tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15428066513923534132024-03-05T00:27:38.697-08:00Crunchy ChickenThis blog covers issues related to agriculture, environmentalism and climate change.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1317125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-85629538576571951432022-11-28T11:12:00.004-08:002022-11-28T11:14:01.218-08:00Christmas Shroom Growing Challenge!Since we're already under several inches of snow, with more to come this week, fall/winter gardening is pretty much not happening, even for the kind of crops I used to grow in Seattle. I've been thinking of growing mushrooms again, and the 15% off sale today from Territorial Seeds is giving me a kick in the pants to do it. Shiitake mushrooms are about $25/lb in our area (especially for organic Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-1773835053671274972022-04-04T21:29:00.001-07:002022-04-04T21:29:36.744-07:00Pasco Flea Market and first of the season asparagus!The first time we went to the Pasco Flea Market in the Tri Cities was last July, on our way back from a biking vacation. We ended up touring through the market with our gravel bikes, so it was a little difficult to navigate the busy stalls and really get a chance to look through everything. So, when the opportunity to go back this past weekend arose, we jumped at the chance, dreaming of giant Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-36654092326747362812022-04-03T15:24:00.000-07:002022-04-03T15:24:00.345-07:00Where have I been?Wow! I can't believe it's been over two years since I've posted here, but I guess it shouldn't surprise anyone too much. I've only posted a couple times on Facebook in the intervening time and I've been mostly laying low during this whole pandemic business. Biking in the TeanawayWhat have I been up to? Well, I didn't do much in the way of homesteading last year for a couple reasons. First, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-79022695888720633122020-03-11T16:55:00.000-07:002020-03-11T16:55:21.896-07:00Growing an All You Can Eat Salad Bar
So much extra space on my double lot!
I moved us out to Roslyn last year for a variety of reasons, the biggest one was to be more self-sufficient and independent of financial constraints. Living in Seattle was doable with two tech incomes but after my late husband passed away and I was laid off, spending $3,000 a month on a mortgage felt obscene.
My two kids and I didn't need a house that bigUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-42789646803231449522019-12-16T12:25:00.001-08:002019-12-16T12:25:51.622-08:00Starting a community composting and recycling companyDon't just sit there like a bump on a log, Mark Twain, 1863
I mentioned in a previous post, Going Zero Waste, that, since moving to a different town, I've been frustrated by the lack of recycling and municipal composting options. For starters, there's no curbside recycling pickup. This is manageable because the transfer station for recycling drop off is relatively close to my house. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-84870199314689008252019-11-30T09:38:00.003-08:002019-11-30T09:52:20.461-08:00Grieving through the holidays
Hank's guitars standing watch
Last year we didn't celebrate any holidays after my late husband passed away. It was just too difficult. So, for Halloween we turned off all the lights and watched a movie in the basement, avoiding the hundreds of trick-or-treaters we normally see in our neighborhood. Thanksgiving was a family get-together but, instead of traditional fare, we did a huge taco barUnknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-38523357459213796662019-11-11T21:33:00.002-08:002019-11-11T21:41:11.558-08:00Community service and litter pick upNow that I'm getting settled into my new neighborhood, I've taken on a few challenges to not only connect with my community but to give back what I can based on my own background, skills and interests. I'll discuss all that I'm doing over the next few posts.
Sunday garbage walk
One thing we've been doing over the last several months is a bimonthly Sunday morning garbage pickup walk. Since we Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-87093541584827724202019-11-04T09:27:00.004-08:002019-11-04T09:27:40.632-08:00Seasonal Living: Finishing the pigs
Apple snack!
A lot of what I try to incorporate into my life can be described as "seasonal living" and by that I mean that I try to take advantage of what's available each season not only from a local food perspective but from a cultural calendar as well. Heading into mid fall is a time of wrapping up production of fruit trees for the year and, for many people, it means processing and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-90794111026436196272019-11-01T14:08:00.001-07:002019-11-01T14:14:46.957-07:00Natural flooring - no chemicals needed! Part 2In Part 1 of my posts on natural flooring, I discussed what we unearthed underneath the carpeting on the main level of my new house. Glorious Douglas Fir floors (read the linked post to find out what I ended up doing with them)! I was not so lucky upstairs.
