20-year reunion Coming Up

Wow. I graduated from high school 20 years ago! And I still wear some of the same clothes! Not kidding. I like clothes that last. It's going to be fun, and a chance to see the parents and old, old friends.  One wants to get the old gang that went to prom together and dance the night away. We went as friends (I think there was one actual couple in the group), and I think that staying "just friends" is best in high school. You learn a lot more from being friends with people than you do from trying to impress them in exchange for illicit favors. And you can have fun without the pressure to "perform" for anyone. 

Fungi are Not My Friends

O.K. Maybe portobello and white button mushrooms are my friends, but that's it. I got my husband's foot and nail fungus after we started sharing a bathroom, and proved to be sensitive to the medication taken internally, so those fungi are NOT my friends. 

My Arkansas Traveler tomato plants are sick. I noticed some oddly yellow branches on one side toward the bottom of one plant a few weeks ago, during the unusual cool and wet weather we've been having, and promptly forgot about them. Now the crown of the plant is affected. It looks, from the tomato diagnostic pages I can find online, to be fusarium wilt. I am most saddened that I will not be able to grow those yummy fruits next year in that sunny spot. Arkansas Travelers are not fusarium wilt resistant, though they are very drought, heat, and crack resistant. I'll have to try another, more resistant variety. I would provide a sick plant pic, but it is raining too hard to risk taking the camera outside. There is a pale hope that I'm mistaking insect damage and overwatering from the massive rains we're getting lately for the wilt, but I doubt it. We shall see.

A Quiet Life

Life when I was teaching was loud. The bells were loud, the kids were loud (I let them work in groups a lot, and there were a few in every bunch who could only speak at one volume), the news channel at the start of the day was loud, the traffic duty at the end of the day was loud (amazing how difficult it is to keep some parents from running over their own offspring, and how loudly they yell at you for trying). I often returned to my apartment, late in the evening after detention/cleanup duty, closed the door behind me, and relished the silence. Now I get that silence at home on a daily basis. We do not watch TV. Our videos come on the laptops, if we watch them. The radio is turned to a low volume, if it is on. We can hear the natural world through our open windows. I like this life.

Eating the Harvest

Tonight I harvested a zucchini! It survived the borers long enough to produce! Hallelujah! No picture- I was too excited about picking it. Awesome! We did eat some beets and carrots, boiled in a little water until done, with golden raisins and a bit of OJ added at the end (yum). We ate the zucchini in some potato-zucchini fritters based on a recipe from The Classic Zucchini Cookbook by Ralston, Jordan, and Chesman. I HIGHLY recommend this book for fans of squash, or the people who must be fed by them. Breads, desserts, main dishes (vegetarian or meaty), pickles, freezer recipes, every kind of recipe using the squash family seems to be represented. Lots of ways to make squash sweet, savory, or especially non-slimy. There's even a "zucchini bingo" at the end combining sauted zucchini and onion with vegetables, meats, sauces, a base like grain or spaghetti squash, and a topping like bread crumbs or cheese to form a casserole. My only complaint would be the preponderance of baked recipes. It is too hot here in the summer to bake! I can do the roasted winter squash with pleasure, though, so all is well.

The Joy of Cantaloupe

This grew out back! All 5 lb 4 oz of it. Forget my disheveled clothing- I was too excited about the amazing aroma of a ripe cantaloupe to notice an un-tucked facing. I cut it open to see an interior the color of orange sherbet, not gelatinous or mealy, but freshly ripe. I like my melons fragrant, but firm, and this one was perfect. I was too excited to remember to take a picture of the interior, but it was very good. Here also is a picture with the vine, for future reference.

Afternoon Adventure of The Less Pleasant Kind

This afternoon, on the way home from church, my husband's car DIED at an intersection. Simply would not run, would not turn over, no power windows to go up, nothing. It was not an intersection in the best part of town, but there was a gas station nearby. The attendant was completely encased in bulletproof glass/plexiglass, with pockmarks in a few places. I asked for numbers for a taxi and a tow truck. His first language was not English, and from the accent, probably not Spanish, either. I can speak enough Spanish to get by. When I motioned for "phone" and said "numbers" a second time, he waved me to a phone book outside the glass. We called a cab, and the driver was quite nice, even switching his radio station when he saw my church clothes and Bible. I was glad he was driving with all the windows open, because there was enough cigarette residue in the car to activate my asthma otherwise. I came home, got my car, and went to the dealership to pick up my husband and bring him home.

