Independence Days – Week 17 September 7, 2009

We’ve been learning so much in the last few weeks.  The bumper crops from the farm and garden have made us do a bit more research into preserving, storage and preparation.  Also, gardening in the winter has been on the radar. 

We’ve always talked about but never tried planting things for the winter here.  But I went to the Rocky Mountain Seed Company, and got a few tips.  This year we’re going for it!

Plant Something –  spinach, beets, radishes and lettuce.  Also, bought some little pots of herbs to put int the kitchen.    I’m not great with potted plants, but I have a good feeling about these ones. 

Harvest Something– eggs: in fact, so many eggs that I have three egg cartons in the fridge, and one is an 18 egg carton! Also mint, tomatoes, chard, zucchini, and on the farm we picked melons and winter squash! 

Preserve Something –  beans, corn and carrots into the freezer, canned peaches, peach jam.

Waste Not – How about this – I went to the Goodwill on Sunday to get more jars for canning.  They were $1.00 each (too much!), but while I was there they announced that Monday everything would be 50% off.  So I went back Monday morning, and got two books and 19 jars for fifty cents each.  AND they had a 2002 Burley d’Lite for $74.99.  I got it for half that!  $37.50!!  It needs a cover, and that will probably be about $100 or less.  Still an incredible deal!!  I did not waste money this week!

Want Not/Prep & Storage - started a food journal to track what’s being grown and stored, how much, and how long it lasts!

Build Community Food Systems – We are thinking of trying to sell a dozen eggs a week (I’m afraid to commit to more), and that money would help off-set the feed costs for the hens.  I’d like it to be to one person every week… someone who’s committed to buying them, I don’t really have time to market them.    Let me know if you’re in the area and want to buy a dozen eggs from free-range, pastured chickens! 

Eat the Food – peaches!  And peppers and eggplant and carrots and melons… so many things!

Harvest Stuffed Peppers

This recipe makes enough hash to stuff four peppers (serve four people), but I only stuff two for Rick and I.  The remaining hash gets divided into two portions – one for Henry, and one for Rick’s lunch the next day.

2 bell peppers that can stand on their ends
2 medium sized potatoes
1/2 white or yellow onion
1 or 2 peeled carrots
1 small or medium sized squash
1/2 to 3/4 cup protein of choice: left over diced ham is in the picture, but eggplant, eggs, ground beef or sausage works great too.
Fresh torn basil – to taste
Salt & pepper
2 TBS olive oil

Cut the tops off of the peppers, remove seeds and ribs and set peppers aside.  Chop all other ingredients into a 1/4-inch dice.  In a 12-inch skillet with a lid heat olive oil; add potatoes, onions and carrots.  Season well with salt and pepper. Put on lid and let cook over medium, stirring to keep from sticking to bottom of the pan, until onions are soft and the potatoes and carrots are on their way to being cooked through. 
Add squash (sometimes I add the pepper tops too).  Let cook uncovered until potatoes are almost tender, stirring as needed to keep from sticking. 
Add cooked meat (or raw eggplant), and basil.  Mix well, taste and adjust for seasoning.  Scoop mixture (which I call hash) into the peppers.  Place peppers in a rimmed pan and bake at 375 until heated through and potatoes are done.  They could also be finished on the grill instead of the oven.

Note that this is one of those recipes that ends up catching all the random veggies in the kitchen that need using.  It’s great with mushrooms, garlic, eggplant, celery, zucchini, extra peppers, even a tomato added at the end.  It would also be great topped with grated cheese.

So You Want to be a Farmer September 2, 2009

Of course it’s no secret that I want to be a farmer.  Rick and I joke about it almost daily, and, very un-jokingly, we work hard putting up produce from the CSA, growing our own in the garden, raising the chickens and generally learning all we can about living on the land. 

Getting chickens was a baby step.  We started with four and moved up to seven.  They eat a lot.  And they poop a lot.  And for the first year, we didn’t get a lot of eggs, but spent a lot of money on building them a coop.  Now we know more, and we’re getting lots of eggs, and though they’re messy and dig holes, we are glad to have them, and thinking of better ways to do things with them.

