Mayfest Meanderings

So one thing led to another today and we wound up at Mayfest-- a celebration of the founding anniversary of a little town down the road.

As a GRIT, this offended Miss M. Here's my counter: Look how fat that's lady's thighs are! She's trying real hard to be Southern. 

And then we stopped in at the junk/"antique" stores on our way home.

WE SCORED.

This is real wood. Not that flimsy teaky stuff.

:-) Life is weird. 

We already have this. And Miss M has more.

Picnic!

Sausage, Peach, Cherry, Pepper

Repeat.

Serve with 

potato salad.

One of the strangest potato salad recipes I've ever seen. You boil the potatoes in the skins, peal, and toss with 1/4 C apple cider vinegar. Separately, while the potatoes are soaking up the apple cider vinegar, you cut up celery, onion, etc. and toss them with mayo-based dressing. Mr. Big Food used the Thousand Island we've been having on our salads. 

And then you combine it all.

Delicious. 

2-4-6-8 Who do we appreciate?

We've had some rain and cooler weather so I've been opening the windows in the Den the last few evenings.

Missy does love to look out the window.

Occasionally, something on the wind will capture her attention 

and she will signal to Rocky that he should come running & pay attention, too.

And then he gets bored and hops back up on the bed b/c he doesn't smell anything.

"Please forgive me, but I've had quite enough."

"'Enough' of what, Missy?"

"Well. You know. I know Rocky has a job."

"That's right. His job is to guard the joint. He is a Vicious Pit Bull."

"RUFF."

"But you know what? I am trying to have a job, too. I am trying to guard the joint, too, Marica! Pardon me for being so bold, but you have no idea how many evil vicious smelly things there are out there wandering around your garden."

"ruff."

"I know. There are armadillos and possums."

"Do you know how foul-- is that the right word? Fowl? they smell?"

"No."

"And all the while I am trying to guard your vegetables from these evil... ."

"ruff."

"And I bark in my robust bark and you think it's cute... .  I quit. You don't appreciate the danger I signal. You don't appreciate the work I do. I am under appreciated. I quit. I am just gonna be a fat and lazy dog like that dawg on heyhaw."

"Oh! No! Please don't quit, Missy."

.... 

"Mr. Big Food saved some of the fat from that roast for you."

"Ummm."

"R.U.F.F."

To My Dear Husband: The Quest

The book, whose inscription has garnered a fair amount of attention here on the blog, is The New Quest by Rufus M. Jones (1928).

Jones was a Quaker:

Rufus Jones (writer) 

Rufus Matthew Jones (January 25, 1863 – June 16, 1948) was an American writer, magazine editor, philosopher, and college professor. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Haverford Emergency Unit (a precursor to the American Friends Service Committee). One of the most influential Quakers of the 20th century, he was a Quaker historian and theologian as well as a philosopher. He is the only person to have delivered two Swarthmore Lectures.

This particular book was discarded by the Sanders Memorial Library of Clarke College, Newton, Mississippi and somehow made its way to the Palmer Thrift Shop in Starkville, Mississippi where I purchased it for $0.50. (Books are 1/2 price lately.)

We should all be Quakers. 

May Mrs. Thomas Lockhart and her Dear Husband rest in peace knowing that her Christmas gift to him has at last found a deserving home.

Must be a theme

Blue skies everywhere!

Double Nickel Farm, New Mexico

Framboise Manor, Nova Scotia

To My Dear Husband UPDATED AGAIN! AND AGAIN

Can you make this out? 

Clearly a Christmas gift. 

UPDATE:

Thanks, Aggie!

To My Dear Husband

Whose constantly reaching out into new quests enriches our lives and brings us richer life forever. 

Doris ? Lockhart

UPDATE 2

judydee suggests in the comments that it's "Mrs. Thomas Lockhart." That looks right to me. It was 1928. Married women did refer to themselves as "Mrs."

UPDATE 3

Mr. Big Food's Dad weighs in via email:

"I think it says ... and brings us richer life experience(s)..."

Recipe: Dilly Casserole Bread

Served with Salad Nicoise

DILLY CASSEROLE BREAD

2 1/2 - 3 C flour
2 T sugar
2-3 t minced onion
2 t dill seed
1 1/4 t salt
1/4 t soda
1 pkg active dry yeast
1 C (8 oz.) cottage cheese
1/4 C water
1 T butter
1 egg
butter, softened
course salt, if desired

In large bowl combine 1 C flour, sugar, onion, dill seed, salt, soda, and yeast. In saucepan, heat cottage cheese, water, and 1 T butter until very warm. Add warm liquid and egg to flour mixture. Beat at low speed until moistened. Beat 3 minutes at medium speed. By hand, mix in remaining 1 1/2 - 2 C flour to form a stiff dough. 

