New Toy

Open, showing the inside finish

So this weekend we built a new dehydrator. We have gone through 3 commercial dehydrators in the last year. We are hard on them. I guess they are not designed for constant use. In our house we dry so many things. Herbs, onions, tomatoes are our main things. We grow several herbs and use drying to preserve them. We make our own onion powder from dried onions. (It tastes so much better than the stuff you get in the store.)
The tomatoes are what we get the weird looks about.  We make a powder out of the dried tomatoes that we use to flavor soups, beans and other dishes.

The inside is sealed with a food grade wood sealant, as are all the trays.. the outside is simply stained to help the wood last a little better.. 

it is about 5 feet tall and has room for 14 trays.. we only have enough of the mesh for 12 right now (we will pick up another roll soon)

The trays are 18x12, not super large but not tiny. We used a food grade mesh also as we do things like tomatoes that cannot go on metal. What you cannot see is the 2 small computer fans that are set so one pulls air in and over the heating bulb, and the other pull the air up through the trays and out the top.

 The links in the pictures are to the corresponding items that we used.

After staining closed

the heating bulb

Tray with mesh held over it

close up of the mesh

Controller 

the mesh

We spent just under $200 for all the parts, and we have enough of the food safe finish to do another one. This includes the wood, and we uses 1x1's and a nice 3/8 inch thick plywood. We used the nicer plywood as it will be seen ALL the time.

This Dehydrator is close to 1/3 the size and is more than 1/3 the cost. The best benefit is that if something goes, we can replace it not the whole thing. 

Now the most fun... getting to use it!!!

Thinking about hard things

I saw a blog this week where a gal shared that she was expecting and how a miscarriage was changing how she was reacting to this little one growing inside.
That got me to thinking about the challenges I am dealing with and how hard it is. This is vary hard for me to write about. For several resons, 1 not all of my family knows that I am trying, and 2 not all of my family knows about my relationship with my other halfs. So hitting publish on this one is going to be hard.

  I had my first miscarriage when I was 22. I was on birth control and I had not missed a pill, I was a little late with a couple but not a full miss. I was changing Dr's also and I called the new one to ask a question. I was told that my appointment would be kept and that everything should be ok. Ya.. no.. I lost that one @ about 6 weeks. I was sad over it for a long time... but was not in a place that I wanted to start a family.  Fast forward to 29 and the same thing happens again. Only this time I was in my ob's office several times in the 2 weeks that my period was late. That time we never got a test to say I was pregnant but even the OB thought I was. Then my marriage ended and I was glad we did not have a baby *even if I was still really upset about the miscarriages* In my next relationship I missed a month @ 31 and we thought it might be.  But no.. then that relationship ended.
It happened again @ 34. After that time (rather sure I was, as the way it passed) we started sort of trying... my health has been more stable and my stress lower. It seemed like a good time. My other halfs are more then excited to have another one,  but now my body will not get on board. It has been 18 months and nothing. I am having the family issues with cysts, and found out that I have poly cystic ovarian syndrome. As I do more research on that,  the more I find that it is hard to treat. There is one medication that you can take,  and it does not like me. I found out that there are a couple others, but not as well studied. We are going to try one of them this month. You can loose weight,  no thanks I just finally reached a healthy weight for me (was under weight most of my life). I can go on a drastic diet, I don't think that is healthy. Or I can try herbs.. honestly the herbs look like the best option! So I have started to look into what herbs and why.
I am talking to my OB about every option and why or why not to try them. I am blessed that my OB now is a great gal who wants my health to be important also, not just the idea of having a baby.. I see her this week about the cycts and hope that I can start the herbs after that.
*Added after talking to my awesome OB today, we are going to try another medication and the herbal teas. I love that she is ok with me trying herbs and I even forgot to print the sheet I put together on the herbs for her.*
I have always known I am a mother. When I was little I wanted kids of my own (even after helping my mom with my little sister, who is 7 1/2 years younger than I) As the years have gone by I have been blessed with step kids who I will always love. And my other halfs kids who know me as mama Ellen. But that feeling that I should have one of my own is still there, yes I will be ok if I can't have one. But I can't even describe the feeling, it is not a longing, it is not a wish or desire. I just feel like I am to have one. The feeling is honestly the same today as it was when I was 10... it is not about having someone to love me (I have that, both from my kids, good friends and in my relationship with my other halfs).
But I know if I ever get pregnant, I am going to have a hard time getting excited about it (don't want to get my hopes up, or deal with the pain of loss again) and my biggest fear is that it will effect the baby in some way.
In the same way it hurts to see those around me getting pregnant without trying, or very little trying. I had a melt down emotionally when I was told by some friends, they had gotten pregnant and were going to abort. I must clarify that the melt down was about me not them and they made the choice they needed to, for health and personal reasons.
In some ways I have dealt with this really well, in other ways I have not dealt with it at all.. I can logically tell myself that until the last one @ 34, that it was for the best.  But logic and the heart are 2 vary different things.

