It was a nice and warm day. I appreciate this nice warm weather with clear blue sky. I really love living in Arizona.

My late dad-in-law was in my dream. My family were there with me. We were in the mountain. My dad-in-law was riding a horseback. He was all smiling and having fun. He looked like a small child just enjoying the now moment. I enjoyed staying with him in dream this morning.

For the past three days, I have been suffering from shingles on my lower back and sciatica on my right leg. I don’t know which one came first or which one triggered the other. I could walk and run, but the pain have been there day and night.

Here are the methods I took.

The first method was to take homeopathy remedies.

Rhus Tox

Mezereum

Herpes Zoster

Magnesium Phosphoricum

Hypericum

Kali phosphoricum

The second method was to keep the painful area warm with a Japanese hot bottle (Yutampo).

The third method was to wear loose cotton pants instead of tight jeans.

Today is the day-4. I am glad that all the pains are completely gone.

We have two pigeons’ visit every day. They have their favorite spot where they always sit together for a long time. The area is above the laundry hanging station. I don’t like them poop around the hanging clothes area. I have tried some peaceful ways to discourage them to come back to the place but they always come back. Hanging some DVDs was helpful for two to three days, but they got used to the shining light and came back. Putting a cup of vinegar was also helpful for a couple of days, but when it dried up, they came back. I put some mothballs but this method was not helpful at all. They came back on the first day when I put mothballs. They peacefully sit at their favorite place while I am writing this. I wonder how I can discourage them to come back to the area. Luckily for us, I never saw their making a nest or eggs at the place.

I made homemade miso with my homemade kome koji that I recently made.

I used the following ingredients.

Homemade brown rice koji 600 gram

Soy beans of 600 gram

Sea salt 300 gram

I soaked soy beans for 24 hours and steamed it for 50 minutes. I mixed brown rice koji and sea salt and let it sit for one hour. Then I mixed all the ingredient and stored it in glass containers that was sanitized with boiling hot water. I will keep it in the refrigerator for one year. I really hope it will turn out well.

It was the last day of air show. Their air show had lasted for two weeks. I know some people enjoyed watching the practice and how. The sound was really loud. I personally didn’t enjoy the airplane’s loud noise everyday for two weeks. I am happy that their show is done today. My friend told me they will come back again next year though. Other than the loud noise, my day went well; peaceful and relaxing.

It is Day-3 of my homemade koji. In the morning when I woke up I noticed the smell of natto. My husband and daughter noticed the natto smell too. I remember my mistake that I made yesterday. Yesterday I ate natto for lunch. I opened natto box right next to the bread maker and mixed it well. I thought it would be fine because the bread maker was closed. But obviously my koji was affected by natto.

I was not sure what should I do next. I didn’t want to trash my first trial of koji. I had two options. One is to consume the first trial koji to make amazake. The other option is to make homemade miso. I decided to take the latter option.

I let the homemade koji sit in the room temperature all day and put it in the refrigerator at night to rest.

It is Day-2 of my homemade koji. In the morning I took out rice from the bread maker and checked the temperature. It was 45 Centigrade that was within the good temperature range. The rice was slightly covered by white and smelled good. I will keep it for another 24 hours and let it keep fermenting.

Last year, due to the pandemic, I was not able to buy any kome-koji from Japan. Without koji, I could not make homemade miso. I still have some homemade miso that was made in 2020. It will stay for another three months or so. I really wanted to make homemade miso.

Today I had engaged almost all day in making kome-koji. I did some research on the recipe. This is the procedure I took.

Last night at 7 p.m., I washed brown rice (600 gram) and started soaking in water.

At 7 p.m. today, after the brown rice being soaked for 24 hours, I steamed it for 50 minutes.

I put the rice on tray that was sanitized by boiling hot water and let it cool off until the temperature turned to 45 Centigrade. I mixed Koji starter (5 gram) with the rice thoroughly. Then I put it in the bread maker and set the menu as ferment. I hope it will turn out well.

It was nice and hot day. I enjoyed hanging laundry and blankets out in the sun.

***

Followed by my computer mouse showing an issue in the left click, now my small heater’s switch knob broke. The heater itself works normally. It is just the turning knob.

I remember I purchased these items in 2011. They have worked for more than 10 years. I hope I will be able to fix them somehow, so that I can keep using them for more years.