lightening the mood

First of all, thanks for all the supportive words on the rain/hay/rain situation. As I mentioned, I've been transitioning the goats' diet -  much more quickly than I would have liked - into soaked timothy/alfalfa pellets and chaffhaye, which is a bagged and semi-fermented alfalfa. I've fed it before, many years ago, but had a mixed experience with quality and availability, which I hope will not be the case this time. Today my order of 12 more 50-pound sacks of Chaffhaye came in, so no one is going to starve here for at least the next couple of weeks.

In other news, the beans are producing abundantly! Some of the vines were badly damaged in the recent deadfall, but I'm still going down to the terrace garden with a little basket every second or third day, to  pick the next batch of beans for salad.

By the way, my "three bean" salads are generally "4-plus beans" salad, which became shortened in my mind to "beans salad" and now, "beansalad." It's on the menu every day, with little modifications to keep things interesting. I've tried adding white kidney beans, and starting with dry red kidney beans instead of using canned. The garden provides varying percentages of green filet beans, yellow filet beans, and yellow romano-type beans. I don't think the "sauce" is ever the same twice: different oils, different vinegars, different ratios. Luckily, it's been tasty every time.

Which reminds me...is this a good time to share a couple of kitcheny tips?

Here's the first. The best idea I've ever heard - honestly it's the only one I've ever heard, but it's a good one - for using strawberry caps: making strawberry-infused vinegar. This came from Nancy Birtwhistle, one of the early Great British Bake-off champions who has since written books on "green cleaning" and gardening. Her website has loads of recipes on it as well.

Anyway, she recommends filling a jar with strawberry caps, then adding plain vinegar and soaking. I don't recall how long she advised, but I just stuffed a jar with strawberry caps, filled it to the brim with vinegar, and watched it get red then redder for a couple of days before straining it into a smaller jar. Isn't it pretty?

This jar was full to start with.
Strawberry vinegar is very nice.

It smells lovely and has a refreshing taste, and is a subtle twist on the vinegar component of beansalad. Plus it's very satisfying to have something to do with the strawberry caps! 

Another tip: garbanzo bean skins. Do you use canned chick peas? I do. Do you remove the skins? I do. It's so easy that it's fun. It involves using a rice-washing bowl and plenty of water, rubbing the beans with your fingers and floating the skins away. It takes about one minute for a can of garbanzos.

This method came from Refika's Kitchen on YouTube. I've followed Refika for a few years now, and have been entertained, educated, and, most importantly, inspired to be a bit more adventurous in my attitude to preparing food.

Back to the beans. I'll try linking to a YT video which should open in another window, starting right here at the chick pea technique. Removing the skins only takes a minute, but I couldn't figure out how to make a short clip, so you'll have to either exit the video after a minute or learn how to make Turkish hummus.

It's really nice not to have all this in the beansalad:

Well this is shaping up to be a bit of a random post, isn't it? I'm going to round it out by linking to an article the Guardian published a few days ago.

I've written about the International Space Station before, and since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, I've often wondered what's going on inside the ISS and in the program control rooms of every country involved. This article by Stephen Walker takes a pretty good crack at the question.

