Harvest Time!

Today was harvest day for both my Bartlet pear and Satsuma plum trees!

I'm really happy with the plum tree, as thereby hangs a bit of a tale...

When I was a kid, I LOVED the dark, sweet plums you could find every so often at the grocery store. But more and more over the years, the only plums you could find were the tart ones. Okay, but not the amazing sweet ones I grew up with.

So when we moved here in 2012, I determined to find the right kind of plum tree so I could have those danged plums again. LOTS of online research later, I settled on a dwarf (I'm short and gotta be able to reach the dang things) self-pollinating Satsuma plum...it sounded like the right one...

When we installed our backyard landscaping/plants in 2015, I was able to find ONE of those at our local greenhouse center. Here it is, in the center:

Then...I waited.

For eight years.

Over the last couple of years, the plum tree has flowered...but no fruit.

Then suddenly this May--yay, fruit! And a LOT of it! Nobody was more surprised than me, I'd long since written the tree off.

 Cue more waiting, because long about July the plums just kinda reached a ripening point...and plateaued. They never got bigger than this.

They got redder, but just--stopped doing anything, it seemed. They were fairly hard and TART, not the deep purple, sweet plums I was hoping for. At the chicken swap in July, another lady was selling little baskets of the same Satsuma plums as I had...and they were just as tart as mine.

Sigh...

Damn. Well, at least the chickens enjoyed them--in fact, we couldn't keep them out of the tree.

As evidenced by Exhibit A, Garibaldi and her plum-covered beak.

 Cleaned her up a bit for more pictures. She sure is cute, although has gotten to be so obnoxious lately we've taken to calling her 'Garibitey'.

Obligatory Communist propaganda poster pose:

So anyway, here it's September and I've given up on the tree. I finally decided to make some plum jam out of the fruit. Went out to pick some to get started sorting so I can make jam, this is about 1/3 of the amount of fruit on the tree...

 Tasted a couple, just to make sure...

...and WHAM! Dark, SWEET plums! 

 Exactly as I remembered!

They didn't get any bigger, but the taste...is amazing! The kind of thing where they never make it into the house, you stand under the tree and gobble them down.

Now with some of our eggs for scale. The plums are roughly the size of ping pong balls.

I'm gonna sort out 'eating' fruit from 'canning' fruit--the bruised/damaged ones will become jam. Also some of the nice ones will go with my husband to work tomorrow to share with coworkers.

Can't wait to taste the jam from these, so proud of my little Satsuma plum for coming through for us at last!

My Bartlett pear tree, meanwhile...

Well--it's the struggling kid of the family. This is its entire crop, but I will say it's doing better than last year. The fruit isn't much bigger than the plums, and I wage an ongoing war with coddling moths. I don't spray/treat any of my fruit with insecticides, I settle for Tanglefoot-coated muslin strips wrapped around branches at strategic spots to stop the coddling moth larvae from crawling up to infest the fruit. It mostly works, but I know I'll still find some damaged fruit when I cut these open. Not sure if I'll get enough pears to make jelly with, but we'll see. In the future I may have to cave when it comes to the pear tree and spray it when it comes time for it to set fruit.

But overall, I'm really happy tonight! The Macintosh apple tree out front has maybe a dozen apples on it--it's a struggling child, as well--but they aren't anywhere near ripe yet.

Looking forward to jam-making this weekend! 

The next day, September 29--Post script--the kid and I just picked another 23 pounds of plums, just like yesterday and the tree is stripped of fruit...so our yield is around 46 pounds of plums.

Canning, ahoy!

 

Applesauce & Anniversaries

In our travels the other day we ran across a neigborhood sign...'Free Apples'. Cue Bat-Turn onto the street to follow the signs!

The man handing out the apples had two trees that had produced a truly gargantuan number of apples, he had them in large brown grocery bags lining his driveway--Red and Yellow Delicious varieties. Most were smaller because he said he hadn't gotten to thinning the fruit off the trees that year (been there, done that), and combined with a bumper crop year he was anxious to get rid of the things while they were still good.

After we got done petting his cool old Basset mix dog and visiting with him, we bagged up a bunch in exchange for a promise of more bags (he had run out and still had a ton of apples to bag up) and some eggs from our hens. So we trucked home the apples and ran back over with the eggs and bags...

Next was to set to work making applesauce! It came out great--I peeled and cored the apples and popped them into the slow cooker for about 6 hours with a few spices and a bit of vanilla. The house smelled wonderful! We kept some of the finished products out to eat and froze the rest of it, applesauce is terrific for adding to cookie dough to sweeten and moisten it. Yay for neighbors who share their windfalls!


