I guess I shouldn’t complain, I mean it is only May 12th after all. Our last expected frost date is still 3 days away. But would it have been too much to ask for just one year when we don’t get a late frost.
Anyway, we got the word today that we have a frost advisory tonight. Temperatures expected to be 35, close enough that I can’t take a chance, so the tomato plants all went under cover tonight.
A frost advisory this late in the season means cover up the plants and protect then in any way you can.
In the bed above I have 26 tomato plants. They have been in the ground for several weeks, and they were in the greenhouse many weeks before that. To lose them now would really be a bummer. So, I threw empty planters over 9 of them, and covered the other 15 with landscaping cloth. It isn’t going to take much to keep a light frost at bay. I hope it is a light frost at worst.
I have 9 more tomato plants in another garden, the one that gave me poison ivy already this season. So I had to cover those with landscape cloth too. That is 35 plants tucked in for the night. Glad I hadn’t put the rest of them or my pepper plants in yet.
The lettuce is getting close to a time when I can start pinching.
Other plants didn’t get covered. Here there are some lettuce and probably a sunflower seedling or two as well. There are lots of sunflowers just barely up that may not be able to take the frost, not sure about how hardy they are.
These purple beans are freshly up, they should be alright.
Hopefully this will be the end of it. Time to get some warm sun on these plants so they can grow up and bear great fruit.
I started this blog on March 22 as “A Little Something I am doing for myself” with a challenge to myself to post something every day for 50 days. Well this is day 50 and I managed to post something on all of those 50 days except for maybe one or two. So while it wasn’t perfect, I can honestly say I have met my challenge.
On the second day, I framed my challenge as “A cleansing breath” that I needed to do to help me get my zen back and begin focusing on the positive things in life instead of the ridiculous things that we allow to take control of our lives, that I allow to take control of my life. And so I set off on the challenge toward “pouring my energy into artistic reation”. And that is mostly what I have done.
Looking for light, I came upon my birdhouse
The beginning days were filled with heartfelt posts, introspective in nature and quite cathartic. At first I was mostly looking back, then I started focusing on transitions and moving forward. This was my soul trying to heal itself, and it has been working.
Quickly along the way I traveled to San Francisco and met up with a dear old friend. I also networked with some new folks, and tried out some wonderful food while I was there.
Then when I got back, I switched gears and started focusing on being on stage and in my garden, and many of the posts since then have had either my plants or what I was doing in “Little Women” as a focus. I had rejoined the arts community in Menomonie and it was that time of year when it was time to start growing things.
Continuing on the theme of relationships, I wrote about the pleasure of being adopted as an uncle and a father, and the relationships I have with my family and my friends. I have had a chance to talk about peace and love, reusing and remembering.
Clematis enjoying the sun and shade provided by this recycled pallet.
I wrote a little bit about work, but the good parts about it. I got to share some photos from shows that my son is doing and the show that I am doing. I even got a chance to use my blog to help mobilize the community a little bit when it was looking like the music program was about to get cut. I have it on good advice that we may have made the difference that kept it from getting cut.
I got to share imagery of spring coming in and then I rounded it out with a posting each about the two most important women in my life, my mom and my wife.
I would have to say that this blog has given me the chance to do a little recentering, gathering my Zen, refocusing on what is important, or whatever you want to call it. It has allowed me at least an hour a day to put energy into something that I wanted to put energy into and to do so every day.
My youngest son and I watching the sunset
Along the way, I have learned a few things. I used my analytics to watch the way that people interact with my little blog. I check them every day. I learned that there is a small troop of people who seem to be reading it almost every day, and on days when I have something on a special topic a whole new group of people come in. Most of the people who have been to my blog have been here more than once.
I get a lot more spam comments than I do comments from people who are genuinely interested in the blog. I have learned that my keyboard is dying and I have to work to get the letter g to work. I have learned that I still use the passive voice when I write. I know that it can take a lot of time to get the images right, but I also have learned that the right image can kick off a blog post all on its own. I have learned that some days I have a dozen things I want to talk about, and on some days there are very few.
It is a challenge to come up with something to say every day, and while I will not force myself to write every day, I am pretty confident that I will continue to blog. I want to make sure that I keep this a blog about things I want to talk about, and not let it become a tool of those things that would take over the thoughts in my mind and turn them negative.
