Just a Quick Update

Over the past few months, things have changed a bit on the home front.

Starting in late August, Peter began traveling for work.  In this economy, it's almost impossible for an older person to find full time professional work; even with a practical career like his (he's a mechanical engineer with a biomedical focus), Peter was striking out until he decided to begin looking at the short-term, remote jobs his head-hunters were sending him.  This style of work agrees with him; he enjoys the variety and the travel. To date, his jobs have taken him to Dallas, LA, and now Ann Arbor, Michigan.  I've seen him a few times since then, but his brief stays at home aren't the same as our previous team approach used to be.  It's an adjustment for us both.  I'm expecting him home in a day or two (hurray!) before he begins the Michigan job. I look forward to curling up around him, and falling asleep feeling his warmth again.  There's nothing more comforting to me. Except foot rubs.  Love those foot rubs.

It's been an awakening, in many ways.  While I'm perfectly capable of living a solitary life, I'm reminded of why I searched for him in the first place.  It's awfully nice to have someone to share things with on a daily basis (both the good and bad).  Someone like him.

The week before Thanksgiving, I had a much needed joint replacement in the base of my right thumb.  This rendered me left-handed (not my usual dominant hand) for a few months.  It was impossible to lift heavy objects, do buttons, put on certain clothes items, open cans; you get the drift.  And teaching art was interesting; I believe it made me more sensitive to the challenges faced by beginning artists.  Using my left hand instead of my right to draw, paint, and sculpt put us all on a level playing field in terms of skills.  It was good for me to feel that again.  I managed to get through those months, and have emerged one small bone lighter, and immensely more comfortable than I was just a few months ago.  My thumb joint was so deteriorated that it had been giving me constant pain.  That's gone now, and I'm ready for spring kidding season at the farm.  Just in the nick of time, as the does are scheduled to drop their kids in about 2 weeks. I LOVE this time of year!

My mother, who is 85, has accepted my invitation to come and live with us.  To make our little home more functional for her, I had a full bathroom built on the first floor.  The construction took about two weeks, which happened right at the end of the first semester, and into the first day or two of the second semester.  Life was chaos for awhile, but it paid off: the bathroom is beautiful.  I want to live in it.  Just around that time, my administrator let me know that I'll be moving to a different classroom next year, which means boxing and moving17 years worth of art materials and examples.  It also means losing a grant I won to develop the outdoor area by my current classroom.  We have lost one art position because of retirement; I won't go on about all of this, as it contradicts my self-imposed ban of blogging about school, but you can imagine the consternation this is causing me when compounded by the disturbances on the home front. (Just these few sentences have made my heart pound).  I've actually considered seeking a counselor to get me over this bump.

Goats make good counselors. They're good listeners.

I try to turn my thoughts to the spring when I'm feeling helpless.  I've purchased several packets of seeds, and hope to start some carrots and lettuces today.  There's nothing like a tender, newly growing vegetable to give you hope for the future; that is, nothing except a tender, newly born goat kid!  And they'll be coming soon. I'm holding on to that thought.

Lettuce give thanks for Spring.

And so, we move on.  Some things change, and some stay the same.  It's a dance, this life I'm living.  The tempo has changed slightly, but I'll pick up the beat.  It's just a matter of time.

Independence (Fri) Day (a Few Hours Early)

Please head on over to The Chatelaine's Keys to see a full description of this project! 

Here are our categories: 

Plant something:

Harvest something:

Preserve something:

Waste not:

Want Not:

Eat the Food:

Build community food systems:

Skill up:  

Plant something:

         I can honestly say that the only seeds I planted this week were the seeds of curiosity in my students’ minds.  Hopefully, they’ll flourish!  Our ground is frozen one day, then muddy the next right now, though I have been considering starting a cold frame of lettuce since it has been a mild winter here in Pennsylvania.  It’s been a busy week; the end of semester one coincided with the end of my new bathroom construction; the new semester started on the last day the workmen were in my home.  I look forward to this weekend to reorganize my first floor; my classes are nicely reorganized already!  First things first!

Color Theory

Bathroom Theory

Harvest something:

         I DID harvest something!  The miracle tree in front of my farmer-friend’s house put out a nice bloom of oyster mushrooms!  I even had enough to share with a friend or two!  Yummy fresh mushrooms in late January…awesome!  I was too excited to take a picture, so I pasted in one I took during the summer.

