Thursday, August 10, 2006, 19:59
A Noisy Day
It's a noisy day here at Rural Route 2.
The township is working on the road outside my house. They are grinding down the old blacktop. Eventually, I would imagine, they are going to repave it. I am thinking, though, that they might leave it sit for year with the ground-down blacktop graded back across the road so it has a chance to settle. That's what they did on one of the other roads a couple of years ago, anyway.
The road past my house has not been paved in 30 years.
I would just as soon they do not pave it now. It's nice and bumpy and full of potholes. Just the way I like it. I mean, really. Why waste the money to pave it. Especially when oil is so expensive? And from the size of the machine that is grinding down the road, it *must* use a lot of fuel. Not to mention the oil that goes into making the blacktop to pave the road.
Now, before you start thinking that I've gone around the bend completely, let me explain why I don't want the road paved.
We live in a somewhat remote rural area. It's quiet here. Only about 4 cars go by each day. The bumpy road full of potholes is a nice deterrent. It keeps the tourists away -- those people who like to drive around just to "see the scenery." Everybody says the Town of Otter Creek is so pretty. "But how can you put up with the roads?" they say. We say, "We like the roads like this. It cuts down on the tourists." I get some funny looks then. But what do I care? Just as long as the tourists stay away.
Of course, on the other hand, new pavement could be a nice way to drum up business.
With new pavement, lots of people will be driving by here. And people like to drive fast And when people drive past, they have a tendency to miss the 90 degree corner just a few feet down the road from our lower driveway. It occasionally happens in the winter that someone comes down the hill too fast. They are unable to make the corner. And the next thing you know, they have gone in the ditch.
Randy says he is going to post a sign at the other end of the road -- "Have tractor. $40."
$40?
I'd price it at $50 (at least) to pull someone out of the ditch with my dad's Farmall 460.
After all, gas IS over $3 a gallon. It will probably be over $4 a gallon by winter, especially now that they have conveniently closed the Alaska pipeline because the company -- in spite of record profits in the billions -- conveniently decided not to spend some of that money on maintenance of the pipeline. And now it's shut down. So oil will be even more at a premium. Which means gas will cost more. Probably by next week at the latest.
I covered a town meeting held by U.S. Senator Russ Feingold the other day for the newspaper. One lady said she thought the shut-down of the Alaska pipeline was another ploy just to raise gas prices. Feingold said the oil industry needs to be investigated for just that reason.
At any rate, when I have to start up the 460 in the winter and let it warm up before using it to pull someone out of the ditch, it will use more gasoline. So, yes, I think $50 would be appropriate.
Randy said something about hooking the chain onto the frame of the car when I pull it out. I said, "nothing doing." I will hook the chain to the 460's drawbar -- the people who went in the ditch can hook the chain to the car. That way, if I pull off their bumper trying to pull the car out, I can point out that THEY were the ones who hooked up the chain. Not me. (And by the way, that'll be $50.)
Actually, we could turn a tidy profit if, say, one car per week went in the ditch. That would be an extra $200 a month. Which would help to pay for the $1.59 a gallon propane we will need to heat the house.
Perhaps I ought to start praying for cold, snowy winter with lots of ice on the road?
Hip-Hip Hooray!
Three cheers for the British and Scotland Yard.
Ready?
Hip-Hip HOORAY!
Hip-Hip HOORAY!
Hip-Hip HOORAY!
Because of British Intelligence, we were spared (for the time being, anyway), the tragedy of terrorists blowing up airliners on their way to the United States.
Now all we have to do is keep all the liquid off airplanes to make sure no terrorists can make the kind of bombs they were planning. No soda pop. No coffee. No shampoo. No facial cleanser. No contact lens solution. No "juice in a box" for those families on vacation. No toothpaste. No bottled water. No Chapstick. No perfume. No horsepower. No men's cologne. No liquid foundation makeup. Nothing that is close to any kind of liquid.
