Yes! I will be teaching an olla hand-building class this spring at South Seattle Community College. The class will take place over two Saturdays; March 23 and March 30 from 10am-1pm. We will briefly go over the history and how-to of clay pot irrigation. Then we will get our hands ‘dirty’ hand-building a pot (or two!) to take home.
To sign up for this class, register online (Starting Feb 16) or by phone with the Continuing Education program at SSCC. Details in flyer below!
Stellar’s Jay
It is a cold rainy January morning here in Seattle. I realize that several of those words are redundant. ‘It is January in Seattle’ would have sufficed. There is nothing special about today; a hard rain all night, and a mere 37 degF now at midday. Uck.
White-crowned Sparrow
On this unpleasant, unspecial day, my yard is filled with wild birds. I have not designed our yard to provide wild bird habitat (although a previous owner may have), but it appears to work for them. Besides chickens, I don’t know much about birds, but if they are going to come enjoy my urban yard, I think I should learn more about them. It’s only polite.
Northern Flicker
Taking a mental break just now, I gaze out the dirty window and see a Stellar’s Jay and some SBBs (small brown birds). I pull out a Bird Book and think these are white-crowned sparrows. A Northern Flicker roots among the green grasses – I recognize her by the bright orange underside of her tail feathers. Black-cap chickadees hoppity hop about, and an American Robin joins the scene. Finally, I see our teeny Anna’s hummingbird flitting about like a large feathered idea. Wow!
Black-capped Chickadee
I like the idea of diversity. Ecological diversity, in particular. I had thought to put up a bird feeder to encourage such, but was worried only the squirrels and crows would benefit. I had no idea I already had so many types of visitors! We are also visited by a woodpecker (hairy or downy) who pits our large cedar, willow, and lilac. Starlings, and – of course – crows. So that makes, what, 9 species? Perhaps I will plant something native for them on purpose this spring and see if I notice even more diversity…
American Robin
In the meantime, I plan to learn more about these feathered creatures, starting with this fabulous little website from UW.
Anna’s Hummingbird
Chickens ‘helping’ split wood (aka eating bugs and wood chips)
Most of the time we heat our house from the electricity grid. Yawn, I know. Passive solar does the trick on rare, glorious sunny Seattle days, but the rest of the time we use an efficient ductless heat pump for the main room, radiant tile floor for the bathroom, and baseboards for the ‘tiny room’ where guests sleep and the ‘den’ where we sleep.
Our ancient baseboard heater wakes me through the night with its loud ‘click-Click-click-CLicK’, so lately I have been employing two tricks; one is a warmer comforter so we can turn the heat way down. The other is an evening fire.
There is a chimney in our main room, but it leads to the basement where there is no longer a coal-burning furnace. The fireplace in this old house is in a strange, sunken side room where we have chosen to spend our nights. But, heat rising and all, a sunken room is a great place to generate heat!
I grew up in a house in rural Ontario that was primarily heated by wood. The fireplace was in the basement and we moved our family room down there every winter to live closer to the heat. I have vivid memories of crouching in front of the open stove as I lit the fire after school, thinking about chemistry: energy of ignition, unstable equilibria. Lordy, science is cool. Or hot, in this case.
So I naturally think of wood as an alternative heating strategy. This fall I attempted to financially justify improving our fireplace with a wood stove insert or hearth stove. My primary motivation is improved air quality, both indoor and outdoor, but the direct wallet-output is a comfortable litmus test for home improvements.
Heating with wood is inexpensive, but electricity is dang cheap here. I calculated it would take 17 years to break even on the purchase of the stove! Plus it’s heck of a lot of work during the day to maintain. So maybe fires remain an evening luxury for the time being.
Two years ago, I researched wood to burn in our fireplace. I felt lucky when we got a good deal on a cord of white oak from eastern Washington. A bit wet when it arrived, it was still hard to burn after drying out and requires splitting to burn well. I have been using a sledge hammer and an old axe head to start things off, then a splitting wedge if that doesn’t finish the job.
I enjoy splitting wood, but I am sure there is a better way to do this. I can’t split very much at a time without pulling my lower back and damaging my grip. I cajole Scott into helping out, but I am a lot more motivated than he is to have fires. It is so delightful to fall asleep with the fireplace dancing on the ceiling.
How do you heat your house? Or how would you like to heat your house? If you split wood, what is your favourite method?
The energy and aesthetic value of burning different wood types
Uncooked granola
We used to buy granola. Scott likes his with yoghurt. I like mine with milk. We would get it in bulk from the Thriftway, from the Ballard Market, from PCC. They mostly sucked (weird vanilla-y flavours). And/or they were very expensive (I thought). I mean – what is granola? A bunch of oats and nuts and stuff, right?
So, we stopped buying granola. Which meant we stopped eating granola.
Cooked granola
I finally tried making it. Turns out it is dead easy to make, cheap, and totally worth it. I am sure there are tons of recipes and you can develop your own that are more nutritious (and possibly even more delicious), but I modified one like so:
Granola
Turn oven to 250 F
In a large bowl, mix:
3 c rolled oats
2 c nuts (I like sliced almonds and roasted pecans)
3/4 c shredded sweet coconut
1/4 c brown sugar
In a separate, smaller bowl mix:
1/4 c maple syrup
1/4 c vegetable oil (I know – ew)
3/4 t salt
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and combine thoroughly
Spread out 1″ deep on cookie sheet(s) and bake for 1 h 15 min, stirring every 15-min-ish for even colour and to prevent sticking to the pan
Remove from oven and add:
1 c dried fruit (I like raisins and cherries)
Mix well, and allow to cool before storing in an airtight container
Finished granola
This granola will last several weeks unless you invite Chris Loveless to spend the week and he uses it all up en la madrugada, sauteed with bacon, pot, and cocacola. Seriously.
Sustainable Scientist 