Thursday, June 24, 2010

June 12-14, 1910

June 12, 1910


Cleaned up around the house. & put in some onions & r, B & I over home to dinner. Clara Merle up & all up over home in the after. Mr & Mrs W & Martha and Uri & Cora & Dem. Mr & Mrs. Tel----.


W. Fine
R. 10


June 13, 1910


Bess walked down to Roberts and stopped with --- in A.M. I did some spading after supper and the West Shore Depot burned at 9:30 and Bess and I went down. Also saw the Italian Fire Works. 


W. Fine, Warm
R. 11:20


June 14, 1910


Up home to supper and the mosquitoes nearly ate us. Very warm all day. 


W. Warm
R. 10:30 

I like that he's so precise that he mentions it was warm all day and still has to comment on the weather in his W. at the end of the entry.

 Have I mentioned that in the Diary Of Martha Ballard, she also reports on the weather every day? I find that interesting they both found the need to mention this fact. Is it because their lives were so much dictated by the weather (Certainly Martha's was as it related to things she did around her house.) and Adam's does to the extent that he does not have a car and spends a lot of time going places.

I have more thoughts on this but they are not coming together too well at this time. My first day of work was today and while it was very nice, I'm beat.

W. Fine. Warm
R. 10:55.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Working Girl!

So I have a job!

I'm starting tomorrow!

I remember back when I quit work to stay at home with my daughter. At the time I felt like I had 2 things that I wanted, my job and to stay home and raise my daughter and that I had to let one of them go. Clearly I was not going to let my daughter go, but the choice to stay home with her came at the expense of a well paying job that I liked and did well at. I was also pretty exhausted by doing it with a baby. Many people manage that situation well. I did not. My sleep deprivation combined with my longing for my baby girl was hard to manage in the corporate world. There is no easy answer to that question.

I remember sitting in my bosses office and telling him that I was clear on 2 things. The first was what I was going to do immediately-That turned out to be going to Florida and sleeping for a week. What I remember most about that vacation was sleeping when other people were at the pool! The other thing I was clear on was what I was going to be doing when my daughter started school, and that was looking for a job.

What I was unclear on, I told him, was what I would be doing in that gap in-between. This blog chronicles a lot of that, though I did not set out to do that at the time. For the most part it's been a great experience-I've met new people, participated in my community, and read a lot of books. I started an ebay business, chaired my daughter's school, started a garden club and wrote a blog. I spent a lot of time in my jammies drinking coffee on cold winter mornings. I took a lot of naps. I made a lot from scratch.  I did not clean nearly enough. I am still constantly faced with a menacing pile of laundry  it has always been like this) I used a lot of butter, grew a lot of food and composted it. I spent a year not buying anything. We bought a new house.  So many things happened that I could not have planned or predicted. (including two bathrooms practically falling into the rooms below them...)

Part of me missed the old me. The working a grown up job me. And that part of me worried about how I was going to get that back. (especially this past year)

So the job.

I will be working on projects for the museum that I blog for. I'm thrilled because I can combine my love of the past (and of this particular place) with my set of professional skills.  It's almost like the old me and the more recent me have found a way to co-exist to become to become the next me. I'm also starting part time which will be a nice transition back to the working world.

I'm very excited. 

I wish I had not worried so much about how this was going to turn out.

Monday, June 21, 2010

June 8 -June 11, 1910

June 8, 1910


Sun shining bright and early. Kathy up to supper. Babcock off from 2 to 5 to the state shoot. B, K & I walked around to the new houses & up Roubek-- Hill & sat on our front porch. First nice day in a long time. 


W. Fine. Warm
R. 11

I think the rain has really been getting to him.

June 9, 1910


I picked some cinders after supper and B & I sat on the back porch awhile. 


W. Fine Warm
R. 10:15

June 10, 1910

Went to the gym from work at night & me , Johnny, Roy sch---- & John Oswald played hard ball. I did 
31' 2" in the shot put at noon


W. fair
R. 11:30
Met Bess from home

Shot Put! That's a new one. 


