Our move to the country has prompted us to try to be more self-sufficient. Thus my blog and facebook are filled with comments about activities related to gardening, livestock, and cooking. Although these are extremely creative activities, they do not "fit" within the "Creativity Group" umbrella of art.
Therefore, all this quaint, country, self-sufficiency stuff will be logged on the new site: www.pioneerstock.blogspot.com. If you like hearing about goats, rabbits, chickens, and gardening, visit often and see what's up at the farm!
I hope to see you there!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
100 Baby Chicks (continued)
Now there are 103 baby chicks. We suspect trampling was the cause of the fuzzball's demise. 1 out of 104 isn't a bad loss, I guess.
They are all just eating, drinking, chirping and crapping away! The storage tubs are getting REALLY crowded. Monty has everything he needs to build the new baby chicken coop with brooder (thingy with warming lamps) to go in it. Now all he needs is a couple more days without rain!
Mamma goats are doing well as is the baby girl and little Spencer. Billy kid however has the scours really BAD.We are medicating him and watching him closely. I have to give him a liquid medicine and an injection today.
They are all just eating, drinking, chirping and crapping away! The storage tubs are getting REALLY crowded. Monty has everything he needs to build the new baby chicken coop with brooder (thingy with warming lamps) to go in it. Now all he needs is a couple more days without rain!
Mamma goats are doing well as is the baby girl and little Spencer. Billy kid however has the scours really BAD.We are medicating him and watching him closely. I have to give him a liquid medicine and an injection today.
Today . . . .
Went to the Cattle Sale this morning and bought a regular size pressure cooker ($12 T-Fal no-stick with the instructions & recipes, almost new!), an old used crock pot for soap-making ($4), and LOTS of fresh veggies including green beans, little yellow squash, tiny red potatoes, a bunch of Bermuda onions, 2 big containers of broccoli, a big fresh rutabaga, 2 small watermelons, and a basket of small, early Chilton County peaches (all those for $18). Here’s what I looked at and did NOT buy:
a Tibetan sword for $15 (yeah, a Tibetan sword!)
a tin “purse” container that I would’ve hung on the wall of my deck with other tin “things” for $2 – no she’d take $1
a HUGE bourbon tom turkey $50
a half-dozen guinea chicks $3 each
a $4 bolt for the tractor
a $10 used crockpot
a $5 used crockpot
a $5 roll of window screen
a chicken-catching net – didn’t ask the price
and many other little critters and junque.
NOW I have everything I can possibly need to make soap. I’m going to use the old used crockpot for melt & pour and for heating the oils for the soaps.
Last week we went to Bham and stopped into the Golden Temple on Southside to get some “exotic” ingredients for soap and cosmetics. I bought 16 oz. of Shea Butter, 2 little cakes of beeswax, some vitamin E oil, a large container of Bentonite clay and two different essential oils – lemongrass and clove. I already had cinnamon. Golden Temple is such an experience, it's a wonder they don't charge a cover to let you in. The sights, smells, and people-watching there are priceless.
At Whole Foods, I found a LARGE container of grapeseed oil, some palm oil, and coconut oil. The family sampled EVERY flavored olive oil there. We spent about 20-30 minutes in the cheese area sampling and having delightful conversation with the cheese man about mites, goats, sheep, and mold. Wonderful!! The children and hubby all got a single slice of pizza from the deli area. I got gluten-free pretzels (kind of anti-climactic, huh?). We saw, we sampled, and we bought.
At Hobby Lobby, I bought a couple of molds and some lotion containers. Jessica got a block of clay to try sculpting with, Noah bought some models, and the girls got a stuffed animal. I walked through the store with hands cupped around eyes to keep me focused on my list.
I have found great online sources for containers for lip balms and other cosmetics, but I want to do some testing first. ALSO, I am trying to keep track of what each item costs so that I can figure the actual cost of anything I end up making.
If I actually end up making the soap (instead of buying the inexpensive plain melt & pour blocks and rebatching it with my creative stuff added) I want to get the simplest possible ingredients leaning towards stuff I have in my garden, goat’s milk which I hope to be getting from my goats, and stuff I can get at this Wal Mart. Dollar Tree (of all places!!) had a package of beautiful handmade papers that I got to try as wrap for the soap. I hope I can get a couple of days of rain now to give me the excuse to concentrate and really DO this thing!!!