It has been a good challenge and I am glad that I did it. I also know that I have had 50 chances to wish you PEACE! So if you are one of the people who reads my blog, thank you and I hope you have gotten something meaningful from it. I once again wish you PEACE!
Every year during finals I put a drawing on the board. This is this year’s version
This is my family. It seems appropriate on Mother’s Day to celebrate the wonderful woman who holds it all together, my wife and the mother of my children, human and canine, Tina. She is the best.
Let me tell you about my mom. I’m not even sure where to start or where I will go with this, I am starting with no plan except to write about mom.
Mom and I the Thanksgiving before she got really sick.
If you think about mom today, you cannot help but land on the fact that she has Alzheimer’s. It has become the defining element of this stage in her life. A year ago we thought she was going to die at any time.
We went down last May because we were sure that she was going to die soon, or at least slip into oblivion and I wanted a chance to have that conversation that you don’t want to lose someone without having. So we went down, and I had that conversation with Mom and with Dad.
Mom and Dad
In that conversation we spoke of love and life, and faith and after life. She said that she was prepared to die. I told my mom goodbye and said I would see her on the other side. Then I prayed that she would go quickly and with grace. That is right, I prayed for my mom to die. Without going into details, she was very sick and had no memory from moment to moment. My mom was gone.
And then I went back home and I mourned my mom for a couple of months because to me she was already gone. I could still talk to her, and I called often, but she couldn’t remember the conversation we had just had, never mind anything we had spoken of in recent times.
Then one day in July I was at an outdoor concert at the library and I got a call from my parents home phone number. I never get calls from that number, so when I saw the number I prepared myself to hear the news that she had died. But that was not what I got when I answered the phone.
When I answered the phone, it was Mom. Not the same lady who had been occupying her mind for the previous year or so, but Mom. It was a surprising conversation, and I could tell right away that something had changed. After they had mostly cleaned out an infection she had developed in her spine that had almost killed her, they put her on a new experimental Alzheimer’s medicine. The result was that she started making memories again.
Mom and Dad, the summer before the Alzheimer’s really took hold.
The way she explains it, she suddenly “awoke” from a haze and had no memories of the previous year and a half or so. During her time “away”, my brother and his family had moved into the house to help take care of her and my father. They had done some remodeling of the house and largely relocated Mom and Dad downstairs while James and his family had taken over the upstairs.
The reason my mom called was that she wanted to ask me questions about what had happened, and how things had transpired and she trusted me for honest answers. As you might imagine, it must be very confusing to go through this, and it must be even more so to wake up from it and see so many things had changed as if over night.
A group of Old friends, summer 2013
So now, mom is in a post awakening state, she is creating new memories and for the first 6 months was doing a good job of remembering our conversations from call to call. It is hard to tell, but from our conversations it seems that she is again slipping. She will tell you, and is adamant with the family that she has been cured, but there is no cure for Alzheimer’s. Even in this post awakening state, her personality is changed and she struggles to try to grab and maintain control in any way that she can. It must be very scary.
That is the thing that I saw in mom a couple of years ago when she knew she had the disease and that she was going to slip. I had never seen mom truly afraid, but I saw that in her the visit I had with her before she got so sick. She knew the path she was on, though not exactly where it would go, and she was afraid of losing control, of slipping away, and of what that would do to Dad.
Now we are a couple years down that path. Mom’s personality has predictably changed and she is in a daily struggle with my family to try to hold onto some level of control. Things like meals, personal space, anything that can be a struggle for control can become one. I don’t experience it first hand as my interaction is almost entirely through phone calls, but it has become part of the daily struggle.
When we think of who we are as humans, there are really three main elements of our being, mind, body, and spirit. Mom’s body has been savaged by this disease. Here mind has been gone, then miraculously came a long way back, but it continues to slip. Her spirit is the same though it is hampered by the limitations of the body and the mind.
Have you ever come upon the shell of a really old house? One of those old houses that was obviously once beautiful and vibrant, but which had come into disrepair. The windows may be broken, perhaps there are still curtains hanging through broken pains of glass. The paint is faded and pealing, the porch may be collapsed or the stairs broken. But even through the ravage of time you can still see that the house was once a place of love and laughter, hope and happiness, fear and joy, faith and family. The house was once the place. The place was the house. But the place isn’t what really matters, the place is not what made it a home.
