Turkey Tracks: Mid April Update

Turkey Tracks: April 18, 2014

Mid April Update

I’ve had a busy few weeks, and it’s been fun.

First of all, Rosie, my Copper Black Maran has decided to lay her super dark brown eggs again. Aren’t they pretty?

Rosie is the last CBM I have. Remember that we lost her rooster to the fox last spring…

CBMs are not great layers, but they are big, happy hens and very social.

It might be time to think about getting some more from Tom Culpepper in Georgia…

Along with the beef broth–which is on the blog post just before this one–I made a shredded veggie lacto-fermented mixture, as mine is all gone now. I used cabbage, including a red one which will make the mixture such a lovely red in a few days, garlic, carrots, and a bunch of kale. Here it is in the bowl, all kneaded until it is juicy and ready to load into jars:

I have two kinds of jars I like to use–a regular old wide-mouth Mason jar and a fancier Fido jar with a bailer and rubber sealer. I thought I’d have enough mixture for a half-gallon jar, but no. Thus the quart jar:

Here’s a little video of Pumpkin, my rooster, who is amazing with the hens. You can hear him telling them to “come eat this food,” and if you watch carefully, you’ll see him pick up food and hold it up for them to see that it’s “ok.”

I make a run up to Belfast to the Belfast Coop every ten days or so. The Coop carries the dog food I use: raw ground WHOLE chicken–bones, skin, organs, the works. The girls THRIVE on this food. You’d never know to look at them that they are 11 and 12 years old. Here’s what their good looks like:

I have an old pair of boots that I bought for $10 at a kind of shoe-thrift store back in Virginia over 15 years ago. They are my “chicken boots”–and survive ice and mud in rough weather. I think I’ve gotten and will continue to get my money’s worth. I’m still using heavy gloves when I go out for chicken duty morning and evening:

Remember this rug I braided on the fashioned loom? It’s still going strong…

The wild turkeys have broken up into small bands now. I have one male who is hanging around with his band–probably because they are still feeding on discarded coop bedding and the odd treats I throw to the chickens. At night he roosts in one of the pines just beyond the stream. And he calls to me when I come out to lock up the chickens.

Here’s one video I took of him the other day. He’s perpetually “puffed up” these days:

And one of him with some of his hens. His tail is looking a bit ragged. I heard two males fighting at dusk up on the hill last week–they seemed to be hitting heads/necks/wings. Hard to tell :

Soon the hens will sit on eggs, and I will not see much of them until next winter–except for the odd crossing across a road here and there.

Turkey Tracks: Beef Bone Broth Today

Turkey Tracks: April 17, 2014

Beef Bone Broth Today

This morning I started a beef bone broth.

A good bone broth is chock full of all sorts of minerals and fats that your body LOVES!

I started with beef bones, celery, onions (skin on if they are clean), carrots. I cook them at about 400 until they are brown and toasty. Stir once or twice.

The white circle in the middle of the bone is the marrow–and that’s from where gelatin comes. Gelatin is, again, chock full of nutrients that are good for you.

Here’s what the bones look like after cooking:

DO NOT DISCARD THIS FAT IT IS REALLY, REALLY GOOD FOR YOU. Good fat provides a constant, steady source of energy–unlike the energy from sugar which yo-yos you up and down and causes problems with your hormones, like how your insulin reacts.

Put the ENTIRE contents of this pan into a large pot and add water, something acid (a little wine or vinegar helps extract the minerals), and some salt.

Look at the lovely dark color of this broth:

I will simmer this broth for 12 to 24 hours. Add water as needed. Turn it off when you leave the house or when you go to bed. It can sit overnight UNCOVERED in its pan overnight. Just reheat in the morning and start simmering again.

When you’re ready, strain the broth. I have a big strainer I like to use. Throw away the bones and spent veggies. DON’T GIVE COOKED BONES TO DOGS.

Use the broth, or freeze some of it. Don’t fill a Ball Jar too full or it will split open in the freezer. Leave plenty of room.

I’m going to make a hearty stew with this batch of broth–leeks, roasted tomato sauce from my stash, mushrooms, lamb stew meat, some dried tomatoes and zucchinis I dehydrated last summer, carrots–and that is as far as I have gotten in thinking about the stew today.

