Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

Reading and writing are in my blood, you know.  My mom always told the story of the first night she and my dad brought me home from the hospital after I was born; my dad propped me in his lap and read the daily newspaper to me.  And this continued to be the theme of my early life; being read to. As far back as I can remember we always had kids books in the house, and my mom would read them to me. After I reached a certain age I am sure I wasn't interested in listening to my dad read the newspaper, but my mom read any number of books to me. I can't remember them all, but I do remember every year in school during the book fair I would order a pile of books. One series I remember from elementary school was Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books.  I remember a couple different series by Beverly Cleary; Ramona Quimby and all of her adventures, and Henry Huggins. The Encyclopedia Brown series about a boy detective, those were fun books.  Oh, oh, and I remember my b...

 It is funny/aggravating that my android gave me no trouble in downloading pictures to this blog.  My iphone is giving me fits.  It won't download them, I wait and wait and wait for a picture to download, then it tells me it can't and just quits.  Argh! So here's another quit post without a picture.  A post about pretty much nothing at all.  We have been busy running around back and forth and doing this and that; as most families are. Ellen has been enjoying her job at the resort on the river.  The drunk people test her patience, but they tend to tip pretty well.  Ha!  Gary has been delivering gravel, working on wells, and working around the place here.  There is always something for him to do.  He has made a flatbed out of the blue farm truck.  Yesterday we went to Lebanon and stopped by a garage sale where he found a long truck toolbox to put along one side of the flatbed.  It looks really good.  At that same garage...

 This is is a picture of my father; Lawrence Corley Davis.  I am not sure how old he was here, but he was a very handsome man, with bright blue eyes and very decided dietary ideas.   I won't go too much into the back story, because in light of my recent alpha-gal syndrome diagnosis my focus here is going to be on food, but to set the scene; when I came into being we lived on a 5 acre farm in N. Calif.  There were two houses on the property, my dad, mom, brother and I lived in one, and my dad's mother lived in the other. They were very much farmers; had a milk cow, raised a large garden every year, preserved by canning or freezing...etc.  My Grandmother Davis passed when I was about a year old, but my dad continued with the farming; with cow and garden and even a pony.  When the cow had a bull calf it would be butchered at a certain age and put in the freezer.   When I got about 5 years old my dad was in his 50s (he was 46 when I was born) and...

 The first thing I've learned that I think is really the most important is that calling AGS a "red meat allergy" is almost a misnomer; it barely touches the tip of the ice berg.   It's actually an allergy to the carbohydrate "galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose" found in the cells tissues and fluids of non-primate mammals..even cats and dogs.  However upon researching it, I have found that I am probably already conditioned to be used to the alpha-gal present in my cats/dogs, so they do not cause an allergic reaction when I am around them.  This doesn't make sense to me, but I have read online that some people DO become allergic to their pets.  I guess it depends on the severity of a person's sensitivity.  I supposedly have a moderate sensitivity. This alpha-gal carb is also present in pretty much every mammal byproduct and also in all dairy products. I have to scan labels for the following ingredients; gelatin, glycerin, lactose, casein, whey, stearic acid...

Last week I had what I thought was a great idea; I would have a friend cook up a bunch of ground beef (in the form of hamburgers and just some crumbles for maybe soup or spaghetti) for Gary and Ellen as a break from chicken or turkey.  On Sunday I gave my friend Erin several lbs of ground beef.  She cooked it up and brought it back to me on Monday.  So I wrapped 3 burgers tightly in foil and put them in the oven to warm up. Such a bad, bad idea.   It took maybe 10-15 minutes and I could feel myself starting to react. First I got faint; not really dizzy completely, but just really light headed and shaky.  Then a few minutes after that my pulse began racing. It is a very unpleasant feeling. I at first got a face mask, turned off the oven and kept on with supper prep in the hopes it would subside, but it didn't, it just got worse.   I took some liquid allergy medication and just went outside and sat in the fresh air to recover. Gary and Ellen ate the...

 (So I have tried to get photos to load on here from this iPhone a couple of times, but they refuse to cooperate so phooey on it for now.) Here is a brief rundown of life as it is going for members of the House of Howard.  Last Saturday Ellen and I went to her college’s summer orientation. It was fun and I think it helped to relieve some of Ellen’s nerves about her upcoming college career. She got her schedule and bunches of info, met a few of the other incoming college freshmen. I think she is looking forward to it.  In the meantime she is working 3 days a week at a local resort; Friday Saturday and Sunday, in the office fielding and making calls and all the etceteras that go along with a little convenience store. She works the evening shift Fri and Sat,  then works a 12 hr day shift Sunday from 8 to 8. She is enjoying it much more than she enjoyed cleaning the cabins last summer. Haha ******* Gary is keeping busy with hauling gravel, water well repairs and general ...

