Cooking My Past

My grandmother had a plum tree, several apricot trees and about a zillion rose bushes. Every year, it seemed that the apricots all ripened at the same time, and my mother would drag us all over to grandma's house for a weekend of jam making. As kids, our job was picking and pitting. My older brother chopped and my mother and grandmother did the actual canning of the jam.

Apricot jam was the staple of our house. Being of a frugal nature, my grandmother did not let a single apricot from any of her trees languish on the branch or rot on the ground (she kept a tidy yard, did Grandma Peg). In fact, it was nearly the only jam I tasted in my childhood. Grape and strawberry, the glistening purple and red jewels of the grocery store, were rare treats at our house. Rarer still was plum jam. Unlike the unrelieved sweetness of apricot, strawberry or grape, plum jam makes use of the very tart, less ripe fruit. The skin is still very tart and tangy and lends a little frisson to every bite.

I also realized why it was so rare. Plum jam is also the only jam I've made that requires you to cook the fruit first before making it into jam. Pitting apricots is literally child's play (okay, child's drudgery, but you know what I mean) compared to sitting with a large, overfull basket of washed plums and a four-inch paring knife and systematically relieving about 40 pounds of plums of their pits and stems. If there's such a thing as plum-pitter's thumbs, I've got them. The attraction of just letting the kids eat them is awfully strong. But my sense of nostalgia is stronger.

The one smart thing I did was to use the food grinding attachment for my KitchenAid to chop the things. It meant that in about 20 minutes, I had finely chopped all the plums into two enormous bowls, ready for jam.

At the end of it all, I have 2 dozen pint jars and 13 half pint jars (that's 15 quarts + 1 cup) full of the flavor of my youth. It's already set up nicely, and is a beautiful rosy pink, just like I remember. I cut open a fresh loaf of sourdough and toasted the heel (my favorite part of the bread) and spread it thick with the fresh jam.

Ahhhhh. In my mouth, I'm young again.

Loss

On Tuesday, there was apparently a yowling outside the house. I didn't hear it because I sleep with earplugs in, but the Pirate heard it and thought that it was the skinny black stray we've seen around. He didn't investigate.

It wasn't until Wednesday evening when nobody'd seen him that the Pirate asked.

"Have you seen Oswald?" No, I haven't. I knew that I'd seen him Tuesday. The cat came out of the basement when I went in to work out.

When I got home from my writers' group Thursday night, and the Pirate told me that Oswald still hadn't turned up.

Friday afternoon, I went all over our property and our neighbors (the property is vacant). I didn't expect to find him but I was hoping to find something. Signs of a struggle, anything. Whenever any of our chickens gets eaten, we find blood, feathers, broken brush. But I found nothing. I was hoping to find blood or hair or something, but there was nothing.

Apart from the huge amounts of ripe fruit on the neighbor's trees. Later, the Badb and I went back and picked huge amounts of pears and plums. I think that it's time to make some plum jam.

We're thinking that Oswald was taken by either raccoons or coyotes. Ever since the neighbor with the aggressive dog moved out (taking his dog with him), the raccoons have gotten progressively bolder. Either way, our faithful, loving, stay-at-home cat is gone. The house is a bit subdued today.

A Season's Rest

Don't tell me - I know. It's been three months (okay, two and a half) since our last post. But you know how things go here. If we'd had a second to ourselves, we've have blogged about it.

June: school let out and the girls were off! First everyone went to Phoenix to see the grandparents before the girls went off on a whirlwind tour of D.C., Philadelphia and New York. When the Pirate and I came back from Phoenix, where we'd spent the week before the girls left, the woman who'd been watching after the chickens and the cats told us that raccoons had gotten in. We got in at 2am and found muddy footprints everywhere, including around the toilet seat and inside the toilet bowl in the guest bath.

July: The girls had hardly shaken the dust of the road off themselves when it was time to put on another coat - AT CAMP! This was the Baby Goddess' first time at week-long sleepaway camp, but she acted completely ready for it. When asked whether she'd ever been to camp before, she gave her counselor the hand up, palm out gesture that says "Oh, please! I'm a seasoned campaigner!" She already knew that it's crucial to get the top bunk, and could recite all the important cheers, so she had plenty of free time. Meanwhile Peaches is a counselor in training. What this means is that we're paying for her to do what the camp is paying college students to do. But she's having a fabulous time.

