Two Frog Home

Originally posted on March 29, 2007 on Simple Katie.  Since this post I have begun teaching vermicomposting classes at the local community college and have another one scheduled for June 24th.

I’ve become the local worm lady. It’s been an interesting ride these last few weeks. A neighbor’s niece is taking an organic gardening class at our local community college. This niece wanted to learn more about vermicomposting. Said neighbor introduced her to me, she also works at the health food store so I knew her a bit anyway.

Neighbor and niece came by a few weeks ago with her Rubbermaid tub worm bin, to chat and see my worm bin set up. It was a fun few hours, chatting about organic gardening and worm bins. I shared what I’ve learned through trial and error and what didn’t work for me even though all the “expert” articles may recommend it. I gave her a few handfuls of worms from my bin to start out with as well.

Last night there was a knock at the door and the gal was back worm bin in hand. She was worried that the worms were dying and that she was doing something wrong. All appeared well to me, just that the small amount of worms she had weren’t quite up to handling all she had put in. Her newspaper also seemed a bit too wet to me, making it heavy for the worms to navigate but it’ll dry. The worms reproduce rather quickly but it takes a while for them to get big enough to handle waste quickly. Once a worm bin gets really active, lots of babies and dying worms the process is so smooth, really effortless. I explained that some worm death is to be expected and that they just get composted with the food scraps. Turns out someone bought her some worms that will be arriving this week in the mail, and then the bin will start keeping up with her food waste.

She’s shared my number with the folks in her class and to be honest I’m more then happy to help and get other gardeners started on the vermicomposting path. It also gave me an idea to see about teaching a continuing education class on vermicomposting. It could just be a one day 2 hour deal with demonstrations on setting up worm bins and tips. I’ve emailed the college and will begin filling out the paperwork to see if the class could fit into their schedule.

Another amazing thing about this is the network of folks I’m meeting because of the worms. Over the years the worms have taught me many things - everything has a purpose even lowly worms, natural processes are continually amazing, nature needs little if any help from humans, and now friends come from unexpected places.

I use Sundays as a day to prepare so the rest of the week isn’t so hectic.  This time of year, I make a big pot of soup and portion it out for the week’s lunches.  Both Jeff and I brown bag it and we don’t mind leftovers, so we generally have soup with a sandwich and some fruit for lunch the entire week.  Today I made Asian Turkey Noodle, I used up some turkey that was in the freezer, leftover from Thanksgiving, homemade chicken stock, green peppers that were in our freezer, and some carrots, noodles, onions, fresh ginger, and soy sauce from the store (all in my pantry).  Having the soups already portioned out makes more quick weekday morning packing.  I also generally portion out the fruit on Sunday’s as well and just make sandwiches in the morning before work.

Today, we’ve also done laundry, various cleaning projects and just general puttering around.  I updated my etsy shop, too, based on some recent interest in my lunch tote bag / flatware roll sets.  These sets are in a little less flashy colors and hopefully more appealing to more folks.

Generally on Sundays,  I also bake some bread.  I’ve been wanting to experiment with rye and pumpernickel breads and today chose to play with pumpernickel.  I looked at various sources and books for recipes and basically came up with my own that was a combination of many recipes. 

Kathie’s Pumpernickel

In a blender combine:

• 1/2 C Carob Powder
• 1/4 C Instant Coffee
• 1/4 C honey
• 1 TBSP salt
• 3 TBSP butter
• 1 C Boiling Water

Blend until smooth, pour into a bowl and stir in 1 teaspoon caraway seeds and 1 heaping cup raisins.  Allow to cool to room temperature.

Create a sponge with 2 Cups water, 1 Tablespoon yeast, 1 Tablespoon honey, and 1 1/2 Cups flour.  Allow to rise about 30 minutes.

Stir the carob mixture into the sponge.  Add 3 cups of rye flour and enough all-purpose flour to form a dough (about 3 cups for me).  Knead until smooth ball.  Allow to rise 1 hour.  Punch down, shape into oval loaves and let rise on a baking sheet for about 30 minutes.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Brush the loaves with an egg wash and sprinkle on sesame seeds.  Slash the loaves with a razor and bake for about 40 minutes (until hollow sounding when tapped).  Allow to cool on wire racks.

