Memorial Day

It was an entirely patriotic service, today, at church. Dough and Mary-Lou are back. It felt good. The congregation had carried together a list of over forty active members in the armed forces - including Reserves and US Marshals. The biggest group was the Army (12). The smallest the Air Force. The Marines had eight in their ranks from the community. There is one family that has eight active members in the forces, four in the Army, two each in the Navy and Air Force. I don't know if they are all brothers and sisters, or if there are cousins mixed in.

Steve is being counted among the active Marines. The women had made yellow ribbons with name tags and everybody took one or two and as the names were read the holder of ribbon and tag would go forward and tie the ribbon to one of the decorative trees in the pulpit area. For each service, the organ played their song, but softly. There were also some five retired members who were called to stand up and be counted.

In the course of the service we learned that already over a hundred and fifty years ago, somebody petitioned to have the Bible removed from public schools. The Supreme Court, in 1844, ruled against it, saying "to learn the meaning of morals, kindness and love, the New Testament is the very best source".

What happened since then? The negative trend continued until we now have - a low of morals, kindness, and love . . .

Have a happy Memorial Day, all of you.   Much Love, Isa

Life is good

From top to bottom row: green stem bac choi, kohlrabi, white stem bac choi, egg plant. You can tell who the slow pokes are. This was seeded on the 17th. There is another tray with sweet basil that I set up yesterday. Nothing showing there, yet:-). But I'm getting hungry for that pesto-pasta, and the fresh, young kohlrabi, and the baby egg fruit.

I'm having instead: black rice, flank steak, green peas and Paisano. Great color combination! Life is good.

Yellow with a profusion of dandelions

Yesterday, in replying to Olivia's recent e-mail, I mentioned that 'life on the mountain is a bit slow and lonely, but then in the explanation of my expression it turned out that life is good, slow is to be seen as what a farmer does who knows that the potatoes cannot be rushed, and lonely - ? - there is no way around it if one sees 'not lonely' as having a crowd of people around with life bubbling hard in the many separate activities of each. I am beginning to think the environment Lulu and I were subjected to during the years of separation from Mims and Pips prepared us for an existence of self reliance in our later years. Life in a home for children is lonely. parents might send their children to a 'kinderhim' for any reason, and one should think that the company of children is enough for children. But our many companions never stayed there for more than a few weeks at most and Lulu and I were there for all seasons of the war years and rare and always short indeed were the visits from either Mims, or Pips. There was never a chance to form any lasting relationships and this constant flow of strangers trains the soul to feel in good company with itself.

Yesterday morning when I left to visit Riina the back yard was yellow with a profusion of dandelions. Tall, healthy flours all and spread out like a carpet. They were still there in the evening, but this morning when I got up I was astounded: not a single blossom was to be seen! The heads hung on the stems as if they had wilted overnight. And yet, as I looked in astonishment, I began to see here and there a yellow spot and as I continued to wait for the rising spot yesterday's blossoms began to reappear, first one, then the other and the all, in a rush, and our back yard is yellow again.

We had heavy thunderstorms during the night. The rain gage recorded 2.1 inches and that between 10 last night and about 4:30 this morning. I better go to the garden patch and see how the asparagus fared in this deluge. Perhaps what looked like tiny weeds last night will look more like my anxiously awaited spinach today?

The picture is of the same branch of the lilac that I sent you a few days ago. Compare the two pictures and you see:

Like I said: life is slow up here.

With much love, and in the hope that you don't mind my 'thinking in black and white', and this deluge of personal thought that I keep sending you,

Isa

More Muffins

Tuesday, May 21, 2013, at 7:57 PM

Hi, Olivia.  How fun to hear from you! Life on the mountain in Vermont is somewhat lonely and slow and your e-mail comes like a sun-ray through the ether.

A few days ago, Riina and her son Kristjan came visiting. They came totally unannounced. First thing I knew of them was when they honked the horn down in the driveway. I was sitting at the dining room table, having just finished my lunch - a bit early, but my basic plan was to head down to Pittsfield, MA, where there is a Bed and Bath etc where I knew they carry those silicone muffin cups. But that early lunch consisted of the last slice of bread and the last slice of bacon and the last cup of coffee -- there was simply nothing in the pantry or refrigerator to entertain welcome guests. Luckily, Riina felt my distress and asked for a glass of water and Kristjan wanted nothing. They left a couple of hours after refreshing conversation and stopped at one of the fast food places along the road. I'm sooooo embarrassed! Riina brought a 'Visitor's Present', a bottle of wine and a piece of her saia. And I felt so uncomfortable letting the two of them into a bachelor's household where stock is kept low enough to satisfy one lonely eater. Nay, uncomfortable is the wrong word - embarrassed is closer, and wanting to sink under the floorboards is more descriptive of how I felt.

