The Good Earth

House Plans

2012-01-08T20:47:00.002-05:00

We reviewed the third set of plans tonight and are ready to give comments to the designer. We like it and think it is falling into place, but the scary thing is that every time we look at it, we come up with another good idea. At what point do we say "Go"?

Decluttering Discoveries

2012-01-05T11:36:00.002-05:00

Every day I try to tackle one small thing to get the house decluttered before it goes on the market. It's amazing what I find.

Today I found three thank you notes written by Rick in 2008 for graduation presents. Somehow, these notes sans addresses ended up in my kitchen desk along with note pads and coupons. So Rick thanked Mrs. Sigmon, Nick Staker and the Stanley family for their gifts, but I threw the notes away almost four years later.

Balance

2012-01-04T15:47:00.003-05:00

I knew there was something I didn't like about New Year's Resolutions. The focus is on what is wrong in my life and not on sustaining what is right. So I'm starting to think of some non-goals for myself.

How can I be behind already?

2012-01-03T08:39:00.002-05:00

I function best with lists, but have fallen away from that habit recently. In 2012, I determined (OK, resolved) to improve my productivity. The first step was to find the list organizer I purchased several years ago. (Does anyone else love office supplies?)

So I crossed one thing off Sunday's list and one thing off Monday's list. I'm working now on Sunday's list (invitations to a baby shower), with Monday's list (paperwork) panting for attention and Tuesday's list (errands) growling in the background. Is this how it is suppose to work?

New Year, New Granddaughter, New Home

2012-01-02T08:46:00.004-05:00

Do you think I can write more than 7 posts in 2012? That was the number I wrote in 2011. It's not for a shortage of topics, thoughts, adventures, joys and heartbreak. 2011 was full of them. It's that I tend to post on Facebook instead of my blog.

I don't know what 2012 will bring, but I do know two things are pending: a new granddaughter and a new home. Pretty big news, eh? And rather bloggable too.

Madelyn Mae
Madelyn Mae is due to come into the world mid-February, but she is pushing things a bit. Her mom is on bedrest, trying to eke out three more weeks. Madelyn has a two-year old sister. Sister is not too happy with Mom on bedrest, so I can't imagine how she will react to the intrusion of an infant who can't even play with her yet.

The Highlands
In 1995, we bought several acres of farm land on a high bank of the river in DeKalb County and dubbed it The Highlands. Then two months later, we adopted the twins and decided to stay put. Over the years, we built a barn and planted thousands of trees on the land. Last fall, we decided to build a house and move there. We are now deciding how to site house, outbuildings, drives, gardens, orchard, septic and well. We are on round three of a house design and the land has been surveyed and platted.

So with these events, and whatever else 2012 sends out way, perhaps you will see me here more often.

2011-12-21T23:07:00.001-05:00

Here is something for the winter solstice:

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Robert Frost

Pizza Park

2011-08-13T09:25:00.004-04:00

There is a park in Cedarville that my family calls Pizza Park. The name came from the days when my boys were young and we would play at the park and then carry-out pizza from Pizza Prize across the street. (Great pizza. I miss you, Pizza Prize.) The park had old-fashioned playground equipment, so old that I remember them from my grade school days. Remember the maypole, a tall column with chains hanging down with handles attached. We would grab a handle and start running in a circle and soon we were airborne. And the old merry-go-round that would go so fast that you knew you would surely sail off clear across the playground.

Through a massive community effort, a new playground was constructed in 1997. Here is a carved sign thanking the many volunteers that made the new playground possible.

Take a closer look at that sign and you will see my husband! He took the then 8-year-old twins there often to help build a new playground.

Yes, he is the one in the baseball cap with a towel hanging off his pocket.

Last night, we went to Pizza Park. We stopped at the sign and Steve said, "I didn't know it then, but I built this for my granddaughter."

Beyond Community Gardening

2011-08-03T13:07:00.007-04:00

In my town, there is a new community garden, the vision of one woman. The city razed an empty house on her block in this working class area and the woman and her husband bought the empty lot. I got involved because storm water was eroding the bare earth and I am the garden coach/consultant for the city's rain garden program.

Last April, she requested an on-site visit and we walked through the muddy lot and she shared her ideas. Before I left, I did a rough sketch of the site: entry with a curving walk behind prairie plants and past the rain garden into an area of raised beds for vegetables. She called me in May for encouragement and then again in July inviting me to stop by to see the High Street Gardens.

I was blown away!

This is the entry. Not only did she plan, prepare, plant and tend the garden, she made signs for visitors. Another sign tells neighbors to walk in, enjoy and pick the herbs and vegetables. This woman and her garden feeds the bodies and souls of her neighbors. Last spring, she was especially interested in reaching the elderly and the children.

Next the path goes by the rain garden, supported by a program through the city. Her plants are thriving and already starting to bloom, such as:

Joe-Pye weed,

blue lobelia, and

sedges.

Across from the rain garden is a pumpkin patch, then sunflowers screen this bird bath bordered by a black drain pipe decorated by the neighborhood children. The bird bath was donated by Stuckey's greenhouse.

Then come the raised beds, decorated by the children.

The beds and the fence line are filled with vegetables, herbs and berries, ready to be picked by any neighbor when ripe. As a gardener, I noticed and appreciated the compost pile in the back of the lot.

And annuals are mixed into the beds for the pure joy of it. The coleus/sweet potato bed was donated and planted by Stuckeys. The galvanized tub planter was found by a neighbor and donated. The neighborhood is starting to understand that this was created just for them and are slowly becoming involved. First the kids and now the adults. But this one woman still drags her hose over from her house to water every morning during this intense heat wave (and pays for the water and property taxes.).

Community gardens are usually publicly owned and the produce belongs to those who work in it. This garden is privately owned and the produce goes to the public. One woman with a vision and this is just the first year. The perennials will only become more spectacular and she is talking about putting in grapes or fruit trees. I am forcing myself not to use an excess of exclamation marks.

(Forgive the quality of the pictures. I was not expecting this so only had my iPhone and it was in the middle of the day.)

What was lost is now found

2011-05-20T05:47:00.007-04:00

I have been searching for something since the spring of 1988. Yesterday I found it. Rejoice with me!

“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Luke 15:6-10

Over 20 years ago, the first spring I lived here, I was walking in the woods, checking it out, when a sigh of disgust at litter escaped my lips as I saw a partially inflated balloon stuck on some foliage. I went over to pick it up and discovered:

A lady's slipper! A native Indiana orchid! A Cypripedium pubescens! It is an uncommon wildflower, considered threatened in many Midwestern states.

My woods had been ravaged by the former owner who fenced it and kept goats. The goats were very destructive and we have worked hard to restore the woodlands. Every spring I searched the area where I found the lady's slipper and never found a trace. Yesterday, I was working in the woods, pulling garlic mustard, removing bush honeysuckle and marking tree starts. I was scanning every square inch of the woods, when I beheld the long-lost flower.

Oh, pretty one, where have you been?

Now for a bonus photo from the adjacent woods:

Now that's one giant jack-in-the pulpit.

Mow gingerly

2011-05-19T13:13:00.004-04:00

I wrote this as a comment on a native plant blog, but decided I should share this story here.

About ten years ago, we planted redbuds and tulip poplars between our lane and the woods. As the trees matured, we noticed the wildflowers expanding their territory. Bloodroot, bluebells, and monarda were the first to appear. Then we discovered jacks, bleeding heart, native sunflowers, and asters. Of course, we stopped mowing this area until there was only a mower's width up the lane to allow access to the meadow.

I love wild ginger but failed in my two efforts to establish it here. Just last week I found several patches under those redbud trees. I really wonder how they traveled so far. I was so excited and dragged my husband out to see it several times. I envisioned a carpet of ginger under those trees.

Then Ricky mowed the lawn. You know what happened next, as he was just trying to keep the lane neat. My son felt so bad because my first response was tears. My second response was hope that the ginger responds to this pruning. The other flowers will do just fine.

The Doctrine of Signatures

2011-04-26T21:37:00.003-04:00

For years I used the scientific names of plants, eschewing the common names. This year, however, as I enjoy the spring ephemerals bursting in the woods, I am also enjoying the stories behind their common names, specifically the Doctrine of Signatures. This 16th century medical doctrine is based on the belief that God marked plants with his signature so we would know the purpose of the plant.

Today, I found the first blooms of trout lily, but the older common name is adder's tongue lily. According to the Doctrine of Signatures (DoS), this plant will heal snake bites because it looks like a snake's tongue.

Another spring wildflower is cut-leaf toothwort, whose roots were thought to resemble teeth, so this plant was used to treat tooth trouble. Even the genus name,Dentaria, reflects the DoS.

One of the most beautiful spring flowers is hepatica or liverwort. "God's mark on Hepatica was that its leaves turned liver-colored in winter and by a stretch of the imagination looked like little slabs of chicken livers."

On a sunny early spring day, the white blooms of bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) are charming. The roots produce a red dye, so this plant was thought to cure blood disorders.

The may-apples in my woods are just starting to unfurl their umbrellas leaves. Although not related to the Eurasian mandrake, its roots are similar and was called mandrake in the New World. Mandrake is suppose to promote sexual passion in females due to the shape of its roots.

The lungworts (Pulmonaria) are blooming in my cultivated garden, Their spotted oval leaves looked like spotty diseased lungs to someone, thus the common and scientific name. It was used to treat pulmonary infections.

The maidenhair fern will be emerging soon in the woods of Indiana. Of course, because of its fine fronds, it was used to cure baldness when the Doctrine of Signatures was the source of medical treatment.

There are many other examples of the Doctrine of Signatures, but these are blooming now in case you want to try some superstitious medicine.

Hoosier Wilderness

2011-04-04T20:42:00.013-04:00

Driving through Indy, I could not suppress a squeal when I saw my first daffodils of the season, but I soon learned self-control as I was with my husband and our friend Ed to spend several days in Charles C. Deam Wilderness area in the Hoosier National Forest. Spring was evident everywhere.

Our first stop was Oliver Winery where we had lunch of smoked gouda, rosemary pink salt flatbread and Riesling.

After checking into a motel and scouting part of the 13,000 acres of Hoosier National Forest, we headed in for the night and another bottle of wine. Just then a large green shooting star streaked across the southwestern horizon.

Sunday morning, we headed out to explore Indiana's version of wilderness.

And discovered spring flowers, such as spring beauties with its edible tubers,

cut-leaved toothwort,

dogwood blooms (OK, I'm pushing this as a bloom but it's almost there),

and club moss and Christmas ferns carpeting the forest floor.

Cress, trout lilies and redbuds were in full bud, but I was liken' the lichen.

Terrill Cemetery was at the end of one trail. There were a few modern gravestones, but some stones were hand carved, such as this 1848 marker with the holes acting as guidelines.

Some stones were crudely hand-chiseled and some graves were marked only with a stone. I was amazed that WH is still remembered with a fading daffodil and a flag.

We left the marked trail to find a little lake.

It was time for a short rest, lunch and a nap.

Ed tried out his Katedyn water filter in the lake. I was very interested as a water filter has been on my wish list for some time.

Refreshed, it was time for some bushwhacking, using a compass and a topographical map. We stuck to the ridges and headed mostly south, avoiding ravines such as this one that was over 200' deep.

