BIG GROVE TOWNSHIP — The ambient temperature outside was 20 degrees this morning. It was time to break out oatmeal for breakfast and dig into the numbers behind our dreams.
At Thanksgiving we turn inward toward family and friends to work on a plan for next year.
That means being with each other and discussing our potential. Life is on auto-pilot as next year’s activities and budget are considered, determined and planned.
I enjoy budgeting as it relates to planning how our lives will change.
2017 will be the last year before I am eligible for “full retirement” with the Social Security Administration. Mainly, this means an influx of monthly cash beginning in 2018. We need to make it to that mile marker without incurring too much debt. I plan to keep my job at the home, farm and auto supply store at least until then.
Like many baby boomers, I plan to work for income long past retirement. The time since leaving my transportation career well prepared us for cutting expenses and making do with less — the new American condition.
Dreams persist in the real world. Writing a budget is tangible evidence of such reality.
It is easier to write an expense budget than a revenue budget. There is a baseline of fixed and variable expenses that doesn’t change much. Basic costs of living change without doing anything differently. The hard part is figuring out how to pay basic expenses to support our dreams and ambitions, hopefully in sufficient quantity to enable dreams made real.
There is a lot to consider and nothing but time during the extended holiday season.
The ambient temperature dropped to 20 degrees last night — a hard frost.
This morning, while raking the remainders of grass clippings in the yard, I found Swiss chard growing in garden plot five.
Chard will be a centerpiece for tonight’s dinner, most likely in a casserole with rice, onions, chopped chard, garlic, eggs, oregano and Parmesan cheese.
While poorly planned — a place for odds and ends of cherry tomatoes, eggplant, cauliflower, hot peppers and a failed section of bell peppers — it produced early with cherry tomatoes and late with aforementioned chard. I pledge to make a better plan next year.
The section of bell peppers took up more than a third of the space. The seedlings went in fine, with protection from ground threats in the form of six-inch sections of four-inch drainage tile, and mulch. Because of working four jobs in August, it got away from me, producing not a single fruit. I can’t recall a year when my bell peppers have done well. Weeding and watering are two important aspects of growing peppers and I didn’t do either one well. But what do I know? A farmer friend gave us adequate seconds from her farm so we are okay with bell peppers for winter.
Four cherry tomato plants is enough for our household. The four different kinds produced before the main tomato crop and were great in salads until the slicers matured and ripened. The cherries were positioned at the edge of the plot for easy picking from the center path.
The eggplant and cauliflower seedlings were gifts stuck in empty rows. Fairy Tale eggplant is great because of its size and length of time producing. Four plants produced more than we could use. I’ve added Fairy Tale eggplant seeds to my December order and will put them in the indoor planting schedule.
Now that frost has come it will be easier to clear the plot. The plan is to clear it and make a burn pile. It was very windy today, so I’ll save these tasks for another day in this unseasonably warm autumn.
Your proposed legislation to claw back money from state funded schools that supported students after the general election got their attention and raised your personal national profile. Well done on self-promotion!
Your political supporters may be cheering you on, but constituents are not.
Perhaps you should have considered the November protests in Iowa City and elsewhere more thoroughly before clutching the limelight of media attention.
Your statement on FOX News that “in life there are winners and losers” may apply to elections and sporting games but our God-given lives are about much more than winning and losing. You denigrated the lives of hard-working parents by this statement.
To CBC Radio you said, “I believe the national conversation needs to take place with both sides coming to the table.”
Let me refresh your memory.
Republicans attempted to de-legitimize President Obama from his inauguration and obstructed everything they could during his administration. They pledged to do the same should the Democrat have won Nov. 8.
In 1971, I joined with others to stop traffic on Interstate 80 near Iowa City, not unlike the recent protests you found annoying. Those of us who had been tear-gassed in our dormitory rooms without provocation had a bone to pick as we intentionally tried to stop business as usual and pay attention to ending the Vietnam War. Our bonfire on I-80 didn’t last long before the Iowa Highway Patrol broke it up, pursued and arrested many among us.
When people take to the streets in protest there is little concern about one’s arrest record regardless of the penalties.
“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” Thomas Jefferson said. We’ll be vigilant during the 87th Iowa General Assembly.
I grew kale, hot peppers and Brandywine tomatoes in plot four this season.
It was a commodity plot in the 2016 rotation, one that received full sunlight most of the day.
Kale is still growing the third week in November, although it won’t be long before the plants are frosted beyond recovery.
Kale has become a reliable mainstay in my garden life. We use it fresh in a variety of dishes throughout the season. I give away more than we use to friends and library workers in town. Word from the library is many smoothies are made using the green and purple leaves. There was plenty this year.
