The Chatelaine's Keys

Sharon January 23rd, 2012

Well, somewhere in late December and early January I kind of petered out, I have to admit.  There was this viral thing, and then we had guests, and then I had four kids 4-1 for five days, and then a stomach thing, and then Eric went back to work.  But I’m doing better with it - here’s what I actually did:

1. I did empty out the pantry room and move things into the extra little kitchen or in our room.  Unfortunately, my room is still a mess.  That’s on tomorrow’s project list.  But we do have that guest room back, which is good, because the thermostat is in there, and during the coldest periods, keeping the door closed in there gets a little scary (also the furthest spot in the house from the stoves).

2. I sorted out some of the games and also cleaned out the game closet - I didn’t get rid of all the boxes, mostly because the kids were concerned they couldn’t see what games we actually have that way.  Still mulling over how to do it.

3. Got my stash of goods for sudden arrivals of foster kids somewhat depleted by the group of four, but this prompted me to do much more sorting and organizing and keep better lists of what I need and don’t need - I’ve now got enough girl clothes in most sizes that I can look for specifics when I go thrift shopping , which is useful, because now I know I need warm pajamas,  sweaters and leggings and bathing suits for girls and cloth diapers for babies, but not necesarily pants and t-shirts in most sizes.  Was able to get through five days with 4 kids without shopping for anything but diapers and formula - which is really good, since I had no time to do any of those things .  Sorted and reorganized the laundry room, put all the boys’ old clothes away in better-organized fashion.  Sorted out shoes (also often needed on the fly - kids almost always come in too-small shoes, because hey, shoes are expensive) and winter gear (same as shoes).

4. Did nothing with garage, but trained dogs to sleep in the house in cold weather.  Hey, you win some…

5. Reorganized the kids’ room - mostly.  They have mostly unorganized it by now .

I need to do a major kitchen reorganization next, and also my seed and gardening supplies.  That, and some infrastructure (electrician here now for rewiring that has needed doing for ummm….a long time, plumber coming soon for similar problem…), including better gates for the bottom of the stairs and the wood cookstove will just make life a lot easier.  I also am doing more cooking ahead and storing some kid-friendly meals so that when we suddenly go through the sharp learning curve of getting to know new kids, we don’t have to rush around cooking or order pizza.

How about you?  Did you get your projects done?  Got any new ones?

Sharon

• home
• Comments(10)

Sharon January 23rd, 2012

Thank you all for all the enthusiasm for bringing back the Independence Days Challenge - I’ll put up the details and new parameters for the start of February.  There’s been some good discussion of the merits of an “eat the food” category  and whether it was necessary - that’s a good and reasonable question, but recent news events happened to remind me why I want to put it in there.

We are back up to 1 billionish hungry people in the world, and 1/3 of all food goes to waste worldwide.  Now I’d like to say that none of it went to waste in my house - after all, I’ve been writing about food waste and food security issues for years, and I really have tried hard to ensure that everything gets eaten here.  It does - by someone.  But the best use of my lentil-kale soup is really feeding the people in my house, not the chickens, and embarassingly often, some human food gets fed to dogs, cats, rabbits or goats.

A summit of farmers and food policy experts in Germany makes the stakes clear:

Consumers in rich countries dispose of 220 million metric tons of food waste every year, equal to the entire food output of sub-Saharan Africa, Jose Graziano da Silva, the director general of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, told 64 agriculture ministers meeting in Berlin over the weekend.

“We must change our way of thinking, we must have more education, we must have discussion about best-before dates,” German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner said. “Every food item thrown away is wasted.”

One third of the food produced in the world every year is lost or wasted, amounting to 1.3 billion metric tons, according to Graziano da Silva. As many as 925 million people faced hunger worldwide in 2010, based on the FAO’s most recent estimate.

In rich nations in the global north, the majority of food is lost not in the fields, but somewhere after it begins the process of getting to your table - in shipping, processing, at the store and in our homes.  In the global south most food is lost in the fields, due to lack of adequate capacity to process it.  Food loss in the global south could be reduced by very small increases in available resources - large scale dryer to dry grain crops damaged by moisture, dehydrators and collective refrigeration.  In the north, most of the food loss is *ENABLED* by our fossil energies - it gets freezer burned and tossed in the deep freeze, it gets damaged by fluctuating temperatures during long haul trucking, it isn’t pretty enough to sit out under flourescent lights or it turns green the fridge.  We use vastly more energy in our food system, waste similar amounts of food, but only after we pour fossil energies into it.

What does this have to do with the “eat the food” category of the Independence Days challenge?  Someone once observed to me that they found it harder to eat the kale, or get the green beans before they got overripe, or make sure they cooked with the organic vegetables they were buying at the farmer’s market than they did shopping or growing them, and I don’t think this is a unique experience.  Ultimately, the problem of managing the food in our pantries and our gardens and everywhere else is a task that requires an attention that most of us haven’t given in the same way that we may have given our attention to the learning curve of actually starting seeds or cooking.  We don’t want to waste, we don’t intend to waste, but the art of making full and good use of everything is one that we have not treated as requiring the same attention and thought as the rest of the food project.  There will never be a fully waste-less society, and indeed, our livestock are grateful for a little extra - but a little is what they need.

One of m goals for re-starting the Independence Days project, then, is to be more artful in my use of food, taking full enjoyment from what we have and ensuring we don’t over buy, don’t miss the windows of opportunity for enjoyment, and that we make good meals from what we have - all of it, whenever possible

Sharon

• Independence Days Challenge
• Comments(11)

Sharon January 18th, 2012

Ok, folks, I’ve decided I seriously miss the Independence Days challenge - I really need that little kick in the pants to write down everything I accomplish on the homestead.  Am I the only one?  Anyone else want to see it back?

I’m debating expanding the categories a bit to cover non-food related sustainability activities, but I don’t want it to get too unwieldy - I’d welcome thoughts on how to do so, or what you’d like to see.

I’m also going to push the “challenge” part of this harder and publicize it more - after all, this is just plain fun stuff, right?

Thoughts?

Sharon

• Independence Days Challenge
• Comments(38)

Sharon January 12th, 2012

Day 5: Take all four kids to the doctor, and finally, by the end of the day, to reunite with Grandpa, who is taking them home to another state.  Pack from stash four days worth of clothing, diapers, formula, baby food, toys and games for children to take on 30 hour bus ride.  Repeatedly bless all the people friends, family and some blog readres who have helped me build said stash because, frankly, if I’d had to take eight kids shopping for clothes I’d be locked in the loony bin right now .

• humor
• Comments(12)