Just to get this out of the way so that I can get back to studying…our supper is in the crock pot and will be eaten later tonight. Side dishes: field peas, butterbeans, and okra from yesterday and cantaloupe.

Chicken: Back Woods Family Farm
Carrots, onions, cutting celery, garlic, rosemary, thyme, and basil: the Back Forty
Butterbeans, field peas, and okra: the Back Forty
Cantaloupe: a farm stand in Ellerbe, NC

I thought that last week was the end of One Local Summer ‘07 but everyone else seems to be continuing so I’ll put ‘em up as long as I got ‘em.

A finished project, at last! The kitchen towels from earlier this summer, hemmed and washed. The two on the left are twill and the two on the right are plain weave, all from the same warp. I seem to be compelled to pursue more complicated patterns, but I really enjoy simple treadlings when I can lose myself in the rhythm of the weaving.

Here’s the first huckaback towel I just took off the loom. You can see the long floats that I’m unhappy with. I’m in the process of rethreading this warp and hopefully I’ll come up with a treadling I like that will avoid this problem. I like the huckaback texture between the vertical stripes.

The new pattern is not much different from the old in threading. The first treadling will echo the huckaback threading and the tie-up is straight twill.

The second treadling, since I’ll be ready for simplicity by then, will be a straight twill.

(Tabby on these tie-ups would be 1-2 and 3-4.)

See update about huck-a-back pattern.

I’ll probably have enough warp left for another towel, and I’ll experiment more with this WeaveDesign program. It is available as shareware for a donation from Pike’s Peak Weavers Guild. So far I like it a lot and I plan to send my donation now that I know that I’ll be using it. Unlike another freebie demo program I tried, I appreciate that this is true shareware and that I had a chance to work and experiment with it without time limits or limited capacity. This was very generous on their part!

Ah well, I figured my break wouldn’t be long. It’s the weekend and it’s hot as blazes outside.

I had a busy day today. Early this morning I began weeding and mulching the other path that was so out of control. I may have overdone it though because my elbow doesn’t feel too good. I pulled out all the broccoli that never produced for me.

Then I went to the farmers’ market and bought a couple of melons from Pat and Brian that I’ve never tried before. One is a crenshaw but I’ve already forgotten the name of the other one. It was French and started with a “c.” (chanteray?) I’ve been on a cantaloupe/melon tear lately. Too bad that I don’t have room to grow them. Maybe next year on the fence or along the south side of the house. Pat gave me a bunch of sweet peppers that had small bad spots on them, so I’ll roast them tomorrow. Also some Jimmy Nardello frying peppers that she was eager for me to try.

This has not been a good year for peppers for me, but I think that it is as much animals stealing them as it has been the drought and the bugs. I have one unidentified hot pepper that looks like a banana pepper that is really delicious and the insects don’t seem to like it. I put a couple of red ones in the tomato sauce for my lasagna the other night, and, thinking that it was a sweet banana pepper, popped a piece in my mouth. It was spicy hot and wonderful with a thick juicy wall. I definitely saved the seeds.

I also bought a small chicken from Back Woods Family Farm. I’m thinking about putting the whole thing in the crock pot. Any thoughts/feedback on that idea?

Also bought hydroponic lettuce for BLTs and honey/oatmeal soap for my horribly bug-bitten skin. I think that a spider crawled all over me early this week and bit me repeatedly. That’s what it looks and feels like.

Ran a bunch of errands, such as going to Deep Roots for the rest of the groceries, and to PetSmart for cat food. I buy huge amounts of cat food. There was a women in the adoption area that was totally hysterical about not being able to take home a cat that day. I felt sorry for everyone involved. Maybe I can see the potential for me having a meltdown in public and I’d hope that people would be that understanding of me. Sandy bought an algae-eating fish for the aquarium. That will be one well-fed fish, believe me.