Original carpeting (and staging)
Underneath the carpeting and the carpet pad in the bedroom, bonus room and bathroom upstairs Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-80365413911683803392019-10-30T12:52:00.000-07:002019-10-30T12:52:33.274-07:00Killing me salty - taking down the stumps
Drilling the stumps
When I moved into my new house, there was an intimidatingly large "sticker bush" on the second lot against the fence. This holly bush was not so jolly and reached at least 8 feet both in height and circumference. I have had more than enough experience fighting with these plants in the past, and the girth on this thing had me afraid that it would take over the yard if I Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-59890949883987746042019-10-24T13:33:00.000-07:002019-10-24T13:33:08.798-07:00Birthdays, mourning and cake
Butter, flour and parchment!
Tomorrow is my daughter's second birthday without her father. It also happens to be her 16th birthday. Rather than have some big blowout, she's opted for a quiet meal with family in our new home. I'm making salmon that my brother caught in Alaska, corn and this bread she really likes from a local bakery. And then there's cake.
My late husband was a master baker. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-74055495011143644692019-10-22T11:58:00.000-07:002019-10-22T11:58:12.538-07:00Going Zero Waste Garbage. I'm going to be talking about this a lot, so bear with me. When I was living in Seattle we could seemingly recycle and compost nearly everything. Paper, plastic, glass, yard waste, food waste, newspaper, tin, aluminum. You name it, we recycled it - our garbage pickup can for years was the tiny little can.
Just the jugs, ma'am
Since moving to Kittitas County, I've had a major culture Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-71729735509352034622019-10-18T17:58:00.003-07:002019-10-18T17:58:52.398-07:00Natural flooring - no chemicals needed! Part 1
Original carpeting
When I bought my new house in Roslyn, all three bedrooms had carpeting in them. The two downstairs rooms had older carpeting and the bedroom upstairs had relatively newer (2011ish) carpeting. Since the home had been used as a vacation rental for the last 5+ years, the carpeting needed replacing. Even though the carpets had been professionally cleaned after the sale, they Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-15271975119379448412019-10-16T15:28:00.000-07:002019-10-16T15:29:50.125-07:00It's apple season!
Pic courtesy of 2CookinMamas
I have two huge apple trees on my new property here in Roslyn, WA. One that bears sweet, eating apples and one that bears more tart, baking apples. In spite of cutting the trees down considerably before I moved in (so I could comfortably walk around the yard without whacking my brains out), they are still very prolific producers of apples.
So, what have I been Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-83238255931319781132019-06-11T12:00:00.000-07:002019-06-11T12:32:02.882-07:00Keeping the old cars kickingMy cars are old. Decrepit even, by today's standards. I'm still driving around in my 2002 Honda CRV that has just a hair under 70,000 miles on it. But, from my standpoint, it's as good as new. Sure, it doesn't have the fancy bluetooth, automatic cellphone pairing, big screen satellite XM radio and other whozywhatsits on it.
But, it does have a functioning air conditioner, radio and CD player!, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-79946223265793357112019-06-05T18:29:00.001-07:002019-06-05T18:33:10.956-07:00Growing hops in high mountain country
Centennial and Nugget
hops
My partner, Daniel, was looking for plants that grow quickly to cover the side of his house in the mountains and he settled on growing hops. Okay, so 2200 feet isn't exactly Mt. Everest but, compared to my house in Seattle (at 200 feet), the growing conditions are very different. Add to the fact that his place is on the east side of the Cascade mountain range, and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-41643164379763308172019-05-30T16:33:00.000-07:002019-05-30T16:33:53.154-07:00Urban fruit orchard - what I'm growing
Honeycrisp apples
I've lived in my current house for about 13 years now and, over the years, I have planted numerous fruiting trees and bushes. While I love planting annual vegetables, I still can't get over the "free" fruit that comes back year after year with relatively little effort besides trimming back some branches. Well, some things, like grapes and my almond tree are a little more of aUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-68331347743406478652019-04-30T13:50:00.000-07:002019-04-30T13:57:41.993-07:00Help! We've got apple maggots!
