Sustainability is the key to all facets of life...whether it be farming and gardening, camping and kayaking, or simply living on this planet from day to day.
Campers, hikers, and lovers of the outdoors have been doing it for years. We call it 'leave no trace' ~ leaving things nicer than we found them ~ in essence, the very same philosophy that we learned as little children but, which sadly, for many has fallen by the wayside as life just keeps getting busier and busier and as the world keeps moving faster and faster.
Slow down for a moment and sit a spell in the rocker on the front porch as I do my best to return my own life to those simpler times.
Enjoy your visit, come back as often as you like, and feel free to bring a friend every now and again~
MarySue
"We never really grow up, we just learn how to act in public." ~Bryan White
Wow...it has been over a week since I have posted. Mostly, because my camera battery died and I have no clue what I have done with my charger. The last time I had it, I was using it plugged into an inverter on a kayak camping trip. I'm sure that it is buried with my paddling gear, but for now, I am posting without a photo. It seems kind of weird to do that. But...if I don't get this posted tonight, it will be another day (or longer) before I post again and I don't want to do that.
The past week has been a busy one. Last weekend we put together the cold frame. (Of course, I have no photos to show for it yet -- but they will be coming soon. In fact, as I type this, I am starting to think of more places where that camera battery charger might be. I will look tomorrow. Too late tonight.) I am pleased with the way that it has turned out -- but I don't have anything growing in there yet. Just a space that is ready to go.
Luckily, we didn't get any of the snow that those of you who live north and northwest of us did. A little rain and a lot of damp, chilly weather, but nothing too wintry yet. Today was a nice day.
When we do get that cold weather, though, at least my plants will be protected and growing. You'll see...there really will be photos.
Speaking of growing...(nice segue, eh?)
I am growing my own wild yeast...well, hopefully, anyway. We will have to see how it turns out. I found several recipes online, but the one I am starting with (because, after all, I do live in the South) is a super easy:
Civil War Yeast Starter 1 Cup Flour
1 Cup Water (distilled water or purified water without chlorine)
2 teaspoons Honey
Put all into a Mason Jar (I put it into a one quart jar -- hopefully that is the right size).
DO NOT TIGHTEN LID! After all...we are fermenting things here.
Store in a cool, dark space.
Take out every day.
Secure the lid (for obvious reasons)
Shake well (that's the obvious reason) Once you're done shaking it...loosen the lid again (so that it can continue to ferment)
...and in 7 days I am supposed to have my own homegrown yeast.
The suggestions are, if needed, to add a small sliced potato (which will turn black...it is supposed to do so) to feed the mother.
To keep it growing, just add 1 cup of flour for every cup of the starter that you use.
I'm only on Day 1...but I'll keep you posted. Hopefully, with photos, too...once I find that doggone charger!
This recipe was found in the comments section of the Off Grid News.
I am going to try this one first because it seems pretty easy and because I have everything on hand that I need. There are lots of other ways to grow your own yeast, too...
Raisin Yeast Starter
Grape Yeast Starter
Potato Water Yeast Starter
...and I'm sure that there are many more I've not come across yet.
Once I get it growing and know what I'm doing, I will post about my efforts and hopeful successes of drying my own yeast.
Just so I don't feel like I am completely cheating here...I have pulled a photo out of my old albums. Two totally unrelated photos from the album I have labeled "This is Why I Kayak".
Kevin Bacon has nothing on me....from no photos of home grown yeast to beautiful night time and sunset kayaking photos in just two degrees.
No surprise there, though, really...was there?
Then, again, I do pack sandwiches sometimes when I paddle...and those sandwiches are on yeast bread....so there you have it!
Life is always connected...we just have to take the time to make the connections.
I love autumn. It has always been my favorite time of the year.
What's not to like about the autumn?
Between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice we get...
My Daughter's Birthday
Indian Summer
Apple Cider
Good Sleeping Weather
Root Vegetables
Beautiful Fall Foliage
The Beginning of Hunting Season
An Abundant Harvest of Good Things
Halloween
Migratory Birds on the Move
The End of the Mosquito Season
Thanksgiving
Sweaters
Buck and Does on the Move
Crisp, Cool Nights
Snuggling under Quilts
The Hunter's Moon
The Fall Constellations: Pegasus, Perseus, and Cassiopea (plus a few more)
Combines in the Fields and the Sights and Sounds of Harvest
Crackling Fires -- Inside and Outside
The Harvest Moon
Pumpkins
...and a Cornucopia of Other Wonderful Things
We seem to start to slow down a bit and we are not all rushing around in the autumn like we are in the summer and in the spring and during the Christmas season.