But let us catch you up with the avian members of the household. In mid-July we'd gotten a rooster from a woman who was raising chicks in Santa Cruz and came to realize that they were not all hens. We brought him home, but alas, our joy at having another man in the house was short-lived.

You know that no happiness is had from the sort of man who won't stay home evenings with his wife. Well, our little fellow had twenty wives and still ended up leaving the yard almost nightly. He would fly over the fence and roost in the grape arbor. I had proposed clipping his wings, but the Pirate felt that he would be even more defenseless if he managed to hop out of the yard and was unable to fly back. Remember the raccoons we had back in June? Well, they haven't left. They keep trying to get in, and we keep foiling them. But we can't protect the rooster who won't go into the coop at night.

I've also discovered a new charity: I love making soap, but soap is like baking. You can only consume so much of your own product. But there is a mission near here that's always looking for soap for the people it serves. Perfect! I can make more soap, and give it to people who really need it!

And now for the big news: at the end of July, the Pirate's parents bought a house about five miles from us, moving up from southern California. It's going to be a process getting them into the house as it was a foreclosure and so not in move-in shape, but they got a nice deal and it'll be great to have them close. In the meantime, the entire clan is going to be living in our little house for a few weeks. Cozy!

I have a surprise for you, but I'm not telling until tomorrow. And then, I'll say it with pictures!

Banner Weekend

It's been a busy weekend for all of us. Aoibheall's parents were in town to help celebrate her birthday, we worked a booth at the Boulder Creek Art & Wine Festival, and the cats and dogs have gotten to work on the vermin.

The festival was fun; smiling and being nice to people was great. The best part for me was that since I was volunteering it was easy to laugh off any stress - what were they gonna do, dock my pay?

We went for a lovely walk in the open space preserve off Skyline on Sunday. It was a bit chilly, but what a great time. We saw lots of poison oak, a really big lizard, a bird head, flowers...it was great. At the nature information station there was a big placard showing all the different animals one might see in the area. One of these was the deer mouse. Looking closely at that picture and description, I decided that those creatures the cats have been catching weren't juvenile wood rats, they were adult deer mice.

We all came back home to wash up and then take Aoibheall out to a fabulous dinner at La Bruschetta in Felton. Seriously: I think that's the best dinner to be had in this valley.

On Monday we saw Son of Rambow. That was hilarious, and very well-made. Even the Badb thought it was great.

So, critters:

• We caught a rat in the trap. It was too late for coursing so we kept it in the garage overnight. The next morning, before breakfast, it was dead. No coursing for the doggies. Score 1 for the humans, I guess.
• That same night, though, Fox had caught and partially eviscerated a deer mouse, leaving the corpse and entrails at the bottom of the stairs. Score one for the cats.
• On Monday I saw two deer mice lurking behind the compost bin. I brought the dogs over; Esme didn't seem interested at all, but Dagmar was chasing around, trying to get behind the bin. I shoved at the bin and moved it away from the house a little, but I think I caved in some tunnels. One of the mice was stuck inside the bin, so I put Dagmar in and she had a bit more enthusiasm for the cage match. Score one for Dagmar Verminbane.
• Monday night as I was putting away the chickens, I saw there was a mouse in the trap. Deer mice are big enough to trip the lever on the rat trap! Quickly I fetched down Peaches and the dogs and we set the mouse loose in the driveway. Dagmar ran it to ground and then Esme darted in and snatched the mouse away from her. Esme gets the kill, Dagmar on the assist.
• This morning Fox had a mouse cornered in the living room. She and Oswald had fun chasing it around and then down the stairs. I let the dogs back in from their wake-up potty break and they went to town. The situation was complicated by so many agents, but the Badb came in to tell me during my shower that Dagmar the Rat Killer had triumphed.

Score:
Vermin: 7
Dogs: 8
Cats: 4
Humans: 2

Fecund Eptitude

Be careful what you wish for, and all that.

A couple days ago Aoibheall woke up and found half a rat on the rug in front of the bathroom. Fox has discovered that rats are made out of meat. She left the head, shoulders, three feet and the tail; I assume that was because those are the bony bits, but maybe she wasn't all that hungry or maybe she just wanted to leave us something so we could be proud of her. From what was left, I'd guess the rat was maybe three inches long.

Saturday morning, there was a little mole in our closet (no doubt courtesy of Fox). I set the dogs loose and they caught it and took it outside. They didn't eat it, but did kill it. Esme spent a lot of time licking it. Gross.