I’ll keep you posted how it goes and the recipes I try. Wish me luck.
a Tibetan sword for $15 (yeah, a Tibetan sword!)
a tin “purse” container that I would’ve hung on the wall of my deck with other tin “things” for $2 – no she’d take $1
a HUGE bourbon tom turkey $50
a half-dozen guinea chicks $3 each
a $4 bolt for the tractor
a $10 used crockpot
a $5 used crockpot
a $5 roll of window screen
a chicken-catching net – didn’t ask the price
and many other little critters and junque.
NOW I have everything I can possibly need to make soap. I’m going to use the old used crockpot for melt & pour and for heating the oils for the soaps.
Last week we went to Bham and stopped into the Golden Temple on Southside to get some “exotic” ingredients for soap and cosmetics. I bought 16 oz. of Shea Butter, 2 little cakes of beeswax, some vitamin E oil, a large container of Bentonite clay and two different essential oils – lemongrass and clove. I already had cinnamon. Golden Temple is such an experience, it's a wonder they don't charge a cover to let you in. The sights, smells, and people-watching there are priceless.
At Whole Foods, I found a LARGE container of grapeseed oil, some palm oil, and coconut oil. The family sampled EVERY flavored olive oil there. We spent about 20-30 minutes in the cheese area sampling and having delightful conversation with the cheese man about mites, goats, sheep, and mold. Wonderful!! The children and hubby all got a single slice of pizza from the deli area. I got gluten-free pretzels (kind of anti-climactic, huh?). We saw, we sampled, and we bought.
At Hobby Lobby, I bought a couple of molds and some lotion containers. Jessica got a block of clay to try sculpting with, Noah bought some models, and the girls got a stuffed animal. I walked through the store with hands cupped around eyes to keep me focused on my list.
I have found great online sources for containers for lip balms and other cosmetics, but I want to do some testing first. ALSO, I am trying to keep track of what each item costs so that I can figure the actual cost of anything I end up making.
If I actually end up making the soap (instead of buying the inexpensive plain melt & pour blocks and rebatching it with my creative stuff added) I want to get the simplest possible ingredients leaning towards stuff I have in my garden, goat’s milk which I hope to be getting from my goats, and stuff I can get at this Wal Mart. Dollar Tree (of all places!!) had a package of beautiful handmade papers that I got to try as wrap for the soap. I hope I can get a couple of days of rain now to give me the excuse to concentrate and really DO this thing!!!
I’ll keep you posted how it goes and the recipes I try. Wish me luck.
Monday, June 01, 2009
We lost a baby chick . . .
This happened last week:
I'm so ANGRY!!! We lost a baby chick tonight.
Today, I moved those week-old nasty buzzards out of my dining room where those warm lamps were making their little chicken smells waft all through the kitchen. I took them and put them in the garage after carefully running an extension cord just right so I could keep their little butts warm. It was great. The garage is about 10 degrees warmer than my house and about 5 degrees hotter than outside.
Well, tonight we got home from Bham and the garage stunk to the high heavens!! So, smart folks that we are, we left the garage door open for a "few minutes" to let it air out a little. Well, about an hour later, we're sitting together in the living room watching old Tom and Jerry cartoons, and Monty hears the chicks all making a ruckus. He jumps up and runs out to the garage where he sees the neighborhood roaming German Shepherd "Baby" toting off a sweet little yellow fuzzball!!!! He scolds her and she drops the chick and slinks off into the night.
Monty grabs the chick and there's no blood, but he has a dangling leg. Awww, crap. We closed the garage door and checked all the other animals just to be sure. Then we had to take the little chick and Monty had to finish him off - he was fading fast anyway. It was AWFUL!!! I felt SO badly that we'd been careless. The good news is that this is the little 11 chicks I got for $20 last week that have taught us many things in preparation for the big shipment that's coming any day now. Oh, well. Such is life on the farm????
I'm so ANGRY!!! We lost a baby chick tonight.
Today, I moved those week-old nasty buzzards out of my dining room where those warm lamps were making their little chicken smells waft all through the kitchen. I took them and put them in the garage after carefully running an extension cord just right so I could keep their little butts warm. It was great. The garage is about 10 degrees warmer than my house and about 5 degrees hotter than outside.