It is warm and cozy and wonderful. Nothing like putting a fire in the fireplace and curling up with a good book or crocheting or practicing my dulcimer on these kinds of evenings.
I have always preferred the term 'autumn' over the term 'fall'.I have never really thought much about why I have this preference...I just know that I do. So, of course, being the Google ferret that I am, I started to dig to see if there was anything about the use of the word 'autumn' vs. the use of the word 'fall'. Here is what I learned:
Autumn has been used since the 14th Century, Fall is much later, during the 17th Century. At that time, both autumn and fall (often as part of the phrase fall of the leaf) were common in England. This was the Middle English period.
After the Revolution, British usage began shifting to the more Latinate term, influenced perhaps by Continental usage (French automne, Spanish otono, Italian autunno) or upper-class striving for refinement. Americans, much less affected by such influences, stuck with their Yankee ancestors' simple and direct term.
John Keats, an Englishman, began his "To Autumn" with the lines,
"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun."
By contrast, James Whitcomb Riley's peerless American poem about the season climaxes with
"Oh, it sets my heart a-clickin' like the tickin' of a clock
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock."
This one was more confirmed than learned...it is stuff that I already knew. My recent camping/paddling trip, plus a few other things that have happened in the past week just brought it more to the forefront. Which is right where it should be.
Lesson 3: It's all about the jouney. Period.
I will never understand why this one is so hard for so many people to 'get'. In the end, the journey is all that ever matters. We will all reach the same destination -- some of us will take longer to get there, some of us will take shorter to get there. For some of us it will be an easy path and for others a more difficult path. But we will all get there. Death is the great equalizer. None of us will avoid it, so why on earth would you choose NOT to enjoy the journey?
Last weekend, we paddled approximately 14 miles on Sunday. About 2.5 miles into the journey, I heard a few of the paddlers grumbling that we needed to pick up the pace. I let this go on for a short while, but those of you who know me well, know that I eventually must succumb to the urge to 'clarify' things.
This was the view that we had that day...
Beach at Hog Island NWR
...why on earth would you want to rush things along?
Cypress Seed Pod (taken by my friend, Clint).
When you forget to enjoy the journey, you miss the details...like the very cool Cypress seed pods that my friend and fellow paddler, Clint, found and photographed on the beach at lunchtime.
Eventually, I did speak up and said to the main grumbler...
"I'm sorry that you don't know me very well, or you would have realized that when I lead a paddle...we don't rush. I prefer to take my time and enjoy the scenery. I'm here for the journey.
I prefer to enjoy the view and the day and to take the time to see new and interesting things.
If we just race to the destination, we miss out on the real reason that we're here."
A short while later, after we paddled a bit further, she was muttering to another woman again. So...I quietly paddled over to her and said privately,
"Again...I'm sorry that you are frustrated with things.
If you're in a hurry today...you signed up for the wrong paddle."
Eventually, when we stopped for lunch, a few of the disgruntled had decided that they had had enough of my lollygagging and said that they would break off as a group to head back to the launch site.
I wished them a safe paddle and suggested a route which would have been 'the path of least resistance' as it related to the current. It was obvious that they were not going to listen to my advice -- they had listened long enough, and all they had to show for it was a slowpoke paddle. Off they went.
Approximately 30 minutes later, we noticed that the ones who were in a hurry didn't seem to be moving. A few of the paddlers who had stayed with me paddled out to them to see if they were okay. One of the women in our group, again, suggested a route to help them get to shore. She came back and said that she thought she had upset them by suggesting a route.
(Later, one of the women in the other group shared with me that the current was so strong that they seemed to be able to just paddle enough to keep their boats straight -- but not to make any progress. Heck..that is what we had been trying to tell them and why we had suggested alternate routes-- but they were in too much of a hurry to listen, it seems.)
Ironically, when we got back to shore, we had paddled 3-4 miles more than they had, yet we were only minutes behind them when we landed.
We had enjoyed the journey and were still chatting and smiling when we came off the water. They ended up tiring themselves out and as we were loading our boats, none of them seemed to be smiling very much.
Ol' Aesop had it figured out. We modern and enlightened folks...well, not so much sometimes.
The passing of Steve Jobs has brought the journey to the forefront for many people. Lots of accolades and tributes and lots of people this past week discussing what a visionary man he was. What a difference he made in the world.
...and they're right. He did.
However, what most folks don't realize is that each and every one of us has the ability to make a difference if we want to. Sure...we don't have the power and influence of a Steve Jobs on the global scale...but you know what? Neither did he when he started out. Don't believe me? Listen to the words of the man, yourself.
