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Homesteading: The Outdoor Kitchen
Country life, canning, preserving, reality, homesteading, dogs, NYS, DIY, farming, veggies, 20190908 00106c 3-1/2 minutes: Homesteading ! A much longer piece cut into 8: #3. The following morning it was pouring with rain, so unloading the car was delayed again. I spent the time rounding up jars and washing them. This sounds easy but with three different categories of jars: bail and screw tops, wide and regular mouth, and pint and quart, all mixed up together in the boxes and dirty from having been in the “barn”, it took a while to get them sorted into their groups, and cleaned, [...]
Homesteading: The Poor Man’s Root Cellar
Country life, canning, preserving, reality, homesteading, dogs, NYS, DIY, farming, veggies, pressure canning 20190906 00106b 6-1/2 minutes: Homesteading ! A much longer piece cut into 8: #2. If all the veggies were to last through the winter, then different provision would have to be made for them. Usually, in November, they would be able to stay outside because the weather would already be cold. That year they had not only to be protected from cold, but also heat. A root cellar is the usual solution, but, living on a mountain, (which is made of rock,) digging down wasn’t an option. [...]
Tiny Matters
Political, responsibility, saving 20190800107 4 minutes We are so accustomed to seeing the “big picture” that the small is frequently overlooked. But the big picture is actually made up of tiny things. The beach is actually millions of grains of sand. Rivers and the sea are actually trillions of drops of water. That delicious plateful of food in front of you is actually millions of atoms that came together to enchant you. We think of babies as being something “small.” Or individuals as being “alone.” But babies and individuals are themselves made of tiny cells, each of which play their [...]
Going to Washington – the first time
Protests, Washington, political, bus ride, marches 20190902 00109a 20 minutes Drawing the line, first round. Going to Washington was the only option. Buried amongst the myriad of e-mails I receive each day was an innocuous looking note about a march in Washington in a few days’ time. It was to protest the treatment of the children and parents at the Southern border, a subject which really had hit a nerve for me. Recently I had been given a check for my birthday by one of my daughters, so my usual excuse that I couldn’t afford it, didn’t hold water: I’d [...]
Unicorns Et Al.
Magic Dreams Political Better World Poetry 20190902 00111 ?Magic..Not really. 2 minutes. I believe in Unicorns. I believe in Leprechauns. I believe in fairies sitting on mushrooms. I believe in elves sitting under toadstools, Sheltering from the rain. I believe in magic. Not the sort of magic seen on stage. But the sort of magic where witches dance around bubbling cauldrons, Out in the woods, cackeling their potent spells. I believe in angels. The kind who sit on your shoulder and ward off evil spirits. I believe in angels who are really the spirit of your favorite aunt, Or a [...]