The black and white rat escapee caught herself in the trap Saturday evening. It was too late to hold another rat derby, so we decided to hold it after Mother's Day brunch. Unfortunately, the Badb has not yet had field hockey in P.E. (I think they wait until fifth grade for that) and so the rat got by her and escaped into the blackberry bramble.

This morning there was another wood rat in the trap. A bit smaller than the last one, but still a sizable four to five inches, not counting the tail. This evening Peaches, the Badb and I took the dogs out on the driveway in front of the garage for another installment of rat chasing school. This time, Esme actually had the rat in her mouth, but put it down. Dagmar was completely amped, but not quite quick enough in following. After the rat escaped into the wood pile, she kept nosing around and acting very excited. She wanted that rat.

Later this evening, Aoibheall and I were sitting at the table doing some paperwork and we heard Fox scrambling around behind the TV. Last night, it had been Oswald getting himself stuck back there, so I didn't pay much attention. But then Dagmar started whining and I noticed Fox just sitting in front of the old toy chest, keeping an eye on it. I let the dogs out of their crates. Esme went straight for the plush bed with a chew toy, but Dagmar started sniffing around the chest, getting very excited all over again.

I pulled the chest away from the wall (hardwood floors and felt feet on all the furniture certainly makes this sort of excitement easier to manage) and a little rat went scurrying along the baseboard, diving to sanctuary under the short bookcase by the Nuu-Nuu.

I moved some more stuff, pulled the bookcase out from the wall, and eventually coerced the rat out from under with a stick. Dagmar, Oswald, and Fox were all very interested in the proceedings. When the rat went running, Dagmar was after it in hot pursuit. She caught it and gave it the patented terrier rat shake. Score for Dagmar! Esme then darted in and swiped the rat, prancing around the room while holding the carcass by the head. I gave both dogs lots of treats. It took a lot of treats to be a fair trade for the rat.

Oswald was put out by all this. He'd started swearing at the others in the midst of the flushing of the game and run off outside. Just as I finished putting things back where they belonged, including dogs back in crates, I noticed him crouched under the table playing with something. "What's he got?" I asked.

"A bug," said Aoibheall.

Well, almost. It was a bat. So then we had to try to get the bat out of the house, since he let the bat go (we wanted him to, after all) and it started flying around in circles. Aoibheall opened the sliding glass door but the bat seemed oblivious. She opened the front door and the bat just flew past it, circling around and around the ceiling fan (which was off), but being joined by a moth from outside which was almost as big as the bat. I got a broom and tried to urge the bat to fly toward the open doors, but I can't take any credit for the bat's eventual escape. I think it was just luck. Aoibheall: "Bats are really inefficient."

I smacked the moth with the broom.

Vermin: 7
Dogs: 5
Cats: 3 (Oswald *would* have done the bat if we'd let him)

The House of Inept Animals

Dagmar and Esme have killed moles. They've not managed to demonstrate digging for anything except cat poop, though, and they've not caught any rats.

We went to the store and bought a pair of live rats. We wanted to go coursing with our dogs. We set up on the driveway, in front of the closed garage door. Three of us standing around with brooms and poles to poke the freed rat back into the middle, and the two dogs sitting there looking expectant.

The first rat got away anyhow, making a quick break for the hillside and getting clean away into the shrubbery.

The second rat didn't get away. But the dogs didn't kill it, either. They'd go after it when it ran, pick it up in soft mouths as if carrying a puppy, and bring it back to the center. They just wouldn't bite it. Eventually I took pity on the rat and gave it grace with a hatchet. The whole scene reminded me of Rollerball and I felt horrible for a week.

Last weekend some of Aoibheall's family came out and, as I was cleaning up in the office preparatory to setting up beds for people, I found a stiff, cold, dead rat. Adult, with a pretty clear bite mark near its shoulders. So, one of the cats has upgraded from juvenile rats to adults. That's good news, eh?

Last night I saw the escaped rat (white with a dark gray blaze on its head and shoulders) dash out from underneath the coop when I went down to put the chickens away. So, the escapee is getting on with the locals. Maybe soon we'll start seeing tamer wood rats? I set the trap under the coop.

Tonight there was a rat in the trap. Regular adult female wood rat, not the escapee. I got the cage ready, figuring we'd stage some kind of training session with the dogs tomorrow. The rat got away as I was trying to transfer it into the cage. Garr!

Vermin: 5
Dogs: 3
Cats: 1
Humans: 1

The vermin are still winning. I'm embarrassed.

