Liloia.com

Snow Cap

2011-04-29T07:25:00.001-04:00

Our hotel room had a photo of the Snow Cap Drive In in Seligman, AZ out front. We'll be there in 7 days, so that's a good omen!

Outside Time

2011-03-18T11:57:00.001-04:00

I have my boots, Mom. Can we go outside?

This spring, we're going to be making a concerted effort toward more outside learning. When we began homeschooling in September, there were several warm weeks which made it possible for us to walk to the local conservation areas.

We have many, world-class nature areas here. For example, the oldest fossil reef on the planet is a 15-minute walk from our door. Scientists come from around the country to study our fossilized reef. How can you pass up a learning opportunity like that?

Today's kids are nature-starved. Even in our rural town, the lack of sidewalks makes it difficult for kids and families to walk to parks and fishing areas easily. In the winter, (especially this winter with weeks of below-zero temperatures and heavy snows), it was easy to stay inside watching documentaries and reading books, but our moods suffered for it. Everyone was more irritable. I even heard the dreaded B-word... "bored."

We did indeed go outside today. With the temperatures finally reaching the low 50s, Gavin even decided that the boots were optional. We played in the last of the snow and tidied up all of the detritus that ends up on the deck and around the house over the winter (like an old cardboard circle from a pizza buried under two feet of snow). If it's anywhere above fifty near you... see you outside!

Maple Ice

2011-03-11T10:20:00.001-05:00

Before the rain washes away our three feet of snow, we had to have bowls of maple slush. Gavin was going outside every few minutes anyway to grab handfuls of snow to suck on, we just added some syrup on top.

Snow Play

2011-02-11T13:39:00.000-05:00

About thirty seconds after I took this picture, Gavin did a face-plant into the snow and decided it was time to go inside. Immediately.

We've learned that under twenty degrees Fahrenheit is too cold to play outside comfortably... and that Gavin can't put his arms down if he has on more than five layers.

Lemon Meringue

2011-02-09T16:31:00.003-05:00

Today felt like a day for lemon meringue pie. A little sunny citrus on yet another frigid, blustery day.

Squanto

2010-09-25T15:25:00.000-04:00

With a quick search on YouTube and Netflix, we often find a film or documentary to complement our lesson for the day. Today, even though it's Saturday, I suggested we watch Squanto: A Warrior's Tale. Trevor was enjoying the film until Dave walked in and said, "Why are you doing school on a Saturday?"

Hey Dad -- it was just a movie until you called it "school"!

Colonial Brown Bread

2010-09-25T14:54:00.002-04:00

I whipped up a quick double batch of colonial brown bread this morning. It rises while baking, so there's no kneading or waiting. This is a great weekday morning recipe which yields two dense, nutty, and slightly sweet loaves that are wonderful fresh out of the oven with a generous slathering of butter. It also makes great sandwiches later in the day!

Baby Gate

2010-06-07T10:15:00.000-04:00

Dave built a baby gate onto the deck this weekend that matched the existing railings. It looks great and makes the deck into the world's largest playpen.

- Posted from my iPhone

Mothra

2010-06-03T07:18:00.000-04:00

Mr. Mothra is sitting outside of our front door, looking all bad with his six-inch wingspan. I've seen these before, but they're usually in more muted colors.

- Posted from my iPhone

Art Exhibition

2010-05-26T08:35:00.000-04:00

One of the pieces of art on display at the Fisk Farm art show was Trevor's Tim Burton collage.

- Posted from my iPhone

Baby Food for Grownups Too

2010-03-17T22:01:00.002-04:00

I made baby food today because we keep running out of fruit jars. Gavin eats fruit with cereal for breakfast, then again after finishing his veggies and meat during other meals. It seems so silly to buy a jar of mashed bananas for .69 cents when I can get three pounds of fresh bananas for .39 cents at Costco.

The jars, even the stage three foods, are a little runny for a tiny guy who is having a lot of fun copying everyone's chewing motions. He's now able to feed himself little bits of cereal like Cheerios or Chex, so a glob of textureless peach puree isn't that challenging for him.

So I googled around and found a few interesting recipes for baby food. The first was a squash and apple bake with cinnamon. It smelled amazing while cooking, but needed double the listed time for the squash to get soft. I also added a splash of organic carrot juice to keep the whole thing from being too pasty.

It was ready just in time for Gavin's lunch, and though I thought it tasted great, I wondered what he would think of this chunky mash. After three bowls, it was clear that he gave it a thumbs-up. He ate so much that when dinnertime rolled around, he only ate about half a bowl -- he was still full from lunch. (Crossing fingers that a full belly means fewer wake-ups during the night.)

Even after so much eating (I'll admit, I had a forkful or two), there's a full mason jar of food left for the rest of the week and it's a pretty orange color that makes you imagine there are tons of vitamins in there.

Emboldened by my first success, I made a second batch of food right after. This time, it was Honest Fare's Baked Cinnamon Apple and Prune baby food. After three steaming apples filled with prunes and dotted with cinnamon came out of the oven, there was no chance they were even making it into the jars. Trevor and I ate all three. (I consider it a personal triumph that I ate a baked apple without a lick of butter on it.)

Rest assured, I will make Gavin another batch tomorrow. With an apple orchard just a few houses away, we're never wanting for fresh apples. I'm thinking we'll try something with broccoli to add some green to that orange. Mmmmm.

I can do it!

2010-02-02T15:54:00.000-05:00

Usually, when I feed Gavin his cereal and veggies, he grabs the spoon once or twice during the meal and tries to feed himself.

Last night, he wanted to do the whole meal on his own. Every time I held the spoon toward him, he reached for it instead of just opening his mouth. Who am I to say no to a little guy who just wants to learn a new skill? We've been incorporating some Montessori principles in his early learning, and feeding himself fits right in with that philosophy:

'By setting up a home environment that enables children to take care of their own self-care throughout the day, the home environment can help the child develop independence and a strong sense of self. We can support our children to be able to say: "I can do it!" and "I did it myself!"' --Montessori.org

It was the messiest meal we've ever had. There were peas down his shirt and up his sleeves, and a good quarter of the food spilled down his bib. But he was super-pleased with himself. Every time I told him, "Good job!" after a bite, he'd grin and jump around in his chair. It was so worth the 30 minutes of kitchen cleaning and the 15 minute bath afterwards.

Italian Wedding Soup

2010-02-01T14:03:00.001-05:00

We had friends over for dinner and board games on Friday night and dinner was King Arthur Flour's Italian Wedding Soup recipe. Trevor loves the cans of Campbell's Italian Wedding Soup that I buy in bulk at Costco, but I was nervous about trying to make this complex soup at home. (I also get a little freaked out by cooking raw meat directly in boiling soup.)

It turned out great, with a different flavor than the usual veggie soups and beef stews I make during the winter. I substituted fresh spinach for the frozen boxed that the recipe calls for, and swapped turkey in for their ground beef. No reason, just what I happened to have on hand.

Cooking the meatballs in the boiling broth made them tender and flavorful. I was tempted to brown them in a skillet beforehand, but I'm glad I resisted. They probably would have been tougher.

If you make the recipe, just keep in mind that the soup is very thick and hearty with all of the veggies, meatballs, and pasta -- and it gets even thicker as it stands and the pasta absorbs more of the broth. If you like a more liquid soup, plan to add a lot more stock.

64th Birthday cookies again

2010-01-31T21:02:00.000-05:00

The second batch of 64th birthday cookies came out more pastel than the other recipe. Royal icing is great for gingerbread houses, but doesn't flood properly for cookies. Next time, I'll try the icing from last time with less milk to make it thicker.

Here's a comparison of flowers from the two batches.

Both butterflies:

And this time, the peace signs are not Mercedes logos. Hah.

Blizzard

2010-01-28T13:29:00.000-05:00

I swear it was sunny here just five minutes ago...

64th Birthday Cookies Beta Test

2010-01-25T13:17:00.000-05:00

The Liloias were invited to a 64th birthday party this weekend, complete with hippie themes and optional costumes. It seemed like as good a time as any to do some more cookie beta testing for the business I'm starting in May.

The icing was a bit too runny. Next time I have a different recipe in mind. This particular icing comes out very glossy. I'm going to try a stiffer, matte royal icing recipe next time. But the cookies come out buttery and delicious -- they're not just a canvas for the design!

The birthday girl's signature colors for the party are hot pink and orange -- hence the color scheme here. The only challenge I hit was that I couldn't for the life of me remember which two primary colors you blend to make orange. Blame it on the baby brain.

Valentine's Day German Bell

2010-01-21T02:54:00.000-05:00

Trevor had a few dollars burning a hole in his pocket at a craft fair last December and he picked up a small paper Christmas ornament done with some kind of origami. He was thrilled to add an ornament that he paid for to the tree. I was intrigued by the construction. Can you believe I went 35 years without ever seeing a German bell?

Of course I had to try it for myself. I found these video instructions online and it looked super-easy. It really was.

I tried it with a full 12x12 sheet of scrapbooking paper. As with origami, bigger is easier at first. But it's simple enough to try a smaller version. I think we'll be seeing a lot of German bells around here this year.

Look how big we are!

2010-01-18T21:49:00.000-05:00

Seven months old and impervious to cold. He's a true Vermonter, all right.

Cutting the Tree

2009-12-14T00:01:00.000-05:00

Dave had the opportunity to cut down our Christmas tree this year. I did it last time because he had left his snow pants at home accidentally (a likely story).

Trevor sledded and Gavin gaped at the white stuff falling on his face while Dave and I picked the tree and sawed it down.

This time, we have a truck with 4WD and we were able to bring it down to the cutting area. Quite a difference from that long trek up the hill dragging a heavy tree behind us to the parking lot the last time with our Kia.