Well, tonight we got home from Bham and the garage stunk to the high heavens!! So, smart folks that we are, we left the garage door open for a "few minutes" to let it air out a little. Well, about an hour later, we're sitting together in the living room watching old Tom and Jerry cartoons, and Monty hears the chicks all making a ruckus. He jumps up and runs out to the garage where he sees the neighborhood roaming German Shepherd "Baby" toting off a sweet little yellow fuzzball!!!! He scolds her and she drops the chick and slinks off into the night.
Monty grabs the chick and there's no blood, but he has a dangling leg. Awww, crap. We closed the garage door and checked all the other animals just to be sure. Then we had to take the little chick and Monty had to finish him off - he was fading fast anyway. It was AWFUL!!! I felt SO badly that we'd been careless. The good news is that this is the little 11 chicks I got for $20 last week that have taught us many things in preparation for the big shipment that's coming any day now. Oh, well. Such is life on the farm????
Describing the Garden
The following post is an email (letter) I wrote to a friend today describing the garden. I'm including it in this blog, because I like it.
Dear Kathleen:
I’ve taken classes at the county extension for gardening and at Petals from the Past, and we have the most humongous garden I’ve ever attempted this year.
I’ve got 3 tomato areas: the main “eating” tomatoes area has 5 bamboo tepees under which there are 5 plants each and the tepees alternate between big slicing tomatoes and grape tomatoes. Between the tepees are planted purple, red, and green basils, and marigolds line the walking path in front of the tomatoes. To play off the height of the tepees, I planted mixed sunflowers between each tepee along the “wall” of the garden. I’m very excited to see this all filling in as the plants continue to grow. The 2nd tomato area is a bed of only roma tomato plants for sauce. I have 17 roma plants out, 9 in the center of those round metal cages, and 8 beside these weird metal poles the previous owner left. That’s going to be pretty, too. I only planted those from seed this past weekend, and I’m going back to interplant green basil with them today. The third tomato area will be heirlooms, and I’m just doing those for fun. They have great flavor, I’m growing them from seed, and they are SO pretty. I’m (hopefully) putting those out today, and interplanting them with onion and parsley.
Other than tomatoes, I have a bed with decorative Indian corn interplanted with cantaloupes and honeydews, pumpkins, and decorative gourds including birdhouse gourds. I also have wildly successful pumpkin plants growing in the compost heap!
I have a cabbage patch interplanted with chamomile, clary sage, and dill. Impatient as I am, I’ve decided that only chumps wait for cabbage to head! I just snip the leaves and use them in stir fries and this new recipe for this weird (delicious) patty thing.
I have a 50 ft wire fence inside supporting pole beans called gita – yard-long green beans. I’ve grown them the past three years very successfully, and they are so fine and delicious that you only have to just let them hit the sauté pan for a few seconds and they taste fabulous! At each support pole of that fence is a cucumber plant, and at every foot or so is a buttercrunch lettuce, and all this is interplanted with scarlet nasturtiums.
The squash bed contains zucchini, yellow squash, butternut, and acorn squash. It has red clover between the squash hills to keep weeds down and to nitrify the soil supporting the growth of the squash. Petunias line that bed – mixed colors.
A stubborn old stump has been heaped up with dirt and has become the strawberry hill. It looks GREAT!
The bush beans are planted in 3 rows beside the strawberry hill, and I’ve just planted 3 rows of swiss chard (mixed ruby and neon lights) beside those plants. I’m going to put in some more lettuces in that bed, too, including arugula and some thyme.
I went crazy at Petals from the Past buying seed packets for their gorgeous art, and I ended up with 6 varieties of peppers to plant. Got them in the ground this weekend, too, and there are 6 rows with a wide variety of colors, sweet and heat plants, and shapes.
The last two areas are a garlic/onion bed which is doing GREAT and the long row of potatoes against the fence – white and red – both of which were planted back in February. The white potatoes are doing great, but the foliage came in on the trees and is blocking most of the sun over the red potatoes and they look puny.
