You are currently browsing the monthly archive for November, 2007.
After years of feeding my dog a raw diet, I’m a solid chest freezer convert. Once I get it stocked, everything is all good and frozen, the temperature stabilizes and my chest freezer draws very little energy. I even had one accidentally get unplugged for four days while I was out of town. In July, in the south, hottest summer on record in something like 100 years locally. Didn’t discover the problem for a full day more – yet all that dog food was still frozen rock solid. Only the frost on the lid of the freezer itself had started to thaw enough to drip ever so slightly when opened (which was the reason it took me so long to notice there was a problem).
I simply have little use for upright freezers, or even the freezer part of most refrigerators. Not nearly efficient enough. Inconsistent freezing. The spacing feels awkward and designed more towards looking pretty than for actually storing the sauces, stocks, soups, meats and bulk foods I keep in a freezer.
So today, when I saw a post mentioning a chest refrigerator – I just had to go look. Out of curiosity if nothing else. After reading how energy efficient it appears to be (and quiet! oh how I loath the near constant hum of my current refrigerator), I’ve got to admit – I’m intrigued. This is something I would very much like to try. I’ve yet to find a fridge who’s internal spacing actually works for me and what I like to store in there. A chest just might be the thing.
Besides, I’ve a terrible habit of fridge browsing when bored. A chest fridge might help deter that a little.
Like my chest freezer, a chest fridge could be stored in my kitchen and serve double duty by providing another work surface. Or it could be placed just as easily out of the way in a utility room (and out of bored, I’ve got the munchies, fridge browsing reach). Yes, when I finally quit renting and buy my own place, I think I’ll have to see if I can find a chest fridge – or look into converting a chest freezer.
I just made my cookies for next week (and hopefully the week after, but lets be realistic homemade cookies just don’t last). I’ve been using a copy of The Southern Heritage Cookie Jar Cookbook that I found in the local library, to encourage me to bake my own cookies instead of buying them.
I’ve never made snickerdoodles before. They weren’t in my family’s cookie repertoire. To be honest, I’d never even tasted one until a couple years ago. I’d thought I picked up a normal sugar cookie and later had to go back to find out what I’d actually eaten. So, somebody tell me – how can any cookie with that much sugar and shortening be so light?! That’s one good cookie!
I think I’ll make mine smaller next time. They’re quite large and I still got close to 5 dozen out of the recipe. I also think I’ll lay off the cinnamon a little. Little too much there. Some are a tiny bit undercooked in the centers, but the oven in this apartment is odd. I’ll set it at 350 walk away for a couple minutes and the next thing I know my oven thermometer spikes to nearly 500. The oven seems to heat more evenly if I leave it set between 300 and just under 350 (which actually generates anywhere from 350 to 450).
One state over, my brother, his wife, their two children and some of my sister in law’s family are having a good old family Thanksgiving get-together. An hour or so north of here, the ex and his family are likely having a slightly less traditional but not too dissimilar, family gathering. An hour or so south of here, my mother and my aunt are having another, smaller, family Thanksgiving. Yet for some reason, despite offers, I am here, in my apartment, by myself.
On the surface there are a lot of reasons: I couldn’t get time off to go visit my brother and his family. I didn’t have a pet sitter to take care of Baka while I was gone. The price of gas is high and I haven’t much money. My mother has a problem with ocd-hoarding (though she would disagree with that statement) and her home has reach that point where entering the home is a constant battle between the waves of nausea and panic attacks.
The deeper reason has more to do with what this year means to me. I suppose you could say I’m taking a year of mourning. Grieving for the loss of a friendship that lasted nearly half my life. You could also say that I’m taking a year off to find myself. Taking time to try to figure out who I am and what I want out of life. Might even do a little growing up in there somewhere.
So when the holiday season shows up, its gets me thinking, craving a bit more time alone to look back at the way I’ve celebrated holidays in the past, who I celebrated with and think about what I might like to do differently and face what I may have to do differently. Which is what has me here, in my tiny apartment, by myself except for my dear doggie. Somewhat surprisingly (but not entirely), I find I’m content with the way this day is going. A little bit of introspection, a little bit of grieving, a little bit of walking through the woods with my dog as fall’s colorful leaves rain down around us, and maybe later a little bit of visiting friends.
If I could learn to make corn muffins, that taste like Whole Foods’ corn muffins I’d save an awful lot of money in snacks for my afternoon break at work. They’re so tasty and the texture is just right! Not too sweet, but not too corn bread like. Really, this is something I simply must figure out.
The first few days of my experiment using drastically less heat went well. Sure, the apartment got down to 62 degrees overnight, but during the day it rebounded quickly up to 69. One of the perks of 2nd floor apartments with skylights. My heat, set at 60 degrees, declined to turn on. I started enjoying a cup of hot tea in the mornings until the chill had worn off, but for the most part Baka and I were plenty warm and cozy.
