Instant Grass!

Dawson and me drove down to Denver Saturday morning and picked up 46 rolls of sod. Him, Aaron and Monte had gotten the area ready for the sod. So once home, within a couple hours, we have instant grass. It's so nice I might want to replace my old grass some year. But for now I persist with "the cowboy way", as the radio garden guy says, of pulling out weeds.

Since Dawson had replaced the logs in our campfire pit amphitheater, some of the sod went behind the logs in the seating area. It all looks so nice.

Then there's my new gate. Dawson's friend Nick made it yesterday, cutting the French gothic style pickets. He'll be finishing up more picket fencing next week. The electric fencing paraphernalia isn't beautiful, but from a distance it's not noticable, and what it offers us is worth it.

Dawson was in Hawaii for almost two weeks and took over 2000 pictures. He's starting to post them on his photosite. My favorite so far is Splarah swimming with a turtle. Now that school has started (chemistry, trig, and physics) it may be awhile before he gets a lot of his pics posted.

Living Literally?

I'm reading (listening to) the book The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, by AJ Jacobs. The book begins with him talking about his not so usual beard, maybe like Moses's, walking about Manhattan. It's a very fun book ... and thought provoking. I got it from the library and may want to own it.

A secular Jew, Jacobs read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation in several translations, bypassing the one the bookstore said he could read anywhere and not be embarrassed - which looked like a girly magazine - which he started wishing he had bought when getting strange looks on the subway - yet has a thoughtful remark as to why even buy such junk anyway (not the Bible but the girly stuff).

Jacobs consulted Rabbis, Christians, and visited Amish/Mennonites ... atheists, popular Christian radio/TV people, and Red Letter Christians ... and even takes a trip to Israel. His wife and young son had to somewhat journey with him in this 381 day trial.

Jacobs' earlier book The Know-It-All followed a period of reading through the entire encyclopedia. We used to do Library/Pizza Hut summer reading program "Book It". Travis was such a voracious reader and FAST that I gave him challenges, and one was the E of our encyclopedia set.

It does beg the question - how do we read the Bible?

Menopause?

I jokingly call menopause "mental pause". But I'm there. How long does it last? It starts for some people early - believed to be the result of pesticides, hormones in our food, stress, etc. I'm at the age women in the old days started menopause.

Why am I talking about this? Yesterday I went for a physical. I've not had one in quite awhile, or I should say some things started several years ago never got completed. I thought I was over the hump, meaning that my body has entered the next woman's season of life ... but no.

Monte was reading about menopause on line. Do other men do this?!!! ;^) Well, Monte read that the possibility of having a baby in the house this summer has thrown my hormones for a loop.

But ya know what happened yesterday that is so typical of my body, but this was the worst! ... I was poked by 8 (or was it 9?) needles (and two nurses and the doctor) trying to draw my blood! I hate saying something to nurses, not wanting to start them off scared. And if you're going to ask me the typical question of if I drank enough water? ... YES!!!

Four tries were in the early morning since I had fasted. When they think they got enough for the one test needing my having fasted, they told me to go home, eat, and drink TONS of water and just drop in again. So I did just after lunch. Finally, the fourth one that time filled three more tubes.

I've heard in the past, "your veins are good but they collapse or roll". They did get veins this time but my blood is so thick (probably why I had blood clots in my last pregnancy). In the past I've tried laughing to make the blood flow more.

I told them they need to write in bold red letters on the front: Hard to draw blood! Put a warm pad on first. Use the smallest butterfly needle you've got. I think too they should draw my blood first when I get there and have been drinking a lot, and then do the rest of the appointment.

Now just the gap of time waiting, hoping all's well.

Future Blogging?

People have been asking "Where are you Karey?" or like Travis yesterday, as Monte and him were laying tile in their master bathroom, "Mom, you've not posted in a long time." "I'm thinking I'll leave people wondering for awhile."

Yes, I'm busy with enjoying summer outside. I think I'm done purchasing plants and once I move some things around for thinning and spreading out the thick ground covers to places needing some, I'm done with gardening. Last night went down to 35 degrees which is unusual for this time of year - more like September, so it saddens me to think things can freeze soon!

Company has been pretty continual right now, so feeling like the front door is a revolving door, and sheets and towels cycling too. Also lots of juggling of schedules going on right now. So feeling too full elsewhere to write here.

