We could be on-grid by 2018!

"The 100-megawatt distribution line could extend to the site of a planned International Tower Hills mine by 2018 and also could offer electricity in areas north of Fox that GVEA doesn’t currently serve.

With access to subdivisions off the Elliott Highway, Haystack Drive and even the small community of Livengood, GVEA could add hundreds of homes to the Interior grid." per the NewsMiner.

Livengood is approximately another 120 miles past the homestead headed north.  We would be one of the "hundreds of homes" that would gain access to the power grid if and when this line goes in.  And come to find out, preparation for this very line is the bulk of the reason for a very good friend's archeological fieldwork the past few summers.  Funny how the universe can sometimes synchronize things.

When I first read the article, I really watched my reaction to it; I was expecting to be somehow upset or feel cheated.  Living remotely has been such a longtime dream, and I feel radical and hard core living off-grid.  But I wasn't upset at all, I was psyched. 

Our electrical set up is great in our long long days during our short summer.  But in the winter dark we run off of the deisal generator.  We have a great battery set up and the system is phenomenal.  But it is still a direct getting of power from fossil fuels.  Hooking into the grid would allow us to (potentially) sell back excess solar energy in the summer time, and then have (probably cheaper) winter power.  Also, as time goes on and fossil fuels increase in scarcity and price and demand, I sincerely hope that GVEA, our local energy co-op company, increasingly pursues large scale sustainable hydro-, wind-, and geothermal- energy sources.  Which would mean, that being on-grid might be more truly sustainable than off grid.

on carpooling and community

This weekend I spent approximately 110 miles with my self and the road beneath my wheels.  It was nice to have the time alone - to think and to mull over ideas for a play I'm thinking of for the next year or two of RTRT*.  But I missed the opportunity for conversation. Generally, Darlin' Man and I carpool (or else I snag rides from our housemates, or is that homesteadmates?).  Living so far out of town, it only makes sense to minimize on our use of gas - both for its emissions and its cost.  This means that I get to slowly, and gradually (much to the early bird dismay of the darlin' man, but thankfully with his help and support) realign my nightowl self to a schedule of going to bed early, and rising even earlier.  I tell myself this is a good thing.
 But we once again have two working vehicles!  We recently bought his folks' old pickup - it may be a GMC, but it has a back seat, a long bed, great towing power, and super amazing highbeams.

 So this weekend, he was able to go to his Clucking Blossom (free community music and amazingness event) planning meeting  before his Saturday performace, six hours before I was planning on being in town.  And I was able on Sunday to leave for my *ahem * romance novel book club, a couple hours before he had to be in town, and come home something like 8 hours before he was done with strike for his show.  It is certainly a luxury to be able to do things and go places all by myself, without having to account for, in minute detail, the schedule of another person - much less two or three (don't get me started on the days when we have only had one functioning car for three or four people!)  There's always the fossil fuel guilt.

But what I really realized this weekend, in a more experiential way than I have before (in my analytically intellectual way), is the loss of community and personal connection we have in our society's one car and one cell phone per person mobile 24/7 lifestyle.  When we carpool, we are both continually engaged in compromise, and in the practice of consideration.  If we had carpooled, for instance, on Saturday; I would have had incidental conversations with the people he's organizing Clucking Blossom with - many of them good friends I rarely see.  I would have spent time on the internet, catching up on the six or so blog entries I've started and not finished (we don't have the internets at home).  Raif would have gotten to see and say hi to some of my friends he rarely gets to see.  I would have helped out at the local community theatre...  Many and different social contacts and help in shared endeavors would have occurred in

On the other hand, I would have lost out on about 12 hours of being at the homestead, and cultivating within myself and our home the home-centered lifestyle I aspire to.

It is something I have more to say on, and which I frequently think about - though really, having bought the homestead, we're pretty much committed to our choice - this duality between hermit and community, between independence and interdependence.  Writing this, I realize that the concept of the frontier is really at the nexus of interaction of these concepts...

