NTA Book Club: Part 1 - Laying It All Out

Welcome to the first book club post for my book, The Non-Toxic Avenger: What You Don't Know Can Hurt You! This is the first of seven posts and will cover Part 1 of the book, Laying It all Out. The format will be the same for each Monday's postings: review followed by discussion questions. If you have questions from the section outside what I'm mentioning here, feel free to ask! I'm splitting the book up into small chunks to make the book club an easy breeze rather than feel like a midterm exam. So, expect them to be short and fun!

Part 1: Laying It All Out - Review
In this section, I describe why I started looking into environmental toxins in the first place. The most compelling reasons were linked to the fact that my son was diagnosed with developmental problems on the autistic spectrum and, more alarmingly, my husband was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a form of blood cancer with a relatively dire prognosis.

After wondering why two of my family members were stricken with such debilitating diseases, I wondered what environmental factors beyond genetic predisposition triggered these conditions. As I did more and more research on the potential for toxins such as pesticides, solvents and other chemicals to contribute to autism and cancers, I became curious to find out what my own body burden level of toxins were.

I also started looking at my own health problems and wondering what environmental impacts could be triggering those issues. I started looking at the true risks of many of the chemicals exposures we subject ourselves to on a daily basis and looked into whether or not those exposures meant anything significant.

Ultimately, I lined up a number of chemical body burden tests to determine how I ranked in comparison to the average American. Was my body more or less exposed to toxins and, did my aversion to chemical-based products by choosing organic and "natural" products really amount to anything?

Discussion Questions
1. How concerned are you of the long-term health consequences of the chemicals you knowingly (via consumer products) and unknowingly (via background exposure) are exposed to? Do you think they amount to anything or is it just a load of paranoia?

2. All the chemicals mentioned in the book are deemed "safe" by the FDA, do you think they are safe or do you think we need far more testing done on them?

3. Do you feel like you have more and more friends and family members being stricken by diseases like cancers and autism? Do you think these are on the rise or is it just a matter of better diagnosis and reporting?

4. Do you think that organic and "natural" consumer products are safer than conventional ones?

5. Would you undergo toxin body burden testing if you had access to it and it were paid for?

Feel free to answer the discussion questions in the comments of this post, or via Facebook if you are following along from the fan page. And, if you haven't yet read the book, you are welcome to participate as well!

How to make maple brown sugar cured bacon

Tuesday night I prepared the pork belly that we got as part of our pig share using a maple brown sugar cure as described in The Urban Farmer Handbook.

It went as such:

1. Rinse and pat dry pork belly
2. Mix equal parts coarse kosher salt, dark brown sugar and maple syrup (in this case I had 8.3 pounds of pork belly so I used 1/2 cup of each ingredient)
3. Rub mix all over pork belly
4. Place into gallon Ziploc bags
5. Store in fridge for 7 days
6. Flip bags every other day to distribute cure

While I hate the idea of using plastic bags, I hate trichinosis even more. So, in spite of my apprehension, given the amount of belly I had to work with, I used 3 one-gallon bags. After the cure is complete, I'll be smoking the bacon. More posts to come to finish the job...

In the meantime, here are some pictures of the process to whet your appetite:

The Pork Belly:

The Cure:

The Meat Side:

The Skin Side:

The Finished "Product" - three gallon Ziploc bags of curing belly:

Have you ever made your own bacon from pork belly?

Going in on a pig share

Monday night our pig farmer was kind enough to pick up our half of a pig share from the butcher and deliver it to our front door. I ended up sharing a whole hog with Annette Cottrell from Sustainable Eats and the author of The Urban Farm Handbook after she hooked me up with Luke Conyac of Conyac Brothers' Farmstead.

I had gone up to visit their farm a few weeks earlier to watch the hog slaughter that was masterfully done by two gentlemen from Silvana Meats who came to the farm to process the pigs.

The Conyac brothers raise a mix of Herefords, Gloucestershire Old Spots and what we got, something that is called a Bluebutt, which is a cross between a Hampshire and a Yorkshire. I had the delight of seeing all of their pigs in their natural environment as I hung out for a while post-slaughter. They run a small farm operation of less than 20 hogs, which makes for a cozy farmstead.