Part of the reason why we decided to be working members on Monroe’s farm, was so that I could get a taste of what went into this pipe dream.  Every week last year, Rick sent me off to Kersey with the admonition to pay close attention to what Jerry said, and to ask him about ______.  He wanted me to pick Jerry’s brain weekly.  Did he grow Brussels sprouts?  When did he plant potatoes?  How do you know corn is ready to harvest? 

A week or so ago, a working member friend, Tracy, posted an article about taking A Farm Vacation on her Facebook page.  At the moment I first saw it, I was tired from processing food and working, and thought, “Vacation!  What?  Farming’s hard work!”  And it is.  But after the trip to Palisade last weekend, I’ve changed my mind.  I want to take this vacation myself. 

Palisade was so beautiful.  The Western slope of Colorado is sunny and warm and the towns charming.  Rick and I saw an orchard for sale and picked up a flyer.  Ah – we could live here, and we could grow this.  If only wee had more [money, and] time to sit here and pick Buck’s (the owner of the orchard where we harvested peaches) brain on how to do it all.  If only we could stay here and give it a try for a while before investing in property. 

I really love having Henry (and now Emmett too) out there on the CSA farm every week.  While his biggest thrill is playing with the other kids, catching toads and feeding the pigs, I have the opportunity to remind him that those pigs will become pork chops, and those toads eat the bugs that destroy crops.  He gets excited when we move from the barn to the fields, and he plays behind us in the rows, eating melons, catching “buggies” and pulling weeds.  He is gaining an understanding of where food comes from.  And this means so much to me.

A few months ago, I read a blog post called This Place We Know by Sharon Astyk.  Sharon is a beautiful writer, and the post is quite long, but it really captures something. I want my children to understand where their food comes from and what happens on a farm.  That a farm is more then a cutesy place where cows say moo and pigs say oink.

And I know, now days, I’m not the only one who feels this way.  Here are a couple of articles that have appeared recently on people dreaming of the simple life: one from Utne Reader: The Organic Farm Fantasy Meets Reality and on Mother Earth News: Skills for Farming.

I envision my boys growing up in an agrarian life style.  Being connected to the earth and to our food connects us with God.  The Maker made this and made us.  The grocery store has broken the connection for most of us. 

Seeing my boy pick a peach or nectarine and delighting in that sweet first bite before he’s even taken a step away from the tree is amazing.  There’s no lesson about fruit coming from tree needed when he picks it himself.

In our home, we don’t have many conversations about limiting candy.  You’re more likely to hear, “No, you’ve had enough carrots,” or “Ok, but this is the last tomato before dinner.”  And these statements don’t make me sad.  Last night as Rick prepped green beans for going into the freezer, we worried about Henry eating so many beans that he’d spoil his dinner cooking in the oven.  And he did!  This is a good problem to have, we’ve decided. For Henry, going to the garden to pick (and graze) tomatoes brings joy.  The fruits of the springs labor is wonderful.

When he sees us tilling the garden, he knows it’s to get it ready for the plants.  When he plants a seed, and then gets to see it grow into a plant and then the plant grows a flower, and the flower grows a zucchini, he gets it.  There’s not a lot of explaining to do.  And compost is an opportunity to show him how we give back to the ground to keep the circle going.  The eggs are a reason to be kind to the chickens.  Sharing scraps with pigs makes the pigs happy and helps them get ready to be a delicious meal in the fall.  Happy animals make better food.  Happy chickens lay tastier eggs. 

It’s funny to think that just a few years ago, I had never gardened before.  Rick was the one who wanted a place for a garden when we bought our home.  He had grown up with it.  I think he may have thought twice about that first garden if he had know what it would spiral into. 

I’ve always wanted to be in the country, to be on land.  I grew up doing 4-H, wishing I had a horse.  I even made Rick promise that I could have a horse after we got married.  But I had never thought about farming or growing things until that first garden.  Now I’ve gotten carried away.  I want my own beehive, my own milking cow.  Steers for beef, chickens and ducks for meat and eggs, a turkey to raise for Thanksgiving.  And fields full of veggies and fruit, melons and squash.  Fruit trees.  Grain. I want it all! 

