Friday, May 28, 2010

Farewell Miss Julie Logan by J.M. Barrie

We have been in the middle of a heat, here in T-Town, Pennsylvania. We have been seeing the 90s during the day, and going to the upper 60s, and 70s at night. It's supposed to break today. But don't forecasters always say that?

For someone who really prefers a very mild, temperate climate - I loved Scotland for many reasons; the weather and I got along fine, except when it hailed upwards - this end of Spring, hint of Summer heat wave has me already grouchy, sticky and dreaming of cooler climes.

I hide out in my house as much as I can, but with a little one who loves to be outside, my days of hiding out in the dark are fairly over.

By the time the baby has gone down for the night, and the heat is beginning to ease, I'm in my bed desperate for a read, because my brain has already been fried.

But then comes the problem. I am once again between books. I am waiting on two books to come into the library, and the books I have by my bedside aren't stirring enough for me. I wanted something I would love, something that would be beautiful, have some teeth to it, and perhaps give me images of a cooler place than right now.

My hand fell upon the thin green book with the gold gilt lettering across the front, Farewell Miss Julie Logan - a Wintery Tale. By J.M. Barrie.

I first met this book when I was doing my year abroad in Glasgow. I took a class on Modern Scottish Literature, and this little book was on the required reading list. A friend of mine went halves on the book, so we each read it about once, and called it good. That copy eventually went home with her Canada, somewhere near Toronto, though I have no idea where she, or it is.

When I came back from my year abroad, I brought home the memory of this book with me. But everywhere I looked, it didn't exist. It didn't show up in Barrie's biography. It didn't show up on Amazon as being in print. It was equally absent from Barnes and Noble and Ebay. Where it actually was, the copy that would be come mine, was in a small antique bookseller in Boston. The edition I have is from 1932. Not a first edition by a few years, but beautiful, readable, and like finding a favorite sweater, fit me perfectly.

We all know J. M. Barrie from Peter Pan, the Little White Bird, Peter and Wendy.... He was immortalized by Johnny Depp in Finding Neverland which chronicled - somewhat fictitiously - his friendship and eventual guardianship of the Llewylln-Davies' children. What many of us don't know is that he was a gifted playwright. Peter Pan first showed up on stage, a few years before the book was ever written. He was also known as the Scottish Jester to an English court. He was a Scot - born in Kirriemuir - who eventually went and lived in London, because that's where the theatre scene was going. So he wrote more for the English than for the Scots.

Going along with his writing, he was part of what is known as the Kailyard genre. Kailyard meaning cabbage patch. So the genre of fiction that was pastoral, rural, idyllic, quaint. Kailyard fiction tended to be overly sentimental, and to be marketed towards Ex-patriots who had moved away from their homeland and wanted to read about 'the good old days.' Usually a young man would be the beloved of the village, he would go away to university, or to school. He'd score well on all of his exams. He'd make everyone proud. He'd win all sorts of awards for smarts and sports. And then something tragic would happen - consumption, scarlet fever, fill in the blanks here - and the young man would die, at home, in his mother's arms. He would be forever young. Forever beautiful. And forever beloved of his village and friends. the end.

Peter Pan does this to a point. Pan never grows up. He is always youthful, he is always beautiful, and he always defeats the enemy.

But I digress.

Farewell Miss Julie Logan isn't what I would call Kailyard although it does deal with a young man - a minister in this situation - at his first assignment. He is challenged to write a journal of the time when the glen is locked - snowed in as we would say in this neck of the woods. Now this is set in early 1900s? So there's no snow plows., no John Deere's. When you're snowed in, you're snowed in. The English tourists challenge Adam Yestreen - our still wet behind the ears minister - to keep a journal because they say (and others say it also) that when people are snowed in, when the glen is locked, people go weird. (Jack Nicholson demonstrated this so beautifully in the Shining...)

Farewell Miss Julie Logan is written as Yestreen's Journal.

It's a beautiful, thin book. A lovely voice, complete with Scottish dialect scattered throughout. The dialect isn't enough to distract, but brings you closer in to the text, and the characters. It gives you the story through Yestreen's eyes, though at some points we may begin to question the reliability of the narrator. It leaves us with the question of what is reality, what is not reality, even when some say otherwise.