Also this week was the 20th anniversary with that darling husband of mine, double yay! I wanted something a bit special and unique for an anniversay gift this year (anyone who hangs with me for that long deserves a prize) so the kid and I went shopping and found ourselves at Cheshire Antiques, a cool multi-seller antique shop here in town. After wandering around the store a bit I got an idea--to create a '20' out of various objects, kind a build-it-yourself 20th anniversary gift!

I scavenged a large number '2', a road sign number set with reflectors...but could find nothing to serve as a '0'. The staff pitched in to help me--the store has a second story that I cannot access since I can't climb stairs due to chronic gimpiness. Two employees went up there and one of the ladies came back down with several objects and I settled on a HEAVY glass and brass porthole cover.

Great, I've got my 20!  Hmmm, now for something to mount it on...a bit more prowling and I discovered a box full of fruit crate end pieces, including one with a 'Pure Gold' paper label on it--perfect! To top it all off I had a gift certificate in my purse that I'd been hauling around for about 5 years--in the past everything I've wanted at Chesire has been either $4 or $400 so the certificate had gone unused. Today was it's day to shine, and I ended up paying 35 cents out of pocket. Thanking the store staff for their awesome service we left.

Now off to Meek's hardware store, also here in town, to put it all together! Luckily the number 2 and the porthole cover already had perfect mounting holes in them, I figured if I bought the hardware, the folks at the store might be kind enough to drill a couple of holes in the fruit crate box end so that I could take the parts home and assemble them. Figuring out the hardware we needed was a bit tricky since the '2' was MUCH thinner than the '0' so would require shorter bolts. And the brass-and-glass porthole cover for the '0' was MUCH heavier so would need beefier hardware to hold it on...The kid and I were standing in front of Meek's wall 'o hardware bits juggling parts when one of the employees happened by and asked if we needed help...boy did we ever! I knew what I wanted but couldn't reach some of the stuff--their display had been designed for people taller than I so OF COURSE I couldn't see the exact parts I needed...ain't that always the way?

It was a slow time for the store, so by now several employees had appeared. One of the guys kind of took over the project and hauled all my stuff to the front of the store where he spread everything out on a worktable so we could assemble everything. I'd asked if they could just drill three holes for me, but the guy ended up actually building my 20th anniversary gift to completion! Once they started and ran back and forth getting the right hardware they got so enthused I didn't have the heart to stop them, they got so into it...plus they know their products best so I went with their recommendations. They even had lovely brass hardware to match the porthole cover! The Meek's folks were so kind, I explained that because my hands were messed up I couldn't hold a drill any more so they just charged me a few bucks for the hardware--small towns are wonderful!

But damn if between all of us if it didn't work out, go together in the end and turn out AWESOME!
And here's the finished gift!

It was just one of those times where fate smiled on me, people I didn't even know went above and beyond the call pitched in to help me and everything just kind of weirdly fell together.
J. likes it, now to hang it on the wall!

Reno March For Our Lives

Today we marched...again...getting tired of marching for basically the same shit we did in the 60's and 70's, trying to get people to do the right thing and be decent human beings. Which you'd think people would naturally want to do. Just when you think you've got it fixed...

I knew when Sandy Hook happened and nothing got done when a bunch of kindergarteners were murdered, that the government wasn't going to get off it's butt any time soon.

Today's march was in Reno, we made some signs, dressed warm (the kid in her white wolf costume to help draw attention to the issue at hand) and got some coffee!

We gathered outside the federal courthouse in Reno where the kid posed with my sign.

The mask is articulated so the lower jaw moves when she speaks...I just love how she wears her glasses on the outside of the mask so she's a studious-looking little wolf.

Although this little one wasn't thrilled with it and hid behind her sign.

The building and it's intimidating surrounding fence...

Pretty quickly a crowd of at least 1000 (some sources say as many as 10,000) had gathered. We were in the middle and the crowd stretched in both directions as far as we could see.

A lovely mixed group--parents, kids, veterans, grandparents, college kids, teachers...and a lot of dogs! The crowd was friendly and relaxed. Typical of our area, one guy was going for coffee and asked if anyone else wanted anything. It was so cold and windy that coffee was as important as your sign.

And yeah, that's a kid in a T-Rex costume in the background in the middle right.

The organizers had passed out some 'March For Our Lives' signs but pretty much everyone had brought their own homemade sign, too.

And we're off!  We started at the federal courthouse and marched down Virginia Street to the 'Believe' Plaza just across the Truckee river.

'I go to school to get As NOT PTSD'

Appropriately the name of the cross-street is 'Liberty St'.

And yeah, partway there it started to snow! People just groaned and laughed. Lots of people commented to the kid that she was probably the warmest one there.

Hey, I see my pink brain hat down in the corner! I made one for each of us, my version of the 'pussy hat'.

Love the signs...

Snow getting thicker...

But no one quit!

Guy with a truly GIANT gun.

And the T Rex kid with his sign, his mom was along as his handler/protector.

