A 12-day permie challenge

Genevieve Higgs wrote:Sile Ellison-NiChionna I would recommend trying the konmari method.  It seems a bit kooky but somehow is highly effective for de-cluttering.  

My personal konmari protocol is as follows

1) empty the room - literally haul everything out down to the bare boards - as you do, put all the stuff in categories
2) sort into sub categories
3) start with the most stunningly obvious pile if you feel overwhelmed as it can take a while to get into the swing of things
4) clutch each item to your chest, consider if it brings you joy (or if you use it all the time)
5) if it sparks joy keep it
6) If it doesn't thank the item for its loyal service and put it in the discard or donate piles.  Try and think of how someone else will use and love it, or about how much freedom and space you gaining
7) bag the D+D piles up as fast as they come.  Actually take them to the thrift store or garbage dump ASAP.  DO NOT keep them around - the temptation to return things to your room will be strong.
Once you only have joyful items start putting them back in the room.  Try and ensure that every item is visible on first inspection and organized in an aesthetically pleasing manner.


I hope to re-de-clutter my entire house and hustle hard for a new/2nd job in the first part of January.

We will be moving in three months and desperately need to de-clutter before we start seriously packing.  I already knew to do most of your list, but your idea to completely empty the room out is an excellent one (if I can figure out where to put a room-full of stuff in this small house, LOL!).  Thanks!

Kathleen

I am late to see this challenge, which is probably okay.  I have had a headache since Christmas eve that I just can't shake...and I honestly can't think of any interesting challenges for myself.  We are in the hot and dry season now, so most of my garden projects have been put on hold until the next rain. I think I will join as a late coming spectator...and maybe get some ideas to try next time.  I look forward to watching your progress 😎

Day two, weaving.

I have to admit, I'm a bit sad I choose this project.  

This is what it looks like from the window in front of my loom.



dreary but beautiful.  Too much white.  I'm lucky I live where I do as the rest of the country is dangerously cold. but still... nearly two weeks of white stuff littering my yard when I want to get out there and start digging in the soil!  

And then, look at this.



Gorgeous, but it looks soo cold!  Like I've woven a mirror instead of cloth; reflecting winter.  

I don't know why I thought white towel was a good idea.  Towels get so dirty in our house!  

But the cloth IS beautiful!  I don't know what to do with it, but it won't be towels.  But what's the point of making cloth I won't use?

Except to prove that it can be done.  And look Canadian grown cotton in a Canadian winter.  Pretty darn awesome.  

I'm definitely weaving blankets next.  I even have the colours picked out.




(also, why is there a hole in the middle of the ice on the pond?)

Raven, your fiber arts are AMAZING.  I wish you could come to Africa to teach me.  

I come from Vermont - and I'm glad I don't have snow and ice anymore... But I am finding the the drought is just the same...everything gets brown, its too HOT to play outside, the dirt becomes a brick that you can't dig without a pickaxe, and I still end up with "cabin fever".

I said I was going to just be a spectator... But i have decided to challenge myself to start doing some pencil drawings of my turkeys - one a day.  Just to get myself drawing again... And because the boredom is killing me.

Better late than never, right?

Oh, why did I say turkeys? Is there anything uglier than turkeys with all their ugly warts and waddles?  Or more tedious than all those feathers?  I think I need to expand my challenge to other animals!

Beautiful Drawing!

So glad you're joining in on the challenge.

Thanks for telling me about the drought.  I would much rather have snow than that.  

Day three of my 12-day permie challenge

I'm surprised how fast this is weaving up.  I thought I would be spending half my days spinning yarn, but the yarn I have already spun is going to weave at least half the cloth.  

I wanted to see how much cloth one boll (seedpod) of cotton made, so I spun up one brown coloured cotton to see.

That's a lovely drawing!  And turkeys have their own beauty -- I love the ones that have iridescence in their feathers.  

