the animal's journal

[C40]

Great news and congratulations.

I figured you and Ego would get along well

[George the original one]

Yowza!

[jennypenny]

Congratulations!!

That kid is so lucky to have you two as parents.

[AxelHeyst]

+1. If I get hit by a bus in the next year or two, I'm gonna put in to reincarnate as your next kid.

[Dave]

Congrats, super exciting!

Excited to see how this next stage of your adventure goes .

[Frugalchicos]

Congrats!!! Wish you the best to both of you.

[Riggerjack]

Congratulations!

Sorry to hear you got the 'rona, but good to know you are over it.

If you are looking for meaningful work, and money isn't a concern, have you considered a personal business of some sort? Maybe expand your search to personally meaningful work, that can be sold/traded/given away in ways that fulfill your other goals.

I'm not saying meaningful work and employment are mutually exclusive, but neither are they synonymous. So maybe find the meaningful work, and let the meaningless work pay the bills until you don't need it anymore.

I just feel that with your freedom, in finances and time, employment may not be an efficient path to meaning.

[theanimal]

Thanks, all!

@RJ- Thank you for the suggestion. I have considered that but have struggled to come up with viable alternatives. But you're right in that if finances aren't a concern then whether or not the endeavor profits in the short term, or at all, really matters. I'll have to explore this further. A large part of my limitation is likely low skillset or lack of knowledge at the moment in desired areas of output.

[Riggerjack]

Yeah, you have written about exploring other options (guiding etc.) before.

I was suggesting that options you may have previously dismissed, may be more viable, in light of your new priorities. And that new possibilities may appear if you reframe your search.

Good luck, this is always a tough puzzle. But you have developed some unique strengths in developing your tactics. You should factor your strong tactics in developing your strategy.

You have strengths today you didn't have when you started trying to solve this puzzle. So sometimes starting the process over gets different results. Just don't do this too often!

[theanimal]

March 2022
After our bike trip last month, DF and I swore off restaurants once again, lamenting the usual fare of overpriced mediocre food. We rarely go to restaurants as it is, so these challenges aren’t really difficult. It’s more of when we go to other places I suppose and especially when we are with family. We are most interested in Mexican food and pizza so I decided I’m just going to get very good at these two things. I’ve been making my own tortillas for a few months now since building a tortilla press and we have had an array of tacos and occasionally things like tamales or salbutes. The tortillas are getting good and have passed the test with flying colors from people outside our household. I have also started making pizza from scratch. I have followed the method in this video which IMO makes for a really great crust and overview of the whole process. I have finally found a good red sauce after a few iterations. Mix up canned whole tomatoes with olive oil, salt and minced garlic and let sit chilled for a few hours. I also found this recipe for a "white" sauce with an olive oil base that is fantastic. And DF makes a great chimichurri sauce so we are not short of options. I’ve made 8 pizzas now, each one gets a little bit better. The hardest part that I have yet to figure out is transferring the pie from the cutting board/tray to the pizza stone.

I recently processed the 4 quarters of the last caribou I killed. I tried a new to me method for aging, burying the quarters in the yard under the snow and leaving them there from early November until last week. After the first few days or so, they likely froze and didn’t age any further. I packaged steaks and shanks for the freezer, canned most of the shoulders, made jerky from some select cuts and cooked up the trimmings for the dogs. The aging seemed to do the trick as this is the most tender caribou I have ever made. Part of that is also likely due to the specific animal. Either way, I benefited from knowing more and applying my knowledge. Becoming good at things is satisfying and fun.

I’m very happy with where our food stores are at this point in the winter. We still have about 1/3 of the pork from the pigs, about 1.5 caribou and 26 salmon. With ~3 months until we can realistically expect to fish again we are in very good shape. Our food that we’ve caught or hunted probably makes up about 50% of my diet with the remaining half being mostly store-bought goods (mostly vegetables). Hopefully our garden is more successful this year and the store-bought portion can decrease closer to ¼.

Our cooking needs are very dependent on propane and I see that as a weak point in our setup. We can (and have) cook on the woodstove but it is not practical for ~6 mo of the year. I’ve been looking at designs for solar ovens and solar cookers and plan on making something in the next month or 2. Ideally mostly from scrap materials. I’d also like to build a rocket cook stove outside. I was looking at some designs today and I am thinking of going forward with some type of brick setup once things melt out. Having 2 different options beyond propane would make me feel a lot more comfortable. During the winter I figure we can get by with the woodstove if need be. We do have camp stoves (whisperlite international and a jetboil), but I don’t consider them far different than propane.