Summer in Spring

We got sick last week. Two weeks ago we scrambled the house around, moving everyone's beds so that now we have an office for Aoibheall to work in. The Badb had what seemed like a head cold, so she had light duty. The rest of us shifted heavy beds and furniture. By Monday, all the furniture was where it was supposed to be although the books are not all back on shelves. But I had the cold.

It turned out the cold wasn't just a cold. Apparently there's a nasty stomach flu going around up here. I got it. All week, I felt miserable. Tired, woozy, and my sinuses were everflowing. By the weekend, I was mostly recovered, but Aoibheall had picked it up. She was lagging by a couple of days, and spent all Saturday incapacitated. Our original plan had been for my parents and nephew to come up and visit that weekend and maybe get their help in redecorating the girls' bedroom. Instead, we urged them not to visit and share our cold.

On Thursday morning, Aoibheall said to me that she thought the young chickens were big enough to move out to the big chicken house. They're only a month and a half old, but they are fully fledged. I figured that was fair, so when I got home from work I started moving them out of the garage. They've been in the big house since then, and they're getting used to it. This evening, they even meekly walked back into the house from the yard when I brandished the New Blue Broom of Justice (the pipsqueaks had no respect at all when they were living in the garage).

Yesterday, we were all recovered. This was a good thing, as we'd scheduled a visit to the Exploratorium. Badb had said that what she wanted for her birthday party was to go to the Tactile Dome with a couple of friends, but scheduling had been tough. Yesterday was when our schedule and her friends' had opened up.

One friend was going to meet up with us at the Exploratorium and we picked up the other first thing in the morning. We then drove down into Santa Cruz because Aoibheall and I are taking Tai chi on Saturdays. The class meets in a park with some pretty cool play structures (including some awesome looking slides). The girls played in the park while we learned how to stand and twist. That accomplished, we all piled into the car and started driving north.

We picked up some fruit and lunch stuff at a Whole Foods on the way. We made it to the Exploratorium in plenty of time - we had half an hour to wander around before our 1:45 appointment in the Tactile Dome. We ended up with four adults, one teenager, and four little kids. Unlike last summer when we went to the Exploratorium for Camp Guel Guaynat, we felt little pressure to keep track of everyone. Our ratios were better and everyone had a wonderful time. At closing time we all went out to get a lovely dinner at Pluto's. Everyone was well-fed, although we were all pretty tired from a long day of doing things.

The weather was fabulous. It was warm and sunny, even in San Francisco. We are so suggestible. We came home and made mojitos and watched SpongeBob Squarepants episodes with the kids. (The choice of video was influenced by the zither music from The Third Man - almost at the end of watching that movie, Aoibheall said, "I know why we know that music - it's the same as the background music for SpongeBob!")

The weather was warm and clear again today. I'm back to my spring haircut (I'm sure my Uncle Chuck approves) and Aoibheall cleaned it up this morning. Then we had a big breakfast and got ready to tackle all our piled up chores. The girls needed haircuts and we had the grocery shopping to do. While I was doing the groceries, the girls were getting haircuts and Aoibheall walked through the Cost Plus next to the SuperCuts. We decided that with the beautiful weather we were going to have dinner outside. Well, to do that right we needed a few things. Our patio furniture is plastic and is on the verge of collapse. Cost Plus had some swell chairs and some enamelware that we decided would be perfect for outdoors. We had sangria, limeade, and tostadas out on the deck.

When I took out the compost after dinner, I saw that we'd trapped a rat. Hurrah! Another opportunity for Dagmar and Esme to show their valor! Aoibheall and I set up on the deck with brooms and we brought out the dogs. Dagmar was intensely interested in the rat, who set to squealing as soon as the dogs appeared. Esme decided that she, too, was intensely interested but wanted to be interested from about 15 feet away. Deep defense, I guess. Aoibheall used her broom to open the trap and the rat came scurrying out. It dashed across the deck with Dagmar in pursuit, but our doggie is still not the killer we've been hoping for. The rat got away and fled up the hillside.

Vermin: 3
Dogs: 3

Oh, and speaking of vermin, Oswald has been getting better at hunting. Unfortunately, he's upgraded from moths to bats. I appreciate his enterprise and want to encourage his Hemingway spirit, but I do wish he'd pick on critters that I'd be happier without. We've got plenty of bugs; I like the bats. If only he'd cooperate with the dogs and do something about these rats.