Yep, I made cannolis tonight, gluten free too!

I will be updating the posts and basically rewriting the story of the house construction with photos again on the new site as time allows.

From chest fridge

Here is the fridge, it’s a 10.5 cubic foot (actual dimensions, it’s labelled a12 cubic foot) and has a Brewers Edge temperature controller attached:

From chest fridge

I’ve attached a Kill-a-Watt meter to it for the last 8-9 days and measured the consumption:

From chest fridge

From chest fridge

2.36KWH in 205 hours works out to be about 100KWH per year.  Compare that to my previous research that suggests a comparable upright refrigerator of the same size would use about 350KWH and you can see it has made a difference in our energy bills.

From chest fridge

Inside you can see that it is about as full as a comparable sized upright fridge and we find the usability to be about the same as a regular fridge.  We do put in a damp rid type product (Calcium Chloride) and have to clean the fridge about as often as a regular one.  Here is the damp rid tray:

From chest fridge

Alsmost time for a refill!  You can see some rust from the first couple weeks we were using it and didn’t use the damp rid in it, since then we haven’t had any problems!  We also have a 15 cubic foot freezer in the utility room/pantry for freezing things.

In our Energy market 250KWH a year is about $35, not exactly a lot of money, but every decision we made like having switched outlets to reduce ghost loads, drainwater heat recovery system to reduce the amount of electricity the hot water heater uses and CFL and high efficiency halogen lighting all add up to a good amount of savings per year.

Learn to run 5km – weekly plan

WEEK ONE

Day one: 3 min walk, 1 min run, repeated 5 times – Done Monday April 25th
Day two: 3 min walk, 1 min run, repeated 6 times – Done Wednesday April 27th
Day three: 3 min walk, 2 min run, repeated 6 times – Done Saturday April 30th
Day four: Rest

WEEK TWO

Day one: 2 min walk, 2 min run, repeated 8 times – Done Monday May 2nd
Day two: 2 min walk, 5 min run, repeated 3 times – Done Wednesday May 4th
Day three: 1 min walk, 3 min run, repeated 6 times – Done Saturday May 7th
Day four: Rest

WEEK THREE

Day one: 1 min walk, 4 min run, repeated 6 times – Done Monday May 9th
Day two: 3 min walk, 10 min run, repeated twice – Done Wednesday May 11th
Day three: 1 min walk, 5 min run, repeated 5 times
Day four: 3 min walk, 10 min run, repeated twice

Switch to C25K week 6 day 3: 25 min run – Done Saturday May 14th

WEEK FOUR

Day one: 1 min walk, 8 min run, repeated three times
Day two: 2 min walk, 10 min run repeated three times
Day three: 1 min walk, 10 min run, repeated three times
Day four: 20 min run, 3 min walk, 8 min run

Switch to C25K week 7:

Day one: 25 min run – Done Wednesday May 18th (Monday and Tuesday rained out!)
Day two: 25 min run – Done Friday May 20th
Day three: 25 min run – Done Friday May 27th on the beach at dawn in Rehoboth, Delaware!

WEEK FIVE

Day one: 15 min run, 2 min walk, 15 min run
Day two: 1 min walk, 10 min run, repeated three times
Day three: 20 min run
Day four: 30 min run (5km)

Switch to C25K week 8:

Day one: 28 min run – Done Monday June 13th (big gap in training there, was rough!)
Day two: 28 min run
Day three: 28 min run

Add WEEK SIX (C25K week 9):

Day one: 30 min run
Day two: 30 min run
Day three: 30 min run

From Drop Box

Having an oatmeal stout.

But what I really want to show you is the two egg soufflé omelette I made this morning with feta and spinach:

From Drop Box

Delicious looking no?

Some recent new photography and a quick sketch. The sketch is really rough and I really need to work on my proportions and symmetry/alignment. I haven’t really done any artwork since high school and I miss it terribly, I just need more time and inspiration to just draw more often.

So I recently gave up wheat, dairy, caffeine and alcohol.  I was pretty sure it wasn’t caffeine and alcohol as I have given them up before but just decided to add them in as well.  Looks like it was indeed some form of food sensitivity as the symptoms have almost entirely cleared up.  The question  now is which one(s) are the culprit and I shall start adding them back one at a time.

I think I will start with wheat, as it’s the only thing I have never even cut back on before and see whether that brings back symptoms.  While staying clear of wheat I actually also didn’t eat hardly any grains related to wheat either (spelt, rye, etc…), but I did make oatmeal pancakes with rye in them yesterday.  I plan on making some bread this week and seeing what happens as I slowly reintroduce wheat.

Seems the Yukon Housing Corp thinks it’s a good idea too!

Why would I create a campaign if I have no players to play it?  Well, for creative expressions sake, to re-familiarize myself with the old rule books, but maybe most intriguing to put it out there for use by the growing number of retro gamers that seem to be on the net right now.

I have been following some recently discovered blogs, forums and websites devoted to retro and old school gaming.  There seems to be a massive resurgence in interest in games that clone old school RPG’s or playing vintage rulesets again.  Perhaps to stick it to Hasbro and the ever commercialized and accessory laden modern version of D&D or perhaps pen and paper RPG’ers are just primarily of an older generation that is feeling nostalgic just now.

So I think that is what I shall do, I’ll start writing, posting and anyone using the info feel free to let me know if it works or not as I have no way to play test it really…..

It feels great to have the scaffolding put away for a while and I am hoping not to have to use it again for a good long while.

Projects for next year include a wood shed, more landscaping, a chicken coop perhaps, some raised garden beds closer to the house, cleaning up the shed and running power to it, planting lots more trees, cutting the 8 cord of firewood sitting in 8 foot lengths in the yard and maybe a deck!