Rebecca Homecca

It has been a crazy week. We decided to start a new project in the kitchen, so we’ve been working on that (and subsequently trashing the house). We also making preparations for the upcoming long weekend (yeah!).

So tonight I drove around looking for shelves to match existing cabinets (apparently whitewash has fallen out of favor) and an automatic cat feeder that doesn’t cost more than the cats.

No luck on either account.

I can get said cat feeder from Amazon, but I no longer have time for Amazon. And unfortunately we have a kitty who thinks she needs to eat until she throws up. I won’t mention any names, but let’s just say she’s the one with the tail.

As a result of all this business I have not been doing well with the no salt diet. And lets face it, a long holiday weekend with the fam will not likely be filled with low salt dining.

I see Pizza Sam’s with ham in my future, not to mention hot dogs on the grill. So I guess you could say this Independence Day I will be celebrating independence from salt free living.

Come Tuesday though I have to get back on the wagon. Want to keep those numbers coming down (BP and weight!)

We are at a little bit of a standstill on the kitchen project as we are calling in a contractor to do part of it. So right now we are in construction disaster zone purgatory. I hate to clean up too much just for them to come in a coat the place with drywall dust, but we might have to depending on when he can come.

I can’t wait for my new pantry. A girl needs good storage you know.  And the best part is, this was all previously wasted space getting a new life as an awesome pantry!

We are in strawberry season here in Michigan. So would someone please explain to me why the grocery store had a big ol pile of strawberries from California.

This was the first thing that I saw as I came into the store and it really irritated me.

Then I go to the tomato area and it doesn’t say which state they are from just USA and MEXICO.

On the same bin.

Both countries, one bin. What if I don’t want Mexico tomatoes?

Why did I not just go to the farmers market on Saturday like I planned? Oh that’s right, because I was in my jammies until noon…

To add insult to injury they stopped carrying individual things of Stoneyfield yogurt. They only have big tubs of plain and vanilla. Which is just not as convenient.

So I bought a big tub of plain and am going to add my own MICHIGAN strawberries. They got all kinds of yogurt up there with high fructose corn syrup and aspartame, but if you just want YOGURT, mix your own.

I had this big idea for a book. So far all I have is a title. The Lazy Environmentalist.

What does that have to do with the grocery store? Simple, I am all about doing the right thing, but why does it have to be so inconvenient sometimes? Let’s face it, we all very busy lazy. If it’s too much of a pain in the rear, we aren’t going to do it.

I haven’t written said book yet, on account of the being so, you know, busy…

For our wetlands class today we visited a bog. This entails wading through waste deep water out onto the bog mat.
The bog mat is made of sorghum moss (peat) and is out in the middle of the water. You can walk on it and it is kind of like walking on a water bed. Very strange.
What makes a bog different from a marsh or swamp is that it is filled only with rain water. Marshes and swamps have either water flowing to them from lakes, streams, rivers, or springs.
There is another wetland that is like a bog called a fen, it is fed from springs.
You normally aren’t allowed to walk out on bog mats, but since this one is on private property, the owner allows classes to visit.
It was pretty cool. There are not a lot of nutrients in bog water, so there are 3 different plants out there that eat bugs. We also saw 2 different kinds of orchids that grow out there in addition to water lilies. Blueberries and Michigan Holly grow in the areas closer to land.
You have to be careful of poison sumac which also like to grow in wetlands. The other thing to be careful of is false bottoms (holes)- some can be quite deep.
Unless of course you are the instructor and a few brave students who jumped in on purpose. Not me!
Very little bacteria grows there because it is more acidic than a tomato. And decomposition is very slow. So it doesn’t smell and it is actually quite clean (other than the muck).
I posted some more pics on flickr of the flowers and the swimming.

Here is the sweet baby out at the farm. He was milk drunk from visiting his adoptive mamas (he has two moms) and had to take a snooze. I love his stripes and little Yoda ears.

It is veggie day. I love how wonderful everything looks as much as how it tastes!
We got more lettuce, beet greens, and these fabulous peas. We also got several actual beets this time.
I am generally not a fan of beets, but I’ve only ever had those canned things that look like they have been cooked in some sort of radiation.
So it will be an adventure to try some fresh ones.

