We are still alive

Sorry Folks. Things have been so busy around here it is hard to find time to post blogs. We are still alive and trying our best to get everything in order. We do still need a lot of help so if you want to join in on the ...ahem... "fun" be sure to contact us. We hope to have a "real" blog post up in the next day or so.

The Long, Hard Night

I was not there to take pictures of our own "Black Friday" so this snapshot of Justin from Chris's phone is all we have.

My husband is an early riser. He has been long before I ever met him. Years ago he decided to get back into shape and with a full-time job and family he had to find the time by sacrificing sleep. He rises around 3:30 to 4 am EVERY morning. Even on weekends. So it was on the morning after Thanksgiving.

He did not rise early for Black Friday deals. He rose to once again meet our challenge of trying to make a permanent home for our family. I rose with him but it was hard. I usually go with him, sometimes with kids, rarely without and help out as I am able. This morning I could feel that I had reached the end of the line, the limits of my CFS had been crossed and I knew I could not go down to East Sacramento with him for the first time since our adventure began.

This decision was made agonizingly over the next several hours as he prepared to leave. We have been together for six years now but so much of our time is divided between work and family and life that at night we collapse into bed barely able to give each other a bedtime kiss before passing out from exhaustion. It is because of all this that every moment that I can find to be with him is precious. I am extremely blessed to be joined with a man with whom every second of shoveling trash or peeling back rotten carpet on my hands and knees is quality time building a better life together. This feeling is what made the decision to stay home in Folsom with the kids so hard.

I think he may have been relieved when I admitted that I just did not have the strength to go that morning. He had watched my swift decline over the last week and the weather was so cold that I would be forced to stay inside our neighbor’s house with the kids anyway. I was heartsick when he went away. I so wanted to do all of this together, to spend this time with him, but I had to do the smart thing and it sucked.

Chris worked for a few hours on Friday alone. Usually Flying Eagle helped us but he was gone until Monday because of the holidays. I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to help the day after Thanksgiving and so I imagined he would be alone all day. Then I got the news that Justin was joining him and I felt better.

Justin has only come into our lives recently; he read the article in the Sacrament Bee and offered his help. He came over last Saturday and when he showed up to work he did not hold back. Over the past week he has put in several days of work and again rejoined my husband on Friday to take on a monumental task. (What task you may ask? Some things we are keeping a secret for the unveiling. Come to the party and we will tell you!) The hours ticked by as I cleaned our current home catching up on neglected laundry and scrubbing the stove. (Even though I could not work on the 58^th St house I would do my best to pull my weight when and where I could.) Dinner time came around and Chris and Justin were still working. Usually when it got dark we stopped work because we had very limited lighting.

I contacted Chris and was told that the project they were working on could not be halted in the middle and that they had to keep working. I was pretty unhappy. I had used caring for kids and housework to keep myself occupied. Now the house sparkled and there was no more laundry to fold. The kids were settled and all I could do was fret over not being there with my husband. Hours ticked by. I started counting how many hours Chris had been gone working on the house. 12 hours, 13, hours, 15 hours… I would ask Chris to check in, worried that he was exhausting himself; worried that he was working alone. But no, Justin was still there and he would not leave my husband until they both quit work at 2:30 am Saturday morning. I desperately tried to stay awake (not a good thing for those with autoimmune disorders) but finally drifted off at 1:30 am. I felt disloyal for sleeping while my husband worked hard on our dream, while someone new to our family was there with him when I could not be. When he finally got home at 3 in the morning he was cold and dirty. He crawled into bed and I happily snuggled up next to him. That feeling that I get whenever he holds me blossomed in my chest and I twined my warm legs to warm his cold ones. We fell asleep for only a few hours before having to wake and start all over again. The house would not wait, time is running out. But for those few hours, I had the love of my life back and he was holding me in his arms and everything was right with the world.

Giving Thanks on 58th Street

Over the past several weeks our family has grown larger. Old friends have re-emerged in our lives to become an essential part of our "barn raising" and new friends have joined our tribe. We feel truly blessed.

THANK YOU AND HAVE A WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING!

Many Facets of Family - Thank You Body Concepts!

The time crunch is on and a lot is going on, so we have less time to do blogs but we really need to give thanks for a Thanksgiving Week Miracle brought to us by the folks at Body Concepts and specifically masterminded by Linda Bailey.

You may remember that Chris was going to sell his bicycle that had been a birthday present just a few months ago so that we could afford some much needed materials for the house. When I protested (and yes, I cried) his words were "We need a home." It was sad not as much for the material loss but what it represented for our family. If you ever read our Tribe Tracks blog (on winter hiatus) you know just what it all means for us.

Chris asks Rob for tools while
Linda goes into the office.