In other news: I made a warm cabbage salad for dinner last night that is a very close and very good! approximation of the gourmet warm cabbage salad at a local 'really nice' restaurant.  I'm quite pleased with it.  Red cabbage, toasted walnuts, crisp bacon, and soaked raisins sauteed in olive oil with a vinagrette.  I ate mine with blue cheese and red wine.  It was so so good!

... was that a ramble or was that a ramble?  I do have more focused posts in my head!  I promise...


*the Darlin' Man tends to choose indie hip-hop and spoken word rap when I might otherwise prefer bluegrass....

"As Sure as God Made the Little Green Apples"

~Opens tonight~

This is the show for which RTRT recieved a grant to develop it.

We were one of 5 Alaska non-profits to recieve a Pride Foundation grant this year.

The play explores the experience of being a lesbian in Fairbanks through movement and text.  My breda - and RTRT president and co-founder - developed the script based on interviews she conducted with local ladies.  I'm so proud of her. 

This fortnight* I...

-  made a new friend.
- indulged my body in two days of some serious sleeping in. It was needed!
- discovered my cat can jump walls.
- finally, after months of meaning to, brought plants into my office at work.
- discussed plans of beehives, chicken coops, and CSA's.
- wrote two letters.
- watched a Korean soap opera, and had the 60 year old Korean lady who runs the noodle house spontaneoulsy translate it for me.
- read 5 romance novels.  Yes, I read romance novels and I'm proud of it!
- ate bread pudding muffins and jalepeno bacon corn muffins at romance novel book club (see above).
- decided that Korean soap operas and romance novels have much in common.
- ate Thai food with my sister.
- sang kirtan and attended a mantra workshop with Girish!
- ate swedish pancakes with lingonberry sauce.
- listened most days to Alaska News Nightly and National Native News on NPR.



- FINISHED MY YOGA TEACHER TRAINING APPLICATION!


(*A fortnight seems a more reasonable time frame for a regular round-up post than a week does.  Also its unusual - ALL bloggers do weekly things! lol.  But really, I just love the word fortnight.  It has such a sense of history behind it, and it will always sound so elegant to me.  I remember first encountering it in "Little Women" when Meg goes to visit Sally for a fortnight, when I was in 3rd grade and first read "Little Women."  It was a few years until I learned what it meant.  Until then it was this exotic phrase that was all about house parties and lamp lit evenings at the theatre in cloaks.  So elegant!)

Springtime welcomes the light

This table cloth is linen with a gorgeous cross stitched border.

  I found it at Value Village! Can you believe that?

  I think I splurged on it - paying about $5.

There is one hole about the size of a dime in it,

but otherwise its in great condition!

Spring is here.  I know this because the Equinox has passed.  It was expected of course, but somehow not anticipated.  It managed to sneak up on me in total surprise.  No bonfire marked it, mostly due to scheduling.  But also in this weird weird spring where my father in Connecticut has 80 degree days while we have twenty below zero days...  The mid way seasonal balancing shift somehow doesn't feel to be happening.  I notice the sun though.  It is light at home of an evening now.  I hadn't noticed it really and truly until this week - maybe because the last few weeks I havent been getting home till 11 at the earliest, what with the darlin' man's play. 

Anyway, I did quietly celebrate the coming of spring, for myself.  I did a facial steam last night.  It was amazing.  Last summer I gatherered and dried all sorts of herbs, some for medicinal purposes primarily, and some specifically for facials.  I had grand plans of frequent steams, knowing how good they are in the depths of winter.  And you know what?  last night was my second one this year.  But I'm convinced.  This needs to be a regular thing! 

Last summer's wildcrafted herbs on a shelf in my kitchen.

Besides which, facial steams are really one of the easiest things in the world. All you need is a bowl (or pot or pan), herbs (they don't have to be your own wildcrafted either! Herbs out of a tea bag or from the grocery store or healthfood store will do great too!), boiling water, and a towel or cloth to make a tent over your head and the bowl.