The trouble was with hot peppers, Bangkok particularly. Because of abundant rain they grew and grew until taller than me. Pepper plants crowded out part of the kale rows reducing yield. I harvested Bangkok, Serrano and jalapeño peppers. More than I could use, but not enough to sell to local restaurants. The ice box and freezer are stocked with enough hot peppers to last until next year. I dehydrated more than enough Bangkok peppers to make red pepper flakes for friends who want them.
I settled on Brandywine tomatoes as my commodity producer, planting seven plants in plot four. They produced large, flavorful fruit in abundance. I harvested only a small portion of the crop because I couldn’t make time to get in the garden in August. Working four jobs outside home had a material impact on garden yield. What I did harvest was some of the best tomatoes ever.
Plans for next year: Plot four is a rotation plot so I won’t be sure until I make my seasonal plan toward the end of the year. Kale, peppers and tomatoes will go elsewhere next year.
The president-elect has withdrawn into Trumpworld.
“For nearly the entire week since he became president-elect, Donald Trump has been holed up in his gilded New York skyscraper,” wrote Julie Pace and Jill Colvin of Associated Press. “A steady stream of visitors has come to him, flooding through metal detectors and getting whisked up to Trump’s offices and penthouse residence.”
Reading the tea leaves after the Nov. 8 election is pointless until the new administration’s cabinet and staff is named — until the president-elect emerges.
As the procession of supplicants makes its way to the tower my advice is to hunker down and let chips fall where they will. The president-elect gets to name his own team and outsiders to may as well go piss up a rope as try to influence his decisions.
I’m keeping my powder dry and so should others who intend to resist the imminent rollback of long-established policies. This is a basic military tactic I learned as an infantry officer.
To be effective, we must be vigilant for now, and ready to resist the growing hegemony of Trumpworld.
Pumpkin Pancake Topped with Apple Butter and Caramelized Apples
The weekend was a chance to get in the kitchen again.
When memories of a god-awful general election campaign persist, work is the best antidote.
I made a lot of dishes.
First up was a big pot of chili. Onion sorting has become a weekly thing and there was a whole tub of the same white onions to dice and cook in canned tomato juice for chili. I’ve written my chili recipe so many times I won’t repeat it here.
I halved and seeded a pie pumpkin and baked it in a 360 degree oven until fork tender. It made about four cups of pumpkin pulp, half of which I used to make pumpkin bread. The bread recipe was from The King Arthur Flour Bakers Companion cookbook except I omitted the nuts and chocolate chips. A slice of pumpkin bread went well with the chili for supper. There is a second loaf to take to the home, farm and auto supply store for the break room.
Roasted pumpkin seeds are crunchy and delicious especially while still warm. I separated seeds from the pumpkin guts and baked them with a little salt. It was hard not to eat them all.
After dropping my spouse at work, I went to the orchard to spend the $50 gift certificate received during our end of season party. I bought 19 pounds of Gold Rush apples, a long keeper and plenty delicious (apple joke). To make room for them in the ice box, I took the bowl of apples already there and peeled and sliced them for a simple caramelized apple dish. When it was done I put it in a plastic tub in the ice box.
Ice Box
Not to show off or anything, but here is what our ice box looked like when I returned from the orchard and put everything away.
The end of this spate of cooking came at breakfast Sunday morning when I made pumpkin pancakes topped with home made apple butter and the apple dish from Saturday warmed in the microwave oven. I made the batter in a bowl just used to bottle ground habañero and jalapeño peppers so the pancake had a kick.
Days of kitchen cooking seem rare as life accelerates toward year’s end. My advice is two things: grind your hot peppers in the garage, and when you feel blue, get to work. You’ll be glad you did both, especially the former.
Illuminated and bright white, the atmosphere blurred the view in a way vision did not.
Night is coming and with it restlessness and yearning…
For something once held in my hands… now gone.
People I know are disturbed about the election of Donald Trump as president. His transition team is a leaky bucket so we know some of what’s going on in Trumpland. His first steps don’t look good for anyone, including people who rallied around him. They will be freaking out sooner than expected as the president-elect struggles to deliver on campaign promises. It’s only five days after the election.
I live in a privileged enclave the affluence of which is driven by the largest of Iowa’s state universities and a few medium-sized businesses. Since moving to Big Grove Township in 1993 I’ve held the county seat at arms length as best I could. Iowa City is where I attended college, met my wife, got married, and witnessed the birth of our daughter. I have memories of my time there — most of them are good.
Eight of 58 precincts in Johnson County, including ours, voted for Donald Trump. Those who assert the county is monolithic in its liberalism paint with a broad brush. Their canvass looks neat — well contained within its edges. Like all products of imagination and technique such portraiture is more aspiration than reality. I’d rather live midst swing voters, small business operators, low-wage workers, and young men and women with imperfect lives. I’ve been with them so long it seems like home.