Cover. Let rise in a warm place until double in size about 45-65 mins.

Punch down. Turn into greased-- not oiled-- round casserole dish. Cover. Let rise until double in size... . About 30-40 mins. 

It's bread, for crying out loud. 

Bake at 350. 

Recipe: Salad Nicoise

This recipe calls for "2 quarts torn, mixed salad greens" which we have times infinity -1. (Because it's nonsensical to multiply infinity. We have a lot of lettuce.)

It's an old favorite recipe

from an old favorite cookbook-- now falling apart-- that I've had since before the Girls were born.

It is the vinaigrette that hold everything together. So it's not so much a recipe for a salad as it is an inspiration. Note the carrots-- nowhere to be seen in the recipe- but I pulled them and marinated them. Two weeks from now-- after this evening's rain-- the canned beans will be replaced by fresh. 

SALAD NICOISE

Vinaigrette Dressing

3/4 C salad oil
3/4 C tarragon white wine vinegar
1/4 C chopped green onion
2 T snipped fresh parsley
2  t salt
1 t dry mustard
1 t sugar
1/2 t tarragon crushed

Salad

16 oz. can cut green beans, drained
2 quarts torn, mixed salad greens
2 tomatoes, sliced
2-3 hard cooked eggs, cut into wedges
6 1/2 oz can white tune, drained
3-4 anchovy fillets, drained [OMIT]
3-4 slices salami or summer sausage, cut into strips
1/2 C ripe olives
1 C tiny whole pickled beets, drained.

Combine first nine ingredients in container with tight cover. Shake well. Pour 1/2 C over beans. Marinate 1 hour, chilling thoroughly. Toss salad greens with enough dressing to coat; place on two large platters, Drain marinated beans.; arrange on salad greens with remaining ingredients.

TIP: Select a combination of 3 salad greens from...

[That's not a problem!]

Capers, artichoke hearts, green pepper strips or strips of boiled ham are also good in this salad.

~~
Serve with Dilly Bread.

Please excuse me a moment...

O. M. G.

Are you kidding me? The Supreme Court has been fallible since forever, i.e., since the great jurist John Marshall-- who was jolly but slovenly-- set the tone.

And what is with the unit of analysis here? "The Court?" As if the Court is an entity not comprised of individuals?

Please do excuse the interruption. Via Instapundit.com, this just hit me wrong. 

Quick Kitten Update

[Because I know you're only humoring me when you pretend to care about history and crappy old books and such.]

Yesterday morning only two kittens were in the box. We didn't see hide nor hair of the mamma. Miss M set out a bowl of cat food topped with a spoonful of tuna. We checked on them periodically throughout the day and gave them a dropper full of water later in the evening. 

We were prepared to go into full-on kit* rescue mode this morning if necessary. Zero kits this morning but the food bowl was empty.

There have since been two sightings of mamma in or near the garage. AND the food bowl is again empty. 

So... . The kits are around here somewhere and Miss M is doing her best to see that the mamma is well-fed.

*"Kits" because the mamma can apparently read. She put them in the old packing box marked "kit."

supper

Remember

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
     That mark our places; and in the sky
     The larks, still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
     Loved and were loved, and now we lie
          In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
     The torch; be your to hold it high.
     If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
          In Flanders fields.

--John McCrae

We have broken faith. 

Decoration Day

My perusal of prose and poetry regarding Decoration Day lead me to believe there was once an appreciation for the lives fallen soldiers left behind.

Quart #4

Garden News:

I'll remember to take some photos tomorrow.

Things are coming along nicely.

I've dried almost 4 quarts of oregano. I did have to move the drying operation outside because 8 hours of drying really heats up the kitchen.

We will have garden peas. That is exciting.

We are looking for a pea sheller for the blackeyes.

As you know, we have lettuce. And we have carrots.

Carrots are odd. You think you have carrots and you pull something up and realize that you don't yet have carrots. And then-- one day-- you have carrots!

I have a question.

I did a smidgen of scholarly research on the author of this poem.