I am REALLY enjoying the ukulele now. I am playing close to an hour every day and learning new songs. It’s a lot of fun.

I did taxes for the both of us and discovered that DF spent much lower than I did last year, spending about .9 JAFI. Very nice surprise! She is working on dropping her spending further as well. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, we should both end up under 1 JAFI individually (and pretty unlikely but possibly as a household) for this year.

Great news, DF is giving notice at her job today and taking over a support role in a trail work organization. She has done the exact position before and worked with some of the current staff so there won’t be much new. But she finds the work extremely satisfying/enjoyable and she will able to actually have a regular sleep schedule now, which will be beneficial for her health, our baby and our relationship. The job will be mostly remote, so it should work out real well.

We have started some of our seeds for the garden and will continue starting more throughout the month. There is still ~4 ft of snow on the ground so it’ll be a while off yet before anything goes into the earth.

I’ve been biking the trails about every day, around 125 mi/week, enjoying the gloriousness that is March in Alaska. I also used the bike for any and all errands this month, including a 20 mi RT, 50 lb haul from the grocery store. Not bad at all when the trails are decent. If I were to bring my dogs it would be even easier. Temps are hovering around freezing during the day so probably another week or so until the trails become unrideable and unskiable. Then nothing off the roads for a few weeks until everything melts out. With the increase of biking here at home and during our bike trip, I really hate driving now. I did it twice last month. When it occurs, it is a negative aspect of my day that I do not look forward to. We’ll see if this holds.

I have a few maintenance/repair projects for the upcoming month.

• I’ve had some weird noise in my car for a while now and finally diagnosed it as a bad wheel bearing. I’ll be replacing that and the broken lift gate latch on the trunk.

• We are preparing the Scamp for summer rental. Three things to fix/setup/figure out beforehand are the door (fiberglass needs adjusting for proper fit), setting up solar + battery system and figuring out a good system for the trailer-vehicle light connection.

• We have 3 caribou hides that need to be scraped so that they can dry out once things thaw and before the flies/voles get them.

• I’ve been trying increase my bicycle maintenance skills and at this point it is only out of strong determination to learn, stubbornness and cheapness that I have not taken my bike in to get professionally repaired. Derailleurs plague me and are currently the bane of my existence. I posted in the fixit log about a year ago about broken front derailleur, replaced the cables and can now get it to shift but it is nowhere near aligned. Limit screws don’t do anything. The height is correct. I’m at a loss. The rear derailleur is another can of worms. I discovered one of the pulley wheels is broken and before that I was having a very difficult time getting it aligned properly. Neither front nor rear is bent or out of shape. I think I’ll replace the broken pulley wheel, toss on a new chain and go from there. One win is that I learned how to and replaced my brake pads. Also learned about aligning the brakes and can do that without issue. Both my bikes need new handlebar grips, so I’ll probably also change those this month.

----------------------
PFD Year: Month 3
Total Monthly Spending: $357.28
Monthly spending as percentage of monthly target: 113%
YTD: $1,239.5

• Food: 147.58- Stocked up on more staples as well as freezer paper and canning lids for a caribou I processed

• Dog: 4.3

• Gas: 0

• Car Insurance: 55. Switched companies, dropping to $32 next month.

• Phone: 8.25

• Garmin Inreach: 12

• Spanish lessons (3): 44.25

• Spotify: 6.5. I use this maybe once or twice a month. Probably not worth having a paid account.

• Propane: 17.5

• Misc: 61.9 Most of this is for a new phone screen ($46). I broke mine and replaced it. Also a few dollars for a butter burner (DF’s purchase), soil for starts (amortized over 3 mo) and bulk Dr. B’s soap (amortized over 1 year)

[shaz]

Re: your derailleur troubles, you don't mention the b screw or adjusting the cables after you replaced them. If you already know about those and they don't offer a fix, next I would consider how much of the bike is aftermarket or cobbled together. I ran into shifting problems occasionally when making large changes to the range of chainrings or cogs, or by trying to be too clever and putting a triple chainring on a bike originally built with a double.

[theanimal]

@shaz- Thank you for your response and the suggestions. I have not done anything with the b screw, I'll have to try that once I get the tension pulley fixed. By adjusting the cables, are you referring to changing the tension? If so, I haven't had any luck with that. No aftermarket parts on the bike that I know of, the derailleurs match the chainring/cog setup (2x10).