June 11, 1910


Rained hard. Took the car. Worked in the garden & put in 18 tomato plants. Bess sick in the A.M.


W. Fair
R. 10

Really, I think I love this man.  I have 12 tomato plants this year. I wonder what kind he grew. Whatever it was, it probably was not a hybrid and was probably something considered an heirloom today! I really wish he would have said.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

June 5-7, 1910

June 5, 1910


Up at 8 and went to BAC.  ------ at the ---- gym. Clara Merle graduated & it poured & we did not leave till 2pm. I took B to the cars & came back for the rest. Clara Merle, Lucille Martie, Ed Schrai- & B & I over home to dinner. 


W. Poured from 11 till early morning. 
R. 9

Clara Merle eventually marries his brother Oscar. (But not in the diary)


June 6, 1910


Caught in a shower coming home. Developed a roll of film, ironed my aprons 7 read. It poured steady till late. Mrs W. & B & her ladies up in the afternoon. 


W. Rain at night, shower. 
R. 10


June 7, 1910


After supper I started to build a stone wall along the line side of the driveway. It rained some.


W. Rain
R. 10

Although I feel like I could do a few more entries tonight, This is a logical stopping point because of something I noticed in the entries this evening. They appear begnin and focus inordinatly on the weather. 3 days in a row.
What could I have possibly noticed?

The weather does not appear unseasonably bad or noteworthy (meaning, he's not stuck home in a 3 day blizzard or anything like that.) and yet he has talked about it 3 days in a row. Why?

These entries actually answer one of the big questions I have about the diary-When does he write?

Notice in the first entry he goes to bed at 9 but that it rains until early morning. Obviously he is not writing this at 9, as I sometimes imagine he does. He then talks about the rain 3 more days. This is because he is writing the entries all in one day and thinking about the weather and reflecting that it has rained for 3 days.

I've noticed before that he changes pens and sometimes uses pencil and sometimes uses a fountain pen. However, I've never paid attention before on how often he makes that change or when 3 in a row will be in one format and then changes to another.

 Additionally, I've never quite paid attention to the fact the his handwriting stays the same for a block of entries at a time (all big, all small, neat, sloppy, etc...) I mean I've seen this but it just was not registering with me. Tonight it hit me over the head.

Duh....

Looking back through the diary I see that this is the case for a number of the entries. This would also explain why he knows things like the Custiss flight on the day they happen. He's writing after the fact.

I also learned something tonight. I've been troubled by his use of the word till, for until.  In the diary he uses very good English and punctuation. He's rarely makes mistakes. Except for the use of the & symbol, he does not take shortcuts.

I have always assumed that till (for until, not for an actual till) was slang. It is not.  Is this an embarrassing mistake for me to have made or am I telling you something you don't know? I've never discussed this word with anyone before. If it's an embarrassing mistake don't berate me too badly!

 Till vs. ’til. vs Until


Since it looks like an abbreviation for “until,” some people argue that this word should always be spelled “’til” (though not all insist on the apostrophe). However, “till” has regularly occurred as a spelling of this word for over 800 years and it’s actually older than “until.” It is perfectly good English. 



Sunday, June 13, 2010

June Giveaway at The Genesee Country Village & Museum

Hey Everyone!



I know I'm terribly behind with Adam and Bess!!! They are calling my name. Really. But so is the rest of my life!! I hope to catch up this week!

Breast Left Alone

Today at Target my 5 year old noticed these really tiny bras in women's underwear and said,

"Look Mommy, those look like they would fit me if I had a breast!"

Later at dinner she asked me if I could draw some breasts on a piece of paper so she could cut them out and tape them on her shirt!!!!! ( I was too dumbstruck to mention that I don't wear my breasts on the outside of my shirt...)

I'm not-at-all squeamish about talking breasts, where babies come from, etc.... But I just had no answer for that one.

She's going to hate this story when she is older. 

Beary Strange

I'll just add one more note to this whole Bear saga.

I think it's interesting to note that all over the news they keep saying things like "If you see the bear do not approach it or try and provoke it"  while the Animal Control Guy told me to CHASE IT. Run at it with a stick...

