Light at the End of the Tunnel

Pampas Grass

(Playground in Riverfront Park, Little Rock, AR)

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Light at the End of the Tunnel

Waffles

Whole wheat waffle batter spooned onto the hot waffle iron.

Why I cook pancakes and waffles for Jo:  How family traditions evolve.

Once upon a time back in the Dark Ages, Jo and I awoke at the same time.  She (eventually) cooked our breakfast.


Time passed.


Since I seemed to get moving quicker than Jo, I decided I'd start cooking our breakfast instead of sitting around waiting on Jo.  Jo did not object to this change of routine.  She had no problem with me preparing her breakfast.


Time passed.

Cooked waffle ready for removing from the waffle iron.

I decided mixing up batter and cooking pancakes or waffles every couple of days was a waste of time.  Instead, I double/tripled the recipe and kept a stash of pancakes or waffles in the freezer.  A little time in the microwave and/or toaster oven makes a frozen waffle/pancake as good as freshly made.


Time passed.

Stack of waffle that will keep Jo happy for several days.

I gave into my inner night owl and began staying up until the wee hours of the morning, and not crawling out of bed until after Jo had be up for several hours.  Jo had to start cooking her own breakfast again.  However, her breakfast included heating a frozen waffle or pancake, and I'd become the family "expert" on cooking pancakes and waffles.  So I still cook large batches of waffles/pancakes which Jo heats for her breakfast.  I usually fix myself a yogurt smoothie for breakfast.

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Waffles

Pottery Hands

Pottery Hands: Touching clay spinning on a potter's wheel for the first time.

(Art in the Park, Columbia, MO)

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Pottery Hands

Water Fountain

Fountain in the H. U. Lee International Garden.

(Next to the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock, AR)

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Water Fountain

No Parking

No Parking, but no one cares.

(In front of the Statehouse Convention Center lobby in Little Rock, AR)

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No Parking

Mill Creek

Mill Creek. 

(Near the Pruitt Ranger Station on the Buffalo National River.)

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Mill Creek

Christmas Day

A light dusting of snow on the garden.

Snow flurries Christmas morning, but they didn't end up amounting to much -- just a light dusting of snow. 


Jo and I drove over to Yellville, AR, and enjoyed a delicious (and bountiful) Christmas meal with friends.

Joe Doster slicing the ham.

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Christmas Day

Trolley Car

Little Rock, AR, trolley car.

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Trolley Car

Fall Garden 2010: FAIL

Lettuce (and weeds)

Our fall garden was a big FAIL this year.  It was just too hot, dry and buggy during the late summer when the seeds and seedlings went into the garden.  Few of them survived, despite several replantings.  We did harvest a few turnips.  Jo pulled the last of the turnips recently, but they were pithy and not edible.


On Tuesday, Jo pulled the row covers off what should have been our lettuce and spinach beds.  A very few small lettuce plants remained in addition to a half dozen or so spinach plants -- plus lots of happily protected weeds.  Jo harvested the spinach and stir fried for supper.  That was the end of fall garden.

Spinach (and weeds)

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Fall Garden 2010: FAIL

Jo Sitting On Her Bucket

Our unseasonably warm weather on Tuesday (up to 76°F/24°C) convinced Jo to toss out her pre-planned list of chores and work in the garden instead.  She's weeding a strawberry bed.

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Jo Sitting On Her Bucket

Moving Jo's Glazes to the Basement

Moving buckets of glazes from Jo's studio to the basement so they won't freeze during and extended period of below freezing temperatures. After freezing, glazes must be restirred and strained. Preventing them from freezing is a lot less work.

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Moving Jo's Glazes to the Basement

First Fire of the Season

On Thursday evening the temperature dropped to 66°F/19°C inside the house and was predicted to fall to 29°F/-2°C outdoors overnight. It seem as if our first fire of the season in our wood stove was a good idea. I'd cleaned out the stove pipe about a month ago so we could safely have a fire, but then our temperatures warmed and none was needed. As it turned out, our temperature only fell to 35°F/2°C, but having the warmth of the wood stove was still nice.

I've got the stove doors open just so I could take this photo. Normally, they're closed and wood is loaded from the top, though I do have to open the front doors when starting a new fire.

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First Fire of the Season

Heading North on Hwy 65

Hwy 65 improves dramatically north of Harrison, AR.  This shot was taken north of the border in Missouri.

