Last week the girls went blueberry picking and ended up with 24 pounds!! One afternoon, shortly thereafter, I ended up with four girls in the kitchen with the task of baking something with the berries. I split the girls into pairs and, having confidence that Girl A & B seemed to know what they were doing, and realizing that Girl C & D were mere babes in the woods of cookery, I left A & B to fend for themselves. Of course, I did keep an eye on them and, as I said, they seemed competent. So Girls C & D made blueberry crisp - simple enough. We got it in the oven and they left the kitchen...just in time for me to realize that Girls A & B had committed a greivous error. They were making pear blueberry cobbler and instead of mixing the doughy part separately...they had NOT FOLLOWED THE DIRECTIONS and had combined ALL the ingredients in one bowl. Woe was me. I certainly learned my lesson not to take ANYTHING for granted as far as the girls' cooking skills are concerned. We did our best to salvage the disaster but it was pretty much beyond all attempts at repair.
The crowning touch came when Girl A opened up a new container of heavy cream to use as the last ingredient. After she had poured it into the hopelessly goopy mixture, she pointed out that it seemed odd...and lo, we looked at the expiration date and it was back in July! It smelled horrid and when i poured it out into the sink, there was definite CLOTTAGE involved. GROOOSS!
At this point, it was very hot and there was a construction meeting going on in the kitchen, and I had to stifle hysterical laughter. I told the girls to put it in the oven anyway - I didn't want them to have to throw it away at the moment of culmination. And the oven was already on anyway. I also wanted to see what it would look like...I set the timer only to realize later that I had set it for hours instead of minutes. ( Instead of sixty minutes, it was sixty hours.) And when I tried to cancel and change it, it wouldn't accept that command and did all sorts of things which totally confused me. It ended up refusing to be changed and so we just had to wait for sixty hours to go by before it buzzed. Oh my word. I was quite humiliated.
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Friday, August 05, 2005
Slaughter of the Eggs
Well, we didn't end up going to Rye Beach after all. There were thunderstorms predicted so we went to a local lake so that if it rained ( which it did, a bit) we could hop in the vans and come home (which we did, but not before several hours of fun in de sun). I was secretly THRILLED not to go to Rye Beach, and not just because it would resurrect disturbing memories of the class trip when Sarah and I scampered away from the group to go have a private swim, only to be followed by a jogging Chad ( as opposed to a hanging Chad or a dimpled Chad), who had apparently not been warned that he was trespassing into the women's bathing area. His amused classmates, however, watched from afar wondering at his nerve. Fortunately, no harm came to anyone as Sarah and I 'sank beneath the rippling waves' for a time, times and half a time...No, I'm sure I couldn't have held my breath for that long...so it was probably shorter than that... BUT I DIGRESS!
ANYWAY- the REAL reason I was thrilled not to go to Rye Beach is because it's a blooming TWO HOUR DRIVE away and those of you who know me know I don't go in very big for long car rides/drives...and I honestly was not hyped about spending that much time in a van listening to hip-hop muzak.
In addition to digging potatoes on Monday, I have also been playing the farm-girl at home. Our landlords are away on an 11 day sojourn to Oregon and we are helping out with the animals in their absence. My duties involve emptying the sheep's water ( I have contrived a way to do this without entering the pasture, tricky me) and refilling it, of course, watering the garden ( I KNOW that isn't an animal...), feeding and watering the chickens and geese ( a wild, female wood duck has joined their ranks!), caring for their German Shepherd ( named "Shep", surprisingly enough), AND...dun dun DUUUUUN...COLLECTING EGGS! This is an exciting first for me.
I ventured into yon chicken house recently and gathered eggs. I was sort of awed to find that they come in different colors besides brown and white! A couple that I gathered were actually GREENISH! Up until today I had gathered about eight...and I already had almost a dozen from the store in the fridge. ( Sarah said I could keep as many as I wanted.) So I didn't think I really needed many more...and decided to follow Sarah's instructions on what to do with surplus eggs. Are you ready for this? She said to THROW THE EGGS ON THE GROUND AND BREAK THEM...and the chickens would come and EAT THEM! So, I collected the six doomed little eggs in the one little berth in the chicken house that seems to be the favored laying spot ( I haven't found any eggs in any other place except this one little box) and feeling rather strange, I stepped out into the yard...and the chickens seemed to know what was coming because they all started clustering around me. I threw down the first egg...and it just bounced and rolled! It happened with the next egg too! These farm eggs are tough! I succeeded in breaking some of the eggs, and it was HORRIFYING and DISGUSTING to see how the chickens would go wild to get at them. Well I pursued the tough eggs and, feeling rather like Moses throwing down the ten commandments, I hurled them to the earth again...and again. I bet Moses didn't even have to try as hard with his tablets. I lost one in the woods and succeeded with the other. I felt rather cruel and weird, but hey, I'm just following orders. Sarah said it was a great way to recycle the eggs. Whatever. Their yolks are on her head. Figuratively, of course.
