Silly doves, always making a fuss. The bluejays just stay calm...

I saw a parked Hummer get sideswiped by another car. I started to take down the license plate number so I could leave a note but then I thought, "Wait, it's a Hummer". The owner had it coming.

My mom sent me this photo a while ago, totally out of the blue. Notice my kickin' collar and vest.

Okay, it's now officially too late for shirt & undie orders if you want them by the 'holidays'. For button orders you still have some time yet.

If you want to make any shirt or undie orders for the "holidays" please do it now! It can take me up to four weeks to make and send out apparel orders, so don't dally (I try to get them out as quickly as possible though!).

Button/sticker orders take me much less time, so you can make those well into December.

There's always gift certificates!

My hand is almost completely back to normal and I've been working very hard to get everyone's orders out as quickly as possible. I'm mostly caught up on late orders except for a few that I will hopefully be able to get out this week. Thanks to all of you for being so patient! Since mushycat is a one-person show when something happens to me there's no one else the work can fall upon. That's one of the reasons I (usually!) take good care of myself.

So last night I went to the ER again because my wound was getting all unhappy looking and I was getting concerned. Plus I've been feeling awful. They drained it and said that my doctor had put me on the wrong antibiotics. Great.

So my hand was getting better (see last entry) and then I decided to give my cat Bunny a bath because I found a flea on him. He usually doesn't mind baths very much but he did last night... and he bit me. Hard. And it got infected. And it hurts like a mofo. So now I'm on antibiotics and painkillers and my right index finger is all wrapped up. : (

Continue being patient please!

PS I love my Bunny.

I'm a dummy and I hurt my hand last night. I went to the hospital today and I didn't break any bones so that's good. I'll spare you the other details but suffice it to say that it hurts quite a bit and they wrapped up my hand. It's not a big deal though, so don't worry.

why does my arm look so hairy?!

The doctor asked me if I had iced my hand. I said, "sorta...". After I hurt my hand (it was at Home Depot, grrrr) I figured I wouldn't be able to cook so I went and got a frozen burrito (vegan of course). On the way home I just held it in my hand to make the ouchies go away. AND I TOLD THIS TO THE DOCTOR. She laughed.

A while ago I randomly came across a site that sells prescription eyeglasses online for incredibly cheap, and at about the same time a couple of friends told me about how they badly needed new glasses but couldn't afford them. I got new glasses earlier this year after wearing my scratched-up old ones for quite a while. They cost about $300, which is just a huge amount of money. So I decided to try ordering the cheap glasses online to see if it was really worth it, and then I could really tell everyone about it.

All you need is a current prescription. I used the one I got earlier this year, it cost me $75. You also need to know your interocular distance (the distance between your eyes), which you can measure yourself or ask your eye doctor to tell you.

Glasses vary in width so I measured mine and compared it to the measurements of the glasses offered online so I knew they'd fit. I picked the same style as what I currently wear because I knew they'd look okay on me. I choose the optional anti-glare coating because once I had glasses that didn't have it and the glare was awful.

I didn't buy the cheapest glasses, I figured that $30 was a reasonable price for a pair of glasses, though you can get ones that cost $8.

They arrived in the mail today and they're perfect. I wore them driving, I wore them while working on my computer, and I'm wearing them now and I can't tell the difference from my other glasses at all. The frame looks a bit cheaper, but it feels solid. The finish on the bottom of the lenses (it's a half-rim frame) is actually much nicer than my other pair. They're lighter too, by 4 grams, which doesn't sound like much but I can feel the difference. They're comfortable and I didn't even have to adjust them.

I think they're definitely worth getting, I really can't fathom ever spending ten times as much for glasses again. Wearing old, scratched up, broken glasses can be very straining and stressful, so I really think this is a health issue that can be ameliorated by affordability.

Note: I am not in any way affiliated with any cheap eyeglass internet store, and I'm not getting paid to write this. You know I would never do anything crappy like that.

Here's where I got my glasses: http://zennioptical.com
It also happens to be the first link when you search google for cheap glasses, but there are a million of them so take your pick.

$30 glasses at the top, $300 glasses at the bottom.