Today I made a return visit to Riina, and mindful of my duties as a guest I brought her a bottle of wine (hear, hear!) and six fresh Miss Ellen's muffins which I baked when I got up this morning. The dough is really marvelously forgiving while standing in the refrigerator. It is now just about two weeks old, I think. Anyway, I made sure that everything was right by baking seven muffins and trying one during my own breakfast. That left me six to give away, and did longing eyes follow them at Riina's house :-) They are good. Riina liked them well enough to ask for the recipe and I just sent it to her and very soon we can have Miss Ellen's muffins almost anywhere along the eastern sea board :-)

Tomorrow, I must mow the grass again. The blossoms of the dandelions down behind the house in the the yard are almost tall enough to be picked while you're standing on the deck.  That is, of course, a slight exaggeration, but you are willing to let me have a little literary freedom, don't you? I also have to do laundry and look after my garden. I started a seed bed with kohlrabi, bak choi - both green and white stems - end egg plant. All these are in starter beds indoors in the greenhouse. I already have spinach seed out in the garden and now is the time to harvest the asparagus as they come out of the ground. There was one stalk this morning among others. It had been hidden under the rhubarb that is growing next to the asparagus area and by the time the stalk showed itself between those big rhubarb leaves it was two feet long and I fear that much of it is already woodsy. But the young stalks, they are so tender and sweet  - so far I have eaten them in the garden, fresh as they get big enough to pick, which usually amounted to two or three young stalks at a time, but now the ground is getting warmer and they come more rapidly, so, perhaps, I'll get some for one of my dinners. I also harvested some rhubarb some days ago, cooked it up, let it cool and had it for dessert that same evening over plain yogurt.

You see, even though I appear to be complaining about a life, being slow and lonely up here, it is never dull and it is a life fit to enjoy and it is a good life - both in quality of life itself and what's up for eats -- if there is anything in the pantry or in the garden :-)

Love, Opa
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Friday, May 24, 2013, at 1:47 PM

Dear Opa,

 Yesterday was the last day of co-op classes and tonight is graduation, so we seem to be on a downward slope towards summer break.  I am very sorry to hear that you feel lonely up in Vermont; I wish we could come to visit.  I promise, though, that if we do, we will not arrive unannounced, as a family of six may be quite a shock, especially if the pantry supply is running slim. 

Our garden is coming along quite nicely as well!  We, too have asparagus stalks shooting up.  Often times, we leave them too long that they begin looking like little trees.  We also have a plot of strawberry plants, which we planted last summer, that already have large green berries collecting on the ends of the vines.  I check almost every day to see if any have turned red yet.  So far no luck. 

The weather is very strange here these days.  One minute it will be pouring down rain like a tropical storm, and the next minute the sun will be shining in the skies just as warm as ever.  It wouldn't be so strange except for the fact that when the sun comes out, I look outside and there are barely any clouds out there.  Then the clouds scurry back and it starts raining again.  I wish we could just have one day of rain and the next of sun, because Grampa has opened his pool and I enjoy going for a swim.

I liked your description of the dandelion blossoms; our grass is growing quickly, too.  Philip said he would have to start mowing twice a week so that our lawn doesn't look unkempt.

I hope your loneliness eases as you see the signs of life blossoming around you.  I miss you and hope to see you soon. 

Much love from, Olivia
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Sunday, June 2, 2013, at 2:47 PM

Dear Opa,

Here is a picture the first harvest of strawberries from our garden.  I am so happy to pick berries from a plant!  It makes someone feel like summer has really finally started.

Hope all is well!

Love,

Olivia 

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Monday, June 3, 2012, at 8:29 PM

Olivia! That is a huge harvest you got there. And home grown with guaranteed nothing on them than what you put on. And you can keep them fresh on the vine until they are ripe! Oh, heaven! I just came back from the supermarket with a pack of strawberries to put some cheer into my raw bits, but without even tasting them I know the limitations they have in flavor and texture. You do have a heavenly gift in front of you there.

Up here on the mountain, all is well. We've had thunderstorms every evening but they did do no damage, even though they brought a lot of water. I am happy I was able to keep up with the grass cutting, so far, because the green stuff is literally shutting out of the ground right behind the mower. But I could not go into my beginner's garden and turn over the soil and get the weeds out to start planting my veggies. I hope that will come now, though. I have seedlings coming up and by the time they are ready for planting, I hope I will be ready too.

You write beautifully, Olivia! Keep practicing it. It is a gift not everyone is blessed with. I really enjoy getting you letters. 

See you soon? Now that vacation is on, what are you plans?

Oh, look, there just came a doe out of the woods and is nibbling on the grass in the pasture. I wish sometimes I had a long lens so I could take pictures of what is happening down there by the woods. We saw turkey, and, of course, Canada geese, and ducks and once even a young moose cow. And there are birds - So many of them. I tried to identify what I see but then I read Tante Lulu's Field guide to the birds and there are so many similar ones that, while I'm searching, the live one flies away and I never can definitely say "here, that's the one".

Olivia, you won't believe this, but that doe came to pasture with her Bambi! He is so small and the grass is so tall I could not see him till just a moment ago. They got out into a patch of grass that's growing a bit slower than the rest and I could see there was something moving in a different way than the doe and then all of a sudden I was looking into his eyes as he looked out between two grass clumps straight up to the house. Oh, how exciting! I'll watch till it gets too dark.

With loving thoughts to you, Opa

Spring

Spring has returned for a few days. The lilac is getting ready to bloom. Happy weekend to you all.

Lunner

Rain stopped all productive desires outdoors. ;-)  But household  duties continue. 