It's a good thing I was not on TV because I probably would have told that whole story.

I'm starting to get the feeling that the Animal Control Man didn't like me.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Beary Crazy!

So I saw the bear!!!

When I was leaving to run errands, the bear was crossing the road to the other side of the street.

My husband called animal control back. I went to do some errands.

We did not attempt to scare it up a tree

Later my husband was interviewed by the local news who really wanted to talk to me. Luckily I was not home as I have my hair up and don't look that great.

We'll be watching later to see if our bear story made the news! 

I Cannot Bear this.....

So this morning, in fact, a few minutes ago, my next door neighbor called.

Because.....

Well.....

She saw a bear run down my driveway towards my garage.

A bear.

She called 91. They knew it was in the area and they had been tracking it already.

Apparently it did not stop to eat anything in my garden.

A bear......

Animal Control is in my backyard right now. Maybe I should tell them about the deer and the raccoon too.

** Edited to add that I just spoke with the Animal Control man and he told me that if I see the bear I should CHASE IT UP A TREE.....Really????? When I laughed he told me that usually bears are quite scared of people but if it's a mother with babies, that is when "Things get dangerous"

So yes, later today I may be chasing a bear up a tree.....

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Oh Deer, Not Again.....

I almost reached a new level in my ongoing deer battle.

I almost hit a deer with my car this evening coming home.

In MY DRIVEWAY.

My neighborhood has no streetlights so at night it's pretty darn dark. I have long narrow driveway that goes past the house to the detached garage in the backyard.

So as I pulled into the driveway my headlights flashed on a deer that jumped out of the way just before I took him out. For a split second I thought perhaps I should step hard on the accelerator as a way to avenge the ravages that the deer visited on my herb garden last night. They didn't eat the herbs, just every single other plant that they might be interested in. Our food is still safe behind the fence. The potatoes and leeks and onions they leave alone.

The funny thing is that right after I almost hit the deer I pulled past the house and almost ran over a raccoon!  OMG!!! By the time I stopped the car my heart was pounding from all of the animals I almost maimed in a 20 second ride down the driveway.

I live in the suburbs.

My husband said I would have had to hide the animal bodies in the garage if I killed them.

I told him I was going to leave them on the lawn as a warning....Nothing else seems to work.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Spring Herb Dressing & Garlic Scapes

Today I noticed that my garlic had scapes! (The green things on the left). I have been wanting to make my favorite herb dressing for a week now (nothing has been stopping me, I've just been lazy busy.)

The recipe I use is from The Horn of The Moon Cookbook. Jen used to make it when I would visit her in college. I never forgot the title of the book and could never find it. When I finally did I bought it just for this recipe. I bought it used. On Amazon it is $74 new.(out of print)  Used it was $3.99.


Herb Dressing-I called it Spring herb dressing because I used fresh herbs. Yes, that picture is actually my herbs!

1 C. Sunflower Oil-I usually use olive oil for salad dressing because I like the taste and usually just make a simple vinegarette where that matters, but this is SO flavorful I think you can skip that. Olive oil is expensive. I used canola oil.

2 Large Garlic Cloves (I used 3 scapes)
1/2 C Fresh Parsley
2 tsp dried dill. I have this growing in the garden so I used fresh.
1 tsp dried chives. Fresh also. This cookbook was written in 1987 a time when I don't think I ever saw a fresh herb at my house. I think it was the time period. The fresh are better but it is nice to know that you could make this in the dead of winter....
Dash of ground black pepper
1/4 tsp celery seed (I skipped this today)
1/3 C Cider Vingar. I had plain white today. It was fine.
1/4 tsp salt.

Blend it all together in the blender!

We used this on zucchini that we then grilled this evening for a side dish. This was after I planted 5 zucchini plants in the garden. That  is more zucchini than ANYONE needs. I just had some space. And some leftover plants.  I can't bear to see possible food go to waste. I guess I'll just send people home with zucchini when they visit this summer. Having zucchini tonight was just plain dumb. We also also had snow peas that I picked today stir fried with a cut up garlic scape. Don't worry, scapes are milder than garlic. I do have garlic breath right now though.

