Tag: homelife

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Home Life

Christmas 2015

Christmas Lights
Christmas Lights

Chard and celery are growing in the garden and not ready to pick. It’s Dec. 25 for heaven’s sake!

Grass is greening and water is standing in the ditch. Ambient temperature is 30 degrees — freezing, but not quite. The spring-like weather belies the holiday decorations inside our home.

Our daughter pulled back to back shifts where dreamers work, ending last night with a terrific fireworks show. Had we been near we would have watched, but the miles separating us were too many this Christmas.

Threatening to move closer, she said we wouldn’t like it. Even in an Iowa that borders corrupt, uninspiring and terrible under Terry Branstad, she is likely right. There is no way I would trade my current congressman… however, there is that nice Corrine Brown. Maybe I’m not finished making my case.

This morning’s activities included laundering my three work shirts, blue jeans and socks. I look forward to when I have enough clothes to last a full work week.The biggest development at the home farm and auto supply store was my interview about becoming a receiving clerk. Because of the store’s growth, they now need two.

I began cross training with the current clerk on Wednesday. What makes the new position different is the hours 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. It will be my first time with weekends off since I worked at the University of Iowa. After all the irregular work hours this will provide an opportunity, setting the stage for work to generate the ten grand — reduced a bit by the increase in hourly wage the new position will garner.

After several attempts, I developed a winter hot sauce made from canned goods. I drained whole tomatoes, reserving the juice for another recipe. I added drained, pickled Serrano peppers to the bowl. Next, a jar of a red and jalapeno pepper sauce made earlier this year. I chopped the mixture with a stick blender, jarred and refrigerated. It went great on my scrambled eggs, which along with hash brown potatoes and an apple is a traditional holiday breakfast in our household.

I started a load in the dishwasher.

Next came a batch of traditional shortbread cookies. I softened a pound of butter on the counter overnight. To the butter, add a cup of brown sugar and cream together. Add 4-1/2 cups all purpose flour, then bring the dough to consistency, roll it out and cut into strips. Bake at 325 degrees for 22 minutes.

We never know what today will bring. For me it is enough to spend time at home with family and seek respite in personal traditions as the rest of the world is muted by the clatter of dishes in the sink and my firm intent.

It hasn’t been the best Christmas, nor the worst. It just is, and that’s enough.

Categories
Home Life

Winter Begins

Coffee Station
Coffee Station

Tomorrow is winter solstice and I’m ready for days to get longer. A new year’s hope begins.

We spent yesterday decorating the house for the Christmas holiday. I ate a slice of the fruitcake sent by Mom.

This morning I’m drinking coffee from the Boynton reindeer Christmas mug, and settling into habits formed long ago. It is time for year end reflection and planning.

I posted on Facebook:

Went to Wilson’s Orchard​ yesterday and bought two gallons apple cider, a baker’s dozen Gold Rush apples and 12 pounds frozen Montmorency cherries. The cherries were grown in Michigan which produces ~90,000 tons of the fruit each year. The ancient Romans are credited with finding this cherry near the Black Sea and propagating it in the Roman Empire. It is named for the Montmorency region near Paris, France. We mix them with plain strained yogurt and granola for a meal substitute.

In other holiday news, we put up the holiday tree and I placed the big order for garden seeds from Johnny’s Selected Seeds​. There are a lot left over from last year, so the order was smaller than usual. I plan a gigantic plot of radishes, some of which I hope to convert to cash to donate to Physicians for Social Responsibility – Iowa Chapter​. Next step is to look at the Seed Saver’s Exchange and pick out some kind of red bean for drying, along with some one-time experimental seeds.

We are making a sincere effort to locate the remote control that operates the analog to digital converter on the television. Might watch a VHS Christmas movie if we can find it.

Best wishes for a happy holiday season and a Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it.

