Work on the house is coming together.

As of today the only things left to do is to replace and paint some T 1-11 siding that is weathered and freshen up the interior with some paint. We are getting excited at the prospect of moving closer to friends and family. The thought of down sizing from a 2700 sq. ft. house and a acre of land is intoxicating. My husband and myself are getting older and the thought of maintaining our beautiful flower beds and pond is getting tiresome. Our weary bones are deserving a more relaxed lifestyle. I will miss the wood burning stove we have the most out of everything here in Valley City. I will miss the awesome electric bills that our all electric geodesic dome house creates. I am praying that when we do sell this house that our new house will have a wood burner in it or hopefully we will be able to install one in it.

Valley City, Ohio is a wonderful community. It is a small community consisting of hard working people and families. There is a strong sense of pride in the community here and this is what makes this area so charming. We have a small downtown business district, a mostly volunteer fire department and the are patrolled by sheriff deputies. The area downtown even has posts to hitch your horse, even though I have never seen a horse hitched there. I have made a lot of dear friends and will miss running into them at fairs and festivals. For more information on Valley City, Ohio go to www.valleycity.org

Preparing to sell the house. Yikes!

My husband and I have come to an agreement that taking care of a 2800 square foot home on an acre of land is getting to be more than our almost geriatric bodies can handle. Some of you know that I live in a Geodesic Dome house. We have done quite a bit of work on it over the last decade, like a brand new roof, bath remodel, new composite wood decks, asphalt driveway, some new windows and doors, and landscaping. The house has seen some really huge improvements since we took over the property. The first thing I did was change the color of the house from a burnt brown red with purple front door to a light gray green with white trim. This made the house more friendly almost instantly.

Over the years we have burned wood in the wood-burning stove to subsidize the costs of heating a home of this size. This is the feature I will truly miss when we move. We are energy pigs, we leave lights and TV's on constantly. We run a computer server and other electrical devices 24/7. We are on a monthly budget payment with our electric company. During the summer months we wind up using more electricity because of the air conditioning, but in the winter "Oh La La!" in January we did not owe a dime and in February we owed .29 cents. It really has payed off to burn wood. Dome houses really do hold the internal temperature of the house much longer than other shapes of dwellings.

Well, as I begin this journey of cleaning clutter and preparing myself for a move. I wonder if I would like to try to auction the house off first. Having an auctioneer come in and hopefully sell the house in 1 day is much more appealing than listing it and having people trudge through the house over a long period of time. Auctioneers can also auction off the furniture and other items of interest. This would sure be much easier than a 3 day garage sale.

I wonder if I could do a silent auction to sell the house? Has anyone out there in Blogland ever sold property via an auction? I am not talking Sheriff Sale either.

I have been so darn busy!

School has been crazy busy and on top of that I have been involved in two culinary competitions. Finding the time to sit down and jot down my thoughts was free time I did not have. School consisted of writing papers, writing business plans, taking midterms and other test. The most time sucking job was preparing for the competitions.

The first Competition was more of a fund raising event that has "friendly' competition between its members and some outsiders. I entered a Sauerbraten Bison, Carrot, Parsnips and Potato Cakes with a Wine and Bacon Braised Red Cabbage. I received a very good positive response by the attendees, and pretty much had a continuous line of customers the entire time we were there. Received some tremendous feedback and had many repeat customers. The best part was introducing Bison as an alternative "red meat" and the surprised look on peoples faces when they ate it. They could not believe the wonderful taste or the tenderness of this meat. But alas, I was no match for the winning dish, a Chicken Stir-Fry with the plain white rice. Oh well.

The second competition was more challenging. The four teams consisted of three students and one mentor chef. We worked with a mentor chef, who is one of the most congenial and patient men on earth. He gave the team a free reign on what we wanted to cook and how we wanted to prepare it. He just would step in to tweak the recipe and give us his blessing. I really learned a lot from him about how to finish a dish in both taste and presentation. I think I have changed for the better because of this. This was a great learning experience for all of us. Although this competition was not as stringent as the ACF competitions, we did have rules to follow and had to complete the dish in exactly one hour. On the dot!