I don’t think Rick was prepared for the fallout of that first little veggie patch.  Certainly not for the chickens.  Sharon Astyk wrote another post to this affect.  Rick and I could relate to her guide, ”So You (Don’t Particularly) Want to be a Farmer” on more than one account.  It’s a guide for the spouse/partner/family member of a person who has been bit (hard) by the farming bug.  The post had us both laughing out loud, for it was so very true.  Despite planting the seed with that first little garden patch, Rick got dragged into this wanna-be farming thing against his better judgement. 

For example, the chicken thing was all my idea.  I used phrases like “think of all the money we’ll save on eggs!” to convince him.  Our very first egg from our very first chicken had to be (ever so gently) pried from the vent of that hen… she was egg bound.  And who did it?  Not me… HIM!  I was afraid of hurting her.  He saved the day.  And I’m sure he resentfully thought me a madwoman!

But most especially one line at the end of Sharon’s post hit home for Rick and I and this crazy pipe-dream of owning a farm together:

“Sometimes there’s nothing more to dream of than being yoked together in the same harness, on the same land and doing the same good work for all the days of your life.”

Rick and I continue to be members of the CSA because we are still learning things, and because we have become addicted to the beautiful food that comes from Jerry’s land.  We still ask questions, pick brains, read book after book. 

We’ve so much to learn, although I feel we’ve also learned so much.  Winter squash is harvested after the vines fall,  melons are sweeter if you limit their water.  This is how you store potatoes and canning isn’t quite as hard if you’re doing it with a friend. 

But the best thing we’ve learned from growing things together: Seeds sown in love produce sweeter fruit.

 

Excerpts cross posted at BlogHer.com and monroefarms.blogspot.com  

Independence Days – Weeks 8-11 July 24, 2009

Well it’s time to get caught up on a few things!  I last left this post on Emmett’s birth-day, so while we’ve continued harvesting and eating and what not, I’ve not written it down! 

We did get quite a few turnips and raspberries this week.  More raspberries than we’ve ever gotten, in fact.  There are still a few more ripening up, but I’ve been enjoying what we’ve gotten so far. 

My lettuces and spinach bolted, so we’re going to be pulling those, and the peas (both the snow peas and the snap peas) are about done too.  So for the last few weeks here’s our report card:

Plant Something –  nada (that I can remember)

Harvest Something – Eggs, including the first mini-eggs from the pullets, turnips… lots of them!, our first zucchini, peas, radishes (a handful), raspberries…

Preserve Something –  green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, potatoes, garlic, turnips, onions…

Waste Not– recycling, composting, and another big batch of  turnip greens this time.  Also, I packed up maternity clothes to return to my friend who lent them to me (I’m putting this in because instead of being wasteful and buying all new clothes for a few months use, I borrowed).  We’ve also been eating lots of meals made by friends, and the leftover have been great for lunches.

Preparation and Storage - Rick scrubbed out the “new” freezer.  We are solidifying plans for a buffalo (or at least half), as well as mulling over the idea of another pork this fall.

Build Community Food Systems – still spreading the word about the Englewood Farmers Market, Rick worked at the CSA, we shared extra zucchini that was going to go to waste, and we got to try some chicken from a co-op (thanks Genny).

Eat the Food – Since the zucchini are coming on, here’s a recipe from the Great Food Fast cookbook (also on www.marthastewart.com) that uses up a fair amount of summer’s favorite squash.  I’m not a big fan of curry, but this was pretty tasty.  It can be served warm or cold.

Curried Zucchini Soup

1 TBS olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
Coarse Salt
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp curry powder
1.5 lbs zucchini (about 3 medium) sliced 1 inch thick
1 baking potato, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
1/3 cup sliced almonds (for garnish)

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Add onion and 1 TBS salt and cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until onions are soft.  Add garlic and curry powder and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant – about 1 minute. 

Add zucchini and potato, and 4 cups of water.  Bring to a boil, and simmer 10-15 minutes until vegetables are soft.  Working in batches, puree soup in blender until smooth (don’t be tempted to skip this, it does affect the flavor of this soup).  Serve warm, or refrigerate until cool.  Top with sliced almonds. 

Note that I paraphrased the instructions, since I didn’t want to write it word for word.  But it’s pretty basic.    Enjoy!

Rick also thought that it’d be smart to make a large batch of this soup and freeze it for the winter when you have no zucchini.  He’s a pretty smart fella, I think.

