Vancouver(ish) Tribe: Blooming Time - Page 12

[Ellp]

Just a quick question...

Anyone know where to buy flour in bulk? I've been making bread using the 5 minute a day method and its proving to be a pain to have to buy bags of flour so often.

[Ellp]

Hi Stemple,

There's quite a few babywearing/AP mamas out by you. A couple of them I know even live on campus. If you like I can hook you gals up. Just pm me and I'll pass along your email and vs versa.

[kdtmom2be]

Originally Posted by Ellp

Just a quick question...

Anyone know where to buy flour in bulk? I've been making bread using the 5 minute a day method and its proving to be a pain to have to buy bags of flour so often.

How much flour do you use in a month? If you have more do you have storage for it? I MIGHT be able to hook you up with a local bakery through my egg connections but I'd need to know how much and how much you are willing to pay.

[Storm Bride]

I'm way behind on this thread, but:

Originally Posted by giraffee

Since I went back to work ANY trip to any store is such PITA, so for me planning a trip to Ikea requires to have a list of at least 5 items to justify it.
I have to admit that I became a complete Etsy and Amazon addict over the past 6 months. Since there is still time until the birthday and the actual summer warmth I suppose I can just wait and see if we make to Sweden-land. As for the forts - believe it or not - I have no real chairs
We bought our flimsy foldable Ikea chairs when we just came to Canada 6 years ago - and that's all we have. Needless to say a grown-up dining table and chairs are on our grown-up shopping list. Right after a proper mattress So come year 2020 I might be able to celebrate my 40th birthday sitting at my first real dining table
So we actually cannot build a proper fort because we have cheap chairs ) I did go as far as build a fort for the kids from sofa cushions, but when a little 11 yo elephant tries to fit into a fort made out of cushions... well... the 2 yo is not too impressed when the fort falls in ruins on top of her... So I need something sturdy, big enough for a pre-teen to fit in, and cheap. Doesn't sound like something I can find easily, does it?

Have you checked out Grand River Toys or Mastermind Toys? I haven't looked specifically at play tents, but we bought the kids a "fort kit" from there. It's basically like a giant Tinker toy set, where they can build a framework, then put blankets over top. They really love it.

[Ellp]

Originally Posted by kdtmom2be

How much flour do you use in a month? If you have more do you have storage for it? I MIGHT be able to hook you up with a local bakery through my egg connections but I'd need to know how much and how much you are willing to pay.

Thanks for the offer of hooking me up. But I think I answered my own question. Apparently Costco has big bags of flour. I don't have a Costco card but I can ask a friend of mine who does to pick me up a bag or two.

Since I started making bread, naan, pizza dough and now these cute little cakes called "Madeleines" (http://www.joyofbaking.com/madeleines.html), I've been using up flour like you wouldn't believe. I go through a 10kg bag in about 3 weeks.

[Autumn Mama]

Originally Posted by Ellp

Since I started making bread, naan, pizza dough and now these cute little cakes called "Madeleines" (http://www.joyofbaking.com/madeleines.html), I've been using up flour like you wouldn't believe. I go through a 10kg bag in about 3 weeks.

I was going to mention Anita's...you might be able to order larger quantities, I'm not sure. But we love their stuff.

[kdtmom2be]

Originally Posted by Ellp

Thanks for the offer of hooking me up. But I think I answered my own question. Apparently Costco has big bags of flour. I don't have a Costco card but I can ask a friend of mine who does to pick me up a bag or two.

Since I started making bread, naan, pizza dough and now these cute little cakes called "Madeleines" (http://www.joyofbaking.com/madeleines.html), I've been using up flour like you wouldn't believe. I go through a 10kg bag in about 3 weeks.

I have one of those bags from Costco.... thought it was bigger, got it home, it's .... TEN KILOS!!! It's the same size as the biggest bags at Superstore, but a different shape (that doesn't fit in my flour bin).

[Piglet68]

I used to buy Anita's flour in 10 kg bags. The price was around $40 - $45 depending on the price of grain but may have gone up since then. I got them from Horizon buying club but Queensdale Market in North Vancouver carries them in-store.

I found a health food store/farmer's market coop type place here in town and they will order big bags of sugar for me. I use Cocoa Camino fair trade organic cane sugar and if I buy it in bulk I pay around $3/kg which is almost half the price of buying it in smaller quantities. I just ordered a 10 kg bag and have a large ceramic crock to store it in. There is a local grain miller here where I will be getting my flour in bulk once I get some more storage containers.

