Home / Blogs / marlingardener's Blog / Serendipity /

Advantages of small town living

Category: Serendipity | Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 7:07 pm

---

There are quite a few advantages to living in a small town.

First, if there is anything that needs fixing, a neighbor has a recommendation. Often it is a relative of the neighbor, but that person has a double burden--keeping up the family's reputation and getting more recommendations. We have found roofers, tree trimmer/removal services, handymen, and car repair places this way. Each one has worked out well.

If you go to the feed store and have forgotten to bring cash, they'll trust you until the next time. They don't forget that you owe them but they also don't take back the feed sacks that they just loaded into your truck.

If your truck is in the shop for an inspection, and you take the car into town to get something, someone will call and ask if there is an emergency ("I saw both vehicles were gone. Is everything all right?") and if everything isn't all right, the caller asks what can they do.

A siren is closely monitored. If it goes down the state highway no one gets overly concerned. However, if it goes down a country road, there is a parade of pick-up trucks following it, driven by men in hats with fire extinguishers and six-packs of beer. The ladies are at home heating up casseroles and calling their neighbors and relatives. there is a whole network of caring/helping people that go into action at the sound of a siren.

And of course, births! If there is an imminent baby, everyone goes into high gear. Knitting, quilting, baking (the new mama won't have the time/strength to cook properly) and letting everyone know that there is a baby on the way! Everything is delivered as soon as the mama is on the way to the hospital (and you wouldn't believe how quickly that word gets out) and then for a week only the family members are allowed to visit (new mama and baby don't need to be disturbed). After that first week, all bets are off and there are lines of folks at the door of the baby's home. Each baby is the most beautiful anyone has seen. If you've seen a newborn, you know how kind and somewhat blind these nice folks are.

So, living in a small town, or near one, has its advantages. Mostly the advantages are the folks who populate these small towns, and have learned to depend on each other in times of happiness and grief.

This blog entry has been viewed 311 times

---

Southern Living

Category: Serendipity | Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 3:13 pm

---

We received an offer to subscribe to up to four magazines for two dollars a year. The only magazine I thought I'd be interested in was Southern Living. After all, I'm alive and in the south.
I'm not sure who lives like the folks in that magazine, but I am sure I don't know them. For example, in this issue there is an article "How to Style Your Coffee Table" with a picture of a coffee table with a tray holding two books, a Cloisonné pitcher, and a bouquet of roses. There is also a pair of twist-stem gold candlesticks, a stack of books with a "decorative object" on top to give "a polished touch." There is also a bowl of nuts. Our coffee table has a book on it, and plenty of room to prop up your feet while reading. I guess my fuzzy slippers could be considered "decorative objects."
Holiday How-to suggests stenciling leaf shapes on bags from a craft store (it seems the brown lunch bags from the grocery are a no-no). After you spend most of your afternoon stenciling the shapes on the bags, you are to carefully cut out the shapes. Place a white bag inside a dark bag, put sand in the bottom for stability, and put a candle in each bag. Our Texas wind would take those bags and sail them into the nearest field, where they would start a grass fire and the local fire department would not believe an explanation that involved leaf stencils and craft store bags and candles.
Then the Southwest Insider section has the great news that Lucchese boots, the ultimate in hand-crafted luxury cowboy boots (and no, that is not an oxymoron) now has a line of stiletto high heels for ladies, starting at somewhere around $595. I don't know of anyone who would pay nearly $600 for a pair of shoes. In fact, I don't know anyone who wears stiletto heels!
I gave up on living the southern way when I saw what was done to a home's entry way to "decorate for fall." All you need is a magnolia leaf garland, heirloom pumpkins, a pinecone wreath, bittersweet, and cabbage. Yep, cabbage! According to the decorator, one drapes the garland around the entrance, hangs the wreath on the door, and artistically arranges the pumpkins (heirloom, remember?) and cabbages on the steps. By the time a guest fights his way through the foliage and trips over a cabbage and lands on an heirloom pumpkin, the magic has gone out of your decorating efforts.
I did like the decorations for the bar area at a party—wine, gin, vodka, several types of whiskey (party must have been in Kentucky) and cheese and crackers. The crackers were served on a plate balanced on a pumpkin (presumably heirloom) and there was a weedy looking bouquet but after sampling the bar offerings, probably no one would care.
So, here on the farm we are not garlanded, stenciled or growing heirloom pumpkins. I'm afraid stiletto heels would make deep marks in the chicken coop and I wouldn't want the ladies to trip on a Lucchese shoe's hole.
Think I'll go prop my feet up on our coffee table and read a book.


