so, here it is, almost 2009

so, i guess it is time for me to start paying attention to this blog again. i have recently begun to renew my knitting obsession, which i think is a sign that i finally have a handle on this commuting/island living thing. i mean, there are always things to work, aren't there? namely the kitchen, but that's a whole different story.

things that i'd like to focus on in the coming year (maybe if i write them down i'll pay more attention to them? cough cough.)
1. learning to be more responsible with my resources. (all types... money, food, time, energy, etc.)
2. focusing on preparation for each week, like, having healthy foods prepared ahead of time. maybe this one is really learn to think ahead.
3. living more sustainably/green what have you.
4. making more stuff. everything that i can make, i'd like to. knit, sew, stamp, cook, bake, even cleaning products and personal cleansers.... we'll see about that.

ok, those goals aren't too lofty, right? ha.
the only thing that i'm certain will happen in 2009 is my 10 year high school reunion. isn't that insane? i just can't even believe it.

anyhoo, here i am signing off for now. i am pledging to update more often in 2009. but, we all know how these things are.

feliz ano nuevo!

baby sheep

photos of my trip to the farm today, and from some recent commutes.

the homesteading lifestyle?

as i am now living more rurally than ever before, i thought that i might take this time to reflect upon three new things that have happened to me over the winter of 2006-2007.

1. cooking on a wood stove.
i have never lived somewhere where you buy gas by the tank, and therefore, can run out. luckily, we have a wood stove, otherwise, we couldn't have cooked anything. this happened in december, i think, and i made a delicious roasted chicken and baked potato feast. lemons to lemonade anyone?

2. chimney fire.
one night a month-or-so-ago, our chimney started to shoot flames like a torch. it sounded like a jet engine. i mean, it was nighttime, so, you could really really see how high the flames were. and sparks. lots of sparks. but, a chimney is a fairly contained space, so fires go out quickly. by the time the volunteer fire department showed up, it was mostly just sparks. they went through the motions, though, and put up spot lights and climbed onto the roof, and scraped down the inside with this fancy brush, and looked at the chimney through an infrared camera so that they could tell if there were any hot spots, and wore these fancy yellow outfits, and fell down on the ice. i was preoccupied, because i was in charge of getting the littles out of harm's way, and i could only find piggy. bingo knows to hide when the cat carriers come out of the closet. but, the big gq got his guitar. so, we were 2 for 3 of important things getting out in case the house went down. or, up in flames, i guess is a better phrase. maybe we should take Chas Tenenbaums' lead and start having safety drills. and wearing matching track suits.

3. no running water.
this morning, the big gq woke me up by saying that the pipes were frozen. i couldn't pee, brush my teeth, or shower. it was a little bit shocking. then, he had to chip all this ice off of the window into the space under the house, which isn't quite a basement, but he couldn't fit through the window. he is big. so then, he went to find his sister, to make her go under the house, and i was all, i'm little, i can go. but he thought that it would take hours and hours to thaw the pipes with a little heat gun (technically my embosser for rubber stamping), and i have to go on the boat in order to go to work. (the boat waits for no man.) so, then his sister came with a super-duper hot gun-thing, and the big gq wedged himself into the hole, and heated the pipes. he was wearing a head lamp. presto-changeo the water came back on full force. i mean, running everywhere, so we had to adjust the faucets so that they continued to trickle down the pipes and hopefully prevent freezing. so, gq is focused on hooking up a heater under the house today, and running a fire in the wood-stove at full blast to keep our little house as warm as possible.

can you believe it?

89%

You are 89% Mainah!

 

BORN RAISED AND LOVIN IT!!!!You are all Mainah and wouldn't have it any other way. You are the rare breed of Mainer that would never leave (even if you won them there megabucks!)

How Mainer are you?
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winter photos

island kids love the ferry.
boats and vinalhaven.
downtown #1

downtown #2
in other news, i received my secret pal package, and it's awesome. i don't have a camera right now, so i can't photograph the goodies. let's just say that i'm not that only person who is really really excited by the insides of the cardboard box. the littles have re-discovered their love of catnip! yeah! there are two books, including one skein, which is fantastic. and, a bunch of really nice soft yarns, including a white angora blend that is almost good enough to eat. thanks tina! i do have to say, though, that this SP9 experience has been a challenge, on my end and tina's, i think. turns out the holiday season is not conducive to me being successful at this, so, i learned a Big Lesson from this, too. it has been really fun, though! thanks again, chemical pink....

the life ferry

so, last night when i went to get on the ferry, (after much insanity with the big gq and miss L to get groceries. this business about buying and transporting your food via ferry boat turns out to be a bit, well, complicated.) the little man who is a deck hand came over to our car and asked if we knew about the boat switch. and we're all, wait, what? and he's all, yeah, they're switching your boat out with vinalhaven's stinky old boat because the lobstermen over there are mad that they can't get two tractor trailers of lobbies off at a time. so, they made such a stink that we have this crappy ferry because our boat (the governor burgess) can carry multiple tractor trailers. this boat we have now is slower and ugly on the inside. plus, the women's bathroom is covered in less-than-nice comments about some lady name "loopy linda." sucks to be her, friends. so, i am now destined to a month of alternative ferry riding. oh well. it could be worse. (of course, all the north haven people are starting to make a big stink of their own to the ferry people, and the crew is, too. the design of this boat doesn't work as well with our dock. anyhoo, tempers are flaring.)
oh, yeah. SO, we get to the boat all sweaty and hyped up and the guy says, oh yeah, it's not leaving for another hour. for real. so, of course, we went to get cocktails and pub-fare to remove some of the shock. fantastic.
oh, congratulate me. i sent my first package off for SP9. ole!

commuter by boat

today was my dreaded meeting with the maine state ferry service. for some reason (revenue) they do not offer a commuter rate. this means that i pay huge amounts of money to go to work everyday. this is not good. i went to their advisory board's meeting today where they poo-poo-ed my suggestion and basically flatly refused to look into finding a solution to the commuter's wallet problems.
(they have been using islesboro as their example of why a commuter rate does not work-- islesboro has about 100 people who commute TO the island for work everyday. on north haven, we have none of those, and we have only me who commutes to work on the mainland everyday. i think the situations are a little bit different. really.)
anyhoo, i'm kind of mad. and a little upset that my pleas fell on deaf ears. however, it means that i have to try harder to change north haven's policies, and perhaps that will affect all of penobscot bay's commuters sometime. maybe?
i hope so.
(i forgot to write that one other bad thing happened today: i smell like kerosene. our monitor leaked onto my bag and i was already at the ferry terminal when i realized. but, one good thing happened: i started knitting myself a green, fuzzy, fall beanie. it'll help my commuting blues.)