Happy Everything!

May your week ahead be everything you want it to be; full of good surprises, lots of good food and as many hugs, compliments and kindnesses as you need. I was going to take pics of the jewelry I made for my secretaries this year, since they all turned out so beautifully. But of course it was midnight by the time I finished, so I wrapped them and sent them on their way. Maybe pics of our Christmas Finger Food Feast instead?

I'm not going to reach my goal of 50 lbs lost by New Year's Eve, but I'll be close. 46 lbs as of yesterday. I'm down five sizes and have to figure out something about an interim wardrobe. Just picked up a new book, "Reconstructing Clothes for Dummies". It looks terrific, I'll let you know how it turns out. I've got a few ideas already.

Things were kind of hectic here for a while. The husband has been dealing with some ongoing mysterious health issues. My workplace has been rather tense lately, and the Boychik is going through some post-adolescent angst. So we're looking forward to relaxing over the short holiday weeks, and looking forward to getting back to normal in the New Year. I have lots to share, some new experiments that have gone well, a few that have failed miserably, and news on the home quest.

All coming soon to a blog near you...hopefully this one! Take care and stay safe out there.

A Dragonfly for My Daughter

Those of you who know me personally are aware of my longtime love of tattoos. I got my first in 1986 at age 18 - a birthday/graduation present from my mother (who was very supportive and cool for the time). Since then, I have gotten eight others, including both sides of my neck, the insides of both wrists and the back of my right hand. Not very concerned about showing them to the world, they tell the story of my life. I have a tattoo for an old friend who I loved dearly, one for the breakup of a serious relationship, one for my stillborn son Max, one for The Boychik...but I've spent years looking for inspiration to strike so I could mark The Girlchild. I was tempted a number of times to go searching for something appropriate, but I knew from experience that when the time and image were right, they would make themselves known.

She came to visit recently with her boyfriend and a girl we refer to as my "other daughter". The Other Daughter wanted a tattoo, a dragonfly. Now The Tall Guy and I have a thing about dragonflies. They appear all over our home, and we've considered naming our farm after them. As soon as it was mentioned, I knew that was the right one. And as luck would have it, The Girlchild decided she wanted to get her first tattoo, as well. What a great bonding with my baby, my first child, the one I loved so much that I cried when I learned I was pregnant with her brother. I loved her so, I didn't see how I could possibly have any room in my heart for the new baby (it turned out that I did, of course).

We have a rocky past, The nina and I. We haven't lived together for a very long time. She has her bitterness and I have my regrets. We don't always understand each other. I don't know if she listens when I give her advice. I don't know if I have the right to give her any advice, considering our history. But I still love her with everything in my soul. I hope when she goes to Hawaii to study for her Doctorate, she will look at her tattoo from time to time and remember when we were marked together. I hope she knows how enormously proud I am of her spirit and her drive. And I hope she forgives my mistakes and remembers that, like the dragonfly, we all go through changes before we turn into what we were truly meant to be. Te quiero, Chica.

Saying Goodbye to Summer

It's very sad. Even though fall is my favorite season, we don't feel that we got to experience much of a summer in these parts. We're just not ready for it to be over yet. Garden-wise, this year has been a terrible disappointment. Daily thunderstorms of biblical proportions, very little sun and a regional tomato blight has rendered all our hard work virtually useless. Out of the entire garden we harvested six banana peppers. That's all. Everything else was drowned or devoured by fungus. See this article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/opinion/09barber.html

On the positive side (and we know to always look for the positive spin), I didn't have to spend an August week in a 2,000 degree kitchen canning our wonderful annual bounty of tomatoes, sauce, pickles, salsa and chutney.

Sigh.

Some good stuff has happened, as well. Football starts this week. I got a new tattoo. The Girl-Child came to visit for four very loud and busy days. The Tall Guy and I came into a windfall - a business associate had a book sale with a jillion leftovers, which I was then allowed to browse at my leisure. The result? Almost twenty boxes of books, including two complete Time-Life Series. One is the Home Repair & Improvement series of 35 volumes; the other is the Encyclopedia of Gardening with 28 volumes. I picked up books on furniture building, alternative energy for home use, herbs, landscaping, labyrinths, sundials, homesteading and a dozen organic gardening primers. Also a ton of fiction, biography, memoir, sociology and political commentary, spirituality, women's studies, black history, mysteries, games and even a book on CD. It adds up to a winter's worth of reading and research, I'm very excited about it. The only problem (and book addicts can relate) is that there are SO MANY choices, I don't really know where to begin!

So how was your summer?

I Lost Everything in the Crash of '09

Well, not everything, but a lot. You see, I was hijacked. It was an ordinary Saturday. I'm working on a sudoku puzzle, The Tall Guy is playing on the computer. Suddenly he sits straight up, a look of horror on his face, and says, "um.....uh-oh." I knew immediately it was bad.

