Colin goes to DBacks baseball camp

Colin just completed his first organized baseball experience at the DiamondBacks baseball camp this week. We thought about little league this spring but he wasn't convinced so we held off. Think he's got the bug now and will try City of Goodyear little league next year. He seems to have an ability to make good contact with the bat!

Kitchen Adventures

The grape vine is yielding lots of grapes right now. They're not terribly big and only a little sweet, and since we've got so many, raisins they will become. Organic raisins seem to be hard to come by anyway, so I think this is the best idea. I'm hoping we'll have plenty to last us for a while. The first batch has been drying outside for two days now on a cookie sheet in a pillow case. Maybe in a day or two we'll have the final result.

The herbs are looking good right now, especially the mint since it hasn't gotten too hot yet. I'm thinking of trying my hand at making mint jelly soon. We've also been experimenting with making Indian food -- naan and dahl to be specific. Making naan is pretty much like making tortillas and the combination of spices for making dahl is pretty interesting (cinnamon, corriander, cumin, cloves, turmeric, mustard seeds) and tasty. Right now we're using some kefir grains to make ginger beer. It's got another day or two to go. Hope it turns out!

Just a Quick Update

It's been a while since I've blogged, so here's a quick update of what we're up to. The kids got out of school a couple weeks ago and we got straight into swim lessons and the summer reading program at the library. We reached the limit on how many items can be checked out at one time yesterday. I've always wondered what it was. Turns out it's 50.

Colin's been teaching the kids next door how to play four square after we found the rules in a book. I didn't remember much from my school years, but they seem to have it figured out. Next week Colin goes to baseball camp to learn some fundamentals and see if he wants to get into the sport.

Last weekend, Jack surprised me with tickets to the Lucinda Williams concert. He scored big points because I've wanting to see her for years, and he had me completely fooled. I was told Saturday afternoon that I needed to be ready to go out at 5:30. Mystified and frustrated by this limited information, I demanded to know who was going out? Me, the two of us, or the whole family? Finally I got it out of him that a sitter was coming. I thought, he got a sitter? All by himself? He actually called? The plan was dinner-- maybe a movie. Okay, that sounded nice. It wasn't until after dinner when he'd missed the turns to the local theaters that I began to suspect. Anyway it was wonderful and she sounded really great.

Jack's been out of town most of the week between having to do DPS stuff in Flagstaff and going to his aunt's funeral in San Francisco. It'll be good to have him back home this weekend. I'll be sure to stock the fridge with beer and have some chips and salsa on hand when he gets back. It's been a long week for him!

Dog video

Toby likes to take a jaunt in the backyard in the morning.

The Fly Slayer

Recent additions to the backyard, dog poop and an earth worm farm, have added a few unwanted residents. They are not welcomed by some.....

Chess Match

Dad is experimenting with short movie making. Here's Colin and Dad playing chess.

Toby's First Week

Well, we have now had Toby just over a week and he is doing great-- barring a few potty accidents. Everyone in the family has bonded with him, and he seems pretty comfortable in our home--Comfortable enough to steal Colin's snack off the table this afternoon. Luckily everyone has a sense of humor and hopefully Colin has learned a lesson about leaving food out. Genna was trying to teach him to read-- just easy words like "a", "the", and "my". Maybe she can teach him to read "No Stealing" or "Keep your nose off the table. Thank you."

Greyhounds also are pack rats. Toby likes to go "shopping" in their bedrooms, so the kids have quickly learned to keep their doors shut. So smart!

One day I walked through the living room and found the remote on the floor. A few days ago he carried Colin's stuffed animal (Super Teddy) off to his bed. Thankfully he isn't into chewing stuff up; he just wants to carry whatever appealing thing he's found away to his lair or some other comfy spot and drop it off. Still the slobber factor is enough to motivate us to keep certain thing out of reach. Maybe someday I could get really tough on the room cleaning and make the kids leave their doors open. Diabolical? Yes, I know.

Toby!