Buy Local and hand made

Last week's post went in a completely different direction than I was intending. So let's try this again. Buying local is sometimes rather difficult. But in my mind buying from a small business or artist is the same thing. Handmade stuff is unique. By buying from small businesses you aren't just making the CEO richer. Don't get me wrong, I shop at Walmart and other big chains, but we are trying to get away from that.
We have some of our creations in a little store in Reno called Buy Nevada First. As much as I agree with the theory of always buying local I also realize that in practice it is harder than it used to be. Not every town has a local butcher or a local stationary store. So while I think it is vitally important to support your local area, I also think that we need to be supporting small business across the country.  If we can cut dependence on mega corporations then I believe we will be taking the first steps to being a great nation again.

Relaxation and thoughts

So this weekend we took a little time away and visited some hot springs. It was lots of fun. we camped in the desert, and cooked with the fire.. all with frequent breaks to soak in the hot springs :) the relaxation was awesome, but the allergies are NOT! we are all sick and miserable :( but this too shall pass.. it is making us all irritable and grumpy.. the kids have it also, Little girl is the worst (we have taken her to the DR and should have antibiotics for her soon wanted some blood work first, double ear infection. poor girl)

Ellen's Work in Progress...

Lisa and I have been working on some shawls and they are looking GOOD! we are having fun with some yarn we found for a good price. We wanted crochet ones as they are faster for us to pick up and put down (Kids, need I say more....) we went over several ideas before we settled on the patterns we did.. I have been wanting to do a fan shawl and the Really cool pattern I found was not one that can be worked in rows, each fan was worked then the yarn cut and re-attached. We don't like patterns like that as the every time the yarn is cut the finished product is weaker. We like our items to be as strong as possible so that they hold up better.  We don't want people to need to buy another item from us because it came out or our workmanship was lacking. We like people to buy from us again as our items hold up, wear well and they like the items. So many items we can buy these days are designed to be used and bought again. This idea is seen as the "norm" buy cheap and when it gives out go get another one.. I don't like this at all. I like to buy quality and then a get upset when it gives out after 10-15 years of regular use. I can thank my dad for this thought.. he taught me to spend $$ on shoes, but to only have a couple pair. To buy the good quality fabric, but get mix and match pieces so a few items can look like a large wardrobe.. It was this thought that has driven me to work until I can say that my design is as sturdy and will hold up as well as possible. Now that my dad is not with us it seems to be that I am working even harder on the little details of the way I do things, to make them function better, last longer and look better doing it.
As with all patterns we use we made some changes so that is lays better and will hold up better.. I have not decided what kind of border to put on it yet, other then it will have all 3 colors in it. Lisa is the same on the edging..

Lisa's Work in Progress

The funny thing is that the blue is the same yarn and yet it looks so different with the other colors. Lisa is getting close to the edging (about 2 more repeats) I have farther to go. About 15 more repeats, but my repeats are smaller, the shawls are about the same # done and you can see that Lisa's is larger. We hope that the bright colors will help the younger generation to see the fun and versatility in some of the items that are not seen as much now.
I started out going to go a totally different direction with this post but that is the way writing goes some times. you start out thinking about Z and end up with Q..

Swiffer and other reusable mop Sizes

Green Swiffer with our dust cover on it

We love all things reusable and simple we are making and selling Swiffer covers and we have a Libman Freedom that we use at home. Yet the sizes of the others are hard to find, yet we need to have them handy so we can make sure that we are selling the right sizes to the right people. I went looking for the size of the Swiffer Wet Jet today and it took me a LONG time to find a site that gave me size and any other info, I knew it had sprayers on the mop head but did not have a good idea of where. So I decided that I needed to look them all up so others would be able to find them easier than I did, and for our reference.

All sizes are in Inches and some are estimates as I have not been able to measure them myself, I did look at several yesterday and know that the sizes are at least close and the designs should work. I have also added any info that I find helpful for making covers. Please let me know if there is any wrong  info and I will update the list.
I am working on a new design, one that will work for more than one mop, the size might have to be adjusted but that should be about all. I might post a photo tutorial on how to make them one of these days.. 