Gavin's First Snow

2009-12-09T23:56:00.000-05:00

A Chef and his Lobster

2009-10-31T23:31:00.000-04:00

The boys won an award for their tandem costume at the Mason's annual Halloween party.

But you can't forget the butter!

This Family Climbed Mount Washington

2009-09-26T23:17:00.000-04:00

We took a trip to New Hampshire in order to drive up Mount Washington (and spend some time in Littleton). And yes, we got the little "This Car Climbed Mount Washington" bumper sticker.

What I want to know is: How is it more people have not died going up this mountain?!

No guardrails next to a hundred-foot drop. Steep hills, smoking brakes. Barely room for two cars on the road. Unpaved portions of roadway. High winds. I could go on.

We absolutely loved the experience, but there was no small bit of terror involved. Both on the way up and the way back. I'm just thanking my lucky stars that the mountain closed the day before I was going to take Trevor up there alone in our little Kia last year. I think I would have had a panic attack on the ascent.

The Last Boy Scout

2009-09-11T22:11:00.000-04:00

Dave and Bob McEwen at the Isle La Motte Teddy Roosevelt Day celebration. Dave ran some of the logistics and apparently found that being in uniform helped his credibility. Any uniform.

Bikers

2009-09-06T22:22:00.000-04:00

This is lovely and pastoral, yes? Except if you're a car coming around the corner of this barely two-lane dirt and gravel road.

Sometimes I wonder if the bicyclists realize that people live here on our island. They ride three abreast in the road while we sit behind them in our cars, waiting to go to doctors appointments and jobs.

Balloon Festival

2009-09-04T23:04:00.000-04:00

The balloon festival at the Shelburne Museum was amazing. We watched the balloons launch, then Dave and Trevor took a ride in a tethered balloon. Gavin and I stayed on land.

But my absolute favorite part of the evening was the nighttime balloon walk. The four of us claimed a spot on a big rock near the lighthouse and watched the ground crews return from their flights. They unrolled the balloons, tethered them, and lit them up like lanterns.

We were in a spot to see five of six, but toward the end of the night, we took and walk in the dark around Shelburne Farms to see the others. It's always a little creepy to wander empty museum grounds at night.

Feeding Sheep

2009-09-04T22:18:00.000-04:00

Trevor wanted to take home a sheep from the Champlain Valley Fair. I draw the line at chickens.

First Day of Sixth Grade

2009-09-01T22:13:00.000-04:00

Sixth graders are the oldest kids in the school and they get to sit in the back of the bus. It's hard to be so cool.

Photo Shoot

2009-08-28T21:58:00.000-04:00

We had a catalog photo shoot at the Bebop Baby Shop in Essex Junction. We love the Bebop!

It had to be done...

2009-07-16T21:55:00.000-04:00

Gavin's Birth Announcement

2009-07-15T21:51:00.000-04:00

The four Liloias.

2009-06-18T01:41:00.000-04:00

Gavin Victor, born June 13, 2009 - 2:20am.

He loves eating, sleeping, and road trips. He must be a Liloia.

Mr. Tomato Head

2009-06-14T21:22:00.000-04:00

When you're in the hospital with a new baby, you can get a little stir-crazy. Especially if the little guy is sleeping like a... well, a baby and your roommate wants the shared tv off.

It was excruciatingly boring. Gavin's birth was fast and fairly textbook. I felt ready to go home the next morning, but someone's blood sugar was staying too low to go home, and that same someone failed the car seat challenge for preemies so we stayed an extra day.

I was up with the sunrise on the second day, just wandering around, and snapped a few pictures of the little guy in his hospital garb. We started calling him Mr. Tomato Head because of the red, round nature of his head.

(When the roommate finally went home, I watched marathon amounts of Dirty Jobs and The Deadliest Catch.)

Raw honey from our hive

2009-04-19T21:04:00.000-04:00

Our Lola beehive died over the winter. On first glance, it looks like they made honey too far away from the center of the hive and they never ventured up to the higher boxes to eat. Not good for them, but we took apart the top deep box and found a few frames full of clean, capped honey for us.

We haven't harvested enough honey (and probably won't until next year) to make the purchase of an extractor worthwhile, but using cheesecloth and a lot of patience, we extracted eight jars of raw honey (no heat applied) for the family. Trevor especially enjoyed chewing on spoonfuls of honey and beeswax like bubblegum.

WeTutor: Powered by real teachers

2009-03-21T15:46:00.000-04:00

This month we had the opportunity to test out WeTutor -- an online tutoring service that's just launching. Not surprisingly, when I let Trevor know we were going to try tutoring, he was horrified. "But I'm doing well in school!" he protested. I assured him it would just be a few sessions, and that everyone can use a little work in some area.

And if you (like Trevor) are sitting there thinking, "My kid does great in school -- he doesn't need a tutor!" Let me mention that Trevor is an A-student in the 5th grade who is taking 6th grade math, 7th grade spelling, and reads at a high school level. Even he has areas he can work on. I guarantee that your child would benefit from an in-depth look at one area of study.

Trev's trouble spots are in math and writing. I spoke with Trev's teacher to get specifics on what we could work on, and he lent us a copy of their classroom math workbook. Don't overlook this step if you use WeTutor; it's very helpful to work jointly on the same topics at home and at school.

In total, we had four WeTutor sessions over two weeks. Despite his protests, all of the meetings ended with Trevor feeling energized about his work and smiling about his progress. After the first writing session, he asked when they would get to meet again. What a turnaround!

Signup is simple. Create an account for your child (there are slots for multiple children) and choose a tutor from the listings. You can drill down by grade, subject, topics within a subject, and keywords. This is where it helps to know where your child's teacher wants you to focus. It's much easier to find a good tutoring fit if you know to look for help in pre-algebra or geometry, versus simply "math." And every tutor appreciates being aware of specific trouble spots like strategy, memorization, or visualization.

Every tutor's profile page has grade levels, areas of expertise, qualifications, and availability listed. It's very easy to find a teacher to fit your schedule, as well as your subject needs. Hourly fees are also listed on profiles. Choose someone within your budget without the awkward, "How much do you charge?" conversation. Immediately after ending the tutoring session, parents click thorugh and pay via PalPal. I was relieved to be able to take care of payment instantly and electronically -- and I'm sure the tutors appreciate being paid right away without waiting for a check.

After picking two tutors, we wrote each a quick email via the message box on their profile. We requested a meeting time and heard back from both within a day. It's important to communicate with your tutor from the start to determine a few details so you aren't scrambling for supplies at the last minute and using up your teaching time. Some things to work out beforehand:

-- The time, date, and length of your meeting. Sessions default to an hour, but if your child needs more or less time, let you tutor know beforehand. If you know you only need one session for pre-test prep, now would be a good time to let the tutor know. Likewise, if you're hoping for weekly sessions at a set day and time, arrange that early in the process.

-- What items should you have on hand before the session starts? Paper and pencil are basics, but you may also need a calculator, workbook, textbook, etc.

-- How will you be communicating? WeTutor offers the option of calling your tutor and speaking via phone, text chatting in the Virtual Classroom, and audio/video within the Virtual Classroom. It's important to know which combination you'll be using beforehand to ensure you have the phone number, microphone, or webcam ready.

The two tutors we selected were both excellent. All tutors are qualified classroom teachers -- and it shows. They were keyed in to where Trevor should be for his grade and had a great handle on how to relay material in an understandable manner. I recall my high-school geometry tutor who was barely a year older than me. She tried, for sure, but without classroom experience, her lessons jumped around the topic and never really sunk in.

Our reading tutor zeroed in on Trevor's trouble spots within minutes of speaking with him. She noticed that he had great creative writing ideas, but his lack of speed with writing and typing made him dread writing assignments. She recommended a voice recorder for speaking his essays and typing them afterwards. She also suggested he keep a journal at home to practice the flow of writing -- which has since turned into a novel about a medieval knight who is a "mall cop" at the local marketplace. Whose kid didn't like writing?

Our math tutor also clicked instantly with Trevor. He was quick to praise good work and patient when Trev got stuck. His tone was casual and approachable, and once he found out they shared a similar interest in science fiction, he created some Artemis Fowl and video game-based math problems for our second meeting. You should have seen the dawning of comprehension on Trev's face when the tutor explained that magical resistances in Diablo II are actually complex percentage problems. It was one of those, "I've been doing this math in my head all along!" moments.

We were so impressed by our tutors, that I would love to share our findings in a recommendations/comments area on teacher profiles. We gave our tutors positive ratings, but it would be great to be able to convey their strengths to other parents. As a parent searching for a tutor, those subjective comments would go a long way toward informing our decision.

With our math tutor, we used a speakerphone and the Virtual Classroom. With our writing tutor, we tried chat-only and audio within the Virtual Classroom. The audio and phone worked seamlessly, but we were unable to see webcam images. It was easy enough to proceed without video, and I'm sure with a little practice we could have gotten it up and running.

The only session in which commnuication was a little difficult was the typing-only meeting. Trevor is a quick reader, but an excruciatingly slow typist. After a few frustrating minutes of him hunting and pecking, I took over and typed his verbal responses. Teachers have access to a practice classroom -- the same kind of practice area might be helpful to students and parents who are trying to set up audio and get used to the teaching environment.

During our second writing session, we made extensive use of the Virtual Classroom whiteboard. Our tutor walked us through a PowerPoint presentation, then did a brainstorming exercise using free-form shapes and text. Using the drawing and shape tools within the classroom, we created a brainstorming web very easily, then flipped between our web and a text document to write a short essay. We figured out the tools quickly, and appreciated the ease with which we could copy text from the brainstorming page to the paragraph page instead of retyping it.

We did find that the tutor's pointer didn't always match up with where we saw it. Our writing tutor pointed to a spot on the page and asked, "Can you put a better word here?" Trevor would move his cursor over hers and she'd say, "Not there... here," though to us it looked like the same spot. It wasn't a huge inconvenience, we just changed to more specific directions instead of relying on the cursors.