When Linda found out that Chris was selling his bike she was adamant that that would not happen. Without Chris knowing she called me and informed me in no uncertain terms that we were not to sell the bike. To make a long story short Linda was hard at work for the next week making calls to the team and just about anyone else she knew that may be willing to help. She gathered donations and (and she and Rob donated as well) and called me to tell me if the amount she had managed to gather would be enough. It was not quite as much as what Chris was hoping to get for the bike but it was enough to help tremendously and I was sure it was enough to keep Chris from selling the bike.

I told Chris that we had finally got a response from someone and we were to meet them in Old Folsom. Chris prepped the bike and was stoic, repeatedly telling me that it was okay, we really needed the money. Needed a home. We traveled to our destination and I asked Chris if he wanted to keep the bike pump that was attached to the frame. When he responded that he did but he needed an allen wrench I told him to go ask Rob as they always have bike tools at Body Concepts.

Linda hits Chris with the envelope.

Chris walked the bike in and started talking to Rob when Linda walked up with an envelope. She handed it to Chris and in a very authoritarian manner said, "You're not selling your bike.


Chris stood there for several moments confused. Then it all unfolded. Linda told Chris that they had raised the money to save Chris' bike because they themselves had had to do just that in the past to make ends meet. To some people, selling a bike is like selling a couch. But for a cyclist like Chris, with the tarmac in his blood, selling his bike is tantamount to a Samurai selling his beloved katana.

With the donations of these wonderful people we can now afford all of our permits which we paid for today with the money and should have enough to pay for almost all of the electrical work in the house. To all of you, you will have quite literally brought light and warmth into our lives. Thank you!

THE BODY CONCEPTS FAMILY
LINDA BAILEY AND ROB KOPITZKE
CARLOS PONCE
GARY NIEMAN
JIM BLANKENSHIP
PATRICK PETERS
JOHN DEPEW
GARY SPEER
KEN TOFT
"DJ"

AND THE WONDERFUL ANONYMOUS DONOR

...Lovin' From The Oven

Cranberry Cream. This is my weakness.

Woke up at 4 am and started baking right away. I have a lot of people to feed today. Not the least of which are our wonderful volunteers.

PeanutButter Creams all packed up
and ready for hungry volunteers.

Last night I made a quadruple batch of my PeanutButter Cream bars. (My husband and I refer to them as cobbler although in reality I think they are really more like a crisp.) They do best when they have had time to rest and for the flavors to meld. They are my husband's favorite.

This morning was a quadruple batch of Cranberry Cream bars. Almost like a cheesecake with a top and bottom crust. So creamy and smooth with just a touch of sour bite from the whole cranberries. This one is my favorite and is my weakness. Men really like it, but women flip out for it. Some like this one hot from the oven but I love it after it has cooled in the fridge for a while and it becomes so smooth and creamy.


Last (baking right now), is the original recipe that I created so many years ago from left-overs from a thanksgiving dinner. When you put so much work into making whole cranberry sauce and there is so much left you just can't bear to throw it all away. I always have Granny Smiths and oatmeal and baking supplies and thus a star is born. This one is filled with piping hot, thinly sliced Granny Smith apples and is the best when fresh out of the oven and warm. It makes a wonderful breakfast. When I had trouble waking up my oldest daughter in the morning I found that baking a batch and wafting a freshly cut piece under her nose would get her instant attention.

I love to feed people, especially that moment when they try one of these three recipes for the first time. They have no idea what they are in for. The wonderful thing is that these bars/cobblers/crisps are full of good things that taste wonderful but provide good energy for hard work. Think of a morning bowl of oatmeal jazzed up with fruit or peanut butter. I hope that these small tokens that have been baked with love will show our volunteers how much they mean to us and that they have become part of our family.

Snuck a picture of the CranApple as it baked. The juices from the apples and cranberries have started bubbling and you can smell the carmelization in the crust.

Community



Jax helps Mike bring in supplies while Flying Eagle watches (& intercepts Jax from actually getting inside! LOL.)

 KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED FOR US
First, we wanted to share with you that we have potentially earth-shatteringly good news this weekend but we are keeping it under wraps until we are sure it will come to fruition. Even if it does we have come to know that we are in such urgent need of an electrician and plumber that we may have to end up hiring one. So, to repeat a previous plea: if someone knows a licensed electrician and/or plumber who may be interested in guiding us (or perhaps be willing to give us an off-season discount or maybe they need some graphics or website work done in exchange?). PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send them our way!



Jax and I "hang" in the car.

 FINALLY LEARNING TO ACCEPT MY LIMITATIONS
This weekend was a flurry of activity as we met many new friends who wanted to be a part of our "adventure" (as I have come to call it in an attempt to stop the nervous twitching I get every time I think of the enormity of it all). This weekend my CFS caught up with me and I tried to do some work on Saturday and I had no strength left. I quickly realized that I was just in the way and it was best that I watch kids and let other stronger folks do the work I could not handle. For those that know me, you may be shocked. I am always the one that wants to jump in waist deep into berry vines or pick up a sledgehammer. I guess I have finally figured out that managing CFS is about learning that I can't be that hard-core "no one can outwork me" farmgirl anymore.