Tonight I cooked a yellow squash/zucchini casserole with crackers instead of bread crumbs, and it was one of the best ones I’ve made so far this summer. I also ate field peas, butterbeans, and okra, seasoned with a little Liquid Smoke. Sandy got the leftover lasagna, which was also one of the best ones I’ve ever made. I credit the ground beef from Rocking F Farm and the hot peppers, tomatoes, and garlic from my garden.

I made butter and shelled peas and beans while I watched “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” and I’ll go on record as saying that I think Chuck Barris is a genius. He made a fortune selling outrageous crap, then wrote an autobiography that was so crazy it was brilliant, and got a bunch of movie stars to star in the film version.

It was good to see Gene, Gene the Dancing Machine again.

And finally, I spent a couple of hours in the studio weaving and listening to Prairie Home Companion. Tomorrow I’ll do it again and spend a lot of time reading for my class. I’ll post some photos then.

Got other things on my mind nowadays, so may take a short break from blogging. I figure that by writing that and getting it on record, I’ll be certain to get a visit from the muse and suddenly get blogging diarrhea.

Oops, probably shouldn’t use that metaphor on a blog that is mainly about food.

Anyway, my main news this week is that I started a new class last night called Creating Peace. It’s very touchy-feely and requires a lot of soul searching. Ironically, I’m not much in the mood for self-absorption right now. Normally, I’d be all over it. This blog has provided such a great outlet for introspection (many posts have been written and deleted!) that I have gotten a lot of it out of my system and I’m ready for a bit more privacy. Last night in the council circle I had the least to say of anyone. Yes, that was me, not taking advantage of the opportunity to talk about me. I’m sure that I’ll get over it soon - there’s too much drama queen in me.

I’ll have a lot of reading to do again, starting with The Four Agreements. I’m a tad psychologically resistant to stuff that sounds really new-agey but so far, it seems to have some amazing insights.

Back Forty: Hopefully the temps will drop and it will begin raining again so that I can concentrate on planting my winter garden. We got a good storm night before last but we need an enormous amount of rain to get out of our severe drought status. Mandatory water restrictions began this week so I’m happy that my four rain barrels have been refilled. I invested in them after we went through the last extreme drought here. I have one little okra pod waiting to be picked for my little pot of field peas and butterbeans when I get home. I’ll take what I can get these days.

Other news is that Sandy and I have entered the 21st century. We each now have a wireless laptop running Windows XP. It’s not the latest greatest thing, but it is a damn sight further up the ladder than my old PC/Windows 98 desktop. Just so that I don’t get too uppity, I’m still hanging on to my 93 Packard Bell. There’s a DOS game that I’m addicted to and I guess I’m attached to the old geezer.

Still don’t have a cell phone, so I haven’t completely changed!

I am winding way down. Things are much better this week, but I’m very tired and not necessarily in a good mood. Just sort of a “bleh, whatever” mood. Work tends to be of the “nibbled to death by ducks” variety, but I’ve wrapped up a few things. I can’t decide whether blasé is the way to go or not. It helps keep down my anxiety, for sure, but it’s not helping promote joy either.

One thing that has made me feel like I’ve made a difference is that Sandy and I went to two City Council meetings to advocate for Greensboro joining the Cool Cities by signing the U.S. Mayors Agreement on Climate Change. Our chapter of the Sierra Club made a big communication effort and get out the warm bodies effort with the mayor and the City Council and it seemed to have convinced those who were wavering. Filling the chambers with citizens always makes a big impression. With the main opposition absent, it passed unanimously and they added more information to it instead of removing parts. My friends Cat and Kim were great speakers!

One of the city councilpeople who was absent was my city councilperson, whose opinion on the matter no one seemed to know. Maybe that’s because she only answers the questions she feels like answering. Certainly she has never responded to anything I emailed her about. And it’s not because she is not computer-savvy - she has her own blog. We went to the council meeting after voting in her recall election - I guess that she was busy driving supporters to the polls. She says that our opinions don’t count because she is black and we are white and therefore racist, not because we don’t care for her lack of professionalism or ethics or responsiveness. Whatever - I plan to enthusiastically endorse Yvonne Johnson for our first African American female mayor. Ms. B-S can think what she wants. I just want a representative who will represent me.

