The Kitchen Blog

Cooking, Gardening, Angst and More. Including Job Search Tales and lifestyle tips about island living.

About me

User: ChefNeal
Outspoken Podcasting Chef, Sustainability Advocate and Farmer.

  • Contact me
  • My profile
  • Linkme

  • RSS 2.0
  • ATOM 0.3
  • Powered by Mo'time

Recent comments

Mo'nonymous on Dear Diary


www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from podchef. Make you own badge here.



Search Popdex:

Counter

visited *loading* times

Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Dear Diary

Off to the mainland today to price pig feed, and bulk purchased grains. Also picking up some layer food and some groceries. 

The wind was blowing when I left the house, but it seems fairly calm on the ferry. As dawn breaks there is some blue sky showing out to the south, which is where we seem to get our weather from. I hope it is a better day than yesterday which turned cold and wet just before lunch with a nasty hail storm that left almost a half inch of cold dampness on the ground. I forgot to check out how the chickens reacted, but I shouldn't think they liked it much. I'm up too early today to do chores. Chickens hate to come out of the coop or be woken up in the winter before any light, and the risk of mink coming in the dark is too great. If I can I leave it for the kids to look after before school. I hope they remember to feed and water the cattle.

Going to town like this alone, last minute--we needed fuel for the car, which reminds me, I forgot the spare gas can...stupid, stupid, stupid. . . .--is a rare treat. I don't even have me dog with me. Good and bad, that. She's a great companion, but I always worry about her being stolen. I wish she'd be a bit more defensive of the vehicle she's in when she's with me. . .She won't eat or mess with the groceries and she's very calm, but a bit of aggression when I'm not there would be nice. She knows how to defend her food, and couch to the death against other dogs--perhaps she just doesn't see people as a threat. She is a bonny wee dog.

My back it touched with more pain than usual. I should be heading to the Chiro, but the distance, cost, and lecture at the end of it, may not be worth it. The worst of my construction work is over for the time being. Hopefully it will sort itself out. The extra money to pay debt off is nice, but if it leaves me a cripple, how far ahead am I towards my dreams?

posted by: ChefNeal at January 08, 2008 09:23 | link | comments (3) |
news, mainland

Thursday, May 17, 2007
Been awhile

Life has been crazy. Life has been busy. Life has been crazy, busy, fucked and stupid.

I haven't given this blog as much attention as I should since I pulled my podcast blog  off of Mo'time to allow it more room to grow. At the same time I started a public media blog to promote my activities in the public forum, and I began a forum for the podcast  All this is on top of my Company blog . Juggling 4 blogs, work, life, an expanding smallholding and the livestock on it, selling our home and managing the vast amounts of bureaucracy which all of  the above entails has left me little time to give any one thing the attention it deserves.

I am on the ferry again, at the moment. It seem to be the only time I have the peace of mind, time and freedom to write just for myself and this little journal. I have been going into the mainland more and more often lately. Work and a weekly dog agility class for my daughter's puppy have kept me there once a week over the last month and a half. Yet, I rarely have time on the ferry, during the day, or on the way home to pause.

I really wish I wasn't going to the mainland so much. It's not that I shun society, rather the opposite. We are selling our property so we can have better access to business opportunities, land and people. No, I hate the trip to the mainland because it costs so much these days and we aren't making any more money than we used to. $25 for the ferry. $40 last time I filled my station wagon's tank, and during a full day in town--lunch and dinner for around $25 for the two of us. Almost $100 just to go grocery shopping before we by any groceries.  That adds up in a month when we usually only go to town (the mainland) once a month.   Needless to say it is all a bit painful in more ways than one.

Well, time is drifting by. Soon time to "depart the vessel" as they say. Please visit me at any of the above links to keep tabs on what's going on.

posted by: ChefNeal at May 17, 2007 08:18 | link | comments (2) |
life, podcasting, mainland

Thursday, February 08, 2007
Long Time No Blog

Ach,
It has been too long since I have posted here.

Since switching my podcast blog over to it's new site and starting a new media related blog and working on the forum I hardly have free writing time for the drivel which usually clogs this place.

I am again, on the ferry headed to the mainland. It is a great, quite, peaceful hour in my life usually. Music is on--Coldplay, Sparks at the minute. The Acoustic version. Eldest daughter and Rowan are in the truck sleeping--it has just turned 8am.

I'm on my way to pick up 6 piglets this morning in addition to some supplies for a catering job. My life has spun out of control lately. Between the above mentioned blogs, and podcast, I have been actively fighting Animal ID to help save your rights to own pets and livestock freely. Unfortunately we are loosing the battle and it is draining.

