A chain is a series of connected links. A family is a series of connected links. Within a family structure a family member can be a strong link or a weak link. One person, in a lifetime, can be both a weak link and a strong link. Between weak and strong, which kind of link is preferred or is important to have both weak and strong links? I certainly hope you didn't visit this blog to get answers because questions are all I have to offer at the moment.
I replaced my front gutter with a temporary rain chain made from an antique chain I had in my garage. I obtained this chain years and years ago (15?) when I took my good friend and her daughter on a tour of the "old farm" with my father. She likes to photograph old barns. He took us to the old barn. I took an old horse bridle off a peg on the wall. He gave it to me. I didn't know why I wanted this antique chain until he said, "My father made that."
My father's father reportedly forged this chain himself. He had a side-business of forging metal. He took steel (not the most malleable metal) and changed the shape, diameter, and function of the metal into something he found useful. This is a skill very few people have and very few people have an interest in or knowledge of.
Is this the weakest link? This metal has been used on horses back in the day when horses were used for farming instead of racing or riding. This chain was used on a work horse. My Grandfather was a work horse too I guess.
Should I even use this chain, this precious metal, on a water chain? Why not? I suspect even my Grandpa would advise me to use it.
I can even use the other part of the horse bridle to keep the chain from blowing around in the wind and possibly breaking the window to my garage.
I creatively repurposed objects. This makes me adaptive. Charles Darwin would be proud of me.
This should suffice as a rain chain until I get another one and until I empty that rain barrel for the season.
Oh. My. Gosh. Have you ever seen a lovelier child than this one who was walking down the streets of Berlin over Labor Day weekend? Is it just me or isn't she adorbs? That face! Those shoes! The blue umbrella! Those eyes. Her tiny fists. I just can't stand it. The shiny, wet German sidewalk? Ach du meine Güte. I just want to run and pick her up and squeeze her and eat her up. She is as cute as a cat on an ice cream sandwich! This grottemutter is looking forward to Christmas this year very, very,very, sehr.
A bunch of my military moms are trying to bring this movie to the Twin Cities. Content owners (studios, filmmakers) and theaters have varying costs associated with facilitating an event depending on the day and time of each screening. The ticket threshold makes sure that all the costs are covered before the event is confirmed. Last time I checked, they needed 91 more tickets to have the event go forward. Some friends and I are going. A number of my military mom’s kids have suffered various cancers upon their return. The use of depleted uranium in armaments and the use of open burn pits have contributed to the cancer rates, I am sure.
If you are interested, go to the web site and reserve a ticket. If the threshold isn’t met, the ticket won’t be charged. Even if you can't attend but think the issue is worth getting out there, buy a ticket anyway. Worth $13 I'd say!
Here is the site to reserve a ticket for St. Anthony Main Theatre:
One black walnut tree is available. First come first serve. Actually Offspring #2 wants to harvest it. She knows of a company that will mill the wood and sell it - some non-profit company that she did some consulting work for. Wood From The Hood is the name of it. This tree has got to go. Maybe if my tree qualifies I could hire them to fabricate a custom product and recoup the cost of the tree cutting. I think this tree is too large and too close to the house for just anyone to cut down. This weekend the tree attacked me. I was innocently trying to obtain water from my rain barrel when a breeze came up and two dozen fresh walnuts came pounding down around me. I was so scared I covered my head and got rain water all over my legs. Luckily I was not injured. The walnuts land with such a thud they leave little dents in the grass. I think it is possible that a black walnut tree could break a sunroof on a car if not leave dents in the hood. I found it impossible to even walk on the sidewalk. Have you ever tried to walk under an apple tree in the fall? A walnut tree is worse. Apples give a little. Walnuts do not give to the weight of a human AT ALL. Tonight I had to check on my chickens in the dark and I chose to go the long way around the house even though it was raining just so I wouldn't have to walk on the walnuts. I forgot (hold on a minute here. I have to go lock my garage door. Never mind) to come back the same way and found to my great dismay that my rain gutter above my rain barrel fell off. The barrel remains upright. Sonofagun! Do I know for sure the walnut tree knocked the gutter off? No, but my only other suspect is a school board candidate who left a flyer on my door and I don't think knocking off a gutter is a political move. Am I going to fix the gutter in the dark and the rain? No. I'll fix it tomorrow when at least it will be light and hopefully not raining. I always kinda liked the idea of a rain chain anyway instead of a gutter right there. I saw rain chains in Africa and I thought they were cool. I have a hunk of chain in my garage that my Grandfather forged. I have a feeling it might be the perfect length too. That tree is toast. I have put up with it's killer instinct long enough. The darn tree tries to kill all the plants near it with it juglans poison. Grass can hardly grow under it. Lily of the valley is the only plant that seems to like it besides wild blackberry. I paid to have it trimmed a couple years ago and already it's touching the roof again. The stupid walnuts are probably wrecking my shingles. It looks healthy. Some times when trees put out an enormous amount of fruit they are about to die. My plum tree did that. One year my plum tree was loaded with plums and then it kicked the bucket and was not alive in the spring. If this walnut tree dies on its own I would be happy. I am more mad at the black walnut tree right now than I am at the buck thorn and the amur maples. I must remember that feelings are temporary. I won't be as angry once I get my rain chain up.
