DIY Freegan Garden Bench Made from Pallets

Look at what my man built for me :)

He made the whole thing from pallets that we found in town.
I need to get more soil and pot the rest of the starts. I have zukes and tomatoes and eggplants that need permanent homes.

Now all the plants are up off the floor and that big white cat has a place to sit and watch the birds. See him there? He loves to watch the birds. He flattens out like a rug and thumps his tail back and forth, thump, thump, thump. I know cats are obligate carnivores but I'm not going to let him terrorize the neighborhood birds and most likely kill them when there is no need for that. I am glad there is a screen so he and can watch them all day in safety. Safety for him, too. I see plenty dead cats on the road and I don't want him to be one. He stays inside. MIL got him some fresh live catnip in a little pot. You can see it in the lower left. He chewed on it but he chews the onions, lettuce and the lily too, and I didn't see him get blissed out in any way so I don't think he's much of a nipper.

Sunday night. I should be on the mat and I will be later but I just had to post the photo of the wonderful garden bench that my man made for me out of pallets that we found. That means it was FREE!

Oh, and I got a jump rope. mmm, more exercise!

OOh, thunderstorm!!!

Cherries!

Today's Juice was 1 strawberry, six small carrots, 9 ribs celery















I swept all the leaves from the front steps














Our front porch is peaceful.


Mickey Kitty was watching.















The owner of this house came yesterday (while I was folding sox) and turned on the sprinkler system for the yard. It made the screened in porch like a swamp cooler.
















The plants were loving it and so was the cat. And me. But it made the trampoline wet. Boo.


Now, if you will excuse me I am going to eat these cherries














The dryer is broken. It's a belt. I think the man is going to try to repair it so today my project is to clean out the laundry room. Yay!

Have a Happy Monday. I am going to go hit the mat for a while. Namaste!

Obituary

Minnie the cat died last night, 4/26/2009. Her age is estimated at 6 years.
She was originally from Eagle Point, Oregon. Her current family adopted her in February 2009.
She passed on peacefully last night in her home at 7 pm with her companion, JJ, by her side, trying to make her transition to the next plane as comfortable as possible.
She will be buried later today with a small funeral in Klamath Falls, Or, attended by her adopted family and close friends.

Supreme!

It's a happy Saturday morning. My kitchen is a disaster and I need to go food shopping but for now I present to you the...

Acme Supreme Juicerator













I have a juicer. Yay. No more blender juicing.





I found this at goodwill. I don't know how much it cost. It was at the As-Is store and they just look at your pile and give you a number. I got out for $13 with the juicerator, a full body massage pad, the kind you lay on, and a bunch of other junk.
















I managed to keep it raw all day except a sampling of the melon jelly on some toast. the man's father came over last night, Dil. He is eating all raw too, so I was able to feed him and it was nice to have someone raw around. The guys ate leftovers, there was plenty of falafel and quinoa left from last night.
Red leaf lettuce made a great wrapper for some raw tahini, tomato, cucumber, sauerkraut and raw vegan sprinkle.

Wrap, eat, repeat!













I got my herb garden planted, all the starts are in.
Sage, basil, chives, parsley.














All my starts are in pots now. Rainbow blend cherry tomatoes and yellow & green squash. I'm waiting for the bumper crop. I put them out on the screened in porch, my garden porch.














It's not much but it's my first attempt at growing anything edible aside from sprouts and I am hopeful.

There is mint and other edibles growing out in the yard, I think I will forage today when it gets a little warmer outside. The other day I made a smoothie from the meat and juice of one young coconut, banana, red lettuce and mint I picked from the yard. It was fantastic.

This thing



















Sorry for the blurry photo. It's a shower caddy shaped like a cat. I think I paid more for this than the juicer and massage mat combined. But, my man had to have it and what Baby wants, Baby gets :) Anyway, you can see, there is no shampoo in there. There is a bottle of oil, a bottle of homemade shampoo/body wash, a bar of E3Live soap, a scrubby mitt, a comb and a brush with pumice stone. Why we needed a bigger shower caddy that, I don't know, but it is a cat and that's pretty cool.

