Creation

We had a warm spell this week, and took full advantage of it. The warm, sunny days peaked yesterday with mid-fifties and a strong breeze. Jack and I had everything ready to go for indigo dyeing and took to the laundry line outside with a drop cloth, lots of clothespins, and a vat of indigo dye. We made numerous beautiful things and hung them on the line to oxidize. The magic of the green changing to blue in the open air is so exhilarating to be a part of! Here's a picture of all our things hanging on the line - obviously, the color is more vibrant when wet. But all the items turned out beautifully, including: the white skirt which I hardly ever wore because it was white (now it's blue!); the little sundress that I dip-dyed for a beautiful ombre effect; three hanks of yarn that I spun this winter; and the sheet and pillowcase set that we put flour paste resist on so that it the pillowcases were two clouds and the sheet was a lightning bolt!

 After the dyeing was finished, the clothes all rinsing in the wash machine, I went for a bike ride. I dressed for the temperature, but felt much too warm. Perhaps it was really in the low-60s as my bike computer insisted (though it's known to be inaccurate these days, it's been sun-fried a bit...), or perhaps I am in such a winter mode right now that I really felt like mid-50s was the warmest day of the year.  I'm registered to do the Wildflower Century bike ride in Chico at the end of April. It was a rather spur-of-the-moment decision, as I found out about it on the last day of early registration (= less $), and decided to just go for it. I haven't ridden a 100-mile bike ride since 2008 by my calculations; the closest I've come were the 53-mile rides I used to do with my friend Dain in Bodie back in 2012. Now it's 2018, and I've not really ridden over 15 miles in the last several years, except for a couple 20-ishers last fall and this winter. But I have faith in my innate ability to ride a bike forever. After all, I was raised on this stuff. My muscles are built to churn the crank of a bicycle if for nothing else. My stamina on a bike is the stuff of legend... at least, these are all the things I was telling myself when, around the halfway point of my 18-mile ride, I felt my mind starting to flag.

Riding around here is a lovely experience. There's shoulders in most places, and when there isn't the road is typically expansive and flat and easy for cars to see you and each other, so you don't feel too risky out there. Not to mention that we have pretty minimal traffic. The roads are in pretty decent shape, not too bumpy, although post-snowplows there is a lot of cinder on the shoulder in some sections. I only run into broken glass on occasion, which is impressive in a rural area where you'd expect a lot of people to be drinking and dropping their glasses. The roads are hilly - lots of up and down, both gradual and otherwise, that makes the pedaling very rewarding. And on top of all of this - the views are lovely.

Last night the breeze picked up, and when we awoke today it was to temperatures as much as 20 degrees below yesterday, and lots of blustery wind. If it does get above 40, I may go out for a quick roller skate to use some different muscles today. There is a chance of snow the rest of the week, and I'm praying it comes to pass. I'd love to be able to get out there and go skiing and snowshoeing again before the winter is over! For now, I am snug on the bed in the guest room, about to start my last "discussion post" for this week's homework. Today had no real plans, so I am simply and serenely whittling away at my to-do list. I spent the morning finishing a knitting project, then cleaning out the drawers below our bathroom sink (so many containers of floss!!!... among other things). After I get this homework post done, it'll be time to decide if I want to brave the cold breeze or do yoga inside. I've got several small sewing projects that I'll probably dive into today, and if I'm up to it I'll go through my clothes dresser too. I'm moving away from store-bought snacks (as I'm supposed to do in winter anyway), so I need to bake something hearty for the coming week's munchies. But now I've turned from writing prosaically to merely listing what's already written in my weekly planner, so I suppose this is the end of the post.

Until next time!

P.S. - There's a good chance I'll be revamping my blog layout again soon, so don't be startled!

Oops! We're almost halfway thru February!

January's trip was a quickie up to Crater Lake, then out to the coast, and back home.

 February's trip was a bit longer - 5 days in Chico while Jack helped a friend put siding up, then 3 days to the Bay Area to visit with family and do a little site-seeing (shopping). We got sushi in Japantown at a place where you grabbed whatever plate of sushi looked good off a revolving track and when you were done they counted up your empty plates and charged you for what you ate. It was pretty awesome.

Now that we're home for the rest of the month, we've both jumped headfirst into projects, and housecleaning. I am pleased to announce that after two months, I am still doing dishes regularly in the mornings. I don't do them every single day, but I probably average 5 out of 7, and it's really improved the kitchen cleanliness.

Today we spent some time tackling laundry together, Jack cleaned "his" bathroom, and we both tidied up the living room and kitchen a bit. Then it was project time. Jack beeswaxed the stitching on his new boots (supposed to help with longevity, we'll see if it bears out) and made a batch of 'stache wax (for keeping his whiskers in check). I baked granola and made soap. This was my second time making soap, but I think it turned out again, and I played around with scents some more, which I think will be nice. The bulk of the batch is ginger-lemon-orange, and then to one mold I also added peppermint, and to another mold I also added cassia cinnamon. I'm anticipating about 8 or 9 bars of soap when all is said and done. I've been wanting to make soap again ever since I gave it my first go last year. Although it's a bit time-consuming and mildly labor-intensive, it's a very satisfying experience, and this time all the soap is for us (before I split it with 6-ish people as part of a soap-making party at our house), so hopefully it'll last awhile. I think that one of things I like most about soap is that there's endless variations in the types of oils you use and the scents you add, so that you're really never making the same thing twice and you can always experiment. I've already got some ideas about what I might do for the next batch to change it up even more. We'll see!

This month my goal is to finish off as many projects on my list as possible. I've already gotten off to a pretty good start with the soap today, and finally doing the finishing work for my toilet stool just before our trip. I just got a belt blank that I'd like to tool and dye brown so that I can wear it for work this summer - still thinking up what designs I might want to do... I've got a quilt that needs to be bound (then it's done!), several projects on the knitting needles, and a handful of writing and painting ideas as well. I've been toying around with the idea of doing a podcast on California history for quite some time now, and I've taken a lot of steps to set up the framework for it, so now I just have to start researching, writing, and recording episodes. My goal for that is to release the episodes next winter and see if I can get any momentum going with them.

And next to all of these creative efforts? I'm knee-deep in homework for school! The African American Civil Rights Movement course is proving to be both a challenge and an eye-opener. There is so much more to this story than King and his "I have a dream" speech, and I'm loving learning about the people on the ground in the local communities struggling for change. It's at once inspiring and demoralizing to see how people have persevered both for and against racial equality. While I'm plugging away at my actual homework, I'm also taking tentative steps towards my thesis research. I've gotten over 30 responses to a survey I sent out for Bodie employees/volunteers of many capacities, trying to get information on what route I might want to go with my hardcore research, and who I might be able to contact for interviews. For now, I'm reading some general articles that others have written on Bodie, State Parks, and staff-visitor-park administration interactions. I am strongly considering buying a Kindle (tablet ebook reader) to help me keep all my research contained, especially with us moving and the fact that this research is going to go on for over a year. Ebooks are often cheaper than paperback editions of texts I need for my classes too (and can sometimes be borrowed from the library online), so the sooner I take the plunge, the more my investment is bound to pay off. It's just so hard to part with real paper. But I think that for our budget and the sanity of not losing books in transit, or having them be in the wrong place when I need them, it might be better to just go for it.

All of this is to say, that I'm procrastinating writing a discussion post for my class right now... and I suppose this means that I ought to go do my homework now!

Until next time!