Homemade paper scrolls of The Gettysburg Address

Since becoming cubmaster of my son's cub scout pack, I have tried to find ways to reward the scouts for stepping up and doing things that perhaps other kids wouldn't do.   Recently we chartered a bus to Washington DC for the cub scouts and their families.  One of the activities I planned out for the scouts was to have scout volunteers read part of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial of course.  Each scout had to willingly accept the role of public speaking albeit I believe a few were pushed by their parents (which is good).  As a reward I made the scrolls you see below. 

I made the paper out of a cotton and linen blend similar to our paper currency, and to a few pieces I added in some cattail fiber.  I used the cotton and linen blend not only because it looks and feels cool, but also because paper was primarily made out of cotton and linen in the U.S. until around the 1880's when the paper industry started using more wood pulp.  This adds a touch of historical accuracy to the Gettysburg Address scroll that I made for the kids.  It also means that this paper should last quite a bit longer than your average newsprint or even office paper.  If these scrolls are taken care of, they should be around long into these kids' adult lives and possibly beyond. 

Finding a place willing to print on homemade paper was another challenge in itself.  My HP printer would not accept a 7.25" x 18" piece of paper, so I was forced to find alternate means.  I first tried Kinkos, to no avail.  I called a local printer....nothing.  Finally I stopped in a different local print shop with my paper, explained the project and what it was for.  The print shop owner hesitated, looked at my paper and agreed.  In the end he even gave me a really great deal.  So now I want to shamelessly promote Spahr-Evans Printers.  They did a great job.  Click on their link.

I hot glued 3/8" and 1/4" wooden dowels to the ends of the paper and used jute twine for the hanging as well as to tie the scroll together for giving to the scouts.  This is a really neat addition.   



Hope you like the project.  I made a couple of extra copies, and if I can force myself to part with them I may post them on Etsy. We'll see, because I have grown quite attached to them. 

Comments are always welcome.

Homemade Paper

This could be a lengthy blog post because there is so much information to pass along.  I could go on about the paper making process, but there are literally dozens of other websites that do a much better job than I ever could explaining how it is done.  Perhaps one day I’ll do a video, but for now I’ll just give my insights about an extremely cool hobby.   I’ll also post links to a few of the resources I used to get started.

I have made paper from a wide variety of resources.  There are two main categories of material used for paper; raw and previously processed.   This is pretty much the same as using either raw material or recycled material.  I’ll list them below:

Recycled material:

Old paper:  This is probably the easiest material to obtain and also the material easiest to work with while making paper since it takes very little additional effort to make old paper into handmade paper.   Most paper is made from wood pulp.  Wood pulp paper has a lot of draw backs such as short fiber length and poor fiber quality.  This in turn leads to a relatively short life span for wood pulp paper.   Look at old newspapers or books and you will see how brittle the pages are.  Paper made from linen or cotton will hold up for hundreds of years, wood pulp paper starts deteriorating after 10 years or so.   

Cotton cloth:  Using cotton rags to make paper is a very interesting way to recycle that old T-shirt that is still sitting in your closet from back in high school, or perhaps those holey denim jeans that you are hanging onto to wear after you lose weight.    

In order to reduce the fabric fiber into paper fiber, the fabric must be separated into individual fiber components. The traditional way to process fabric back to fiber suitable for paper was with a machine called a Hollander beater.  Basically the cloth is pulverized repeatedly until it has the consistency of paper mache. 

Hollander beaters cost upwards of $2,000 on the cheap side, so I had to find another way.  What else pulverizes anything that enters it?   A Vitamix blender!   This is worthy of its own blog post so once I have the post up - click here - to see the process and results.  The bottom line is that it works quite well.

Denim from Mackenson's blue jeans.  Nearly completely pulped on the left.

Linen Cloth:  I used linen rags acquired cheaply at a local thrift store.  The process is the same as for cotton

Silk:  I also found some inexpensive old silk clothing articles at the local thrift store. Once again I use the same process as for any other fabric.

Burlap/Sisal, Jute and Hemp fabric:   I haven’t tried these yet, but the process will be the same as other cloth. 

