gourds

I have a very limited food awareness. More than two new ingredients in a recipe?  Nah, I think I'll pass. Growing up, my mother fried squash (and the only thing I new as squash was yellow summer squash). As an adult, I've learned her method is called "pan-fried", which still makes me laugh. How else would you fry squash? I only knew one person who had a deep fryer and it was for fish and hush puppies only.  Yes, as one of my teachers liked to remind us in high school, I lived in a pocket of ignorance. My mother-in-law introduced me to squash cooked with onions, which I like, and through pot lucks here I've had squash casserole.

 So imagine my surprise last week when I went to allrecipes.com and typed in squash in hopes of finding a squash casserole recipe.  Up comes a recipe for SQUASH COOKIES!  And no, I  did NOT print it out. I was so shocked, I mentioned it on Facebook, and everyone starts talking about zucchini and acorn squash and pumpkin recipes...and I was a bit amazed. Not only was that the most comments I've ever had on a Facebook post, but also because I've just never considered those foods in the same category. The vegetable family? Yes.  But somehow pumpkins and squash are as related as butterbeans and green beans - very distant cousins.

I've made pumpkin bread and pies and cake, but somehow I can't see me doing that with squash. For one of our vacations in Winston-Salem we ate at some little exotic outdoor cuisine place and I tried butternut squash ravioli. Never again. It was disgusting.  It's a nice thought, disguising vegetables in place of a meat, but some things were just meant to be eaten in a certain way, or not all.  Give this ignorant girl from a coal mining community in north-western Alabama yellow summer squash or not at all. Some things you just don't mess with.

The big 13

Monday we hit another milemarker in our marriage...13!That sounds like a long time, but it really doesn't feel like it. It's hard for me to comprehend where all the time has gone.  One of my goals for July was to pull all the boxes of photo albums and actually get the pictures into their appropriate albums. Due to a lot of unexpected life stuff, that hasn't happened. But I did actually start this week, and was pleasantly surprised to look at a few pictures and realize just how busy our 13 years have been.
And our anniversary will always be special, but it's also our milestone marker for our "blessed years".  Eight years ago this past May we had to cancel our July plans for our 5th wedding anniversary and made a quick trip to the mountains and to visit family (we were trying to clear our minds and ease our hearts) before Bobby's bladder removal (which involved a 6 week recovery period). Those first few years after the surgery we fought the dragon of apprehension with each check-up and screening until we hit that wonderful five year mark and could return to 2 dr visits a year.
We are so blessed to live in America with wonderful doctors and medicine. I am so thankful that God has given us these extra years we feared were gone. And I'm looking forward to spending Monday with my best friend...he's still the one! :)

planting past, present, and future

Most of you know last fall we planted seedlings up and down one of our property lines. None of the mangolia trees survived the winter. All but 4 of the flowering trees/shrubs planted on the actual line are still living. Some of them aren't tolerating this heat very well (the tops have died back several times) but they're still with us. One of the shrubs has suddenly decided it can overcome the deer and birds and has started thriving. It makes me happy to see this long shoot of green leaves. These photos below are what our shrubs resemble (ours aren't as full as the top but have more height and shoots than the bottom):

And then one evening as we're feeding animals and checking on things, my husband asks me what these plants are. I couldn't remember, but had saved the packaging slip and labeled on the paper what I planted where.

It's been almost a year since I researched all the plants and their coloring and height and width and all that jazz. I'm not a plant guru, so I decided to check out the web and see what it had to say about the forsythia. (I think we have 6 of them.)

It's more commonly known as the yellow goldenrod, or yellowbells. I remember as a child thinking they were one of the prettiest bushes in our yard.

So imagine my surprise when after telling Bobby this wonderful news on the way to church he starts laughing and shakes his head. "Switch bushes.  Of all the things to plant in our yard, you go and order switch bushes. And we don't even have kids. Just wait 'til Tim (his brother who brings his grandsons over to run crazy) finds out. He'll run over them with the LandRover."

I know when we moved to town, my mother sent one of my sisters outside for a switch. There was one of these bushes between us and the neighbor, though there were a lot of other plants growing across the alley as well.  My sis came back in with a honeysuckle vine. She informed mother to take something from the neighbor's bush would be "stealing" and that was all she could find. I do remember Mom laughing, but I don't think that got her out of her punishment.

