Bookmobile, My New Breadmaker & Borax

Okay, I am officially addicted to the Marin County Free Library Bookmobile. It's true. I still can't get over the fact that you can order books or DVD's, get them delivered to our remote area and the librarian starts to see your patterns and starts "saving" books for you for your next visit. Brilliant.

Steve started work reinforcing an old gardening shed into a chicken coop. He disposed of over 30 wasp nests and sealed up the perimeter of the roof (where they were getting in). Check out the view from inside this chicken coop. They should be very happy chicks indeed.


I've been thinking about making bread and buying a breadmaker after reading the posts on digthischick's blog and reading Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver. As I stumbled into the Tomales Post Office last week, there was a posting for a previously loved breadmaker being sold by a woman in town. I called Judy and we arranged a date to meet. She has lived in Tomales for over 40 years and owns four breadmakers. She gave me a tutorial, notes, books, photocopied a manual for me and gave me samples of flour, yeast & gluten to get me started. She let me borrow her "bread machine bible" with the promise that I'd return it promptly. She was another nice reminder of why I love living in this small community on the Sonoma Coast. I mean, really, would this have happened in San Jose? Maybe, but not to me.
In any event, I tried the recipe listed on the above blog and it turned out short, squatty , dense & delicious! I was so proud. G helped pour all of the ingredients in the machine and when we woke up...voila! Bread. Since I was on a breadmaking high, I decided to make pizza dough too. It turned out okay, but not great. I think I need to perfect this recipe and try it again. We had the pizza for lunch with amazing pea shoots from George Marcos (aka - Farmer George) at Earthworker Farms on top & drizzled with champagne vinegar, olive oil, salt & pepper. George delivers his veggies directly to your doorstep weekly and they are fresh, beautiful, pesticide-free & grown with a lot of love and care.


Okay, so now I'm going to bore you a little with my green cleaning discoveries this week. I've used the last of my bleach, soft scrub, windex, etc. I'm only using what my grandma used to use: 20 Mule Borax, white vinegar, hydrogen peroxide & non-toxic cleansers. I decided that with my year of staying at home, I should really be cleaning my own house. I mean, really. Being the Virgo that I am, you would think I love to clean. Wrong. I am really good at putting things away in a closet, drawer, desk, outbuilding, etc. Where I lack the skills is in the down and dirty cleaning part. Well, no more! 20 Mule Borax has re-inspired me. I'm not kidding. This stuff is awesome and does so much. The box tells you all of the things you can use it on (i.e., porcelain, pet stains, wine stains, cookware, hardwater stains, fiberglass, and on, and on, and on). As long as I had a pair of plastic gloves on, everything porcelain got a once over with Borax. I had no idea this would excite me so much. We'll see how long it lasts.


G had a banner week and here are some of the highlights:

1. Helping Dad work on the chicken coop;
2. Assisting in the kitchen as my sous chef;
3. Received word that his first baseball practice is next week (he listened to this message five times on speaker phone & just lovingly stared at the keypad with a sweet smile on his face);
4. He told me he was getting too big for me to sing him his bedtime song (but if it made ME happy that I could still do it);
5. He tried to reason with me about leaving him home alone while I went to the market because he was "tough and brave enough to stay home" (nice try);
6. He received an amazing music box from our friend Patty and he is so taken with it. He's bringing it to his weekly "show & tell" at school (video clip of him eating breakfast and trying to make himself cry?); and
7. West Marin Citizen published Grady's "Home Is Like My Blanket" poem, along with a picture of G in a pretty cute get-up (cowboy boots & all).