Lessons: carry keys at all times, carry phone and have it charged, and be ready to walk if necessary. We had all but the last one. Triple A would have been nice, too, though I've seen Mom and Dad wait a lot longer than we did for a tow. Boy scouts aren't the only ones who should Be Prepared.

Riverwalk

We like to go down to Mud Island and watch the boats and barges go by, on Sunday afternoon when we do not want to nap. This craft looked a lot like a Lewis and Clark commemoration of some kind. The bottom of the boat appears to use canoes as pontoons, with a few more canoes out back in tow. This is how people would have traveled down-river long ago, more or less, unless they built log rafts.

Flower on Mud Island

We took advantage of the gorgeous weather to go to the park on Mud Island Sunday afternoon and walk around. This plant was growing in the rocks at river's edge. Each flower had a bee in it, oblivious to the world. I looked at the flowers while my husband added to the artistic rock piles balanced precariously near the water. We later shared a strawberry-banana smoothie. Fun!

Harvesting Sunflower Seeds and Fretting

Today I decided that several sunflower heads looked dried out and gross, so I took them inside. They had little sunflower seeds in them! Lots of little seeds from the small ones, and one large head of only slightly-smaller-than -normal ones from a volunteer plant near the bird feeder. Cool.

I've been fretting lately about the speed at which things are being pushed in Washington. They're spending too much too fast, in a continuation of the pattern that got us in a mess last year. I think there should be a constitutional amendment (at every level of government) that "NO LAW (regulation, etc.) shall be passed until every legislator voting on it has read it in its entirety in its final form, and said law has been published in a public forum available to all concerned citizens (Internet, newspaper, chiseled on stones in the public square, whatever) for a minimum of 10 (ten) days before the vote for every 100 pages of the law. Any legislator changing said law after the vote without consent of the governed will be expelled immediately, forfeiting all benefits of office, and demoted to the lowest-paying public position (janitor, dog catcher, whatever) in his or her voting district. They'd have to inform us of what they were doing, and stick to it. Maybe I'm too hard on them, but I get the feeling their imposed tax burden is going to be tough on all of us in years to come. Aargh.

Corn Looks Good

We've been getting a couple of good ears (and several squatty ones from the back bed, where the flowering crape myrtles bashed the stalks in a heavy rain and blocked sunlight at a critical period) per day. I selected one stalk today to save seed. I tied some baling twine around it, and will let it mature and dry out. I know  should save several for the sake of genetic diversity, but I don't have much room. I'll buy commercial seed for backup next year. Imagine what we could do with a sunny plot of more than 50 square feet?

Praise God for Cooler Weather

The jet stream has curled south of us, resulting in astonishingly cool temperatures for the past three days. Rainy with a HIGH of 78 today! I'm unabashedly grateful! Water AND coolness in July! It is truly a gift- and saves us substantially on the electric bills. We sleep better in the cool night breezes and fresher air. Wonderful. Must go tend the garden in the "cool of the evening". Wonderful.

Another Hornworm

This tomato was supposed to be pear-shaped, and purple. It gets brownish red when ripe. Actually I'm not upset with the plant's performance at all, because this is actually 2 or more of the pear-shaped fruit fused together. The plants of this variety are the only ones (so far) that the hornworms are finding attractive. They pose for me at the top of the plant in the evening. I remove and drown them. Oy.

Do Not Worry

If you want something to worry about, the Internet is a great place to look. H1N1, E.Coli, economic policy, lots of things. If you're worried about Bugs from Farm Animals, the following story from my childhood may help you calm your paranoia:

When I was a toddler (that's me in the picture), I ate some dirt. We lived on my grandparents' dying farm, complete with cows, chickens, dogs, rabbits, squirrels, groundhogs, possums, skunks, deer, birds, snakes, and lots of other critters. Pigs were there before I was born. We had a smokehouse out back. Mom called our pediatrician. He was an elderly man, shaky, but expert in the ways of small humans. "She ate some dirt! Will she be O.K.? What should I do?"