Produced on KP today: mixed veggies - at long last, that's the end of them - forbidden rice, boneless chicken thighs, slow fried in Teriyaki marinade, spinach salad with Catalina dressing, and Carelli 34, Malbec 2012 Argentina. The photo does not do the wine justice. The color is a deep, dark red, almost like an old Madeira, and it crosses your lips with an almost solid feel. On the tongue it blooms into a most amazing bouquet of spices and words fail me to attach names to its components. It is excellent with highly spiced food, but what the importer claims are light tannins are a strength (direction sharp, almost sour) that takes it out of the realm of casual sipping wines after the food is gone. It appears to have little aging potential, judging by the fact that the vintner took it out of his bins not even a year old and shipped it to Rutland, VT for further distribution. The importer took it to the Co-op in Brattleboro where it is being sold at 9.99. Does not compare with Paisano, but is a definite and pleasant relief from the monotony of a big bottle.

Had six asparagus stems for snacks before lunner, fresh out of the garden and heated by the sun that shone before the rain clouds moved in. 

Muffins

It was served at 1 PM today because I got up a 4:30 in obeisance of Iivo's instructions to experiment with the sleep pattern. I had my raw bits for breakfast at 5:30 and the wait for something substantial got to be very long. Changing the sleep pattern naturally affects the eating pattern. Passing the time with voting on two Swiss reverendi and going to town for medication and mower gas, I also made the shown desert: Miss Ellen's bran muffins. Same recipe I sent you, Olivia. Did you ever make them? How did they turn out? These that come out of my oven are not half bad. There is something funnily chewy with their texture. I had one for desert and later on we'll have afternoon tea with fresh bran muffins. We? ernie is not really part of this. Next: muffins that were made with the dough having rested in the refrigerator. Additional experiments: muffins made with dough having gone through progressively longer resting periods. The recipe yields enough dough to keep me going for the six weeks Miss Ellen says the dough can be kept refrigerated. Perhaps you'll hear more about that as things develop.       Love, Opa

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Friday, May 17, 2013, at 8:15 AM

Opa,

Those muffins look so good!  I have not had the chance to make that particular recipe yet; I have not been to the grocery store to pick up the necessary ingredients.  I hope to soon, though.

Love, Olivia

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 Friday, May 17, 2013, at 8:10 PM

Olivia, 

I had, of course, much dough left over and as Miss Ellen had promised that it would keep for some weeks, I put it in the refrigerator. Yesterday, in a store I came across a set of those newfangled muffin cups, they are made of plastic and promise that you can just pop your muffins out and clean-up will be easy. I took those things home and tried them this morning - fresh muffins for breakfast, with sweet whipped butter, mmmmh. And there is still dough left over in the fridge! It is soon one week old and none the worse for age. And I am sure one can make variations: the fresh berries are showing up in the stores. How about red raspberry muffins? Never had any before, but instead of putting jam on the muffin, how about putting fresh fruit in? 

Those plastic cups, by the way. Make things easy: Four muffins, or even two, just a many cups in the sink for quick clean-up instead of handling a whole sheet with twelve cups. Grrrreat!

Your school year is going to be over soon? What are your plans for the summer?

Love, Opa

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Sunday, May 19, 2013, at 12:38 PM

Dear Opa,

Those muffin cups you were talking about: They sound like such a good idea!  My least favorite part of making muffins is cleaning up the muffin tins afterwards. 

I think putting berries in the muffins sounds marvelous.  When it starts getting warmer you could also put some fresh blue berries in them from down by the pond or even black currants!  May want to sprinkle a little sugar on the top of the currant muffins, though. ;) 

Yes, school is almost over; I have one week left of co-op.  Exams are on Tuesday and the last day is Thursday.  I'm a little nervous for my exams but I'm sure I'll be able to manage them.  I will have a bit of school to do over the summer but not as heavy of a work load. 

Hope to hear back from you soon!

Love, Olivia

How many zeros in a billion?

It's a re-cap, but still so to the point.

$1,000,000,000

This is too true to be funny.  The next time you hear a politician use the Word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about Whether you want the 'politicians' spending YOUR tax money. A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, But one advertising agency did a good job of Putting that figure into some perspective in One of it's releases.  A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.  B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.  C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were Living in the Stone Age.  D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.  E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, At the rate our government Is spending it.  While this thought is still fresh in our brain... let's take a look at New Orleans ... It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division. Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D) Is presently asking Congress for  250 BILLION DOLLARS To rebuild New Orleans . Interesting number... >What does it mean?  A. Well .. If you are one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, and child) You each get $516,528.  B.. Or.... If you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans , your home gets $1,329,787..  C. Or... If you are a family of four.... Your family gets $2,066,012.  Washington , D. C  HELLO!  Are all your calculators broken?? Building Permit Tax CDL License Tax Cigarette Tax Corporate Income Tax Dog License Tax Federal Income Tax (Fed) Federal Unemployment Tax (FU TA) Fishing License Tax Food License Tax Fuel Permit Tax Gasoline Tax Hunting License Tax Inheritance Tax Inventory Tax IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax) IRS Penalties(tax on top of tax) Liquor Tax Luxury Tax Marriage License Tax Medicare Tax Property Tax Real Estate Tax Service charge taxes Social Security Tax Road Usage Tax (Truckers) Sales Taxes Recreational Vehicle Tax School Tax State Income Tax State Unemployment Tax (SUTA) Telephone Federal Excise Tax Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Tax Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax Telephone State and Local Tax Telephone Usage Charge Tax Utility Tax Vehicle License Registration Tax Vehicle Sales Tax Watercraft Registration Tax Well Permit Tax Workers Compensation Tax (And to think, we left British Rule to avoid so many taxes)  STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY? Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago..... And our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt.... We had the largest middle class in the world..... And Mom stayed home to raise the kids.  What happened? Can you spell:  'POLITICIANS!'  And I still have to Press '1' For English.  I hope this goes around  the U S A At least 100 times  What the heck happened???