There is also a row of purple hull cowpeas coming along nicely. I laid drip hoses for every area of the garden and constructed this series of connectors that I basically have to manually hook up the hose to one receiver to water the entire outside area of the garden, and another one to water all the inside beds. That was quite a bit of engineering for my brain, but I managed. Outside the garden we have blueberries and raspberries and fruit trees planted including peaches, pears, plums, apples, and plums. I just saw a pomegranate tree at a friend’s house with those fiery orange blossoms and HAD to get one. The little fruit tree man that comes to the “cattle sale” every Wednesday morning had them, and I got one. I haven’t planted it yet.
Landscaping? I’ve done nothing. The priority this year is the garden and the animals. We haven’t done nearly enough to the inside of the house yet either, but the plan is to make a 4th bedroom in the basement with a full bath. We moved in August, so I didn’t try to get a teaching job this year, and what I don’t understand is this: How did my family ever have clean clothes to wear or a hot meal to eat when I was working outside the home????? It seems like they need me more now that they’re older than they did when they were babies, but I really like that.
I’d love to meet you in Bham or Alabaster for lunch, or you could have a day in the country down here. We could do lunch and visit Petals from the Past in Jemison (just hide your checkbook and debit card!!!). It is a lovely place to spend HOURS and HOURS gawking at beautiful plants and chatting. Let me know what you’d like to do. Hope to see you soon.
Love, Rebecca
Dear Kathleen:
I’ve taken classes at the county extension for gardening and at Petals from the Past, and we have the most humongous garden I’ve ever attempted this year.
I’ve got 3 tomato areas: the main “eating” tomatoes area has 5 bamboo tepees under which there are 5 plants each and the tepees alternate between big slicing tomatoes and grape tomatoes. Between the tepees are planted purple, red, and green basils, and marigolds line the walking path in front of the tomatoes. To play off the height of the tepees, I planted mixed sunflowers between each tepee along the “wall” of the garden. I’m very excited to see this all filling in as the plants continue to grow. The 2nd tomato area is a bed of only roma tomato plants for sauce. I have 17 roma plants out, 9 in the center of those round metal cages, and 8 beside these weird metal poles the previous owner left. That’s going to be pretty, too. I only planted those from seed this past weekend, and I’m going back to interplant green basil with them today. The third tomato area will be heirlooms, and I’m just doing those for fun. They have great flavor, I’m growing them from seed, and they are SO pretty. I’m (hopefully) putting those out today, and interplanting them with onion and parsley.
Other than tomatoes, I have a bed with decorative Indian corn interplanted with cantaloupes and honeydews, pumpkins, and decorative gourds including birdhouse gourds. I also have wildly successful pumpkin plants growing in the compost heap!
I have a cabbage patch interplanted with chamomile, clary sage, and dill. Impatient as I am, I’ve decided that only chumps wait for cabbage to head! I just snip the leaves and use them in stir fries and this new recipe for this weird (delicious) patty thing.
I have a 50 ft wire fence inside supporting pole beans called gita – yard-long green beans. I’ve grown them the past three years very successfully, and they are so fine and delicious that you only have to just let them hit the sauté pan for a few seconds and they taste fabulous! At each support pole of that fence is a cucumber plant, and at every foot or so is a buttercrunch lettuce, and all this is interplanted with scarlet nasturtiums.
The squash bed contains zucchini, yellow squash, butternut, and acorn squash. It has red clover between the squash hills to keep weeds down and to nitrify the soil supporting the growth of the squash. Petunias line that bed – mixed colors.
A stubborn old stump has been heaped up with dirt and has become the strawberry hill. It looks GREAT!
The bush beans are planted in 3 rows beside the strawberry hill, and I’ve just planted 3 rows of swiss chard (mixed ruby and neon lights) beside those plants. I’m going to put in some more lettuces in that bed, too, including arugula and some thyme.
I went crazy at Petals from the Past buying seed packets for their gorgeous art, and I ended up with 6 varieties of peppers to plant. Got them in the ground this weekend, too, and there are 6 rows with a wide variety of colors, sweet and heat plants, and shapes.
The last two areas are a garlic/onion bed which is doing GREAT and the long row of potatoes against the fence – white and red – both of which were planted back in February. The white potatoes are doing great, but the foliage came in on the trees and is blocking most of the sun over the red potatoes and they look puny.
