Cracker practice

My first attempt at replacing the crackers in our cabinet didn't turn out like a Ritz; but I wasn't really going for that anyway. I was actually hoping that it would taste a bit more like the Original Kashi cracker, which we love in this house. It wasn't quite as sweet or salty, but I'm eating them in my lunch anyway. The more plain flavor tastes pretty good with hummus though. The kids are still hooked on Kashi for now.

Mushroom Village

A good recyclable use for the dry, melded together, grey play-doh that normally would be tossed and replaced with brightly colored new play-doh is to make beads or mushrooms (or any shape for that matter). In this case, we squished the old play-doh into little mushrooms, baked at 300 for about 1 hour, and then we painted them. Voila! A Mushroom Village!

Mint Candy

This afternoon, I attempted to make mint hard candies using the mint essence that I made last month. My recipe was to boil 2 cups of sugar with 4 Tb of water until when dropped into water it forms a hard ball at the bottom of the cup. I then added the mint essence (2 Tb) and let it boil off the alcohol for 30 seconds or so. This mixture was poured on top of waxed paper and it hardened very quickly. So the longer it boils on the stove top, the harder the candy will turn out in the end. I will be breaking up the candy and filling baby food jars and altoid boxes that I have saved.

Downspout Construction

The downspout was cut and screwed back together so that it had one bend in it for the redirecting of the rainwater into the "collecting tank". The water that we are collecting at this point will merely be used as grey water for watering plants in the yard. I'm not certain how we will redirect the over-flow just yet as our monsoon season begins to set in here in Oregon. Maybe I will learn to grow rice somewhere in my yard?

Rainwater Collecting Begins

This is the start of our Rainwater collections. The lid is essential so that mosquito's do not reproduce, to eliminate debris, and to prevent evaporation. The spout was recycled from our old water heater that went out a few months ago.

Mint Essence

Those three jars contain mint essence, simply made of fresh mint leaves soaking in vodka. It tastes really good in coffee; but my initial intention for making it was to make my own mint candies.