Turkey Tracks: Two Quilts Mailed

Turkey Tracks: April 17, 2014

Two Quilts Mailed

Long years ago now I made a quilt for a family new baby boy–a quilt with a fish theme–that got lost in the mail.

Meanwhile, that baby now has a sister–and neither are babies any more.

So, this winter I set about making them each a long-overdue quilt–with a “fishy” theme.

These quilts are meant to be used, loved, washed, and used some more.

Here’s the boy’s quilt. It’s called “Seahorse Seas.”

I quilted with Anne Bright’s “Ocean View” which has sea horses, shells, and sand dollars in the pattern.

See?

Here’s a piece of the focus fabric:

I mixed in some 9-patch blocks in coordinating fabrics:

Here’s the front striped border and the binding out of the focus fabric:

I like the backing rather a lot:

* * *

The girl’s quilt is from a pattern by Joan Ford in her “Quilt Your Stash!”–a little magazine that I picked up in Portland some years ago.

Joan Ford stopped with the flying geese border–so I added the outer border, and I like it a lot.

This quilt is called “A…’s Pretty Fish”:

The background is a deep navy blue.

Here’s more of that border–and the pantograph is “Circle of Life,” by Patricia E. Ritter–ordered from the Urban Elementz web site.

Here are some fish:

And, more fish:

And another shot of that terrific flying fish border. I think that border is what drew me to this quilt the most…

The backing is a bright red floral…

It’s always fun to mail off one quilt, let alone TWO!

Quilting Information: The Four Seasons Banners From Italy

Quilting Information: April 17, 2014

THE FOUR SEASONS BANNERS FROM ITALY

An Exhibition Sponsored by Aurifil Thread, Milan, Italy

The recent Machine Quilters Expo (MQX) show in Manchester, New Hampshire, exhibited 70 quilted banners made by the Casa Patchwork & Quilting group that represented the four seasons. The banners spread out over 40 feet of exhibit space. Each member was given a palette to create their own banner–which is why the banners “hang together” so nicely.

Here is a video that sweeps through the banners so you can see their impact:

Here are some close-ups of “winter.”

“Spring”:

“Summer”:

“Summer” close up:

“Fall”:

And “Fall” close up:

Aren’t they wonderful?

Books, Documentaries, Reviews: THE BOYS IN THE BOAT

Books, Documentaries, Reviews: April 15, 2014

The Boys in the Boat

Daniel James Brown

Daniel James Brown’s book about the eight-man crew team that won the 1936 Olympics in Hitler’s Germany has been a pleasure to read.

Like Laura Hildenbrand’s Seabiscuit, Brown’s book uses the story of the University of Washington’s crew teams to tell the wider story of that “dust bowl” era so filled with poverty. And like Seabiscuit, who won against a big, glossy, stallion from the east, this crew team is not comprised of elite, East Coast young men, but the sons of loggers, fishermen, farmers, and blue-collar workers. Most of these young men grew up poor and struggled to get purchase in a world filled with poverty and struggle.

This story is also about George Yeoman Pocock, who built, by hand, the 62-foot rowing shells used by most competitive teams in America. Pocock emigrated from England, was the son of a boat builder, was a self-taught award-winning rower, and struggled to get purchase in American. Nothing was handed to Pocock for free.

And, there is Al Ulbrickson, the University of Washington’s crew coach, who had been an award-winning rower at the University of Washington.

These men all have bottomless character, bottomless heart, and iron wills. It is a pleasure to read about them–and about how they could not begin to win until they learned to work together, to work as a cohesive unit, to respect each other, to protect each other, to like each other’s differences.

Here’s a quote from George Pocock:

Every good rowing coach, in his own way, imparts to his men the kind of self-discipline required to achieve the ultimate from mind, heart, and body. Which is why most ex-oarsmen will tell you they learned more fundamentally important lessons in the racing shell than in the classroom.

Here’s how Brown starts the book:

Competitive rowing is an undertaking of extraordinary beauty preceded by brutal punishment. Unlike most sports, which draw primarily on particular muscle groups, rowing makes heavy and repeated use of virtually every muscle in the body….And rowing makes these muscular demands not at odd intervals but in rapid sequence, over a protracted period of time, repeatedly and without respite.