A. E. Housman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A. E. Housman
Born	Alfred Edward Housman 26 March 1859 Bromsgrove, Worcestershire
Died	30 April 1936 (aged 77) Cambridge
Pen name	A. E. Housman
Occupation	Classicist, Poet
Nationality	British
Alma mater	St John's College, Oxford
Genres	Lyric poetry

Alfred Edward Housman (/ˈhaʊsmən/; 26 March 1859 – 30 April 1936), usually known as A. E. Housman, was an English classical scholar and poet, best known to the general public for his cycle of poems A Shropshire Lad. Lyrical and almost epigrammatic in form, the poems wistfully evoke the dooms and disappointments of youth in the English countryside. Their beauty, simplicity and distinctive imagery appealed strongly to late Victorian and Edwardian taste, and to many early 20th-century English composers (beginning with Arthur Somervell) both before and after the First World War. Through their song-settings, the poems became closely associated with that era, and with Shropshire itself.
Housman was one of the foremost classicists of his age and has been ranked as one of the greatest scholars who ever lived.[1][2] He established his reputation publishing as a private scholar and, on the strength and quality of his work, was appointed Professor of Latin at University College London and then at Cambridge. His editions of Juvenal, Manilius and Lucan are still considered authoritative.

[My emphasis.]

"One of the greatest scholars who ever lived." 

Good Lord! I'm sure you-- Dear Scholared Readers of Literature-- have heard of him but I hadn't until today.  

Q: Why is this?

That question assumes the premise-- that Houseman was one of the greatest scholars who ever lived. (I'm no philosopher, but I think that's called "begging the question.") And that he was a good poet. 

So I swiveled my chair around to pick up Miss M's copy of The New Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918 (Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed., Oxford University Press, New York, 1955, 1939, first published 1900) and I see that A.E. Houseman has a grand total of three (3) poems (pp. 1052-53) included.

So I'm not buying it. 

If he was one of the greatest scholars who ever lived who just happened to write poetry, he'd have gotten more than what amounts to a page in this 1100+ page anthology in 9-pt font. 

I did like the poem, though. I thought it appropriate for Decoration Day. 

A Poem for Decoration Day

Here Dead Lie We 

Here dead lie we because we did not choose 

To live and shame the land from which we sprung. 

Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose      

But young men think it is, and we were young.

A.E. Houseman  

Found in Other Men's Flowers: An Anthology of Poetry, A.P. Wavell, ed. G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1945.

Godzilla! We had a delightful meal

Chicken stewed with prunes

And then we watched the original Godzilla

with Perry Mason

Spoiler alert. They blew him up.

For My Republican Friends & Family

And for my Democratic and Libertarian and Tea Party and Low-Fo Friends, too. (I want to be inclusive.)

I am scouring my library for what I think are interesting things-- quotes, etc.-- to convey as we approach Memorial Day, which used to be called Decoration Day.

I've already posted a few!

Today I wore an old T-shirt of Mr. Big Food's to work in the garden. Wouldn't you know, our County Supervisor showed up in prompt response to Mr. Big Food's call. It's a black T-shirt with red & white lettering. It says. 

WWRD

"What would Reagan do?"

OMG! He's going to think I'm a Republican!

What could be worse? He's going to think we all all Republicans! 

Any how. That reminded me of a crappy old book I have. 

History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.

--Address to the Nation, U.S.Allies, and the Soviet Union,

The White House, January 6, 1984

 See. This is so corny you just have to believe it.

On page 284...

The Quotable Ronald Reagan. Peter Hannaford, compliler and ed.; Regnery Publishing, Inc., Washington, D.C.; 1998.

Coming up on Decoration Day. 

Y'all know it started in Columbus, Mississippi-- right?

Filed under "Country Folk Will Survive"

Tip of the hat to Mr. Big Food's Dad. This is awesome!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=335893426565493

"I love you, a bushel and a peck!"

I love you, a bushel and a peck! 

A bushel and a peck, and a hug around the neck! 

A hug around the neck, and a barrel and a heap 

A barrel and a heap, and I'm talkin' in my sleep. 

About you. 

About you! 

About you! 

My heart is leapin'! 

I'm having trouble sleepin'! 

'Cause I love you, a bushel and a peck 

You bet your pretty neck I do! 

Doodle, oodle, oodle. 

Doodle, oodle, oodle. 

Doodle oodle oodle oo. 

