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Monthly Archives: October 2010

Sweet potato harvest

Spread out to dry on the deck I had not really planned to grow sweet potatoes this year, but back in late July or early August I came across some sweet potato sets in a produce shop at Walnut Cove. I bought a pack of the sets. Ken then made a sweet potato bed about […]

Apple and cabbage country

After two rainy days, two dark and stormy nights, and a total of 3.7 inches of rain, I went on a little outing today to southern Virginia to buy apples and cabbage. It’s not really very far. Acorn Abbey is only 13 miles from the Virginia state line. It’s nice living near apple country, but […]

You're no chicken

A bird (a mockingbird, I believe) got trapped in the chicken house this morning. It went in through the lower door to snitch the chickens’ mash, flew upstairs through the trapdoor, and then couldn’t find its way out. I opened the upstairs door and out it flew…

Restaurant china

New soup bowls made by Buffalo china I have long had a great fondness for restaurant china. It’s heavy and durable, and it’s relatively inexpensive. I bought eight soup bowls on eBay that arrived today. Somehow I have to find room for them in the cabinets with the Victor “truck driver” mugs and the Buffalo […]

Jane Austen

Why have we had a Jane Austen revival? Why do we remain fascinated with 200-year-old novels in which nothing much happens but drawing-room conversations and emotional detective work by women to figure out the intentions of men? Partly, I’m sure, the answer to that is the BBC. We can’t get enough of those BBC costume […]

Buttermilk

The last rose of summer

“Beauty never slumbers; All is in her name; But the rose remembers The dust from which it came.” – Edna St. Vincent Millay

On how to wash eggs

I wish I had known a year ago that there are guides from the experts on how to wash eggs from backyard chickens. I had been doing it wrong. For one, I had assumed that cold water was better, to avoid heating the egg. Wrong. If you Google for egg-washing, you’ll find lots of often […]

Blum's Almanac

Recently, while talking with a neighbor who has been gardening in this area for a long time, I asked him how he decides when to plant particular things. His response: “I use the almanac.” I didn’t even ask him which almanac, because I just assumed that he meant Blum’s Almanac. Blum’s Almanac is published in […]

Facebook is sending your info to snoopers

Facebook claims that it’s a mistake that they are working to “dramatically limit” (yeah, sure). But, for some time, they’ve been giving your ID to the companies that make a business of collecting data about you on the Internet, then selling it. Reporters for the Wall Street Journal caught them at it. Says the Wall […]