Morels R Us

One other interesting bit of information. This is Morel mushroom season, for those of you who don't know that. Matt's buddy, Duane, introduced us to morel hunting a few years ago, but to be honest we've never really done very well and I just decided this year not to go.

So, Matt went out with Duane to one of the usual stomping...uh, treading lightly....grounds on public land in Maryland.....and they came back with 4lbs of morels. Each. Whoa.

So, Matt and I went back out a few days later, and came back with another 2lbs.

Keep in mind that when we were at Wegman's a couple days earlier, morels were going for $59/lb.

And Matt and Duane went back out and got another couple lbs each. So, this has been a really REALLY good year for morels.

Anniversary and such.

So, Thursday the 24th was our 7-year anniversary. My god, has it been that long. Anyway, I had suggested to Matt that we go take in an IMAX movie in Harrisburg, then go to Passage to India for dinner.

Well, we didn't do the IMAX movie, which bummed me out, but we can do that some other time. Matt's never been to an IMAX movie before, and I think he'd really like it. I also suggested we hit Ashcombe's on the way and pick up our yearly supply of herb plants, but we were running a bit short on time and decided to bypass it.

We did get to Passage to India, though, and had a wonderful meal. I wound up getting the same thing I got the last time, which was Papri Chaat and Chicken Hylashi (?). If I had only 5 things that I could eat for the rest of my life, Papri Chaat would be one of them. I could happily devour it. I also had the whole-wheat Roti. Matt ordered the Mulagatawny soup (very good), Shrimp Biryani, which I tried and was also to die for (they had golden raisins in it), and he had the Kulfi for dessert, which I tried and liked, too. He ordered the passage naan which is stuffed with ginger, cottage cheese, almonds, raisins and herbs. OMG this was wonderful. All in all a memorable meal.

We then drove over to Wegman's on a whim. I had mentioned that I hated to make the drive and only do one thing (gas mileage rationale), and he suggested Wegman's, so off we went. Got the usual stuff: Israeli feta cheese, some bulk tea, some Russian Banana fingerling potatoes, apples, etc etc.

In other news, we still haven't planted the remaining 300lb of potatoes due to swampy conditions. Hopefully this week. I'm considering starting a garden blog, with pictures. It seems that I have a lot of garden related stuff in here, and this would give me the opportunity to start a 'diary' of dates and such that I can refer back to in the future when I'm planning out my future gardens. Hmmm.

JoAnne and I went to a composting workshop yesterday morning. I think I and two other guys (who appeared in their 30s) were the youngest there of the 25 or so in the class. The class leader was not a very good speaker, she kept using the wrong words and mixing up words, adding extra sylables. It was very painful at first, then got to be entertaining when she accidentally switched the word 'organism' for 'orgasm.' Seriously. Then she was talking about animal feces and accidentally sayed fetus instead. But we got a free composter out of the deal, so it was worth it. Now JoAnne is in competitive totally balls-to-the-walls my-composter-is-more-full-than-your-composter mode. It is very annoying, but that's the way she is, everything is a competition.

Max is well, he's been a dear when it comes to working outside. He'll sit and just listen, smell and watch the world go by while I dig and plant, and he's happy as a clam. I don't have to keep an eye on him as much. He's getting older, he'll be 9 this year.

Matthew left this morning for 2-weeks of training in Syracuse. I have the house to myself for a while. It feels weird. I have two lists of things I need to do inside as well as outside (in addition to the potatoes, and mowing the lawn) and I'll just work at it a bit at a time.

In honor and relief....

...that the PA primary is now over, I'm posting something I saved from the last presidential election. I can't remember where I got it, but the date and the authors are listed. I hadn't read this since then; the last paragraph is telling.

August 29th, 2004 9:38 pm

A Day in the Life of Joe Middle-Class Republican
by Donna L. Lavins and Sheldon Cotler

Joe gets up at 6:00 AM to prepare his morning coffee. He fills his pot with good, clean drinking water because some liberal fought for minimum water quality standards. He takes his daily medication with his first swallow of coffee. His medications are safe to take because some liberal fought to insure their safety and that they work as advertised.