Minnie is doing just fine. She ate a little more than a teaspoon of food and took her pill and now she is sleeping under the bed. I was holding her on my lap after the pill giving, petting her and telling her how wonderful she is and she climbed up and sat on my shoulder. AWWWW!! She stayed there for a couple of minutes and then went under the bed for her mid morning nap.

Oh, I was just reminded of what else we bought yesterday. A microphone. It plugs into the amp and makes your voice very loud. The boy is beat boxing on it right now. We need a drumset and the drive and we could start our own band. Talent is optional, right?

I had a dream about making raw beer. I will wait and see how the batch I put up the other day comes out and I think the next one I will try to make raw. We'll see.

A long ramble about a bunch of different things

Mickey loves the new screened in porch he can play outside and still be safe.














Did I tell you that I am making beer? I am. I got some hops on sale at Nightfire, boiled them up added some nutritional yeast and a couple of tbs of sugar and put it in an old wine bottle with the cap loose. That was a few days ago. I'm not sure when it will be ready but I will let you know.

2 liters to freedom














I have been trying to get photos of my hair for the No Poo entry but I can't get them by myself, no timer on my camera. I keep forgetting to ask the man to take some.

my ugly mug with freshly rinsed hair. No 'poo since Aug 2008













wow, there is a lot of grey in there.

Me in a pretty dress.





I got this at Community Thrift in San Francisco last year. It's a size 20 which fit me perfectly when I bought it. It has a tie so I can make it tight at the waist and it has a lot of skirt. I will shorten up the straps and it then the bust will fit perfectly. I don't know what dress size I wear now but a junior 13 pants fits me perfect at this point. Sometimes a 10 will fit but it's snug. I wore a size 20 and was considering a size 22 this time last year.






I got up this morning, did 30 minutes of yoga, stretching mostly and some balance poses. Then I blended the seeds and strings of the melon that the boy ate last night. I blended it with some water, seeds and all and then strained it. Poured it in a glass and drank it up. Cantaloupe is such a treat. Creamy and yummy, but I have to take melon all alone or not at all. I get serious gastrointestinal difficulties if I try to eat melon with anything.

it's the seeds I'm after













Last night I made jelly with some of the melon. Just a half a mason jar full. I boiled the melon with water, sugar and some agar flakes, reduced it by about a half, until it started to get that melted candy feeling. I don't know how to describe it. Then I poured that in a clean mason jar, let it cool on the counter and then put it in the fridge. It's jelled up real good. It should be eaten soon, I don't know how long it will keep.

I got new rubber boots. Big black ones like Christopher Robin. Mine are the same breand as those but only $12 at Ross. Totally Ross-some!!
I wore them to the bus stop every day this week. We have been bringing the umbrella every day but only used it on Monday. Tues, Weds and Thurs, it has only started pouring after it warms up a little. Just like I remember when I was a kid, it would start to pour as soon as I got to school.

It's definitely spring, even if it was snowing this morning.

















Minnie is doing much better.














I got the pills down her real easy, two at a time, she didn't fight at all. Then just held her for about 30 minutes. She laid in my arms purring while I tried to think healing thoughts. Then I brushed her and petted her for a while. She doesn't clean herself anymore so she has some matting. I try to brush her out every day but those mattes sneak in. She also played with her toy, a couple of twisty ties. My cats love them. If there is a twisty on the floor, look out, claws will be flying.
I gave her 1 tbs of the new Vet food and she ate














This much. Maybe half.














I am going to leave the rest out for her, she might eat later. I left some out last night and she ate it. Around 4AM I heard licking. I thought, who is licking what? Then I remembered, Minnie! She's eating! I turned on the light which made the man scream AAAHH! but Minnie kept eating and I turned the light back off. Yay for nocturnal feeding patterns!
I'm still waiting for poop. The kittehs, that is. I don't want to think about it too much. It's sort of dread and anticipation all at the same time. I'm just really glad that she is eating and playing. She is still very yellow. I can't believe I didn't notice it until Vet pointed it out. She's bright yellow.


