The Great Debate: Raw Milk

This is one of those subjects that gets really heated... People love it, or hate it... or love to hate it. I personally drink raw milk from my local farmer because:

1. I dont have my own cow.
2. It tastes SO GOOD... think about the best milk you have ever had... then times it by 100... that is how good raw milk is... I didn't even really like milk until I had raw milk.
3. I know where the milk comes from. I know how the cows are treated. They are family cows, they eat in the pasture every day. Their milk feeds me AND their babies. I know when the cows were milked... the milk I just picked up yesterday was milked literally that morning.

Something more important to me than even pesticides and chemicals (which I care a good deal about) is animal welfare. The reason I am trying to buy as much locally as I can (or hunt or raise my own) is I want to know where my food is coming from, and not feed into a system that treats animals inhumanly and by the very nature of the system is unhealthy, contaminated and just disgusting.

If you want more information on the benefits of raw (unpasteurized and unprocessed) milk just google it... or go HERE

And if you want info on why raw milk is super dangerous just google it... the CDC and FDA all warn of the dangers... but they are already on my shit list so I don't actually care what they say.

If you want the benefit of knowing your farmer, knowing your cow, knowing where your milk comes from but are to scared to try raw milk I have great news for you! You can just pasteurize that raw milk from your local farmer in your own home. This is also recommended for kids drinking milk. Mother Earth News has a home pasteurization method that can be found HERE. I just subscribed to this magazine and am super excited to get my first issue! There is a faster method but uses higher temperatures as outlined by Oregon State University HERE.

Now that I have covered the scary parts lets cover the part that is even scarier to some people...$$$. Raw milk is more expensive then factory farm industrial milk... more expensive for us, but its the cows paying the price.

"Dairy cows have it a lot rougher than beef cattle. They truly are production machinery and have a much longer, more miserable life than beef cattle. Being a dairy cow is no escape from the slaughter house, it just forestalls it until the milk stops flowing."

If you dont think its worth a few extra bucks to know where your food comes from go to HERE and read and watch... if it doesn't make you sad then you might not be human. And don't claim that ignorance is bliss... open your eyes, make an educated choice. 

This is the gallon of milk I pick up every week from my farm

Anyways back to the $$$... the milk I buy from my farmer is $8 a gallon. The milk from "pastured cows" in my grocery store is also $8 a gallon... so if I am spending $8 a gallon I would rather buy it from the farmer I know and the happy cows I can see. But really thats not all... I get about two cups of cream off each gallon of milk... cream is about $2 a cup (thats the factory farm stuff too) so right there is $4 I am saving each week... so its really $4 a gallon... not that expensive! AND if you dont know what to do with two cups of cream in a week you need to get your butt into gear! I CONSTANTLY try to save some of my cream to make butter but each week I use all two cups... Here are some ideas for cream:

My milk after I separate the cream and put it into my fridge containers

Vichyssoise- a traditional cold potato soup... don't nock it till you try it! AMAZING! Sometimes I make a sweet potato version that is a little spicy and sometimes I add carrots to the regular version. 

Strawberry Shortcake- I mean come on! I even make the shortcakes whole wheat!

Homemade whipped Cream- on a little fruit... heavenly! I use honey to sweeten mine!

Quiche- Here is a basic recipe... and I add all kinds of stuff... my fav is spinach and feta

So yeah... I think that about covers why I drink raw milk... from my local farmer... if you want resources for raw milk in your area here are a couple sites to help with your search...

Eatwild.com and Localharvest.org                

Good Luck 

Love and Light 

How to Reupholster a Chair

A few years ago I reupholstered our computer chair... I wrote a post about it HERE. Well.. when I did that one some of the staples I used were poking through and caused tiny tears in the fabric... so over the coarse of three years it got worse and worse... I wish I would have taken a before picture cause it looked BAD. But no worries I did it again... this time with fabric from my Mom's stash... so again FREE!!! I didn't take pictures of the process but its so simple I am sure you can do it.

Original Chair= Super Boring

1st Reincarnation= Super Cuter

2nd Reincarnation= More subtle, looks great with the cabin

What to do:

1. Pick out some upholstery fabric you want... a yard should be more than enough... You can use regular fabric, its what I did the first time but it only really held up for a couple years. If you want more padding (I added more this time) get some sheet foam as well. 

2.Take off the seat/cushions of the chair... they are usually attached with screws. Save the screws you will need them to put the cushion back on.

3. Remove the old fabric if you want... I just left it on... lay the cushion upside down on the foam (if using extra foam) and cut out around the cushion leaving about 4 inches extra on each side. Using a staple gun gently wrap the foam around the middle of one of the sides... staple once, then go to the side opposite that side... then pulling a little harder to the middle of the other two sides... then back to the first side staple once on each side of the original staple... then the opposite side... so on an so forth... Make sure you don't cover the screw holes... when you get to the corners just tuck the foam for a good fit and staple the shit out of them. 

4. Do the exact same thing to the fabric you did to the foam. MAKE SURE THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE FABRIC IS GOING TO BE SHOWING... that means place the seat cushion upside down on the wrong side... check twice, staple once. 

5. Attach the seat/cushion back to the chair... with your saved screws.

6. Have a "look how awesome I am" drink!

If you don't trust me... or want better directions just google it silly, thats how anybody learns anything, right?

Wikihow 

DIYnetwork

EHow

Backyard Chickens

Have you ever had chickens before? 

This is the first question that nearly everyone who found out that I wanted chickens asked... 

Oh well they aren't as glamourous as they seem...

They are SO loud...

They smell so bad...

They are just so mean...

