I Am Thankful for Modern Appliances Because Sometimes Doing Everything by Hand Sucks

I finally caved. After five years of hand washing dishes, I couldn't take it anymore. I've always found dishes to be a most unpleasant task and my recent bout with that nasty virus really sealed the deal since even the most basic of activities became virtually impossible due to crippling viral fatigue. Also the mountain of dirty pots and pans on the counter that never seemed to shrink had become a serious point of contention between me and the hubby. It was either a dishwasher or a divorce. The dishwasher seemed like the least complicated option.


Isn't it beautiful? There's a part of me that feels like a failure for not being able to do my washing up the old school way, but then after I thought about it for a while I realized that I would never consider washing all of my clothes by hand. So why shouldn't I feel the same about my plates and glassware? There's something about the dishwasher that seems so bourgeois, just another First World energy and resource suck. Hopefully, the fact that the solar panels will offset the energy use will assuage my guilt on some level.

Because honestly, who wants to spend an hour at the sink with this pile





when your robot can do it so much better?




Happy Thanksgiving!

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Brand. New. Car.

This is my first new car...ever. I know I seem more of the biodiesel, veggie oil, smell like a french fry type. And I am in my heart, but my vehicle needs right now center around reliability.

Some of you may have met Mr. Jankie, my previous ride. Despite his decrepit appearance, the exterior looking as if it were recovering from one mean sunburn and the interior sporting an "I've been in a monkey knife fight" look with its ripped ceiling, Mr. J got me where I needed to go for several years. But as time wore on, I felt less and less safe rumbling around on these four wheels, especially since every time I hit a bump things seemed a little loose in the undercarriage. Long drives were preempted with intense trepidation to the point where I would no longer take them. He wasn't too bad as far as gas mileage, but he never passed smog inspection. So it wasn't really working out between me and J dog.

What kind of replacement to get then? I thought long and hard about a diesel car that I could convert to run on veggie oil, but two things detracted me. Number one I didn't like my vehicle choices. Anything that was in my price range was either too small or would require too much fixing up, which was exactly what I was running from. Secondly, and most importantly, I heard that storing the veggie oil attracts a particular vermin that I already have more than my fair share of problems with. Rats!

This left me with only one other eco-friendly choice in the matter. Hybrid bound I was, but what to do with the prohibitive cost? Not being a commercial television viewer, I had no idea about what kind of incentives were out there and then I stumbled on an online ad: $2000 down and $199 per month lease for a 2010 Toyota Prius. For reals? The purchase deals were pretty awesome too with 0% financing for three years.

To buy or not to buy? This was the real question. In the end we determined that money wise leasing was going to be the better option for us. First off, who knows where we will be with cars in the next three years? Technology is changing faster than manufacturing and we don't want to be tied to any one version of transport. We can also use the car as a business expense if we use it for our contracting business. And fuck ownership! With the financial crisis and housing market in the toilet, I don't want to be the owner of anything except my house, which of course isn't worth what we paid for it, but at least we can have our farm and not be renting from a crazy person, an all too common occurrence in San Francisco. Let somebody else take the financial gamble. I certainly can't afford to these days.

So here is our new set of wheels, a.k.a. Michael Jackson (don't ask).




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Happy New Year!

I despise New Year's resolutions, though I have of course made a few in my past. For me, they invoke the overly puritanical roots of American society, an all or nothing mentality that my Brazilian friend, Juan, adores to mock. If you think about it, they are rather silly. How many times have we witnessed or participated in making the annual New Year's dietary resolutions, giving up the irresistible scrumptious treat that we know isn't great for us but we can't help indulging, only to fall off the wagon within days of the year's turn? I say why bother. This year, I am setting goals rather than making resolutions. Goals have more of a fluid, mutable feeling to them; they are shaped, swayed, changed by life's vicissitudes. Resolutions are so... so... resolute.

2010 is already shaping up to be an exciting year on the urban farm. So much is happening: the back 1000 is starting to take shape, the chickens are all laying, there are public speaking engagements on the horizon. I've been meaning to tell you all about them sooner, but time has gotten the better of me with all the holiday hustle and bustle that I haven't even had the space to sit down and plot out my annual plans. I promise to update everyone on the haps around the homestead, but first I want to take a moment to jot down what I would like to accomplish on Itty Bitty in the upcoming year.

1. Finish Landscaping - The poor animals have been scampering around our obstacle course of a backyard, dodging leg breaking and gut impaling dangers with the mounds of dirt and rubble littering the lot. Furthermore, feeding time is always a treacherous task with the mud sliding slopes leading into the animal area. At the beginning of this week, we hired a friend to come help us out with building the last retaining wall and getting things set up for the fence to be put in. I'm in the back with him, humping bricks and moving dirt. Just when I think that it's "almost done", I realize how much work is still left to do. But I've got six fruit trees and six berry and grape vines coming in two weeks, so come hell or high water, it MUST get done.
2. Use Less Gas and Electricity - I must admit that we aren't always angels when it it comes to our energy consumption. Lights get left on. I have been known to leave the oven on for half a day before realizing that I didn't turn it off. We have most electric items hooked up to power switches to prevent phantom power suckage, but are inconsistent with turning the strips off. The behemoth gravity heater that takes up a large section of our basement is a giant gas guzzler we can't quite part with - our attempts at going heater free were met with high levels of dissatisfaction, especially during that big cold snap. To remedy the situation, we are trying to develop some routines that would help us be more disciplined about turning things off when they are not in use. We are also saving up to replace our ginormous heater and are hopeful that by next winter we will be able to have it installed. Fortunately, PG&E gives us a report of last year's usage for the same time period so we will be able to check our progress.
3. Install Gray Water System - We've got our barrel and now we need to use it. We've vowed that the next time we need our plumber friend to come out and fix something, we'll have him install a drain diverter for bath and sink water. The garden will need a lot of water this summer with all the fruit trees going in.
4. Four Seasons of Plantings - Due to the sad state of the backyard and the chicken ordeal, I was only able to get in two seasons of plantings last year. This year, my goal is to get a planting in with every season and attempt to determine how much production is feasible on our small spot of earth. Trellising will be big. Vegetables will hang from the sky with the use of Shepard's crooks. Vines will be grown against retaining walls. Fences will support trees. I'll keep you posted throughout the year with pictures to document our future creative uses of space.

Happy New Year to everyone and good luck with your own goals in the upcoming year!