"Don't worry about it. If you put dirt in her bottle and let it sit all day, then gave her the bottle, it would make her sick. But eating dirt will not hurt her."

On a farm, with animals. So relax. Wash your veggies in a dilute bleach solution of you have doubts. Wash your hands. Maintain basic hygiene when cooking. And leave the worrying for someone else to do.

My Ancestors Didn't Need No Stinkin' Gym

This is my paternal grandmother's father (lower right) with his brothers. I'm beginning to realize, as we have an older house and I garden and can and hang laundry and hand-scrub floors, that the hands-on life requires a LOT more sheer physical effort than swiping the vacuum over the floor and eating take-out. You don't need a gym when you're hauling baskets of laundry up 2 flights of stairs, scrubbing floors, processing tomatoes and peaches, and clearing some garden beds for fall plantings. That's me this week-end. Barefoot (except for outside) and hausfrauing. If you asked my female ancestors if they did 3 hours of vigorous exercise a week, they would probably have told you they did more than that every day!  Got to get to work.

Birthday Harvest

This was our harvest on Husband's Birthday. It added up to over 2 pounds. Our monthly total is now a little over 20 pounds. the windowsills are full of ripening maters, and life is blessed.

Mitzi's Convalescent Home for Semi-Feral Cats

It is otherwise known as my garage. Jorge is living there now, and appears most mornings and afternoons, demanding his dinner. He's not moving as fast or as confidently as he did before he was injured a few months ago, before Spot's death. He does seem to be recovering, as his fur is growing back and he does not have any obvious long-term injuries, except a scar over one eye. He was lying on my husband's car when I left home Tuesday, and was still there when I got home. He was less skittish this morning than he has been lately. He came running when I opened the door, and talked to me a little, though I did not offer to pet him. I like my little companions, even if their lives are short and they only come to me for temporary assistance. I offer what I can.

Birthday! (or How To Make Someone's Day on a Budget)

On this day 50 years ago, my beloved was born. To celebrate, I bought a cheap bouquet of flowers and ironed a tablecloth. I got out the nice dishes. I cooked up some pork chops from the supermarket; corn, green beans (canned in June), and fresh-sliced tomatoes from the backyard; caramel walnut brownies from the corner cafe; and vanilla ice cream from the supermarket. It turned out well. We had fun, and did not spend too much. 

Confused Bees?

Look at this! Bees on tasselling corn! Maybe they're desperate for pollen. It was an interesting sight last week.

Harvest Report, Mid-July

We're still averaging a little over a pound a day, mostly from the tomatoes. The Poona Khiras are taking a break, which is good, because I need to eat up the ones we have. Here is a picture of yesterday's harvest. The chard are still yielding a meal every 2 weeks, which is good in this heat.

40 Acres and No Mule Quote

Here is a quote from close to the end of the book:

"If you are hardy enough to strip life down to its simplicities you may be able to create an environment in which you can gain perspective. Certainly you can provide yourself with the opportunity for profound and reflective thinking, and you can give yourself a rest from the tense, nervous expenditure of energy demanded of you every waking moment of your life in the city. ... The nostalgia for a simpler life is perfectly healthy and understandable, and in some cases even necessary."

This was written in 1952. Imagine what she would say now!

Reading Again

Now that the candidacy meeting is over, I'm back to reading about canning, gardening, preserving food, etc. Now I am reading Forty Acres and No Mule by Janice Holt Giles. My family had a lot in common wiht the Kentucky Appalachians she describes in the book. We are devout Christians, and we used to have close-knit communities based on family ties and long-standing land ownership going back to Revolutionary and War of 1812 grants. Even the food described in the book is familiar (including a lack of asparagus- I do not remember eating it until adulthood). The manners of treating others are similar, though the verbal expressions are different. It is a fascinating look at how an outsider adjusts to a small, family-based community.

