Paper street, here I come

That's right! I made soap today! *photos tomorrow*

 I filtered the old cooking oil we had sitting around and tweaked the recipe I included in my last soap related post down to a fourth of the volume to the following:

5 cups of oil
1 and 1/4th cups of water
4oz of lye (I skimped on the last half oz)

Four bucks! 

I scored an old mikshake stirrer thing at the local Goodwill to help mix the soap, and for future reference I'm going to make the recipe even smaller so I don't have to stand there holding a bowl under the stirrer instead of just using the metal cup provided. Oi.

Anyway, I followed the directions and everything was going great up until it was time to stir it with said mixer. I didn't have the end of the stirrer deep enough in the oil/lye/water mixture and a little of it splattered across my kitchen wall and onto some of my cooking utensils, which are currently in the sink waiting their turn in the dishwasher. Yeah, it it okay to wash your soap making stuff in the dishwasher? Will it contaminate everything? Too late now! I know you can't cook out of it anymore but I figured washing it together would be alright, I guess we'll find out!

The entire time I was making the soap though, I couldn't stop thinking about Tyler Durden walking in and giving me an epiphany. Or breaking my brain, it's up for discussion. 

 I think an entire generation is ruined on soap because of this movie. 

BUT! On the bright side,

They do sell fight club soap molds.

crossroads

I was doing a wee bit of reading today about people who start their own businesses. It was supposed to be an inspiration to pull yourself up by the bootstraps sort of thing, and it got me thinking. If I, Hannah, were to start a business, what would I do?

My skill set doesn't really lend itself to a lot of business models, I've spent most of my adult career life either dealing with children or sitting behind a desk placating the permanently grumpy. And for six glorious months I bartended a mostly empty bar before I quit, after the mismanagement and the constant shame of not even having vodka or being double booked for events and it was just me to stifle the deluge. Hopefully in January I'll start CNA classes, but I've always dreamed of being my own boss.

We want to buy our own track of land and start a modest organic/pastured farm (eggs and veggies) I know, I know, a vegan raising eggs? Honestly, the world needs more humane sources of animal products since the demand is still so high, and I honestly don't see it declining any time soon. Each egg that comes from a happy chicken is one less egg from some miserable caged bird that never got to see the sun. And while personally eating eggs creeps me out, if the hens are happy, I can put aside personal views and supply a demand while educating folks about ethical food and food security.

Anyway, that dream is ten+ years out, we have nowhere near the money for it right now.

Lesson? Get pantsuit, profit!

What do I do in the meantime? Hopefully once I finish the CNA course I can work part time as a CNA, but I want to start something of my own, something simple that I can do to squirrel away money for an emergency or the farm.  My father always told me that people may go to work, but they make the real money on their own time. (as in folks who start their own businesses)

I thought about growing veggies for the farmer's market, but I don't know if it's legal to sell produce from your back yard here. I've thought about trying to see what restaurants around here are willing to pay the extra money for, be it micro greens or white asparagus, but even if it were legal, Chicago would be the place to try and sell niche market goods. Plus we just saw white asparagus at the grocery store and it was cheaper than the green stuff...shit.

I've been painting my whole life, my aunt (an art teacher) taught me when I was little and it's been something I've always done. I started sculpting in high school and I can say that the calmest I get is when I'm kneading clay. But is there a big enough market for creepy paintings and large scale sculptures in this economy? Even if I just threw cups and dishes, it could only be the partest of part time money makers. Not to mention the cost of either buying or going in on a kiln or joining a coop might make it more of a hobby for personal enjoyment than something to actually make extra money.

This leaves me with my last brainstorm...soap.

I posted before how to make soap with used cooking oil, and sadly, I have yet to buy the lye to try it out. That ends tomorrow. I'm going to make a batch of soap next week. Then another, and another, until I am a soap queen. I'm going to build a recycled soap empire, with homemade lye and herbs from my garden.


Talking about this makes me want a bubble bath.

But in all honestly, we should all have something small on the back burner to build towards, to strive for, ours is the farm. Some folks want to be snappin' necks and cashin' checks, we want to grow zucchini. And if I have to sponge bath folks and do the whole "entrepreneur" thing on my own time, so be it. Erick busts his ass every night at work, I need to step it up. POW POW! 

Going to the city!

That's right! Today my meeting with the third alderman I contacted went swimmingly, and she agreed to help me take this to the city!

You know what that means?

We can finally take it to the city for discussion and a possible change of legislation!!

One step closer to this:

And one step closer to affordable and safe eggs! 

Goodbye Summer

Some photos from Summer, we mowed the garden today and we're tilling and expanding Friday! 

Our faux tree. We grew morning glories up the tree branch we sunk to hold the garden gate. 

So many tomatoes a few rotted on the vine. Never again will we let them go to waste!! 

Those morning glories are ruthless. They grew up the sunflowers and pulled them down.  Onto our basil. 

lettuce gone to seed

Someone's fertilizing the garden! 

The line where our garden will be expanded to

The solitary rain barrel left, we emptied the rest out

Still empty *sigh* 

It's been fun garden! You'll be bigger and better next year! 

Winter beds

So we put the bed to bed for the fall, mulching with a heavy layer of hay. Tonight though, I talked to a friend who's in a gardening and compost club at the college, and they were going to meet at the community garden this Thursday. His plan was to possibly weed and plant fall crops on abandoned plots, but instead I offered my freshly mulched one, to avoid the hassle of getting permission from the city clerk and having to weed all the abandoned spaces. Can you say...Winter greens? Yay! 

Speaking of beds, we put the one out back to bed too. We haven't mulched or tilled and expanded yet, but that'll happen before Winter hits.

Our front beds are still holding out, and we added another one filled with compost we dug out from the leaf pile we made last fall. It's full of lettuce an volunteer tomato sprouts, along with a little zucchini. I'm going to plant a few carrots an take some lettuce sprouts to the community garden, but I doubt the volunteer tomato and zucchini will live. We're going to put a hoop house over it in the coming weeks.

Erick digging up our leaf compost

TONS of juicy worms. 

We pulled a lot of garbage out of our compost. It blows
into our yard from a neighbor behind us

They're either hoarding it for a specific purpose,
or they just don't give a shit. 

Our sad little garbage fence

The only redeeming thing in the front herb bed this year: marigolds

Our bottle barrier, the neighbors think we're lushes

Sad little opal basil

Our front lamp post

Japanese lantern plant...I think?

The front bed! Full of sprouts

Volunteer zucchini