The ridges took us through some thickets of wild roses and the wind started to pick up. Gusts up to 50 mph were forecast. The tops of the trees were dancing up a storm while singing to us. We used extreme caution to avoid falling limbs and trees. Just as we hit the trail, a 50' hardwood tree came down about 25 ' from Steve.

Back at the car, we decided to take a brief look at T. C. Steele State Historic Site and then time for a hot shower. The temps reached 80 degrees and the hiking was strenuous, so the hot shower was a real luxury.

It was a great way to spend our anniversary weekend. (19 years)

Peg's Personal Story

2010-11-12T13:29:00.008-05:00

My sister sent me this email yesterday, Veteran's Day, which I am publishing with her permission.

Hi! Happy Veteran’s Day!

My cousin Linda sent the following email to me, which brought tears to my eyes because it hit so close to home.

In 1970 when the military started drafting husbands and fathers for the first time since WW II, Craig was drafted and sent to Viet Nam as a foot soldier (aka grunt) leaving behind Laura and me. There was no way to explain to a two-year old that Daddy was off fighting a war, so she kept searching for him. At the sight of any old geezer on the street, her eyes would light up and she would inquire in a tremulous voice, “Daddy?” When Craig was discharged, he missed his connecting flight out of Chicago, so John who had a fast car drove Laura and me to O’Hare to pick up Craig. We all entered the terminal at the same time and Laura ran to Craig laughing as tears streamed down her face saying, “I knew I had a Daddy!”

At that time there was a vicious hateful mood in the country towards the military, there were no returning heroes welcomes like after WW II and soldiers were more likely to be spat upon in airports. So Craig never volunteered that he was a Viet Nam vet. Then in 1983 when Laura was a flagger marching in the Three Rivers Parade with Northrop’s Big Orange Pride, a small rag-tag group of men in camo marched by holding homemade signs saying “Viet Nam Vets” and the crowd gave them a standing ovation! It still makes me cry, so you can see why the following email touched my heart.

Love, Peggy

P.S. Craig also saw Bob Hope and Ann Margaret in Da nang Christmas ‘71 – He was sitting in a sea of men so far away from the stage that he could barely see them!

Our Fourth

2010-07-06T21:55:00.016-04:00

Two days. Two couples. Too much fun.

Saturday morning we needed jackets as we took our camping gear to The Highlands with the top down and doors off the Jeep. On the way, a grey fox stepped out of the cornfield, stared at us and then loped back into the woods. After meeting our friends for breakfast and decorating ourselves with "Growing Wild for Conservation" tattoos, we loaded up two kayaks, one Rob Roy (Steve built it) and two solo canoes and headed north to paddle Pigeon River.

We put in at the bridge by Highway 327. The water was cold and the current was strong. Tammy, Stephanie and I used our paddles only to guide us, but we suspect Steve and Brian used their paddles to paddle backwards as we outdistanced them.

We pulled over at the first bridge to wait for them as there is a little rapids over an old dam. After "wheeeing" over the dam, we exited our boats and body surfed in the water. You can see Stephanie at the far left of the first picture, which I took when she first jumped in the fast water.

These photos show the brushy area where we tied off. Brian grabbed a dark branch to steady himself and it moved quickly into the water. The snake headed straight for Stephanie and tried to get in the Rob Roy. Just a little shriek was heard above the roar of the water.

The next section took us deeper into the woods. The shade was welcome and the dappled river bottom mesmerized me. In the sunny patches, swamp milkweed and pink roses were in bloom. We had a picnic lunch creekside and then tackled the last stretch. Again, the girls outdistanced the guys. So we stood on the bridge, drying off, and played with our shadows, until the guys rounded the bend.

Back at The Highlands, my brother had already started a fire, so we set up camp, cooked dinner, and played with Sampson.

As night fell, we sat around the campfire star gazing followed by a midnight walk through the woods down to the river. The night was clear and the stars were bright. We saw Draco the dragon stretching over the barn, the binary star in the Big Dipper, satellites, and shooting stars.

It was a lazy Sunday due to the heat. Our children came to visit and left. Then Steve, Brian, John, Anna and I took the river boat to watch the Leo-Cedarville fireworks from the water. I caught the setting sun but have no fireworks pictures. I put my camera away to participate rather than just observe. It was a long dark trip back to the property as we kept close watch for logjams, floating logs, and the river channel.

Six: Edna A. Spurgeon Nature Preserve

2010-04-11T20:20:00.034-04:00

After a morning at Gene Stratton-Porter SHS, my husband and I headed due west to visit our first Noble Country ACRES preserve and ACRES very first preserve. Since I work outdoors in a garden in the middle of the woods and then spend my evenings working in my woods, I knew the spring flowers would be giving us a show.

At the entrance we saw wild leeks or ramps and spring beauties, but that was just foreshadowing.

Next were the toadshade (Trillium sessile) and trout lilies.

Other trillium were just starting to bloom, the large white trillium and the nodding trillium. In full bloom, the bloom of the nodding trillium is hidden under the leaves, just like a mayapple.

The real show, though, was the dicentra. Squirrel corn is Dicentra canadensis and Dutchmen's breeches is Dicentra cucullaria. The foliage is very similar, but squirrel corn is more finely cut. The billowy softness of the forest floor is the dicentra.

As I was staring at the ground, my husband was staring up at the trees. These were monster trees. Steve is standing next to a branch that fell from the tree in the second picture. Let me change the verb tense, the branch had fallen. Thankfully, we didn't experience any falling trees.

We are so thankful to the ACRES founders and Edna Spurgeon for preserving this glacial kame with its magnificent old trees. Crotch veneer, cut through the center where a large limb forks from a trunk, is highly prized for its very decorative flame or V-patterns. We saw a good example in the following tree and limb, which would have been worth many thousands of dollars if timbered. But the untouched forest is worth much more.

The trail was rather steep as it wound up and down the kame. It was hard to capture it, but if my hubby needed a rest (waiting for me to catch up), then you know it was steep.

Near the end of the trail, a hillside was just starting to bloom with woodland poppies. This is a rather rare sight. The whole preserve was a rare sight.

Five: Vandolah Nature Preserve

2010-03-28T20:33:00.018-04:00

Saturday afternoon, after getting my orange hair cut off (another story), I headed to Vandolah Nature Preserve, which is perhaps 2 miles from my home. My friend Tammy and my friend and husband Steve met me there. After we had a picnic on the entry bench, we headed into the preserve.

There are a lot of very old apple trees at the entry, remnants of a farmstead. Ellsworth Smith told me that the woman who donated the land recalls her grandmother telling how Johnny Appleseed would eat dinner at their farm but would then leave to sleep outdoors. Are these descendants of trees planted by Johnny?

After leaving the orchard area, we hiked along a trail that borders I-69. At this point, you wonder if you really are in a nature preserve, with the numerous trees downed by the utility company, the cars and trucks whizzing by and the bush honeysuckle thicket.

Then you head into the ravines. We had quite a discussion whether this wetland was a fen, swamp or marsh.

The cut-leaved toothwort is ready to bloom.

And the hepatica is in full bloom. Once we spotted this bloom, we discovered the whole south-facing hill was abloom in hepatica.

Looking down the hill, we spotted this hollow stump, with the perfect peephole over the wetlands.

And a perfect place to get out of the wind.

Oh, no! Someone has lost the trail.

If only that person can make it to the solid log off that rotten log.

Will we have to undertake a rescue?

A picture of perfect grace.

And a successful landing.

After prancing down the ravine, we slowly climb up, taking rests as needed.

Perhaps we will see you at the next preserve we hike.

Four: Tom and Jane Dustin Nature Preserve

2010-03-22T08:16:00.010-04:00

I visited my fourth ACRES Nature Preserve yesterday. Before hiking a few trails, I attended a talk by Don Gorney about the 18 warblers that nest in NE Indiana. Don moved to Indy and is devoted to Lights Out Indy, a movement to turn out the lights on tall buildings which confuse many birds, including migrating warblers. These birds crash into the buildings and die. He estimates that more oven birds were killed by running into buildings in Indianapolis than were hatched.

As a very amateur birdwatcher, I decided to focus on finding a Yellow-throated Warbler because it nests in riparian woods with open canopy, primarily sycamore trees. We spend a lot of time in this habitat on the river. It should reach this area in mid-April. I'm also keeping an eye and ear out for the prothonotary warbler because it is such a beautiful bird.

After the talk, the naturalist from work joined me for walk on the short trails around the ACRES' office, the former home of Tom and Jane Dustin. The Dustins started ACRES Land Trust 50 years ago and were active environmentalists for years. They were inaugural members in the Indiana DNR's Conservationist Hall of Fame, along with Gene Stratton-Porter. The preserve borders Cedar Creek with the canyons formed by a glacial tunnel valley. It is also one of four designated Natural and Scenic rivers of Indiana. (I live on the other side of the creek.)

Despite the recent warm weather, it is still early spring and trees are identified by bark and other characteristics. The beech tree is easy to spot because of its smooth grey bark and the fact it holds its leaves all winter.

We saw a nice example of shelf fungus.

And numerous purple cress in full bud and

the first wildflower in bloom, Harbinger of Spring.

Three: Foxfire Woods Nature Preserve

2010-03-20T10:14:00.010-04:00

In my quest to visit 50 ACRES preserves, last evening Steve and I stopped by Foxfire Woods on the way to the Highlands (our tree farm) and we ignored the random capitalization on this sign!

It is a small preserve, just 7.9 acres, acquired in 1974. We hiked a half mile back to the preserve and then the half mile loop through an open forest.

There was not much green yet, but I did find a Christmas fern.
We were entertained by the songs of birds and a very noisy chorus of spring peepers in the vernal pool at the back of the preserve.

Foxfire is a bioluminescent fungus that is best seen in late summer and early fall, but I did see several other fungi.

We saw an interesting burl on a tree.

And when I looked at the other side of the tree, this happy wood gnome was staring back at me.

It was a pleasant way to start our evening, which ended by enjoying a pizza and wine by a campfire at the tree farm.

Two: McNabb-Walter Nature Preserve

2010-03-08T11:01:00.011-05:00

Such a busy weekend and I wondered how to fit in another ACRES visit. Then I realized that the McNabb-Walters Nature Preserve is almost across the road from our tree farm and we had to drop a load of wood off at the farm anyway. When our friends Tammy and Brian called, I asked if they wanted to meet us at the preserve for a quick hike. We met at the entrance at 5:00 on Sunday March 7, 2010.

The picture above is the Davis-Fisher Creek which drains into the St. Joseph River. It cuts quite a deep ravine through the land and is pretty even without any leaves. We hiked with Tammy and Brian late last fall along the river ravines, admiring the same stark beauty.

This is a locust tree with thorns over a foot long. Some trees are easy to identify in winter!

These shrubs are native spice bushes (Lindera benzoin) and are hosts to the spicebush butterfly. Their buds are round little balls. If you chew on a twig it tastes like spices - cloves, ginger, nutmeg? Tea can be made from the twigs and seeds.

The trail loops around the remnants of an old sugar shack, as the woods are filled with sugar maples. We found scars on the trees where they were tapped many years ago.

Not much left of the sugar shack,

but we did find an old sleigh used to haul sap to the sugar camp for boiling down. The sleigh was in remarkable condition, but buried by so much debris it was hard to get a picture. Hey, ACRES, this sleigh might be worth salvaging. It was in pretty good condition.