I admit I can be fickle about trees. When I first moved in I liked this black walnut tree. I hung plastic eggs from the branches in the spring. I was happy to see the first walnuts.
Many years have passed and now I want it gone.
I planted those 25 amur maples and now I want them gone too.
My husband planted the blue spruces.I didn't really like where he put them in the front yard but I guess they're ok. At least they don't touch the house or break my things by throwing spruce cones at them.
Will I be able to get boards from this straight black walnut tree? Pay no attention to the leaning white oak. The walnut is behind it.
The state says black walnuts are the most overrated tree. Home owners overestimate their value. The wood of a walnut tree is worth more if the tree grows up crowded like in a forest. In a lawn there is too much of one kind of wood, I can't remember.
I took a road trip on Saturday. You never know where you'll end up on these road trips.
No need to snicker. The exit for Northfield is just an exit between exit 68 and exit 70.
I went further south. I was headed to Owatonna.
Last weekend I had the marshbird survey appreciation picnic on Harriet Island. I got a small gift and a free supper including pinot grigio.
This time I was headed to the second annual secchi social. People who monitor lakes and streams for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency were appreciated. My name tag said my name, my monitoring spots and how many years I had been monitoring. I guessed 5 years but it turns out to be 8 years. Aren't the clouds pretty?
I sat with fascinating people. One couple monitors the Kettle River and the other couple monitors Rice Creek. Both couples live near me, more or less.
I won the biggest door prize which was a large coleman cooler, a camping towel, a camping set of plates and cups and a camping lantern.
As I drove to the Steele County Historical Museum I saw there was a rabbit show at the fairgrounds.I texted my sibling and asked, "Any chance you are in Owatonna?"
She was in Owatonna! So I left my event and went to a rabbit show.
I'm standing there in this big pole barn and suddenly I hear her voice calling some kid to bring his rabbit somewhere. Wow. She can use the microphone and she was taking pictures of the winners.
Interesting people go to rabbit shows.
These are show rabbits; not pets.
Some rabbits win. Some rabbits lose.
All the rabbits were cute and winners in my book.
A Rabbit Mobile. They have more room than I do in an airplane.
So many breeds of rabbits. So many colors and patterns. I think this one looked like a kid colored it.
Pretty gold rabbit trophies too.
These are silver rabbits. They have a silver undercoat. This is a rare breed.
This one had nice hips said the judge.
This one did well too.
I wanted to go to a rabbit show someday. Today was the day.
After the show I headed home through downtown Owatonna. This town has wide cement streets and church bells ringing on a Saturday afternoon.