Raw fiber materials:  Pretty much any plant fiber can be used to make paper.  The trick is to find plants with long enough quality fiber to be able to extract it manually, chemically or mechanically without losing it.  There are hundreds of potential plants to use.  I list the ones I have used.  I’ll write another blog post describing the process, it is somewhat entailed. 

Iris leaves:  For those who grow iris plants you know that every year in the fall the outside leaves turn white or tan and die.  Have you ever noticed how thick and strong the leaves are?  This was the first material I used to make paper, and an excellent source of fiber.  It makes a dark tan to light brown paper if using dead iris leaves.

Cattail leaves:  I’ve heard of people using the cattail fluff as well.  It would be an interesting experiment to try.  This is the highest quality paper I have made.  It is very smooth, very strong and works in an ink-jet printer.

Morning Glory Vines:   This one did not work out as well as I had hoped.  Likely it didn’t work as well because I did not process it enough.  However, it still produced a paper that looked pretty cool and good for wrapping things (like x-mas presents) to give them a natural look.

Dogbane Hemp:   This is very similar to milkweed (see below).  Use the bast fiber (bark) of the dogbane hemp plant.  There are challenges when using bast fiber of broadleaf type plants over the leaf fiber of grasses (like Iris and cattail).  The main difference is that fiber yield is lower, and separating the bast from the stem is time consuming.  There is also considerably more foreign material left over after processing.  The benefits are that the fibers are MUCH stronger than the other fibers mentioned before.

Milkweed:  As far as paper is concerned, it is very similar to dogbane hemp. I used the bast fiber.   Any reason to use milkweed is a good reason. One of my goals is to one day grow at least some milkweed commercially for fiber purposes while helping the monarch butterfly.    As you may know the milkweed also has the silky material that is fluffy.  I have yet to try to turn this material into paper, but the day is coming.  Coincidentally, dogbane hemp also has silky material in it’s seed pods.

Birch Polypore mushroom:  We are mushroom fanatics, and I received a birch polypore mushroom from a co-worker.  I regularly get random mushrooms given to me by co-workers who know I enjoy collecting edible mushrooms.  Unfortunately the Birch Polypore is unpalatable (though technically not poisonous).  Thinking back to my biology 101 days, I got to thinking about fungi.  I found a couple of people who had turned other polypore mushrooms into paper, so gave it a go.  It is possible to turn a birch polypore into paper.  However, the fiber length is fairly short meaning the paper is more delicate than other papers I have made.   Also, the mushroom pulp is very sticky, and this makes the process of couching (see other post) more difficult.

A few other plants I plan on using:  Pineapple (as soon as I collect enough tops),  Hops vine, snow on the mountain (I have some collected), nettle, and  lilly leaves.  I’d also like to try a few other types of mushrooms.   

A list of resources that I used and got me started.

Wiki-How;  Gives the basics

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Paper

Mother Earth News:  Also fairly basic

http://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/making-paper-zmaz93djzraw.aspx

Video from epicfantasy:  This guy has a lot of really cool stuff and a neat haircut!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyr24PgpDDs

More advanced, but very useful for turning raw material into fiber

http://www.papermakingresources.com/pdf/BlenderTable.pdf

A quick google search will lead you to a lot of resources. 

The bottle lamp

More recycled / upcycled gear that we are making.   The latest is a lamp to be given to Mother-in Law for a birthday present.  We had already given her a Jameson tumbler for her er uh....medicine a couple of x-masses ago.  This lamp should compliment her collection.    I have wanted to try making bottle lamps for a while after getting the idea from a co-worker (Thanks Tony).    The trick is using a diamond bit designed specifically for glass to drill a hole at the bottom of the bottle.   I purchased a set of diamond bits on Amazon.com, and so far they are working well.   I used the Neiko Heavy Duty 5-Piece Diamond Dust Hole Saw with pretty good initial success.

Process: (Wear protective eyeware;  I wore a face shield).

1.  Fill bottle with water.  This helps prevent any chip-outs when the bit nears coming through to the inside of the bottle.