I earnestly searched for green. I refused to take pictures of garlic mustard though. There were a lot of ramps, or wild leeks,...

and a bed of ferns...
And rue was starting to grow. I looked for, but did not find, harbinger of spring. It is probably too early.

And I love fungus. These little buttons had seen better days, though.

Steve and I plan to stop by the preserve more often, coming and going from the tree farm, watching it as it bursts forth with ephemeral spring flowers. We feel a special kinship to it as we made friends with Alwilda McNabb Walters when she was in the nursing home. She told of how her husband's family acquired a lot of the land. They owned a funeral home and if someone could not pay for the funeral, he would accept payment in land.

ACRES 50/50: Kokiwanee

2010-03-01T17:25:00.011-05:00

ACRES 50/50

At the beginning of 2010, I had only visited 5 nature preserves out of the 68 preserves owned by ACRES Land Trust. So I decided to make a concerted effort to visit more preserves, specifically to visit 50 preserves this year, to commemorate ACRES’ 50th anniversary.

One: Kokiwanee Nature Preserve, Wabash County

February 28, 2010

It was an overcast day but we had high hopes as my husband and I followed our friends Renee and John to the Salamonie Dam, where they had seen bald eagles the previous Sunday. On the drive, I suggested to Steve that we start visiting ACRES Nature Preserves. At the dam, we did not see any eagles, but several fishermen said they saw some at Kokiwanee several days prior. So we hopped in the cars and I started my quest to discover 50 preserves.

It was a gray day, but we happily hiked down Mossy Heights Trail to a limestone ledge overlooking Salamonie River.

Steve and John arrived first and were getting their binoculars out, while Renee and I followed with her entertaining me with her memories of going to Girl Scout Camp at the site. As we approached the ledge, suddenly she said, “There’s an eagle!” It was perched in a tree directly across the river, giving us a full view. I was startled by its size and how white its head was.

In a few seconds, the eagle flew upriver and we settled in for some serious bird watching. Except where were they? So we inspected the moss on Mossy Heights.

Soon an eagle flew down river. It’s the little black dot in this picture. I don’t have the equipment to capture an eagle flying, although this was the first time I tried it.

A few minutes later, an eagle flew right in front of us. I was too slow to take a picture, but, to tell the truth, my mouth was probably gaping open at the sight.

While it was too icy to tackle the trails, spotting bald eagles was quite a start to my 50 in 50 adventure. I wonder what the next preserve will bring?

From ACRES Land Trust Preserve Guide:

Kokiwanee

Acreage 139.5

Year Acquired:2003

“Kokiwanee features bluffs along the Salamonie River and streams tumbling down waterfalls to flow into the river. This is a place of many species of trees; wildflowers, including snow trillium; and many birds from wood ducks on the river to great blue herons wading where the water is shallow, and many woodland species.”

Pruning Wisteria

2010-01-08T09:30:00.005-05:00

As I prune the wisteria (and honeysuckle and Tara vines), I keep picturing the last attempt. Wisteria hysteria. Here are the crime scene photos. At least, I'm not pruning them down to their roots.

I know wisteria should be pruned after it blooms in the spring, but the arbor is deteriorating and I have to get it ready to replace all the uprights and cross-beams this summer. I also need to lessen the snow load this winter.

The Good, The Bad and The Fix

2010-01-07T21:25:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was a hard day at work as I pruned the wisteria preparing for a new arbor: snow, cold and up and down the ladder. So when I came home, I was thrilled that Ricky had cleaned the house, taken care of the garbage cans, loaded the dishes and had supper in the oven. We were in the kitchen talking and laughing when he looked at the floor and exclaimed. I turned around to find a huge puddle of water. The dishwasher decided to drain on the floor. We cleaned the mess and drained the rest of the water.

Tonight, facing a lot of dishes after dinner, I decided to fix the dishwasher. I quickly determined that the seal had deteriorated in one corner and pushed the pieces back in place. Getting the carpet cleaner handy to suck up water, I decided to try it again. And it worked!

Steve checked it out and will get a new seal this weekend, but I felt so competent. Recently my sister told the story of how impressed she was when I fixed my dryer when I was single. I had forgotten about it, but I guess I just put the belt back in place. That caused me to wonder how or why I lost competence when I married a man who can take care of things around the house. Yes, it is division of duties and he is much more skilled at maintenance, but why did I stop trying?

Merry Christmas to all

2009-12-24T18:30:00.002-05:00

We will soon leave for Christmas Eve services. After Santa comes in the moring, we are going to my inlaws. Saturday is the Bishop Brunch here (over 30) and Sunday is the Ferguson party. You know, the 12 Days of Christmas begins on Christmas.

And here is a thought for this Christmas season.

Decades

2009-12-16T07:27:00.003-05:00

My decades coincide with the calendar decades, minus two weeks. Happy Birthday to me as I turn 60 today. Reflecting on the decades, I came up with one word for each. These words are not all-encompassing but capture the general focus of how my life evolved.

20s was my decade for education
30s was my decade for career
40s was my decade for family
50s was my decade for community

What will this next decade bring?

"We can't see the forest for the T- Mobiles"

2009-12-15T07:57:00.003-05:00

I don't think this is a problem for garden bloggers, but is it a problem for others? A friend's son recently graduated with a degree in recreational forestry (or something like that!) and his first job is at Pokagon State Park. He doesn't like the wifi in the campgrounds, because it distracts visitors from enjoying nature, but the visitors are demanding it.

I particularly like this part of the article:

Landscape designers talk about bestowing on a garden its genius loci, or spirit of the place, that bubbles up into your consciousness if its presence is strong enough and the visitor meditative enough to receive it.

Harrison says a garden truly reveals itself only when its own depths and those of the beholder flow together. But that takes time. "For the gardens to become fully visible in space, they require a temporal horizon that the age makes less and less room for."

This is my man

2009-12-04T10:01:00.003-05:00

It is 27 degrees outside now. He teaches 4th grade and, unless the weather is extreme, they have outside recess. Yesterday he had recess duty and asked a girl (not in his class) if she had a coat. "My Daddy said he would buy me one when he has the money." I mentioned getting a free coat for her at our church's clothing bank. He just gave me a look that said, "This little girl will have a new coat." My husband bought a bright pink coat last night and will leave it on her hook this morning.

This is my husband. A good man, quietly making the world a better place, wanting no recognition. Truth be told, even this post is too much recognition.

Family Drama

2009-11-25T19:15:00.003-05:00

Thanksgiving is about family and family is about drama. Right?

Wrong.

I am thankful this year that there is so little drama in my family. Oh, we're passionate and opinionated, but we are also kind. So much family drama involves some type of cruelty.

I don't understand those who thrive on drama, those who create drama for its own sake, those who stir up drama.

So this year, I am thankful that I am part of an extended family that thrives on love and kindness.

Last planting of 2009

2009-11-23T14:18:00.004-05:00

I just planted 300 crocus bulbs in irregular groupings where my front walk opens to the sitting area under the maple tree. You can see the opening in this photo, which obviously was taken in late May/early June during the blue phase of my garden. (Yes, I could look up the exact date, but then I would get distracted by something and never post. ) The pond is on the other side of the tree so you are drawn through the opening and under the tree toward the pond. Usually I have reasons for my "designs" even though the reasons may not be obvious to visitors. hey, this is MY garden. The older I get, the more freedom I give myself to do things my way.

I love the larger crocus but they bloom two weeks later than the early crocus. I am so hungry for flowers in March that I decided to plant the smaller, earlier blooming crocus: white (Biflorus Purity), lilac-blue (Sieberi Tricolor) and yellow (Chrysanthus Goldilocks).

So does that mean my fall chores are done outside? Not quite. I still need to clean up a few beds and add the detritus to the compost pile and then turn the compost pile. I'm composting at the end of a new vegetable garden and will expand the garden next spring to include the compost area.

What are you doing Saturday?

2009-11-18T12:00:00.001-05:00

Come join me for a Holiday Walk at Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site in Rome City, Indiana. Here is more information.

I will be working all day and hope to see you there!

Veggies Update

2009-08-31T20:12:00.001-04:00

Green Beans
While I was recovering from pneumonia, the green beans came and went. We were able to have German Potato Salad with fresh green beans and new potatoes before I was stricken, but there are no beans in the freezer and dried pods are still on the vine in the garden. I may start a fall crop and hope we have a long fall.

Potatoes
For some reason, growing potatoes gives me a thrill, cutting the tuber in small pieces and getting a bounty from it. I still have some to dig and I hope they are OK with all the rain we have had these last several weeks.

Corn
This is my second year growing corn. Last year I was able to freeze enough to see us through the winter. This year, we had one good meal and two rather pathetic meals from the garden. They germinated sparingly and about half of them grew tall and the other half were stunted.

Tomatoes
Just starting the harvest. I love the heirloom "black" tomatoes. I'm drying most the Roma tomatoes with oil, garlic and herbs.

Peppers
These are just starting to produce. I look forward to a good harvest of red and yellow bell peppers.

Cucumbers
This is my third season growing cucumbers. The first year was good, last year was horrible and this year was amazing. I have canned many pints and quarts of bread-and-butter pickles and still the vines are producing.

Grapes
I have watched many clusters of grapes form on the vines and mature to fat green clusters, tracking their ripeness carefully so I can pick them at the peak pectin stage for grape jelly. Then I went out this weekend and I may have ten grapes (not ten clusters, but grapes). What happened? Luckily, my in-laws have lots and lots to share with me. Oh, and the wild grapes are about ready to pick also.

Teenage Sons

2009-08-31T17:06:00.000-04:00

I have a category called teenage sons. I will have to change it to sons, because they are no longer teenagers. I started blogging when they were 13 and now they are 20. The last seven years have gone by quickly (and sometimes slowly).

It's a whole new parenting game, guiding them while letting them stand on their own. They are so eager to fly from the nest, but I want to help them avoid any big crashes. About the time I master this stage of parenting, they will be on to the next stage. But so it went in every previous stage.

CobraHead

2009-08-31T07:52:00.004-04:00

I'm a winner! Of course, thanks to the good people at CobraHead, all commenters were winners. I thank Carol at May Dreams Garden (check out her blog) and I thank the CobraHead family (buy their tools).

It has been an unusual summer, and I'm not talking about the weather, which warrants several posts. I started strong. Then the day after my niece's graduation party at our house, I went to my bed with pneumonia and didn't get up for ten days. It has taken a while for me to get any energy back. I'm told that is to be expected, but, having been healthy all my life, I'm impatient to be able to work all day in the gardens at Gene Stratton-Porter and then come home and whip out the housework, dinner and work in my garden.

Which circles me back to the CobraHead. After two months of neglect, I spent the weekend in my garden. I made good use of the CobraHead and it is definitely a wonderful tool. I tackled the ornamental garden along my walk and it sure lifts my spirits to see it looking so nice.

As I was removing errant grass under the hydrangea with the CobraHead yesterday, I noticed the funniest looking worm slithering away. Wait, worms don't slither. It was the smallest brown snake I ever saw, about 4" long and 1/4" across. I lifted it up with the CobraHead and it moved its tiny head back and forth and flicked its little tongue. A cobra wanna be?

My guiding principle

2009-07-12T12:26:00.010-04:00

Two bits of wisdom from my past converged this week resulting in an epiphany of my life's philosophy.

