July 30, 2007: Today I baked two loaves of Pilgrim's Bread (recipe below) as we're on our last store-bought loaf. It turned out delicious!

We are running out of toilet paper. My family won't go for the water and air-dry method, so I'll have to go to the store soon. Although it's just occured to me that I can do the water and air-dry thing.

My husband, Sean, took us all out to supper at my favorite restaurant for my 40th birthday! It was great but I ate too much!

July 31, 2007: I still didn't want to make a trip to Sam's Club for toilet paper, which would result in me buying lots of food, too. So today during Shannon's ballet class I walked to Family Dollar and bought a bunch of TP and a container of Epsom Salts--total of $7.56. I tried the water and air-dry method, but it failed miserably and is wasteful of water. So instead I'm just trying to use less TP and be frugal.

I've noticed a neighbor who seems to be ignoring the apples ripening on his tree, so I'm going to ask permission to harvest and share the apples, especially as we're out of fresh fruit.

For supper I picked an onion from the garden and a few small tomatoes to go with our ham, polenta and veggies. I printed out the sourdough bread recipe from No Impact Man.

PILGRIM'S BREAD (from The More-with-Less Cookbook)

Combine in a bowl: 1/2 c. cornmeal, 1/3 c. brown sugar, 1 T. salt. Gradually stir in 2 c. boiling water. Add 1/4 c. oil. Cook to lukewarm. Dissolve 2 pkg. dry yeast in 1/2 c. warm water and let sit till it's foamy. Add yeast to cornmeal mixture when it is lukewarm. Beat in 3/4 c. whole wheat flour and 1/2 c. rye flour. By hand, stir in 4-1/4 to 4-1/2 c. unbleached white flour. Turn onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double. Punch dough down; turn out onto lightly floured surface. Divide in half and knead a second time for 3 minutes. Shape dough into 2 loaves and place in greased pans. Cover and let rise again in a warm place until double in bulk. Bake at 375 degrees about 45 minutes.