Reel Lawn Mower

We finally bought our fist lawn mower. We bought an old fashioned reel lawn mower with an 18" cutting width. Please keep in mind that we got rid of most of our grass prior to buying our lawn mower so we have a small grass area to be mowed. This lawn mower was a perfect choice for us since all in all it would take about as much time to mow our tiny yard with a gas or electric mower and this mower is one we are fairly comfortable with letting our 3 year old help us mow the lawn with, of course we supervise him and help him push the mower and make the turns but he just loves mowing the yard with this mower. This was also a nice choice for us being that the initial investment was about $100 and the only money that will go into it in the future is the occasional blade sharpening and these mowers will last for many years to come. We are also very happy with how much more peasant it is to mow the lawn without all the noise and fumes of the gas mowers we both used growing up.

3.78 kW - measuring day

So today our solar panel sales person came by and took measurements and readings and all that good stuff for our system. I was very happy with the readings on the various sections of the roof on the back of our house. The readings ranged from 97 - 99% meaning that we have at most 3% shade on any of the sections of our roof facing the back yard. This is great news because this allows us extra space to add on to our system later if we decide to. Next steps are bringing them our first payment, we already gave them our deposit, and then they can order our panels and get our CAD drawings ready for where all the panels will go on our roof and start on the paperwork for our rebate from our electric company (So Cal Edison).

3.78 kW

Well we just signed the contract for our next major project on the house. We are getting a 3.78 kW SunPower system for the house. This should cover pretty much all of our electricity needs, based on our current usage. We only had about 9 months of electric bills to base our usage on and our usage jumped when we installed the rainwater harvesting system for irrigating the backyard, we had to add several pumps to the electric to circulate the water and pump it into the sprinkler system. It didn't add a whole lot of electric usage, but it did add just enough to put us into the next tier of electric usage out here which meant a significant enough bump in our bill to make us consider installing solar panels sooner rather than later. The added electric usage/increase in the bill coupled with the incentives from our electric company and the federal government made us realize that now was definitely a good time to look into adding solar panels to the house. Of course there is also the knowledge that our electric rates will just keep going up and the incentives to install solar are only going to keep declining as the demand for solar is met (our electric company pays us money for every watt we install so that they can meet their renewable energy requirements).

We found a great local company who installs premium solar systems and are very much looking forward to getting our panels installed. The system will be tied into the grid so as we produce energy that we aren't currently using it will be added to the grid (peak hours) and then when we are using power and are not producing any electricity of our own (at night/ off-peak hours) we will take power back off the grid. This prevents the need for batteries to store the electricity we are generating so that it can be used later, if we were off the grid then we would need batteries and we would need to maintain the batteries and allocate space to all the batteries. For us being tied into the grid is a good choice, but it doesn't mean it is the right choice for every situation. It is just one way of doing things.

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

These are a variation on a recipe in The 100 Best VEGAN BAKING Recipes by Kris Holenchek. The recipe in the cookbook called for green and blue food colorings to make the cupcakes look like Earth, but by omitting the food coloring I have cookies and cream cupcakes.



I frosted these with a buttercream frosting (from the same cookbook) and mixed crushed cookie pieces into the frosting so that I had a cookies and cream frosting for the cupcakes. The first time I made these cupcakes I made the buttercream frosting, frosted the cupcakes and then dipped them in crushed cookie pieces. The cookie pieces didn't adhere too well to the frosting by applying them to the frosting, but mixing them into the frosting really did the trick.

Lemon Almond Bling Muffins

I have made these muffins before and one of our friends really loves these, she said these are the best muffins she has ever had. I tried this recipe when I was in the process of majorly trimming back my lemon tree, I baked and cooked all kinds of things with lemon. I also made lots of lemonade and lemon soda at that point in time. Now that the lemon tree is healthier and isn't quite so full of lemons I can use them at a more sane pace, but I still love these muffins and a few other recipes I found during that lemon period. This recipe is in The 100 Best VEGAN BAKING Recipes book on page 66. Seriously I know it seems like I only make things out of this book, honestly I don't, but it is an excellent book. I love this book very much and recommend it to all my friends who are looking for vegan baking recipes, this has definitely become one of my favorite cookbooks.

Raspberry Lime Muffins

I know for a 3 year old's birthday party you need to have lots of cupcakes and of course I will, 4 dozen cupcakes. But then I thought what about something a little less sweet for those who maybe find cupcakes to be too sweet or for those who might be watching their weight and so I decided to make 2 kinds of muffins as well. I saw the recipe for Raspberry Lime Muffins in The 100 Best VEGAN BAKING Recipes (page 68) and thought that these would be a nice alternative to a cupcake with frosting, something a little sweet with the raspberries but not overly sweet and no frosting necessary. I can hardly wait to try these at the party, I'm even kind of hoping they don't all get eaten so I can have some for breakfast next week. I guess if they all get eaten though that would be a good thing, it would show people enjoyed them. I guess either way I'll be happy.

Banana Split Cupcakes

I found this recipe in The 100 Best VEGAN BAKING Recipes by Kris Holenchek (page 98) and they sounded so amazing that I couldn't help but try the recipe out for my son's birthday. After all they sounded like something a crowd of toddlers would love. I have had amazing will power to resist eating one myself yet (I admit I did taste the batter as did my little helper) but I did give one of the cupcakes (unfrosted) to one of my son's teachers the other day to say thank you for an amazing act of kindness on her part. She loved it, she said she was expecting blueberries and then realized there were chocolate chips in it and was very pleasantly surprised.


I am planning to frost these cupcakes with Fudgy Frosting (page 157) and then sprinkle them with some chopped up salted peanuts and top each one with a stemmed maraschino cherry. Of course another fun option would have been to use Buttercream Frosting (page 157) and then drizzle some chocolate syrup on top and then sprinkle on the peanuts and top with the cherries. Anyhow, I am really excited to have such fun Vegan cupcakes to serve for this birthday party. Especially since my son has 2 friends who can't eat dairy. It makes me feel good to know that I can provide a yummy birthday spread that all the kids can enjoy. I'll try to remember to take pictures of all the cupcakes when they are frosted.

Make your own pita chips

This week I am preparing for my son's 3rd birthday party. Among other things, that means lots of baking. This year I am making 2 kinds of Vegan cupcakes and 2 kinds of Vegan muffins as well as some pita chips and "egg" salad sandwiches and cucumber sandwiches. Of course the cupcakes won't get frosted till the day before the party so you'll have to wait to see them all frosted.

I started off by making lots of pita chips. I bought 4 bags of whole wheat pita chips. Then I cut them up into chip sized pieces. I used a bread knife to do this and simply cut each piece of pita into 4 strips lengthwise and then cut the strips into smaller pieces and ripped the edges where the front and back meet so that I have thin chips. Once all that is done I line them up on cookie sheets and spray them with a little olive oil and then sprinkle them with a little bit of salt. Once all of that is done put them in the oven at about 350 degrees until they are as crispy as you want them. If you are baking 2 sheets at once I suggest rotating the sheets about half way through so that both sheets get baked about the same. I will admit it takes a while if you make as many at once as I do, but I really think they taste so much better than the store bought ones which tend to taste greasy to me.