Chris greets brand new friend,
Mario,who has come to offer help.

I spent most of the day watching Jax either in our vehicle or walking around the neighborhood visiting neighbors (babysitting was not to be had and our usual refuge was not available). Sunday I was still too exhausted to do much but that was just fine because I had all three boys to watch today. I got to spend most of the day warmly snuggled up at a friends home (our aforementioned "usual refuge") watching Titan A.E. and the Shirley Temple version of Heidi with the boys. (They had a tough time for the first ten minutes watching something in black and white but after that they got sucked into the story. Mwhuahahaaaa!) My husband and Flying Eagle ended up running the show and meeting and greeting most of our visitors.




COMMUNITY
We had several people stop by to give advice and guidance and some jumped right in to the mayhem itself. Everyone that stopped by was kind and supportive and it really made us feel great to see so many strangers come by to be a part of the ahem...fun.

One of our volunteers was Mike Cano of Cano Painting. As we talked he promised to return early next week to help us prep the walls and trim, I asked him if he had a website so I could link it to our website and he said that he did not yet have one but really wanted one and hoped to get one together someday. (He had before and after pictures of his work that he really wanted potential clients to see.) I told him I would be happy to help (nothing fancy, as you can tell our own website doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles as my webmaster knowledge is pretty basic) and he became so excited. We all started grinning like happy dorks at how well it all seemed to work out for all of us. This was the perfect example of what Chris and I hoped to embody with this project: people helping each other as equals- community.

Illustration of the "community solution
puzzle" in today's church program. 

Sunday morning we went to church and I almost laughed aloud when I saw that the theme of today was on "community". It felt like today's message was perfect for us. Our pastor had a hands-on puzzle and invited everyone to try and help solve it. He had three butter knives, three glasses and a plate as a "roof" that needed to be supported by just the three knives and glasses at a certain distance from each other. Children and adults alike amassed the table and worked on the problem until the solution was found: the three knives had to be interwoven in a pattern where all three were supported and provided support to the others. It was a visual demonstration of "community" our pastor said. I was so simple and beautiful and profound and exactly what Chris and I hope that our barn raising achieves. This project has become less and less about the house itself and more and more about the connections we are making with those around us.

It may take a couple of days to get our Week 7 gallery up as we are doing some revamping to the galleries but in the meantime here are some more pictures from the weekend....

Justin came out of nowhere and became an instant part of the family. He threw his whole heart (and body) into the work and has been a source of great advice and enthusiasm. He has promised to return mid-week for another session and has been doing research and sending us lots of information.

I met Paul at Home Depot on Friday and was impressed with how extensive his knowledge was of the construction of the old East Sacramento houses. He said he owned a home in Tahoe park and has been a handyman for several homes in East Sac area. He was kind enough to drive down all the way from Shingle Springs (well, he did have a job in Fair Oaks but still he drove all the way down her just to help us!). Thanks Paul!

Somehow Stu snuck by me (I think I was putting Jax down for a nap) so I didn't get to meet him but I was able to snatch this quick shot. I have been in constant contact with Stu on email and he writes me pages long email as the loving but firm "Uncle" giving us reality checks and lots of advice and ideas. I can't wait to meet him in person, he certainly does have a way of writing an entertaining (if prolific) email.

Bernie (yes, that is her name) visited us and said she would love to come play in our garden once the time came. She is just about to turn 76 and is an eleven year breast cancer survivor. She asked if she could invite her lady friends to come play in the garden as well. I can't wait until spring and we get a bunch of ladies together to do some real mudslinging. :)

We are keeping one of our visitors secret because he is part of our hopefully HUGE COOL surprise. I hope it works out because it would be AWESOME! Stay tuned folks!

BEFORE WE GO...
Shout out to Shannon who drove and escorted me into Home Depot even though I was as weak as a kitten.  Thank you for taking such great care of me when you are already so busy with your own life. You ROCK SHANNON!

Permits and Tigers and Bears! Oh, my!

With offers of help coming in things have been very hectic trying to talk to so many folks. I am late on getting some blogs up but I hope you folks will be understanding. A lot of folks have mentioned permits and to answer, Yes, we have visited the nice folks at 300 Richards Boulevard and sat and talked with them at length. Actually, I guess we came at a pretty good time (it was a Tuesday morning) because we were able to talk at length and in great detail. Many drawings were made and a lot of guidance given. We have stacks of paperwork all filled out so that by the time we enter our building phase (yes, folks we are still working to clean stuff out, gak!) we will have everything we need.

I will have to say that although the folks at the city office were very nice and helpful the costs of permits in the city of Sacramento and what is required as compared to other cities is bordering on the outrageous. I know the city government is hurting for funds so I guess it is just another sign of the times. We just do what we need to do to get it done right.

Speaking of getting it done right... We are in MAJOR need of an eletrical contractor and we understand that this may eat up a big portion of what funds we have scraped together but if someone knows someone who may be interested in guiding us (or perhaps be willing to give us an off-season discount or maybe they need some graphics or website work done in exchange?). PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send them our way!