Triticale

There are two interesting publications on the web, covering the subject. One is from Wikipedia and the other from Purdue University. I am sure there are many others. These two, which I picked because they appear right at the beginning of the search results, are so similar in content, they could possibly be produced one from the other. Triticale is a cross of wheat and rye, a hybrid that to my great surprise was stared back in 1875 with the first organized research conducted by the Canadians at the university of Manitoba. The two articles appear to suggest that triticale  simply combines the qualities of wheat and rye, and benefits culture in 'challenged growth regions'. It's main use is a feed grain for cattle even though it is hoped to elevate it to the level of human consumption (?). Otherwise, the analysis of nutritional values does not suggest any benefits other than in small quantitative variation from its two parents. Why then should a product like that delicious Bob's Red Mill 5-grain contain wheat and rye, and also triticale? It can make no other contribution than bulk, probably at a lower cost than what would be attached to the same bulk of its two parent grains. But it is not what nature intended!

I have experimented with making my own 5-grain, getting all components from the Brattleboro Co-op bulk department. There are problems with texture coming from triticale and flax seeds. Both are in the original grain form, while all other components are rolled. To soften them up, I tried sprouting first. Triticale did fine, yielding a pleasant semi-hard texture after two days of sprouting. Flax seed is not recommended: it developed a slimy side product that caused all grains to clump and to stick to any surface it comes in contact with. Washing was ineffective and caused great loss in the tiny seeds clinging to the sieve in which I tried rinsing them. Then I lost more in the paper towel with which I tried to extract some of the water, since I wanted the - otherwise very effective - sprouting to stop. Finally, I mixed the two seeds with the other components of my 'raw bits' and arrived at a rather very tolerable product for the next few days. In that period, all the other grains (oats, barley, wheat and rye) absorbed the remainder of the sprouting moisture from the triticale and flax and the whole mixture assembled to an almost solid, but luckily very brittle clump that had to be treated vigorously with a spoon to break it up and make it conform to the bowl. Else, taste is good!

Not wanting to repeat the sprouting experience, today I used Tanti's old Vitamix (ca. 1954) and smashed the triticale and flax seeds. I did not run the machine until I got fine flour, but the resulting fine gravel gives a rather exciting texture to the mix of the other rolled grains. I think with that approach I am cut loose from the fickle supply line from Bob's Red Mill and am my own independent producer, which allows me to draw the consequences from the beginning of this paper: eliminate the triticale, which is nothing but simply more of two of the other components of the five grain mix.

Wishing you a wonderful day, Isa

Black Rice

Have you seen this? It makes it sound like black, or forbidden rice, is rather a 'must have' than a luxurious oddity. Looking it up to learn how to cook it. Last time I tried it with Karl being my audience it was rather al dente; but still astoundingly different from white or even wild rice. Today's menu: Black rice and stir fry veggies with grilled shrimp and spinach salad - also, some of that famous Viognier. Happy Mothers day, you two.

Love, Isa

PS: Reading the title of this article I take a second look. I have never found any blueberries in any rice. Have you? :-)

Old Customs

Corpus Christi, Appenzell, Canton Appenzell Inner-Rhodes

Corpus Christi is celebrated in Roman Catholic areas on the second Thursday after Whitsunday. It consists of a procession in honour of the holy sacrament. In Appenzell the end of the official procession is taken up by women dressed in traditional feast day costume. This costume is worn only on a few specified religious occasions.

Did I send you this picture? I don't remember pushing all the right buttons. Anyway - double-stitched holds better:-) It is a snapshot from the life Iivo was close to some forty years ago. We lived just some miles away from where this shot was taken.   Happy Mother's Day.   Opa

11.05.2013 © swissworld.org

Saturday

It was "such" a day here,: deep hanging clouds and rain, rain, and again rain. So far, since this started two days ago, we had nearly two inches and the grass on the other side of the windows looks happy, fresh, and green. Panic is lurking: if this rain does not stop pretty soon, the grass is getting out of hand. That means when I finally get to cut it, it leaves mounds of brown, rotting clumps behind the mower in lieu of quickly disappearing short clippings.