This blog entry has been viewed 354 times

---

Unsolicited Advice

Category: Serendipity | Posted: Tue May 27, 2014 1:58 pm

---

We all get advice that we didn't ask for, nor do we want. Lately inanimate objects have been giving me advice, and I don't like it!
I bought a package of paper towels. When I put the first roll on the hangar, the paper towels advised me to "Smile!", "Play", and "Believe". I "believe" I'll buy a different brand next time.
Plastic shopping bags have a smiley face on them and the admonition "Have a nice day!" How heartfelt, how warm and fuzzy, to have a plastic bag telling you what kind of day to have.
Then there are the health/safety warnings. One of my favorites is the Texas' Department of Public Safety telling drivers if they are in a flooded area, "Move to higher ground." If you need to be advised to move to higher ground, you probably won't be around much longer anyway. That piece of advice is right up there with "Do not poke a rattlesnake with a sharp stick." That bit of advice was posted at a park. So, rattlers don't mind dull sticks? How about fingers?
Then there is the advice you get from complete strangers. "You really ought to get a big tractor." We were looking at lawn tractors, and some guy in overalls (he wasn't one of the store employees, just a too-interested by-stander) told us we needed not a nice $4,000 lawn tractor with a tow-behind cart, but a $40,000 John Deere tractor that came with steps so you could crawl up into the cab. Hey mister, we only have nine and a half acres. That tractor needs more room than that to turn around!
Grocery stores are a hot-bed of advice. A very large lady (to put it mildly) advised me to get some pseudo-cheese "'cause it melts real good on Fritos." Oh, yummy, and here I was going to waste my money on Brie. People seem to have an inordinate interest in what brand of pet food you are buying. I have been advised to "buy the cheapest, it's all the same anyway". Try telling that to our cat! She knows, believe me, she knows the difference. One gentleman told me not to buy the wet cat food in a can, but to get the dry in a bag because it keeps longer. Keeping cat food is not a problem at our house—keeping it stocked is.
So, take my advice and don't listen to unsolicited, unwanted, and unneeded advice from strangers. If you need any advice, just ask me.


This blog entry has been viewed 355 times

---

Unsupervised Shopping

Category: Serendipity | Posted: Tue Nov 26, 2013 7:33 pm

---

Do not let your husband go shopping without you. In fact, don't let him out of the house if you are not with him and he is carrying either cash or a credit card.
Today I had to run into town to get the turkeys to roast for the Food Pantry's Thanksgiving dinner, and my beloved husband said he'd go get a haircut. That sounded safe enough—a 45 minute to one hour round trip into the "big city" to get a trim. Weather was good, not too much traffic, and I could trust him to get a haircut and return in time for lunch.
He did return in time for lunch. However, he had spent two and a half hours shopping. We now have six bottles of wine, a bag of snack mix, four pizzas, and a rifle. Yes, a rifle with a scope. Barbershops are not what they used to be, now that they obviously stock wine, snacks, and arms. I shall have to mention this to my hairdresser, who may want to branch out from rinses, shampoos, and manicures.
So, now I have to sight in a rifle—something I haven't done in over 30 years—and learn to use an over-the-barrel scope. The snack mix, pizzas, and wine I know how to handle.
With the holidays coming up, I thought I'd best warn wives about letting husbands out to shop unsupervised. You never know what they'll bring home.


