Taking the spider for a walk

a.k.a. Frankie gets a Bootie Call

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves ...

* please note - this poodle is not, and will not, be wearing;
baby clothes
father-and-son outfits
animal prints
antlers or bells

In short, he won't be wearing anything I wouldn't be willing to wear.
Now Robin is another story - do the words Wellingtons and Balaclava give you any visuals?

Frankie has told me in confidence that, in spite of appearances, he is thrilled to be wearing these snuggly boots. Along with protecting his paws from snow-removal chemicals, these boots will ensure the chemicals do not get licked or tracked into the house for others (like Buster) to lick.

Skin Deep

If you find yourself wondering what questionable ingredients might be lurking in your lip balm or moisturizer, there are websites you can use to get quick answers.
The site I use most often is Skin Deep, a sub-site of the Environmental Working Group's information hub.
Based in Washington, DC, EWG is a non-profit organization, founded in 1993 by Ken Cook and Richard Wiles whose mission is "to use the power of public information to protect public health and the environment". They seem pretty above board and their site is very comprehensive - you can even see pics of the staff and access their Annual Report. I've subscribed to their e-newsletter for a few years now and don't think I've ever received spam or junk mail as a result. The EWG site also has information about children's products, pesticides and pollution.

The Skin Deep site is incredibly user-friendly. You simply enter your query, which could be a trade name (Skin So Soft), brand (Avon), category (bug spray) or ingredient (oxybenzone) and let the database get to work. (the Avon Skin-S-Soft Bug Guard Plus Insect Repellent Moisturizing Sunblock Lotion, SFP 30 has a High Hazard rating of 7 our of 10, with 0 being a low hazard). You'll quickly get a hazard score which you can then click and follow as far as you like. The analysis is quite complete, and often quite frightening. The good part is that you can check-out the products you use most often and, if they are a concern, see which in the same category you should switch to. Approximately half our everyday products had a risk level I was uncomfortable with and we switched to alternatives.

The EWC also sell a kit to check the arsenic levels in your soil, on your deck etc., which I haven't tried yet but, given the state of my pressure-treated deck, I'll be trying in the Spring.

The junk in my trunk

It’s not much of a secret; I likes my junk food.

When it’s mealtime, we eat very well. But those other 12 or so waking hours a day can be a feeding free-for-all. For this reason, we don’t have ice-cream in the house. I’ve always told myself, if I’m willing to walk to and from the Elgin Mall, I can have a peanut-buster parfait. Of course, once I realized I only burn about 150 calories during the trip, I switched from the 730 cal. parfait to a 400 cal. medium hot fudge sundae. I figure the rest should be burned-off during our daily 3k power walk.

Another weakness is potato chips, which we reach for pretty regularly. Like cigarette smoking (the quitting of which was one of the toughest, most positive things I’ve done for myself) the best way to stop a habit, is not to start. Since we are well past that point, we’ve discovered an alternative to our evening chip craving; freshly popped corn.

As a treat during their summer visit with us, Soo and Scott, apart from teaching us the proper way of prepping our BBQ, showed us a few tricks for making perfectly popped corn;
The corn, salt and enough vegetable oil to moisten the pot and kernals, goes into the pot at the start. The heat is turned to medium and the lid is cocked. Once you hear the first “pop”, start the shaking. You know the rest.

Something I didn’t know; butter separates when heated because the water has evaporated. To keep your melted butter creamy, add a teaspoon or so of cool water at the start of the process.

As with any recipe, the better your ingredients are, the better the end result will be. Since popped corn involves, at the most, 4 ingredients, try to get the very best. One of our last Orchard Hill Farm pick-ups included some cobs of freshly harvested popping corn. As it was still “young”, we had to set the cobs aside for a few weeks to cure and recently we had our first taste of this season’s fresh popping corn, expertly popped as per Soo’s instructions, topped with creamy, melted butter. Of course, Soo and Scott aren't likely eating much popcorn; she's just joined the staff of Canadian Living Magazine and he, along with Simon Bower, has just opened Lucien Restaurant, Toronto's most elegant, new hot spot, so they're kinda busy!

I won’t say we don’t still eat chips, but at least once a week you’ll see Robin at the stove, shaking a pot. Of course, once in while you’ll also see me shaking my pot over to the Mall, on my way to the DQ.

How we use our water -pt 2

Our bathroom is, by far, the smallest room in the house. It is also the room we've got the most plans for, and the room we've already done the most work to.

First up, though there's a nice window in the room (overlooking a brilliant red Sand Cherry bush), we decided we needed an extractor fan in the ceiling. For us, the key to a successful renovation is to remain calm and not turn into The Bickersons. A four hour job can become a two day job (the light switch which has to incorporate a fan switch has wiring that needs updating). The fact that our house doesn't have soffits deep enough to accommodate the exhaust vent was a challenge that forced us to work creatively, and we solved the problem with a minimum of stress (and three trips to Home Hardware). With the fan installed, I had to patch the area surrounding the new switch plate as some plaster had been removed and a teeny-weeny-woony bit of wallpaper was torn. To make a long story short - most of the wallpaper has been removed following my botched patch-job and we're deciding on a colour to paint the walls.

