Tag: – Just sayin

Is it just Me?

 In an Article from USA Today, Arizona News – by Bruce Horovitz

“The economy may be in the dumps, but don’t count out bargain-priced luxury items for the holidays.
That has to be the lesson learned by Target — and its biggest competitors — after a shopping frenzy more typically seen around Thanksgiving repeatedly crashed Target’s website on Tuesday and sent shoppers by the hundreds waiting in line for sales on limited-time offerings on its Missoni for Target collection of clothing, housewares, luggage and even bikes.


“This talks to how people still have a taste for luxury brands, even if they can’t afford them,” says Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing and author of Putting the Luxe Back in Luxury. While most folks might not be able to shop on New York’s Fifth Avenue or at Neiman Marcus, she says, who can’t afford a trip to Target?”

   I love Target, I do. The fact that it’s still an American company thrills me to no end. My daughter and I were going to take a little trip to Target yesterday to stock up her dorm room on stuff she was running out of.  One can never have too many buckets of Twizzlers, power bars and bottled water.  Turns out she had too many things to do on campus so we nixed the trip.  It’s a good thing, because apparently it was a mob scene for the above mentioned reason.

   I don’t get it.  Is it me?.. or is it kinda outdated looking. The Mod Squad comes to mind. No offense if you really like this stuff,  inquiring minds would like to know.

 Is anyone really getting excited about this bike?

Made in the Good Ole USA

      I don’t know enough of the hardcore facts to sound really intelligent here and articulate exactly what I want to say regarding the United States of America and it’s current economic perdicament.  I think I can safely say we are in hot water and need to make the number one priority to start taking care of business at home. I feel for other countries in need of aid, I do.  But we aren’t taking care of our own, and that’s just long-run suicidal if you ask me.

 I got an e-mail a few days back that made me think more than twice about something related.  I started walking around the house picking things up, seeing where they were made. Where the jobs were to make them.  

 An old fashioned super-pinky ball, you remember those? …
Trident Gum  –  Made in Mexico.
 Ball plastic freezer containers – China.

All-American Companies that no longer make their products in the USA
Radio Flyer
Levi Jeans
Rawlings baseballs (ironic, all -american sport, balls made in Costa Rica)

We’re not the only ones doing this.
Now this is interesting.
IKEA pillow. Swedish Company, right?
The label reads  DESIGN AND QUALITY – Ikea of Sweden.
MADE in CHINA!

 Even my 46 year old Raggedy Ann & Andy dolls were manufactured in Hong Kong.
Knickerbocker was a Dutch company.  

  Are we not capable of making rubber balls, freezer containers, chewing gum, AUTOMOBILES?
You want to see tragedy?  Most of you will know that Detriot, in it’s car-making glory days,had become a wealthy town because of the booming car industry. Click here for a stunning photo tribute to the Detroit of today.
The labor is cheaper “over there” you say… well I say if you are an American Company, you make your stuff here, or you can’t sell it here.  Atleast you should pay a steep price for taking those jobs out of the country.
If you are a Foreign  Company, we thank you for the opportunity to purchase your goods but we have people here who are jobless,  homeless, who are hungry, who don’t have medical insurance,who have lost their home or apartment . They need the jobs. HERE. 
 That super pinky I bought last week was 99 cents.  I’ll gladly pay $1.99 if it means you’ll bring those jobs home,  JA-RU of Florida.  And if I can’t afford it, then it isn’t mine to buy in the first place. 
I heard a quip recently…
“Live and Die in Debt – The American Way”.
That’s just not funny.
So what does a little person like me of no real importance do about this? I’m going to start reading labels, just as I do for healthy ingredients. If I threw out all the things in my house that were NOT Made in the USA, it would be at the very least half-empty.I’ll admit I’m not willing to go that far. But I can start putting items back on the shelf of a store if I see they aren’t made in the USA.  That’s exactly what I intend to do.
Easier.. said.. than done.

