COVID19: Collecting Leaves from the Buckeye

A few years ago, Jack dug a pretty little buckeye tree and planted it in the front yard. The trunk was barely more than a straight stick with some roots and a handful of dirt at the bottom, but it likes the spotty sunlight and slightly acidic soil where it lives now and is thriving.

Long before our oaks and beeches think about putting on leaves, the little buckeye flutters with tender, yellowy-green foliage on  skinny, branch-y "arms" which now stretch nearly four feet in every direction, and by mid-summer - this time of year - those leaves are a scattered across the ground like curls of caramel colored parchment.

The little buckeye is always a step ahead of most everything else in the yard and has become one of our favorites for that reason. Reminding us that spring or the relief of cooler weather is just around the corner, showing us the direction of the breeze, providing a perch near the feeder for our hummingbirds during summer.

For the last couple of years, I meant to preserve a couple of leaves somehow to use in an art project or incorporate into one of my journals, but they're always dried up and done by the time I remind myself to save some. 

The same thing happened this year, but I collected a big crunchy handful of them anyway and dug out my bottle of vegetable glyercin to see it if was possible to bring them back to life enough to paste into a scrapbook.

Google and Pinterest pointed me in a basic direction, but I carried it my own way. Instead of dropping the leaves into a bath of glycerin, I applied a few big drops to each leaf and let it "soak in" for a few minutes before massaging the gylcerin into the tissue of the leaves. 

They were initially resistant and felt like they might crack, but gently spreading the glycerin with my fingers and in a couple of cases a small brush - mostly to see if that worked better than my fingers, and it didn't - worked to loosen them up, and they were initially super-shiny and still pretty rigid.

I put two-fers and three-fers inside folds of waxed paper and tucked them into a book for a few days before taking them out.

Using an old textbook which will never be of use to anyone as a textbook again was a good choice, because the glycerin did leak out and make a little bit of a mark, but it isn't greasy or weirdly-colored, but it does leave a mark. 

The leaves turned out beautifully and their beautiful deep lustre returned in the moisture of the glycerin.

When I bought the glycerin to make do-it-yourself hand soap, I knew there were other ways I could use it, but I never considered resuscitating leaves, but here they are.

COVID19: Bird Photos by Jack - Scarlet Tanager

Scarlet Tanager (male)

Scarlet Tanager (female)

Sometime last month, Jack and I spotted a beautiful white-nosed fox squirrel at the farm, and since then, we've been on the lookout for him. He was quite striking and we'd both like to catch him with our cameras, but neither of us had one handy when we saw the squirrel.

Jack went by to check on things when Mom and Dad were in Franklin a couple of weeks ago, and while he didn't spot the lovely squirrel, he did capture these images of a pair of Scarlet Tanagers, who apparently nested in one of the cedar trees between the house and the graveyard at the end of the driveway. 

Jack loves getting great shots of birds, and these certainly are. Aren't they gorgeous?

COVID19: Banana Blondies

Baking has been an incredible source of enjoyment since we began self-isolating, and last week I found a great new recipe for banana blondies, and this recipe has flown to the top of the favorites list.

Back in February'ish - before COVID, because we haven't bought bananas since this thing started - we put some bananas in the freezer to keep them from going south. There were two tubs of mush, and not long ago I looked at them with regret that we haven't been in the mood for banana bread and closed the freezer door. When a stranger in a cooking Facebook group I belong to said she needed a recipe for old bananas, another stranger shared a recipe which made my mouth water as I read over the simple list of ingredients and even more simple instructions.

An hour later, the first pan of brownies was cooling on a rack as I collected and measured the ingredients for the "holy crap it's delicous" frosting.

They're delicious, moist, and rich from the butter and the gooey banana mush.

Give them a try, and make your sweet tooth happy.

BANANA BLONDIES

COVID19: Closing In and Masking Up

The last few days have brought news that people we know are sick with COVID19 and others are worried about it. A friend in another part of the state is caring for several child relatives entrusted to her during a family situation, and those child relatives are all positive after a selfish adult made a series of bad choices and kept quiet about them until the children had arrived in Tennessee. Now my friend and her adult daughter are caring for the child relatives while her other children are cohorted in a non-infected part of the house. Her husband, a physician, has moved out temporarily so to not carry the virus to work.

I cannot imagine my friend's rage, and I know she has rage. She told me. Her mother and father-in-law, both in the 75+ age range, were incidentally exposed, so everybody's holding their breath until the coast is clear.

But when will that be?

Because it appears COVID19 will be with us for awhile, I've started back in with sewing masks after giving myself a break for a few weeks. I needed it. My knuckles were swollen and sore, and I'd emotionally burned out on doing them. When I talked to Sis a couple of days ago, she said Lucia has been in sort of the same mood; just not feeling it. 

Jack suggested I get back in the groove with an offer to learn and do cutting, so I took it and today, I finished a good little stack of tie-back masks in a lovely red, white, two-tone blue, and gray chevron pattern. Maybe with Zoom-ventions coming up for both political parties, people will want masks with a more patriotic bent. We'll see. It was a nice wad of fabric for Jack use for his first experience with the rotary cutter and dressmaker scissors, which are literally sharp enough to cut off a finger without trying hard. 

And earlier this week, Mom gave me a nice length of quilting-type cotton in a beautiful dark evergreen with white pin-dots. Dad has requested a mask with ear-loops from that one, and I think I've figured out how to fix the issues with the first few elastic-y ones I made. 

Cross your fingers, folks.

COVID19: Yellow Cats and Thankfulness

Today was hard. We had to say goodbye to our PuddyBuddy, and we feel his absence tonight.

