Hey Mom, what’s for dinner?

The garden has been unbelievable. Yesterday we picked a lot of onions and peppers and Golden Pear tomatos. Today, even more. This is just a ‘taste’ of what we got today – there’s another bucket of Zukes & cukes as well. The bowl of stuff is cole slaw (from the cabbage) and the Honey Dew – well, we had to taste it, right? Otherwise, we have carrots, a lemon, tomato, bell pepper, kukes, zukes, squash….and whatever else you see. Tomorrow I am going to make my favorite cucumber dish (raita) which is similar to the Greek sauce they put on Gyros & Schwarma sandwiches. I also have a fresh, fat rabbit to throw in the pot; tomorrow we will have a spicy Jambalaya [that's why we need the Cucumber dip] with Rabbit, Dove, Venison sausage and throw in the garden and a bunch of fresh herbs like Garlic, Ginger, Oregano, Cilantro & Pineapple Basil. Here’s the pic: (And the date is wrong – I really took this a few minutes ago; just didn’t realize the date did not reset last time I changed batteries)

Where have I been???

For those of you following my blog on a somewhat regular basis, I apologize. I just haven’t been here for you – or ME for that matter! So where have I been?

May was a month of illness, a combination of many things but mostly female problems that happen to us as we get a little older. But also a bought of depression and a flu type thingey that was probably brought on by over work during an extremely busy and successful tax season. Thank God for job security.

Speaking of which, nope, hubby still hasn’t found work unless you call that monster garden & orchard of ours work. Oh wait, that IS work. We enjoy the bounty and I am amazed how much money I am NOT spending at the store except for the essentials: eggs, a little meat and milk. And chocolate [sugar free of course!]. Is chocolate an essential? That’s debateable unless you are a female or allergic. For me, it is purely a comfort food, but there ARE a lot of benefits to this.  When I eat a lot of carbs, even the good ones; I’ve noticed by balancing it out with some fat content that my body has an easier time processing it. [Of course bacon works just as well - another one of those ambrosia comfort foods] Another thing – I stay away from caffeine, but for just a tad found in most chocolate confections, I get a little extra boost. So, sugar-free, a little fat, a little caffeine and a lot of taste – make this the perfect picker-upper for myself. My family, on the other hand, can’t deal with it so well – these boys get ACNE. I don’t think it is the ‘chocolate’, per se, I think it is the fat inside. But they can’t resist it. If I make or buy something with chocolate in it – even my sugar free types – it sure disappears faster than I myself seem to be eating it. Same with the meal replacement drinks. I buy 4 at a time so that I have something when I run out the door in the AM to run errands. By Thursday, I have used one up during the week, but there don’t seem to be any in the ‘fridge????? Maybe I’m sleep-drinking. [not]

Ahhh…back to ‘where have I been?’ This past week, and here and there for a few weeks before, I have been working with shooting sports. This time, it was at Boy Scout Camp; which I work a week or two every summer for the past several years. Instead of the long drives I usually have to take with a half dozen smelly, stinky teen boys, I had the pleasure to go BY MYSELF and almost close to home; or at least under two hours! I spent a mostly wonderful week training young men on the gun & archery range - some to be instructors, some just to get merit badges and some in a highly intense competition to ‘be the best’. I am proud of the efforts of these young men and happy to say there is now a new Certified NRA Instructor & Range Safety Officer around to make sure that our youth stay safe and have another reason to be outdoors and have a good time. And two young men who persisted until they achieved their goals – one to get a perfect score, and one to just qualify even though he was very very small in stature. The smaller boy – my God you should have seen the smile on that face when he finally made it. He even hung around an extra day just to watch others shoot with a HUGE grin on his face, but not wanting to shoot himself. He was happy just to meet the goal and had no need to do anything more than soak of the happiness of the others as they pressed themselves to ‘do more-better-faster-higher’. “T” is a gem among boys, no, make that young men.

If I had a camera on hand, I would have gotten to show you a scene that was incredible. The most massive dust devil I have ever seen in my life came in and picked up a small shed, twisted it’s metal roof off and splintered the wood, then tossed it all around the archery range. Fortunately, nobody was hurt. And many people are glad the old shed is gone so we can build a new one. [The old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" was in play] Now, a new, better, larger one will take the place of the old shack. There was a picture on the Weather Channel a couple weeks back of a tornado forming that started as a little dirt tossing around, then a brown cloud rose up from the ground and started flinging things around. That is EXACTLY what this dirt devil was like, except ours was more a choking cloud of beige/white caliche gravel and sand. It was about, oh, 20 x 30 yards when it formed, then it ‘blew out’ all over. Never seen one so large in my life. Many people were awed by the sight.

As for camp itself, well, there’s camp food. And a lot of walking. And 100 degree days. Only got a couple itchey bites – not bad. No sunburn. And my roommates – well, the scorpions were pretty easy to shoo away, no snakes this week and the one human was – um - nice and friendly and may read this blog sometime.  Now if a BOY, or young man, were to cry over something – I could sympathize because sometimes things at camp are pretty dang tough. The heat, no electricity most of the time, the bugs, dirt, strange food, mostly people you don’t know – it can break these young guys in amazing ways. An adult that volunteers to do this stuff should be able to handle it or know when to walk away. You don’t bring your problems to camp – you are there to help others ‘grow’. I actually LIKE camp, most of the time and it gives me a healthy respect for coming home. Now, if I could just get PAID to do the things I like……

A visit with Janet Riehl

I have long been a fan, hopefully friend, of Janet Riehl, [see her blog to the right - Village Wisdom extraordinaire!] When I hear the music and stories in her words, I am left breathless at the inspiration and emotion she evokes. So it is to my delight that to share a chance to interact with Janet and learn more about her life work. Story Circle Network will be interviewing SCN member Janet Riehl on Thursday (10 AM Pacific Daylight Time and 1 PM Eastern Time). Janet will be discussing her new CD that contains her story poems and music. This is a follow-on product to her memoir Sightlines. Again, if you can mention this in your blog or to your writing friends, we’d appreciate it. Anyone with questions for Janet, can post them in the Comments section below her great guest blog that also includes a writing rompt.

Here’s the link to her blog where questions can be posted.

http://womensmemoirs.com/2009/06/story-poems-as-memoir/

Mosquito spray

Tested out my Mosquito spray tonite. They have been riding in on the dogs so I thought I would try a little garlic spray on their coats to see if it would work. After I sprayed them, on a hunch, I sprayed my own arms and legs as well. We walked out at sunset and it worked just fine. The mosquitos flew around me but didn’t land. I don’t know if it works for very long, but it worked fine this evening. We’ll see how the long term goes. To make my garlic spray, I simply took one clove of garlic, cut into quarters and pressed through the garlic press. Then I microwaved the pulp with a cup of water for 4 minutes. I let this cool and strained into a spray bottle. Knock wood, it works fine.