Libman Freedom with our Scrubby cover

Wear Creations 

Wear Creations on Amazon (expanding product offering here soon)

original green Swiffer has a mop size of 10x5...

Swiffer XL 18x8

Swiffer Wet Jet 11.3x 5.5(needs not to close over the ends as the jets are about an inch from the end)

StarMop 17.5x5

E-cloth Deep Clean Mop 17.5x5.25

O'Cedar ProMist10.5x5

Libman Freedom 15x5

Rubbermade Reveal 16x5.5

Linkyo Pro 15x5 (need flat 15x8)

Affects of Buying Local

There are campaigns all across the country to buy local. I totally agree with that. We are trying to do our part in buying local. When shopping for our family we have two things we look at, price and is it local. Because we live on a tight budget, price is usually a very important factor.  But if the price isn't very different we do our best to buy local. There are even some things that we do with less so that we can buy local, such as meat. We buy our meat from a local butcher. The cost is a little bit more, so we don't eat as much meat.
I say all this as a lead up to Wear Creations as a local business. It may not be local to each of you, but it is local. Our family depends on local businesses. Whether you know it or not you do to. All those little specialty items that big box stores don't carry, you find those at local shops. Or you don't find them. Yes the internet has an answer to most of our needs, but what if you need it now?
We all need that little place that has a bit of everything. And if we all just spent a few dollars there, it might just make a difference.
We've all heard how supporting local makes such a difference, but how many of us realize what it means to the people running those businesses.
Here is what it means to us. If someone buys a bag we made, we can buy a plant for our yard. If someone buys a shawl we can get some the wood to finish the deck, when we then turn around and put it into another local company it makes a difference again. Those kinds of "little things"  make all the difference to a local company.
Take a look at our local butcher, not only do they have local meat, but also the employees are local. When we decide after a day at the craft fair to have a cookout and go get our hamburger from them, we take the money invested in our company and invest it not in just a local company but in people.
This is the kind of difference that buying locally achieves. In the last 2 years we have increased our local shopping and cut down on big box stores (I would say they might not even notice we spend less with them) we are happier seeing our friends doing good, than we were saving  $10 here and there.

The end and the start of planning

The title sounds like it is reversed.. it is.. that was the plan :)

This week has been one of those weeks.. my brain says I need more sleep and my body says HAHA not happening. The joys of living with pain every day (NOT!!) I never know how each day will go. Some days are okay as long as I move slowly (meaning not a long time spent on my feet, or trying to clean) other days are a little better where I can go for several hours before I sit down. If I do much more then that even on a good day I will pay for it. That is what happened this week.. I over did it last week (for a good reason but still over did it). but that is more than enough about the challenges in my life...

I made the title silly because we finished a book that we were reading to plan,  and yet we find that after reading it,  we have lots more planning to do.  But that is not a bad thing. The planning is all about moving to a place where we can spread out (1 acre is not enough space for us,  and the neighbors are way too close)

Yule 2015

We are looking at saving Money for the property and the start of our homes on it (yes, more than one) so for the last 2 days Lisa and I have been playing with compounding interest and different types of accounts to save money. while this has been for a 9 year plan, it has been FUN!! With all that we have been doing both in our personal missions, and with Wear Creations being able to add this dream is HUGE! Getting a place that we can spread out and have breathing room is the life dream of some and the general feeling that we must be able to live off the land to survive...

The survival I am speaking of is not as much about personal, but about making the world we want our grandkids to live in, remembering our  heritage, and the spiritual path we follow. This is so much more than just eating and housing, the old arts our ancestors had that we now take for granted as we can buy anything and everything. The food that we plant/grow/harvest/butcher and eat. The cycle of life, the cycle of the seasons. All the things that are fast being forgotten. We need to keep them alive, and use them to teach the next generation.  So we have kids that grow up to be adults not kids in adult bodies, like so many do now.

Owls, foxes and turtles, oh my

For the last year or so I have been on an owl kick. We have our owl bag and an owl hat and cowl set. I'm just finishing up an owl scarf. I want to make an owl lovie, but haven't had the opportunity yet. There are so many things we want to make and only so many hours in the day. Also I am wanting to branch out to foxes and turtles. I will always love owls, but I think I want to go on a fox or turtle kick for a while. Or maybe both. There are so many things out there just begging to be made. It's just a matter of choosing which one we will do first.

We love to create and we are learning how to balance our lives to make sure we have the time. We do a little bit at a time. In the day to day living it really doesn't seem like we spend that much time knitting or crocheting, but looking at what we have accomplished in just the last 4 months it adds up to quite a bit. Let's hope the next 4 months are just as fruitful.