My church here helps support a native Kenyan pastor, and has sent extra assistance because he was supporting so many widows and orphans made destitute by the drought, and unable to grow food.  It's definitely a rough situation; I know there are people in Kenya doing some work with permaculture and I hope it helps long-term in dealing with the drought.

Kathleen

I have puff pastry dough in the fridge to make Apple Turnovers today for our deer hunters.  Yesterday I made Pfeffernuss dough which needs to chill for 12 hours. I will also bake them today.  If the "Pepper Nut" cookies taste as good as the dough then they will be a big hit.

https://permies.com/t/60892/kitchen/holiday-treats  

I am enjoying reading what everyone else is doing.

Our weather has been damp, cold, wet and dreary. My plans for building a new asparagus bed are on hold, although I have done some of the research - apparently asparagus and strawberries play nicely together, and I had also wanted to expand my strawberry supply which has suffered over the last 5 years, so I'm thinking in terms of a keyhole bed with both.

That brought me back to my "to do" list. I promised my son a new coat a year ago. I've made them in the past, but the last was ~6 years ago and there are a lot of steps involved. It's not very "permie-ish" as with our wet winter climate, I use breathable waterproof fabric on the outside and warm-wear fabric on the inside, which is not very renewable. That said, if he can get "good" use out of it for 6 years and then another 6 years as a farm coat, and he *really* loves these coats, I am content.

That is a really nice coat!  No wonder your son wants you to make his coats!

Kathleen

Day four and five: just about finished.

I'll probably be finished weaving tomorrow.  I'm shocked how far my yarn has gone.  I thought I would be spending the week spinning yarn as fast as I could, but nope.  I had all I needed already spun and on the bobbins.  

Once I've finished weaving, the next step is to wash it.  The fabric will close up quite a bit.  Here's a sample of similar cloth I did earlier that's already been through the wash.



In other news, I've been cleaning house as part of my 12-day challenge.  I've been sorting through my embarrassingly large number of spinning wheels to see what's repaired and ready to be passed on or sold to future spinners.  Slowly listing things for sale on usedanywhere.  

Wonderful coat.  I wish I could sew like that.  Great job!

r ranson - what a wonderful weaving job! The cloth is beautiful.
Your earlier picture showed the width woven by a single cotton boll. I know little about growing cotton and wondered how many bolls you get on a single plant and how much space a cotton plant takes up? Just curious!

The apple turnovers turn out great, the deer hunters really liked them.  I have been cooking a few Peppernut cookies each day, just for me.

Good job Anne Miller!  I've *never* tackled puff pastry, despite doing lots of cooking/baking. I was given a recipe for "pepparkakor" cookies this year, which have been a great hit. I'm suspicious it could be a close relative to your Peppernut cookies.

This thread has been great inspiration, and also a reminder to me to look at some of the projects languishing on my "to-do" list! It has inspired me to get on with a few of them. The weather has still been very inconsistent, but I've broken a couple of outside projects into manageable smaller tasks and have tried to focus on just getting one step down every day or two instead of letting the big picture mire me into inaction. It's hard to believe that 12 days are almost up.

I read this article:

"A traditional variant that doesn't puff as high is called blitz puff pastry (demi-feuillete). It's easier to master at home than classic puff pastry: rather than having a block of butter that you envelop in a square of dough, you make a kind of glorified pie crust. The technique of "blitz" (lightning!) puff pastry isn't especially fast."

http://dish.allrecipes.com/puff-pastry-dough/

It has a link to the Blitz Puff Pastry recipe under Method.  I also read about making puff pastry in the "Joy of Cooking"  To me the key is keeping the dough cold.  I made the dough one day then it sat in the fridge several days before making it.

The Pfeffernuss cookies is Jocelyn Campbell's smaller recipe version.  She says that Pfeffernuss translates to “pepper nut” and is a traditional German spice cookie.

I looked on allrecipes for the Pepparkakor cookie and it says "These thin, crispy spice cookies are a Christmas tradition in Sweden"  The ingredients are very similar.