Pickles

 My first attempt at pickles was an epic fail. I used a six-week pickle recipe out of  Trisha Yearwood’s cookbook, and I shoulda known right off the bat it was gonna flunk.  I could not find two of the ingredients – cinnamon  & clove oil.  I tried health food stores, pharmacies even (which is where she says to look for it) … and the pharmacist said.. “I wouldn’t sell it to you for a food product!! You don’t eat it!”… and so I tried the recipe with cinnamon sticks and whole cloves instead.  For whatever reason, they were terrible.  I love Trishas cookbook and use many recipes from it, so I will not lay blame there.

My next attempt was yesterday!  And I think we have a winner. There are plenty of pickling methods, but a fellow blogger, Lisa of Two Bears Farm,  recommend using a packet she found in Walmart in the canning section and loved. So off to Walmart I went, and I did find it.

  What’s kinda humorous is… it says right there on the label that it’s  “Canning made easy”.
Let me tell ya, the easy part is mixing spices together.
The hard part… is all the boiling to sterilize lids and jars,
cleaning and cutting up of 5,273 cucumbers
ok that’s an exageration. but not by much!
and then the stuffing, sealing and boiling of the jars in the canner.
LOOK AT ALL THE POTS & UTENSILS
IT TOOK FOR JUST SIX QUART JARS.
The husband said ..
“Well, this was the sole job of women
back in the day. Preparing food all day!
And seems to me it was pretty relaxing work!”
HA!  
As if someone ELSE were doing the laundry beaten over rocks in the stream,
 tending to the kids, cleaning the homestead and feeding the ranch hands
and farm animals, nursing the sick, darning the clothes,
tending the fires and … and… and….
You know what?  Pickle making was a breeze  🙂

After the rain

 Last night we had a much needed thunder and rain storm
although it was much too brief.
I love the smell of the damp earth, 
 the feel of wet grass on bare feet
and especially the light on the remaining raindrops
as the sun reappears with the disbursal of storm clouds.

It’s one of life’s reminders.
When you’re in the middle of a storm
and things look their darkest..
Remind yourself that there will be light again…
and renewal. 
Another reminder.. this one from Karen.
Stop worrying about what everyone else might think.
I say…if you’re so inclined…
 go ahead and wear those ridiculously dangly $3.00 earrings
and let them catch the light.
(even in dirty jeans shorts and a horse slobbered t-shirt)
You only live once.

John Travolta Doesn’t Live Here

  To all you locals who read my blog… just letting ya know…

John Travolta did NOT buy our house, and no landing strip for airplanes is going in the fields.  For those of you who don’t  live around here, the John Travolta rumor has been floating around our little town for 20 years or so. Although I  surely wish it were true, it just ain’t so.  It’s hilarious that town folk are now applying that rumor to the sale of our previous house. 

I do love the man, he is my favorite actor and I’ve loved every roll he has taken. 
 I was madly in love with Vinny Barbarino and then Danny in Grease.
I still know every word to every song,
and the Welcome back Cotter theme song brings back
fond memories of a beanpole adolescent with a wicked crush.
His roles ever since have been admirable and diverse.
I love that he is a genuine family man too.

Dear John, ( or John’s People!)
If you ever come across this post,  please dispel the myth
for this tiny New England town…
 leave a comment telling us that you really don’t live here.
Or maybe shine a ray of hope for us all  🙂
You have many fans here, apparently!


P.S.  You can build a landing strip in our hay fields any time!

Love, Karen

 The new owner has decided to put up a security gate at the entrance to the driveway… which will fuel the John Travolta rumors even more, I’m sure.  

 Sorry if I’ve burst any bubbles here….   🙂

A Jarring Experience

 My heart goes out to those in southern states who are suffering at the hands of the weather. It’s getting downright eerie… the weather patterns and distruction this year.. everywhere. Makes me wonder if the Earth has had just about enough of our abuse and is ready to shake us off like a bad case of fleas.