This is my Wintery book that I usually read in winter, but I read now because I am too warm with summer. And I am quite happily ensconced in the glen currently with Yestreen and his tale. If you feel the need, I am sure you can dig your way a tunnel to join us.








Thursday, May 27, 2010

Home Made Laundry Detergent - Recipe included.


By now, you should know that I do the green living thing, partially out of environmentalist ideals, partially out of frugality, and then there's that whole side of me that says, "I can do that" or "there has to be another way."

Well, stepping up to the plate of "Let's figure this one out" is Home Made Laundry Detergent.

Along with the aforementioned reasons for green living, I also began this because of the cloth diapers we use. Most commercial detergents have softeners, or fragrances, or whiteners in them. Those things that make your laundry smell like a mountain lake, soft like a cloud and extra white, are actually not good for your laundry. Extra softeners can make your towels less absorbent. All of those things can actually. What makes the clothes softer is because the chemicals in the detergent are actually breaking down the fabric faster. So....

And when it comes to using cloth diapers, well you don't want a less absorbent diaper, or a diaper that is breaking down faster. You have to go for the bare minimum stuff.

So then began the hunt for a home made laundry detergent. My sister had made one, a powdered one, that never seemed to work. But I found this recipe. We made one batch, and we have been using it ever since.

The basic ingredients are a bar of soap, Borax, and Washing Soda. Note that Washing Soda is NOT the same as Baking Soda. Look for the box (it will be by Arm and Hammer most likely) that say Super Washing Soda. If it doesn't say that, don't get it. It won't do you any good. Borax you can still get just about anywhere. You'll find it in the Laundry soap aisle, probably up high or down low, somewhere out of your normal view. The usual brand is "20 Mule Team Borax." I have no clue what that means unless they're referring to the strength of twenty mules to get the stains out my clothing. But some how I think the damage that twenty actual mules would do might just justify going clothes shopping. But I digress.

They are also available via amazon.com, and other places like that.

You will need a large bucket - five gallon-ish, or ten gallon-ish if you choose to do a double batch. A double batch of this stuff will last us a few months. So it's definitely worth the little effort it takes to make it.

I am including the recipe and directions at the end of this post.

I use this recipe. It works like a charm for us. I do miss the scent of commercial detergents. When we get hand-me-downs for the baby, I find myself sniffing the clothes for the aroma. But that can also be remedied by using Lavender water or rose water in the mixture.
This is NOT stain pre-treater. I have not found a good one of those yet. So hang on to your Shout and your Stain Sticks. Once I find a good stain pre-treater, I'll let you all know.

I am a big fan of it. With as expensive as laundry detergent is, and how fast we go through those little bottles, even the big bottles, here's an alternative. Good luck and Good Washing!

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2008/04/09/making-your-own-laundry-detergent-a-detailed-visual-guide/

Friday, May 21, 2010

movie vs. book - the time traveller's wife

Ahhhh..

The eternal throw down match begins. As an avid reader, I know that it is a rare event that the film made will ever hold a candle to the book I read. But as a film lover, I am usually hopeful. I'm in a tough spot you see.

There are indeed some films that have done well by the books (Lord of the Rings for example) , or short stories as the case may be. And then of course there are the very common genre of "The book was SOOOOO much better than the film (any of the Harry Potter Films, but especially Half Blood Prince)." But there is also the rare group of the film being better than the book. (for me Twilight, but even in film form it drove me nuts...)

Last night was an example of the book vs. film quandary. I just finished reading Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Neffinger, quickly followed up by The Time Traveller's Wife.

I positively gobbled up Her Fearful Symmetry. The cover is what sold it to me. Yes, I know the adage about a book and its cover. But when you're chasing a two year old through the public library, and you have a list of books in your hand like an urgent shopping list, sometimes the cover and the blurbs are all you have to go by. Her Fearful Symmetry and the time Traveller's Wife both had lovely cover art, had great blurbs, and I was able to toss them in the library bag before my child darted out the front doors. Ahh the joy of a two year old who LOVES books, in the library. It's like Disney World for her. She just can't believe there are this many books in one place, all for her. And honestly, I can't get over that feeling either.