Yesterday, while I was shopping for the Pac or Boc or whatever Choi I also stopped at Hannaford and got me a salmon filet - wild caught, Alaska. There were these great family sized filets behind the glass and I stood there thinking what I would do with the leftovers, but he fish monger behind the counter offered to cut whatever I liked, so I wound up with a half pound, skin on filet. Today, being locked in, I did big cooking, I made a big pan of stir fried veggies, using one jar of Brenda's blanches beans, on jar of her blanched carrots, both 2012 harvest vintage, a fresh green pepper and a fresh green yellow squash, both imported from the southern flat lands, and half of a Vidalia onion, carrying the label 'Vidalia', so it must come from Georgia, USA. There is so much left over, I'll eat from that batch for the rest of the week. The salmon  -  I cut the skin off and rubbed it (the filet, not the skin!) with some sesame oil and dusted it with salt and coated it with pepper. In a glass dish, I laid it on a bed of the other half of the onion, sautéed, powdered it with parmesan cheese coated it with sour cream and baked it for five minutes at 450 degrees. A side dish of fresh spinach leaves wit Feta and Catalina completed the 'order'. No wait, there was also a bottle of Las Perdices, 2011 Viognier, Mendoza, Argentinia. A must-try wine if you get a chance. It has just the right amount of acidity to take it away from the sweet, a bit bland white Viogniers that came across my tastebuds in recent months. It is on sale at the Co-op for 9.99 and it is just as good as, but very different from the Gérard Bertrand Viognier from France, which I recommended to you the last time when I was talking about Viognier. That one, they are now selling it for 13 bucks, if they still got any after I took the last bottle from the shelf.

When I say as good as I do not at all mean that the two wines are alike. The French and the Argentinian are in the same direction of taste, or aroma, if you prefer that term or, if you want to get really technical, they have a very similar bouquet, but while the French is a soothing accompaniment to a meal or a conversation, the Argentinian is that charging Dragoon in old time mounted warfare, taking the lead with a yell, swinging his broad sword over his head and riding the enemy down before there is a chance to get up a proper defense. Well, maybe I went a little overboard with this comparison, but it should give you the idea that the French is the accommodating accompaniment and acquiescent supporter, while the Argentinean is the leader.

It is just about 20 minutes after three, but the sky looks like its just before sunset. I better get back to my Las Perdices. They (the last drops in the bottle) are getting warm and I would not think subjecting them to another cooling cycle.

Have a grand afternoon and evening, and a merry Sunday.
Love, Isa

Pac Choi

Friday, May 10, 2013 at 5:39 PM

Went to the big city (BB) today for almost the sole purpose of finding Boc Choy seeds, or Bock Choy, whatever the spelling. Well turns out the spelling is Pac Choi. The Co-op has an organic variety of seeds. Walmart outdoor living has none, the nursery on rt. 9 in BB North has none, but Agway had another , presumably inorganic variety at almost half the price of what the Co-op carried. I am continuously amazed about the price difference of food grown without expensive pesticides and with fertilizers that have no other manufacturing cost than that incurred from feeding animals and rotting plant stuff, vs food that is grown according to modern agricultural science. The Co-op now has a section that says "Regular products". There one can find all kinds of stuff that we are familiar with from our regular visits to the friendly neighborhood supermarket. I got a pack of each of the two seeds at those two places and will make a scientific evaluation of the relative effects of each. Do I feel better after High Mowing or Agway? Stay close so you will not miss the conclusion of the Chinese Greens mystery.

I came home, had something for late lunch, and eventually moseyed out in the garden to prepare the space for the new tenants: Pak Choi, egg plant and Kohlrabi. Can't wait to have a stir fried baby kohlrabi! Can't wait to have some eggplant, pan fried, with sunny side up and bacon and hard crusty bread for breakfast. Of course, I'm also looking forward to the fresh baby Pac Choi. I looked up what the nutrition of this green is and am amazed: 70 grams of it will yield 9 calories! One must run only some four miles to get rid of that again :-) It delivers 1% Carbs, 3% fibre, but estimable amounts of Vit. A, C, Calcium and Iron. So it is not just water, like we used to tell each other snickeringly about cabbage: Might as well drink a glass of water, rather than going through the trouble of cooking a cabbage. Yeah, and in lieu of adding all those spices so one can eat it, you add some hops and some grains to water and it gives it a real good taste!

Chip says the ground is still too cold to plant. Up here, one does not plant before the tenth of June! Al Gore's scheme must have caused a slipping of the dates: when I dug up the fresh garden row this afternoon, the ground was warm to the touch.; deep down, too. I grant you, the worms are still a bit sluggish when they are dug up to the day light, but then I never knew them to be great sprinters. So, I am going to plant right after the water drained off enough after these coming rainy days.

Y'all have a good weekend down y'alls way, hea!
Isa
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Saturday, May 11, 2013 at 5:45 AM

I found this article, which expresses about how I feel about keeping Chinese cabbages straight!

Our neighbors used to plant all sorts of lovely cabbages each year. They also planted a lot of eggplant, which I never much cared for in the vast quantities they would wind up with!  

I tried planting some Chinese cabbage seeds here this year, but they never came up.  I hope you have better success than I did!  

L. 

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Saturday, May 11, 2013 at 2:50 PM

I'm learning Chinese! Pac means green, Boc means white, Choi must mean stem. I made that up and I can just envision the condescending smirk this might get from your resident Chinese linguist. But I got it all straight now and I'm looking forward to the harvest. My hope is that your lack of success simply means that the 'Chois' don't like the southern climate, being of the cabbage family that likes it on the cool side.

