Another year another bunch of changes. I decided not to feel guilty
for abandoning the idea of posting regularly on this blog. Let me see
what has changed lately? Well as of yesterday a lot of things. I had
held onto the dream of going back to Hawaii once I had a year of
experience, and that dream was so close to happening I could taste it. I
had a job offer and was completing the ridiculously tedious list of pre
employment screenings. Things had been sold, plans had been made and
leases broken... now granted those things were happening anyway for a
different reason (more on that in a sec). For those of you who are not
affected by the sequester, just wait, you will be. I got a phone call
from the civilian personnel command center telling me that the job they
had offered me was withdrawn due to budget cuts. No job, no Hawaii
again. I am not as upset as I thought it would be. I still was holding
close to my old mantra of, "I will believe it when I get the first pay
check". To sum it all up: brisket will be consumed, rivers will be
tubed and Austin will continue to be weird, maybe just a little more so
because we are sticking around. And we bought this:
The Beast
Nice
So here we are again on the cusp of an adventure. We are going to make a perhaps foolish, but good hearted try at living in her full time. This particular beauty is a 1979 airstream excella motorhome and has the rare center bath. I am not sure how many of this particular model were made... not even airstream knows. Why am I doing this? I really have not too much in the way of explanation besides it sounded like a good idea at the time. I have again become enamored of the idea of living on less with less stuff. Not sure how many square feet we will be living in, I just know it won't be a lot. I do have some good interior photos, but my phone won't put them on the computer. Let me just say that we will become handy men in our own rights soon. Here is a list of all the things that have gone wrong and that we have found that need some attentions
1. Electrical 120 V outlets don't work
2. Generator
3. Plumbing has some parts that need replacing
4. Water system sanitized
5. Battery cables for the house battery replaced
6. The brushing on the wiper blades are worn out and need replaced
7. Clear coat is patchy at best needs to be stripped and the airstream shined
8. Repaint stripe
9. Replace some water damaged floor
10. Get real seat belts
11. Get rid of microwave
12. Reseal around oven
13. Replace vent fans
14. Rear air bag on the right side has a moderately slow leak.
15. Valve for black water tank not functional
16. Windows need new rubber gaskets
17. One AC unit does not work
Everytime I find something else wrong this is how I feel.
Ta da, I am now a Texan, I am making jalapeno jam! It is super duper easy to make, so I will put the recipe at the end of the post. Let me just say that when you decide to start canning at 0330 in the morning, please make sure you have all the ingredients. I had everything ready, I am talking jalapenos pureed, lids and jars heated on the stove, and lo and behold I had no sugar. This recipe calls for 6 cups and I had about one, it made me sad. After grumbling and cursing the lack of sugar at such a crucial juncture, I decided I had to do a Walmart run. Did I get a normal 5lb bag of sugar? Nope, I got a 25 lb bag of sugar that will ensure I won't run out for a long long long long time, I was irritated and vindictive what can I say. I even had a delightfully awkward moment at Walmart. The check out lady commented, 'thats a big bag of sugar'. Now usually the employees at Walmart at night don't really talk or make eye contact, so naturally this caught me off guard. My verbal and social skills were in their finest form, and after a too long pause while my brain frantically tried to think of something witty, clever or just non weird to say. I blurted out a comment about how much of a bummer it is being in the middle of canning and running out of sugar. I am pretty sure that just made me seem more weird. Seriously who buys a 25 lbs bag of sugar at 0400 in the morning because they are canning? I do, that is who...
Chop Chop
Aren't my pink gloves awesome? I did not want to be seeding and slicing jalapenos without proper protection in place, nothing like rubbing your eye after cutting peppers.
Jalapeno jam going to its new home
Can't believe I actual had the right # of jars ready
It looks good, hopefully tastes good too
Now if I can only muster up the energy to make some crackers.
To make Jalapeno jam:
12 medium sized jalapenos seeded and de-veined.
6 cups of sugar
2 packages of the liquid pectin so a total of 6 oz.
2 cups cider vinegar
green food coloring if you want
1). Puree the jalapenos and one cup cider in a blender then put in a pot on the stove
2). Add all the sugar and the other cup of the cider
3). Stir over high heat until boiling. Once you hit a boil keep it there for 10 minutes ( It will seem like forever)
4.) Add both packages of the liquid pectin and boil hard for one more minute
5). Add green food coloring if you want to make it super green
6). Do your canning, if you want to eat it within three weeks you can just put it in a clean jar in the fridge or freezer. To keep it for up to a year you have to do the water bath thing. I recommend just googling ball canning and they will tell you the appropriate times etc. Really water bath canning is super easy don't be scared.
We had a delightful memorial day weekend, and I also wanted to take a moment to thank all of the veterans of wars past and present. I ended up eating brisket for every meal for three days. I just can't get enough of brisket it makes my heart sing with happiness. I don't even want to know what my cholesterol levels are.
We made the drive to San Antonio last week to go watch Star Wars and other Space Odysseys as played by the San Antonio symphony. It was a lot of fun. The music was beautiful and we sat close enough to see everything. I love watching the musicians, it seems like they are having such a great time. The violinists were amazing. It made me want to practice more (-: I have been neglecting my playing, the one thing I want to buy is a damper for the violin so I can play at night time without disturbing anyone.
