HAPPY HOLIDAYS

May your dreidle always land on Gimmle.

May 2009 bring peace to the world.

May we all know joy and love in the coming year.
May whichever holiday you hold dearBring fulfillment of the promise of your faith.

--Yvonne

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OH YEAH, LIFE GOES ON. LONG AFTER THE THRILL OF LIVING IT IS GONE.--JOHN MELLENCAMP

I made kumquat marmalade this morning. Wonderful how doing something that homey can fill your mind. And my mind needs to be filled. Some friends came by yesterday. They are a wonderful, caring couple. They have lovely things in their garden: kumquat trees, satsuma trees, grapefruit trees, pear trees, as well as a regular veggie garden and a host of wonderful flowers.

They brought me a bag of kumquats, satsumas and grapefruit. I immediately ate several kumquats and a couple of nice, juicy satsumas (Y-U-M to both) and thought I was going to pop. Then I decided I'd make marmalade. So I chopped up the remaining kumquats and most of the satsumas and let them soak overnight. This morning, bright and early (for me) I was up making marmalade. I hope it turns out good.

I try to keep busy. There is a business about death that must be attended to: papers to be filled out and signed, bills to take care of, people to contact, headstones to be ordered. That keeps me busy.

But there is also other business that goes on.

Mortgage companies do not care if you are going through an emotional crises. They must be paid. So, too, must the phone company, the power company, and other utilities. The car note still arrives along with all the other bills with no regard to what else is going on in your life. In a way, it can keep one tethered to the real world.

So, I still muddle on. And I make marmalade.

More later....

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This morning I awoke to the sound of cultivation. The field across the road was planted in soy beans this season and they are cutting them. Life does go on. The cycle of birth to death continues. It is ever so present on a homestead. But one can see it everywhere.

In the hospital where my Ronnie died there is a "birthing" floor. When a baby is born a few bars of a lullaby are played on the hospital's public address system and sound throughout the hospital. At the very instant that my sweet husband died, that lullaby trilled through the speakers in his room. My angel had left for heaven at the same moment that another life began. I was struck then by it and now it somehow helps me muddle on. If you can call the fog I am living in muddling, then that is what I am doing.

I cannot believe that at this very minute 2 weeks ago my beloved Ronnie was alive and joking with me. Then suddenly 9 hours later, he was gone from me forever.

I go to my own blog to "visit" him. It hurts. But it helps.

Friends and family help also. I am touched by the out pour of love and support that I have received. Most of it comes because everyone loved my sweet husband. He was a treasure for everyone who knew him. But most especially for me.

More later....

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Ronald Stuart Gordon
1939 - 2008

Ron Gordon, 69, finally lay down to rest after a long, hard 30-year battle with heart disease. He fought and lost his final round at West Florida Hospital in Pensacola on Oct. 29, 2008.

Ron was born in Washington, D.C., July 15, 1939, to Irving and Adele Gordon. He and wife Yvonne moved to Northwest Florida in 1999 where Ron found true joy in his happy marriage, his wonderful dog Bingo and his John Deere tractor.

He is survived by his beloved wife Yvonne; four sons: Mark (Dory); Larry (Maria); Stephen (Barbara); and Michael (Haley); one stepson Scotty Correro (Jennifer); sister Terry Gordon; 10 grandchildren; two step grandchildren; and Bingo.

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Homesteading: Making Cherry Wine

The cherry wine is bottled!!! Yay!! It is so good now, I can't imagine what it will taste like when it has aged a bit. You are supposed to wait a year before tasting your homemade wine. I wonder if anyone has ever done that!

What a mess I made while bottling it. I wasn't paying attention while I was holding the siphon tube in one bottle. I turned around and voila! I had splattered wine all over the kitchen. Even after I cleaned it up, my house smelled like a winery. Actually, that is not a bad thing with this cherry wine.

Ron doesn't drink. At all. Ever. And I drink very little. People ask me why I make wine. First of all, I do enjoy a cordial of sweet wine in the evening occasionally. But most of all, it makes wonderful gifts. If you can find the half bottles, you are in luck. So far, I found only one. It is beautiful!

L@@K at my homemade cherry wine! Notice that I haven't put the goldleaf toppers on yet. I'll do that later.

In the middle ages, the smart "healers" used warm wine to clean wounds. I don't think they knew that if you warm it too much the alcohol cooks out. And I'm not sure they knew that the alcohol was an antiseptic and that the sugar promoted healing. But they had figured out that wounds treated with warm wine seemed to heal better. And they still do.

I read an article recently on the curative powers of honey. Fascinating! Of course, it has to be pure honey and not treated or heated. Raw honey. It amazes me that modern doctors are finding that many of the old remedies, herbs and treatments work! We are very fortunate to have modern medicine and old remedies working hand in hand to relieve suffering and cure illnesses.

I only wish they could make an artificial heart that would let my sweet husband live another 30 years or so.