Oysters

Preserve something:  

         Last weekend, I made a batch of clean and humanely raised beef jerky.  I used a pepper flavor that I knew my husband would like (he tells a funny story about how his best experience with steak au poivre made his eardrums burn).  I also separated a new kombucha mother from my main one, and put it up in the fridge “in case”, and have set aside a smaller jar of the kombucha to grow a mini-mother.  Those gallon jars make too much for me!

Waste Not:            

         My picky indoor cats often leave a good portion of their expensive cat food uneaten.  I’ve been cycling this out to the poor alley cat who is very happy to clean it up for them!  He’s afraid to be petted or come too close, but I’ve made a warm straw bed for him under my glider, and he’s getting regular meals.  I’ve made some very good cat friends this way in the past.  If he gets friendly enough to handle, I'll do the cat world a favor and neuter him.  Maybe he knows that.  Maybe that's why he stays out of reach!

Hobie

Want Not:

         Two days ago, I felt myself coming down with the beginnings of a nasty winter cold. My previous summer stockpiling paid off nicely. I’ve always been interested in both herbs and foraging. Last summer I teamed up with a colleague of mine who is also an herbalist, and we collected a nice supply of both elder flowers and elder berries.  SCORE!  I made a tonic using the berries and some of the flowers plus equal parts of honey and gin.  The recipe called for brandy, but juniper, a key ingredient in gin, is an anti-inflammatory which helps my achy old joints.  Well, I took a tablespoonful yesterday morning, then a tablespoonful last evening, and slept with clear sinuses and woke up refreshed after a good, comfortable night…with no sore throat!  YAY nature!  YAY elderberries and juniper!

Elderberries

Eat the Food:

         Those aforementioned mushrooms have graced my dinner plate three times this week, in various incarnations.  The last one was a GREAT stir-fry, paired with some local frozen chicken mushrooms and maitakes from the fall, some frozen organic veggies from my garden, and some finely sliced organic pork strips from the farmer’s market, all seasoned with ginger, garlic, sesame oil and soy sauce.  Of course I made too much; the leftovers went into lunch-sized freezer containers so I could carry them to school for my mid-day meal.  Win-win!

Build community food systems:

         Since Peter has been traveling for work, and has had two long-term remote placements, my fall canning stockpile isn’t being used as quickly as I thought it might.  I recently connected with an old friend who is having some challenging times, so I sent her home with a box full of goodies, and will continue to stock her up until she’s tired of them or I run out.  She promised to save my jars for me for next year!  And she loved my pepper jerky and mushrooms, too!

            I have a new friend who supplied me with my kombucha mother a month or so ago.  I was lucky enough to find a dehydrator at a thrift store, and got it to her (she’s been looking for one), so I was able to return a foodie favor.  I also shared a bag of those nice fresh oyster mushrooms with another relatively new friend, my mushrooming buddy.  He was happy to have them, and kindly offered me a few shiitake logs in the coming spring.  SCORE!

            Have you ever noticed the cosmic law that goes something like this: The more you give, the more you’ll receive?  It’s true.  There is such abundance in our world, if only we all remembered how to pass it around.

Skill up:  

         I’m a little embarrassed to admit this one, but here goes: during the past two weeks, I had a new bathroom built on my first floor for my elderly mother, who will be coming to live with us.  Prior to the construction of the bathroom, I had absolutely no idea how the plumbing worked…I didn’t know which pipe took out the waste, or if the sink water, shower water and toilet water were sent to the same place or not.  One week before the contractor arrived, I had an emergency visit from the plumber, but not before I learned exactly where the upstairs toilet went.  Since then, I’ve seen the plumbing adapted to the new bathroom, and have figured it all out.  I can’t believe I never cared before.  It’s such a simple thing…

Plumbing...etc.

Quote of the Day

"If we were logical, the future would be bleak indeed. But we are more than logical. We are human beings, and we have faith, and we have hope, and we can work."

Jacques-Yves Cousteau

 

 

 

Using What You Already have

40-50 year old stove top bean (corn) dehydrator

I used to use one on a woodstove (in the '70's)

15-20 year old electric dehydrator

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I'm beginning to realize just how much I have that I don't really use. So many of us are struggling in such immediate ways; the CNN footage of the crisis facing the people of Haiti is forefront in my mind, but I'm also thinking of my friends, the Luppinaccis, whose house burned just after they moved into it, two weeks before the birth of their first grandchild. I'm thinking of Earl, under the Parkway bridge, though he lives there by choice. I'm thinking of the hungry kids at The Caring Place, and the homeless people who live under the Albertus L. Meyer bridge in Allentown. I'm thinking about my old college friend who has pneumonia, and is losing his job. I'm blessed. I'm not rich, but I'm blessed.