But you know what?
And here's the kicker.
The terrorists DO NOT EVEN HAVE TO BE SUCCESSFUL in setting off a bomb to disrupt life as we know it.
Suddenly, all kinds of people have to gather up all kinds of liquid before people board planes.
Suddenly, all kinds of people land at their destination without so much as a bottle of shampoo or a tube of toothpaste.
And all the while that people are flying on the planes, they are wondering, "did someone manage to smuggle a bomb on anyway?"
Yes -- even when they are unsuccessful, the terrorists are successful.
But because of the British, they were not QUITE as successful today as they wanted to be.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Wednesday, August 09, 2006, 04:06
SURPRISE!
A few years back (five or six) I planted some dried prune plums down by the barn.
The prune plums came from a plum tree on an abandoned farm about a half mile up the road. I know the plums are "antique" plums because no one has lived on that place for as long as I can remember. And longer than that, I know. But near the driveway leading into the place where there was once a house and barn and other outbuildings is a plum tree.
The plum tree produces the most lovely prune plums. Dark purple. Sweet and juicy.
One year there was a bumper crop of prune plums. Randy and I picked a bunch of them, and then after we had eaten what we wanted, and after I had made jelly, I left some of the plums in a bowl to dry out. Not just the pits but the whole plums.
Then I saved the plums, and the next year, I planted some of them by the barn, hoping to get a plum tree from the antique plum. Hunters began renting the land where the plum tree is growing. They must have decided it was in their way because they trimmed it back. The plum tree apparently didn't like being trimmed back because it has been in the process of dying ever since. That's why I was glad that I planted some of the plums and that a plum tree was beginning to grow.
This year, for the first time, the plum tree down by the barn blossomed. All summer long, we have been watching the plums and have been dumping water from the horse buckets on the plum tree so the plums would have enough water to ripen.
The plums have been slowly turning a deep yellow with a pink blush.
Deep yellow? With a pink blush?
Prune plums are dark purple.
But, since I have not watched the antique plum every day during the growing season, I assumed that this was just part of the ripening process.
Until last night.
"Some of the plums fell off the tree!" Randy said to me as we were feeding and watering the horses.
"They did?" I said.
Plums usually fall off the tree when they are ripe.
I looked in the grass by the plum tree, and sure enough, four plums had fallen off. I picked them up, rinsed them off and bit into one.
Sweet! And juicy! With a somewhat bitter pulp! Just like. . .Just like. . .
Wild plums.
Yes! Wild plums!
Wild plums? But. . .
"This is weird," I said to Randy. "I planted prune plums."
"I know," he said. "Sure are tasty, though, aren't they."
And since then, I have been contemplating how I ended up with plums that are close to wild plums when I planted prune plums.
Finally, it dawned on me.
The antique plum growing on the abandoned farmstead must be a hybrid. A very old hybrid. And with a very old hybrid, when you plant one of the seeds, you get. . .
One of the parents!
The plum tree growing down by the barn is one of the parents of the antique prune plum.
Which means the plum growing by the barn is even older than the prune plums.
I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get prune plums.
But suspecting that the prune plum is a hybrid sure does explain a lot.
It explains why, after 50 or 60 years or so, the plum tree on the abandoned farm has not spread and has not started growing elsewhere. With all of the critters around that could carry the pits and drop them somewhere, you would think there would be prune plums growing all over the place. But I've never found another prune plum around here like it.
So -- I started out hoping for antique prune plums -- but ended up with another unknown antique plum variety. A plum that is yellow with a pink blush. A plum that is quite tasty.
I think I'll start tossing the plum pits into the "prairie area" below the lower driveway. I prefer to call it the "prairie area" -- rather than the area that, because of the steep bank, I am too lazy to mow.
And with any luck, maybe we will eventually get more of the yellow plums with the pink blush.
I wonder what the jam will taste like. . .
LeAnn R. Ralph