June 3 & 4th 1910

June 3, 1910


We cut the grass in the side yard for the first time. I planted 254 hills of potatoes.


W. Fine. Warmer.
R. 10:30

Just in case you have never planted potatoes before, 254 hills of potatoes is A LOT of potatoes. I did not count but I probably had 20-25 last year and we had a really respectable harvest of potatoes. I would even dig them when they were small for dinner sometimes and we still had a lot in the end.  This year I have a TON of potatoes. I saved some of the La Ratte potatoes from last year so I didn't have to re-order this year. I also picked up a few Yukon Gold at the garden store just to see how those work. The La Ratte is my favorite though. 

In order to to avoid the Irish Potato Famine in my backyard, I rotated where I planted the potatoes this year. Apparently, I did not dig up all of the potatoes last year because now I have plants where they were planted last year as well as where they were planted this year. They are growing in the garlic. They are also growing in my compost pile!! And in my daughter's garden that I'm planting with her. I won't let her dig them up (see post on how I am the worst mommy ever for more confirmation of my meanness.) At least they have nice purple flowers. I probably have 40-50 hills. I'll have to count tomorrow.

Each hill will produce over 5 potatoes (and that is a conservative estimate.) Adam is going to have over 1000 potatoes.

This is especially interesting because I've seen the Ariel view of the street he lives on. The street is laid out in a grid pattern with a typical city size lot.  He's got a crop growing on a city lot.

June 4, 1910


Painted the front porch. Bess helped. Mr. & Mrs. Devett came over from the house. Bess and I up home to supper.


W. Fine, Colder at night
R. 11:30

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

May 30-June 2, 1910

May 30, 1910


In the morning to Daves. Ray & I to Star Park & I cleaned the cellar. & the Witham's and Ma & Clara over to supper. Fire in the fire place. 


W. Cold & Rain
R. 10

May 31, 1910


Stayed home & spaded for the small garden. Cora came over & I developed prints. Congregation meeting at church to sell it to the Italians for $18,000. Voted to sell and trustee to find a new lot. 


W. Fair, Cool
R. 10:45

Note, it's a Tuesday. He just stays home?  He stays home a lot for a factory worker in 1910.  I guess I don't know much about factory work in 1910. I keep thinking maybe there is a factory museum in Syracuse that I can visit to get all of these questions answered. I need to look into that. I should look into that Italian thing too....

June 1, 1910


Worked a little in the yard but it sprinkled so did not do much. 


W. Cold
R. 10:30

June 2, 1910


Clara, Kathy, Ella, Miss Wallace & Bess went to The Old Homestead to supper & The Westing Stock Company at night (The Sign of The Four) & I over home to supper & made a garden & washed aprons & pressed clothes. 


W. Fine
R. 11:30

I meant to write more tonight-I was going to do an Adam catch up post and write right up to the current date. But I think I just need to leave it at this entry.

The Sign of The Four, 1890 is the second novel featuring Sherlock Holmes written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  This makes me happy and gives me pause. Why you ask?

Holmes is my very favorite detective!!!

Ok, I know a lot of people like Sherlock Holmes. BTW, the recent movie, not so much.... While Holmes is an arrogant genius, he's not an ass. Normally I like Robert Downy Junior but he plays Holmes like he's on cocaine. (Holmes, not Downy which we all know is entirely possible)  And while Holmes is known to have a cocaine addiction when not actively working on a case, he's doesn't use it WHILE working on a case. Further, it's been thought that Conan Doyle made a mistake in his categorization of Holmes's addiction because he describes his cocaine use as:
the drowsiness of the drug”.Which in fact, is untrue of cocaine.  Holmes has also been known to use morphine. He was never hopped up, rather, blissfully unaware of his surrounding when not otherwise occupied.

