Squirrels in the Attic 

I live in a house that was built in 1890. It is made of Heart Pine, a wood that no longer exists. Ever since I moved into the house, there has always been a contest over who owns the attic. The squirrels or us. I have spent many a night and morning in bed, listening to them roll pecans and acorns across the attic floor. It’s the chewing I hate the most though. Sometimes they sound like they’re going to come through the ceiling, into the house. Bill bought a squirrel chaser that give off an unpleasant frequency that was supposed to work. It doesn’t.

There are basically two squirrel entrances to the attic. One is in front of the house and one in the back. I am most grateful to the nasty and angry red wasps who moved into the front hole. Score 1 for the humans.

A few weeks ago, when the squirrels were chewing on the ceiling of the kitchen, I had a thick wire mesh nailed over the back hole. It took the squirrels exactly one day to chew through it. Score 1 for the them. On Tuesday, a big piece of oak was my next try. So far, the attic is silent. But I am not under the illusion that this will work permanently. It at least slows them down. Now it has become who can last the longest. I am in for the long term. Since the average squirrel lives about a year (females live a little longer), perhaps the next generation won’t look upon my house as a home and chewing post. My biggest fear is that they will chew through wires in the attic and set the house on fire. So now it’s score 2 for the humans. I am waiting for their response. Bring it on. I’ll beat my chest!

Asian Orange Chicken for Two

Cooked this recipe last night and it turned out to be very tasty.

Cook 1 cup of rice and set aside. California Basmati Rice is my choice.

In a sauce pan, combine the following ingredients to make a sauce:

1 ½ cups of water
2 tablespoons of orange juice or 1 fresh orange
Lemon juice from one lemon
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2 ½ tablespoons of soy sauce or tamari sauce
1 tablespoon of orange zest
½ cup of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of fresh ginger
½ teaspoon of garlic
2 tablespoons of green onions
Small amount of red pepper flakes

Bring to a boil and cook on lower heat for about 10 minutes . Remove from heat and set aside.

Slice a chicken breast horizontally to make two pieces. Dip them in salted and peppered flour and cook until done in a flat pan. Remove the chicken and set aside.

Pour the sauce into the flat pan and bring to a boil. In a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and a small amount of cold water. Stir the mixture into the sauce. Reduce heat, add the chicken pieces, cover, and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Serve over rice.

Potato and Corn Chowder Soup

Combine the following in a cooking pot except for the heavy cream:

Diced Potatoes
Can of Corn
3 Tab. All purpose flour
1 Tsp. of Dried Thyme
1 Tsp. of Dried Oregano
½ Tsp. Garlic Powder
½ Tsp. Onion Powder
1 Quart or more of Chicken Stock
2 Tab. of Butter
Salt and Pepper to Taste

Bring to boil and cook until the potatoes are done. Then add ¼ cup of heavy cream and cook until it thickens.

Serve with bread or rolls.

This recipe can be made ahead of time and frozen until use.  All except the heavy cream.

This recipe can cook within 30 minutes.

Observations for Friday

1)
I live in the south and there are acres and acres of lawns everywhere. Everyone must have a lawn here. Day after day, trucks pulling trailers with lawnmowers go by my house.  If you are in the business of selling trailers or lawnmowers, this is the place to be. Not a day goes by in the summer where I don’t hear a mower somewhere nearby. One of my favorite observations is when the lawns get cut on Sunday at the elementary school across the street. The riding lawnmowers here are super models. They can turn on a dime, and get up to at least 35 mph. And those guys cutting the lawn across the street go flat out.

So with all this attention to lawns and their care, how come people here park on the lawn? It mystifies me and I see it on a daily basis. They all have driveways. Why not use them?

2)
If I poisoned the water in Raymond, and made people sick, just how long would it take for me to be arrested and put in jail? I’ll bet pretty quickly. So how come the people who poisoned the water in Flint, Michigan are still walking around free? Why hasn’t someone called the police?

