Let’s Talk About the Weather

In 1998 I wrote this song. I envisioned people gathered around a campfire, relaxing, having a few beers, gabbing, and telling tales.

Talk About the Weather

Chorus:

When country folk all get together

They always talk about the weather

And if it’s dry they’ll wish it wetter 

And if it wet they’ll want sunshine.

They all remember years gone by

When it was cold, or wet, or dry,

When lightening creased the southern sky,

When snow lay thick among the pines.

Verses:

The blossoms came quite late this year,

There’s lots of twins among the deer,

The skies at night are crystal clear,

The beaver’s coats are thick, I hear.

The groundhog’s shadow failed to show,

The robins red stand in a row,

Sun dogs, moon beams, skies aglow, 

Read the signs and you will know.

Watch the critters, check the moon,

Expect late frost in early June,

The rains will come too late, too soon,

The scorching heat the crops will ruin.

Minus 20 in late September,

Colder yet by mid November.

New Year’s Eve, do you remember

The black ice and the fender benders?

A twister took Elijah’s shed

While he was fast asleep in bed.

“The weather’s strange these days,” he said,

And quietly he shook his head.

The neighbours came with boards and nails,

They worked all day ‘til light had paled 

Then settled down to drink some ale 

And share with friends their weather tales.

Twenty-four years ago I decided to write this little ditty to acknowledge what was clearly obvious. The weather is super important - to everyone. No one is exempt. Ranchers must be outdoors regardless of the season because critters need tending. The weather is critical for commercial vegetable growers, gardeners and those who grow cereal crops - it can create a make or break situation. Numerous people work outside, usually on projects that keep our infrastructure up and running. When services fail people can be in danger. Weather can create more than an inconvenience for townies and city folk. It can determine whether they get to work, go to school, drive safely, shop, keep warm or cool. Weather is an entity that cannot be ignored. It can be perfect, benign, inconvenient, or extreme.

This winter has been especially tough - heavy snow, freezing rain, flooding, sub-zero temperatures, tornadoes - often in places not accustomed to such extremes. When people are unfortunate enough to be caught in a catastrophic weather event they experience a major upheaval in their lives, for some life changing, for some deadly. 

Weather was once a safe topic, unlike religion or politics (or vaccines), something we all experience and can relate to. In the 21st century even weather has become controversial. Some talk of global warming, some say climate change, some say it’s no different than it’s always been but we hear about it more through today’s worldwide media. Some scoff at all the climate change rhetoric, some take it seriously, some say it’s just a natural cycle, some say human activity is pushing our planet toward a tipping point. 

Regardless of our views on the subject, we will always remember weather events, we will keep checking the forecast, and we will hope extremes don’t come our way. One thing I’m pretty sure is true - we will never, ever stop talking about the weather.

mltipton.blogspot.com, https://www.facebook.com/Northof543/, Jan. 9, 2022

Where is Mandy?

oh where, is Mandy? 

I lost my cousin Mandy. Her email box is full. Her cell phone no longer connects. I don’t have her address. I can’t find her!

Mandy is older than me but has always been quite lively, in good shape. She’s a horticulturist and was in charge of the herbal section of a botanical garden in her city until her somewhat recent retirement. She’s a traveller too, loves Ireland. She’s my only cousin on my Mom’s side of the family.

Every year Mandy writes a long Christmas letter/greeting, catching up on her comings and goings during the year. Not this year. Mandy is missing. I even searched obits for the last year in her city and came up with nothing. I wonder, has she gone into a retirement or nursing home? Where is she? Is she okay?

This situation has hit home. What if something happened to me or my husband, or both of us. Would acquaintances/distant family know? Would they wonder what happened to us if our Christmas greeting failed to come, if my Facebook page became inactive, my blog ceased to update? Would my son know who to contact? 

I almost missed the passing of another friend, a local who moved to the city, someone who was, in times past, often in my life. I’d tried to reach out to her with a Facebook message, with no response of course. She was well over 90 so I had my suspicions. Eventually the grape vine became my informant.

It’s respectful, I believe, to keep in touch now & then, not just with friends, but with acquaintances as well, and it’s an act of kindness to make a list (and give it to someone who will act on it) of who to contact and what information to pass onto them if you are no longer able to do so. Men I have talked to on this subject say, “So what, if I’m dead, I’m dead”. And maybe that’s the level of response that would be generated in many cases. But one thing I’ve discovered over my long life - you never really know how important you are to another person, or how deeply their memories go. One thing my search for Mandy has made clear - it’s better to know. I have written a note for my son to let him know who to contact should the need arise. 