As we go through our lives, it is the spirit that drives us forward. It is the spirit that makes us who we are. It is the spirit, and the way it uses the the mind and the body, that makes us who we are. Just like the family that lives in a house is what makes it a home, the spirit that lives in our mind and body makes us the being we are.
Family Portrait at Brandt’s Graduation
So, when I think about Mom, I don’t think about the mind and the body that she occupies today. I think of the spirit inside. The spirit that was patient and kind. The one that taught us to care for others and place their needs above our own. The one that loves us and wants us to love and be loved. I can’t really share that part of Mom with you because each of us experiences a person’s spirit in a unique and individual way. But I can tell you that she is special and she is still in there somewhere even if most of the time she can’t find the way to show it.
I love my Mom, and I know that she loves me too. That is the Mom I will meet on the other side. Happy Mother’s Day Mom!
I park the truck early and step out into the cool crisp morning. It is still dark, but I know the way from years of scouting and hunting the area. I gather my gear and step into the leaves that have recently fallen from the trees. The evening dew has settled heavily on the leaves and reduced the amount of noise, but they still crunch with every step I take. This is part of the reason for the early start. I need to get into my spot and let nature settle in before the early light of dawn. I use the moonlight and knowledge of the terrain to guide me into my spot where I get settled and await the break of day.
Looking out over a field
My eyes have already adjusted to the dark. From my seat, I can make out the trees and bushes nearest me, but everything else appears as shadows or dark in the distance. The sky is full of stars. As many times as I have been out in the woods at night, it always amazes me how many more stars there are in the sky when you get away from the lights of the city. I pick out constellations even though there are only a few that I recognize. I become aware that this is the same experience that my ancestors have had as far back as my family tree goes
Usually at this time, my mind is still swimming with details about work and family matters. My everyday life and its details race through my brain and I am unable to settle on a single thought. Did I clear my calendar, what loose ends did I forget to tie up, did I set my voice mail to tell people I wouldn’t be in the office this week.
Off in the east, the stars begin to fade as the first light of dawn begins to turn the sky from black to a deep dark blue. It will still be 20 minutes or so before I can begin making out details in the distance, but I am ready. The temperature begins to drop just when logic says it should begin getting warmer. The warmth of the sun will have to wait.
The woods change as the light begins to filter in.
My senses are at their peak as my ears and nose have been forced to take over for my eyes. I begin to see the details of the forest nearest me. The forest is very quiet at this time in the morning. As the forest becomes more visible, my mind begins to switch from thoughts of everyday, to thoughts of the moment. The musty smell of dirt, moss, and decomposing leaves fills my nose and serves as a base for the many changing smells I will experience throughout the day. With the exception of strong smells, I do not notice the change in odors in everyday life like I do in the woods.
I hear a leaf rattle in the distance. This when I get excited as my adrenaline rushes as I search the landscape for signs of anything that may have produced a sound. I can now see shapes in the distance, but colors and details still elude my vision. I try to rely on my hearing to tell me of my surroundings. After enough practice, you can begin locating the source of sounds and tell if the source is moving or stationary. Since it is very important to remain as motionless as possible, my ears become my primary source of information in the woods. This can be misleading, because a turtle or mouse can make more noise than a deer.
An acorn falls from the tree and lands near me. Startled, I jump in my seat. I laugh silently at myself and realize I need to relax and calm down. The light in the sky is now bright enough that I can clearly make out individual trees in the distance and details of items nearby. As the light changes, the details change in front of my eyes. I can start to make out colors, especially in the tops of trees. Over the next fifteen minutes the world will go from black, white and gray to blazing color. This is when my eyes can really play tricks on me, so I depend even more on my ears.
Not too far away I hear a turkey gobble from the top of his tree. It will still be a while before the turkeys come down and begin their day. Off in the other direction, I hear a squirrel chirping from in its tree. I watch as the squirrel comes out onto a branch of the tree and takes a look around. After a minute or so, the squirrel begins making his way down the tree. He jumps from the tree and lands with a crash in the leaves. He takes a few hops over to an old stump then climbs on top. I take out my binoculars and see that he is eating a mushroom that is growing from the stump. A few minutes later he is joined by another squirrel, I am guessing that they are mates.
