I Resent This

The green states are the happiest and the red states the most unhappy

West Virginia is the #1 most unhappy state in the union according to some company that gives surveys and keeps track of the nation’s “happiness index”.

But, you know what? They’re wrong! 😀

It’s not that West Virginia is the most unhappy, it’s just that we’re the most HONEST…seriously.
I grew up on the east coast, in central Maryland, and the biggest culture shock for me when we first moved to West Virginia in The Fall of 2005 was the blunt honesty of the people..

(and the friendliness, everybody waves when you pass them in the car and everybody just loves babies.  If I take a baby to the grocery store my trip will take twice as long because every other person I come across will want to talk to the baby and play with the baby and make the baby smile..)

In West Virginia, if you ask “how are you?” they don’t give the official “fine” or “good” NO! …you better be prepared to stand there and have a conversation ’cause they will tell you! and not spare even one gory detail lol 😉

In my opinion, the “happiest states of the union” are not truly happy, they’re just better liars 😆

Man’s Rule: The Liberty Worldview

Nathan latest video and entrance into the Operation Paul Revere Infowars video contest…really his best work ever!
If you want to know more about us and our basic beliefs on things, then watch this video, it will tell you everything you need to know 😀

Garden Wrap Up 2012

I had originally planned to do this post towards the end of December last year, but I ended up somehow losing my teeny tiny SD card with all my pictures of the 2012 garden on it 😦  However, I finally found it!!  Or more precisely, Charity, my 2 1/2 year old daughter, found it.  I’ve been getting really antsy lately, with the warmer weather we’ve had and all, making me most eager to get a jumpstart on the spring cleaning.  So yesterday I decided to change around the living room and do some cleaning and organization, and all my activity must’ve knocked the SD card free of it’s hiding place and in the midst of it all Charity spotted it and picked it and started carrying it around.  I had to trade her my measuring cups and spoons for it (she loves to play with those any chance she can get..) but I finally got it back again 😀 …you have no idea how happy this makes me, I was saddened to the point of crying when I thought it was lost forever!

But it is most fitting that I have not been able to write this until now, because, technically, the garden was never “wrapped up” …we still have spinach, mache (a super cold hardy green from Europe, also called vit or corn salad), and cilantro and parsley still live and my fava beans that I planted in December are increasing in growth rate right along with the increase in temperature.  We had swiss chard too, but most of it was killed off, all except “Fordhook” the most cold hardy of the swiss chards, it did die back but is putting out new leaves even as I type this.  So far this year we have made new plantings of peas (2 different types so far, over 300 seeds planted), 7 POUNDS of onion sets most of which will be used as green onions, and small “test plantings” of radishes and lettuce, Spring is in the air and the 2013 garden is already getting off to a glorious start!

So, let’s get down to business, before I get too far ahead of myself, and I’ll give you the breakdown of last year’s garden.

Just like in 2011, I’ll give you my top 5 favorite garden performers for 2012 😀

Royal Burgundy Bush Bean and Asian Yard Long Bean

5.  Royal Burgundy Bush Bean and The Asian Yard Long Bean – Well, the PURPLE speaks for itself, and the vines of the plants are a dark purple nearly black color with dark green leaves and the flowers are purple as well and it is a very prolific producer!  Only drawback is the beans turn green when you cook them, still very fun to grow though.  The long beans can get up to 36 inches in length but I think taste best when picked at around 18 inches, very unique taste with a hint of citrus, almost lemony like flavor.  All garden season my favorite bean dish was a mixture of these two beans cooked up with a bit of bacon and sprinkled with salt and pepper *drool* 🙂

Hungarian Paprika

4.  Hungarian Paprika – Love Love Love this!  These peppers are simply beautiful and quite delicious, we allowed ours to dry and age and then we ground them into paprika powder, my favorite way to eat these is on EGGS from our hens, although it really good on steak too!  Just a bit of spiciness, but the flavor is VERY rich and smoky.  We plan to grow these every year from now on.

freshly hung paprika peppers all set for drying

None of these is important except for the frilly little yellow squash on the right, Gelber Englischer Custard Squash

3.  Gelber Englischer Custard Squash – So pretty and delicate, the little squashes have frilly lacy edges and no two ever look exactly the same.  Quite unique and tasty and the only squash plant to survive the longest against our awful squash beetle bug invasion last summer, I literally hand squished hundreds of them suckers!  I just wish I would have gotten a better picture of the squash 😦

Incan Rainbow Corn

2.  Incan Rainbow Corn – Another pretty one and so tasty sweet!  We ate a few ears at milk stage and it was super tender and very good…we then let the rest of the ears mature to flour stage and dried them, it’s almost too pretty to eat!  But I do plan to make a couple batches of cornbread soon, and it will be an up and coming blog post when I do!

dried incan rainbow corn…so pretty that I almost wanna make a necklace from it lol

Virginia Gold Tobacco

1.  Virginia Gold Tobacco – Our first year ever growing tobacco.  We grew 6 of these plants in 3 different areas of the garden, they get huge and produce tons of lovely pink flowers from which you can save seeds.  The tobacco is very good, mellow and easy to smoke with hardly any harshness especially after you allow it to age a bit.  A pleasant surprise about this tobacco is that it attracted TONS of beneficial insects in every place that we put it…ladybugs, parasitic wasps, bees of all types..insects seem to absolutely love this plant, and yet you can make a homemade pesticide from it’s leaves…go figure!  We also made our own chew from it, but that didn’t turn out so good, this plant is better suited for smoking than for chew 🙂

Tobacco flower with a teeny tiny bug on it

Tobacco hanging to dry

To see 2011’s garden wrap up, click here.

