I’ve been pizza-deprived for most of the years I’ve been a vegan, because I really couldn’t believe I would like a pizza without cheese, and hadn’t met a vegan cheese so far that I would want to ruin the taste of the pizza. Until now, I did find a couple of brands that don’t have any taste, so can’t do any damage. And they melt nicely. But I heard raves from people who have eaten the vegan pizzas that some Whole Foods stores (in CA?) sell, which are topped with Daiya. It is now available at Vegan Essentials, so I bought a couple of bags of the shredded variety.

Maybe it’s because I actually used a whole (small) baggie, or it really does have a good taste, but I consider tonight’s pizza to be the most decadent, cheese-wise. I’ll have to have another helping to be sure, but I think that I would highly recommend people trying Daiya, if they haven’t found a brand that they already like. Here are a couple of pictures.

In reality, I darkened the second picture to make it look more brown than it actually was. I should have baked the pizza a few more minutes to actually brown the Daiya a little more. But I was afraid that one minute too many might ruin the whole thing.

I also don’t know if it’s because it was shredded or not, but it melts really nicely, and does what pizza cheese does, when you pick up a piece and it stretches from one piece to another.

The first three pictures will be scrunched to fit. Emmanuel isn’t as fat as he looks here — as he naps on towels atop the hot radiator. (You’ll notice that his favorite blue beach towel is also there as a “day bed”.)

I was just about out of vegan kibble for both Sheldon & Emmanuel, and got a timely discount from DownBound, who partnered with Vegan Essentials. I submitted an online order Wednesday night, wondering if I’d get it this week, or have to wait until after the weekend. It came today. I also ordered some shredded Daiya “cheese” and Wax Orchard fudge sauce for myself. Sheldon was so busy barking at the UPS delivery guy who was pulling out of the driveway by the time I got to the door, that he didn’t even notice the big box that came for him. I opened it up before he even came inside, which wasn’t fair. But hey, now we have lots of kibble.

Emmanuel likes Ami as well as his commercial brand.
Sheldon isn’t picky. But for about 4 reasons (price, kibble size, less plastic packaging, and longevity claims) I generally order Evolution Diet for him. Here’s the main contents of the huge box that was delivered today:

It was timely for two reasons — the coupon code, and the fact that the cat ran out of his old bag this morning. And if I had to wait until next week, I would have had to buy more commercial kibble which is also almost gone. Since he likes Ami just as well, and I was ordering a medium bag, I didn’t want to have to buy more at the store.

My oak trees haven’t lost many leaves yet — not really enough to bother raking.

A couple of reasons for planning to “degrass” the middle part of the yard where the leaves fall are to expand next year’s garden, and to spare me a lot of raking. Ironically, the neighbor has been donating his leaves to me. And I’m raking them.

I was originally planning to burn the first batch of leaves to try to kill the grass, and to mark where the new beds will be. But since my chip pile hot composted, and since I have a HUGE pile of leaves from the neighbor, I’m going to wait and see if they will hot compost. Besides, they’re wet. And the pile is so big that I’d need a hose handy since it’s under the trees.

Here are a few pictures I took today:

This is similar, but shows the back area that I’m also planning to degrass — either for shade plants and/or to simplify mowing for the neighbor:

(The area behind the white wire garden fence was this year’s Lasagna Garden. But it’s too shady there. Anyway, I do want to mention that I started it maybe in March, and it’s completely composted now. So it doesn’t have to take a long time to make compost. But this is the best time of the year, when there’s a lot available in our yards.)

This is a view from the northwest end. It also shows part of the east beds that I’m trying to cover as I acquire newspapers to put down under the chipped branch wood pile that I got from the tree trimmers last month:

The house across the street has been vacant for a long time. If I feel the need to hoard more leaves, even after my own drop, I know where I can get a lot more.

(The circular area between the east and west beds is where my “hidden” labyrinth is, and the 32′ area I’m preserving as lawn, mainly for the pets.)

Here’s another view of the area west of the west beds. It shows my hoop house. Just another Fall picture.

And just because the oak trees are more colorful than usual, here’s a picture of my “adolescent” oak that’s in my front yard. Oddly, this tree doesn’t drop its leaves until Spring. I’m thinking maybe it’s because it’s young, unless it’s just a different variety.