A big chore day tomorrow, so I'm going to do my Daily Markmaking and go to sleep. In case I haven't said it lately, thanks for visiting and especially for taking the time to leave comments - I really appreciate the contact.

~~~~~

giveaway giveaway

It's been a while since there's been a Comptonia giveaway, and I've been trying for over a week to come up with a good idea. Yarn? Could do. A book? Maybe. But with so much tension and upheaval going on in the wider-than-my-world, I wanted to do something that would feel a little special. A little uplifting.

A little positive for goodness' sake.

It took a while, but then...light dawned!

I emailed a question, and Kiva emailed right back
and said, "Good idea!" so here we go.

Are you familiar with Kiva? Since 2005, this non-profit group has funded microloans all over the world by combining donations of $25 or more. Donors choose a loan they wish to contribute to, and after that loan is repaid, a donor can re-loan the original donation to another borrower!

All the screenshots are from the Kiva website.

They are nice images; left-click to embiggen.

I. Love. Kiva.

I love the fact that 100% of every donation goes to funding a loan. There is a separate option for donating to Kiva admin costs. This is brilliant. A $25 lender does not have to wonder how many of those dollars are really going to the designated borrower, because ALL the dollars are going there.

I love that Kiva does such a great job of making this program work. The repayment rate is 97.1%. That's due diligence, that is.

I love that more than 2 million loans have been made, in 83 countries, by 1.5 million lenders, to the tune of over 800 million dollars. Oh, and Kiva has a top rating on Charity Navigator.

It's an unusual experience, making a Kiva donation. Reading the borrower information is a tiny, unique window on ordinary lives around the world. There's much I wouldn't have imagined. And much as familiar as the view from my porch.

Maybe a cooperative group of farming women in Vietnam are adding to their small breeding herd of pigs. Or cattle. Or goats. Maybe an urban taxi driver needs to repair the vehicle that supports an extended family, or a shop owner needs enough capital to begin purchasing products at a lower bulk rate. Maybe someone is planting apple trees in Moldova, or growing a business in California. 

The Kiva website offers simple filters to help a donor find the loan they wish to support. Some search filters are geographical. Some filter by the purpose of the loan - such as agriculture, or retail business, or clean energy - or by characteristics of the borrower: elderly, single parent, individual/group, etc.

So, okay...

this is all very interesting, but what happened to the giveaway? Have you forgotten the giveaway? The one I mentioned waaaay up at the top of this post?

It's a $25 Kiva Gift Card

(purchased by me)

for the winner to donate to your Kiva loan of choice.

It's a giveaway giveaway :)

Yay! Right?

If you have already donated to Kiva, the $25 will be added to your account. If you are new to Kiva, redeeming the gift card will set up your account. And in case you have concerns: in my experience, Kiva does not pester donors. I get an email periodically to let me know when a loan has received repayments, so I know when I have enough funds available to donate again - that's about it. And that's actually pretty nice.

So if you want your name in the hat for this giveaway, just leave a comment. Any comment will do, but if you feel like sharing something joyful, that will be appreciated by me and every reader who comments after you, I'm sure.

Feel free to share this giveaway, in any way you like. It's open to anyone on the planet, or on the International Space Station.

I'll do the random number thing next Thursday, the 21th.

Good luck!

~~~~~~

fun tip

Did you know you can sign up for alerts - on your email or by text - for when the International Space Station will be passing overhead in any location you choose? Such as where you live? Or in a location where you plan to be, say, camping under the Big Big Sky somewhere on Earth?

Yep. Here you go: NASA ISS Alerts.

And in case you'd like a little graphic to explain how to use the alerts to know exactly where the ISS will appear on your very own horizon, and in what direction it will be travelling in a vast arc across the heavens, here's the picture that explains it.

It's truly exciting to see that little light crossing the sky, and suddenly feel a real-time connection to the International Space Station and the people living there. And it's so, so, so much easier than going to Astronaut School.

Have fun!
~~~~~

we've all been there

You know how sometimes you have a project that involves installing electronic equipment.

Like an automatic garage door opener.

Or a wireless internet system.

Or a camera in your goat barn.

Or a couple of expensive cameras that took years

to design and build.

Maybe the installation site is easy to see

but hard to get to.

Maybe you need to work high up.

Like in a cherry-picker.

Or on a roof.

A extra pair of hands may be required.

Good thing you have expert assistance!

It's funny, though...no matter how big your workspace,

sometimes you still have to be careful

not to bump your partner with an elbow.

You have a long task ahead of you, but you are prepared.

You begin to connect, and disconnect, and reconnect.

Slowly, carefully.

Following step-by-step directions.

Sometimes with tech support from someone in another country, far away.

And as with any garage door opener or wireless router,

once you've opened the box there seem to be 

so many strange-looking parts floating around!

After hours and hours of careful attention,

pleased that your work is done and done well,

you smile.

You are ready to move on to the next item on your to-do list.

But first:

the glory moment!

You step outside the garage with your new remote,

or turn on your computer, click a browser,

and...

.

.

.

...nothing.

No connection.

.

.

.

No connection.

.

.

.

And after a moment of utter disbelief,

all you can do is: 

slowly and carefully, step by step,

dismantle all the work you have just done.

You put all the parts back in their original packaging,

and hope that further analysis will 

identify and resolve the problem.