Anyway… on to a Jarring Experience of a different sort.
Me and my big ideas.
I’m all FARM GIRL and BACK TO THE LAND now,right?
I’ve been cooking for as long as I’ve been married
and I make a mean apple pie…
but I have never made applesauce from scratch, or canned/jarred anything…
So.. today is a rainy misty day…nothing outdoors is do-able.
This gave me the idea to go ahead and break in my
brand new canning/jarring boiler so that I can start stocking the pantries.
I decided to start with Applesauce, as I had two big bags of apples in need of use. 
These were Empires and Macintosh..
I peeled and cored and quartered.
I cooked until softened,
Then threw the softened apples into a food processor.

 I couldn’t help but notice the amount of “sauce” was starting to look like
it was not going to fill all six of the quart jars I was boiling for sterilization.
I put the processed apples back in the pot,
added just a little brown sugar,  just a little white sugar and cinnamon.
Then brought it back to boiling, and after five minutes, started filling jars
that came straight out of the jar sterilizing pot.
Then I covered them with lids from the lid sterilizing pot.
It tasted delicious.
 And I got  – Two – quart jars. 
That’s all I got after all the prep of two big bags of apples
and a ridiculous amount of pots on my stove
(who knew I OWNED that many big pots?).

 Then I threw the two in the boiler, rolling boil for 20 minutes, per recipe…

 And took them out to cool.
All two of them.
SO… all you canners out there … 
Does it really take 
two jar sterilizing pots, a lid sterilizing pot
A cooking apples pot, a boiler,
and a DUMP TRUCK LOAD OF APPLES
to make a few jars of apple sauce? 
And how do you know you’re not gonna give your family botulism or something down the road? 
Back to the Land indeed. 

An Hour of Your Time

  Did you move your clocks ahead?  I do love this practice… a big step toward the arrival of SPRING.

 This morning the light shifted…. as the sun rose and spilled over the back fields, the light cast a warm golden hue.    Robins are scouring the earth for worms and the bluebirds are staking their claim .

I think we’ve arrived, people.. my soul is rejuvenated.

Forcing the Issue

    Unrelated to post title… Did you know?… No woman ever shot a man while he was doing the dishes….Just Sayin… in case someone in particular is reading.

   I drove up to our old house today and cut some Forsythia and Quince… I can do that because we still own the place. *heavy sigh*    

Have you ever done this?  Force spring bloomers in a vase?  More beautiful than a spring bouquet you’d buy at the grocery store.

How do you measure a life?

 Regardless of your station in life,  experiences good and bad,  bank account balance, job description or living quarters… if you’ve got good friends who you can count on, who you can trust with your most neurotic thoughts and dumbest mistakes,  who think of you often and make you laugh even on your crappiest day – your life is  rich.  

I’ve been blessed with a handful of truly terrific friends over the years and I’m finding that even the blog world is an extension. We may not see each other often, but the message between us  is always clear.  No matter what’s going on in the daily grind, there is always this…

 I’m here for you 
We’ll always be “us”
Oh Shut up, you’re being ridiculous
Not all of my friends would appreciate a photo here,
 but I’m sneaking in the few that I think will tolerate it …

  
What? You don’t believe me?   
 So..Why am I sappy today?
This little guy was delivered to my door this morning.
Thank you, Raven – He’s perfect.
The song on my playlist is Seasons of Love by Rent.
 My daughter introduced me to the song recently and I love it.
 Lyrics below…

Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Moments so dear.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights
In cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.


In five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure
A year in the life?

How about love?
How about love?
How about love?
Measure in love
Seasons of love.
Seasons of love


Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes!
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Journeys to plan.




Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure the life
Of a woman or a man?


In truths that she learned,
Or in times that he cried.
In bridges he burned,
Or the way that she died.


It’s time now to sing out,
Tho’ the story never ends
Let’s celebrate


Remember a year in the life of friends
Remember the love!
Remember the love!
Seasons of love!




Oh you got to got to
Remember the love!
You know that love is a gift from up above
Share love, give love spread love
Measure measure your life in love