Sometimes You Love Unpopular Things

Yesterday, when I told some of my committee members that I miss the classroom, some of them were very surprised. They seemed to think I would not like teaching at the college level. They find it boring, something they have to do. They'd rather be in the lab or in their offices.

I am a Teacher. It is part of who I am. I started teaching in Vacation Bible School with pre-schoolers when I was 12. Never looked back. Wanted to teach. I still do, but in an environment where I will be physically safe, and where I can contribute, even if my joint condition becomes severely disabling.

I love helping people learn new things. It is fun, even if you have spoken the words 30 times previously today, to help out one more time with that last class. To see it "click" for someone who did not "get it" before- that is an awesome responsibility for me and a joy, especially in a church class. 

I love the Bible and I love teaching, too, so combining the two is great. I hope to make money teaching science, maybe even basic biology. I hope someday to settle in a church and help make lives again teaching the Word to children, which is beautiful as it molds their moral development and opens their hearts to God. Someday.

Jorge Lives- And I Passed Candidacy

Today was a big meeting for me- the Admission to Candidacy Oral Exam. It went pretty well. I blanked on a few obvious things, but that was OK, because then they didn't have to get too picky to find my limits. Otherwise God mercifully granted me coherence and intelligent words in the midst of nervousness, and it worked out fine.

Jorge is back for the second evening in a row. I am giving him food, and he lounges in the backyard. He has a scar above one eye that he did not have before, and he is thinner, but he appears to be OK, and his fur is growing back over his injuries. I like having a cat around, even if he will not talk to me. That is OK.

Arkansas Travelers

These are Arkansas Travelers. They make very good eatin' maters. They can be slipped unobtrusively into a lunch box. They are a nice color of pinkish-red. We ate one tonight along with one very large Japanese Black Trifele. I thought I had a picture of it, but I did not. The bottoms of those large tomatoes ripen sometimes before the tops. I think they may be composed of smaller tomato units fused together. Those darker tomatoes are certainly flavorful, but it is hard to tell when they are ripe. They never get as black as the pictures in the catalog. I'll have to take pictures tomorrow to show what I mean.

Recognizing Ripeness in an Unfamiliar Fruit

These photographs show the contrast, inside and out, between an over-mature Poona Khira cucumber and one that is "just right". The over-mature ones do not get huge (at least in my yard); they just turn yellow and hard, with an exterior texture a bit like a cantaloupe. 

The seeds

 start to mature inside, and the interior of the cucumber becomes a bit gelatinous, or "peffy", as we say 

about over-mature cucumbers and squashes. They are best picked small.

Bees are Here

The Crepe Myrtles are blooming, as they always do in the hottest part of the summer, providing a splash of color in a sun-scorched, humidity-hazed world, though it is wonderfully cool (mid 80s for a high) today. The bees love them. The branches bend above my tomato plants, and I am tall, so they buzz near my ears. As a child their presence would have terrified me, but now I find we are all busy about our set tasks, and we don't really bother each other. Here is a bee on the borage, which continues to bloom even after the plant falls over in a rain shower. The plant just grows new upward spikes. 

5 pounds 3 1/2 ounces!

Nope, not a premature baby, but my harvest report so far this month. With the chard for tonight's beans'n'greens, we've brought in a pound a day, on average, so far this month! I must say that the poona khira next to the borage, which gets both sunlight and pollination, is producing prolifically. Tomatoes, too, though they are slow to ripen. The green beans are blooming again with the <95 degree weather, and will hopefully produce. I put a plate under what is obviously a melon, not an acorn squash, earlier today. Delightful! I probably won't get ANY squash this year due to the borers, but Husband doesn't like it much, anyway, except for the winter variety, roasted and buttered with maple syrup. Neighbor across the street says the squirrels are eating all her tomatoes. They are not eating mine, either due to the small gauge wire at the bottom of the cages, or the claustrophobia a small animal might feel going into one, or because of the cats. I hope Spot's death does not bring back the rodent hordes. We shall see. 

