Camp!

She says:
   At the beginning of June, I got to direct FROGS Camp for 4 and 5 year olds at Jo-Ota.  While it didn't go exactly as a I planned (I had planned on the parents wanting to be involved with their children at camp), I think it was still pretty good. 

   The night before camp Jason stayed up ridiculously late with me to help finish up planning and craft things. A month later, I am still excited about the things we came up with! 

Jason and I premade origami jumping frogs.  Each camper added googly eyes and named their frog before entering it in a jumping contest. 

T-shirt were on sale at Michaels for $1.44 during grand opening!  Jason and I did the black frog outlines, and then let the kids "color" in their own frogs with fabric paint.

Pin the tongue on the frog! 

These are my campers.  Oh goodness!

Shoot for the Moon

He says:

   For two years now I’ve challenged myself to read 52 books a year. In 2011 I met that goal and it was a blast. I always said that I enjoyed reading when people asked what I did with my free time, but in reality I only read a few books a year. It was great to really put a dent in my “to read” list.

   This year I made even more of an effort to clear my bookshelves. I’ve all but forbidden myself to check books out at the library until I read all of the backlogged books that I own. I still check out a few that seem too good to pass up, however.

   The year is approaching its halfway point (2st of July, I believe), and so far I’ve read 52 books. It feels great to be done with the challenge aspect, but I don’t plan on stopping there. This is already a personal record, but I’m going to go all out and shoot for 100 (maybe 104) books by the end of 2012.

Notable books include:

Proudest Achievement: The Stand by Steven King (unabridged) approximately 1000 pages. I came to
find out that the abridged version was 600 pages and was probably better for it.

Best Book: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is hands down my favorite classic. Man’s descent into hell has never been so fascinating.

Worst Book: The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck is a story about a peasant who toils to increase his station in life and succeeding while never learning a single lesson about his flawed actions or to appreciate where to he came from. I was angry with this book which is supposedly a beloved classic.

Most Interesting: The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving by John Hoffman got me strangely motivated to go out and find those hidden treasures. Luckily this passed, but the take away message of wasting less is still valuable.

One of "Those People"

She says:
   I was chatting with Mike Powell on Facebook awhile back, talking about how I love having Dilly with me again, but how I'm going to turn into one of "those people" that just tell stories about my dog all the time.  Mike replied, "they call those people 'dog owners'."  I loved it.
   
   So here I am, a "dog owner", and really wanting to share some pictures of my dog, because she is pretty much the cutest. I know this to be true, because random people tell me so all the time when I'm walking her--little girls on tricycles, grown men with their own tiny dogs, and old ladies. True story.

Here is Dilly, making herself at home on her first full day living with the Seymours.

Getting back into the practice of playing fetch.  She'll only play along for about three "fetches" before she gets bored.

The first day that Dilly ate every last bit of food.  We were worried because she wasn't eating very much when she was left with us, but now she is eating much better, although she usually leaves a little bit of food uneaten (just in case?).

Here is a picture that Jason didn't really want me to use unless I "didn't have anything else that would work."  I did, but here it is anyway.

Our Spoiled Family Part 2

He says:
   In a previous post I wrote about the kefir culture that I had recently purchased. At the time of that post I was in the process of reviving the dehydrated cells so they could start producing delicious fermented milk. The instructions stated that it would take between 1-2 weeks to get them fully operational.

   The first couple of days were filled with uncertainty. After the first day I had what appeared to be a
block of hard milk curds surrounded by whey, sort of like tofu. Not what I wanted. I figured that sincewe keep our house extremely warm in the summer that the temperature was playing a large part in the unsightly fermentation. I started putting the milk in a cooler with an icepack in it so it could make it through the day without heating up too much.

   The cooler helped, and soon the culture was become healthier. Instead of separate granules of the
SCOBY it slowly became cohesive and slimy. A good sign! As far as I can tell, the little guys are as
healthy as they can get. There’s some visible/tastable activity after 24 hours, but I find that I prefer the taste and texture after 48 hours. A 24 hour fermentation produces something really watery, but 48
hours makes a very thick beverage that has an almost bready character to it.

   I enjoy it straight. Abby has tried it with a blueberry puree that I made and she said that she enjoyed
it. Although I’m still trying to get the sweetness to be just right for her since this stuff is incredibly tart.

   Overall, I consider this a success.

Sad Sidewalk

Last night when we were walking Dilly we found this:

I don't know why the sidewalk is so sad.  But it made me so happy, I had to go get my camera and take a picture!

It was just two random wet spots and a frowny stick.  But it was awesome.

Our 'Spoiled' Family

He says:  
   Months ago I began contemplating making my own yogurt.  However, after doing some research the process seemed too involved.  I had to bring milk up to temp, inoculate it, and then have it stay at a constant, elevated temperature for many hours.  I had given up, but then I ran across kefir.  Kefir makes a yogurt-like beverage.  It’s still sour, but more of a liquid than yogurt.  I became interested, but the culture needs to be fed every 24 hours (it can be slowed in the fridge occasionally) which is a bit of a time commitment.

   A few days ago, we received a new addition to our 'growing' family.  I finally had enough of not eating delicious, homemade kefir.  Plus we found some commercial stuff at Aldi a little while back, and Abby tried it and gave it a thumbs up (although it was flavored with strawberries, but that’s easy enough to do at home). 

   The kefir arrived as a dried culture in an envelope with an adoption certificate.  How cool is that?  We haven’t decided a name yet, but I hear these things take time. 

   Anyway, I needed to begin the regrowing process to resuscitate the dried culture grains, which just involves putting them in milk.  It might take up to 2 weeks to start getting normal kefir out of the them so I figured I would write about it now and then update as things proceeded along.

   Right now the culture looks like a mixture of grated ginger and couscous, but eventually it will look similar to cottage cheese.  By straining the culture from the fermented milk, I can reuse it indefinitely just by adding more milk.  The kefir, just like our cast iron/kombucha/sour dough, could last for generations.

The science section:
   Nutritionally kefir is great for you.  Not only does it contain the all of the benefits of milk, but because of our unseen friends it contains many other benefits.  There are active enzymes, more vitamins and trace minerals, healthy little cells that will take up residence in your gut to ward off the baddies.  Plus since the kefir is partially digested by the bacteria (gross, right?) it is thus easier for you to digest.  Some people that are lactose intolerant have claimed that they can eat kefir without a problem. 

   Kefir, like our kombucha, is a SCOBY, which means Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast.  The colonies along with non-living things like protein and lipids which account for the granular “cottage cheese” appearance.  Since the fermentation won’t be carried out under aseptic conditions, I fully expect the culture to change with time.  Resident bacteria and yeast will join the existing culture and it will truly become representative of our living environment.  I don’t expect much flavor change to result from this, however.

Update: Table Pictures

"Bath Door"