[Ego]

Nice! Congrats to DF on the new job. Regular hours and no commute?

I still have that spare parts bike. You are welcome to the pully wheels (1st Class Mail) or the whole derailleur (priority flat rate envelope) and as many cables as you need (I have that box full). The derailleur is for a 7 speed rear cluster and comes from a 1990 Specialized Hard Rock. It may work on yours.

[AxelHeyst]

The hardest part that I have yet to figure out is transferring the pie from the cutting board/tray to the pizza stone.

Do you sprinkle the tray with cornmeal? That can somewhat act as ball bearings for the dough crust to roll onto the stone.

[shaz]

Has your chain stretched? That will introduce slop in your shifting. The only fix is to replace the chain. There is lots of info online about how to measure links to determine if it is time to replace the chain.

Congratulations on the impending baby.

[guitarplayer]

It's good that you entered this stage with the ukulele. In my experience with instruments, once one starts enjoying what one plays, then one enters Meadow's virtuous cycle and if time allows, runaway mode for skill improvement. It is great news if this happens!

Do you know no-knead bread making method popularized by Jim Lahey, like for example here? I've been baking bread like that a lot in the past, it'd been an absolute hit. To the point, where I had been queried by our local baker about it (and maybe inspired him to start baking sourdough which he now does, and very successfully). Anyway, the reason I mention this is that I experimented with the no-knead sourdough for baking pizza as well and it was also a great hit.

Fingers crossed for everything to go well with the descendant till September and beyond!

[mooretrees]

Nice update!

I've found that our wood stove is pretty good at reheating things, it would be a big learning curve to cook a whole meal on it. My farmer friend is really focused on starting seeds inside and transplanting when the weather is better, something you likely already have to do. But it can really make a difference in jumpstarting their growth despite the weather.

What a cool reality that your DF spent less than you! The challenge is on to catch up to her, ha ha ha.

[theanimal]

@Ego-Thanks for the offer! I'll see if I can scrounge anything up locally first, but I'll keep that in mind.

@shaz- It does appear to be stretched so I'm going to replace the chain. A functioning chain and guide pulley wheel may go a long way to alleviate my troubles. Thanks again for the suggestions and well wishes!

@AH- I haven't tried that, thanks. I've read that people use semolina flour for similar purposes but since we don't have that I've just been using wheat flour.

@guitarplayer- I have tried it with sourdough but not with making regular bread or with pizza. I'll have to give that version a shot for the next batch. Re the ukulele- yes, now that I can actually play a few dozen songs or so and feel comfortable that I am doing it reasonably well my confidence is getting higher. Fun stuff. And thanks for your well wishes!

@mooretrees- Agreed, it's definitely a bit more complex in having to do cooking earlier than you may like when the fire is at a hotter temperature. I experimented with it a bit more when I was living in the Arctic. Boiling things isn't that practical but I found I could cook eggs, meat, root vegetables no problem. If it wasn't hot enough on top, I'd occasionally wrap whatever I was cooking in aluminum foil and put it directly on the coals inside. We are still going to use our propane range as our main means of cooking throughout the winter. But neither of us like the idea of being so dependent on propane just to cook a meal. I'm not sure what it's like elsewhere in the country, but up here most stores have been out of propane since late last year and any that arrives is taken that day or within days.

[Seppia]

On the pizza:
The dough in the video looks great, but the secret is to add the mozzarella only towards the end (or even: after taking the pizza out if the mozzarella is a good one) or you’ll either get a burnt mozzarella or an undercooked dough.

For the sauce: the secret is there is no sauce! Buy good quality peeled tomatoes and just mix them.
Best ones you can find in the USA are called Stanislaus Alta Cucina, but you’ll have to ask a restaurant to get them for you or go to a Restaurant Depot or similar ad they are only for the Foodservice channel.

Try those two tricks and let me know how it goes

[Scott 2]

Time for some pizza blasphemy:

1. Buy the dough. Making it from scratch takes too much work.

2. An aluminum peel and parchment paper remove all skill from handling the dough. Corn meal or semolina flour make too much mess.

3. Tortilla pizza offers 80% of the homemade pizza benefit, with 20% of the work. Use thick tortillas and oil the bottom, 1 tsp per tortilla. They are thin enough that a high oil pasta sauce makes a fine pizza sauce. You still need freshly shredded mozz, but can use about 1/3 bagged cheese.

Today's lunch - 4 cheese mushroom pizza: