Mountain Musings

The Week In Review

Just in case anyone is wondering if we've gotten rain yet...we haven't. The forecasted 80% chance this past Monday eventually dwindled to a 60% possibility; and when all was said and done, it was just a misty afternoon--no rain.

Wednesday night the forecast was showers into Thursday morning. Nothing. How can weather forecasters live with themselves?

So...you know what I've been up to this week. That's me back in the 50's. If I hadn't seen this picture, I would never have believed I was standing there holding a hose at that young age. It must be in my blood!

I also planted two crepe myrtle trees and two huge mums (in pots by the front door), moved two dying dogwoods to different spots in hopes they'll live again, and planted a flat of violas in the shed window boxes and in the four pots down the front steps. Now I just need some corn stalks from the garden and a pumpkin to make a fall display, and I'm done with outside work this season. Calling it quits.

As far as inside plans go, I see another foot-soaking session in my very near future.

~Deb

Autumn Olive 101

For those of you wondering what an autumn olive is (after Mom mentioned them in a recent post), I must say that we learned of them only a few years ago when some of the little children in our church decided to explore our woods one Sunday. They came back carrying boughs full of tiny red fruits and were stuffing their mouths. We asked them what they were, and the reply was "autumn olives!" I guess they knew what they were talking about!

Well, since then several of the trees have sprouted up on our property (they're actually considered an invasive species in this area), and around this time of year they are brimming with red fruit. You can spot an autumn olive tree by its silvery green foliage and usually long, hanging branches. Deer and birds supposedly love their berries. They are a nice tart treat if you don't mind the edible but tough seed in the middle. Seeing all the fruit loading each tree, it seems a shame to just let them drop to the ground each year. A couple of days ago I took a break from business course studies and went out to do some picking--and realized the trees were more plentiful than I'd thought. The deer had discovered them, too, because the ground had been flattened.

I did a Google search on recipes for autumn olive jelly and didn't end up with very much that was helpful. This web page had all the information you'd ever want to know about autumn olives, except a recipe. It was interesting to find out that the fruits are high in Vitamin C and contain about 17 times more lycopene (a cancer-fighting agent) than tomatoes.

I also checked out a library book titled Wild Preserves which had instructions on just about every woodland fruit there is, except autumn olives. So after following what the book said about testing for natural pectin (if I did it right), I found that autumn olives are relatively low in pectin. So I decided to improvise from a jam recipe for blackberries, since they seemed similar in that respect. Having never made any kind of jam or jelly, I didn't really know what I was doing but figured it was worth a try! Any of you jelly-making experts out there could probably tweak the recipe I used to make it better. From what I've read you aren't supposed to alter the amounts of a recipe at all or it won't set up like it should, so I'm surprised my version turned out the way it did--it seemed to gel up alright, though one batch was better than the other. I made 18 8-oz. jars in all.

Now after trying the jam and some juice I made from the pulp, Mom asked what else we could make from them. I'll have to think on that! Any ideas?

~Hannah

(Click continue reading for recipe)

October Trip Coming Together

Plans are coming together for our trek to the wild wonderful mountains of West Virginia. We're looking forward to our fall break with the family and decided to take John's advice and travel here, hiking and/or biking the Greenbrier River Trail, and touring the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

After lots of internet searching for a place to stay, looks like we'll for sure have a place to lay our heads even though a lot of the lodgings were already booked with folks getting away to see the fall leaves. We're I'm not the rustic type of camper, so just grabbing a spot in the woods with a tent isn't an option. Plus, with my mom going with us this year, I'm sure she'll like the Bed & Breakfast that was available.

We still have to type out an itinerary to make sure we don't forget anything. I've checked covered bridge locations, and there are two in Greenbrier County here and here for photo ops.

We all enjoyed last fall's trip to the New River Gorge and Pipestem State Park in West Virginia; and the year before Martinsburg, West Virginia, won our attention. And to think that I've lived next door to West Virginia my entire life and never visited the state until 3 years ago when we moved out to the Valley. But still, I'm not sure I would agree with their license plate slogan.

Almost heaven? Now, that's Virginia!

~Deb

Security on "Our Ferry"

The headline, "Security Now Routine on Passenger Ferry," caught my eye in Tuesday's paper. The article was talking about the Jamestown-Scotland ferry that carries passengers across the James River for a scenic 20-minute run. Now, black-suited security guards armed with .38-caliber revolvers are along for the short ferry ride, and vehicles are randomly checked.

All this is due to the homeland security laws passed following the 2001 attacks. And the object of concern is the Surry Nuclear Power Plant just a few miles from the ferry. The article goes on to say that suspicions were raised a few months ago when a group of Japanese businessmen was observed taking photos of a chart showing warning signals for the Virginia Dominion Power plant.

During the nine years we lived in Williamsburg, we would often drive the ten minutes down the road and ride the ferry over to Surry and turn around and ride right back. The kids would collect bread crusts for a couple of weeks and save them for the seagulls that followed the boat. We have tons of pictures of us all on the ferry deck with the wind "blowin' us windin'." The ride was free and ran every 30 minutes, and we loved it!

Now, it certainly seems our nice calm ferry isn't the same anymore. I'm sure if we still lived near Jamestown we would hardly feel that seeing security guards on "our ferry" would make for a relaxing Saturday evening excursion.

Times sure change.

~Deb

Around the Blogosphere

Okay, it's that time again when I don't have anything to write about...and I direct you to some other blogs that are worthy reads.

I found this blog recently written by John, a Scotsman living in Australia (thanks to a link on Paula's site). He writes about encouragement for most of his posts and doggie tales on others (complete with cutesy doggie pictures--which we love). His by-line on Australia reads.."beautiful one day and perfect the next!" (I'd love to experience that one day in his country!)

And another John shares his escape from a serious accident a few days ago (even though his little red truck was crumpled), and he doesn't fail to thank the Lord for His protecting hand on the roads.

The girls around here find Lydia's blog interesting, and this week she's musing on Genesis.

Susan, a pastor's wife in Canada, blogged about a new yeast dinner roll recipe recently, and we have all the ingredients to try it this week.

Missionary on Mackinac Island is a very interesting story by Ken about how God has His people scattered everywhere spreading His word.

Hope these blogs give you an introduction to folks all over the country and other countries, too, who are serving the Lord where they've been placed.

~Deb

Grocery List--NOT!

This is the grocery list I found this morning left for me by the humorist in our family:

• asparagus
• liverwurst
• crab legs
• Limburger cheese
• sardines
• Pepto Bismol

Wouldn't Jonathan be surprised if that's what I really did feed him for dinner tonight! :)

~Deb

Apples, Pumpkins, & Berries--Oh My!

Been thinking about recipes lately--especially ones using apples since they are so plentiful around this time of the year. We usually slice our apples and put them in the frying pan with water and sugar and cook them down. I was browsing the Simply Recipes site and found this mile-high apple pie recipe--doesn't it look delish?

There are also spicy pumpkin soup and toasted pumpkin seeds recipes listed. I learned a new way to roast pumpkin seeds, and we're going to try it this year and see if there's a difference in taste (you boil them in salted water first before roasting).

Since I was recently pointed to this cooking blog, I have really enjoyed browsing it with its colorful pictures of each dish and the accompanying recipe. Now if I could just find a jelly recipe for all the autumn olives we have! Anyone know any specific recipes using those little red berries that are loading down the trees in our yard?

~Deb

Sunday Hymn

The hymn, Near the Cross, was written by Fanny Crosby (1820 - 1915), author of over 8,000 hymns in her lifetime. About her blind­ness, she said:

"It seemed intend­ed by the bless­ed prov­i­dence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dis­pen­sa­tion. If per­fect earth­ly sight were of­fered me to­mor­row I would not ac­­cept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been dis­tract­ed by the beau­ti­ful and in­ter­est­ing things about me."

Jesus, keep me near the cross,
There a precious fountain
Free to all, a healing stream
Flows from Calvary’s mountain.

Near the cross, a trembling soul,
Love and mercy found me;
There the bright and morning star
Sheds its beams around me.

Near the cross! O Lamb of God,
Bring its scenes before me;
Help me walk from day to day,
With its shadows o’er me.

Near the cross I’ll watch and wait
Hoping, trusting ever,
Till I reach the golden strand,
Just beyond the river.

Refrain:

In the cross, in the cross,
Be my glory ever;
Till my raptured soul shall find
Rest beyond the river.

~Deb

Weekend Ramblings

Our Saturday was more low-key than usual, and each of us marked some things off of our individual "to-do" lists.

• Tom started working on some wood projects for Christmas. Both girls have picked out several larger items they would like him to make eventually. So he's picked out a project from their wish list for this year. I decided on a jelly cabinet. The three of us are not allowed to peak until Christmas Day.
• Ironing filled my morning. My usual custom is to play CDs that I like to listen to while I iron. The dog keeps me company and seems to enjoy my selections (she was fed BBN as a young pup, so she's used to good music).
• Hannah and Sarah checked out lots of books from the library for their assignment for the online business course they're taking. They've had several writing projects to turn in already and lots of thinking to do on how they will proceed. They still need lots of practical instruction and how-tos, so hopefully more in-depth learning is coming in these next few weeks of the class.
• Jonathan enjoyed sleeping in after a long week of classes. He also finally found time to write a long post for his blog--only to have it disintegrate before his very eyes before he posted it. Oh, well.
• Micah (via quick phone call) is knee-deep in studying this weekend in anticipation of very hard med school tests the first week of October.

That's been our day. What's yours been like?

~Deb

3rd Degree at the Beauty Shop

There I sat yesterday getting my hair cut with no way to gracefully get out of the cross-examination. It's actually been a long time since I've had to defend homeschooling, so I was a little out of practice.

I always get my hair done in a lady's home who has a shop in her basement. So usually there are just the two of us there to converse--except when I meet the person ahead of me who is all finished and ready to leave or when the person just after my hour's appointment comes a bit early. That's what happened--on both ends.

My beautician loves to inform everyone that we homeschooled our four children. It never fails; she likes to introduce her customers, and this little tidbit of information is sure to elicit conversation--especially among her older clientele who are of the old school of thinking. Yesterday was no exception.

"What about socialization?"  "Well, we found there were so many activities in our homeschool group in which to participate that we actually had to say "no" in order to not socialize so much and to get some schoolwork done." [I left it at that--this was not the time to go into a spiel on peer pressure and age segregated type of socialization.]

"So, you're a teacher by profession?" "Actually, no, I never went to college."

"Then how could you teach your children?"  "Well, because I love them and could spend quality one-on-one time with them teaching them exactly the way each one of them could learn the best. And I used excellent curriculum throughout our 17 years of schooling."

"Did your husband get involved in teaching?"  "Yes, he taught math and science every evening."

"What educational qualifications does he have?"  "He's an electrical engineer."

"And you said you have two sons in college?"  "Yes, one is in his second year of medical school studying to be a surgeon."

"Well, that says a lot!"  [Thanks, Micah, you made me look a lot better.]

"Aren't your daughters interested in college?" "No, not for a career. They're pursuing a business from home currently and then will be wives and moms someday" [Lord willing].

"Hmm..."

Well, I'm not sure I swayed this lady at all; she had plenty of her own opinions to add to the subject. But I managed to have an answer for the rapid-fire questions she threw at me. A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post on feeling a kinship with homeschooling families starting school. Now I'm right in there with them again--defending the right to do what they're doing.

~Deb