All this comes as we increase our own livestock amounts in an effort to get away from having to buy industrial, commercially raised crap. We are also in the midst of clean up a 33 acre estate to prep if for sale. If we can sell the family pile then we can move, be free, and own our own farm--or when that is outlawed--a multi acre weedpatch and nature reserve.

Meanwhile midwinter madness has sent in and in everything I do I am feeling a little touched in the head. Hopefully today I can get to the accountant to get our taxes done. Whatever we get back this year won't be enough to crawl out of the piles of debt we're in. It usually is. The economic undertow in this country is dragging us out to sea to drown.

I'll try to be better at updating this blog a bit more often. If you wish to keep up do visit the gastroblog--especially to hear how todays piggy capers turn out.
By for now.

posted by: ChefNeal at February 08, 2007 09:14 | link | comments (1) |
mainland

Thursday, November 16, 2006
Tossed Aside

I'm sitting on the ferry--but then you knew that. . . .

We're pulled into our last stop before the mainland, the engines are just winding up to slide us out of the slip. I've been working on my checking account to see if I actually have any money to spend once I get to the bright lights and big smoke. The wind is calm and it hasn't rained. . .yet. . .this morning. Very like a grey day in the Lakes if that means anything to you.

I've deleted 2456 spam emails from my laptop email accounts already this morning while I sit here. I've found out ways to forward the good ones to my desktop, leaving the laptop to only collect the junky ones, just in case there is something which slips through. The only trouble is I have only been using the laptop lately when I go to the mainland so it take 30-45 minutes to delete all the garbage. Very annoying.

So, I'm sat here and we're pulling out. I'm zoned out on the screen, typing the words, "I'm sitting on the ferry--but then you knew that. . . ." when I get hit in the cheek by something hot, then warm. I'm thinking someone splashed hot coffee in my direction, but its not wet. My headphones are on to drown out the humm, buzz and chatttttter of the crowded ferry so I'm only hearing, "drink this baby, it's atomic soda. . . ." and am not very aware anyway at 7:45am in my twilight jobless existence. But I do realize I haven't been hit with hot liquid. I look over to see who or what has seared my cheek to be blinded by a slim ray of hunter, safety orange sunshine cutting through the rim of the land and sky, over the hills and down on to the the water, bisecting the very place where I am sitting on the ferry.

It's almost pleasant. Almost like its worth leaving dogs, chickens, livestock, children, comfort and sloth behind for a dizzying day of buying animal feed, groceries and fuel. The kicker is, a nice day like this is exactly what I need at home to clean up after yesterday's destruction. But the freedom I'm feeling after being cooped up during the battering is immense. I wish I had somewhere to go more than just buying supplies. I wish I could drive and drive and drive somewhere and then get out on some lonely mountain top, far from wave and wake and have a foresty picnic amidst the smells of decay. To breath in the crisp piney sap filled air and think of black forest gateau or gummy bears, schnapps and beer spelled bier. But my day is planned for me--a day of driving and speed and pavement. In and out of shops. Probably safer that way.

After so many days held down on the island, beaten into the damp ground by storm after storm I am grateful at very least to escape on this ship. A ship which is not pitching and yawing in the gale but cleanly cutting through the smooth water. Perhaps a case of beer should await me wherever I am shopping.

Update: Didn't get to post this on the mainland this morning--power was out there too. Now, back at home and unloaded and tuckered out. Wind is picking up. . . .

posted by: ChefNeal at November 16, 2006 23:09 | link | comments (1) |
ferries, ferry travel, gales, storms

Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Feeling like. . .

. . .a drowned duck with soggy boots. Here's a bit about how the day went.

posted by: ChefNeal at November 15, 2006 18:36 | link | comments |
island life, gales, storms

Friday, November 10, 2006
Soul Crushing Wind

All last night and all of this morning the wind has blown a gale. The yard is littered with limbs, all the stuff of childhood--toys, trinkets from the beach, rope and jackets left outside--are strewn across the property, some pressed so hard through fencing as to appear almost strained.

The power has heretofore stayed on, but it is expected to go out any minute. Every few moments the house is slammed against by natures force. The walls shake and my brain rattles. I've had to go out into the gale 5 times already to rescue items flying past the windows and for chores. The icey blasts are cutting through everything. The chickens were reluctant to leave their coops and I fully expect them to be stripped naked before lunch.