I watched his Stanford graduation address again this past week. If you have not yet seen it, watch it. It is fifteen minutes well spent.
What? You don't think that you have fifteen minutes to spare?
Then, my friend, I'm not sure what you're doing at this blog...because you don't have time to waste reading my ramblings "for real, for real" (that's middle schooler talk and it means really and truly and I really, really, really mean it -- to the unenlightened among you).
Yes. If that is the case, then for real, for real, you don't get it.
The song, Colors of the Wind, from Disney's Pocahantas has been on my mind a lot this week, too.
(Did you notice how I did that? I have seen what happens over at YouTube when folks don't credit the big commercial boys with something. I'm not going there.) Yep...Disney's Pocahantas. Not to be confused with the for real, for real Pocahantas -- the one whose spirit I feel in the wind and see in the sunsets when I paddle in the same places she did -- like I did last weekend (photos below -- see Lesson #1).
Anyway...I have been humming and singing and whistling that song all weekend long.
I must have watched a dozen versions of this song on YouTube last night. This one is my personal favorite.
It made me cry.
I am sure that it is due not only to the song, but also, in part,
To the fact that it is early autumn in Virginia...
The colors are on the verge of changing...
The weather is beautiful...
The days are shorter...
The nights are quiet...
And I am hearing the owls more at night.
Local farmers are picking their corn...
After the combine goes through, of course, there is stubble and corn in the field.
As a result, the deer herd is now often seen in the open.
The little bucks who have been growing up this season are now more visible...
And very handsome, I might add.
This is my very favorite time of the year.
So...if you wonder why I have not been posting for the past few days, it's not that I've not been slacking on blogging. I've been enjoying the journey.
In fact, that's what I'm headed out to do right now.
Why is it that so many people who camp think that in order to 'rough it', they have to eat pre-packaged commercially prepared freeze dried foods? Yuck.
Lesson Two: You don't have to flog your tastebuds or deprive yourself of eating REAL food when camping. At least, not when kayak camping.
My fellow campers, bless their hearts (I do so love that Southern phrase!), 'survived' on Clif Bars and stuff in mylar pouches. I took my own food. Not patting myself on the back here -- because they are certainly free to eat whatever they want, and I suppose that convenience played a big role in what they were eating. However, we were not through hiking the AT, nor were we traversing the Inside Passage by canoe or kayak and strapped for space. We drove to a campground at a state park, parked our cars within 50' of our tents, and that was about as rough as it got.
To give you a wee bit of contrast...which would YOU rather have?
Mountain House Chicken Salad $6.50 per 4.09 oz single serving pouch.
Here is the additional info from the REI website:
Just mix contents with cold water in the pouch provided; let stand for 8 - 9 min., and serve in tortillas or over rice or pasta (all not included)
18g of protein per serving provides 36% of the recommended daily value
Ingredients:
cooked chicken white meat*, seasoning blend (high oleic sunflower oil, buttermilk, whey, maltodextrin, salt, Dijon mustard {distilled vinegar, mustard, white wine, citric acid, tartaric acid and spices}, modified corn starch, onion, natural flavor, xanthan gum, vinegar, powder, chives, sugar, spices, citric acid, disodium inosinate and disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate and less than 2% sunflower oil added to prevent caking), roasted pumpkin seeds {pumpkin kernels, soybean oil and/or cottonseed oil}, sliced cranberries*, red onions*. *Freeze-dried. Allergens: milk, soy.
Made in USA.
Or this...
Mary's Homegrown Filet Mignon and Garden Veggie Skillet
Ingredients: Tuckahoe Plantation Livestock Grass Fed Beef - raised by Daniel 'from calf to plate'
Chicken of the Woods Mushroom - foraged from the woods behind my house
Dehydrated (by me) peppers and onions from my garden
Fresh yellow pear tomatoes from my garden
Fresh Juliet tomatoes from my garden
Fingerling Potatoes -- grown by neighbors less than two miles from my house
Garlic - grown by Daniel
Sauteed in Olive Oil (grown somewhere else -- I have not yet seen any olive trees in the neighborhood)
The cost was not much more than the mylar chicken salad. I didn't need to put my stuff in cold water for 8-9 minutes, but I did let my dehydrated veggies rehydrate for a bit in the olive oil before cooking them on my trusty JetBoil. (I love my JetBoil...but that is a post for another day!)
And that was just one meal. While my friends were gulping down oatmeal and granola for breakfast...I made french toast one morning and vegetable and goat cheese omelettes the next.
French Toast
Ingredients:
Homemade Cinnamon Sugar (but I use honey, instead of sugar) Bread -- made in my bargain $ 3.15 Bread Machine (another post for another day...I love this very handy device, too!)