2.  Drill slow and steady at point on bottom of bottle where cord will enter.  I did this in the kitchen sink with a very small trickle of water flowing onto the cutting point of the glass. 

*  The first bottle I tried I broke because I applied far to much pressure on the bit.  But by letting the drill bit do the work, my next two bottles were successful.

3.  String wire /cord though the drilled hole to the top/neck of the bottle.

4.  Drill hole through bottle lid or cork.  I used regular multipurpose drill bits for this part.    Ultimately the hole diameter was 3/8", but to keep the cork/lid from being destroyed I used a series of progressively larger bits and worked up to the 3/8".  This was large enough for the lamp "pipe" to fit through the lid.

5.  Wiring and tightening the socket to (or through) the lid is fairly self-explanatory and intuitive.  

6.  I filled the hole at the bottom with a dab of silicone to hold the cord in place.  This is probably not necessary and the hole is smooth (no sharp edges), but it adds a little extra professional feel to the lamp.

I made two lamps.  The first lamp was made with a Westinghouse lamp kit purchased from Home Depot.  The second lamp I used the "guts" from a lamp Mackenson has broke some time ago.  Both with equally good results.  

Now to find some decent lampshades, and I think they will look pretty nice.

Upcycled glasses (a use for bud light platinum)

As many of you know we are firm believers in reusing everything possible.  About a year ago I got the idea of turning old bottles into drinking glasses.  It turns out I was not alone in this endeavor.   After watching a few you tube videos and some other google searching, I found several different methods for turning bottles into glasses.  Some methods were more practical than others.  My materials are simple and as follows:

A bottle
Butane micro torch
glass cutter (for scoring the glass)
my kids' cheapo potters wheel ( or another spinny thing - like a lazy susan spice rack)
My dremel for sanding down any sharp edges.

Step 1:  Determine where you want to cut on the bottle.   This will determine how tall your glass will be.  For smaller bottles  (12 oz) I usually aim for the upper most part of the bottle before it narrows for the neck.  For wine bottles I go for a comfortable size / grip.  For liquor bottles I go for style / looks.  How much of the Grey Goose design do I want left after I cut the top.

Step 2:  Mark the glass.  I normally use a sharpie.  While the bottle is spinning, I hold the sharpie in place to draw an even circle around the bottle.

Step 3:  Score the glass along the line you just drew with your glass cutter.  A light scratch will do just fine.  You only need to weaken the glass slightly.

Step 4:  While the glass is spinning, hold your (lit) butane micro-torch along the scored line.  The tip of the blue flame is the hottest and is fairly easy to hold in place.   After a couple of minutes you will hear and see the glass crack along the same plane as you were holding the flame.  It is truly amazing how even the break usually is.

Step 5:  Remove the top and use your dremel to sand of the inside and outside edge of the break.  I've used a stone attachment and a sand paper wheel attachment with fairly equal results.    When done the new surface will looked like frosted or brushed glass.  This is the lip of the new drinking glass, so make sure there are no rough or sharp edges.

Step 5 (alternate):   I have heard (and have seen on youtube) that you can also melt the top of the new surface with a propane torch.  I saw this on a video, but when I tried, I didn't get the same results.  My guess is that my propane torch did not heat the glass enough to smooth the edges.   However,  the result of this method, when successfully done, should produce a nice clean polished edge rather than the frosted look you get with the dremel.  I'm going to experiment with this more in the future.

 My kids love these glasses and try to snag one of these for themselves when they set the table.   Corona bottles as well as the IBC root beer or Sioux City Sarsaparilla bottles all look great when complete.  Bud Light Platinum may taste horrible, but the light blue bottles make a really cool tumbler glass.  My mother in-law has been using a Jameson converted glass for her.......medicine....since last Christmas.

We are opening up some of our glasses for sale on Etsy, and when they are posted I'll attach a link:
In the meantime take a look at some of the pictures of the bottles we have turned into part of our dinner setting.

These will be for sale on Etsy.  Click here for a link to Etsy.