I love you, a bushel and a peck 

A bushel and a peck, go and beats me all to heck! 

Beats me all to heck how I'll ever tend the farm 

Ever tend the farm when I want to keep my 

Arms - about you - 

About you! 

About you! 

The cows and chickens 

are goin' to the dickens! 

'Cause I love you a bushel and a peck 

You bet your pretty neck I do - 

Doodle oodle oodle 

Doodle oodle oodle 

Doodle oodle oodle, oo! 

I, myself, do not care for turnips. But Mr. Big Food loves them!

Lyrics from the musical, Guys and Dolls.

Our Poor Little Mail Box

That's Bo's Pole Light, off in the distance.

When we first moved here and got our Electricity hooked up, we were informed that out Pole Light would cost us $7/mo. I objected. Who needs a pole light, for Goodness Sake? We moved here to get away from pole lights. 

Silly me. Everybody's got a pole light. That's how when you call 911 the Sheriff knows where you are. [See how backwards that structure is? That's how we say it.]

So we have a pole light. 

But that poor little mailbox just sits there, unadorned, serving no purpose but to connect us to the outside world which tells us we need to pay for the gas we put in the truck and asks why we haven't spent more money at the Home Depot.

"You are not getting ready to animate a mailbox, are you?"

"Well. I was thinking about it. What do you think?"

"R.U.F.F."

"I see."

I think the mail box and pole light should be the anchors to a flow... ROSE bed!

"RRRRUUUFFF! RUFF?"

"I know, boy. That's a BIG sacrifice. But really, there are lots of pieces of grass to pee on here at the Farm."

"Ruff."

"Wait! What? I must have dozed off. What's happening?"

"Oh... . Dear Missy. Go back to sleep."

"Well, ohhhkaaay. But whaaaa'ts ha.ppp..pp... zzzzzzz... .

What a great photo!

I was just bumming around the world wide web and saw that Aggie has a great new photo up. Quite appropriate, given that her little birdies are growing up.

Check it out!

"The bugle echoes shrill and sweet... "

"It is sweet and honorable"

From Trees and Other Poems, Joyce Kilmer, George H. Doran Company, New York, 1914.

Hey Marica?

"Yes, Missy?"

"You've been quiet today. What's up?"

"Well, the peas have aphids and I am really looking forward to peas."

"Ruff?"

"I know, Rocky! I should be looking for a pea sheller."

"Hey Marica!!"

"Yes, Missy."

"Did you see what I did today?"

"I watched you periodically. To what particular episode do you refer?"

"I jumped on and then from Mr. Big Food's chair all the way over to the couch in a single bound!!! Did you see me??"

"Yes. I did."

"Wasn't I great?"

"Yes. You were. It was awesome! I told everybody about it!"

"RUFF!!"

"You were too cool too, Rocky!"

"We rock-- hahahahah--"

"rufffffffffff"

"... and if I ever see that sort of behavior in the house again you are going to be in the dog house."

I don't know why I didn't think of this. It's Brilliant!

A rubber band. Brilliant!

Horatio Alger was a name I'd heard before. I went looking to see who he was. 

This whole book thing takes on another dimension now that  I'm thinking about rubber bands. 

I have a lot of books which are hanging together by a thread. Which? That?* 

A rubber band would do them good!

I just want to be

a Farmer outstanding in my field.

Like these two ladies!

photo courtesy of Mr. Big Food's Uncle.

(By the way-- they pulled up some of your line the other day.)

Dear Friends--

We have a lot of lettuce. 

Want some?

Oh My Goodness! We Should Play A Game!

We could resurrect the Dinner Party with fictional characters.

We could learn more words.

"Boooorrrrringgggg."

"ruff."

We could dig into those sentences in that canister. That's some history.

"You could, if you were so inclined, remember us, Marica. I mean, seriously, I spent almost the entire day in my box.

"I remember you! You're my dog!"

"Thank you. That's all I needed."

"You are welcome."

FREE DAY!!

These are some of the best photographs you will see all year.

I thinned the turnips today and SURPRISE! got some halfway decent turnips. And some decent turnips greens.  

Miss M & Her Friend weeded the tomato garden. 

Mr. Big Food & Tuffer arrived back at the Farm and the boyz decided to go fishin'.

This is the best photo. There's a whole story to tell. 

Tomorrow is Our Free Day!

"Free"

I like the sound of that word.

:-)

See that dress she's wearing? It has French seams.