I had no idea these were "switch bushes" when I ordered them, I just knew they'd fit into the spaces between the trees and would be pretty in bloom. I don't see us selling our place, but if we ever do, maybe the next owner will have children and can find an actual use (other than decorative) for shrubs.

insanity

Chik-fil-A owner makes a personal/political statement to a religious organization.
LGBT community starts a boycott that extends to city governments and colleges, prompting stores kicked out of cities and college campuses.
Facebook goes crazy with boycott and support posts, some of them getting very personal and hateful (from BOTH sides).

For the record, I've participated in personal boycotts in the past, refusing to invest, shop, or support certain places because of either their performance or support with things I personally don't care for. That's my perogative as a person. Yet I can't recall a time asking someone to boycott a business with me, especially if it's a corporation. Why? Because even good people work for bad companies.

I don't like everything Wal-mart does or stands for, but I've had many friends and loved ones who have and are working for that company. Why would I wish ill will on the person/company who puts food on their table? And I could go on and on about other companies.

With all this uproar over "rights", has anyone stopped to think about the fact that our state's unemployment is over 9% now?  That everytime you withhold money from a local business, you're hurting people and our town?  If you want to make it a personal choice to boycott a business, go for it. But when you start encouraging others to join you in hopes of destoying a business, don't whine about the foreclosures and lack of jobs in your area.

the human factor

Last night at supper we discussed the NCAA ruling on Penn State. Bobby was shocked at the $60 million dollar fine and was wondering whether it was actually worth it for the school to continue to have a football program. The reversal of wins, other than removing Paterno from the record books as the winningest coach, doesn't really do much. I mean, who wants to tell their kids "Hey, the team I played football on beat Penn State" 20 years after the fact, even though they really didn't. It's a lot like the US girls gymnastic team being awarded gold medals years after the Olympics because proof finally surfaced that China used an underage child on their team.  Winning gold 4-5 years after the event just doesn't quite seem the same as winning gold during an awards ceremony.

Don't get me wrong, I think Penn State should be punished, but revoking wins has always seemed a little stupid to me.

Other than the many victims, the one person who I feel the most sympathy for is Paterno's widow. She's grieving. She's lost her soulmate. And now? The media and everyone around is bashing his name. Yes, I think the man did wrong by not reporting and firing Sandusky and covering up sin. But can you imagine losing your best friend, only to have his name trounced every time you turn on the television? Can't you imagine the salt in an already hurting wound?

There are no winners in situations like this. Her pain and grief, like the victims, will diminish some with time, but will always be there. Unlike the victims, the precious memories she had have been tarnished somewhat and won't totally bring comfort now.  Growing up in a football state I've witnessed all my life what happens when things are made to be so important that life is skewed out of proportion. This situation is a tragic reminder that anything, whether football or any other hobby, can become a controlling force if we don't keep it in its proper perspective.

a correction

One day last week I was coming home and literally came to a stop in the road.
There was the smallest rabbit slowly taking its sweet time in hopping across the road. I watched as it headed to the thicket that seperates our property and the LP Gas company, then chuckled and almost started driving toward our driveway again. I blinked a couple of times, but sure enough, there was an APPLE bouncing up and down near the ground coming in my direction. I was dumbfounded. After it got much closer, I realized there was a very tiny squirrel behind it. It was carrying the apple in its mouth while trying to run. It was the funniest sight I've ever seen.

But it also gave me pause. I know deer eat fruit. I know birds eat fruit. I know my chickens eat fruit. But squirrels? It reminded me of a few years back when I posted this rant about some idiot thiefs who stole almost a bushel of pears in one weekend. And now I know it wasn't a human after all, but probably a bunch of squirrels.  Yesterday evening we walked through part of the yard, and Bobby pointed out that one of our apple trees which had almost 40 apples at the beginning of the month now has a whopping total of 2. Yes, you read that correctly. 2 apples. It's insane! I understand having to fight and scramble for the pecans, but for my apples and pears?

Yes, the wildlife in our neighborhood are well fed. Between our fruit and nut trees and the chickens, Ruthie's Restaurant seems to supply all their needs.

the compilation of events

When in the course of a very busy week you alot time for yourself to do something with a friend, with whom you have been trying to set a date for such said event for a period of time approximating close to three weeks, it is a natural, or perhaps supernatural, conclusion that the morning of any such event a repairman of utmost importance will call and have an opening for such a glorious morning.

When said repairman is handling matters of home and land security and time is of the essence, it is in best interest of all parties to accomodate such arrivals, in hopes that job completion will be timely and the convention of friends can still occur.

A girl can always hope, right?