Finally we got to the plaza, where everyone stopped to pet the cute doggy before going in.  First things first, man.

 

The stage on the left. We couldn't get near it to hear anyone so we hung out on the outskirts. There were several tables set up where you could register to vote, and a couple of nice people circulating with petitions they were asking people to sign. Nobody was pushy or rude.

'I've Seen Smarter Cabinets At IKEA'.

The sculpture on the left is a giant mother and baby pair of stained glass whales, a very intricate and beautiful sculpture.

When your message gets lost in your too-busy sign.

I'd taken along some origami doves to hand out to random folks. Most people were charmed and accepted them readily.

But there was one guy (he and his buddy had come up to us and introduced themselves as political science students at UNR), who when I held one out to him drew back his hand like it was a snake about to bite him and asked fearfully, 'What's that mean?' 

Poor soul. I said gently, 'It's a just paper dove. It has no agenda.'

He finally relaxed, smiled and accepted it.

The kid turned out to be quite popular and a bunch of people wanted their picture taken with her. I was glad for her sake that she'd had another positive experience with exercising her rights and standing up for what she believes in.

 

Even this dog, who at first had done a marvelously incredulous double-take and started barking at her.

But all in all, as we were leaving I thought these guys who drove by had the best sign of the day.

'Fuck guns, let's dance!'

I'm with you, baby. And that's how we do it in Reno.

Stewart Indian School Pow Wow!

Every year our local Indian community holds an awesome pow wow at the historical site of the old Stewart Indian School.  The school operated from 1890 to 1980 and is now on the Historic Register.  The school is closed, but the site remains and it's a gorgeous complex with tons of huge trees, many beautiful stone buildings and a terrific self-guided walking tour you can take.

When I attended high school maaaany years ago nearby, we would play Stewart.  And let me tell you, while we could take them at volleyball, at softball they would whoop our asses hard.  Those girls could throw straight and true like nobody's business, and every.single.hit. they connected with was a home run.  EVERY ONE.  Our school baseball field was bordered by a steep incline lined in about 20 feet of rough-hewn granite rocks the size of your head, so every damned time you had to chase that ball into the stupid rocks, climb in and hunt for the damned thing while keeping an eye out for rattlesnakes.  Meanwhile the Stewart players would leisurely round the bases...another home run.  We learned to just take it for granted we'd be on the losing end of every softball game.

But back to the pow-wow!
It's fun to look at the pow wow website and see the family names of good friends I went to school with--the Toms, Rambeaus and Sams.  Good times...Unfortunately today it was about 112 degrees, so even with the shade from the big trees we were gasping for air and couldn't stay as long as we'd have liked to.  I plan on going back to take proper pictures of Stewart because it really is lovely. 

Luckily there was a wonderful snowcone booth there where you could get a snowcone that could feed a family of four.  Not to mention the fabulous, famous Navajo tacos with fresh fry bread made right there on the spot...we sat under a tree and gobbled it all up and grinned at each other in utter joy.

After that we walked around the various booths that had handmade items for sale and did some shopping.  I really liked the way this lady had her bracelets arranged.

And let me say at the outset that I don't care if the items for sale are *actually* made by a tribe member, or were made elsewhere and the tribal member is just selling them. As long as I'm supporting a tribe member it doesn't matter.  Just so they get the money.

The dancing took place in the center.  They had a mixture of recorded music, live singers and a drum circle that kicked ass.  We arrived in the middle of this dance so I don't know which one it was, other than it was mixed men, women and children.

The regalia was gorgeous.  When the kid was little and we took her to a powwow in southern California, she was entranced by the jingle dresses (the dresses with the dangling rolled tin cones that dance and jingle as you move) and the dancing, and was hot to learn.  Unfortunately we never did find someone to learn from, but that is something that may still happen as here the Indian community is much closer and more accessible.

I absolutely love this picture, for several reasons.  The dad dancing with his baby in the center, the little girl on the left with the 'Strong is the new pretty' shirt and the girl shawl dancing in from the right with such energy.

Just jaw-dropping regalia everywhere, from very ceremonial to fancy.

We had a great time, but after this we were just too wilted from the heat to stay longer and had to cut it short.  Next time!

REDRUN!

So we're off to Virginia City again, this time to attend their annual Redrun!  This is the fourth year they've done a zombie run, and this year they had two courses:  a 3.33 mile and a 6.66 mile run.  A portion of the proceeds went to The Comstock Cemetery Foundation which works to preserve and maintain the collection of cemeteries in the area.