That Grey Goose, Will get you loose.

What was a green wine bottle next to an IBC root beer bottle are now used at the table regularly.

   I want to give a huge shout out to all the folks in the office who have brought me their bottles over the past year.   Thanks to Gary, Michelle, John, and everyone else.

Cub Scout Awards

For those who didn't know, I accepted the position of cubmaster for a local cub scout troop last fall.   I would like to believe that I have made a significant positive contribution.  In reality, I know I have .  It is an extremely busy volunteer position, and one of the things I have attempted to do is give the scouts a little more recognition for their accomplishments.   I recently made these very basic plaques for three of our outstanding scouts.   These three went above and beyond during our annual fundraiser and left the other 40 or so scouts in the dust.  I am proud to say that my son was one of the three (actually he was #1).  Our pack does things a little differently than many packs do.  Instead of popcorn sales our scouts sell pot pies and frozen dinners made by a local outlet.   The scouts were tasked with selling a minimum of 20 pot pies / meals.  The three scouts I made the plaques for sold near or well over 100 pies (Mackenson sold 183).  I believe that recognition is one of the biggest motivators there is for people and especially for these young people.   I'm giving these out at our annual Blue and Gold Banquet later in February.  Needless to say I'm proud of my scouts.

EASTER EGGS VIA STRING AND SUGAR

There was an early art project I remember doing in about 3rd grade around Easter time.  Thanks to my excellent memory (but mostly google) we were able to recreate this project for our kids just in time for Easter.  Also, we try to make everything we do into a learning activity, so there are some science as well as art aspects to the project.

EASTER EGG MADE FROM STRING:

Materials needed:

Party balloons (in the shape of an egg)
String or yarn - a thinner yarn works better, but any should work.
Table sugar
Water

Directions:

1.  Inflate the balloons to the desired size and tie them off.  This will be the size of your future Easter egg.

2.  Wrap sting/yarn around the balloon, trying to keep the string as tight as possible.  To make it easier to get started you may want to tie the end of the string to the mouth of the balloon.  How much string you wrap around the balloon is up to you.  My daughter went a little overboard, but the result is still nice.

Note:  it is best to leave a little extra string tied off at the top of the balloon to serve as a way to hang it up while drying and eventual display.

3.  In a large mixing bowl mix 2 parts sugar to 1 part warm/hot water.  We used 2 cups sugar and 1 cup water (heated in the tea kettle).  This amount was nearly perfect for our three (3) eggs.

4.  Soak each wrapped balloon in the sugar solution making sure all of the string/yarn is moist to wet.

5.  Hang to let dry.  Remember that this will drip the sugary solution on whatever is below, so you may want to pre-place some newspaper or a towel or whatever below...THIS IS HOW WE GET ANTS.

 6.  Once dry, decorate however your child's mind wishes.  We plan on cutting a hole in the side and putting some Easter type flotsam inside the egg.   


LESSONS:

Science - chemistry:
Discuss how a solution is formed and what it is.
 -discuss how 2 cups of sugar can go into 1 cup of water and the result is not 3 cups of solution.  Right now we are keeping this concept very elementary.

Art: 
Creativity at it's best.

Tin Whistle; Sally Gardens and Rakes of Mallow

These are a couple of my favorite quick tunes.  Sally gardens was probably the first song I committed to memory.  Hope you enjoy.  As always, if you have any questions, comments or requests, let me know.

TIn Whistle - Morrison's Jig

Morrison's Jig is one of my favorite tunes on the whistle.  I think you can see why.  Still a few minor mistakes.....see if you can pick them out.  I hope you enjoy.  As always, if you have any questions, comments or requests let me know.

Last of the Mohicans on Tin Whistle

To follow up on my earlier tin whistle post(s).  Here is an arrangement of Last of the Mohicans.  I think it came out nicely, though in some ways I picture this is exactly how "Smeagle" would look playing it.  Hope you enjoy, and as always let me know if you have any questions, inquiries or requests.

The Irish Whistle

This is the sweetheart whistle made from african blackwood with amazing sound quality.