Rowing competitively, at some point in the race, I learned, becomes really painful.

Here’s a description of “the boys”–as seen by their freshman coach who goes on to coach at Harvard–Tom Bolles:

And it wasn’t just their physical prowess He liked the character of these particular freshmen. The boys who had made it this far were rugged and optimistic in a way that seemed emblematic of their western roots. They were the genuine article, mostly the products of lumber towns, dairy farms, mining camps, fishing boats, and shipyards. They looked, they walked, and they talked as if they had spent most of their lives out of doors. Despite the hard times and their pinched circumstances, they smiled easily and openly. They extended calloused hands eagerly to strangers. They looked you in the eye, not as a challenge, but as an invitation. They joshed you at the drop of a hat. They looked at impediments and saw opportunities (94).

Brown chooses crew member Joe Rantz as the emotional heart of this book. And it’s a good choice. Joe’s mother dies when he’s about five, his father remarries, his stepmother rejects him, and he’s thrown on his own resources from about the age of ten. Basically, he’s abandoned–and part of the drama of the story is that Joe has to learn to trust his crew mates. How many five-year olds today would be put on a train in Washington state and make the journey to the East Coast on his own?

And, then there is the story of Henry Penn Burke, chairman of the U.S. Olympic Rowing Committee–and the chairman of and a major fundraiser for the Pennsylvania Athletic Club in Philadelphia–who, when the Penn team comes in second to the Washington team, announces that there is no money to send the Washington team to the Olympics, but that the Penn team has money and will be happy to take the place of the Washington team.

Heroically, the folks back in Washington–many of whom are dirt poor–manage to raise the $5000 needed to send the team to Germany. And they do it in two days. Small contributions come in until there is enough.

No wonder westerners were skeptical of the eastern elites…

It’s a good, interesting read.

Quilting Information: Flickr: Jessica’s Quilting Studio’s Photostream

Quilting Information: April 15, 2014

Jessica Jones’ Quilting Studio Quilts

Well, here’s a treat for you.

I am just back from attending the Machine Quilters’ Expo (MQX) in Manchester, New Hampshire–where I attended three classes. One of those classes was with DeLoa Jones–who taught at the Maine state quilt show, Pine Tree Quilters’ Guild, last summer. DeLoa’s lecture included quilts her daughter Jessica has quilted.

Those quilts are available for you to see–and they are truly wonderful–and you will get many ideas for your own quilting. Take a look: Flickr: Jessica’s Quilting Studio’s Photostream.

You can access Jessica’s site by googling Jessica’s Quilting Studio.

Here’s more information on Jessica–copied from her web site–sorry about the wonky fonts.

Jessica Jones studied art and design at Central Michigan University. During summer break, she helped with her mother, DeLoa Jones’ longarm quilting business and fell in love with the art of machine quilting. She started her own longarm business in 2002 and, in the relatively short time since, has quilted over 4000 customer quilts. Jessica quilts for clients from all over the country and many of her customers have won prizes for the quilts she has masterfully quilted.

Also an instructor, Jessica has shared her quilting talents and expertise with students, nationally, and also in her home area of Phoenix, AZ. Her quilts have appeared in numerous quilting books and magazines, and frequently grace the pages of Quilting Celebrations. Jessica has also appeared on Quilting Celebrations with Patrick Lose on QNNtv.

Interesting Information: Skin in the Game

Interesting Information: April 7, 2014

Skin in the Game

We all have skin in the game of life. Literally. Our own skin.

Our skin is our largest organ–a fact I’ve seen many times, but I like the way John Moody, in “The Clothing Conundrum: Safe, Warm, Winter Dressing,” writes about our skin (Wise Traditions, Winter 2013, 47-49).

An adult’s skin averages “twenty-two square feet in surface area and [weighs] eight pounds.

Our skin is our first line of defense “against a host of dangers.” And, “the body also uses our skin as an important pathway to eliminate certain toxins, but at the same time, it thus also becomes an easy way of access for many toxins to gain entry into our body.”