I never thought I would get to see this! I came out this morning and there was a bloom on the daylilies by the door!
I know what you are thinking, daylilies are the easiest thing on earth to grow and get to bloom, so what’s the deal?
Well, normally the deer eat all the blooms before they open. Like little snacks. They don’t eat the green part, just all the buds.
But not today! They let one slip through!
So I took a picture. This way I can remember what color they are. And think about how beautiful they would be if allowed to do their thing…

Since it wasn’t raining for once Hubs and I decided to load up our new kayaks and go down the near by river. We are lucky that there a couple of input/output spots close to our house. We drove about 30 minutes to a neighboring town to put in and 2 1/2 hours later, we were at the park near our house.

It was so relaxing. The river isn’t heavily traveled, so it was pretty much just us. It is also surprisingly undeveloped. So it was beautiful travel.

The river is very wide, which is awesome because you don’t run into any trees or debris. However, it is also incredibly slow moving. So that means lots of paddeling.

Part way through I told Hubs I was going to have Michelle Obama arms if we keep this up.

Once we past the part where another river flows into it the current seemed to pick up some. So we are thinking we might put in there next time and go to the boat launch 15 minutes from our house in the other direction.

We saw quite a few Herons along the way. So that was pretty cool.

Now we are both exhausted and sun burned. I think we will sleep well tonight!

Strawberries from the Farm Stand. Aren’t they cute with there little stems?

Here’s some beet greens from our pick up from the Farmer this week. The food from there is so beautiful! I have not had beet greens before, but I hear they are good.  He also gave us sugar snap peas (yum) and a whole bunch of lettuce. The lettuce is all different shaped leaves. It is actually making the salads a little more interesting.

A couple of the beet greens came with little beets attached.

The one thing I don’t have a picture of that I wish I did is the little baby kitten the Farmer had. His mama left him, so they took him in. He is a little fluff ball with white feet (all four!) and strong lungs. He had no problem letting everyone know it was supper time!

I am so sick of eating salads I would sooner be punched in the face by a head of iceberg lettuce than eat another one. So I decided I would make myself a sandwich for lunch today.

Even though bread is not really recommended, sometimes, a girl just needs some bread.

Since I have forever been banned from all forms of lunch meat (I miss you Jimmy John), I made myself a tomato, swiss cheese (the only cheese on the approved list btw) sandwich with 1 spinach leaf and some sliced red pepper on a hamburger bun.

I considered mashing some avacado to use a a spread in lieu of Mayo (condiments are all pretty much on the d-list) but decided that was entirely too complicated and instead packed a spoonfull (literally a spoonful) of hummus to spread on the aforementioned bun.

It was not nearly as satisfying as it sounds.

I think it would have been better had I been able to toast or grill said sandwich panini style. Somehow having it hot would seem less lame.

I had some carrots and apple on the side and strawberries for dessert.

Oh and lets not forget the beverage of choice, water. I usually have no problem drinking water all day. However, since I gave up coffee (I miss you too and don’t appreciate you wafting your fabulous smell at me in the morning), water is all I drink (or occasional milk) and it is not as enjoyable as it once was.

Somehow starting the day with a different beverage made water less boring. Now it’s just boring. I know I could switch to decaf but as the barista says when I order skinny-decaf lattes “why bother”…

To add insult to salad related injury, we picked up our veggies from the farmer today and we have an insanity amount of lettuce. If you did not know that insanity was a measurement, you have not seen all of my lettuce.

Yesterday hubs and I went on a Parade of Homes thing that was all downtown condos. It was fun just to look around at all the different buildings.

It is amazing how different the downtown area is now vs. when I first moved here. There used to be nothing down there other than a few restaurants. Now we have an arena, a new art museum, a ton of places to eat and there is always stuff going on. Back in the day no one wanted to live down town because there was nothing there! Now they are putting in all kinds of condos and apartments.

One of the units we looked at was an apartment that had the most amazing views! If that was there when we were first married, we probably would have rented there.  It was so cool. The building isn’t actually finished yet, and they already have apartments rented.

The one we liked the most was actually off the beaten path a little. It was within walking distance to downtown, but slightly outside it. There is a park right across the street and then the river so it has a nice setting.

It is in an old  building and had a lot of character features you don’t usually see in condos. There are original brick walls and huge old wood beams. One of the units we looked at was really cool because it had an extra little sitting room that used to be the elevator shaft!

The other cool part of that building is you can basically put walls where ever you want in your unit and make whatever floor plan works best for you. Each unit is unique.

We talked about what it would be like to live down there. It would be quite different from our big house on 3 1/2 acres in the woods, that is for sure!