There is also a row of purple hull cowpeas coming along nicely. I laid drip hoses for every area of the garden and constructed this series of connectors that I basically have to manually hook up the hose to one receiver to water the entire outside area of the garden, and another one to water all the inside beds. That was quite a bit of engineering for my brain, but I managed. Outside the garden we have blueberries and raspberries and fruit trees planted including peaches, pears, plums, apples, and plums. I just saw a pomegranate tree at a friend’s house with those fiery orange blossoms and HAD to get one. The little fruit tree man that comes to the “cattle sale” every Wednesday morning had them, and I got one. I haven’t planted it yet.
Landscaping? I’ve done nothing. The priority this year is the garden and the animals. We haven’t done nearly enough to the inside of the house yet either, but the plan is to make a 4th bedroom in the basement with a full bath. We moved in August, so I didn’t try to get a teaching job this year, and what I don’t understand is this: How did my family ever have clean clothes to wear or a hot meal to eat when I was working outside the home????? It seems like they need me more now that they’re older than they did when they were babies, but I really like that.
I’d love to meet you in Bham or Alabaster for lunch, or you could have a day in the country down here. We could do lunch and visit Petals from the Past in Jemison (just hide your checkbook and debit card!!!). It is a lovely place to spend HOURS and HOURS gawking at beautiful plants and chatting. Let me know what you’d like to do. Hope to see you soon.
Love, Rebecca
Friday, May 29, 2009
The State of the Farm Address: or how are we doing on the plan I discussed in December
In December, I mentioned that we planned to plant a larger scale garden here and get some animals.
The garden is about a 60 ft x 60 ft horseshoe-shaped area with various plantings. We have 5 tomato tepees with 5 plants each underneath. The tomatoes are interplanted with green and purple basil and surrounded by marigolds for insect control.
There are about 50 white potatoes and 50 red potatoes planted, but something is wrong with the red potatoes. We think the trees have filled in with so many leaves and the direction of the sun has changed so much since planting in February that they aren't getting enough sun and they've just died. There are about 40 ft of pole beans which are yard-long green beans. With those are planted cucumbers, buttercrunch lettuce, and scarlet nasturtiums.
Along one of the fences is the squash bed with zucchini, yellow, acorn, and butternut squash plants. They are growing like crazy and have little baby squashes and/or blossoms on every plant.
The onion and garlic bed is coming along nicely and I snip green tops of onions for cooking whenever I need some. The cabbage patch is about 8 ft x 8ft and has interplantings of chamomile, clary sage, and dill. I've decided that only perfectionists wait for cabbages to form heads. I'm snipping leaves and using them in stir frying and other recipes! Fabulous!
The melon area is planted with decorative Indian corn, cantaloupes, decorative gourds, birdhouse gourds, pie pumpkins, and giant pumpkins. There are also pumpkins growing in the compost pile.
I still need to plant roma tomatoes for sauce, heirloom tomatoes because they're cool and I can save and use the seeds next summer, chard because it is delicious, leeks because they taste VERY different from onions, and peppers because they are beautiful! I look forward to seeing what kind of harvest we get.
Animals?? We GOTS animals. Here's the list:
13 (almost) laying hens
14 quail
10 week-old mixed chicks
8 bunnies
5 goats
1 puppy
2 kittens and
104 freshly hatched pullets!
By my count, we have 157 critters as of today, May 29, 2009.
As for growing edible mushrooms, we are still making decisions about that enterprise. So, all in all, I think we're doing really well on the plan!
The garden is about a 60 ft x 60 ft horseshoe-shaped area with various plantings. We have 5 tomato tepees with 5 plants each underneath. The tomatoes are interplanted with green and purple basil and surrounded by marigolds for insect control.
There are about 50 white potatoes and 50 red potatoes planted, but something is wrong with the red potatoes. We think the trees have filled in with so many leaves and the direction of the sun has changed so much since planting in February that they aren't getting enough sun and they've just died. There are about 40 ft of pole beans which are yard-long green beans. With those are planted cucumbers, buttercrunch lettuce, and scarlet nasturtiums.
Along one of the fences is the squash bed with zucchini, yellow, acorn, and butternut squash plants. They are growing like crazy and have little baby squashes and/or blossoms on every plant.
The onion and garlic bed is coming along nicely and I snip green tops of onions for cooking whenever I need some. The cabbage patch is about 8 ft x 8ft and has interplantings of chamomile, clary sage, and dill. I've decided that only perfectionists wait for cabbages to form heads. I'm snipping leaves and using them in stir frying and other recipes! Fabulous!
