the freaking TV, and wait for further freaking instructions. I did not actually use the word freaking. She hung up on me. My sister and I laughed hysterically, it was just that kind of day. Yes, sometimes I talk to my mother that way, you'd have to know my mother to understand why it's on occasion acceptable.

So I finally get home with the meat and we carry it through the bulkhead to the freezer in the basement and pack it in tight. I had to crank the freezer all the way to igloo, yes there's an actual picture of an igloo and it's a setting on my freezer. My mom heads to her mom's and leaves her Bichon Frise at my house. Nice of people to ask if I want to dog sit the worlds clingiest, hairiest animal in the heat of July. My sister speeds off with her repacked with more ice meat towards her house. Me? I go outside to get dizzy watching the electric meter spin because I just set the freezer to igloo to freeze the meat that was supposed to be frozen when I picked it up. Hubby made it home eventually, the mechanic was apparently both chagrined and frightened to see the van come back on a wrecker. I told hubby to negotiate a freebie or I'd have to talk to the mechanic myself, and NO ONE wants that at this point.

There is some good news. The meat is pretty good and all my butchering was done how I wanted it. I also got lots of knuckles, marrow bones and shanks to make stock. I love home made stock, once you have it store bought will never do. So Sunday I decided to make up the first batch of the year, I have enough stock stuff for three batches and I have a pretty big stock pot. It takes all day but it's not like you have to watch it closely, it mostly just simmers solo. The hardest part was roasting the bones, I hate using the oven in July.
At the end of the day I had a gallon and a half of lovely, dark, delicious, gelatinous stock. It makes great soups and sauces and once it cooled down in the refrigerator I put it down in the freezer. I even remembered to turn the freezer back down from igloo.

Tried Something New Today

I baked pita bread. It's pretty easy as bread baking goes. I was even able to do whole wheat pitas. The hardest part was rolling them out nice and thin.

Then you have to put them in a really hot oven on a pizza stone. Like magic they puff up, I thought it was pretty cool. Halfway through you give them a turn so they get toasty on both sides.

They deflate as they cool and ta-da better then store bought and cheaper as well. I'm thinking about variations already. Rye, herbs, etc..... who knows. Not bad for a morning's worth of baking though.

A Winner and Tallow Making

Yay we have a winner!!! I decided to use a random number generator and count from the bottom just to make it "more" random and we got a 7. So the winner of the soap is .... geek knitter!!! Woohoo! Just email me fotobrat at aol dot com or PM me on Ravelry BratKnits with your address and I'll mail out your soapy goodness

Now onto the tallowmaking. But first, some complaining. I've been sick for a week, really sick, sicker than I've been since I was a kid and my tonsils came out to stop the damned ear infections. Funny thing is my tonsils grew back. Weird and freaky I know but my Papa's did too so I'm not completely shocked. Guess what else came back, ear infections. I caught a cold from my niece and about three days in my ears started to itch on the inside. The next day, they HURT. So I call my ear doc, who seriously I haven't seen in 17 years and he fits me in that morning. Dr. Arrigg ROCKS!!!! I have a "rippping" ear infection and have to take antibiotics which I haven't taken in I can't remember how long, I never get sick. It's not completely gone but it's cleared up a lot and I feel like a dork for having a ear infection in my 30s.

Anyway, I don't do sick very well. I hate being in bed and I feel like a lazy slug so by Friday I HAD to do SOMETHING useful. I decided to render out the tallow as new stuff is coming in three weeks. At least I could take breaks if I got tired and mostly leave it to do it's own thing. So I gathered everything I needed - suet, a large pot, water, salt, cheese cloth, a strainer and a large plastic tub.

Now, there's a lot of books out there on how to render tallow. Get one, read it, read it again and think long and hard before you do it. This is how I make it, not a complete set of instructions, so if you follow them and screw up and burn your house down, set the dog on fire or something it's not on me. Cool? OK here we go.

This is the suet, the fat from around a cows internal organs.

Step 1 is to cut it up into 1 inch chunks.

It can then either go into the pot or into the grinder. If you use a grinder keep the suet as close to frozen as you can while you grind or else it gums up the auger and makes a mess.

Next the chunks or ground suet goes into a pot with a few inches of water and some salt. The water helps keep the suet from overheating and smoking or worse catching fire, it is grease after all. Have the lid handy JUST IN CASE. But if you add water as everything cooks it should be fine. I keep the heat at a slow simmer.

Warning cooking suet into tallow SMELLS BAD. Do it on a nice day with all the windows and doors open. The smell fades fast but while it's cooking it STINKS. If you didn't grind you get some floating chunks of trapped fat like these. I turn off the heat and put my stick blender in the pot to chop them up real quick. Of course then I pick the sinewy bits off the stick blender and clean it really well. It's better to just grind the suet in the first place.

