Doing Things Myself

Another unschooler and overall great lady, Robin, is prompting us to blog about things we do ourselves inthe name of sustainability and having fun:

I would like to see if I could get a small blog carnival going on the subject of "Do It Yourself". So if you have some skill that you know how to do - making jam, growing potatoes, baking bread, making yogurt, knitting a scarf, building a shed, or whatever you can think of, please share it on your blog and send me an email letting me know what post it is. I'll try to round up a good carnival on the topic of "DIY" on my urban farm blog. Deadline is November 15.


So what do I know how to do?
1) Make jam using seaweed thickener (agar flakes) - last year I made tons of blackberry jam and gave it out at Christmastime. This year I didn't actually make any. I'm not sure why.

2) Make mozzarella cheese using Ricki Carroll's fabulous instructions and materials. It only takes about 1/2 unless you are interrupted or only have a very small glass bowl to heat the cheese in. We like it with basil mixed in and layered with tomatoes and some olive oil. Yum.

3) Bake bread using my home ground whole wheat flour and the whey left over from cheese making - fabulous once I stopped baking the loaves too long. I use my Whispermill to grind flours of all varieties and love it.

4) Knitting and crocheting although simple stuff. I love the feel of bamboo yarn so prefer that for scarves. I actually sell some stuff at my etsy shop. I am working up to knitting in the round with multiple needles and using patterns. Stitches that require a lot of counting or concentration are out ... my youngest is five and I still get easily distracted.

5) I make yogurt too, but don't have the patience or climate to do it without the use of a yogurt maker. I tried. It was ugly and took a long time. My mother-in-law witnessed that daya nd happily purchased me a yogurt maker last Christmas.

6) I sew for myself and occasionally for others. I think I might make a long cozy skirt out of some organic sherpa this weekend. I need find a better place for my sewing machine though. Right now it is trapped.

7) I make my own tomato/pasta sauce. I made enough for the entire year (I think) this summer using seconds tomatoes from my good friend's farm. I canned it and everything. The quart jars are all lined up inside my new pantry cabinet that I blogged about earlier this year. I used the recipe from the book Animal,Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (which I loved). I used the squisher/strainer thing that my mother gave me from when she was my age and trying to live the same sustainable way albeit in Florida.

That's all I can think of right now. I do lots of things, but nothing that seems so out of the ordinary (to me - I know biased). I am now pondering what new skill I can add to my life ...

Where oh where is my Tribe?

This month's blog carnival is about unschooling tribes. I am not sure how many people count as a tribe. I have tribe components. People that my family and I love to be with, enjoy doing things with, and don't think we are totally wacko. People that see us Shine. Unfortunately, these wonderful people are spread out (from 10 minutes away to North Carolina - soon to be Washington State) so http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifI have not seen more than one family at a time. Also, many of my tribe components are too busy to see us more than every few weeks which feels very untribe-like. I crave more. More people. More getting together. More fun. More tribe.

So what am I doing about that? Well, surrounding ourselves with mainstream people or mainstream homeschoolers is not an option. They really think we are off the deep end. I have actually been told from some of these people that they do not want their kids around mine. Reason being seems to be totally their problem: my kids are allowed to do things their kids are not and they don't want to explain the whys of that to their kids. Just wait till their kids are teenagers!

So connecting with unschoolers is my goal then. Here's my plan:

(1) I took my family to the Live and Learn Conference. Now I have a tribe member in my own home - Dear Husband :-) And we met tons of cool people from all over the country. I really hope to be ablet o visit some of these folks or host them at our place in the future.

(2) I organize Unschooler Hangouts in the DC/Baltimore metro area. I tell people on SMHN, marylandorganiclearning, and MidAtlanticRadicalUnschoolers email lists about the Hangouts. We have met several new families this way. Getting together the second time seems to be harder...

(3) I am trying to cultivate the relationships I already have. Daughter has one friend who attends school and I am working hard to maintain this relationship for her. I am trying to stay connected with my friends even when our kids do not enjoy each others company. Son is the hardest one since not many local people can see what a fabulous, shiny, person he is.

(4) I have a large virtual tribe at the Radical Unschoolers Network which is really cool and really makes me feel good.

I have tons of ideas of cool things to do with a tribe, but I still need that physical, local tribe in order to take my ideas and make them flourish.