Whistles on the top and recorders on the bottom.

For those of you who don't know I have been playing the tin whistle for a few years now.  The whistle goes by several different names including the Irish Whistle, the Penny Whistle, the tin whistle and just the whistle in D.  All the names are synonymous.  I bought my first penny whistle when Sara and I visited Dublin in 2006.  The notes of the D penny whistle are quite similar to the recorder as well as the alto saxophone both of which I have some experience (albeit limited experience) playing.  I really did not play it very much until I was deployed to Iraq in 2011 and since then have practiced to the point where I consider myself proficient but not yet ready to take my musical ability on the road.  I have purchased several and made a few myself since my first purchase in Dublin in 2006.  Each has its own qualities and sound.  There are several keys of the whistle but all can be played the same.  Irish whistles range in price from a few dollars on up.  My most expensive (and my favorite) is made by a company in Connecticut called Sweetheart Flutes.  It is made from african blackwood and has an amazing sound quality.  I'll include some pictures as well as a video.  For anyone interested in picking up this instrument send me a message.
 

Happy Birthday! Cake in a Cast Iron Skillet

 As an expression of my love for my wonderful husband on his birthday I baked a cake for him.  I love him so much, it was a chocolate cake.  Baking a birthday cake from scratch is something we have done for each other since we were first married.  A custom Joe started, as he lovingly reminds me. 

This year I was cleaning up the breakfast dishes so the kitchen would be clean for cake baking.  Joe walked into the kitchen as I was scraping the cast iron skillet (we had scrambled eggs with veggies that morning).  He asked if I was going to bake a cake in the skillet.  I laughed, then realized he was serious.  A second later I was intrigued with the idea.  We love our cast iron skillet.  It is amazing!  We use it on the stove top for egg dishes, curried onions, sauteed vegetables, breakfast sausages, etc., and Joe uses it to bake cornbread in the oven.  Well, I thought, why not bake a cake in it.  I felt I had to know if I really could bake a cake in our cast iron skillet.

chocolate cake cooling in the skillet

I made the cake as usual, following the directions for devil's food cake in the Better Homes and Gardens Baking cookbook that is on our cookbook shelf (instead of all-purpose flour I used whole wheat pastry flour).  While I was beating the cake batter together I set the skillet in the oven as it preheated.  I put a pat of butter in the skillet to give the outside edges of the cake a crunchy texture.  After the minimum baking time a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake didn't come away clean...10 minutes more were needed for this particular recipe and pan.  When the cake was done (clean toothpick), the pan was cooled on the stove top for 10 minutes.  By holding a cooling rack on top of the skillet like a lid, then flipping the whole thing over, I was able to remove the cake from the skillet.  I should have cooled it a bit longer; a small piece in the center stuck.  It was easily removed with a spatula and replaced.  That was the extent of sticking in the pan.  After the cake cooled completely on the wire rack it was flipped onto a cake stand and frosted with peanut butter frosting.

removed from the skillet to a cake stand

Mackenson put the candles on the cake, we lit them and sang Happy Birthday!

So...how does a cake baked in a cast iron skillet taste?  Delicious!  It was chocolaty, soft, moist and with a bit more texture because of the whole wheat flour (that's a good thing).  I highly recommend baking your favorite cake recipe in a cast iron skillet. 

Next I think I'll try pie in the cast iron skillet...                 

Mr. Brown can Brew can You?

My primary fermentation
(6 gallon conical fermenter)

A 6 gallon glass carboy
used for secondary fermentation

I think everyone has the ability to brew a fine ale, even Dr. Seuss.  About two years ago I took up the hobby of home-brewing.  I had been interested for years but became inspired after meeting a coworker's husband who had been doing it for a while (Thanks Jason).  After “assisting” him with a batch I got the feel of it and tried my own.  In actuality, I sat around drinking beer while watching him scramble around the kitchen with his brewing equipment.  The process is incredibly simple and takes only a couple of hours of your time.  The initial investment into equipment can be as small as a 5 gallon bucket with lid, simple plastic tubing, a large kitchen pot and refillable bottles, though most people will quickly upgrade after starting.  There are hundreds of little things you can do to improve your brew along with a plethora of ingredient additives to make your brew unique.  There are different yeasts, grains, hop varieties and malt extracts that can be used in various combinations.  The possibilities are nearly limitless.  If however, you are slightly less adventurous, there are pre-made kits and recipes at nearly every homebrew supply store.  I normally work from a kit, though I do sometimes venture out on an experiment or two.

