sastyk | February 13, 2014The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption has done more to get kids in care adopted than just about anyone else - their facebook page and websites have done a lot to draw attention to the needs of kids for families. The biggest new face of foster adoption comes from an adoptive family that put up an image that has their adorable little girl holding up a sign saying "I was in Foster Care for 751 Days But Today I got Adopted!" The image has been liked almost a million times, and the site's FB page crashed because it was viewed so often. 11,000 people requested information on foster care…
sastyk | February 4, 2014We had a fence crisis this summer, and for two days had no good containment for our bucks. As is entirely predictable, we also then had a spate of baby goats beginning New Years Day.
Now there is a good reason why most people in the Northeast do not plan goat births for January unless they have heated barns - the week the babies were born involved extreme cold - we had -28F here one night, and weeks where we rarely left the single digits. And to our sorrow, we did lose three babies, but the majority of them (10 so far) survived in our unheated and not very tightly sealed barn, and are doing…
sastyk | February 4, 2014<I wrote this several years ago as a joke piece for a foster parent group I was on, and I've decided to publish it in case any of you enjoy it. One of the harsher realities of having 9 kids is that it does cut into your private time, but even more, the psychological heft of foster parenting messes up relationships. At the same time you desperately need time for one another and restore yourself, you also spend a lot of it obsessing about court dates and outcomes and therapies and meeting your children's needs. It can be tough to find both mental and physical space for one another - and…
sastyk | February 4, 2014Yesterday morning Isaiah (10) asked me with a grin on his face: "Which one of us is your FAVORITE child?"
My answer "None of you. I like Rubeus best. He's quiet, and soft, never talks to me, and takes care of almost all his own needs."
D. (11) "But he's not a kid, he's a cat."
Me: "Shhh...you'll make him feel bad. He's my baby too."
D. "But you aren't a cat and you didn't give birth to him."
Me: "I didn't give birth to you either, and just because you don't look like me doesn't make you not my baby. We don't discriminate in this family on the grounds of fuzzy ears and paws either."
D. "He's…
sastyk | January 9, 2014...on a sticky, sweaty afternoon in July, I received a call from the head of homefinding from my local county social services agency. These are the folks whose job it is to find homes for kids who come into foster care. A two-day old newborn boy was being removed from the hospital, because of mental health issues in his mother. "I know you didn't even want a baby, but it is only for two weeks. Can you pick him up by 4pm?" (It was 2pm already)
Earlier that day I had emailed another worker to say that we were ready to take another placement. Two boys, K. (8) and C. (7) had been with us for…
sastyk | November 18, 2013In the last few years, a number of political leaders have tried to live on a food stamps budget. Among others Newark Mayor and political heir-apparent Cory Booker and current and former governors of Colorado and Oregon. Some have done so to draw attention to the limitations of food stamps, others with the intent of proving that their benefit is sufficient. A number of writers have done so too, as have celebrity chefs and others. A number of people have asked me to do it as well, and I've always refused.
This isn't because I don't think I can - it is because frankly, I know for a fact that…
sastyk | November 15, 2013My family looks pretty different, and it gets a lot of attention. The vast majority is positive, and most of the rest is just curious or wondering - but every now and then someone says something REALLY stupid, unkind or offensive. A lot of the time, if the kids don't hear it, I let it go. If they say it in front of the kids, I sometimes take them to task. And sometimes, I give free rein to my sarcastic side.
(Note, some of these questions are not, in and of themselves, that offensive, and so don't worry if you've asked them. It is HOW people ask them - in front of the kids, loudly,…
sastyk | November 15, 2013It is only on really stressful days when I refer to them as my unholy army of the night. The rest of the time, at least at meals, it is just "my army" and we really do go through a stunning amount of food.
For example, in late August, right around the time this photo was taken (I can't usually post pictures of my kids, but this one, with no faces visible is ok - from left, R., Q., Z., and K., our four little ones who at the time ranged from 13 months to 3 1/2), I counted - we went through four large watermelons, 20lbs of peaches, 10lbs of apples, 6 quarts of plums, 4…
sastyk | October 24, 2013A reader sends me a letter and gives me permission to reprint it here, because I suspect he's not the only one with this question:
"I think what you are doing with your family is great, but I feel like you've moved away from peak oil and climate change to write about foster care, and I don't see a connection. I feel bad saying it, but I miss the old stuff. Is there a connection I'm not seeing?"
In some measure this is just a fair cop, in that my subject matter HAS changed as I've spent more time working on issues of families in crisis. It isn't that I don't have things to say about peak…
sastyk | October 24, 2013The fall cool-down has come here, and it is time for soup. My kids' current favorite is Portugese style Chick-pea, Garlic, Potato and Sausage, although they liked the vegetarian lentil version I made yesterday when we were out of chicken broth, chick peas and sausage ;-).