3)
The bank robbers at Wells Fargo are also walking around free. All the top executives should be facing criminal charges instead of the poor regular workers who were fired. Once again, big money has different laws than the rest of us. Why hasn’t the federal government arrested them?

4)
Will we ever stop killing the Native Americans? Why isn’t the news reporting more on the stand off up north. This is a very serious problem. What would happen if we started digging up white people? Or desecrating white burial grounds?

5) How did the presidential election become a spectacle? I have to confess that news of Hurricane Matthew was welcome relief from it.

6)
Last of all, but not least, there’s the Epi-Pen obscene profits for the pharmaceutical company who makes them. Has the last piece of humanity gone out the window? Have they no shame?

Baby in the Back Seat

Bill and I had a discussion about forgotten children left in the back seat of the family car to die. It seems to happen more and more. The agony of the parents is difficult to bear and it makes me cringe when I hear of it on the news. So why does this keep on happening? Well, Bill has a tendency to think in black and white, and in this instance, he hit the nail right on the head. In the old days, your child was always in the front seat, next to you. Even if they fall asleep and are quiet, it’s hard to ignore them since you have a visual cue that they are indeed  in the car with you. Now, with the baby being in the back seat because of new laws, this changes things. This new law has made some parents into criminals. So which is worse? A dead baby, or having to live with the fact that you killed your own child? Sometimes laws create more problems where they didn’t exist before. I think before this happens again, someone needs to stop this. Maybe when you buy a car seat, there should be some kind of alarm? Maybe that alarm should be an ap on your phone? Maybe tie a string to your finger and to the baby? Come on folks, can you give me a hand here? What works?  How can this be stopped?!!

Sugar Ants (and no, I won’t use pesticides in my house)

If you live in Raymond, MS, you know what Sugar Ants are. They invade your kitchen and are almost impossible to get rid of. Heck, they’ll invade any part of your house if there is food there. My husband’s teenage daughters found that out when they left food plates on the floor. Anyway, this year they have been particularly bothersome. I hate seeing long lines of ants raiding my garbage can. So in self defense, I found a simple recipe to get rid of them.

Mix together: 1 cup of water, ½ cup of sugar and 2 tablespoons of Borax. Take a cotton ball and saturate it with the solution. Place the cotton balls anywhere the ants are coming in. At first, you will see the ants swarm over the cotton ball. But wait. Within 24 hours, the ants disappear. They take the solution back to their nest and feed it to the others. This greatly reduces their numbers. So far, it’s been 3 days, and I haven’t seen any ants. So give it a try. You can buy Borax at the grocery store or dollar store.

Old People Sitting in the Dark

I must admit that I didn’t think about how dark it is without electricity until I saw the movie about Lincoln, staring Daniel Day Lewis. They filmed in natural light, so inside the house or building it was very dim and gloomy. Now, I’m not the type of person who turns out the light when I exit a room in my house. I keep the lights on. I want things warm and cheerful.

Since I came back to live in Raymond, MS, I have noticed that all the old people here live in the dark. Every time I visit someone, it’s like I’m back in the Lincoln movie. The first thing I ask when I visit is can I turn on some lights in here?  I can barely see you. One friend got new furniture and I didn’t even notice it until months later. Another friend has a beautiful home, but I wonder how she keeps it so clean. You gotta have the lights on to clean something, right? Or another friend who puts on her makeup in the dark. How can she do that!  Or another friend whose partner turns off the lights and air conditioning every time she leaves the house. I’m afraid that would be grounds for murder on a blazing hot August day. All I can do is shake my head and wonder why.  

Blue Jays in My Yard 

I am happy to report that the next generation of Blue Jays have been successfully raised by their parents on cat food. I keep a small bowl of dry cat food on the bench in the back yard. My neighbor’s cats snack on it from time to time. Then one morning, I noticed  Mr. and Mrs. J were taking turns scooping up the food and taking it back to their nest in the Magnolia tree across the street. This went on for a number of weeks, so I learned to listen for their call when they wanted more food. When the babies got old enough, they led the children to the bowl. So now I have Jays in my yard and they are welcome.

