Rhonda's Ramblings

I love when you are driving along the highway in what seems like the middle of nowhere and you suddenly come upon a cute little antique store or gift shop.

Today, I visited on of my favorite middle of nowhere shops. This cute little Christmas gift shop is in an old farmhouse along the highway. Blink and you miss it. They are only open on weekends in December, so shopping days are limited.

I’d been planning on taking a special trip out there this season, and realized that today was my last chance since I will be out of town next weekend. I decided that even though the snow was falling pretty heavily, I would venture out to see what treasures I could find.

And I did find some treasures. Not only is this shop cute and charming, but they are also cheap. Just my style.

Last night, just as I was drifting off to sleep, I suddenly sat up in bed, remembering something that I forgot to do at work.

I think I mentioned that it has been cold here…very cold. So cold that the pipes at work are frozen, which means that there is no working bathroom.

After 8 1/2 hours of no restroom breaks, I had to go pee. And I had to go bad. I didn’t even get a chance to leave for a lunch break, since I was the only employee there. (I work in a retail garden and gift shop.) So, I was in a huge rush to get out of there and find a bathroom quickly.

In my haste, I forgot to blow out the candles and turn off the heater. But of course I didn’t remember until the middle of the night. Well, 12:30 am, which is close to the middle of the night.

So, after a few minutes of deliberations, I got out of bed, bundled up to go out in the freezing cold to drive back to work and blow out the candles. I knew I wouldn’t get good sleep if I didn’t. Worst case scenarios were running through my head. Like the cat getting in and knocking the candle over which would of course lead to a fire and burn all of the Christmas decorations.

But you know what made it all better? When I got in my car, my favorite Christmas album was playing. I found it in my car cassette player yesterday, where I have apparently been storing it since last Christmas.

I’m obsessed with Thompson Peak. It takes my breath away often. I take pictures of it all the time…while I’m driving, while I’m on a walk, while I’m working on the farm. These are just a small sampling of the many pictures that I’ve taken in the past month. I love how it comes alive in different ways depending on how the light hits it. And I love that the house site that we have chosen has a glorious view of this mountain. Which picture jumps out at you?

We are starting a CSA! What is a CSA? Well, Thanks for asking.(It stands for Community Supported Agriculture.) Basically, it is a subscription vegetable program. Our customers pay a fee up front and we provide them with vegetables each week throughout the growing season.

Here is a little slide show that I put together to show what our farm has been up to for the last couple of years.

For a little more information on CSAs and to find a local farm near you, visit localharvest.org.

Yesterday couldn’t decide if it wanted to be a sunny day or a day full of huge downpours. Because of its uncertainty, I thought it would be a great day to see a rainbow.

When I was in elementary school, we memorized the conditions for a rainbow, and I still go over them in my head for some reason.

1. The rain must be falling in front of you.
2. The sun must be shining behind you.
3. It must be morning or afternoon.

Despite the fact that all of these conditions were in place at different times, I still could not find that elusive rainbow.

Until…..I was driving home from grocery shopping and alas….not just one rainbow, but a double rainbow!!

(I don’t think the second rainbow showed up in the pictures.)

So bright! So abundant! So summer!

#51.
Jen

Check out her site. She’s got some beautiful picture frames.

#167

Latharia

Check out her alliterative blog.

Congratulations to the winners!

I am participating in the One World-One Heart 2009 giveaway.

Have you ever played this game?

If not, I highly recommend it. Especially with a large group. I can guarantee much laughing and hilarity and snorting. At least that’s what happens when my family plays it.

But I recommend the version from Amazon. The one on Target’s shelves has different graphics that I don’t like as much. They make it a tiny bit more difficult to play.

That’s all I’ve got for you today.

Did you celebrate the holiday yesterday? It was National Pie Day. (Thanks to Bex for letting me know.)

When I told my sweet husband (who is a math teacher) that it was National Pie Day, he said, “No, that’s not until March 14th. 3.14 Pi day.” Math nerds have their own holidays apparently.I personally am more of a fan of pie than I am of pi. But that’s just me.

In honor of this day, I will give you a link to a previous post I wrote:

As American as Apple Pie

All this talk of pie reminds me that I still have the $80 Kitchen Store gift card that I won for the pie contest. I should really spend that.

I will leave you with a picture of a pear crumb pie. And I will let you in on a secret. The special ingredient in pear pie is mace.

