Whoops…I’m a bit late posting my next month’s self-challenges…heh. *blush*

As for the January self-challenges, I “won” two out of three. I’d posted already that I decided to forego the no-TV challenge, since I just missed it too much. NOT the ads and NOT the news—I refuse to watch either (egads, I’ve become my father…I mute commercials!). But there are a handful of shows I just really enjoy watching, and since during the day I’m usually writing or doing chores or cooking or tending the gardens, I really do like sitting down to watch Bones or Chuck or Fringe or Lost (other favs include Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Big Bang Theory, Human Target, and Cougar Town). Sometimes I knit or crochet while watching, sometimes I’ll do pixel art on the computer. But I enjoy following along with those stories enough that I’m not yet ready to let them go (I wanna know how they end! ).

As for line-drying laundry…not only am I still doing it, but I really enjoy it. A lot. Ok, ok, I’m weird. I admit it. But I thought I’d made that clear already? (No? I haven’t? Well, here ya go: I’m an odd duck!) There is something soothing about hanging laundry and taking in dry, sun-warmed laundry that I enjoy. I actually had to use the dryer one time because a blanket I’d washed, one favored by Bast, still had lots of cat hair on it. So I used the dryer on a no-heat setting so as to remove the extra hair. But I resented having to use it; I need to figure out a way to remove cat hair without it (and without going through a lint roller a day). There has to be a way, surely…

And the January real food self-challenge was successful…hence this blog.

So for February, here are the three goals I’d like to make:

1. Learn to make real bread from scratch and make all the bread that I and my roommate eat. So far, so good on making the bread. Right now I’m learning how often I need to bake a loaf so that there is always bread. My roommate loves this goal of mine, lol. She loves the bread so much that she said she now refuses to buy store-made, so I better keep making more bread! lol! We’re splitting the cost of flour, too, so it works out really well. And the better I’m getting at the dutch oven method, the easier it is to keep loaves coming.
2. Make my own kombucha. I’d forgotten how much I love kombucha until I bough a couple of bottles this week. Ooooh man, that’s good stuff. But NOT cheap. Happily, it appears to be super duper easy to make your own, so I’m going to use that recipe and try it very soon. I’ve got everything I need (organic tea, bottle of raw kombucha, big jars), so next week I’m going to start growing my own SCOBY and then after that, brew my first batch. I’ll use organic fruit juice when I first make it, so that I get the hang of the process, but very soon I plan to collect tangerines from my neighbor’s tree (he’s got a huge tree full of fruit that he never eats, and has told me to take all I want), juice them, and make tangerine kombucha. Mmmm!
3. Make my own sauerkraut. I’ve had this on my to-do list forever! But now I’ve got cabbage in my fridge and I don’t want it to go bad…so it’s gonna be shredded and mashed and left to ferment very soon. I’ve been craving sauerkraut, but I refuse to buy any, since making it is so simple and I just won’t buy the pasteurized kind. There is no reason why I haven’t made it yet besides the fact that it just keeps getting pushed down the to-do list. Therefore, I make it a self-challenge so that I have to do it, and soon.

Whoops, I better go mix up more dough…bread’s getting low around here!