Today, I pretty much emptied out one compost bin, to put on the (beginnings of the) 8 new beds on the east side of my lot. That represents about 8 wheelbarrows-full. The dark hill by the street is from my other bin (which isn’t empty, but still has a lot of dry leaves in it) probably is 3 wheelbarrows-full. Not bad, since I didn’t start composting until last Spring.

The big “hot steaming” pile of wood chips and leaves is a green, and probably moldy. When I move my bins to another place, I’ll probably put that in one of them. Mold is OK for a compost pile, but I don’t think it’s OK for a garden. So I’ll let it compost properly before I add it, so it will end up a nice rich brown like the rest of my compost.

(Horizontal photo is scrunched to fit.)

The UPS guy delivered a box to our porch without us even hearing him. I’m surprised that Sheldon didn’t bark, especially since the delivery was mainly for him. (I ordered a few other things that were on close-out sale, to make up for the shipping & handling, because it would really bother me to have to pay $6.95 extra on top of the already pricey cost of the dog food, which is imported from Italy. He may be a vegan, but he is not a locovore.)

As a half-sincere apology and excuse, he looks a little dirtier than normal, because he is still a little wet from being out in the rain a while before (while I was picking things out of the garden and wondering what to transplant and what to let die).

So, here I am, celebrating with a couple of Tofutti Cuties, and contemplating whether or not I should make another pizza tonight.

I had my choice today to either dig through the attic, and attempt to organize it, or dig through the dirt, and work on next year’s garden beds. Since it got sunny out (even though it only got up to about 60 today), I decided I’d rather work on the beds.

Below is a picture of what I’m doing.

This is the east side of the north lot. I’m making an area around my labyrinth, with eight 4′ beds and narrow paths in-between. I’m using a modified Lasagna Garden concept. It might also end up being like “raised beds” without the frames, since I’m guessing they’ll end up being higher than the paths. But I’m still waiting for the leaves to fall off the trees. I also need more newspapers.

So, just to be able to visualize where the beds will be, I started on the west edge, and will work my way toward the street.

When the leaves fall, I’ll try burning the grass. If that doesn’t work sufficiently, or even if it does, I’ll cover the area with paper, then cover it with mulch from the pile by the street (which is still hot composting), and sprinkled over with dirt from this year’s Lasagna Garden.

I’ll do something similar on the west side of the circle, once I finish harvesting or transplanting things from this year’s garden, and after the leaves fall.

So, just to give you an idea, these will be eight beds that are about 4′ wide and maybe 20′ long. And if I do the same on the other side of the circle, it will be a huge amount of growing area next year. So I’m trending toward planting some fruit trees and various berry bushes/plants on this side.

I was just listening to a quiz question on the radio, pertaining to the movie “Psycho”, and thoughts turned to my steaming compost pile. And it generated a half-baked thought.

No, I didn’t hear voices when the idea came to me to ask the tree trimming guys if I could have the wood chips from my trees. But it was one of those wildly auspicious thoughts that seemed to be inspired by God, and I thought I might as well ask. What’s the best or the worst that could happen?

I realize that everyone’s concept and everyone’s experience of God are different, and that our stories could be questioned or refuted even or especially by other people of faith. So, on the one hand, those things might be better kept to ourselves. On the other hand, discernment requires a community of people of faith — even if it’s a trusted friend or two who can challenge what we think we know, or affirm it.

My point is, there are a lot of people in this world who have mental issues (probably most), and some who may hear voices, and may think they’re hearing God telling them to do things. There is also a lot of bad and damaging theology out there that propagates an unhealthy concept of a wrathful God who delights in retribution. If those people who sell that unhealthy concept would do God a favor, instead of themselves with their crowd-pleasing rhetoric(*), there would be all sorts of benefits to society and the rest of Creation (including animals, of course). In other words, they should stop selling “hate speech” wrapped in a poor Christian veneer.

(* I’m reminded of the charismatic preacher who had a megachurch in Oklahoma City(?) and lots of money, who lost it all when he started preaching good news, instead of hell-based theology. He acted on faith — maybe the most authentic transformation of his career — and paid a huge price. His megahoard didn’t want to hear any good news about God. They wanted the sideshow. The story had a happy ending, most memorably, two events by people who heard his story: being invited to speak at a GLBT church in San Francisco, where the lesbian pastor washed his feet, and then was also invited by an Episcopal church in his city, to use their facilities for worship services for the couple hundred of congregants that didn’t leave when his megachurch bit the dust.)