Independence Days – Week 7 June 26, 2009

Summer arrived this week, and not just on the calendar.  It finally got hot. 

We had a couple days without rain, and I was lamenting this, because I really love the rain, and because I don’t want it to be really hot when I am in labor at home with no a/c!

Saturday night, while doing some shopping I had about three hours of “false labor” or pre-labor as the textbooks kindly like to call it.  I had strong contractions pretty consistently that were a minute long and three to five minutes apart.  This actually made us extend our shopping expedition to include a few more groceries than we normally would have, since we thought I was starting labor.  But once we got home, they died out completely!  I did NOT experience anything like that with Henry.  We waited around for most the night Saturday, but, alas, the contractions did not return.

Sunday was Father’s Day, and it was pretty low key around here.  We kept hoping the contractions would start back up (and thus tried planning activities that involved walking to entice them back), but we were disappointed.  Nil.  So the baby hung out in my belly, while I moped in the house and Rick and Henry mowed the lawn and ran through the sprinkler. 

Tuesday came, still no more regular contractions or anything harder than a normal Braxton-Hicks contraction, so I headed to the farm to do my weekly work on the CSA.  I’m glad I did because we got produce for the first time this year!  We got peas, red leaf lettuce, purple kohlrabi, turnips, garlic and a zucchini. 

We actually got bonus veggies too, since the guy I car pool to the farm with is on vacation in Alaska with his family, he said we could eat anything from their share that wouldn’t keep.  So I will refrain from eating his garlic (though it will be hard), and we’ll see if the turnips and kohlrabi make it (though I’m taking the tops). 

Here are the facts for week seven:

Plant Something –  nothing new went into the ground this week.

Harvest Something – Eggs and our first peas! Besides that, does hoeing billions of weeds count as harvesting?!?!

Preserve Something – Froze two containers of the below soup. 

Reduce Waste– or, as I’ve recently seen it called: “Waste Not” – I’m excited to put something other than my ‘usual’ list of recycling, etc. in this category this week.  Instead of tossing the tops of the kohlrabi to the chickens as I normally would, I made a soup with them and a left over ham bone that would have otherwise gone to waste! 

Preparation and Storage - nada.

Build Community Food Systems – still spreading the word about the Englewood Farmers Market, working on the CSA.  Discussed splitting a buffalo with another CSA member as well.

Eat the Food – We’ve been enjoying the CSA goodies and snacking on peas here and there.  I’ll have to think up a recipe to share….

Independence Days – Week 6 June 19, 2009

Short and sweet today…

Plant Something – I planted a lot of mellons on the farm this week.  Otherwise, I didn’t plant anything here in our garden.   

Harvest Something – Spinach, lettuce, a radish, eggs

Preserve Something –  Strawberries are on the docket today.  I bought a bunch, and if I don’t eat them all first, I’ll try to make some jam. 

Reduce Waste – The usual… chickens, compost, recycling, etc. 

Preparation and Storage - This week I signed up for a veggie canning/jam making class in July.  I’m actually going to get to go for sure (not just on the waiting list), so I’m very excited about that!

Build Community Food Systems – still spreading the word about the Englewood Farmers Market.  Otherwise, nil. 

Eat the Food – The stuff we harvested, plus pork as usual.  We also used some more of the anchos left in the freezer.  Here’s a quick recipe for green chile mayo, tasty on burgers:

In a food processor, put 1 cup of mayonnaise, 4 (or so) garlic cloves, 2 roasted, peeled and chopped ancho chiles, and a tablespoon of lime juice.  Process until smooth.  Taste, and add more of anything you think it might need.  Yum!

Also, a side note, my ‘Independence Days - Week 4′ post was generating a lot of spam for some reason, so I took it down.  If you want the recipe I had posted (a pasta sauce), just send me a note!

Independence Days – Week 5 June 12, 2009

These last few weeks I’ve been a bit distracted, and not really posting as much as I was.  I’ve missed two Thrifty Thursdays in a row now!  Yikes!  I promise to get back on the wagon next week (but Katie Jean had a great tip this week about paper products). 