They raise their hogs on rotated pastureland and supplement with a local certified organic feed. As you can see in the picture above, they make quick work of the grass and shrubs, which necessitates the need to move them from one section of the farm to the next. This particular pig we got was finished on an organic grain mix of barley, oats and wheat from a nearby supplier in the Skagit Valley.

The Conyac's charge $2.75 per pound live weight and then there's the slaughter, butchering and smoking costs from Silvana Meats. In the case of my pig, the hanging weight was about 88 pounds per half (minus the head, trotters, entrails and other sundry parts).

As a result, we had delivered roughly 70 pounds of meat (which ended up being about $6.50/pound) as follows. Not a bad deal for local, organic, pastured pork raised in an über-sustainable way:

• 1 shoulder roast
• 2 smoked ham roasts
• 1 smoked picnic ham
• 2 ham hocks
• 5 pork loin roasts
• 1 country style ribs
• 1 pork spare ribs
• 1 baby back
• 1 pork tenderloin
• pork belly
• pork sausage

I spent Tuesday evening getting the pork belly prepared for a week long curing in the fridge for making bacon. I'll be doing a separate post on that, but as a teaser, here's a picture of the belly in the maple brown sugar salt cure:

Defending Your Chickens Against the HOA

The following is a guest post from Shannon Boling. Shannon was raised in the country and now lives in the city. An aspiring urban homesteader, she spends her time planning events for teachers across California when she's not gardening, canning, crafting, cooking or chasing her chickens, dog and cats.

Shannon writes at the blog, Where is Shannon? Make sure you check it out! And, thanks to Shannon for this contribution!

Defending Your Flock Against the HOA (aka your neighbor doesn’t like your chickens)

Recently, I had the unfortunate experience of having to defend my dear chickens at my neighborhood Homeowners Association (HOA) Board meeting. After numerous complaints from a single neighbor, my husband and I had to attend a hearing in which the fate of our chickens was in the hands of 3 unknown Board Members. Though I won’t go into about the actual specifics about my case, I did realize I had a new wealth of information to share with other folks who may be up against a similar threat. Here are a few tips to help you navigate through the murky waters of HOA rules.

Tip # 1: Do your research

This may sound pretty obvious, but knowing the rules is the most important part of building a case for your chickens. Read your CCRs carefully. Don’t just pay attention to the rules about animals, think beyond the box. Have some knowledge in your back pocket.

•   What are the proper channels one should take when filing a complaint against a neighbor? In our case, the HOA encourages neighbors to resolve issues on their own. Our neighbor never contacted us with her concerns about the noise our chickens made. Knowing that the HOA encourages neighbors to deal with issues on their own shows that she a) doesn’t know the rules, and b)if she knew them, she didn’t act upon them.

• Find out what the proper dispute resolution sequence is (for my HOA, it was having a hearing, then mediation, then arbitration). It’s good to know what steps you’ll need to take in case they deny your case.
• Are there height/dimension limits to any coops built in your yard? Do they need to be a certain distance from your neighbors’ houses? This is important to know. For example, if our coop was another 2 feet taller, we would have had to get approval from the HOA to build it.
•  How much authority does the Board really have? In our case, the Board had the final say on issues – meaning one cannot get a measure put on a ballot for the neighborhood to vote on. Some HOA’s allow members to gather enough signatures to get something on the ballot (how democratic!) This is worth looking into just in case the Board decides against you – you could still get a petition going and leave the vote to the masses. 
• Get your city and/or county’s municipal code, and be sure to include it with your materials. Many CCR’s defer to the municipal code (be sure you don’t have more chickens than you are allowed!) Thankfully for us, our city doesn’t have a restriction on the number of hens you can keep for non-commercial purposes. 
• If your HOA is run by a management company, get to know the person that works with your Board. If they are friendly, use their knowledge of the CCRs to help build your case. This proved to be a great resource for me - I was told there was a 1987 CCR that prohibited poultry in our neighborhood (which changed in 2007). I never would have known that if I hadn’t *gently* prodded my contact. 