In other news, Victoria's Secret sent me an online coupon for $20. So I bought 5/$25 panties. That's $5 for 5 pair of Victoria's Secret Pink® Cotton Hipsters in various colors. Woot, I say. Woot! Ahem. Ok, sorry. I also got two Body by Victoria® racerback bras, with Infintiy Edge, they were on sale 2/$40. None of my old bras fit anymore. I literally swim in them. It's like church bells in my shirt. I've been wearing sports bras that I bought at the goodwill. But now, I will have bras.
I can go without shampoo, but I am still heavily addicted to Victoria's Secret racerback bras. Hey, I quit coffee 2008, heroin 2001, cigarettes May 2008, almost a year! AND lip balm!

That's right. I have been without lip balm since I don't even know when. December, I think. It's nice. It was the last cosmetic to go. Now it's just oil. Coconut, olive and jojoba.
Sometimes my shins get ashy and I like to grease up my face, neck and chest once in a while. I like to rub coconut oil on my stretch marks. It makes me feel all tropical.
I use some olive oil that is scented with orange oil in the shower and sometimes on my hair, but thats it. Oh, I still use toothpaste and on special occasions I will use some Tom's of Maine calendula scent deodorant. Roll on or stick, I have both. Both have propolyne glycol and I try to use them as little as possible.
I guess I'm lucky, the man doesn't use deodorant or cologne of any kind. I made him some shampoo/body wash out of castile soap, witch hazel, jojoba oil, a tsp of salt and rosemary oil and now he smells wonderful all the time. He was using a shampoo with a heavy perfume before. I am slightly allergic to perfume. It gives me a headache, feels like my throat is closing, sometimes I will start coughing or sneezing. It's hard to go out in public sometimes because of people's perfumes. I can't go to the boys karate dojo because of the air freshener they use.

Ok, I am done rambling, loading photos and editing. I have to get some tomato plants repotted and I don't think its going to get any sunnier than it is, which isn't very. I'm glad it's not raining.

Thanks everyone for your lovely comments, they mean a lot to me. Have a happy, healthy Friday, one and all!

Minnie is a Sick Kitty

Minnie in the Crate on the way to Vet















Ok, I knew she wasn't eating. I knew she didn't feel good. I thought it might be transition anxiety. But she lost a bunch of weight in the past week so yesterday we took her to the vet.

Here she is curled up on the bed this morning. She has been hiding in the closet. This is the first time in a while that she has come out and slept on the bed.
















Pocket Kitty
















From the vet:














Baytril is the antibiotic and prednisolone is the steroids. I told Mickey he better look out, Minnie might get "Roid Rage" and kick his butt, hehe.

He didn't seem too worried.















Liver disease is the prelim diagnosis. She is jaundiced. Yellow ears and eyes. I didn't even notice until Vet pointed it out to me. Vet said she is probably older than five years. But I don't know. She weighs 5.47 lbs.















That is not enough for a cat. When she got here, she weighed 8lbs. That is a small cat. 5.47 is a pocket cat.


They took blood and gave her a subcutaneous fluid injection to help with the dehydration. She drinks. I see her drink.

Anyway, the trip to the vet's was nice, she went right into the crate, was nice for Vet, no scratch or hiss. A very compliant cat. Probably because she is weak and sick.

Vet says prognosis is very poor. The cat will probably die in a few months. She is alert, responsive and still uses the cat box so she's not really suffering except maybe nauseous, tired, tummy ache, I guess. If she starts to become listless and not responsive we will take her in to be put down. The boy was asking what we were gonna do for the funeral. I told him not to start planning yet, she could fool us all and live for another 10 years, you never know.

Vet prescribed antibiotics in case it is an infection and steroids, I don't remember why but it might be something that steroids will help.