I've been working really hard on gearing up to make guitars again. I've been saying that I wanted to make guitars again for a very long time, but this time it's going to happen. I revamped the guitar section of mushycat a little, there's not a whole lot there yet but there will be. I did a little redesign of the mushycat layout for it, take a look tell me if you like it or not. I'll probably redo the whole site with it, when I've got extra time and energy. ^__^

guitars @ mushycat

The whole thing about Bush planning to attack Iran makes me cry. How could it come to this again? It's like a bad movie. Normally I don't pay any attention to celebrities or the entertainment media, but I really liked what Sally Fields said about how if "mothers ruled the world there would be no god-damned wars". Give the planet to women, they'll take care of it. I sincerely believe that.

Since I just spent twenty minutes smoothing out and folding up kraft packing material so that I can use it again, I thought I'd mention this: Whenever you place a largish order and receive a package from me that has some packing material in it, it's always stuff that I've reused. I never buy foam peanuts, or bubble wrap, or bags of air, etc. I just save the stuff that gets sent to me with things. I reuse cardboard boxes too, whenever I can. And the bubble mailers that I use for small orders are made of 100% recycled material and are of course recyclable as well, though you should try to reuse them if possible.

I'm taking shirt and undie orders again! I've "retired" a bunch of designs, it's rather difficult to offer so many, I'm only one person! However, if you want any of the retired designs just email me and let me know, I'll probably be able to bring it out of retirement for you. It's not a big deal!

Sorry I took so long, I got distracted I guess. Plus it's not a lot of fun to print shirts in the summer heat without an air conditioner! But I'll manage. : )

If you have stuff in your cart please check the pages for design and shirt color availability before you order!

Please remember that the turn-around time for shirt and undie orders is 1-4 weeks! I make them one by one, I don't keep anything on a shelf.

I finally finished restoring the Millers Falls "New Rogers" treadle scroll saw (circa 1880) that I bought off ebay for $50. Here's what it looked like before:

I removed all the surface rust with wire brushes and a molasses solution (which really works!).

Fabricated new wood arms and pitman out of maple (the old ones were completely dry and cracked). I'm really happy with how they turned out. I finished them with 100% tung oil and oh my, what a gorgeously smooth finish. You really have to see and touch them in person. I <3 tung oil. : P to varnishes and other solvent-based yuck.

Fixed a small crack in the cast iron.

Made a new screw or two.

I was initially going to paint all of the metal black, but I really hate paint, and once I had cleaned up the metal it looked really good by itself, so I used paste wax and oil as a finish. I also didn't want it to look 'new'. It's over 100 years old and I wanted to respect that.

I made a small T-base for the saw to sit on, it makes it more rigid and also keeps it the cast iron feet from scratching up the floor. I made a nice half-lap wood joint.

For the drive belt I used the same urethane hollow-core belt material that I use for my treadle sewing machines because I won't use leather, which is the standard belt material. It's yellow and looks silly but it works great.

There was a mechanism for a dust blower but I left it off because the bellows was missing. I've yet to find any reference as to what the bellows actually looked like, it seems that none have survived intact. No big deal, and I saved all the bits of course.

It cuts beautifully. I think it looks beautiful too. I am *so* happy with how it turned out. Now I maybe I can start taking shirt orders again. ^__^

I finished restoring my second Singer Model 115 last night. It dates from 1916, my other 115 (the one I found in the trash) dates from 1913.

This is what it looked like before:

It has prettier details than my 1913 115, like this front plate.

Here's my other one, for comparison.

I put a hand crank on it so that it's portable! All 21 lbs. of it. I just have to make a box for the bottom.

There's no cabinet for it, unfortunately it was in horrible shape (I got the whole thing for only $10 so I can't complain). I'm using its treadle for my converted serger, so it will be dedicated to being hand cranked.

I've been a bit obsessed with working on it the last few days, now hopefully I can get around to taking shirt orders again (soon!). And yes, there will be stuff on mushycat that I will be making with my sewing machines...

Look at this baby frog!

so cute!

I added some more buttons that I made yesterday. I've been making them pretty randomly but there's lots of stuff I really want to cover...