I ordered a new vacuum cleaner on line from Hoover last night, and garden seeds from the Seed Savers Exchange this morning. Holiday shopping is done if one can call it that. I work at the home, farm and auto supply store all but two of the 11 remaining days this year, helping shoppers make purchases as this year transitions to next.

There’s the ten grand, but I can’t lose sleep over that — at least not yet.

And thus the next orbit of the sun begins. May God shine light on all of us as our search for truth and meaning continues. May our actions further social justice and a hospitable environment in which to live.

Rain fell last night leaving a wet landscape. Soon it will be time to make breakfast — and get ready for the trip across the lakes.

Categories
Home Life

After the Ten Grand

Winter Garden Prep
Winter Garden Prep

Most creative Americans I know have a sense of responsibility about their lives. Artists, writers and musicians accept lowly paid creative work when they can get it and find other, supplemental funds to pay bills.

We all have bills and there are consequences for failing to pay them.

It is a constant struggle, leading some to selling plasma, taking physically demanding and dangerous work, working in call centers, retail, farming and the food business. Occasionally we sell artwork, writing or music. The struggle is important, and life remains about the creative process. I’ve discussed selling plasma with visual artists and low wage workers who do, and it’s not for me — at least not yet.

Another ten grand should help our family make it through 2016 responsibly. Twenty would be better. I’ll find it somewhere.

Earthworms crawled along the bottom of the garage door, fleeing groundwater. The lawn is greening after the big snow storm followed by rain. Water stands in the ditch with temperatures forecast in the 40s through the end of the year. It’s not normal.

Another crazy weather episode in a life increasingly filled with them.

It is hard to concentrate on the big picture and will be until I have a plan for that ten grand.

Categories
Living in Society Social Commentary

Dark And Stormy Night

Photo Credit Charles Schultz
Photo Credit Charles Schultz

I reached into the rusted storage cabinet to find the silicone spray.

The padlock needed lubricant before securing the employee locker at my newest job.

It’s not like I’ll keep valuables inside. My lunch and mobile device when I’m working, my box cutter, tape measure, name tag, note pad, ink pen and radio earpiece when I’m not.

I expect to enjoy helping people solve everyday problems at the home, farm and auto store. Problems like having a corroded padlock.

Tuesday’s thunderstorm blew the remaining apples off the tree. We had a tornado warning so I turned on the television to view weather radar. It turned out the remote that controls the analog to digital converter went missing. I couldn’t tune in. One of two things will happen: 1. Get rid of the TVs altogether, or 2. Buy a digital set. No hurry on a decision because television viewing is a dying practice when life offers better options.

The apples in storage need using before turning to compost so I made applesauce – the first of many batches over the coming days. To give it a twist, I added cinnamon, allspice and cloves with a handful of dried fruit. It was delicious.

The terrorist attacks in Paris were breaking news when I returned from my first day of work at the store. The morning after details are sketchy. The death count mounts. Reasons are unknown. The French border remains closed.

I have two direct connections. My friend Ed Fallon is currently in Normandy marching to Paris on foot for the December convention of the parties on climate change. Al Gore was broadcasting the Live Earth – 24 Hours of Reality event from Paris, and suspended programming to recognize and respect unfolding events. I’ve been to Paris a few times, but that was decades ago.

“Once again we’ve seen an outrageous attempt to terrorize innocent civilians,” President Obama said last night. “This is an attack not just on Paris, it’s an attack not just on the people of France, but this is an attack on all of humanity and the universal values that we share.”

Social media was quick to respond with memes. Commentators became immediate experts in terrorism whether they knew anything or not. It was predictable and sad.

Humanity is on the move, not only from Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Rather, civilization as we know it appears to be collapsing.

In the wake of World War One, William Butler Yeats wrote “The Second Coming,” which in part says,

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Almost a century later it is unexpected that “gyre” has come to define the largest ecosystem on Earth and home to a very large collection of man-made debris in the Pacific Ocean. The detritus of a deteriorating civilization coming together.