Note: If you are a big fan of caraway you might want to add more, for me 1 teaspoon is plenty.

Last fall, I started teaching a few classes at the local community college’s continuing education program.  I’m having a blast.  It started with a few canning classes, I just finished teaching a frugality class, and I have a worm composting class in a few weeks.  I found out yesterday that students have been waitlisted for the worm composting class and I’m working with the college to add another class this semester.  I truly believe the classes have been as beneficial for me as they have been for the students.  I feel like the classes go well and all of my evaluations have been in the good to excellent range so I’m confident the students agree.

Every continuing education class I teach, I begin by asking the students to give a brief introduction with their reasons for taking the class and any experience they may have with the particular subject.  It’s proven helpful in both the canning and frugality classes because it allowed me to customized the classes a bit more for the students in attendance.  It was especially helpful in the frugality class because they were for the most part a very frugal bunch seeking new ideas and maybe a little validation.  That was not at all whom I had envisioned taking the class and because of that my lesson plans for the class were not at all on target.  I’m grateful for all those high school speech and debate classes and events I participated in, because I am able to think fast on my feet and boy did I have to do that with this group.

Willow asked me if I’d share the syllabus to the frugality class.  In general this is what we did, because of the group it was very different than if the students had been those with lots of debt, etc. which was what I was expecting.  The first week, we discussed frugality as means towards enjoying life and gaining more freedom.  We discussed at length many ways to be frugal without feeling terribly deprived.  The students were very active and it was very much discussion not lecture.  The students were given expense worksheets and asked to track their spending for the next week and bring those sheets back the next week.  The second week we talked about the expense worksheets and the students were asked to classify each expense into three categories: Need, Impulse, Want and to figure the hours of work needed to pay for those items.  We discussed wants not being bad, but the methods to avoid impulses and how in lean times the expense worksheets will really help us cut back on unnecessary things.  We discussed planning at length that night - I’m a firm believer in that good planning is key to frugal success.  The last night I gave the class my favorite frugal tips and we talked about paying for convenience versus enjoyment.  They were given handouts each week and a list of my favorite frugality resources that included books and websites.

I’ve proposed a few more classes along this line to the college for the summer semester and hope to do the canning class again in the fall.  The whole idea behind these classes started when a number of students taking the organic gardening class last year, found out about me and my worm composting.  I helped many of them out and the light bulb went off that I should offer the formal class and look at me now.  What a great opportunity and blessing this has been!

I just loved the way this seam looked and had to take its picture. 

The sun is shining yet again and its such a beautiful day.  I’m glad it’s not overcast so that we can see the lunar eclipse in all its glory, later.  The natural light streaming into my sewing room seems to stimulate my creative mind.  I’ve been doing a little sewing and some boring paperwork, but continually basking in the gorgeous sunlight.  I must say there’s nothing like a few bright sunny days to get a gardening soul through a Montana February.

A lunch bag & flatware roll in progress, will be added to my shop by the end of this month.

I’m teaching a frugal living class at our local community college for 3 weeks on Thursday, when I scheduled the class I didn’t think about Valentine’s Day.  At last week’s class, one of the student’s mentioned that Valentine’s Day was his birthday.  So I decided to make up for scheduling a class on Valentine’s Day and celebrate the student’s birthday with a little love in the form of a cupcake.   I made simple white cupcakes with a chocolate frosting and a sprinkling of cinnamon hearts. 

It’s been a nice quiet, productive morning:

• I’ve worked on (& almost completed) my handouts for a few continuing education courses I’ll be teaching in a few weeks on frugal living and vermicomposting.
• Cleaned and re-organized my sewing room to accommodate a more official “office space.”  I got a laptop this week and needed to set up a workspace for myself.  Jeff and I have shared a desktop for the last 8 years and while I can’t believe I arrived at a time in my life where a laptop and 2 computers are necessary, I am there.  It makes typing my class notes and working on other projects just plain easier.  I always felt bad asking Jeff to get off the computer when He so rarely uses it.  We also set up a wireless network in the house for multiple projects.   (We were so geeked out by it last night that we played scrabble against each other online.  I know we’re dorks.)  Now, I have something that can travel with me so I can make the most of lunch breaks, etc.
• Made simple valentines to mail in the coming weeks to friends and family.  I’m not much of a card maker, but I wanted to do something nice for my loved ones.  I used materials I had in my stash:  card stock in various textures and colors, glue, pinking shears, and some ribbon that I’ve had for years but never touched until today.
• Planned the coming week’s menu and grocery shopping list.
• Did laundry.

