Blog

  • Harvesting

    One of my biggest joys every day is going outside and seeing what I need to harvest.  I’ve been getting a little each and every day and everything is tasting yummy.  Mostly figs and banana peppers right now, but soon I will have tons of tomatoes.  (I also have a ton of basil, so if you are in the area and need fresh basil, come on by)  The garden is providing us with a decent amount of our fresh fruits and veggies and I cannot wait to expand the garden so it can hopefully provide almost all of them.

    Gardening websites can make you think you need to spend a lot of money on tools and gadgets to make the job easier.  Last week I saw this basket and thought that would be nice for picking my fruits and veggies, and then I saw the price, $35.00!  There was no way I was going to pay that much for a basket.  I decided I would look at Goodwill over the weekend and found two different baskets and spent a whopping $1.98.  (One is pictured above with this morning’s harvest in it.)  Now I can harvest keeping both hands free and not dropping stuff, which to Tank means that one is his!  By the way he doesn’t eat them, just carries them around.

  • Bread

    I have kept to my word and started baking our bread.  No more store bought stuff in this house.  Monday I realized Matt was just about out of his sandwich bread and that I had to make bread.  This was the first time I have made bread without the help of a bread machine.  It was an interesting process to watch, plus I got to make a big mess that Matt later had to help clean up.  

     

    Here is the bread in its beginning stage, the dough was super sticky at this stage.  It would have been great to have a pic of my hands covered in it, but I was home alone and I don’t think dough all over the camera would have been appreciated.

     

     

    Here is a pic of Ms. Kitchenaid doing all the hard work.  Yeah, it had to be kneaded for 20 minutes, and I wasn’t about to do that by hand.

     

    The dough rising.  Not very exciting.

    Here is the finished product.  It isn’t the prettiest, but it will do.

     

    The good news is it is edible and it tastes fine to me.  It’s not the best bread ever but it will do for making sandwiches and toast.  I will try a few more recipes before I settle on one as our sandwich bread recipe.  Here is the recipe I tried if you are interested.  

  • Green Meat

    Matt and I have been reducing the amount of meat we eat because raising and producing meat is more taxing on the environment.  We do still eat meat a couple of times a week and thanks to Burban Mom’s most recent post we will be looking into more sustainable meat.  I have been kind of lazy into changing the meat we consume because here in town we only have two major chain grocery stores (no Whole Foods, no Sprouts) and I have never seen grass fed beef at either.  Of course, I haven’t bothered with asking the butcher either, I just didn’t expect to find it.  I will have to check into it more the next time I go to the store, but if not, thanks to localharvest.org I did find a local farm that will deliver grass fed beef to your door.  How convenient is that?  It is way more meat than Matt and I would need so I would probably con some family members into eating more natural and sustainable meat in the process, an added bonus.  If you are interested in reading more on the meat industry check out this NY Times article.

     

    On a side note here is a link to a new website that will help you make those small changes that really do make a big difference:

  • Keeping Busy

    Matt and I are finding new ways to keep ourselves busy during the waiting period. The Ethiopian courts close for two months starting August 6, so even if we got a referral right now our case couldn’t be finalized until October/November. Plus I am pretty sure that there are still a few couples ahead of us waiting for a sibling set. We are hopeful for the end of the year, but early 2009 is looking more realistic. So, we are just trying to stay busy and keep ourselves occupied. (more…)

  • Contest for Free Cloth Diapers

    Want to start cloth diapering, but are overwhelmed with the initial investment?  Thanks to Tara I learned about a contest to win an 18 pack starter set of Bum Genius 3.0.

    Win a Bum Genius 3.0 Starter Kit from Nature’s Child – Wholesome Goods for Mothers and Babies

    I actually already own some of these and they are really nice!

  • Check out Matt in the news

    Matt is featured in an article on a local area website.  Go check it out!

  • Cardboard bikes

    Ahh my two favorite topics finally merge in a new way. Bikes and environment.

    BBC is the best. They have a story out on a 21 year old college student who has designed and produced a bike made of 95% cardboard. And its rideable. The only non-cardboard parts are the chain, tires, crank & rims. Even the spokes are cardboard. 

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7457220.stm

     

    What I love most about this, is the outside of the box (pun intended) thinking. As an avid biker, I’m glad to see new ideas. As a environmentalist, its great to see new uses for organic materials. 

    This bike is estimated to be produced for $60. This is 5x cheaper than the bamboo bike I have been drooling over for a few years.

  • Goodies from the garden

    This year stephanie planted Banana Peppers just for me. She must love me, or something like that. This one plant has been producing peppers like crazy. 2 months ago we pickled 2 jars worth. Today we took about 15 more peppers and pickled 3 jars worth. 

    3 weeks of pickling can’t be done soon enough. I don’t know why, but I really dig pickled pickled banana peppers on sandwiches. 


    (click for crazy close details)

    the finished product

    (click for crazy close details)
     

  • New Blog Name & theme

    So our blog name had lots of issues with random search traffic. @dams is not an uncommon last name. And lets just say some of our random search traffic was disappointed with the results when they made it to our blog. I guess thats what happens when we topped the search results for a popular 1980s playmate. 

     

    So anyway. We changed the blog URL to mattandstephaniesblog.com. So far all looks to be working like normal. But time will tell if there are issues. 

    Also, i finished a new blog theme. Stephanie disliked how “bland” the old one was, although I loved the minimalism and typography. Notice that you can switch the design scheme in the upper right. Pretty cool huh. 

    Also note that the recent posts on the right will be the best way to access older posts, as the home page now only shows the newest post, and most recent comments. 

     

    We’ll see how it goes. There may be more revisions later. 

  • The Girl Effect

    You can to The Girl Effect to learn more.

  • Carbon Challenge

     

     

    I learned about a new challenge over at Burban Mom’s Blog.  The Carbon Challenge is a way to track your carbon footprint and see how the changes you are making are actually working out.  I like to track things so this is a great challenge for me.  I understand it is probably not for everyone.  I will post my results here at the end of every month.  Feel free to join me in tracking your carbons.

    Here is the file that Green with a Gun created:

    carbon-account

  • Share the Road

    That is the title of a government campaign here in Arizona and I have heard it in other parts of the country, but it seems some motorist just do not want to share the roads with cyclist or pedestrians.  For the most part I find motorist perfectly willing to share the road and drive way around me (seriously am I that wide?), but there are a few who refuse to share the road and see how close they can drive next to you (I am talking mere inches).  Some people choose to yell or throw things, neither of those have happened to me, but they have happened to Matt plenty of times.   (more…)

  • this book has changed our lives

  • One Car

    We have owned just one car for about a year and a half now.  We are lucky that we have the ability to do this, Matt’s office is close to home and we have great biking weather for about nine months of the year, we also live close to the grocery store, post office, and bank, plus I don’t have to work a full-time job outside the house.   (more…)