To see all the latest buttons in one go just use this link: New Buttons!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=501287999

I made a few random buttons today and I've put them up. Yup, I know I need to put up new buttons more often! Usually I feel like I have to make a whole big batch first, but I'm slowly trying to get over that.

New Buttons!

oops. I haven't starting taking shirt and undie orders again yet. I know I said that I'd be taking them by now, but I've been a bit distracted and generally busy... but more importantly I won't be able to get blank shirts for a bit longer, and because I want to be able to get orders out as quickly as possible instead of making you wait, I'm not going to start making shirts and undies again for about another week and a half.

There will be another new thing coming along on the site soon too!

There are still plenty of 'bargain' shirts and undies left, just scroll down an entry or two.

I picked up a treadle scroll saw today, only $56. It needs a lot of work, but I love fixing things.

Occasionally when I'm screen-printing I'll get distracted by a bird outside and I'll print on the wrong color shirt or something. Those shirts get hung up on the back of my door (unless it's something that will fit me!) and they generally stay there for a very long time until I get around to putting them up here as bargain shirts. Which is what I'm doing now!

These shirts are $12 each (undies $7) and it's first-come, first-served! I'll cross them out here when someone orders them, so refresh this page to see what's left.

There's nothing wrong with these shirts! Try to ignore the wrinkles though!

Please make sure you look at the style/sizing page so you know what you're getting, and if you aren't familiar with the designs you can look at the shirt page.

Making bread dough with a hand-cranked mixer. It works pretty well up to a point, but then it gets very hard to crank, so hand- or machine-kneading is pretty essential once the dough balls up. The 100% whole wheat sourdough bread I make requires a *lot* of kneading.

I used my new HotPot solar oven to heat up water for making tofu, five quarts was up to 180F (the perfect temp for tofu) in a few hours. The reflector folds up completely flat and small enough to store under the pot.

Milling dry soybeans into flour to make tofu. I prefer this method over using a blender. You don't have to soak the beans so you don't waste water and you don't lose nutrients, no electricity is needed, and it seems to produce a higher yield of tofu.

Shirts and undies will be back in another week or two. I will have something to tide you over until then soon though!

After talking to my friendly neighborhood postal clerk I've determined that I was wrong about my package classifications and that the postage rate increases are even more expensive than I thought. Which sucks.

Hey remember when I used to always post pictures of myself? I still look funny.

Those glasses are new-ish. I didn't think I'd like them but I do.

I have updated the shopping cart with the new postal rates, which actually went in effect yesterday. Basically, everything is more expensive. : (

I made a small and simple solar oven the other day and I used it to heat up water for making tofu. It worked pretty well, but I think I am going to go with Solar Household Energy's HotPot. They're a non-profit with a mission to bring solar cooking to the developing world. It's a clever design.

Are there any other bird dorks out there? I spent a good part of yesterday taking pictures of birds in my backyard, and then today a bird couple I've never seen before shows up. A pair of Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks, of which only the male is actually rose-breasted, but they're both striking. It was terribly exciting, I believe my heart was aflutter.

I find birds to be more beautiful than I could possibly describe.

I was only able to take photos of the Grosbeaks through my blinds...

American Goldfinches only showed up last month. They have wonderfully varied songs.

Brown-headed Cowbirds (this is a female, which doesn't have a brown head) are 'parasite' birds - they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds!

Female Red-Bellied Woodpecker. The male has a full red cap and it looks like a jewel in the sun.

Male Northern Cardinal.

White-Breasted Nuthatch. I saw one nuthatch give another a seed, too cute!

Black-Capped Chickadee.

This Tufted Titmouse is definitely punk rock!

Update:

Jill from Last Chance Anna Pascal is also punk rock!

There's something outside my window that goes 'peep!', pretty much all the time.

peep.

peep!

PEEP!

peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep peep

It's driving me a little nuts. I tried to look and find out what it was (just because I was curious and not because I wanted to get rid of it) but I couldn't find it, it always stopped peeping when I got close.

It's probably a little frog singing its heart out to attract a mate (a lot of us do that). It's been doing it for about a week, I guess with no luck. The odd thing is that I wasn't hearing any other peeps. Usually when there's one frog (or whatever it is) there's a bunch more, but it was just peeping to itself.