I am wearing heels (-:
After the show we went downtown to San Antonio and found a great little cantina that had a quiet relaxed atmosphere and a band playing some jazzy blues music, my kind of place. Surprisingly it wasn't all that crowded, apparently most of the young night crowd prefers loud music, where you have to shout to be heard. I for the record hate things that are loud, for example: Popping balloons still make me grit my teeth and I can hardly stand fireworks because of the noise.
Being a night nurse is wonderful because I get to be stealthy and quiet or creepy depends how you look at it. The lights get turned off at the nurses station and even when we talk to each other it is more on a whisper level (for the record, no we never sleep while on duty). My nursing shoes are chosen because they don't squeak, my scrub colors are black and blue, I carry my trusty pen light into patient rooms to do late night checks and IV medication hanging. I have to say that nursing at night makes it challenging sometimes to get things done. On one hand you want to make sure you are doing everything you are supposed to, on the other hand you have to try to let your patients get some quality uninterrupted sleep which is vital for healing. When vital signs checks have to be done every four hours, oral medications being given last at 2100, IV meds and breathing treatments being given at all hours of the night, blood sugars at 0300 and lab draws that are at 0500, being a patient in the hospital means that you will most likely be getting little uninterrupted sleep. At the same time, you have to remember that the hospital isn't holiday inn and if you weren't sick and didn't need close monitoring you wouldn't need to be there. At some point or another most of us will need to be hospitalized, please make sure to take a second and thank your nurse. I have a few suggestions for all of you who will someday be in the hospital. Keep in mind that you are not the only sick person your nurse is taking care of, understand that many of them don't get a lunch breaks or any other breaks during a 12 hour shift, forgoing them in order to take care of you, understand that missing holidays, birthdays, and important events is an unavoidable condition of our career. Cut us a little slack, being in the hospital does not give you an opportunity to abandon common courtesy and basic human politeness. Just some thoughts from me, sorry about the soap box.
I won't lie and say I have been busy, because truly I have not. I feel like I have been working a lot which isn't true either because I am working the same number of shifts as always. I am coming off my orientation period though which has me terrified, the security blanket is going away and baby bird is going to have to fly.
We went to San Antonio last night.....at two in the morning it really sounded like a good idea. I just hadn't counted on how even a big city is totally dead at 2 in the morning on a Wednesday. There is however a mexican restaurant called Mi Tierra that has never closed since it opened a couple decades ago. We had chips, salsa, queso and delicious mexican food 3:45 a.m. How is that for weird? Surprisingly there were other people there, (other night shifters I presume) and a couple of cops.
My original hens Agnes, Pearl, Camille, and Annalise turned on year old on the 16th. I remember the day we got them I put their birthday in my phone. I can't believe that a year has passed since we embarked on our journey of sustainability, farming, practicality, or whatever you want to call it. Getting the chicks kicked off all of the craziness, before that it was just talking and dreaming. I can't believe how much has changed since that fateful day when the husband said, "hey do you want to go to Kaneohe and get some chicks?" we have built a chicken coop, bought two goats and learned how to milk, had seven rabbits that we bred, and learned to process, had a compost pile, ate delicious eggs from our own hens, and grew our own garden. I need to start putting more dates in my phone of firsts and new things. It is nice to look back and see how far you have come.
Weena trying out to be the Grinch's dog
Behold the free fence
Sweet gate husband made
Our future food
Saber Tooth's war wound
P.S. Saber Tooth is MIA I don't know where he is at, I am hoping he shows back up. Hopefully he is just out wooing some lady cats.
A hundred dollar dine, a
tasty swine, all you gotta do is get in line.
Are ya achin?
Yup
Yup Yup
For some bacon?
Yup Yup Yup
He's a big pig, You can be a big pig
too! Oy!
So
this picture is of a pig that was given to us by an accquaintance. The men folk killed
the pig and butchered it in the yard. Yeehaw, I am definately in Texas, killin pigs in the yard. So far my mom
in law has made chile verde, and tinga with it. I think tinga is my new
favorite food. It is delicious, there is such a nice savory smokey spicy flavor
to it that is hard to describe but delicious. Today my mom in law is making a
posole again with the pig. This pig has already given us about two dozen
servings of food! It was also totally free, did I mention that? Free is always my favorite. We also have
two small piggies in in the pen we built for our future goats.
They are only maybe twenty pounds each so we are feeding them and getting them fattened up for further delicious pig eating. Husband wants to name them something,
which is fine. I think we should call them bacon and piglet or pork chop
something food related to remind us that they are not pets. It rained today and they are happy as well, pigs in mud. They are living the good life.
Butchering
is an interesting thing, definately an art and science. It takes a special finesse and very sharp knives. I didn't stay to watch
because I am a whuss, I am still acclimating to the idea of live animal to food. It is hard. I know that my grandparents didn't have such sentimental feelings. My grandma used to live on a farm that raised pigs. Even though helping with the actual slaughter was outside my realm of comfort, I did however help wash the meat after it was cut into non pig looking hunks. You have to wash off all the blood and get all the clots off before it
goes in the freezer, so that is what I helped with.
The chickens are huge already, definately bigger than
the barred rocks and americanas we had in Hawaii. I guess because these are
production layers they get bigger faster and will hopefully lay sooner. I am
guesstimating that we will have eggs in two months, maybe less. They are
starting to get into that awkward stage where they chirp but occasionally make
a cluck.