There are numerous websites and books about home brewing and rather than bore you with details, here is a link for the basics written far better than I ever could (see link).  Most brewing kits have step-by-step instructions and every home brew supply store that I have ever been to has always been helpful with any questions I have had.

I’ll include some pictures of my brewing equipment.  Stay tuned for reviews of my upcoming pumpkin brew That we just bottled.

Me bottling beer and reusing a Corona bottle

My capper. Works excellent.

Vitamix - Pecan Butter

Move over peanut butter!  I don't say that lightly; I love peanut butter.  Love, love it.  However, pecan butter made a recent arrival into my life and I now have a new object of culinary ardor.

I've made peanut butter and almond butter successfully.  I have a bag of pecans.  I also have a Vitamix blender (awesome, by the way).  Naturally, I made pecan butter.  There really was no getting out of it.

I didn't expect to be amazed by the outcome, but not only am I impressed with pecan butter, Joe loves it too.  Joe likes peanut butter, but not with the same vehemence that would drive me to eat it with a spoon from the jar.  Plus, Joe doesn't really like pecans.  There is something about pecans that makes him skip over them in a bowl of mixed nuts.  So when I announced that I had made pecan butter he shrugged and nonchalantly accepted the sample I held out to him.  He looked at me wide-eyed and said, "that's pecan butter?  Really?  It's amazing!".

If you want a truly amazing sandwich, pecan butter and pear jam on homemade bread is true bliss.


Pecan Butter:

3 cups pecans, unsalted

in the blender with a tamper

4 teaspoons olive oil

 Place oil and pecans in a food processor or blender.  If your blender has a tamper, use that.  Blend on high in short intervals to prevent the blender from overheating.  Blend until smooth.  Pecan butter is drier than peanut butter, adding oil will make it more spreadable.  Add the oil a little at a time to achieve the smoothness you desire.  The 4 teaspoons was great for me, I could have stopped at 3 and I would have been happy with that too.  How much oil you add will depend on how fine your blender processes the pecans as well.     

It may not look like much, but it's fantastic!

           

Woodturning Projects.

I purchased a small inexpensive wood lathe a few months back from Harbor Freight and started toying with it.  As it "turns" out wood turning is a quite enjoyable hobby.  I have spent hours on the lathe letting my creativity be my guide.  It is also relatively inexpensive.  So far I have made several canisters a few wooden toy tops, a bowl, a honey dipper, a spindle for a loom and a mug.  The best part is I have not paid for a single piece of wood.  All of the articles have been turned from tree branches and pieces of wood I have found along the side of the road or in brush piles.  All of my expenses have came from tools and the lathe.  I'll post a few pictures of what I have done so far as well as lessons learned.  I'm sure there will be more to follow.  Many of the pieces are not quite finished yet, and if you look close, you will see that the toy top on the left is split.  Nonetheless it is becoming a nice creative outlet and a hobby that I will continue.


Lessons:
#1  Wear eye protection and preferably full face protection:  I always follow this rule when wood-working but it is especially important when you are cutting into a piece of wood turning at up to 2400 RPMs.  Wood tends to splinter and sometimes doesn't appreciate staying on the lathe while you are gouging into it.  I have had entire projects come flying off of the lathe at high rates of speed not to mention splinters of wood.  After many hours I still have not seriously injured myself and will strive to keep it that way.

#2  Keep your tools sharp:  This is challenging for me as I have not quite mastered sharpening lathe tools on my bench grinder.  I just bought a finer stone and hope that works.