The mix of herbs I used was Yarrow, coltsfoot, and pineapple weed (a wild cousin to chamomile, I generally call it chamomile as I don't really like the name pineapple weed).  After mixing it together, on first smell I realized that this is basically the exact same mix I make up for the Darlin' Man for tea when he's getting sick, or for myself if I've gotten sick.  Preventative herbal medicine is something I'm on top of for him, but I rarely do it for myself until I'm down and out cant get out of bed sick.  Hmmm.  Maybe that's another thing I should work on!

Medicinally, I use Yarrow for colds and fevers.  Coltsfoot is good for coughs and lung congestion and asthma - its frequently smoked for lung ailments, though I'm not sure I would ever suggest that.  And Chamomile is just wonderful and soothing and a tonic.  Breathing in the steam, I felt the cough that's been starting to tickle my lungs easing up, and my sinuses felt like they were taking the most luxurious bath in the world! 

So why did I use these particular herbs for a facial steam, if they're such great internal medicine?

Well, yarrow is reccomended as a steam for oily and/or blemished skin.

Mine is definately oily.

Chamomile is just lovely and wonderful.

As for coltsfoot, Culpeper* says the "powder of the roots taketh away all spots and blemishes of the skin.  It were well if gentlewomen would keep this root preserved to help their poor neighbors." (qtd in Schofeild, Janice. "Discovering Wild Plants: Alaska, Western Canada, The Northwest." 195-196)



I also baked a pie last night:

Love People.  Cook them tasty food.  (bumpersticker from Penzey's Spices).

A few days ago, I made myself a cherry gallette.  Out of a jar of cherries that I had canned last summer when they were a good price at the store.  I find that I adore pie from home-canned cherries.

But the real triumph was my crust.  My pie crusts have somehow been rather blase of late.  Perfectly functional, but not the amazing flaky goodness they ought to be.  Now, I've been making pie crusts since I was a fairly young girl.  As a teenager, my mother and I would have pie baking contests in apple season ~both using the same recipe for filling and crust~ and my crusts eventually won out.  But the last year or so, they just havent' been there.  I think I was over mixing the butter.  At any rate, the galette crust was divine.  I felt vindicated in my sense of being a superior pie maker.  And this one for the birthday apple pie was good too.

The Darlin' Man has a pick up rehearsal tonight, and it is also the director's birthday, so I made a pie.  I'm quite pleased with the way the overlapping stars on the top crust turned out.  I used a star cookie cutter, and just cut them out of the rolled-out top pie crust, and then overlapped them over the fruit. 

 

Star Pie.

*Culpeper was a 17th century English botanist, herbalist, physician, and astrologer.  His "Herbal" is much quoted and has some good information.  But Gerard, his near- contemporary, is much more reliable, thorough, and holistically applicable.  Culpeper didn't like women much. 

A gatuitous foodie post

Some pretty pictures of food from, oh, a month ago?  That I meant to post.  And haven't yet.  I'm working on two for-real posts, and you'll see them when I finally finish them.  :)

kitchen window

Flaky biscuits from the Tassajara Bread Book. 
These are the biscuits I grew up on, and (almost) the only ones I ever make.

Salad: mixed greens, mandarins, and halibut with vinagrette.
The Halibut is from Darlin'Man's fishing last summer, I
made it, marinated in citrus and paprika, with rice and asparagus
one night.  Leftovers for salad the next.

"Streetcar Named Desire"

The Darlin' Man stars as Stanely Kowalski in the Fairbanks Drama Association's "Streetcar Named Desire" by Tennessee Williams.  Its the first real meaty role he's undertaken, and I couldn't be more proud.  The rehearsal process was grueling - for him of course, but also for me because we are carpooling (living 26 miles out of town definately makes one car the more economical choice!), and rehearsals were lasting until one am sometimes.

NewsMiner article found here: http://www.newsminer.com/view/full_story/17902093/article-Two-worlds-collide-in--A-Streetcar-Named-Desire-?