Traveling: Family Style

I hate hotels, I can't ever fall asleep or feel at home or relax.  They are just so crowded, noisy, impersonal, and uncomfortable (at least the cheaper ones in which we can afford to stay).  I much prefer to stay with friends or family, or the next best thing: renting one.  I'd much rather stay in someone's spare bedroom than even the poshest hotel of my personal experience, well maybe not my husband's aunt where the cat pees everywhere, but that would be the only exception.  Even better is finding a whole house/apartment/condo to rent.  We've done this several times now, often for the price of a bad hotel we get a whole condo to ourselves with multiple bedrooms, a full kitchen, and even laundry.  It is especially nice when traveling with young kids.  Have you ever tried to get a baby to nap in a hotel?  Or tried to hang out with said baby when she won't nap?  It's nice to spend part of the day hiking or sightseeing and then come home for a homey meal and a nap and then off to more adventures in the evening.  I was a little leery at first, but we've had great experiences with many of the rent my house/apartment/yurt/cabin/sofa websites and won't hesitate to do so again!

Let there be shoes (and a place to put them!)

It is ridiculous how many shoes are needed for just 6 feet and how much clutter it causes in the entryway.  I was in desperate need of a shoe rack but really not interested in spending $50 for something of cheap construct and tacky design.  Instead I borrowed a few bricks from the stack outside and found a few scrap pieces of laminate in the basement.  My grandmother has a bookshelf made by stacking bricks and barn wood, I adapted the technique for our shoe dilemma and it works great!  When we remember to use it...

Preserving flavorful weeds in 60 seconds or less

If you've ever found yourself with too many fresh herbs (store bought or home grown) this is the idea for you!  Dry your herbs in the microwave.  The results are surprising.  I've been air drying basil, which takes about a week and gives you a khaki green result.  This is actually green green and takes a couple minutes.  A good thing too, as most herbs seem to grow like weeds, and in the case of mint, they look like it too!

Wood cleaning magic!

I'm not usually a garage sale fanatic but today I happened upon a set of four solid wood folding chairs, well made and solid pieces but the wood was dusty, dirty, ugly and dry and when you tried to fold or unfold them they were a good exercise in arm strength.  My husband sort of looked at me like I had wasted $20 on the lot, but we desperately need extra seating for all the people he invites over for dinner all the time so I took a gamble.  Not having any commercial stuff to clean, lubricate, or restore wood I resorted to google and came across this article. 3/4 cup oil and 1/4 cup vinegar?  I had that, why not?  The chairs couldn't get any uglier!  I did add a few drops of lemon juice just for a nice smell and went to work.  Wow!  The chairs are clean and happy and actually sort of pretty (in a folding chair sort of way) and actually open and shut without fuss or noise or trouble.  Just like magic!

Benighted

It seems everybody is taking pictures of the night sky lately, I pretty much shrugged it off as a passing fad, mainly because my aging camera didn't have the ability.  Here's a great site if you want to learn the basics.  I particularly liked this quote, "unless you are lucky enough to live in a remote rural location with super dark night skies...," finally someone who envies where I live!

Hope amid the ashes

What is it with great writers and clinical narcissism?  Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters certainly have their prime examples (Lady Catherine in 'Pride and Prejudice' along with Jane's aunt in 'Jane Eyre' and the husband in 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall,' just to name a few), but I seem to run across it in many famous or classic books.  I just read T.H.White's 'The Once and Future King' and it comprises the entire base of the story amongst the 'Orkney Faction:' Morgause and her sons.  It is scarily fascinating how he actually delves briefly into the issue, determining that it is the mother's relationship with her child that imbues him or her with courage and love for others, etc. rather than acquiring it externally from teachers or experience.  This is not to say such things cannot be learned later in life, but if no conscious effort is made to acquire them, and we merely live out our lives unconscious to our own failings as is the wont of so many, the result can be disastrous, as the tale goes on to show.

The scientific and sociological literature rarely touches on this subject, and if it does, it is only a brief and indifferent look at the havoc it can wreak upon the human heart, soul, and mind, especially when it is a parent.  But it is heartening to find that we are not alone, that it has been a social travesty down through the ages, and perhaps the suffering and grief involved in such relationships has produced some of the world's greatest writers and most renowned books.  The home is supposed to be safe and sacred, it is our first introduction to the world and our initial classroom, but what happens when it becomes twisted, broken, and cruel?  Certain authors have offered us a glimpse into such a hell and the demons it is wont to produce, but we also find that all is not lost, they have escaped it and proved that they have become stronger thereby and that gives hope to all who lived through just that, whether we yet realize it or not.

All's fair in love and war, but what about the county fair?

Ah Fair Season, to most people on the planet I suppose that really doesn't mean much, but here in the literal middle of nowhere, it is a very exciting and busy time...at least it used to be.  I've been taking stuff to the fair for as long as I can remember, first open class baking with my grandmother then a hundred different 4-H projects and later open class photography.  Now I'm taking a little of this and a little of that and getting my son involved too (his second year as Grand Champion in the youth Foods division).  This year was also my first year actually judging anything.  I've never judged radishes before, but I was in charge of the entire 4-H gardening division (consisting entirely of the aforementioned radishes and a clump of rhubarb).  Our fair is really, really small (I used to exhibit at the biggest county fair in the entire state, which was bigger than my current state's State Fair).   don't know how long it can go on or survive, perhaps it is just that our tiny community doesn't have the population to support a county fair or perhaps it is that it is a dying tradition, like so much else in this anti-social, technical, and politically correct age.

Small as it is, I have been satisfied with the judging at our little fair, at least until this year.  I entered a fair once where it was very obvious that the awards were based on the name rather than the exhibit and I never entered anything there again.  It takes time, money, and thought to get something together and what's the point if you are doomed to lose because you don't have the right last name?  The photography exhibit this year was a little like that (everything else was fine).  One person had about 29 pictures (they have every right to enter as many or few as they choose) and every one did great while the rest of the entries really didn't amount to much though several of the pictures were far superior to those of the person in question.  I would love nothing more than a healthy selection of excellent photos, but when a person with a display of mediocre pictures steals the show, it is rather discouraging.  Perhaps the judge just had different taste or a less scrupulous eye, but the pictures selected as 'excellent' were far from it, they weren't bad but they sure weren't great.  Perhaps that is why the county fair is languishing, when the judging becomes partisan, no one wants to take the time or bother to enter anything.  Which is a pity, for we need art and beauty and crafts and flowers and good food and creativity in this technical age of isolation and languishing community.  Perhaps it was a fluke, and we'll give it another try, somebody has to carry on the tradition if it is to remain one!