This blog entry has been viewed 366 times

---

Children's Names

Category: Serendipity | Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2013 7:08 pm

---

A dear friend had signed up to help register new Kindergarten students at a local school. She broke her wrist, and was unable to type, or write. I got the feeling that some people would do about anything to get out of registering Kindergarteners and their proud parents. I was drafted to replace her. Next year I'll break my wrist, all ten fingers, and anyone's neck that suggests that I go through that again!
What happened to good old names for children—Sarah, George, Ann, Ralph, etc.?
After working for two hours registering children, I realized that short, easily-spelled names were out of fashion. Sixty years from now the nursing homes are going to be filled with (sic) Tiffanees, Ashlees, Anthonees, and Phoelixias (Felicias in previous times). Some of the names I had to ask the parents to repeat, and they seemed a little huffy that I didn't immediately know how to spell Antwon or D'lite.
I got the distinct impression that the new Kindergarten class was a gathering of Indian tribes (Shawnee, Cherokee, Cheyenne) or a mixed hardwood forest (Aspen, Willow, Birch). There was even a river thrown in—Shenandoah. I'm not sure where Savannah came in—city or misspelled veldt.
I am so out of touch with today's culture.
Next year the registration can proceed without me. I'll be in front of the local hospital, picketing for new mothers to name their babies Robert or Barbara. Cathy is out—can be spelled with a K or a C, and I don't want to have to deal with that in five years!


This blog entry has been viewed 369 times

---

In today's mail

Category: Serendipity | Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 7:05 pm

---

In today's mail we received three letters, and obviously someone knows something we don't!
First, we got a letter from The Neptune Society, offering to cremate our remains and dump an urn containing same into the Florida Keys. We used to go to the Caribbean to vacation and snorkel, and enjoyed seeing the marine life and corals. We didn't go to see an urn laying on the sand, containing Aunt Myrtle's remains. Sanibel Island is famous for shells, not for the shells of the departed.
Then our second piece of mail was from the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) offering us life insurance "so we wouldn't leave a burden for our loved ones." Believe me, I don't care! Society hates the sight of a rotting corpse, so someone is going to see that I go underground. I don't need "additional insurance to relieve the burden on my loved ones." I'll take grief any way I can get it--financial or emotional, somebody is going to care that I'm gone!
The final piece of mail was from our local water supplier, telling us that the arsenic level in our water was above acceptable levels. We were assured that "THIS IS NOT AN EMERGENCY" and we didn't need to go to an alternative water supply. If you have "health concerns" it may cause increased chance of cancer, skin damage, or problems with the circulatory system. Well, that about covers it. Fortunately we filter drinking and cooking water and the hens drink rainwater. We also don't bathe that often . . . .
So, if you don't hear from me for a while, contact the Neptune Society to see if I'm laying on the bottom of the Florida Keys, the AARP to see if I've opted out of "providing for my loved ones", and the local water supply to see if arsenic poisoning did me in.

This blog entry has been viewed 370 times

---

Lessons learned since husband retired

Category: Serendipity | Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 8:17 pm