Then, I hear a rustle of leaves from over my shoulder. My ears perk up and I focus on the direction from which the sound came. Another rustle from the same direction, and then another. Very slowly I turn my head so I can see in the general direction of the sound. I have to turn very slowly to avoid being seen.
Another vocalization from the turkey.
Look to your left, what do you see. Trees. Look to your right, what do you see? Trees. Do you know why? Because you are in the woods.
I listen to the slow steady progress of the rustling leaves and determine it is coming from behind a rise. I adjust myself so that I am properly positioned for something coming over the rise. The squirrels I have been watching give a warning bark and go scurrying up into their tree, one stops on a branch and looks over at the rise as the other heads for the nest. The rustling sound stops, and silence hangs for eternity.
I hear the flap of turkey wings as a turkey hops from one branch to another in the distance. In my ears, I can hear my heart beating as it races in my chest and I work to control my breathing. The leaf rustling starts again, only this time the progress is faster. I am positive it is coming my direction and ready myself. At the top of the rise I can make out movement where something has set a sapling in motion. The next few seconds will show what is coming over the ridge.
I ready myself, hold my breath, and a large red squirrel comes bounding over the ridge. The squirrel jumps onto a tree to get a better look around, then jumps back down into the leaves where he continues looking for acorns. I let out my breath and again laugh at myself for getting so worked up over the sound of a squirrel making its way through the woods. I would think that after all these years, I should be able to tell the difference. I can’t tell you how many times a deer has turned into a squirrel just as it came into sight.
I settle back in and enjoy hours of company from the squirrels doing their thing. Often I get the chance to watch turkeys, and sometimes I am blessed by a coyote or a fox, a turtle, chipmunks, and one time a bobcat. Watching them helps me to pass the time, and clears all of the clutter from in my brain. If I am lucky, I will get to come back tomorrow and maybe a few days after. I know I have reached my goal when I am able to sit down and think about one thing, and think my way through it without other thoughts bombarding my brain’s process.
At the end of each day in the woods, I am very relaxed when I walk out. This has become a factor in my well-being, and is a time that I look forward to each year.
This story was originally written in 2000 and published to the Ozarks Regional Information Online Network (ORION) with the title “A Peace of the Ozarks” . It was retrieved from the Internet Archive Wayback Machine . ORION was one of the very early freenets that introduced the general public of the United States to the Internet. It was a not for profit organization housed by the Springfield-Greene County Library in Springfield Missouri. The nature of the organization changed from its origin in 1994 until 2001 when it was dissolved. I was employed as the ORION Coordinator from July 1994 until July 2001.
In case you haven’t noticed, it is spring. That means that the flowers are blooming, and the trees are blooming and the weeds are starting to bloom too. It won’t be long until the grass is blooming as well.
Spring brings with any number of blooming plants spreading their pollen
If you are one of the many people who suffer from seasonal allergies, it means that you will soon be dealing with burning eyes, runny nose, headaches for some, rashes or whatever way your allergies manifest. I am one of those people. I have suffered from allergies for most of my life.
When it first was diagnosed I was in the eighth grade. That spring I experienced my first allergy induced migraine. In that case allergies, migraines and whatever else combined to make me really sick. It started with a slurring of my speech, followed by a loss of fine motor control and eventually vomiting and a loss of major motor control. As I lay on the toilet in the nurses office the school called my mother and told her I was having a drug overdose, to come and get me. It was a combination of hay fever and migraine, though just the hay fever was diagnosed at the time.
Since that time I have dealt with the results of seasonal allergies, never again as extreme as that time, but often making me extremely ill.
The flowers of spring.
When I got married to my wife in 1988, my mother-in-law Ruth Hoey told me about a remedy I should try, honey. Raw, local, natural honey. I started eating local honey before the next allergy season. My allergies have never been as bad since. The honey doesn’t completely eliminate the symptoms, but the severity of them is much less.
So now I have a regiment. In late winter I begin eating at least a tablespoon of honey a day, hopefully I start doing this at least 3 or 4 weeks before the pollen starts to show. It may only be my imagination, but in the years when I am consistent in the daily use of honey I hardly have to deal with allergies.