I loved Her Fearful Symmetry. Adored it. Gobbled it down. Devoured it. Was slightly annoyed at the ending, but things got sussed out in the end, so it's fine. It had an ultimately lovely and fitting ending for all those involved. I highly recommend it. Niffenger is a very subtle, nuanced writer. Don't look for bombs, explosions, anything massive here. Look for gentle internal conflicts, quiet desperation. These are really beautiful character studies.

I followed it up with The Time Traveller's Wife. I didn't love it as much as I loved Her Fearful Symmetry, but it's still a lovely read. The very unique thing about this book, one of the chief narrative tools that is such a help and make it such a unique read, is that the whole thing is told in first person, either from Henry's or Clare's point of view. Their respective ages and the date are posted at the beginning of each section. It sets the reader immediately in time and with the characters.

This is another subtle, nuanced, lovely book. Beautiful moments. Sad moments. Just lovely. I love the part where Clare and Henry get their just revenge on her very very bad date, and the time when young Clare is jealous of Henry's wife, hoping that he would have been married to her.

It's that kind of book. It's full of moments. But the narrative structure is what makes it possible and unrelentingly gripping.

So on to Redbox. Pop in The Time Traveller's Wife. And disappointment follows. The key to the book - the unique narrative structure - was eliminated (and I can see why. I'm not really sure how it would have been executed.), and what we are given are a series of scenes, vignettes from the book. Scenes that don't have the background information for us as viewers, scenes that don't build up the life or love of these two people. In really became, I hate to say it, boring. So much was missing. So much was absent from these two characters and their stories. We actually turned it off.

When I gave my husband the nutshell version, it was sad to hear my own voice come out with the very brief story of the point A to Point B aspect of this story, because it's really about everything but that. It's about the side trips and detours that we come across, that we build our lives and loves with.

Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams were lovely. They gave their all with what they were given. But even it wasn't enough for this film. Sadly.

This is one book that should remain a book. It is perfect in that medium.

My other concern is for Her Fearful Symmetry. If they make that into a film..... It almost needs M. Night Shamylan hands or Tim Burton hands, along with very delicate hands to take on the nuanced conflicts and loves. Maybe Peter Jackson? If you only know him from Lord of the Rings, he is lovely and amazing and oh my goodness. But then go watch Heavenly Creatures which is the true story of a horrible murder in New Zealand committed by two best female friends. He gets the audience so inside the minds of the characters, you start looking for an escape hatch.

Or perhaps Spike Jonze. After seeing Where the Wild Things Are, which is also subtle, beautiful and nuanced, maybe he could pull it off.

But Her Fearful Symmetry will need different hands and a different approach than The Time Traveller's Wife.

Both books are lovely though; they would both be pleasant company for a few hours or days.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Favorite Movie of the Moment: The Brothers Bloom




My current favorite movie is The Brothers Bloom.


I heard about this movie, I don't know how long ago. What I saw was not the official trailer. What I saw was the opening sequence which is what I posted above. (waits while you watch it.)

From the moment I saw those seven minutes, I was hooked. Absolutely hooked.

When I finally saw it, I loved it. It held up to the opening sequence, and I didn't stop smiling through the entire film.

The cast is just lovely. Mark Ruffalo as the big brother, Adrien Brody is the younger brother (oh how I love Adrien Brody....), Rachel Weiz is the woman who collects hobbies, and the nitro glycerin artist... It's just a great big fantastic film with moments that seem preposterously silly but completely true in the context of the film. And for as much as this is a film about an amazingly complex Con, the truth is never too far from the surface. They are so close that we often find ourselves wondering which is truth and which is the con?

The writing is great. Quirky, fun, smart. There's no bad writing moments in this entire film. It's all so randomly eccentric that it makes complete sense and the authenticity of the story resonates.

I don't know why it's not better known. It should be.

This is one of the very few movies that I immediately wanted to watch it again the moment it ended, into the next day, into the next week. So much that it we found it used by someone on amazon.com.

So go make it a Redbox night, or a Netflix night, and go enjoy yourselves some Brothers Bloom.














Friday, May 7, 2010

A poem

This is came my way via the Writer's Almanac, a few weeks ago. I thought I'd share it here.


