tinkering with the template

This is just a temporary post to inform you that I'm tinkering with the template.  This is dangerous territory for me as I know just enough about coding and programming to get myself in real trouble.  Meaning, my blog might disappear indefinitely. If you've ended up here while doing your late-night roaming around on the internet, you may feel free to say your goodbye's now.

So, I'm off to tackle the xml beast.  I'm leaving you with some basil in the meantime.

"Why basil?" you might ask.

Well, why not?

ribbonosauras and gratuitous baby shots

Oh, to be nimble with the thimble.

Most of the time I'm lamenting my lack of sewing skills because I'm drooling over some tote bag that I'd love to have.  When the girls came over last week for dinner, I was wishing I could sew because the little ribbonosauras that Leigh made was just too cute!

Cooper likes ribbons.  

Leigh can sew ribbons.

Oh, to be nimble with the thimble.

If only I could sew, I would be all the babies' favorite.  

Well, that is if I don't scare them all with my camera. I haven't mastered "favorite" status while holding the black picture-thingy.

I think Kit needs a ribbonsauras.  Surely I'd be HIS favorite if I could make him a ribbonasauras.

I think my hopes are in vain; moms are always favorite!

rock quarry

"We're the government, and we're here to help."

Apparently that's a common phrase. Apparently it's been around for a while. Apparently, it's sarcastic.

I heard this a lot on my last project at work. The context doesn't really matter. I deal with public processes, and I enjoy my job because I get to listen to what people really think - and then I get to try to do something about it.

Guess what. People don't like the government. I think it's an "out west" thing, but maybe I've been wrong all these years. Maybe no one does.

Here's the thing though. I've worked for the government. State and Federal. I know people who work for the government. And - gasp! - I've LIKED people who work for the governent. I've had neighbors who've worked for the government. I have relatives who have worked for the government. I wouldn't be surprised if at one time my hair stylist or meat market man or barista at my favorite coffee shop had worked for the government. Those people I know don't just take a government job because it's a great place to work. Most of them take the job because, yes, they'd like to help.  In today's government, job security is a thing of the past. People are getting cut or moved right and left.

It's hard to imagine that I could be unique. It's hard to imagine that I could be the only person in the world who has worked for, or known someone who has worked for, the government. I have trouble thinking that all of those people that only I know could be working for the government to try to do something good with their status as public servant.

And yet everybody loves to hate the government. And everyone thinks the government is out to get them. Maybe I've been in Montana too long.... okay, okay. That's not fair. The subject is much deeper than anything I've written, but I'd rather get to my story.

Rock quarry Sunday!!!

This is a quarter mile or less past the gate to the quarry on the Lolo National Forest.  I called in a few weeks ago to get a permit, and our window to collect flagstone started yesterday.  We've got another week or so to go get another load if we decide we need more.  (Yes, that's already been decided.  The Handyman has a saying, "Too much is always enough.")


We drove up a long dirt road somewhere outside of Perma, MT, and then up the side of a quarry which, truthfully, scared the bejeezus out of me. I did walk part of it until I was confident that out little borrowed truck could successfully navigate the terrain.

Hey, Handyman!  The rocks are on the left!

You could stop where ever you wanted to pick up flagstone.  Nature was very nice to organize all the flagtone into little batches of color.  Burgandy was in one place.  Then kind of a slate color.  Then came the browns.  It was a little rainbow buffet of rock.

I was surprise at how much there was.  It's free.  The permit has no cost associated with it, and yet there were lots of big pieces waiting to be picked up.

Did I mention "lots?"

And "lots?"

It just seemed to go on forever.  (Total white man perspective of nature extending indefinitely with resources existing just for my extraction.  What would my former environmental program peers think of me?!?)

Hey, if you're bored and would like a "Where's Waldo Monday, " try to find the Handyman in the picture above. 

I have no idea how to caption the next photo other than to say that my arms really don't look like that.  The Handyman was doing something funny to the camera. I saw him pressing strange buttons on there...

The loading process was really quick.  We pulled up, loaded up, and left.  The time commitment comes from driving 70 miles to get there.

Lastly, I didn't want the Handyman to feel left out.  All of the pictures he took of me made me look manly, so I thought I would include his own, "Gun Show shot."  Anyone want tickets?

Oh!  I was so distracted by that handsome Handyman that I almost forgot the moral of my story.  Easy permit system.  Free rocks.  Nice drive on public lands.   I'm totally lovin' the government today.

come on, corn

That corn needs to get on up out of the ground.


Seriously.  It's August.  And I'm looking forward to popcorn.  (Yep, it's the poppin' kind.)

happiness is... montana air conditioning and eggplants

It's stormy outside.

