Canned pears

 The pears Matthew and I picked a couple of Saturdays ago finally finished ripening, so I canned 14 quarts of pears today!

The little pumpkin is an upcoming project... Matthew and I both really love pumpkin, and I always bought it in a can.  I finally realized that the canned pumpkin had to come from something I could probably buy.  Indeed, this pumpkin is a pie pumpkin.  I'm going to try using this one, and then I'll probably buy a few of them and freeze some pumpkin this year.  I read the frozen pumpkin is even more delicious than canned... Can you imagine that?

Rethinking laundry

Part of what has come with this move is rethinking all of our old solutions to "problems".   As we took steps to become a more simple, sustainable home, we had to consider how we would do things that would work in our apartment.  Well, we have a new apartment now, and it's time to solve all of the same problems... again!

In our old apartment, I'd wash a load of laundry in a common washing room, and then I'd haul it out to the balcony and hang it on our wooden laundry rack and our clothesline.  Once the days stayed below the 60s, I would use the dryer again.  Our apartment stayed cool, and in the Pacific Northwest you just can't leave damp things around in the winter!

Upon arriving at this apartment, we noticed that one of the rules is that we are not supposed to put laundry on our patio (any at all, I am assuming).  I quickly realized that the clothesline is going to take an extended vacation, and I started drying our clothes on the drying rack inside in front of the sliding glass door where there is a fair amount of light.  However, a full large load of clothes doesn't fit on the drying rack, and the clothes just don't dry as quickly inside, so they sometimes smelled a bit sour.  That's just not going to work for me.

Fortunately, we have our own washer and dryer, so I can be a bit more flexible about their use since it isn't a flat rate of $1.00 any time you want to turn the thing on.  I also decided to break the rules.  I'm putting the drying rack outdoors whenever it is warm and dry enough.  I am sticking it in the back corner, and I'm placing our outdoor chairs in front of it, so I am hoping that nobody even notices it.  If the management says something,  I'll bring it back indoors.  I'm also considering writing to the property management company to suggest that they rethink their rule and perhaps at least allow drying racks although I'd understand if they don't want clotheslines or clothing on railings.  Must.... fight... ridiculous rules....

Anyway, about being flexible with washer and dryer use...  I used to do absolutely full washer loads because I read somewhere that the motor used to run the washer worked just about as hard for a medium or small load as for a large load.  I haven't been able to find that again, and I'm not even sure it's true; however, that was my working assumption.  Here, if I do a large load there is just no way to dry it without using a dryer.  I figure that the dryer is more of an energy hog, so I have started doing medium loads.  This size of load fits on the laundry rack, and I can (sneakily) dry it outside if it's warm enough.

For all of the frustrations and backward stepping here, I have found a way that this whole thing might actually break even or come ahead energy and possibly even money-wise.  Since I can run the dryer for as short of a time as I'd like, I've decided to employ a "finishing it off" method to drying.  Unless somebody complains, I think I can continue to dry clothes completely outside during the summer.  However, now when it's cold, I plan to wash clothes in the morning, let them hang dry in front of the glass door until early evening, and then finish them off in the dryer using as little time as they need.  Sound good?

Starting a home church

Here's a Craigslist ad that I just posted.  I figured I'd post it on my blog as well in case people use Google to find out about a home church in the Portland metropolitan (specifically Beaverton, Aloha or Hillsboro) area. I was Google-ing such a thing recently, but I found no such blog post! ;)

If you want to contact me after reading the following ad, please leave a comment or, even better, find the ad on the Portland Craigslist (search for "Starting a home church") and reply by email to that.  Thanks!

My husband and I just moved into the area, and we are interested in forming a small “home church.”  Please read on to get an idea of what we are imagining and to get to know us a bit better. J

For years, it has been challenging to find a church community that feels balanced and good.  We were attending OSU in Corvallis for the past six years, and it was just over a year ago that we finally found a church that worked for us.  What made the church work for us was that they genuinely loved and accepted people, were humble, and made every attempt to form a good community.  People often spent time together outside of the Sunday morning service, and we got to actually know people by eating meals and playing games together on Tuesday nights each week.