All but $10.00 of his medications are paid for by his employer's medical plan. Because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance, now Joe gets it too. He prepares his morning breakfast -- bacon and eggs this day. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

Joe takes his morning shower, reaching for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with every ingredient and the amount that is contains because some liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and the breakdown of its contents. Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some tree-hugging liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air. He walks to the subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work; it saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees. You see, some liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day; he has a good job with excellent pay, medicals benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe's employer meets these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union. If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed he'll get worker's compensation or an unemployment check because some liberal didn't think he should lose his home to temporary misfortune.

It's noon time. Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FDIC because some liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the depression.
Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae underwritten mortgage and his below market federal student loan because some stupid liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime.

Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive to dad’s; his car is among the safest in the world because some liberal fought for car safety standards. He arrives at his boyhood home. He was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans. The house didn't have electric until some big government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification (those rural Republican's would still be sitting in the dark).

Joe is happy to see his dad, who is now retired. Joe's dad lives on Social Security and his union pension because some liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to. After his visit with dad, Joe gets back in his car for the ride home. He turns on a radio talk show. The host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't tell Joe that his beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day. Joe agrees, "We don't need those big government liberals ruining our lives. After all, I'm a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."

In the years to come, Joe's life will change dramatically. The U.S. dollar will be devalued as a result of our huge deficit, our living standards demolished, our standing with the world diminished and our social security gone...all because some conservative republican made sure he could take care of himself and his buddies.

Aghast, i remain...

Funny tidbit, garden, etc.

I heard the funniest thing on the radio last week. Ok, background: Martha Stewart's dog died. She raided champion Chows, beautiful dogs. One die, age 13, renal failure. Now, when you give a dog an AKC name it has to be unique, which is why when you watch a dog show they have strange and/or misspelled names, like Max's FountainHead W'ere the Bomb.

The three DJs (2 male, one female) on the radio were going through the news, and one of them read off about Martha's dog.

DJ1: Do you want to know what it's name is?
DJ2 & 3: Oh, no....
DJ1: Kublai Khan Paw-Paw Chow Chow Chow.
(pause)
DJ3: What?!?
DJ1: Kublai Khan Paw-Paw Chow Chow Chow.

Much laughter and commenting. It was very funny.

They then went on to 3 or 4 other news stories. The last one had to do with...

DJ1: John Mellencamp said today......
DJ2: Wait a minute, didn't his name used to be John Cougar Mellencamp?
DJ3: No, no no....it was John Cougar Mellencamp Chow Chow Chow.

Much laughter. I almost drove off the road.

In other news:

We had 4 inches of rain on Sunday. We'd just planted not quite 200lb of potatoes, and I'm really hoping they don't rot in the field. We have 300lb to plant this weekend, and they're calling for more rain.

The beets are starting to come up. This variety is notoriously difficult to get germinated, so I think the rain actually helped here. Also, I think I see radishes coming up, too. They are sooooo fast growing. Still no arugula, but the spinach is doing well, as are the peas.

I have a 4-day weekend starting tomorrow, and I think tomorrow and part of Friday I'm going to get a book and my hammock chair and sit outside and relax. I may plant the second batch of beets and a tomato, but mostly rest.

Various things going on:

Garden: got a patch of beets planted, need to do one more (maybe two) and the patch of carrots/lettuce/radishes and parsnips. Then I can go work on other things that need help, such as parts of the herb bed and the front beds, not to mention plant the few things I’ve purchased already. Spinach is coming up, Kale is doing well. Arugula hasn't sprouted yet, though.

Put in about 200lb of potatoes today, with about 200 more to go. Sore? Yeah, I'm sore.

Work: hard to make myself go in every day. Really hard.

Matt’s work: he seems to be enjoying the new job, he’s been working out of Chambersburg almost every day, training mostly. He goes to a 2-week training session in Syracuse next month. At first we were hopeful I would be going along, but that tanked. So, we’ll have a mini-vacation from each other. He’s planning on going to dig at the Herkimer Diamond Mine on his weekend off.