I did all these tasks while listening to the following soundtrack (I love reading what other folks are listening too, and figured I’d jump on the bandwagon):

• Not For Kids Only - David Grisman & Jerry Garcia
• When I Woke - Rusted Root
• American Beauty - Grateful Dead
• Fumbling Towards Ecstasy - Sarah McLachlan
• Further In - Greg Brown
• The Cole Porter Songbook - Ella Fitzgerald (currently playing)

I wonder if I need to update my CD collection?  That’s quite a list of oldies (or almost oldies) but goodies.

I’ve been working on these lovely lunch tote bag sets.  I love making them and can see myself making many more in the weeks to come.  It’s a simple tote bag with a matching flatware roll that doubles a placemat.

This set is for sale at my etsy shop.

I’m losing my job.  There’s a ton of back story (isn’t there always?), but in a nutshell the board has decided to move the office to another city in Montana.  It’s a town Jeff and I don’t want to live in, so I’ll soon be out of a job.  I’ve been told that I get a month’s notice and a month’s severance pay once the new office location is decided.  I’m expecting that notice this week - it seems they are just waiting on a few final details from the new location’s building owners.

I found out just before Christmas that this was being considered and I stepped up my job search immediately.  Jeff and I are comfortable with the fact that it might be a few months until I find something else and Jeff is still working.  Considering we are debt free at the moment and we do have a savings (several years ago we made it a point to have at least one year’s combined salary in savings) we aren’t in any financial danger currently.  It does mean, putting the house hunting off until we are in a more stable situation, however.  It also means that we won’t be saving as much to pay down that mortgage in the meantime.  We just aren’t comfortable making any offers that have to be financed until we are sure of our income.  That is a real bummer, I don’t mind saying.  In the end, that’s what bothers me the most, that this business decision is affecting my life and goals so very deeply.

I do have my independent contractor’s license for the state of Montana and hope to pick up a few jobs with that until I find other more stable employment.  Who knows, perhaps working for myself may be the wonderful, albeit, unintentional outcome of this situation.  I’ve gone through a wide range of emotions over this job situation - I was angry and sad about the way I was treated, disappointed and hurt by several people that I had thought better of; and finally relieved that its almost over and that I can rest in the knowledge that God means this for good.

A few envelopes from a set made from recyling a children’s book.

I try not to use my blog as an advertising space, but I did want to mention that I updated my etsy shop today and will be adding more items over the next few days.  If you’re in the market for some handcrafted goods feel free to take a look, even you don’t buy from me, etsy is a great place to surf around.

Almost every morning starts out this way, after working out and making breakfast that is. 

I sit down to the computer, with my cup of coffee and read emails.  I check my palm pilot for the day’s schedule and any projects/tasks that may be due.  I add new projects/tasks based on emails and jot any necessary notes down on scratch paper.

I made the switch from my old paper planner to the palm pilot a few months ago.  I was very hesitant about the change.  I loved my paper planner and I’d been using for sooo long, the binder was actually duct taped together on the inside to keep it from splitting.  However, the planner was just plain heavy and took up a ton of room in my purse/bag.  Jeff, offered to buy me a palm pilot.  I hemmed and hawed about it for a few months - see I love the act of putting pen to paper.  I was sure I would hate giving that up and I was so accustomed to my paper planner.  What if we spent the money on the palm pilot and I hated it - that’d be a terrible waste.  Eventually Jeff convinced me and he bought me a used palm pilot on ebay. 

I have to say, I love the palm pilot and don’t miss my paper planner one iota!  I keep a back-up of the palm pilot on my computer just in case (hopefully both don’t crash on the same day).  I keep my address book, calendar, to-do list, shopping list, to read list, and more on this little device.  I have my different activities color-coded, too, be still my obsessive/compulsive heart.  I’ve always been a big believer in being organized, I just seem to get more accomplished if I’m more regimented.  I’m fairly flexible but in general I like to keep a list of what to do, what’s coming up, etc. and having it all so neat & compact makes me happy.