Tip #2: Get the support of your neighbors

I can’t stress this one enough. Thankfully in our neighborhood, everyone loves our chickens. It was really easy to pass a document around for their signature, stating that they did not believe our chickens were loud or a nuisance to the neighborhood. If you do get people to sign a document, be sure to include specific language related to the CCR’s. I used “loud” and “nuisance” because there is a rule against loud animals that are a nuisance. This allowed the Board to compare the CCRs with the support signatures apples for apples. Once you get those signatures, create a graphic that shows your house in relation to all that signed your petition. This is a great way of visually showing those who support you in your neighborhood. Finally, if you’ve got great neighbors like mine, you’ll have them come as your posse to the Board meeting. I had 5 adult neighbors (and 1 child) attend the meeting and speak in support of our chickens. Hearing this from others really showed the good impact our flock was making in the neighborhood. (Note: a carton of eggs is a great way to show your thanks)

Tip #3: What have other Associations done?

Google “HOA and Chickens” or any combination of “chickens”, “HOA”, and “CCRs”. You’ll be amazed at what you find. Backyard Chickens has a few great forums with information from other chicken owners and their experiences with HOAs. I found a few promising articles and presented this information to the Board. I think it’s important to highlight that people all over the country have chickens, and there are many different ways of accommodating them in a HOA (whether that means restricting the number of chickens, or how the decision to allow chickens is made).

Tip #4: Are you willing to compromise?

On a personal note, this was the hardest part for me to come to terms with. If the Board votes no more chickens – are you ready to go to the next level (i.e. court) to keep them? Are you willing to give up a few hens to keep the neighbor(s) happy? After taking everything into consideration, I decided to pair my flock down from 6 to 3. Sure, I miss the extra eggs and the sound of a happy coop. But, because I showed the Board that I was willing to compromise, they agreed to let me keep my remaining girls. In the end – totally worth it.

Go to the meeting with confidence and your head held high – after all, you are a steward of this uncharted urban chicken-raising territory!

Products mentioned in The Non-Toxic Avenger

I've made a new page, that is available from under the banner above by clicking the tab "Products from the NTA Book", where I list many of the products that I mention in my book, The Non-Toxic Avenger: What You Don't Know Can Hurt You. The list includes links to the products.

You can check it out here:

Products Mentioned in The Non-Toxic Avenger.

These are many of the products we have switched over to in order to reduce our exposure to chemicals. We still use all of them today.

If you have a product type that's not listed, let me know and I'll add it.

Hoop Houses and Urban Winter Garden Tour

I was just going to go outside yesterday and take some pictures of the many different vegetables we currently have growing in our hoop houses (as described on The Crunchy Chicken Facebook page), but I decided that I might as well make a video about it.

So, for your viewing pleasure, here's a short video of what's growing in our backyard in late January, 2012. I apologize for the weird camera smudginess at the beginning. I think our camera got some salt water spray on it from our recent trip to San Diego.



To watch the video on YouTube (if you are experiencing technical difficulties), you can see it here.

What do you have growing in your winter garden?

Top 10 Urban Farming books

I wanted to create a list of essential Urban Farming books for those who are just starting out as well as for the more experienced urban farmer. I selected books that don't concentrate on just one topic (like city chickens or vegetable gardening in small spaces), but on a wide variety of topics that range from growing food to raising animals and beyond.

For those of you who live in the city (or the suburbs), I hope this helps!

1. The Urban Farm Handbook, by Annette Cottrell and Joshua McNichols: Here's my review post, this is still one of my favorites.

2. The Essential Urban Farmer, by Novella Carpenter: This one is on my to-read list. I read Novella's previous book, Farm City, and loved it.

3. Urban Homesteading, by Rachel Kaplan: I'll be doing a review/giveaway of this one soon.

4. Your Farm in the City, by Lisa Taylor: This book is put out by my local Seattle Tilth and I can't believe I haven't read it yet! Time to hit the library.

5. The Urban Homestead, by Kelly Coyne and Eric Knutzen: This book covers more than you can possibly imagine and will inspire you to try new things.

6. Urban Farming, by Thomas Fox: From the makers of Urban Farming magazine (Hobby Farms).

7. Urban Agriculture, by David Tracey: I'll be doing a review/giveaway of this one as well in the upcoming weeks.

8. Mini Farming, by Brett Markham: This one is geared towards those who have 1/4 acre to work with.

9. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Urban Homesteading, by Sundari Elizabeth Kraft: This book covers the basics as well as everything from composting to clean energy.