  But here’s a picture of cute calves!   Last Monday I had a scare.  All weekend I’d felt “off” for want of a better word.  I’d have weird sweating spells off and on and feel like my heart was racing, then feel fatigued off and on. Then Monday when I was fixing supper I REALLYbegan feeling bad.  I could really feel my heart racing, I was shaky and sweaty.  So Gary and I just dropped everything to go to the walk in clinic. They did and EKG and said while everything looked ok, there were still differences so I needed to go to the ER.  Soooo…we headed to the ER.  By the time we got there my heart rate had slowed, but I was feeling really shaky and fatigued. The short story is that they could find no trace of an emergency.  And even though all the other readouts below are messed up from my twisting around to take the pic, at least I am pleased that my blood pressure is good.  Ha! My mom always had high blood pressure, so I figured I would to...

Every spring I look forward to the red-eared slider pond turtles trekking out to lay eggs.  Last year I didn’t really see any come close to the house. This year so far I have seen two. One was a week or so ago, out by a tree by the dog kennel. The second one I saw was last week. She was just out in the front yard, right outside the window.    It always amazes me how they dig holes in the dirt deep enough to lay eggs in, just with their back legs. Look at the mud she churned up. They urinate to make the mud, I believe.  I am also always amazed how well they cover up the hole.  I put an aquarium glass rock there over it and have had it covered for a couple of days with a large bucket lid weighed down with a rock.  Almost without fail coon or skunk or opossum will dig up the nest overnight.  The next morning thee will just be a pile of egg skins there by a hole.  So far nothing has disturbed it  I hope they don’t because I’m going to have to mov...

 Remembering my mother, Mary Rowena (Campbell) Davis.   This year I didn't post anything on Facebook about my mother.  Most everyone else does, usually I do as well.  But I am still in the throes of post high school graduation anxiety from Ellen's graduation activities this past weekend, so I just couldn't handle another emotional post. Not that I  really had any actual anxiety at all from Ellen's graduation, but it was an emotional time, paired with throwing a party for her afterwards, so it was just too much for me to add more emotional memories on top of the mix. Of course I miss my mother terribly, but I wouldn't want her back into the dementia-ridden life she was living at the time.   Over the course of the 50 some years I was blessed to have her we made some fun memories and had a great deal of laughs.  We never did do anything grand as a family, really.  I remember when I was about 5 we all went, as a family, to New Mexico to visi...

 In kindergarten at the Long Lane elementary school, they always got T-shirts for each of the different grades every year. That way when they went on the big school field trip they could better keep track of all of the kids.  That spring they went roller skating in Springfield. Ellen got the skates on, but she didn’t really skate.  I did snap this picture of her: The shirt says; “Class of 2025 Starting it off kindergarten style”.  All of the shirts were a bit too big for the kids.  I kept it of course! This week put it on so we could snap this pic of her on her last day of high school  A bit snug now, but it still fits!   So cute!  

 At the end of every school year the town puts on a parade for the graduating seniors. The police, fire, and sheriff’s departments escort school buses full of seniors around the square, through the main drag of town and to the other school buildings. The seniors wear their caps and gowns and march up and down the halls of the elementary, middle and high school buildings, all to much cheering and fanfare.  Gary and I dutifully headed to the square, on the corner of Maple and Main. But the odd thing was that right at that corner was a swarm of honey bees!  Some were on the sidewalk and some were on the street sign.   Eventually, by the time the parade went by, all of the bees were up on the street sign.   We could hear the sirens of the parade coming and when they got to where I could see them I started videoing recording.  But then some lady walked right out underneath the bee swarm, so my video doesn’t show the seniors going by; it goes all wonky and shows ...

 This is something my in-laws told me how to do and I have done so for years, I don’t think I’ve ever shared the process in detail though.  If you just leave a sweet potato on the counter, or in storage somewhere, it will usually start to sprout all on its own. You can just break off these sprouts when they get a couple/three inches long. Put the sprouts in an inch or so of water, not fully submerged, just to where it will have room to form roots. Like so:  They love full sun, so keep it in a sunny window.    If you want to get a sweet potato to start sprouting, then just put one in water in a sunny window and wait for it to sprout.   There is really no need to use toothpicks to support the tuber, unless you just want to. It will start rooting after a while, then start sending off sprouts, or slips as they are also called.   Wait til they are long enough, break off and put in water.   After they have a bunch of roots you can plant them.  They...

  Behold above my daughter’s earthworm interest. I don’t know why exactly but on occasion she likes to find them and hold them for a bit.  I can’t say anything against this. Back when I was a kid in California I used to keep them in glass jars. You know, I’d fill the jar with dirt, poke in a worm or two and make sure to keep it moist and topped with dead leaves and such. They’d live for weeks like that. But I’d usually dump them out after a while.  ******** Last year Ellen decided she wanted another ear piercing so she booked an appointment with Qui Qui, a very popular piercing artist in Springfield. He is usually booked solid several months out.  Anyway, as you can see she had an appointment this past Saturday to get her right conch pierced.  It’s the little green flower above. It’s still a bit sore today, the Tuesday after, but is much better. As for myself, I have not one piercing. I think earrings are pretty, and Ellen has a bunch of super cute ones, but I’v...