I would approach natural food stores that carry the flour and then just ask if you can place a bulk order.

[Piglet68]

Elaine, would you recommend the "Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day" or the newer "Healthy Bread in 5 minutes a day"? I am really wanting to order on of these books and can't decide which one. Do they really have recipes for Naan bread in there, too? yum!

[Piglet68]

Intuition: what a great conversation!

It can be hard to leave a career, but if what you are leaving it for is important it should not be filled with regret. How does your DH feel about moving? How happy is he in the city? If he is okay there and doesn't yearn for a yard and more social connections then asking him to leave his career would be tough. OTOH, if he too yearns for Island life then he needs to ask himself what he'd be willing to do otherwise, what sort of salary he could live with, etc.

The answer is different for everybody, but I do think that we get into a mindset of needing a certain amount of money and then we sacrifice so much to get it that we have to ask ourselves if it's all worth it. I would be willing to live on far less than we do to keep this lifestyle, and there are many people who do. There are tons of books out there about being frugral, self-sufficient, etc. I think our culture just makes it scary because it's all about career, success, and salary.

[Ellp]

Originally Posted by Piglet68

Elaine, would you recommend the "Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day" or the newer "Healthy Bread in 5 minutes a day"? I am really wanting to order on of these books and can't decide which one. Do they really have recipes for Naan bread in there, too? yum!

I like the "AB in 5 minutes" book as its really basic and has a ton of recipes. The "healthy bread" one has the same general techniques at the beginning and it does contain a lot of the same recipes but it also goes on at length on recipes for gluten free bread and breads with alternative grains. I found that you'd really have to go hunting for the alternative grains, (I think they're easier to find in the US) if you wanted to make those breads.

Yes, they do have the recipe for Naan in there. Its the basic Boule recipe but you just flatten a golf ball sized bit into a disc and lay it onto a hot cast iron skillet. Cover for 5 minutes, flip it and cover again for a few more minutes. Once its all poofy, take it out, and slather with melted butter. Its almost exactly like the real thing but its so much easier, cheaper and convienient. You can make it with whole wheat flour too.

Here's the website for the books. http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/

[robugmum]

Funny that this conversation seems to be about leaving the city in order to forge closer community ties. One of the biggest reasons I am reluctant to move out of town is my fear of NOT having a close community! My parents moved us to a rural location to realize my dad's dream of owning horses on a ranch. It was a very lonely time for me and led to the dissolution of my parent's marriage. It is just not as simple as city vs. country. I think you can find community wherever you are, if you know how to look for it.
(just my 2 cents)

[vancouverlori]

Intuition/Tegan, you're in a tough spot. It sounds like you and your DH really need to sharpen your pencils and figure out what your priorities are, and what the exact costs of your choices are. If he's mostly concerned about his earning potential, but can only make that money in the big expensive city, then you need to actually calculate what he's making in terms of earning power. If he makes half as much elsewhere, but your expenses are half, and you're living in the kind of home and community you want, you're no further behind, and possibly further ahead, right?

But if he *loves* what he does, and can only do it in the big city, then maybe you can make some compromises to find some situation that you can both live with.

Today is a good day to do this kind of stuff. For some mysterious astrological reason, this afternoon is the time to start on treasure maps/vision boards. Christine Kane's blog has a basic introduction. She also has a free e-book you can download (you just have to subscribe to the infrequent newsletters, from which you can later unsubscribe), but I can't find the link on her site at the moment. I'm planning to start on mine at some point today - at least the selection of appealing images part!

[kdtmom2be]

Originally Posted by robugmum

Funny that this conversation seems to be about leaving the city in order to forge closer community ties. One of the biggest reasons I am reluctant to move out of town is my fear of NOT having a close community! My parents moved us to a rural location to realize my dad's dream of owning horses on a ranch. It was a very lonely time for me and led to the dissolution of my parent's marriage. It is just not as simple as city vs. country. I think you can find community wherever you are, if you know how to look for it.
(just my 2 cents)

I have to agree with you for the most part. I've been "blessed" with living in the city, the country and the suburbs. I have had the hardest time with suburban living in terms of finding community. When you are in the heart of the city, you tend to know your neighbours, you shop at the same stores, you cross paths regularly, etc. When you live in the country (as an adult at least) you make the effort to get to know the people in your community and attend community events. In the suburbs I just feel lost. There are too many people that only show up to events once or twice and so many people always revolving in and out of the community that it's really hard to make long-term, lasting relationships. And since Vancouver is just one big suburban sprawl, it's got a lot of those elements in every part of the city.

