Brown is the New Green

For those who do not know... Andy, my brother, sold his beloved Chevy truck and bought himself a fancy shmancy Ford F350 Diesel.


Andy has decided to start using used oil from local restaurants to make Bio-Diesel (or as we lovingly refer to it as "Bio-Andy" since our dear Willie Nelson's bio-Willie is no longer). This is his super duper bio-making machine :)


What's my part in all of this bio-diesel talk? One of the byproducts from making BioD is glycerin. Many people simply dump this stuff out. That is not an environmentally good way to deal with it. We are making soap out of the glycerin. If you look on your common cleaners and soaps you will notice that they use glycerin too.


The jar on the left is made with mixed oils (veggie, canola, soy). The the jar on the right is made with peanut oil. Both have the bio-diesel layer on the top and the glycerin layer is settled on the bottom.


Until we get our still made, I am cooking the glycerin layer in buckets in the sun for two days and then sticking it in a pot on the BBQ to boil it.


Once cooled, I mix water, a caustic, and a few drops of scent into the glycerin. A few minutes of stirring and I have soap!!! Since we are using oils that are liquid at room temperature, bar soap is VERY difficult to make. Our liquid soap is gentle and safe to use as shampoo and body soap, safe enough to use as a dish soap, tough enough to use as a degreaser and laundry soap.


http://www.biodveggie.com/index.html
This is Andy's site he is very slowly building. He started building it only a few days ago.

An update about absolutely nothing....

A quick update since I have been MIA for a while...

My aunt has been here from England. I haven't seen her in 12 years, so it's been great visiting with her. I have seen her all but one day while she has been here. She's so much fun!!!! My grandparents took her to CA to visit all of the family (being that my grandparents, my parents, myself and one of my two brothers are the only ones here in Dallas). Of course, I saw this as an oppurnity to get some sewing/knitting done.... and then I pinched a nerve in my back. How did I accomplish such a wonderful thing??? I was picking zucchini in the garden. I stood up and that was that. I have been on the recliner for 4 days now in pain. So, another day or two sitting still and my aunt will be back in Dallas and I'll be spending my time with her. The Wii and I have become best friends. It goes between my brother and my house all week long. I have it during the days. Andy and Jessica have it during the nights. Wii Sports is darn tootin' fun! Christian even plays!!! I got Carnival Games for the kids and have fallen enamoured with it myself. Keely's nearly as good as I am!!! Colin likes to play Sonic & Mario Olympics (I think that's what it's called). When Jessica and I get to gether it becomes an all night extravaganza of Sports and Cooking Mama. It's kind of a lame game, yet it's kind of fun at the same time. Um.... my garden is producing me with daily zucchini, squash and tomatoes. The kids have enjoyed helping me pick the veggies. I have been enjoying the nightly squashs!!!! YUM!!! I do have one problem being that my giant Pink Brandywine (beefsteak size) tomato plants have gotten so big they can't stand stand anymore. They have mutilated the cages they are in. With the back issue, I can't fix them either. I really hope that the wind doesn't knock them down and snap the stems *crosses fingers*. Yeah... I think that's about all right now....

Cheers!

PS- excuse the typos and randomness of the brain. Vicodin tends to leave my brain a little wacky.

Garden Pictures... 4 weeks after planting

Excuse the large amount of weeds in the front.

My little patch of green love!


Little Lettuce Patch


Somehow, someday, this will be cabbage


My Wall-o-Squash. Since it was overtaking everything within it's reach, I decided to claim a bell pepper support for the Butternut, Straightneck, Crookneck and Zucchini to grow on. I only put it in two days ago.



A Butternut Squash nearing harvest hidden under the canopy of leaves


One row of Green Beans was snuffed out by the Zucchini. The other row is doing well.


The soybeans are starting to flower.


Giant tomato plants in my little tomato cages

My First Harvest

That's right... one month in the ground and I have a harvest!!!!!

Drum roll, please....

All two cherry tomatoes... Keely devoured them seconds after the picture was taken.


Radishes. We planted 200 seeds and it seems that a good 150+ made it. I don't eat 'em, but I hear they are some of the hottest my family has ever eaten.


I have been patiently waiting for the squash section. I have 4 varieties in the garden. The first to be picked was a gorgeous zucchini that was hidden deep under the leaf canopy. As you can see by the measuring tape it's over 10" long!


I heard Colin playing phone and came out to him exclaiming, "I found this big telephone on the counter!"


And non-garden related, yesterday Lambchops celebrated his 12-week birthday. He's gotten a lot darker on his points. He's extremely vocal and we have full conversations. He's so much fun and so adorable!!!

Wii... Where Have You Been All My Life????

The Wii came. It arrrived on Thursday afternoon. I'm not as young as I thought... my muscles are screaming; thank goodness for Advil! Jess came over last night around 9... and didn't leave until 130a! Christian sat and watched and talked a lot of crap because I don't know how to box. As soon as we woke up this morning, I forced the control and nunchuk on him :) Guess who couldn't live up to his talk?!?!

I'm pretty certain that I'm going to lost that 30 lbs I gained last summer from the knee surgery!!! This thing rocks!

L A M B C H O P S ! ! !

Time to introduce everyone to Lambchops. He's my new friend. He is a Persian/Birman mix. For those who don't know... Whiskers is a Birman... they are SUPER friendly cats, almost dog-like, and have the sacred white paws of purity (a legend). We got him on May 23rd and went through our "adjustment" with him. After a few weeks of my abuse and smothering and he is slowly becoming my little lap buddy (when he isn't exploring, running, chasing, eating fuzz balls off the carpet and wrestling).

This is him at 6 weeks


Here he is the day I brought him home. He made immediate friends with Bailey!


Over the past week, he and Stripey have decided they are best friends. She keeps him in check!


I took this last night. He climbed up on Christian's turntable and made a little house (which he is currently hiding there right now and looks adorable!)



I'll bust out the good camera and take some cute action shots of him over the next few days. He's such a fun little ball of fluff and the pictures do NOT do his fluff justice! Since his arrival, my nightmares of reliving Smashy's murder have reduced. So, I guess he's doing his job!

Shades of Purple Sundress

I'm making "Shades of Purple" for my glorious gf, so I did a small scale for Keely to make sure I liked all of the FOURTY different fabric patches of purple together.

The bodice is a little boxy and big. That tends to happen when I do my own designs. I'm still learning :)

SO... here it is...