If I am eating pretty much only things that I grow, and don’t want money, or to have to go to the grocery store…. what will my cats eat?  This is a problem that I’ve thought about only for the past few days.  It had never occurred to me before.

Walking home from the gym today, I was thinking about the fact that I will have chickens for my eggs.  I’m thinking I’d want between 6-8 chickens.  I had done some research about making my own cat food, but they requires weird things, and protein powder and stuff.

Beth from Fake Plastic Fish wrote this as enough food for one cat for one day:

4 ounces of cooked white chicken meat
1/4 cup of cooked mashed sweet potato
1-1/2 teaspoons of butter
1 red scoop of Balance It supplement

Then there are more recipes on the No Cans site.  Lots of different recipes, which is useful.

Here is one with fish:

1/3 cup white rice

1 tbl margarine or low-fat spread

3oz canned tuna or smoked mackerel, skinned and boned

1/2 hard-boiled egg, shelled and finely chopped

yolk of 1 egg

1/2 tbl pouring cream

Uh, so I guess I also need a cow to get butter and cream.  And milk for my Honey Bunches of Oats! And also whatever animal rice comes from.

But, all these foods require meat.  And I was thinking “Oh, hmm.  I didn’t really plan on eating meat.”  But then I thought, “oh, I have chickens that lay eggs.  Are those the same kind of chickens that I eat?”  And then I thought about it, and pictures the hens clucking around the farm and laying eggs, and then I pictured food that has chicken meat in it.  I swear to god I had to think about live chickens and then compare it to chicken meat in my pasta.  Really.  I had to think about that.

So anyway, after I figured it out that I would already have chickens for my eggs, I realized that I could just use meat from one of them for my cat food!  But if my cats each need 4oz a day, that’s a lot of meat.  I don’t know how much chickens weigh, so I don’t know how many chickens I’d have to kill to feed my cats.  I would like to get some recipes that do not require meat, but so far all I’ve found are meatless cat “treats.”  And cats can’t live on treats!  (Patrice, do you have any vegetarian recipes for cats??)  They must be able to live without meat.  If humans can, cats can, too.

So now I’ve realized that I can’t feed my cats, and I can’t eat my cereal with milk.  I’m going to have to go to the store.  So I can’t really live off the grid.  I’m going to have to work, to get money for the grocery store.  That sucks.  But I guess it doesn’t really suck…. because it’s good to work.  I just better enjoy my job.  But I guess, even if I DO need money… I can make it in anyway that I want.  I can sell my eggs and some of my produce.  If I have a private practice then I can choose what clients I see, and I can choose my own hours.  That sounds like it would be the best of both worlds.  In my mini house, I could have a small room that would be my office.  It could also turn into a guest bedroom very easily for any guests I may have.  I think that sounds awesome!  That would be my absolute ideal life.

Here’s a break down:

• Have a lot of space to grow my own fruits and vegetables.
• Have chickens for lots of eggs and occasional meat
• Live somewhere warmish where I can grow lots of my own stuff
• Know someone who has cows that I can get organic milk products from.  Either payment/bartering
• Have a small guest room/office to see my patients and have guests stay over (but still living in a very small space)
• Have cats that can magically eat the same food that I can.  Do cats like Honey Bunches of Oats and egg whites?  What about soup?  Stupid cats!  Be more human!  But smaller…. like…. a baby.  Oh wait, I’ve already written about that.
• Have my own private practice in my own home, where I will see about 10 patients a week.  It could be spread to 3 days with 3-4 patients a day.  I could also be very flexible and see people on the weekends because I can do whatever I want, it’s my practice!  People like flexibility.  I will also do house calls for the agoraphobics.
• I will own a car, but it will be a little crappy old car that simply gets me from point A to point B.  My main way of traveling will be my feet, and my awesome bicycle with a basket.
• Do something that allows me to have enough money to pay for my house, my electricity bill (I hear it’s under $100 a year for a mini house), my Internet (cause I need the Internet), and money to buy enough clothes so I don’t look like a ragamuffin (where on earth did I learn that word?)
• I will spend the majority of my time gardening, cooking, eating, exercising, reading, writing, and doing various crafts.

Tomorrow I will post about tonight’s dinner (boring old Lasagna), but I was proud of it.  Jeanne came over and we watched Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist.  We both said, “I didn’t not like it, but I wouldn’t really want to see it again.”  We also drank red wine (to help in our futile attempt to fight cancer).  It was nice to see her.  We should hang out again and cook sometime.  Now it’s bedtime.  I’m babysitting in the morning, and my dad is waking me up at 6:30 to run as long as the roads are cleared.  It snowed again, and I’m thinking it’s too cold for the roads to be clear. Until tomorrow, live long and prosper.

Oh man, do I want a treadmill desk.