Last night we brought home our adopted retired greyhound after a two hour tour and orientation at the Phoenix Greyhound Park. The kids learned all about how the dogs are raised and trained and watched the first race of the night. Colin wants to go back and bet next time, says he can figure out which one is fast by watching them walk out prior to the race. The first night Toby was a bit anxious but today he seems pretty settled in. He's only two years old and still very active so we spent some time at the Goodyear city park dog run this morning. He's retired for lack of interest in racing and that seemed to come through at the park. He enjoyed running around and orienting himself to the park but did not seem that interested in putting in any fast laps. Lisa did get a glimpse of the hunt drive when a little white dog walked by while we were watching the little league game. But for her solid grip on the leash, we would have had a bit of a diplomatic snafu.

SLO Time

We just got back a few days ago from our spring break visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Arroyo Grande. The first thing we did was hit the farmer's market behind the village along the creek on Saturday afternoon. So much to choose from-- strawberries, artichokes, greens, onions, apples, honey, oranges, tomatoes, beans, asparagus, eggs, brussel's sprouts, and broccoli. We bought lots and managed to eat most of it.

Our week included all the ritual visits -- Avila Beach, Doc Bernstien's Ice Cream, the park on the hill, and several trips to San Luis Obispo to visit our favorite bakery, the toy store, the children's museum, the mission, Moondoggies, Mo's BBQ, and the yarn shop.

To top it all, we took a trip to the Monterey Aquarium, which was very cool-- huge impressive tanks and ocean views.

We also explored picturesque Carmel and a little bit of the Pebble Beach golf course. After driving through the Salinas Valley and seeing Cannery Row, Jack and I will be reading more Steinbeck. We were also lucky enough to have perfect weather too.

On our last day in Arroyo Grande Jack and I took a scenic drive through the rural landscape further inland.



Saturday morning we left in fog and mist while taking our leave of the vineyards, the grazing cattle on the rolling green hills, the gnarled oaks, and blue ocean. We had a great time!

Contractor Man

It's official. Jack now has a spray foam insulation business. Licensed, bonded and insured. Says so on the cool signage on his truck. He has a website (www.ZeroEnergySystemsLLC.com) and a tricked out trailer too. Pretty cool.

He sprayed foam in our attic a few months ago and we hardly needed to use the heat this winter. Anxious to see what the impact will be on our summer a/c bill.

Fly Slayer or Hidden Talents II

Jack has the rather impressive ability to kill flies in mid-flight. Once the offending fly lands on a convenient spot, he slowly sneaks up on it, claps his hands just as the fly senses his movement and takes off, and bingo, they are swiftly dispatched. Today was a red letter day because he killed two simultaneously. The camera wasn't handy at the crucial moment, but I was so thoroughly impressed I had to take a picture of the aftermath and share.

Genevieve it seems, may develop her own abilities in this area as I witnessed her deftly pick up a fly that was crawling on her by its wings the other day. Weird, I know. I'll stick with the worms.

Goodyear, AZ-- Where Women Garden and Worms are Nervous

Wife, mother, school volunteer, short order cook, sometime cleaner of toilets, gardening enthusiast and now add to the list the title of worm wrangler. It all began when I spied the can-o-worms composting system in my latest gardening catalog. Worm castings as you may know do all this great stuff for your soil, and with you very own personal composting system you can have all the castings you could ever want. You put your food scraps in and the worms munch away and poop while migrating through the stacking trays of your garbage. In a month or two you have the world's greatest fertilizer, and best of all it's odorless.

But there was a problem. I couldn't bring myself to pay $100 for a bunch of plastic trays. After some research, I found you can make your very own vermicomposting system. Basically all you need is a plastic tub with some wholes in it to let the air in. You can get clever and complicated, but that's about all you need-- and of course worms. They were $40 a pound plus shipping. Somehow it didn't seem right to have to pay for worms, at least not that much. So I sat on this next step in the process hoping another idea would come to mind. It finally did when I was loosening a patch of soil for a planting of cukes. Right there under my nose, wriggling in my trowel were these red, fat little worms. I'd planted worm cocoons last spring throughout the garden, but hadn't really seen any sign of life when I did my earlier plantings. But just in that square foot patch I must have turned up about a dozen redworms.

