Getting creative

Times have been tough on everyone of late, and I think we've all had to find creative ways to make it by. When Ian was still here with me in South Carolina, he was in charge of our day-to-day cooking. [I fully credit Ian with the weight we've lost due to his strict measurement and calorie counting. I subscribe to my Grandmother's school of measure nothing and add stuff in until it tastes good.] With Ian gone and financial hardships still present, I've had to get really creative in the kitchen.

Soon after Ian left, I did a pseudo-inventory of everything in the kitchen just to know what I was working with. One of my more fun finds in the pantry was a bottle of bacon salt that I'd gotten Ian a while back. This was exciting because if left to my own devices I'd probably never eat meat.

I tried a little of it in various dishes, but I have to say that the biggest success came from using it in grits. Here's what I did:

Ashlie's queso bacon grits
Bacon salt, any flavor
Yellow grits
Cheese, queso, or any similar cheesy substitute

For one serving, put one cup water and one teaspoon of bacon salt in a saucepan. Bring to boil. Stir in 1/4 cup of grits. Cover and turn down to low heat. Once cooked, stir in cheese of choice. (I found a half used jar of queso in the back of the fridge. I dipped my spoon in twice, mixed in with the grits, and it added a great flavor!)

If you've tried bacon salt, or have other great creative pantry ideas, let us know! I'm going to post more of my creative cooking adventures soon!

An update

I had a few minutes to kill so I wanted to write as much of an update as I could.
To start, Ian LOVES his new job, and has already gotten a raise! I'm jealous! Things are looking up for me on the job front, too- sort of. I'm waiting to hear back, hopefully with good news. That's all I'm going to say about that! Things have been really stressful of late at my current job due to various events, but in a way, it's nice because it makes the time go by quickly!

On the house, I hear there is hardwood flooring under the carpet in the master bedroom. This is exciting, but I haven't seen proof of it yet. Also, the drywall to redo that one wall in the bedroom has been purchased. Maybe Dad and Ian will get it up soon and post pictures!

I think in two weeks most of our family will be coming in to have one last go through the house to get stuff, and hopefully if the weather participates, we'll have a yard sale soon after. The following weekend, Mom and Dad (and maybe Ian?) will come pick up the SUPER cool couch we bought. I'm so excited to see it in the house!

Anyway, that's really all I know. Maybe Ian can chime in with more news or some pictures.
xoxox,
akc

Something to cut the grass with on the farm!

So summer is here a little early and with all the heat that is here, so is the grass!  I swear, grass/hay could probably grow in the desert... Oh wait.

Anyways, the reason I am talking about grass is the fact someone has to cut it or it will turn into a huge mess and pretty soon Tarzan will be swinging in it.  I guess for a guy, we are always looking to turn chores into fun times.  So, with cutting grass, I'm going to be restoring a Snapper Comet Rear Engine Rider lawn mower.  It was Ashlie's granddad's and then it was handed over to her dad.  It has been sitting for a while and is a bit rusty, but in overall good shape.  You may remember this model of lawn mower in the film Forrest Gump, where Tom Hanks would use this model Snapper to mow his grass and the football field.

I decided I would video the progress along the way so that I can look back and go, "Man, this has really been fun!" and also to maybe help looking to restore something like this in the future.  Granted, this is my first time doing something like this, so I am by no means a guru!

Here's the first installment of Ian's Snapper Restoration:

I'm a lemonade factory

Where do I even begin?

A few months back, I hinted (either here or on the Conway Scrapblog) that some major news would be announced by the end of the year. I didn't want to announce anything until things were legal and finalized, but my excitement and my big stupid mouth got in the way. Ian's done some posts about it on the Scrapblog, but I wanted to officially announce it once and for all:

By the end of the year, I will be a homeowner in Tennessee.

 Long story short, we will be inheriting part of my Grandparents' farm, which is amazing because Ian and I want to expand on our organic farming, and also because we'll literally be right across the street from my parents. There are about 100 other really great reasons, but I won't go into them all here.

The property still isn't legally ours, and we have no clue when it will be. We had originally planned to move there at the end of October when our lease is up. However...

Ian lost his job. He's been so unhappy here for so long. It seems like every job here requires a college degree, and every time we get him enrolled in school something drastic or crazy happens with our finances, never allowing him to do more than one consecutive semester. Being the smart thinker he is, he realized that there are many more job opportunities in our area of Tennessee for non-degree holders, so he volunteered to move there and get a job. And he did.

Meanwhile, I find out that my boss has been offered and accepted a job offer from an extremely prestigious institution. She's leaving in the beginning of August. I'm unofficially second in command, so this has major implications for me. I don't expect to be interim head, but I do think I need to do my part to lead us through this transition. The administration have reassured me they'll begin a search to replace her, but it most likely won't be this year.

Now you might ask, gosh Ashlie, that sure is a lot of change! How are you holding up?
Why thank you for asking! I'm holding my own, I guess. I jokingly have started to call myself a lemonade factory...you know, the old saying, "When life gives you lemons, turn them into lemonade!"

