Thanksgiving Weekend - The Mulitpart Saga - Part I - Long Grove

Thanksgiving Break has come and almost gone.  It was a nice time that included my mother and father coming up from the St. Louis region to stay with us.  A fun time was had by all, and we were able to go and do a couple of things I have not done before.

Going to Long Grove is one of those things I had not done before, but turned out to be a very nice thing.  My wife and I went with my mom and dad on Friday to historical Long Grove.  This is a little crossroads of the town that has a nice little shopping area set in historical houses.  It is more of  a boutique type of thing that has several little specialty stores.  On a day I know the malls were full and lots of shopping was being done in a hurried manner, this was much more my speed.  We meandered for a couple of hours through the different shops.  Here are some of them...and my impressions:

The Artistic Gardner - This was the first shop we went to...and quite possibly my favorite of all the ones we saw.  There is a lot of lawn art made of reclaimed metal.  All of it is very well done.  There were a few pieces I liked...but will have to go back when I have saved up some money.  They do sell jewelry, some furniture, and various other things.  We actually ended up buying some very cool placemats there.  (Never thought I would string the words "very cool" and "placemats" together....)  I'm sure the Nature Nerd and Chicago Gardner have already been there...but if they have not - it is a place they should check out.

Paddy's on the Square - This was an Irish-themed shop that I loved, as well.  While there were many nice tweed and wool articles of clothing being sold, the thing I liked the most was the artwork by Wild Goose Studios.  Some were simple sayings, some were intricate Celtic crosses and knots, and some were replicas of different historical carvings.  All were very well done...and there were a lot I could have bought.  There were also some illuminated page artwork pieces being sold there.  The historian in me really liked those.

While those were the two main stores that stick out in my mind, there were several others I liked.  There was the Dakota Designs which sold moccasins and Native American artwork.  There were some nice pieces there (and my wife ended up getting some Minnitaka moccasin slippers there).  There was also a yarn store there.  If you wanted a certain type of yarn...I'm sure they had it.  They even had some alpaca yarn.  It was so soft that it inspired my wife to start to learn how to knit...that way we can go back and get some for her to use.

The one store that was a disappointment to me was the "British Import" store.  Having some Christmas crackers, some Marmamite, and black currant soda does not make you a British Import store...or if it does, not a very good one.

We were going to go to the Mill Pond Cafe...but the wait was a bit too long.  That gives us something to look forward to visiting next time we go.

Final Step

Mailed off the short, short story today.  Final word count: 1,143.  Don't hear anything about it until around February 15th...and that is only if it is in the top 25.  Already working on another story for the next contest.  This time, however, I can use up to 4,000 words.

What's in a name?

My wife and I were driving through Cook County and I started to see some of the names for the different nature preserves in the area.  They were really interesting...and got me to wondering how people come up with the names for different things like this.  Is it quite the literal translation that creates the name?  Were they just being creative?

It reminded me of when I was living in Medmenham, England.  This was a small place just outside another small village named Marlow.  (It was down the Thames...pretty close to Henley on the Thames...where the royal regatta was held and George Harrison lived).  One of the street names always struck me as funny - Spittle Street.  I'd joke with my friends and family about this.  Where people trying to figure out to name it...and then someone spat and the guy said, "I know..Spittle Street!"

These names struck me as similar:

Belly Deep Slough - Is the slough really only so deep that if I waded into it, it would come up to my belly?
Hidden Lake -  Not so hidden now...is it?

I am sure others were more literal:


Little Red School House Nature Center - I assume there is a little red school house they made into a nature center here... (I'm sure the Nature Nerd would be able to tell me if this is true)
Moraine Valley - I assume the valley is a moraine...
White Oak Forest Preserve - umm...there were a lot of oaks there...my guess would be they were white oaks.

We did have a good time walking through one of the woods down there.  Surprisingly, I never got the name of the one we actually walked through.  We did a nice hour hike that took us down through a ravine and a long a lot of switchbacks.  The forest down there is different than up by us.  Not a lot of undergrowth...but definitely a lot of fallen leaves.  It did seem to be a lot of oak trees.

Sonic Landscape

Heard the howl of coyotes tonight...eerily beautiful...

...especially when all the other sounds I heard on my walk were cars, sirens, and the like.  Makes you wonder what the sonic landscape was like back when there were no cars or noisy machinery.

In Denial...

...well, not really any more.  I was enjoying the unseasonably warmer weather, but the cold has hit with a vengeance.  I guess this would be as good a time as any to go ahead and post some of the fall pictures I have taken as my wife and I have been taking the dogs for walks in our different forest preserves.