It is a simple soup - I'll give it to you in smaller quantities than we make for our 10 person home. Sautee 3 onions and two heads (yes, that's heads) of garlic until softened. Add sliced up sausage and cook ( a small amount is fine, for flavor, or you can add more) until browned, add rosemary and smoked spanish paprika (…
sastyk | October 17, 2013If you want to know what we've been doing these last few months, read the next post down. But suffice it to say that nothing on our farm has really had the time and attention it deserves. And since we're legally not permitted to feed our goat or cow's milk to any of our foster children (yes, no matter how we pasteurize it, we are still prohibited), we've decided that right this moment, we need fewer dairy animals. Which is really great for you - I have a number of really lovely does from our herd (and some wethers if you are looking for a pet or brush clearing, and a nice buck as well)…
sastyk | October 17, 2013In my last post, more than four months ago (oy, that's bad!), we had just acquired four new children, 11, 3, 3, and 16 months, and were settling in and getting adjusted. And then I didn't blog all summer. Or for most of the first month of autumn. A few people wondered whether I was eaten by a Yeti or had gone entirely feral. Neither is true (that I know of - I'd probably have noticed the Yeti thing.) It just turned out that going to nine kids, four of them 3 and under, several with major disabilities, pushed my limits a little. Or a lot. We pulled it off. We settled in, we did it, but…
sastyk | June 3, 2013So it has been an embarassingly long time since I last wrote anything for this blog. Long enough that I owe you all an apology. It started out simply enough - I did something I've done a million times, picked up a full water bucket for our cow. Not sure what I did differently, but I did something nasty to my elbow - my right elbow. I've had carpal tunnel syndrome for years from too much time writing books, and as long as I'm careful about not overdoing it, I can write, but this made it a lot harder and more painful. It also meant that when I did wedge my arm into a comfortable position…
sastyk | May 6, 2013In 2008, before the revolution, the Egyptian Government set a portion of its Army to baking bread for hungry citizens, precisely to forestall revolution. Now, after revolution, it isn't clear who will provide the bread for its hungry and angry populace:
Around a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line, with another 20 percent hovering just above it. And while there are no statistics for the period 2012/2013, indications are that malnutrition rates of around 30 percent are also on the increase, he said.
Poverty and malnutrition has visible and long-term effects, he added.
“…
sastyk | May 6, 2013Fast food sales now outnumber sit-down restaurant food sales in the home of gastronomy:
More than half of all French restaurant sales now take place, sacrilegiously, at fast food chains, according to a new survey by food consultancy firm Gira Conseil.
This is the first time fast food sales have surpassed sit-down restaurant sales in France — you know, the the country that gave us cafes, bistros and the Michelin star. It also makes France the world’s second-biggest consumer of fast food, NPR reports, with 1,200 McDonalds franchises alone.
That number is only growing (much, it must be said,…
sastyk | May 6, 2013From the Guardian:
New research suggests that the Arctic summer sea ice loss is linked to extreme weather. Rutgers University climate scientist Jennifer Francispoints to the phenomenon of "Arctic amplification", where:
"The loss of Arctic summer sea ice and the rapid warming of the Far North are altering the jet stream over North America, Europe, and Russia. Scientists are now just beginning to understand how these profound shifts may be increasing the likelihood of more persistent and extreme weather."
Extreme weather events over the last few years apparently driven by the accelerating…
sastyk | April 26, 2013You get tiny, unexpected tastes of the world perfected in a lot of places, if you watch. I got it last week at my son Eli's bar mitzvah (which I'll write more about shortly). Naomi Shahib Nye got it in the place most of us feel as far from the world we want as possible - at her flight gate, waiting after a delay had been announced:
And I noticed my new best friend—by now we were holding hands—
Had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing,
With green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling tradition. Always
Carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.
And I looked…
sastyk | April 24, 2013There's a great interview with Chris Nelder on why oil triumphalism is mistaken, and what that means for a whole host of things, including oil prices:
P: Now what about prices? We’ve seen oil prices soar from around $40 per barrel in 2004 to $140 per barrel in 2008. And nowadays, prices in the $100 range are pretty much normal.
CN: One of the implications of peak oil is that as production starts to falter, we need much higher prices in order to sustain production. And that’s exactly what’s happened since 2005.
Another implication is that the economy would be unable to tolerate those high…
sastyk | April 24, 2013I'm working slowly on laid hedges around portions of our property, and did a little more this winter. One of these days I'l have old fashioned hedges that are truly livestock tight and wildlife friendly.
Check it out!
sastyk | April 24, 2013Rod Dreher has an interesting post (building on a NYTimes article) about the glories of the art of confiture and why the obsessive creation of food-as-art is worth doing:
When I went to Paris a year ago with my niece Hannah, I brought back some confiture by Christine Ferber. She makes some of the most prized jellies and jams in all of France. They’re expensive; those little jars you see above, which I brought back from that trip, cost about $9 or $10 each at the exchange rate back then. But oh, so very worth it. It’s hard to describe the intensity of Ferber’s confitures, which are difficult…