To be honest I forgot about this!!  Things have been hectic here.  But I've done pretty well with my challenge anyway.  I've been eating pretty healthy and didn't "overdo" anything for the holidays, or through stress-eating.  I've actually eaten fairly balanced meals, and I've juiced several times.  So I'd say it's been a success (if almost accidentally).  I think setting a goal, even if you forget about it for a bit, is a help because subconsciously it reminds one what is important.

Nicole Alderman wrote:The challenge begins December 26th and ends January 6th.

On Thursday, I decided to make Zucchini Bread.  I had reorganized my freezer and now can't find the Zucchini!

Yesterday, Friday, I made the Homemade Ritz Cracker recipe that I had posted.  It is a little disappointing as it reminds me of a flat baking powder biscuit and it also did not stay crisp overnight. Maybe I did something wrong??  I will be doing some experimenting to find a better cracker.  I don't eat many so I want something that doesn't lose its crispness.

Since this is the last day of the challenge I plan to make Irish Soda Bread and reserve some dough to try using it for crackers..  

I do plan to continue my journey. From now on I am using recipes from the "Joy of Cooking".   I also want to start trying to make everything from scratch. Things on my list: popovers, cream puffs and fruit cake cookies.  I also want to try meat pies and other meat recipes that are in dough.  I am really wanting to get away from using yeast and baking powder, thus the experiments.  In the spring, I am going to try sour dough from wild yeast.  I wanted to do it now but my house is just too cold.

I hope everyone has been enjoying the challenge.

Anne Miller wrote: I decided to make Zucchini Bread.  I had reorganized my freezer and now can't find the Zucchini!  

I soooo... hear you Anne. We call it "freezer diving" at our house and it is frustrating when I'm *sure* I have more of something and can't find it, only to find it months later. I'm glad you were not deterred and went on to experiment with alternatives.

I too have been very disappointed when trying to make homemade crackers. The Pepparkakor are as you researched, a "thin crispy spice cookie". In fact, the ones I made seem to have kept their crispness very well considering our relative high humidity environment. I wonder if that could give us part of the solution? Crackers are usually airier compared to the fairly dense Pepparkakor,  (and thank you Anne for your research - I will try my recipe on a friend who is from Sweden and see if it meets spec!) but maybe the ratio of ingredients would give you a clue what to look for?

This holiday period, I multiplied my rye sourdough babies and gave a "friend's friend" her own starter bottle. I don't use sourdough exclusively over commercial yeast, but have used it effectively. Because I don't use it regularly enough, I store it in the fridge and feed it a 1/4 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of water at a time. That way it doesn't multiply too fast and I've kept it alive for over two years. When I'd caught wild yeast in the past, I was feeding it larger quantities of flour and got overwhelmed. These sourdough babies have a cute story: one of my son's long term (20 yrs) friends went to Norway to help his uncle for a summer when he'd been unsuccessful at both college and finding a job. He came back as a responsible young adult baring gifts - sourdough for me! He has now returned to college and is taking his welding course *very* seriously. That has increased my motivation both to keep it alive, and to share it with friends and acquaintances.

Lori Whit wrote: I think setting a goal, even if you forget about it for a bit, is a help because subconsciously it reminds one what is important.

That's a lovely observation Lori and I agree. I know that my new asparagus bed, although delayed by weather and other priorities, will start moving in the next couple of weeks, and has certainly been floating around my head as I debated the best options for location and style. If you feel you were successful, that's what really matters.

My 2017/18 12 day permie challenge wasn't big enough.  I finished before new years, so next year I think I need to take on a bigger challenge like writing an ebook or something.

But it was loads of fun discovering that I can make cloth from cotton I grew myself.  I knew it was technically possible, but actually making it was huge.

Today I'm finishing up the second part of the challenge: planning the garden for a low maintenance year and sorting through which seeds I want.  

It was loads of fun doing this challenge with you all.  Hope to join you here again next year.  

r ranson wrote:
But it was loads of fun discovering that I can make cloth from cotton I grew myself.

