rinipaul's Profile

I love her! that was wonderful.

mschatelaine, thank you for that perspective. Can I ask how much a chicken would be if you bought it from the supermarket and made it yourself? I'm wondering if the prices would be similar to what I see in New York or not.

I've gone both routes - buying it from the grocery store and making it in the crockpot. there is something to say about the convenience of picking it up already cooked and ready to go especially when getting home at 7pm. I also make stock for soup from it and oftentimes one chicken will last 4-5 days for the two of us.

Urbancricket -

I'm not sure where you are located. We are in upstate NY and have had no problems overwintering our chickens. Between their body heat and putting hay in the coop, they stay pretty warm. You do need to make sure that the chickens stay dry and have proper circulation in the coop. You don't want the coop to be air-tight.

Rini

I've been harvesting my plants, putting them in a brown bag and putting them on top of my fridge. the heat from the fridge dries them out and keeps the dust off.

I don't know if the brown bag absorbs excess moisture or if they are just drying quickly enough that it doesn't have time to mold, but I haven't had any problems with this method (keeping fingers crossed).

There is something lovely about using these herbs in the middle of a cold winter!
rini

I love it - very imaginative and creative idea!

We turned one of our bedrooms into a library because I have so many books. We did floor to ceiling shelves (bought the wood and put up the shelves ourselves) and separated out the collections with little library-oriented pictures or objects. (for example, my set of law books has a small framed photo that separates it from my husband's computer books). I have some literary posters framed and on the walls. We also made the room very comfortable for someone to sit and browse (rocking chair, blankets, throw pillows, etc.) so it's a welcoming and interesting space.

One thing I did was think about what I liked about libraries or bookstores that I visit and tried to duplicate that feeling.

This does bring back wonderful memories.

After I graduated from college, we used to have communal brunches with an open door policy - we could have anywhere from five to fifteen people. It was a great way to catch up on news and hang out.

Now we still have periodic dinners but they are more once a month affairs rather than a weekly event. But this is definitely a great idea to think about starting up again more regularly.

we hang-dry all out clothes using a two-tiered portable closet. It cost under $ 20 and can handle a full load of laundry. The pants and dresses can hang off the sides and the middle top and bottom can handle shirts, shorts, etc.

the nice thing is that in the winter, it adds a little extra moisture in the air as we heat by firewood.

I have a kindle that I bought due to the amount of travelling I do and how quickly I read my books. After being trapped in a hotel room with 10 paperback books which I zipped through in my first 3 days of being there, I love the idea of carrying around hundred of books in something that fits into my purse.

I've used my library loan of ebooks to download books while I'm travelling. Additionally Amazon typically has free books available every day. I currently have over 1300 books on my "cloud" so if I'm travelling and bored with what I'm reading, I can access the cloud and download something. (most of the things on my cloud were free)

For eye strain, I can change the font on the kindle to make the font as big (or small) as I want and haven't had any problems.

Along with novels, I can use the convert option to send .pdfs of knitting patterns. I have over 50 knitting patterns to play with the next time I travel with my needle and yarn. I use calibre to convert my friends' unpublished novels into the kindle format to carry around and read, rather than trying to keep track of 200+ loose papers.

Finally, at home, I have a converted bedroom that has over 1000 paperback and hard cover books.

The bottom line is that I am avid (my husband would say "obsessed") reader.
I definitely don't feel that just because I've gone over to the digital world, I'm giving up the print product - they both work well together in my life.

Love mango lassi, especially in this hot weather. But mango with anything (ice cream, yogurt, or just plain) is lovely.

-Rini