Ode to Chocolate

by Barbara Crooker

I hate milk chocolate, don't want clouds
of cream diluting the dark night sky,
don't want pralines or raisins, rubble
in this smooth plateau. I like my coffee
black, my beer from Germany, wine
from Burgundy, the darker, the better.
I like my heroes complicated and brooding,
James Dean in oiled leather, leaning
on a motorcycle. You know the color.

Oh, chocolate! From the spice bazaars
of Africa, hulled in mills, beaten,
pressed in bars. The cold slab of a cave's
interior, when all the stars
have gone to sleep.

Chocolate strolls up to the microphone
and plays jazz at midnight, the low slow
notes of a bass clarinet. Chocolate saunters
down the runway, slouches in quaint
boutiques; its style is je ne sais quoi.
Chocolate stays up late and gambles,
likes roulette. Always bets
on the noir.

Doctorow's Read Before You Die List

Below is the Read Before you Die list from E. L. Doctorow. Doctorow wrote The March; Ragtime; Billy Bathgate; World's Fair; and a whole host of other books. The msot recent book is about hoarders in New York. I havent read it yet though I heard, like everything else he's written, it's grand.

I had the chance to take his Craft of Fiction class my final year at grad school, and it was brilliant. His biggest thing was for us to push the envelope of writing, to not be afraid of the classics, to make us read, and to get us actively reading and writing.

We read a book a week. I didn't love every book we read, or every book on the list, but I have learned to appreciate them for what they are doing. Does this mean I want to go back and read Moby Dick again? Not really. But do I realize now that Melville was stalling for time and experimenting with form, to again buy time? Yes, that I do.

Something else interesting Professor Doctorow said: when asked what craft book he would recommend to writers, he said that, "I have not read a craft of fiction book that does not make me want to vomit. Tell them to go read. Chekov. Especially Chekov."

Essentially, if you want to write, you have to read. If you want to write good stuff, you have to read good stuff. And in the interest of reading, you have to read books to know the good from the bad. Classics are not be frightened of. Each of these books was once new, was once cutting edge, or panned. And so the cycle continues.

I am one of the few people who absolutely HATES the Twilight series. I can't find anything redemptive about the writing. The characters are flat and annoying, and Bella, really? get a life. She lives to suffer, to serve, to be ruled. Her entire self worth is dependent upon her being in a relationship with a guy - Edward primarily, who really is semi stalkerish, obsessive, and more than a little scary with a few issues. Myers has some intriguing stories. yes I had to go and wikipedia the entire story to see how it ended, but, the drivel of it all drove me nuts. I know that I am not in the popular opinion here, so take it with a grain of salt.


So in the interest of sharing, here's Doctorow's list. Keep in mind the list is for writers. But still, it's a worthy list.


E.L. Doctorows Read Before You Die List - read them several times if at all possible.

martin ing - london
sea wolf- london
people of the abyss - london (great book.)
tom jones - fielding
tristan shandie - im not sure
bleak house - dickens
tale of two cities - dickens
david copperfield - dickens
two more dickens for good measure
chester tower series - trollop
lord jim - conrad
tess dubervilles - hardy
far from the madding crowd - hardy
the rainbow - lawrence
sons and lovers - lawrence
sentimental education - flaubert
madame bovary - flaubert
red and black - stendahl
les miserables - hugo
49 - hugo
hunchback of notre dame - hugo
dead souls
anna karenina
war and peace
death...sonata
ALL of chekov
crime and punishment - doestevsky
diary of a madman - doestevsky
brothers karamazov - doestevsky
house of the 7 gables - hawethorne
scarlet letter - hawthorn
short stories - hawthorn
tai pei - melville
moby dick - melville
billy budd - melville
prince and the pauper - twain
ct yankee in king arthurs court - twain
life in the city - twain
washington square - henry james
daisy miller - henry james (avoid later work as a writer. he can trap you in his voice. only his early work, until you have established your own voice.)
american tragedy - dreiser (came 28 yrs after his first book sister carrie)
middle march - george elliott
daniel - george elliott
mrs dalloway - virginia woolf
to the lighthouse - virginia woolf
frankenstein - mary shelley
house of mirth - edith wharton
age of innocence - edith wharton
pride and prejudice - jane austen (doctorow said this was probably the most perfect book ever written)
emma - jane austen

that's the list he gave us to read after our class.
the books we read in class: moby dick;
sister carrie;
tom sawyer;
mrs dalloway;
journey to the end of the night by celine (very cool book with a very unreliable narrator)
lots and lots of Poe,
metamorphosis by kafka;
the trial by kafka;
marquis of O and other short stories - by kleist;
dantes inferno;
the emigrants by sebald;

I'm missing about five books. we read a book a week.

