Tag: homelife

Categories
Living in Society Social Commentary

Summer Weekend

Ciha Fen, Johnson County, Iowa

Dan and I visited the Ciha Fen Preserve across the Cedar River in Johnson County on Saturday.

“The Ciha Fen Preserve is a sand prairie/savanna complex on a wind-deposited sand ridge,” according to mycountyparks.com. “It contains the Ciha Fen, which is one of the only two documented remaining nutrient-poor fens known in the state of Iowa.  It has numerous rare plant and animals species.”

Wild Flower

It was a chance to spend part of the afternoon together. We were the only visitors when we stopped by.

When the Catholic parish opened a new grade school, Dan and his siblings transferred in from public schools. Since then we’ve done a lot together.

After lunch at one of our local Mexican restaurants we returned to the house to work in the kitchen. I put six pints of vegetable broth on the stove to process; made a spice mix using using cayenne pepper, Serrano pepper, curry powder and cumin; and made a batch of homemade sweet chili sauce for tacos. We wished we lived closer together to spend more afternoons like this. I sent him home with two paper grocery bags of vegetables and small jars of the spice mix and chili sauce.

Mexican Flag Enchiladas

Before he left, we toured the garden. The limbs of apple trees are filled with fruit, bending under its weight. There is a lot of growing left in the season and I’ll have to prop branches up so they don’t break. Japanese beetles are in the apple trees eating leaves and procreating. There are more of them this year than last, but it’s not the worst infestation we’ve had.

It’s a turning point toward summer. Spring garden planting is finished, leaving weeds to be pulled and crops to be grown and harvested. It’s time to begin work on the rest of the yard. That will be my July: pruning lilacs, cutting dead limbs from trees, and addressing the planting area in front of the house. I’ll start today, but not before I put the spring tools away and park my car inside the garage again. After watering the garden this morning, that’s next on a long to-do list.

I’d better get after it.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Summer Turnips

Bowl of Turnip Roots

This year was the nicest crop of turnips I’ve grown. Here’s a bowl I prepped for storage in the ice box.

A few years back I started planting turnips for the greens to make canned vegetable broth. With this year’s abundance I’ve already put up about ten gallons of broth using earlier green vegetables.

I use turnips as an ingredient in soups and stir fry, and will occasionally mash one with other root vegetables as a side dish. I’m not yet to the Julia Child level of turnipery but can see it from here.

Saturday was harvest day and this year’s abundance is beginning to cut the grocery bill ($23 this week). I grow other stuff besides turnips. As a friend recently described it we have something of a kalepocalypse going on here. 42 plants was way too many.

There are other lessons from the garden, but no time for them now. I have to water and weed the garden before heading to the farms for the last day of soil blocking. They are starting crops for the fall share today.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Big Day in Big Grove

Late Spring Seedlings

Sunrise is in half an hour and the high ambient temperature is expected upper 80s to low 90s this afternoon.

I want to get as much garden work as possible finished before noon.

That means only a few minutes in front of the computer screen then outdoors.

I got a copy of the voting records from the May 30 special election in Solon. It can be a time suck and while very interested I set it aside to focus on the garden and other work at hand.

Yesterday at the home, farm and auto supply store I wrangled a squeeze chute. It is a large machine designed to hold cattle and horses stable, without injuring them, while they are examined, branded or given vaccines or other veterinary treatments. We sell only a couple of these expensive, specialized pieces of equipment each year. My objective was to take it out of the semi-trailer, reload it on a couple of pallets and traverse the bumpy parking lot from one corner of the store to the opposing one. I drove the forklift very slowly. Once in the outdoors display area, I lined it up with two others and locked it down. This is part of the “farm” aspect of our retail outlet. I managed the process without damaging the squeeze chute.

It was a work week looking toward the weekend. Now that Saturday morning is here it’s time to get outside. Here’s hoping for a good day in my kitchen garden.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Hard Day and Easy Night

Lettuce Harvest

After hours in the kitchen garden much remained to be done after Saturday.

Garden work began at 6 a.m. I moved to the kitchen at 3 p.m. and worked another four hours.