I decided then and there I could raise my own worm herd. I transferred as many as I could find (all the while praying I wouldn't slice too many in half as I dug down) to a cozy little bucket (with holes) lined with shredded newspaper, delicious banana peels and various other fruit and veggie scraps. Their own little worm paradise. I'm hoping I can get a decent sized population going and move them into a larger bin later. Maybe then we'll be in business.

Honed to Perfection

I recently discovered that I could get my knives sharpened at my local fabric store. Once a week the knife guy sets up shop just inside the entrance and it only costs $2. I've been meaning to get my knives sharpened for some time so I make plans to be at Joann's on Monday.

He looks bored and downright grim. No "Hello, what can I do for you?" In fact he looks surprised to see me. I feel compelled to explain what I'm doing here as I lay the knives on the table. He examines them with a scowl, and I wonder if he's about to turn me away when he says, "These knives look pretty tired."

Yes, they're embarrassingly dull. They've been that way for years. You know how they say a dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp one? Well mine must be lethal because they're about as sharp as spoons. So yes, knife man, go ahead and judge my knives. I've only brought two to see how they turn out, but there's plenty more where these puppies came from.

He takes down my initials and tells me it'll take about 5-10 minutes. I take this as a signal that I should leave instead of hang around. A dangerous proposition. I came in determined not to spend more than $4. Would I have the will power not to buy some small enticing craft item? I pass the time in the needle craft section and discover that Deborah Norville now hawks yarn. And yes, I mean Deborah Norville the TV journalist. There she is right next to Vanna White, the afghan maven.

I hear the sound of the knife sharpening machine winding down. Happily I have managed restraint. No extra purchases today, but as I make my way to the front of the store, I'm vaguely wondering if I'll be charged extra for my tired knives. There is a neat little paper wrapped parcel with my initials waiting. Again, he looks a bit surprised to see me,"L.H.?" I look around. I am the only customer in sight and I was just here 5 minutes ago. "Um, yes that's me." I am happy to find that it still only costs $2 a knife no matter how exhausted your knives are.

After I get them home it's a thrill to discover they slice through tomatoes like butter, and I can't wait to try the big one out on the pineapple. Hallelujah! I sense another awkward encounter with the knife guy in my future.

Whirlwind Tour of the Wildlife World Zoo

Genevieve's' kindergarten class had a field trip to the Wildlife World Zoo yesterday and Mom got to be a chaperone (woohoo!) We were broken into groups and pretty much given free reign. Our group included Gen and two other boys in her class. We probably spent the most time with the monkeys and giraffes since they were the most entertaining. The best part was checking out the new aquarium we've been reading so much about. I think I remember sting rays and a white alligator, but that's about it. One of our little friends moved at lightning speed, so we never lingered long at any of the exhibits, but we got the gist. Probably about right for kindergarten. I was pretty tired by the time it was over.

Hidden Talents

Colin learned this trick from his friends at school.
He came home telling me that he and his friends like blowing bubbles in the bathroom. I wasn't quite sure what that meant. Then he promptly went into the bathroom, emerged with dripping, soapy hands and proceeded to demonstrate. We were duly impressed. Now if we could teach him to blow bubbles with chewing gum we'd have the whole bubble thing mastered.

Seeing as how Colin was getting his moment in the sun, I figured it was only fair to document Genevieve's hidden talent. She says that since she lost her front teeth this trick is even easier!

Newsflash: Mother Tricks Daughter into Eating Kefir

And I have the photo- graphic evidence to prove it! Diabolical? I know. I began with a more logical strategy-- blend it into a smoothie. I whipped up smoothie after delicious smoothie to no avail. Colin thought they were great. She probably wouldn't drink them because everyone said how great they were. So how did I do it? Let's just say she thinks it's ranch dip.

Is There a Greyhound in Our Future?