The room has an assortment of kinda matching greens, one of which has now been removed. We are stuck with the khaki-green clover and the veins of forest green in the tile, and the khaki- brown marbling the vanity, which we will shift. I'm thinking a warm, bees-wax colour, roughly applied to look a bit moody. We'll see.
We're also still deciding on a replacement toilet. Our current museum piece takes three flushes to "do the job" and we've plans to install a high efficiency, low flush model, installed parallel to the sink (to allow for legroom with is currently missing). In the meantime, in the October issue of Real Simple magazine, in the "double duty household items" column, there was a suggestion on how to reduce the amount of water your toilet uses to operate. The magazine suggested filling plastic pop bottles with water and placing them in the tank so that, following a flush, the toilet would require less water to fill. I took this a step further and popped two bricks in the tank (the pop bottles seemed to want to move around) and thereby reduced the amount of water used for each flush by 3L!
And, further to my "potty" talk, we've managed to find a 100% recycled toilet paper that is .... get this ... affordable. Recently while at Whole Foods Market, the store everyone seems to love to hate, we purchased Cascades 24 roll toilet paper for $7.99 (33 cents per roll). It's always seemed irresponsible to me that we need to destroy so much land and wildlife in order to convert ancient growth trees into a product we, to be honest, could use leaves to do.

Who would have thought ...

.... that I'd be climbing the beams of a straw bale structure, tightening the straw and helping place the metal roofing sheets? That little dot near the peak in the left picture is me!
I recently wrote about a day we spent at Orchard Hill Farm, helping raise the structure of the apprentice cabin. Yesterday, under moody skies and surrounded by the beautiful, bare forest, Robin and I returned to help as the tin roof was installed (actually, not tin; the roofing is made of a new product called galvalume). The wood planking and straw bales were already in place, and the North face of the roof was completed the day before, so all we really had to do was be keen and follow instructions. Which we did. Mostly. We did have a minor incident drilling a hole where no hole was supposed to be drilled, but that's another story.

And to see the world from the top! With a view like this, it didn't feel like work (as always, click on the image for a bigger picture)

And the view to the north is pretty nice too.




Because I am the guy that I am, I have to say we had a wonderful lunch; warming by the wood stove, we had homemade tomato soup, and bread you could top with fresh butter and cheese. There was thick sliced salami for those of that persuasion and coffee with raisin, date or apricot squares for dessert.

By the end of the day, as the sun began it's journey towards the horizon, the south face of the roof was complete, including the cap running the length of the peak and a patch over the hole for the stove stack. From condo living to tin roof laying, in 6 months.
I can't wait to see what's next.

If you're going to read anything this month ...

... flip to page 250 of the November issue of O(prah) magazine (yes, I'm a month behind - I get them from the library) or click the link to read it on-line.
Hugh Jackman's "Books that made a difference" story gave me goose bumps, and reinforced my belief that you make your own magic happen.

And Banker to the Poor is on my Christmas list - Santa, are you listening?

How we use our water -pt 1

Being energy conscious while living in a condo is pretty difficult; you can't turn off a light in the hallway even though there are 30 more burning away, and you can't stop the automatic irrigation system from watering the lawn on a rainy day. Moving into a house, for me, meant I couldn't blame unmotivated neighbours or an uncooperative condo board if my home was using too much of anything.
Apart from switching most light bulbs from incandescent to compact fluorescent, our first resource to tackle was our water consumption. As with electricity, consuming less water is both healthier and cheaper. Our energy provider, St. Thomas Energy Inc., charges us $0.75 per cubic litre of water brought in, and collects $1.28 per cubic litre on behalf of the City to remove it all again.
We installed rain barrels under each of our two downspouts, to collect rainwater for use on our garden. We also installed what Robin nicknamed "our house dialysis"; a third barrel situated under our kitchen window into which, through a simple funnel and some clear tubing, we were able to collect our greywater. Into the barrel went the water used to rinse clean dishes and veggies, water from the dehumidifier and the water from the second rinse cycle of our new fancy-smancy front loading clothes washer. I admit, it was not a perfect system and it certainly lacked "curb appeal", but it was surprising to see how quickly this barrel filled. As this water was slightly soapy (smelling abit of Mrs. Meyers Geranium dish soap), we used it primarily for watering our shrubs and trees during the drought periods, as a little soap can actually help roots absorb water (thanks Dave!). These efforts resulted in a reduction of the amount of fresh, clean water brought into our house, and a considerable reduction in the amount of water being removed!
Although I'm very pleased with our reduced consumption (from 16 cubic litres in June, peaking at 20 in August/September, we've leveled off at 13) I'm a bit disappointed with the way in which we're billed; apparently, the City does not meter the "real" amount of water leaving your property and therefore just charges for the same amount as what came in. Of course, all three rain barrels are stored in our basement for the winter, so much of our conservation efforts will have to hibernate for a few months. This will give me some time to contact our Public Works department to work on a compromise between their current billing system, and one which has some basis in reality.

Hmmm ... I probably won't say it like that to them.