So Mandy… I went to the search engine on my email account and searched her name for past messages. Nothing is ever really gone from your computer even if you trash it. I found one from a cousin of Mandy‘s on her Dad’s side, also looking for Mandy. What I had not seen was a reply from her with a new land line phone number for Mandy. Apparently this cousin did find her. Mandy joked with her about her worries. “All is fine”, she said, “Hungarians never have emergencies”. This email was sent in early November, 2021. Today, 2 months later, I tried this new phone number. Mandy did not answer but it was her voice on the message. Hopefully she will call back. Maybe Mandy isn’t really missing…

December 31st

Mandy called, and like the Mandy of old she talked and talked some more. I got her address. We plan to keep in touch often. It was good, in a way, this wake up call. People can get lost, sometimes they lose themselves.

Cousin Mandy, me, my sister Karen & an old friend

On my uncle’s boat on Lake Erie, summer 1958

New Age Shopping

Okay, I’ll admit it, I’m hooked. I love on-line shopping, especially Amazon. It’s just so darn handy! I am centrally located on a farm about 65 km from four small  towns and 175 km from a city centre. Shopping means time spent on the road and gas money, and there’s times I don’t even find the product I’m looking for. If I’m not in a big hurry I can order what I need on-line and pick it up at my mail box. If I lived in the city my purchases would come right to my door. Hard to beat that! I can even buy for someone else and have it shipped directly to them. When my sister was in a retirement home 1500 miles away from me I could get her the things she needed with the tips of my fingers, right down to TV snacks, food supplements, socks, personal care items, cat food and kitty litter! And shipping costs are negligible. The cost of an Amazon Prime membership is less than the cost of one trip to town per month - with Prime there are no shipping charges.

Yes, of course, I have concerns - small business closures, lost jobs, the possibility of luring an unsuspecting public into a convenient system that becomes a monopoly when all the other options have been swallowed up. Nevertheless I think this is the wave of the future. Price, availability, convenience - that’s tough competition.

People tend to resist change but slowly it seeps into normalcy. Who would have thought, 20 or more years ago, that a business model such as this would catch on? Funny how science fiction becomes science fact. We’ve seen it often in the last 50 years or so.

How can small business stand in the way of a moving freight train - compete with the massive buying power, acres of warehousing facilities, door to door service, and corporate postal agreements of companies like Amazon? Pretty hard formula to beat! Now add a pandemic to this equation… The future of small business in-person shopping looks a bit glum.

On-line shopping is not the only culprit. Big box stores can slit the proverbial throats of many a small business when they arrive on the scene. That centralized location of mine gives me an opportunity for direct comparison of the downtown section of two communities, one with a vibrant downtown, the other one with lots of room to park. Guess which one has big box stores.

Some people like to shop, browse their way through the malls, pick up fresh foods for dinner, stop for lunch with a friend, check out new fashions, take advantage of sales. Most of these people live in a town or city, and these are the folks who are most likely to keep local shops thriving.

But, with computer shopping cornering more and more of the market it’s important for local outlets to pay attention to those qualities that attract customers to their door. Knowing your customers needs and making sure you are well stocked is important, but ambiance (as in the case of restaurants); clean, orderly and attractive display of goods; discounts (seniors love these), reward programs, membership rebates; competitive pricing; and catering to product requests can also make a difference. For me the single most important reason to shop in a particular store is courteous, friendly, knowledgeable SERVICE. A business that treats its customers like a valuable asset is a business that will retain customers. This is where good staff comes in. When I go to a store where the staff stands around chatting away with other staff members or on the phone, where they don’t know where products are located, have no product knowledge or if they even sell those products, where they treat me as if they’re doing me a favour by taking my money… well I find another store. 

Having said all this I need to stop and make an Amazon order. I need canning jar lids and they’re a hard commodity to find these days. The interrupted supply chain and an unexpected increase in demand seems to have caught local stores by surprise.

mltipton.blogspot.com, https://www.facebook.com/Northof543/, Nov. 1, 2021

Hot Chilli Peppers

It all started with the purchase of a pack of “fresh” hot peppers, on sale, 1/2 price. Who am I to pass up a bargain? Besides there’s all those tomatoes ripening upstairs and salsa is on the canning agenda. But, in the mean time there’s that BBQ sauce recipe that calls for 2 jalapeños… (The package said Thai peppers, I assumed a hot pepper is a hot pepper…?)

I found out when making my spaghetti sauce that reducing the abundant liquid found in tomatoes requires at least twice the time the recipe is willing to admit. The spaghetti sauce recipe I used called for 25 lbs of tomatoes and said simmer for 6 hours, stirring every 15 minutes (yes, really, every 15 minutes!). It was super runny after the first 6 hours. 

Reducing the BBQ sauce to the desired thickness took three days, including shoving the whole works through a sieve and blending it with my hand blender. I also added 3 times the amount of sugar the recipe called for to alleviate some of the heat produced by 2 wee jalapeños! Twelve pounds of tomatoes yielded 3 pints of super zinger BBQ sauce. I might tuck this recipe in the back of the book, with some warning notes.