[artparent]

i have to agree with you about suburbia, kd. i find it really hard. i have loved living in very well chosen communities in a city, though even that takes time. i lived two blocks away from cedarmama for nearly 2 years before we even met at the park we both frequented!! the same thing is happening here in london. i hate to pick up and move my children, i was really blessed to live in the same villagey community for my whole life, just moving down the street. however, i also struggle with desires for countryside and a simpler life, versus just having a wonderful home in the city with a big enough garden and access to parkland to make up for it all - and all the cultural stuff in london is amazing for making up for it all! i went out to winchester, and hour's train ride out of london, and walked in beautiful places around the village this weekend, it was stunning. i could easily live in a village. i'm still disinclined to own a car, but the trains here are amazing, and there is some chance of finding a village on a london commuter route. the trick here, as there, is that the cost of communities that have easy access to the city can often make up the costs you'd save in leaving the city at all! it is also hard for me to give up having my partner home quickly and early from work. we have a funny thing that comes up as well, where sometimes he is off to cities all over europe for work, and doesn't even work in london for a few weeks at a time - but then we're paying to live here. i would like the universe to send me some clear messages about where we should go in the next year. like lori i've been making pictures about what i want - but as you can see, i'm not sure!!

when i lived in deep cove i was more isolated from friends, and had to travel a lot to see them. my partner had less time with us, commuting. but we had a sense of that aaaaa, quiet, peaceful, and constant experience of natural beauty that i really crave. i do have a beautiful forest right here in london, just up the hill, but i'd love something wilder, and something of my own. i hear you, mariah, that you're laughing at all of your fears. however it sounds like you've found a good balance for your partner's work. that is what we need to find. i'm so happy with the teachers, classes, friends we have found, i hate to leave them after a year and a half of searching..so i need to be sure about where and why. if i weren't too far out of london i could potentially come in once a month or more often and see them...but these attachments are so valuable to me.

autumn, if i were you i would go for it, go and rent in the community you'd like to be in, and work your way towards buying some land in that area once you're sure you love it there. see? my easy decision for you. have one for me?

*

[tiffani]

funny all this life planning talk should come up today (and on such an auspicious day, according to lori )... after a big emotional freak-out last night we've decided to hold off on heading over to uganda until things get a little closer to being settled. We have been moving toward a lot of big steps to get there, and I think it's too many big steps all at once, with no safety net. We're taking baby steps toward it now... and funnily enough, the steps are the same, but taking them one at a time feels much safer for my more conservative husband -- understandably so, he's the one responsible for footing the bill for all of this, and if the kids and I end up in Africa and Mark is suddenly out of work (now that Avatar is over, there are massive layoffs here at Weta -- his contract isn't up until october, but they do have the right to get rid of people if they truly don't have work for them...and until today mark hasn't been given any work for weeks, partially, I think, because he was supposed to change departments and isn't now, and partially, I think, because they know his life is nuts right now and the woman who doles out the work was going easy on him... which made him very nervous and likely added to his stress, but was a nice gesture on her part!) ...then we'd obviously be screwed. Neither of us are ok with me leaving the kids there once we've taken them into our family, so we're just holding on a little longer to reduce the length of our "visit" before we can bring them home. So while Mark felt incredibly guilty throwing out the idea of putting a bit of a slow-down on our travel plans, it's really better if we are a little smarter about it all. The very sad thing is that we'll miss their birthdays, which are end of may/beginning of june. but they don't know that, and we'll just have to make up for it when we do get there a short time later! so I'm sad, but a little less stressed, but still hoping we can potentially still get there in late may... we shall see!!!!! so we still have massive changes and shiftings happening in our life, but we're not trying to do everything all at once. very bittersweet...
Today was a good day, though, in that there was a meeting between some professional adoption advocate/lawyer type people and senate and congressperson staffers in DC, and many very important people are now trying to get this fixed from the US side.

[Intuition]

I agree about the suburbs. I lived in Tsawwassen for two years when we first came over here, and have never had a lonelier time in my life. But the island still holds many of my friends, and nearly all of my family, so I already have community there.

I have made friends with some wonderful women here, whose children attended the same school for language disorders as my son. We are all able to really know how it feels to have these kids with different issues (because they all have needs outside of language difficulties), and the kids were all slightly behind socially, so got along beautifully. However, getting together with them is insane! They literally have to schedule me in, they're so busy, and we're averaging once every three months or so.