Fresh, local Butter Tuckahoe Plantation Livestock Eggs Sullivan's Pond Farm milk from my goat share
And, viola! Delicious French Toast in the trusty JetBoil!
Omelette Ingredients: Tuckahoe Plantation Livestock Eggs Sullivan's Pond Farm milk and cheese from my goat share
Assorted veggies from my garden (listed above)
Foraged (by me) Chicken of the Woods Mushrooms
Virginia Salt Cured Bacon (I cannot remember who made it, though -- but definitely Virginia grown and NOT one of the big boys, like Smithfield)
Last, but not least...we always have a shore lunch when we paddle.
Out came more Clif bars, and those icky pouches of StarKist tuna in a shiny bag. Other stuff, too, but I cannot remember.
However, on my end of the beach, I was having a gourmet feast!
Root Veggie Chips topped with:
Rona's Sullivan's Pond Farm soft chevre goat cheese from my goat share, and...
Wild Caught Alaskan Salmon (smoked) -- part of my semi-annual case of Orca's Select Smoked Salmon shipped from Southeast Sea Kayaks in Ketchikan, Alaska -- yum! Once you have eaten real Alaskan salmon...you will never go back to farm raised Atlantic Salmon.
I have recently purchased and read a great cookbook designed for kayakers, canoeists, and rafters, titled The Paddling Chef.
If you spend any time at all in the outdoors...definitely check it out!
My students already think that I look like Paula Deen, so who knows...maybe there is a cookbook in my own future, too!
I just returned from a wonderful camping and kayaking weekend with a great group of people. Some were folks who were already friends, some prior acquaintances, and some were new faces. All were nice.
We spent the weekend exploring Cobham Bay on the James River by kayak.
Three major points came to me this weekend. This post will be the first of them.
Lesson One: Never forget to savor the beauty and splendor right in your own back yard.
I have learned over the years to 'live like a tourist'...and I am so glad that I do!
When I moved to Maryland, and now here in Virginia, I find that I am exploring and 'discovering' (couldn't resist -- it is actually Columbus Day today, after all) places and things that my friends who have lived here their whole lives have never taken the time to explore.
Cobham Bay, for instance. What a beautiful and diverse little place. We paddled a total of just over 30 miles this weekend -- most of it in the same area because there was just so much to see and to explore. We did a 7.5 mile creek paddle on Saturday afternoon. It was nothing strenuous -- just pretty and peaceful.
Lower Chippokes Creek
Serenity
After that, we took a little break to eat our supper before a few of us headed out for an absolutely breathtaking sunset/moonlight paddle. It was another 7.8 miles of easy paddling. It was so peaceful and so beautiful and, although I was only a little more than an hour from home, I felt so very far away.
I felt like I was on a vacation far, far from home.
Thanks to my friend, JJ, for taking this photo of me paddling into the sunset. It is one of my favorites!
The perfect end to a perfect day!
After the paddle, we returned to the campsite to visit with our friends around the campfire before retiring to our tents. It was a perfect day!
On Sunday morning, we woke up and paddled just under 14 miles, exploring the rest of Cobham Bay before heading home. On Sunday, we saw lots of interesting things.
Beautifully eroded sand bluffs...
...and fossils
...and cypress swamps.
...and even the not so pretty (nor photo worthy) Surry Nuclear Plant.
I liked the sunsets and the sand and the cypress trees better than the nuke plant.
Two things spring to mind for me every Columbus Day Weekend.
First...the thing that I loathe.
Why do we celebrate a day of discovery for a guy who 'discovered' a continent that had already been discovered way before he got here? Then...once he was here, he robbed and pillaged and killed the locals. Gosh...if I didn't know any better, that would sound an awful lot like the guys who we consider to be the "very bad guys" today. Remember what happened when Saddam Hussein went into Kuwait? We didn't celebrate him, give the government workers a day off, school kids a holiday, and name cities after him.
...and Second. Something I love about this weekend.
Paddling. Perfect weather paddling.
I have kayaked every single Columbus Day weekend since I started paddling. This is a video montage I made of my very first Columbus Day paddling weekend and when I truly fell in love with the sport.
I also started learning to play the hammered dulcimer around that same time.(Nope…not me playing on the video.That is my former dulcimer teacher in Baltimore – Ken Kolodner, an amazingly talented artist and musician.)
Since that time, I have truly embraced kayaking and have paddled on Columbus Day Weekend at Cape Fear, North Carolina, the Chesapeake Bay, and this weekend, on the James River.In between Columbus Days I have paddled the Saguenay Fjord in Quebec, Downeast Maine, and lots of wonderful locations along the MidAtlantic Coast.
