Death By a Thousand Cuts

I walked out to the mailbox yesterday and got the mail out.  As I walked back to the house, I opened a letter from our electric company.  We had just received a bill.  What could this be?  I'll share it with you:

I'm not picking on the electric company.  All of their costs have risen.  They are in the business of making money.  They must pass along the increases.  There's several issues at play, though.  First, I love my job, but wages aren't keeping up with rising prices.  Not just my company but others that I talk to.  Our company just had open enrollment for benefits for 2025.  Health insurance is up by $60 per month.  Deductibles and co-pays are higher and if your service provider is out of network, you'll owe even more.  And yet, our local hospital in our small town just announced a $23 million expansion project.

Homeowner's insurance has increased substantially over the past several years.  I'm understanding that with the renewals coming, it will be yet another double digit percentage increase.  You can shop around, but from what I'm hearing, it's of no benefit.  Every company has increased.  I know of three people that have canceled their property insurance because they cannot afford it.  They can't make their budgets work.  These are widows and retired people that I know.  Imagine that!  People who worked and paid taxes their entire lives and now live on a fixed income and live very frugally and yet, the cost of living has risen such that they can't afford to insure their home.  If a storm comes through or they have a house fire, they have no home.  Our little church can't afford property coverage and we have opted to self-insure, setting a percentage aside each month to fund damage repairs when a hurricane comes through. 

Although we don't grocery shop much, Tricia did shop for ingredients for "Dinner on the Grounds" at church Sunday, and she came in with four little bags and was flabbergasted at the price of their contents.  I've listed a few items, but really, every good and service has increased.  Sadly, many people have run up the balances on their credit cards.  Where does it end?  When does it end?

The wealthy can afford to pay the increases.  The poor are subsidized by the government for food, shelter, medical.  It's really hurting the middle class, though, who don't have disposal income to draw from to pay for the increased costs.  

Families can't print money.  Families must live within a set budget.  Families cannot give away their money prior to making sure that members of their family are taken care of.  Families must make hard decisions.  Make a budget and live within its boundaries.  Live on a cash basis.  If you don't have cash to purchase it, don't purchase it.  Get out of any debt.  Cut out the "fat" in your life.  Do I really need those subscriptions?  $5 coffee?  Gym membership?  With each purchase, ask yourself, "Can I afford it?"  Grow your own food.  Get in shape - physically, mentally, and financially.  Hold your loved ones tight.  Last, but not least, find a small country church and attend regularly.  Read God's Word and grow, living by the wisdom found therein.  Trust in Him.  He'll see you through.

After 50 days

 

After 50 days of no rain, on October 30th, finally the clouds opened and 3 inches fell.  It took a long time for any rainwater to show up in any puddles in the yard and pasture, but finally you could actually see water standing.  It didn't take long, though, and the ground soaked it all in.  

We had a drought last year, but it was during July - August and it was a lot hotter than it was during September - October of this year, so the effects of the dry spell didn't seem as pronounced this year.  The grass in the yard died in some spots, but that was about the extent of it.  We kept the garden alive by irrigating every single day.  Rainwater is SO much better than tap water, but if we didn't water, most of the garden would have died.  Our water bill over the last 50 days was double the cost of our normal bill, but that's okay, we'll enjoy fresh vegetables and that makes it all worth it.

I began walking around the house to check on the rain barrels that we have positioned along the drip lines in the back.  They were all filling up with water.  With a two inch rain, we maximize our rain-holding capacity at 700 gallons of water.  As I was checking out all the buckets and barrels, I made a grim discovery.  On the southwest corner of the house, we have a rain barrel that holds 70 gallons of water.  That's what we call the bee barrel, because the bees go there to drink water and bring it back to the hive.  As a result, we never pull water from that one for irrigation.  In fact, we don't go near it because there's so much activity around it from the honeybees.  As I got close to it, I saw a dead, bloated squirrel floating in the barrel.  I figured that during the drought, there wasn't much drinking water around.  The squirrel must have tried to get a drink and fell in the bee barrel and couldn't get out and drowned.  Rest in peace, Peanut, Jr.