Really, crashing-loud, wind-pounding stormy.    

It hasn't started raining, but I know it's going to come.  Those clouds were too full not to drop something tonight.  Happiness is a little bit of rain in the summer to cool things off.  

Late tonight, after sweating profusely throughout the day thinking I was way, way too young to be having hot flashes, I realized I'd left several windows open all day long.  

 

Having grown up in the South, I'd known only one way to escape the heat: air conditioning.  When I first moved out west to California, the town I lived in had swamp coolers - another fabulous idea.  Here in Montana, we've got windows.

Okay, okay.  Some people do have air conditioning.  We've got Starbucks and a movie theater and a Target, etc.  Yes, we're civilized.  But I really like the way a lot of people round here keep their homes cool.

You open the windows at night.  You close them in the morning.  It's that simple, and it's pretty effective.  And it uses NO energy.  Cause aren't we all supposed to be cutting back?  (Disclaimer: I'm not suggesting anyone try this in Alabama.  Or any other humid state.  Just here.  Where it actually works.)

Normally, it works well, but if you forget to close them in the morning, it's a big bummer.  The heat builds up like a sauna and you end up changing shirts on the hour and thinking you're afflicted with some condition that will never go away and leave you cool and dry.  Because every other morning you remember to close all the windows.  Not just some.

End of story.  I'll get on with the precious eggplants because I've mused on my perspiration for much too long. 

Yes, I say "precious" although "petite" might be a better word.

 

 Or "puny."  

Or "producing-no-fruit."

 

 

But I'm going to use "precious" because these babies came from seed, survived the aphids, and until the summer's over, they give me hope that I'll have lots of eggplant.

I'm good with denial.  Happiness is thinking my eggplants will be bountiful.

If that hope starts to slip, I can slide on over to the Handyman's raised beds.  Happiness is also having a Handyman.

  

Absolute sun all day, fresh eko-compost, and a little bit of water and, "Voila!" (I give him no credit.  Just because he's an ecologist does not mean he can make everything grow.  Or maybe it does, but I don't want him to get the "big-head," as my momma would say.)

They're gorgeous. 

I'd steal them if I didn't already know that he doesn't like eggplants and I'll get them anyway.  [insert evil laugh here].

freezing zucchini

I put my first batch of zucchini away this week.

This year, I have four times the number of zuke plants than last year, but harvesting's been a lot slower without last year's 100-degree July.  This year we had snow in June and the most pleasant July a Montanan could hope for.  

Considering that there's sweat pooling in my armpits right now, I'd say we're well on our way to catching up...  Or maybe I'm having a panic attack.  

Nope.  I think it's hot.  I think it's almost 100 degrees.  It's 97.  Oh, that's nice.

So back to zukes.  I slipped away to get my camera and when I looked through the viewfinder, I saw something fishy...

Aha!  It's that cucumber!  He's still here!

Yep, he's poised on the edge of the counter because someone couldn't bear to throw him out.  So he waits.  And watches all the other zukes as they get chopped up for the freezer. 

He'll have his turn soon though.  The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of eating the little sucker, but as I can't even remember the last time I bought a cucumber, I can't quite decide what to make of him.  

A salad?  A sandwich?  What do you even do with cucmbers?  (And don't even ask why I grew him... his momma plant called out to me at the farmer's market.  I'm terribly vulnerable to being called to at the farmer's market.)

Well.  Back to those zukes.  I sliced these because last year, I underestimated my desire to have sliced cucumbers for making Mollie Katzen's Zucchini Feta casserole.  I shredded almost all of it.  Once shredded... well, it's like a bad hair cut - you can't go back.

Also, I just recently read on Cold Climate Gardening where Kathy posted several great-looking recipes for summer squash.  It wasn't the recipes that caught my eye, though.  It was, "dust slices in flour and fry in olive oil."  

Fry?  Oh my goodness, this Alabama transplant (me) loves fried food (like the rest of America). 

I have a feeling I'll be doing a little of that this wintertime so it seemed like an extra good reason to make extra good slices.  

And besides, I plan to throw the slices in the food processor if I want to bake breads or muffins. 

Here's the thing though: I didn't blanch them. 

Am I going to die? 

I hope not.

I didn't die last year when I didn't blanch them, but I've been reading a little bit about it.  Blanching looks like a good idea.  It looks like something my mother would have done. 

I think I'll try it on the next batch and hope for the best on this one!

P.S. If you follow the link to Mollie's website, you won't find the recipe for the casserole.  I googled it and kept coming up with pancakes, so you're on your own.  Mollie's got to make $$$ somehow! 

another email from mom: strawberry bread

Yes, another recipe emailed from Mom.  I called and asked for Strawberry Bread, and her response was, "Let me find the envelope."

