Holly Magnani

When I think back to how I got started doing stuff, I think it started when I was a teen and it was just me and my mom. She was going to pay this guy down the street what I thought was too much money to install two ceiling fans with adjustable speed switches. My mom traveled for business sometimes and once while she was away overnight, I opened the box, read the instructions and followed along. I was able to install two ceiling fans with those switches by myself while she was gone. I don't remember it being traumatic. I do remember her coming home, absent mindedly flicking the switch and the fan came on. Once she realized, she was upset that the man was in the house alone with me. I told her I did it. Then she got mad that I could have been electrocuted. I told her I cut the power by turning off the breaker. She swayed between anger and being impressed. Also, my grandpa build garages on the side from his regular job and he never once told me to go away when he was in the garage doing stuff. Nor did my dad. I'm trying to teach my kids, my daughter is interested. My son thinks robots will eventually do it all or apps....

Fast forward...I got a job working on a small family crew doing renovations and such. I knew a lot already but I learned a lot more having someone teach as we worked. I think I just have no fear of trying something. I'm currently remodeling my bathroom alone. Was stymied by an injury then loss of income.

As for tools, I find that Craftsman brand has smaller handles for me to use. I love DeWalt but their stuff can be too big for me to handle efficiently. If I do find tools "for women" they are usually pink, not at powerful, and stupid.

I ended up running a lot of wire, I enjoy doing the "inside wireman" work. While I was on that crew, there were some things I just could not do. I was limited by my size. Hanging drywall on the ceiling was something I gladly opted out of. However, because I was small, I did get shoved into a lot of holes to run wires.... you win some, you lose some.

I find that just jumping in is the best way to learn. I buy tools as I need them. Just bought a "hand held" 55# demolition jack hammer. That might be a bit much for me but we'll see. I have things to do and I can't let my size stop me.

This is AWESOME!
I've grown potatoes before and love the excitement of it.
I'm curious to learn more about other types of root crops. I'm going to go looking for the sunchokes forum.......

I have a tiny front stoop, not even a porch. maybe 3.5' square with two steps. Concrete. It is falling apart.
My vision is a porch the full length of the house, which really isn't that long; house is only 735 sf, and the whole thing is covered but with clear roofing materials so that light shines in. The front of my house faces north and so is wonderful for my tropical house plants in the summer: really bright but out of direct sunlight.

Wide enough to have a table and chairs on one side of the front door and some lounging chairs on the other. Lots of folks walk in my neighborhood so it's nice to wave to them from the porch.

Since I don't have a seating area on the porch, I made a little one under the redbud tree with a crappy rug on the ground (soon to be part of the ground) and a 2-top dinette. I sit there and have coffee in the mornings or eat lunch there while taking a break from working in the yard.

Having taken the night off, a good night's sleep, and a four-day headache that finally abated, I think I can answer the question of why I want to do SKIP.

I told my daughter that it's like grown-up scout badges.  There are days that I feel like working on them is all I want to do, then other days when I am petulant and say "forget it!" The odds of me inheriting property are small so I do them to feel like I am progressing and learning. I think at this point, I am trying to get "Life Credits".

There's some sort of thing, I don't know what it's called... where someone was told they are an amazing photographer, they must have a great camera. And, he said, at dinner, "This is an amazing meal, you must have a great stove." And I feel that.

I have a tiny kitchen, a crappy stove whose oven is never the right temperature, and a collection of modern and vintage cook-stuff from which I make wonderful meals....but it's not the stuff, it's the hands that make it.

As for plastic, I get it. I live on a budget and can't replace every piece of plastic in my house at the moment. I do what I can with what I've got and somedays, I just want freakin' credit for that.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:

Carla Burke wrote:Industrial grade metal in the kitchen is rarely aluminum, in the USA, so if your mixing bowls are metal, it's highly doubtful they're aluminum.

Agreed! If you tap your bowls or pots with an implement and they "sing" a little bit, like a bell or tuning fork, they're steel. Aluminum pots/pans (I have some) have a flat, dull sound; they never resonate.

They do sing and I find that kind of annoying. Glad to know they aren't aluminum. I guess I'll head to the thrift store and see if I can find a glass measuring cup or two.

Aluminum is in the requirements. I have no idea what metal my bowls are made from.

"Maybe take a few deep breaths and figure out how you want to cook?" from my garden, with my hands and my heart with what I have on hand.

A glass or ceramic measuring cup isn't going to make that meal any more special. Nor should it to anyone else.

I cook from scratch almost every day. I have zero teflon cookware. It's all cast iron or stainless steel....

yes and when I looked at the first two pages of people who made pizza and got a BB for it?

Lots of baking on metal pans, mixing in metal bowls, plastic bowls. Dough rising with plastic covering it. They all received BBs.

I'm DEFINITELY NOT saying take theirs away, I'm saying get rid of that requirement.

I own not a single glass mixing bowl, too likely to break. Same with ceramic. Metal doesn't break.

I don't get why the whole plastic and metal thing.

My most favorite bread pan is metal and it makes the most delicious crust. I had to dig out a stoneware baking pan that I rarely use because of how difficult it is to get clean to the BB and I'm going to fail anyway. I don't have a single glass or ceramic mixing bowl. They are all industrial grade metal.

My lasagna pan? Metal because you get those crispy edges.

My measuring cups are all plastic. Some well over 20+ old that work like a champ. I just don't get it.

Go out and buy new stuff to prove something to people in Montana or just use what I have and feel satisfied in my own stellar abilities to feed my family on what I make with my two hands and clearly substandard materials?

For some BB, I get that there needs to be parameters but I think in the case of food prep, can we lighten that a bit? Its not like I'm microwaving frozen dinners every night.

I'm very salty tonight.