We're hoping that since the temperatures are still in the 80's, that this rain will give a little boost to the grass in the pasture and give the animals some new, tender growth to eat on.  I walked out to the garden and was amazed!  The rain seemed to make the plants jump out of the ground overnight.  I could visibly see a difference in the growth.

It also softened the ground in the sweet potato patch which will make the ground conducive for the sweet potato harvest.  I'll be showing some updates of that annual process a little later this week.  I think we have a little more rain coming in the forecast.  That's a good thing.  We can further fill the water troughs for the cows and goats that are under the drip line of the barn.  If we fill those, that will hold us with rainwater for the winter.  

Thank you, Lord, for the refreshing rain!

The Pecan Crop - 2024

We have husband and wife pecan trees in our yard.  A husband and wife tree is an old custom from New England where a (you guessed it) husband and a wife would plant two identical trees side by side by the entrance of their home, and they would grow together as a testimony of their love and fidelity.  I don't know who planted our husband and wife trees, but they are quite large.  Their boughs have grown together such that their outline is as one large tree instead of two.  

The two trees make great pecans (puh CAHNS), but they are small.  They are, however, good and rich because they're full of oil.  They're just hard to crack, so we generally take them to the feed store in town where they have a pecan cracking machine that cracks them.  We then take them home and sit in front of the fireplace all winter shelling them for pecan pies!

Mom and Dad came over the other day and we laid out a blanket and walked around the trees, filling up a 5 gallon bucket.  From those trees, we've picked 4 1/2 five gallon buckets of pecans.  We also have a wagon filled with pecans as well that Ginger, our cat, has decided is a nice place to lounge throughout the day after hunting all night.

Our neighbors had made a coconut dessert Sunday afternoon and wanted to share a couple of slices with us.  They walked over and we visited.  They are real busy with a construction project.  So busy, in fact, that they don't have time to pick up pecans.  They offered that we could pick up all we could and were going to leave their "pecan-picker-upper" out by the tree.

That contraption is a back-saver.  As you get older, I've learned, you come to appreciate things like this so you don't have to constantly bend over.  This is like the slinky we used to play with as kids,  you roll it and the pecans go inside until its full.

It's so easy, it almost feels like you're cheating.

Tricia was using an older model of the same device.  This one, I think, was my great-grandmother's.  When it's full, you simply pull back the wires and allow the pecans to tumble out.  We began to quickly fill the wagon...

Our neighbor's pecan trees are LARGE pecans.  I'm telling you, we felt kind of funny picking these compared to ours.  Tricia said, "Man, our pecans are about 1/3 the size of theirs!"  It's true.  Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's pecans, came to mind.

The neighbor's pecans on the left.  The largest of our pecans on the right.

We will let the pecans sit for a couple of weeks and after a cold front comes through, we'll begin shelling them.  I enjoy sitting and shelling pecans.  It is an enjoyable pastime in the fall.  Pecans freeze well, so we'll freeze them, but we'll turn many into pies and will roast and salt others.  The neighbors have a recipe with cinnamon and sugar pecans.  Looking forward to all of that!

Fall is the Time for Persimmons

The other day we were having coffee in the late afternoon when a visitor drove up.  It was a gentleman from our church.  He is an interesting fellow.  He was a boat captain for years and years piloting boats up and down the river from his base in West Memphis, Arkansas.  On this fine day he came walking up to our door with a plastic bag.  He said, "I have a little something for you."  He had been to his brother's house.

His brother had a persimmon tree that was loaded.  He said, "You'd better get 'em before the crows and coons get 'em all."  So he filled a plastic shopping bag with persimmons and wanted to split them with us.  You'll remember our postings about the wild persimmons that grow in our yard.  We've processed and froze a bunch of them.  These persimmons are three times the size and twice as sweet!

We put them in a cardboard box to further ripen and as they got soft, Tricia froze them whole.

As opposed to the wild persimmons that have around nine seeds per fruit, these have none!  We ran them through the food mill to liquify the persimmons for freezing in zip loc bags.

The persimmon flesh is fluorescent orange in color.  It almost looks like egg yolks!