The judges of this competition are respected in the culinary world and were also very respectfully to us. I appreciated this. They could of really picked us apart, but this was not the time for it or in the spirit of the event. When a you really want to know what a judge really thinks you need to watch their actions as well as listen to their words. Their comments about our dish were cordial, as they were with the other contestants. But, the body language was remarkable. Now I am not going to give up my secrets on body language, but the reactions were good, real good. I knew the results from this competition were going to bring much pleasure to our team. At this point I did not know if we were going to win, but I knew we did well.

And we did do well, we won! And we had to much fun doing it!

Ice Cream and Frozen Desserts

 

The picture you are seeing is that of the frozen desserts and ice cream we prepared in class this week. The picture arrangement is made with the help of Picasa, this program is free and has some really cool features in it to "style" your photos.

Scholarshp! Yeah!

As some of you know I concocted a plan to raise money for school. Before I retired from the city job, I put away some money to attend school during my retirement. At this time the money set aside was more than sufficient. I decided to expand my education in a direction that involved more Culinary classes in addition to the Baking Certification and my hubbie decided to get a Master's Degree. This is why the money saved started to thin out.

Now in addition to the Culinary Certifications, I have been side tracked, of course in a good way. While at Claddaugh Irish Pub (only went there because I had a gift certificate from winning a Top Chef Competition hosted by the Lyndhurst/Highland Heights Chamber of Commerce)for lunch with my school buddy Kelly. The usual discussion of food morphed into a social justice conversation concerning availability of planned menus for certain special needs diets. We discussed the practicality and affordability of the types of food involved in some of these menus. We both believe in treating the cause of the disease rather than just treating a symptom.

As this discussion progressed, Kelly had mentioned getting involved in the Robert L. Lewis Academy of Scholars to do a independent study project to develop this idea. This means filling out an application and enrolling in two classes. Unbeknown to me the Academy offers scholarship money for independent study in Social Justice issues. So I enrolled, got accepted and now I have some scholarship money! I am so pumped!

Damn those Raccoons!

I woke up to this crap this morning. The raccoons totally annihilated my corn crop. I am so glad I am not a pioneer, depending on what I grow to live during the winter. There are literally no corn left from this planting. Raccoons have destroyed every last bit of the corn that was planted.

What would our ancestors have done? When the pioneers populated this land hundreds of years ago, crops must of been a 24 hour a day, seven days a week vigil to survive.

I am so glad for Giant Eagle Supermarkets!

Paying for School

I have become exhausted trying to win a scholarship to pay for school. I carry a 4.0 GPA, belong to several successful fund-raising volunteer groups, and have a great vision of where I would love to take my abilities in this new career. Alas, I can not qualify for one. While applying for just about every scholarship know to mankind, even going online and taking surveys for Scholarships.com. I can not catch a break.

I am retired and on a pension, my husband works, but is working on his Master's Degree. On paper we look fine financially and we are comfortable considering the financial climate nowadays. What gets makes me mad is that I am expected to deplete my savings for school, when others that have not even matched the qualifications set forth by a scholarship will win it. Case in point, a certain "Ravioli in a Can" scholarship can be awarded to a student in a field that is unrelated. Damn it! I would find that guys dog when it would run off and I would take him back home. I wish that was a qualification for the scholarship. I hate being punished for being frugal and saving money. So here is my new plan of attack.

The food recipe contests! Yes this is the new target for paying for my tuition. By turning my kitchen into a friggin' laboratory, so I can research and develop a mind bending, taste bud tingling, toe curling recipe. I do not care if the contest is for chicken lips I am on it! With all this ranting I am now hungry, I hope I have some of the sandwich left over from one of the "Sandwich" trials. This was a pretty good one for the first attempt. I would share what I am making, but I know some bastard out there would steal it and submit and win.

And on that note...I am off!