Okay, back to work on this cold rainy Sunday...

Ironic

So I had promised to do my next blog on "How is your CFS doing?" but because it is TOTALLY SUCKING right now. I am going to have to wait until I feel better (please, please let that be tomorrow!) because I can barely even type these few sentences at the moment. :-(

WE HAVE A NEW (to us) STOVE!

A member of the MyFolsom.com community saw the Bee article and posted it to the forum on the website. We quickly got an offer for a stove that needed to be re-homed after the original owners remodeled their kitchen. When asked if the oven worked we were assured that it had just baked some pies before it was recently removed. I am so excited to know that when we move in we will have a working stove and oven. I cook 2 - 3 meals a day and bake pretty much daily so it is such an important appliance for us to know that we have.

I am not sure if the donors wish to remain anonymous but their screen name on MyFolsom.com is "puppylover". If they give me permission to post their names I will update the blog but in the meantime...

THANK YOU PUPPYLOVER! and thank you to Chris V for posting the article and helping encourage support. We have other MyFolsomites who have also pledged support so we will keep you posted. What an awesome group of folks!

Floor Plan and "Wish List & Give List" added to website

Hi folks, due to popular demand (and a desire to not look like a babbling fool everytime folks say, "What do you need? How can I help?") we have added a "Wish List & Give List" page to the website as well as a basic floor plan we put together last night. (I had nightmares about measurements all night long.) So take a look!

http://www.grovetribe.com/WishandGive.html

Frugal Tip # 4 – Clearing Out Blackberry Vines Yourself (No, seriously!)

When Flying Eagle has to leave Flo shows up to take his place in the battle against the vines.

A good friend of ours offered to front us the money to have our backyard cleared out for us to save us time and energy so we could focus on the house itself. He sent someone over to look at the yard (JUST the backyard) and the guy said he could clear it out (no landscaping mind you, just clear out weeds and suckers) for ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS! My husband and I looked at each other with incredulous looks on our faces. We thanked the gentleman and told him that there was no way that much money could be spent on clearing out the backyard.

We had worked inside all day Saturday and found that without any money for materials we were facing the backyard. We had a couple of friends stop by to help us for a few hours at a time and we dove in to the sea of green matter. Of course, the most challenging part of the project was the monster blackberry vines that had literally grown to over ten feet tall. When we had first moved in to this property about thirty three years ago it was full of blackberry vines and given any kind of leeway they will take back over aggressively. For many years we kept a moderate sized hedge of them and during summers made blackberry jams and syrups (for ice cream and pancakes). My older sister was a master canner by the time she moved out on her own.  As I became a teenager it fell to me to keep the blackberry vines in check and when we decided to populate the ENTIRE backyard with a vegetable garden I was sent to do battle with the hedge to make room.

If you have ever tangled with blackberries you know how punishing they can be. Those thorns produce their own kind of piercing, stinging pain that takes about a week to subside once they tag you.  Here are a few tips I developed over the years to make it a bit more manageable:

GEAR UP
No matter how careful you are, they will grab you and it is up to you to make sure that what they really grab is fabric and not skin. One secret is doubling up on all clothing:

Wear a long sleeve shirt that is closer fitting to the body and then cover that with a loose, thick long sleeved jacket or work-shirt of a very thick material (chamois/felt/padded “lumberjack” jacket etc.). Thrift stores usually have some on hand as they are not in demand fashion items that fly off the rack.  Same with pants, if you can manage a pair of pants inside a pair of heavy jeans or coveralls that is your best bet. Heavy, thick-soled ankle-high boots are also a huge plus. Gloves of stiff, thick leather (again I double up on gloves and even then I still get stuck). Goggles are a MUST! You can also choose to wear a hat to protect your head and a mask or handkerchief to help cover your face. The less skin exposed the better.

TAKE THE ZEN APPROACH
If you have ever practiced Tai Chi then I can explain handling berry vines is like practicing push-hands with a Grand Master: KEEP YOUR TOUCH VERY LIGHT AND BE WILLING TO GIVE. The only thing that may have a chance of taking on the vines themselves is the sole of your boots or your tools. I avoid touching them with my hands at all and when I do my grasp is feather-light. If a vine swings towards you, give way or step back. In hand to hand combat, the vines will most likely win.

 

HAVE THE RIGHT TOOLS
Your #1 tool is a hard-tined garden rake. This is what you will use to do the actual handling of the vines as if you had an extra-long arm with metal fingers.

Second is your cutting tool. This can be a hedge trimmer (which only really works well if you really know how to handle it), long handled loppers (which only really works well if you have two people working) or, my favorite cutting tool for vines: a garden machete.

Tool Warning! First, always use extreme caution when using these tools. Second warning: when buying a garden machete check the thickness of the blade. A blade that is too thick will not slice well and is a pain in the tush to sharpen. You say you don't know how to sharpen a blade? Then you should probably grab a friend to handle loppers for you while you rake. It's more fun that way anyway.

