Shine Not Burn - Luceo Non Uro - the 4th year

The Humphreys story is an interesting one.  The last name comes from the Viking/Norsk Hun-Frid meaning "Peaceful Bear". Generations of strong people thrown into some fray or another all throughout their history.  Stories of Clans and Crests, and Motto's and of living up to those.  Stories of exile and exit.  Stories of families, and maybe not family.  Love and loss.  It has been 4 years now since we lost you Rye, my heart is still broken - along with your dad and brothers, and the ancestors have been talking.

I know you have seen this picture before in my blog, but this time it is for a different purpose.  The tattoo on his arm is a Celtic cross with the initials of his family members in the top three points, and in the banner that swirls around it are the words "Luceo non Uro".  Shine not burn.  That is the Humphreys family motto - the second one actually.  Part of the alleged story of the ancestors is that the Humphreys fought alongside Robert the Bruce in Scotland (hence the Scottish spelling of Humphreys).  The family was granted land by The Bruce and had a crest and a motto "the true man loves his country".  A proud motto for a proud people.

Then came the wars and the turmoil and the betrayal.  Culloden, Falkirk, Bannockburn and on it went as though it would never end.  When the battles finally ended there were only three Humphreys men left and they were exiled from Scotland.  One is said to have gone to France, but the other two landed in Nova Scotia, and then on to Ohio and Pennsylvania.  

The reason for the change in the motto, and the crest, was the betrayal and exile and the loss.  Shine not burn.  Rye embraced that motto and really tried to live it.  I believe he still does now - shine.  Shine on all of us, and on others in the world.

We placed a memorial plaque for you this year at the Garden of Reflection in Wasilla.  I know you were there - you brought us lots of messages from you and signs that you were there!  

This Is How We Roll played on the Spotify on the way in the car, along with Mud on the Tires, and some of the other songs that let me know you were rollin' with me.

I took a wrong turn getting to the parking lot and when I was pulling back onto the road to make the correct turn there was our friend A.  The one I was so worried about and asked you to intervene with.  To go where only angels can go and whisper in the ear of a boy who couldn't hear the voices of those here on earth, crying for him.  He has been sober now for about a year and he looked wonderful.  He hugged me in the middle of the intersection, in a pandemic, and it was so good.

When I pulled into the parking lot at the garden, there were at least 40 dragonflies buzzing about, flitting among the cars and the trees and shrubs.  Noisy and almost vocal.  Singing a song from you.  Aunt Dee brought me a Dragonfly Wind Chime made from old spoons  - it was supposed to be for another time and didn't get to me until today.  Perfect.

And then there was this - the shoes.... You always wore Doc Martens just like this.  I got to the parking lot early and as I was leaning on the front of the car enjoying the beautiful sun, a group of teenagers came from the direction of the park and one young man yelled "Do you want some shoes?"  I did NOT know these kids!!!  I said "Why are you giving away shoes?  You arent trying to give me hot shoes are you?" and he said " I don't need them - they are size 11 (your size) and a guy just gave them to me for letting him use my phone!"  They are the exact kind of Doc's that you wore all the time!  There were always 10 darn pairs of shoes in the entryway and I was always yelling about the "Giant Shoes" in the doorway!  Serves me right - right?

We had quite a group of family there from both sides.  It took us about 8 tries to get a good picture of all of us - as per our usual picture taking routine!  Nana had her mouth open in some - me too - talking of course.  Aunt Chelle and Karen were adjusting their shades in others. Thank goodness for Dawn taking pictures for us!  I wore your Hurley shirt and I held my smile the whole time and didn't even have a meltdown.  Yes - I was surprised too!

The garden after everyone had gone.  It really is a beautiful place.  Peaceful and serene.  A place that you would love too.  I went back to see if I could see you there again.  So I could feel you there wrapping me up.  To breathe some more in a space where my heart could rest.  To hear the Dragonflies and the breeze - ever so light, and the waterfall.

We keep marching on.  Into another year.  Still wondering what happened and why, but mostly able to do the things we are supposed to do, most of the time, even without you still.  I don't want to think about starting the 5th year.  4 years seems like forever, yet short.  A milestone that no parent should ever have to reach, and here we are.  Reflecting on you, and marching.

Blessed be until we meet again sweet Bugman.

Shine On!

Love your people!

When life hands you lemons - use your garlic smasher!