LIES! To all you haters out there I LOVE MY CHICKENS. They are a great addition to my household. They are sweet, quirky and fun. They provide entertainment, rubbish disposal AND fresh eggs! They don't smell back and take LITERALLY 5-10 minutes a day worth of work. 

I have 5 hens. They live in a little coop on the edge of the wood. I go out every morning and let them out, they come running out and immediately start eating bugs, scratching in the leaves and just being chickens! I change their water, give them a little food... and leave. They roam the yard and forest all day eating the ticks and bugs. I get on average one egg from each chicken every day... thats about 5 eggs a day. Perfect. Then about dusk I go back out, they have put themselves to bed and are all tucked into their coop. I lock the door and say goodnight. Once a week I push all the dirty bedding from the top of the coop to the bottom and add fresh to the top. And thats it folks. So easy. 

They key to having a pleasant flock (for me) is 

1. No rooster... they are too loud and sometimes mean.

2. Lots of free space for the chickens to roam... the more spread out the poo the less it will smell...

 My chickens smell good... I promise. 

3. Deep bedding... I have 6-8 inches of bedding in the bottom of my coop and add the old bedding from the top weekly... this allows for optimal moisture control and a natural composting environment... in about 6 months I am gonna have some really nice soil!

After initial cost of set up they cost me about $6 a month... for the feed... I probably give them more then they need and I like to buy them sunflower seeds as a treat (they eat them from my hand!)

The other benefit of chickens is they eat your kitchen scraps. Joel Salatin in his book Folks This Ain't Normal (READ IT) mentions a Belgian town that in an effort to reduce waste give three free chickens to 2,000 residents. Within one year the town reduced landfill waste by 100 TONS by feeding the birds kitchen scraps.  

AND YET ANOTHER BENEFIT of backyard chickens is that you get fresh eggs... not only are the eggs themselves a benefit but also the fact that you are no longer buying from companies that are keeping chickens in terrible living conditions... cutting off their beaks, not letting them walk... keeping them so confined with their own feces that salmonella from the poo gets into the air... the breath it in, it creates sores in their lungs and the salmonella enters their bloodstream directly though their lungs... that is just wrong. AND not to mention the fuel/oil used in transporting all those eggs across the country. 

If you want to get started with backyard chickens start by googling "backyard chickens" There is a TON of info out there! Don't get overwhelmed and stop with the excuses... Before I came to love these chickens they lived in the middle of the city in Kansas City! They were super happy just hanging out in the back yard (although I prefer to believe they like the woods even better). The coop I have was handmade but they have ones you can buy off the internet... you don't need fancy stuff, just something that will keep them dry and safe. I hope we all decide to get chickens!

“May your beets be large and not puny, may your landlords be kind to let you have chickens, may your parakeets forgive you for replacing them with chickens, may your kitchens exude aromatic and aesthetic sensual romance ... may the rain beat gently on your fields, the wind be always at your back and may we all leave the world a better place than when we found it.” 

-Joel Salatin

Our Little Cabin in the Big Woods!

We were so lucky enough to snag this awesome rental property right next to a state park and golf coarse in our new home state Missouri! And even more awesome then the property is our landlord... every time we come home from vacation he says "I installed new tile" or "I put a shelving system in the garage" oh AND he watches my chickens! AMAZING! 

Anyways this is the house! It is a three story log cabin, with two decks and a walk out basement. That is the fire pit to the left and the separate two car garage in between.

This is the middle floor... which has the kitchen, dining room, sitting area and my STUDIO!

My Studio! I KNOW! ITS AMAZING!

The basement... which has the media room, and two guest bedrooms

Our LOFT bedroom on the third floor! 

So now that you know the setup get ready for pictures of my NEW CHICKENS! I love them so much and hope I can inspire everyone to get chickens!

Returning to the Blog II

So.... Long time no see... What has changed? Well I live in a new county... I visited Bali, Tennessee, North Carolina, Vegas, Utah, and Colorado... My dog Kona died... So basically my life is completely different so I guess it's time to change the blog too. New name coming soon!

Returning to the blog...

Hello blog... it has been so long. I am sorry I have neglected you for so long. Sometimes I do something so much that it is no longer fun or interesting... so I stop. Then eventually down the road I wonder why I ever stopped... then I remember... oh yeah its because I no longer had time to wipe my own butt cause real life was so crazy... so I started cutting at my virtual life. But now... maybe I just have more time on my hands because Derick is gone, I miss the blog.

So I have returned.... Alot has happened since I left you last spring. We found out we are moving to Missouri this summer. Derick is going to a super great school for his career and I am now hanging out in Japan alone. Not complaining.

I hiked ALOT this summer... with my fabulous friend Kendall who turned out to be a super kick ass adventurer (I had no idea)! I rock climbed a fair amount with my Uh-Mazing climbing "coach" Kate! Derick and I visited Hawaii (he had a conference for work). Camped a couple times... then Winter was like POW and now we have two feet of snow and I ski almost every weekend and have started to learn ice climbing.

Maybe I feel like blogging again because I feel a recent shift in myself. Maybe I just finally have something to say again because I figured out again who I am. Something which is kind of elusive and constantly shifting. My friend Caitlyn said something once which I thought was Amazingly profound and super true... that its okay to have opinions that don't add up, you can love something and hate it at the same time... you can feel, think and believe something one day and you don't have to feel, think or believe the same thing the next day... that its okay to be "multifaceted." This is a comment that I have mulled over in my head so many times, had so many conversations with close friends about. Its something that I believe and live by. Not because its easy to be wishy washy but because we I am not a stagnant being. I am constantly shifting and changing. Challenging myself and what I believe. And sometimes I believe multiple things. I can see more then one view and agree with both, and they can live harmoniously inside me.

Anyways... I am back! (for now)