Memphis is a Moldy Place

There is mold at work. One cold room is unusable, the refrigerators (and even freezers!) grow black mildew, and we have to maintain constant vigilance to keep it out of the cell culture rooms.

We get mold at home, too. Just last week I had to complete the twice-annual bleaching of the basement floor. After the moisture of the fall and winter/spring rainy seasons, molds and mildew (black and white) start marching across the floor and growing on surfaces. A ten-percent bleach solution in hot water knocks them back until the next rainy season. Today I finished the job by  throwing away a backpack I had stored down there, which was covered with white mold colonies, and cleaning a table on which I had grown various seedlings. On a purple backpack, white spots  are not attractive. 

This is a very humid, fungal city, so if you have a mold allergy, it is probably not a good place to settle. In other ways it can be very nice, especially in our Midtown neighborhood with its picturesque bungalows and cafes, but be prepared to buy bleach frequently. You'll need it.

Napping Without Sweating too Much

This is my Dad as a young man, with my grandfather, in the summer.

We are on our second day of July, AC free. We may not make it through this one, with a forecast high of 94, but we're almost through the hottest part successfully. How do we stay cool?

1. Minimize heat generation. Minimal cooking, no baking or roasting at all, no long-cooking soups unless in a crock pot.

2. Minimal lights on, even at night, especially track lights- you can feel the heat if you stand under them.

3. Turn on a fan. It is too humid here in Memphis for "swamp coolers", involving a fan blowing across a body of water, but the fan itself still does wonders for your perception of temperature. After all, the difference between "warm" and "way too hot" is mostly a matter of perception most days in temperate climates. Don't think so? Place a thermostat in a room full of middle-aged women and walk away.

4. Dress lightly, but do cover up to go outside. The sunshine is not necessarily your friend this time of year, and Grandpa wore long khaki pants, hats, and white shirts for a reason. Natural cotton or linen will wick away the sweat (and cloth like seersucker or Madras cotton does not stick to the skin readily, because of the variations in the weave).

5. Don't get a house with wall-to-wall carpet. Hard-surface flooring is cooler to the touch, and easier to keep genuinely clean. You'd be astonished how many dust bunnies accumulate under the bed that you simply do not SEE on carpet. Nasty. Plus when your feet feel cooler, the rest of your body does, too.

6. Drink a lot of water and tea and lemonade, and accept sweat as a fact of life. Your pores will thank you for giving them something to do.

Tomatoes are Here!

That glorious season is coming, when the tomatoes come in every day, and eating one over the sink is a beautiful pleasure. I did not take a picture of it, but my first "Japanese Black Trifele" came in. It was brick red on the bottom, with greenish-purple on the top when ripe. Weird looking, good tasting. The Sungolds are still coming on strong, and the Arkansas Travelers are starting to ripen.

Not only that, but the weather has cooled! We're going without AC in JULY! In Tennessee! Miracles do happen!

I rejoice. The death of the cat was sad, but she died "with her boots on", so to speak, defending her turf. She would probably rather go that way than by a lingering illness and repeated vet visits. The yard is even quieter now, but the kingdom still grows, and life goes on.

Spot is Dead

I took food outside for the cats and birds this morning as usual, put down the cat food, and was surprised that Spot did not run up to me. I turned to see a white heap of fur under the tree- Spot was dead. Something ripped her throat from below.  She died quickly, as she did not have time to crawl under a bush to die. I screamed, and my husband told me to go inside. He buried the body as I cried. He needed my car today, so he drove me to work. That was good, as I was in no shape to drive.

Spot was a good cat, except for getting white hair and muddy paw prints on newly-washed cars. She was very quiet, as she had some kind of damage to her vocal cords and could not "meow" normally. Most of the time she said a very whispery "Ack" instead of "meow". She probably could not scream for help. I want to get the slingshot repaired and get some steel balls, as whatever killed her will probably return. Whatever hurt Jorge (and he has been very skittish, coming under cover of darkness and no longer allowing me to pet him ever since) probably killed her. I can't shoot it with a gun in this neighborhood, but hopefully I can hurt it enough to keep it away.