Oh, wait…let me correct that.
I discovered those places.Hmmm…come to think of it, using that type of logic, I can say that I discovered the hammered dulcimer, too.
Yeah, right…about as much as Christopher Columbus discovered America.
Have a safe holiday weekend.
May it be filled with discoveries (as long as they are real ones).
Nope...not by the calendar. Not by the shorter days. Not by the fact that I see more geese in the sky flying in formation (though I don't really believe that they fly south for the winter anymore -- there are an awful lot of them who seem to live here year round).
I held off for as long as I could...but tonight I finally fired up the pellet stove. It has been chilly for the past several nights and, while it is not really all that cold, it was chilly enough that I was ready to pull out the extra blanket, if need be.
I love my pellet stove. I love a fire and it just 'fits' here in my little cabin. The only thing I have to work on is getting it set up for battery backup so that I can still have heat (auger and fan both run on electrical power, after all). But...that's something to shop for another day. Tonight I just plan to enjoy the fire.
This will be my last turkey post -- at least for a few days -- I promise!
Yesterday afternoon I drove out to Dinwiddie and picked up 10 beautiful Bourbon Red turkeys from Cardinal Hill Farm. I brought home 7 toms and 3 hens. I plan to keep the hens and one of the toms for breeding. The rest will be Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner, and in the freezer for later in the year.
Between my sweet potatoes and my turkeys...my Thanksgiving feast is falling into place.
Next up to source for the menu -- apples and pumpkins for pies. Yum!
Most of you know that my 'day job' is teaching middle school. Home Ec, in fact. (Though it now has a new name -- Family and Consumer Sciences.) However, if I tell folks that I am a FACS teacher, they look confused. If I say Family and Consumer Sciences, they think I teach Science. If I say 'Home Ec', they all give me that 'A-ha!' look that teachers love to see and I know that they understand.
The next statement out of their mouths usually is something like, "I thought they did away with that years ago."
They did.
In many schools, the programs no longer exist. In fact, that is why so many of the 'new' teachers of career and tech ed are career switchers, like me. Once schools no longer taught these things, colleges and universities had no reason to produce teachers of these things. The colleges and universities which still have Family and Consumer Sciences are few and far between.
I am blessed that the school system where I teach sees and embraces the value of Career and Technical Education (aka CTE aka Home Ec (FACS), Shop (Technology Education), Business (Keyboarding, Marketing and more) and, in some schools, Ag (needs nothing parenthetical -- Agriculture is Agriculture). I love what I do and I love the school system where I do it. I don't know of any other school system that has such a strong CTE emphasis as ours.
What do turkeys and middle school boys have in common? Lots. The video below tells it all. Don't laugh at the awful turkey calling in this video. I was hoarse (after a week of teaching middle school) and I didn't have my turkey call outside. Plus, these little characters respond better to my raspy pseudo-turkey calls than they do to a real one. They think I'm their mama.
Because I was away so much this past summer, I was not home long enough to brood any baby turkeys. I must admit that I really do miss having turkeys around.
If you are unfamiliar with the antics of these feathered characters, you have missed out on one of life's most wonderful treats!
I did this little video last fall, just after I moved into the house. It was a good thing that there were no plants in the back yard at that time, or they would have consumed every single leaf. They are quite the characters. The ones in the video are Bronzes and Whites. I doubt that I have to explain to you which type is which. Pretty self-explanatory there.
Anyway...I enjoyed my vacations immensely (more on those in another post on another day...or two...or more), but being away so much this summer made me realize that I really do prefer the life of a homebody. I missed my kids, I missed my dogs, I missed my garden, I missed my front porch...and I missed my turkeys.
I had been lamenting this fact to Emily and Daniel recently -- especially when it occurred to me that I had not even raised one single turkey for us for Thanksgiving this year. We all agreed that we needed to find some turkeys -- turkeys that we could finish raising, ourselves, but which had been grown by someone who raises food in the same way that we do.
Enter...Craig's List. Prayers answered.
I am getting ready to build a cold frame (possibly, even a hot bed -- that is yet to be determined). I was perusing Craig's List looking for free old windows to use as the top for my cold frame. I looked under Free and I also looked under Farm and Garden (though I don't think that is where windows would really be -- however, I didn't see 'Building Materials', so F"&G was the next best thing). Lo and behold...there was a listing for turkeys from the man who I always buy my turkey poults from out in Dinwiddie. Bourbon Reds...my very favorite birds of all.
This is one of the Bourbon Reds I raised a few years ago.
I'm gonna get me some turkeys this week. Life is good, indeed!