He also said to be reading what is being written now. Always be reading.

To add my own to that list:
jhumpa lahiri
bharti mukherjee
jonathan safran foer
of course! e.l. doctorow
sherman alexie
chuck wachtel - of course!

of course Doctorow's work - the March; Ragtime; Book of Daniel.. anything he writes is brilliant. and I mean BRILLIANT WITH A CAPTIAL B. (doctorow was also all about pushing the envelope. making you work as a reader. these aren't pop fiction books. this is a course in literary fiction. so intellectual writing. it will require some work on your half. he raved about woolf because there you see someone who got bored with plot and just eliminiated it from her books. and then you see what happens... He pushes the envelope in his books. beautiful, brilliant writer. i need to read more of him.)

Sherman Alexie - The Lone Ranger and tonto fistfight in Heaven; anything else by sherman alexie. he is beautiful. he was one of the first native americans to write about life as a native american. as a real one, not as a romaticized thing. but really. his work from the lone ranger and tonto fistfight in heaven is the basis of the movie Smoke Signals.

Bharti Mukherjee - The Middle Man and other stories ; Desirable Daughters... anything else you can get of her.. love her voice.

Willa Cather

Katherine Anne Porter

Jhumpa Lahari

Chuck Wachtel - I love this man. He is a prof and writer from my grad program. He taught me more about life and writing than he will ever know. His work is hard to find, but it is worth it. I love the Gates; and Because We Are Here; and What Happens to Me.. I love his voice, and I love him.

Aldous Huxley - Brave New World blew my mind

Ray Bradbury - I always love him. and as a writer I love him more as he ages. I just re read farneheit 451 and was still blown away by it. Ilove his short stories from One More of the road; I love From the Dust Returned. and of course Something Wicked This Way Comes.. and if you can find the short story There Will Come Soft Rains. you will not be disappointed. i think it's in the Martian Chronicles. Unlike some writers - dean koontz for example - they recycle their work. They get comfortable. Ray is in his upper 80s, still writing, new stuff, and it is beautiful. Definitely definitely DEFINITELY read One More For The Road. GORGEOUS. It is beautiful, tragic, funny. It's gorgeous. (Not Science Fiction if you're worried.) When he dies, I will go into mourning.

Terry Pratchett - he's lighter, but still a fun writer. when he dies, i will also go into semi mourning - he has alzheimers, a very rare and mild case of it (if there is a mild form of it..)

I also LOVED Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi - not fiction. but still amazing and beautiful and tragic and upsetting and just amazing. i highly recommend it. blew my mind.

Always read some Shakespeare.

Milton. If you have the patience and a good dictionary, read Paradise Lost, and then read Paradise Regained. it's told from Satan's point of view - from being kicked ot of heaven throgh the fall of Adam. it is beautiful, complex and challenging. If I hadn't had the prof I had in college to read it, i wouldn't have made it through. But it is to this day, one of my favorite stories, and it is just beautiful. When you think about this man who wrote this, he had to find words to describe some things that didn't exist yet. Legend goes, he wrote it 20 lines at a time; he would think about the 20 lines he wanted to write, take a nap, then wake up and recite them to his daughter, and that would be it. He was blind so he was unable to write. Just brilliant..

I love Beuwolf.

I loved The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. Collins was a contemporary of Dickens. They were actually good friends. I don't know why we aren't told about this book more often.

I love the Brontes - I just re- read Wuthering Heights again and still fell in love with it. I also love the pbs verion this year... sigh..Heathcliff....

CS Lewis and Tolkien, though the latter can be rather complex especially with all the names sounding alike. (I had to rename them in my head and notes so I could keep them all straight.)

I love Barrie - Peter Pan, and Farewell Miss Julie Logan (which is going to be VERY hard to find here in the States. Good luck. It's worth the read.)

Dracula by stoker is a great book..

Brideshead Revisted by evelyn waugh.