TECHNIQUE (or everything I needed to know about trimming berry vines I learned in Tai Chi)
The most important thing to understand about taking out these thorny buggers is to use their own nature against themselves. The thorns cling to and clutch at everything so use that characteristic to press and roll them into compressed balls (or mini-bails).



Chris rolling a vine bail while I cut.

To start, I will throw the garden rake high into the hedge and use the weight of the tool and down-ward force to compress it down and away from where the vines originate from the ground. I press them down with the rake and sometimes the sole of my boot until they are so caught up in each other that there are no loose thorny arms swinging about. Then I cut the stems a few inches from the base. I then roll the big mass into a dense ball and will use either the garden rake or a pitchfork to move the mass where I want it. It will feel awkward at first but after a couple of rolls you will get the idea.



Vines have grown through the cement wall adding
yet more cracks to the now defunct Koi pond.

FINISH IT OFF

Once you have all the vine’s “arms” removed you may decide to take them out altogether. Blackberry vines are incredibly invasive and swift-growing. If you do not fully remove the roots you will have a large hedge again in no time. (Also prepare yourself to have to spot check regularly to tackle any new shoots that always seem to come up.) To remove roots I know of two ways: my preferred method is to dig out as much of the roots as I can and practice vigilance on removing upstarts. Some folks I know used to use this herbicide that you paint onto the cut ends of the vine stumps and it is supposed to go into the plant and kill it that way. Honestly, I don’t even know if that stuff is still available because I just like to dig the roots out. The fewer chemicals I deal with the more I like it.

The aftermath. Okay, a lot more clean-up
is still left but it was getting dark. :-)

In the end, it is always a lot of hard work and I will admit that there were four of us tackling the job that day and I was only able to handle about an hour or so of the day-long project before I became totally depleted. It was very hard because I grew up with a farm-girl mentality and love jumping into this kind of stuff and going at it all day. It makes you feel alive. But my body has changed now and I was forced to stand by and pick up garbage (ugh!) while the others got to do most of the “playing” with the vegetation. (Have I mentioned that CFS SUCKS?!?!! Yes? Well, sorry for the redundancy.)

So here are my tips on clearing out the pernicious vines but if all else fails I know a guy you can call and he will be only too happy to remove them for you. For a price.

Next Blog: “How is your CFS doing?”

LEARN MORE ABOUT WHAT WE ARE DOING AND SEE MORE PICTURES OF THE PROJECT AT OUR WEBSITE: WWW.GROVETRIBE.COM

We have also added a new THANK YOU page to the website this week! Take a look!

WEEK SIX UPDATE - $1,000 worth of yard work

Everyone loves a good before and after pic! To see more be sure to visit our gallery.

Here we are at the halfway point and it is hard to see a hope of making the deadline before we have to move out on January 1. The greatest challenge seems to be finding someone willing to advise us on how to proceed. We have friends that have been giving us advice gained from their own home projects but we have some questions that even they can't answer.

With no money for materials and being stuck on what to do with the house itself we decided to take on the back yard. Chris' best friend, John, offered to pay to have a yard crew come out to clear out (no landscaping just clear out) the back yard but when they looked at the yard they said it would $1,000! I nearly swallowed my tongue. So the great news is with the help of a couple of friends (THANK YOU Flying Eagle and Flo!) we accomplished almost $1,000 dollars worth of work this weekend by tackling the yard ourselves.

GIFTS FROM GOOD FRIENDS
This weekend we received wonderful gifts from two sets of good friends: a couple of cabinets in wonderful shape that we can use in the kitchen, bathroom or even the laundry room (if we ever get that rebuilt) and many very specific home remodeling tools that we never would have been able to afford on our own. Now we have a clean out, stripped out house and tools to work, even a decent amount of folks to help us but we are stymied by a lack of materials. 

Flo takes on a $1,000 project.

WEEK SIX HEROES
Flying Eagle and Flo. You both show up over and over again and throw yourselves into the dirtiest, hardest, most back-breaking work. All the while you are both smiling and telling us that we can do this. You are both true warriors with great spirits.

Folks from the Sacramento Bee came out to hear our story and were very kind (and brave! LOL). To Chris (the reporter) and Randall (the photographer) and the Sacramento Bee we wanted to say thanks. (My husband just ran out in his pajamas to buy several copies.)  ;-)  Please go out and buy a Bee today. I know you can view stuff online but just this once, do it Old School. Grab a Bee and a warm beverage and take a minute to really read something.

Bill & Danielle. These two have been very wonderful and brave friends through so many years. They have helped me through some very tough times even when it was risky for them personally and are here yet again lending a hand (complete with tools!)

Shannon & Roger. Two amazingly giving and funny people who look me in the eye and tell me that we can do this and stare me down until I have to smile and agree. Thank you for the cabinets, the advice and most of all the offers of driving me places to take the pressure off of Chris having to be my driver all the time. (And the food at our wedding so many years ago was AWESOME Shannon!)