Overall, WeTutor was a very positive experience. Trevor enjoyed having one-on-one time with a new teacher, and in just a few hours he had some new strategies and tools for approaching his work. Dave was home for a couple of the sessions and was very impressed at the enthusiasm of the teachers and Trevor's exciement for the material. We'll be keeping our tutors bookmarked for future sessions and test-prep!

Fire, fire!

2009-03-20T22:05:00.000-04:00

The coolest thing to do when you're ten years old is play with fire... specifically, a blowtorch. I think making a bead out of a stick of glass was just gravy.

I highly recommend the glassmaking classes at the Corning Museum of Glass in New York. It was a long drive for us, but well worth the trip. Interestingly, my flower-pulling class cost $25, but a finished flower in the gift shop cost $35. I got the experience plus the flower for $10 less.

Note that we went in winter when we had the place to ourselves. From the number of seats surrounding the glassblowing area, as well as the computerized scheduling system, I'd imagine it gets pretty packed in there during the summer months.

The DTV Debacle

2009-02-11T11:31:00.000-05:00

I find myself outraged on behalf of people in poverty these days. (And poverty not just of money, but of resources -- like the ability to hook up wires or get out on a roof.) There are assumptions being made that people who can't hook up to DTV are stupid, or lazy, or waited too long. (Quotes: "And millions of these Americans don't have converter boxes because they are too stupid and/or lazy and/or cheap to rectify the problem." "He's a lazy, lethargic, procrastinator that will not be ready in June either!") I am none of those things, and my DTV still doesn't work acceptably.

Our family, while on a budget, does have means to upgrade our equipment, as well as a fair bit of technology experience. We have chosen not to purchase cable or satellite service, and we currently receive five analog channels via antenna. Here are the issues that were an annoyance for us, but for someone in poverty could prove insurmountable.

1. The coupons do not cover the total cost of converter boxes.

Even with two coupons, our family paid $50 for two converter boxes. Not a challenge for us, but certainly for someone on a low or fixed income. We, as a country, have culturally deemed that television is where all important annoucements and emergencies will be dealt with quickly. Because of this, it's critical that free network broadcasts remain accessible to citizens. If radio were used to the same extent, we wouldn't be in this predicament.

2. There were not enough coupons for everyone.

Let's just think for a moment who might have been more likely to apply for a coupon before they ran out. Do you think it was the at-home mom with ample money and leisure time to apply for the coupons well in advance of the deadline; or an overtaxed family of six living in a trailer without Internet access?

3. The antenna issue was ignored for months, and is still being downplayed.

We dutifully hooked up our converter boxes and waited for the cornucopia of digital programming to stream into our living room. What we got was... ABC. Sometimes. Turns out, our huge roof-mounted antenna is insufficient for capturing digital programming and has to be replaced. Not only do we get far fewer channels than analog, we're also forced to see the lipstick on our favorite male actors' faces. Disappointing.

Our family has the ability to throw money at a problem to make it go away, but that doesn't make the additional cost of an antenna any more pleasant to bear. We were lied to. "Get a DTV converter box and a world of television will be yours!" Riddle me this: Who is most likely to have antique antennas that need replacing in order to get a DTV signal? Do you think it might be grandma, who is still watching tv on a console as big as a Cadillac?

I googled to find acceptable DTV antennas and the DTV Answers site directed me to antennaweb.org, which told me that "Indoor antennas are not included in this mapping system, because many variables impact the quality of indoor signal strength." So I'm already looking at going out onto the roof. Standing outside in two feet of snow, staring up at the behemoth 10-foot antenna mounted on our roof, no one in my family is willing to undertake the task.

I forged ahead for an outdoor antenna, and this is the page I reached. They want all of my information, plus permission to spam me. Only the web-trained will notice that all you really need is a zip code. Which I entered, and was promptly admonished, "If you did not enter your full street address along with your city, state or ZIP Code, please return to the Address Entry page and enter your full address." That sentence, at the top of the results page, makes it seem like the search didn't work. But when you scroll down, there are results. I'm disgusted that DTV answers is sending people to such a blatant data-grab of a website.

And then the results... I apparently need an antenna type "yellow uhf," "green uhf," and "red uhf." I clickde through the antenna types to see a list including: small multi-directional, medium directional, large directional with pre-amp... no explanations. Just jargon. Let me say, I'm no luddite. I can wire a phone board and whip up a little PHP here and there. But I am not an expert in DTV-ready antennas, nor do I want to be. How many people do you think got as far as I did in their research? Did your mom? Your grandfather? The single mom who gets Internet access for 15 minutes at the local library?

4. No middle ground for fuzzy channels.

It's no secret that we live in a rough climate. We're battered by frequent snowstorms, subzero temperatures, and constant high-speed lake winds. Every time our antenna moves, the visibility of our tv channels changes. With analong, it's barely noticeable. Maybe some fuzziness or static, but they're still watchable. With digital, the picture skews into a bargello quilt (lovely, but indeciperable), then it stutters, then it freezes. Then they're gone, sometimes for hours, sometimes forever. At this point, I can tell you the speed of the wind outside by the amount of DTV programming I've lost that day.

5. The federal switchover date has been extended, but states apparently can choose their own adventure.

Vermont television stations have been running smarmy ads that say: 'Even though the federal government is allowing us to hold off the switchover until June, we here in Vermont know that you've been diligent and you're ready for the switch (I'd like to see stats on that), so we're going ahead in February.' What I read from that is, 'We invested money in a February switch, so to hell with you all, we're doing it.'

And I don't believe pushing back the date alone is the solution. You'll just have another few million people in financial or resource-based poverty without converter boxes in June. There needs to be more coupons, they need to cover the cost of the boxes fully, and local communities need to be mobilized to provide volunteers to go to neighbors' houses and help them convert.

This is not about entertainment. If our family wanted television to be recreational, we would have bought cable. It's informational and helpful for emergencies. The websites of our local tv stations aren't quite up to posting video of their broadcasts, so it's important to have a few networks on tap for those big Vermont storms. Or for the day an armed gunman was on the loose in our county and schools were locked down. Our local channels don't update the web fast enough to be useful.

So what are we going to do? Dave just started a new job with a fair bit of travel and I'm having a baby; so no one's replacing an antenna right now. Frankly, I'm disgusted with the entire process. Our family is going to shrug off the networks, keep digital ABC around for emergencies, and find something else to do with the 2-3 hours a week we watched television together. (We also happen to be tech-savvy enough to know where to find a few favorite shows online.)

Networks will lose viewers due to their own hubris in charging forward with the switch, some people will be tricked into buying expensive cable or satellite packages, and some people will be sitting at home when their town is evacuated because they have no access to quick tv-based updates.

Celery Salad

2009-01-22T17:25:00.000-05:00

Dave's family serves celery salad on most holidays and special occasions. I was having an intense salty craving the other day and I tried finding the recipe online. Turns out, it doesn't exist anywhere in the form I'm used to.

Sure there's something called Italian Green Olive Salad, but it's a much grander affair, with anchovies and capers. This is a simple thing, with just olives and celery. I'm suspecting ours is the "home" version that evolved in Italian homes on a budget.

It's very simple, diced celery with olives in their brine. You can also dice the olives if you like, but I think gathering a spoonful of celery with a big burst of olive flavor is part of the fun.

Someone is Growing

2009-01-07T03:40:00.000-05:00

Baby Liloia had his or her first photo taken on December 5th, and we thought that was the last picture until the 20-week ultrasound (typically when they tell you the gender). Here's the little one at nine weeks:

But at the most recent appointment, someone decided not to cooperate with the hearbeat-checking doppler device and insisted that his or her photo was taken again instead. Here's the sneaky babe at 13 weeks:

Head on the left, two legs curled up on the right and arms above and below the tummy. See you in a few weeks for another picture, baby!

Our House: Now and Then

2008-11-10T23:07:00.000-05:00

Our next-door neighbor offered us a portrait of the house made from an old photo. We're not really sure when it's from, but it's recent enough that there's an electric meter, but old enough that there was a full barn and silo in a location that now has full-grown evergreen trees.

Here's a photo of the house the weekend we bought it. It looked a little scraggly back then:

Here's the old painting. We took out the front door because there were no steps attached, but clearly they were there at some point. And look at those windows!

There's no longer any trace of that huge barn behind the house, or the silo. Kind of wish we still had them around. Not that I have anything to fill a silo with...

Evolution of a Chicken

2008-11-09T00:20:00.000-05:00

From this...

To this...

And finally, this...

Prints at the Shelburne Museum

2008-10-31T14:42:00.000-04:00

We went on a class trip to the Shelburne Museum -- the kids were asked to make prints from styrofoam sheet and printers ink. The trick was that you had to write your letters backwards so they would come out the right way on the paper.

Here is Trevor working diligently on his drawing:

And here is the finished Trevbot 2000. (Someone should let trevor know that the year 2000 has come and gone.)

On our way...

2008-10-10T20:42:00.000-04:00

The leaves are turning this weekend -- it's a great show if you have a chance to take a drive through the Adirondacks.

The last few trips to NJ, we've been breaking the ride into two days with Albany at the center. It takes longer, but there's less chance of someone falling asleep at the wheel at 1:00am.

HFCS is great! Snap at your friends!

2008-09-24T10:45:00.000-04:00

I was cruising through Everyday Food this month when I saw this ad. It really put me off. Word of mouth marketing is an incredible and unpredictable tool, but to suggest that we should put down our friends sarcastically for sharing information is just nasty.

I am a big fan of dry humor, but I would never speak to a friend this way. I might ask her reasoning or give my own opionion, but to cut her down like the example given is simply mean. The corn syrup lobby must be on some kind of sugar high.