 I have been trying to be better about making my menu's and having a grocery list ready to go that will work with my menu's as of late.  I am limiting time in the grocery store and I am down to about once about every 10 days most of the time.  Sh*t happens though and we sometimes have to go more, but for the most part we're keeping it down.  One of the things always on the list are lemons.  We use a ton of them!

There above you can see a couple in the bowl and one on the counter that I have used a bit of the zest from.

I have a few lemon/rind "zesters", but they all take forever and really are a pain to work with and actually get the zest out of the holes and the tool.  Just a pain!

The one you see above with the green is a Microplaner that works great for some things but for lemon and lime zest it just falls a little short.  The silver thing that looks like it belongs in a ladies doctor office is actually a fantastic garlic smasher!  It's my favorite Pampered Chef item of all time and I have two of them - identical!

So I was making a recipe of "Ale Sauced Pork and Veggies" and it calls for a tablespoon of fine lemon zest.  I didn't have time for all the work it took for the zesting part as I had forgotten about the  recipe and had to do it quickly so it could marinate overnight before going in the crock pot the next morning - it was already late on a work night!  The recipe isn't mine so I have included the link above (click on the recipe name) so you can get it if you would like!

You an see the lemon peel slivers on the cutting board in between the smasher handles.  It takes a lot of slicing and dicing to get fine lemon peel when the microplaner won't do the job.....

Enter the garlic smasher!

If a recipe calls for three cloves of garlic we use 6.  Just sayin!  In the above photo you can see a clove of garlic in the smasher.  I took part of the lemon peel that I had knife cut off the lemon and was chopping and I just put it in the garlic smasher with the cloves of garlic.
Then I smashed away and just scraped the whole lot into the bag with the meat!  It worked perfectly!  The lemon rind smashed through just like garlic does and was a really fine texture.  I did run just lemon peel through to see if it would work without the garlic - it does!  All Good!

There it is in all its deliciousness in the bag!  Ready to marinate.  This recipe calls for pork riblets or some such thing, but I had a bag of what we call "pork stew ends" which is really just trim from our pork roasts that we cut and freeze, so there was a bit of that fatty pork and some bits that might not otherwise get used.  This recipe is no worries for any meat that might be tough - I think it would work fine with beef as well.

Yes - I used Alaska Amber beer in my recipe.  Totally worth it - and it was taking up some valuable shelf space in the pantry that I needed for olive oil!  Kind of kidding there - but Amber is a good beer to drink or cook with.

Here it is ready for the meat to be poured on top and cook away while I work!  I did also add onion to the recipe - not sure who would make a recipe with pork, potatoes and carrots and no onions - regardless if it has beer!  Definitely not an Irish or a Scot!  Still all good and this recipe is delicious!  It's like a stew for sure - make you some Hard Lemon Biscuits to serve with it (aka 7-up Biscuits)!

My point is that the garlic smasher saves the day and makes life easier all the way around!

I hope you have one to make your day!  I encourage you to use the tools you have in new ways to solve the worlds problems - even if it is just how to zest lemon quickly!

Be well and Blessed Be!

The Strange Days of 2020

We are all living in a strange time.  Lockdowns, illness, worry, fear, and sadness.  Loneliness and losses.  Covid 19.  Election year blues.  Schools were closed and kids worked from home with their parents.  We stayed home.  The struggle is real and I fight daily bouts of anxiety and fear of another loss that will kill me.  Or of not being able to keep going on the daily to fight another day.  I am still struggling daily to find meaning in what I am doing, especially now when I am seeing news that sucks and is ugly in a world that seems ugly too.  I am saddened by it all and I worry daily about my people and their people staying well and being able to keep going.  I keep F'ing going though.  Every day.

Home for me is not so bad.  I always have lots of things to do - from housework to yard work to quilting and designing - there is always plenty to keep from getting bored.  Hubby also does not mind being a home body.  He is usually home anyway if there are no wells to be drilled or equipment to be worked on.  Our 4.5 acres always has some type of landscaping or work that needs done on the gardens. This year I did some work on a set of steps that  go from the yard and slide to the garage door area.  The last time it was done was 5 years ago and Rye re did that area for me for Mothers day.  It took him about 4 hours.

This is what it looked like to start with now on the left.  and on the right in process putting down the pavers and rocks and the landscape fabric.