The Quickest Meal

This meal is not the cheapest and most certainly NOT the healthiest (which is why I would recommend serving this meal only 2-3 times a month, at the very most!) but it is easy and fast and tasty.  And it combines especially well with homegrown garden veggies 🙂

All you need is:

1 box of pasta (mini farfelle or rotini are what my kids like)

1 jar of pasta sauce (a tomato and basil or a roasted red pepper sauce works best, I think)

1 stick of unsalted butter

First, take a big dutch oven type pot.  Fill it with hot water and add the box of pasta, a pinch of salt and a drizzle of oil.  Bring it all to a boil and let cook for 7-9 minutes, depending on how well cooked you like your pasta.

When the pasta is done, drain in a colander.  While the pasta is draining add the stick of butter to the still hot pot and then dump the pasta on top of it.  Let sit for about 2 minutes to give the butter a chance to melt, then stir until butter is fully melted.  (To get the butter to melt faster you can cut it up before adding to the pot.)  Dump in the jar of pasta sauce and mix really well. Serves at least 7 hungry people, maybe more!

During the gardening season, I like to make a stir-fry of garden veggies in a skillet while the pasta cooks…things like sweet Italian frying peppers, onions, garlic, summer squash, and zucchini..and then top each serving with the stir-fry and a generous dusting of Parmesan cheese.  I then serve it up with a garden salad of homegrown baby lettuces topped with homegrown homemade goat cheese.

Alternatively, I also make a creamy pasta dish by using the stick of butter, 1/4 cup of flour, and 3-4 cups of our goat’s milk to make a medium white sauce, seasoned with garlic and onion powders and salt and pepper and a dash of mesquite smoke flavor, in the big dutch oven type pot while the already cooked pasta drains in the colander.  I then add the pasta back to the sauce and heat over very low heat until it all thickens up (about 7-10 minutes).  This is especially good with fresh garden green peas, sugar snap or snow peas, or fava beans or lima beans, lightly steamed and then mixed in at the very end.  Again, I serve it with a nice garden salad of mixed baby greens, but this time I top each salad with a chopped up hardboiled egg from our hens.

And there you have it, the quickest meal I know! 😀

Just Call Me The Snow White Queen

glaciated death of frozen anticipation
pulse on hold encased in suspension of time
unforgiving hands of nature’s clock
stands still, no breath
the fierceness of white so extreme
it’s razor sharp indifference claws at my chest
it takes one to know one
just call me the snow white queen

Multimedia

I have to make a trip to da big city today which makes me short on time and unable to type a proper blog post, so I’ll share some interesting things with you instead 😀

OBEY By Realityintruth <—Click to play song (for whatever reason WordPress does not like Soundclick’s little widget players, I can’t get them to show up in the blog post…)

I had meant to share this before I lost internet for 9 days, a stand alone release of one of Nathan’s songs. This is the only song of his that has been released separate from his videos on YouTube, all of which contain his music. This song is called “Obey” and it’s the theme song to his first documentary “Truth in Reality”.

The lyrics are as follows:

Hey! When will you figure this out?
That your fairy tale “American Dream”
Only exists on a TV screen

You say if I don’t buy your
Product then I’m not a good parent
But you’re the bastard father of
The Chinese slaves

You say, “This is what everyone’s saying”
But what you means is,
“This is what we want you to say”

Yes you do

You tell us, “Every vote counts”
But you run both parties

You say, “God wants me to live the good life”
But you’ve already sold your soul

Produce Consume Play
Listen Conform OBEY

If that song has piqued your interest, here is “Truth in Reality” in it’s Full Form for your viewing pleasure 😀

Another video that I had wanted to share with you, before my internet quite working, was a documentary on Christian Anarchist Jacques Ellul. I have read 3 of his books and a lot of his philosophy has rubbed off on me and influenced me and expanded the way in which I think of the world. Of his books, I have read “The Technological Society” “Propaganda: The Formation Of Men’s Attitudes” and “The Subversion Of Christianity”…if you ever decide to read any of his books I would most recommend, “Propaganda: The Formation Of Men’s Attitudes” for a complete and total mind altering experience, it really is one of those books that, after you read it, you can never view the world in quite the same way again! Since Ellul was French, the video is in French, but it has subtitles…besides, it’s fun to hear people speak in French 🙂

And here is an online copy of “Propaganda: The Formation Of Men’s Attitudes” for your reading pleasure!