Hello,

Your advertisement on page 41 of the October 2008 issue of Everyday Food gave me pause. Suggesting that typical Americans sharing information over daily activities is wrong because we're not experts is condescending and distasteful. I shouldn't have to wait to speak to a doctor before gathering information about a product or ingredient and sharing it with my peers.

Many busy mothers are glad that our friends to pass along important information that we may have missed in the constant flow of news, e.g. product recalls, e coli scares, etc. The example response in your ad -- of a woman using sarcasm to refute her friend, is mean-spirited. This is no way to increase support for your product.

Clearly, there's a reason the phrase is "you catch more flies with honey" and not "you catch more flies with high fructose corn syrup."

Tara Liloia

Applesauce Station

2008-09-13T20:43:00.000-04:00

There's a moment while you're making apple butter when you hit the applesauce stage and you have a choice to make. Will you take the easy road, stop here, and make a batch of applesauce, or will you continue along that hard road of six more hours in front of the stove and make the apple butter?

Cooking Class

2008-08-20T21:03:00.000-04:00

I ended up winning the Seven Days photo contest with 37.8% of the popular vote for my sliced carrot picture -- thanks to everyone who voted!

First prize was a gift certificate to a New England Culinary Institute cooking class. These are hands-on classes for members of the public, taught by chefs from The Inn at Essex, where classes are held.

On the day I received the gift certificate, I popped over to the "Chef Inn Training" class schedule and found a breadmaking class for the following week that wasn't going to be offered for the next few months. I called for a reservation and there was room in the class (I didn't think to ask how many people had registered).

A few days later, I was on my way to Essex for my bread class. As you know, I'm bread-challenged, and I've managed to bungle every loaf of yeast bread I've ever made. Well, do you think Chef Kerry cured my bread deficiency? Judge for yourself:

Clockwise from top left: hazelnut-raisin dinner roll, everything bagel, grey salt bagel, plain pretzel, black salt pretzel

It didn't hurt that I was the only registered participant, and I had the kitchen to myself. I asked a boatload of questions and I specifically checked on what I might be doing wrong with my yeast. Chef Kerry had many helpful tips, and she encouraged me to do most of the steps in the recipes myself after a quick demonstration.

Rain on your face

2008-08-19T14:28:00.000-04:00

It's not easy to get a photo of the back seat when you're driving, but I had to try. Trev opened his window in the rain and leaned back to catch drops full in the face. He isn't asleep there, he's just enjoying the sting of the rain on his face with the tiniest hint of a smile, which is so awesome.

Softball... ouch

2008-08-18T14:19:00.000-04:00

The ILM Southpaws were soundly beaten by the team from the north end of the island. They showed up in uniforms. That should have been a clue.

We have exactly one year to improve our game so that we don't lose by double digits. And next year, I hope the other team discovers that there is another gender besides male.

Our Canine Visitors

2008-08-16T13:30:00.000-04:00

These little guys may look cute, they may even act playful, but they are chicken chasers beneath those puppy dog eyes.

I was working on the computer the other day and I heard the tinkle of one of the cat's bells. I reached down to pet her and felt rough fur -- it wasn't a cat. A dog had wandered into our kitchen! I dragged her outside just in time to see her mate chasing Norrin through the yard at top speed. Norrin had a good lead and zig-zagged through the field to keep the dog away. He finally sprinted high up into a tree with the dog jumping at him down below.

While Norrin was running, Trevor and I grabbed garden stakes and the hose to separate the two in case the dog caught up with him. We set up Miss Chicken's wire cage and grabbed the slower, female dog and put her inside. By this time, the male dog was chasing chickens around the yard with much flapping and screeching.

We grabbed the second dog and put him in as well. Once in the cage, both dogs just sat quietly. We moved them into the shade, gave them a dish of water, then set about finding all of our terrified animals. Norrin wouldn't come down out of the tree, until he was absolutely sure the dogs were gone. Ten of the chickens were cowering in their coop, but three were nowhere to be found. While we were searching the yard, one snuck back into the coop. Who knows where he was? We found one under the house and the third, Pam, was hidden so well between the barns that I didn't even find her when I searched there. I saw her timidly sneak back out a couple of hours later.

On our way to St. Albans, (and with all of the animals put away), we decided to let the dogs out so they could wander homeon their own. After all, they wandered here alone. Bad move. These dogs were clearly not used to living near a road. They immediately ran full-speed into Main Street, toward biking tourists and oncoming cars. People who saw them leave our yard were yelling at us to get our dogs. I don't think anyone believed it when we said they weren't ours, so we gave up and penned them again.

At St. Albans we bought them a small bag of food. And when we got back they ate up the huge plate I poured out, then scoured the grass for dropped pieces. We emailed our neighborhood and managed to find the owner in about 30 minutes. They live down the driveway that's so long you need a car to wait at the bus stop in the morning -- no wonder they were clueless about traffic.

Dogs, chickens and cats clearly do not mix.

Miss Chicken's First Egg

2008-08-15T03:58:00.000-04:00

I must admit that despite this post's title, Miss Chicken has laid eggs before. Just not with us. You see, she's an adopted hen who comes from a neighbor's house. She used to fly up into the loft of their barn to stay out of the way of an overzealous family dog until it burned down this summer. Without a place to hide, the dog came after her one too many times. Now she's been moved a few houses down to our place to mingle with our flock of twelve.

The photo is blurry because Miss Chicken doesn't sit still much, and unlike the chickens we've had from babies, she's flat-out against being picked up at all. She's a different coloring than the dominiques and the reds; I'm venturing a guess that she's a Delaware Blue Hen. She has the black head with gold stripes that I've seen of that breed in photos.

It was a trick getting her introduced to the existing flock of pullets (non-laying hens). She stayed in a cage in the yard while the other birds got a good look, but every time one ventured near the bars, she'd give them a swift hard peck. One tenacious dominique got herself a bloody beak from a particularly bad attack. And once, I saw a smug Miss Chicken with a mouthful of feathers as another pullet ran away squawking and flapping.

Miss Chicken (her name from before we adopted her) was out of sorts and hostile for the last week, but she was finally docile enough to be let out with the other birds a couple of days ago. She found the highest nest box and made herself comfortable. Clearly, the spot meets with her approval because she's begun to lay eggs again.

They're tiny compared to supermarket jumbo eggs. The yolks are bright and thick, and the shells are a pretty tan/salmon color. Just a couple more months and the dominiques will start laying as well, then the reds after that. With a baker's dozen eggs coming in a day, we'll be looking for people to take them off our hands. I'm going to need that extra fridge I keep putting off.

Anyone remember when I originally said I wanted two chickens?

Miss Lois Passes By

2008-08-14T21:23:00.000-04:00

Dave and I were at a neighbor's house when he stepped away to answer a phone call. He came back with exciting news, the replica 1862-schooner, Lois McClure, was rounding the side of Isle La Motte on her way from Quebec to Burlington. If we got outside quickly (the neighbor lives on the west shore of the island), we would see her pass by.

Not one to sit and watch the world go by, our neighbor invited us down to the dock and we hopped into one of his boats for a trip out to meet the old girl. (Now I say "hopped," but it was a trick getting into the boat with the lake so flooded from rain. His actual dock is under water, so we had to pull the boat up into the muddy shoreline and climb through the water to get in -- I'm glad my standard outfit is Crocs and capri pants. I didn't get too soggy at all.)

We rode out to see Lois; none of her sails were up, and she was being pushed along by a tug, but she was stately nonetheless.

Three other neighbors rode out to meet the schooner as well. It was quite an event among the historical society crowd. We followed her to the end of the island, keeping an eye on the storm clouds gathering to our west. After a soggy dismount, we were back on dry land, just in time for the rain to arrive.

Candy Bar

2008-08-13T20:39:00.000-04:00

This is the test run of the candy buffet for Trevor's birthday party at the end of this month. It needs a little "oomph" before it's ready -- some pedestals and filler decorations -- but it's a good, solid start of edible sugar treats which will turn twelve pre-teens into raving lunatics before I send them off to play in the pool and shoot each other with water guns.

I read the idea on the Hostess with the Mostess blog. Trev walked by my laptop, saw the picture, and asked if he could have one at his birthday party. With dollar store glassware and candy, the layout wasn't all that pricey. For a fancier party, I'd do a color theme.

Hey, you only turn ten once. And... um, because we moved towns right before Trev's birthday last year, he didn't have a party at all. That's a glass full of mom's guilt in that second bowl to the left, I think.

Nature Camp

2008-08-06T14:27:00.000-04:00

Last year, we moved to the island too late to attend the Recreation Department's Nature Camp, but we made sure to get a spot for this summer.

On the first day we made quill pens and journals, hunted for insects and frogs, and learned about ant lions. Trevor and his buddy dug holes in the ground and set pitfall traps for insects. They also hiked, made castings of animal footprints, had a scavenger hunt, and more. It was a fun time in what has otherwise been a rainy and thundery summer.

Chicken Love

2008-08-06T01:22:00.000-04:00

One thing you quickly learn about chickens is that they do everything together. One comes out of the henhouse and all of them run out after her. Another decides to go back in for a drink and they all frantically scramble back inside.

The eight big Dominiques follow me around while I'm outside puttering. Between the cats and the chickens vying for my attention, there's barely an animal-free place to set my foot.

The little guys, four in all, tend to follow Trevor. You can watch him take the trash out with a little line of four baby chicks trailing behind him.

Dave & Trev at Fisk Farm

2008-08-02T12:04:00.000-04:00

We were at Fisk Farm on Sunday to hear three young classical musicians play -- and, of course, eat tea and cake. There's an overlook at the back of the farm that drops off into Fisk Quarry. It's an excellent spot to view the quarry, or just sit while digesting double chocolate cake and lemondade.

