My mild hangover stuck with me most of the day. Not until eating dinner did it clear up finally. I swear, I only had a few beers and went to bed stone sober. Must have been the lack of water.

The weather is obviously turning. Today didn't warm up like it has lately. We haven't heated our house yet this season but are on the verge now. This morning was 58 F and only got as high as 66 F. It will likely drop to the mid fifties overnight and take a long time to warm during the day and I'll be asked to start a fire I suspect. We are wearing sweaters and hats indoors much of the time.

Breakfast

I was tempted to just go out and cheat this morning for breakfast. Wasn't feel great, had three kids (a friend spent the night), and Kristin went to work early and was probably going to be gone all day. I dreaded a messy kitchen and wanted time to get outside and work in the yard.

Kristin convinced me to do otherwise. She got out some bananas from the freezer and said I could make some muffins. In a fog I started grinding wheat. Then Tara and Davis took over. What a splendid use of their energy. While doing this chore they were unable to make any trouble in the house.

Kid Power

They ground almost 2 cups of grain, which made a bit over 2 cups of flour. Nearly all the wheat I grew this year in my yard is gone. Three recipes and its over with. Disheartening. I know the math on grain. About 400 lbs per year, per person. I grew about 3 lbs of wheat. My garden won't cut it. My family needs at least an acre of grain. So do all the other families in Willits. The math screams "Farms!"

The muffins were delicious.

Oct 29 Breakfast

The ingredients for the muffins: freshly ground whole wheat from my garden, eggs from Laytonville, butter from Petaluma, honey from Willits, walnuts from our yard, baking powder, and organic bananas from....oh my goodness. Bananas aren't local!

I didn't break this news to Kristin. She was so sweet, getting the bananas out of the freezer the night before so I could make this treat in the morning. Kristin is obviously an innocent and I just couldn't bear to disillusion her. Likewise, she hasn't yet read the blog entry about the cutting board.

Eggs on the plate are from Laytonville and the plums from a few blocks away. That's some herbal tea that was supposed to make me feel better and save Tibet at the same time. I don't think it worked.

Lunch

This never happened. It took me so long to cook those muffins that we had breakfast at about 11 am. I am amazed the kids didn't mutiny. They were patient but then ate like a pack of sled dogs. Tara even mixed the muffins in with the eggs. I guess they mix in the stomach anyway.

Dinner

Aside from the fact that the kitchen was still a mess from breakfast, dinner was easy.

Oct 29 Dinner

The last of the London broil and mixed root crop special, plus a sautee of tomatoes, tomatillos, sweet pepper, zucchini and garlic from the garden. Had a healthy portion of tap water too.

I keep forgetting to rant about the oxymoron "Sustainable Tourism." This is just a placeholder mini-rant to get it off my chest before bedtime so I'll sleep super soundly. Think about how people do their touring around here or how those of us from around here would do our touring elsewhere. What modes of transport would be used, what sorts of fuels would be consumed, how many pounds of greenhouse gases would this all emit, etc?

If the cognitive dissonance doesn't end, or at least lessen, I am apt to open my window and start shouting, "I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore!"

Quick, that's a line from what movie?