Tonight, finally, there's another peep, either answering or just in competition. It's farther away, so now it's:

PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep PEEP peep

Home Depot sells 2'x4' "Melamine Tile Wall Panels" that work perfectly as dry erase marker white boards. They're cheap, I think under $10, which is a complete bargain for a white board. They're even made out of FSC-certified wood, which is a big plus because then you know the wood was sustainably harvested.

They're in the sheet good section next to the other 2'x4' stock like plywood and pegboards.

I would seriously love a whole wall covered in whiteboard.

I'm a bit behind on shirt and undie orders right now. It's very stressful and I'm trying to catch up, so I ask for your patience. I don't keep piles of 'stock' on hand, I print each and every shirt myself just for the person who ordered them. I don't get them printed by some souless, environmentally-hostile company and then put them on a shelf to lie in wait (ug!). The downside of printing them myself is that it takes some time! I should be caught up in a week or so.

I've got all these baby plants sitting on my big fold-up fabric cutting table and it's really quite stressful. Are they warm enough? Are they getting enough light? Are they thirsty? The peppers had me worried for a while, they took much longer to pop up than anything else.

I put two seeds in every container just in case one didn't come up, and they pretty much all came up, plus some extras that much have jumped in when I wasn't looking. So I'm going to have to cull the extras (gasp!) or transplant them to their own containers when the time is right.

I'm going to attempt sustainable, organic gardening, developing the soil instead of just trying to get the most out of it I can. There's no point in growing veg if you're just going to dump 'fertilizer' into the ground to do it.

If I had a very small farm I'd be happy.

I get funny emails sometimes:

"ken i hate to break to you but you are a gay fag and you have no life other than to make queer websites like you what kind of man makes a pink webstite with cats on it"

"this is the gayest website ever"

I wonder if they were trying to insult me or something... ^__-

Unrelatedly...

I used to know this guy who said he was allergic to peanuts. Many people are, it's nothing to be taken lightly, surely. One day I was at his house and he was making lunch, which consisted of a slice of bread and peanut butter. "Hey wait a minute", I said, "I thought you were allergic to peanuts!". He assured me that there were no peanuts in peanut butter, that it was just a name. So I picked up the jar and pointed to the ingredients list, which contained a single item: peanuts.

I guess he thought it was some kind of weird processed food.

To make peanut butter: Take unsalted peanuts, blend them in a food processor. Maybe add a tiny bit of salt. Done.

Patches is now spayed, and between her and Little Bub's blood tests (she's diabetic) the vet bills are horrendous. Please buy buttons! I'm only half-kidding.

It is quite lovely to have been able to take Patches in though, she seems very happy to not be freezing in the cold. She's a sweet lap kitty. Would you believe there was another cat at my window last night looking to get in? It had a collar though, and I think I know who the owners are. I think it's shameful to leave a cat outside in the freezing cold snow.

Patches is in heat. The vet couldn't tell if she had been spayed or not (she was a stray), but it's less probable that she had been now that she's obviously exhibiting signs of being in estrus. Thankfully the other cats seem to be ignoring her. I have to make her an appointment with the vet now...

The tempeh I mentioned making in my last post was delicious.

I make tofu every week and the process also produces whey and okara. The whey is good for using as part of a veggie stock and for baking, but I still always have a lot left over. Apparently it can also be used as an ingredient in soap, so I'm going to try that one day.

Okara is a kind of fluffy mash that can be used in bread or for making veggie patties and the like, but I've never really liked the results. Then I read that it can be used to make tempeh, so I ordered some tempeh starter and I made a simple incubator out of an eskie (cooler), a thermostat, and some light bulbs.

Tempeh is basically mold grown on a substrate, usually soy beans. It's a certain kind of mold called rhizopus oligosporus. The mold grows and creates a solid white mass around the substrate, binding it into a block that's easily cut and cooked. For the mold to grow optimally it has be at within a certain temperature range, hence the need for an incubator. Growing it non-optimally is fine too, but I like to build things. ^___^

Anyway, I made my first batch yesterday and it came out perfectly. It's going to be dinner tonight.