I could go in so many directions with this. But I want to go back to people who hear voices, or believe that God is giving them ideas to do things, and the need to differentiate or discern what’s of God and what isn’t. Joan of Arc was an example. And interestingly, The Episcopal Church added her day to Lesser Feasts and Fasts a few years ago. They didn’t necessarily buy into whether or not she actually heard God’s voice. But they did feel that she was a good example of someone who acted on faith with courage. And honestly, right or wrong, her story was pretty amazing. (I may try to find an article I found about that sometime.) One of my favorite TV shows from a few years ago was “Joan of Arcadia”.

But for people with the type of mental illness that causes them to hear voices, and think God’s telling them to do this or that — usually harmful things — a theological shift among preachers and religious teachers who “sell hell” for fame and profit could actually save lives. In other words, if an inner voice that compels a mentally ill person to do something horrible wasn’t believed to be God, maybe even the person hearing the voice would be able to differentiate, and not act on whatever they hear — thus acting on faith instead of delusion by not acting out.

How does one discern between acting on faith or acting on delusion?

I’m reminded again of this quote, which at this moment pertains to both people who speak, and people who hear….

[If things go well within my lifetime, I will "come out" at my funeral with an experience I had during a Saturday morning Eucharist on 10/23/98. If my life turns out to be a futile waste of time and energy, I won't. Hint: It was a "St. Francis event" that happened sometime between the Thanksgiving prayer and Dismissal, which at that time had nothing to do with animals. If it was of God and not delusion, I have reason to believe that things will go well. And a lot of good things have happened in recent years, even though I'm never satisfied with the way things are.]

First, I just downloaded my latest pictures. The first one was taken yesterday morning, when I stuck the thermometer in the top of the pile, and it reached its max of 120 degrees.

I filled a garbage can with the chips & leaves, which reached 90 degrees. I don’t know if it’s enough to generate heat in the hoop house, but couldn’t hurt. Here’s a picture that includes the straw and a few plants.

I’m getting better at making pizza from scratch. One improvement (in the opinion of my personal taste buds) is that I used regular unbleached all purpose flour, instead of whole wheat. I used this recipe. But instead of spreading it out the way I did last time, I didn’t quite toss it, but I did stretch it out and kind of shaped it in the air, with the help of gravity. It turned out well. Also, I still don’t know if the spinach would burn if I just put raw spinach on top. So I thought I should at least mix it in with the sauce. And instead of just spooning out the sauce, I arranged spinach leaves first, to be sure it was pretty well covered. Here are before and after pictures.

I’m glad I was at church today for the St. Francis Day Blessing of the Animals service. And I’m glad I brought my dog and cat, since only one other lady brought her dog. It was a good liturgy, and a good sermon. More details later.

Before coming in for the evening today, I worked (in a slow and leisurely way) on the new beds on the east end of the north lot. I started to mark beds and paths. But I have to cover the grass before I continue further. I don’t mind using cardboard under the paths. But I’d prefer to use paper under the beds, especially in case I decide to plant any trees there this fall.

I took these pictures around 6:40 p.m. tonight, just before it got too dark outside. After one day, the pile of chipped branches and leaves is up to 100 degrees close to the top. I didn’t let the thermometer stay in there long enough to see if it would rise further. And I don’t know how hot it is deeper down in the pile. But I definitely think hot composting could be a way to keep a hoop house warm in winter, when it’s (at least) 50 degrees warmer than the air temperature.

Pile of leaves and wood chips (I wasn’t expecting this to happen at all, or trying to make it happen. I was just trying to keep my mulch pile relatively dry until I could finish spreading it. Now I’m really sold on hot composting! Now I’m looking forward to my trees dropping their leaves!)

Cooling back down to the outside air temperature of 50 degrees.

I want to mention that the thermometer read “50″ when I originally took it out of the hoop house. So I guess except when the sun is shining, it doesn’t hold heat well.

Now I’m tempted to see what the temperatures are in my actual compost bins.

If I was a bunny or a chipmunk on a cold rainy night, I’d be cuddling up to the warm pile, or burrowing in, under the tarp.