We used to plant cabbage in Virginia while the ground was still trying to become unfrozen and never had much success. On the other hand, we'd take cruises into the Piedmont and within just a few miles from home, up toward Blacksburg, we'd run into acres and acres of cabbage fields. And then came Uncle Billy's day and I would get a fifty pound bag of local (VA Piedmont) cabbages from the trade-lot and bring it home to the women who went right to work to make our own sauerkraut. The women, in those days, was the team Helde and Emi. Memories!

My 'Chois'  should get the cool weather here, if I can get the seeds down before it turns seriously warm. It is raining off and on all day and the shreds of the clouds are hanging over the ridge across the valley. Thanks for the lead in clearing the mystery of the "Stems," Laurie!
Opa

Energy

From this month's North Carolina Country (monthly pub. of the NC Electric Coops.):

When using your laptop computer at home, put the battery charger (an AC adapter) on a power strip that can be turned off. The transformer in the charger draws power continuously, even when the laptop is not plugged in.                                                                 Source: Alliance to Save Energy 

Rating Coffee

This morning started almost with a bang. Last night I ended the day reading on my iPad after tugging in - the poor thing is still reduced to such menial duty as holding books for me = and fell asleep. This morning, I woke up felt the Pad next to me and rolled to the other side and almost out of bed, because, perhaps subconsciously avoiding rolling over the Pad in my sleep, I had moved all the way to the edge of the bed. I avoided the fall by swinging my arm out and knocking against the night table and my water glass over and the water was noisily gurgling through the drink-bottle neck and thus I was recalled to consciousness with a rough shake and instantaneous panic.

That was at about 4:30 this morning and there was no chance of ever getting back to sleep.

Iivo advised me yesterday to experiment with my sleep pattern. Says he: sleep when you feel like it and get up and about when you don't feel like sleeping. You have nowhere to go at specific times anyway, so take advantage. Taking advantage, I got up, did the bathroom thing under electric light rather than in the rays of the morning sun and got ready for the day. You know I can't start the day in pajamas, so I was fully dressed, booted and with my spurs strapped to the heels. Now what? at 5:AM with nowhere to go?
I opened the pantry to get Ideas and found old bottles of nutritious things, out-dated by over two years and I began to throw things away. This uncovered new layers of long forgotten things of which many went on their way to good old Clyde Twitchell, and others returned to the shelf, stimulating my culinary inventiveness. Then I came across a box of Country Value Baking mix. On the box cover, it showed nice, fluffy biscuits, and it said that one could use it to make biscuits, waffles, pancakes "or whatever". This stuff could not be old. It must have come to this kitchen at a time when the kids were here and demanded waffles, or pancakes, or whatever. It most probably came last year form the country store down in Jacksonville village, together wit a bottle of Hungry Jack Original Syrup, which would not have been allowed through the door in Tante Lulu's time. So I decided to have biscuits, and bacon, and sunny-side-ups, and sautéed tomato, and by the time I had all that the sun would be up.

I also found a box of Maxwell-house coffee singles. Now those, I remember, come from a time way way back when we were still in MA and visited Lulu on a more regular basis and at one point she had decided to simplify her life and just had gotten into this way of making her coffee. In those days, My opinions still carried some weight and when I uttered some regarding this way of mutilating a good thing, she must have abandoned the rest of the box contents because the box is still there and nearly full. I decided to try it, and this at long last gets me to the subject line: on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being indescribably delicious and 1 being intolerably bad, this coffee rates a 4.75. That is just below the neutral zone of neither good nor bad, but it definitely is not on the good side of the scale. What turned me more vociferously against it in those good old days was my strict adherence to traditional ways and means. Age does mellow a guy. Some traditionalism may still linger about and influence my rating, because in the end I had three cups of it during my long breakfast period and am still breathing normally!
The weather here is slowly turning towards rain. I have windows open on all corners of the house, so I can't go far, because they must be secured should rain really set in. I whiled the time away with running the Jenn-Air oven through its cleaning cycle and that accounts for the real need for all the open windows. I'll be looking for some more outdated things and perhaps go visit Clyde.

You do know about Clyde, don't you. I mentioned him earlier on several occasions. His father used to be "old Mr. Twitchell" who lived in that old farm house way on top of the mountain. His barn burned a few years back and the fire crew used the water from Lulu's pond to try to save some of it. Whether the water was no good, or the barn too old and dry, it burned down to the foundation. At one time, Tiiu and I contemplated talking to Mr. Twitchell to let us use space in the east end of that barn to build us an apartment. The east end was overlooking the valley that we see from our deck here, but from a much higher vantage point; a fabulous view! His son Clyde is the Cerberus installed at the town transfer station. He oversees the comings and droppings of the town people and operates the Trash compactor and punches little holes into your card that you buy from the town clerk and have to show to Clyde to be acknowledged, and admitted to his private Hades. Semi-private, that is, because it is still under superior control of State, County and Village. But Clyde is in charge. I heard that he ran Chip off the lot! Twice!. Chip admits that he likes to egg him on, when he goes there.

