Drying Clothes with Solar Power

My new apron!

I mentioned in a previous post an apron that my friend's mom had when I was a kid growing up in Redondo Beach, Ca. It had a big pocket to hold clothespins and she wore it when she was hanging clothes on the clothesline in their backyard. I always loved that apron.

Well, now I have one of my own! The Internet is a marvelous thing - I just went on-line and googled "apron pocket clothespins." Up popped an Etsy shop (if you've never been to Etsy and love handmade stuff, it's THE place to buy all things handmade!) and user momomadeit had just what I was looking for, and only $20! See it here. Don't you just love that retro fabric?? Chic is right!

It arrived quickly and beautifully wrapped in bright orange tissue paper (see below) and with several paper items to describe it (I love it's name "Eco Chic Everyday Housewife Apron), and even a recipe for a delicious pound cake, all clipped together with a teensy clothespin. How cute is that!??? This is why I love buying handmade items. People who take the time and care to make things by hand do it for the love of the craft, and when they send their handmade items out into the world it is with love and care and the hope that the recipient will enjoy the item as much as they enjoyed making it.

I hung two loads of clothes out today, and then later brought them in, all the while wearing my new apron and enjoying the convenience of dipping into that roomy pocket for clothespins.

Lovely!

Growing Sprouts and Juicing Carrots & Apples

My friend, Judy, wanted to see pics of my sprouter, so here it is! It was made by NK Lawn & Garden, and I don't believe they even make them any more. I just happened to find this one at Raley's Supermarket in Benicia, CA., near the racks of garden seeds. There were three of them in very dusty boxes. Inside was a coupon that expired in 2000 so you know these things were sitting around in a warehouse for years until someone came across them and said, let's just put these out and see if they sell.

Well, I bought two! One for us and one that I sent to Michael in China. I had been looking for a sprouter for several years. They are hard to find these days. Sprouting seeds at home seems to have gone out of style along with the rest of the 70's fads and fashions. I had to go online to find seeds to sprout. I found the greatest website: Sprout People. Check it out; they have all kinds of seeds and sprouters, fast shipping, and reasonable prices. Besides that, ANYTHING you want or need to know about sprouting seeds can be found on this website.

Anyway, Judy, this is my sprouter. You can see it's got three stackable trays for seeds. The topmost white tray is where you pour in water to rinse the seeds. The water is siphoned down into the first tray of seeds, then onward through the successive trays until it ends up in the bottom white tray. It's an easy way to rinse the seeds in all three trays at once. You can use one tray or all three at once. I most often just use two trays, but sometimes I do like to start several trays of the same seeds (my favorite is red clover) on successive days so that they are ready to eat on successive days.
Here are the trays partly taken apart. Each tray has a little cap in it, under which is a drain hole. The caps siphon off the water in the tray and then pass it down to the tray underneath.

This tray has seeds from Sprout People's "French Garden" mix. It contains red clover, arugula, cress, radish, fenugreek, and dill. We love this mix, though we do wish it had more radish seeds as we like the zip of radish sprouts.
This tray is "Beanie's Awesome Mix" also from Sprout People. It contains lentils, 3 different peas, garbanzos, and adzuki. Yeah, I don't know what adzuki is either. But this mix is great when sprouted and used in salads. Mmmmm!
Here are the seeds as they arrive from Sprout People. To the right side of that photo you can see the sprouter with the steamy looking sides. The seeds are busily soaking up water, giving off some condensation, and getting ready to sprout!

Sorry I don't have any photos of the seeds actually sprouting. We ate them too fast. I will try to get some soon, though. I'm putting some seeds in to sprout this evening so I should have pictures in a few days. A note here about rinsing the seeds: once mine have begun sprouting I usually run each tray under a running faucet to rinse them instead of using the siphoning method. I find each tray gets a more thorough rinse that way and I can jiggle the tray around to keep the sprouts loose and not clumped up. Just my preference

Bottom line is: sprouting seeds is super easy. Stick em in the trays, run the water through twice a day to rinse them, and eat them when they're at the length and maturity that you prefer. A lot of people soak the seeds before sprouting. We experimented and found it didn't seem to make any difference so now we just skip that step ('cuz we're lazy).

Here's another thing we've started doing as part of our new, slower-paced lifestyle. Our boys gave us this juicer several years back and we generally get it out in the summer when produce is plentiful and cheap. We've got it out early this year and have been making carrot/apple juice and is it ever yummy

So easy, too, all we do is make sure the produce is cut small enough to fit into the opening; we don't bother peeling or taking cores/seeds out of the apples, or peeling the carrots. I love the juice best when it's ice-cold right out of the fridge. I can drink 2 or 3 glasses in a row. We're hoping if we drink enough of it our eyesight will improve! Most likely we'll just turn orange. Oh well, it still tastes great.

Between the sprouts and the juice we just may get healthier in spite of all our efforts otherwise!

Benicia State Recreation Area

It's one of our favorite places to walk, bike, run, or rollerblade and it's also one of the state parks that is on Gov. Schwarzenneger's list for closure. We do hope that doesn't happen. In the meantime we are going to enjoy it as much as we can, and this happens to be one of our favorite times of the year at BSRA.

We took our bikes there yesterday afternoon and had a wondeful and relaxing ride to the end of the main bike trail and back, just over a 5 mile round trip. Lots of people were out walking or jogging or riding bicycles, although not as many as on weekends, or late afternoons after school gets out. The weather was perfect; warm and sunny and not too much of a headwind. Flowers and trees are blooming and the hills are covered with bright new grass.
Here's a field covered with that mustard grass I'm so fond of!

Mike climbed over a fence to explore this old abandoned trail, now partially covered over in grasses and plants. (He's like a cat -- put up a fence and the cat can't think of anything else until he's climbed over it!) We saw wild pheasants out in these fields, as well as lots of ground squirrels.
Along the bike trail, in the ditches, grow cattails. This group is from last year, blown out and going to seed. Later in the summer the new ones will appear. I often gather 4 or 5 and take them home to put in a tall pottery vase.
One of the few shaded parts of the trail, this path is lined with huge eucalyptus trees. It's always a welcome respite from the hot sun when we ride here at the height of summer.
At the very end of the bike trail is this view of the Carquinez Strait. Can you believe it? That's Mt. Diablo in the distance!

A xeriscape (low water) garden highlights native plants and flowers. The plants are marked so you can learn a lot about the different types that grow well in this area. We always stop here to make note of growth and changes. (And I like to take photos of the flowers!)

A walking path heading off toward the marshes. At the end is a viewing area to observe waterbirds and other wildlife. There are tons of Red Winged Blackbirds out in the marsh; also ducks, seagulls, and muskrats.

If you live in the east bay of northern California and have never visited the Benicia State Recreation Area, get over here! If it's closed it may be a long time before you have another chance. It costs $4 to park, but you can also park free in the residential areas nearby and walk or bike over. Bring your camera!