Canfield of Dreams

Snow in Jersey

Sue L Canfield — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:53:15 +0000

We had our first stick-to-the-ground snow here in Blackwood New Jersey the other day. Of course it all melted by lunchtime. Fiona was excited anyhow.

We’ve all suffered from terrible colds: sneezing, coughing, aches, fevers, yuck, yuck, yuck! I think we’re almost all well. I hope we can get out this weekend and enjoy the sunshine and feel better.

It’s different now that we’re settled into a place for a bit. There’s the everyday work of making a living, cleaning up around the house, making new friends.

I’m glad we have a chance to be in one place for a bit. I’m not sure this is home permanently. Once spring comes we’ll have a better idea of where we want to settle longer-term. Or maybe we’ll do a bit more traveling. Hard to tell right now.

So I’ll just enjoy today – a beautiful, sunny day!

What Is Your Source of Income?

Sue L Canfield — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 18:47:47 +0000

Families who want to travel or are traveling often get asked this question. We have multiple streams of income and the one that’s been around the longest is Spinhead Web Design.

In paradoxical leap worthy of Dr. Who, the Spinhead website has reverted to our design from September of 2002, based on Joel’s favorite Dr. Seuss book I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew.

Paradoxical, because Joel has completely updated the 10-year-old code, and converted it to a WordPress theme, making it about as up-to-date as you can get.

Maybe you don’t want to go back to the future—but is it time your website at least joined us in the present?

Open Mic Night at Jersey Java & Tea

Sue L Canfield — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 21:15:20 +0000

When our friend Dorothy found out where we were staying in New Jersey, she told us to look up her friend Mary of Jersey Java & Tea. We did and met Mary in person a couple of weeks ago. Jersey Java & Tea hold open mic nights the first and third Fridays of every month. They also book musicians to play sets. Mary booked Joel to play a two-hour set on December 3, 2011 from 7 – 9 pm. So come on down if you’re in the area. The address is 140 North Haddon Ave, Haddonfield, NJ.

Last night Joel attended the open mic and played three of his songs: The Hillside, It’s Cold Out There and Like the Sea. He plans to play their next open mic as well on December 2 at 7 pm. We hope you can join us!

Celebrating with Co-Authors Shanna Mann (Why We Lead) and Rick Wilson (Hits or Niches)

Sue L Canfield — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 22:21:07 +0000

Months of working frantically to write six books simulataneously with two different co-authors culminated in celebration on 11/11/11.

Rick Wilson and his wife and younger daughter, Shanna Mann and her friends (including Debs from New York), and our family gathered at London Grill in Philadelphia to celebrate getting six books published in six months. Rick and Joel co-authored Hits or Niches: Why Marketing is Boring, Obnoxious & Annoying, & What You Can Do About It. Shanna and Joel co-authored Why We Lead: Conversations on the Scarcity of Confidence and the Nature of Leadership. Joel’s other four books just released are:

Through the Fog – An Irish Mystery Novel (fiction)
Permission Granted: Create Something Remarkable. Start Now.
The Time is Now 11:59 – Heretical Thinking for Tomorrow’s Business
Getting Your Book Out of the Someday Box – Because You Know You Want to Write a Book

Joining us were fans from the area and New York. Thank you to all who joined us in celebration, including:

Joel and Cheryl
Craig and Katherine
Rosemary
Ashley
Debs
Chris
Connie Herman
Jodi Kaplan (fellow Triiibes member)
and all the rest!

Thank you to Ryan and the crew at London Grill for your great service and hospitality! We enjoyed a nice dinner, fun drinks and interesting desserts.

For all you bacon lovers, Joel enjoyed the Candied Bacon Ice Cream on your behalf!

Books were autographed for anyone in attendance and those who pre-ordered. We’ll be shipping books out to those who couldn’t make it in person.

On display as well were copies of client’s books that Someday Box had a hand in helping finish. Fred’s Abduction by author Pegleg Terry is a favorite of Fiona’s.

To all of you who wanted to come and just couldn’t make it, we missed you! If you’d still like to get an autographed copy of one or all of the books, send us an email using our contact form and we’ll see what we can arrange.

The Journey Begins Anew Today

Sue L Canfield — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 19:25:27 +0000

The journey of life begins anew today for our family. Our son, James Ashman, is joining us from California. He’s driving clear across the country all by himself. So of course I’m a bit concerned. But he’s a lot like me and I know he’ll take care and plan well and arrive safe. He’s looking forward to helping us in our businesses and getting back to writing his fiction. He also hopes to have a significantly enhanced amount of joy. Now that’s a tall order. Hope we can live up to it!

It’s also the end of a journey – a journey that took 6 months. That’s right. It took 6 months for Joel to publish 6 books. That’s not the end of writing and publishing books though. The next one is in the works and we’re working with an author currently to get his new book edited, formatted and published.

We’re celebrating tonight in Philadelphia with friends and two co-authors, Shanna Mann and Rick Wilson. If you’re in the area, come join us!

Wonder where the journey will take us in the new year?

Living in Blackwood New Jersey for the Winter

Sue L Canfield — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 11:33:54 +0000

Yep, we’re living in Blackwood New Jersey for the winter. Technically the physical address we’re living at is in Turnersville. But our mailing address is Blackwood. Our son James is coming out in a week or so to stay with us as well. We’ll stay through February at least. Unless something drastic happens to change it all. Which in our lives, you just never know. But for now we’re here, making it home and want to share ‘home’ with you.

We’ve been enjoying some very nice weather. Though the temperatures are cold at times, it’s been very sunny. And I like sunshine! There was a bit of fog this morning; it burned off fairly quickly.