Next I want to try to make natto.

Because I'm a dork I just had to make a sticker to go on the incubator:

I do so love the birds in my backyard.

A nuthatch coming in for a landing with a titmouse looking on.

"tit" means small and "mouse" means bird. In some old language or another. Titmouse.

This titmouse has a cool hairstyle going...

I <3 bluejays.

A pair of Red-Bellied woodpeckers showed up here fairly recently. I think they're gorgeous. He's the boy...

and here's the girl. The lighting was nicer in this shot.

The big snowstorm we had here in NY really wasn't that bad, but I still haven't left the house since Tuesday. I don't trust the other drivers on the roads! They seem to all drive SUVs and think they can drive like they always do (like assholes) no matter what the weather.

This month for my little Concentration game high-score contest I'm giving away a brand new copy of a book called "Meat Market: Animals, Ethics, and Money" by Erik Marcus, who runs vegan.com. I tend to listen to Erik's podcast while I'm in the kitchen making bread or tofu, and this is my little way of supporting his efforts a bit. Definitely check out his book and site if you are veg*n and care about animal rights, and especially check them out if you're not.

Funny story: The other day I was making my own tofu, slaving over a hot stove and listening to Erik's podcast when there was a knock on the door. There's very rarely a knock on the door, I don't get many visitors here on mushycat mountain. So I go to the door and this skeevy looking guy is outside sort of standing to the side of the door so I can barely see him. That puts me on guard. But he looks sort of familiar so I open the door and asks what he wants.

Turns out he's got a meat delivery truck and do I want to buy some meat? Steaks, ribs, anything I want. So I'm standing there, a big pot of 'go' (soybean slurry basically) on the stove, Erik's podcast on with Erik making fun of some hunter's stupidity, in this sort of vegan bliss, and this sketchy guy is asking if I want to buy the meat that he's trying to sell door to door.

Door to door meat.

I tell him that I'm not interested, that I don't eat meat and he looks at me like I'm from another planet and backs away to the safety of his Truck of Death.

Ah, there's nothing better than fresh tofu.

The Accident Survey on woodworking.org should be required reading before using any power tool. It's grotesque yet fascinating!

I've taken in a stray cat. Her name is Patches, and she's one of the sweetest kitties I've ever met.

Patches was flea-bitten and she has roundworm (currently being treated) but otherwise she's okay. She just had her shots and I have to get her neutered at some point. The vet bills are pretty crazy already.

Her temperament is astonishing though, all she wants to do is cuddle. Here we are waiting for the vet:

I was pretty upset when I realized that my two sets of measuring spoons were not actually measuring the same amounts. Same brand, same style, different measurements! I don't really cook, I conduct 'science experiments', so this inconsistency would not do!

Of course, measuring by volume is not as accurate as measuring by weight, but it's so bloody convenient. Getting the scale out is a bit of a pain.

It was easy to find out which set of spoons was actually (more) accurate though, since they were marked in milliliters. 1 mL of water = 1 gram (kinda. It depends on the temperature, pressure, and purity, but it's a good enough approximation in this case). It was a pain, but I got out the scale.

One set of spoons was indeed holding about 15% more than it should have been. Somehow it had become Americanized, sneakily dishing out larger portions. I've banished it to The Cupboard of Inaccurate Measuring Implements where it will languish in disuse and vex me no more.

Really though, it doesn't matter. No recipe is constructed so precisely that it can't tolerate some inaccuracy. They're generally all quantized into arbitrary units anyway, and cooking is more about reacting to indicators than following a recipe rigidly.

Chefmate, you make crappy measuring spoons.

I just put up a "Tofu makes you gay, eat more tofu!" shirt but more importantly you can now get the girly-tees (style 2102) in XXL (for any design of course!). Make sure you check the sizing page.

The (relatively new) guy at the post office laughed because I wrote 'undies' on a customs form instead of (I guess) 'underwear' or 'undergarments'. I told him, "That's what I call them so that's what I write!". Kinda funny.

I put up some new buttons! There's a bunch of vegan stuff, atheist stuff, oh and the pope don't forget him! Plus a letter to New Jersey (don't worry NJers, I still love you) and more.