I have a set of a Sherlock Holmes TV series made in 1954 (Not the Basil Rathbone one. I don't like that one) where in the lead in to the show they say "Other things" rather than cocaine. Apparently in 1954 we had to sanitize Holmes for the general viewing audience.... Whatever......I hate the 1950's. They freak me out-Too much leave-it-to-beaver-pretending-everything-is-perfect....I should probably leave that for a whole different post though.

This is NO ONE's Sherlock Holmes.....Naked...Really???
Anyway, Downy makes him look hopped up. He also opens his eyes really wide and jerks himself around in a classic Robert Downy Jr fashion that I sincerely doubt Holmes ever employed. And Jude Law's portrayl of Watson is just this side of WAY TOO PLUCKY....And I don't think they had 6 pack abs... Really, the whole movie would have been better if it was not about Sherlock Holmes......I had such high hopes for this movie before I watched it. I was no fun at all to watch it with.

But I digress.

Bess seeing Sherlock Holmes. Me loving Sherlock Holmes. The human experience of two people 100 years apart. This is what I love about the diary.

And I didn't even mention how entirely modern I think Adam is for washing his aprons for work and pressing his clothes.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Back in the 19th Century!

Over on my other blog this week, I'm talking about:









 

May 29, 1910

May 29, 1910


Walked to Elmwood and took the car up home to Dinner & to Daves. Dave, Beatrice, Bess  & I walked over to see Gertie & home in the rain.

W. Rain
R. 11

Curtiss in an aeroplane flew from Albany to New York.

I LOVE when he mentions stuff like this!!1



This is neat little story!
Excerpt from the Glenn Curtiss Website:

 In the early morning hours of May 29th, 1910, Curtiss set out to do the unthinkable.  For a purse of $10,000, offered by New York World publisher Joseph Pulitzer, Curtiss set out to fly from Albany to Manhattan.


Pulitzer’s rules were simple if not insane:  Curtiss was allowed two stops to refuel and the entire distance of more than 150 miles had to be completed in less than twenty-four hours.

Curtiss was the only pilot in the world to agree to Pulitzer’s terms.

That morning more than 100,000 spectators gathered along Curtiss’ Hudson River flight path to witness one of the greatest spectacles of their day.

At 7:02 am  Curtiss and his Albany Flyer were airborne.

Donning goggles, a cork life vest and rubberized waders,  Curtiss kept pace with the news train. On-board the locomotive, his wife Lena hung out a window cheering her husband on while waiving a handkerchief.  “It was like a real race and I enjoyed the contest more than anything else during the flight,” Curtiss later recalled.
Eighty-seven miles into his trip, Curtiss landed his Albany Flyer in an open field near Poughkeepsie where he borrowed oil and gas from curious motorists before taking back to the air.

Shortly after his second takeoff dangerous wind currents just south of Storm King Mountain nearly tossed the aviator from his plane. “My heart was in my mouth.  I thought it was all over,” Curtiss recalled.
Regaining control of the airplane, Curtiss found himself in the homestretch.  The Manhattan skyline was just visible on the horizon.
Then disaster struck.
Curtiss’ aircraft was leaking oil. He needed to put down before his engine froze up.  But where?

 Scanning the ground below, Curtiss looked for a large patch of green in northern Manhattan he had scouted out while planning his flight.  Veering east from the Hudson, Curtiss put down in Inwood, on a stretch of land owned by the family of the late financier and leather merchant William B. Isham.
Isham MansionAt 10:42 am, Isham’s daughter Flora and her husband, Minturn Post Collins, were reading about the flight in the Sunday paper when they heard a motor running behind the house.

Heading out back to investigate, Collins immediately realized he was standing face to face with the aviator he had read so much about in the morning news.
“I am certainly delighted to be the first to congratulate you on arriving in city limits, and am glad you picked our backyard as a place to land,” Collins told Curtiss.
All business, Curtiss responded, “Thank you, but what’s worrying me now is oil and gasoline.  Have you any that you can spare?”

Strawberries

I took my coffee and camera out into the garden yesterday morning. It was a sunny day and I marveled at how wonderful my strawberries looked. This is the first year they've produced any berries to eat, being that usually they are ravaged by animals by now. (Squirrels I think)

I went to pick one, just to try it, anticipating the sweet taste of my very first home grown strawberry.