They really worked on the backstory this year.  Every runner starts out with two red flags (just like flag football), and the goal is to make it to the end of the course with two flags in order to collect 'vaccine' and save humanity.  Runners can share flags in order for the group to collect as much vaccine as possible.  Along the course there are not only obstacles and a grinding run through the hills of the area (at 6000+ feet in altitude!), but you have to dodge zombies (some staggering, others quick) AND a group called 'The Living Insane'.  Revival stations along the way (where you could stay as long as you liked) served either water or beer, just to keep things, ahh...interesting (can you say Drunk Zombie Run?).  In addition to the run there was a pre-run zombie parade and a BIG party afterwards.

While we didn't officially sign up, we still wanted to go as spectators.  DEAD ONES.  We never like to miss an opportunity to zombie up and have fun, so out came the makeup & props.

By the end of the day my husband's bloody makeup had run to such an extent that he was earning shocked, guarded second looks from people.  The kid took along her fake arm as a zombie snack.

Since the course ran the entire town and the outlying hills, the entire town was a parking lot.  We eventually found a spot.

We did feel bad for this guy, who obviously hadn't remembered that wild horses had the run of the town.  I'm willing to bet he suddenly realized it when he stepped out.

The houses in VC are mostly quirky.

And the sidewalks stay in character.

They had really neat posters showing various stops/landmarks that were along the course.  Of course, Virginia City fairly drips with history anyway, but today they emphathized the spookier aspects.

The starting point of the run was in the center of town next to The Bucket of Blood Saloon.  Runners had a launch time for their run printed on their number bib, they launched fresh batches of runners every 10 minutes.

Also, I just liked the way her mask rode on her chin. :)

People had fun team names & outfits.  I got the feeling that some of them traveled around the country and did this kind of thing for a living.

'No Really...I'm Fine'

This trio of Living Insane girls was amazing.

And let's just say right now that this little girl WON the day.  She was a total hit with everyone, her doll was the clincher.

The loading area...

They'd enter here...

And each batch would be loaded into a cargo container.  Locals who every day dress in 1800's character worked the event.  The guns are real, loaded with blanks, and LOUD.  As the runners were loaded into the container, they'd yell things like "Get your ass IN there!" and sternly shout at them that if they wanted to survive, they'd better pay attention.  To add to the nervousness and apprehension of the runners, the people outside would shout, scream and bang on the container.  The participants got the whole treatment!

A countdown buzzer would sound.  The costumed westerners were taking aim at the waiting pack of zombies and would fire on them as sirens wailed, the doors opened and the runners emerged.  The two girls in red were throwing handfuls of red dust on the runners as well.

This is what awaited the runners.  A quarter mile of zombies and Living Insane at the start, then a left turn out of town and into the hills.  The spectators were cool and lined the streets and stayed out of the way, no barricades required.

Time to start running for your life...
GO!

 Lots of people in silly costumes.  But a lot of people came to run from zombies, dammit, and were totally serious and into the experience. The westerners would take, long, slow, careful aim at the zombies before firing and really played their parts well.

The Deadpool team was hilarious.  They'd run flailing their arms.

The Living Insane girl in the black dress & mask simply stood in the middle and stared at the guys with the guns, like a promise for later.

She was unsettling.

The westerners stayed marvelously in character the entire time and had their heroic posing down pat.

OK...you know how in horror movies there is always that *one person* who you know is a Star Trek Red Shirt?  They are zombie fodder in a huge way, and if you have the misfortune to be trapped by them, your ass is as good as dead, too.

I'm looking you, person in the orange shirt/white hat cringing and plugging your ears on the right, there.  The Zombie Apocalypse is NOT the time to wimp out over guns roaring in your ears, get your priorities straight and RUN, DUMMY!

But noooo, instead block the door and keep everyone behind you from surviving, forcing them to run around you.

Finally running, ears still covered though.  Oh well, you know what they say:  You don't have to be fast, just faster than the other guy.

The shooters do their job and a few zombies are felled...

 
...making it possible for most of the pack to escape.

As they get away, the zombies & Living Insane regroup for the next batch.

At this point we decided to relocate up the street a bit.  We stood behind a barricade where the course took a sharp left, so I could safely take pictures and we wouldn't get trampled.

Looking back down the street, the runners will emerge from the right at the far end.  The zombie gauntlet awaits as the siren sounds and shots are fired.

Here they come!

Checking to make sure he still has his flags...

Suddenly, a volunteer zombie lurches out of the crowd!

...and meekly lurches back again.

People laughed and ran around him.

We left the main street and drove around a bit to explore the course.  Red arrows marked the way for the runners.  Zombies & Living Insane spotted the course here and there, cheerfully waving to us.

As the course ran out into the hills, the rest stations popped up.  Free water/beer!

As the runners left this station, they had to run up the dirt roads into the hills, where we could not follow in the car.

Refreshments sounded good to us, so we stopped for burgers & root beer floats.  After that, it was time for us to leave Virginia City for the day.

But the kid has already decided that she wants to go next year and run with a group of friends!