R, do you have some sort of cotton gin? How do you separate the seeds from the fiber?

James Freyr wrote:

r ranson wrote:
But it was loads of fun discovering that I can make cloth from cotton I grew myself.

R, do you have some sort of cotton gin? How do you separate the seeds from the fiber?

No gin needed.  You can use a gin if you want, but it's so easy, I don't bother.  

Two methods

1. It's very easy to pick the seeds out by hand.  

Get a movie from the library and a glass of wine.  Three bowls: one for seeds, a big one for fluff, and one for detritus.  Watch the movie while separating the fibre from the pods and seeds.  This gave me enough to do these towels.  

2. have a dinner party

Invite 2 to 6 people around for dinner, but 'accidentally' get your timing wrong so the dinner is half an hour late.  On a clean kitchen table, have the three bowls and a big, beautiful, bowl of cotton bolls.  Apologize for the dinner delay and chat with them while quietly separating the cotton fibre from the seeds.  They will ask what you are doing and 99% of the time, they will help you.  A big bowl full of cotton bolls is easily cleaned in half an hour with the help of friends (but often short fibres from close to the seeds get in with the longer ones - but this is what happens with a gin anyway).

naked seed cotton takes about one-tenth of the time of fluffy seed cotton.  

how to process cotton from harvest to yarn

r ranson wrote:

James Freyr wrote:

r ranson wrote:
But it was loads of fun discovering that I can make cloth from cotton I grew myself.

R, do you have some sort of cotton gin? How do you separate the seeds from the fiber?

No gin needed.  You can use a gin if you want, but it's so easy, I don't bother.  

Two methods

1. It's very easy to pick the seeds out by hand.  

Get a movie from the library and a glass of wine.  Three bowls: one for seeds, a big one for fluff, and one for detritus.  Watch the movie while separating the fibre from the pods and seeds.  This gave me enough to do these towels.  

2. have a dinner party

Invite 2 to 6 people around for dinner, but 'accidentally' get your timing wrong so the dinner is half an hour late.  On a clean kitchen table, have the three bowls and a big, beautiful, bowl of cotton bolls.  Apologize for the dinner delay and chat with them while quietly separating the cotton fibre from the seeds.  They will ask what you are doing and 99% of the time, they will help you.  A big bowl full of cotton bolls is easily cleaned in half an hour with the help of friends (but often short fibres from close to the seeds get in with the longer ones - but this is what happens with a gin anyway).

naked seed cotton takes about one-tenth of the time of fluffy seed cotton.  

how to process cotton from harvest to yarn

Laughing at your method #2!!  Reminds me of Tom Sawyer and the fence he was supposed to paint!

Kathleen

1/7/18 - I have never eaten Irish Soda Bread so I don't know what to expect. What I made was delicious.  I halved the recipe so as not to have too much for one person.  I had a mini loaf about 3" x 4" with a nice crust and a dense bread inside.  I also tried some dough as a cracker.  The cracker tasted delicious only rock hard.  

I had a bit of trouble deciding what to do for this year.  It's been a bit more crazy than normal, but we just finished our Holiday Feast and now I have (more or less) the rest of the vacation to work on my own projects.

I'm going to write a small book and if it works out, maybe sell it on the digital market here.  The goal is to write, edit, and learn to format this booklet.  Maybe it will be just a PDF, or maybe I'll figure out how to turn it into an e-reader file.  

If I have time, I'll weave a rug.

I had completely forgotten about this!  Re-reading the thread, it looks like we were still in the middle of dealing with a non-working well -- it turned out that the pipe had started to separate right above the well pump (submersible deep well pump); the pump did have to be replaced, and we were SO happy to have water again.  Then in late March we moved to Kentucky and were without water AGAIN!  Twice!!!  First because the house had been empty for a while, and all the pipes under the house were broken from freezing; got that repaired, and pretty soon we were having problems again -- the pipe between the well and the house was also broken and needed to be dug up and repaired.  So it was an interesting spring and summer.

