Apologies for the extended hiatus.  We had our fair share of Internet problems in the beginning of this blog, then we had the last of our faithful laptops bite the dust (thankfully we were able to resurrect them both with the help of a friend,) and now we're back to Internet problems again.  This post is coming to you courtesy of the Old Colorado City Library and their free wifi.  There are a couple of Internet cafes within walking distance of the hippie headquarters, so hopefully we'll be able to get back to posting on a regular basis. 

In the last few months, aside from all the technology problems, we've: -made two trips to our hometown in Illinois,
-made plans and preparations to become farmers market vendors next season,
-checked out approximately 30 books from the library about canning, homesteading, and otherforms of hippie-ness,
-canned jams, chutneys, pickles, fruit butters, and sliced fruit,
-experimented with cooking (including grilling pizza!)
-and lots of other things that we can't even remember.
The hippie baby is almost crawling, she's sitting up and uses the word "mama" in context, Jeff dropped almost 40 lbs, and I managed to exist on very little sleep. (Wow, that makes my summer sound pathetic in comparison.)

But, as you can see, we've been busy. 

As it is the last day of summer, I thought it'd be an appropriate time to evaluate our summer goals and see how we did:

Begin making our own butter.  We did this, successfully. We weren't getting cream reliably, though, from our farmers, so it's not something we can always do.  However, it was the best butter I've ever had. 

Begin making our own mayonnaise. (And have it turn out!)  We  didn't get to this one.  We were gifted a large food processor, though I haven't really checked it out yet.  If it has a drippy-thing (technical term) on the top to allow only  one drip of oil through at a time, the DIY mayo could become a reality sooner rather than later.

Begin making our own (flavored) yogurt. I did this a few times.  The only flavor I made was vanilla, but that's generally the flavor I buy anyhow.  I didn't get to any fruit flavors, mostly due the expense of buying the fruit.

Make baby food for future use.  Close enough.  We're not going the traditional puree route, so we have plenty of vegetables frozen and fruits canned that we'll be feeding Charlotte if she ever gets any teeth. :)

Make ice cream (Perhaps make it a summer tradition?) This one didn't happen either.  We don't have an ice cream maker, and the ice-cream apparatus for the Kitchen Aid mixer is on our wishlist, but it wasn't a priority. 

Make cheese.  Have fresh mozzarella-making perfected in time for tomato harvest.  Another no.  And I'm quite sad about this one.  It mostly just comes down to not buying the rennet (it's online only).  But it's on the list again for the fall.  Because fresh mozzerella on pizza sounds fantastic.
Can sauces and produce. (We usually just freeze these things.) This one is a yes.  Soon I'll post a picture of our cabinet filled with canned fruits, pickles and sauces.  It makes me feel accomplished every time I see it.

Freeze sliced fruits (so we don't have an all-winter fruit fast.) Another yes.  And, we have 16 lbs of peaches that we bought less than an hour ago that are awaiting this.  That'll be the project for the evening.

Eat foods grown within state for 2 meals a day, 6 days a week. (Eat foods grown within yard whenever possible.) We haven't been able to harvest a whole lot out of our garden yet, aside from herbs and a couple of peppers.  We are expecting an absolute bumper crop of carrots, though.  While Jeff was losing that 40 lbs I mentioned earlier, he was on a very strict regimen that required him to eat things that we couldn't always get locally (like apples in July.)  But we did this as often as we could, which was more often than not.

Host a party serving only local fare. We haven't done this yet, but are contemplating throwing a party some time in October since this is the best time of year for Colorado food.

Spend at least 30 minutes outside, every day. This one we managed pretty well.  Even today, which has been gray, gloomy and chilly, we spent 30 minutes outside (in the rain, even) at the farmers market. And we walked our neighborhood about 5 nights a week, on average for at least an hour all summer long.

Recycle and compost more than we throw out. (This one's cheating.  We already do this.  But I guess it's a goal to continue doing it.) Yep.

Stop swearing.  (Okay, I know this has nothing to do with being homemade or being a hippie, but with the hippie baby learning to pick up language, it's something I really want to work on.) Well...you can't win 'em all.

Look for a list of our goals for autumn tomorrow.  Now I just have to come up with the goals. (And then manage to get somewhere with Internet to post them.)

 

In honor of the longest day of the year, aka the first day of summer, I present a list of goals for the season:

• Begin making our own butter.
• Begin making our own mayonnaise. (And have it turn out!)
• Begin making our own (flavored) yogurt.
  
• Make baby food for future use.
• Make ice cream (Perhaps make it a summer tradition?)
• Make cheese.  Have fresh mozzarella-making perfected in time for tomato harvest.
  
• Can sauces and produce. (We usually just freeze these things.)
• Freeze sliced fruits (so we don't have an all-winter fruit fast.)
• Eat foods grown within state for 2 meals a day, 6 days a week. (Eat foods grown within yard whenever possible.)
• Host a party serving only local fare.
• Spend at least 30 minutes outside, every day.
• Recycle and compost more than we throw out. (This one's cheating.  We already do this.  But I guess it's a goal to continue doing it.)
• Stop swearing.  (Okay, I know this has nothing to do with being homemade or being a hippie, but with the hippie baby learning to pick up language, it's something I really want to work on.)

I plan to re-evaluate this list on the last day of summer to see how we did, and make a new list of goals for autumn.
-Anna



(Photo taken on our Hawaiian vacation in Spring 2009.)

We have lived with just one car for almost 3 years now.  To our international readers, this may not sound like anything much, you might even be thinking of it as luxurious to own a car.  To everyone in America, your response is likely more along the lines of "You only have one car? How do you survive?!"

When we moved to Colorado in 2007, we only came with one car.  Our other one likely wouldn't have made it the 1000 miles.  The plan was to buy a second car when we could afford it.  But then our Jeep started to go, and so we needed a new car, and had no money for a second car.  I wasn't working at the time, and it was really no big deal to manage one car between the two of us.  I started working not long after, but we found that it wasn't much harder to manage one car with both of us working.  So we just kept doing it, and are coming up on 3 years.  I'm at home, again, which makes it both easier and harder, but we make it work.  We thought having Charlotte would complicate the one-car-thing further, but it really hasn't.

We get a lot of "Why don't you just buy a cheap/old/junky car?" And honestly, affordability is part of it.  Not only do we not have a second car payment, but we don't have to pay for license plates, insurance or maintenance.  But more than just that, we're more conscious about our driving.  We plan better, and drive less.  When we drive across town for something, we do all of our across-town errands. That may not sound like a lot, but it wasn't necessarily a habit we had when we each drove our own car.  And we spend more time together, since generally, if there are errands to run or shopping to do, we do it together.

So it's a double win. :)  -Anna