AAAHHH! "Soylent Green is... People!"
( I don't really know how that last comment applies exactly as I know the analogy is far from perfect but I felt moved to mention it, as I think there is some vague connection there.)
ANYWAY- the REAL reason I was thrilled not to go to Rye Beach is because it's a blooming TWO HOUR DRIVE away and those of you who know me know I don't go in very big for long car rides/drives...and I honestly was not hyped about spending that much time in a van listening to hip-hop muzak.
In addition to digging potatoes on Monday, I have also been playing the farm-girl at home. Our landlords are away on an 11 day sojourn to Oregon and we are helping out with the animals in their absence. My duties involve emptying the sheep's water ( I have contrived a way to do this without entering the pasture, tricky me) and refilling it, of course, watering the garden ( I KNOW that isn't an animal...), feeding and watering the chickens and geese ( a wild, female wood duck has joined their ranks!), caring for their German Shepherd ( named "Shep", surprisingly enough), AND...dun dun DUUUUUN...COLLECTING EGGS! This is an exciting first for me.
I ventured into yon chicken house recently and gathered eggs. I was sort of awed to find that they come in different colors besides brown and white! A couple that I gathered were actually GREENISH! Up until today I had gathered about eight...and I already had almost a dozen from the store in the fridge. ( Sarah said I could keep as many as I wanted.) So I didn't think I really needed many more...and decided to follow Sarah's instructions on what to do with surplus eggs. Are you ready for this? She said to THROW THE EGGS ON THE GROUND AND BREAK THEM...and the chickens would come and EAT THEM! So, I collected the six doomed little eggs in the one little berth in the chicken house that seems to be the favored laying spot ( I haven't found any eggs in any other place except this one little box) and feeling rather strange, I stepped out into the yard...and the chickens seemed to know what was coming because they all started clustering around me. I threw down the first egg...and it just bounced and rolled! It happened with the next egg too! These farm eggs are tough! I succeeded in breaking some of the eggs, and it was HORRIFYING and DISGUSTING to see how the chickens would go wild to get at them. Well I pursued the tough eggs and, feeling rather like Moses throwing down the ten commandments, I hurled them to the earth again...and again. I bet Moses didn't even have to try as hard with his tablets. I lost one in the woods and succeeded with the other. I felt rather cruel and weird, but hey, I'm just following orders. Sarah said it was a great way to recycle the eggs. Whatever. Their yolks are on her head. Figuratively, of course.
AAAHHH! "Soylent Green is... People!"
( I don't really know how that last comment applies exactly as I know the analogy is far from perfect but I felt moved to mention it, as I think there is some vague connection there.)
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Of Quilts and Potatoes
Here are some of the recent activities that I have been involved in at the Shelter: Quiltmaking, Potato digging, and playing Spoons!
Last week we had a project where girls were constructing their own quilt squares- using Wonder-Unders. No- that is not an undergarment - it's some sort of adhesive iron-on material that makes the scraps of material adhere to the backing. Ingenious. So they didn't have to actually SEW it on. A good thing because I think needle and threading them together would have driven some of them really batty. As it was, some chose to do a decorative stitch around the outside border, and that was test enough of their sanity. Anyway- I participated and had more fun that I anticipated... but I am in no way convinced that this is any indication of latent craftiness in me. It was ALL the Wonder-Under.
Potato Digging: On Monday, I went along to the Community Co-op farm where the girls volunteer once a week. The task for the day was weeding and digging up potatoes. I tried both and found the digging/harvesting much more rewarding. Of course, it was only for an hour and a half or so, but it was kinda fun mucking about in my bare feet. I got quite filthy COMMUNING WITH THE EARTH!