I did do some planning for this place while we were still in Oregon, but for several reasons got very little accomplished here this year.  I've started mulching where I want to have the garden, and got a few things planted, but that's all.  My landscape planning has been finalized, though, after nearly a year here, and I hope to get things moving a little faster this coming season.  I'm choosing varieties suited for a couple of growing zones farther north, since we are in the beginnings of a Grand Solar Minimum and can expect colder and more unpredictable weather for the next two or three decades, at least (look up the weather from the Dalton minimum, or even the Maunder minimum, to see what we can expect).

This year's challenge will be mostly sewing projects.  I've got fabric, and an almost-new sewing machine that I've hardly used.  I'm finishing up a Faroese-style shawl (sewn, not knitted or crocheted, since I have lots of fabric) to use when the house is chilly.  Then my youngest daughter gets a plaid skirt, and then I need to make a couple of dresses for myself, since my wardrobe seems to be a bit shy in that department, and we often wear dresses for church.

There's also a writing project, but there's always a writing project.

Kathleen

@ Kathleen and Raven - It was delightful to read about your plans for your next 12 days. I wish you both success in achieving your goals!
I will have to think hard about what I should tackle first when I get back to the Wet Coast. Unfortunately at the moment my goal may be to "fix all the things that broke during the two windstorms that went through while I was in Ontario". That is simply no where near as inspirational as weaving a rug.

I think I'm going to try to focus on completing and launching my first "product" for my business. It will be sold through permies Digital Market Place but really it is meant to be a companion to the Rocket Oven DVD and I will be giving it out for free to anyone who buys the DVD using my affiliate link.

Been wanting to get that setup for months now and never had the time. Might as well try to do it now during the 12 days challenge

I might also try to draw something... I have not drawn any animals (sketch) in a while but it used to be something I loved doing and I have always wanted to get back into it one day...

some of these are not exactly Permie, but they need to be done before i can get on to making swales, planting trees, and building a rabbit tractor.

- House Painting party(interior)
- fix kitchen sink, bathtub, and washing machine leaks
- rip out old carpet in bedroom& office
- replace door locks on the new house
- build Crib & bedframe that were disassembled during the move into this new house.
- pick all remaining tangerines(probably still two hundred left on the tree) and juice/freeze them.

and then... Plant Tree seeds!!!

I intend to go through the caravan decluttering. We have 12 cupbiards so that is 1 a day leading up to the fiesta of the 3 kings which is a big thing here. I will also be cleaning as I go.  I am fed up of camping in tents and caravans for 6 years but  I think part of that is because if the disorderly mess we gave allowed to spread through the van. A clean and tidy home may give me a boost as we enter yet another winter waiting for our home to be habitable!
Holiday best wishes to you all!

A challenge for myself, for 12 days? Hmmmmm. . .Maybe it's time to finish binding the book I've been making, and then plan and actually *make* the patchwork pants I've been dreaming about. I've gotta use up those t-shirt scraps on something, so I might as well make them something I want! Thanks for the inspiration!

Great idea!

I have just started the book that has been bubbling on the back burner of my brain for a while. So for the next twelve days I'll be working on that. Working with Raven and Paul on their books has been very inspiring, so I want to keep that inspiration alive.

Good luck to everyone in their adventures!

Cheers
Tracy

Today I spent the day with family.  
Wrote some scribbles to get things flowing with my booklet.  I'm feeling bad about starting this while I'm still working on Kickstarter rewards from my last book, so I spent a good part of today getting those rewards ready to send out.  

I also got the warp ready to weave three rugs.  I'm really excited about this as the yarn is gorgeous.  It was spun at our local mill using lesser quality wool that was wrapped around a cotton core to make corespun yarn.



I'm using cotton for the warp and this will be the weft.  

That is beautiful! Can't wait to see the rugs.