Garlic Pickles

2008-07-31T13:10:00.000-04:00

When the garden decides to throw a metric ton of cucumbers at you, there isn't much you can do other than make pickles. A few years ago, we made a couple of jars of fridge pickles -- but they need to be kept cold and they take up a fair bit of room. This year, we tried cooked pickles.

I didn't have one perfect recipe, so I mixed a few lists together. I didn't realize it was critical to have alum stored in the spice cabinet, so the pickles weren't as crunchy as they could have been, but they were garlicky and briny and good.

JFK Rose

2008-07-30T12:43:00.000-04:00

This is the JFK rose that I planted from Jackson & Perkins this year. I've been buying plants for my Dad from J & P for years and they have a reputation for excellent quality.

The rose plant blossomed nicely with three pure white blooms, and I'm glad I took this photo when I did. The montrous storm we had battered them to pieces just a few days later.

Localvore Dinner

2008-07-28T16:31:00.000-04:00

I went hunting in the garden in the rain and managed to find a few edible items, even though we've seen mostly cloudy days (if not hurricanes). Everything was from our garden, except for a couple of items.

Roasted CSA potatoes with chives.

Squash blossoms stuffed with ricotta and parmesean.

Balsamic salad with lettuce, tomatoes, CSA peppers and baby onions.

Sauteed baby carrots and baby leeks. (Hooray for thinning!)

Cupcakes with strawberry-cream cheese icing (strawberries from our neighbor's garden) and iced tea with mint.

Grass and the things that hide in it.

2008-07-27T14:09:00.000-04:00

We've given up on mowing the field this year and it's getting tall enough to hide a boy.

The cats like to play hide and seek with each other in the hay. They often come trotting out of the high grass with a frog dangling from their mouth by one leg. I've seen Miley stun a grasshopper, at which point a chicken ran over and grabbed it then skittered away. Sometimes it's like wild kingdom around here.

Medieval Feast

2008-07-26T11:43:00.000-04:00

Trevor and I have been learning about medieval times this summer. Last week, he and a friend prepared a feast for their parents at our house with authentic medieval dishes.

There were a lot of things to be cooked, so I prepped anything that needed chopping, boiling, or other prep work before the kids arrived. Each plate held the ingredients for one recipe. It's amazing how similar a glass of honey (right) looks to a glass of beef stock (left).

Clockwise from the top left:
Tart of Ryce (rice pudding) - orange juice, butter, egg yolks, sugar, rice, cinnamon, ginger
Meat Pyes (meat hand pies) - raisins, dates, prunes, vinegar, salt, pepper
Pyneade (pine nut candy) - honey, pine nuts, spices
Ember Day Tart (quiche) - grated mozarella, sage leaves, onion, raisins, eggs, spices
Almondegas (meatballs in soup) - beef broth, butter, spices, egg yolk, wheat flour, green onions

It took two hours for me to prep everything and the kids and I finished cooking 30 minutes before the parents were due. All in all, the decision to do a little mise en place was a good one.

The Ember Day Tart was good, a sweet and savory mix of raisins and onions. The pyneade, though it reached hard crack stage, didn't stay solid at room temperature. The meatballs in sauce were good, but most other things were overcooked, even though we followed the directions to a tee. And the kids had fun making fruits and vegetables out of marzipan.

Storm Aftermath

2008-07-25T16:06:00.000-04:00

A roof is more effective when placed on top of a barn, but this location has merits too. Modern art installation. Deterring 4-wheelers in the field. Sadistic children's playground.

The sky behind the twisted metal is still dark from the passing storm -- the one that took down trees all along our shoreline and left the southern half of the island with power for days.

A rare photo of an evergreen grabbing a quick nap:

If a pair of sneakers hanging from a power line indicates a crack house, a window screen folded neatly over the line means a house where the owners will try to sneak zucchini into your car while you're inside talking.

Trapper Trevor

2008-07-24T21:23:00.000-04:00

Trevor was a trapper again in this year's Alburgh Independence Day Parade. Unlike last year, he wasn't sitting in the main canoe on the trailer, instead he carried a cardboard canoe with a friend. That wool hat looks hot, but I bet the boots were comfortable.

Coconut Batidos

2008-07-23T23:32:00.000-04:00

Trev and I found a few batido recipes in his Delicious Drinks cookbook the other day. Batidos are sweet, cold Cuban milkshakes made with condensed milk -- which keeps indefinitely in a can in hot weather.

We tried mango and coconut -- the latter was the favorite. By the way, canned mangoes are quickly surpassing their fresh counterparts in my estimation. They're guaranteed ripe, they taste identical to fresh, and they keep for months on the shelf. Any time you want a mango, pop open a can and fish out a half. Not fresh or local, but so gratifying when you need an instant hit of the tropics in a recipe.

Carrot Love

2008-07-18T03:27:00.000-04:00

Remember my post in April expressing inappropriate love for my mandoline? Now I think I love it even more.

I entered the photo above in the 7 Nights foodie photo contest -- and I'm one of the finalists! Go vote:

http://www.7dvt.com/hotshots-finalists

You know which photo is mine...

Pick-Up Sticks

2008-07-17T14:37:00.000-04:00

Trevor and I played a rousing game of extreme pick-up sticks the other day. In extreme pick-up sticks, you're allowed to attempt to startle the other player with yells or make them laugh and shake the sticks.

The set was from the dollar store and the instructions on the package didn't match the set. It said that green sticks were worth ten points, but there were no green sticks. Red sticks were worth three points, but every stick had a red stripe on it. We made up our own scoring and proceeded to scream and laugh through three games. Then it got out of hand and the sticks became poking devices, which is when we were shut down by the feds.

Norrin, the amazing transgendered cat.

2008-07-16T11:49:00.000-04:00

Photo by Bryan Christopher

When we picked up baby Norrin from a nearby farm, we asked for a male cat (having heard that two females will fight). The farm owner took a cursory look at Norrin's rear end and pronounced him a male, and for the six months since then, we've been calling Norrin "him."

We started to get suspicious around the time that Miley went into heat. Norrin copied all of her wailing and writhing -- albeit less enthusiastically. And when we brought them to get fixed last month, the verdict was clear: two girls.

Now that we've been calling Norrin by male pronouns for several months, it's hard to think of him as female. So we've continued to say "him." I asked Norrin and he doesn't mind.

From the Garden

2008-07-15T13:48:00.000-04:00

This is one day's harvest from the garden. Who can eat this much lettuce in a day? We're trying.

The blueberries and raspberries were part of a fruit salad for the Isle La Motte Annual Flotilla picnic. The cucumbers turned out to be fairly bitter. This is apparently a well-known problem and especially common in Burpee Picklers, the variety we planted. The bitterness can be peeled off with the skin or pickled out. I hear that Dave has a pickling recipe all picked out.

Today, the zucchini (plus others from subsequent days) is going to make it into a zucchini pie.

Warning: Something is Bad

2008-06-13T12:34:00.000-04:00

Civil defense sirens, also known as tornado sirens, are pretty much the most useless warning devices ever invented. You hear the wail, and it means: Something Very Bad is happening, but we can't tell you where, when, or what. Enjoy!

I mention it because during this week's severe weather, I heard one of the aforementioned sirens going off across the lake in New York. I had no idea what it specifically meant. Was it just an alert about the coming storm? Does it mean tornado possible? Tornado sighted? Tornado in my back yard? Osama bin Laden at Aubuchon Hardware? Hellfire and brimstone raining down over a soon-to-be post-apocolyptic Lake Champlain?

I have an unobstructed view to the Adirondack mountains, and all weather comes from the west, so I gathered emergency supplies and watched the sky. In the year 2000, I'd like to see an automated IM, text message or twitter service to supplement the siren and tell me exactly why it's being sounded so I can decide whether to hunker down in the basement or play in the rain.

Pistachio Salad

2008-06-12T12:46:00.000-04:00

A friend recently gave me her collection of PTO, 4-H, and community group cookbooks. There are some neat books in the box (the Good Morning America recipe newsletter) and they span a few decades. I flipped through the 75th Anniversary Oklahoma 4H'ers Favorite Recipes book (1984) this morning and found this puzzing recipe.

At the title, I thought it was going to be some kind of nuts and lettuce salad, but the first ingredient is a tub of Cool Whip. All right, I said to myself, it's a dessert salad. And I went with that theory until I hit the last ingredient: 1 cup of grated cheddar cheese. Pineapple, marshmallows, pecans... and cheddar? For real real? I have half a mind to try it this weekend to see if it really works.

Rhubarb Crisp

2008-06-11T10:11:00.000-04:00

I thought I had rhubarb in my garden, but I have nothing compared to our neighbor Neil.

I found some spindly little red stalks with broad leaves poking out of a woodpile last year and determined (via Google) that they were rhubarb (which I love). I harvested just enough to make a pie and I rearranged the wood pile to give them more room to grow. This year, the stalks are more robust and I might be able to get two pies from them. I was so excited... then I stopped by Neil's garden.

He asked if I wanted some rhubarb and I agreed, thinking I'd accept a couple of stalks to add to other fruit so I wouldn't make a dent in his harvest. Oh, how wrong I was. I got out to the garden to find that Neil has a fifty-foot row of waist-high rhubarb plants packed tightly together. Enough to seriously feed the entire island with some left over.

I took a hefty bunch, then Neil came over and asked what I was making with them. When I replied, he said I surely didn't have enough and handed me a bunch more. They're gorgeous stalks, and they made a lovely rhubarb crisp that afternoon. There's still some in the fridge. Be right back.

$3.39 Sour Cream

2008-06-10T11:27:00.000-04:00

Here's the flip side of living in the most beautiful place on Earth.

What is normally a dollar at your local grocery store is three times as much at mine.

Cherry Pie

2008-06-07T14:58:00.000-04:00

Cherries were on sale this week, and that's as good a reason as any to stay up until midnight pitting tiny fruits that stain your hands brown and waiting for rounds of dough to chill.