Tonight I’m drawn to the moon with its inconstant orbit outside the frame of a 24-hour day. As it sets over my shoulder this morning, giving way to sunrise, I’m reminded of this:
O blessed, blessed night! I am afeard.
Being in night, all this is but a dream,
Too flattering-sweet to be substantial.
~ Romeo and Juliet, Act Two, Scene Two in Capulet’s Orchard
Having inoculated myself early on to the possibility of Donald Trump winning Iowa’s six electoral votes, my reaction to his Nov. 8 victory in a close national election was more recoil than shock.
“Expect Iowa to award its six electoral votes to Donald Trump this cycle, contrary to the claims of prominent Iowa Democrats,” I wrote on Sept. 16.
I believed Hillary Clinton would win nationally based on conventional sources — polls, media analysis, progressive friends and family. Trump didn’t just win Iowa. He beat Clinton statewide by almost 10 points, attracting voters repulsed by his personal character but not wanting another Clinton in the White House. Trump won the voters that make Iowa a swing state.
My surprise in the result came from a failure to listen to my own experience.
“Low wage workers are everywhere in Iowa in significant numbers,” I wrote Sept. 15. “Based on my conversations with them, if they vote at all, they are just as likely to vote for Donald Trump as Hillary Clinton, whose name the corporate media associates with all things bad.”
As we now know, a majority of the people I described weren’t at all likely to vote for Hillary Clinton. I didn’t want to believe Trump could win and that distorted my perception.
The messaging from Republicans was direct, simple and effective.
“The American people have had enough of failed status quo policies which have left them less hopeful for our country’s future,” said Jeff Kaufmann, Republican Party of Iowa chair in an Aug. 10 press release. “They have had enough of serially dishonest, corrupt, and self-interested career politicians like the Clintons.”
Their candidate hammered this message home over and over in an effective social media campaign which, when combined with a national GOTV effort that worked with local parties, enabled Republicans to distract many Democrats while they networked with people early on.
What we thought we knew about politics proved to be outdated as conventional political wisdom was incinerated this cycle. If Democrats held a ground game advantage in 2006 and 2008, Iowa Republicans reached parity this cycle. Ground game is no longer a political advantage, it is a necessary tool. Ground game must be well executed for Democrats to maintain parity with Republicans.
Having competed with Jeff Kaufmann’s political organization on his home turf of Wilton and Cedar County in 2012, I believe the success of Republicans statewide is due mainly to his 2014 appointment as their party chair and broader application of tactics he has long used on the ground. Like with any competition, each game, each election is a result of training and performance. The level of expected ground game performance has been raised this cycle.
Experience tells me election day didn’t bring the end of politics as we know it. The body politic is ever changing, ever re-inventing itself, sometimes by design, sometimes by unintended consequences. Those of us who believe the framework of society is enduring also see an opportunity in the election results for positive change. After voting for Richard Nixon in 1960, Iowa elected Democrat Harold Hughes as governor.
After recoiling from the repugnant national election results my response is simple: confront bigotry, work to build positive community relations where I live, and resist the rollback of everything I’ve worked for.
These things can only be accomplished by joining together with others in common purpose. Or as Hillary Clinton said, we are stronger together.
On election day co-workers at the home farm and auto supply store asked me about the Clinton – Kaine bumper sticker on my 19 year-old car.
I said it was still a contest and you should vote if you haven’t. Trump could win.
By this morning’s unofficial tally, Trump won both the popular vote and the electoral college. (Popular vote was still being counted when this was written and Hillary won the popular vote). It is unsettling and upsetting.
Identifying where Trump will place priorities is difficult because of the many, and often conflicting things he said during the campaign. Along with the executive branch, the next congress will be controlled by Republicans — for the first time since 1928. Things look bleak as global financial markets took a fall in the wake of Trump’s victory.
In Iowa, Republicans flipped the state senate and will control the executive and legislative branches of government for the next two years. They will have their way with state government empowered by Trump’s stunning Iowa win. What will be their priorities? It is hard to say specifically now that restraint has been removed.
I am recoiling from the national and local results as many others are.
I haven’t changed. The sun will rise in about 90 minutes bringing the new hope inherent in each morning. I will still be standing.
Few people I know like the results of the election but it is less about us and more about our failure to live well in the broad community surrounding us.
The election brought home that in these United States, we are on our own as long as we fail to come together in common cause. Being stronger together is who we are as a species. It is a glowing ember after a firestorm that incinerated conventional wisdom about our society.
Let’s hope it will sustain us through these turbulent times.
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