I was steadily busy throughout waking hours with only water breaks to sustain me.

I harvested kale and weeded the plot, replanted a failed tomato plant, weeded carrots, dug up two small plots to plant cayenne pepper and eggplant, harvested collards and put temporary fencing around them. I mowed the fifth plot and spaded soil in about a third of it. With the near 90 degree temperatures, I picked lettuce before it had a chance to bolt.

In the kitchen I cleaned lettuce, collards and kale and made dinner of a big salad. I steamed and froze the collards and emptied the ice box of every bag of greens and went through them. The goal was to make soup stock with the cooking greens. It was a dish too far. Organized, they went back into the burgeoning ice box.

Green Vegetables from the Ice Box

The highlight of the day was unexpected. The sugar snap peas are four feet tall and began to flower along the tops — as if an artist daubed white paint on a canvas, impressionist-style. I stopped and looked from different angles as sunlight faded flowery details. Beautiful.

Roadside Kale Distribution

I harvested 12 kale plants and weeded the plot. It yielded two full tubs and more. I made a box of 24 leaves for the library workers and washed the small scarlet leaves to put them away.

I put some of the abundance by the road for neighbors and passers by to take. It was the city-wide garage sale day so the expectation was bargain-seekers would find this spot. It was gone in less than 15 minutes.

After a shower and clean sheets I slept eight straight hours.

On the plus side I was so engaged in our kitchen garden there was little time to think about much else. At the same time it was difficult not to feel like little got done despite evidence to the contrary.

Well-rested, the weekend cycle of watering, weeding and planting starts again. It’s what we do to sustain a life in a turbulent world.

Categories
Home Life

Community Organizing

Woman Writing Letter

Fellow members,

I’m putting together a spring newsletter for inclusion in the June billing.

Less than half the people who live in our association participate in the Facebook or Google Groups, so a newsletter is our chance to reach out to almost everyone.

There are some things that bear repeating each year, and I’ll include them. I also want to try something different this month.

If you have a short bit of news to report related to what’s going on in the association, please forward it to me by Monday afternoon. If you have a question about the association, and it has broader relevance, I’ll include your question (with your name), and address it. Any tidbits of local history would be welcome. I’m looking to post things specific to our subdivision in which everyone would be interested or could learn from. To keep the budget low, I’m planning on a single, one-sided sheet, so let’s fill it up with useful and interesting info.

The reason for the holiday is to honor the men and women who died in military service for our country.

I hope you and yours have a safe and peaceful Memorial Day Weekend.

Regards, Paul

~ Email to our home owners association Google Group sent May 25, 2017

Categories
Home Life

Storm Recovery

Brush Pile In Predawn light

Over the weekend a storm broke off a branch in one of the maple trees. The branch wedged between two others 20 feet above the ground. I couldn’t remove it myself.

The tree service came yesterday with chain saws, ladders and loppers to bring the branches safely down. After work at the home, farm and auto supply store I cleaned up the site and built a brush pile next to the garden. I’ve been thinking of adding two more plots, so maybe, after I burn the pile, this is the time.

Not knowing better in 1993, we planted the maple too close to the house. It needs taking down according to my arborist and climber.

Seedling Cart

I’ve been working in the garden center at the home, farm and auto supply store. Foot traffic has been brisk with customers picking up flats of seedlings for flower and vegetable gardens. Working outdoor provided an opportunity to talk about gardening. I felt in my element.

At home, the lawn is overgrown and our garden is two-thirds planted. The seedlings are ready so I’m waiting for the intersection of dry-enough ground, time at home, and clear skies. As soon as that happens I’ll get more planted.

Categories
Home Life

Morning in Iowa

First Morning of Vacation

The weather forecast is for near-perfect spring weather. No rain and a high around 65 degrees.

The day began at 4 a.m. with reading and laundry. I moved the cars down the driveway and rolled the seedlings out of the garage before dawn.

There should be fewer seedlings on the cart by day’s end.

The lilacs are toward the end of the season. I stood inside the branches, lush with flowers, and let the scent envelope me.