When it's all melted and cooked time to strain. I use cheese cloth layered in a strainer and I strain into a plastic tub.

When the tallow is cooled it will be tallow on top and water on the bottom. Sometimes there's some fine meaty bits that made it through the strainer so time to scrape the bottom.

Make sure it's cooled all the way through or you're going to have to call a plumber to degrease your pipes. I flip the whole thing over into the sink and the water, gelatin and other nasty drains off. If there's anything NOT tallow I scrape it off and throw it away. You can then either freeze it or clean it again. I usually clean it again by remelting with less water and straining through coffee filters just to make sure it's as pure as possible.

After the second cleaning I let it cool until it's solid. When it's mostly cool i stick it in the fridge to get really firm before I wrap it in freezer paper for storage.

Once it's happily wrapped and dated the tallow is ready for the freezer. I made soap and candle from it all the time. Since we get our meat by buying a cow once a year we're already paying for the suet so I figure we might as well use it.

It's Wicked Hawt So I'm Giving Stuff Away

As well as disgustingly humid and generally gross. It doesn't feel like June at all, more like August. Alas, electricity for the AC is pricey so it stays off until bedtime. I try and keep busy to take my mind off the heat.


First off I finally got a meat grinder. Not one of those fancy schmancy ones, not an attachment for my kitchenaid but an old fashioned hand crank meat grinder. I've been trying to track one down for a while and finally managed to wrangle one. My husband took one look at it and stated that he wasn't cranking it, we'll see how badly he wants what comes out of it.

I need a grinder for a few reasons. First we buy our meat locally from a farm. My sister, parents and I split a whole cow and a whole pig once a year. We get it butchered but some things need a little more work than your basic kitchen supplies. I need the grinder because it also stuffs sausages and hot dogs. Have you priced those lately? I'll make my own and ummm no recalls.

Second, a cow doesn't just come with meat. There's all sorts of other "parts" that you're paying for so you might as well use them up. Organ meat gets cooked, ground and baked into doggy treats. Bones and tail get made into stock for soups, WAY better than canned.

Finally there's the fat. Now pork fat becomes lard, great for pie crust and no transfats. The fat from around the cows organs, suet, becomes tallow. Now neither of these things come easy or quick. Both have to be cleaned and rendered (boiled) so you end up with nice clean stuff at the end. The grinder will help this process immensely. The smaller you can get the pieces the easier it is to render.

I use the tallow, along with some coconut oil, to make one of my favorite house cleaners, soap. Yup plain ole soap grated into flakes. Mix it up with some hot water, maybe a little borax or washing soda and you can clean just about anything. Follow up with a vinegar or water rinse and stuff just shines. OK it's not PLAIN soap, I add tea tree and citrus oils. It smells good, kinda clean. Even hubby likes it. It's green, it cleans, and it smells nice what more could you ask for?

Of course there's a lot of tallow to be had from a whole cow, and it makes a lot of soap. Since we're picking up our annual meat supply in about a month I've got to render out what's left in the freezer from last year and make more soap. Of course I still have a lot of soap left from last time so I've decided to give some away. It's all grated and good to go and I'll ship 1 pound of it to a person chosen at random who posts a comment to this post. The cutoff is June 20th at 5pm.

My Husband Screams Like a Girl

OK well maybe not entirely like a girl but he did let out one loud EWWWWWWWWWWW when he was cleaning out the fireplace. We're finishing up the last of the spring cleaning and the duty of cleaning out the fireplace with the wet/dry vac fell to him. Inside was the skeleton of some poor bird that must have flown down there months ago. We didn't use the fireplace this winter so I guess it could have been a year or more. We just never got around to cleaning it because shoveling the ashes is such a pain in the neck. The new wet/dry vac has made that job and a few others a lot easier, if not less... gross. For sure we have to go up an replace the wire around the chimney so this doesn't happen again.



Along with spring cleaning I've been doing some spring knitting. I finished up my mom's Mother's Day gift. It was late, I had to rip back a LOT because I dropped a stitch and didn't notice. Then I decided it was a good time to use up some odds and ends leftover from other projects and made this cute little felted bag.


I'm doing great on my stash-busting, of course poverty helps. Between gas and grocery prices we're really tightening up the budget. Lucky it feeds into the green thing we've been doing lately. It has become kind of a game to see how little water, electricity and gas we can use in a month. We see it as a challenge and get to tease one another when a light gets left on or timing showers. Hey it's free fun and if it saves on the bills and the environment all the better.