Animals that we saw on our Sunday drive:

Magpies
Goats
Horses
Wild Horses (in pens)
Deer (they are a dime a dozen.)
Sheep
Hawk
Chickens
Llama
Bald Eagle
Buffalo (not wild)

And probably some others. Sure, most of those were not wild animals. But the Bald Eagle was the 2nd in 2 days. Pretty awesome.

We like to think that it is our habit to take Sunday drives after church, but in reality, it’s been a long time since we’ve taken the time to explore. (And let’s be honest here. We actually skipped church to take this drive. But only because we arrived late at church and our church is SO awkward to walk into late and it usually means that we can’t sit together.)

When we do make the time, we try to take a few essentials:

1. Altimeter

Just because it’s fun to see the elevation changes that we are making.

2. Northern California Atlas & Gazetteer

It has maps of back roads and dirt roads, but unfortunately this weekend it led us astray. It listed roads that do not exist and others that were gated off by the landowners, presumably. We were disappointed, but someday when the roads are not so muddy, we will find the way through.

3. Camera (since mine broke, we were using Jason’s old 2.0 megapixel camera, and I was pleasantly surprised with the pictures.)

4. Food. Always an essential.

Since I am still a newcomer to this county, I love exploring and getting to know where the roads lead. Probably a symptom of my wanderlust.

So, last night, my wonderful husband walked in the door with the mail and asked me if I was expecting a package from Amazon. I looked at him blankly, quickly going through my memory trying to figure out what Christmas present we had ordered that had not arrived yet.

He had a twinkle in his eye, because he thought he knew what it was. He did, and I had no clue.

But when I opened it, I was quite excited. Giddy would probably be a better word. Not quite daffodil giddy, but giddy nonetheless.

Remember the sad story of my camera?

Last week, I decided that I would use some credit card reward points that I had been saving up for years, really.

And last night my reward arrived!

“Why the 770?”, you ask. Well, thanks for asking. Two reasons, really:

1. I wanted a Canon PowerShot that was similar to my old camera.

2. I had enough points for this one.

I’m so thrilled. I was not expecting it to arrive so soon, because the website said 3 to five weeks.

And it was free!

Okay, this post doesn’t have much to do with parsimony, but it was just so alliterative. I will, however, be talking about parsnips.

Perhaps you are unfamiliar with parsnips, as was I. That is, until last week, when a nice lady at our church invited us over to dig some from her garden. Harvesting vegetables in the dead of winter appealed to me, as did trying a new veggie.

According to my Western Garden Book:

(Parsnips) are a carrot relative form Siberia and Europe; grown for its delicately sweet creamy white to yellowish roots, most often used in stews.

Sounded yummy, now to find a recipe. (Not to follow, mind you, but as a jumping off point.) I have recently decided that instead of running to the internet to find recipes, I need to look through my kajillions of recipe books first. So, I did. I have vegetable recipe books galore, but no luck on a parsnip recipe. Finally, I found one in my trusty Taste of Home Cookbook. Pretty basic and simple. Sounded good to me.

1. I peeled the parsnips.
2. I cut up the parsnips into small pieces.
3. I placed the parsnips into a baking dish.
4. I poured about 1/4 cup of water over the parsnips
5. I dabbed a few dots of butter over the top of parsnips.
6. I shook salt, pepper and italian seasoning onto the parsnips.
7. I baked at 400F for about 30-40 minutes.
8. I was partook of the a parsnips and was pleased. Similar to a potato, but a bit sweeter.

If you have not tried these delicious root vegetable, I recommend them.

Image by Dave Walker.

Sorry about the crummy pictures, but you know the story of my camera.

So, let’s talk about food. And not just about what I’m making for dinner tonight. Though that is always a fun subject.

I was listening to Marketplace on NPR a couple of weeks ago. It was a story about “Redefining poverty in the US. According to the reporter, “…food has gone from a third of a family’s costs in the ’60s to an eighth today.” That struck me. From 30% of our income to 12.5% is a big change. And it made me wonder. With all the talk about food prices going up, are they really just staying pretty level overall? Why are we spending so much less? What does that other 17% go towards? Satellite TV? Car payments? Savings?

As I was listening to this story, I was reminded of a letter that Michael Pollan wrote to the next president. In this letter he states:

What our food system does well is precisely what it was designed to do, which is to produce cheap calories in great abundance. It is no small thing for an American to be able to go into a fast-food restaurant and to buy a double cheeseburger, fries and a large Coke for a price equal to less than an hour of labor at the minimum wage — indeed, in the long sweep of history, this represents a remarkable achievement.

