Blessings Darlings!
With the Chubby Hubby at the Microchip MASTERs conference, the Spawn and I are enjoying eating all the foods CH isn't fond of but we ARE fond of.
We're starting, at my son's request, with the lentil/vegetable soup. I'm glad that the weather is a bit cooler, it would be hard to face hot soup if it was near 100 degrees still! We're going to have cold potato lentil salads, too. We'll cook a big batch of quinoa, and have that lots of ways, too - cold, mixed with roasted veggies, hot topped with grilled veggies and leftovers, etc. Pizza! Not that the CH doesn't like pizza, of course. CH just insists on MEAT on his pizza. We're happy with just a good sauce, a bit of cheese, and lots of fresh basil. CH HATES basil. We'll probably do vegetarian lasagna, too.
Oh, if anyone's thinking of robbing us while the CH is out - remember, the Spawn is in his 20's. And I'm not all that helpless. Consider that your warning shot ... all other shots will be directly at you. Just sayin'.
Frondly, Fern
Monday, August 6, 2012
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Staff of Life
Blessings Darlings!
It's Lughnasadh! Let's talk wheat!
SOME Examiner.com writers are fucking morons. One posted her article on a Prepper list I'm on. She went on about how the drought trashed the winter wheat crop. Except ... it hasn't. The crop has been harvested a bit early due to the drought (no rain slow downs), but even Kansas, HARD hit by the drought, had a great winter wheat crop. Winter wheat in the US finished being harvested in the middle of July.
I think that the author can't tell winter wheat, which was planted late last fall, from spring wheat which was planted this spring. Spring wheat IS likely to be affected, but it's a far smaller crop than the winter wheat is. Spring wheat is just beginning to be harvested now. I've never lived in an area that grows any. Here the rotation is corn one year, beans the next followed by a fall planting of winter wheat the second year, then harvest the winter wheat and plant beans year 3.
Corn and soy beans ARE going to be affected, of course, as will all the things with those crops in them, from vegetable oils to meat to soda. Prices of 'veggies' might rise 5% due to increased cost of irrigation, but amounts of them shouldn't be affected much. Local veggies and soft fruits are going to be more price-competitive with supermarket ones.
Still, in the US we spend a WAY smaller percentage of our income on food, so we're going to be hit far less than most other countries. Without imported grains, there will be famine. People will die. Rulers will be overthrown.
Buckle up.
Frondly, Fern
It's Lughnasadh! Let's talk wheat!
SOME Examiner.com writers are fucking morons. One posted her article on a Prepper list I'm on. She went on about how the drought trashed the winter wheat crop. Except ... it hasn't. The crop has been harvested a bit early due to the drought (no rain slow downs), but even Kansas, HARD hit by the drought, had a great winter wheat crop. Winter wheat in the US finished being harvested in the middle of July.
I think that the author can't tell winter wheat, which was planted late last fall, from spring wheat which was planted this spring. Spring wheat IS likely to be affected, but it's a far smaller crop than the winter wheat is. Spring wheat is just beginning to be harvested now. I've never lived in an area that grows any. Here the rotation is corn one year, beans the next followed by a fall planting of winter wheat the second year, then harvest the winter wheat and plant beans year 3.
Corn and soy beans ARE going to be affected, of course, as will all the things with those crops in them, from vegetable oils to meat to soda. Prices of 'veggies' might rise 5% due to increased cost of irrigation, but amounts of them shouldn't be affected much. Local veggies and soft fruits are going to be more price-competitive with supermarket ones.
Still, in the US we spend a WAY smaller percentage of our income on food, so we're going to be hit far less than most other countries. Without imported grains, there will be famine. People will die. Rulers will be overthrown.
Buckle up.
Frondly, Fern
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
What just happened?
Wait. How did this happen?
I left my desk, business cordless phone in hand, to go up to the 3rd floor and exercise in the bedroom where the exercise bike is, you know the whole 'new month/new goals' thing. Yet now I'm down in the basement at my desk again, phone elsewhere, no exercising done.
Let's see. I entered the bedroom. I sighed, remembering that I have to get the Chubby Hubby packed for the business trip he leaves for WAY too early on Sunday morning. I moved a TV table over where I exercise, put the phone, timer, and TV remote on it. Then ... hmmm.
Then I went into the closet and got out the suitcase I'll pack for him. I stood it upright by the window, since if I lay it down the cats will sleep on it and cover the dark-green material with grey and white cat hair. I started stacking his underwear on top of it. He doesn't have enough clean undies right now to pack for the trip. I took the full laundry hamper out of the closet. I wondered what shape his company-name embossed collared shirts were in. I discovered that 3 of the 4 have stains that may not come out but I felt I should TRY to get the stains out. I took the laundry hamper and shirts to the laundry room on the 'middle' floor. I pre-treated the stains. I started the washer, filling it partially by buckets since the cold water hose needs replacing.
