No excuse actually

Okay, so we're not all farmers.

We don't all want to get up at 0 dark hundred to milk Bossie the cow or feed the chickens.

Few of us have one of those cool John Deere green machine tractors with a bazillion things to hook to the power take off.  Never mind that most of us don't even have a "back 40" to plow and plant and use the aforementioned tractor on.

As a matter of fact, probably none of us could even afford the "economy" version!

So, no one could expect us to plant anything that would help feed the family, right?

You know I'm going to say "wrong"!

Back to the basics:

Surely there is a small area of "dirt" where you could plant a few things.  Even if it's just as an exercise to see if you might enjoy gardening - just on a small scale of course.  Nothing scary here, folks!

So what is almost fool proof yet provides clean, healthy additions to your family's diet?

Radishes & lettuce - easy to grow even in a pot!

Green beans -  just a short raised bed made from scrap lumber - nothing very labor intensive here.  And this short bed will produce an amazing amount of beans.  And they are so not like the canned ones!

Peas -  easy peesy!  Plant them as early as you can work the ground and stand back!  You don't need a fancy fence:  you can stick broken off branches in the ground and the plants will cling to them.  And we certainly have enough broken branches after this spring!

Lettuce -  tuck it in the end of the row of beans, put it around the radishes - or make it a home of it's own!

All of the above are items easy to start from seed.  If you are unsure of your ability to leap into the seed to table routine, there are lots of plants that come all ready to just sit out on the deck/lawn/whatever and all you'd have to do is keep them watered!

Now, surely something in the above list tickles your fancy - or at least your gardening instincts?  We all fall into the trap of "run to the store and throw money at it" when we think of food.  It can be as easy as walking out your door and picking it out of the garden.  Knowing where it came from and how it was raised (not to mention that it is pesticide free) is worth far more than the money involved.

I keep coming back to the fact that today's world is an uncertain one - nothing is as stable as it used to be.  Not the governments, not the atmosphere and surely not our lives.  Putting a seed in the ground and raising even a small portion of your food can give you a feeling of control in a world where so many of us have no control over much of anything!

Go for it - there really is no excuse actually!

Do we need all this "stuff"?

Chanced across this article today - horrifying to think this is probably just the tip of the (plastic) iceberg :(

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/henderson-island-38m-pieces-trash-washed-ashore-pacific-ocean-n759926

Before we buy plastic items perhaps we should (a) think if we really need it (not just want it) and (b) is there a biodegradable substitute we can get instead?

I think we all need to pony up and make a difference!

Even if it's only lettuce

It's been a lousy spring in my part of the world - weather-wise if nothing else.  I started out with high hopes as usual:  planted my peas way back in April and they actually came up in spite of all the cold and rain.

Then just about the time I was getting ready to get serious about the vegetable gardens, the weather tanked.  I mean it went straight to the proverbial hell in a hand basket.  Cold, snow, rain, harsh east wind, more rain....hard to tell this April from last November!

Planted beets and waited:  and waited.....and lurked over the rows....and waited.

I replanted them yesterday although I had seen a couple of beet-like sprouts in the rows.  But I suspect most of the seeds had rotted in the ground from all the rain and cold.

In the meantime I planted lettuce - several varieties of lettuce.  And lo and behold, they all came up and flourished in spite of the weather.  Are they big enough to pick yet?  Of course not.  Are they at least big enough so I know they are growing?  You bet!  Does it give me hope that eventually other things will sprout and grow?  Absolutely.

So, short and sweet:  if you can't do anything else to relieve your depression and sadness with the way the world, your life and the weather are going?

Plant lettuce.

It grows.

When you are in the barrel...

When you are inside the barrel, all you can see is the barrel.  Seems obvious, right?  Lately I have begun to realize that even though at times I can only see the barrel, others see much more.

My dog and I train in Novice Rally Obedience.  It is one of the AKC classes that include various levels of Obedience and Conformation and other sorts of competitions.

In Rally training, the instructor sets up a course with a variety of stations.  At each station you and your companion dog have a task to complete.  Your task is to read and understand the sign and your dog's task is to do what you ask him  - what the sign says.  There are close to 50 possible combinations of things you may be asked to perform although mostly you only have about a dozen stations in any particular course.  They "say" that all the dog actually needs to know is sit, heel, down and come but in practice what they really need to do is follow your directions and do those things in the order requested.

And reading the signs is not an easy task sometimes!  They vary from a simple sit and down (that's the dog, not the handler!)  And, PS, "Halt" actually means sit also.

To other signs that take more time to cipher out:

To others that give you a brain freeze every time you see them!

Now the question is always, which arrow is the dog and which is the handler!

Sometimes they seem counter intuitive - a 270 degree right turn?  Means you end up going left - I had a really hard time w/that one until I learned to just slavishly follow the directions!

So then there you are at the Rally Obedience Trial (competition) and you are, metaphorically at least, in the barrel.  The judge will ask Rally Novice are you ready and if you are ready to go you say yes, the judge says "forward" and WOW!  all you see is the barrel.

What I am leading up to here is that this past week we participated in a Trial. During my time in that barrel I was sure that my little buddy had swung wide on the turns, forced me to keep a tight leash (not good), had an off center sit front and a crooked sit.  Because all I could see was the barrel!

