House Building and Kefir Soda

Odd-sounding bedfellows, building houses and making soda–but both are very excellent!

The sheeting is coming right along on the roof today.  Looks like they’ll have that about done before they head for home today.  We spent about 2 1/2 hours this morning at the kitchen table hammering out lighting (that’s a very important issue for me; I think lighting is critical).  Our friend Dave is rather expert in all sorts of construction areas, but he really enjoys being creative, and practical, with lighting.  We came up with a combination of can lights, interesting soffit ideas to work with the lights, fluorescent for closets and laundry space, and task lighting.  He also got us thinking about wiring for sound and a creative way to light up the main living space.  Once again, it was great fun, but definitely “brain taxing” and tiring.

So then I went to a “brown bag lunch” at our community library (I work there on Saturdays), where there’s a summer series on local foods, farms, CSAs, etc.  This particular one had to do with buying and raising pastured chicken, beef, lamb, and pork.  We spent the majority of our time on chickens because there was a lot of interest, and I believe I learned a lot.  Wonderful to share with someone who’s a little further down the road in their experience!

Then we made a short trip to the Wednesday Farmers’ Market to have burgers (yummy local beef) for lunch and check out the rest of the produce, crafts, baked goodies.  I can’t imagine summer without the farmers’ markets–they’re such a part of the community’s culture.

Lastly, the boys (grandson and his half brother) were up yesterday scarfing the last of my homemade grape kefir.  That necessitated making some more, and I have some excellent directions from Kelly the Kitchen Kop.  I’ve been using the frozen grape juice I made from our grapevines last summer.  It’s a hit with all of us!  Tangy, refreshing, fizzy, but still mild.  I’m liking it better than my homemade kombucha, but then I’ve never been real pleased with that. Have to say the taste is great, but also the fact that I can make it and have it bottled in a little over 2 days is helpful.

Sheeting