My Father and Tennyson
My father read Tennyson and I have his book, The Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson, copyrighted in 1892. When I was a mere child, Dad had my sister and I commit to memory a portion of Lady Clara Vere de Vere. This portion is underlined in Dad's book:

Howe'er it be, it seems to me,
'Tis only noble to be good.
Kind hearts are more than coronets,
and simple faith than Norman blood.

This week I was reminded of the verse when my husband wrote a parody for a friend based on The Lady of Shalott and we pulled out Dad's book for reference.

Proverb Plaque
A few days later, I noticed a plaque hanging in my house. I hand-carved a proverb 25 years ago as a gift to my ex-husband, trying to encourage him to live a better life. When he left, he left the plaque. I put it away, but when my husband found it years later, he loved it because of the sentiment and because I carved it. He insisted that it be hung. This is Proverbs 21:21, Revised Standard Version:

He who pursues righteousness and kindness will find life and honor.

The Epiphany
Is there anything more winsome than kindness? Righteousness connotes that one is living a life that is pleasing to God and the root word in Hebrew means upright, just, straight, innocent, true, sincere.

Can I live a life of kindness? Can I live a life that pleases God? I often fail, but it will not stop me from pursuing kindness and righteousness.

Exercising My Brain's Executive Network

2009-05-14T22:09:00.003-04:00

While you may have thought my last post was about daydreaming, I was only giving my lateral medial prefrontal cortex and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex a heavy work-out.

Here's the basis for my claim.

Garden Plans

2009-05-13T14:10:00.001-04:00

It's a rainy dreamy day and I'm dreaming of my veggie garden.

Steve tilled the fenced garden this week and I wanted to plant today since I'm off work. I can just see the sweet corn, green beans, Roma tomatoes, red peppers, and cucumbers (for bread and butter pickles). The heirloom tomatoes and basil will go in the raised bed once I harvest the spinach and lettuce. The new compost bed has potatoes coming up and I think I will put some squash on the end.

Aliens Attack Earth Girl's Home

2009-05-11T22:34:00.007-04:00

Several alien invaders have insidiously established strongholds around our home, but Steve and I have been attacking them on several fronts. Here's a report from the fighting front.

Bush Honeysuckle
Twenty years ago when I noticed how much the birds like the red berries on the pretty bush by the bridge, I should have been suspicious. Now we are surrounded by bushes, blocking our view of the woods. This spring we launched a full scale attack. While there have been skirmishes elsewhere, the main battles have been along the stream bed and the meadow edges.

Autumn Olive
Oh, your heavenly scent seduced me into leaving just one or two bushes. Then you show your true colors. If you cut the thorny bush down, it sends out suckers. Off with its head with a few drops of pure glyphosate on its neck. It likes to hang out with the honeysuckle, but our brush pile is now about 20 feet tall as we attack both invasive shrubs.

Multiflora Roses
Sure, you call yourself a rose, but I call you dead. Once upon a time, I had a pretty native pink rose growing here; what did you do with her?

Garlic Mustard
Just search my blog with this term to find out how long I've been battling this alien. Every time I think I have won, I find you hiding among the canes of the multiflora roses, or under a large mayapple. And you are mutating into ever shorter plants all the better to hide from me. But I have trained my eyes to find you, even to the point of missing the morels.

Potential Threats
I won't even mention the English ivy that is trying to creep into the woods, or the ajuga romping along the stream edge, or the dandelions, or the red osier or poison ivy. And how did lily of the valley get in the woods?

Please send care packages!

Resilience

2009-05-05T07:48:00.002-04:00

This article captures what I think is one of the secrets to a successful and happy personal life, and it makes the case that it is effective for other systems also. Resilience is a skill that we have worked hard to teach one of our sons, battered through his experiences before we adopted him at almost six years old. It is not his natural state, but he has made great strides.

GSP Outdoors

2009-04-12T22:41:00.002-04:00

Check out the recent posts on GSP Outdoors. Our site director is now posting on it also and there are pictures of wildflowers, salamanders and bobcat tracks, all from the grounds of the Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site.

An Easter Sunday

2009-04-12T22:14:00.003-04:00

As my nephew, his friend and my son headed up to the road to play ball today (and why in the road when we have a perfectly good meadow?), I called after them to watch for cars. Our road is not heavily traveled, but there are two sharp curves that block vision. My husband laughed and reminded me that my nephew and his friend just returned from combat duty and could probably handle the rare car on a back road. The "boys" were good-natured about my warning though.

A walk is always on the agenda after we eat and we headed down into the lowlands next to Cedar Creek. Yes, we did get a bit muddy, but the spring flowers were just emerging. I discovered several large patches of wild leeks or ramps (Allium tricoccum). My ten-year-old nephew was especially interested in identifying animal tracks in the mud. He called me over to look at one track that he couldn't identify, but my husband identified it first. As Sean held a mud caked stick behind his back, my husband announced it was the track of the wild Sean-boy dog.

Pileated Woodpeckers (plural)

2009-02-23T11:23:00.002-05:00

I just walked onto the back deck and saw 2 - TWO - pileated woodpeckers in the woods. I looked because of the loud pecking and then saw the second further back in the woods moving around the tree and then flying to another tree. I wonder if we will have baby peckers this spring?

Wonders

2009-01-30T10:08:00.003-05:00

There is a lot of chatter on blogs about the medical benefits of letting children play in the dirt. I just read an interesting article about how high fever, whether viral, bacterial or plasmodic in origin, triggers the immune system to fight cancer.

Deja Vu

2009-01-20T12:58:00.000-05:00

Just when I thought I had nothing for a blog post, there is a twin repeat from last week. Car in ditch. Ricky this time. "Mom, it's been 3 months since the last time."

Oh, he's fine, except for a huge bruise on his left shoulder and some self-disgust that it happened.

I've changed my (kitchen) ways

2009-01-19T22:04:00.000-05:00

Parchment paper
I grew up "greasing" cookie pans. It worked but was messy. Parchment paper is easy to use, easy to clean and works well. I recently tried "Baker's Joy" oil and flour spray and didn't like it except for those tiny muffin tins that are impossible to grease and flour as well as pans with ridges.

Chef's knife
I used a Chef knife for the last 15 years of my 40 or so years of adult cooking. Whap, whap, whap and I'm done slicing and dicing. I remember Mom dicing a whole onion with a paring knife while holding it in her hand.

Joy of Cooking
I started with a Betty Crocker cookbook. Sure, there are serviceable recipes in it and I still use a few of them. I changed my ways about 1985 with the purchase of Joy. It gives me so much background and variations that I often I just create my own recipes. I am now migrating to the internet, researching recipe variations and then creating my own.

Microplaner
In the olden days, I used the smallest side of a grater to zest lemons and oranges. Then I upgraded to a Pampered Chef zester. It was easier but still resulted in chunky zest. The microplaner is perfect. I use it for nutmeg and hard cheese also.

Potato Masher
For years I whipped out the mixer to whip potatoes. I now scrub the potato, cut them into small chunks, skin on, and then use the oh-so-quiet potato masher. We like little chunks in the potatoes, especially with lots of butter (and cream cheese or sour cream or whatever else I feel like adding.)

Pyrex small bowls with lids
I bought eight 2-cup glass bowls to bake and serve individual berry puff puddings at a dinner party. I used them so much afterward that I bought four 1-cup bowls and lids and then another eight bowls. I use these bowls instead of plastic storage containers or freezer bags for most items. Cook, freeze, microwave, serve--all in the same bowl. I use the refrigerator freezer to store prepared food in these containers and all we have to do is pop the lid and microwave. Right now, you could serve yourself potato soup, cuban black bean soup, turkey and noodles, chili soup, teriyaki pork or meatballs from these bowls, all neatly stacked in my small freezer.

A day at The Highlands

2009-01-19T08:34:00.006-05:00

After church, breakfast and grading homework, we headed out to the tree farm for some cross-country skiing. We call it The Highlands because of the 70 foot bluff overlooking the river and the fact that my husband's ancestors came from Scotland.

We discovered the neighbors from the Art Farm (two artists are rehabbing an old Amish farm across the road, starting with purple paint) had laid ski tracks around our land and through the neighbor's woods. A fine powder of snow filled the tracks for perfect skiing. The weather seemed balmy (24 degrees) and the sun was shining, but the wind was blowing hard. After some skiing, we built a little fire in a sheltered spot and warmed up Cuban black bean soup for lunch.

We hit the trails again and then switched to boots to prune some of the trees. Note the small hardwoods behind Steve. We are pruning so all the hardwoods have one dominant straight leader. This is called financial pruning (best timber price when mature) rather than aesthetic pruning, although I let one oak in an open spot continue growing with spreading branches. Maybe someone will put a swing there someday.

Daily Life/Daily Disasters

2009-01-17T17:36:00.006-05:00

I'm sure glad yesterday is done, over, kaput, never to be seen again. Today has been much better (so far).

First, the temperature is now a balmy 26 degrees compared to last night's negative 14 degrees. I went outside several times today in just a lightweight jacket, while I dressed in layers yesterday. I recently read that what I call long underwear is now called a base layer. Much more civilized, don't you think?

Second, I got a call from my son yesterday morning. He was sitting in the ditch in the canyons, just like his brother several months ago. Car sustained damage from the front bumper to the rear bumper. Son missed the big trees. Son was not injured. This is his "new" car. My husband cosigned for it. Insurance is already over $1400 a year for him. And to top it all, I told him to stay home and he disobeyed. Last night I decided to talk to him as an adult instead of a child. I reminded him of Proverbs 19:20, "Listen to counsel and accept discipline, that you may be wise the rest of your days." And I think his eyes glazed over while I was talking.

Finally, I made the best Cuban Black Bean Soup last night. See that line: If a thicker, smoother soup is desired, purée half of the soup in a blender. I decided I wanted a thicker soup, so I put part of it in the blender and hit pulse. The lid flew off and black goop literally flew five feet in every direction. Today, my kitchen is clean and I'm heating a bowl of soup for supper.

"This is a piece of cardboard...

2009-01-13T12:32:00.005-05:00

to be used only if you need a piece of cardboard."

This morning, I found this in a box of papers from my mother's estate. It was written by Dad. I'm sure it made my mother laugh.

Do it sooner, rather than later

2009-01-03T20:46:00.004-05:00

I painted my dining room today and it reminded me to make changes sooner, rather than later. A good reminder for the new year.

I have disliked the color in the dining room since I painted it, about ten years ago. Here's a picture from a baby shower that shows the dining room. The french doors are open in the picture, but there's a good shot of one wall. The paint has a pinkish cast and it washed out the beauty of the woodwork.

Here's what it look like tonight, almost finished. The color is not true; it's darker and not olive. The tape is still on, I have some trim to finish on the built-in sassafras china cabinet that my husband made for me, and I need to iron the freshly washed valance to hang over the doors. Oh, and clean up my paint mess, too.

So on the theme of changes, perhaps I shall work on getting the plank floors I want. It may be a while since my husband wants to put radiant heating under the floors and build the planks himself, probably from trees harvested from our tree farm. Oh, well, I'm pleased with the new paint for now.

New Year Critters

2009-01-01T22:26:00.003-05:00

Two critter encounters today: opossum and hawk.