View this document on Scribd

The Nitty Gritty

I knew, a couple of months ago, when our cellular internet company upgraded our internet service area to 4G speed that there was going to be trouble.  Almost right away, that young fast internet began having issues with my old codger of a computer, always kicking him off within the first 5 minutes of him signing onto the internet.  This continued until February 20th, when the two of them just up and decided that they weren’t going to talk anymore.  After about 9 days of silence from internet, I began negotiations between the two of them that lasted 3 HOURS, but finally brought forth a truce and peace reigns for now between them, although I can’t guarantee that it will continue for long however.

I’m always hesitant to invest much time into my computer, my desire to utilize the internet must outweigh the sacrifice of time involved in getting it to cooperate again.  I can easily, just off the top of my head, think of 10 different things that would be a far better use of 3 HOURS and if given the time could probably come up with 100 different things that would be a far better use of my time than futzing with the computer.

Nathan and I share an internet connection, he usually begins his E-Bay work between 10:00 am and 10:30 am, and up until that point I can use the internet.  But when he has to begin work I can no longer use it as it can only be used by one computer at a time.  And when late afternoon comes around, when he is usually finished his work, I could connect, but usually have no desire to, although occasionally I will do so.  No, instead, after the work and the homeschool is done for the day, we all get to hang out and play together.  Normally this would involve being outside, but since it’s still pretty cold, we’ve been having a lot of fun playing video games together, especially Nathan and me and our two oldest sons, Elijah and Solomon.  Lately, we’ve been taking turns finally getting around to beating the main storyline in Skyrim (I LOVE that game!).  So, truth be told, internet access is not extremely high on my priority list, the main reason I finally fixed it was because I needed it for homeschool stuff and I had a blog post or two in mind, plus I missed being able to look up recipes!

In other news, I have lost a total of 3 pounds since February 8th when I began cutting calories.  For the most part I am still consuming mostly what we produce ourselves, 2/3 of my daily food intake comes from homegrown food and the other 1/3 (mostly at the evening meal) is from other food.  I’m very pleased with the results because I have done it through quite a natural process, quite painless and simple, not once feeling deprived or defeated, as if losing this weight is an impossible task.

Recently, while looking around the homestead for homegrown or foragable goodies, I remembered the Virginia Gold Tobacco that we grew last year and the appetite suppressing effects that tobacco has and so, since we still have a fairly large amount left fermenting and aging on the side porch, I began smoking our good ol’ organic homegrown Virginia Gold Tobacco again.

Upon awaking, I make a cup of coffee and take my pipe full of tobacco and my coffee in a travel mug  into the woods for an enjoyable little hike…even in the cold and the recent bit of snow we just got, it has been quite magical!  I very much have been enjoying my early morning walks, I see deer all of the time and the other day I even saw a chipmunk and a mink, more indications that the arrival of Spring is well underway as the creatures begin to come out of hibernation and search for food.

After my little hike, I then milk the goats and feed them hay and give them water, and come back inside and use the internet while in the process of also getting breakfast going.  When I feel hungry, which usually isn’t until well after 10:00 am and sometimes as late as NOON, I eat an egg.  1 hardboiled egg, (from our hens of course) cut in half with about 1/2 tsp. of homemade mayo dolloped on each half and a dab of relish and a dash of homegrown homemade dried paprika powder, I call it “Angel Eggs” as it tastes just like “Deviled Eggs” but without all the extra work involved.  I have a glass of ice water with lemon and continue on with the day’s activities.

Next time I feel hungry, usually within 2 hours, I’ll have “Angel Eggs” again but recently I got a whole sirloin roast on sale for $2.88/pound and so I cut it in half and roasted it in the oven till medium rare, I then thinly sliced it and stored it in the fridge and I munch on 2-3 slices of roast beef when I feel the urge, I like to smear it with homegrown grated horseradish that we have preserved in vinegar and salt.  I also like having a good bit of homemade goat cheese on a very thin slice of homemade french bread, thin enough to be nothing more than the vehicle by which the goat cheese enters my mouth 😀

Around 4:00 pm is break time!  I make another cup of coffee and have it with a pipe full of good homegrown tobacco and that sets my appetite until around 6:00 pm.  Lately, since avocados have been in season and on sale, Nathan and I have been snacking on homemade guacamole with organic tortilla chips.  I’ve also made creamed spinach omlettes a couple of times, using spinach from the garden and eggs and milk from our chickens and goats.  I also like to have a couple of beers in the evening with dinner, recently we tried a new IPA called “Ruthless Rye”  it was quite tasty and I really love the artwork on the bottle and the box!

Today I will be starting my new tobacco seeds indoors.  I recently acquired seeds for “Hungarian Szamosi Dark Tobacco” which grows leaves suitable for both pipes and cigar-making, with plans to learn how to make my own cigars, so long as I am able to successfully grow it!  I love learning new skills 😀 

And this morning I just learned of a HUGE ASS SNOWSTORM headed our way with predictions of up to 40 INCHES of snow to fall starting Tuesday!  Reminds me of winter 09’/10′ when we got 3-4 FEET of snow…so I will leave you with this lovely picture, the view from my front door during that winter, as I’m sure you’ll get to hear me bitching about snow in the days to come 🙄