My daughter Cassie & my mother Daisy
For support, love and taking care of Jax this weekend so I could go jump into piles of berry vines with Chris! They also gave a break to Leah & Becky who have been welcoming our children into their home weekend after weekend even though they are two beautiful ladies with lives.

Groves vs Blackberries, Round One

So this weekend has left me exhausted and covered in scratches, punctures and insect bites that I wonder if I should have looked at but the wild jungle is being tamed and I am seeing the beautiful yard of my youth re-emerge and I am in love all over again. What a beautiful place this will be someday. What a wonderful home for our children, we can't give up no matter the obstacles. This is our dream.

Tomorrow's Blog - Frugal Tip #4 Clearing Out Blackberry Vines Yourself. (No, seriously!)

LEARN MORE ABOUT WHAT WE ARE DOING AND SEE MORE PICTURES OF THE PROJECT AT OUR WEBSITE: WWW.GROVETRIBE.COM

We have also added a new THANK YOU page to the website this week! Take a look!

Giving Back - A History in Brief

Dawn manning a solar telescope until time came around for evening objects (insert) at a free public sidewalk astronomy event at Giovanni's Pizza on Folsom Blvd in East Sacramento.

Earlier this week the Sacramento Bee sent a reporter to interview us (article to be published in this Tuesday's Bee) and as he interviewed my friend Flo she made a statement about "how much they [Chris and I] have given to the community". A lot of our personal friends know what Flo is talking about but I figured some folks reading this (and perhaps the Bee article) may not so here are some examples:

American River Clean-Up
My own history of volunteering started young when I would participate in river trail clean-up efforts as a child along the American River. I admit that to me it was like going on a fun treasure hunt in the woods but I was fortunate that those early experiences helped solidify in my mind that volunteering could be a fun activity.

Food Deliveries to Struggling Families in Oak Park
As I got older I would participate in community relief efforts by helping to deliver food boxes to families in some of the more impoverished areas of Oak Park. I was one of the few people willing to escort the community worker to these areas. I grew up going to High School in Oak Park so I was familiar with the people there but I can still never forget visiting the homes of families as they all crammed together in tiny loft apartments with cement floors and a single bed. That vision alone helps me to accept that we are downsizing our own family into a modest two bed one bath house.

Natalie Leonard Award and a Service Award

I became involved in the Sacramento Valley Astronomical Society and worked with them for over a decade trying to inspire and awaken an interest in science and astronomy in our next generation. More than that I

was hoping to bring hope to kids who may not see a future for themselves. I wrote a piece about it called, "Why We Do What We Do" maybe you can take a moment to peek at it. Through my efforts I organized many free public outreach events and earned a Service Award in 1998 and (the highest honor the SVAS gives) the Natalie Leonard Award in 2004. I took astronomy to the streets all over the Sacramento Valley and even with John Dobson on the corner of Haight and Ashbury in San Francisco. My outreach efforts even led me to work as the Coordinator for NASA's Night Sky Network.

Healing Hands

Before CFS forced me to retire I was a massage therapist. (I even taught massage therapy at Bryan College, I am proud to say that before illness forced me to retire I was Teacher of the Year in 2007.) In 1991 I began my career as a certified massage therapist and the greatest joy I have received was when I donated my skills to those who could not afford massage therapy who needed it so very much. I have donated my skills to the United Way (they raffled off my gift certificates), I helped a single mother with an amputated leg get free from pain, I worked with a new mother who was in so much pain she was not bonding with her baby, once she was feeling better I taught her to massage her infant and watched the loving bonding process begin. I could not help all the people I wanted to help, giving away free massage was risky when it was my livelihood but it was well worth it for the positive changes I saw it create.

Folsom High School Cycling Team & Sierra Nevada High School Cycling Organization (SNHSCO)My husband and I were on the first board of directors for the (SNHSCO) and participated in incorporation and fundraising efforts to help encourage local youth in getting out there, getting healthy and having some good, clean fun. My husband was a ride leader for the Folsom High Cycling Team.

Sometimes, It's Personal
A couple of years ago my beloved bike was stolen so when I found out that a deaf college student who was struggling to find work had his beloved bicycle stolen it was very personal for me. My husband and I started a campaign at first to find his bicycle and ultimately was able to gather donations to help him buy a replacement. Seeing him find joy with his new mountain bike certainly made all the hard work worth it! Sometimes folks, there are happy endings.

Susan G. Komen Relay for Life
In 2011 I raised $250 for Team Kinney at the Relay for Life in Folsom CA. I continue to try to help my Good friend Christi Hara who is doing the massive 60 mile Susan G. Komen 3 Days for the Cure walk. She is one of my personal heroes so if you can please follow this link and please make even a small donation to the cause!