One of my goals is to stay healthy and live longer. I listen to advice and cherry pick the advice I prefer and implement changes in my life style. I thought I was doing pretty well. One piece of advice is to eat locally and seasonally. I joined a CSA (consumer supported agriculture) and I pick up my food from farmer Becky (due to give birth at any moment) and farmer Ryan. My farmers live in Nowthen which is the next town north of me. This week I got a huge red cabbage (so good!), two apples, two golden beets, 5 stalks of Swiss chard (great with eggs easy over), 3 onions, 3 jalapenos, 3 banana peppers, acorn cup squash, some cilantro, two potatoes and 4 radishes (not my favorite). I paid extra to get a quart of organic strawberries every week. These strawberries are to die for. These strawberries are small and misshapen and so full of flavor my mouth fills with saliva just looking at them. These strawberries are so good I don't want to make jam. I don't want to freeze these strawberries. I want to gobble them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Isn't eating them fresh and plain the healthier option? Another suggestion to stay healthy is to avoid white sugar. I reduced my sugar intake but to be honest, cookies made with stevia do not taste as good as cookies with cane sugar. I even investigate which sugar is better - cane or beet? I investigated but I don't know the answer. I decide to try honey. Honey has a strong taste that I don't like. But I have maple syrup in my fridge from my very own maple trees. I try that instead of sugar. I like maple syrup as a sweetener as long as it's thin syrup. I like thin syrup better than thick. Gradually my tastes change and I don't like sweet anymore.Now I like sour. I like sauerkraut and balsamic vinegar. I will eat a cookie with real sugar but only if it's a really good cookie such as a homemade cookie, a cookie from a local bakery, or a pecan sandie. My family in Sicily prepare vegies for me that are so delicious that I start cooking Italian style. Soda pop isn't good for you. Seriously? Two diet Pepsi's are not good for me? Why not? It's pop not whiskey. After consuming a lot of pop over the years (in chronological order orange/tab/diet coke/diet pepsi), I quit my sinful diet pepsi. That was hard. Drinking coffee helped. I never liked the taste of coffee so I started to like coffee by sucking on sugar free coffee hard candy. Yuck. After a couple month of unsuccessful attempts to quit soda I bite the bullet and drink a cup of coffee. Sonofagun! Caffeine is my new friend! My face is hot and tingly. My arms are swelling and my clothes are stretched like the Incredible Hulk. I have energy! I feel happy! Now I love coffee. Coffee is made from beans. Basically coffee is dirty bean water so that has to be better than pop. I also come to like herbal tea brewed in a teapot and poured into a glass with a stick of cinnamon and a slice of lime. My favorite right now is a tea that combines cardamom with cinnamon and ginger. Delicious! When I went to Sicily I was in charge of the fermenting for a day when grandgirl #2 was coming into life. Grandgirl #1 and I fermented milk kefir and water kefir while keeping an eye on the sauerkraut and komboucha. Now I love water kefir. I smuggled some water kefir grains into the country (in my sock, please don't tell on me) and I ferment water kefir at home. Strawberry ginger and strawberry cinnamon are my favorite flavors although strawberry basil is good too. I love water kefir. My body seems to love it too. Despite all these healthy habits I suspected I was not doing something right. I came to this conclusion after not the first, not the second, but after the third mouth sore.Where I used to not snack between meals, I was snacking between meals (but only on quality snacks such as a ginger/rhubarb oat scone sold at the Nowthen Farmer's Market and made my Offspring #2's friend). My weight is good but I am exercising less. So I asked for advice. My dentist gave me some mouthwash samples and some xylitol tablets and told me not to eat candy. I listened. I went to the doc. She said eat candy. I like her advice better. I went to the pharmacy and found some sour candy sweetened with, of all things, xylitol. Perfect! She also told me she has no opinion on organic versus non-organic. How strange! I didn't ask for her opinion. Then I had another doc appointment and she gave me nutritional advice. Stop with the citrus she says. I think of the five green limes nesting together in the drawer of my fridge and control my eyes because they really want to roll. Stop with the coffee she says. I weakly protest reminding her she told me to quit soda pop. Try vitamin water she says. Yuck. I'm not going to spend my money on vitamin water which is full of who knows what. She goes on with more advice. Stop with the strawberries she says. Sonofagun! My precious quart of strawberries that I pick up every Thursday? I guess I can make jam. I ask about the water kefir. She says the water kefir is fine but make it peach or blueberry. I buy some peaches at the store. The season for Colorado peaches has past. I