By the way, Chip came back with Brenda and his camper from the long weekend up by Sunset Lake, where Brenda went on fifteen mile hikes in search of treasures and Chip spent the time mostly tending the hearth fire. Literally, he says, since they had a fire going in the camp every day, all day. He came over here last evening. I was reading and he knocked on the door with his gin-and-tonic glass in his hand and came to chat. He felt inhibited by my having no drink and never touched his until he left again. But we still had a chat, and by the time we had finished, all problems of getting the garden tractors back to run after their winter rest, and after cleaning all the weeds out of the pond, etc. we were both prepared to shake hands and go our own ways.

And so life slowly bubbles on up here on the mountain.

Have a wonderful day.
Isa

Guete Sunntig mitenand!

Went to the Jacksonville churchlet this morning. Found 20 congregationalists, Doug and Mary Lou absent on their trip through Europe, and Rick Gramlin standing in for Doug. I go to that church and I have to rend my clothes and strew ashes on my head for all the bad words I have about the lack of love of the mountain people for us flatlanders. It was a hearty welcome. Like, they went out of their way to shake hands. It is good to be back!

On the way back to the house I stopped at the mail box and found two letters: first one - renew your Sam's  membership or else. Now that I have the mailing stuff here, I can do that renewal, or have you already done it, Kaarin? Second one - the bill from the Jacksonville Electric $17.32. Its going to go up now. Most mornings during this past week I got out of bed while the sun was still "under covers" and turned lights on freely, all over the main floor. Then, the sun gets up and his (you Britishers do think the sun is a male, don't you?) rays come streaming through the windows and the rooms become so bright that one does not even notice those artificial lights are on and they stay on, often until it gets to be time to turn them off at bed-time. But this bill will never reach the wondrous heights of the one in GB, with the heat pump running to pump the heat out of the house. Also, in GB the rooms are so much in the shade that one needs artificial lights almost everywhere, all the time.

With that wealth of communication from the outside world I strolled over to the garden patch. The weeds are growing around the asparagus roots and need some stern constraints. But there are at least a half dozen stems poking up toward the sunlight, not yet ready for a snack and definitely too small for dinner, but they are poking. I will now wriggle back into my overalls and go water the garden :-)

Guete Sunntig mitenand, all you uninitiated, means "A good sunday to all of you".

With loving thoughts, Isa

If you wish to opt out of receiving these sporadic signs of life from the mountain, you must find a good bottle of wine and come here with enough time to to apply for having your address removed from my list.

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Dear, dear Opa,

Do not think for even one moment that my lack of response at this, the craziest time of the homeschool year--the end-of-classes push at KEYS and the editing push for HEAV--means that I do no absolutely LOVE these "sporadic signs of life from the mountain"!   I DO so love receiving them, and I do fine time--even in the midst of the inanity--to read them, and smile, and ponder and reflect and appreciate and enjoy. Please keep them coming!! :)

Did the saved wifi thing I had work?

L.

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Dear Laurie,

Thanks for the moral support. "Us writers" like to know that we are read and your e-mail came at a very timely moment. Your question about the saved wi-fi thing put me on a search in my files, but the most recent note I have there from you - other than the one from today - is dated February 8, way too early to contain a reference to my call for help out of VT.Could you send it again? My iPad is still balking at getting on this network here, even after my prompt and repeated reaction to all helpful suggestions from others: shut it down for a short time and turn it back on - see if that works. It does not. It suggest the network that it could join and lets me put in no other and then says 'can't join this network'. I have tried many things on Apple support and wild-catter know-it-alls, but nothing and nobody helps here. The last options I have is to call Apple and have one of those two-hour chats, and/or call FairPoint - my ISP, but I really "have not been able to find the time for that" :-)

I have the same jammer with my air printer. It worked fine when I left VT last fall but this time around the printer says "can't find computer' and the computer says 'can't find printer'. Both have the addresses of the other. Of course I excuse it from not finding the iPad - it just is not on. But the computer is doing simply excellently on this network. I took the obvious step and linked the two with the USB wire, but that did not help more than the computer advising me that 'the printer is very low on ink' and when I asked HP to analyze they could find the printer alright but said that the ink levels in all cartridges are just fine. Then they wanted to know if their response to my primary question re "can't find the computer' was helpful. It is to crawl up the walls. Here too, the advise came 'shut it down for 30 seconds and then turn it back on'. Well two evenings ago I turned it off one more time and unplugged it from all connections with anything from computer to power lines and have not looked at it again, waiting for some miracle to happen and it suddenly springs to life.

I also took a trip to North Adams to have my hair cut! No mountain-man looks this year, like I endeavored last summer. It is only 25 miles to there, as it is also to drive to Brattleboro, but in North Adams is the most delightful old barbershop remaining on earth. It is exactly like barbershops used to be some 70 years ago when I was still apprehensive about these strangers approaching me with sharp and pointed scissors. And can you imagine the shakes I would get when they came with that open razor knife they used then, first leisurely honed it on that long leather strop and then laid their hands on my neck . . . This one in North Adams is called Gus's Barber Shop and Gus himself is the only one who barbers in there and he must have come out of apprenticeship when they built his shop in the early years of the last century of the past millennium. He walks not any better than I walk but he does a fine job on hair. I can imagine that all his muscles have done their motions around men's heads so often they can do it now even disconnected from the nerve centers and unaided by the eyes.