I've never made a cherry pie from scratch -- usually the canned cherries and Pillsbury pre-rolled crust is sufficient. But after pitting all of those cherries, it just didn't seem right putting them into a store-bought crust that's been in the freezer for a month.

I attempted a real cut-cold-butter-pieces-into-flour pastry crust. A real feat considering my fear of all flour-based foodstuffs that aren't cakes. It smells good. We'll tell you how it tastes after supper tonight.

In other news, Trevor was up sick every two hours last night. So I was also up every two hours last night. And though I thought I'd recovered with a little extra sleep this morning, I just realized I've been walking around for the last few hours with my button-down shirt on inside-out and thinking to myself, I thought this shirt had buttons...

Peep

2008-06-06T16:55:00.000-04:00

There are eight black chicks locked in my downstairs bathroom and I'm not letting them out for two months.

The cats are making sure that none of them get out.

Turtle Crossing

2008-06-05T13:42:00.000-04:00

We had another large snapping turtle in the field this weekend. He was fairly calm and primarly wanted to avoid us and our curiosity. We watched and took photos until he decided to climb up the embankment (those claws were better than crampons) and cross the street. At that point, Trevor and two neighbor children escorted the turtle across the street to the open field, and presumably back to the marsh.

Burning smell

2008-06-03T11:04:00.000-04:00

I awoke this morning to the smell of burning. There was no smoke immediately visible, so I walked through the house, sniffing.

The smell wasn't quite like an open fire; it was more like smoldering plastic. I checked every plug in every outlet... nothing.

At that point, I decided that unless I saw smoke or flame, I was probably hallucinating. I went over to the dishwasher to get out a clean spoon and found this on the heating element inside.

I had no idea it got so hot in there. Scary. Kittehs need a new can cover.

Never, never, never do what I do.

2008-05-30T12:00:00.000-04:00

Apparently, the worst thing in the world you can do, other than harming babies and puppies, is get a cell phone for work and have your employer pay for the phone. Because when you leave said place of employment, and you return the phone to them, you're left with a contract and no phone -- which is, I have learned, akin to being a human being with blood, but no blood vessels. The useful stuff is all in there sloshing around, but you just can't access it.

I found myself in this predicament last night, and after much frustration online, I called my local Verizon store to see what they could do. And what they could do, it turns out, is wheedle me, upsell me, and insult me. But no good deal on a phone.

I laid it all out for everyone I spoke to. I have a contract, but no phone. I don't want to pay retail for a phone (even the crummiest pieces of garbage phones -- the ones they give away -- are $150 retail). I'm willing to do any kind of red tape shenanigans to get a cheap phone; restart the contract, cancel and get a new contract, invoke a lesser demon from the planet Voltron. I don't care how it happens, but I want a first-generation enV (a modest, middle of the road phone) for not much more than the $130 contract price. This is not brain surgery.

The guy on the phone is optimistic. He says, "Come in and ask for Joe or Katie. Under no circumstances should you talk to Angie. If you have to, you can talk to Sandy. But Joe is the best. Come after 7:00pm and ask for Joe. He'll definitely be able to do it for you."

So I follow his instructions. I leave my house in Isle La Motte around 6:30pm and get to the Verizon store in SoBu an hour later. Harry meets me at the door and I run down the issue with him. His first response is that I'm in a bad situation. He says it with gravity, as if I've got necrosis of the foot and I'm not actually talking about discounting a piece of plastic and wires. I reason with him.

"I want to pay you monthly. I even want to pay for the phone. They have it online for $80 with a contract, so clearly the price on the phone is oh-so-flexible, and I'm even willing to pay your $130 posted price. I just won't pay over that."

"Yeah... you really don't have any options," is his answer.

I wait for a moment. I probably blink antagonistically a few times. "Really, is that it? You're recommending I just cancel the contract?"

"Yeah," he replies.

I mention I was told to come down and Joe would hook me up. His face brightens (because Joe is clearly the doer of all things) and runs off to tell Joe that I need his help. At this point, Joe is helping someone. It's an interesting kind of helping, which involves him standing nearby while a customer speaks on the store phone to someone she knows about what type of phone to get. But fine, he's busy, and he knows I'm waiting, so I play with phones and wait.

Forty-five minutes later, I'm still waiting. I look over at Harry, who goes back to Joe and has a little powow. Harry comes back with this little tidbit:

"Uh, Joe says you have the protection plan, so you can report the phone stolen and he can give you the one-year price [of $250] for the new phone."

See if you can find the hole in that plan. Remember, I'm returning the phone to my old employer because they paid for it and it's legally theirs. Got it yet? I turn to Harry.

"Which would mean, I assume, that when my company goes to use the phone, it will be reported as stolen and unusable."

"Uh... yeah. I guess you can't do that. You'll have to talk to Joe."

I head back to play with the phone and Joe finally comes over. We aren't five words into the discussion when I realize I'm with a guy who thinks he's a "closer." He's got that salesman lilt to his voice. Like he's over-acting some kind of monologue to distance himself from the ridiculous words that are coming out of his mouth. Let me recreate this gem of a soliloquy:

"Let me run down the 'logic' here. You bought a phone from us, a nice phone, from over there. [He gestures at the PDA/Smartphone rack.] You paid what, like $500? So you spent $500 with us. And you have the lowest plan. Now I'm not saying that's bad, but that takes, like, eighteen months to recoup that. So you're paying $40 a month over two years and that's like a thousand dollars. And it'll take us time... you know, to make that back. Do you see my 'logic' here?"

I was not seeing his logic here. The way I saw it, I gave them $500 already, as well as $80 monthly (phone and data service). It wasn't entirely clear what they needed to "recoup." He continued.

"What I can do for you is this. You need to get accessories, right? You'll need a bluetooth package, a case, and a car charger, and the Vcast service to get your music, right? So I can sell you the phone for the one-year price if you'll buy those bundles. And I'll even discount them!"

Keep in mind that these bundles together (discounted) equal $109 plus $15 monthly. Added to the $250 1-year phone price, I would get a better deal just paying retail for the phone instead of taking all of the junk I don't need.

I simply responded, "I have accessories, and I have an iPod for music."

He sighed dramatically and started to explain the "logic" again, as if I was dumb. As if I wasn't getting how paying $539 was better than paying $350 for a phone which was clearly marked $130 and sells online for $80. They'll be giving these things away in Cracker Jack boxes in two months. He spoke fast, mixed metaphors, and threw in all kinds of obscure concepts. I've seen this in other people whose aim is to confuse and intimidate you. It was at that point that I realized that Joe had no interest in helping me get a non-retail phone. He also had no interest in keeping my business. I realized, disappointed, that I was going to have to walk away.

I smiled, and said,"No thanks, I'll just cancel the contract." I'm sure it was that icy cold smile that those who know me have come to recognize and enjoy. It's the "I'm done with you, but I'm pretending to be nice, so let's pretend together and get this over with," smile. Joe has never seen this smile, so can you blame him for doing the exact wrong thing?

"Awww, now you're upset," he goaded. "Don't be upset if you just can't see the 'logic' here."

It was the low blow of a man who knows he just lost the sale and is lashing out with one last-ditch effort to shame me into a purchase after trying to confuse me into a purchase. He knew it too, he would barely look at me as he completed the contract cancellation.

The kicker is that I went online and bought the same phone for $80 this morning. Even with the cancellation fee, it cost much less than the 1-year price plus accessories that Joe offered; however, I found that my SSN was flagged for credit review -- odd, because if my credit score were a phone number, it would be toll-free. Could Joe have had his revenge after all?

UPDATE: After two hours in the Verizon store last night cancelling the account, it turns out my account was not really cancelled. It was just fakely cancelled. Even though I have a little slip of paper that says the disconnect date was 05/29/08. And even though I can no longer make or receive calls, texts or emails on the phone itself.

I was told by someone at the Verizon phone center that I needed to go back to the store and re-cancel. A two hour round-trip to do, again, what I thought I did successfully last night. So I called the store to circumvent a road trip and guess who I got... what do you know, Joe!

Joe had this to say: "Well, like we discussed last night, your account was cancelled, but you would have service until June 21st."

And I had this to say: "Except the phone is disconnected now. So I don't really have service, and I'm paying through June 21st for absolutely nothing."

Listen folks, I am a hoop-jumper and a rule-follower. If you give me a set of parameters, I'll work within them. But on the flip side, I expect that when I fulfill my end of the bargain, you'll fulfill yours too. I played along with the little Verizon game of cancelling my work contract to get a personal contract, and paying the cancellation fee out of my own pocket just to make some phone calls, but now I'm ticked. Like I told the gent at the call center, I'm about two seconds away from ditching Verizon and going to Unicel. I have the Unicel plans web page open and my mouse is hovering.

I don't like getting testy with people who work in service -- really, I'm the woman who waited, smiling and joking, in the Shaw's line for 20 minutes last night while the register rebooted and lost my order. Service jobs are hard and stuff goes wrong. But today I'm snappish with the Verizon guys. There's a willfulness to their idiocy. They're already sticking me with fees and red tape, now they're even messing up their own insane procedures.

ATTENTION VERIZON: This would have all been moot if you would have let me pay you $130. I wanted to pay you $130.

FINAL (I hope) UPDATE: I managed to get the contract cancelled for real real and the new phone will arrive Monday, but not before Joe called me back, insisting on speaking to "Helen." I told him a few times it was me he spoke to previously, not this mythical Helen, but he was adamant. (Helen doesn't even sound like Tara.) Eventually, I told him I'd give Helen the message.