"Envelope?"

"Yes.  I wrote it down years ago on an envelope, and I've got to go find it."

This from the woman who was a home economics teacher.  This from the woman who made strawberry bread for me at least fourteen times a year.  This from the woman who has an organizational cupboard system that would make a gourmet chef jealous.  The original recipe from fifteen years ago is still stored on a used envelope.  "A Compass Bank envelope," she said.  

She's kept that envelope for fifteen years without it falling apart or losing it, and I can't even keep up with my car keys for twenty-four hours.

After an hour or so, I called her back.  "Oh, I found it!" she said.  "It was on a Regent's Bank envelope.  I'll send it to ya!"

Good thing we cleared up that bank envelope mystery.  Now I know what to get her for Christmas. 

 Without further adieu, I give you strawberry bread.  

STRAWBERRY BREAD

3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
4 eggs
1 1/4 cup oil ( 1 cups plus 2 Tablespoons is what I have used)
2 cups(16 ounces of strawberries)
1 cups chopped nuts

Suggestion: Wash and pat dry your fresh strawberries...making sure that there is no water left on them so they will not be too watery when your smash, puree, or mix (with mixer) them
for the bread.

Since this is a "quick" bread, the standard method for making quick breads would probably
work work but I have attempted to write out how I make this receipe. It came from Southern
Living and was suggested by Mrs. Dorman to me. (I wrote down only the ingredients and the
baking time.)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Sift and measure flour. Add other dry ingredients and sift together.
3. Puree strawberries (slightly) if fresh or thaw if frozen (but do not drain.)
4. Beat eggs until lemon colored.
5. Add sugar.
6. Add oil.
7. Stir in flour. (Do not overbeat.)
8. Add nuts if desired.
9. Pour into two 9x5 greased and floured loaf pans.
(Choose any size pan you like...just do not overfill...1/2 to slightly less than 2/3 full is enough in one
pan.)
10. Bake for about 40-45 minutes...depending on pan size. Check oven window! (Longer for larger pans.)
Use toothpick to check for doneness.

Good luck!
Love, Mom



Yes, Mom, I needed a little bit of luck. I panicked when I got to the end of the recipe and my batter was thick as dough. I added a touch more oil, I looked frantically at the directions, and then I began to scan the room in terror. The voice in my head screamed, "Why do I always miss the mark with Mom's recipes!!!"

Ah, over on the other counter, right where I'd left them, the strawberries. Mom doesn't actually say to put them in the bowl, but, folks, I think it's safe to say they should eventually make it into the batter.

Happy Baking!

sketchup and tomatoes

Are there any gardeners out there who have used Sketch Up to plan a garden?  I just downloaded it because I need to do something dramatic to my snooze-worthy front yard, but I want to take on so much that my vision gets muddled.  I need some planning tool that keeps me organized.  And focused.   Are there other programs out there anyone has heard of and liked?  Am I on the right track?

And, because I'm the kind of reader that hears words as she reads them, I've heard, "sketchup," over and over again for the last half hour.  "Sketchup" download, "sketchup" bonuses, "sketchup" instructions, "ketchup" and fries.

Yes, "SketchUp" became "sketchup" which became "ketchup" which made me think of tomatoes and then my hanging tomatoes and then I remembered!  

There was a question about the benefits of hanging tomatoes.  I haven't forgotten (at least not completely).  I was hoping to wait until the tomatoes turned a nice, hot, photogenic red, but it's been so cool here it might be September before they ripen.  So... it won't be the next post, but soon, I will muse on all things great concerning those nifty upside down tomato buckets.  I'd better wait until the Handyman returns from the Science Geek Convention anyway - he's the real expert.

back stair bouquet

 

Yes, I know my steps need to be painted.  My mother says it's "shabby chic."  (meaning, I won't get nagged about stair neglect like I'm nagged about the broken blinds in my dining room.)  

And, hey, I live in Montana so "rustic" is always in...

quite the monday

Does anyone else feel like it's a particularly Monday-ish Monday?

I do.

I would much rather be outside.   Maybe doing something like this...

I think my pumpkins would rather me be doing something like this, too. The sprinklers at the community gardens come so so very close, but they do not actually hit three of my pumpkin plants next to the fence. They don't look as though they struggle - they're just small.

And it makes me sad.

Because surely all the other pumpkin plants mock them and their water-deprived location in life.


But it's Monday. And I have more work to do before I call it a day.

I guess it could be worse.

This guy's probably not having the greatest Monday.


Something tells me that he's probably not going to have the greatest Tuesday, either.


Yep, I'd say his week is pretty much shot.