But the sweetness!  Let me tell you about the sweetness.  We're already planning to make a persimmon cake using these persimmons.  We also talked about making persimmon ice cream.  Finally, we talked about making persimmon popsicles.  In this area persimmons are a ubiquitous fall fruit.  We've very thankful a generous gentleman dropped some off at our house.  Tricia's gonna make him a cake!

The Fat Cows

It hasn't rained since September 11 and even on that day, it only rained 3/10ths of an inch.  It's dry.  I water the garden every single day.  The rain barrels that I sequester rainwater from are all dry and have been dry for several weeks.  The grass in the yard is dead or dying.  The pasture, up to this point has held up nicely, but when I walked in the pasture today, the bermuda and bahai grass is thirsting for some rain.

There is a chance on Thursday and Friday of this week for precipitation.  We are watching that very closely and praying for Showers of Blessing.  With the grass in the pasture on its way out and the onset of cooler temps of winter coming, we begin to think of the cows.  How will they fare through the winter?  We do give them a little sweet feed and alfalfa, but mostly they're on grass throughout the spring and summer.

For the fall and winter, we've put up 75 bales of premium bermuda hay in the hay loft.  We actually still have four bales of last year's hay that we're giving them each day.  We also purchase round bales of hay that we roll out and allow the cows (and goats) to eat free choice on.  We've found that one round bale will last about a week.  We have an inventory of nine round bales covered in tarps and ready to roll out when needed.  The cows have some grass to clean up in the pasture.  In the next few weeks they'll eat that all up.

It's important that the cows are in good condition going into the winter, and I have to say that this year, the cows are well fit, perhaps in the best condition they've ever been in at this point.  I really couldn't tell you what the difference is.  Here's Rosie.  Rosie is 15 years and 8 months old!  That's OLD for a Jersey cow.  She just went into heat last week.  We put her with the bull and witnessed her in standing heat.  We think he bred her, but we'll check in a few weeks to see if she goes back into heat.  We have the date on the calendar.  The bull is still young and he's short.  We don't know if he was able to reach.  Only time will tell, but it sure would be nice to get another calf out of Rosie.  She's been such a good girl.

And here's Elsie.  I don't have a way to show perspective, but this heifer is huge.  She's big and fat!  And she is rambunctious.  She runs around like her tail's on fire.  It's actually dangerous to be around her.  You have to keep your head on a swivel.  She did not get bred last year.  The vet found a cyst on her ovary and took care of it.  We are trying to have Nicky the bull breed her this year.

We put them together and hopefully it took.  We've been watching for her to come back in heat, but so far nothing.  Hopefully, that means she's carrying a calf.  That's good for a number of reasons.  First, we need calves and we need more milk as we're about to dry up LuLu.  Second, if she calves, we're hoping that will mellow her out and she'll stop being crazy.  Finally, if she isn't able to get pregnant, she's going to go into our freezer.  I hate to be so harsh, but we just can't have an animal unable to calve or give milk continue to just eat grass.  Elsie, you're on the clock!

LuLu, on the other hand is a little skinny (I don't have a current photo of her), but she's been in milk for over a year and a half.  It's about time to dry her up and allow her to build up again.  We put her together with Nicky when she came in heat and we'll see if she comes back in heat.  It sure would be nice to have 3 spring calves!

Thirsty

The message Sunday morning in church was from II Samuel 23.  David was in a cave with his warriors.  It was hot and there was no water.  They were thirsty.  David, speaking to himself, said, "Oh, that I wish that I could have a drink of water I remember as a boy from the well in Bethlehem."  His loyal "mighty men" overheard him and traveled 12 miles to Bethlehem, breaking through the enemy lines of the Philistines, dropped a bucket into the well, and drew it back up.  They ran 12 miles back to David in the cave and surprised him.  He was so overwhelmed and astonished at their kind deed, risking their lives to please their leader, that he couldn't drink it.  He poured it out on the ground as a drink offering to the Lord.

I began thinking of the water of my childhood.  You may say, "Water is water," but it's not.  Water, in different locales, is different.  The water of my childhood was from the town of Kinder.  It was distinctive.  People (creatively) called it "Kinder water."  It was BROWN!  If you drew a tub of bathwater, it looked like it was dirty.  If you poured yourself a cup of it, it looked like tea.  People said that it was stained by the roots of the cypress trees in the sand near the Calcasieu River.  I don't know if that was true or not.  It was very soft.  Visitors that would come to visit would all complain that it took forever to get the soap off their bodies or shampoo from their hair.