---

Lesson #1: I have retired, he has changed jobs. Each morning he makes a list of tasks for the day and usually accomplishes all of them. Meanwhile, I no longer dust (he's an engineer and dusts very, very thoroughly); once or twice a week he provides a sub sandwich for lunch or takes me out to the new Italian restaurant in town; and he is remodeling a bathroom. Meanwhile I doodle around in the garden, commune with the hens, and bake.
Lesson #2: We should have invested in the local hardware store's stock. There are at least two, and usually more, trips to the hardware store each week.
Lesson #3: Going to the hardware store also involves stopping by at least two more stores, and coming home with jelly beans, peanuts, and a handy gadget for the kitchen that he can't imagine I have lived without for so long. I am still trying to figure out what the last two gadgets are, but one (I think) is to pull skin off fish. I don't fish!
Lesson #4:"I'm going out to the workshop for a few minutes" results in all sorts of nice things--candle holders, canes, cutting boards, and a lot of shavings for the ladies' nest boxes. He is examining plans for a mantle clock. Fortunately we have a mantle, or he'd build one.
Lesson #5: For forty-some years I have been setting the dining room table for dinner. That is no longer my job. However, I like my napkin on the left, he puts it on the right. We will work this out . . . .
Lesson #6: And this is the best of all--having him home all the time (except for those trips to the hardware store) is pure joy! He is funny, considerate, and the cat is in seventh heaven with an available lap at almost any time of the day. I no longer worry about him driving home in bad weather and we no longer spend all weekend trying to catch up on chores and projects. We have all the time in the world, together!

This blog entry has been viewed 410 times

---

Weekly trip into town

Category: Serendipity | Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2012 8:16 pm

---

I go into town once a week, to do grocery shopping and other tasks. "Going into town" isn't like a trip to the mall, not by any means!
First, I needed to stop by the feed store to deliver the last jar of our honey to the manager who loves the stuff. He paid me for the honey, then gave me a six-pack of broccoli starts for the garden. "I need to get these out of the way," he said. Nice man, bad liar.
Then I went to the local food pantry with a bag of bell peppers. Fresh vegetables! People were peeking in the bag and comparing notes about how their mama used to make stuffed peppers. I got a couple of good recipes out of that! By the time I walked out, most of the peppers had, too. I love folks who appreciate nice veggies!
Then I went to the bank, and ran into a neighbor who lives down the road. While we were standing in line (there is a line since no one is in a hurry and the tellers know everyone and their kin and inquire as to everyone's health) he told me about the 10 acres on the road being sold, and who bought it and what they intended to do with it. Sounds like we are getting some nice new neighbors. Hope they like bell peppers.
The bank teller Cynthia plays in a handbell chorus at the Methodist Church and we talked about the upcoming birthday party for the residents of the nursing home. She and her fellow bellers are the entertainment, and our church is providing the cakes and punch. I asked her for tickets to the Methodist Church's Holy Smoke Barbecue, but she didn't have any.
However, Cara Sue at the post office did have some, so when I was at the PO mailing letters I got two Holy Smoke BBQ tickets. Don't tell anyone, but the Methodists do a better BBQ than the Lutherans. Lutherans can cook really well, but they insist on including noodles in their BBQ plates, and noodles just don't go with BBQ. Beans, slaw or potato salad, brisket, and cornbread--that's what makes you say "Holy Smoke"!
Then to the grocery store, where my checkout lady Tina told me she had tried two of the recipes in my cookbook, and both came out well. Even the kids liked the oregano chicken and they only eat chicken fried (previously--now their palates are becoming more sophisticated). We had a lively discussion about fresh vs. dried herbs, and how to substitute one for the other. The lady behind me in line had an opinion or two on the subject, and we all enjoyed a nice conversation. Did I mention no one is in much of a hurry in town?
Last stop was the library. The librarian on duty was all by herself, and asked if I could take the desk for a few minutes while she took a break. I told her I had groceries in the truck, but I could manage 15 minutes. She made a beeline for the bathroom, poor thing! Of course a couple of acquaintances came in while I was manning the desk, and I found out about a get-well card I need to send, and that a set of new parents have settled on a name for the baby--naming him after the daddy's daddy. Original!
I left home at 8:30 a.m. and got home at 11, and that was one of the shorter trips.
Now y'all know why I go into town only once a week.