When they lined us up to get our results and they handed me a qualifying ribbon (points towards a title) AND the BIG BLUE RIBBON w/THE ROSETTE for first place I was totally blown away!  When I looked at the video a friend had taken I could see (from outside that barrel) how very well he really did and I was amazed.  I could finally see what everyone else had seen:  we done good!  Better yet, we done great!

So the next time you are "in the barrel" and thinking you are doing a terrible job at whatever task you have set for yourself (or has been set for you) see if you can change your perspective and realize that you are probably doing a kick ass job but you are the only one who can't see it!

Have faith, when you are done you can say - I done good!

Fine words doth butter no parsnips

From Wiktionary:  In 17th century, found in various forms with the adjective for the words or the food that is buttered being different, thus allowing combinations of "fine/fair/soft words butter no parsnips/cabbage/fish/connie" before becoming standardized in the form "fine words doth butter no parsnips".

I actually was digging my own parsnips last week when for some reason that phrase crossed my mind.  It's probably because my age that I've even heard it.  Not to say I date from the 17th century, but I have been around for a while.

It's been drifting through my mind ever since and I actually had only a general sense of exactly what it meant.  I knew it was an indication that covering anything up with a more palatable substance (hence the butter) didn't necessarily improve the overall situation or change the item that is being buttered.  

So if a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, then something that is wrong and ugly is still wrong and ugly no matter how you try to cover it up.

Today's world is sometimes sad and scary but covering up the truth with words and actions designed to trick us into thinking otherwise won't help.  Best we put our chins up and stick our chests out and do what we can to make things better.  

When I started this post I really had no idea where it would take me - it seemed a bit darker than most of mine and really didn't have much to do with prepping or gardening or any of the other subjects that I am usually drawn to.  But I think the parsnips are trying to tell me (butter or not) that we all can do something to make things a little brighter rather than ignoring a problem or a situation or trying to bury it in "butter". 

 How about an unexpected act of kindness, a phone call to someone you "keep meaning to call" or perhaps sharing your last summer's canned tomatoes with the next door neighbor -  a batch of cookies to the local road crew as a thank you for all that midnight plowing.  When a person is feeling out of control or depressed or just fed up with all the flying crap that is around on random medias, this could be a pivotal reminder that there are people who care, people who are willing to step out of line and lend a hand and that not everything needs to be covered with butter to make it palatable!

 Sometimes just an old fashioned "wash and brush up" can make even the ugliest parsnips something that you would love to have for supper with or without the butter!

Teach the children well...

I've probably said before that my posts on this blog are on no set schedule.  I have to wait until something piques my interest.  And I totally realize that I only scratch the surface of most of the subjects I bring up.  Really just making a stab at jump starting the thought process - not providing the whole "how to" manual.

Recently I read that the millennials (whoever they actually are - 18 to 35 years old or something in that range?) are not survival oriented.  The article stated that the upcoming generations have lost the "old time" skills necessary to provide for themselves and would be helpless in the event of a wide spread loss of government services and grocery stores. That they would be unable to survive since they have no clue how to take care of themselves.  They might as well be marooned on a desert island with no chance of making landfall.

Or up the proverbial creek with no means of propulsion! 

That being said I'm not sure that most of them would actually either curl up and whine for mommy or go out and start picketing for the return of Big Brother to take care of them but it is a truism that probably most of them aren't prepared to actually start from scratch to survive.

So exactly what do I expect "us" to do about it?  I don't think we can retro-fit an attitude of preparedness in an entire generation.  But perhaps turn our efforts to the next batch?

How about take one of the pre-millennials under our wing the next time we decide to resurrect our canning jars and make pickles.  Or for the manly among us why not teach one of the up and comers how to build something - like perhaps a garden frame?  In other words, lets start a new generation of people who do know something about the old skills.

And, harking back to my last post on the basics, perhaps we can help our children and grandchildren understand what is actually necessary to get through the day.  Children are endlessly curious if given half a chance.  So how about gather them up, shut off the electronics (ignore the moaning) and go to a farm.  Yup, a farm - let the kids see a real live chicken that isn't in a plastic package.  Let them see a milking shed where the milk isn't already on a grocery shelf.  I don't mean that we all have to go out and start raising chickens or get our own Bossy the cow, but at least show the sprouts where our food comes from.  And help them realize that it doesn't spring full blown onto the grocery shelves complete with cooking instructions.

And aside from cows and chickens there are things we can do.  If you don't have the room to have your own garden, explore the possibilities of community gardens in your area.  Introduce the children to the fun of putting a seed in the ground and, wonder of wonders, having it turn into food!  I suggest radishes as a good starter plant - hard to fail and good to eat!

The old time skills and foods and techniques are valuable and should be remembered and practiced - even in small doses.  If nothing else it promotes a sense of accomplishment and self confidence. So, as someone once said, teach the children well and if the occasion ever arises when they need to, they will be the ones who understand what it really takes to get through the day.

P.S.  For that matter perhaps a few chickens wouldn't be such a bad idea!

And furthermore

An addendum to yesterday's post - a bit more history and hopefully a little inspiration?


http://www.centredaily.com/living/article42921708.html


If nothing else, read the last sentence!