So a few weeks, a few hundred dollars and a lot of gray hair later, I am the proud owner (and sole user) of a brand new Acer Aspire One D150 mini-laptop. It's adorable and tiny, I recommend it. It comes with a 6-hour battery and the keyboard is managable most of the time. The mouse tracker pad thingy is awful, so I hook up my cordless mouse when I'm home. Wishlist to complete the package:

1. External DVD/CD drive
2. Cordless mini mouse
3. Docking station
4. Wireless router

Onward and upward.

This is just a hit and run today, summer is so busy. What's in season this week:
Squash
Tomatoes
Bell peppers
Cukes
Blueberries
Melons
Peaches
Plums
Early apples
Pears
Onions
Late hardy greens
Baby pumpkins
Herbs of all kinds imaginable

Hope your days are full and happy.

All Around the Mulberry Tree

No bushes here. These babies are full-grown trees, and they mean business. I do believe these trees intend to feed the entire world, or at least their corner of it. Check them out:

See what I mean? They're HUGE. I've never seen so many berries in one place in my life. I don't know if you can see it, but the ground below the trees is covered - literally caked with mulberries (click on any photo to see it original size). So yahoo. Free fruit, right? Um...sure.

My first mulberrying experience was a little overwhelming. First, the trees grow enormously heavy branches that reach from around 10 feet up the trunk to almost brush the ground. You stand underneath them and it's like being in a green, fruit-scented cave it's so thick. Little bugs and teeny tiny spiders. I don't mind, they have to eat, too. The berries grow strangely, right up close to the branch in a V of the leaves. Look here:

And they were insanely ripe, so that I didn't even really have to pick them, I just held the bowl underneath and sort of brushed them with my fingers. They plop right into the bowl. The thing is, they were so ripe, that every time a branch moved - because I moved it with my touch, or a breeze blew, or it just got too darn heavy from all the fruit - berries fell off from above. That was what made it strange, it started raining mulberries in my green fruit-scented cave. Squishing in the fallen stuff on the ground ( I had to scrape my shoes off after, it looked just like preserves), berries in my hair, in my pockets, down my blouse...it was a whole lot of mulberry.

But here's what I brought in after 5-10 minutes:

It's hard to see, but that's a two-quart dish, about 3/4 full. Not bad for a few minutes of weirdness. They have tiny little stems that you don't even have to remove if you're eating out of hand. I couldn't believe how sweet they were. Next year, I'm going to cook & strain them to add to strawberry jam. The sweetness of the mulberries and the tartness of the strawberries should offset each other perfectly. No sugar, no fuss, just a little pectin and we're good to go!

Have I mentioned how much I love summer food?

Here's what's in season now:

Squash of all kinds
Lovely fresh peas (best eaten directly out of the pod while standing in the garden)
Cherries
Blueberries are hanging on
Onions
Raspberries
Broccoli
Garlic is fabulous
Cucumbers
Beans are coming
Carrots and peppers will be here soon

Our garden, like everyone else's in the area, has taken a beating this year. We've had an insane amount of rain. Not gentle summer showers, either, but massive harmful downpours. Our peppers are struggling, and our tomatoes had better learn the backstroke if they want to survive. The farmers are having a tough time of it as well, which means higher prices at the local markets and farmstands. We persevere, but are not very hopeful that we will be able to harvest enough to see us through the winter like we did last year. At least we have the luxury of a hundred grocery stores, but there is nothing like opening a jar of your own tomatoes in February - it's like you've canned a bit of summer!

Have a great one!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Yes, rain is essential for streams & lakes, fish & animals, beautiful autumn leaves and the tourists all those things bring. But this much rain? I don't think so. Almost 9" to date this month. Enough already. Our container plants like it, but everything in the ground is swimming. On the up side, here's what can be found in our garden markets this week:

Early garlic
Spinach
Snap peas
Baby turnips & greens
Tender early greens
Yellow squash and baby zucchini
Beans
Baby carrots
Green onions
Strawberries are almost gone
Mulberries

More later on mulberries - we have them in our yard and they're so yummy sweet this year. Right now I'm off to enjoy the ten minutes of sunshine we're allotted this weekend. Happy Summer!

The Garden IS IN!

The tiny little baby garden we absolutely positively were NOT going to plant this year is now planted. I'd talk more about it, but I'm tired! Short version: Mountain Fresh tomatoes, banana peppers, mystery beans and mystery onions.

Naptime :)

Birthday musings

Taking stock of the past year, I've come up with the following accomplishments, deficiencies and lessons learned:

ACCOMPLISHMENT
* We downsized our belongings by at least 50%, probably more, when we moved in with the in-laws.
LESSON:
* We cannot live with anyone else. Anyone. Ever.