They key here is that it must be local, and it must be raw. If my allergies are to pollen, the honey should be made from the same pollen I am allergic to. I look for locally produced honey from as close as possible to my home. I have heard that bee pollen works as well, but I have never tried it. Some people chew on the honeycomb, but with the amount I eat it is impractical, and I prefer the honey to the comb.
This year I have mixed it up a little. I now combine a tablespoon of honey with two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar in a large glass of water. This serves to eat my honey, and provides for a tasty drink different from my normal tea, water or coffee, and both better tasting and better for me than soda (which I do my best to avoid at most times).
Some people might think that the result is a product of my imagination, but I would much rather eat a spoonful of imagination than an antihistamine any time.
So, if you are one of those that suffer from seasonal allergies, try getting on a program of honey leading up to and through the allergy season. It may help you avoid some of those symptoms, and the medicines that we use to address the symptoms. I hope it works for you like it has for me.
The first flowers that bloom in my garden are the dandelions. I am not sure how they got categorized as a weed, but the bees love them.
By the way, those dandelions you see growing in my yard are there so the bees have something to eat early in the spring when other flowers have yet to come out.
I really enjoy pictures of faces, especially stage pictures. I have taken shots of all the cast but 1 and much of the crew. I share them with you here.
The one person I have had the hardest time getting a photo of, mostly because we are in the same scene is the Adult version of Amy.Director Katie Shay giving notes to the cast from the balcony.Some of the stage crewMeg and Mr. Brooke, right after Meg realizes…Aunt March scolds MegMr. Brooke and Meg, before she realizes…Aunt MarchMegMeg and JoMarmeeLaurie and AmyJo and BethJo and BethJo and LaurieMegBeth and Mr. Lawrence
Jo, Amy and MegJo and AmyMr. Lawrence and JoLaurie, Kitten and JoHannahHannah
Professor BhaerBeth
Amy, Beth, Robin (props), JoThe view from the booth, tech rehearsal in costume.
This is the opening week of the show, so I am spending all of my evenings at the theater for rehearsal. So, it should seem obvious that I will be doing posts for the next few days from the Mable Tainter Theater about “Little Women”.
When you spend hours at rehearsal, you start to notice things that you might not otherwise notice. Today I want to share one of those things with you. One of the things that I noticed, was the way that you can watch the various performers through mirrors.
A glimpse of Marmee through the looking glass.A glimpse of Laurie through the looking glass.A glimpse of Jo through the looking glass.
We hit another key moment in preparation for “Little Women”. This week we moved from the MTG Studio to the Mable Tainter Stage. Moving day is an all hands on deck day, with everyone needing to help out in whatever ways they can. I was 10 minutes late (a mortal sin in my book), and by the time I got there it was already well on the way.
Packing it up and moving it outMany hands make for quick work.Moving the PianoMoving the organUnloading and hauling it in.The stage is empty, prepared for the new set to emerge.
Within about an hour and a half, we were in the theater and the set was being reassembled.
Always, we have fun.
This week, we have tech rehearsals, dress rehearsal, and Friday is opening night.
Today was transplant day, the day when the weather is right to start moving things out of the greenhouse into the ground. I would like to share a photo essay of some of the things in my garden. You can click on the images below to get a view of a larger version of the image. You should do it, the large images hold lots of cool secret details you don’t see in the smaller versions.
Let’s start with the greenhouse. Because of the size and nature of my greenhouse, it is hard to get good pictures of the inside. I use a heavy plastic for the shell of the walls and root, and it allows light in, but it is not possible to take photos through it.
It is hard to get good pictures of the stuff growing in my greenhouse
This was the second year for my new greenhouse, and the plastic can’t be used for another year. It has rips in the high stress areas, and it is generally starting to deteriorate.
Here you can see where I have had to patch the plastic, and it continues to rip.
Checking the weather today, I saw that the lows at night for most of the rest of the 10 day forecast are in the 50s, daytime highs in the high 70s. There is also rain in the forecast, so that combination meant it was time to transplant the tomatoes into the garden.
I rolled back the plastic roof to get a glimpse inside, but left it attached so I could put the roof back in place if necessary.
The roof plastic has been rolled back to provide a glimpse inside.
What it showed me was a good view of some very healthy and happy plants, especially the tomatoes.
