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.