The melon area is planted with decorative Indian corn, cantaloupes, decorative gourds, birdhouse gourds, pie pumpkins, and giant pumpkins. There are also pumpkins growing in the compost pile.
I still need to plant roma tomatoes for sauce, heirloom tomatoes because they're cool and I can save and use the seeds next summer, chard because it is delicious, leeks because they taste VERY different from onions, and peppers because they are beautiful! I look forward to seeing what kind of harvest we get.
Animals?? We GOTS animals. Here's the list:
13 (almost) laying hens
14 quail
10 week-old mixed chicks
8 bunnies
5 goats
1 puppy
2 kittens and
104 freshly hatched pullets!
By my count, we have 157 critters as of today, May 29, 2009.
As for growing edible mushrooms, we are still making decisions about that enterprise. So, all in all, I think we're doing really well on the plan!
2 more critters . . .
The kittens born to our friend James turned 6 weeks old today, and the children were chomping at the bit to go get 'em!
I had bought a pet carrier - yeah, right! As if the kids would let the kittens be in the car without one of them holding the kittens! They are the CUTEST kitties ever! They are tiny with dark black color all over mixed with tan and mottled everywhere. If it was a dog, I'd call it brindle color, but its a cat and ????.
I love watching the children oohing and aahing over each subtle movement of the cats! The kittens haven't had a break from being held since 4pm and its now past 10:30. Jessica is especially in love (in lerve as she would say)with the kittens.
I'm so glad the children have animals to tend to over the summer!
I had bought a pet carrier - yeah, right! As if the kids would let the kittens be in the car without one of them holding the kittens! They are the CUTEST kitties ever! They are tiny with dark black color all over mixed with tan and mottled everywhere. If it was a dog, I'd call it brindle color, but its a cat and ????.
I love watching the children oohing and aahing over each subtle movement of the cats! The kittens haven't had a break from being held since 4pm and its now past 10:30. Jessica is especially in love (in lerve as she would say)with the kittens.
I'm so glad the children have animals to tend to over the summer!
Speedy Delivery!!
A man at the post office called this morning to let me know my chickens had arrived. I had that little anxious moment where you think, "Oh, crap!" Then I took a deep breath and began to mentally prepare for what lay ahead.
We got to the post office around noon, and the lady behind the desk brought me a box - just one box - full of 100 chickens!!!!! No extra space whatsoever! If you can imagine space needed for 100 eggs, that's about the amount of room the chickens had.
We brought them home and began putting special paper down in plastic storage tubs. I estimated that I could only fit 20 chicks in each tub with a feeder and a waterer. And that would only last about a week. I'll need to take it down to 15 or less per tub after that. This is going to be a big deal!! We papered, put water and feed in, and attached clamp lamps to the rims of the tubs to warm the little fuzzballs. I counted 20 chicks into each tub and there were 4 extras (they ship overage in case of any trampling deaths).
Then I proceeded to dip the beak of each chick into the water to make sure they find it. They all found food VERY quickly. MAN they are so CUTE!!!!!
Tune in again for the continuing saga - "100 Baby Chicks."
We got to the post office around noon, and the lady behind the desk brought me a box - just one box - full of 100 chickens!!!!! No extra space whatsoever! If you can imagine space needed for 100 eggs, that's about the amount of room the chickens had.
We brought them home and began putting special paper down in plastic storage tubs. I estimated that I could only fit 20 chicks in each tub with a feeder and a waterer. And that would only last about a week. I'll need to take it down to 15 or less per tub after that. This is going to be a big deal!! We papered, put water and feed in, and attached clamp lamps to the rims of the tubs to warm the little fuzzballs. I counted 20 chicks into each tub and there were 4 extras (they ship overage in case of any trampling deaths).
Then I proceeded to dip the beak of each chick into the water to make sure they find it. They all found food VERY quickly. MAN they are so CUTE!!!!!
Tune in again for the continuing saga - "100 Baby Chicks."
Out in the kudzu patch this morning . . .
I was walking - no trudging - around looking at a sea of ruby red future jewels. Every now and then, my eye would catch a gleaming black-garnet jewel, and I would pick it and add it to my growing bucket-load of ripe blackberries.