My artist friend Sarah Sams and me (need any graphic arts, painting, sculpting, interior decorating done? she can do it!) made the Sculpey dough labels for my herbs.

I'm about ready to resurrect an art form I did years ago - batik. Got the wax and dyes. Cleaned the garage and found my tools (the garage is looking so nice! I did mention at one time way back in this blog that going to yard sales often frustrated me cuz I'd be too distracted by peoples super clean garages! - Monte made more shelves over the freezers and now all my cookbooks, 'potion & lotion', gardening, etc books are at my fingertips.)

What's here on my blog connected to the calendar - primarily church history and jewish calendar - is going to be put in book form. I've been working on that too. Since I've downloaded so many pictures from the internet, something's going to have to change - can't take the time dealing with all those copyright issues. Soooo... since I AM an artist and can draw ... I'm toying with doing my own illustrations. That'll be work, but fun and fulfilling.

AND that poses another issue, what now? I do love to write, but don't want to just post "dear diary" happenings. Where do I go from here? What might be a new look and focus? Any ideas?

The Warmest Room in the House

Hmmm, what's the warmest room in the house today? If I fired up the cookstove the kitchen would be ... and it is tempting. Geologists are up in Monte's office again today and I've just learned I need to have another lunch for them today too. They were here yesterday, six (more drifting in later) for a gourmet lunch with my stuffed, grilled poblanos they love and white chili chicken soup. I've been experimenting with making sourdough bread, so buttered, garlic salted some slices under the broiler yesterday too, to go with the soup.

A cold front blew in with rain Monday night, so since Tuesday it's been 20 degrees cooler, and when the sun's not shining here, it's cool. I'm feeling a bit chilled right now. I'm going to reheat yesterday's soup with some from the freezer and look for a possible appetizer to go with it. Since it's not raining right now I just checked my high-low thermometer and the night's low was 38. Heard it's snowing further into the mountains right now. And it's currently 48 here. See why I might fire up the cookstove?

I'm reading a book from the library called The Warmest Room in the House by Steven Gdula. I think I need to own the book. A Trivial Pursuit game could be created from the book, focused on food history. It's got a lot of American history - through the kitchen door. Like did you know it was Napoleon Bonaparte's quest for a food that traveled and stored well that led to the invention of canning in 1809? And following the Oregon-California Trail Donnar party fiasco canned evaporated milk was invented? I knew of the Donnar cannibal story but didn't know the 'rest of the story': that a Gail Borden was trying to create a dried meat concoction sounding something like Pemmican, but eventually led to milk in a can.

It shows how much American history can be gotten from back issues of Good Housekeeping magazine going back to the beginnings of 1900! Like all the war efforts of saving food at home so more food for the troops - lots of green going on then - encouraging gardening. Because the Germans said they'd figured out how to pack food for a month of survival in an 8x6 box, America took up the challenge.

I have some of the early cookbooks mentioned: like The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book from 1897, which became the Fannie Farmer Cookbook. And my study of nutrition was called Household Chemistry back at the end of the 1800s at MIT. A goal was to understand the structure of food and understanding food safety and working towards the labeling of ingredients in foods. I thought of an old book we have on microscope experiments that started with learning what water molecules look like, and salt, and sugar. When you start from there and look at say butter, you might see the difference in cheap vs more expensive butter.

Another thing happening back at that turn of the century was with Industrialization, the kitchen was returning to the massing of homes and needing to be analyzed for efficiency now that slaves and servants were no longer doing the kitchen work. That reminded me of another fun book to read: Cheaper By The Dozen by Frank B Gilbreth Jr (NOT the recent movie! The movie is it's own story borrowing only the book title. The book is hilarious! and the dad was a hoot and involved in this movement of efficiency. And while you're at it, go on and read Belles on Their Toes, written by one of the 12 kids, and then there's a book the mom wrote too, I forget the name.)

Anyway, I need to get busy. And I am freezing now, tho I have on a long sleeve, pants and hand-knit socks. I think I am going to start a fire in the cookstove!

Thanksgiving in July!

