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June 06, 2006

Devil's day, my ass

Well. I made the silly mistake of letting the crazy fundamentalist wingnuts (you know, the ones who have been having their babies induced all week to avoid going into labour on June 6th, thus running the risk of giving birth to the anti-you-know-who) get me all excited, and I was expecting at the very least a little fire and brimstone today. I suppose the day is still young, and perhaps it takes a while to get all that brimstone warmed up to where it starts giving off the acrid fumes of hell, but jeez. So far the only bad thing that's happened is that I hit my head on our new car. And really, I don't think the devil can be blamed for that one, because I also hit my head on the fridge yesterday, on a perfectly ordinary nothing-to-do-with-the-devil day.

So. Our van died on the 401 on Sunday (for a super-boring little photo essay go here. And remember that there's not all that much to take pictures of on the side of the highway). We were planning to replace it at the end of this month, after Peter gets his pay raise, but after more than four years of fairly solid service and several trips to Georgia and back, Pennsylvania and back, D.C. and back, plus to London and back every other weekend. . . the bugger pooped out on us four weeks too soon. So yesterday we bought a car, and picked it up this morning. As with the house, once we'd made a decision (or, had a decision made for us) we just went ahead and bought the first car we looked at.

And it's mauve, for Project Spectrum! Yes, I know June is for blue. But we weren't supposed to buy the car until July, see?

Since we had the van towed to our driveway and it's still sitting there taking up space, I had to cut some branches off of the mulberry tree out back in order to gain access to the second of our three parking spots (our little parking lot is two-thirds overgrown; the third parking spot is home to a large pile of topsoil that's been there for a year and has sprouted all manner of weeds). And because I can't let all of that good fibre go to waste, it's time for a papermaking lesson. Whee! Hold onto your pee, because this is going to be exciting.

First, cut some branches off a mulberry tree. Chop off all the leaves and underripe berries and crap, and cut them into manageable lengths of about ten inches or so. Bundle them all up with twine.

Place the bundle on end in a colander inside a big pot. I use a 20-qt stainless stock pot and an old dollar store colander; I put a canning rack in underneath the colander to keep it off the bottom, but if you use a metal colander instead of a plastic one you won't need the rack.

Turn another big pot upside-down on top of the bundle to hold in the steam; it should fit fairly well against the other pot. I use my biggest canning kettle for this.

Bring the water to a boil and let the branches steam for ten or twenty minutes, then turn off the heat and let it cool. When the wood is cool enough to touch, take it outside with a knife and a plastic bag and maybe a cup of tea or a gin and tonic, because the next step is a long, slow one.

Peel off a strip of bark and then, placing your knife between the woody outer layer and the creamy, filmy-fibred inner layer of the bark strip, separate the two. Sometimes it will peel apart for you and sometimes you'll have to use your knife to scrape the outer bark off. Don't worry about perfection because you'll still have to boil it before you beat the fibres, and any organic material that's still clinging to the cellulose will separate out then. Toss the creamy stuff into your plastic bag and throw the rest into the compost pile. Use the sticks to whittle quaint little dolls and whistles for the neighbour children, or bundle them again and put them out for pickup.

Steam small batches at a time because the peeling really takes a while, and if you don't get it all apart in one sitting it will harden up again.

That's it, kids! Peeling all this bark apart ought to keep you busy until August, when I'll have access to a hollander beater again, and then I'll show you how to make beautiful paper out of this stuff.

*ps, to Pete: don't worry. I only cut down enough to steam one batch and the rest of the branches are bundled for pickup; there won't be any piles of neglected mulberry branches clogging up the backyard this year, I promise! I tried to clog the backyard with piles but the weeds are all so big that I couldn't find a spot to put them.

Posted by jodi at June 6, 2006 03:31 PM | categories:  projects

Comments

Posted by: anne at June 6, 2006 04:21 PM

Posted by: Sandy at June 6, 2006 04:28 PM

Posted by: peter at June 6, 2006 05:04 PM

Posted by: korin at June 6, 2006 08:48 PM

Posted by: Erin at June 6, 2006 08:55 PM