We feign shock at the latest unfolding terrors when it’s the bigger picture that may injure us.

I’ll take the apple peels and kitchen food waste to the compost bin. Cold weather may delay the deterioration until spring. One can only believe that the new season will also bring hope. So too for our society, although in the darkest hours that seems far from certain.

For now, I’ll lock up my gear and continue to solve everyday problems. And contribute to hastening the compost and tilling it into into the soil for next year’s garden. It’s no satisfaction, but rather what I can do to create hope.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Frost Forecast and Harvest Soup

Canning Soup and Jalapeno Peppers
Canning Jars of Soup and Jalapeno Peppers

The garden season officially ended today with gleaning that filled eight crates with tomatoes, apples, celery, Swiss chard, kale and hot and bell peppers.

I delivered a second 200-pound load of apples to the CSA for shareholders and the food pantry. While there, I picked up some potatoes, garlic, lettuce, a large squash, sweet potatoes and some onions.

With a hard frost expected early Saturday morning, I made a harvest soup with vegetables. Five quarts of it are processing in a water bath as I type.

Times like this, a list of ingredients suffices. Not as a recipe, but as a record of what went into the soup.

Fresh and canned tomato juice
Onions
Carrot
Celery
Potatoes
Kale
Swiss chard
Large winter squash cut into cubes
Bay leaves
Sea Salt
Orange lentils
Dried red beans
Pearl barley
Prepared organic vegetable broth

The draft toward winter is inescapable. Snow will soon be flying and subzero temperatures not far behind — and the comforting warmth of harvest soup.

Bangkok Peppers
Bangkok Peppers
Categories
Home Life Kitchen Garden

Walk in the Garden

Fall Colors
Fall Colors

The garden and trees turn to fall colors all at once — right now, as I write.

First frost can’t be far away, maybe next week. Leaves and grasses turn without freezing temperatures. The landscape assumes a warm brilliance.

Apple Harvest
Apple Harvest

I picked more than 200 pounds of apples Wednesday and donated them to Local Harvest CSA. Enough for shareholders to bake a pie or crisp, or even eat! The apple variety is Red Delicious.

The trees have never been sprayed, and grow as near organic as possible. Fruit sometimes develop black spotting which can be washed off easily. They are delicious in more ways than one.

I walked the garden, filling a bucket with bell peppers, Swiss chard, scarlet kale, celery, a few tomatoes, basil and oregano — what was available. Most of it became soup for dinner.

Beginning with a cup of tomato juice in the Dutch oven. I steamed a diced large onion, sliced chard stems, fine ribbons of kale and chard leaves, celery, turnips and carrots. Except the onion, all were grown in our garden. Once the vegetables softened I added savory, bay leaves, sea salt, dried orange lentils, barley and a can of prepared organic kidney beans. Tomato juice to cover. The pot boiled and I turned it down to simmer. While soup was on, I cooked a cup of organic rice. Plating was a scoop of rice in the middle of the bowl with soup ladled around it.

The next day I water bath processed two quarts of soup, along with three pints of apple butter and a quart of apple sauce. Because of the backlog of apple sauce and apple butter in the pantry, I’m making a limited amount, just to have this year’s vintage when previous jars are used up. There’s more than enough soup for winter into spring.

The tine of my apple peeler cracked, rendering it useless. I drove to the orchard to buy a new one, but in conversation with the chief apple officer, it turns out they had plenty of spare parts. He gave me a used replacement part which fit perfectly and put me back in business.

Cider, New and Apple Vinegar
Cider, New and Apple Vinegar

We got to talking about apple cider vinegar.

This conversation began in 2012 with another friend, who also works at the orchard. He gave me some mother of vinegar which originated with his family in the 19th century. It’s still alive. The orchard used it to start a line of bottled apple cider vinegar to sell in the sales barn.

