In the Kitchen: Cultured Food

I think most people who read this know that I've been dealing with digestive problems (aka IBS) for the last year. I've experimented with different diets- vegan,  paleo, and just plain elimination diets. Right now, I'm gluten and dairy free and have been for about six months. It's helped substantially but I recently stumbled on a book about fermented foods and implementing what she suggests is not just masking symptoms but is really healing my digestive system.

Image from here

The book is "Cultured Food for Life" by Donna Schweck. Donna talks about her daughter Maci who suffered from IBS but was able heal herself by eating cultured (probiotic) food everyday -a few tablespoons with each meal. So I thought I would try it out and since I've been dairy free I didn't want to start out with Kefir and I opted for what I could find in the grocery store- kimchi. I've been eating it a few tablespoons with breakfast and dinner and it really has made a big difference in how I feel. Since I've had a lot of success with it and the tiny kimchi jar costs $5, I'm making my own fermented veggies now to save money and add variety. I started with a classic fermented food- sauerkraut and a recipe from Donna's book "Dilly Beans".

Pink Sauerkraut fermenting- day 4

Donna said Maci was able to add back in wheat when it had been sprouted first. I can see how this would be helpful because I've read many Paleo books that talk about how bad grains are because of the phytic acid (anti-nutrient). The thing they don't talk about is the idea that soaked and sprouted grains deactivate the phytic acid and makes the nutrient available for the body to digest. I've been soaking my rice and quinoa for a while and because Maci's story mirrors my own, I'm going to give wheat a try again after I sprout it... (in the process now, see photo below)

Donna says you can sprout the wheat, then dehydrate it and grind it to make flour just like regular wheat. I hope it works because I will be so happy to eat wheat bread again!

 My spouted wheat- can you see the little tails?

In Donna's book she also recommends making sourdough bread (more fermenting!) to make it easier to digest.

As you can tell, I am super excited about fermenting! There are lots of reasons to love it...

1. Because I've had less stomach pain and fewer IBS symptoms

2. Because it will be a good way to use my garden veggies (after food is fermented it has to be stored in the fridge but can last for 9 months! The previous owners left us an extra fridge so I have lots of extra space).

3. Unlike canning, there is little to no risk for botulism because there is no heat to kill the good bacteria which eats up the bad.

Retaining Wall- Day 3

As much as I love to do projects, this retaining wall has been fun just to sit back and watch. I think it would have taken us all summer to do a retaining wall by ourselves!

Yesterday it was 15 degrees out and I thought they might not come to work but they did, and early too brrrr!

I couldn't tell what they were doing in the morning when I shot this picture.

But I went down after they left in the evening and could see they were busy putting up a bunch of re-bar. The wall won't be poured concrete but sprayed on via a hose- which is known as shotcrete. I've never actually seen it done before so I'm excited for that part.

As you can see, the small wall is up now too.

Retaining Wall- Day 2

Yesterday all the forms for the back portion of the retaining wall went up. 

The area that I talked about yesterday were Cam, kids, and I dug out grass.

 There is going to be a small wall up where the arrow is

 Here you can see how sloped it really is

Of course in my graphed out plans I wanted the garden to be huge! I planned for 16 x 32. When Cameron found out 32 feet went just a few feet shy of the shed length wise, he said that was too much. So I scaled back a bit and I think after the concrete is done it will be more like 18 x 25ft. 

Garden Change Up

Our original plan for the garden was to fix up the railroad ties where my garden was going to be and make things simple. Then I got all worried about all the chemicals they use to preserve railroad ties and I decided they couldn't stay. We needed a new retaining wall and I really wanted something that would last.

 I watched about 10 you tube videos on how to build a retaining wall and I felt pretty good about Cam and I building it ourselves. The plan was to use a natural stone and mortar.

The day that Cameron was fixing up the deck, I laid out the plan for the wall. I laid out my hose to make the shape I wanted and then quickly ran a line through the dirt with a pick axe.

And next, I started to dig. For the 3-4 hours Cameron was working on the deck, I was digging out the trench for the wall. I got about 6 inches deep and made it 5 feet length wise (no picture of that disappointment). If you live in Arkansas, you know why it took so long. Arkansas native "soil" is probably 75% rock and 25% clay. It was horrible. I was really tired and really discouraged. I was so bummed because I really wanted to get my garden up and going asap!