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Heading North on Hwy 65

Harrison, AR

Mooooving on down the road,

a modern-day cattle drive through Harrison, AR.

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Harrison, AR

Pindall, AR

One member of the convoy we were following turned in Pindall, AR

We continued following the 18-Wheeler and RV through beautiful downtown Pindall, AR.

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Pindall, AR

Passing Lane Ends

Why is it that you always seem to run up on a convoy of slower vehicles at the end of a passing lane?

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Passing Lane Ends

St. Joe, AR

Following Hwy 65 around the sharp curve in St. Joe, AR.  Not everyone does.

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St. Joe, AR

Road Work

Flagger ahead.

Again we've stopped for the lengthy resurfacing project on Hwy 65.  Stopping has become a routine feature on our trips north.

Yup, there's the flagger.

Road Work

Caterpillar (Species Unknown)

City park playground in Bronson, KS.

The little park was a nice place for Jo and I to eat our lunch while on the way to the Smoky Hills River Festival in Salina, KS.

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Caterpillar (Species Unknown)

Ice Cream

One of the more popular concessions at the Smoky Hill River Festival in Salina, KS.   Vanilla was the only flavored offered, but they provided variously flavored syrup toppings.

(I don't know the purpose of the John Deere engine.  Perhaps it was once used in venues where no electricity was available.)

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Ice Cream

Cotton Candy

Cotton Candy ... Smoky Hill River Festival ... Salina, KS

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Cotton Candy

Balloon Guy

Balloon Guy at Art in the Park, Columbia, MO.

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Balloon Guy

Water Fountain

Water fountain at the Smokey Hill River Festival in Salina, KS.  We had a little rain on Sunday morning.

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Water Fountain

Playing Spoons

Street performer playing spoons.

Paseo Festival of the Arts ... Oklahoma City, OK.

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Playing Spoons

Chocolate Suicide

On the food court at Paseo Festival of the Arts ... Oklahoma City, OK. 

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Chocolate Suicide

Pizza!!!

Homemade tomato pizza by Jo.

Enjoyed a delicious homemade, homegrown tomato pizza for supper this evening, and it was cooked outdoors on the gas grill so we didn't have to turn on the oven and heat up the house.


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Pizza!!!

Playing Cello For Fun and Profit

Paseo Festival of the Arts ... Oklahoma City, OK

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Harp Hands

Harp Hands

Smoky Hill River Festival ... Salina, KS

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Harp Hands

Copano Bay Causeway

Copano Bay Causeway

Heading north on Texas Highway 35 across Copano Bay on our trip back to Arkansas from Aransas Pass.  The Copano Bay Causeway is 9,230 feet (2813 meters) long, was completed in 1966 and is official know as the President Lyndon B Johnson Causeway.

To the left in the photo is the old causeway which is now a fishing pier operated by the Aransas County Navigation District.  The old causeway was constructed of timbers supporting a concrete slab and is only 20 feet (6 meters) wide.  I'm glad the old causeway was replaced two years before I got my first car so I never had the pleasure of driving across that long, narrow span.

The new causeway has a raise section which allows larger boats to enter the northern half of Copano Bay.  The old causeway had a draw bridge.  The bridge section was removed so it's actually now two different fishing piers with a gap in the middle.  The causeway and piers are located just north of the Rockport/Fulton area on the Texas coast.

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Copano Bay Causeway

Rain Moving In

Rain Moving Inland

Sitting in the van on the point at Conn Brown Harbor in Aransas Pass, TX, watching rain squalls move inland from the bay. The bridge crosses the Intracoastal Canal on Highway 361. The rain squalls were generated by Hurricane Alex which was moving into northern Mexico.

Rain Arrives

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Rain Moving In

Garlic Harvest

Jo is digging our garlic.  As with most things that happen around here, we're getting the garlic out of the ground a little behind schedule. That's really not a problem since our weather has been so dry.  Wetter weather would have caused the garlic bulbs to rot.  Voles and mice love dining on our potatoes while they are still in the ground, but don't care for garlic.

Rusty and Bucket think they deserve a share of everything harvested in the garden.  They are going through the motions of begging for garlic, but didn't really put up too much of a fuss since even Bucket won't munch out on a garlic bulb.