She asked if we could give her the sub Q fluids but I don't want to stick a needle in a cat, I really don't. We will bring her in once a week, it's about 25 bucks for a water fix in this town. She does drink water, though. Drinks and pees. Just no poo.

When we got home, I gave her pills. It wasn't hard. She didn't fight it much and once I got a hold of her right they went. After the first pill the second went down real easy and this morning, two pills no problem. I think I may do two pills at the same time so I only have to open her mouth once. Twice a day.

After the pills she actually showed signs of feeling better. She came out of the room for and was exploring in the living room and kitchen which she hasn't done since February. And then after we had dinner I brought her some canned food, fancy feast, and she ate it!















She ate almost a tablespoon of the stinky stuff! I haven't seen her eat that much in a while. I had been feeding her by putting food on her lips and nose and she would lick it off but it was hard to get more than a teaspoon in her in about ten minutes. Anyway, she ate. then she drank some water and then she peed. I am hoping she will eat more and maybe poop, even!
Vet said everything felt normal, there were no masses. She sold us two cans of wet food at a buck fifty each, comparable to fancy feast, that is mostly meat, I read the ingredients, no fillers. I will try to get her to eat the rest of the fancy feast which is mostly meat also, but less vitamins on the label, and then start on the vet food. The vet food is pork and the fancy feast is chicken. I think chicken is closer to what a cat would naturally eat, but whatever. I just want the cat to eat, I don't care.

I am hopeful for her and grateful to have her in my house. She's a beautiful, loving cat and when she goes, like we all do eventually, I will miss her very much. Until then I will give her the best home I possibly can and keep her as comfortable as possible.

Photos without Explanations

Cat Photos For Your Amusement and Vegan French Toast Teaser

Try not to notice the dog (Wicket W. Warrick) in the back, there












It snowed all day yesterday and some today.

blah.

Mickey looking regal. Or at least superior to the dog.















Far away Minnie Cat















Up close Minnie cat














Today I am cleaning floors and washing area rugs with my home made laundry soap.

Tonight for dinner we will be having Vegan French Toast, McDougall Style-ee

Peace, Yo.

Raw Fermented Tomato Ketchup :OR: Catsup Recipe/Experiment :: Fermented Condiment Chronicles

Ketchup or Catsup? I don't care. The giant white cat doesn't care, either. But he does eat chickpeas!

hehe.
:)

I have been wanting to make more prepared condiments. I don't like commercially prepared ones, they are all full of chemicals and HCFS, are cooked to death, etc. I just like having them and I enjoy making things. Especially fermented things.

They are delicious and there is always that chance that they could go bad and give me botulism.*

Live on the edge, that's my motto!

As you know, I make my own sauerkraut. I love that stuff. So easy, so delicious, so nutritious, crunchy and tangy. mm mm. I put it on everything, soup, salad, sandwich, wraps, a fork...

I go through approximately two jars a week which translates into about a medium sized head of cabbage and a tbs of salt. With cabbage at 49c/lb, it's pretty darned economical, too.

I have been looking for a ketchup recipe. There are lots of raw ones. Basically, tomatoes , sweetener of some kind, salt, vinegar. Boo. I want to ferment my own with no sugar. There are plenty of fermented recipes, too. They all call for canned or cooked tomatoes. Boo x 2.

Today I was searching again for a recipe and all of a sudden it dawned on me. Why not take a couple of roma tomatoes and some salt and put it in a jar and wait a couple of days and see what I get? Why not?
I didn't take photos of the making process.

I did get a photo of my measuring spoons.
















Recipe:

2 roma tomatoes
2 tsp sea salt
half clove of garlic
put them in the blender and liquefy.
Put in a CLEAN glass jar with the lid on loose. Leave at least an inch at the top so there is room for it to... well, to swell.














That is where I am now. I will wait three days and then check it to see if it made ketchup (or catsup, I don't care).

I will let you know!