I am going to try harder in the homeschooling community. I think it's so hard for me because I am such an introvert. Terribly so. I know there's that Burrardview every Tuesday, and it's close, so I will probably start there.

My DH is very much in love with his job. He is very good at it, and it offers a lot of benefits to him. His job is largely schmoozing potential clients, so there are a lot of fancy dinners, free trips, skiing, travel, and all that stuff. Stuff I am totally not interested in. But he loves it, and he's good at landing accounts.

So yeah, happy medium. How's North Van? I was looking into rentals there. It's just so expensive everywhere! We're currently paying $1330 for a 2 bedroom in Yaletown, and we're looking for a 3 bedroom with a yard that's an easy commute.

Lori! Thank you so much for telling me it's treasure map time! DH and I have done them for the past three years, and we really love to do that together. My kids are telling me they're starving, I'll come back...

[tiffani]

Tegan, absolutely go to Burrardview, my very good friends run it, and are really welcoming. not in a hostess kind of way (because it's a little exhausting being hostess to all new homelearners that come in) but just go in and be there and insert yourself in the mix, and no matter how insecure or introverted you feel, just know that you are very welcome and they're glad to have you there.

more good news, it looks like the big meeting in DC yesterday *might* have done the trick! the woman in Kampala who issues visas is away for a few more days, but when she gets back, it *seems* that Ms. Hillary Clinton's office (that's what I call the State Department now ) is on our side and wants our kids to be able to go home -- essentially giving the power to decide legal guardianship cases back to the judges who, by Ugandan law, have all the power to decide, and to stop the madness of asking permission from any and all gov. departments in Uganda who might want to chime in at their own convenience.

[Storm Bride]

Originally Posted by Intuition

I agree about the suburbs. I lived in Tsawwassen for two years when we first came over here, and have never had a lonelier time in my life. But the island still holds many of my friends, and nearly all of my family, so I already have community there.

I have made friends with some wonderful women here, whose children attended the same school for language disorders as my son. We are all able to really know how it feels to have these kids with different issues (because they all have needs outside of language difficulties), and the kids were all slightly behind socially, so got along beautifully. However, getting together with them is insane! They literally have to schedule me in, they're so busy, and we're averaging once every three months or so.

I am going to try harder in the homeschooling community. I think it's so hard for me because I am such an introvert. Terribly so. I know there's that Burrardview every Tuesday, and it's close, so I will probably start there.

My DH is very much in love with his job. He is very good at it, and it offers a lot of benefits to him. His job is largely schmoozing potential clients, so there are a lot of fancy dinners, free trips, skiing, travel, and all that stuff. Stuff I am totally not interested in. But he loves it, and he's good at landing accounts.

So yeah, happy medium. How's North Van? I was looking into rentals there. It's just so expensive everywhere! We're currently paying $1330 for a 2 bedroom in Yaletown, and we're looking for a 3 bedroom with a yard that's an easy commute.

Lori! Thank you so much for telling me it's treasure map time! DH and I have done them for the past three years, and we really love to do that together. My kids are telling me they're starving, I'll come back...

I'm biased, but I think North Van is just about perfect. It's becoming a little more urban than I like, and it's very expensive (we'll have to move out in a year or two, which I find really upsetting), but it's a great place to live.

Homelearning...I missed how old your son is. Have you tried Hula Hoot?

[Piglet68]

tiffani, that is wonderful news! fingers crossed for a quick resolution!

Intuition: we rented a house with a rather large yard. There was a basement suite that a guy was living in but we had the rest of the house and paid $1900/month. We were in the Blueridge area which is a really great location as commutes go b/c we were right by the Second Narrows and Hwy 1. Easy commute to Burnaby, Coquitlam, etc. Tons of Nature with Mt. Seymour and the numerous trails all around. BUT....it is the suburbs and you might find a hard time finding like-minded families (they are out there, but you need to look - attending LLL meetings would help if you have a nursling). And you most definitely need a car.

Another option is somewhere along the West Coast Express line (Mission is the farthest). House prices are cheaper there than in Vancouver (though that's not saying much) and you might even find something with a big yard for a decent price. The commute to downtown is 45 min and quite luxurious so I've been told.

We ordered piglets!! We are getting two Berkshire cross weanlings in 4 weeks. They are going to be kept in a moveable electric-fence paddock and moved around the property to clear the land (they eat everything and then fluff up the soil by rooting). By late autumn they'll be big enough to send to the "processor"; they will return as home-grown pork! I'm very excited - my first livestock!