The pictures below are taken from Grant Forest Preserve over in the Fox Lake area.  It is a nice forest preserve that is divided by a subdivision into two parts.  We walked the larger southern loop this day (it was bout 3.6 miles) and there were a few fallish type things I found along the way to take a picture of.  I do have one interesting tid-bit, however.  We were originally going to go for a walk through the Chain 'O Lakes State Park.  We were pulling into the entrance when we were met with a sign stating the park was closed for hunting.  Now I'm glad they have signs letting you know that...but I really with there had been some other way to find out before we made our way all the way there.  The funny thing is was that it was closed for young hunters and those without licenses (or something like that).  Needless to say, we turned around quickly.

Anyway, here are a couple of the pictures I took:

This is a close up of a milkweed that has "popped."  Most of the seeds have flown, but I thought it has some interesting shapes in it.

It amazes me the different places you can find bird nests.  This was right among all the grasses and, obviously, not that big.

I think golden rod is pretty cool looking when it has gone to see, as well.  I like all the little white puff balls.

This is some grass that was there.  I liked the shape of it and the chunkiness of the seeds.  You can see the feet of my dogs and my wife at the upper left-hand corner. :)

I love trees with interesting shapes.  I thought this one had a cool shape, but it also had a lot of saplings around it.

This is just some nice fall browns.

I am amazed by how fast this year seems to be going.  Pretty soon I will probably be doing some winter picture posts...but until then, I will enjoy the rich browns of autumn.

Finished

I finally finished the short, short story that I am going to send in to the contest last night.  All I have to do now is fill out the entry form, peel a stamp, and send it off.  Ended up being around 1,200 words.  I think it would be great if it got published...I'm not thinking it will get any prizes.  Who knows?  I'll let everyone know if anything happened later.  (Then I might float the story, as well...we'll see :) )

Putting Theory Into Practice

The last couple of weekends have had my wife and I seeing films like Food, Inc, and Fresh.  As anyone who has read my blog can tell, they have made a pretty big impact on me.  We already were moving toward getting much more organic food...but now are trying to do that combined with getting more local fare.

We went to the local farmer's market, and found  a lot of good things...even during the winter session:

There was a lot of produce...and very cheap.  For around ten dollars, we were able to buy all of the produce I have in the  pictures below...plus mushrooms (which is really what drove it up to about ten).  It was not all organic, but it was all locally grown and fresh.

You cannot really tell in this picture...but the yams are quite big.

These two heads of lettuce were small...but they taste very good.

Yes, I do like brussel sprouts. These were very tasty.

We stopped by farmer Nick (recommended to us by the Chicago Gardner). He runs his farm much like Salatin does - with the mobile hen coops, pasture fed pigs and cows, and the like.  We paid probably close to double what we would for a whole chicken at the grocery store - but this chicken was easily twice as big.  We also bought a ham steak from him - which we are putting into a split pea soup.  To give you an idea of what a difference treating food the right way makes - my wife does not like pork that much.  With everything that has been going on, we haven't even had "ham" in a very long time.  She took one taste of this - and said that this was how ham was supposed to taste.  I have to agree. It was some of the best ham I have ever tasted.

Guess we'll be going back again. :)

The only problem I am seeing, is the farmer's market is only open until December 19th.  After that, we will have to go to the local grocery stores and see what we can get.  Next year..there will be more freezing and canning - I'm sure.

A Fresh Look

Last week, my wife and I rented and watched the film Food, Inc. and found it to be very eye-opening.  It made us look at how we buy food, take stock of what we are doing right, and look at what we could do better.  It also made us want to make sure we were switching to grass-fed beef and other meats - which we had started to do - and look for different ways to buy more locally grown food.  Luckily our friends the Chicago Gardner and the Nature Nerd are always there to help us out.

One thing both of them did was point us to the movie Fresh which is being viewed at different screenings over the nation. (In fact, we went to the screening with them, Five Crows and her husband, and another friend of ours.)  The screening happened to be very near to our place of work (one could say it was on the campus...even though technically it was not).  Just like Food, Inc., Fresh was a look into the industrialization of our food supply.  Fresh, however, spent a little more time focusing on the alternatives to this corporate mentality to raising livestock and growing food.  It also builds a very compelling argument that medium-sized local farms is the way to go when trying to "feed the world." As with Food, Inc., I want to give some impressions I had of the movie and some facts that were given.

