TROUTS LATEST PHOTOS

September, 2007 - Issue #76

In which Bob turns forty nine, we make a trip to Austin, throw a party and work around the yard.

 

41 YEARS AGO - NEW ORLEANS 1966

Bob, at eight years old and already on the football team, shows his trademark Joie de Vivre.

 

THE SHOVELER

Here's that same look of cheerful enjoyment brought on by the task of moving our compost pile.

 

MEANWHILE, WHAT'S AMY BEEN UP?

    

Making and keeping friends - what else?  On the left is a picture of Amy and her friend, Dani taken from the ninth floor balcony of Amy's dorm building in San Diego.  On the right is a picture of Amy and Megan from their High School graduation party with the pool slide in the background.

 

WILD LIFE IS WHERE YOU FIND IT

   

In Austin, where we hung out beneath the Congress Street Bridge to watch the bats come out at sunset, behind the Renaissance Hotel in Austin at The Duck Pond where Camille found geese looking for a handout, and a cicada in Denton, on the screen of one of our windows.

 

PEA PICKING

 

A daunting task becomes an opportunity for fun when friends join in.  Camille bought a half a bushel of black eyed peas at the farmer's market and talked Jane into helping her shell them.

 

TEMPEH PRODUCTION

 

Our incubator is a light with a dimmer switch in a cupboard.  We pack soy beans which we've inoculated with mycelium lightly into containers with holes in them and set them on a rack over a baking pan and keep track of the temperature with a handy little gadget.  Twenty some hours later, the mycelium has grown through and around the beans, covering them with the same white coating as Brie or Camembert cheese.

 

To stop the growth of the mycelium, we steam the Tempeh cakes for twenty minutes.  You can see that the mycelium has grown throughout the beans.  After that, we marinate it and then fry it up and eat it.  This meal featured fried Tempeh, leftover enchilada casserole, stir fried vegetables, salad and sour cream.  For another look at the Tempeh making process go to Making Tempeh.

 

HOW TO MAKE A PARTY

   

Bob got online and read about how to make a paper mache piņata so we could have a Mexican Fiesta with Charlie and Jane.  For more pictures, check out  Fiesta por quatro.

 

CUT AND DRIED

   

It was time to harvest the lavender, so we did.  We hung it up to dry on wire hangers.

 

MOVING THE COMPOST PILE

   

Dig it, fling it, spread it and watch the flowers grow!  Bob fed the flowers in the front of the house compost weeks ago and they have gone crazy over it.  Not to mention the volunteer tomato plant on the far right.  Our compost pile is made of kitchen waste, grass clippings, grocery receipts, dryer fluff, Vacuum bag stuff, and used paper towels.  We put out our fifty gallon cart, half full of trash every two weeks.

 

BEAUTY IN THE HOME PARK

 

There are beautiful plants all around our home.  Such as this unusual flower that suddenly sprang up beneath Bob's office window and these interesting mushrooms which are busy breaking down a dead tree next to the house.

 

A SIMPLE BIRD BATH

   

Bob hung an empty Sal's Suds bottle off the roof of the well and let it drip into a pan he found at the landfill.  The birds love it and give us endless pleasure from the window of our dining room.  Click on the picture on the right for a closer look.

 

THE BIRDS

 

The change of seasons has the grackles descending in huge flocks, reminiscent of the movie "The Birds."  They remind us of army ants on the march - moving in en masse and eating everything in site.  We used the opportunity to throw out some stale bread which magically disappeared.  More about Grackle Flocking Behavior here.

 

LOCAL COLOR

 

"Tipi Man" is an off-the-grid squatter who has taken up residence between the landfill and a golf course in Denton. From the road, we could see two tipis and a group of trailers.

The police interrogate a man who was walking down the street as we sat on our front porch one afternoon.  The officers eventually shook hands with the 'suspect' and drove away. We never did figure out what this pedestrian might have done to attract this much attention. We kept our eyes open for civil rights violations and thought it wouldn't hurt to snap a couple of pictures.

And this -  The bus must have been running slow in Austin for this man to fall asleep while catching some rays.

 

NOW, WHAT'S THIS?

   

We're planning a move to the little town pictured above, a place we've been before and liked so much we want to go back.

THIS MONTH'S QUOTES:

"Our culture is based on two things: television and petroleum." - Joe Bageant, from his book "Deer Hunting With Jesus"

"If you feel out of step with the way things are going in your community, nation, and the world, take heart. Your distress indicates that you are among the sane in an insane world, and in very good company." - David Korten, from his interview in the August issue of The Sun Magazine

"You never know you are in prison unless you try the door." - Joe Bageant

"We must see the good in every person. At the same time, as a society, we cannot allow psychopathic personalities to control our most powerful institutions. To remove them, we must name them." David Korten

"I do not allow myself to be overcome by hopelessness, no matter how tough the situation. I believe that if you just do your little bit without thinking of the bigness of what you stand against, if you turn to the enlargement of your own capacities, just that in itself creates new potential." - Vandana Shiva

"Nonviolence is the only path to a nonviolent world." - David Korten

Tap into our dreams, rants and bliss on our blog, Plastic Farm Animals.

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