Ok. I will begin this by saying I readily own up to not being the most stellar housekeeper in the world. There always seems to be something more interesting to do than dust, vacuum, or mop, especially in the remote corners. The great outdoors and the garden call my name more loudly than the vacuum cleaner does. We live in the country so, yes, we fight mice, spiders and random bugs and dirt and whatnot that gets tracked in.. It happens. I have little room to criticize other people regarding their housekeeping skills. However this story takes housekeeping, or lack thereof, into realms I cannot stomach.  March 15th our long time tenant passed away. He’d lived in our little rental house for about 9 years. He was a very nice guy and always paid on time, always had a joke. We rented it strictly to him. But his daughter would bounce from living with her mother, his ex girlfriend, to living with him… at least for the first couple of years he was there. Then the last 5 or 6 years, or longer...

 Happy Resurrection Day!  It’s a wonderful wet Sunday morning. We’ve got a series of storms going over today. One woke us up at shortly after 5 AM this morning. It didn’t last too long, but made a bit of a racket going over. It is supposed to rain off and on all day. My mother-in-law always used to say that if it rained on Easter Sunday it would rain for the next seven Sundays.  We shall see… *********** Lasts day Ellen went to her last FBLA(Future Business Leaders of America) state competition in Springfield. They stayed in a motel down there. Her team placed 6th and was the only team from Buffalo to place in the top ten .  The teacher, Mrs Rice, is debating whether or not they can go to the Nationals in Anaheim CA in June.   Here is a series of pictures Ellen shared with me from last weekend. This is when the group of them made their FBLA bears.  It is actually a red panda.  The kids were able to earn vouchers for one reason or another then got to go...

Frankly I am not as enthused about gardening this year as I usually am. I am hoping my enthusiasm will grow as the weather warms.  I have a row of onion slips planted out in the big fenced garden.  In the closest garden bed by the house I’ve got onion bulbs, two kinds of radishes and some lettuce planted. Today I got another bunch of onion slips and beet and okra seed. Oh, and some Top Crop green bean seeds.  It has the potential yet to freeze, so I haven’t bought anything in the way of flowers or other plants to set out yet.   Last week I went to visit a friend and ended up getting some iris bulbs from her. I did set those out. They won’t bloom til next year, or even later, but they will be fun to watch bloom and see what colors I got.  Here’s a daffodil bloom from last month because I don’t really have any other interesting garden pics to share; dirt with green onion stems poking up aren’t really thrilling, I guess. Although I am pleased that they all seem to ...

 This kitten is liable to be the end of my very last nerve.  A couple of nights ago I had just gone to bed and was at that blessed brief moment before unconsciousness sweeps you away into the land of Nod, when I heard this dreadful chewing sound.  I knew straight off that it was the kitten, but what in the world?  I fumbled for the flashlight and went to inspect the living room.  Not a cat in sight.  So I crawled back in bed, only to hear it again almost immediately. Further inspection showed this:   Chica had crawled completely inside this box Ellen had abandoned and was chewing on the inner flaps. She lives to chew on cardboard. I deliberately keep one out for her to play with and chew on, because it saves the furniture. But 10:30 at night isn’t the best time to sound like a rat on steroids, no matter if you are a cute teething kitten. Ha!  

To continue my tree felling story: The first one came down, but only after a chain broke.  To get the first one down Gary sat a ladder against it, climbed up and put a chain on it, then attached lengths of heavy chain out 60 ft or more and attached it to the dozer. Then he sawed notches on the tree; a wedge from the front and a straight cut partway across the back.  His words: “Getting the cuts in the right place is the trick.” The first tree above…well, he didn’t get the back cut through far enough, so when he went to pull it the chain broke. So he cut a bit further, found another chain and down it came.  The second one was a bit trickier; he decided to just push it over with the dozer instead of using chains on it.  So below you can see the dozer bucket is against it, putting a bit of pressure on it to get it to fall away from the building   You can see him up there making the cuts. Take note of the positions of the barn, tree and dozer.  This time he got...

 It has been a busy and distracting past few days, so sorry there had been radio silence on my blog. And I had been doing so well for the past year or so.  Well. I have a tale to tell. Read on… For the part 3 or 4 years or so our trees have been dying off, out in the fields and around the house and outbuildings.  Around the former milk barn we had a couple of trees die. Well, one died a couple of years ago and one was in the process.  This one was the worst one Then there was this one right at the front corner.  I didn’t get a close up of it, but it’s at the corner of the building on the left   And now I have to get ready for church so I will finish this later. I guess it’s been a couple three weeks since I blogged, another day won’t make much difference. 

 In going through my old Facebook pictures and memories I’ve discovered that the bulk of my photos and memories surround either pets or Ellen.  There are few of Gary. Not that he complains about it. He does his best to avoid photos of himself, so really this is a rare one. But it’s one of my favorites of him.  Gail, his sister, took it last fall. It was the last Saturday of fishing season for 2024 and I had signed up to be a vendor at a craft show. But Gail and he were hankering to get in one more day of fishing so they could try out their “secret” bait.  They did try it out, even though it involved like a 100 mile round trip to acquire what they needed. And it worked. Good thing.  I will not reveal the secret here. Haha.  Gail snapped this of him as he was stepping out with his stringer of fish.  We are all hoping to be able to take a few camping trips this summer that will involve fishing. I honestly don’t know why we will do more fishing. We still h...