Beautiful Fall Weather!

The weather turned from cold and nasty wet to beautiful, sunny, and breezy for the next xouple of days. Just taking a break from working outside, to catch up on some coffee, writing, and email.

Yesterday, in just over 1 hour's time, I was able to ge the tiller going, till up a patch, and plant 250 garlic cloves. Now writing an article about it, which I hope to sell, complete with pix, to one of the gardening magazines. I plant garlic a bit differently than most folks, and manage to get a very nice harvest from a very small planting. Saving the details for the article, so I can't publish them here.

On Saturday we processed and canned 40 pints of home made applesauce. Dorie had done 46 pints last week, and now we have 1 1/2 bushels to go. The grandkids love it, and we do too. We use a lot of it warmed, spread on pancakes or French toast in place of maple syrup.

The main canning season is about done, but I've still got a pumpkin to do, and want to put up some pickled beets. The canner never gets put away, though, as I use it for chicken or pulled pork, or several other things when we can get them on sale.

Our pastor was just here, looking at the roof that needs replacing. He's coming up tomorrow with a couple of the guys from church to do it.

God is good!

It never ends!

Got the garden just about put away, only need to till a couple hundred square feet now, and will be planting the garlic soon. It was a good year! The pantry is pretty well stocked, and we're pleased with the results.

I didn't get the shed moved, or the greenhouse started, or the grape arbor put up yet, but there's still time. First, though, gotta re-roof the 200 square feet over our living room. That's just under 5 rolls of half-lap, and a bucket of roof cement. No tear-off this time, so I should be done in a day or so, even less if I have some help with it. Then there's one back porch to close in for winter, and I'd like to put a roof over the other one. All in good time.

Meanwhile, we had a funeral last week, and two more later this week -- too many good friends leaving us. One, a close neighbor, died this morning of cardiac arrest, while doing her job as an emergency responder, treating and transporting a patient. She was our town fire department emergency services chief, and a 19-year emt. She'll be sorely missed.

Education of a Wandering Man

I haven’t done a book posting lately, because I’ve been so busy reading and doing other things that I haven’t had time. Been saving them up for a winter day when there’s nothing else going on. But this one I had to share. I just finished Education of a Wandering Man by Louis L’Amour, and I highly recommend it!


L’Amour, most widely known as a writer of westerns, was much more than that. He wrote over 100 books, many of them westerns, to be sure, but a great many of them were set in ancient times – in the Middle East and Asia, and even in modern day settings. They all shared a common characteristic – the author’s love of historical accuracy, and his desire to teach, through his writing, the impacts one single man can have on the world around him.

Given all this, one would suspect that L’Amour was a highly educated man, with a study lined with degrees from the most prestigious universities. Well, he did have many of those degrees, but they were honorary, given in recognition of an education attainable only in the way he attained it. He left school at age 15, with a hunger for knowledge that never left him, and traveled the world on ships, trains, trucks, and on foot, working his way, and ever learning through the vast number of books he acquired and read.

In Education of a Wandering Man he says “No one can ‘get’ an education, for of necessity an education is a continuing process. If it does nothing else, it should provide students with the tools for learning, acquaint them with methods of study and research, methods of pursuing an idea.”

He also says “The idea of education has been so tied to schools, universities, and professors that many assume there is no other way, but education is available to anyone within reach of a library, a post office, or even a newsstand.”

This book is an account of just such an education – one acquired by an attempt to satisfy a hunger for learning that is indeed rare in modern times. That he was still hungry for learning in his late 80s (he died at age 88) says much for this man. He lived to learn, and to pass on his leaning, hoping to instill that passion in others.

I only hope I can pass on that passion to my own grandkids, and I highly recommend this book to anyone with like interests.

Lots happening!

It's harvest time, and we're putting food by, as Gramma used to say. Dorie and I both get involved in it, but she does a lot more than I do. She won't do the pressure canning, though, since she saw my mom scald herself badly, using a old pressure cooker. Doesn't matter that she was not using it correctly, taking unsafe shortcuts, she got burned, and Dorie wants nothing to do with the things now.
So I do the low-acid stuff, like beets and other low acid veggies, as well as pork, chicken, and other meats and stocks.
We had gotten low on tomatoes and sauce, so we concentrated on those this past week or so. Here's a picture of our cellar pantry:

and another

We use the milk crates as well, and there are 27 more quarts of tomatoes stacked to the right of the shelves. We did beets, pickles, sauce, chili sauce (hot and regular), meat sauce with zucchini, etc etc. Still have to do around 2 bushels of apples -- maybe three -- into applesauce, and I just picked another half-bushel of Roma tomatoes, and may make another batch of sauce for pizza, and maybe some salsa.
Sure, it's a lot of work, but it's good eats!

Lots of rain!