We moved out of town and had our own water well in the country.  The water was clear, but it had a distinctive taste to it.  Then there was the water from the rice irrigation wells at the farm.  It was clear and COLD.  The canal banks were coated in an orange-colored rust from the pipes bringing the water to the surface from 180 feet (give or take) down.  It was so refreshing to drink, but had a metallic taste to it.  Do you remember the differences in the water in various places that you lived?

On a separate, but adjacent topic of beverages, there is an Old Time Country Store in a neighboring town called "Mr. Clint's."  He sells all sorts of old fashioned candy, gifts and country items.  My sons passed by there and, for my birthday, brought me some gourmet soft drinks and candy.  He has a wide variety of interesting sodas.  I'll show you two of them:

The first is Sprecher Maple Root Beer.  I love root beer and this one was so good.  I poured it in a glass of chopped ice and a thick head of foam covered the top.  I smelled it, and it smelled wonderful.

It has real maple syrup in it!  I like tasting and enjoying different things and this was a good one!

Speaking of trying different things, the next one was quite different.  This one is called "Martian Poop Soda."  It is brewed from droppings left behind by alien Martians at Area 51.  Actually, I'm not telling the truth.  If you read the label, although its named Martian Poop Soda, there is no Martian poop in it.  The flavor of it is marionberry.  To be honest, I had to research what a marionberry is.  It is a cultivar of a blackberry grown in Oregon.

It did, after reflecting, have a nice berry flavor to it.  Despite the Martian poop graphics on the label, it was good.  In fact, I enjoyed them both.  I'm no longer thirsty.

Growing Frijoles Negros

To this day beans and rice is a favorite meal of mine.  It's such a simple dish, but so filling, healthy and satisfying!  As a youngster, my favorite was Red Beans & Rice and sausage with cornbread on the side. Before you served the beans over rice, it was very important that you would mash up a bunch of the beans.  This thickens the dish and makes what I call a bean "gravy" or roux. 

You might say that beans are beans, but my Mom and everyone I knew were partial toward a specific brand of Red Beans and bought them with the sort of brand loyalty that you would thing only exists with diehard Chevy or Ford folks.  Camellia Red Kidney Beans.  They came wrapped in a clear cellophane bag so that you could inspect every perfect, shiny red kidney bean inside the bag.  

At one point I was going to attempt to try to grow our own red kidney beans.  Up to this point, I haven't done it, but if I might buy some Camellia Red beans and see if they'll germinate.  For the past several years, though, I've planted Black Beans.  They are called Black Turtle Beans, to be specific.  Black Beans or frijoles negros are a special dish in Latin America and Mexico.  Mainly, Tricia cooks them like you would refried beans.  As a treat, we put the refried black beans in a fresh flour tortilla, fold and eat.  It's a simple, tasty meal.

So let's go out to the garden, where our black beans are slowly ripening.  I only have one row of them and the dry, dry month of October is not doing the yield any favors, but my goal is to grow them and watch them closely as they mature.

The black beans have lots of pods, and they are ripening.  My goal is to allow them to mostly ripen on the stalk until they are almost totally dry and the pods have turned yellowish-brown.  You don't want the pods to get dry and crack open, though, as you'll lose the beans when the pop onto the ground.

Each day I check the beans and pick those that have dried.  I carry them to our fancy black bean dryer apparatus for the finishing touches on drying.  I lay them in the sun on our expanded metal patio table.  The sun completes the drying process and the table allows maximum air flow.

When the pods are dry and 'crinkly' to the touch, we pop open the pods and collect the black beans in a bowl.  We just started the harvesting process and have a lot left to go, but here's what we have so far.

We'll eat most everything we pick but will save some for planting for next year.  The Black Turtle Beans I buy are non-hybrid and come from rareseeds.com, so they are perfect for seed saving.  Perhaps 2025 is the year that I'll grow Red Beans!