10. The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan: Here's a short review post - this one is geared more towards a larger amount of land than most people have in their urban/suburban backyards, but it's valuable nonetheless.

Consider yourselves warned: There be Amazon affiliate links in this post.

Non-Toxic Avenger: The Book Club!

Now that the blog book tour for my book, The Non-Toxic Avenger, is wrapping up this week, I wanted to announce that I'll be hosting a book club starting in February.

It will be in the same format as most of my other book clubs: each section will start with an overview, followed by discussion questions. The only key difference is that I'm the author on this one!

Here's the tentative schedule for the book club:

2/6		Part 1: Laying It All Out
2/13		Part 2: Getting Started
2/20		Part 3: The Baseline
2/27		Part 4: Adjusting to Non-Toxic Living
3/5		Part 5: Going a Little Bonkers
3/12		Part 6: Figuring It All Out
3/19		Part 7: Wrapping It Up

You don't need to have read the book to participate, although it does help!

I've created a page on Facebook if you'd like to participate in the book club that way as well. Just head on over and "LIKE" it!

Blog book tour - Week 4

This week wraps up the month long blog book tour for my new book, The Non-Toxic Avenger. I'll be visiting the following blog and, as the post goes up, I'll be updating this post with the direct link. I hope that the blog tour has given you some more info about the book! I'll post a wrap-up with links to everything next week so it's in one spot.

Tour Date	Blog	Type of Post
1/24/12	http://www.climatemama.com	Book Review

Thanks to everyone who has participated!

Blog book tour - Week 3

This week I'll be visiting the following blogs. As the posts are up I'll be letting you know the direct links. I'm hoping this will give you more information about my new book, The Non-Toxic Avenger, as well as let the readers of the other blogs learn about it as well.

Tour Date	Blog	Type of Post
1/16/12	http://tippecanoegreen.blogspot.com	Book Review
1/17/12	http://eco-novice.com/	Book Excerpt
1/18/12	http://www.GroovyGreenLiving.com	Interview
1/19/12	http://thenonconsumeradvocate.com/	Book Review
1/20/12	http://www.InWomenWeTrust.com	Book Excerpt

Thanks to everyone who is participating!

The smoke screen of hidden flame retardants

The following was originally posted on the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families blog:

When my children were babies, their health and safety were high priorities for me as their mother. They still are. I made sure I breastfed my children as long as possible and made sure I bought them car seats with the highest safety ratings.

As a mom, I take pride in making sure that I am doing everything I can for their well being. I expect that children's products available on the market are safe and contain nothing to expose their young, growing bodies to hazardous chemicals. Unfortunately, this isn't always the case.

A report released on Wednesday from Washington Toxics Coalition and Safer States shows that children and families are exposed to chemical flame retardants in children's products. These toxic flame retardants were found in 85% of the products tested, ranging from nursing pillows, changing pads to car seats. The most prevalent flame retardant found was chlorinated Tris (TDCPP), a chemical that was voluntarily removed from children’s pajamas in the 1970s when it was found to cause adverse health effects. In fact, California recently classified chlorinated Tris as a carcinogen, and evidence links the chemical to neurotoxicity as well as hormone disruption. It's a chemical that should not be anywhere near our children.

So, that nursing pillow from My Brest Friend that I received as a gift and used with both my kids when they were tiny? Two different kinds of toxic flame retardants. The co-sleeper my babies slept in by Arm's Reach? Five different kinds of toxic flame retardants. The Babies R Us Changing Pad that we used for at least three years? Three different kinds of toxic flame retardants. And the Graco SnugRide Infant Car Seat and Britax Roundabout car seats that got years and years of use? All contain chlorinated Tris.

To say this makes me irate is an understatement. Without research like this, how would consumers even know what kind of toxic exposures our children are being subjected to? And, furthermore, this illustrates the fact that there are probably far more undiscovered toxins lurking in the many household products that are surrounding us.

To read the rest of this post and find out how you can avoid flame retardants in your kid's products, please visit the original article here on the Safer Chemicals blog.