Footnotes:
* actually, the acidity of fermented foods keeps bad bacteria from growing. If a you are trying to ferment food and it goes bad, you will KNOW it. It looks funny, smells funny, has a funny texture. Toss it out if it looks even slightly off, it's not worth it.
Do some research, I am not responsible if you poison yourself. Cheers!

I found her

She is in the closet next to a mouse hole.












oooh, i hope she catches one....

There are many different Cat Diets. Dammit.

No, not a diet of all cats. What am I gonna feed these cats. They are eating the kibble they came with right now but I want to get them on a more wholefood diet.

As is the case with people doctors, animal doctors get very little training in nutrition. Most of what they learn they learn from cat food company reps. Even IAMS and Science Diet are crap. I cannot with a clean conscience feed my new babies grain fillers and animal digest.

So, the search begins. First there are plenty of cooked recipes I could make at home. Rice or oats, ground beef or chicken,* liver or heart, (eeewww), vegetable oil and iodized salt. I could do that. Make a weeks worth and freeze it. Simple.
Then there is the BARF diet which is raw food, including meat, bones, eggs, greens and fruit.
And then there is Raw Meaty Bones.

And it's making my head spin.

Big White is out and walking around. Little Black is hiding somewhere. BW likes to sleep in the cupboard under the sink in the laundry room bathroom. I figured that out when I heard the door open and shut and he wandered out of te bathroom. Sneaky, he thinks. So I moved all the chemical cleaners that I never use and put the blanket that came in his carrier in the cupboard.

LB, I don't know where she is. We were told that the BW was shy and would probably hide for a week and that LB was the more outgoing and would be all over us. Not that the exact opposite is true, but it's not like I expected it at all. I woke up last night and LB was sleeping next to my bed, on top of my sweatshirt. BW has come back to the bedroom but he just stuck his head in hissed and left. Ok. lol.
I thought they were supposed to be housemates, been together all their lives, etc but they don't seem to like each other at all. Maybe it's some sort of alpha/beta pack behavior, I don't know. I hope all out cat fighting doesn't break out. It's a big house, they could both live the rest of their lives here and practically never see each other if they wanted it that way.
I now have a litter box in two bathrooms and food and water at both ends of the house. I suppose we will all evolve into a daily routine eventually. Sigh.

Footnotes:

*I know, but cats really are obligate carnivores. I hope to eventually get them on a mostly vegan diet but for now, they will be eating animals. I wonder where one would purchases ground mouse...?

Cats Day Two :: Reusing Juice Pulp Recipe Garlic Ginger Powdered Seasoning

Big white came out from behind the dryer and was hanging out for a while. Nice cat. I petted him and brushed his long white fur.* Little black was under the bed, crawled in a hole in the box spring. Big white decided this might be a nice place, too. Then the hissing and growling started. The man pulled the bed apart (nicely. no growling kittehs were harmed) and removed the torn cover from the bottom of the box springs. Problem eliminated. Bed put back together, kittehs disappeared

A couple hours later they were spotted in the living room, Big white got up in the built-in shelf and Little black is behind a folding chair. The boy found Little first and while I was looking at her in her pretty much invisible folding chair I saw Big up on the shelf, blending in with the white wall. Camo. He was pretty much doing it right.

I had vege juice for breakfast, celery, kale, ginger and garlic, my favorite.

I had a garlic ginger juice the other day and I dehydrated the pulp from that. I crumbled it up and put it in a jar and I have been using it as a seasoning. I got this Great Idea for juice pulp usage from Mil.

Footnotes
*We were warned that he didn't like belly rub action, but he kept rolling over on his back, like, "rub me, rub me!" At first I thought it might be a trap but I tried it. I did it lightly and he didn't object.

Photos of Cats

Big white cat does not approve. Will stay in laundry room until conditions improve.














Smaller black and white cat is cool if it's just you in the room. The boys are very loud and obnoxious and make her long for the hole in the bottom of your box spring















Baby girl hid in the back bedroom and Big white is still holed up in the laundry, but not behind the dryer.

Both have access to food, water and litter.
This is better than I thought they would do on day one.

Yay. I have two kitties.