I have always thought that someday we might have a dog, but was never sure it would ever happen without some major spousal arm twisting. Not being the arm-twisting type, I was beginning to resign myself to the possibility that we would remain petless to the end of our days. As the kids got older, I half expected them to start pining for a dog and thus provide some back up. Together we could perhaps stage a household coup, sweeping aside all resistance with our incessant pleas. My kids, however, not having spent much time around dogs, have never taken up the cause. Instead of begging for a dog, they beg for deluxe Lego sets. (The catalogs inexplicably started showing up in our mailbox about a year ago.) Now, I think they like animals -- we had a cat a few years ago they truly adored, but most of their animal contact has been with the stuffed kind.

A crack in the spousal resistance appeared some months ago when I mentioned how my friend Carol had adopted 2 greyhounds. "Now if I had to have a dog it would be a greyhound because I've heard they're good dogs," he said. What's this? I didn't even have to mention all the wonderful things Carol said about her dogs. And frankly, I wasn't even going to attempt to make a case for getting one. I had no idea he had this information stored away in his head. Where did this come from? I decided to play it cool and let things gradually unfold. I bided my time, occasionally retelling stories Carol shared about her dogs. Finally, last Friday we got a chance to meet Ace and Chelsea, and at last, I think, resistance has been swept aside.

I did a little reading on greyhounds, but there are some things we learned from our visit to Carol and Jeff's that they didn't mention in the book:
1. They like to lean against you. Ace, the 90 pound one, particularly seemed to like to lean against Jack.
2. They have particularly bad dog breath. (This I personally did not notice during our visit. While Ace stood nose to nose to us as we sat on the couch, he politely kept is mouth closed.)
3. They fart a lot. ( Again, fortunately, this is not something I noticed during our visit)

Potential farting and bad breath aside, the pros far outweigh the cons. They are sweet, gentle, laid back and have really soft fur. They don't bark a lot, and contrary to what one might think, they only need to go for a short walk a few times a week. They must, however, be kept on a leash at all times because of their prey drive. If they catch sight of any chaseable thing, they could be gone for good. Frankly, I was quite smitten with Ace and Chelsea. I would've taken them home right then and there. As for Jack, I think he was equally impressed and the final reservations were laid to rest. We have some travel plans on the horizon, but when we return I think I'll be giving Adopt a Greyhound a call.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Awesome! Fun read. Informative. Powerful motivation for eating locally, cooking from scratch and reconnecting with the land. Many humorous passages where I laughed out loud. Loved it! I read a good portion of it to Jack and I think it's next on his list now. We'll see what he thinks.


View all my reviews.

Fun with Fermented Milk

Busy day in the kitchen yesterday. A few short hours after completing my first batch of mozzarella our mailbox yielded the long awaited arrival of kefir and fil mjolk cultures (okay maybe not so long a wait, but the cheese kit came faster). Motivated by Genevieve's digestive issues, I was dabbling in yogurt making when a little further research revealed that kefir, an ancient cultured drink from the Caucasus Mountains, has far more beneficial bacteria in it. By the sound of some of the websites it may be the very elixir of life.

Now I had been given some kefir cultures by a friend a couple years back and had not fully understood what the stuff was or that it may require more patience than I realized to get it going. Then again it may not have survived the cross country trip and that was why it didn't seem to do anything. At any rate I'm now giving it another go with a better appreciation for it. So far, the fil mjolk, a Swedish version of kefir (pictured above), seems to be the more lively of the two cultures. It came foaming out of it's little vial when I opened it. A cup of milk and 12 hours it has already thickened into a fairly tasty yogurty drink.
The kefir milk mixture on the other hand seems unchanged. My next trick will be to get Genevieve's fussy little palate to accept it. Just a matter of finding the right sweetener I expect. Not giving up yet.

My other challenge after yesterday's cheese making adventures is to find a way to use the leftover whey. There's nearly a gallon of it and I can't bear to throw it away. So far it's found it's way into pizza dough and two loaves of bread and I still have a ton left. Apparently it can be a refreshing and healthful drink, but this batch is a tad salty due to the cheesemaking method I used. I was thinking it could be a handy alternative to Jack's whey protein shakes, but this is apparently to salty even for Jack the salt fiend. Maybe next batch.