Potato Soup with Feta

You can use any type of greens: turnip Greens, kale, collards. If you’re not from the south, kale is probably the most common green. These need to be chopped into fairly small pieces .

You can also use red potatoes, or Yukon gold potatoes, or whatever potatoes you have on hand.

Ingredients:

Olive Oil
Onions
Garlic
Chicken Broth
Greens
1 tsp. of Fresh Oregano
1 Lemon, zested and juiced.
Feta Cheese
Salt and Pepper

Start with a large pot. Cook the garlic and onions in olive oil. When they are done, add the potatoes and greens. Pour in enough chicken stock to make it soup. Cover, bring to boil, and then simmer for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. Towards the end, add in the zested lemon and juice. Season to taste. You don’t have to use so much salt because of the lemon.


Serve in a soup bowl with feta cheese on top. I added some croutons as well.  The combination of the lemon and cheese makes the soup.

Eula Viola Brown-Polk Turns 104

I picked up the local paper while in the bank this afternoon, and found this article. I enjoyed reading it and was touched by Mrs. Polk's summation of her life.

"Someone asked me one day "don't you ever get tired?" I said "yea, but I don't let that stop me, because the race is not given to the swift nor the strong but to he who endures until the end."

Spot
A Dog’s Tail of Survival

Since Elaine and I walk every day through Raymond, we see a lot of animals. The ones who are hungry, we feed, and the others who are better off, we pet. On our walks, we used to encounter a medium sized black and white dog who was always traveling, like some male dogs do. He seemed fairly street wise, so we figured he would be OK.  Then one afternoon, I looked out into my front yard, and there was Spot, lying on his side, close to the road. It was obvious that he had been hit by a car, even though he didn’t have any wounds. So I called the police department, and a nice officer showed up to access the situation. Shortly after, a live cage trap was set down in my front yard, and they tried to lure the dog into the cage with food. Sure enough, Spot went slowly into the cage, but he was very careful not to set off the spring that would close the door behind him. Smart dog. He got the food and backed out. After numerous attempts, they finally got hold of him and that was the last time we saw him for a while. When we changed our walking route, we went by a house in Main Street and discovered Spot had a collar on that made him stay in the yard. At first, we weren’t really sure if it was him because he was much fatter than the last time we saw him.

When we went by the house the other day, there was a couple in the yard and we asked if this was the same dog that wandered around town. They said it was and then told us the story about how they adopted him.

Apparently, Spot had somehow lodged a twig or branch up between his upper teeth. He was so weak, that he just stayed on their porch for a couple of days. Finally, the good people took him to the vet and discovered why he was so weak. He couldn’t eat. The vet removed to stick and he recovered.

Now, he sits in a yard full of toys, and he gets to sleep with his adopted family every night. What could be better than a happy ending like this!

Over the years, I have read and re-read many of the essays in Sarah Ban Breathnach’s book, Simple Abundance. A Daybook of Comfort and Joy. It’s a wonderful collection of essays for each day of the year. One of the most poignant entries is the one for November 26. When I am weary of the world, I re-read this and it always brings me comfort, especially during those nights when I can’t sleep.

"Rx For Harried Hearts and Frazzled Minds"
by Sarah Ban Breathnach,. Simple Abundance, November 26

      "Some nights waves of weariness beat against out brains, crash against our hearts, wash over our bodies, threatening to erode our best defenses like sand dunes upon the shore. The water is cold, dark, and deep....Nothing seems to hold back the tide. We need someone to throw us a line, to rescue us from drowning in disappointment.

      When these nights come and I find I'm stranded alone on the beach of faltering belief, I have found refuge in a very centering and comforting prayer by Dame Julian of Norwich, a thirteenth-century English mystic:

All shall be well,
And all shall be well,
And all manner of things shall be well.

      This simple affirmation of faith is especially comforting because it seems to console the dark submerged sadnesses of the inexplicable, the unexpressed, the unresolved, the unfair and the undeniable that stalk my soul after I close my eyes. I'll say the prayer over and over again softly, under my breath like a mantra, not trying to understand the meaning of the words because I can't. Some mysteries are beyond our comprehension. Some mysteries we will never solve. Never know.