Then we had our first real cold snap, with more cloud cover. Outdoor temperatures didn’t reach beyond 55 degrees during the day and sunk to the high 20s at night. I added an extra layer and a cup of hot cocoa at night. I also started wearing my indoor gloves – no matter what the temperature of the room, my hands have problems with cold in the winter. A remnant of CFIDS. Baka, meanwhile seemed fine. A little more inclined to sleep on her thick, cozy dog bed than on the floor, but generally ok.
The apartment sunk down to 60 degrees the first night, but not below, so the heat again declined to turn on. Yesterday it only warmed up to 63 inside and remained cold all day. A warm meal and an extra layer was unfortunately not doing the trick. My joints decided they were quite displeased with the cold. Especially after attempting to soak in a hot bath, only to discover the pathetic hot water heater had run out of hot water and left me with a luke warm bath. So I bundled myself off to bed with my book. I imagine Baka’s joints weren’t too thrilled with the cold either, though I added a blanket to her dog bed.
Overnight the heat turned on for the first time. When I got up it was 61 degrees in here, and only by virtue of the heater. The warmth of bed lingered on me, and I still felt cozy(ish). That wore off pretty quickly and left me just plain cold and unable to get warm no matter how many layers I put on, nor how many cups of tea I drank. Baka also seemed entirely not interested in leaving the snuggliness of her dog bed and blankie. I think even my dear cold weather loving doggie came to love on the wood stove in our old home, though she’d never admit it.
I think we’ll give warmer temperatures a try. Over the course of the day I gradually worked the thermostat up, and up, and still further up as I tried to get some warmth back in our bones. Perhaps I’m going about this using less heat experiment the wrong way? A better thought at the moment seems to start with a higher temperature and gradually work our way colder. Maybe the shock won’t be so brutal this way. For now, I’ve got the heat set at what feels like an amazingly warm 68-69 degrees. That was as high as I could work the heat pump with out sending it into emergency heat mode. I’ll try this out for a few days and see if I still need to raise the setting higher or if this will do as a base.
I wish there were things I could do to better insulate this place. I’m not real interested in making improvements to someone else’s property, without some sort of reimbursement. Maybe if I planned to be here for several years, but I don’t. The windows themselves seem to be fairly well insulated, nice double paned ones, recently upgraded. Neither they nor the doors make my candle flame flicker with signs of a draft. Its the exterior walls themselves that are terribly cold to the touch. So I’m picking up some freecycle double thick wool blankets. After washing, I’ll hang them on the walls in the 2nd bedroom to try and trap some heat. I’d love to shut that vent and close the room off, as I don’t even use it, but the pipes for the heating and cooling system run through that room’s closet. I don’t want to risk frozen pipes or make the heating system work even harder, from letting that room get too cold.
At least I’ve learned a couple things from this first stage of my experiment: 1) For any more bright ideas I might have – go more slowly! 2) I need to think up some contingency plans for how Baka and I will cope if there are any ice storms this winter. We’re not exactly located in a high priority area for the power companies to come rushing in and fix downed lines. I’ve got time to think about this, it doesn’t truly get cold here till January. and 3) Any future home of mine simply must have a working (or repairable) chimney. Preferably with a wood stove, but I can always get one installed if I must.
I’m trying to cut back my electricity use, specifically heating and cooling. Both to help lower my electric bill and to feel the seasons more as the actually are.
This summer my double coated bernese mountain dog, Baka, and I tested our ability to exist comfortably while using less air conditioning. It was fairly successful for a first attempt, though I had to go slowly as berners are sensitive to heat. We started with the air conditioner set somewhere between 70 and 75 degrees and gradually worked our way to up to leaving it set at 80 degrees. I think if this apartment had a ceiling fan we could have done better even. Baka informed me one August afternoon, that up to 80 degrees is alright, as long as there are frozen doggie treats to enjoy (or any kind of treats for that matter) – but over 80 degrees simply isn’t happening until we have our own place and some nice strong ceiling fans.
Now that the weather has shifted to a temperature more after Baka’s own heart (and fluffiness), I’m the one testing my temperature setting tolerance. I’m starting with the heat set at 60 degrees. I’m in an upstairs, center apartment, with a nice skylight and decent windows. So far the apartment seems to warm itself up to quite nicely, I haven’t heard the heat turn on yet (and I did test it to be sure it could). Colder weather is on the way though, so we’ll see how I cope, or if I wuss out and start pushing the thermometer higher.
One bonus to living in a colder apartment… more occasions to wear the things I’ve knit. Even better, an excuse to knit more! So tonight I dug around in my yarn stash and picked out two kinds of wool to make my very first pair of slippers. I’m not by nature a slipper person. I feel more at home walking around barefoot. The apartment has been getting down to 62 degrees over night though. For the most part, I still feel plenty warm. I even find I like that little bit of a nip in the air that hints at winter coming, reminds me to make myself a cup of tea in the morning or treat myself to a hot cocoa at night. The toes however, oh the toes do get cold on these hardwood floors. Therefor, slippers must be knit!