Years ago our daughter kicked a soccer ball under the lilacs. For a moment I was distracted… I retrieved the ball then I saw her. This memory of her in sunlight from under the lilacs is part of me this warm spring day. I carried her with me as I prepared for a day of gardening.

So began this spring morning in Iowa.

Categories
Home Life

Rebooting a Life

Garage Reboot

After a shift at the home, farm and auto supply store I begin a nine-day vacation. I say “vacation” but really mean “reboot.”

I hope to plant most of the garden, work in the yard and re-engineer parts of our homelife for efficiency. Why? To reap that feeling of being organized and prepared for summer.

It’s not as easy as re-booting a computer. Old habits are embedded in the code of this life.

In any case, I’ll hit the switch and see what happens. Hopefully good will come of it.

Categories
Environment Home Life

Inside Chores and Climate Marches

Overflowing and Neglected Inbox

Rain began mid-morning and is expected to continue until sunset.

Let it rain.

It’s an opportunity to work on inside chores before spring planting.

I’ll tackle a long-neglected inbox and use produce in the ice box and freezer to make soup. There’s plenty to do in the jumble the garage has become since winter — moving the lawn tractor toward the door, organizing the planting tools and cleaning shovels, rakes and bins for the season. I’m antsy about getting the garden planted — I accept it won’t be this weekend.

A few friends are participating in the People’s Climate March today. CNN and the Washington Post covered the District of Columbia march. There are several marches in Iowa and elsewhere. The key challenge for participants and other climate activists is determining what to do in a society where the importance of action to mitigate the causes of climate change garners slight interest.

“Surveys show that only about one in five adults in the United States is alarmed about climate change,” Jill Hopke wrote in The Conversation. “This means that if climate activists want this march to have a lasting impact, they need to think carefully about how to reach beyond their base.”

Collard Seedlings in the Rain

The unanswered question is how shall people outside the activist community be recruited to take climate action and by whom?

There are no good answers and no reason for climate activists to lead the effort. However, we can’t give up if we value society’s future.

The main issue is the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The good news is there are renewable sources of energy for transportation, manufacturing and electricity. How will society make climate change action ubiquitous with a majority of the world population?

Mass demonstrations can play a role in an effort to raise awareness about climate change. So can articles written by journalists, scientists, bloggers and organizations. At a minimum we can each strive to live with as light an environmental footprint as possible. We can explain to our friends, family and neighbors. Everyone has the potential to do something.

Today’s cool weather and gentle rain is a reminder.

“Staying out of the cold and warm inside? So are we,” Richard Fischer of Bernard wrote this afternoon via email. “Due to the weather we’re moving the event over to Convivium Urban Farmstead and Coffee shop, 2811 Jackson St., Dubuque.”

We must consider our lives in the built environment and let it rain. Have faith in today’s potential and adjust, knowing as long as rain comes and sustains our gardens and farms we too will be sustained.

There is much we can do when it rains. We can act on climate before it’s too late.

Categories
Writing

First Share

New Seedling Cart with a Pallet from the Farm

After work at the home, farm and auto supply store I drove to the farm and picked up the first spring share. In it were spinach, baby kale, Bok Choy, Choi Sum, broccoli raab, rhubarb, oregano and garlic chives.

Already my mind is swirling with cooking ideas.

I’ll prepare a breakfast omelet using greens seasoned with oregano and garlic chives. Most of the oregano will be dried and flaked for cooking. Garlic chives will be processed with cream cheese for a sandwich spread. In the mix is rhubarb jam, spinach casserole, and sautéed greens. There will be lots of cooking with this week’s abundance.

It’s the next stop on along the annual circle of local food.

While at the farm I sorted through a stack of pallets used to deliver straw and hay and found two to bring home. I made a wheeled cart for summer crop seedlings finishing before the big May planting. The other will be used to organize the garage until Memorial Day. I’ve requested May 6 – 14 off work at the store to get planting done.

For the moment, life is about the weather — seeing how it unfolds and checking my weather app for forecast updates. It is also about forgetting the fray of politics for a while to become a practitioner of something useful — not only in Iowa but globally.