I stopped myself though. There were only about 10 berries that looked almost ripe.

"Tomorrow," I thought, "tomorrow they will be perfect. Tomorrow, I will have them on my yogurt for breakfast. I will eat every single one myself."

This morning I was talking to my mother on the phone as I walked out to the garden to pick my breakfast.

She got an earful.

#$*$^@%$   #%^$!*   $*#%^%&@%&%   &*)(#%!$!$.

There was NOT ONE D@MN STRAWBERRY OUT THERE. Some animal had the same idea as myself, letting those berries ripen to perfection and then eating them. I bet that darn squirrel was watching me yesterday, and noticed that he better get a move on or else I was going to beat him at his game this year.

Seriously, do these varmints not know that I once spent a day cooking in a kitchen with 2 squirrel bodies in a large bowl next to me? I have photographic proof of that even.  Do I have to make laminated  copies to post around the garden?

I'm so done with Strawberries. I almost ripped them out today but figured maybe someone else would want them. Any takers?

They are all yours.

What I'm Reading-A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812

A few months ago I said I was going to talk books. Then I never did. (Except to rag on Shel Israel.) I've read a lot of books since then, Including the entire Southern Vampire Series by Charlaine Harris (lest you get the idea I'm always reading stuff like tonight's book, I'm not that lofty nor do I want you to think that I am.)

However, my latest obsession is a Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 by Laurel Thacher Ulrich.

My Pioneer Deanna is doing a program at the museum this year on Midwifery in the 19th Century. While giving a talk about her program she mentioned the diary. Being that I'm in the midst of my own diary project, this really sparked my interest.

Ulrich uses the diary as a backdrop to talk about life in the 19th century. Her research, along with the actual diary entries make for fascinating reading . And she is so well researched. She worked on this project for 8 years!

Martha kept a diary for 25 years at a time when most women could not read or write. The glimpse that she gives into everyday life is  fascinating and rare. The way that Ulrich makes sense of it all and how she weaves the story of a a life in the  context of her vocation, women's familial roles and society at large is awe inspiring. If you are at all interested in 19th century life, midwifery, diaries, or just a good read, you must check this out.

I need to buy this book  (that is saying a lot!) For one thing I just had to renew it again. I can generally read any book in 3 weeks time. This one I'm savoring. In addition to that, it's not an easy read.  I don't mind working a little. It is so rare a book that makes me want to just slow down and really read everything.

On a website about the diary, book and, I just discovered, a film! (which I've ordered from the library)  I found an interview with Ulrich. Her words about writing about an ordinary person touched me.

When you decide to write about the life of an ordinary person, you start out with the premise that this person is not important because of some thing they did or who they were, but because understanding ordinary life has a value of its own.

I love this because it's true about Adam and Bess. It's true about my own blog (to me anyway) and others that I read, and even this whole Facebook thing that we all seem to be participating in these days.  

We're all just telling our story.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

May 26-28, 1910

May 26, 1910


Bess and I went to a reception for our new pastor at our church. There were a lot of people there. The comet was ---- with a new tail but we did not see it. 


W. Fine. Colder
R. 11

May 27, 1910


Did some spading in the garden. 


W. Rain
R. 10

Me too Adam, me too!! (of course, I did mine today, June 1st)

May 28, 1910


Finished spading up the north side of the lot. & Dave & I played handball at the gym. Home at 10 and saw the comet.


W. Fine
R. 11

I like that he is so excited about the comet.  In my lifetime the comet has made it's way back around (in 1986) and I can tell you I wasn't nearly this excited about it. I was 15 at the time. I don't even remember it registering as a monumental event (that says way more about my 15 year old self than it does about Adam of course.)

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, some people were really in an uproar over the comet in 1910. Some  bought into the hysteria created by the discovery of poison gas in the comet. My friend Toni recently gave me a written account from her own family. Her ancestors lived in Italy. At the time of the 1910 comet her family had a particular cheese they were saving for a special occasion. Their young daughter, (her great grandma I think.) figuring she was going to die anyway, ate the cheese! I bet she got in trouble later!!!