The bitch of this is that even if she is recalled she could still be re-elected in November, a fact which I think probably made a lot of people not bother to vote today. And she is pumping out the vitriol about racism. That was pretty much the last straw for me, because using something so important to cover your ass shows a complete and utter lack of ethics to me. I don’t know how she thinks that she can understand my motives, but then again, I didn’t understand the crap she pulled that brought her to this recall election. I can forgive a lot of mistakes as long as the person can admit that they were wrong and apologize. If she had sincerely done that, I doubt I would have voted today.

Anyway, I think that I’ll go back to being blasé now. I did my patriotic duty tonight, hooray!

Update: Playing the race card worked - she kept her seat and blamed “outsiders” for causing her troubles. A shame, but not a surprise in Greensboro, where race often becomes involved in issues that have nothing to do with it. Hopefully in November, District 1 voters will find an adult to take her place.

Whoops, I almost forgot to post my last One Local Summer meal.

This was earlier this week, a very simple meal with pork chops, lightly floured and pan-fried. I bought them from Back Woods Family Farm earlier this year and froze them.

They were accompanied by my first and maybe only pot of butterbeans and field peas from my garden. I hope that they will recover from the heat and drought and give me some more in the fall. The butterbeans did that last year.

The tomatoes are Pineapple tomatoes, tossed with garlic, basil, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, served on parmesan walnut bread from Simple Kneads, my favorite local bakery. The tomatoes, garlic, and basil were from my garden. The rest comes from Deep Roots Market, a community co-operative grocery.

By the time you read this post, I will be on my way to the lake for the weekend. A hot weekend, but I’m hoping that it will be bearable and even enjoyable. My cousin and his wife, my sister and brother-in-law, and a couple that we’ve heard a lot of nice things about but never met will be there too.

If I wait any longer to do a Back Forty update, everything will have changed!

As everyone in the Southeast is well aware of, we’re having record high temperatures in North Carolina. This, combined with the Easter freeze and continued drought from the spring, has made it a tough year for gardeners and farmers. I can’t remember the last time it rained in the Back Forty - it’s been at least a couple of weeks, I’m sure. Sometimes I wish for more land, but at times like this I am grateful that I don’t have to water more. I’m not watering a lot, and I’m trying to dole out the rest of the rainwater in my barrels mainly to my container plants. The rest I water with the hose early in the morning or late in the evening every few days. I decided that it is not worth it to plant for the fall until we break out of this pattern of heat and drought. I’m guessing that we’ll be under mandatory water restrictions here soon.

The one Pineapple tomato plant that survived has been producing huge, sweet, mild tomatoes that are impressive and pretty. I’m glad now that the other dozen plants died because it would have been way too much! The Brandywines and Green Zebras have continued to produce in smaller sizes, and I got one Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter. Another unknown variety has provided more “tomatoey” orangish-red tomatoes with lovely shoulders (near the bottom center of the photo). I have been giving tomatoes away left and right. I made salsa with the Green Zebras and marinara sauce and fresh chopped tomatoes for bruschetta with everything else, especially the Amish Pastes. When I come back, I’m going to dry some, since I’m nearly out of my stash of dried yellow pear tomatoes from last year.

I pulled my yellow potato onions last Sunday and laid them out to cure on the table on the deck. My garlic was harvested a little over a month ago and it’s now in the studio on top of a salvaged window screen frame. This is my first year of planting onions. These are much smaller than I thought they would be, but I didn’t know what to expect. Some were planted last December and some were planted this spring.