While I was shaking some rugs on the back deck, a large hawk (20 inches) flew within ten feet of me. It landed in a small tree about 20 feet away, with its back to me, and slowing moved its head one way and then another, looking for prey. I never did see its front, but it had a fan-shaped tail with wide brown and black stripes, ending in a white stripe. Its brown back had buff dots and its head was a lighter shade of brown. I couldn't make a definite ID from my references, but it was fun to watch.

Then tonight, Steve called me to look out the back door, where he had sat a half full bottle of wine to remain chilled. (I must be an optimist, because I didn't think of it as half empty.) A (o)possum was gnawing on the cork, trying to get a taste.

So how were your holidays, Earth Girl?

2008-12-30T11:20:00.004-05:00

Christmas Tree
The moon was full and the night was cold. Our impossible mission was to find a tree that would fit in the house. In 1995, we planted 25 Scotch pines on our tree farm to provide us with Christmas trees, but they have grown like Topsy, not pruned into the ideal conical Christmas tree shape. After wandering up and down Christmas tree row (watch out for the briars!), the beam of our flashlight at last lighted a passable specimen, a 30 foot specimen. We cut it off midway and brought it home. We cut it off again. And again. The tip of the tree that made it into the stand in our house was a poor reflection of the nicely shaped tree we saw in the moonlight. Lights and ornaments and huge sprays of red berries disguised a lot of imperfections.

Baking
Kolachi, date balls, key lime cookies, homemade caramels, lemon coconut squares, cut-out sugar cookies, cranberry bread, crispy cookie coffeecakes, lemon balm pound cake. No wonder my pants are snug this morning.

Making Gifts
I am not a crafty person (in all senses of that phrase). But I decided to make a scrapbook for my mother-in-law chronicling her birthday party and their fall hayride. This took me hours, but I improved as I completed page-after-page. She loved it, especially the pictures at the sand pit, the hayride destination, because she could not ride in the wagon and missed that fun.

I have been working on compiling Mom's recipes into a cookbook as a gift to my family for over three years now. Family pictures and stories are interspersed throughout the cookbook. It's at the place where I need a killer design for the cover and a really good editor. When I look at it, I love it and I hate it. I think that is about normal for such a project. My niece Jennifer agreed to edit it, so perhaps this gift will be ready to print soon.

Ice and Snow and Rain
A few years ago, REMC buried the lines in our heavily wooded neighborhood because we often lost power. When the bad ice storm hit, we had power. We lent our two kerosene heaters to friends without power. Then on Sunday as temperatures hit subzero, we lost power. Steve started the generator and we plugged in a small electric heater. As he went to retrieve one of our kerosene heaters, Ricky and I played word games by candlelight. (Steve didn't understand why we didn't plug a lamp into the generator, but candlelight was much more dramatic.) When he got home, we gathered up an elderly neighbor and her dog and brought them to our house. Her plan was to crawl into bed and heap on the quilts. As soon as we settled in, power was restored. I am so blessed to have a competent prepared husband.

I'm 19
If I hear this one more time from one son, I'm going to scream! OK, so I did respond several days ago with "So, I'm 59." He thinks our rules, especially curfew, no longer apply to him. This "letting go", a euphemism for ripping apart the family structure, is not easy on either the parents or the sons. I just can't wait for him to be fully emancipated and our relationships restored. If you think I'm being overly dramatic, you have not experienced this stage. As parents, we have worked hard toward the goal of independence for him, but he is so immersed in it that he can't see that we are all working to the same ends. The biggest sticking point is "If you live in our house, you obey our rules."

Cognitive Dissonance

2008-12-29T09:46:00.003-05:00

I am gobsmacked that this article was published in The Times (UK): As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God.

I hardly ever (never?) read positive articles about Christians, let alone missionaries, in the secular press, but I have heard first-hand testimony to their effectiveness my whole life.

I'm thankful for Lawrence

2008-11-26T17:39:00.002-05:00

I just learned that my nephew (named for my father) returned safely from Iraq. After a few days in Indianapolis, he will be home. Hopefully, he will be home in time for our family's Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. Thank you God for Lawrence's safe return!

Here he is playing badminton last July at the river, when he was home on leave.

Meanwhile, I better get back to cleaning and cooking for my in-laws gathering here tomorrow. I set the turkey in the refrigerator on Sunday and I think it is still frozen. Yikes!

School Stories

2008-11-08T11:39:00.004-05:00

What a difference a vowel makes
Steve's class was reading aloud a story about a little girl who discovered how to make paint that made her invisible. One quiet little girl mispronounced a word in this sentence, "Irma mixed another batch of paint." She used the i-sound in batch.

She let out a wail of horror and started sobbing. By the time Steve got over to her, tears and snot were running down her chin and she was wailing incomprehensibly. He took her out in the hall and consoled her, and she finally choked out that she needed glasses and that was what she saw and the horror of saying such a word in class and she never says bad words.

I'm touched by her innocence, but the class of urban kids had erupted in laughter. I hope the little girl won't remember third grade by this incident.

Another quick story
Steve was grading math papers and one boy answered a story problem with "Oh, my brain."

File this under "I'm not surprised"
Steve received a note this week from one of his quieter students: "You are such a positive influence on so many people and I know you have changed my life." It doesn't get any better for a teacher (or a teacher's wife.)

Lucky me!

2008-11-03T17:25:00.004-05:00

A woman from church delivered a very special gift to me this weekend, a truck full of horse manure. It is now spread on my large vegetable garden covered with a layer of mulched leaves. This bed is still heavy clay so it needs all the organics it can get. Luckily it is fenced; otherwise, my dog would consider it his manure and delight in rolling around in it.

Thank you, Sue.

Fall Peepers?

2008-11-02T09:29:00.000-05:00

The spring peepers were in full chorus this weekend.

Excitement in the Canyons

2008-10-27T16:11:00.004-04:00

This morning I decided that I wanted to post something more uplifting than the last post about the economy. Perhaps pictures of my late fall garden, the apple harvest, the family cookout, a recipe. But no, I'm posting about my son's latest accident.

Ricky just left the house to visit a friend in Parkview Hospital and the phone rings. "Mom, I'm in the Canyons and my head hurts and my car is in the ditch."

Hoping for the best, I hopped in my car for the short ride to perhaps the most dangerous section of road in the county and found my son hurting but not injured. The car was smashed on every corner. I called 911 and they recommended an ambulance. A few minutes later I heard the siren and looked up the hill at the curve and saw a sheriff's car hit the same slick spot that sent Ricky into a guard rail and across the road into the ditch.

Except the sheriff's car went airborne, knocking down a small tree, and ended up teetering on a ridge. The ambulance showed up along with a fire truck. Then six sheriff's cars and two tow trucks. Poor Ricky was just shivering in the icy rain that was falling.

We're home. I'm monitoring Ricky in case of a concussion, but his vital signs are fine. He doesn't know how sore he is going to be tomorrow though. And we have to figure out the car situation so he can go to classes.

And just why has our family been fiscally responsible?

2008-10-04T15:47:00.004-04:00

This post on Fort Wayne Politics most succinctly describes my own reaction to our financial crisis. I do not want an economic meltdown, but we are only postponing the need to address the unsustainable level of private, corporate and government debt.

Steve and I have been fiscally responsible. We drive used cars. We remodeled our home (mostly ourselves) instead of buying a new home. We are debt-free. We saved for retirement. Then I opened my retirement fund statement this morning and determined that I will have to die ten years sooner than I planned and probably from starvation because inflation is gobbling up our income. That's my typical hyperbole, brought on by anger at the stupidity of our elected officials. Steve and I are well-equipped to face whatever the future brings; we have the skills, the common-sense, the temperament, the discipline, and the faith needed for tough times. I just wish I could find someone to vote for with skills, common-sense, and discipline.

Wild Pectin

2008-09-09T21:56:00.005-04:00

My "go-to" cookbook for years has been The Joy of Cooking, because it includes so much background information. For example, the intro to jellies includes information about pectin. By using natural pectin, instead of commercial pectin such as Sure-Gel, jellies require about half the sugar resulting in an intense fruit flavor.

But the seven bags of Concord grapes on my counter are not high in pectin. The Joy gave several options for natural pectin for grape jelly: use under-ripe fruit, use wild grapes, add an apple. So here are the steps for making low-sugar grape jelly without commercial pectic:

1. Take a ride on the river.
Make a date with your husband to go to the St. Joseph River in the Western Lake Erie watershed. Nose the riverboat into shore and cut off (prune?) the vines until you have a large pile on the floor of the boat. Remove the clusters. Step on numerous tiny grapes (they are smaller than blueberries), staining the floor with unique patterns of reddish purple. Watch the moon rise as you head back to the landing. Some sweet smooching is required at this point.

2. Ignore all warnings posted on the blog of an Internet friend.
Google "wild grape jelly" and find this post by Kylee, which includes the money quote:

The first thing I had to do was take all those tiny grapes off their stems. This job reminded me of shelling peas. It takes forever and a day of cleaning those before you get enough to feed two people one time.

3. Spend five hours de-stemming the grapes.
Yes, it takes a long time. Kylee is right. To break the monotony of this chore, make two batches of Concord jelly using some under-ripe fruit and half an apple to 8 cups of grapes. Making jelly with natural pectin requires a candy thermometer to know when the syrup reaches the sheet stage. If you are easily entertained, as I am, use the spoon method to test the jelly as well as the thermometer. Instead of the one or two minutes required with commercial pectic, this approach takes about 30 minutes of cooking.

4. Accept five bags of peaches and pears from brother.
At this point, you may be getting slightly insane, so when your brother calls and offers you peaches and pears from his orchard, resist the offer. Remember you still have four bags of grapes left on your counter. I didn't resist. My son drove over and collected the fruit so it could sit on my table. I ran out of counter room.

5. Cook, drain and strain the fruit.
The proportion of seeds to juice for wild grapes is about 10 times more than for Concord grapes. Empty the cooked wild grapes into a fine mesh strainer, listening for the clunk of seeds instead of the usual plop. For clear jelly, strain for 15 hours. Skip the straining if you are getting impatient or if you must use every last edible bit of these grapes.

6. Add sugar to grape juice and boil until it gels.
Add the sugar gradually, tasting the syrup until it is the right combination of sweet and tart. The wild grapes will gel in about ten minutes.

7. Seal in small jars.
It is important to use the smallest jars possible. This is precious stuff. Don't calculate the cost of each jar based on your consulting rate. You may weep.

8. Let your son lick the pan.
And smile knowingly when he raves about the taste.

75 and Still Alive

2008-09-07T22:54:00.002-04:00

My mother-in-law was diagnosed with lung cancer last fall and was given months to live. She said if she was still alive on August 30, her 75th birthday, she was going to have a huge party. She responded well to the palliative chemotherapy so she invited friends and family to celebrate. 75 and Still Alive was the theme. I'm sure that attitude has helped in her battle these last few months.

The Voyager's Maiden Voyage

2008-09-07T22:19:00.006-04:00

Last weekend, Steve and I finally slipped away to Michigan, just over the state line, to camp and canoe the Fawn River near Sturgis. It has been likened to rivers in Canada by more than one nature writer. The night before we left, Steve finished the canoe.

We had a great time with my brother, his girlfriend and four other couples camped in the crook of the Fawn near Sturgis. Two of my brothers have camped here by permission of the landowner for almost 30 years, but this was my first trip. We had such a good time that another couples trip was scheduled for October.