I don't know why I'm so motivated by FREE fruit, but I'm willing to wear long pants, hot rubber boots, and layers of Off bug spray and get out in the snakey kudzu for the treasure hunt!
It's amazing that a person as chicken as I am is willing to risk a skin-ripping thorn prick to retrieve even the tiniest blackberry.
I look into the dining room at my case full of jelly jars filled with delicious, dark, thick blackberry jam and then I can say, "Oh, yeah. That's why I risk life and limb to get those things!"
Today, Monty and I picked another 3 quarts. Our new friend, goat farmer John Anderson (not the "Just a-Swangin" singer), gave us two Wal-Mart sacks of used Mason jars which I am soaking in the sunshine so that I can wash them and sanitize them later for jam. Tomorrow morning, after feeding and watering the animals, I plan to make a batch of blackberry jam.
I don't know why I'm so motivated by FREE fruit, but I'm willing to wear long pants, hot rubber boots, and layers of Off bug spray and get out in the snakey kudzu for the treasure hunt!
It's amazing that a person as chicken as I am is willing to risk a skin-ripping thorn prick to retrieve even the tiniest blackberry.
I look into the dining room at my case full of jelly jars filled with delicious, dark, thick blackberry jam and then I can say, "Oh, yeah. That's why I risk life and limb to get those things!"
Today, Monty and I picked another 3 quarts. Our new friend, goat farmer John Anderson (not the "Just a-Swangin" singer), gave us two Wal-Mart sacks of used Mason jars which I am soaking in the sunshine so that I can wash them and sanitize them later for jam. Tomorrow morning, after feeding and watering the animals, I plan to make a batch of blackberry jam.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Today is the day!!!
OK! I've HAD it! I'm sick of doing things the same old way. I absolutely love so many things about my life, but I'm sick of the way I'm living it!! The day has come where I will no longer do things passively, boringly, or ploddingly!!
I'm starting a creativity group! There will be the online component, but there will be actual people who actually come fact to face often to interact and BE creative!!!!!
More details to follow.
Rebecca
PS: I'm replacing the frozen tree in the header with something springy-er. (word?)
I'm starting a creativity group! There will be the online component, but there will be actual people who actually come fact to face often to interact and BE creative!!!!!
More details to follow.
Rebecca
PS: I'm replacing the frozen tree in the header with something springy-er. (word?)
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Chocolat redux
OMG, as my 13-year-old would say! Tonight I watched it again for probably only the second time and WOW!!! More impressed even than the first time.
This film has so many levels of intrigue for me. The characters are rich. The look of the film is hypnotic. The actors are so incredible that I am transported!
I want to wear ONLY red pumps from now on! So many issues of mine are explored here. There is the "outsider who stirs things up" facet of my persona. There is the "geez, all I want to do is belong" lemming-wanna-be part of me. There is the "I want to help people explore their potential" aspect. There is the "I just want to settle down and be content" part, too.
I love how the film exposes that most the townspeople (like most of us) are living quiet little lies, some innocuous, some dangerous and violent - like Josephine. Josephine has no self-esteem and feels trapped and small and unimportant. Vianne shows her kindness, respect, and wants only to be her friend. This act of utmost kindness transforms Josephine from a pathetic repeat victim of her husband's merciless beatings and unkindnesses into a vibrant, caring, joyful, capable woman who loves to bring joy to others through her new-found skills and confidence.
We all want to stop living lies and jump into living only the truth, but most of us never have a Vianne step in to help us do that. I used to hear people talking about "Jesus with skin on." This Vianne character is just that. She performs the role of a savior for this town, and that is exactly what Jesus would've done had he walked into town in 1959 as Vianne did.
The half-of-a-Milo's-tea-jug-of-margaritas during the movie is really helping me explore my deeper thoughts about the film, too.
My favorite theme/sub-plot in the movie is the way that Juliette Binoche as Vianne shows the townspeople the true meaning of Christianity while everyone else (especially Alfred Molina's character - Renaud) is concerned with the "church" and the sacraments, and the holy days. Vianne is busying herself with the well-being of each of the people in the town. The mayor is worried about the propriety and the tradition of the town. Vianne wants to end suffering (her own, really, but she focuses her energy on the suffering of others) so she welcomes the townfolk into her shop and offers her heart through her wares - the chocolat - and loves them where they are, looking into their very souls and seeing them for who they are. She sees their needs and speaks to them in a personal way that reaches out and heals them. Joy bursts onto the scene in the most surprising ways for even the crustiest of characters - Armande.