This blog entry has been viewed 461 times

---

Visitors from Zambia

Category: Serendipity | Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2012 11:30 am

---

Who knew that moving to a small farm in the back of nowhere would get you international visitors? We had a gentleman from Australia stop by, telling us he was lost. My husband's reaction was, "Buddy, you don't know how lost you are!"
Well, a week ago Friday I was clearing up after supper when there was a knock on the door. A nice young man had trouble with his car--it seems he had a flat, put on the spare, and used the bolts for the regular tire instead of the shorter ones for the spare, and the wheel wouldn't turn. (Any of you who own a Mercedes, take note that two sizes of bolts are supplied). Being a man, he hadn't read the instruction manual and now couldn't get the long bolts off which were wedged against the disc.
My husband gathered up the tools he thought he'd need, but came back for a larger wrench. He told me That the young man's father and nephew were sitting in the car. I went down to the highway and invited them to come to the house and wait where it was air-conditioned. As we were walking to the house, I noticed the father tottered a bit, and asked him if he felt well. He is diabetic and hadn't had dinner. When we got to the house I fixed a sandwich and some cherry tomatoes for him, gave them both water, and settled them in front of the TV to watch PBS. The nephew, a teenager, was fascinated by the size of our TV. (Well, the thing is about 40 years old, but it works!) He was a nice, polite youngster and didn't laugh outright at our small screen.
Meanwhile, down at the highway, a young man was passing going the other way, turned around and came to help. With the three of them working at it, they got the long bolts off, the short ones on, and drove the car up to our driveway to collect the missing family members, who were having a good time snacking and watching TV.
We gave them our phone number in case they had more trouble, but didn't hear from them and figured that was a pleasant interlude but we'd never see them again.
Then this past Saturday, guess who showed up in the driveway? It was Mr. Musoma and his wife. He is teaching business at Texas A&M and had picked her up at the Dallas airport, and they were on their way home. He wanted to introduce us to her, and she is the sweetest little thing. She was born and raised in Louisiana and has the softest accent and is adorable. He said his father wanted us to have his business card (he is the head of an investment firm in Zambia) and "if we were ever in Zambia we were expected to stay with his family." A visit to Zambia isn't likely, but if it were, we'd be knocking on Mr. Musoma the elder's door!

This blog entry has been viewed 597 times

---

Cooking and Cooking Shows on TV

Category: Serendipity | Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2012 5:58 pm

---

I dearly love to cook, and being able to grow and use our own produce gives me the chance to experiment with, and even develop recipes.


Bounty from the farm ( photo / image / picture from marlingardener's Garden )

I also love to bake, especially breads.


Homemade breads ( photo / image / picture from marlingardener's Garden )

That is why I don't understand "cooking" shows like Hell's Kitchen and Master Chef. These shows have nothing to do with the joy and satisfaction of creating good food. It's all about competition and yelling at each other and chefs that don't teach the contestants anything, just criticize and belittle their efforts. Personally, if Gordon Whatshisname spoke to me like that, he'd meet my cast iron frying pan!
I love creating a nice meal--balanced with flavors and colors and textures--and having someone enjoy it. Cooking a nice stew and taking a bowl to someone who may not bother to "cook for one" or giving a bag of new potatoes, some green beans, and a small loaf of bread to a neighbor makes me feel so good. Cooking should be satisfying, both in the preparation, and the eating. Having some son of a Bastianich spit out food and make a caustic comment doesn't help the fledgling chef--it just shows how cruel he can be if given the opportunity.
I love to watch Jacques Pepin, and Eric Rippert--they love food and love to cook! There is a basic respect for both the ingredients and for those who are going to eat the result in their style of cooking. I don't think either Jacques nor Eric have ever been "bleeped".
I have no talent for painting, have a tin ear for music, and can't do much in the way of crafts. Cooking is a creative outlet, even if it's just a batch of cookies I've made dozens of times before. My kitchen creations are something I can share, and enjoy.
I wonder if there is an opening on the Food Network for someone who doesn't swear (at least not on camera) and who just really, really enjoys cooking?





This blog entry has been viewed 402 times

---

Goto page previous, 1, 2, 3, 4, next

Home / Blogs / marlingardener's Blog / Serendipity /