Amanda Launchbury-Rainey wrote:I intend to go through the caravan decluttering. We have 12 cupbiards so that is 1 a day leading up to the fiesta of the 3 kings which is a big thing here. I will also be cleaning as I go.  I am fed up of camping in tents and caravans for 6 years but  I think part of that is because if the disorderly mess we gave allowed to spread through the van. A clean and tidy home may give me a boost as we enter yet another winter waiting for our home to be habitable!
Holiday best wishes to you all!

We've lived in what you call a caravan -- a fifth-wheel travel trailer -- and in several quite small houses, and decluttering is such a huge help!  Living the life-style we do, it's hard to pare things down, but if you can find or make places to put the things that you really need to keep, so they aren't on the floor or cluttering your living spaces, it will really make a big difference!

One thing I've learned to do is to containerize.  That is, I designate one container (a drawer, a basket, a box....) for certain things, and they aren't allowed to overflow anywhere else.  For instance, I have one drawer for tea; one basket for yarn; several boxes full of fabric (and working on using some of that up so I can use the boxes for other things).  

It feels good when you are done!

[quote=Kathleen Sanderson

We've lived in what you call a caravan -- a fifth-wheel travel trailer -- and in several quite small houses, and decluttering is such a huge help!  Living the life-style we do, it's hard to pare things down, but if you can find or make places to put the things that you really need to keep, so they aren't on the floor or cluttering your living spaces, it will really make a big difference!

One thing I've learned to do is to containerize.  That is, I designate one container (a drawer, a basket, a box....) for certain things, and they aren't allowed to overflow anywhere else.  For instance, I have one drawer for tea; one basket for yarn; several boxes full of fabric (and working on using some of that up so I can use the boxes for other things).  

It feels good when you are done!

Thank you for that - such a good idea. I find knitting wool spreading into inappropriate places. I need to usd some up!

carla beemer wrote:
BTW, the 12 days of Christmas refer to Dec. 26 through Jan 6, when Epiphany is celebrated.

Adding to the medieval/history geek stuff...

Way back in the middle ages Christmas itself was rather serious and somber, and gifts were exchanged on the Feast of the Epiphany/12th Night in commemoration of the gifts the kings/wise men brought to baby Jesus.

On to the challenge...

Since it apparently starts today I guess I'm not late exactly. Should it be a different thing each day? I'll have to do something thinking if I want to come up with a full twelve.

Here's what I've already got:

-haven't been able to write lately, so get back to work on the novel
-conquer the clutter in the kitchen and clean thoroughly
-start playing guitar again
-start reading some of the great non-fiction books I've had sitting in stacks
-watch an old screwball comedy that predates me
-play a game with the kids (if they'll cooperate)

Wait, is this supposed to be things I've never done before? If so I've got to rethink a couple of these. Back after double-checking and I'm good. Just need six more...

-start making another dragon egg
-draw something (I used to be good at that)
-set up my bullet journal for next year (used to be good at that too)

*think, think, think*

Hello ~  I have been following and reading many posts for years now, but had never registered or posted anything.  I have learned about and built a tiny rocket mass stove outside and concocted rain catcher barrels.  
 It appears to be time to challenge me and jump in to something I have wanted to to for ever so long but my body is more and more limited and home bound, just me and stuffed animal friends living here.  no longer growing things or preserving them.  Just where i am in the circles and cycles of life.  
  So I am inSpired - prompted by muse or spirit to do something or at least make a good attempt.  
 I have so been wanting to put some of my stories of my experience of living out of my car in the woods into some form with the few photos I have of my Bear in the woods and maybe some of my art. May be an ebook at Amazon. I hear they have a tutorial to do this ? OR may Be start with posting the pieces of this on my Google + blog place ?
I do not know if my body can do this on my own~ ~ so much I imagine I can do and then really cannot anymore.
So . . . Spirit is gently pushing me to start by posting this and planting the seed in me and all the Higher parts of me and in this public place ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
  Day one,  tonight I posed the last paragraph on Facebook - that in itself is an anomaly... with a photo finally found in documents rather than in the bast pictures section on my computer.  

Getting ready to weave