Trip to Stone Mountain

With David, Siobhan, and baby James

Trip to Stone Mountain (NC)

Gardening at night

Took these after the rain this evening.

Gardening at Night

Stoop labor

Sunday, Debbie needed some raw peanuts shelled and peeled. The girls enthusiastically embraced the idea of helping shell peanuts, so the three of us sat on the front porch and developed a great division of labor for shelling the peanuts. At first, Julia cracked and shelled, I cracked and handed peanuts to Lily for shelling, and I peeled the peanuts that both girls shelled. Soon Lily discovered accidentally that she could crack the peanuts if she stepped on them, so our assembly line became much more efficient. Then Lily discovered that she could jump on the peanuts and get the same result (Julia then discovered that she could do this barefoot), so our assembly line became more amusing to all three (the added amusement for me being watching Lily's intense concentration as she aimed for so small a target as a peanut and seeing where she would actually land). Throughout it all I was just chuckling over, and giving thanks for, the eagerness, intensity, and persistence of these two over such a menial task. Who needs Backyardigans videos or Nintendo Wii when you've got kitchen prep or yard work to do? (Though Nintendo has a cooking game for the Wii system, called "Cooking Mama: Cook Off for Wii", so I suppose it won't be long until they come out with "Stoop Labor for Sony Playstation")

A short story by Julia

Julia wrote this story tonight while we were fixing dinner.

A short story by Julia

Chutney, Britney, Whitney, Julia, & Lily

The other night I made one of my favorite dinners, lentil dal and naan. We are reasonably diverse in our cooking, but Indian isn't something we really do at home much, so I joked to Debbie just after we sat down to eat, "why haven't I put the chutney out?," the joke being to imply that we just have chutney lying around the house all the time. She thought I was serious, though, and replied that maybe we did have some homemade chutney. Well, if Deb thinks we have something in the kitchen, chances are she's right, so I hopped up and started looking through our stash of home-canned goods in the pantry.

I stood up on a chair and craned my head into the upper recesses of the pantry. Hmmm...here's a jar of home-canned tomato marmalade...when did we make that? and why? and why did we save it, considering it was such a letdown?...Another jar of tomato marmalade...Now, what's this? Not labeled - looks like...ummm...pepper jelly? Ah! What's this stack of four jars? Bingo! Homemade peach Chutney!

I set the jar on the table. The lid was still sucked down into a concave shape and it held tight when I pried at it with my fingers. I pried it loose with my knife and it made a satisfying "shlup" when the seal finally gave. The old adage, "when in doubt, throw it out" ran through my mind, leaving me a bit disappointed and conflicted. Sniff. Smells okay. Look askance at it - kinda brown, but the pieces haven't turned to mush and the juices are clear. Taste - tastes great! I piled it on.

We start speculating. "When did we make this stuff? Well, let's see, it was in our old house, so that was three years ago. Further, we haven't canned anything since....since...yikes! since before Julia was born!" "Julia, this food is older than you!" (She got a kick out of that.) Deb suggests that maybe the family member on immune suppressant therapy shouldn't be the first person to test our home-canning skills. I proceed to eat heartily of the stuff anyway.

Anyhow, the next morning I was still alive and feeling great. Visitors to our house beware if we serve you Indian, you're going to be facing down a 5-year old jar of peach chutney. Fortunately there are a host of Indian restaurants in Raleigh where we can take you if Indian is really what you want.

Poetry Slam featuring Lily

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

I'm shifting towards posting pictures on Picasa Web Albums. Since mostly what I've done with this blog is put up pictures, most updates from now on will be on Picasa Web Albums.

Go here: http://picasaweb.google.com/Evdeboranjulily

Julia's Journal

Julia's Journal

(Click on the picture above to read her journal)

Party invitations

(image hosting for bikeforums.net)

Happy 2008!

Make a free ecard - it's easy!

Happy Hallowe'en!

Who are those spooky trick-or-treaters?

Could it be? Granddaddy & Grandma?

Happy Hallowe'en!!

Rain barrels! (if only it would rain)

At long last, by popular demand, pictures of the rain barrel. The only things you can't see in the pictures are (1) the screen in the top of the leaf screen/settling chamber, (2) the makeshift spring that holds the screen in place, and (3) that the end cap on the settling chamber is not glued on, so that the settling chamber will leak out after the rain.

Materials and where I happened to get them:

• 2-bung plastic barrel with at least one threaded plug (Out of a dumpster; the less daring can go to State surplus which is a fascinating place for detritophiles like me)
• 3/4" (?) NPT threaded spigot (hardware store)
• Window screen (Habitat ReStore)
• 2.5 ft scrap piece of 3" PVC (Habitat)
• PVC "Wye" fitting, 3" to 1-1/2" (Hardware store)
• 1-1/2" PVC elbow and straight coupling (Hardware store)
• 1-1/2" PVC pipe scraps (found in my house when we moved in)
• Teflon tape

Pipe sizes can be adjusted to fit what you are able to find, but 3" is the minimum for the screen/settling chamber (so it will catch everything coming out of the downspout).

Tools:

• Drill w/ boring bits - I think that's all.

The spigot threads right into the bung plug. The 1-1/2" PVC pipe overflow from the settling chamber fits snugly into the barrel, keeping out mosquitoes, if you use a boring bit of the same size.

The leaf screen/settling chamber works very well - I had these barrels set up for a year without a leaf screen and the water was always funky-smelling and brownish. Since putting the leaf screen on, it's always clear and never smells.

You can see on the smaller barrel the non-leaf screened method of connection - just cut the outline of your gutter downspout and pop it in.

A stand makes the water much more useable unless you have a pump.

Broke out the old Pentax 35 mm SLR today, just for old time's sake. I've got to re-acquire the ability to focus the thing (it doesn't have a split-ring focus), and I know there are digital cameras (probably including my own) that can do all that this one can, but these pictures beat my own digital pictures hands down for capturing the feeling of the moment.

Took the kids to the state fair last night. Boy, did they have fun. (So did we.)

Mmmm...delicious suckling pig!

Lily's birthday continued...

Julia says this is a picture of her favorite person (she later volunteered that Gramma Pat as her other favorite person).

Summertime, and the living is easy...

First day of school...

Lily's birthday...