      So instead of trying to make sense of it all, I'll simply let the Spirit of the words soothe my frazzled mind and harried heart until sleep comes. Sometimes we can't make sense of it. Sometimes none of it makes sense. Sometimes it just is. But if we can hold on long enough for this night to give way to another day, all shall be well, even if it's different from what we had expected. Even if it's different from what we had hoped for and believed with all out hearts would happen.

All shall be well,
And all shall be well,
And all manner of things shall be well."

Well, it has been a few day after DoWe DontWe flew to birdy heaven. She was ceremoniously buried under the great oak, which is also known as Bird Boot Hill. All her relatives are buried there. Matty McScrew Loose, Slim Dusty, and Governor Huey P. Long. Her sister, Louisiana (better known as Wheezy) died in California before we made the great migration south.

Now I have one parakeet left, and his name is Lavender Larry. Larry is an English Parakeet and although he’s beautiful, there isn’t much going on upstairs in Larry’s mind. I took Larry out of the big cage and gave him a smaller one and then moved him into my bedroom so he would have company. At first I thought he might be mourning DoWe, because he wouldn’t eat or drink. I tried everything I could think of, but after two days, I was getting desperate. As a last resort, I put him back in the big cage, and suddenly he came to life. I then realized that he recognized his feed cup. The cup I had in the smaller cage went uneaten because Larry didn’t view it as food. He also took a big drink of water out of the water dispenser. I know now that I will never be able to change his feed and water containers. And it looks like he’ll have that big cage all to himself. The best part of the story is – he started singing again. I actually think he doesn’t miss DoWe at all. In fact, he’s delighted and kissing the bird in the mirror. Who’d have thought...

                                                    Another Small Death in the Family

As I sit and write this, there is a small green parakeet named DoWe DontWe who is dying. I’ve had her for many years. In fact, she was hatched in my house in California and survived the drive from there to Mississippi. She looks just like her father. From the time she emerged from the nest, she has hated me, no matter hard I have tried all these years, she still hates me. Now female parakeets are known for being mean, but this one takes the cake. At this point, she is on the bottom of the cage, all puffed up. I would like to hold her and comfort her while she dies, but she will have none of that. I can only watch and wait – keep a vigil. I’m sure she will die some time tonight. So all I can whisper to her is: Heron, fly you home.

Politically Correct in the United States

I went to the gym this morning and saw a Pentecostal woman using the treadmill in a long skirt down to her ankles. My first question was – is she aware that if her skirt got caught in the machinery, she could be thrown off the treadmill and injure herself, maybe badly? I know from first hand experience. I tripped on the treadmill, was tossed off the machine and landed about 4 feet from the back of it. It was painful. I can promise you I won’t do that again.  Besides that, the gym could be sued. There are signs all over the building requiring proper dress. There’s a reason for this. No one made this up because they wanted to offend you. They want to make you safe.

Driving home from the gym, I started to think about other religions who have strict rules about dress. I started to think about all the different waves of immigrants who came to the United States. My grandmother used to tell me how the next wave was hated by the others who were already here. In order to fit in, these immigrants assimilated themselves into society so the hate would die down and they could lead productive lives and have good neighbors. Whatever you did in private at home, was your own business. There is religious freedom in this country, but it doesn’t belong on the outside where you are encountering multiple cultures on a daily basis. There has to be some ground rules that are acceptable to all of us in order to get along. Our Bill of Rights clearly states separation of church and state. There is a very good reason for this. It stops people from killing each other in the name of God. You can’t and shouldn’t push your religion down someone else’s throat.

That’s not how it works.

So please, everybody, if you are going to live in this country, you are going to have to make many compromises. We all have. I have Muslim women friends who wear very modest clothing and I admire them for doing so. They fit into society and don’t wear black robes. I think the Pentecostal lady should wear pants at the gym. Is that too much to ask?