I’m officially 36 weeks pregnant (almost 37), and come Tuesday, when I hit that 37 week mark, I could have the baby anytime.  So I have anywhere from one to seven more weeks to be pregnant (but only the high end if I go past my due date).  I had Henry 3 days before I was due with him, so I don’t think it’s likely that I’ll go far over this time, but you never know.   

In the mean time, I have tried to keep up on the Independence Days post to share with you…

Plant Something – Saturday, Rick planted more spinach, radishes, kale, Swiss chard… I think  that’s all.    It’s been so cool and rainy, we’re hoping to eek out a little extra time with our spring greens this year! 

Harvest Something – Spinach and radishes and lettuce all ready almost every day now.  It sure is nice to go pick a bowlful of spinach for lunch.

Preserve Something–  This week, I didn’t really do any preserving, but I DID start making kombucha for the first time (fermented green tea).  We’ll see how it goes – it takes two weeks!

Reduce Waste – The usual… chickens, compost, recycling, etc. 

Preparation and Storage - We didn’t do anything really in this category this week either, but I did hear recently that Colorado is now allowing rain water collection, so we are talking about rain barrels and where and when we want to go about doing that! 

Build Community Food Systems – Well this week we finally made it up to the CSA!  We planted a musk melon field and cucumbers.  The pick your own strawberries were ready, but I was pooped at the end of the day, so I didn’t pick any.  Please cross your fingers for me that there will still be plenty of strawberries next week… I really want to make lots of jam and other yummy goodies!!  Also, I do post weekly ads on craigslist and other sites for our city’s farmers market.  I’ve gotten a couple of responses from potential vendors in the last couple of weeks, so that is good! 

Eat the Food – This week was a tight week, so we ate mostly from the freezer.  Lots of pork on these kinds of weeks.    We did BLT’s with our bacon and lettuce from the garden, and spinach a few times as well.  Here’s a recipe we had last night (based on one from Everyday Food magazine), called Ham & Egg Fried Rice. 

For Four:

1/4″ thick by 8″ (or so) cured ham steak, cut into bite size pieces
One bunch of scallions, one shallot, or half an onion finely chopped (the real recipe calls for the scallions, but I always use whatever is handy)
3-4 cloves of garlic, pressed or minced
1-2 inch piece of fresh ginger, finely minced or grated
2 cups cooked rice, rinsed and drained (we use brown)
2 TBS soy sauce
2 TBS rice vinegar
4 eggs
salt & pepper

In a large skillet or wok, heat 1-2 TBS vegetable oil over medium high heat.  Cook ham, onions (or white parts of scallions), garlic, and ginger until ham is nearly cooked through, onions are soft and garlic & ginger are fragrant (you could also add red pepper flakes if you like it spicy) – about 4 minutes.  Add the rice, soy sauce, and rice vinegar (also, if you used them, add the green parts of the scallions).  Season with salt (if needed) and black pepper to taste.  Cook stirring frequently, about five more minutes, until ham is completely cooked.  Put into serving dishes.
Wipe out the skillet with a paper towel and add a little more cooking oil.  Fry the eggs, seasoning with salt and pepper.  Top the rice bowls with the fried eggs and serve. 

This goes great with steamed bok choy or spinach as well.  It’s quick and tasty!

Urban Homesteading – Denver’s New Trend? June 3, 2009

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a writer for the Denver Post.  He was doing an article on Urban Homesteading.  Cool!  Yes I was interested in talking to him (and thrilled he might be interested in talking to me, just based on my blog here).  After a few emails back and forth, he ended up not being able to meet up with Rick and I as scheduled… his deadline was too close. 

However, I wanted to share the article with you all.  Looks like there’s a trend going here in the Mile High City.  Glad to say we’re more than three years into it ourselves… And cool to see others in Englewood (my town) and other places in the Denver-metro area that are doing it too.

Check out the article: Green (1/8) Acres Sprout in the City by Douglas J. Brown.

Independence Days – Week 3 May 29, 2009

Plant Something  – Rick planted more radishes (those darn chickens!!).  But they grow fast and we had the room!

Harvest Something  – So far Rick has harvested two radishes – they were sweet and spicy and we can’t wait for more!  We also got a good deal of spinach this week… Yum! 

Preserve Something– I didn’t really do much in this category…. thinking of picking more raspberry leaves to dry… does thinking about it count?  LOL!