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Top 10 Homestead Goals for 2012

Erica over at Northwest Edible Life is running a giveaway of The Urban Farm Handbook and, as part of the giveaway, she's asking what the entrant's Big Urban Homesteading goal is for 2012.

Well, since I already have the book and I have a lot of goals, I decided I wanted to share them in a post. I also wanted to find out what your homesteading goals are for this year, urban or otherwise.

Here are mine (in no particular order):

Top 10 Homestead Goals for 2012

1. Double the number of chickens we have (we are getting 3 more chicks in March)
2. Go in on a pig share (done this past weekend - post to follow)
3. Add one more raised bed in the backyard (work in progress)
4. Get front yard re-landscaped to remove grass and put in edibles (March/April 2012)
5. Get started with meat rabbits (May 2012)
6. Buy some pasture land in Eastern WA (working on convincing the hubs on this one :)
7. More canning - tomato sauce and pickles, relish and, of course, jam
8. Join the Honey CSA from Urban Bee Company since we won't be hosting a hive
9. Get into goat cheese making (working with a local source)
10. Learn how to dispatch rabbits and chickens (hooking up with The Urban Farm Handbook authors Annette, for rabbits, and Joshua, for chickens)

So, what are your homesteading goals for 2012?

Pig pic from the wonderful Conyac Brothers' Farmstead in Marysville, WA.

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This post is part of this week's Homestead Barn Hop.

Blog book tour - Week 2

This week I'll be visiting the following blogs. As the posts are up I'll be letting you know the direct links. I'm hoping this will give you more information about my new book, The Non-Toxic Avenger, as well as let the readers of the other blogs learn about it as well.

Tour Date	Blog	Type of Post
1/9/12	http://www.bestofmotherearth.com	Book Review
1/11/12	http://www.thegreenparent.com/	Guest post
1/11/12	http://blog.saferchemicals.org/	Guest Post
1/12/12	http://www.mindfulmomma.com	Book Review
1/12/12	http://www.greenokla.com/	Book Review
1/13/12	http://condo-blues.blogspot.com/	Book Endorsements

Thanks to everyone who is participating!

Non-Toxic New Year's Resolution

Many of us make New Year's resolutions revolving around health - generally of the lose weight, exercise more and eat better kind. But few stop to think about other things that affect our health. Sure there is quitting smoking and wearing seat belts and other very valid resolutions. But what about reducing your exposure to toxins? And not just if you live near a pesticide sprayed field or a superfund site.

No, I'm talking about the toxins we are exposed to in our every day lives. Toxins like Bisphenol A (BPA) that's found in plastics, canned foods and on store receipts that cause hormone disruption. And, what about Triclosan, a potent anti-bacterial, that's found in many things from hand soaps to toothpaste and tennis shoes that can contribute to super resistant bacteria and cause a whole host of health issues not just for humans but for fish and aquatic life downstream?

I propose that this year you look at not just the amount of food and what kind you are eating when trying to be healthy, but also what you are putting on your skin and breathing in that also impacts your long term health. And, because the whole topic of toxins in consumer products can be extremely overwhelming, I recommend people focus on the following low-hanging fruit of toxins.

For this year's New Year's Resolution try this instead of or in addition to your other pledges:

1. Get rid of the anti-bacterial soaps. Nobody needs them - studies show that good hand washing is just as effective at cleaning as anti-bacterials. Avoid the ingredient: Triclosan

2. Ditch the non-stick. Start with your frying pans and work your way through your bakeware. Choose quality stainless steel, glass or cast iron instead.

3. Avoid artificial fragrances. You'll be surprised at how many products in your home contain artificial fragrances which house the chemicals phthalates, which are powerful endocrine disruptors. Avoid the ingredients: artificial fragrance or parfum.

4. Stay away from canned food. Most canned items are lined with BPA, which has been shown to cause healthy breast cells to act like cancerous ones. Make your own soup and store it in glass jars, buy dried beans and look for BPA free cans. And, while you're at it, stay away from soda cans.

5. Buy organic food. Stay away from pesticides by choosing organic foods over conventionally sprayed ones. Your body and the environment will thank you.