Brother John, whom I call Fireboy, is the fire architect. Sunday night he put a large hollow log upright on the fire and we watched flames shoot through the chimney and discussed which way it would fall. In this picture, he is bracing the chimney with several "small" logs in the foreground.

Renaissance Woman

2008-09-06T14:47:00.002-04:00

Here's a nice post by a marketing person from Indy (shorthand at work for Department of Natural Resources) who visited the site last week. I gave her a tour of the Cabin and gardens and I see some of my viewpoint of Gene Stratton-Porter reflected in this post. I'm curious on how this would read if another interpreter gave her the tour.

A Night on the River

2008-08-17T00:02:00.007-04:00

My husband I took the riverboat out tonight. I was going to link to a picture of the boat but discovered I never posted one. So here is a picture from last summer.

We always head upriver first (so we can float back if there is any trouble) and the first bridge we come to is the historic Van Zile bridge. Until I saw the photo, I didn't realize the trees are no longer the lush green of early summer.

We turned around a few bends after the next bridge and headed back into the sunset reflected by some swirly clouds which were reflected in the river.

Then a low "smoke" cloud entered the scene.

Before we landed, the moon rose. It is impossible to hold the camera still on a riverboat to take a night photo, but you can tell how awesome a moonrise is on a river. Perhaps I may even have broke into my rendition of Moon River at this point.

Living things in my garden

2008-08-16T22:26:00.006-04:00

This PM decided to take up residence on a Coronation Gold yarrow for the summer. He has doubled in size since I first spotted him and has changed from all green to green and brown. Normally I deadhead the yarrow, but not this year.

I didn't post often this spring but here's a picture of a snapping turtle looking for a place to lay eggs. Steve took this picture into his 4th grade classroom since they were studying reptiles at the time.

Quick, cut the corn

2008-08-12T22:29:00.003-04:00

This morning, my brother John brought over 12 dozen ears of corn, his turkey fryer and a corn cutter (the simple one). A few hours later, there were 19 bags of corn in my freezer. John said his focus was speed. We started on the back deck, with the turkey fryer filled with water. While the water came to a boil, we shucked the corn. The fryer cooked 25 ears at one time. I had two of my large canning pans filled with cold water to cool the corn. We then moved inside where John had arranged an assembly line. He cut the corn from the cob while I bagged it. I tested the speed of his corn cutter against my trusty knife and it was four cobs to one. Now maybe he can figure out how to speed up making grape jelly (the grapes are just starting to turn purple), tomato sauce (the Roma tomatoes are just starting to turn red), and pickles (the cucumbers are starting to accumulate in the fridge.)

Glad Grasshopper

2008-08-12T07:00:00.000-04:00

I found this fella snuggled between two glad blooms. I think it would be a delightful place to hang out.

Penstemon/Pennisetum

2008-08-11T22:40:00.000-04:00

When purchasing plants from a design drafted by someone else, it is always good to put on your reading glasses.

Two wonderful women with a real design knack gifted a design for the landscaping of the sign for our church's new community center building. When we (I won't embarrass my fellow gardener but her last name is a synonym for boast) went to the nursery to purchase the plants, we both read penstemon. We couldn't find the cultivar named and couldn't picture how a penstemon would look in the design.

Then we put on our reading glasses and saw it was a pennisetum. We found this beautiful plant and even though it wasn't the named cultivar, we decided it would be just the thing. As we were planting it, we noticed it was an annual and not hardy in our zone. I ended up with it in a smallish planter by my sidewalk. It is magnificent! I want to try to overwinter it inside but a large praying mantis has been in it for about a month and I suspect has laid eggs on it.

Oh, and my fellow gardener and I are both Advanced Master Gardeners with close to 100 years of gardening experience between us.

What are you doing this weekend?

2008-08-11T07:08:00.002-04:00

Come to the Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic site to celebrate her birthday on Saturday and Sunday. There will be free cake, soapmaking demonstration and I will be in the garden from 1 to 5 for informal tours.

And I am very excited about a fund-raiser for Vincent House, Roots and Rhythm at the Headwaters, Saturday from 2 to 11. Check out the bands! This is my type of music. There will be children's activities from 2 to 8. This is festival seating so bring a blanket. And the best part? It benefits Vincent Village, which serves homeless families in Fort Wayne. It is the only shelter in Allen County that serves two-parent families and single male-headed families.

So here's your agenda. Attend Roots and Rhythm on Saturday and then come up to Sylvan Lake on Sunday for a garden tour.

Brothers (who don't shave on the weekends)

2008-08-10T23:08:00.011-04:00

"Hey, Mom, why don't you take our picture?' So I snap it and Ricky is making some kind of weird hand and face gestures.

So I take another picture.

And another

And another

And another

And end up with this.

World's Ugliest Cucumber

2008-08-10T22:33:00.004-04:00

If Carol can declare that she has grown the World's Ugliest Tomato, I am declaring that I have grown the World's Ugliest Cucumber.

Here's another view to show what happened. My bush cucumber vine decided to grow up the fence and this cucumber grew through the fence. I haven't harvested it yet. I'm not quite sure how.

If you don't like to sand, don't build a canoe

2008-08-10T22:14:00.005-04:00

Steve laid fiberglass cloth on the outside of the canoe and then covered it with three layers of epoxy. He sanded the final layer in preparation for a varnish finish. Since these pictures were taken, he has turned the canoe over, knocked out the forms, sanded the hull, and laid fiberglass and two coats of epoxy on the inside. Today he selected some cherry for the thwarts and seats. He will put in the seat after he uses the canoe to make sure the seat is in the right spot for him.

Harvest Season

2008-07-28T11:01:00.003-04:00

Why wait until fall? Let's celebrate the harvest season now. Locally grown produce is highlighted in the following account of my harvest to date.

Already harvested
I can't keep up with the green beans. I am filling the freezer with parboiled tender beans but I had a lot of big tough beans. Yesterday I decided to make soup stock with the beans. I added the squash clubs, tomatoes and cabbage given to me by my father-in-law, some aging celery and carrots from the fridge, an onion, and garlic. Steve suggested I throw in some beef so in went two neck bones from the beef we purchased last winter. I ended up having to use two large soup pots. I cooked it down overnight and this morning removed the solids and am now boiling down the stock to freeze for soup base next winter.

Last week, my son, his girlfriend and I picked 15 pounds of blueberries. I flash froze them and now they are in the freezer waiting for me to make blueberry pancakes, blueberry cobbler and add to my breakfast yogurt.

My father-in-law gave me 6 green peppers from his garden. We don't eat a lot of green peppers, except as flavoring. So these have been chopped, flash frozen and put in little baggies for future use.

My squash and zucchini plants didn't make it. They just withered away. But don't fear, I have a bounty of zucchini from family and friends. They are piled up in the fridge and I suppose I will make zucchini bread, which my husband likes so much.

Going back to the spring crops, I have enough chopped rhubarb frozen for two pies and several bags of spinach.

Soon to be harvested
Early this spring, there was a garden blogger challenge to plant something new in our vegetable gardens. I didn't respond, but it did give me the courage to plant five 12-foot rows of sweet corn. The silks are turning brown and soon I will be awash in fresh corn.

For some reason, I planted 12 Roma tomato plants. Oh, I remember, I was going to make sauce. Other green tomatoes waiting to be harvested in include pink brandywine, volunteer cherry tomatoes and a heirloom green striped tomato. The last tomato was from seeds I saved last year, another first for this new vegetable gardener.

I have 6 cucumber vines and have harvested four cukes already. When these start coming on fast, I want to make bread-and-butter pickles again. My family loved them last year.

I'm hoping the red peppers mature with the Roma tomatoes so I can add them to the sauce.

I have six red potato plants in tubs. I'm adding soil and waiting for new potatoes. Aren't they suppose to ripen with green beans so I can make my mother's German potato salad?

The blackberries are starting to ripen and within the week I should either freeze them or make jam. I'm also checking on the grapes. There are large clumps but still a solid shade of green. I planted red raspberries this spring and one is forming berries. I suspect all that I will harvest will be eaten as they are picked.

I think that is it. I should be busy this next month or so, but will enjoy the fruits (literally) of my labor all winter long.

Canoe in progress

2008-07-24T18:07:00.009-04:00

I'm not documenting this canoe building very well, but here are the pictures after all the strips were laid and the staples removed. Since these pictures, Steve did a lot of detailed work on the stems and laid the outer stems. I think sanding, sanding and more sanding is next. He will be doing most of that by hand.

This shows the "swoop" of the stern. The bow is more pronounced.

The "football keel" has been integrated.

Here he is sanding the end of the strips level with the inner stem. End grain is tough and no one will ever see it, but it has to be perfectly aligned so the outer stem will fit flush.

Graduation Time

2008-07-21T20:45:00.014-04:00

Ricky is graduating this summer. He was three credits short, but wanted so bad to graduate with his class and HAVE A PARTY. So he took three classes this summer, because we refused to have a graduation party without, you know, him actually graduating. He finished his English class a few weeks ago and finished his health class tonight. That just leaves Economics, which should be done tomorrow night.

The party is August 2 and he just asked me, "Mom, you'll make me a scrapbook, right?" Yikes! I've tried scrapping and even attended a scrapbook night at church once. Five hours later, the other women had completed numerous pages and I completed just one. I dinked around with the design and then had to write a narrative, while they just slapped the pictures on the page with one or two words. To complicate matters, I've printed very few pictures the last two years. I think I'll put the recent pictures into a digital frame and then make posters of the major events and perhaps make a few scrapbook pages. Probably in desperation I will just throw the rest of the pictures in an album.

His cousin, who graduated in the same class, took these pictures of Ricky for me.

Projects

2008-07-14T23:30:00.003-04:00

Since I created a new tag called Projects for the bridge and canoe projects, I had to share some of my projects. No, not the apron. It's still uncut, but not forgotten. My great niece has an apron in a similar style which I plan to use to resize the Grandma's pattern.

One project was arranging the planting of over 100 trees at The Third Place this spring. It was an intergenerational event. They posted pictures on the church website and I especially like the one of the girls right in the hole they dug. These same girls, not 30 minutes earlier, said they didn't want to get dirty. We've had lots of rain this summer, which is a good thing since there is no way we can water the trees on the far end of 30 acres.

With Steve teaching and not "studenting," we've added another dimension to our wardrobe, necessitating giving up part of our bedroom for a larger closet. Steve's portion of this project is almost complete and now I need to start painting. We are painting the bedroom four different colors. I hope it works. I have also been hunting for new curtains, without any luck.

Of course, there are always numerous garden projects in various stages. Ron dug out some overgrown shrubs by the back deck and now I need to decide what to plant there. I've planted an even bigger veggie garden and this is the first year I've grown corn. I created a new bed in my front yard and planted it. But these are all normal garden activities for me. My project involves my growing interest in native plants.

We have always let our pond edges grow naturally, resulting in volunteers of cattails, sedges, Queen Anne's Lace, milkweed, black-eyed susans, and even Joe Pye Weed. We did plant blue flags many years ago and they have claimed a large portion of the north end of the pond. Last year I planted three starts of yellow flags. However, the shallow end of the pond is sawgrass and cattails. It is also the first thing you see after crossing the stone bridge. Last fall I collected seeds from swamp hibiscus, pink turtlehead and cardinal flowers, all plants that love their feed wet. At the encouragement of Kylee, I winter sowed the seeds and they grew! So I've been hacking away at the growth to plant them on the shallow end of the pond. Let me tell you, removing turf and amending clay soil is easy compared to sinking in muck and getting scratched by the grasses to battle swamp weeds. In addition to the plants I started from seed, I planted Queen of the Prairie. If this works out, it will be breathtakingly beautiful.