Warning: “This entry pathway may be even more dangerous than others, such as inhalation or ingestion, since toxins that enter through the skin bypass the digestive and respiratory tracks and the defenses these systems employ.”

“For instance, studies have shown that our skin possibly absorbs more chlorine in a five to ten minute hot shower than in drinking five to ten glasses of chlorinated water!”

AND:

“When you use personal care products (make-up, deodorants, etc.), the chemicals in those products can show up in the bloodstream less than sixty seconds after being applied to the skin.”

“A 2008 study by the Environmental Working Group looked at twenty teenage girls and found sixteen chemicals with potentially harmful health effects in blood and urine samples from their personal care products.”

Moody goes on to discuss how modern clothing is coated with chemicals that are known toxins and how we wash clothes in another whole set of toxins. And, he makes a case for using traditional fibers that are free from toxins, which is food for thought. He notes that hemp is a great natural fiber, but has been banned by many states as it is related to marijuana–even though it is NOT marijuana–which has been a boon to industries that fabricate cloth from chemicals. You can read the whole article if you like: http://www.westonaprice.org/health-issues/the-clothing-conundrum-safe-warm-winter-dressing.

* * *

I saw an ad on television last night for a product to treat acne. The ad depicted a young man with truly terrible acne. And, of course I wondered two things: what chemicals are involved in the ad’s product and what is this young man eating and/or to what is he being exposed.

We should not have to fix a problem that starts inside us by slathering on a chemical product from the outside.

When you see sores on the skin, it’s a sign that the body is trying to detox itself.

So, our skin is always already “in the game.” Every day.

Turkey Tracks: April Update

Turkey Tracks: April 7, 2014

April Update

We are finally getting some warm weather, and near me, the Megunticook River is thawing out fast. I was a little shocked when I went by Megunticook Lake Sunday on my way to see Rose Thomas as the Lake is still pretty frozen. This view is from the top of Barrett Cove, looking north. (This lake is 15 miles around and filled with interesting islands and “necks” that jut out into the water.)

The ice looks bluer towards the middle though, suggesting thinness.

Chickie Diva Queenie has been healed up for some time. I have only been waiting for the night temps to get warm enough to risk her in the coop. She can’t take any more frostbite probably ever in her life.

She did not seem unhappy in her kitchen box, but on a bright sunny day last week, I put her outside. She prowled the yard, scratching and digging, but not getting near the other chickens, who did not seem to notice her. That night, she came to the back door and when I opened it, she came right in, and hopped in her box.

The next day, I put her out again, and she wanted to come right back inside. I had planned to clean out the coop, so I gathered up the buckets and the shovel and started to work.

What followed was shocking!

The chickens found her and immediately attacked her. Even the rooster. They weren’t trying to dominate her. They were trying to kill her.

I rescued her from where she had wedged herself behind the sandbox and the house wall. Her comb was torn again, and she had wounds on her feet again. She was dazed and stunned and so happy to be put back into her box.

I consulted with the chicken whisperer Rose Thomas, and we formulated a plan to integrate her into Rose’s flock, which is larger and far less territorial.

So, on Sunday, I took her to Rose.

Rose’s chicken house is a lot bigger than my little coop, and there are MANY egg boxes. Diva Queenie put herself into one and seemed quite happy.

Rose has three roosters at the moment–Guy, the father of my rooster Pumpkin; the brother of Pumpkin; and Merlin, a guina rooster who is ferocious.

Rose distracted her flock by throwing them some scratch feed to them while we put Queenie into the chicken house.

I called Rose this morning. Queenie is just fine and is out in the yard with the rest of the flock.

* * *

Look at these–I have 12 out of 15 done and have another one half done now.

Here’s a close-up of one:

This large “hexie” is made from the kite shape you can see with the dark blue. I first saw a quilt made with these medallions at Alewives, a quilt shop in Damariscotta Mills, Maine. The hexies get linked by big diamonds, and the pattern comes from the book Material Obsession 2 by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke. Other blog entries here show their TWO quilt versions using this block. Rhea Butler made the quilt at Alewives.