My mother said that they used to plant these kind of onions when she was growing up and they called them “nest egg” onions. What happens is that you plant one small bulb, and it multiplies into several bulbs radiating out in a circle. You eat the largest ones and save the smallest ones to plant for the next year. Some of them have cloves like garlic.

It’s been such a weird year that it could be that they are supposed to be different and I wouldn’t know it. They were not evenly watered, that’s for sure.

I let three of the tromboncino squash grow as big as they liked as a curiosity. I love the way they look on the fence. My hope was that I’d get some more smaller ones to eat, but they dried up and fell off the vine. Oh well, maybe there’s still hope. It ain’t like I haven’t had enough squash this summer.

I also had my first pot of my own butterbeans and field peas this week. Mmmmm! Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like I’ll get thoroughly sick of field peas before the first frost this year, but I could be wrong.

The big thrill for me this week, food-wise, has been the bounty of these little fellas - ground cherries! I’m not much of a fruit eater, but I just love these. The volunteer plants do so much better than the ones I intentionally plant. The fruit come in their own little packages (husks like tomatillos) and they seem to love this awful weather, because they have been producing like crazy! They last forever unrefrigerated in a bowl on the counter, only getting sweeter. I treat it like a candy bowl, often grabbing some to put in my pocket for snacks. This is one weed that I am grateful for.

I’ll just say this: it’s been a very bad day and a half for me, with the forecast being a thick fog of hostile tension for a indefinite period of time, at a time of year when my nerves are always shot.

Moving on…

I’m trying to decide whether to continue with my plan to go to Lake Waccamaw this weekend. The weather forecast keeps changing. Right now at 6 p.m. it just dropped to 98 degrees here. Generally it is 10 degrees cooler at the lake, but if the wind isn’t blowing off the water it can be miserable there. The blackflies and mosquitoes will come out and there is no air conditioning. The last forecast I saw for Lake Waccamaw was highs in the low 90s Saturday and Sunday but mid-80s here. Sandy wants to go no matter what, but that is because he wants to ride his jet-ski, which has been a thorn in my side ever since he bought it eleven years ago without discussing it with me. Do you know how embarrassing it is for a environmentalist and simple living practitioner to have a jet-ski in the driveway? It didn’t seem big enough to get divorced over, but damn.

Anyway, I think I’ll drag my sad self back to the studio this evening for some weaving therapy. I feel like a kicked dog today.

The nicest thing in my life at this present moment is my little boy Squ!rt, who just crawled up in my lap and is purring loudly, even though I am too busy typing to pet him. Squ!rt often purrs just because I walk into a room. He follows me around conversationally meowing. Monday, I took him to the vet for a rabies shot and he was an absolute sweetheart. The vet was kind enough to give him a 3-year shot, even though he was past due, and the receptionist didn’t charge me for an office visit. He’s lost a lot of weight, which disturbs me a bit. He turned ten this summer.

If you had known him as a feral kitten, you never would have believed his sweetness now. Then he hated everybody. What grabs my heart the most is the way he hums and meows at the same time he is purring. It makes him sound like he is warbling. This little boy loves me, no doubt about it. There is an incredible bond between us because I fed him by hand for weeks when he was a tiny wild sick bag of bones.

His latest thing (I continue to type because I’m enjoying him on my lap) is stalking milk rings. For a while, we bought a particular kind of milk in a returnable glass bottle that has these plastic rings with little tabs all around the lid. I don’t know what goes on in Squ!rt’s head, but he caterwauls and moans and meows constantly as he plays with the things. The first time he did it, it was in the middle of the night and we thought that something was terribly wrong. Then I realized that he sounds just like Mama Kitty (his biological mother) when she catches live prey (her speciality is reptiles). He plays for a while, and eventually he picks up the ring, trots into whatever room we’re in, and proudly deposits it in front of us. Then he is praised for the mighty hunter that he is. He just started this new game this year at the age of ten years old. We have to hide the milk rings at night.