Foliage and Folia

2008-05-29T10:33:00.000-04:00

After a decade in apartments, I have finally my first garden! There was a community garden in Eagle Heights, but we never got around to becoming members. And the backyard on Barbara Street was fenced, locked and off-limits. Aurora Street was a concrete jungle where residents used planters for cigarette butts and Melville Ave had a little strip of dirt (not soil) where we failed to grow anything but used car parts that kept turning up with the digging.

In order to make up for lost time, the plot this year is 35 feet by 50 feet. Because why fail at something small when you can go down in flames on a huge undertaking instead? (Speaking of failure, I have one more bread recipe suggestion from a good friend that arrived recently. More on bread difficulties after I give that one a try.) There's a five-foot strip down the center mulched with hay for the cart to drive through, and about ten rows of plantings on either side.

I found MyFolia.com -- a site that helps you track your garden plantings, trade plants with other growers, and connect with gardeners in your area. You can also blog on the site, but I tend not to post in other blog-friendly places (like MySpace) because I have Liloia.com. The site is in beta, so the closest active gardener is three hours away; however, I did find someone with a few registered window boxes in Burlington.

What I'm curious about are the trading features. While I'm more than willing to share plants, there are definite rules for doing so. The site appears to be UK-based, so I doubt it's legal for us to ship plants to each other. I suspect the site will be more useful to trading as more people come on board. Vermont is a grower-friendly state and when more of us register, we can swap in person.

Busy as...

2008-05-24T16:46:00.000-04:00

We have the most well-behaved hive of bees, ever. We suited up today and I lighted the smoker for the first time. The sisal rope smolders with lots of white plumes of smoke. It was easy to light and just a few feet of coiled rope was enough for today's tasks.

We drove the cart out to the hive and puffed the entrance a few times with the smoker. A bunch of beed hovered noisily by the entrance in a holding pattern, but they didn't seem to notice us. We smoked the top and opened it to find everyone busy on the frames. Again, none of the bees even looked up from their work.

We refilled the sugar-water feeder, removed the empty queen cage and scraped away some extra burr comb. I eventually gave up on the smoker since everyone was so calm without it. We lifted a few frames to see the progress. There wasn't a whole lot of comb being built, but they've only been in the hive for a week. Considering what a wet, cold week we've had, the ladies were all in a good mood. We didn't find the queen, but our eyes aren't trained to pick her out yet.

All in all, we were finished in about ten minutes. It takes longer to suit up than to work with the bees. I learned last time that my sunscreen agitates them, so I made sure to do the bee tasks before the garden tasks. Now we won't need to bother them again for another 3-4 weeks.

Bee Crazy

2008-05-23T14:14:00.000-04:00

I am head over heels for bees today. We humans are enjoying the brief bit of sunshine in an otherwise rainy and cold week, but there are 14,000 girls who are absolutely thrilled with the good weather. I understood that they'd be foraging in our fields, but I didn't quite grasp it until today. I stood on the deck and the backyard was vibrating with bee activity. You can hear the hum stretch into the distance. Now I can't say for sure that they're all from our hive, but I've never seen this many bees in our fields before today.

I got a little intoxicated with all of the buzzing and took about 500 bee photos. Just be glad I'm only showing you three here.

"Look at us, we're simply covered with pollen!"

Bye, Fly!

2008-05-22T11:21:00.000-04:00

I unsubscribed from the FlyLady list after several weeks of trying to make it work. For those who haven't met her, FlyLady is a cleaning and clutter-busting expert who offers a home management system for keeping a household running.

Going from a one-floor condo to a big farmhouse has increased the number of my maintenance chores exponentially. Dave, as awesome as he is about keeping things running around here, now has five acres of land to tend. Mowing it alone takes a full weekend day. So the inside is primarily my responsibility.

I found FlyLady and made my daily cleaning lists, which work well for maintenance and de-cluttering. I changed a few of her tips; lace-up shoes are impractical when I have to change shoes several times a day for different tasks. (Don't wear the muddy gardening boots in the kitchen!) And there are only so many times I can remove twenty-seven pieces of clutter from a room before it looks like an IKEA showroom. I need to keep a few personal items around.

The trouble is not the cleaning advice, but the email newsletter. It's ironic that on a clutter-cleanup list, there are over 30 broadcast messages a day.The volume of incoming email is extreme; I have several FlyLady filters set up and still about fifteen messages get through the net daily.

So how do you fill 30 messages a day with content? Some are reminder notices; start the laundry, shine your sink, etc. They might be useful, except that they rarely arrive in my inbox at a relevant time. I keep getting "put your shoes on for the day" messages after 11:00pm, or "Tuesday is clean the living room day" reminders on Wednesday night.

Some of the messages are missions -- special areas that need to be cleaned on that particular day. Again, when they come in at the end of the day or the next day, they're fairly useless. And if you're using your task list, a reminder email isn't necessary.

The rest of the messages are a mix of lengthy essays on why it's important to stay organized and a large number of rambling testimonials from other people using the program. I'm already on the program -- I don't need convincing ten times a day.

The kicker is that when I unsubscribed, I received a bewildered autoreply from FlyLady that condemned me for leaving the list because I "hate change." Exqueeze me? In the last year alone I renovated a house, moved to an island, took a job, quit a job, started beekeeping, and switched breakfast cereal from Rice Krispies to Raisin Bran (<- not easy!). I hate change?!

The letter also said that I felt her reminders were "negative voices from my past." Uh huh. Or maybe they're just way too much junk mail.

Tissue Paper Extravaganza

2008-05-21T11:05:00.000-04:00

Costco scares me, but I'll walk across burning coals for 12 sheets each of 20 colors of tissue paper for $7.

I have an idea for a rack of dowels on the wall to store these babies.

Row Houses

2008-05-20T11:50:00.000-04:00

These are adorable little houses that I pass on the way to the DC office in the morning. In some areas, it looks like the neighbors collaborated to coordinate their colors. It all looks very colonial.

I wonder how they mow their tiny front and back yards. It can't be practical to buy a lawnmower for five square feet. Communal mowers? Landscaping service? At least one of them took the,"you don't have to mow overgrown vines," approach to their lawn.

Bzz Bzz

2008-05-19T11:58:00.000-04:00

I thought the box o' 13,000 bees would be scary. I brought bee suits, helmets, gloves and veils for the car ride home from the bee place, but it was quiet and compact enough to sit in the hatchback with a barely audible buzz.

Dave and Trevor (all suited up) set up the sugar water feeder. Turns out, with all that protective equipment, only one bee landed on my shoulder and she promptly noticed I wasn't a flower and took off. None of the little ladies were hostile and few even noticed us at all. When we wandered back out to the hive area later that night and the next day, no one suited up. We just gave the ladies their space and watched from a few feet away.

This is the little queen box that was suspended in the larger container. There's a queen in there somewhere. We saw her, but she wouldn't stand still for a picture.

So now the bees are all settled into the hive, just in time for a 50-degree rainstorm with gusty Adirondack Mountain winds. Those bees are saying, "We came all the way from Claxton, Georgia for this?!"

Hive Sweet Hive

2008-05-16T12:12:00.000-04:00

This was a week of bee-related activities. Dave called Betterbee and moved up our bee pickup date, and they expedited our hive and tools to arrive sooner. Trevor was very excited about his very own bee suit and proceeded to tear it out of the package and put it on while I was checking through the invoice list. They don't technically sell child-sized suits, so I got the smallest adult size available. It's not too bad to have a bee suit with extra arm and leg coverage. And I can hem up those pants in ten minutes.

The hive usually comes as unassembled as bare pine sides; however, my DIY starter kit has been backordered since February. I substitued the assembled hive in order to have it before the bee pickup date. Because the frames I bought were plastic, they were reused from some other hive and were fragrant with the smell of beeswax and honey. All in all, the scent of fresh pine and honey is enough to make anyone swoon.

The hive needed two coats of paint. The nice thing about having renovated in the last year is that we started out in our first home with plenty of tools and hardware doodads around. I already had paint trays, unused 6" rollers, brushes, plastic tarps and stirrers. Unfortunately, the can I had stored away in the garage had hardened over the winter. I made a quick trip to Alburgh for some barn & fence paint -- surely hardy enough for beehive use. (I opted for it because it was $10 less per gallon than exterior paint.)

With two light coats, the wood was covered and the hive was ready for the field. Clearly, it was bee-approved because a friendly little ground bee from the herb garden came over to take a look. He walked around on the freshly-painted hive and asked if there were any apartments for rent. Alas, we are booked through 2009, but next spring there may be some new construction when a second hive arrives.

Trevor helped me load up the truck, sweep off the concrete footer, and place the boxes. And by "helped" I mean lashed the tops off dandelions with a garden stake sword and begged to drive the lawn tractor back to the house. But it's there, and it's ready for the bees to arrive tomorrow. The question is... am I ready for the bees to arrive tomorrow?

Today, we are friends.

2008-05-15T22:42:00.000-04:00

Today, we are friends and we will share the windowsill.

Tomorrow, we will not.

We will get back to you about Saturday.

Oops... again.

2008-05-14T11:36:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, I received a JetBlue alert that my flight had changed; however, the email was blank in the area for listing the changes. I logged in and nothing seemed different than my printed itinerary, so I chalked it up to a technical error. Sure enough, an hour or so later, I received an apologetic email about the mistaken change alert. We all go on our merry way.

I mentioned to Dave how easy it is to send out incorrect email blasts -- having sent those mass messages to immense member lists almost daily for the past five years. At my first week at DFA, I was sending messages alone for only the second or third time when I realized, with a sick feeling, that I had sent a message intended for North Dakota to the entire email list.

And there was the time that I accidentally used our Executive Director's real email address in the reply-to field. He had about 50,000 messages to sort through the next day. It happens.

But it doesn't happen often, (my rate is three in five years, which is less than 0.1%.) so I was a little surprised to get a second flight change alert this week from JetBlue. Again, the relevant information was blank and the flight route mentioned was one I've never traveled or booked. And again, I received an apology email shortly afterwards, along with a few other people.