My husband just got a job in the Beaverton/Aloha area, and after moving here I have been distressed at the thought of finding a new church.  I have looked into all of the churches within a couple miles of us, and most of them are just too large for us.  It also seems like most smaller churches tend to lack people our age (we’re in our mid-twenties).

I have thought for a few years that perhaps an ideal church for us would be a small-ish group of people who meet at a home and get to know each other enough to form friendships and a genuine community.  We want to make friends here, and we want to appreciate a community of people who support each other with the love of God, and I feel so much more optimistic about forming this group rather than trying to make things work when in big churches.

What we are imagining is meeting regularly (although it doesn’t have to be Sunday morning necessarily) to have some kind of structured meeting where we discuss thoughts about God/the Bible/etc, pray, and do some sort of music.  In addition to the meeting, I think it would be great to regularly share a meal together and play games/socialize.  We could also get together to volunteer if interest is there.  All of this can be done in a variety of ways, and I have ideas and would be happy to organize things; however, I want to leave things open for other peoples’ ideas as well!  One thing that I’ve been hoping is that our community could be relatively close in proximity so that we minimize travel.  We live near the intersection of NW Quatama Rd and NW 205^th Ave in Aloha.  Also, we’d be happy to host people at our home, but we’re open to having it elsewhere or to rotate, etc.

If this is sounding appealing, read on, and I’ll let you know a little bit more about myself and my husband.

Matthew and I both went to OSU for our undergraduate and graduate work.  Matthew is a mechanical engineer, and I am a mathematician/math teacher.  Matthew currently is working, and I’m going to apply winter term to be in the part-time pool for teaching math at Portland Community College.  We are both quite shy and introverted, but we’re friendly, good listeners, and I’ll open up a fair amount if you get to know me.  (Matthew might open up too, if you’re lucky!  He’s quiet…)  Regarding our faith, over the past few years we have become less than enchanted by the current beliefs held by the majority of churches.  We’re interested in truth, but we have realized that churches don’t have as much claim to the truth as they think they do, and it feels like pride and legalism have taken the place of humility and love.  People seem to wear masks to hide their true human selves.  For this reason, we feel unable to be ourselves when in most church settings.  We have rebuilt our relationship with God by focusing on the compassion, love and grace of God for this imperfect, hurting world.  Another important aspect of our life is our goal to live simply in an effort to take better care of the world God gave us, to fight materialism, and to promote social justice.  We do things like try to spend our money with socially responsible companies, make our own food from scratch, avoid packaging waste, and many other things.  We have been analyzing all that we do to try to match our actions to our values.

In general, one or both of us enjoy having good discussions, hiking, walking, running, cooking/baking, crafting (sewing, knitting, crocheting, etc.), reading, going to farms for u-pick produce, canning, playing online RPGs (that’d be Matthew…), singing, music, and other things!

If you too are looking for a close community and our story speaks to you, please send me an email!  I’d love to learn about who you are and what your hopes for the group would be!  Questions are encouraged as well, of course!  We’re hoping to meet some people in our age group (20-40 ?), but if you feel like this is perfect for you and you’re not in the range, don’t let that deter you.  If things seem to click well enough, we’d probably set up a meeting outside the home for a bit, and then hopefully eventually bring it into the home.  

Famine in East Africa

I find it appropriate that just after I posted yesterday about having problems finding "the right food" to eat, I learn today that millions in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya are facing a famine.  Perspective!

One blog I follow has a post that talks a little bit about the impacts of the famine, and it also has a suggestion of a campaign taking funds to help relieve the people in East Africa.  In short, crops have failed for a few years, and food has run out for many families.  People are dying quickly, and many more are malnourished so there is concern that the death toll will continue to grow.  If you are so inclined, please feel free to donate to help the people at this page.  I should at least mention on my own post that the money will be distributed to World Vision which is a Christian humanitarian organization that has been helping the people in this area for decades and is stepping up to continue to help during this time of crisis.

If you want to help but you don't find yourself wanting to give to World Vision, this CNN article has more options for people accepting money.  If you can't give money right now, you can certainly pray for the people in need and/or make others who might be able to contribute money know that there is a need for humanitarian aid!  Matthew has a news feed that he follows for news stories, and I don't think that this famine ever showed up, so we didn't know about it.  Perhaps there are others who have not learned about it?