buy four peaches. The chickens eat three and 3/4 peaches because I couldn't eat them myself. These peaches had no taste. I make kefir from apricot nectar now. My doc goes on and this is where I get upset with her. Stop with the tomatoes she said. Livid with anger I insist she cannot tell me this now which is the height of the homegrown tomato season. I inform her that tomatoes are my favorite food. Sonofagun. Maybe I'll feel better if I just eat a Hostess cupcake and a bag of Doritoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I read My Age of Anxiety; Fear, Hope, Dread and the Search for Peace of Mind by Scott Stossel. Reading it made me anxious. I wasn't anxious all the time I was reading it, just some of the time. The feeling I had all the time I was reading it was fascination. This book made me realize how lucky I was to choose a career where I can read the psychological evaluations of other people. People fascinate me. The mystery of how our brains work has always fascinated me. What makes me anxious may not make you anxious. You might not like to drive downtown Minneapolis while I love driving downtown but put me behind a wheel of a car in Tasmania and I am a nervous wreck. Scott, who is a very successful person, opens up his brain for us to look inside. He has very little peace of mind. I work with some people who are open about their anxiety. I try not to judge people yet I do. One woman I know can hardly cope. She has many psychological labels. Yet if a wild African lion came running into our office, I know she would stay calmer than I am and I don't think I am that anxious. Reading this book has made me more understanding and more accepting of the anxiety of others. I was so impressed by this book that I texted an anxious good friend of mine that I needed to see her and we're getting together in a couple weeks.
Ingredients: One or two eggplant,1/8 C. olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. For the sauce: 2 TB butter, splash of olive oil, 1/2 c. chopped onion, 35 cherry tomatoes, 1 green pepper, 2 banana peppers, 3 cloves minced garlic, salt and pepper to taste.12 cheese curds, 1/2 C. freshly grated Parmesean cheese.
Slice eggplant in 1/3 inch thick slices and place on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Slather each slice with a bit of olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste. Roast in oven at 400 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes. While eggplant is roasting prepare the cast iron frying pan by heating up butter and olive oil. When the pan is hot add onions, peppers, and tomatoes. Saute for 15 minutes until the onion is carmelized. Add garlic. As soon as the smell of garlic hits your nose add some red wine (you choose the amount). Let simmer until the eggplant is done. When the eggplant is done put one layer of eggplant in a baking pan. Top each slice of eggplant with a healthy spoon of sauce. Top each slice with a cheese curd. Repeat the layers of eggplant, sauce and cheese curds until they're all in the pan. Grate Parmesean cheese over the dish and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Enjoy. Chew a Rolaids before you go to bed.
I got a rutabaga in my share of vegetables from farmer Becky and farmer Ryan this week. What does one do with rutabaga? Make a Finnish pastie pie or at least that is what I did. Ingredients: 1 rutabaga cubed into 1/2 inch cubes, 2 potatoes cubed, 2 carrots cubed, 1 medium onion diced, 1 cup meat substitute (or you carnivores can use round steak) cubed, one pie crust, 1/4 cup butter, salt and pepper to taste. Combine cubed vegies and protein. The secret to a good pastie pie is to make all cubes the same size. Pour into a pie crust. Salt and pepper to taste, Dot generously with butter. Cover with top crust. Cut a design into the top crust. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour. Check to see the vegies are soft. Bake longer if necessary. Enjoy!
My original title for this blog post was "I Splurged." Is it splurging? If I spend twice as much money on flannel sheets than I ever have before just to get what I want, is that splurging? I use flannel sheets year round. I use the same set week after week for years at a time and then I turn them into either rags or a rag rug. So is it splurging just to have the Peanut's gang depicted on the sheets? The thing is, I think Charles Schulz, a native of Saint Paul, was a genius. In my life I have been all of the characters in the gang. I like to think I'm Linus who despite the need for a blankie seems to be the most well adjusted of the group. Some times I am Snoopy (dancing around the house on Saturday morning). Sometimes I am Charlie Brown because I think this time Lucy will not pull that football away. I hope against hope but Lucy is Lucy and she can't help being Lucy. Lately the Lucy in me is coming out. Bold, remarkable, Lucy is blunt and honest. When I was younger I was the little red haired girl. Over Labor Day weekend I was Pig-Pen, the kid who is so dirty the dust flies off of him. Whatever, I love my new sheets. I smile every night when I go to bed so that is not splurging.