~~~

I feel so much empathy with the Russian cosmonauts Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy, who are at this moment carefully and methodically undoing all the work they have done in the past seven hours outside the International Space Station.

I also feel very sorry for the people who designed and built the two cameras as part of a commercial agreement between the Russian Space Federation and a private company in Canada. Imagine the excitement and pride shared by the employees of that Canadian company, doubtless watching the NASA livestream as the two Russian cosmonauts began to install "our cameras" this morning. And imagine the gut-wrenching dismay as Kotov and Ryazanskiy made repeated attempts to achieve a connection, before ultimately determining there was simply nothing else to try.

~~~

Doesn't this scenario have a familiar feel to it? In one way or another, we've all been there, haven't we? It's just a matter of scale. For me, most of the amazing and awe-inspiring aspects of the ISS are a matter of scale.

~~~~~

today: walking in space

The first of three scheduled spacewalks is underway today, as US astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins begin external repairs on the International Space Station.

Outside the space station.

260 miles above the Earth.

NASA TV streams live online, with the view alternating between various ISS cameras, the ground control center, and

the astronauts' helmet cameras.

Today's walk began shortly after 7AM Eastern Standard Time, and is expected to go on for about 6 hours so, depending on where you are in the world, there may be plenty of time to tune in and watch the livestream for a bit if you are so inclined. As "night" becomes "day" becomes "night" again...the ISS orbits the Earth about 16 times in 24 hours.

I find it mesmerizing.

~~~~~

space and time

This is what my laptop screen has looked like lately:

Like hundreds of thousands of people, I've been following International Space Station Commander Chris Hadfield for months, as he has posted image after unbelievable image on Twitter: @Cmdr_Hadfield

On Saturday, I watched NASA's realtime video stream of Flight Engineers Tom Marshburn and Chris Cassidy making repairs outside the International Space Station.  The spacewalk lasted over five hours, through multiple day/night sequences.

I found it absolutely riveting.

And speaking of rivets, I may never again use my power drill to drive screws without picturing - if just for a moment - those giant white astronaut gloves using a similar tool for a similar task.

I have reason to believe this will make my tasks seem much simpler.

~~~

The livefeed from the NASA website is the center window on my screenshot above.  When it is not showing the interior of the spacecraft (or the sudden solid bluescreen which makes me go "Oh nooooo!" every time it appears) it is the view from the space station.  I have been following that view in tandem with the live map of the ISS location (upper left window on the screenshot).  

It has been breathtakingly wonderful to watch (amazing!) Here from (magical!) There from (comfortable!) Here.  Last night I was watching, mesmerized, as the blue and white of sea and clouds moved smoothly past beneath the ISS.  Suddenly I recognized the Red Sea! and central Saudi Arabia! and the edge of the Persian Gulf!  Then the NASA screen went solid blue again...oh nooooo! 

~~~

Yesterday there was a Change of Command ceremony, in which Commander Hadfield handed over the keys (I'm paraphrasing) to Commander Pavel Vinogradov.  As Commander Hadfield repeatedly gestured with both hands, each time leaving his wireless microphone floating in place, I had to wonder:

how many things will he drop on his first days back on Earth?*

Because today, Chris Hadfield is one of three ISS astronauts preparing for their return to Earth.  After 146 days in orbit, Hadfield, Marshburn, and Flight Engineer Roman Romanenko will be boarding the Soyuz module and waving farewell to the crew on the ISS.  The return trip in the Soyuz, from departing the ISS to landing in Kazakhstan, is expected to take less than three and a half hours.

Can you imagine?

When was the last time ANY air travel took you only 3.5 hours?

~~~

I expect to be staying close to my laptop til late tonight.  I don't know how much NASA will stream live, but my fingers are crossed.  There is nothing quite like this real-time visual stuff.  I won't say "riveting" again, but, well.
(It is.)

Anyone else following the International Space Station?

~~~

*If he keeps tweeting from Earth, maybe I'll find out.

~~~~~