If you want to learn more about the famine, if you Google "famine in Africa" or "famine in Somalia", you will be able to find more news about it.

Thanks for considering these families in need!

Food Woes

So, here's the earth.  Well, at least our little chunk of earth.

One of the things that has been making me kind of stressed out this week is food.  The closest food store to us is Whole Foods which lies about 1.3 miles north of us.  My opinion of Whole Foods is that it's an even snootier Safeway.  The produce isn't particularly local or fresh.  They make a show when a product is "local" (from Oregon), but I read in a book that they pretty much sell all of the same things at each store, and in each store they brag about what's local to that particular store.  They do sell a lot of organic food, though, and I try to remind myself that it's not the worst place to go when needing to get some groceries once or twice a week.

Another food option is New Seasons Market which is local to the Portland area.  The closest market is about 2.5 miles away which is kind of far when one considers hauling groceries.  Perhaps if we get set up to be able to bike and carry things on a bike, this will be more of a regular consideration... However, the market that we went to on Saturday was near to the Beaverton library and Farmers' Market.  It had a slightly more local, co-op feel.  However, I just felt like my trust in their product choices could go only so far when they had Betty Crocker cake mixes and the like.  Truly a relationship breaker, let me tell you.  However, this store has some options that Whole Foods doesn't have (like taring my reused containers so that I can use them in the bulk section), and some of the products tend to be more local since New Seasons is local to the area.  (*EDIT* 10/2/2011:  I had a moment of bravery and asked a cashier at Whole Foods if we could bring in our own containers and get them tared.  It turns out that you can, and he was even super nice and showed me how to do it at any register even if no cashier is there.)

However, the desperation didn't dissipate after visiting these two stores.  For one thing, I use a LOT of wheat flour in my weekly baking escapades.  Whole Foods didn't have whole wheat flour in bulk.  New Seasons did, but it wasn't organic, and it was still $1 per pound which is a lot for non-organic flour.  Neither of these stores had good options for buying non-bulk flour.  Ideally, I'd buy a 25 pound bag of flour.  The stores carried 5 pound bags, and most of the flour has traveled halfway across the country to get here.  Bob's Red Mill is a local option, but it makes my head hurt to think about all of the plastic packaging that they use.  (WHY, Bob's Red Mill, WHY??? Nobody else wraps EVERY product that they create in PLASTIC!!)  I also couldn't figure out a way to buy masa harina without getting it in a plastic bag.

So, today I started considering the option of visiting an actual co-op.  The reason that I wasn't before is because the nearest co-op is about twelve miles away.  Fortunately, I guess, the library is halfway between, so it would actually "only" be an extra twelve mile round trip on the one day every three to four weeks that we would make this journey.  Perhaps that would be worth it to find a place that values buying local, organic food?  We also could become owners and support their cause.  Meanwhile, we could get 10% off discounts on case orders (which I'm hoping would include large bags of flour).  So, that's my current hope, and we'll probably head that way in a couple of weeks.

I also miss having an easily accessible Farmers' Market.  There is one near Whole Foods (about 1.3 miles from us) that runs a short season and ends at the end of August, so we missed it.  The next nearest one is 2.5 miles away right near New Seasons, and it runs Sundays 10am-2pm.  We can go to the Beaverton one when we go to the library, but that'll probably be about every three weeks, and I can't stock up on most types of produce, of course!

Finally, I have been going through "packaging panic" where I can't make seemingly simple decisions because I'm trying to minimize packaging issues.  Here's one example.  I can't figure out what type of milk to buy.  Since we are employed now, I'm trying to switch to buying organic milk products.  I have a few options.  I can buy a plastic gallon milk jug, half gallon paper cartons, or half gallon glass merlons.  The milk in the merlons is from California (while the other two are from Coos County, Oregon), so it has to travel farther and in a heavier (glass) container to get here.  They also have a plastic top that I'd have to throw away, and they are significantly more expensive than the other brands.  The milk jugs and paper cartons are not from as far away, and they are both recyclable.  I am leaning toward getting the paper carton, but I'd happily take advice if you think I'm weighing the factors incorrectly.

Anyway, this has been one of my woes this past week.  Really, my woes have boiled down to food, transportation, and friends/church.  I'll probably blog about the latter two in the near future, too.