• I found it interesting that they stated 3 new jobs would be created for every one that was lost if we started to deindustrialize our food supply.
• One acre of Polyface Farms (run by my new hero Joel Salatin) makes $3,000.  One acre of his neighbor's livestock ranch makes $150....hmmmmm....(and Saladin doesn't need to buy seed or anything)
• I loved Saladin's comments on being stewards of the land and embracing the rolls the animals perform in the wild.  Feed an herbivore grass...what a novel concept! ^*
• The specialization of farms is leading to more virulent diseases.  They are becoming more resistant to antibiotics and the like...yet the natural farmers do not have as many disease problems.
• I loved the Growing Power organization that is found north of me in Milwaukee, WI.  More people should know of such programs.
• There is a lot more hope felt in this film.  You see multiple people starting to try and turn against the industrialized food supply.
• I loved the fact they had local farmers and CSA opportunities at the screening.  Good job with that!
• The industrialized food supply system is non-sustainable...naturally....hence all the antibiotics, herbicides, and the like.
• I liked how they stated there is no such thing as cheap food.  You either pay for it up front with money, or through taxes and health problems.  I know some people would scoff at this last statement, but I have not eaten at what one would traditionally call a fast food restaurant since August.  In that time, I have lost almost 25 pounds...and the taste of the food is so much better.
  

I liked this film at least as much as Food, Inc..  I really liked the way it showed the alternatives and showed how they are working...right now.  My wife and I are going out to our local farmer's market tomorrow.  Hope you get a chance to go out to yours when it happens...you won't regret it.

^{* Please note the sarcasm in this statement...}

Superstitious?

It is a good thing I am not superstitious.  I had a couple of things would have sent me over the edge today if I was. :)

First, I was typing up my weekly newsletter to my students' parents last night when I noticed something interesting.  I'm in my 13th year of education, it is the 13th issue of the newsletter I am sending home this year, and I am sending it home on Friday the 13th.  That's right...a 13 - 13 - 13...

Second, on my way to school today, a huge turkey vulture flew up from the road about five feet in front of me.  Some people may think having a huge black bird fly up in front of you is not a good omen...I actually thought it was pretty cool.  I have only ever seen the "V" shape of the bird gliding in the sky, so this up close look (even though it was brief) was really nice.

I find it very interesting the hold Friday the 13th has on some people.  It is not as if Paraskevidekatriaphobia has been around since the dawn of man.  It is often stated that it comes from October 13th, 1307 when the Knights Templar were arrested in France.  Others say that it did not even come to be until the 20th century.

I always find these type of things interesting...especially when you find some cultures find the number 13 to be a lucky number.  Who knows?

Pictures Not Needed

Yesterday was a ponderous day for me.

While that really should mean it was a slow moving day, it wasn't.  It was a day that made me think hard and reflect on several diverse things.  I was glad I watched Food, Inc. because it meant I could have another day to process my thoughts before I wrote about my visit to the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.

A few entries ago, a lamented the fact I did not bring a camera with me to take pictures of the animals I was able to see during a walk in the forest preserve by my house - that is not always the case.  There are some times in life one does not need a camera, because the images is something that is burned into your mind forever.  Anything to do with the holocaust is like that for me.

My wife is a teacher of the German language, so we visit the country often with her students.  On one of the trips, we went on a trip to Buchenwald.  There are two lasting impressions I had from that trip.  The first was the all-pervasive silence that hung over the place.  It was eerily silent - almost as if nature itself was in perpetual mourning for the atrocities that took place there. The second was the reaction of the students to the place.  For the most part, the students were able to last about 20 minutes before tehy felt the overwhelming need to go outside of the camp and sit - it was all too overwhelming.

I write about that experience to give a little context about what my experience has been with dealing with the subject of the Holocaust - so that when I let you know the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Educational Center is a moving experience, I do not say so lightly.

The main exhibit of the museum does a very thorough job of giving the history of Hitler's rise to power and how the Jewish people (and other minorities) were increasingly robbed of their civil rights.  The narrative continues through the enactment of Hitler's final solution, the Allied victory, liberation, and the forming of Israel.  There are several artifacts scattered throughout the exhibit, as well as video of survivor's memories of what was happening at different points in the history narrative.  I think this record of first-hand accounts is one of the most important things.

The exhibit ends with a film showing some of the atrocities that are taking place today.  It was a very important link to let people know that atrocities like this did not just happen in the past.  The docent made a very clear point during the course of the tour that there is no such thing as a by-stander.  True neutrality is something that cannot be obtained.  If you are neutral during such events-you are simply enabling the atrocities to continue.

Also with this tour, a survivor came in and talked to our group about her story.  It was very moving...she lost a whole lot during the course of her life, but she was so thankful to be in the United States now.  There are also several different galleries of art.  Some we were able to visit, others we did not have time to.