I came back down to the basement, and asked the CH what color Microchip shirts he needs for this year (he needs to wear THEIR shirts when he teaches classes). Apparently this year is a Blue Shirt year, which seems FAR safer than the red shirt years. And I THINK he has two blue shirts.
I walked from his office to mine. I sat down. I saw that my phone isn't here. Where is it? Oh, yeah, upstairs .... because I set off to exercise .....
Frondly, Fern
PS - I was most of the way done with the tags on this (last step before posting) when I had leave my desk to fill the washer again for the rinse cycle.
I left my desk, business cordless phone in hand, to go up to the 3rd floor and exercise in the bedroom where the exercise bike is, you know the whole 'new month/new goals' thing. Yet now I'm down in the basement at my desk again, phone elsewhere, no exercising done.
Let's see. I entered the bedroom. I sighed, remembering that I have to get the Chubby Hubby packed for the business trip he leaves for WAY too early on Sunday morning. I moved a TV table over where I exercise, put the phone, timer, and TV remote on it. Then ... hmmm.
Then I went into the closet and got out the suitcase I'll pack for him. I stood it upright by the window, since if I lay it down the cats will sleep on it and cover the dark-green material with grey and white cat hair. I started stacking his underwear on top of it. He doesn't have enough clean undies right now to pack for the trip. I took the full laundry hamper out of the closet. I wondered what shape his company-name embossed collared shirts were in. I discovered that 3 of the 4 have stains that may not come out but I felt I should TRY to get the stains out. I took the laundry hamper and shirts to the laundry room on the 'middle' floor. I pre-treated the stains. I started the washer, filling it partially by buckets since the cold water hose needs replacing.
I came back down to the basement, and asked the CH what color Microchip shirts he needs for this year (he needs to wear THEIR shirts when he teaches classes). Apparently this year is a Blue Shirt year, which seems FAR safer than the red shirt years. And I THINK he has two blue shirts.
I walked from his office to mine. I sat down. I saw that my phone isn't here. Where is it? Oh, yeah, upstairs .... because I set off to exercise .....
Frondly, Fern
PS - I was most of the way done with the tags on this (last step before posting) when I had leave my desk to fill the washer again for the rinse cycle.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Goat Cheese Seduction
Blessings Darlings!
I am a woman on a mission. The mission is to convert my husband from 'goat cheese hater' to 'goat cheese eater'. Not necessarily a goat cheese lover, mind you, but a person who will eat it willingly and enjoy it. However by nature he loathes goat cheese, disliking the distinctive goaty acids in them.
As you may have already guessed, I am a goat cheese lover. I want it around me at all times. I want it cooked into various dishes, anointing other dishes, spread on crackers, etc. It enriches my life.
So I have started a process of seduction, luring him to the Goat Side step by step. The first step was tasting goat cheese samples at the Farmers Market. There we found a producer who does NOT use African goats for milk but uses European goats. European goats produce less milk per unit feed, but they have less of the fats the Chubby Hubby hates. He does not dislike some of the cheese this producer offers .... mind you they are cheeses mixed with other flavors. Like ... Italian Chevre. Summer Chevre which is mixed with mango and pineapple.
So this week I bought the Summer Chevre - AND bribed him with buying him baby new potatoes from another vendor. He's going to get some of that spread on good bread or crackers daily until it's gone. Which won't take long. Next weekend he'll taste more goat cheese at the Farmers Market, and I'll bring home another type. Maybe a plain one, and I'll mix it with blueberries and a bit of blueberry syrup. Or a savory flavor, that I can spread on crackers OR add to veggies.
A little a day. Step by step. Maybe next year he'll be ready for an aged one.
Frondly, Fern
I am a woman on a mission. The mission is to convert my husband from 'goat cheese hater' to 'goat cheese eater'. Not necessarily a goat cheese lover, mind you, but a person who will eat it willingly and enjoy it. However by nature he loathes goat cheese, disliking the distinctive goaty acids in them.
As you may have already guessed, I am a goat cheese lover. I want it around me at all times. I want it cooked into various dishes, anointing other dishes, spread on crackers, etc. It enriches my life.
So I have started a process of seduction, luring him to the Goat Side step by step. The first step was tasting goat cheese samples at the Farmers Market. There we found a producer who does NOT use African goats for milk but uses European goats. European goats produce less milk per unit feed, but they have less of the fats the Chubby Hubby hates. He does not dislike some of the cheese this producer offers .... mind you they are cheeses mixed with other flavors. Like ... Italian Chevre. Summer Chevre which is mixed with mango and pineapple.
So this week I bought the Summer Chevre - AND bribed him with buying him baby new potatoes from another vendor. He's going to get some of that spread on good bread or crackers daily until it's gone. Which won't take long. Next weekend he'll taste more goat cheese at the Farmers Market, and I'll bring home another type. Maybe a plain one, and I'll mix it with blueberries and a bit of blueberry syrup. Or a savory flavor, that I can spread on crackers OR add to veggies.