Then I went to Big-Y to shop for food and my pantry is now stocked for the next few weeks. I am looking forward to shrimp on wild rice, grilled chicken thighs on penne pasta with tomato sauce, grilled burgers made from grass fed beef and stuff like that, if only I can make time to cook all that. The outside keeps me busy. The veggie patch needs attention. I cut grass yesterday and since we are going to have rain in the next couple of days I will do more cutting very shortly. Time up here is lovely and, I don't know why', I feel better here than there.

Hoping that all is well in VA-B also and that the end of the school year's hecticity will lead into a wonderful vacation period for you. Take a break! Come sniff the clean mountain air.

Love, Opa

Harvest Time!

The latest news from the farm: I just had lunch, sitting on the edge of the garden patch. I had gone there to weed a bit around where the asparagus is supposed to be. There was one (1) ! about 8 inches tall and as big around a Laurie's ring finger. I am very familiar with everybody's fingers. I know you all will now have to take a look at Laurie's ring finger =:-O. But to come back to the harvest: I admired the plant, then reached for it, broke it and ate it. It was so tender and so sweet and full of asparagus flavor and it was hot from the sun and it is not often one gets to eat fresh things THAT fresh. You know where I'll be going every day now!

Just thought you'd like to know :-)

Love, Isa

PS I'm going to have a real lunch now: the last serving from my 'seafood galore pasta' from earlier this week. After that, I'll have to dream up something for my next meal.

Have you ever tried to get into a bib coverall?

Today was my first gardening day. The weeds, green and fresh as well as brown and dry were about two feet tall, so I started with the weed whacker. I hope there was nothing of the asparagus up, yet, but as hard as I looked, I saw none.  Next came raking of the clippings and then the digging. Ah, yes, the digging. This ancient tangle of weed roots is hard to cut through. There is a patch where its a bit easier, which I had turned over last March a year ago, while Ema was also in that garden. - Memories, everywhere.
But I made sure this time I did the not simply turn over the clumps but shook the dirt out and tossed the roots away. Tante Lulu has done wonders with that dirt. I bet one would pay big money for it in a store, packed in a fancy plastic bag.

I did a little bed before I had enough - or rather my back had enough. About a 2x4 -- not inches, you joker.

To prepare for all this, I changed into my bib coveralls that I bought some many years ago down in GB in the Tractor Supply. They are size 42-30 and I must look like one of those scrawny little old hillbillies on postcards you can buy up in the Blue Ridge. they are dressed in bibs, too, but worn ones. What's missing is the slouch hat, the wispy gray beard and the crooked pipe. The thing is way too big for me, now. Nevertheless, there must be a trick to getting into one and to get the shoulder straps straight. I don't know that trick, yet. Looked to me odd that the bib was longer than the back, but, eventually, got the thing on. I felt almost like some of the guys who were woven on the wagon wheel by the holy Fathers of the Church, back in the days of the Inquisition. I was ready to confess and to admit everything, what with my twisted limbs.

When I got untangled and into the garden, of course the pollen took over and I searched for my handkerchief but the pockets were not where they were supposed to be. Then I noticed that the front of the coverall was bulging as a front for a mature size 42 should, but the bulge was much too low. Then I realized that there were hip pockets where they should not be and I finally realized I had wrestled into this unfamiliar garment and had gotten in backwards! I went up to the garage again to change, because there was a little traffic on the road and then one also feels somewhat like on a stage down there in the garden patch framed with the big old timbers and overlooking the whole valley and Bea's old farmhouse and Steve's old barn. No sense in getting people to talk about you in that way "did you see him yesterday in the garden? Oh, you won't believe it, and I heard him say us Vermonters are a bit weird". I moved very nonchalantly back into the barn, where I had much rather done it in a run, but I did not want to draw special attention.

So anyway, I went back into the garden patch properly outfitted and did my work and when my back said "HALT", just about that loud, I straightened out some and, guess what - the two Canada geese had come up from the pond and were grazing next to me just on the other side of the fence along the pasture. Explain that; wild animals that close to mankind. My constant bobbing up and down with my head to the ground and not much moving around must have made them think I was a goose myself, a weird one, grazing in a weed patch! -- "Look there, Jane, he's a big one, let's stick close to him so we can fly in his slip stream when we start up again" . . .

Life up here stirs such different thoughts than life down there.

I wish you all an equally great day,

With loving thoughts in your direction, Isa

I'm having company--all the time

In recent days, there was a deer (doe) on the pasture, then a moose (cow). Beginning of the week two ducks landed on the pond, stayed a couple of days and left northward. Yesterday, two Canada geese splashed down on the water. The were there necking this morning, and then grazed all day on Steve's early grass. They left with the sun this evening, probably to a safe place to spend the night. I don't know if they are traveling alone. Usually, they join their families for the long flight into northern Canada. Maybe they have arranged for a big meeting here? it happened in previous years. Now, in the deep dusk of the evening, there is a tom turkey out there practicing his tail feathers for the season's events. I expect him to bring his brides here pretty soon. There were as many as 21 of them last summer and fall.
It is so wonderful to live in a house that has windows open to nature. And with the rising daytime temperatures, our windows ARE open.

Have a lovely evening y'all, and see you soon? Isa