As something like this always does - it made me think.  It made me think about what we as Americans - or just citizens of Planet Earth - treat with indifference and allow to continue - when it should not.  Starvation in all places of the world, homelessness, genocide in places like Darfur, the fleecing of different families because they cannot afford health care...the list can go on and on.  If we continue to treat in with ambivalence, what will happen?

I will end my post with a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  He was a member of the German Resistance and a theologian.  In one of his writings he said:

"First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me."

I think that is something we all need to remember.

Eye-Opening Movie

I really need to start this post by thanking both the Chicago Gardner and the Nature Nerd for cluing me in to this movie.  Having literally just finished watching it, I can say it has changed the way I am going to look at and shop for food from now on.

One thing my wife and I have had a lot of discussions about lately is America's disconnect from the land.  A lot of Americans do not know and do not care where their food comes from - as long as it is cheap and readily available.  It is this dispassionate attitude toward food that leads to the system that is laid before us in Food, Inc.  It is also this ambivalence that makes such a movie necessary.

The movie is an investigative look into where our food comes from and how industrialized it has become.  It looks into the way animals are raised and slaughtered for consumption.  It also does the same thing for key cash crops like corn and soy beans.  Along the way we run into corrupt politics, greedy corporate heads, victims of the industry, and a few heroes.

Here are some of my impressions from this movie:

• Joel Salatin, the head of Polyface farms, is now my hero.  He was so well spoken and made several astute comments on how the people and corporation that treat their animals like a number will end up treating people and other cultures the same way.  I think all we need to do is look at our world today to see how true this is.  He also has a wonderful way of embracing the natural tendencies of his animals to run his farm in a very efficient, yet healthy manner.
  
• If cows are made to eat grass...why do we feed them corn?
• I've always liked Stonyfield Yogurt...now I like them even more... 
• The big corporations in this film treat their employees like their product...not very well.
• I'd say what I am going to do with my meat purchases now...but I could be sued - evidently...isn't there an amendment about that?
• If we want to have a solution for food safety...it would be better to get someone outside the food industry to be the head of the FDA or USDA...
• When money and politics comes before the safety of a people...there is something patently wrong with that.  Oh wait...isn't that happening with the health bill now, too? (more of a rant on this later)
• Chipotle will be getting more of my business....
• So will the local Farmer's Market
• I'm glad the grocery stores in this area are starting to show where their produce comes from.
  

I know I have only given a little bit of a snap-shot of what this movie is about...but that is on purpose.  It is one of those few movies I would say everyone should go out and see.  In fact, even though I rented it from my local Blockbuster, soon it will take a place beside other documentaries such as 6 Degrees which have opened my eyes a little more and spurred me on to a little more change.

Rock Cut State Park

Two weekends ago, my wife and I went out to Rockford, Illinois to help my in-laws with some different things around their house.  I ended up creating a dry-well for one of their underground drainage pipes to drain into.  It was not as hard as I thought it would be, because after digging a hole about four feet deep, I hit sand.  That was a wonderful surprise considering the fact that if I was going to do the same thing in my yard, I would have hit clay at about two feet deep.  I also moved some gravel and added it to different places.

While I was doing that, my wife went to a local orchard there and came back with a good six bags of apples (which later turned into several quarts of very tasty apple sauce).  When both she and I were done with our different activities, we were able to go to Rock Cut State Park and observe how fall was hitting the state just about and hour and a half west of us.  (Interestingly enough, they are in a different zone than we are for growing plants).  There were a lot of cool things that I saw there...here are some of them:

This is a fungi of some sort we saw at the beginning of the walk.  Perhaps the Nature Nerd, Chicago Gardener, or someone else will know what type of fungi this is.  It reminds me of that egg-shaped building in London.

The Rockford area was definitely further along in the autumn season than where we live was.  There were a lot more leaves on the ground than in the forest preserve by our house.  That being said, there were several trees like this one.  The colors of certain trees (usually maples it seems) have been amazing this year. 

I loved the shape of this tree.

It was really a day to see different types of fungi.  I think this is another version of the one pictured above.  Maybe after it has started to open, but I could be wrong.










There were shelf fungi all over the place.

Finally, to find this was quite a surprise to me.  I didn't expect to see flowers and berries on a tree.  They were really beautiful.  If anyone knows what type of berries these are...

All in all, it was a nice walk.  We saw a few other things, such as a mass of what looked like milkweed bugs all over a rusted railing.  We also found a path that was supposed to be a bridge turned into a ford of sorts.  If I had had my boots, we would have gone across.  Maybe next time.  Rock Cut State Park has a lot more to explore.