But the worst blow, the most maddening fact of this wind is the Polytunnel. It is almost destroyed. The brand new plastic I put on it during the summer is torn in several places, the door ripped from its hinges, and several of its ribs are bent out of recognition. I can't see how it will last much more of this torment. $800 smashed by air. Shredded and with it my hopes for vegetables this winter and early spring.

It's not so much the money at this point. It is the futility of my efforts. But I lie. It is the money. Without work, and without a way to grow some sort of food and prisoned on this blasted (literally) island for another winter I am not sure how much more of this I can take. I can only think, "Why does God hate me so?" Sure I don't mind suffering a bit. I do that every day with back pain and near-poverty, sliding deeper in debt by the minute.

I have skills and talents which are being wasted. 5 years of limbo and more trying to get off of this rock. Family, pets, livestock, a house full of stuff and a storage unit packed with a life we haven't ever known--much of which are only-opened-once wedding presents from 15 years ago--all new items awaiting a house and a situation which will fit them. Not easy to move to a cardboard box under the viaduct. Not easy to cram into a duplex on the wrong side of the tracks.

This wind has pushed me to a breaking point. But that's not true either. I will weather the storm, a little bit more of myself blown away, the twisted and bitter hulk of a man a little more bare for the exposure. With my back pinned against the wall I don't know where to go anymore. I wish to God this wind would go away and leave me alone, or blow some money and good fortune our direction.

posted by: ChefNeal at November 10, 2006 09:40 | link | comments (2) |
wind, storm, rage, mentally exhausted

Friday, November 03, 2006
You can't afford to not watch

Watch this and think before you vote. . .please.

posted by: ChefNeal at November 03, 2006 15:30 | link | comments |
politics, video

Presidential Words

Click the image to go to a cool website which uses a tag cloud to display the words Presidents have used over time in their speeches. An awesome display of what matters most in an given President's terms of office.

posted by: ChefNeal at November 03, 2006 08:37 | link | comments |
words, speech, presidents, tag cloud

Doesn't work for me

If this is so low, than how come I can't find work and my (long suffering) wife can't find a job to switch to in order to get out of the hell of a retarded insurance system (she's a pharmacy technician and spend 8 hours a day trying to convince patients insurance companies to pay for the life saving drugs they're supposed to cover.)?

posted by: ChefNeal at November 03, 2006 08:16 | link | comments |
work, jobs, job search

Thursday, November 02, 2006
It's Black & White

Once again I find myself on the ferry to the mainland. This has become a weekly occurrence which I wouldn't mind so much if it actually paid off, but as of now I am just spinning my wheels.

Twelve hours of driving and shopping and racing around. Dash and distress. The upside is I have made a bit more money than usual, despite--or because of--not having any weddings on the books this year. This weekend is the last party I have on the calendar. After that I know not what. I am hoping there will be a repeat of last years Christmas job. But perhaps that is too much to ask for.

The seasons have changes abruptly time and again over the last few days. Late Autumn, crisp, sunny, bright and clear. All apples and leaves and chilled breath. Winter stole all that away one morning with icy rains, sleet, hail, snow, thunder and blast. Shark Grey skys cut the autumn to shreds leaving me in the middle of the field soaked to the skin like some flaccid, tide-bound sea creature. The beast didn't seem to mind, blinking at my shifting to and fro, jerking in my work to stay warm. Then the ice and frosts captured the gardens once green now black in their captors' hands. The clearer the days became the crisper they felt. Cracking and crunching my way out to chores, cursing the suddenness of the moment; my foregone procrastination in putting away the hoses, the cart, the tarps, the pile of boxes to save for the one day we may eventually move. Pumpkins carved for a treat and joy stand frozen, rooted to the deck boards. Crystalized and hollow like my mood.

And now. Now. Impenetrable grey, like some sort of metallic chastity belt of pressure zones, dripping in an icy sweat of expectation. Rain. Drizzle. Cloud and storm. Every breath is an inhalation of misty wet. Just moving causes saturation with out actual precipitation. How many months of this, week in, week out will we enjoy? Black through grey fading to black day after  damp day. Still, it could be raining. Still, it could be 5 years ago with health and non-aching bones I sallied forth everyday into this perpetual smeg to pound and hammer peoples abodes together from dissolute piles of material. The very joyful memory of power, control and pain causes me soul stirring irritation. Still it could be raining.

Yet I am now cutting through this vale on a jaunty, cheerful little ship of fools. A florescent box floating across the waters, propelled by willful desire and expectation of the day to come. 12 hours hence, ditto in reverse. The seasons change, so why can't I?

posted by: ChefNeal at November 02, 2006 09:08 | link | comments (1) |
weather, mainland, ferry travel

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ...
next
last page