Are you willing to pledge to lower your toxic exposure? Which ones are you avoiding?

30 minute mozzarella

Last weekend, my husband and I hit up The Cellar Homebrew near our place for some cheese making supplies. Since we got a cast iron pizza pan for Christmas to replace our old non-stick Teflon pizza pan, we wanted to try out making pizzas. And what better way to top our homemade pizza dough and pizza sauce I canned from last summer's tomato bonanza than by adding fresh made mozzarella?

I dusted off my old Home Cheese Making book that I've had for years (and never made anything from) and decided to actually use it. Over the years, I've been too lazy to scout out the odds and ends required to make mozzarella, opting for easy homemade cheeses instead.

Since we were busy with other things over New Year's weekend, we went with the 30 minute recipe, rather than the more traditional one. The 30 minute recipe is super easy and goes a little something like this:

1. Mix citric acid into gallon of whole milk (make sure it's not ultra pasteurized or it doesn't work)
2. Heat until warm
3. Add rennet
4. Stir and heat until 100 degrees or so - the curds will magically appear
5. Remove curds with slotted spoon
6. Microwave on high for 1 minute, drain whey and knead with spoon
7. Microwave for 35 seconds, drain whey and knead with spoon
8. Repeat #7 and knead in some cheese salt
9. Eat or store

I was flabbergasted at how easy this was and how quickly it came together. My husband was dubious about the whole process and predicted it would take me an hour and a half at least to have some form of cheese ready to go. Nay sayer, I tell you!

With the cheese all ready to go, we sliced it up and put it on the pizza. It was very good, but not exactly what I expected.

My final thoughts
It certainly wasn't like the fresh mozzarella balls we buy from our favorite market. It wasn't as creamy and looked more like a combo of fresh and the Organic Valley regular mozzarella we buy. I was hoping we would be making caprese salad like crazy, but I wouldn't use it for that. The texture is all wrong.

Would I make it again? Maybe. I think I'd rather try making the longer, more involved mozzarella recipe from the book and see how they compare.

Photographic evidence
Here are some pictures of the process for your viewing pleasure:

Right after adding in the rennet, the curds separate from the whey.

The cheese curds after removing them with a slotted spoon.

Paco, casting a spell, "You must give me all the cheese..."

Melty cheese, right out of the microwave.

The finished product. Note the cheese browned in a rather oddly brown way.

Have you tried making mozzarella? Did you do the 30 minute kind or did you go the traditional route?

This post is part of this week's Homestead Barn Hop and Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways.

Blog book tour - 2012!

Hey everybody! Tomorrow kicks off my blog book tour. What's that, you ask? Well, it's like a regular book tour, but rather than travel all over the country (with a high travel carbon footprint), I'm virtually doing a book tour on people's blogs. For the most part, this tour will be three weeks long and will visit several dozen blogs.

This week I'll be visiting the following blogs. As the posts are up I'll be letting you know the direct links. I'm hoping this will give you more information about my new book, The Non-Toxic Avenger, as well as let the readers of the other blogs learn about it as well.

Tour Date	Blog	Type of Post
1/2/12	http://www.thecrunchychicken.com	Book Tour Launch!
1/3/12	http://eco-novice.com/	Healthy Child, Healthy World Nomination and Q&A
1/3/12	http://farmersdaughterct.com/	Book review
1/3/12	http://www.momscleanairforce.org/	Guest post on clean air
1/5/12	http://www.mnn.com/	Book excerpt
1/6/12	http://www.RetroHousewifeGoesGreen.com	Interview
1/6/12	http://www.strocel.com/	Podcast with Amber (20 minute interview)

The Urban Farm Handbook review

Do you live in the city or an otherwise urban area, yet yearn for life in the country? Well, quit dreaming and start living! The Urban Farm Handbook is a necessity to prove that you can be (mostly) self-sufficient and not have to move out to the sticks to achieve your goals.

It also will appeal to those of us (my family included) who want the ideals of country living, but still have the benefits of city living - energy efficiency, improved transportation, access to the arts, excellent dining, etc.