ACCOMPLISHMENT
* We took the first steps toward our first house, including paying off old debt, researching options and enrolling in the savings & grant program. It is entirely within the realm of possibility that we will become homeowners in 2010.
LESSON
* That thought touches the farthest ends of both terror and exhilaration, and we can handle both with grace.

ACCOMPLISHMENT
* We took a friend's advice and are working up a weighted checklist of what we require in a property (3 points each item), what we want (2 points each) and what would be nice to have (1 point each). This graded scale will help us to measure one home against another when we start the house hunt.
LESSON
* We are shockingly compatible when it comes to what we want from a house, the land and life.

ACCOMPLISHMENT
* I got a big fat promotion in the past year, instead of the small lean promotion that was expected.
LESSON
* I don't work nearly as hard as I thought I would. At least, not every day!

ACCOMPLISHMENT
* We don't fight and we don't argue. However, we have had several heated discussions over the past year. The accomplishment is we have committed to talking through our differences before too much time has passed (usually within an hour). We have been able to bring all our issues to a close, even if it's just an agreement to disagree.
LESSON
* Fussing now and then can be healthy for a relationship. It clears the air, helps us to understand each other better and builds trust and intimacy each time we successfully come out the other side.

DEFICIENCIES TO WORK ON
* I am a bad saver. I am an earner and a spender. I've never had any money to speak of, and now that I have some disposable income, I'm inclined to dispose of it as quickly as possible. I have a book problem and a craft problem. I also love to buy gifts for friends, family and especially The Tall Guy. Big gifts. Expensive gifts. Extravagant, embarrassing, "Oh-you-shouldn't-have" kinds of gifts. I am a BAD saver. Fortunately, The Tall Guy is a great saver, so he controls most of the money for now.

* My patience with the outside world is getting shorter and shorter as time goes by. There are days I feel I hate the world and the world returns the sentiment. It's a lose-lose attitude.

* I am very judgmental. It's a terrible habit and makes people think I think I'm better than they are. Sometimes this is true (I'm ashamed to say) but usually it's my overdeveloped sense of right and wrong.

So there it is. Not a bad list of accomplishments, and certainly not an insurmountable list of stuff to work on. I'll get right to it...after cake!

Going to NYC with my mom for a long weekend. After we return: Weight Watchers, a Craigslist pasta machine and a new website. See you soon!

How old am I??

It's one month before my 41st birthday, and I've been feeling pretty good about it. Everyone tells me I don't look anything near my age, and could easily pass for 10 years younger. Which works out well since The Tall Guy is 10 years younger than I and looks his age. Apparently however, these are my friends and I should keep them close. To wit, the following:

Last night, The Tall Guy was feeling very ill and quite frightened about it. He asked to go the ER. As they were checking him out, the registration person stopped to chat with him for a minute before he directed her to me for information. So I'm sitting in the little "privacy booth" giving name, address, etc, when she drops the bomb. The Big One.

"So you're his mother?"

I think I need to lie down.

Springtime meditations

The Tall Guy started some yardwork this past week, which is our benchmark for the return of spring. Woo. Hoo. We've been having a lot of conversation about what direction to head in when we're ready to buy a house - both ideologically and geographically. Do we want to stay in this area near family and keep my horrendous daily commute of over an hour each way? (Add in the mileage I rack up during the day and I'm putting over 800 miles on my new-ish car each week) OR do we want to say goodbye to the people that we rarely see anyway, and who will NEVER come visit us and move closer to any of my four field offices? I'm leaning toward the latter.

Other than that, we're keeping our options wide open. As long as there are a few acres and a livable structure that we can afford, we'll turn it into what we want over time. I can't wait to NOT SHARE A WALL WITH ANOTHER FAMILY. It will be so nice. I still hold onto my dream of a yurt, or quonset or reclaimed home (renovated church or firehouse or warehouse space), but when the right thing comes along, we'll know it. Just like we did with each other.

My mother and I have talked about her moving down here after she sells her house. I don't know when/if that would be, or if she would possibly choose us over Florida, but I remain hopeful. I can picture her in the garden with The Tall Guy, planning and digging, bonding in the dirt. I miss my mom. We're planning a trip to NYC for Mother's Day/my birthday, so at least I'll get a few days with her. But how wonderful it would be to have her here every single day.

Not much else going on. Food, of course. Always food around here - as evidenced by the continually expanding width of my butt and The Tall Guy's Buddha belly. I spent six hours in the kitchen yesterday making cannelloni al forno for the first time. It came out perfectly, although I'll make some adjustments to the recipe next time around. It's massively time-intensive and worth every minute, even if my feet do hurt today :)

Till next time.