Other stuff: I’m planning on going to this place while Matt’s in NY. Looked interesting. I still haven’t finished the online business license (Wuss. Chicken.) I need to open a business checking account, buy a domain name, etc etc. I’ve been too busy with the garden. And I’ve been putting it off. It’s a bit overwhelming. I’m afraid I’m going to forget to do something, like file my sales tax with the state and get a huge fine.

Food: I’ve found the most wonderful thing ever: Brown Cow yogurt. Now, I have never liked yogurt, I struggled to get it down. I LOVE this stuff. They just started carrying it at the Giant in Gettysburg when they renovated to add in the big organic section (they should have it in Hanover, too). I highly recommend the whole milk, cream-on-top raspberry and the low-fat pear/raspberry with the whole grains mixed in. Very good. Also, a smoothie recipe from Runner’s World (no I don’t run. Silly):

8oz Brown Cow cream-on-top chocolate yogurt
2 shots espresso (I just made some really strong instant coffee and used that)
12 chocolate covered espresso beans
1 large banana, frozen in chunks
12 ice cubes (or whatever you prefer)

Blend. God this was good. I didn’t really follow the recipe exactly, either, one cup of yogurt is 6 oz, so I used that and half the banana, espresso beans and ice, but the full 2 shots of strong coffee.

I’ve also found the joy that is a Yukon Gold potato. So much better than those white, dry potatoes I grew up with.

We went to the Chinese/Japanese/Thai restaurant in Thurmont the other day and I ordered the seaweed salad. I could happily live on this. It was incredible.

And the other day I made some yogurt cheese. You take a fine sieve and line it with a double layer of cheesecloth, put it over a bowl and dump in some plain yogurt (either full, low or no fat). Let it sit for 24 hours, then dump the water out of the bowl and put the remaining ‘cheese’ in a closed container. It comes out the consistency of soft cream cheese. You can doctor it up, too, I added minced garlic and black pepper to some and vanilla extract and a bit of sugar to some other, which was really good with strawberries. Lemon zest, or any other extract would work, fresh herbs too. Mint might be good, served with some chocolate ice cream. Hmmm…..or the garlic on a baked potato!

I have a bad feeling with this economy, and also with recent food riots around the world. Wild fish number have dropped drastically off the coast of CA/OR and Africa. The price of eggs in the US has jumped 24% in the past year. I’m planning on growing as much as I can this season and trying to preserve the hell out of as much as possible, just in case. Am I an alarmist? You bet. But I’m going to be an alarmist who’s eating.

General update and bleh.

Haven’t really felt like posting until recently as mood and things started to pick up again, finally. In no particular order, the recent stuff:

Went to Ashcombe’s on Saturday with Matt & his mom. We specifically went to pick up our seed potato for the field, as the field is finally tilled. We bought just over 400lb of seed potatoes: 150 Kennebecs, 150 Yukon Golds, 100 Red Norland, 20 All Blue, and 20 Irish Cobblers. I’m also going to buy some samplers of some more exotic stuff online to supplement us up to about 500lb total. Yep, lots of potatoes.

But of course when you go to Ashcombes you have to buy other things, too, so I came out with two pots of Iris Reticulata for half off, a new pot, a few food items, a couple garden implements, etc.

Rock-picking ensued when we got home, then the guy down the road is going to come back and till the field again, after which we will have more rock picking, plowing and planting.

I also got the onions in my veggie bed this weekend, total: 97. Peas are planted, and I hope to get the lettuce, arugala, kale, and spinach in this weekend.

Matt is off all week due to a recent job switch. He will be working for Suburban out of their Gettysburg office, which is really nice and closer to home. No more Frederick hell. He’s taking a bit of a pay cut, but he still gets to use a company vehicle so we’re not paying for gas for the truck for him to drive to the other side of Gettysburg and back every day. So that’s something. And there is room for advancement for him, too.