#3  Not all wood is created equal, especially green wood:  I have had wood from what I think is a hackberry be quite wet and heavy as well as quite difficult to cut into.  I have had wood that will develop cracks all the way through overnight completely ruining my hard work. I have had wood that the experts on-line say will crack and split, but seems to have completely dried out without doing so.

#4  There is a lot of sawdust:  This itself is not a problem.  The problem is that I tend to be completely covered in sawdust when I am at the lathe.  There is some minor discussion between the adults in the house when sawdust finds its way into the kitchen, living room or bed....
  

Grandma's Furniture part 2

During sanding pahse

If you read the first post about the furniture I inherited you knew that I had stripped, sanded, re-stained, and refinished a moderate sized dresser that I had inherited from my late grandmother. (see Grandma's Furniture)  It was part of a bedroom set that also included a full size bed as well as the following piece.

Door and Drawers after sanding

The second part of that bedroom set was finally completed last week and it also turned out quite well.  It is a smaller dresser of which I was repeatedly informed of its proper name - a "commode".  I was quite confused to this terminology, as I had always thought of a "commode" as a fancy french word for toilet.  It turns out it is a little of both.  According to definition a commode is a piece of 18th-19th century bedroom furniture where the chamber pot was kept. (see wikipedia reference)  Evidently out of sight out of mind and as long as one had some rosemary to cover the smell....no harm no foul.  However, we will probably not use it as a "commode" since we have a full bath adjoining the bedroom.  So from this point on it will be officially known as a small dresser.  At any rate, it is a very nice family heirloom as well as a once again beautiful piece of oak furniture.  Thanks grandma.

The finished "commode" now proudly sits in our bedroom.

Chestnuts gathered under an open briar

The chestnut tree

The spiny shell or fruit around the actual nut
looks like a hedgehog.

It turns out that there are two chestnut trees on the grounds where I work.  Recently I collected over 3 pounds of chestnuts in a matter of 15-20 minutes.  It was a nice day and I went for an after lunch walk as I sometimes do.  This gets me away from my cubicle and allows me to have a little fresh air.  I normally scrounge the grounds for potential forage from the numerous fruit and nut trees as well as mushrooms etc.  Normally I leave empty handed, but today I checked out the chestnut trees that I have been keeping an eye on.  There was a little older lady collecting fallen chestnuts when I arrived.  I talked with her a bit asked her name and where she was from.  It happens she is of Chinese descent but was born in Vietnam.  She was struggling to knock some of the prickly fruit from the lower branches.  It turns out we quickly developed a mutually beneficial relationship.  I was able to reach a few of the taller branches, grab a hold, and then shake many of the nut casing down to the ground, and she was able to explain to me the best way to prepare, store and collect them.  For those of you who have never seen the fruit on the outside of a chestnut I will describe it as looking like a green hedgehog or sea urchin.  There are an extremely large number of good sized sharp spikes conformed into a ball.  It is nearly impossible to pick it up with your bare hand unless you are willing to accept quite a large amount of pain.  The actual chestnuts are inside of this fruit.  The easiest way to extract them is to break the fruit apart with the sole of your boot exposing the inside.  The inside is smooth and once the outside is broken open the nuts are easily extracted.  This work provided me with an opportunity to talk with my new foraging partner who works in the neighboring building.  She told me that boiling them for 15 minutes will cook them and make them edible.  If I store them, keep them dry, but there will be more "skin" when I do cook them.  I assume this means that the husks or shells will get harder but am unsure.  I am not sure about what to exactly do with them yet, except maybe roast them.....on on open fire?  I can not wait to try them.

WARNING the chestnuts in the pictures are chinkapin or chinquapin chestnuts and should not be confused with the horse chestnut or buckeye, both of which are toxic.  This Asian chestnut is edible as is the American Chestnut that was once found in the Eastern US before the turn of the century.  The buckeye and the horse chestnut look different in regards to the fruit surrounding the nut as well as the leaf structure of the trees.  As with all wild food do not consume it unless you are 100% sure of what you are eating.    