Water For Elephants - Sara Gruen

Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell Series (The Beekeeper’s Apprentice; A Monstrous Regiment of Women; A Letter of Mary; The Moor; O Jerusalem; The Game; Locked Rooms)

Sherlock Holmes - Doyle. good, quick short stories. Still fun.

The idea is to become aware of good writing, and develop a taste for good, literary writing, and be able to tell the difference between what is popular and what is good. Don't be afraid to go against the grain. It's like eating McDonalds. Every once in a while is fine. But you need to eat something a little more complex and hearty with more nutrients to truly survive. The same for reading especially reading to write.

if you have any suggestions, feel free to add them to the list. I'm always looking for a good read.

Detours

When I walked across the stage at my MFA convocation, dressed in radiant purple robes, to be hooded like the scholars long before, I was told, along with the rest of my class, that we were among the ‘overly educated elite.’ I dreamt of best sellers. I dreamt of writers residencies where I would talk craft and how to write. I dreamt of prestigious offices in revered academic institutions.. Of my own writing office in my home with antique glass doors, book shelves lined with volumes upon volumes and a growing section of my own publications. I would say to guests, “Oh you’ve not been able to find a copy of my latest work? Here," I’d take one from the shelf, and inscribe it for them, “with my love….” They would be thrilled and on the way home, wonder how they ever got to be friends with someone as cool as me.

Five years later, I am neither on the best selling list, the glass door office hasn’t been built. And instead of haggling over publishing contracts, I’m debating over the pros and cons of a dairy cow versus a pair of dairy goats to supply milk for our small family.

I have, against my own wishes and (possibly) better judgment, and in addition to my writing, and teaching, become a farmer.

Realistically, it may not be a far fall from the metaphorical tree. I grew up in a rural area of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Farming had been the primary way of life until Procter and Gamble moved into the area in the late 60’s.

My family always had some animals (not used as pets), rabbits and chickens mostly. one of my earlier memories was collecting eggs from our barn red chicken coops during a thunderstorm. i pulled my shirt out to make a hammock for them, and the warmth coming from the small, golden brown eggs radiated through my shirt to my belly, even though i was dripping with rainwater. I still love the feel of a warm egg straight for the henhouse and the beauty of the light brown shells.

This rural up-bringing has always set me apart. In many places I was a novelty so to speak. While living in the UK, I was an ‘agricultural consultant.’ By this I mean I ended up educating my city friends on the ways of country life. Behold the glories of Duck Tape (there it was Gaffer’s Tape) , hard physical work, and being unafraid to get one’s hands dirty.

While doing my MFA, my lifestyle was viewed by colleagues as some sort of pastoral idyll. They thought it sweet that I made my own bread, and that i grew and canned my own tomatoes. They marveled that I schlepped glass Mason jars, lids and rings through the Manhattan subway turnstiles to my sister so she and her husband in Jersey City could make jam, syrup and preserves from the mulberries she found in a nearby park.

In this routine, my colleagues usually asked the same question: “Well it’s fun, but why bother when you can just get it from the store?”

While it was certainly more work to bottle up all the mulberries into jam, syrup, or to dry them into mulberry raisins to be used in breads, oatmeal and muffins, there was something about it rewarding. Something about doing for ourselves that made it worthwhile and made the jam taste all the sweeter. There was something about continuing the traditions we cherished so much. But to our city friends, we were novelties, and they smiled at us, and shook their heads.

“To each their own,” they would say, as they opened a jar of Smuckers grape jelly.

My sister, also one of the overly educated elite, graduated from an MFA theater program of only eight people. Her resume stretches longer than I care to think about. She and her husband moved to New Jersey so she could pursue auditions and an acting career. He was a successful equine massage therapist. But as time went on, they came out to the family farm more and
more, until they decided to make it a permanent move.

Fast forward a few years, and you find us all living on the same farm. My sister and her husband, my parents, my maternal grandmother and my husband and myself. Add to that two toddlers, a newborn, and we have four generations living on the same property we, our parents, paternal grandparents and great grandparents lived on.

The farm by this point was a farm in name only. A few of the fields were rented out, but that was the extent of it’s health. The ancient apple orchards survived in spite of everything, growing wild and tangled among themselves. But when we looked at it, each of us on our own, we could see what there was and what there could be.