I also did some work on the computer on Sunday. Matt and I had our taxes done on Thursday, and I took the opportunity to talk to our tax person about accounting and the impending small business venture, and what she said thoroughly confused the hell out of me. Silly me, I thought all I’d have to worry about was money in vs. money out, but apparently it doesn’t work that way. My supplies (clasps, beads, etc) and inventory (finished jewelry) also count as assets, and since I’m a start-up and usually start-ups start with a $0 balance, I really don’t know what to do about all my accumulated ‘stuff.’

So I went to the Kutztown’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC) website, because I know they have free online business classes, and lo they do have an Accounting 101 class available. So I worked on that on Sunday getting not quite half way through it. And you know, it’s kind of interesting and not painful at all. I’ll be taking a few more classes from them as needed.

One other thing I did on Sunday was get all my finished jewelry together (minus the stuff in my jewelry box) and lay it out and take a good look at it. I’d never really done this before. When I had my ‘consultation’ with David the Potter last week, he talked about having ‘art’ pieces versus having ‘bread and butter’ pieces. The former are the truly unique, time consuming pieces you charge a mint for. The latter is what pays the bills. This is the basic strung beaded jewelry.

Looking at my spread I can see the difference, but I still don’t know which direction I truly want to go: art/unique stuff or ‘basic stringing’ stuff. I like to do both. And I was sitting there trying to force myself into one category or the other, but I did realize that it will come with time, one or the other. Or a bit of both. Just my impatience and tendency to want to categorize everything.

But I did really wonder if I have enough stuff to do a gallery show at his place in May or June like he offered me. Maybe the end of the summer, but in 2 months? I just don’t know.

Went out for pizza and shrimp poppers at our pizza-joint-of-choice. Really hit the spot.

Tonight we go to Edward Jones for a consultation and such on our money outlook and future. Since Matt is switching jobs we are taking this opportunity to mainly do something with his existing 401(k), but also getting the ball rolling on really planning out our retirement. I did not know that a consultation with Edward Jones is FREE!! Free, for gods sake. So this should be fun.

And in one other side note, this is not who I want running the country, and especially I don’t want to be lectured about health care and fiscal responsibility from this person. Ready on day one? Yeah, right.

Just stuff

Recent events and such:

Matt's grandma Mary V. went in for her cochlear implant surgery last Thursday and is doing well. She said she had a plastic thing around her head and ear, so Matt and I joked that she had an elizabethan collar on to keep her from licking her stitches. She won't actually get the hearing aid part of the implant for a month.

Still have heard nothing about the fed job, except that they got my application. This is normal, it sometimes takes weeks or longer.

I went up to Ashcombes greenhouses on Saturday to reconoiter and get a few things, including 3 bags of mushroom soil and a pot of white grape hyacinths for Mary V. They smell wonderful. I had a bill over $100 so I know I got more but I can't remember what. Oh, three packs of seeds and 5 peanut butter orgasm cookies. And a quiche. And a fern. And a pot that biodegrades after 5 years. And two bags of coarse sand. And other stuff.

Then I went home and took a glorious 3-hour nap. It was a great, dead to the world nap. Then Matt got called out on a leak call and I got to go with him. It was interesting, nothing really exciting except we got the chance to talk a bit. He's looking for another job, too. Again.

I'm bummed that Hillary did so well in the primaries last night, but I still think Obama's going to take it. I really thought Obama would take Texas.

I have seeds started inside: the romaine and butterhead lettuces, a tomato, some kale, moonflowers and marigolds. Middle of the month I start the broccoli inside and the sugar snap peas outside. I still have a lot of work to do outside before that happens, and I'm hoping for a couple nice weekends and a nice Wednesday morning next week so I can get some of this done. If not, I may take a day off the next nice day to do the work.

My arm stick is doing well, I have no twinges of pain or anything. I also haven't had any of the in-between spotting they warned me about. I also haven't had my monthly cycle at all, which does not thrill me like it would other women. Women are supposed to have periods.

Max is well, he's in sore need of a haircut and I'll do it after I get the peas in. We got the first tick of the season off him this weekend.

And that's about it!