I've shared my passion for chocolate with many friends when I tell them about Lindt's Lindor Truffles. These things are better than sex for some, and a great accessory during sex for others. I highly recommend that EVERYONE who reads this go out NOW, not tomorrow, not in an hour, NOW and BUY a milk chocolate or dark chocolate truffle from this maker of decadent, sinful, fabulous liquid, olfactory, tastebud SIN!!! No confessions or hail marys required. DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!
Just watch this film again (or for the first time if you haven't yet) and see which character you most identify with. See which theme or subtheme most touches you.
The message for me is to stop SETTLING for less than what OUGHT to be. Stop settling for "just enough." Stop letting people off the hook with having given less than 100%.
SO!!!!! All you friends of mine out there, you need to look out. I'm looking at YOU. You know who I'm talking to right now, don't you??? Call me - 205-401-6373. I love you, and you know it, and I'm going to show you more now than I ever have. I will not leave you where you are, but I will walk with you through that fire you face.
This film has so many levels of intrigue for me. The characters are rich. The look of the film is hypnotic. The actors are so incredible that I am transported!
I want to wear ONLY red pumps from now on! So many issues of mine are explored here. There is the "outsider who stirs things up" facet of my persona. There is the "geez, all I want to do is belong" lemming-wanna-be part of me. There is the "I want to help people explore their potential" aspect. There is the "I just want to settle down and be content" part, too.
I love how the film exposes that most the townspeople (like most of us) are living quiet little lies, some innocuous, some dangerous and violent - like Josephine. Josephine has no self-esteem and feels trapped and small and unimportant. Vianne shows her kindness, respect, and wants only to be her friend. This act of utmost kindness transforms Josephine from a pathetic repeat victim of her husband's merciless beatings and unkindnesses into a vibrant, caring, joyful, capable woman who loves to bring joy to others through her new-found skills and confidence.
We all want to stop living lies and jump into living only the truth, but most of us never have a Vianne step in to help us do that. I used to hear people talking about "Jesus with skin on." This Vianne character is just that. She performs the role of a savior for this town, and that is exactly what Jesus would've done had he walked into town in 1959 as Vianne did.
The half-of-a-Milo's-tea-jug-of-margaritas during the movie is really helping me explore my deeper thoughts about the film, too.
My favorite theme/sub-plot in the movie is the way that Juliette Binoche as Vianne shows the townspeople the true meaning of Christianity while everyone else (especially Alfred Molina's character - Renaud) is concerned with the "church" and the sacraments, and the holy days. Vianne is busying herself with the well-being of each of the people in the town. The mayor is worried about the propriety and the tradition of the town. Vianne wants to end suffering (her own, really, but she focuses her energy on the suffering of others) so she welcomes the townfolk into her shop and offers her heart through her wares - the chocolat - and loves them where they are, looking into their very souls and seeing them for who they are. She sees their needs and speaks to them in a personal way that reaches out and heals them. Joy bursts onto the scene in the most surprising ways for even the crustiest of characters - Armande.
I've shared my passion for chocolate with many friends when I tell them about Lindt's Lindor Truffles. These things are better than sex for some, and a great accessory during sex for others. I highly recommend that EVERYONE who reads this go out NOW, not tomorrow, not in an hour, NOW and BUY a milk chocolate or dark chocolate truffle from this maker of decadent, sinful, fabulous liquid, olfactory, tastebud SIN!!! No confessions or hail marys required. DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!
Just watch this film again (or for the first time if you haven't yet) and see which character you most identify with. See which theme or subtheme most touches you.
The message for me is to stop SETTLING for less than what OUGHT to be. Stop settling for "just enough." Stop letting people off the hook with having given less than 100%.
SO!!!!! All you friends of mine out there, you need to look out. I'm looking at YOU. You know who I'm talking to right now, don't you??? Call me - 205-401-6373. I love you, and you know it, and I'm going to show you more now than I ever have. I will not leave you where you are, but I will walk with you through that fire you face.
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