My sourdough starter worked out really well. Here it is on the first day, just a batter made from flour and water:

I cut a hole in the jar lid and inserted a piece of scrap screen-printing mesh for air flow. If you just cap the jar tightly it might break from the gases the yeast produce.

So yesterday I made bread and it came out even better with the sourdough starter than it has been with commercial yeast! I got a nice rise and even some oven spring. 100% whole wheat bread. Yummy. Seriously yummy, not bland and tasteless like some wheat bread. And vegan of course.

Flour is 'fortified' in an attempt to add back a facsimile of nutrients they removed! Think about that...

Store-bought wheat bread isn't always 100% whole wheat bread btw. It can contain some whole wheat or none at all. You really need to read the label to be sure. Most wheat breads just have a little whole wheat and the rest is bleached white flour.

I will go into more detail about all this at a later time because I think it's very important.

(Take a course on nutrition!)

The solution is to mill your own flour, which is what I've been doing for the last month. I bought a hand-cranked grain mill for a little over $100 (if you are interested, email me and I'll tell you what brand, I researched mills quite a bit and the one I decided on I think has the best quality/value). I buy organic wheat berries from my local 'health food' (all food should be healthy!) store for terribly cheap. You can get motorized grain mills but it's so easy to hand-crank one there's really no point. It only takes 10-15 minutes to mill enough flour for two loaves of bread, and it's good exercise. I've an affinity for human-powered machines of course, I use treadle sewing machines and I made a bike-powered blender, but I really think they are worth the effort in terms of energy savings and health.

Making your own bread is much better for you than store-bought, tastes better, is totally fun to make, and it's cheaper! A lot cheaper actually. With a sourdough starter you don't even have to buy yeast!

I like it anyway. And it doesn't make my tummy hurt.

I changed the site around just a little. The main page now has all the updates, and what was on it before is now on the 'about mushycat' page. If you don't want to read my rambling you can just click on the 'new' link above which will show you just the entries about new stuff on the site. Good, no?

I actually find writing very very hard. I'm a bit too visually oriented plus I like multipath logical flow, so this is how I've been working out problems/ideas, rather than prose and lists:

Basically, I wanted to know what the best way to heat relatively small quantities of water was. I've been using the microwave method but today I came across an article on microwave safety that gave me pause. I don't actually believe all of it, but you can make your own determination.

So after some research I found that the electric kettle is actually the best way in terms of speed, efficiency, and lack of risk (if you're worried about microwaves). They're quite common in other countries and I used one a lot in Australia when I was there. They're designed for heating water though, nothing else. No soup, no coffee, etc.

My perfect kettle would be stainless steel with an immersed heater (I think they're more efficient and I don't mind taking the time to clean things properly) and under $50 (preferably way under because I am not well-off).

Unfortunately all the cheap kettles are plastic, and heating up plastic that high isn't terribly safe health-wise - look up phthalates. I have been unable to find a kettle that doesn't use plastic that's under $50-60. Too much for this kitty...

This one kind of pisses me off because of the premise: http://www.ecokettle.com/
It's only 'eco' because it assumes that you're too lazy to manually measure out the exact amount of water you're going to use. It has a reservoir that you fill and then you meter out the water as needed. They recommend that you dump out any unused water the next day, which is of course wasteful. Plus it's plastic. And very expensive. No thanks.

If you want a cup of hot water for tea, just fill the cup up with water first and then pour the water into the kettle. Easy and precise. And yet I've never known anyone who does it that way when they use a kettle, truth be told. Don't be lazy and wasteful!

I've been doing a lot of bread-making lately and soon I'm going to try making sourdough. Sourdough bread is just bread made with wild yeast instead of store-bought. You kind of treat it as a pet, you have to feed it and make sure it's okay, and then you sacrifice half of it to the Oven Fire Goddesses.

Because I'm silly, I made stickers to go on my sourdough starter jar:

I've actually got a whole lot to write about concerning food, nutrition, and being vegan. I spend a great deal of time in the kitchen now, making the staples of my diet. I'll tell you all about that later.