More later....

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HOMESTEADING: ISOLATION

We got some sad news this week...some homesteaders out west that we correspond with are splitting up. They moved from the BIG city to a spread on the prairie. They thought it would be an idyllic life.

They ran cattle. That's what you call it when you raise cattle...running cattle. They had built up a modest herd. They moved out west from L.A. almost 3 years before we moved to Florida.

She says the isolation killed the marriage. I' sure there was more to it than that. But isolation is part of homesteading. And Isolation can kill.

Isolation can devastate many. Or bless others. After 28 years in the public eye, I was more than ready for some isolation even though it was certainly the last thing I ever thought I'd be doing! But Ron had always had the dream. When we first met, he said that all his life he had wanted to live in a cabin in the middle of the woods.

Well, that's what we did.

It's a long way from the road to our house.

We stay active. We do things. Ron goes into town every day to go to the post office. I go with him once a week. Unlike a big city post office, our post office is where you find out the latest news. If you see some construction going on in town, you ask at the post office and you find out what's being built. See a house go up for sale? Just ask, you'll find out why. Of course, you have to be willing to shed a little light on your own life. It's only fair to contribute to the grape vine.

We also go to the feed store. You learn a lot there, too. Same with the bank, the grocery store and, of course, the pharmacy. The only thing is, we can go to the post office, the bank, the pharmacy, the gas station, the feed store and the grocery store in a trip of about 30 minutes. According to how long we chat and how long we shop. In a town that's only a couple of blocks long, everything is right there in one spot. It makes life simple. Simple is good.

We go to the fireworks displays at Christmas and the 4th of July. Yes, for those of you NOT from the deep South, we southerners shoot fireworks at Christmas. Huge professional displays on the water. They are great. You meet neighbors and get to chat with people you don't see very often.

We call on our neighbors a couple of times per week and we go to the library every 2 weeks. Mix that in with all the doctor's visits and we have a very, very full life.

Our house is on a dirt road far from

the madding crowd.

Some people get isolated because they never became involved with the community. After moving to the "sticks" many folks become disillusioned. A lot of city people want to move to the country and "connect" with nature, but they don't realize that when you leave the big city behind, you leave big city ideas and big city "dudes" behind, too. You might not like country folk. You might call them hicks. Some people think country folks are dumb. As Gary Sinese, one of my favorite actors and a Texan, once said: "Country don't mean dumb."

The problem isn't with the denizens of rural America. My friend felt isolated. And she grew to hate her life. Now she's leaving and going back to L.A. It's where she belongs.

Homesteading takes planning. And hard work. And patience. And strength. And an ability to back up and start over again and again and sometimes again. It takes the ability to admit ignorance and an ability to learn new lessons. It takes strength and wonder and the capacity to be awestruck. If you don't have that, you can't handle it.

It helps to have a strong partnership. But it is good to be strong enough to admit that you tried and failed. That you were wrong in thinking you could make it. It's right to pack up when it's time to move back to the city. But it's sad.

We are sad that our friends' lives have come to the end of the entwined cord that was their marriage. Others will try to homestead. Some will make it. Some will barely make it. Some will fail. Some will thrive.

Ron and I are thriving.

More later....


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HOMESTEADING RECIPES

Here on the farm we eat home-cooked meals. I've been asked to share a some of our favorite recipes. Of course, we are blessed to get up to a dozen fresh eggs each day so quiche is a regular favorite here. The Marbled Chocolate Bars are also a homestead staple.

Easy, One-Bowl Quiche

This quiche creates its own crust!

1 1/2 cups evaporated milk
1/2 cup water

4 large eggs

3/4 cup biscuit baking mix

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

8 ounces shredded Mozzarella

(or cheddar) cheese

1 (10 ounce) package frozen spinach, thawed and drained

1 cup cubed cooked ham (or 6 slices bacon cooked crisp and crumbled)

*1 medium onion, sauteed and cooled(optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease 10 inch quiche or deep dish pie plate.

In a large bowl, beat together milk, eggs baking mix butter and Parmesan cheese. Batter will be lumpy. Stir in spinach meat and cheese. Pour into prepared dish and bake for 50 minutes or until eggs are set and top is golden brown.

*If you add onion, be sure to saute it and let it cool before adding to the egg mixture.

Lentil Salad

1 cup lentils

1/2 cup sliced fresh carrots

1 medium onion diced

Fat-free Italian dressing

Kosher salt

Wash and drain lentils. Place in a pan with enough water to cover by about 1 inch. Bring to a boil and boil for 10 minutes. Add sliced carrots. Continue boiling for 5 more minutes. Remove from heat and drain. Transfer to a bowl. Refrigerate until cool. Add diced

onion. Dress with Italian Dressing (we prefer fat free). Sprinkle a few grains of Kosher salt on top and serve. Serves 4-6.