And then there’s the small pot of chilli I made - to use up some of those tomatoes…and chilli peppers.

“Hmmm,” I said, “this pot of chilli got out of hand, not the one meal portion I had in mind. Maybe we should invite the neighbour down for supper..?” 

Oops. Good thing we had a bottle of antacid tabs and enough bread to cool down the heat of our hot tamale soup. Next day it was back to the wood stove in an attempt to reduce the liquid to a chilli consistency. I also added lots and lots of stuff to counteract the effect of the jalapeños! In went 2 more cans of beans, another pound of ground beef, numerous tomatoes, 2 quarts of spaghetti sauce (they didn’t seal when canned and were still in the fridge) and some flour mixed with the hot liquid. This was no longer a one day meal! As it turned out I had exactly 7 quarts of chilli - a full canner. Nice when things work out like that. So 10 lbs pressure and 90 minutes later I was finally done with the chilli…well nearly. Next day when I checked the jars I discovered 3 out of the seven didn’t seal. Some days a person should just sit in a swing and stare at the beautiful autumn leaves.

Remember that salsa I said I’d make? Nope, just making stewed tomatoes from now on. I don’t think much can go wrong there, you don’t add anything but salt.

mltipton.blogspot.com, https://www.facebook.com/Northof543/, Oct.5, 2021

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes!

Only 4 full sized tomato plants of unknown variety, possibly Bonnie’s Best, yielding about 80 beauties per plant. The little ones shown here are called Tumblers & are great for snacking. We have been eating ripe ones directly from our 2 Tumbler plants for quite awhile.

This tomato crop may seem insignificant for someone who is gardening and preserving for a family of growing children, but for my household of two seniors it’s a bonanza! In all my years North of 54 I’ve never had such a bountiful crop, and several of the large ones even ripened on the vine. 

Now, as the green tomatoes ripen under their cozy covers, I keep an eye on them, collect those that are ready, and make tomato stuff - a sometimes daunting, time consuming, yet rewarding process. Our favourite lunch has become buttered toast, layered with tomato and topped with cheese, then baked or broiled till the cheese melts. Scrumptious! I used 25 pounds to make spaghetti sauce, plan on using 12 pounds for BBQ sauce, made green tomato relish, will probably make salsa, and am thinking about Bruschetta. The rest I will can as stewed tomatoes. Hopefully by Thanksgiving (Canadian) the tomato bonanza will be stored away for winter - the last garden task until next year. Will I grow fewer tomatoes in 2022? I’ll decide by what’s left in the root cellar come Spring.

These are called Juliettes.They are a bit like a Roma but smaller - meaty with tough skins. Juliettes are an heirloom variety. Heirloom tomatoes are annual vegetable plants that have not been crossbred or hybridized for at least 40 years. They are open-pollinated, meaning the seeds will produce plants identical to the parent plant. This means you can save your heirloom tomato seeds and grow the same tomatoes next year. I had only one plant but it was prolific. Just yesterday, after frost finally scorched its leaves, I picked another half basket.

mltipton.blogspot.com, https://www.facebook.com/Northof543/, Sept. 27, 2021

Success at Last… Carrot Seed!

It’s raining, precisely when it shouldn’t be, at harvest time. We needed it earlier but got drought instead, and ever since Spring farmers and gardeners have been coping with a strange and none too friendly growing season. But at the moment I’m rather a jolly person because I did it! At least I think I did. Short of a germination test I have finally, after 3 years, managed to produce mature carrot seed. For those who are unaware of this, carrots are biennials, meaning they produce seed in their second year of growing. In central Alberta it gets a might too cold in winter to grow carrots for two years. We dig them up and store them for winter eating, replanting new seeds every spring. I have seen the occasional missed carrot pop up and grow some foliage, but have never seen a volunteer carrot flower. So for 2 years I planted nice looking last year’s carrots from my cellar, ones with a bit of greenery showing at the top, and watched them produce flowers but never mature seeds. This year I planted one carrot indoors in a deep pot, then planted this well started carrot outside in late May when it had warmed sufficiently to plant the rest of the garden. The flowers grew, and this time the flower heads produced seed. Voila! Magic"

There’s a good video called “How to Collect Carrot Seeds” by Gardener Scott. He explains the process of picking and cleaning the seeds in clear detail. Last year I collected a few and followed his method to clean them. A few of those seeds did germinate when tested, but they were small. I have much higher hopes for the seeds I’ve grown this year as they look quite mature.