Hope everyone had a good valentines day. Lisa made cheese from scratch and it's pretty good! Not that we doubted the outcome. We started on some additional garden space in the backyard and have two bricked-in veggie gardens stood up. They will still need stucco and paint in the next few weekends.

We checked out our babysitters blog, http://www.jessecatron.com/ yesterday and today. She has had leukemia since October.

Saturday, February 14th, 2009. Valentines and statehood day. We have four pallets of cinder block in the driveway, delivered yesterday, to add some serious gardening space to the backyard and a big planter box in the front. We've been looking at some fruit trees and Jack wants to grow bell peppers and chiles. Looks like the weather will hold out for the weekend so we won't be working in the rain.

The kids have a four day weekend with the holiday Monday and teacher in-service yesterday. They have been taking advantage of the weather and play outside most of the day with other kids on the block. We're lucky we have three or four other families with kids the age of ours.

Lisa and I were planning on going out tonight but our normal babysitter hadn't been answering her phone and finally her mom answered and gave us a shock. Our babysitter, who is 17 or 18 I think, has been in the hospital with leukemia! We made some valentines cards from the kids to send her. Lisa found her blog and it looks like she is fighting it off ok but has to stay in the hospital for several more months. Kinda puts things in perspective. Think we'll stay home tonight and just watch a movie.

Monday, 9 Feb 2009. Lisa ordered something to make her own cheese today. Rotten milk products in the kitchen, cool. Colin and Genna posed for a quick picture after school, note cropped out nerf gun in Colin's right hand.














Understand Flagstaff is getting feet of snow at higher elevations and roads are being closed. Kids in Flag will get snow days this week! At least we get a long weekend this weekend, the kids are out of school Friday for a teacher in-service and Monday is a holiday. We plan to put in some new garden space in the back yard over the weekend if the rain subsides and things dry out a bit.

Sunday, 8 Feb 2009. Visited Grandma Glennie this afternoon and cooked pizza. She is well, complains of pain in her hip when she puts weight on it, thinks it's the neuropathy. She plans to visit the doctor reference the hip as soon as things settle down from another family member having a mastectomy. We spent about an hour and a half at her house in the downtown Phoenix area and then headed home around 5:30pm.

Colin planned to play little league this spring but the league has games on Tuesday and Thursday that occasionally go to 10:00 or 11:00pm and we decided we're not that motivated to keep him (and the rest of us) up that late on school nights. He hits the ball well and has greatly improved his throwing and catching skills so if he's interested when he's 9 or 10 we'll pursue it. Eight seems a bit early to get that involved in a sport.

We've been eating the grass fed beef recently procured via cheeseburgers and steak & salad. It requires a deft touch cooking and ample seasoning but the health benefits are motivating. We're in pursuit of recipes that will break from the burger and steak menus now so we don't get bored with the familiar standbys. Tomorrow's menu is meatloaf. Lisa continues to read 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and we plan to expand our garden this spring.

Welcome to the Hegarty Herald. Hopefully someone will update it regularly but no promises. Currently, Colin is starting Goodyear Little League this week, Genna is getting used to a new kindergarten teacher (she thought the old one was mean anyway), and Lisa is into a new book about growing everything you need to eat in your backyard. Along that line, Jack seems to buy a quarter of a grass-fed steer regularly so we eat lots of beef these days. He's is going to Tucson to the UA agriculture research facility with Lisa's uncle Dave to pick up a butchered steer. Lisa's other uncle Charlie arranged for the families to split a steer raised on a range in southern Arizona. It's about $500 for over 120 pounds of beef. Jack put a chest freezer in the master closet for the 1/2 beef we now have on site.

Here's some videos and pictures from Christmas 2008 Christmas dinner.

Grandma figuring out her gift is not totally sincere. She admitted in an earlier visit to going for walks early in the morning when its still dark and she has been known to take a spill occasionally when she doesn't watch her step.