I wasn't going to post right now, but am going to try and see if linking to Dawson's and other photos taken at our house yesterday will work from Facebook postings. A cold front is moving in today for the next few days so there's some plant thinnings I want to try and move right now hoping they'll take hold with the coolness and moisture. (I just checked the above links and I don't think you can view the pictures unless you sign into Facebook so eventually I'll post them to my photoblog.)

I'm calling it Thanksgiving in July because all the same people here yesterday have been here for several Thanksgivings together and friendships have grown and conversations are so lively!!!! Sarah's parents, John and Kerry are in town right now, so they drove up along with Travis and Sarah. Dawson's girlfriend Splarah came (she has to remain her nicknamed "Splarah" with all the Sarahs around, but then there's Karey me and the other mother Kerry - gets confusing!). And then our good friends from way back - the Johnsons came too. I grilled what we call "Dancing Chickens" (recipe)(picture) and made scalloped potatoes. The Johnson's brought a wonderful almond, orange, with greens salad. And the Swan-VanDusen group brought veggie dip makings and other appetizers. We ate, yakked, hiked, yakked and yakked, and ate, and laughed and laughed ...

I picked up baby Will and after everyone left, we just sat in the rocking chair in the stillness for a long time while Heather filled the dishwasher. Will was laughing and talking to the lamp above us.

The Meadow's Alive!

I love this time of summer, anticipating it each year and wondering what either lots of rain or not will look like. This year it's exploded more. The purple flowers are bee balm (monarda) and I didn't plant them. It's one reason I never wanted to own horses or anything that would ruin the meadows surrounding us.

A rarer wildflower, my favorite, is the sego lily or mariposa lily. It's the delicate white flower. I first learned about them in the Arizona desert when some areas explode around February with california poppies and some of these wild flowers and others scattered in the midst.


There's also some blue and red flax along with yellow salsify

Lone Ranger

I just read a quote by Dan Rather and thought of this picture of young Dawson. I often played classical music for home background 'noise' to mellow harsh noises of telephone or whatever that might disturb a nap, and it is nourishing to my being.

I remember Dawson bouncing up a storm on this horse - even to this music ... did he think he was a Lone Ranger cowboy? Don't even know how much he'd seen of cowboy movies then. But it was one way to release his much excess energy!

"An intellectual snob is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture and not think of The Lone Ranger."

Velveteen House Again

Once again our Velveteen House ... As I write, young people are outside around the campfire cooking their breakfast.

Dawson went camping this weekend at the annual Bow Jamboree. We used to always go to this since 1982, camping with hundreds of other archery hunting families - lots of courses of targets to shoot at and fun activities. Monte hasn't been archery hunting for several years - until more testing is done on whether wasting disease in elk and deer, like mad cow disease, can transfer to humans. For probably more than twenty years our main meat we ate was elk, with some deer, and an occasional antelope, moose and bear (and I've eaten rattlesnake, mormon crickets, and I can't remember if I've shared lion, raccoon, and coyote with friends who've eaten them).

The kids here are from our church youth group who were camping all weekend. The graduating seniors finished the trip here last night and will leave today. Camping? I guess they all slept in the bunk house last night. It didn't rain here (it sounds like west Denver got zapped last night with horrid hail, wind and rain that broke tons of trees, windows, roofs, and windsheilds - and snowplows for some hail removal). Lots of cloud and lightening movement that Dawson captured with his camera on a tripod. And I'm posting their campfire pic at one point when they said they were creating a volcano.

Lots of activity around here these summer days. Always friends of Dawson's around working (whom I cook for and pay). Like yesterday, I was weed-eating the lower fruit and asparagus garden (because of excess rain this year the grass and weeds are as tall as me!) and I'd like to finish today, unless it rains soon - it looks like it and is cool. Gary has been coming and cutting down giant dead trees with Dawson and fixing the campfire amphitheater since the old log seating was rotting. Aaron and Connor cleaned out the old ferret house (putting the large fish tanks in the bunk house) and they all had fun figuring out how to get it down to the old chicken coop. It's now attached to the front of the coop and the coop cleaned out and painted and shelves are being built. Gary and Dawson moved the fish tanks and stuff down there yesterday, so the bunk house got cleaned out (Dawson saw and caught a rat - I didn't think we have rats in the mountains). Dawson's welded some frisbee catchers for his frisbee golf course. Connor helps Dawson finish the rock work with his artistic ability (he's the one who's always playing the piano, as he did again this morning). Nick is occasionally here, as he is now, working on more meticulous carpentry jobs. Girls have come and gone too, eating here and playing games and watching movies. The woods junk has been cleaned up with loads taken to the dump and the old dog kennel torn down. Once the playhouse/Dawson's museum of Natural History is cleaned out - Monte's rocks and Dawson's bone, nest ... collections - I'll go through organizing all the yard tools in there. Monte's been slowly going through all his geology stuff in the garage and throwing a ton of stuff away. Then it'll feel like most everything is done around here - ready for the next season of life with Monte and me as empty-nesters. But then grandchildren - and we'll need to rebuild a swing/play area again and get another dump-truck load of sand.