I also planted a beet this year - they too are biennials. I think maybe I’ve succeeded in producing beet seed as well, but they don’t look as good as the carrot seeds and it’s my first try. I plan to collect and save tomato seeds as well, an easy process for which there’s also a good YouTube video. I’ll save seeds from my butternut squash (I’ve already stored away 14 lovely squashes), zucchini, and many flowers - marigolds, poppies, pansies, snap dragons. Cucumbers were a bust this year, as were beans and peas. They just didn’t want to come out of the ground and by the time they did it was too late to produce much of anything. So no seeds there. Oh well, Alberta is next year’s country and every year presents new challenges.

mltipton.blogspot.com, https://www.facebook.com/Northof543/, Sept. 1, 2021

The Seductive Power of Convenience

The other day when chatting with some friends I said I couldn’t understand the allure of pancake mix, why people buy it. Pancakes are so easy to make, I said. I know the recipe by heart - 1 cup of flour, 2 t baking powder, 1/2 t salt, 2 T sugar, 1 egg, 2 T melted butter, milk to make a batter that’s thick but pourable. The responses I got were things like - But have you tried this or that brand? So good and all you have to add is water! True, there’s no measuring spoons needed, no thought, no need to keep all these ingredients on hand, and pretty good pancakes too. Why should we take those few extra minutes to make them from scratch? Our time is valuable after all.

In my mother’s generation (she was born in 1910) convenience meant a fridge replacing an ice box, an automatic washer instead of a ringer washer. In cookery came Bisquick (the beginning of pancake and biscuit mixes), margarine with the colour pre-mixed in, and frozen TV dinners. My mom loved TV dinners right up until the end of her life and, having cooked meal after meal for over 50 years of marriage, it isn’t hard for me to understand why. But we’ve come a long way since my mother’s time. Convenience has taken over the market place.  We do not want to do anything menial. We have not taught our children how, we have forgotten how ourselves. Our expectations have gone miles beyond necessity. We have embraced easy solutions in the name of gaining time to do things we perceive as more important. We have become lazy, unwilling, or unable, to perform even the simplest of tasks. It seems we now need individual packets of nearly every food, coffee packed in single serve pods, full meals delivered to our door, frozen biscuits... Few households lack dishwashers, washers, dryers, blenders, fryers, crock pots… Many families have 2 or 3 vehicles, an RV, a boat, a 5000 sq foot home… Yet we say we struggle to “make ends meet”. Really?

Clever marketing has convinced us to buy and buy more. Quality is sacrificed for quantity. Things are not built to last. The ever growing and totally unsustainable GDP has become the mantra of our market driven capitalistic society. Without new and better things, we are told, we will not be happy or successful.

The internet, movies and TV have stoked a worldwide desire for the perfect middle or upper class comfortable life portrayed in the majority of films produced. If we don’t live this way we want to - we feel we have a right to - we feel oppressed if we are unable to achieve this expected lifestyle. In Canada, although we may do the final assembly, we have nearly stopped producing the components of most products. We embrace the global economy because it makes it possible for us to obtain goods at low prices, delivered right to our door. We say we love the planet and its people, but our greed for more and more of everything at a “reasonable” price has enabled giant corporations to become “too big to fail”, gaining the good will, including subsidies, of our government, making billions in profits while locally owned and operated businesses struggle to survive. We salve our conscience by getting on one bandwagon or another - save the old growth trees, boycott palm oil, stop eating meat… We all try to do something - conserve, recycle, vote out backward thinking pundits, make a scratch cake, ride a bike... But no one wants to go back to the good old days except with memories. We, the citizens of first world countries, continually strive for an easier life even though by world standards we already have an easy life.

The cost of maintaining our comfortable life style is not reflected in the dollar amount we pay. We ignore the fact that nearly everything is manufactured all or in part in countries where wages are well below the poverty line and environmental standards are nonexistent. All this stuff  is shipped to our shores in giant fuel guzzling container ships, then trucked to its final destination. The gap between those who have and those who don’t is widening. Inequalities, real or perceived, are stoking fires of resentment. It’s a cauldron of despair, simmering its way to the boiling point and nearly ready to spill over.

The pandemic has illustrated some of the weaknesses in our global economy. We are being inconvenienced by a lack of products to buy, slow shipping, unavailable replacement parts, but until/unless the economy actually collapses we will likely continue to sail along, never satisfied that we have enough, oblivious to any harm we are causing. 

Has our unabated desire to consume trapped us in an endless spiral? Natural climate change has been exacerbated by poor, unthinking practices in the realms of resource extraction and manufacturing. The earth’s population continues to increase. Our present course is unsustainable. Survival may require us to embrace community over individuality. We may have to be satisfied with less. 

I guess I am not the only person thinking along these rather gloomy lines. But I don’t think it’s hopeless. I see incredible innovations, inventions coming about, as well as a shift in philosophical thought. I've met lots of intelligent, energetic and caring people, many of them still young. Change is on the wind. 

mltipton.blogspot.com, https://www.facebook.com/Northof543/, July 24, 2021