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I've been researching root cellars. We're lucky enough to have a rather rustic basement, with an unfinished cinder block stairway and door that exits to the back yard. It gets cold out there in the winter. I'm currently monitoring the temperature and the humidity using a remote thermometer and a hygrometer. I've been reading about this old art as much as I can, in preparation for this year's garden choices. If it seems feasible (and I think it will), I'll be root-cellaring a good portion of my crop next winter, for use in my soups. I'll grow the vegetables at the farm. My soups will be more nutritious, and less expensive. Win/win. I'll let you know how my plans progress.

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I blogged about the bean dehydrator before, so I'll just refer you to that entry here. The other dehydrator was bought years ago when I still lived in Easton. I had a garden plot with "Pop" (Charlie Rush), my neighbor's grandfather, who died at the age of 100 right around the time I met Peter. Pop was kind enough to share his gardening stories with me and kind enough to welcome me onto his land. I had so much produce that I used to drop baskets of it off at strangers' places; no kidding! And they were happy to have it. As I didn't have a freezer and I wasn't yet making soup, I did a lot of dehydrating then, mostly herbs and fruits. When Pop passed and I moved in with Peter, I lost my opportunity to garden for awhile. I stopped using the dehydrator and gave it to a friend. That friend, who had a garden of his own, gave it back to me a few years ago. I finagled my way into a nice garden plot at the farm and retrofitted Peter's teensy little yard with my square-foot innovations, and I'm gardening again, and here we are: I have ample vegetables. I'm using what I have: a dehydrator. Buy one. They're really useful. I wasn't aware that you could dehydrate celery, zucchini, and lots of other vegetables. Dehydrated food requires no energy to save over the winter after the initial drying (you can dehydrate naturally as well, and use none at all!). I'm learning about it all in this great book: Putting Food By, by Janet Greene, Ruth Hertzberg, and Beatrice Vaughan. There are lots of good tips in that book; some good recipes, too! Check it out! And I'll be using the natural cold storage on my back steps as well. You'll see.

Bethlehem Sands

Silk Mill, Easton, PA

There was a time, still in my memory, when people worked hard, made their wages, lived their simple lives. In Bethlehem, PA, the former Bethlehem Steel plant, world reknowned in its day, closed several years ago, leaving behind pensionless workers and throwing an industrial neighborhood into ruin. Just this last year, the "Sands" casino has made its home there. Is this irony lost on everyone but me?

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A generation of blue-collar workers gambled their futures on their jobs, pouring steel. They lost. Who will win now? Is it for the best, bringing new commerce to this depleted area? Or are the financially gifted once again draining the lifeblood from this depressed community? Will there be scars, or fortune? Does anyone really win?

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I'm not usually pessimistic, though the sight of "SANDS" in blazing colors, suspended from an incomplete iron bridge segment-slash-billboard made me more sad than hopeful. I drove down the street, and saw the full parking garage, and the artfully lit stacks behind the casino. In the dark, it was beautiful. In the early morning light however, just a few short blocks away, there are still homeless people and abject poverty. The crime rate is up in the area; college students get mugged by teenagers. A small bodega owner was shot dead a year ago during a theft. And a block or two away, they're serving cocktails and haute-cuisine, gambling and dancing. Bethlehem's school programs are being cut. Her children are wanting. Who will win? Will the casino bring a better tax base, to support the people in need? I hope so, because right now, the dichotomy is too extreme. It hurts me, to see those bright lights, when I know there are children who are hungry a few blocks away. Emeril creates his masterful dishes, the high rollers make their fortunes or land in the hole; the local girls apply for cleaning jobs, and there is work to be had, but in the end, the poor stay poor and the rich stay rich.

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I have given directions to travelers who are coming from other places to gamble here; me in my farm-stinking boots, sweat dripping from my ponytail, them in their Mercedes. I have less to lose. I wish them luck. I wish us all luck. I hope the children and the community benefit from this huge gamble as well. The ghosts of the steel-workers are watching.