I’ve finished the red/green quilt, which remains nameless so far. It’s loaded on the long arm. It’s pretty big–I used 7 yards of fabric for the backing–a Kaffe Fasset I bought on sale about a year ago. And I had to piece a column of about 20 inches to get enough width for the long arm–which was fine as I used up a lot of orphan blocks. I really draw the line at buying 9 yards of fabric for a quilt backing when I’m only missing ten or so inches. With the long-arm, I need about 5 extra inches of width on the sides, but I could always put on a temporary outside border that would come off when the quilting was done as well.

I am going down to Manchester, New Hampshire, with Gail Galloway Nicholson this week to the big MQX show (Machine Quilters Expo)–where we will both take some classes. I am taking both pantograph and free-motion quilting classes for the long arm. So…it seems to make sense to wait until I get home to quilt this quilt. The pantograph class may change how I currently quilt with a pantograph. Also I ordered a different green quilting thread as I did not like the color I thought I would use. Funny how that happens…

So, here’s my current project:

I am sewing together colorful 5-inch blocks from my stash. I will put a 3-inch border on this grid and use it to cut out “Lil Twister” blocks. Here’s a clue of what I am talking about:

Lil Twister block images – Google Search.

Canton Village Quilt Works has a very nice tutorial on how to use the Lil Twister tool.

Blog Readers’ Quilts and Quilting Information: Bonnie Hunter’s NEW BOOK is out

Blog Reader’s Quilts and Quilting Information: April 4, 2014

BONNIE HUNTER’S NEW BOOK IS OUT!

MORE ADVENTURES WITH LEADERS & ENDERS

It came yesterday!

I had been haunting the mail box all week.

So, I made a cup of tea and sat down to ENJOY leafing through the pages:

AND, the book is a treasure.

You can see the quilts in the book for yourself in the url below:

Quiltville’s Quips & Snips!!: More Adventures With Leaders & Enders! Pre-Order Time!.

Books, Documentaries, Reviews: Renata Adler, PITCH DARK review

Books, Documentaries, Reviews: March 31, 2014

Renata Adler’s PITCH DARK

I promised I’d “let you know” what I thought about Renata Adler’s novel Pitch Dark, published in 1983.

You may recall in an earlier blog post that I’d heard this novel recommended during a pre-New Year’s “Best Books of 2013” NPR program.

This novel is a very “modern” novel–in that it is challenging the very form of the novel itself.

You may recall that I also wrote recently about Jeffrey Eugenides’s novel The Marriage Plot, wherein Eugenides attempts to forge a novel that does not fall back on the “marriage plot” since with divorce, women are no longer tied to marriages they want to abandon.

But Renata Adler moves light years beyond the still-entertaining story of The Marriage Plot. Adler does not have a plot at all. This “novel” consists of a series of vignettes that are not even loosely held together and that are all mixed up in time. There is no narrative flow.

Is it interesting?

Yes, some of the vignettes are. And she does circle back to at least one so the reader gets some sense of the final outcome. And I think she circled back to show just how deep the moral abyss can be in modern society.

I enjoyed the protagonists musings on social and historical events and on how some of our systems work. These musings certainly provoke one to think a bit more deeply.

But, I do think Muriel Sparks, who wrote the Afterward, is correct:

This, I think is the vision of life reflected in Miss Adler’s fiction. Nothing evolves, nothing derives. Effects do not result from causes. Episodes are recorded without any connection with each other. Fortunately, they are fascinating episodes.

So, what happens to the moral fabric of society is one can no longer be certain that certain desired effects stem from causes, that if one does bad things they will be punished in some way? Truthfully, bad people are not always punished. Some of them make and enjoy a great deal of money. And good can come out of bad, as we clearly see in Donna Tartt’s THE GOLDFINCH, also discussed on this blog. What happens if we are all more adrift in society than we ever thought? What happens if some of us are “disciplined subjects” and follow the rules, but others don’t. And, prosper.

This novel is not for everyone. It’s not an easy, enjoyable read with a pleasant narrative that takes us away from ourselves. No, rather, it focuses on truths and questions most of us would rather avoid because there isn’t anything we can do about them at all. And that’s not going to change in a modern world where people are so detached from one another, where a community is not viewing the actions of its individual members with an eye toward protecting the health of the community.

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