Also, thanks for listening to the woes.  I want you to know that I realize I really have nothing to complain about because I am fully blessed just to have the food that I need to sustain me.  However, if you know me very well at all, you probably know that if I choose to address a problem, I can't help but to throw myself at it and give it everything I have, and that's simply what I'm doing here.  I'll figure out a system in the end, but it's very different from the system I created in Corvallis, and it's just taking me time because I'm just that picky!  : )

Our new place

Here are some pictures of our new place so that you have a mental picture of where we're at.  While I might be struggling to get used to the location of our apartment (more on that later), we chose an apartment that is well-suited for our lifestyle.  It has plenty of storage space for food, lots of big windows facing west to let in light for my plants (and myself), our own washer and dryer, and a dishwasher which is nice since washing dishes is the one job that Matthew and I both really just don't like doing.  The kitchen has a little bit more counter space which is good, and the walls are white instead of brown, which is pretty much amazing.

Without further ado, here are some pictures.  Sorry some of them have a weird stripe thing causing an image problem; the blogger picture uploader was not working well yesterday or today.

Bedroom...

More bedroom...

Dining room... 

Part of the living room.  The boxes are textbooks and stuff Matthew's going to take to work.

More living room.

View from the dining room.

View from the living room.

What else is a person going to do with a walk-in closet except stow a  small deep freezer inside?

Kitchen and stuff...

More kitchen...

More kitchen...

Even more kitchen...

Pantries are kind of awesome.  Now I can buy 25 pound bags of oats and still have somewhere to put them.

View from the bedroom.

I got attacked by our stuff while moving...  It's worth sharing, I think.

It's GO time!

After four plus months of job hunting, Matthew got a job!  He interviewed last Friday, and they called him Wednesday letting him know that he got the job.   Needless to say, we were pretty excited.  :)

We put in an application for the apartments that we decided we liked best (we thought about it ahead of time... you know, just in case...) that same evening, and since then we've been packing and cleaning and doing all sorts of oh-my-gosh-we-suddenly-need-to-move-because-Matthew-starts-work-on-the-20th activities.  We've been lucky to sell a couple large items (a monitor and a set of dishes) that we didn't want to move again, and along with that we have been fortunate to find a lot of boxes using the power of Craigslist.  Things have mostly been falling into place.  Originally, we were thinking we'd move Monday, but we seem to be having troubles with our current management filling out the paperwork for our background check.  Now we're planning to pester them Monday and then hopefully get to move into our new place on Tuesday.  Hence we have another day to pack and clean.  Hence I have time to take a hot afternoon/evening off to blog.

What with all this insanity, I have mostly managed to consider the forward direction: moving to Aloha.  Sometimes it hits me, though.  After six years in Corvallis, we're leaving this place that I consider home.  I'm also leaving a large number of people that I'd kind of rather not leave behind.  And it's kind of sad.

This is our home that we've enjoyed for about two and a half years. Now we go off to a world with a lot of people and a lot of cars. I have this really horrible picture of Portland/suburbs where all I imagine are big four-lane roads with cars and cars and cars. I lived in Beaverton with Matthew for two weeks right after we got married, and I've been in the Portland area other times in my life, and for some reason this is all I see in my mind. My mental picture of Corvallis is mostly filled with trees, and I'm having a hard time not being scared of moving from tree-world to car-world. I'm also currently scared of big cities in general. It's not even crime or people that scares me, but really just the idea of feeling like I'm surrounded by so many people and buildings that I'm lost and kind of alone. I also have obsessive-compulsive worries about figuring out where to buy good food (we're so spoiled by living about half a mile from the co-op), figuring out how to use the MAX successfully (we're so spoiled by being able to easily walk, bike, or ride the free bus pretty much anywhere we want/need to go), learning how to deal with everything just being so spread out because it's just so darn big, and figuring out what to do with myself since Matthew will be gone most of the day (I'm thinking I'll apply to work at Portland Community College in the part-time pool, but that would start in January...). I avoid thinking about these things too much by allowing myself to stress out a bit about moving and driving our car to our new place by myself because Matthew will be driving the moving van. Then again, I felt like Corvallis was big when I moved here, and I needed time to adjust. I guess that's just how things work.