A sassafras strip canoe

2008-07-14T22:16:00.009-04:00

My brother is not the only craftsman at work around my home. My husband has started his second strip canoe. I gave him the plans and forms for a Voyager canoe for Christmas. He decided to make his own strips from sassafras, a traditional wood for canoes. He started by cutting the planks into strips, planing and sanding them and then he put beads and coves on every strip.

The next step was to set up the forms on the strongback and then mold the inner and outer stems.

Here he is applying the first strip to the form. He staples the strips to the form and glues between the strips.

After laying about four strips on each side, he laid the "football" on the keel. This makes the keel stronger; otherwise, he would have numerous strips ending at the keel line due to the shape of the canoe.

The next strips on the side will have a walnut inlay and he cut the design into the next three strips.

Then comes a tricky part. He had to add tapered strips to each end. You can see one of the tapers in this photo, the second strip down. I think of these as reverse darts. He's out in the shop now laying on more strips and more tapers.

Building Bridges

2008-07-14T21:34:00.005-04:00

The third tier of rocks have been lain. This is the north wall of the bridge.

And this is the south wall. My brother John is wrestling a large rock in place. He placed flat rocks at each end of the arched walls for seats and this seat will have a backrest.

That boy sure is strong, always was. I can't believe the way he lifts and places those large stones. Before I took this picture, I asked him if I could help and he just gave me a look. John is two years younger than me and the oldest of my three younger brothers. I remember walking to the house from the school bus and turning around to punch him as hard as I could in the belly when we were both in middle school. He just looked at me (probably the same look as he gave me today) as I rubbed my hurt hand. I clearly remember thinking, "Time to change strategies, Martha."

Bridge over Usually Not Creek

2008-06-20T09:28:00.019-04:00

Day One
It was time to do something about the bridge over Usually Not Creek. The sides were eroding and gravel was washing out in the center of the bridge. We asked my brother John to fix the washout between the two culverts and to build wing walls to prevent the erosion along the side. John used a pick and shovel to dig out the center of the driveway and found a gaping cavern created by a large cottonwood root. The picture shows the gap between the culverts and eroded concrete from the root.

Day Two - Digging the footers and starting the forms
John and I both came up with the idea of an arched fieldstone bridge. My husband was thinking of a simple wooden structure.

Day Three - Finishing the forms and finding stones
Steve shrugged and let the sibs take the bridge where we wanted. The boys and I gathered all the fieldstone we had (shown below) which will only do the first row of one side of the bridge. A volunteer at work told me about several large piles of stones in her woods which I could have. Perfect! We will probably have enough to finish the bridge.

Day Four - Pouring concrete and setting the first row
I love looking at this hint of what is to come and searching through the stone for the best specimens. We still have several truckloads of stone to pick-up. I'm using the term "we" rather loosely in this narrative.

Day Five - Removing forms and filling in around the retaining walls
John is taking the next two weeks to help move his daughter and family to Colorado where her husband is doing his fellowship in pediatric neurosurgery. I'm sorry they will be so far away. John's granddaughters are both three, Sophia is three years and Victoria three months. They will likely not remember their GREAT aunt.

During the next two weeks, I will be poring over stones deciding which ones I want on top. I'm toying with the idea of embedding some other things to make this uniquely ours. My husband already has several fossils selected.

Mystery plant identified

2008-04-30T07:25:00.002-04:00

In this post, I had a mystery plant in the woods. My sister guessed an immature pokeweed and Kylee guessed twinleaf. I found the same plant in the wildflower bed at work and the site's naturalist made the identification. It is Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides).

Princess Plants-a-Lot goes to a garden party

2008-04-28T09:22:00.010-04:00

Twenty years ago, I was faced with empty beds after I ripped out the overgrown shrubs in my newly purchased home. So I came up with a scheme for people to give me plants, plants that grew well in this area. And so the plant exchange party began. I last hosted "my" garden party in 2004. Since then, Beth, the lovely lady in green in the picture below, opened her home for the plant exchange.

After we eat and socialize and scope out the plants, the exchange begins. This year, we moved to the garage because of the cold wind blowing across their lovely farmland. Here, our host is confessing to iris theft from the church and offering up bearded iris.
Next Vern brings out some tender bulbs. The lady selecting the bulbs flew in from Philadelphia for the party so you know how much fun we have.
Jennifer, my niece, has everyone's rapt attention as she explains the "garden in a box" that she brought. She brought coral bells for the front, hosta for the mid-section and garden phlox for the back. There may have been more but that's all I remember.

She did a good sales job, no wonder she is in marketing.

Here is one person's bounty.
Donna is getting started with the plants she brought. I've gotten to know Donna during the last year as we landscaped the church's new building and really enjoy her and respect her knowledge. Look at all the plants waiting to be given away. Donna's helper is Jennifer's daughter, Emily, my truly great niece.
Here's Emily with my tiara checking out the tub, perhaps for earthworms or maybe she is making a wish. Beth crowned me Princess Plants-a-Lot (P-Lancelot) in honor of 20 years of the plant exchange.

Beth offers up a hot item.

Here's an idea of the sheet number and variety of plants. Over the years, we've learned to limit the rampant growers, and people brought things like toad lilies, filipendula and sweet autumn clematis.
And a good time was had by all. The best thing is that you divide several plants to give away and you come home with literally hundreds of dollars of plants. This year I brought home garden phlox (I have is purple phlox and am hoping for some white and pink), rose flowered mother-of-thyme, calendula starts, centaura, hosta, and knautia. It's just unfortunate that I don't have more empty beds so I wouldn't have to show such restraint.

Releasing the wildflowers

2008-04-28T06:45:00.010-04:00

I started tackling the garlic mustard in our woods several years ago. It is an endless task, but this year I may have seen some rewards. The appearance of these plants could be a result of the rain we received last winter, but please let me believe that it was the result of four years trying to eradicate garlic mustard, which prevents spring ephemerals from blooming.

As I was on my search and destroy mission against the garlic mustard enemy, I found a jack-in-the-pulpit. I had found one several years ago in the northwest corner of the woods, but this was the first time I saw one in the southeast corner.This is a trillium,trillium sessile, commonly called toadshade today but known as wake robin a hundred years ago. This is the first time I've seen it in the woods. It is clump forming and I am pleased to see two plants in my emerging clump.
Of course, this trillium, trillium grandiflora, is becoming abundant. It is so exciting to spot one in a new place in our little woods.This is known as lady's thumb. I heard a story about the "bloody" thumbprint and tried to find it online to no avail. She pricked her finger was one version and another version as she murdered her husband and left evidence on this little plant. Online I found a Scottish tale about the plant was at the foot of the cross. Or you can make up your own story!The mayapple patches are spreading. Steve and I wondered about the two distinct shapes in this patch. And this is my unknown but distinctive plant. The stems are a glaucous blue. No flowers yet. I'll have to keep monitoring it.

Spring is here, declares Earth Girl

2008-04-02T08:54:00.002-04:00

Five sandhill cranes flew low over our house a few days ago. The spring peepers are serenading us at night. I've started my annual attack on garlic mustard in the woods. The red-winged blackbirds are calling for mates. Ducks and geese are checking out the pond as a potential nursery. My crocus are finally in bloom. The dogwood buds are getting fatter. One son is at a home opener for the Detroit Tigers and the other son is at Vero Beach, Florida. And I start work in the gardens at Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site in a few hours.

Spring is here.

Talk, talk, talk

2008-02-25T13:36:00.002-05:00

With that title, this post could be about my sons. Both are quite the talkers. But, no, this post is about me and my willingness to say "YES!" when someone asks me to speak.

Thursday, February 28, Home and Garden Show, Allen County Memorial Coliseum, 5 PM, "Gene Stratton-Porter:Environmental Lessons from the Past"

Sunday, March 2, Allen County Home and Garden Show, 2 PM, "A Homeowner's Guide to Better Water Quality"

Monday, March 17, Huntertown United Methodist Senior's Group, after lunch (prepared by the culinary arts class at Carroll High School, which includes my son), "Restoring the Garden at Gene Stratton-Porter's Wildflower Woods"

Saturday, May 17, Unitartian Church's Garden Party, time unknown, "Jewels from the Past: Gene Stratton-Porter's Garden"

Every Wednesday until the end of April, I am co-teaching a class at church called "Godly Living, Green Living." During the last two classes, we covered scriptural basis and introduced water quality. This Wednesday will be practical tips to improve the quality of water, such as rain gardens, filter strips, septic care. Other topics will be cooking green, cleaning green, energy consumption, making sense of the science, sustainable agriculture, invasive species, air quality, and recycling and packaging.

So I'd better go finish my presentation for Thursday!

Lunar Eclipse

2008-02-20T21:02:00.000-05:00

Are you watching the lunar eclipse? It is very cold here, so I'm running outside every few minutes.

Of Pruning and Foxes

2008-02-15T10:01:00.004-05:00

Last weekend, my husband and I spent the morning pruning the timber trees at our tree farm. I love to prune. I t is an art and a science : studying the tree to determine the dominant leader, envisioning the natural balance of the tree, thinking about the affect of sunlight, and removing deer damaged limbs. It is a physically and mentally active task that has aesthetic and financial rewards. It is also much different than pruning ornamental trees and shrubs, which I also love to prune. The point to pruning ornamentals (other than topiary) is to restore it to its natural shape, to encourage new growth and blooms, and to remove diseased branches or prevent disease. The point to pruning timber is to produce the largest and straightest trunk.

I took my camera planning to take before and after pictures of pruning, similar to the Purdue article linked above. After taking several "before" pictures of the first tree to be pruned and then several "after" pictures, Steve suggested that perhaps we didn't have time to both photograph and prune. Although, we did have time to hike down the river trail. It was much easier going down than going up.

I was glad I had my camera though, because we saw lots of animal activity in the snow. I didn't snap pictures of the bloody snow where some poor rabbit met its demise, but I did take pictures of the red fox tracks. You can tell it's a fox because of the size of the track and the track is in a straight line. Imagine keeping all four legs in a straight line while loping across woodlands. The other track isn't Bigfoot, but Steve leading the way.

Godly Living, Green Living

2008-02-11T13:15:00.000-05:00

Starting this Wednesday and continuing for 11 weeks, I will be co-teaching this class at my church during its Prime Time Wednesday community classes. The class starts at 6:30 and ends at 7:30 and all are welcome to a join us for a meal from 5 to 6:15. This week we will be introducing the series and asking you what you want to learn.

I'm having fun researching this topic, learning what I'm doing right and what else I could be doing. I think my theme will be "Take small steps and don't feel guilty because you aren't doing it all." For example, if you are driving a car that gets good mileage, shouldn't you be driving a hybrid car? If you are driving a hybrid car, why aren't you riding a bicycle or walking? Another theme is "What did Grandma do?" except she probably heated with coal or wood, which is something that you shouldn't emulate.