Reduce Waste – I bought a bunch of raspberries on sale last week.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get to the last ones before they started going bad… but the chickens sure enjoyed them!

Preparation and Storage - I put the dried raspberry leaves from last week into a baggie?  But they will be used up quickly, so it’s not really long term storage or anything. 

Build Community Food Systems–  I worked on getting more vendors for our farmers market here in Englewood.  It’s neat to see the market grow!

Eat the Food - Spinach!  And pork and corn and tomatoes!  The corn and tomatoes were from the freezer, from last year’s CSA harvest.  Still great! 

I’m thinking, so this doesn’t get boring, of putting a recipe in this section each week.  So for this week, since we harvested spinach, I’ll share my favorite dressing recipe to top fresh spinach with:

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/3 cup rice vinegar
• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1-2 tsp freshly grated ginger
• 2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 envelope onion soup mix (or use dehydrated onions and a good measure of salt or soy sauce)

Mix ingredients well and pour over a big spinach salad topped with sliced almonds, and mandarin oranges.  We usually throw red bell pepper, thinly sliced red onions and cucumber into the salad if we have them, but use what you like!  You can even throw in cooked pasta and grilled chicken and make it a whole meal.  We took this salad (with pasta in it) to one of the BBQ’s we went to this weekend.  This dressing is for a big salad, so you can use less if you’re not making it for a crowd or as a meal.

Thrifty Thursday: DIY Garden Gate May 21, 2009

Since I’m still on the DIY kick, I thought I’d share about one of our most complimented DIY projects, our garden gate.  Our veggie garden is technically in our front yard.  Rick wanted to put up a fence so that people couldn’t just come steal our veggies, so of course, I insisted it be cute.   

I looked all over the web for designs I liked and came up with this one, shown on the left, from this site: http://www.gardenplans.com/50gardengate.html  The plan cost $3.95 to download.

We bought it, and the supplies we needed.  Rick made a few modifications to the plan to accommodate the tools he has in the garage.  This is how it turned out (note that this pic is from August 2007, and I was too lazy to go take a fresh picture).  As you can see it’s a bit different than the plan, but I love how it turned out, and it looks really great from the curb.   I think Rick built it that summer, or maybe the summer of 2006?

It’s made from cedar, and because we built it so long ago, I can’t remember the cost at all.  But I do know that it was WAY less expensive then anything we could have bought pre-fab at the store.  And it was built to last.  Here’s a picture of the gate from May last year.

It still looks great.  This year, I plan to add another coat of stain, just for added protection, and one of the balls on the posts is cracked and may need to be replaced.  But over all it was a great project, and simple to do yourself.

If you’re landscaping or doing any kind of home improvement, don’t be afraid to go searching on the web for instructions on how to do it yourself.  Sometimes the payoff is great!

Check out what Genny & Katie Jean are posting about this week.

Independence Days – Week 1 May 15, 2009

Plant Something  – this week a lot of planting happened.  We planted our ten tomato plants and all the squash, turnips, carrots, onions and cucumbers.   

Harvest Something  – Asparagus!  Rick estimated that I grabbed twenty pounds from the CSA…

Preserve Something – Um… asparagus.  It’s mostly all in the freezer now.  After weighing it all out, it was 20 lbs, 8 ounces!  Good guess by Rick!

Reduce Waste – 6 pounds of that asparagus went into the compost pile… it was the woody parts that you have to pick so the patch keeps growing, but that are too woody to eat!  We also put some leaves from the neighbor’s tree last fall into the chicken coop this week instead of using new shavings. 

Preparation and Storage- Rick defrosted the big freezer in the garage.  We kept the meat in coolers while we let it go, and then back into the freezer it went.  It was a good time to inventory what was left… green chiles any one??

Build Community Food Systems – This week I did some work for the Chamber of Commerce to spread the word about Englewood’s new Farmer’s Market! 

Eat the Food- ok… asparagus again.  But we also have been eating our way through our hog, and getting the freezer emptied for the coming harvests!

Not bad for the first week.  But I’m not sure how the next few weeks will go as the garden is getting going.  For now, I think I’ll post my updates on Fridays.  This way I’ll have the weekend and the whole week to get something from each category done.  Stay tuned!