Today’s discussion was about whether or not to use brewer’s yeast. Jack, the source of the mother, has a large plastic container to which he occasionally adds new juice, but never any yeast. We decided that the yeast must have come from other sources, and therefore no new need be added. Since it works, and in a home kitchen we expect there to be variation in the level of acetic acid, I decided to forego using yeast for the time being.

Yeast is basically everywhere. As anyone who made sough dough from scratch knows, it needn’t necessarily be purchased from a store. Jack’s mother likely has yeast in it, although I rarely see bubbles forming after adding new apple juice. It makes vinegar and that’s the hope.

Fall’s progress is one of the best times of the year. Squirrels scour oak trees for every last acorn. Birds roost on tomato cages where vines still produce.

It takes a walk in the garden to remind us of Earth’s potential, providing soup for dinner and apples for the sweet and sour of life.

Categories
Home Life

Fall Setback

Fallen Apples
Fallen Apples

I slept for twelve hours last night fighting a cold I hope doesn’t turn into something else.

The big comforter kept me warm, and except for doing two loads of laundry around 1 a.m., I slept in four two to three hour parcels.

I feel achy, this morning, but the coughing reduced significantly. I’m easing into a day of writing, yard work and cookery. There is no other choice than to get to work.

The Social Security Administration sent us an annual statement last month. At the current benefits level, we should be fine if we can make it to full retirement age of 68. The current authorization is expected to fund it until 2041, in which year I will turn 90. After that, who knows if the Congress will address the program in a positive way. There’s a lot of living to do before then.

An acquaintance from working in the warehouse stopped at the orchard yesterday. He left as well, taking a part time job at a different warehouse store for $16 per hour. He said others have left. I’ll check the job out, and if accepted, and it fits my writing schedule, I may take it. All of those are unknowns — part of this week’s discovery. It was good to see him again.

Today seems like it will be alright. Not perfect — what day ever is — but serviceable. Perhaps a portal to potential unrealized in a turbulent world.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Fall Cookery – Preserving Local Food

Hay Bale
Hay Bale

I connected with Local Harvest CSA last week. The farm looked great.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey stopped there with my state representative, Bobby Kaufmann. I spent a couple of hours chatting and collecting information for an article that appeared Saturday in the Iowa City Press Citizen.

The next day Susan provided three crates of bell pepper seconds to eat and preserve. The freezer and vegetable drawer are now full. The good news is there weren’t many clinkers among them.

Our garden kept me busy this summer, producing more than enough for our kitchen and some to give some away. Tomatoes, kale and hot peppers are in abundance. The rest of the Red Delicious apples will soon be harvested. I spent most of Monday in the kitchen preserving food.

The kitchen day began with picking a bucket of tomatoes and jalapeno peppers in the garden.

Cutting the bad spots from the tomatoes, I cooked them and made sauce using an old timey tomato juicer with a wooden cone. The byproduct was 1-1/2 quarts of juice which is chilling in the ice box, ready for soup.

Coring and cutting bell peppers into slabs for the freezer is straightforward. I freeze them on a cookie sheet, then bag them for storage. That way they don’t freeze together. Two bags left from last year were in good shape so I added six more — a full year’s supply.

A bag of roasted red peppers and one of jalapenos was left in the freezer from last year. After thawing, I cut the jalapenos in half and put both into the Dutch oven. Adding bits and pieces of pepper leftover from the freezing operation, once tender, the lot went into the food processor until the mixture reached the consistency of relish. I put the result into half-pint jars and processed in a water bath.

I make some applesauce each year even though there is plenty in the pantry. The labor produced two quarts which wait in the ice box until more jars are ready to process in the water bath.

The remainder of the first crate of Red Delicious apples was juiced. I spent half an hour managing vinegar, bottling what was finished from the two-quart jar started in the spring and adding new juice to the mother. There are three finished quarts in the pantry. I may never buy apple cider vinegar again.