Looks like an apple!
My new partner, Daniel, owns a property in the Cle Elum area of Kittitas County in Washington (I mentioned the area in my previous post about checking out rural properties). You'll be hearing a lot about the projects we have going on over there, but as spring is upon this mountainous area, we needed to get on top of the fact that the apple tree on his property was severelyUnknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-69518118853087122682019-04-27T07:00:00.000-07:002019-04-27T07:00:07.517-07:00Mastering Grief - Death and the DogwoodI was seriously considering starting a totally new blog titled "Young Widow Farmer" or some such thing rather than continuing in the vein of the Crunchy Chicken, but I didn't want my marital status defining me any more than my late husband wanted his fight with cancer to define him. He was, first and foremost, a husband, father, brother, friend, co-worker and an all-around exceedingly brilliant, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-16623297861863405022019-04-26T10:10:00.000-07:002019-04-26T10:10:44.911-07:00Teen Trauma - The horrors of no wifi
Always with phone in hand.
On Wednesday, the World Health Organization released their recommendations for screen time for children under the age of 5. For the first year of life they recommend zero time, rarely any in the second year and no more than an hour a day for ages 2 to 4. Frankly, this seems entirely reasonable, although I might be in the minority here.
My two children didn't watch Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-88467245249555035702019-04-24T11:27:00.000-07:002019-04-24T11:27:21.151-07:00Log Cabin in the Little Woods - Checking out rural properties
Log Cabin - Cle Elum, WA
Back when I was blogging regularly, one thing I always dreamed about was moving to a more rural area on several acres so that I could garden and raise critters to my heart's content. Several things prevented me from living out that dream, primarily location to work, daily accessibility to the cancer treatment center and willingness of the whole family.
Since I have Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-50647060160035305812019-04-22T15:43:00.001-07:002019-04-22T15:43:03.398-07:00Earth Day - Blogging Update
Getting Crunchy, 2019.
I can't believe I started this blog a little over 12 years ago. A lot has occurred since then. Most notably, in the last year my husband passed away from cancer. I know a lot of my readers followed the early days of his diagnosis and treatment and provided me with so much emotional support. I can't even relay to you how important and meaningful that was for me to be Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10Seattle, WA, USA47.6062095 -122.332070847.2636695 -122.9775178 47.9487495 -121.68662379999999tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-62567338712945086542018-04-14T20:36:00.000-07:002018-04-14T20:36:23.193-07:00Emulsifiers are in everything!Last weekend, there was an opinion piece in the NY Times regarding how additives in processed foods negatively affect your gut microbiome, in particular mentioning emulsifiers and food thickeners. This isn't news exactly, this has been known for the last several years. But more research has shown what they do to the lining of your gut.
These are your guts on emulsifiers!
I've been having Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-76446391810289733012017-09-05T12:56:00.000-07:002017-09-05T12:56:07.710-07:00Ash on my apples - harvesting food after a wildfire
Light ash fall - just the beginning!
With all the fires in Western Washington (and in other parts of the country where it's far worse), we are getting some ash fall in Seattle. Nothing like ye olde Mt. St. Helens eruption days, but still. Enough ash to make it look like a light snowfall.
It didn't exactly dawn on me initially, but now I'm wondering what's the best way to rinse the ash off my Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1542806651392353413.post-53956703770740280332017-09-05T00:00:00.000-07:002017-09-05T12:57:18.786-07:00Homeschooling - film studies class
Rear Window
Today is the first day back to school for my two homeschoolers!
My daughter is starting 8th grade this year and has been totally loving her secular, literature-based curriculum from Bookshark. This year it's based on science (rather than world history) and includes books like the wonderful, Longitude. The Bookshark curriculum covers all the core courses, but we still search for Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2