Jo is heading back to the garden cart with another handful of garlic.  We grow an older stiffneck (or hardneck) variety.  Our original bulbs were a gift from a friend.  I'm not certain of the exact variety, though it's probably a Rocambole.  As this garlic reaches maturity, it sends up shoots.  Tiny garlic bulbs (called scapes) form at the end of the shoots.  When the shoots first appear, they are curved into a circle.  As the garlic matures, the stems gradually straighten.   At full maturity, they are pointing straight up.  You are supposed to pinch off the scapes.  This secondary means of reproduction doesn't benefit the gardener and is said to rob some of the plants resources that would otherwise go into producing a larger underground bulb.  We failed to pinch off all the scapes this year.  In our very unscientific experiment, neither Jo nor I could see a difference in bulb size between plants with and without scapes.

A small part of our garlic harvest.  The bulbs now need to dry a bit more.  Jo will cut off the stems and select some of the cloves for replanting.  Here in Arkansas, we plant garlic in the fall.  The plants come up and then go dormant over winter.  Once spring arrives, the garlic begins growing again and completes its life cycle.  We'll use some of the garlic fresh, but most will go into the deep freeze providing us with a year around supply.

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Garlic Harvest

No Camping

Roberts' Point Park in Port Aransas, TX.  (A nice little park, but don't bother bringing your tent.)

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No Camping

Potato Harvest

New Potatoes

Jo and I dug 67 pounds of potatoes Friday evening. Our harvest would probably have been closer to 80 pounds had the mice/voles not munched out on so many spuds. We were a little late digging our potatoes this year because we were gone or busy getting ready to leave when they should have been dug. Leaving them in the ground longer than necessary no doubt contributed to the lose to the rodents.

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Potato Harvest

Home To Arkansas

Rain On Highway 35

Jo and I headed home from our visit in Aransas Pass on Wednesday afternoon around four o'clock. Rain squalls from Hurricane Alex were moving inland from the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the time the rain was light to moderate. Sometimes we were between rain showers. The worst section was just north of Rockport heading toward Tivoli on Texas Highway 35. Rain was heavy, wind was gusting and that old highway was holding a lot of rain water. Between the wind and hydroplaning, our van wanted to slip and slide all over the place. Jo's grip on the steering wheel was tight, but she handled the driving well.

At Tivoli we turned north. The rain and wind lessened a little. Jo got us through Houston and drove until around eight o'clock. We bought gas in Cleveland and I took over the driving duties. The rain and wind continued backing off as we drove north and east heading back to Arkansas. By the time we reached Texarkana, we'd left the rain behind. We stopped at the Welcome Center east of Texarkana and again for gasoline in Conway. The temperature was noticeably cooler when we climbed out of the van in Conway, a pleasant welcome back to the Ozarks. We finally arrived home around six o'clock Thursday morning, completing our 14 hour, 750 mile trip.

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Home To Arkansas

Road Slide.

Road Slide

Driving down off our mountain isn't as easy as it used to be. A slide about half way down narrows the highway to one lane. This site has been slipping for quite a while. The guardrail dropped down below the surface of the road a couple of months ago. Our local weekly newspaper quoted an Arkansas Highway Department spokesman as saying he didn't know how they were going to fix the problem since they didn't have a lot of solid ground to work with. I guess they still haven't figured out a solution. The major slide occurred over a month ago. So far, no work has been done.

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Road Slide.

What's Your Sign #2: Good Advice

My sentiments exactly.

(On the courthouse square in Tupelo, MS.)

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What's Your Sign #2: Good Advice

Whatever #10: Red Door

Red Door

(On the square in Tupelo, MS.)

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Whatever #10: Red Door

About As Exciting As ...

(Photo: Marvin Smith on 5/15/10)


Watching pots dry.

Which is something Jo's pots are not doing very rapidly during our current spell of wet weather. She's building up a backlog of pots waiting to be trimmed and then bisque fired. The frontal boundary sitting on top of us is forecast to finally be pushed along on Monday. Hoping that happens so we can experience some sunshine.

For photos of Jo's finished pottery, please see: Treenware and Pottery.

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About As Exciting As ...

Everything Tastes Better On A Stick

And if you absolutely cannot get the food stuck on a stick, wrap it in a tortilla.
(Gumtree Art Festival, Tupelo, MS)

(Photo: Marvin Smith on 5/9/10)

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Everything Tastes Better On A Stick