I was at the gym this morning, and I did 30 minutes on the elliptical. I got really tired, and my feet hurt (because for some reason the elliptical makes my feet hurt), and I said “I can’t do this anymore” so I moved to the treadmill. I walked at a brisk pace of 4.2 (does that mean 4.2 miles per hour?), and I finished watching my episode of Roswell (alien version of Twilight). While walking, I realized that even though I was walking pretty quickly, I could still be steady enough to view the mini screen on my iPhone well enough. It made me think a lot about having a treadmill desk. I think that I could spend most of my day just walking. No matter how slowly, it’s something. Lately, I’ve just been sitting on the couch with my laptop. Whether I’m looking up recipes, reading or writing blog entries, doing homework, or even just reading a book, I’m sitting on the couch. With a treadmill desk, I could do all of these things while walking! Even going just two miles an hour (2.0 on a treadmill?) is super slow for me, but that’s still an extra 200 calories burned. I read somewhere that no matter how you do it, you burn 100 calories for every mile. It doesn’t matter if you run it in 5 minutes, 9 minutes, or walk it in 15. It’s 100 calories burned. The only thing that is different is the time it takes you to complete it. That is very interesting to me. I could most definitely just hang out and walk for 5 hours during the day. Spend my Sundays watching a movie and walking. Read my chapters for school while walking. First I’d need a treadmill, though. And I wouldn’t buy a treadmill desk, I’d make my own like this one.

I understand that the reason that I’m not losing weight is because I eat too much. I get it. Today, while babysitting, I made myself a cup of soup (left over from my homemade stuff), then I had some strawberries and blueberries in milk. (notice the nice kid-safe plastic bowl?)

Then I had an egg white sandwich on an English muffin (cause the soup wasn’t my real lunch). Then I had some baby carrots. Then I had a clementine. Then an orange. Then more baby carrots. Then some string cheese while I was feeding the baby. Too much food! Then I came home and had dinner. I think I’ve decided I can’t go to a Super Bowl Party on Sunday because I will over eat. I would rather not put my self in that situation, because I’ve discovered that I have no self control. I do have control when it comes to putting myself in those situations (where bad food is available for free, and is just out there for people to eat). Once I get there, however, I’ll just eat and eat and eat! It’s like I never get full.

Like tonight, at 9:30 I got a craving for Honey Bunches of Oats. I swear I should just start eating them for dinner. Maybe that would cut my night time craving. So I was telling myself “Well, I’m not really that hungry, right? *trying to read my stomach - is it empty? full? just barely enough room for HBOO**” So then I think “Ok, well, I can have half a cup, and that will still take care of my craving. And then maybe I could just add a whole banana rather than just a half, and I’ll fill up more on fruit. Oh, but wait, bananas are one of those bad fruits that you’re really not suppose to eat a lot of.” Seriously? Bad fruit? What the heck is wrong with me?

Luckily, I just told myself “Quick, grab your computer and go to bed! Once you get upstairs the cereal will be too far away. Run. Run NOW!!!” So I did. I grabbed my computer (to finish this post - I almost abandoned it on the couch, but thought “blog post!” - I had already started it), and the new book I started reading, Riding the Bus With My Sister, and booked it upstairs. I chugged a bunch of water, and got my set up ready for the night (I have a water glass next to my bed that needed refilling for my mid-night pill taking, and a pan on my radiator for steam - see eye popping graphic below). But now I am safely in bed, away from a bowl of HBOO. I will just have to wait until tomorrow morning to have one! And now, after I spent time making this awesome graphic with Photoshop (just look at my mad skills!), I am going to read now.

Today was a beautiful day in England (more about that, later, when I’m able to post pictures)…. and tomorrow is the reception for Megan’s wedding. It is suppose to rain super hard tomorrow. That blows.

Today, we went to the grocery store and bought a bunch of groceries for the party. Everyone is bringing stuff, but they decided it was mostly salads, so they needed more main course items. They bought frozen pizzas, and because they have a small little mini fridge, we had to bake them today, and them we just wrapped them in aluminum foil, and then we will re-heat them tomorrow. Megan thought that maybe we could store the pizzas in the bathtub with ice to keep them chilled, but they decided baking them was the best decision. Then, Mac came home with 18 bottles of wine, and he was like “How are we going to chill it???” And I said “you can just chill it tomorrow when you chill the soda… it only will need to chill in ice for about an hour.” But he thought that it had to chill forever (over night, at least). He started to fill the bathtub up with cold water (I don’t know what is up with them using their bathtub as a faux-freezer…. they just need to get a regular sized fridge! Problem solved.) But then he wondered “How will I chill the bottles without the labels coming off?” So I insisted that he did NOT have to chill them overnight. He didn’t believe me, so then he looked it up on the Internet, and came to the conclusion that “Americans are crazy, because they say wine only needs to be chilled for one hour.” Told you so!! Then, because he had a bathtub filled with cold water, he decided to soak his feet in it, because he didn’t want to waste the water.

Then, he took some outside and watered plants with it, as to not waste it again.

But its going to rain tomorrow, so the plants didn’t really need to be watered.

Oh, and they don’t have a back up plan for it raining. And the reception is planned out in a park. With no tent, or no cover-up. Fuuuuuuuuuun.