Today A. and I drove up to the camp with my parents for some cross-country skiing and (for me) a chance to locate the hand-crank ice cream maker so I can use it for my birthday party. The ski into the camp was a little more exciting than in past years, since there's a lot more plowing and sanding on some of the camp roads around there. Getting one ski caught on sand is not so much fun. We had a good ski, though, and some walking, and then sat around in the warm kitchen having a picnic. We skied back out at dusk, the ice cream maker on my back in one of my big dry bags--turns out those backpack straps on the dry bags have really come in handy! A. and I still had time to go back to my place, make beef stew in the pressure cooker for the second time (just as successful as the first time), and head back up Route 26 for a few miles to join in a big Portland Permaculture solstice potluck and bonfire. Yay!
I've been trying to unwind from all of this crazy fun, but keep getting distracted by my idea for birthday shenanigans: to shovel off my deck, bolt the ice cream maker to it, put my old touring bike out here, and somehow hook it up so that we can take turns making ice cream using pedal power! Yes! Still have a few weeks to sort out how to do that, since I'm delaying the birthday party until Magic Person is back from his long trip.
Favorite pedal power resources so far:
Pedal Power - A How-To Guide from Humboldt University
This idea of converting a magnetic trainer sounds very easy
Pedal Power in work, leisure and transportation from Rodale Press (just requested this via interlibrary loan, though it may not arrive until too late. I just received The Epidemic today).
Must. go. to. sleep. Argh. Too many projects on the brain, as usual. The permie potluck answered lots of my questions (hoop house reengineering, sheet mulching asparagus...) Permaculture events are dangerous, because hanging out with a group of people who love projects as much as I do...well, it's just dangerous.