Marbled Chocolate Bars

1 package fudge brownie mix

4-ounces package cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup chocolate chips, divided

Preheat oven as directed on brownie mix package. Make brownie mix according to package directions. Pour into a greased 8"x8" baking pan. In a small bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop cream cheese mixture by tablespoons over batter. Cut through batter with knife to swirl the cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle with the remaining chocolate chips. Bake as recommended on brownie mix package or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into bars.

Leave a comment and let me know how these turn out!

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HOMESTEADING: DOING IT YOURSELF

I made wine! It's part of the homesteading lifestyle. Of course, Ron doesn't drink. At all. And I can keep one fifth of wine for a year or two before throwing the remainder out. But we have so many wild blueberry bushes and wild grapes growing in the area that I thought I would give wine-making a try. What fun!

I started with blueberries several weeks ago. Yesterday I bottled my first batch. Here it is. I bought the
supplies, the bottles, and the gold cap
seals at a brewers' supply shop in Pensacola.
Friends gave me their empties.
I made the labels myself. This one
is a little crooked. But it says
Yvonne's Homemade Blueberry Wine 2008.

One gallon of wine makes 5 bottles (5 fifths, duh) of wine.

I have cherry wine fermenting as I write. In about 3 months, I'll bottle that.

L@@k at the cherry wine fermenting! It is now in
the carboy, the secondary
fermenter. See the "must" in the bottom!
That is dead yeast cells and cherry pulp.
I will rack it again in about 4 weeks.
I'll do this several times until the yeast
is no longer active. Right now the bottle is
bubbling like crazy. That's CO2, a by-product of
fermentation. The CO2 escapes into the airlock on
top which makes a plopping sound when the air escapes
into the liquid. When all the movement stops, I will
have cherry wine! Then I'll bottle it.

The wine will make great gifts! At least for the friends who gave me their empties :-)

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Homesteading: Gearing up for the Winter

Fall is coming! Here on the farm, the last traces of summer are disappearing:

Ron is mowing the hay for what
he hopes is the last time this summer.

The last crop of the season (figs)
has been preserved. Here are fig preserves.

The last visitor of the summer, my friend Ann, has just

completed a lovely visit and gone back to Michigan. By the way, Ann took everyone of the photos here except for this one of her. She's a great photographer as well as a great friend and guest! Come back soon, Ann!

The last blooms on the

Pampas Grass are fading.

Bingo has received his last
"summer buzz" cut.

The baby goats are weaned.

The Poke Berries are ripening. Poke Salat is a southern thing. The plant grows wild
along the side of the road. Although the whole plant is poisonous, the young leaves can be eaten after cooking them using two changes of water. In late summer, the beautiful magenta poke berries ripen. birds love the berries. The juice of the berries leaves a permanent stain. Back when people hung their clothes out on the line, birds decorated the laundry with magenta droppings.

The hens have stopped molting and are

getting their new winter feathers.

And the ever-watchful Trudy,
our beautiful tortoise shell cat, is
amassing a lovely, thick winter coat.

Here on the homestead, I think we are ready for winter. We'll see. Homesteading means never leaving anything to chance. We are prepared.

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Homesteading: Growing Old Together

You grow old regardless of where you live. Homesteaders grow old peacefully. Surrounded by the sound of crickets and tree frogs and the sight of deer, rabbits, wild turkeys, and an occasional fox somehow makes growing old a slower process.

We had a "growing old" experience this week. Ron had to go to the emergency room. He had been having some trouble catching his breath for a few days. Sunday he said he thought he was all better. Monday he woke me up at 5 AM with the words, "I need for you to drive me to the emergency room."

Those are words no spouse likes to hear. I tried to get him to let me call the ambulance but he insisted I drive him. The ambulance would have taken him to the small (but very good) hospital in Crestview. He knew it was fluid around his heart, congestive heart failure, and wanted to be at West Florida Hospital where our excellent cardiologist practices. As long as he was sitting down, he was okay.

The hospital is about 90 miles away. I got him to the emergency room pretty quickly because it's interstate all the way. He had agreed that as we passed by the two towns between here and Pensacola, he would tell me if he needed to go to the local ER.

Here is West Florida Hospital.It used to be called West Florida University Hospital. It has recently been merged with Baptist Hospital. WF is an excellent hospital. It is a teaching hospital. Ron had a bevy of beauties stopping in frequently to see if he needed anything.

He enjoyed the attention.

Sure enough, he had a fluid buildup. His BNP (measures the fluid buildup) should have been 100. It was 1100! By the next morning it was 450. By the next night it was back to normal. I got to bring him home Thursday. These flare-ups do happen. He had it happen once before but didn't need to be hospitalized. This time he just let it go too long. THAT will never happen again!!!

Some people might think I'm overprotective of him. I don't think there is such thing as being too protective of my Ronnie's health. But what I do is make up for his sometimes too-casual attitude toward his own care.

It's called love.

And here on the farm, we have a lot of that.

More later.....

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