A little a day. Step by step. Maybe next year he'll be ready for an aged one.
Frondly, Fern
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Kenaz Rocks!
Blessings Darlings!
Kenaz Filan blogs good, read this on self, authority, society, etc.
http://www.witchesandpagans.com/EasyBlog/the-knowledge-of-good-and-evil.html
Frondly, Fern
Kenaz Filan blogs good, read this on self, authority, society, etc.
http://www.witchesandpagans.com/EasyBlog/the-knowledge-of-good-and-evil.html
Frondly, Fern
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Independence Day Reading
Blessings Darlings!
Read this, out loud, as a family/group today:
The Unanimous Declaration
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people
to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,
and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal
station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a
decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,
that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That
to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving
their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any
form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of
the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government,
laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in
such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and
happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long
established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and
accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to
suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by
abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train
of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a
design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it
is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards
for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of
these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to
alter their former systems of government. The history of the present
King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations,
all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny
over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid
world.
He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing
importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should
be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend
to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.
Read this, out loud, as a family/group today:
The Unanimous Declaration
of the Thirteen United States of America
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people
to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,
and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal
station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a
decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
- Take Our Declaration of Independence Quiz and Test Your Knowledge of America's Great Freedom Document
He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
|
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.
Freezers without power
Blessings Darlings!
Lots of folks still without power here on the East Coast. Word is that in Charles Town WV the Burger King, KFC, FOOD LION, etc have had to throw out all their frozen and refrigerated foods. That's a heck of a lot of food!
I have full freezers here - both the freezer part of the refrigerator and the free-standing upright 14.7 cubic foot freezer. What, you ask, would *I* do in an extended power outage during the summer?
FIRST - I'd see if I could get any dry ice. I know that AirGas in Martinsburg sells it, but don't know their hours and have not tried to see if they are open during this since, well, I don't need the stuff. Yes, I have emergency cash on hand to pay for that.
SECOND - I'd wrap the freezer in blankets. I sure don't need them now! And the freezers being so full they'd last 3 days or more with added insulation.
THIRD - I'd can the freezer contents, using a propane-powered camping stove and a case of propane I keep around JUST in case that. Frozen fruits would have sugar and spices added and be canned as pie filling in quart jars (I'd add corn starch when making pies later). Veggies would go in pint or quart jars - and I suppose I might not 'can' them and might make pickles of them instead. The pickles could be water bath canned if power continues out once they are 'done'. Boneless meats go in pint jars, bone-in go in quart jars and get pressure canned. The pork jowl would finally get smoked! The pork shoulder would be smoked, pulled, then canned (maybe in BBQ sauce).
The chicken livers I don't know WHAT I'd do with. Probably make rumaki and eat them rather than try to preserve them further.
Obviously, if we had any ice cream we'd have eaten that early on.
And, of course, we DO have a generator, but in an emergency I might use that only to pump water rather than run the freezer.
Look, it's not like I've got a freezer full of microwaveable dinners or other majorly prepared foods. It's full of 'ingredients' rather than food, as Sharon Astyk might put it. That means that I can MAKE the raw ingredients INTO food and preserve the food.
Lots of folks still without power here on the East Coast. Word is that in Charles Town WV the Burger King, KFC, FOOD LION, etc have had to throw out all their frozen and refrigerated foods. That's a heck of a lot of food!
I have full freezers here - both the freezer part of the refrigerator and the free-standing upright 14.7 cubic foot freezer. What, you ask, would *I* do in an extended power outage during the summer?
FIRST - I'd see if I could get any dry ice. I know that AirGas in Martinsburg sells it, but don't know their hours and have not tried to see if they are open during this since, well, I don't need the stuff. Yes, I have emergency cash on hand to pay for that.
SECOND - I'd wrap the freezer in blankets. I sure don't need them now! And the freezers being so full they'd last 3 days or more with added insulation.
THIRD - I'd can the freezer contents, using a propane-powered camping stove and a case of propane I keep around JUST in case that. Frozen fruits would have sugar and spices added and be canned as pie filling in quart jars (I'd add corn starch when making pies later). Veggies would go in pint or quart jars - and I suppose I might not 'can' them and might make pickles of them instead. The pickles could be water bath canned if power continues out once they are 'done'. Boneless meats go in pint jars, bone-in go in quart jars and get pressure canned. The pork jowl would finally get smoked! The pork shoulder would be smoked, pulled, then canned (maybe in BBQ sauce).
The chicken livers I don't know WHAT I'd do with. Probably make rumaki and eat them rather than try to preserve them further.
Obviously, if we had any ice cream we'd have eaten that early on.
And, of course, we DO have a generator, but in an emergency I might use that only to pump water rather than run the freezer.
Look, it's not like I've got a freezer full of microwaveable dinners or other majorly prepared foods. It's full of 'ingredients' rather than food, as Sharon Astyk might put it. That means that I can MAKE the raw ingredients INTO food and preserve the food.
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