Love Story

Continuing this Valentine theme, I have been in the same relationship for 39 years.
Somehow this is considered a really long time... It also feels like a long time. It is wonderful right now, right here, and I see us remaining deeply in love and with the special, comfortable, and familiar friendship being together over the years can bring.

Like all things in life, it will always have its ups and downs: long term relationships require a lot of cultivation. Patience, compassion, sharing, surrender, frustration, acceptance, independence and a good sense of humor. It is ever a work in progress.

The history of our personal relationship is reflected in music - as are so many things. From our earliest days in the blossom of youth and romance Joni Mitchell gave us: "My Old Man"


And later the trials and tribulations of raising a family and keeping home & hearth together and those frustrations can resonate with "Give A Little" by Nicolette Larson


From the deepest dark times - we turned to one of the classic songs of all time, Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me"


But these were always followed by reunion - not always easy as shown by David Lindley's "Starting All over Again", here done by Hall & Oates (Lindley's version is better, but I can't find a video).


While this doesn't really describe us, the playfulness and silliness of the love that binds us - in spite of everything - is mirrored in this all time favorite done by John Prine & Iris Dement
In Spite of Ourselves

Overall, however, throughout this relationship and particularly at this end of it looking back - I have always felt that the Beatles said it beautifully: "In My Life"


Happy Valentine's Day. May your life be enriched with love.

Love is in the air

It's the spring thing...

As winter wanes birds, bugs and animals start to think in terms of romance - or at least procreation. Humans, unwilling to wait for the sun's warmth, have their romantic holiday mid-winter in February. Perhaps to warm the heart when the world is locked in cold (at least in the Northern hemisphere).

Valentine's Day (formerly Saint Valentine's Day) has mysterious origins. It could have started from any of 3 martyred men of God, each named Valentine.
The most likely story speaks of Valentine, a Roman priest martyred during the reign of Claudius II.

Caught marrying Christian couples and aiding any Christians who were being persecuted under Emperor Claudius in Rome his imprisonment ultimately resulted in his demise. In 496 C.E. Pope Gelasius officially marked February 14th as a celebration in honor of his martyrdom.

We hope you will share a little of your Valentine's day spirit with us!

Help the business you love get the help they need.

Vote for Simmons Natural Bodycare of Bridgeville, CA at:
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$100,000 in Intuit Hiring Grants will be awarded. Your votes help determine which three local businesses win. Vote by sharing a brief comment about why they love a local business. 

We hope to aid the economy in our community by providing more jobs in our rural area. Help us reach that goal!

Hello New Year!

One week down, 52 to go...

As I get older time seems to speed up. I am not in such a hurry.

It has been a while since I have managed to add a post: busy with life; busy with business; busy with family. Busy with staying warm in this very winter-y winter!
One of my resolutions is to make sure I post to the BLOG at least once each month.

Meanwhile, I have still been writing.
After completing a full year of Haiku poems, a Japanese form with 3 lines of 5, 7, 5 syllables respectively, I have embarked on a new project of writing a Tanka poem every day, thereby upping the difficulty a bit. A Tanka is an older Japanese form with 5 lines, 5, 7, 5, 7, 7, syllables.

Here is some of my favorite Haiku, 1 from each month in  2010:

1/25 - As we walk we flush/ Jays and Flickers, Varied Thrush/ Birds of winter woods

2/5- Earth shakes herself now/ A reminder of power/ Beyond human dreams

3/26 - Snow on peach blossoms/ Can only happen in spring /White kiss on petal

4/11 - As the years pass by/ The treasure of friendship grows/ Ever more precious

5/2 – The plaintive sweet cry/ Coyote on the mountain/ Singing to the sky 

6/11 - Murder in the night/ The wail of some poor creature/ Laughter of the fox.

7/10 - Children of dreamers/ Perceive life abundant/ With possibility

8/14 - Crucible of dreams/ The infinite mystery/ Of night's vast display

9/1 – Earth’s mighty power/ Lies just beneath the surface/ A tempest below

10/4 - Slow to illumine/ These dark days cloud my senses/And prolong my dreams

11/13 - How the chest contains/ A heart swelled with emotion/ Is a mystery 

12/21- Clouds parted briefly/ As Autumn became Winter/ Revealing the moon

 
 And here a couple of my brand new Tanka:

1/2 - Brilliant winter night/ Star fire piercing the darkness/ Yet bringing no warmth/ Down to this ice cold mountain/ From the universe beyond

1/7 - Deep, cold, and silent/ Rain swollen river runs strong/ Carrying the tale/ Hidden in muddy waters/ How raging storms tamed the earth

Let's see if I am up to the challenge!

