Amish White Bread

I just have to post a photo of the Amish white bread I have been making from this recipe. It turns out great every time I make it. This loaf I had frozen for a few weeks before thawing out to use. I keep it stored in the refrigerator, so it has last over a week after thawing and hopefully a bit longer for me to finish off this loaf.

Dr. Crook

I have had insurance off and on during my life. Recently I have obtained health insurance again so I can make sure my health is good so I can avoid having it again, hopefully ever.
With the plan you must get a check up to receive a discount~ so I did. This was supposed to be covered 100%, but I received a bill in the mail for a little under $20.
That's when I got to see how much "doctors" charge for a check up. $750!
I called the billing dept and attempted to discuss my outrage~ how could they charge that much money for a simple check up and bloodwork~ things I have gotten for free through the health department for years. The desk demon replied "well thats what they charged your insurance company." I told her that my opinion of doctors is that they are nothing but crooks and thanks to their office my opinion has been concrete.
I am outraged. Are there honest doctors in America who want to help people and not become filthy billionaires leaching the life out of people?! I am seriously thinking about moving out of this country, there are so many problems! So many things that I do not agree with! I want acres and acres of land to distance myself from this terrible lifestyle people call American. Now I am thinking just 5 acres in a good community in a good country would be plenty.

Today just seems so dark and I hope we can pull ourselves out of this. I see there are groups who are trying but there have been for over 30 years! Human rights went away and money took over a long time ago...

Container Housing

Trying to cure boredom I browsed a web column about strange architecture. One of the pages showed some of the container housing that is becoming popular and mentioned it to my partner Trey later on. He said, "why don't we just bury a container then for our house?" BING! A light went off in my head... so now I have been researching container housing and sketching plans. Now I have been seeing old containers for sale on sides of roads, or ones seemingly abandoned.
It would be important to get a rust free container and I would have to use a plastic sheeting to seal around once I fill in the earth so that the rain water wouldn't rust it.
I also ask myself, can just one 40 foot container be enough? At first we drew plans for incorporate 2 containers, joined together. But I feel that would be a lot of work, perhaps just a single container could be enough for a home and have an additional container on the property as a garage and work space.
Why buried underground? Living in the metal Bus I became very aware of how metal quickly heats and cools. 10 feet underground remains a constant temperature of around 50degrees, thus requiring very little to heat it when the outside temperature is say, 10 degrees. In the summertime vents and windows can be opened to warm the inside. I plan to bury my container at least 90% underground, and with the remainder roof being a living roof.
This is a very far off plan unfortunately unless I wanted to en debt myself and obtain a loan. But I would want to ensure that containers are strong enough to support at least 10 feet of earth.
Until then I can google photos of already made container housing to help me plan the interior of mine.

Rice Vinegar Success

After 5 weeks of fermentation I tasted my rice vinegar I created following these instructions. I peeked in my closet a few times during the weeks and noticed no bubbling and was worried something had gone wrong. However it tastes good and very sweet. I heated the vinegar over a double boiler to set the flavor (kill the yeast) and stuck it in the fridge. Now I just need to finish up my bottle of extremely delicious home made French salad dressing so I can experiment with rice vinegar dressings.

Prickly Pear AKA Tuna Syrup

I've been wanting to harvest the prickly pear fruits, called tuna, for a year now. While traveling on Thanksgiving I found a lonely prickly pear cactus in front of a closed up restaurant in a run down town. Weilding a pair of tongs, I twisted the fruits from the paddles, being careful of the sharp pricklers. I tossed 'em in a plastic bag and took them home.
Today I juiced about half of them which gave me about 10 cups of juice! I searched the internet for how to prepare prickly pears and found the various ways to remove the spines. I tried to peel the skin carefully but it was difficult to do, so I tried soaking the fruits in water for an hour, swishing them around and rinsing them to remove the spines. This removed most, but not all. Lastly I found Chile Chews blogger site and followed the directions she used to prepare prickly fruit juice. The one difference I did was I used an old T-shirt to strain the juices through because I was scared a spine may squeeze through my cheesecloth.
I made the syrup following her recipe for the most part and the bit that spilled during canning tasted very good. I can't wait to try it over ice cream! I may even try to use it as a substitute for maple syrup in granola.
No matter how careful I was I did end up with spines. Most of them I was able to remove with tweezers but I have a few that broke off close to the skin and are very irritating. Next time I plan to use tongs, hold the fruit over a fire and burn the little spines off.
With my left over 7 cups of juice I plan to freeze some of it, and make jelly with the rest. I want to try to use the low sugar pectin, so I will report how that goes.

Overcome The Recapitulation

We've had enough of these politician's wars
All we need right now is love
We've had enough of these military scoreboards
All we need right now is love

Turn it up
The future is held in the hands
Who right the textbooks
Ignorance is bred when falsified thinking is taught
To the youth instead of
Past mistakes and mind elevation,
Like the graves that manifest destiny has created
So we can build our
Capitalist consumer based economy,
To build, market,
And sell commodities we don't need
But we are trained to believe like celebrity imaging
Well I'm here to take my feelings back and I hope That you will be with me

I can't wait for that day
When I hear us all screaming.
Ahhhhhhhhh,
I can't wait for that day
When I hear us all singing together,
Ooooohhhhhh

I can't wait for the day
When I hear us all screaming,
HERE COMES THE REVOLUTION.
When every race color
And creed of militant human beings stand up
With fists together for substance and true meaning
Because right now we got our feet stuck in cement
We're too caught up in
A material status quo punishment
And one thing is for sure
And that's the sun will always set,
Darling you can bet our moon is quite the opposite
So baby take a axe to your makeup kit
Set ablaze the billboards and their advertisements
Love with all your hearts and never forget
How good it feels to be alive
And strive for your desire
Just cause you can't see
Your cage doesn't mean that you are free
When there are laws against nature
But its ok for you to be
Addicted to over the counter prescriptions
And magazines dictate all our human relations

I'm not buying, no I'm not giving in
To a culture that objectifies all of our women
I'm not buying, no I'm not consuming
The apathetic dribble on the news media's chin
I'm not buying, no I'm not giving in
The lies that are sold through textbooks to children
I'm not buying, no I'm not consuming
Cause the positive will
Always overcome the negative right

And we stay inside, its right outside,
We stand in line
We all enjoy the fences to keep it at bay
But I'm not giving in

RX Bandits, Overcome. This is why I am the 99%. We Must Overcome!

Foraged

I've been researching wild edibles and a romp in the woods produced some large wood sorrel. I meant to eat it in a salad but I forgot about it, so now it sits in fridge in a cup of water.
I also found a dead, dried tendril of seed pods (without seeds) that were slightly sharp when crushed but smelled like licorice. Could it be dead Anise Hyssop? I do not know, but there was a lot of it along the path in the woods.