Here it is finished.  It took me two weeks of pretty solid days of work to get it done.  No 4 hour job here!  I put in some new plants including some Thyme to creep among the pavers and rocks, and some lavender for luck, as well as some Jacobs ladder and (after pictures) a wonderful Iris.  It should last another 5 years.  Blessing us with beauty.

Many of our friends have lost jobs or are laid off for a while or in deep fear of losing their jobs. We (Ace Water Wells) are considered an essential business in the Covid world.  Fortunately most of our work is outdoors and social distancing is easy!  Water is pretty important when you are supposed to keep everything clean and sanitized and wash your hands every 20 minutes!  So even though the year started out slow drilling wise, we have survived and are still working.    Happy to be working whenever we can.  Keeping it slow and safe.  

Below photo - Water for coffee in Big Lake, Alaska.  Perfect Start Espresso Shop

My school will reopen in mid-August, with an adjusted schedule and a different flow of traffic.  One way!  We are wearing masks.  I will be the "masked secretary"!  We are also having sports - so important to our kids and their mental health.   Do I have some fears?  Absolutely.  Already said I do and so do a lot of our community.  Together we will get through.

I have made over 300 masks total. It is what I can do with the skills that I have to help the community.  Most were donated to great places that needed them and I still make a couple a week so I have some on hand to give away if needed.  I still prefer the ones with ties and I have been able to have almost matching mask with work outfit every day so far.  They at least kind of match my shoes.  Not my socks though - my socks of the day are usually naughty!  My most recent socks say "the universe is kind of a dick!"  And it is!  I want to flip the Universe off on the daily!  They are blue and I could match masks but they are not appropriate to have those words on my face!  You know.....  I have a great pair that say "Neato Burrito" and also a pair that say "You are not the boss of me"!  I love them all.  They keep me going when I need a pick me up during the day - or if someone ticks me off I can hold up my foot and even if they don't know what I am doing and it seems really weird - it makes me feel a little better that I told them - even if it was just with my invisible socks!!!

This Pandemic has given us time for some things, like that yard work, but has also stolen from us as well - most notably time with our people.  We aren't supposed to go see our elders, the kids are afraid to come around in case they would give it to us.  My son who works often out of town worries that his travels will bring it home.  The girls who lived with us both work in the medical field and they worry that they might bring it if they should visit.  Don't gather in groups - so no card night or game day.  Lest we be shamed for trying to "kill Grandpa and Grandma"!  No one in the family or anywhere wants to be "patient zero" of the Covid epidemic!

I was able to finish the original 15 minute quilt  (see the post here about it) - the Bear Paw Pattern with 25 different gold fabrics on a Blueberry Batik background.  I am in love with it. It is at the quilters as we speak and it will probably be mine forever.  It will take a VERY grand cause to make me give this one away - I think....maybe....we'll see!  Without the COVID time it probably would have taken me another year to finish this in 15 minute increments.  I have about 10 other projects started now that I can "15 minute" along if I need to!  Stay tuned for a little photo gallery of the quilts I have finished since lockdown started - I just have to wait to show some of them as they are gifts that have not been given yet!  Special projects for special people and special occasions.  Some little joys.

I went and helped a friend rescue some plants and flowers from the bulldozer - literally!  A new subdivision is being built on an old homestead and when they tore down the older house they left the flower beds so we could go "guerrilla garden" retrieval in that yard.  I got more than 21,000 steps that day and got some great plants!  I was unable to do a whole lot the next day and my back is still a little tweaked!  Totally worth it though!  I forgot to take pictures while I was on site - remembered when I got home!

Left to right - honeysuckle with trollius in it.  Lillies - Center.  Garlic Allium that has a beautiful bloom.  It was about 90 degrees the day we had to move these which is not ideal, but they have all recovered nicely and are in new homes here on the farm!

One of my favorite things was.... of course.... these awesome ROCKS!!  Look at those "Bobby Dazzlers"!  They have all also found homes here, part of them in the paver stairs area pictured above.  

I still have a TON of yard things to do before snow comes (or lots of rain which is usual for August), and the garden is getting close to harvest time.  The squash and the greenhouse both were over the top amazing this year!  Stay tuned for a couple of recipes with squash and other garden delights!  There will also be plenty of cabbage for sauerkraut this year!  I'll keep you posted on how that turns out.

Until next time - Be safe, Be Well, and Blessed Be!