Honestly the hardest part has been being without Ian. I don't sleep well. I don't really have anyone here in town without major commitments to hang out with. I've literally had to fight myself to get up and get out of the apartment rather than sit here and mope. Sure, I video skype with Ian, Mom, and Dad every night, but it's just not the same.

 So for now, I'm here and he's there...and that's just how it has to be.

But in the meantime, Ian's done some great photoblogging at the Scrapblog on what he's doing to fix up our house. Once we're both moved in we'll be doing some serious blogging about all the fixing up we'll get to do...so stay tuned!

Oh and before I forget- those of you who found out about all this before this post and left comments, tweeted, facebooked, or voiced your support and friendship- it has been GREATLY appreciated. I love how every day friendship is shown to me when I least expect it. We all need to have a little more of that in our lives.

Until next time, my friends....
xoxox
akc

Working, working, working...

I figured I would give something of an update being that we skipped the month of June altogether. I have moved to Tennessee to Ashlie's parent's farm and will start my new job on Friday. I've been here for about 2 weeks as there is a ton of work to be done!

Let's start first with the house. The master bedroom had 3 layers of wallpaper to be torn down before we could start painting. After about five gallons of soapy water and a few hours of scraping, we were able to get down to the bare bones. Here are some before and after pictures!

And after...

And here a little sample of the paint!

The wallpaper in the bathroom was insanely stuck to the wall.  This required a ton of soapy water and a lot of time scraping small sections...

Now to the outside.  First we'll make a stop by the tomato plants.  We have tomatoes!

And my project this morning/all of today was to start clearing out by the creek.  I think I made a dent in it...

And looking forward, after I finish clearing the creek, this will be my next project. There is a barn behind there somewhere!

I'll have more pictures of the progress when we get there! 

-Ian

Thoughts on passing the baton

One of my favorite librarians to follow on Twitter, Andy W, made a great blog post about the age ranges of librarians according to ALA statistics. I was really shocked by the results. Your author, dear friends, (while not a member of the ALA) would technically be placed in rank with 7% of other librarians. In fact, I became a tenure-track faculty librarian at the age of 26. From Andy's blog:

If you apply the percentages to the ALA Library Fact Sheet, it gives the following breakdown out of 149,521 librarians:

45 and older – 89,712

30-44 years old – 49,342

20-29 years old – 10,466                                            

So why, when the stereotype of the gray haired, bespectacled old lady librarian is the norm, would I be so surprised? I'm not really sure. I guess I look around at all the amazing librarians I know, and maybe I see them as being ageless. Anyway, that's not the point I wanted to make here. The following are just thoughts and ramblings based on my experience. They don't necessarily represent my own views, and certainly don't represent the ideas of all librarians, libraries, or anyone else I can think of. I know what I'm writing may be scandalous, but my intention is not to start a fight. I love all my librarian colleagues, no matter their age!

          ***************

I find that I'm a very sharing person...if I know of something good, I think you should know about it, too. I love my profession, and I think you should love it, too. In professional terms, you could say I constantly have outreach on my mind. So when Andy's post came out, I started to think about what we're doing wrong, or possibly just not doing at all to make sure our baton gets passed to younger generations.

The mentor that initially told me and then taught me about librarianship was in the 30-44 age range (let's call them middlers) when I started on this path. I don't know many 20-29 year-old librarians-to-be (let's call them younglings or millennials) who have solid, close relationships with the ALA's most populous age group (but that's not to say they don't exist). Most of my closest librarian friends are also in the middler group. But that's just me.

And since I'm about to be pointing fingers here, let me point back to myself for a minute. You might ask what have I done to help recruit new librarians? I've engaged with people on various social networking sites that have mentioned going to library school. I've talked to students at my institution and outside about the different types of librarianship, and how much fun librarianship can be. I fought (and won) for the regional library association of which I'm a member to have a Facebook account to do outreach to those who don't know about our profession or may be considering it.

But back to the problem.

Are our younglings looking at the majority group as something along the lines of technologically slow? Since younglings sometimes suffer from the millennial attention-deficit, we tend to "tune out" folks we feel can't keep up with our pace, technologically or otherwise.  On the other hand, I know of younglings and non-library millennials who definitely think that I am too technology crazed/savvy/what have you, and they find that a turn off to librarianship.

But what about our good friends, the middlers? Are they too busy jumping through hoops to get tenure, making presentations at major conferences, or fighting to keep their budget intact to worry about outreach? Based on the experience I had and the experience of a few folks I know, the answer to that is no.

So what's the deal? Where are we going wrong?

I know lately the economy has definitely turned two people I know off of librarianship. Who can afford to take on more student loan debt in this economy? Who wants to go into a profession where the jobs are so frequently based on volatile state/local government funding?

I don't think there are good answers here, at least yet. I'd say once the economy turns back to normal and our youngling millennials get a little older, we may be able to notice an actual trend.

What are your thoughts?

Monkey feet!

ZOMG!
These must be mine.
That is all.
:-)
akc