Volunteering has brought me closer to my community, taken me on a lot of adventures and even got me a job within the arms of NASA. I am blessed to have had so many wonderful experiences in my life and so many of them came to me when I gave of myself.

STALLED OUT (and Frugal Tip#3)

So now we are out of money and we have almost a week until my husband gets paid.  Even then we won't have much more than $100 to spend and I am wondering how in the heck we are going to get this done in time. This weekend we will just try to accomplish whatever we can without buying anything. We have to keep moving; our landlord has made it very clear that she has several parties waiting in line for the house we are renting now and has been laying the pressure on thick.

We ran into some friends last weekend who had done some remodeling and had some of their tools left and offered to come take a look to give us some advice and let us borrow the equipment. Then yet another friend of ours read our blog and said she too had just finished a remodel job and had some really specific tools that we needed and we could use. So far tools have been killing our budget so it has been great to get these offers. I am just not sure what to do with things like drywall tools when we can't even afford to buy the drywall itself. I get scared and despondent and force myself to calm down, take a deep breath and... clean.

CLEANING AS THERAPY
Whenever I feel like the world is out of control, I clean. It is a great way to perk yourself up (a dirty house is pretty depressing y'know) and if you have a lot of excess upset energy it is a great constructive way to burn it off. Cleaning is also a cheap way to occupy your time while getting a visible accomplishment to help you feel like you are getting something done. Right now I am cleaning the rental house we are in and thinking about how we are going to get through the week without being able to go to the store for anything. As I am thinking about expenses I reach for my favorite cleaner and it struck me that I should write about my favorite cleaner as Frugal Tip #3.

Fill bottle with Dihydrogen Monoxide. Spray area. Return in 20 minutes and wipe away! Pretty!

FRUGAL TIP #3- The world's cheapest, safest and most versatile cleaner!
Dihydrogen Monoxide. Sure, there are warnings and it can be fatal if used incorrectly but in reality I use it every day and I sometimes even bathe my kids in it! Now you may be shocked by my use of this chemical compound on my own children but hey, my parents used it on me and I turned out just fine! (twitch, twitch) Our government has been using it on their own soldiers since our military first formed. No better voucher than our own government right?

Okay, okay. I give. Dihydrogen Monoxide is also referred to as H2O or more commonly known as WATER. There are some websites and emails that circulate making fun of the little used chemical name of water (saying it is deadly with the underlying reasoning being something like folks can drown in water, etc.) here are a couple of links to read more and share as a joke with your chemist buddies. http://www.dhmo.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide_hoax

But seriously, with CFS I have a lot of chemical sensitivities and have to be careful of what I use to clean. Combine that with how we continuously slam our environment with tons of household chemicals and the fact that a can of "Scrubbing Bubbles" costs several dollars it was well worth it for me to explore the world of more natural cleaning methods.

I do use stuff other than just water. I LOVE using baking soda in my bathtub as any residue just results in conditioning for my skin when I take a bath. I use Dawn dish soap when there is grease involved and I do keep Clorox wipes on hand if I feel the need for an extra boost every once in a while. I am not a rabid environmentalist; I just try to steward the Earth as best I can while trying my best to care for my family.

Back to the subject though: the handiness of pure water in cleaning. If you are like me, one of the jobs you hate the most is cleaning the stove. In a perfect world I would wipe down the stove after every time it is used but with a house full of kids (one being a toddler) and the fact that I cook A LOT it just doesn't work out that way and I end up with tough stuck-on crud all over. (Cream of Wheat and oatmeal are HIDEOUS to clean after they have dried into glue!) I used to load on the spray cleaners but found that even with their powerful formulas I had to let them sit and soak for 15 or 20 minutes while fumes filled my home and my sensitive nose. Then it occurred to me. Is it the chemical goo that is loosening that stuff or the moisture itself?

I decided to get out the water spray bottle that I used for ironing and try that instead. I misted my stove top, waited the same amount of time and 90% of the crud wiped right off my stove! No smell, no expensive cleaners, no chemical burning my skin and leaving a residue to burn off and stink the next time I cooked. I started using it on my counters as well. I discovered boiling a cup of water in the microwave and letting it evaporate softened most of the stuck on mess and I could easily wipe out my microwave no matter how long stuff had been crusting up in there (and it reaches the ceiling of the microwave!).

To tackle any grease left over I will first do the water soak and wipe everything down then I will do a follow up with a hot, damp cloth with a couple of drops of Dawn dish soap worked into it. I know have squirt bottles in the bathrooms to loosen old toothpaste off sinks and to pre-treat other surfaces. When I am doing a major clean I just go through the whole house with a spray bottle full of water and mist everything down; counters, stoves, sinks, sticky spots on cabinets, walls and floors. By the time I have gone through the whole house I can start wiping down where I started. I will then do a follow up as needed with Dawn or baking Soda or a Clorox wipe as I deem necessary.

At the end my house is very clean, doesn't reek of chemicals, I can breathe and I saved a lot of money on cleaners. So next time your stove is looking back at you, crusty and stained, tag it with some water and just walk away.