Blackwood Rail Trail Caboose

We’re in Gloucester Township, near Blackwood Lake. The Blackwood Rail Trail Caboose is here and you walk down a path and over a bridge. It’s beautiful!

We still hope while living on the East coast this winter to get to travel to some various spots – New York, see the Atlantic ocean, maybe pop over to Delaware. Stay tuned!

Broiled, Not Baked – When the Oven Thermostat Doesn’t Work

Sue L Canfield — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 20:55:28 +0000

If you know anything about the Canfield family, you know we love to make our own bread, daily if at all possible, and eat it warm fresh out of the oven. The home we’re staying in right now doesn’t have a working oven. The broiler works but not the thermostat. We’re all waiting on more income so we can afford to replace the thermostat. So we can’t bake bread the way we are usually do. Today we decided we had to have some home made, fresh-from-the-oven bread.

I did a Google search and read up on what some others have done when their oven didn’t work and they just had a broiler. Joel and I then experimented to see what we could do.

Here’s the result!

Top and bottom of broiled bread

Does it taste as good as it looks? You bet! The top got a bit crustier than we like and the inside was a bit softer. Fiona came back for more and said, “you make good bread!” Half the loaf was gone in less than 30 minutes. We’re trying to save the rest for tomorrow’s lunch. We’ll have to go out tomorrow and buy some flour and yeast so we can make more now.

So how did we do it?

We turned the broiler on and let the oven heat up. We put the dough on our baking stone and placed the stone on the lowest rack, moved to the lowest position. After 6 minutes, we turned the broiler off and let the bread sit in the oven 12 minutes or so. Then another 12 minutes. Turn the broiler back on for a few minutes; turn the bread over. Turn off the oven and let it all sit some more.

Next time we’re going to try it a bit different. We’ll put the bread in with the broiler on for 6 minutes, then turn it off and let it all sit another 15-20 minutes without opening the door. A delicate balance between getting the bread baked and not letting it burn. We’ll let you know how it turns out.

If you have a working oven, try our bread recipe below and let us know how it goes. If you try broiling your bread, we’d love to hear about that as well!

Homemade Baked Bread Recipe

3/4 cup hot water
3/4 cup cool water
Combine

Add 1 tbsp. sugar and 1-1/8 tsp salt. Dissolve and mix thoroughly. Add 1-1/2 tspn. yeast and let set for 5-10 minutes.

Add 2 cups bread flour and 1-1/2 cups wheat flour. Add any spices or herbs you may want. Combine thoroughly.

Let rise for 1 hour. Punch down. Shape. Let rise another hour.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

South New Jersey in the Fall is Beautiful

Sue L Canfield — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:27:24 +0000

We’ve been in South New Jersey for nearly three weeks now. You probably thought we fell off the face of the earth since we haven’t posted much here lately. No, we didn’t. We’re alive, and even well!

Let me first say that we’re enjoying the beautiful fall weather. Seeing all the different colors in trees everywhere is spectacular! I love that even when it’s cold, there’s usually sunshine. And it’s a nice 55 degrees right now at 5 pm.

So what is going on with us?

In August while we were house sitting for Rita and Carl again in Colorado, we were contacted about coming to New Jersey to house sit for several months. It seemed like this would be a good opportunity for us and arranged to make our way out here. In the meantime we also arranged for the Big Book Release Party on November 11, 2011 in Philadelphia.

As soon as we arrived we realized we wouldn’t be able to stay at this assignment. Joel immediately had very bad allergic reactions to what we believe is some sort of hidden molds in the home. We’ve been told by several locals that this particular area has had mold problems due to flooding. Within a few days Fiona also started having symptoms. We knew we had to make other housing arrangements immediately. And it had to be in this area since the book release party was coming up soon.

Someone in our local Bible Study group was able to loan us an air purification unit for a week or so to help alleviate the symptoms until we could find other accommodations. Within 10 days one of our new friends in the Study group had contacted one of their friends who had some extra rooms available. We talked with them and explained that we needed a place to stay immediately and that if possible, we’d like to work something out to rent their rooms for a while.

So now we’re staying with Cheryl and Joel. Yep, there are two Joel’s in the household! They are wonderful people and it looks like we’ll be with them for a bit.

To add to the fun, we had already invited our son James out to stay with us and join us in the business. We’re working out all the details but he’ll be joining us shortly. We do have a mailing address in New Jersey now. So if you’d like to send us a letter, just contact us and we’ll send that address along!

That’s the latest! We hope to travel to various spots here on the East coast while we’re in this area. So watch for more…

Gearing Up for the Big Party

Sue L Canfield — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:22:13 +0000

It’s been heads down so we can gear up for the big book release party November 11, 2011 in Philadelphia. The venue has been confirmed. Everyone in the area is invited to join us!

When:
Friday, November 11, 2011
6:00 pm to 10:00 pm

Where:
London Grill
2301 Fairmount Avenue
Philadelphia, PA

Check out the event on Facebook!

Columbus Public Library Stop Before Canfield Ohio

Sue L Canfield — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 17:20:05 +0000

We’re at the Columbus Metropolitan Library. The children’s section is great! Fiona is having a blast. We were able to obtain a guest pass to use the wireless for internet access.

Now we just need to find a place to stay overnight before landing in Philadelphia on Saturday. It ends up that so far none of our CouchSurfing.org requests have worked out. For now we’ve decided to head for Canfield Ohio and see what happens. If nothing else we will have visited a town with our last name.

We’re nomads! We can do this!