So, perhaps this is why we spend so much less on food. Because we can. And we can still get enough food to quench our hunger…and even to make us obese. And we don’t have to work as hard to get our food as people may have had to in the past.

Is this a good thing? I’m not sure. Would we value food more if we had to pay more for it? Are we willing to pay more for better quality food?

I am, admittedly, a bargain shopper. (And I may be a bit proud of that fact. ) But I’m willing to pay more for locally grown quality produce, which is usually way better than the outdated produce that I can find in our supermarket.

I know that I have more questions than answers, but I do recommend reading that whole Micheal Pollan article, even though it is long. I don’t agree with everything he says, but he does have some good thinking points.

So, what percentage of your income do you spend on food? Do you pay more for better quality (whether it is perceived to be better quality like a brand name, or actually better quality like produce that is fresh and crisp)? Do you feel like it is more expensive to eat healthier?

*I should say, that upon further research (on the internet of course), I was not able to find the statistics that Marketplace quoted. Most of the statistics that I found online quoted much lower food expenditure percentages in the 1960’s than Marketplace reported. I did find couple of articles that may give you a better idea of the actual change in food expenditures.

Food Expenditure Table

Americans spend less than 10% of income on food.

Time for pumpkins.

And I love the way the morning light shines on the hills and accents the fall color on the trees. It makes me gasp from the beauty. Really. Every morning, I point it out to Jason, because it still catches me a bit by surprise.

We got our first eggs from our hens today. Two beautiful eggs. I am practically giddy over them. Are eggs supposed to do that to you? I have always wanted to have my own chickens. And even though only 20% survived the ravenous foxes, we now have fresh eggs!

This plum tree in our backyard is a survivor. This tree is tough. We live in the desert and get about 13.44 inches of rain a year. And this tree gets no extra water, yet it produced a bucketful of plums this year.

So I did what any aspiring farmer’s wife would do. I decided to make plum butter. Now, I am not what one would call a “recipe follower”. To me, recipes are just jumping off points. Most of the time this works out well…but not always.

The thing that I don’t love about making fruit butters is the standing over the stove, constantly stirring. So, I decided to just put it in the crockpot. And I didn’t want to use as much sugar as most of the recipes called for, so I didn’t. And I didn’t really measure anything.

And it turned out yummy!!

I can’t believe that it has been over two years since I’ve posted here. I blame it mostly on Jason!

A lot has happened in the last couple of years. I quit my job, took a drive around the country and then moved to a somewhat remote area of northern California. Okay, we do have a Walmart nearby, so it is not that remote. But it is pretty small and isolated.

I moved here to see if things would work out with a guy I met. And things ended up working out wonderfully!

I am now Mrs. Meadows. Except I would prefer not to be called that. It sounds like I’m old. I will answer to Rhonda Meadows though. Isn’t it a perfectly delightful last name?

Since I haven’t been updating my blog. It’s taken me a couple of months to introduce my new friend Harper.

Harper is the brother to Daxon and Tayven.

Leave the Pieces by The Wreckers

You’re not sure that you love me
But you’re not sure enough to let me go
Baby it ain’t fair you know to just keep me hangin round
You say you don’t wanna hurt me
Don’t wanna see my tears
So why are you still standing here just watchin me drown

And it’s alright, yeah I’ll be fine
Don’t worry about this heart of mine
Just, take your love and hit the road
There’s nothing you can do or say
You’re gonna break my heart anyway
So just, leave the pieces when you go

Now you can drag out the heartache
Or baby you can make it quick
Really get it over with and just let me move on
Don’t concern yourself with this mess you left for me
I can clean it up you see just as long as you’re gone

And it’s alright, yeah I’ll be fine
Don’t worry about this heart of mine
Just, take your love and hit the road
There’s nothing you can do or say
You’re gonna break my heart anyway
So just leave the pieces when you go

You’re not making up your mind
It’s killing me wasting time
I need so much more than that
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

And it’s alright, yeah I’ll be fine
Don’t worry about this heart of mine
Just, take your love and hit the road
There’s nothing you can do or say
You’re gonna break my heart anyway
So just leave the pieces when you go
Leave the pieces when you go
Leave the pieces when you go