So Cameron and I talked about it and we decided if we could hire it out for within our budget, we would do that. Another reasoning behind hiring someone was if we did the wall wrong and it failed, we would end up spending more in the long run.

Luckily, we didn't need to decide who to get a bid from because our friends from church own a concrete business, Aquacrete. Randy came out to look at it, and (yay!) the quote was within our budget.

In the week before they came, we ripped out the ties to prep.

 Before and after, timbers and none.

 Digging out the garden area.

They started this week! I didn't get any pictures of the first day. But basically they just dug the trench for the wall. And those guys we super tough, the two of them did triple what I did just a few hours. They even used the same tools as me, pick axe and shovel.

After they left last night, we dug out the grass for the area where the garden will be.

I will post some pictures of today's progress tomorrow, so stay tuned!
 

All Decked Out

The construction part of the deck is pretty much done! I'm so glad I don't have to worry as much about little people falling off. As you can see it still needs a good power wash and painting. The stairs still need to get vertical balusters too.

 Before

Progress

 I threw this on so you could see how short the other railing was compared to Dax.

 

Another Before

Progress

Hanging it up

Last week left 3 of the 5 of us with the stomach bug. I got to be one of the lucky ones :) After we all recovered, we made time for a simple project.  I love having a place to put my purse and it needed a designated spot. Cruz has a hard time keeping track of his backpack too so it was time for some organization. We did this same thing in our last house on a smaller scale and it was amazing. It's so nice to know where stuff is!

Before- the small hall to the right goes to our garage

 

I primed and painted a 1 x 6 earlier in the day. Cameron screwed the ends into the wall for extra support

We used a nail gun to attach the middle to the wall. Each of the boys got a turn to help. They loved it!

Finished!

Outdoor updates

We've managed to work on a few other things outside last week despite some chilly weather. While Cameron's parents were in town they helped us with the front landscaping. Cameron's mom helped me weed the beds and then after that, Cameron and his Dad tried to take out some existing railroad ties the previous owners used as edging.

Taking out the railroad ties proved to be more than we bargained for. After some hammering and prying they managed to get off one layer of ties (we knew there were 2). It was really stuck in there with some huge nail-like stakes (see picture below). When they started to take out the second layer of ties, they found a third layer underneath! I can't quite remember but I think they found four layers deep worth of railroad ties. We tried to hypothesize why in the world the previous owners would have done that and the only thing we could come up with is maybe they were trying to keep out the bermuda grass. Anyway, after they got the 2 layers out I looked at my plans and decided we could stop there because I don't plan on planting anything with deep roots in that location.  So we covered it up with the dirt we had.

Taking off the second layer of railroad ties

We have good little helpers :)

Finished...for now...

The other thing we did this week is chopped down some more trees to get ready for my garden. I watched my crazy but amazing Idaho boy out my bedroom window. Oh the things we'll do to save some money...

Again, chopping up high so it didn't hit the house. Not the smartest thing in the world but it worked for us. Just one more tree to go and then the garden is all clear from shade!

The next thing we will do is fix the retaining wall out there. We're going to try and make it more level. You can't tell from this picture but it slopes down maybe a foot or so from the grass to the dirt. I think we will add more railroad ties to the top and build it up. So far railroad ties seem to be the most cost effective retaining wall (and easy to do ourselves).

The start of the deck remodel

We finally got started on a project we've been meaning to do since the first day we moved in-- the deck. One problem with the existing back deck is that it's one story high and the railing is only 32 inches tall.  This is an issue because most residential building codes say the height should be at least 42 inches tall.

The second problem is the railing is horizontal slats, not vertical. That fact makes it a very nice latter for the boys to climb on. Just last weekend they were having fun doing a paper airplane contest off the deck and Dax would not stop climbing up to the second slat and hanging over the edge. It was pretty scary. Needless to say, the deck is getting a makeover and will be up to code and more-- we made it 46" tall--aka Porter boy resistant (I almost said Porter boy proof but honestly they can scale pretty much anything).

The deck before...

Progress

The deck railing is also nice and sturdy now. The previous deck railing was only nailed in. For our fixed up version everything is screwed in and it won't budge at all, even with only that one part done. As you can see in the pics we are also being eco (and budget) friendly and reusing what we can. This is as far as we got in a half a day off working on it. Now the weather is bad! Hopefully we get a warmer day soon to finish it up.