 

Manual Production

Living off the grid, as we do, gives you a fine sense of power use. When you can use people power effectively you tend to forgo modern machinery with motors.
Once in a while you can be lucky enough to find a perfect piece of equipment from the past that was developed to do the job you need. That is the case with our paper cutter.

This is our guillotine. 100 years old when we bought it, an antique print shop manual paper cutter. That's one big chunk of cast iron!

You probably already know we use environmentally friendly Thai Unryu paper made from Mulberry trees to wrap our soaps.
These fine handcrafted art papers come in large sheets that need to be cut into smaller size to wrap the individual bars of soap.

Cutting the sheets individually is not an option, a print shop style paper cutter, or guillotine, cuts a large stack of paper all at one time. Most modern guillotines are powered by hydraulic motors. This is one of the original manual ones.
You can still buy manual bulk paper cutters, but they are not as beautiful a piece of machinery as this!

You put a stack of paper on the table after adjusting a stop to the proper length, using the wheel you see in front, then turn the wheel on top to clamp it down.
The blade (reflecting the paper) comes down by pulling/pushing a long handle activating a lever. Then it is held back by a counterweight. Primitive machinery, but very effective. 

After cutting into strips the proper width, you readjust the stop and cut into rectangles.
Below you can see the stop on the back of the cutter.

Here you can see the size of the original sheets of Unryu mulberry paper, a cut strip, and the finished size.



On the right is the cut paper for our bath bars, with smaller paper for mini soaps in front.

Below is paper, and soap waiting to be wrapped.
We wrap all the soaps by hand as well.
 Just a peek into how we do things here at Simmons Natural Bodycare.

Sweet Herbs

'Tis harvest time and we have been busy filling the pantry with all manner of food. We do a lot of food preserving here, from drying to freezing, canning to cellaring. A habit developed long ago that we see no reason to abandon. We like to eat, we like to garden, filling up the pantry is the obvious fnext step.

From fruit to green beans and tuna (OK, not from our garden), Italian style tomato sauce to Mexican style salsa we fill jars with the food from orchard and garden that will feed us through the winter and beyond.

We have always felt that anyone can grow a little fresh food for themselves. Even apartment dwellers can have a windowbox with greens or other vegetables. But of the things you can grow and save for year-round use, I would wager that herbs are the easiest.

From Basil to Oregano, Chives to Thyme, I can't imagine cooking without using herbs, fresh or dried. Many are hardy perennials and very simple to grow and save.

We recently added new raised beds to our garden. With 1/2" hardware cloth underneath, they are a gopher proof planting area. Previously we had planted gopher delectables such as carrots and garlic in cut off oil drums that are from the food grade oils we use in our soapmaking (see our business site). With the new beds, some of these barrels were now free and I saw the chance to make a new herb garden. I've planted a variety of types of Thyme, Rosemary, Oregano, Dill, Chives and Sage in these barrels, as well as a couple of Lavender plants so far.

This has worked out even better than we expected. In only two months these herbs have grown so vigorously that we are already able to harvest plenty for drying. This is fabulous - as I make herb blends for seasoning when I cook (see earlier BLOG "I'm All Mixed Up"). We also grow a variety of Basils, Tarragon, and Marjoram elsewhere.

There is absolutely nothing complicated about drying herbs, all you need is a well ventilated place to hang them. I pick bunches of herbs late in the morning after the dew has dried off of the leaves. I will pick them at pretty much any stage, but preferably before they flower (if you want Dill Seed, you must wait until after they flower and then form seeds). Bunch the cut ends of the stems together in a bundle that is not so big and tight that the center may have trouble drying and wrap securely with a rubber band. This is a hot tip! The rubber band will contract with the stems as they dry and keep your bundle from falling apart. You can tie a string or wire to the rubber band to hand the bunch from or just hook the bunch over a nail without. I save those twistie ties from store vegetables and use those. They stay rigid enough I can put a loop in them and hook them on the rafters without a ladder (or handy tall person, which I am not).

If it is a place that gets direct sunlight you can tie the bunch inside a paper bag and hang it all together. This helps preserve the color of the herbs. This also confines the fine leaves of the herbs, should they break off when dry.
Once dry, I strip the leaves off of the stems and store in airtight containers in a dry, dark place. I don't crush or crumble them until I am ready to use them or make one of my blends. They retain  flavor and aroma longer when stored as whole leaves.

And then, in the dead of winter I can relive the flavors and aromas of summer by adding these herbs to my cooking. It's as easy as that!