Sure, there's a little bit of schadenfreude, watching someone else hit the wrong button. But there's a little relief as well. I may have once asked some donors to support a guy 2,000 miles away, but at least no one showed up for the wrong flight.

Eureka!

2008-05-09T09:46:00.000-04:00

I have found cookie heaven. By following my sister-in-law's mother-in-law's recipe, I finally ended up with buttery, tender cookies with shiny, solid icing on top. They look like something you'd buy shink-wrapped at Easter. Hooray!

Trevor wandered over while he was supposed to be doing homework to see what I was up to. He glazed a couple himself, then manned the sanding sugar. He added a dollop of blue food coloring to some of the pink to make his own indigo cookie. (The spot on his chin is blue food coloring.)

When in doubt, ask someone's Italian mother. Grazie, Maria!

Topiary Cross Stitch

2008-05-08T03:36:00.000-04:00

Wednesday night was our town Selectboard meeting; and though these meetings generally take quite a while, I never expected it to last four hours. One of my items was in the middle of the agenda, but the other was dead last and I wanted to be there for it.

I usually have Trevor with me, so I need to duck out around 9:30 to get him to bed, but he asked to stay home -- which helped both of us. He was able to finish his homework and do his evening chores without rushing and I was able to stay until the very end of the meeting. He had a list of rules (no cooking, no phone calls, call the neighbors if he had any questions) and I was two minutes away by car. It all went very well. I came home to completed homework, fed & happy cats and a sleeping boy.

I usually bring some little piece of hand sewing to each meeting. Besides keeping me occupied in what is otherwise a very "in the weeds" meeting (learn everything you've ever wanted to know about grading roadbeds!), the sewing helps me ignore the drone and flicker of the flourescent lighting which otherwise drives me buggy.

I started and finished this little piece last night... a holiday topiary cross stitch that I got last fall. I'm so late with finishing it that I'm now early for Christmas 2008. And I finally mastered the art of making good French knots. I tied the final knot as the Selectboard chair announced, "Meeting adjourned."

Demoted to Cookies

2008-05-07T11:18:00.000-04:00

I've given up on bread for the moment and focused back on what works well for me -- desserts. I asked my sister-in-law's mother-in-law (figure that one out) to send me her recipe for sugar cookies. Hers are crumbly and soft, not like my crisp version.

After trying her instructions, I think my three previous mistakes were rolling the dough too thin, cooking it for too long, and using butter that was too cold and stiff. These came out much more chewy and tender.

Next... on to the icing.

Bread, take two

2008-05-05T11:49:00.000-04:00

Michelle, in an attempt to rescue me from another bread-baking disaster, emailed me a link to this fine recipe. It's called No-Knead Bread, from the New York Times. And, indeed, I did not knead it at all.

It was working swimmingly well, right up until the baking part. I had bubbly, soft dough that rose the way it was supposed to and promised to be a fluffy, tall loaf. Thirty minutes into baking, the bread changed it's mind and reverted back to a flat, pouty little foccacia-like crispbread. I can only imagine there's something wrong with my oven calibration or my yeast activity. Or my DNA.

Potato and Turnip Latkes

2008-05-03T02:12:00.000-04:00

When a bell rings, an angel gets his wings. And when a gentile burns her latkes, somewhere a Bubbe cries, "Oy vey!"

Clearly, I did not do this right... unless latkes are supposed to be an unpalatable war between charred grated turnips and raw grated potatoes.

I turned down the heat, squeezed out more liquid and tried again with smaller handfuls. The second batch came out much better, but they still sponged up olive oil at an alarming rate and never quite seemed to cook in the center. Oy Gevalt.

Mom's Second Job

2008-05-01T21:23:00.000-04:00

The other day I inexplicably turned on The Today Show while making the bed and I was horrified by a segment that profiled a working mother who had picked up a second job in order to make ends meet. In itself, the piece wasn't remarkable except that the tone was exuberant, as if second jobs were the hot new accessory for working moms. Second jobs were touted as the solution to high gas and food prices. Second jobs will save the middle class. Hooray for second jobs!

I find it hard to believe that 1) the solution to the problem of soaring prices for basic needs rests on the already heavily-laden shoulders of working mothers, and 2) the way for American families to make ends meet is to work more.

If one woman picking up some after-hours tailoring work is going to end rice shortages, gas price hikes and $5-per-gallon milk, I'll gladly become a part-time caterer during evenings and weekends to end genocide and reduce global warming. Because that's how planetary-scale crises are solved, right? Ladies, how did these immense and complex problems fall upon us and our already-precious non-working time?

Angela, the Today Show's guest expert, added that the most important consideration with working moms' second jobs is to ensure that the work doesn't interfere with your primary job. Really? That's the most important factor? Don't worry if you become estranged from your husband after falling into bed exhausted after the evening shift at your other career. Shrug and keep going if your children haven't seen you in four days and can't remember the last time you smiled. Don't fret if your idea of rest and relaxation is a nap on the subway between jobs. Just make sure that Boss #1 is taken care of!

So many working mothers have only a tiny sliver of time each evening to care for home and family -- most are stretched to their limit already. Already they finish their work day, run to childcare, pick up the kids, feed them, help with homework, tuck everyone in, then fall asleep themselves, just to start the routine all over again the next day. Where does job #2 fit?

Town Hall

2008-04-30T03:37:00.000-04:00

Town Hall is an unassuming little building, but a lot takes place there. Downstairs is where Betsy, the Town Clerk and Treasurer, conducts business. And bimonthly Selectboard meetings are held in the meeting room next to the town office.

Upstairs, the ILM Historical Society houses their archives. The Stone Museum isn't quite as climate-friendly for old documents and photographs, so they're filed here. I've had the pleasure of sifting through the museum collection on several occasions. You would be surprised at how much history fits into 17 square miles.

Sourdough Bread

2008-04-29T03:57:00.000-04:00

These are the sourdough loaves which reminded me of why I dislike baking bread. Cakes are cheerful and eager to please, while breads sit dully on the kneading board and pout, "What do you want?"

These were supposed to be fluffy white loaves of sourdough, but they refused to rise any measurable amount, even with both bubbling starter and fresh yeast in the dough. I baked them anyway and they came out dense, but chewy inside. Good for one day, but hard as a rock after that. Even as bread pudding, the centers of the tiny bread cubes refused to soak up the custard.

Why does bread fight you every step of the way?

Things You Should Know About: Elevator Buttons

2008-04-28T03:24:00.000-04:00

"In most elevators, at least in any built or installed since the early nineties, the door-close button doesn't work. It's mainly there to make you think it works.
—Nick Baumgarten, Esquire Magazine"

The Pile

2008-04-25T11:30:00.000-04:00

It's certainly cheaper to throw all of your household garbage into a large pile in your backyard than to pay for a trash hauling service. It also means that a few decades later, the new owners of your property will have a fine mess to deal with; an acre-wide, man-high pile of wood, debris and refuse.

We found a U-bend, an axle with two tires attached, several buckets, Ball jars filled with mysterious brown goo, an old tractor, a disc plow, various pokey things that look like medieval farm implements, the head of a pickaxe, heavy metal gears, the hood of a car, piles of rebar, large screws, a well pump, concrete building footers, brown glass medicine bottles, a kidney dish, a hot water boiler, ten thousand asphalt roof shingles, barn siding, and several unidentifiable pieces of machinery.

Anyone have a trash bag?

Banana Bread

2008-04-24T11:08:00.000-04:00

I secretly love it when at least two bananas get overripe in the fruit bowl.

This particular recipe calls for a sour cream/baking soda mixture that fizzes up and gives the bread some lift. I like to sprinkle some brown sugar over the top before baking to give it a sweet, golden crust.

There's nothing better than a slice of this with some butter and a cup of tea.

Earth Day

2008-04-23T11:38:00.000-04:00

We planted ninety trees in our backyard this weekend. Fifty are along the back edge of our property and forty are heeled in near the garage and will be moved later.

The forty near the garage are a mix of different evergreens (fraser fir, balsam, etc.) which will someday be Christmas trees. (They look large because Trevor got down on the ground to take the picture. They're actually just a few inches tall.) The fifty in back are sugar maples for syrup-making in about a decade.

Pinecone Bird Feeder

2008-04-21T11:58:00.000-04:00

Trevor and I gathered pinecones from under our evergreens and made pinecone bird feeders. We get a lot of birds on our island -- we'll see if any are interested in this type of seed. Trevor hated the old-bacon smell of the lard/oatmeal mixture, so I had to do that part. He rolled them in birdseed afterwards and we hung them in the trees.

Isabella Tiger Moth

2008-04-18T11:35:00.000-04:00

A couple of months ago, Trevor created a little terrarium in a mason jar for a scouting project. His parsley, oregano, and basil have been growing happily (if leggy) in there ever since. A few weeks later, he found a woolly bear caterpillar defying winter hibernation with a walk in the field and put him inside as well.

I fully expected the little guy to die in there -- who knew if woolly bears ate pizza herbs? But sure enough, we came downstairs one day to find that Barry the Caterpillar had spun himself a little brown cocoon in the warm corner of the jar nearest the candle I keep burning in the kitchen.

The other day, I saw a flutter in my peripheral vision. Barry had emerged as a lovely orange-ish Isabella Tiger Moth. He stayed inside for 24-hours to wait out a cold, rainy day, then we released him into the backyard.

Umbrella Play

2008-04-17T11:29:00.000-04:00

Trevor had a friend over the other day after school. I said to them, "It's too bad it's raining or you two could play outside," and before I knew it, coats were on and they were out the door.

I had to at least make sure that we didn't send the young lady home soaking wet, so I convinced them both to take an umbrella outside. You'll notice in the photo that neither umbrella is in a position to protect anyone from the rain. Hey, I tried.