Curious wet kitty

2008-02-07T07:27:00.000-05:00

Just as I fell into a deep sleep during a heavy rainstorm this week, I heard a loud splash and gurgle of water. Disoriented, my first thought was that the rainwater was backing up through the tub drain. I stumbled into the bathroom to see what was happening. Miss Pippi leaped from the bathtub and streaked past me soaking wet. Quickly I grabbed a towel and threw it over her.

Miss Pippi, she is one curious kitty. To her surprise, Steve had not emptied the tub after using it to wet some wallpaper.

Grass-fed, happy cow

2008-02-06T16:28:00.000-05:00

Several months ago, my brother John asked if I wanted to buy part of a cow, which his neighbor had been pasturing. Usually his friend will finish off the cow with grain the last two months, but I told John I was interested only if it was totally grass fed. John assured me that this was one "happy cow" as he has been watching it all summer. If you knew my brother, you would know how funny it was for him talking about happy cows.

When we divided the packages several weeks ago, John told us that the woman at the packing plant remarked several times how great the meat looked and she could tell the cow was not stressed. If stress affects our bodies, why wouldn't stress affect a cow's body? The cow continued to eat grass and was butchered within two hours of leaving the field. The packing lady said that cows stress out in 12 to 24 hours and it changes the taste of the meat. Here's John deciding how many steaks each of us get. And yes, the meat is very tasty. We don't usually eat much beef, but that has been changing.

Water

2008-02-06T15:23:00.000-05:00

Snow plus more snow plus heavy rain equals another record discharge rate for Cedar Creek. It's at 5030 cubic feet per second today. Water from our pond is flowing through the overflow for the first time since a muskrat decided to lower the pond by burrowing several new outlets. We finally sent the muskrat down the creek by using smoke bombs. The dog didn't deter him. Neither did collapsing his burrows, filling them with rocks and setting live traps.

Thursday Update: It's still rising. 5120 cubic feet per second now.

The danger of growing Japanese maple seedlings

2008-01-31T11:08:00.000-05:00

Maybe there is more to this story, but on the face of it, I'd warn my gardening friends to put LARGE labels on their Japanese maple seedlings.

Food and Fabric

2008-01-18T11:43:00.001-05:00

Food and fabric sums up this week's trip to Shipshewanna with my mother-in-law. She's still doing good but tired quickly. This may be our last trip together.

Our first stop was E & S Foods. It's fun to try new things, but I don't recommend honey coated flax corn chips. There was no mistake with their cheeses and flours. I'm ready to bake some unusual breads now.

The second stop was Yoder's for fabric, which was my reason for the trip. I asked for retro apron fabrics and they had such a fun selection it was difficult to choose. But I fell in love with this fabric. These colors aren't true; the middle picture is the closest.

Then I tried dozens of contrasting material. The smaller designs that coordinated with the main fabric were too busy and the larger designs that worked well with the print weren't the right color. So I selected a plain color and then some polka dots for trim. My intent was to trim in rick-rack, but that didn't work without a secondary color to pick up.

So the plan is to use my grandmother's handmade pattern and make a reversible apron with a plain green pocket on the print side and a print pocket on the green side and use the polka-dots to trim the pockets and perhaps the yoke. Or maybe I'll make a polka dot pocket on the plan side.

I haven't sewn for almost 40 years and there are few instructions with Grandmom Diehl's pattern--just the word "apron" on the large piece and "Set in shoulder seam" on one end of the small piece shown below. I decided to mock up the apron using an old sheet before I cut into my fabric. No way could I figure it out. So yesterday I bought an apron pattern (and sewing shears and pins and thread. Also some fleece and a pattern to make a hat for my mother-in-law as chemo claims her hair.) This morning I looked at the handmade pattern and finally figured it out. The small piece is cut on the fold where it protrudes. The long end is set into the shoulder and the short end is attached to the apron body as it wraps around the waist into the back. The problem is that it didn't wrap around to the back of me. So now I have to decide whether to modify the pattern or use the pattern I bought. Stay tuned as I continue to get in touch with my latent sewing skills.

Excuse Me

2008-01-18T11:40:00.000-05:00

I'm messing with my template as you may have noticed. I decided to add my own picture as the header (moss from last spring) and then wanted to pick up the colors from the photo in the template. However, I cannot change all the colors, only some. Gah, it looks bad and I can't revert. So come back later and see what it looks like.

Update one hour later: Now it's a spider from last fall and red is now brown. Who knows what I'll end up with. But my house isn't getting any cleaner as I mess with this.

Flood concerns

2008-01-09T10:46:00.000-05:00

Cedar Creek at Cedarville, IN is now at 4790, but it looks like it may be cresting. I hope so. We pulled the riverboat onto shore of the St. Joe River, which shows no sign of cresting yet. The boat is now floating. If the water drops before it freezes, we will be OK. If the water freezes at the flood stage, the expansion will crush the pontoon tubes. Too bad we didn't move it to the barn.

Trying to set water records

2008-01-08T13:54:00.000-05:00

With 60° temps and heavy rain, my crocus thought it was springtime. The foliage is just breaking through. Usually Not Creek, which runs through our land before feeding into Cedar Creek, is over its banks and gurgling over tree roots. The USGS Real-Time Water Data site shows Cedar Creek at 2720 cubic feet per second with the record at 2830 for this date. To give you an idea of how high this is, the 80th percentile is 401 cubic feet per second. Here's the link to the site but since it is in real time, I'm not sure you can tell much from it. But follow the link anyway and explore your favorite rivers.

UPDATE: I posted this and then viewed it and checked the link. Cedar Creek has set a new 60-year record flowing at 2880 cubic feet per second.

Update 2: It is now up to 3900 cubic feet per second and it is still raining.

As you look at these pictures of Usually Not Creek, remember that this is almost always a dry creek bed, it is the middle of winter, and none of this water has reached the already high Cedar Creek.

Stick a finger in my eye

2008-01-07T08:24:00.000-05:00

What I've been doing: Cross my heart. Hope to die. Stick my finger in my eye.
What I solemnly swore as a child: Cross my heart and hope to die. Stick a needle in my eye.
Most likely the origin: Cross my heart and may I die, if I so much as tell a lie.

In fact, I have been sticking my middle finger in my eye ten times each day since Thursday. I'm getting contacts this morning and training the reflexes in my eyes.

I use reading glasses, but my eye exam showed a very significant change in distance vision also. So I tried on about ten thousand pairs of glasses, before deciding on a pair that definitely made a statement. Then we talked about bifocals with or without a line. Then I realized I needed some type of sunglasses. It was getting more and more expensive, so I finally said, "What about contacts?"

This afternoon I should be able to see the birds in the trees and bushes around our feeder!

Absolutes

2007-12-31T19:39:00.000-05:00

It is absolutely guaranteed that my husband will love his Christmas presents if they are power tools. It is absolutely guaranteed that my sons will love their Christmas presents if they are electronic. It is absolutely guaranteed that I will love my Christmas presents if they are books.

Pickle Party

2007-12-31T19:01:00.000-05:00

When my teenagers were starting grade school, my niece started having a pickle party for the children the Saturday before Christmas, which also coincided with her birthday and my birthday. Plenty of reasons for a party, eh?

What's a pickle party? She hides a pickle-shaped glass ornament on her tree and the children try to find it. The one who finds it gets the Grand Prize but she always has prizes for all the children. Here are my great nephew and niece searching for that elusive pickle.
And here are the original children, now teenagers, still pickle pondering.
And Ricky celebrating finally finding the pickle after a ten plus year domination by his cousins.I love that my family will pop the Christmas crackers and wear the crowns. No hesitation. No shame. Notice the gingerbread houses decorated that evening behind Jennifer (the gracious hostess). That's her mother in red, my sister.
I found Jennifer's not yet two-year old daughter behind the chair in this pose, pondering the unthinkable. "You mean one day I'll have boobs?" I love her pink cowboy boots. They would go well with my dress.

Food Trip

2007-12-31T18:24:00.000-05:00

I asked my mother-in-law what she would like to do while she was still feeling well. After considering a trip to Nashville (Brown County, Indiana), she decided that she wanted to go to Shipshewanna shopping. So we took off for a day trip during the week after Thanksgiving.

Our first stop was Yoder's General store. The fabrics!! I have been reading A Dress A Day and getting the itch to sew something with pockets and my mother's vintage buttons. Since I haven't sewn for 30+ years, I may start with an apron using my grandmother's hand-drawn pattern. So one reason for a return trip.

Our last stop was E & S Foods. The food!! The entry I linked (the store has no web site) calls it the Amish Trader Joes. I stocked up for Christmas baking and have another reason for a return trip.

In between the fabric and foods, I bought myself a fringe cowgirl dress with pockets for $5. It gives me great joy. I tried it on for my husband the other night and was prancing around asking, "What do you think?" He was so intensely quiet, I had to laugh to see the effort he was making to formulate the right answer. It was obvious to him that I loved it and it was obvious to me that he didn't. Perhaps it is telling that I couldn't find anything in a Google search for "fringe cowgirl dress" other than for little girls or Halloween! Another clue that my husband may be in the majority was the large rack of these dresses with numerous mark-downs.

I'm not ready for this...

2007-12-31T18:10:00.000-05:00

It's the night for merry-making and resolutions. My merry-making will be burning the brush piles in a snowstorm. Strange but delightful because I'm doing it with my husband. My resolution is to post at least once in December.

There has been lots of blog fodder, but mid-November we learned that my mother-in-law has lung cancer. Fast-growing and non-treatable. At first she was given 4 to 6 months. She decided to take chemo which will not cure it but may give her another 4 to 6 months. So I haven't posted because I wasn't ready to post this news and all other content paled in comparison.

I've seen a lot of "outtakes" of Christmas pictures, but usually it was the little ones goofing around that "spoiled" the picture. My husband's family decided (after we got there) to take a picture on Thanksgiving but it wasn't the little ones causing the problem. I thought the composition would be improved if I sat on my husband's lap, which ended up with us rolling on the floor. Of course, they snapped the picture then.

Cat Naps

2007-11-14T20:19:00.001-05:00

When I downloaded some pictures today, I found a lot of kitten pictures, probably taken by Ron. I was taken by these two photos, perhaps because I so rarely see the kittens at rest.

Christmas in the Garden Shed

2007-11-14T20:02:00.001-05:00

Barefoot Ricky

2007-11-05T14:02:00.000-05:00

Both boys had overnight activities this weekend. Ron spent Friday and Saturday at Butler University in a Jazz Choir workshop. He learned a lot and had fun. Ricky spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday at a Campus Life retreat. So Friday night was date night for Mom and Dad.

We had just ordered appetizers and settled in with a microbrew when my cell phone rang. "Mom, they threw my shoes out of the bus. Go get me a pair of shoes out of my closet and bring them to me." It was Ricky. Being the compliant mother, the hovering helicopter parent, I said, "Handle it, son." Sputtering, he hung up on me. I smiled and shared the conversation with Steve. Then I started to worry about my poor shoeless son. Steve suggested after we finished eating, we could go home and get him a pair of shoes. That settled me down.

The phone rang again. It was Ricky who put his leader on the phone. Joe immediately apologized for throwing his shoes out the window! It seems that a pair of shoes hit him in the head, the window was open and he just deflected them out the window. But they were near their destination and he sent two kids to find them with a flashlight. He was on the panel speaking so he didn't have time to find out whose shoes they were and reassure the shoeless soul (not soleless shoe).