COMMUTING

I am always on my way to someplace else
I am always late

As a general rule, only my first stop of the day is on time
Something always happens before 9 am
And I spend the rest of the day trying to catch up
The clock is my enemy

I tend to the larger issues and hope the details will take care of themselves
But they don’t

Then I load my car that was unpacked an hour ago:
Laptop, files, folders, notes,
Red pens, blue pens, calculator
Lunch box

I feel like a pack mule

Back on the road
Heading out of town
The driver behind me goes too fast
The one in front of me is too slow

Stoplight, stop sign, pedestrian, cop
A quarter mile
Half
One and a half
Two…three…five

There. Now I’m on the open road
Through the countryside
Trees, fields, farms, lakes
Sun, rain, falling leaves
Snow tires crunching over frozen ruts

This is the best time
The only time
I am all alone
With my thoughts

Sticky notes cover my dashboard
Overflow from my glove box

Things to remember for work
Ideas for a story, a house for sale
The name and address of an interesting shop
A reminder to tell my husband about the sunrise this morning

My life’s experiences recorded on
2 x 2 squares
Up mountains and down
On highways and off
Jotting it all down
Overlooking nothing
And always arriving late.

We're on our way!

Much has happened since my last post, although very little of it interesting enough to share. Everyone is well, The Tall Guy is improving since discovering his medical issues are NOT urological but neurological. He has a herniated disc and has weekly appointments with a physical therapist. He's feeling much better and looking forward to productive landscaping season this summer. We decided not to do a garden this year for a number of reasons, so he's off the hook there. We'll join a CSA or support our local farmers instead. If you're interested in where you can buy local produce, check out Local Harvest.

The next biggest thing is very exciting for us. We have "officially" begun saving for our homestead!! That deserves several more exclamation points: !!!!!!!!!!!! We went to our credit union during my holiday vacation to meet with a mortgage counselor. Turns out my credit isn't nearly as dismal as I feared since I've worked the last three years to bring it out of the pits. The Tall Guy, bless his heart, has gone from zero credit to a terrific score after investing in a secured card last year. Since they take the average of ours scores, Mr. Counselor told us to raise mine by another 50 points and he'll give us a mortgage at 51/4%! Well thank you very much, that's one down.

Mr. Counselor turned us onto a program through the local housing authority (kind of a private/public partnership deal) that offers homebuying classes and a savings program. They teach us all about mortgage contracts, taxes, points, insurance and other mystifying stuff. PLUS - and here's the really amazing thing - they match every dollar we save with FOUR DOLLARS of their own up to $7,000!! And this is grant money, free and clear, to be used for down payment and closing costs! We're still overwhelmed by this. It's just enough to make everything possible within our time frame. Add the fact that housing prices are falling falling, and it's a great time to be a first-time homebuyer.

Please don't find me insensitive to the millions of people who have lost their homes, at least the ones who got caught in a bait & switch of early reset ARMs. But the truth is, we would have been hard pressed to purchase a decent place last year or two years ago before prices took a nosedive. All the economic hoopla aside (and I'm trying NOT to get polictical in this blog), some people really can benefit from this market mess. We'd be crazy not to.

We're not looking for much. We're pretty simple folks. We want a decent house, around 1,000 sf that we can move into right away. We're willing to do some work, but let's face it, we need a place to live while we're doing it. So major rehab is out of the question. Although my dream is to live in repurposed housing such as a firehouse or barn, I could be very happy with a small Craftsman bungalow on an acre or two of good land for gardening, pasture and Petanq - what bliss! We want a large bedroom, but don't require the "Master Suite" that so many people seem to need these days. When did we lose the ability to walk down the hall to the bathroom? The Tall Guy wants a game room and I've been promised a library/music room. To have my own piano again would be wonderful. And an entire room covered with shelves from floor to ceiling, and all those shelves filled with BOOKS, BOOKS and MORE BOOKS. I'm hyperventilating just thinking about it! Those two rooms will double as guest space thanks to convertible sofas. We'll have a garage & workshop with a pen in the back for goat & chickens. That's it. That's all we need and everything we want in life.

Sure, there's a wish list. Depending on where we end up, we'll be looking at different sources of renewable energy. Wind should be very productive in this area. I want to put in a labyrinth. We're planning to build a patio area with a quincho, which is kind of an enclosed barbecue pit that I first encountered in Argentina. Here are some terrific examples:

Can't you just picture yourself sitting there on a summer evening with a glass of something and a good friend or two?

So to wrap up, we're feeling very positive about the whole thing. Pinching pennies and saving like Scrooge, we'll find our home by next fall. Cross your fingers and wish us luck!