I thought briefly, as I wiped the sweat from my forehead, of how easy we have it today compared with our ancestors, to whom backbreaking, sweaty physical labor in the fields was not a matter of an hour and a half of community service...but a daily reality and truly a matter of life and death. It's interesting to think of how our existence can be traced back to the faithfulness of our ancestors. In other words, I was thankful for the generations of people who struggled and scrimped and saved and stretched and sweated and SURVIVED to produce food...to feed families...who had children...who in turn had children...and so on... and eventually, I arrived on the scene...with my microwave and refrigerator and Shaws and Hannafords. Huh. I can feel them scoffing at me from their graves.
I was ALSO thankful that I didn't encounter any cut worms, which the girls were collecting to feed to the chickens after we were done our tasks. One girl was collecting potato bugs to string onto a necklace. Well, THERE'S a crafty one. Most of the girls are ultra-city girls and it was a great hurdle to convince them that getting dirt under their fingernails was not a major catastrophe. And they didn't seem to understand why the farmer didn't just spray his field to get rid of weeds and bugs. I tried to explain that it was an ORGANIC FARM...and why some people don't like to eat stuff that has been sprayed with poison...They still thought the poison was preferable to manual labor. ( I have to say- I don't eat organic but I can see myself doing it someday...and I understand why some people do.) But overall, they had pretty good attitudes about it all.
The next morning I cooked up some of the potatoes they had picked and made home fries for the girls' breakfast ( and fried some eggs too) and they tasted fairly superior, if I do say so myself. Hmmm- if I had really been crafty, in the true sense of the word, I would have made two batches- one organic, one pesticidal, and doctored the pesticidal ones to taste horrible...Hmmm.
And today I played Spoons and Uno. Doesn't get much better than this. And Friday, I am supposed to go on a field trip to Rye Beach...which reminds me of a story of when I was in my second year of Bibleschool...involving Chad doing a "Chariots of Fire" imitation...but that is a story for another day...
Last week we had a project where girls were constructing their own quilt squares- using Wonder-Unders. No- that is not an undergarment - it's some sort of adhesive iron-on material that makes the scraps of material adhere to the backing. Ingenious. So they didn't have to actually SEW it on. A good thing because I think needle and threading them together would have driven some of them really batty. As it was, some chose to do a decorative stitch around the outside border, and that was test enough of their sanity. Anyway- I participated and had more fun that I anticipated... but I am in no way convinced that this is any indication of latent craftiness in me. It was ALL the Wonder-Under.
Potato Digging: On Monday, I went along to the Community Co-op farm where the girls volunteer once a week. The task for the day was weeding and digging up potatoes. I tried both and found the digging/harvesting much more rewarding. Of course, it was only for an hour and a half or so, but it was kinda fun mucking about in my bare feet. I got quite filthy COMMUNING WITH THE EARTH!
I thought briefly, as I wiped the sweat from my forehead, of how easy we have it today compared with our ancestors, to whom backbreaking, sweaty physical labor in the fields was not a matter of an hour and a half of community service...but a daily reality and truly a matter of life and death. It's interesting to think of how our existence can be traced back to the faithfulness of our ancestors. In other words, I was thankful for the generations of people who struggled and scrimped and saved and stretched and sweated and SURVIVED to produce food...to feed families...who had children...who in turn had children...and so on... and eventually, I arrived on the scene...with my microwave and refrigerator and Shaws and Hannafords. Huh. I can feel them scoffing at me from their graves.
I was ALSO thankful that I didn't encounter any cut worms, which the girls were collecting to feed to the chickens after we were done our tasks. One girl was collecting potato bugs to string onto a necklace. Well, THERE'S a crafty one. Most of the girls are ultra-city girls and it was a great hurdle to convince them that getting dirt under their fingernails was not a major catastrophe. And they didn't seem to understand why the farmer didn't just spray his field to get rid of weeds and bugs. I tried to explain that it was an ORGANIC FARM...and why some people don't like to eat stuff that has been sprayed with poison...They still thought the poison was preferable to manual labor. ( I have to say- I don't eat organic but I can see myself doing it someday...and I understand why some people do.) But overall, they had pretty good attitudes about it all.
The next morning I cooked up some of the potatoes they had picked and made home fries for the girls' breakfast ( and fried some eggs too) and they tasted fairly superior, if I do say so myself. Hmmm- if I had really been crafty, in the true sense of the word, I would have made two batches- one organic, one pesticidal, and doctored the pesticidal ones to taste horrible...Hmmm.
And today I played Spoons and Uno. Doesn't get much better than this. And Friday, I am supposed to go on a field trip to Rye Beach...which reminds me of a story of when I was in my second year of Bibleschool...involving Chad doing a "Chariots of Fire" imitation...but that is a story for another day...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