So slowly, and individually, we began. It started with some Scottish Highland cattle, some sheep, and some Arucana chickens. The garden was expanded significantly. More and more fruit trees were added, along with grape vines, blueberry bushes, and red currants. The bottom part of the barn was turned into a working kitchen for canning season that smelled of celery and tomatoes for about three weeks in the summer while my sister, mother and grandmother all bottle home made tomato soup, sauce, stewed tomatoes and salsa.

Tomato season is followed quickly by apple season. The spicey aromas are replaced by a gentle subtle sweet smell as apples cook down to make apple sauce, or sliced apples for pies.

Then in the idle of the winter, comes maple season. Our patio begins to smells smoky sweet as the evaporator burns day and night to boil down the sap into thickened amber syrup. From one hundred gallons of sap, we get about five to ten gallons of syrup.

We have developed a strong streak for doing things for ourselves. We still make the majority of our own bread. We now make our own yogurt, baby food, ice cream, and are expanding our repertoire to include cheeses. When our daughter was developing severe rashes from her diapers, we switched mid stream to cloth diapers. From October to December I was bent over my 1970s Kenmore Sewing machine, making all in one cloth diapers out of old t-shirts and flannel until we had enough with the store bought flat diapers and ones we had borrowed. Now the only time she's in a disposable is when she's asleep for the night, or we're travelling.

Quilting has always been part of our heritage. My mother taught me to hold a needle when I could hold a pencil. So as old jeans wear out, and flannel shirts are no longer patched, they come to me, and they are turned into heavy quilts. I am learning to spin wool into yarn, and then to knit up anything we can think of with that yarn. I plan on expanding my garden to include herbs and flowers used for dying the fiber nearly every color of the rainbow.

On top of this doing for ourselves, we’re considering homeschooling or charter schools.

You may have noted the person change. What had begun as simply my story, has become a family story. Truth be known, this farm can’t run by itself. It takes a bunch of us to get the work done. We all contribute in many different ways, some not as obvious as others, but it is still all about getting the work done, and breathing life into what was once a nearly abandoned idea. The Family Farm, with the Family working on it.

We live in a time when the economy is like a drunken high school sophomore. Things that were old are suddenly new again. Subsistence farming is growing gradually as people become aware and realistic about their situations. Families are planting gardens again, buying pigs to be butchered at the end of the year. Murray McMurray – one of the leading poultry hatcheries in our country – has been consistently sold out of chicks. Books like Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day is on the best seller list. Ways of life that were scoffed at, or seen as sweet, are becoming more of a standard, more steady and strong like the rock walls that continue to line our countryside, centuries later.

The list is beginning to sound familiar. “Well I used to be a teacher…” or Social worker…. or any list of other occupations. And they turn to farming. Most likely not for the sole support, but as a supplement for their family. an actress, a writer, a botanist, and a lab manager from Harvard. All reborn as farmers with horses, dogs, orchards, cows, gardens, and bee keeping operations either for themselves alone or for the small profit that comes once in blue moon.

Historically, farmers were not the most schooled people, neither were they the most pressing on the social ladder. But they had enough sense to survive. Now this new class of farmer is emerging, the enlightened farmers, with educations out the gesundheit, all to return to a more ancient and less applauded way of life. Though my studies didn’t teach me how to deliver a lamb or how to smoke out bees, my education taught me how to be a student, how to seek out teachers, and when in doubt, how to teach myself. in short, it taught me to keep learning.

We had a few friends come to our home for a get together. One couple was a successful military family, one child, one enlisted, or re-enlisted, the other having had a military past, and working in civilian life. One of these people I Consider to be a dear friend. This dear friend half jesting, half serious, said, "I don't think you'll ever leave. I just don't see it. You're always going to be right here. There are jobs other places you know." He later went on to poke fun a our lifestyle here on the farm, our growing our own food, raising our own beef, possibly homeschooling our children.

And I took a breath and let it go, because I couldn't say anything nice at the moment. Because in fact, it is a battle I fight every day. There are indeed jobs elsewhere. There are jobs with better pay, better clout other than in T-Town Pennsylvania.

It’s those moments that I wonder if this really was the best idea? My husband and I both still work, him full time, me part time. I wonder if this whole natural lifestyle is worth it. It really is just easier to go to the store and buy a loaf of bread, and a couple jars of baby food. And Smuckers really does make a pretty exceptional jar of strawberry jam. Is this whole thing worth it?