When the sun set, the implements of preservation were scattered on the counter — clean and drying. Yesterday I used my hand tomato juicer, a sieve, an apple peeler, an electric juicer, the food processor, a turkey baster, the granite ware water-bath canner, and the usual lot of bowls, jars, lids and rings. Knowing what to do makes it easier with each passing year.

There is a sense that these days of harvest cookery can’t go on forever. Suffice it I’ll keep living them for as long as possible, trying to learn from every season.

Categories
Home Life

Late Fall Reflections

Sliced Tomato, Salt, Pepper and Feta Cheese
Sliced Tomato, Salt, Pepper and Feta Cheese

Leaves are beginning to fall from the Green Ash trees. Those on the two early apple trees have been down more than a week. The garden is producing and likely will until the hard frost comes in mid-October.

This time, more than any in the year, is for work at home.

Today’s to-do list includes harvesting tomatoes and peppers, canning, and cooking gumbo. I prepared a lunch of sliced tomato, salt, pepper and feta cheese using blemished fruit. It’s a simple and satisfying repast.

For so many years, work was elsewhere. While downsizing I found a three-ring binder with papers from expense reports dated 1992. I was managing trucking terminals in Schererville and Richmond, Indiana, and starting recruiting operations in West Virginia, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Missouri. I would wake up on an airplane unsure of where I was, or where I was going. It was a busy time and there was little left for family. They were days of intangible hope for a future that included success. I don’t know what that means any more.

President Obama stopped at the Iowa State Library in Des Moines yesterday. The stop wasn’t on his formal agenda, but while there he submitted to an interview by Marilynne Robinson, the Pulitzer prize-winning author who lives in Johnson County. Obama reads Robinson and listed Gilead as one of his favorite books. It is pretty neat that one of our own has this kind of relationship with the president. Obama quoted from the book in his eulogy for the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney in Charleston last July.

I’ve been trying to read Gilead without success. Starting it three times over the last three weeks, I don’t get it. Maybe eventually I will. It’s one of the must read books produced by an author affiliated with the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, where many less acclaimed books than Robinson’s have been produced. Maybe the time is not right. Maybe the president’s visit will encourage me to give it another try.

It’s two months to the 21st Conference of the Parties, or COP 21, in a suburb of Paris. Iowa environmental groups are wrangling for a unifying Iowa event just prior to the first day of the conference, Nov. 30. It seems a bit late to be planning as leaves fall, the harvest comes in, and we turn our attention to the work necessary to sustain ourselves. It’s important the parties reach an enforceable agreement. It won’t be the end of the world if they don’t. Or maybe it will.

Categories
Home Life

Opening Pandora’s Boxes

Pandora (1879) - Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Pandora (1879) – Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The greatest evil for a sixty something is theft of time. There is only so much of it — all here and now. There is also a sense we must create value with this limited resource.

How shall time be spent downsizing?

There are boxes to open — lots of them — each containing artifacts of this life, and potential villainy.

Pandora was the first woman in classical Greek Mythology.

“When Prometheus stole fire from heaven, Zeus took vengeance by presenting Pandora to Prometheus’ brother Epimetheus,” according to Wikipedia. “Pandora opens a jar containing death and many other evils which were released into the world. She hastened to close the container, but the whole contents had escaped except for one thing that lay at the bottom – Elpis — or hope. That’s what I’m seeking as the downsizing of personal artifacts begins.

Sorting Station
Sorting Station

There are two temptations leading to perdition.

The first is spending time with things that should be discarded. There was a reason to keep each one — such reasons eclipsed by the urgency of now.

The other is to discard something of value, an artifact worth keeping a while longer, with monetary value, or to pass along.

Some small percentage of the artifacts will go to our daughter, but we don’t want to load up her space with our junk. Too, some of the pieces will inspire new writing for this blog or other publication. There are books to read, artwork to contemplate, and relics of past lives wanting to be relived. I’d better make quick work of it or I’ll never finish.

It’s already going poorly as I was up in the middle of the night reading a history of World War I. I should know all of that by now.