The funny thing is that people have been recording sightings of Halley's comet since 240 BC, all without incident.

This is neat:

Halley's calculations enabled the comet's earlier appearances to be found in the historical record. The comet may have been recorded in China as early as 467 BC, but this is uncertain.[46] The first certain observation dates from 240 BC, and subsequent appearances were recorded by Chinese, Babylonian, Persian, and other Mesopotamian texts.

 Of course at the time people didn't know that what they were observing was "Halley's Comet" of cours  e:

Halley's returns to the inner Solar System have been observed by astronomers since at least 240 BC, and recorded by Chinese, Babylonian, and medieval European chroniclers, but were not recognized as reappearances of the same object. The comet's periodicity was first determined in 1705 by English astronomer Edmond Halley, after whom it is now named. Halley's Comet last appeared in the inner Solar System in 1986 and will next appear in mid-2061.

Eating Locally Starts in The Back Yard

Two weeks ago, my friend Deanna had a dinner party with the theme "New York State Of Mind." Her main course was strip steaks and she instructed us to bring something either reminiscent of a New York steak house or something produced in NY State. We, of course, drank NY State wines too!

I was side dish which was fun to experiment with. First off I made creamed spinach which was out of this world good, I've made it twice since. I did use my own green onions for it but it was pretty much just a steak house recipe.

Growing Horseradish
I also made Tyler Florence's Horseradish and Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes These potatoes were crazy good which could have a lot to do with the stick of butter and container of sour cream. In them, I used MY VERY OWN FRESH HORSERADISH!! Yes! Remember back when I planted it?


Dug Up

I could have probably dug it last year but I waited just to be sure that I now have an established patch. I do now! All that green is not Horseradish. Just the flowering stuff in the front. In the back is garlic.

There were some dandelions growing by the horseradish that I told my husband to leave right where they were when he was popping the rest out of the lawn a few weeks ago.

He answered with a resigned shrug, "We're eating these aren't we?"

Yup! (Note, in the Shaker Garden at the Museum, they actually PLANT dandelions in a row in the garden.)

Mixed Greens/Weeds From The Yard
So, I also made (this was the best part!) a tasting portion of sauteed carrots with dandelion leaves, violet leaves and sorrel. It was good. Everyone ate their entire portion.  The recipe I used called for Argan Oil, which I did not have. I did have truffle oil which I used instead (Yes, not really a local ingredient, I know.)

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

May 22-25, 1910

 May 22, 1910
Besses Birthday. She got many gifts. I went to S.S. and the Witham family came up. & Art & Pearce to supper and we all saw the comet in the west with out its tail. 
W. ---- some rain & ---
R. 11

Happy Birthday Bess. I would have really liked to have posted this on the actual day. Darn. I should read ahead more. 

May 23, 1910
After supper I spaded till dark.  Saw the comet in the west but it was very dim. Clara and some school teachers came over front yard after we were in bed. 
W. warm. windy
R. 11

This makes me wonder a little. Is he writing this in bed? The next morning? Are the teachers out there on his porch RIGHT NOW?  I'm assuming they were looking for the comet perhaps. 

I often wonder when he refers to something that happened after he is in bed, like the night Bess was locked out or the time she got mad over the shoes and stayed at his parent's house. When does he do his writing?  I imagine him in bed, recoding the R time and then turning off the light and going to sleep. I wonder if it happened like that.


May 24, 1910
Arose at 5:20 and spaded before breakfast. Went up home to supper and it rained in the afternoon and hard all night. Grass in the back yard up. 
W. Rain
R. 11

The fact that he is planting grass is another clue that he is living in a new house.



May 25, 1910
Barnum and Bailey Circus. Amy fired for not shaping up. Dave, Ray & I & De---- played hand ball at 7pm till 8:45. Bess up home. 
W. Rained all day.
R. 11


Note to Adam-Get to work on time!