Things people throw away

We often find it simply amazing at the things people throw away.  Much of the furniture in our house has been rummaged from a garage sale or simply found along the side of the street awaiting the garbage man.  This piece is the newest acquisition.  We initially passed this beautiful piece along a busy road after visiting a friend in a nearby neighborhood.  We drove right on by it after one adult insisting to stop and look while the other insisted that we need to get home so the kids can get ready for bed.  The other seemingly more responsible adult won the coin toss and we continued on home.  Of course the first adult wound up driving back to take a look while the kids got ready for bed only to find an amazing 6 drawer chest with intricate hand painted oriental design on the veneer front.  The entire piece was solid veneered lumber – no MDF.  The only problem was that the first adult was now alone with a 100 pound piece of bulky furniture and his 2005 jeep liberty with the back seats already flattened out to make room.  How does one get this item into the vehicle by himself without scratching and ruining it?  The solution is quite simple; I had a piece of paper with Abraham Lincoln’s picture on it.  A passerby was more than happy to exchange 5 minutes of muscle power for this portrait of our 16^th POTUS.  This young man was quite silent and I believe English deficient, but through the art of communication (facilitated by Mr. Lincoln) the dresser was loaded without a problem.  It now sits in our bedroom and has replaced our previous one that has been demoted to board game organizer in the game room.

Compost is for the worms

As most of you know we are avid gardeners.  However, we move locations every two or three years.  It seems to be every time we get a garden almost to where we like it, it is time to move on.  However, one thing we are sure of, we leave our properties with much more fertile soil than when we moved onto them. 

Notice the layers.  The dirt at the bottom is nearly top grade compost, while the raw material on top is all of ourrecent additions.

About 1/2 emptied out.

After a little over a year of composting we have a nice little pile of grade-A dirt to show for it.  Most of the compost gurus state that you need to turn and aerate your compost every 4-6 weeks and carefully monitor it to have a precise ratio of green and brown inputs.  This precision would be great if I had ambition and patience to do such things.  However, I do not have that kind of patience.  What I have done is collect the best composting components I can find.  I have been collecting coffee grounds from the cafeteria and 3 different coffee stations at my office for over a year.  I have also been collecting egg shells,banana peels and apple cores from coworkers who probably think I am off my rocker.  Last fall we collected enough fallen leaves to fill up our rather large bin twice.  This combined with our kitchen scraps and some biochar (more on this later) have led to quite a haul of quality compost.  Despite lack of aeration, our compost pile seems to do its thing quite quickly.  If we fill up our bin to overfull status until it heaped over the top with dried leaves, weeds and coffee grounds; within a week it will down nearly a foot.  This indicates that the raw inputs are composting quite quickly.  Though admittedly, some of it may simply be packing down as well.  On 29 SEP I emptied out the finished component (and mostly finished component) from the bin.  To my amazement we had an extremely large population of earthworms helping out the process.  If you read our previous post "We have worms" you know that we also maintain a small worm bin for vermicomposting.  This past spring I seeded the compost bin with a handful of red wigglers.  From the looks of it, the initial population has increased by 10 fold or more since their introduction into the compost bin.  Earthworms are amazing at converting raw vegetable matter into dirt and are probably a large part of the reason we don't have to work too hard at getting our compost perfect....the worms are doing it for us.  So there you have it a complete post about dirt.  I hope you enjoy.

The final result with the finished and nearly finished compost in the pile.  Inside the bin the compost was quite compacted.  After removing it and putting it into a pile it is quite light and "airy" which gives the impression that more came out than was ever in.

Mmm...Cabbage!

For his second batch of saurkraut, Joe chopped red cabbages this morning.  Two heads of cabbage were enough to fill a two gallon pail.  Joe added whey leftover from strained homemade yogurt and some salt.  At the sound of a knife hitting a cutting board coming from the kitchen, Ferris and Anabaena ran in to inspect.  They sometimes find treats when we make that sound.  Thinking Ferris wouldn't like it, Joe gave a piece of cabbage to him.  Ferris ran to other room where he always takes his "treasures" to enjoy.  It turns out that our dogs both like cabbage.  Who knew?