It's been raining here off and on for several days, so I've been working inside. On Monday I canned 30 pints of beets from the garden, and they'll taste great this coming winter. Now waiting to do tomatoes, sauce, chili sauce, and maybe some more pickles.
The garden is winding down, with only a row of late beans to pick right now. I harvested the garlic -- got a whole bunch of nice heads, mostly hard-neck, and a few soft-neck.
We had some big zucchini, and we used it for Dorie's zucchini stew -- like a rich spaghetti sauce, with chunks of zucchini in it. I put up 23 quarts of it in the pressure canner, and that'll be great on pasta, or just by itself with a loaf of Italian garlic bread on the side.
There are still some onions and peppers out there too, and a long row of sunflowers starting to bloom. Maybe I'll get some seeds to roast this year, but they mostly go to the birds as winter feed. I just hang up a head of them, and watch the birds go at them.
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I've been working on my book too, and it's supposed to be out in March 2011. Doing final edit now, and it's amazing what a difference a hard copy makes, over reading it on the computer. Hoping this one goes well, as I have at least two more waiting their turn.

Monarch!

Our grandkids brought a dozen or so Monarch caterpillars a couple of weeks ago, and we put them into containers, fed them with milkweed leaves, and watched them chrysallize (is that a word?). One of the three came out ysterday, and this one made its entrance this morning. I was fortunate enough to see again the miracle of metamorphsis up close and personal!

I saw it once before, several years ago, and wrote this account of it:

Monarch

The air was still and crisp. I moved my lawn chair into a sheltered spot near the house, next to a patch of wildflowers and weeds that I had missed with the mower, and sat in the sun. It had been a difficult day, and my head was full of my own self, and all of my problems. It’s a wonder that I even noticed the chrysallis, hanging nearby on a dried-out milkweed plant. A movement caught my eye, though there was no wind. I watched for a moment, and saw that it had begun to split open, revealing a dark interior. At first I thought it was all of one color, but it opened further, and I saw the black and orange cloak of a Monarch. It struggled for a time with its confinement, then stopped, its spindly legs and crumpled wings trapped half in and half out of the unyielding case.
It’s too late in the season, I thought, it just didn’t make it. Too bad. My own thoughts came crashing in again, and I closed my eyes for a moment, to try to sort them out. Things were just not working out the way I had planned them, and now it was too late to do anything about it. Might as well give up, like this poor, dead, black and orange thing. Monarch of what, I thought sarcastically, some king -- can’t even get out of its own shell. Just like me.
Then something brushed against my cheek, and I felt something hit the front of my shirt. The touch was so light that I thought for a moment that a leaf had drifted down from the maple in the side yard. I opened my eyes and looked down, and there was the Monarch, resting on my chest, just over my shirt pocket. Its wings moved slowly, drying, and I could see life working its way into them. The twisted legs straightened and flexed, and it appeared to be enjoying the warmth of the sun.
I sat still, hardly daring to breathe, captivated by the miracle I saw unfolding so close to me, until the wondrous creature gathered up its warmth, and its strength, and flew off to join the rest of the late bloom on their southward migration. Never too late, it flashed in a blaze of black and orange reassurance, it’s never too late to claim a kingdom.
hjt-1997

Busy Day!

Been a busy day so far!

Stopped at the barber shop first thing, and now feel cooler again!

Then the truck started overheating, was low on coolant. Looks like maybe a small leak in the water pump. Added some cooland, ant it seems okay now. Came back in out of the heat.

Added a 1gb memory stick to this desk-top computer and didn't notice a whole lot of improvement in speed, but it's running, so I must have done it right.


The old Troy-bilt tiller (1963 model) stripped the engine mount bolts last week, and I just now got it back together and working again. They must have been loosening themselves for quite a while, and I just missed it. Gotta pay more attention. Anyway, I was able to replace three of them, but had to re-tap the fourth hole and go to a bigger bolt. The originals were 5/16, and the next size (available) SAE bolt was 7/16, so I opted for the in-between 8MM metric. Seems to work okay, and I put the red loc-tite stuff on them so they'll not back out again. I don't anticipate ever having to change out the engine again.

Came back in and submitted an article on writing, to a magazine -- $75 if they accept it.

Back out and tilled up a space to plant the fall broccoli and kale, maybe even some more beans and peas. Tiller's working fine!

Dug up the garlic, and laid it out to cure. Got some nice heads! Then cut some Swiss chard for lunch -- YUM! Saute a little fresh garlic (crushed) in some olive oil, drop in the washed chard, and add a splash of balsamic vinegar. Cover, and let it steam, tossing once or twice to coat it all. Double Yum!
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The only downer was the call from the interviewer I talked to last week, saying that they'd hired one of the other applicants, who had "more computer background and skills than I do." Not sure what that means, since I've been extremely active in the computer field -- teaching, supporting, repairing, building, using -- for over 40 years.

Oh well -- into every life ... speaking of which, I'd better get back out and finish up in the garden, as we're supposed to get some T-shower activity this afternoon, and the tiller still sits out there.