But before I started to transplant, I took the camera out and had a look around. I like to chronicle my garden, and frankly, you can get some pretty cool pictures of plants that are just starting to grow. I wanted to share some of those with you.
The first flowers that bloom in my garden are the dandelions. I am not sure how they got categorized as a weed, but the bees love them.
Click on the image above and take a close look at the larger version of the image. If you are able to free your mind from the judgement of the dandelion as a weed, you will see that it is really quite a beautiful flower. It becomes the first major food source for the bees in the spring, and that is good enough for me.
The raspberries are starting to bud out on last years canes, and producing new canes.
I wrote in one of my earlier blogs about the raspberries in my yard. Now they are starting to bud out with new growth on the old canes that will produce berries this spring, and new canes popping up that will provide berries in the fall.
Peas planted on St. Patrick’s day are up and have a good start.
Peas are one of my spring stalwarts. I like to plant them very early because they can handle a few freezes or snows and just keep on doing their thing. There have been some years when I have planted the peas right into the snow. Then, when they find soil they find the right time to germinate and are one of the earliest green things in the garden. I really like to look at the up close details of the pea plant.
Oregano is a perennial that does well in our climate. I have learned that it can be a challenge to keep it in control.
In addition to being an early herb to add to your sauces or salads, oregano is a lovely delicate little herb. It is surprising how much it can increase in size from year to year. This is my third year with this particular plant, and it has been transplanted to this location. Somehow it manages to have green even under the snow.
Onions show up all over my garden. If I have a place without something in it, it usually gets an onion seed.
Another early riser in the spring is the onion. Onions are the thing I plant the most of, placing either seeds or sets all over the garden. And yet, I always seem to run out of them. Luckily it is easy to keep the seeds of onions, so there is nothing to seeding the garden liberally with onions.
I was taking a picture of the lettuce, but I found a bunch of daisies.
The picture above is another one to take a closer look at. I was taking a picture of the lettuce coming up. I knew that there were a lot of little somethings coming up, but I didn’t know what they were. And then I opened this photo. I started a daisy patch because they are my wife’s favorite flower. Daisies are perennials, so they come back year after year, but it takes them a little while to get started. so this year I decided that in the back of the daisy patch I would grow lettuce and sunflowers. The sunflower seeds were just planted this weekend, but the lettuce is up. And now I realize that this will be the last year I will be able to plant lettuce here, because with all those daisies, there won’t be room for anything else next year.
Volunteer Blue Kale coming up.
In the picture above, you can see volunteer blue kale coming up from where the kale was planted last year. I like that the bolt is there for perspective. This is currently a little tiny plant. But, take a look at the larger picture and check out the details of the bolt, the water drops on kale, and the stone or wood deteriorating beside the bolt. That bolt used to hold a board onto cement blocks to provide a decorative edge.
Asparagus, it makes your pee stink, but it is so yummy.
The asparagus is well under way. It is the first edible thing that I get out of the garden each year. I planted these from seed about 5 years ago, and planted the seeds way too close together. I have been thinning the patch ever since. I thin one small section each fall and generally give away the roots, I have no more room for growing asparagus. If you are going to plant asparagus from seed, do yourself a favor and get the right spacing, it is a chore to thin them. I right about it in this blog post.
And since I have also posted about compost, I thought I would only be fitting to show the current status of my compost pile. It is very hot and active in there. The tarp give you an idea of the size of the pile, and it has reduced down to about a half or a third of the size it was at the beginning of spring. I have pulled some of the compost out today as I transplanted tomatoes, but it still has a ways to go before it is ready for using.
I added the tarp mostly to keep the moisture in the pile. As dry as it has been, the pile had started to dry out, and dry leaves don’t compost.
So, that is what the garden had to share before I started transplanting today. After I transplanted 35 plants of various types, I tilled up a new section to add to the garden. It was in the back corner and never had any light before. But last spring I lost three trees and it opened up a nice area that I can now garden. I added about 500 sq. ft. of garden this spring. I’ll be needing a lot of that compost to get it into shape, my soil consists mostly of sand until I amend it.
And just to close out the post, I wanted to share a cool photo I got after the storm came in and put a half inch of rain on my newly transplanted garden.
As I was preparing the images for this blog, my wife called me down to enjoy this, double rainbow all across the sky. This is the only decent image I got.