We Had a Puppy Play Date

We had a puppy play date today. It went on like this for 5 hours. I'm thinking they'll both sleep well tonight. Me? I'll be cleaning up the destruction they left behind. It currently looks like a bomb went off in the living room. At least I remembered to put my knitting away BEFORE the battle.

Barbara Walters Isn't Just a Media Whore...

...she's an old fashioned whore as well. Now, I've been losing respect for Walters over the years but this latest just washed what was left completely away. Like a lot of other people my appreciation for Walters started to wane with her appearances on The View. Call my expectations high but a well respected journalist deciding to join a daily hen peck just struck me as wrong.

This woman was a ground breaker for women in media, she did some of the most memorable interviews in broadcast history. When she started doing The View I did try and watch a few times but I mostly saw otherwise intelligent women clucking away and simply couldn't stomach it. Over the years I did catch it on occasion when I saw a promo for an interesting guest but it was often painful to watch.

Then the cast DRAMAS started. I say cast because a panel would be more fun and hosts a little less trite than the reality of this daytime turd. Between TMZ and the other gossip rags as well as legitimate media on a really slow news day we were all treated to an inside look at the behind the scenes workings of the view. It was more than I really wanted to know. I can honesty say I was equally disgusted with the treatment of Star Jones (hate) and Rosie (adore) by Walters. She showed herself to be less of a journalist and more of a diva entertainment "personality". My respect dropped further encouraged by a series of softball puff interview "specials" when there was no sign of the woman who got THE INTERVIEW with Fidel Castro.

Now we have the new book out and Walters is revealing a thirty year old affair with a married man. One of the justifications for the inclusion of this tidbit in her book, given tonight on FOX News, was that times have changed. Sorry Babs a whore is a whore is a whore. Even thirty years later, I'm sure his wife agrees. Then as I watched a woman I used to respect justify whoring on cable news I had a terrible thought. What if all the disrespect and sniggering Walters received when working her way up in the news biz wasn't sexism, maybe it was deserved. Maybe they knew then what it took the rest of us decades to figure out. Barbara Walters isn't a talented journalist, she's just a whore looking to cash in. I'm disgusted and worse very disappointed.

May 9th Edited to add : Even though I don't like Star Jones I really admire her restraint this week. If someone went on national TV and said I was too fat to walk around my workplace I wouldn't just hit them in the press I'd hit them with my car.

Someone Needs to Put on Her Big Girl Panties

AND STOP WHINING! Massachusetts politics has always been and will always be one of the roughest trades around. It's full of arm twisting and threats and a whole lot of backroom dealings. From the local level up to the state legislature it isn't for the faint of heart or the weak of will. Traditionally a man's game, Massachusetts politics has produced some amazingly tough and full-on ball buster female politicians. Women who learned to play the game as well if not better than than the men. Massachusetts' female politicians were to be admired, respected and even feared. That is, until this week.

As reported on TV, in the Globe and the Herald Jennifer Callahan decided to give a half choked almost tearful report of a "threat" she received from another state Representative while speaking to the house. Thankfully Speaker Sal DiMasi closed the session immediately and saved all women from further embarrassment. Seriously I was embarrassed to be a woman after this little bit of whining.

Someone needs to tell Jen how things work she must have missed the memo. She obviously doesn't have the backbone to do her job. Jen, if you get pushed... PUSH BACK. Don't whine, don't cry and for the sake of all that is holy if you are going to whine and cry DO IT IN PRIVATE! You are an elected Massachusetts Representative time to put on your big girl panties and ACT LIKE IT! I was disgusted and embarrassed by your display and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone. Madeleine Albright and Margaret Thatcher never whined and they were threatened by bigger and badder men with, you know, WMDs. Stop being a baby. I can only hope you are the proud recipient of a ginormous pair of skivvies at the St. Pat's breakfast next Spring, maybe then you'll get the hint.

Now on to some fun stuff. It's Spring and that means it's time to air out and mothproof my wool yarn and sweaters. Last year I found a munched pair of gloves and went the scary chemical route and mothballed everything. I never found anything else munched so if they were here they're dead now. I dislike chemicals in the house. For one a lot of them are pretty toxic and unnecessary. Second I have allergies and I really think a lot of over the top chemicals in the house make them worse. So while the natural alternative won't kill the little buggers I'm going to see how well it at least deters them.

I dug out some heat seal jumbo teabags, my iron and a bunch of herbs and EOs that moths don't like. I mixed up a huge batch and filled and sealed about two dozen sachets to tuck in with all the wool. They smell pretty good and it didn't take much time. I'm always on moth patrol so I'll know fast if they don't work. Plus it was fun to do something crafty for an afternoon.