WEEK FIVE UPDATE

Saturday afternoon the rain and cold puts renovating on hold and we visit the ReStore.




Ummm.. $720.00 for a dresser at the ReStore?

  Not What We Bargained For

Being able to afford materials is a big issue for us and we received many recommendations to check out the Habitat for Humanity Restore.  Since the rain, cold and childcare situation were making it difficult to work we decided to drive out to the Restore off Florin Perkins and see what we could find. What we found was pretty disappointing for us.



There was a complete hodge-podge of items from stuff that looked like it belonged in a Macy’s furniture gallery to stuff (trying not to use the word “junk”) that we were amazed they were even trying to sell. What seemed consistent was the pricing, way too high. It was actually pretty shocking for us and our hopes fell for the ReStore as a resource. From what we observed, the ReStore could be a good resource it you had the time to blow to check it out often (couple times a week) and snag a good deal right when it came in. We had neither the time nor the spare gas to make trips way out to the ReStore in the hopes that something may work. (Did I mention there is a No Returns policy?)



$75 for a dirty, ancient range that we
don't even know works and can't return.



It seems like with the tough economy a lot of us are looking to second-hand solutions for our needs and those selling second-hand (thrift stores, ReStore, even many craigslist posters) know it.  With the used market being so hot right now so finding actual deals is harder and harder. I was at a thrift store looking for clothes and found some prices for the SAME EXACT article of clothing was the same or even more than the sale price at the regular retail store! Some used cars end up being more expensive than a stripped down new car. In this economy retail stores have become motivated sellers. Sometimes used can save you a lot of money but don’t assume that going used is getting you a better deal folks, you may get less than what you bargained for.

Excited to see a yard sale with flooring and
windows until we saw prices. We saw better
deals at Home Depot the night before!

NOTE: Habitat for Humanity is wonderful organization that does great work in the community and we hope that our readers will support them. We plan to donate any of our extra materials to their organization. We also believe that good deals can be had there but it just isn't time and cost effective for us to keep going there.

 

Adventures in Babysitting
Our son, Jax, just turned two years old last week. He is such an amazing, beautiful boy. He has the brightest smile; loves to give hugs; is so amazingly intelligent, active and strong. He is a gift, a joy and our personal tormentor. Chris had two boys previously and I had two girls previously so collectively we have done the “Terrible Two’s” four times before Jax came along. NOTHING could prepare us for handling this little guy.



Jax in his car seat. Chris entertains
him while I fix the lock on the front door.



To this day he still wakes us up multiple times a night (renovating on a few hours of sleep a night SUCKS! Especially if you have CFS!) and when we try to go shopping it is always sheer terror. He wants to run around and will scream if we put him in a cart, try to carry him or hold his hand. We even attempted those goofy, backpack safety strap systems with him. Unless he is running full-tilt through a store with no concept of his own mortality he is screaming at the top of his lungs. He will scream for HOURS without ever getting tired, I have NEVER seen that before in my life.

In short my husband and I are “whipped” by our toddler and with both sets of grandparents elderly and physically unable to handle him we have very few options for babysitting. Our saviors have been our 58^th Street neighbors (and friends for well over a decade) Becky and her teen daughter Leah. It has come to the point where they have helped us so much that I feel guilty and that I could never repay their kindness.

I just finished installing a new lock.

When we arrived at the house Saturday morning, I could not move from my seat. I felt hot tears spill from my eyes. I knew with the cold and the rain that if we hoped to get any work done we needed to find someone to watch Jax and so far it seems like our only viable option was Becky and Leah who just last weekend had him at their home (albeit with Cassie there helping) ALL day Saturday and ALL day Sunday. Now it was just Jax with no older siblings to help. I just could not bear to make the call to see if Becky and Leah would watch him yet again. I sat there crying in the car. Chris watched me for several minutes until he finally asked me if I would call them. My chest felt heavy but I knew he was right, if we wanted to get anything done we would have to push ourselves onto Becky and Leah again. They have been such wonderful, supportive friends over the years that I fear that pressing on their kindness too much may strain the relationship. These are two extraordinary women that we are lucky to call friends.

Just Chris and I this weekend,
pulling up particle board floor.

Finally, I asked (after my husband entertained Jax in the car for a half an hour while I replaced a door lock he (maybe both of them?) was sick of being cooped up). Becky urged us to come right over and for several hours on Saturday Chris and I worked alone in the freezing cold house continuing to pull up crumbling particleboard floors, cleaning and taking the last remaining items of my parents to their storage unit while Jax could enjoy the warmth and love of our friend’s home.

Becky and Leah, we know the huge debt we owe you. If you ever need us for anything; from helping you give your cat a bath to driving out to the depths of Oakland in the middle of the night because your car broke down –and we won’t even ask what the heck you were doing there in the first place- please never hesitate to ask it of us. We are forever in your debt, not just for what you do for us but for the love you show us as you do it.