Sick of being Sick!!

I have been home from work the past couple days with a respiratory flu.  I think I picked it up from the personal care home where my Mom lives.  Bit of a bummer.  I have been flat out in bed since Friday and am not too pleased with about it.  I know when I am really sick because I don't even want to cook! And I love cooking!  Talk about being wiped out!

I don't remember getting sick very often when I was young and if I did, it only lasted about three days and was gone.  Now it seems to hang around for weeks and torment me.  I also have been noticing that I am not the only one whose colds/flu hang around a lot longer.  Are any of you noticing this as well?

I have decided that I am never going to be sick again this year.  Now, if only my body will co-operate I will be off to the races...

So that is my "poor, poor pitiful me" rant, it feels better just to have gotten my complaint out there.  Sorry I am unloading on all of you - I promise my next post will be very positive, or more positive at least.  

Pineapple Vinegar and a mini-rant on sustainability

I like making anything I can from scratch.  Sure, I can go down to the local grocery store and pick up most anything that I want or need but I really like the satisfaction that comes with making it myself.  I also believe that a lot a people, including myself, need to do more of this to pass it down for future generations.  I am not talking about sitting them down and explaining all the ins and outs or insisting that this is the only way to do things.  Just by making them aware that things can be made, and that the added bonuses are that they are less likely to be full of chemicals (if it comes from your garden) and that it is a lot cheaper to make your own. I work in a high school and it continually amazes me how many young people have no idea how to make even basic foods or even where they come from.  

We rely too much on our marketing system to provide for us.  We need to be more self-sufficient and to extricate ourselves from a lot of questionable farming products and manufactured foods.  I don't think at this point in time that any of us could or would want to be completely independent of the greater world but some self-sustainability could go a long way to making the world a healthier place both for us and the land.

That said, I realize that imported pineapples are not local but I have wanted to try to make some pineapple vinegar for the longest time and up until now, I have always composted the peels.  (Yes - I feel somewhat guilty after my little rant!) Today, my desire to make vinegar finally came to fruition.  I had two lovely pineapples to cut up.  I saved the peelings and put them, well chopped, into a two quart jar.  I had already added about 1/3 cup of brown sugar to the non-chlorinated water so just poured it in.  It now sits covered, on my countertop.  Covering something like this is important.  It needs oxygen to breathe, so a clean cloth  is necessary.  As well, the cloth has to be secured  down to keep those pesky little fruit flies out!

I understand that it  has to now sit for a couple weeks, be strained and then sit again in a dark place to develop into vinegar.  This is very similiar to what I did to make cider vinegar, except I actually used organic apple juice rather than the apple peels to make it.  My other vinegars - red and white wine, cider, and malt - are surprisingly good.  We are especially enamoured with the white wine vinegar for our salads and the cider on our homemade fries.

I will post the pineapple vinegar's progress as the weeks go on.

Plumbing Rant

We had a bit of a problem with drainage on our kitchen sink about a year and a half ago. It would give us a glugglug sound everytime we ran water or poured something down the drain. Hubby climbed on the roof and poured some hot water down the vent stack, thinking that it was frozen up. Problem solved. That year. This last winter it started again and the sink was having issues draining. Up the ladder with a bucket of hot water and voila the problem was fixed - or so we thought. Then it started again with a vengeance. I used vinegar and water, drano and some other non-environmentally acceptable methods. Everything worked, for awhile, and then it would start glugglug again and the sink would slow down. We called in a rotorooter guy to clean out the sewer to the street thinking maybe it was tree roots. He put down drop cloths around the sewer hole and proceeded to snake the drain. After he was done he cleaned it up and put everything back how it was. Did it help? He did produce some tree roots and maybe it helped for a bit.

Grr-rr Now it has started in the summer and we are at our wits end! We decided to go with a professional and call a plumber. He came in a couple days later and went to work cleaning out the drain under the basement floor,thinking that was the issue. No drop cloths, no rags for mopping up. His phone rings and he answers it but it is dead. He starts again. The rings again and he answers it and has a short conversation. Hubby is instructed to fill the kitchen sink and release it when he yells. This he does but the plumber forgets to cap the pipe and water spews all over him and the basement as it gushes a couple feet out the pipe. He contines to snake it but his phone rings again and as he struggles to answer it there is crud splattered all over the wall, floor, and fridge. I got him some of my cleaning rags. He smeared it further and further up the wall until I told him to leave it. He headed upstairs and was going to snake it from under the sink. We removed some stuff but he said just to leave the rest. I wasn't keen on it but ok I would give him the benefit of the doubt (which was huge by now). Still no rags in sight. He snakes it down to the basement. His phone rings and he has another slightly longer conversation. It seemed to go well. Things were starting to look up by now.

The plumber then proceeds to feed the snake up the vent stack. There is a loud snap and some angry words from the plumber. I come back in the kitchen and find out that the snake has broken in the stack and is still up there. He makes a couple phone calls and has a couple conversations. Then he goes to get another snake to snare it and hopefully bring it down. No luck. I am not a plumber and please correct me if I am wrong but I would think that you would feel it when it is blocked - wouldn't you? I have to ask you - wouldn't you stop before it breaks?

The plumber then decides to check the drainage on the sink by filling it with water and letting it drain. His phone rings and he has a conversation. In the meantime, he forgot to put the plug back on the pipe and the sink full of water literally gushes out all over the inside of the cabinet and the kitchen floor. Hubby and I scramble for more towels and rags to clean up. As we cleanup, his phone rings and he answers it (6th time?). Eavesdropping his conversation, I hear him give advice to whomever is on the other end and say he will help him out in a half an hour. Things are taking a decided downturn again as he explains to us that he has to remove the dishwasher, cut the pipe and try to fish it out that way. !!!!?? I am getting a little stressed by now wondering what other destruction he is going to bestow on us. Then he is suddenly packing up and says he will come back Tuesday morning to finish. ??? We tell him that Tuesday does not work that he has to come Wednesday and why is he leaving when the job isn't done? Says that he has to go to another job. This job he volunteered for as he was working under my sink!!

After the plumber leaves I crawl under my sink to make sure the plumbing is where it should be and that everything is sealed back up. As I crawl out I realize that everything, including the cabinet is covered in black crud. I remove the rest of the stuff, fill the sink and wash down the cabinet and all the stuff that was under it. Grrr!

Now we have a snake with its head stuck up an already challenged stack, thereby reducing air flow even more and another day that will be tied up with plumbing. Now we have a dilemma - do we allow him to come back and correct his/our problem and probably wreak more destruction on my home or do I call someone else to clean up the mess left by this fellow?

I do have to add this - he was a very nice man which made it difficult to get angry with him but that does not excuse all the mess.

Argh!