The Urban Farm Handbook, by Annette Cottrell (of sustainableeats.com) and Joshua McNichols (who, apparently, lives nearby me), will want to make you grind your own grain, raise mealworms in your house to feed your flock of backyard chickens, make your own chevre from your dairy goats (where legal, of course), dispatch your own bunnies and beyond.

I get a lot of books to review, but I cannot say enough good things about this book. You'll just have to trust me on this one. If you are interested in the local food movement, even if you do live out in the sticks (you lucky bastards), you will really enjoy this book.

Normally, I'd do a giveaway of the books I've read, but this one's a keeper. Sorry, you're going to have to buy it yourself :)

Best of 2011

While I'm off on vacation, I thought I'd bring back the posts that caused the most "excitement" in the last year.

And the top 5 posts are....

1. Urban Homesteaders - Cease and Desist: I can't believe it's been almost a year since the whole "urban homesteaders" trademark activity hit the fan when the Dervaes family started pursuing people and organizations who had the audacity to use their brilliant concoction of words never before used by man.

2. The Skinny vs. Curvy Ideal: This clearly must have been a result of people Googling the wrong thing, but nonetheless, it got over 2,000 pageviews.

3. Top 5 Easy Homemade Cheeses: What can I say? Everybody loves easy. And most people love cheese. A winning combo.

4. Urban Homesteaders Blog Like a Pirate Day: On the heels of the whole silliness involved with trademarking common terms, bloggers come out in force to thrown down against those arrogant enough to trademark them.

5. BPA-free Canned Tomatoes: Hitting the news this year was research after research showing the unsavory health consequences of consuming BPA through food, drink and touch. The popularity of this post shows that people are serious about finding alternatives to BPA laced cans. BPA, most recently, was shown to make healthy breast cells act like cancerous ones, render the chemo drug Tamoxifen useless and push women's hearts into deadly arrhythmias. Better living through chemistry? No thanks.

Going pioneer in 2012!

I know you are just now hearing about my new book, The Non-Toxic Avenger, and will be hearing a heck of a lot more over the next few months when my blog book tour begins, but I did want to share with you my next book project which I'm actively beavering away on right now.

My next book (tentatively titled, Little House in the Big City: Pioneer Living without the Prairie due out early Fall 2012 from New Society Publishers) is a combination of pioneer living and fun and merriment gleaned from the Laura Ingalls Wilder series of books.

My 8-year-old daughter, Emma, and I are going through the books and reenacting as much as reasonably possible. In other words, we aren't smoking a deer in a stump in the backyard. But we are doing whatever we can. For example, we spent the day yesterday making our own butter with carrots from the backyard to give it a bright yellow color. It turned out better than I thought. This Christmas Eve, we are making an Ingalls-style dinner with various things like dried apple pie, "Injun" bread and beans. So, if it's in the book and doesn't involve something not legal in my area, we're doing it. And, Emma is penciling the illustrations.

This book project doesn't exactly bode well for my bathing habits, but we'll see how that goes. In the meantime, I'm running around trying to find salt pork, pig bladders and tails and making straw hats, rag dolls and other really random, fun, pioneery projects! So, stay tuned!

Are you a fan of the book series, TV series, or just pioneer living?

Freezing for the holidays?

For those of you participating in this year's Freeze Yer Buns Challenge, you run the problem of having visitors over who might not, say, appreciate the lowered temperatures. When you're acclimated to 70+ degrees it's really hard to drop the 5 or 10 or 15 degrees in one fell swoop.

Generally, when we have visitors over, we are also doing a lot of cooking and, by virtue of having lots of mammals over the house (i.e. human visitors), it tends to heat up naturally. Sometimes, however, the oven and human body heat just isn't enough and we'll turn the heat up for their benefit. If we're all sitting around, blankets can be used, but aren't exactly helpful at a dinner party. And, since we don't have one of those neat, heated Japanese dinner table thingies (aka a "kotatsu"), I don't expect our guests will have a pleasant time eating if their teeth are chattering. So, we turn up the heat.

My mom and brother have learned to dress warmly when they come over and my brother always remembers to bring over his slippers, which I find very entertaining. Not because I'm trying to torture him or anything, but just because he's always so prepared for everything (the OCD helps).

In any case, what do you do for the holidays when you have visitors? Make them tough it out or turn up the heat?