Wish us luck as we move and adjust!  It feels absolutely wild to not be going to school in a couple of weeks since this is the first time in twenty-two years that it has happened!!

Canning tomatoes!

I canned for the first time today!!!  How exciting!  I canned tomatoes because we use crushed tomatoes fairly often, and I found a u-pick place in Corvallis.  Its website is here if you're in the Corvallis area and interested in getting some tomatoes.  We got about 58 pounds for $35, and it was really fun!  The tomato plants just sprawl on the ground, so it's like an Easter egg hunt when looking for the ripe, red tomatoes.  If you are interested in canning, I recommend the Tattler canning lids that we got because they are reusable and BPA free.  Anyway, I'm just kind of exciting about canning the first time.  It's really cool to pick our own food at a local farm and then store it away so that we can eat it over the winter.

Enjoy the pictures!

58 pounds of tomatoes

Part of my fleet of canning jars.  I only used 14 today.

Making a mess...

It's a pumpkin tomato!

Simmering away...

The 14 quarts of deliciousness...

Weddings!

I've been thinking about weddings recently!  I went to one last weekend, and I sold my own wedding gown today, so it's just been on my mind.  Part of what I have been thinking about is how much I have changed in the last three years and how different our wedding would look as a result.  I'm not saying that I am not happy with our wedding, I really am.  My family and friends were there, and it was a really beautiful and happy day for us. However, it's kind of fun to consider what would have been the same and what I would have changed.

I did pretty much all of the planning myself which I didn't mind doing being it was a welcome study break throughout that year!  I figured out the food, attire, decorations, photos, and other details, and I made sure they all came together.  It's not that I didn't have help; I did, but I was pretty much "the planner".  I would do a lot of it the same.  I baked my own wedding cake, and I frosted it with some help from my now sister-in-law.  I also baked some of the food for the reception; some Amish friendship bread and some chocolate chip cookies.  The rest of the food my mom, my bridesmaids, and I prepared the day before the wedding.  I think that it was really fun to do this, and I remember the excitement of the day as my friends and I made my plans come to fruition.  I ordered flowers wholesale, and a lovely lady from the church volunteered to arrange them for me.  I used a fair amount from the church, too, like vases, pedestals, tablecloths, etc.  My friend from high school did our photography, and I had a couple family members with video cameras catch the footage.

I think that the biggest things that I would change are the attire and the flowers.  My wedding gown cost $600.  Because our wedding was put together by ourselves and our family and friends, it was not a terribly expensive wedding by the end of things, so I decided to splurge on the dress.  Mind you, I realize that $600 isn't even that much compared to many dresses, but it was a LOT to me.

It is pretty though, no?  However, I think that if I was getting married now instead of then, I would have either rented, found a gown used, or ditched the "gown" idea altogether and found a nice white dress that I could wear for more than just the wedding.  I did decide to sell my dress, and I finally sold it today for $40 to a friend-of-the-bride who wanted to buy a dress for someone who couldn't afford one herself.  I'm happy that it sounds like it will be put to good use, but it took me 2-3 years to sell it, and it didn't sell until I listed it as $150 or best offer.  Tux rentals were also fairly expensive, and that could have been saved by going with a more casual feel for the attire.  Additionally, my bridesmaids bought their own dresses.  While they weren't particularly expensive for bridesmaids dresses (I think they were about $70) and I let them wear any black shoes that they wanted, I doubt that any of them ever wore the dresses again.  Hopefully they sold them, too!  I think that I would be less picky about the dresses now.  Perhaps they'd wear something they already had?  Or we'd find something they'd wear again?

The other thing I'd change is the flowers.  I learned only recently that so many of the cut flowers that we get are actually grown a) in another country..., b) often in a poor country, and c) on land that probably should be used to supply food to people in said poor country.  With this new knowledge, if I got married now, I would feel like I should use locally sourced flowers and greenery that was in season.  This might have involved me being less picky again, but I would be happy to feel like I was doing something good for the earth and not supporting big farmers that are making it hard for people to grow food in their own countries!

I'm sure that other decisions would have been made slightly differently along the way, but these are just things that come to mind.  I'm not exactly itching to get married again soon, so if you are ever interested in talking about what you can do to make your wedding fun, friendly for the earth and the people on it, inexpensive but beautiful, etc., let me know! :)