But when I see our daughter’s face when the sheep come up to her to say hello and the way she squeals at the new calf, when I taste the fresh bread, or do the basic math that shows how much money we have saved by making our own baby food, wipes and diapers…. when I realize that for as much as I worry, as long as we’re here and able to farm some, we will have food… when I see the apple orchards in full blossom and to steal a line from Keats, stand in the bee loud glade….or when I smell the roses my great-grandmother planted up against the barn - they were the only thing she brought to her new home when she married-.. when I see my daughter get to play with her two cousins who are also her next door neighbors, and how much she loves her great grandmother, and how her great grandmother loves her... how our daughter will grow up knowing what the stars look like, knowing what it means to plant a garden, pick an apple straight off the tree, to know what it means to have family around you (granted not all of her family is nearby; my husband's family is primarily in Utah, New Hampshire, Texas, and Kansas)....

It’s those times I realize, that yes, this is worth it. It’s something inescapable i think. It’s part of my family's collective unconscious. And as long as we are here and are able to work together, we will have food, we will adapt to figure things out for repairs or how to make new things like toys and clothes. To raise my family to live in a cleaner more self sufficient lifestyle, in the mythological echoes of her ancestors, this is worth it.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

how to make home made yogurt - stress free method.

I made a batch of yogurt today. well actually, it's going right now. But it's going to be great, I know it. I love yogurt. The baby loves yogurt. But i hate how for one large container of Stoneyfield it's what, over three dollars? Ugh. Or those stupid little tiny containers... And me being who I am, said, there has to be a better way to do this. It's way too expensive to keep buying yogurt as much as we did. So I did some searching out on the interweb, and even in those old square/rectangular things with papers in them ( they're called books, boys and girls) I found a method that I tried.. It worked alright. And then my husband found another method. The second method is the one I am going to share with you. It's awesome. If you eat yogurt or have kids who eat yogurt, then check this out, and try making your own!

I know as a blog, I should take pictures of my own experience making yogurt. But this guy does it so much better than I would (step by step and illustrating) I'll just give you his link and you can follow along. he's fairly well respected in the cheese making and yogurt making world. This site was referenced, and his name mentioned in one of the cheese making books my sister has. If you explore the guy's website, there's a whole bunch of other stuff, mostly cheese making stuff. So have fun exploring :)

Read the directions a couple times, just to make sure you have it. It's very simple, but you know, if you're doing something different for the first time, best to make sure you have a good knowledge of the instructions.

The only things that I do differently:

  • We don't do the whole sterilizing jars process. We don't usually keep our yogurt in jars. But we make sure that whatever we use to store the yogurt in is very clean. So ideally this step is already done by the time you get ready to make your yogurt.

  • I don't use a cold water bath to cool the scalded milk. I just turn the burner off,and let it cool that way. Too much clean up when it comes to make a cold water bath in my incredibly, ridiculously, far too tiny kitchen. (I've seen bathrooms larger than my kitchen.)

  • I use a normal candy thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature, and I use one of my big sauce pans. Nothing special.

  • My cooler that I put the yogurt in when it's finishing off, is just a basic white styrofoam cooler that you can get anywhere. just make sure it's tall enough for your containers.

  • Our starter is typically Stoneyfield, but that's because we can get it really cheap on sale. But it works with whatever brand yogurt. Just make sure it's not a flavored yogurt. Just got with basic, boring Plain yogurt.

  • If your yogurt ends up staying in the cooler longer than the prescribed three hours, or even over night that's fine. I've been known to start a batch of yogurt and then go to bed to awaken to lots of lovely fresh yogurt. It's in a cooler, for Pete's sake. It will be fine. I wouldn't leave it there all day and all night. But as soon as you can.


This method works out like a charm, every time. (Unless your husband decides to mix the yogurt starter and the milk together too early while the milk is too warm and kills your starter, and then leaving you with a gallon of unusable milk. But hey.... details details. And he did find this method, so I can't be too annoyed.)

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Fankhauser/cheese/yogurt_making/yogurt2000.htm

This method above is sooo simple. I can't recommend it enough. Have fun!