Bill is back in Iraq. We were laughing about them both blowing on their soup together, so I took a picture. The picture of Will was taken at the airport as they hung out together till Bill boarded the plane. Baby Will is getting so vocal and rolling over. As I cleaned the ashes from the cookstove and swept the great room floor this morning I was thinking of us probably needing to redo the wood floor for the grandkids. Like when Heather and Will return for the holidays, he's going to be crawling, and our floor is splintering! All the years of raising kids and Dawson having a sand-table in the greenhouse and tracking dirt all over has worn the floor out. People love it, but little hands and knees crawling about will not, and I rarely walk barefoot.

"What is REAL?" asks the Velveteen Rabbit of the Skin Horse.
"Real isn't how you are made" (they were looking at all the fancy toys surrounding them in the nursery). "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
"Does it hurt?"
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful, "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up, or bit by bit?"
"...You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

We sure do have tons of great memories bouncing off our very loved worn Real Velveteen House walls!

Cooking - a Spiritual Practice

I read this, by a pastor John O'Hara, and wanted to capture it for me to ponder more and not lose it in cyberspace.
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It might just be the last honest place left. A sanctuary built into our living spaces that frees us to roll up our sleeves and creatively interact with the yield from God’s good creation, the kitchen calls us to a universal vocation and a spiritual exercise.

We cook for a variety of reasons, both noble and ignoble, sacred and common. It’s a practice that cuts across the boundaries of culture, class, religion, ethnicity and gender. It is a uniquely human pursuit and a universal experience that creates for us a bond which transcends all artificial lines of division. To cook is an exercise that teaches us to live with creation – and to live in sync with the rhythms of the Creator, if we are patient enough to wait for that goodness to flow our way. Often the temptation comes to circumvent this rhythm and flow; and it usually manifests in the towering backlit signs of fast-food drive through windows piercing the darkness of our hungry and hurried world, or in the form of fruits and vegetables shipped halfway across the earth to fulfill our dietary whims and industrial carbon quotas. How we eat what we eat and why we eat it are, beneath the surface and beyond the glittering reverberations of advertisers, spiritual questions that deserve the kind of wrestling and soul-searching normally reserved for prayer meetings and seminary classrooms. We have an existential relationship with other living things: we grow, we live, we die, we feed others from the stuff of our existence. Our relationship to food is a touchpoint for that world to which we mystically and metaphysically belong.

When I am in the kitchen, I am aware that I am preparing something real and visceral, something to be broken and consumed, enjoyed and shared. More than a mere illustration of something spiritual, it is spiritual in its’ very essence. When the Church of Jesus was in its’ infancy, the Acts narrative points to people making a daily discipline of worship and meals shared. Somehow I feel that we have lost our way in the fog of our industrialized efficiencies. Quick trips to the super warehouse mega store to pick up a slab of this and a pound of that – or more threateningly, something food-ish that has already been prepared, packaged and preheated and frozen in a factory before it reaches us – reduces us to a kind of two-dimensionality, to the vocation of a consumer; when instead we are so much more complex and beautiful creatures who were designed to participate in the food chain, not just feed off the top of it like some glorified trough. What we gain in convenience through supermarkets and fast food, we lose in the quality and tenor of that relationship to what we consume. In the preparation of food, in choosing foods that are local and in season, we are fractionally returning to a more vibrant stewardship over creation. One cannot help but imagine that doing so enhances our worship relationship with the Creator.
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Heather and Bill come home tonight. I think Bill flies back to Iraq Thursday.