Apple cider without a press

Do you have apples and a wish for fresh cider, but don't have the money/time/space to buy/rent/build a cider press? Then I have the solution for you!

Freeze 'em. Thaw 'em. Core 'em. Squeeze 'em with a lemon juicer. Strain, pasteurize.
It does not take as long as you'd think to hand-squeeze cider; frozen and thawed apples are softer than lemons.

Bird doodles

Me at Parties

Inktober 2016, favorites

I've been doing daily updates on my Instagram for Inktober this year, but here's some of the better ones:

Human nature

A rose by any other name...

If logic ruled the day...

Agate Hunting

This cliff is about a quarter mile from the river, so I'm sure these are river rocks are from the old river bed. It's a good spot. I can always find at least a double handful of semi-translucent agates within half an hour.

And every now and then, a really nice one:

This is what they look like after going through the rock tumbler:

Rare animal illustration

The tropical coral deer Cervus scleractinia

Found near the equator near clear, warm, shallow water.

Inktober Week One

Inktober: 31 days, 31 drawings.

It sounded like fun, and lord knows I need to get back to arting on a regular basis. Here's week one:

 

Vaccine wankery from well-meaning people

In case my comment gets removed (and so no one need suffer by missing a piece of wisdom from yours truly). Last week I spent a bit of my time on a comment in response to this blog post .

Here it is. Enjoy:

I don't disagree that an indoor-only pet may not need a rabies vaccine - rabies isn't like panleuk or upper respiratory infections that can be tracked in on your shoes, for example. But the risks from vaccines in general are very small. Why such the freak out? The links you provided just go to highly biased and non-scientific "opinion" websites. Not very convincing.

And there are not "countless" studies that say that vaccines are "damaging". That's false, or at least dishonest. There *are* well-documented and well-known risks from vaccinating, but serious reactions or development of soft-tissue sarcomas are very, very rare; Statistics we have aren't great, but indicate less than 1 in 100,000 risk. You put your cat in more risk by driving him to the clinic in a motor vehicle.

It's unfair to say that the woman's response meant she "didn't care about the health of animals" and it was "just to make money".

It's standard to vaccinate dogs and cats for rabies between ages 3-4 months based on the recommendations of multiple scientific organizations using current health data. And it's very reasonable for a humane society clinic to insist on vaccinating upon intake for spay/neuter surgery - from their perspective, they're dealing with a lot of animals who may never see a vet again in their life. It's in their best interest, and the best interest of the community as a whole,  to help maintain good herd immunity in the community they're serving.

Here are some less-biased links:

http://www.vet.cornell.edu/FHC/resources/brochure/vaccbr.html

https://www.avma.org/About/AlliedOrganizations/Pages/ownbroch.aspx

http://www.vmd.defra.gov.uk/pdf/ati/Catvaccinesinjsitesarcomas.pdf

Skyrim-inspired mural

Dogs piss on fences to show ownership. I paint on them. The design is from an inn sign from Skyrim.

Illustration of the Day

(by: Jonathon Bartlett via: illustrationmundo)

The Halloween Hat: A Photo Essay in Three Parts

Part I: Paranoia






Part II: Irritation







Part III: Resignation

links for a weird Friday

Mobile Phone App Enables Wild Food Foragers


The grandmother hypothesis


Shelly and Jezebel


The luxury of anti-vaccinationism

Ixchel gets a bath

Whenever she's getting ready to shed, I put Ixchel in a tub to soak. She gives every indication of hating being forced to sit in luke warm water for 30 minutes, even though she will occasionally soak in her water dish of her volition.

I'm mean to my pets.

Moving week Links

The milkman in California still delivers local farm fresh milk

Fugly horse of the day with another great post about abuses in the gaited horse industry

Creative mixed-media art

The Illustration Art blog talks about the stigma of painting/drawing from a photograph rather than life. I rather agree with the author's conclusion.

Aw. Marines rescue kittens: (via Ginmar)

Animal sounds from different countries. (I freaking love onomatopoeia) (via)

Look! Art!

A wedding card made for a friend.

this happens sometimes

It's been a frustrating week. Work is being stupid in a boring and personal but frustrating way. My husband is officially moved into our new apartment... five hours away. I'm here in our old place, with nothing but the dog, a futon mattress on the floor, a laptop, and cat hair dust bunnies the size of badgers. My camera memory card is full, but I can't find the card reader to upload to the computer. I also can't find our census form. I'm sure they're going to come knocking on my door any day now and probably arrest me and then who will feed my dog? I also can't find my hiking boots. They're either at my parents' house (to which I will be moving soon) or they're 5 hours away with all my other stuff. Either way, I've had to go hiking in the damp Oregon forests with tennis shoes, which means wet socks.

I hate wet socks.

Anyway, these are some of the last photos I took before everything went to hell:



I sculpted Mr. dragon a few years ago from polymer clay. It was fun (polymer clay usually is), but I skipped important prep work to get to the fun parts, so after it was baked it kept falling apart. I was finally ready to toss him in the trash (it's a big step for me, I'm a horrible pack rat). But before I did, I took photos of him...







... and then ripped off his wings and put them on the cat.




Demon wings look very natural on a cat, don't they?

I don't even drink coke

But the bottles are pretty.

More things I've rediscovered while packing (yes, I collect a lot of crap. It's part of who I am I will never stop, DON'T JUDGE MY HOARDING HABITS IT MAKES ME HAPPY).





The bottle on the left was unearthed from my parents' front yard when they had a new septic dug. The previous landowners had lived there since the turn of the century, and probably only had garbage service for half that time. The whole property is like a big archeological site. Dig anywhere and you unearth "treasures".





Look how much thicker the glass is. Even though the old bottle is slightly bigger, it only held 6 fluid oz, while the new bottle held eight.

Oh, and NPR tells me that today is the anniversary of Coca Cola's failed attempt at "New Coke". So, um, congratulations Large Corporation Whom I Have No Loyalty To for hanging in there for over a hundred years, even with huge marketing failures! It's probably mainly because of your pretty bottles.