He spent two nights at the vet's office after having a bad Sunday with no pee and both a re-obstruction and a diagnosis of primary kidney failure once his labs were checked on Monday. The last bout seemed to squeeze him dry, and he didn't rebound the way we all - us and the vet staff - had hoped afterward. His appetite was almost nonexistent, and his urine trickled off to nothing by the weekend.

Jack and I were prepared for the worst, so when Scott, our trusted vet, told me Puddy's lab results over the phone Monday afternoon, my heart was already sunk. He recommended aggressive hydration and diuresis to hopefully stimulate Puddy's kidneys and suggested a two-night stay at the clinic, so that's what we did. Yesterday the news was maybe a little good: Puddy was making urine but he still wasn't out of the woods.

When we hadn't heard from someone by this afternoon, I called just as Nikki, Scott's long-time right arm and leg of an assistant, was pulling our file to phone us with the news. Puddy's kidney function was kaput, he was re-obstructed and not doing well. Nikki said he wasn't feeling good at all and just didn't seem to have much fight left.

Jack and I had already discussed the options and what we might need to do, and now Puddy's ashes will be returned to us in a few days to join the others on the shelf over the door.

We didn't go to the clinic to tell him goodbye and know that Nikki and the rest of the staff at the office gave him kindness and respect in those last minutes.

Losing two pets during these months of "safer at home" has not been easy, and our hearts are broken, but our grief pales in comparison to that of so many other people, and I can't help but feel incredibly fortunate for so many things, starting and ending with each other, our family - Mom and Dad, the P-Vs, Jack's brother's bunch - and our ability to endure this pandemic.

COVID19: Friday Night Wrap-Up

PuddyCat is feeling much better now than this time last week. He's still not 100%, but the vet said recovery would take a few weeks, and progress is progress. I talked to Dr. Little today, and he said that as long as Puddy is drinking and peeing, he'll be fine. Both of those things are happening regularly and consistently, and he will have more appetite when he's feeling better. He doesn't love his new prescription food at all, but we have a new plan, and on Monday, we'll stop by the office to pick up a couple of cans of special formula wet food to hopefully encourage Puddy to eat more. 

He's venturing out of the bedroom and spending more time with the rest of us in the great room than has been his normal, and increased socialization a good sign. He uses the regular litter boxes but likes having one handy in the bedroom. Jack and I don't like it so much because we have to constantly sweep the floor, but we'll deal. Maybe this is temporary and Puddy won't need a litterbox in the back part of the house in the long-term. If he does, it's OK. We'll deal.

DeKalb County's COVID19 numbers have increased substantially over the last week, and we're currently sitting at 183 cases. Warren County is now up to 208 or 209, and shit's getting real in these parts. Some folks still contend that this whole thing is a politically-motivated hoax to crash the economy and hurt the president. Others believe it's real but insist that it isn't as serious at is and refuse to wear masks as the CDC and everyone with a lick of public health knowledge recommends. 

WalMart, Kroger, and several other retailers have announced mask mandates beginning next week, and I hope for the best. There have been at least two shootings of store employees in other states involving mask-related disputes. Our governor still refuses to mandate them, and the Georgia governor is suing the mayor of Atlanta to force her to stop the mask mandate there. Critics of mask mandates say it's a loss of freedom, but not wearing a mask shows a lack of compassion and consideration for others. 

My tenth cake of quarantine came out of the oven earlier today. It's a lemon Bundt cake using the same recipe I've used before, but this time I dusted a couple of cups of blueberries (yes, blueberries again) with flour and folded them into the batter. Jack and I haven't tried a slice yet, but when it cools, we're on. It smells delicious and will be fantastic with a scoop of Jack's homemade buttermilk custard ice cream.

Despite all the "good eatin'" we've done since mid-March, Jack and I have both managed to lose some weight. The loss is slow - a pound or less a week - but we both feel a lot better. 

Wakefest is on at the marina this weekend, but the crowd has been way down this year. Normally the Friday of Wakefest is pretty busy all day, but today was quiet.

I hope folks stay home and safe instead of crowding together and possibly carrying COVID home to wherever they live. 

COVID19: Quiet Weekend

After July 4th holiday's normal and expected rowdiness, the weekend was calm. We had people in the weekend rental next door who were so quiet, they came and went without us noticing. Fortunately, not every group of renters is a bunch of wild drunks, but we've witnessed enough hillbilly hootenannies and redneck nonsense to assume that every convoy of duallies pulling wakeboard boats will end with screaming women on the porch, too-loud Lynard Skynard music blasting from one of the vehicles parked in the yard, and drunk boys staggering around with their phones, desperately searching for a cell signal amongst the corn hole boards and boat trailers.

Bless their hearts. 

COVID19: Puddy's Hard Week

Puddy had a hard week.

Tuesday night, he kept trying (and failing) to pee. He went to the litter box then Josie's bed then the smallish cushy rug where the pets all take turns napping, and he didn't pee anywhere. He was fretful and cried out a few times, and his breathing was fast and shallow. After squatting to pee directly in front of us and crying out, he hid under one of our den chairs, and we got the message.

He needed help.

By noon the next day, we'd dropped him off at the vet and had a preliminary diagnosis of Feline Interstitial Cystitis, a chronic condition which was, until recently, called Feline Urinary Tract Disorder or FUTD. The problem happens mainly with male cats in multiple-cat homes and is often found in an oddball cat who isn't as social as the other cats in the house, which is the perfect description of our Puddy.

He had a few little globs of sediment blocking his urethra. This is the photo the vet sent Tuesday afternoon:

Those have been sent off for analysis, and we'll know in about a week whether or not Puddy's condition can be alleviated through diet or whether other changes are necessary. Right now, we have him eating a blend of his old food and the Science Diet prescription food he'll need to eat going forward if his condition is related to a type of mineral in most pet foods which can cause blockage.

FIC has some social and psychological factors, and modifying Puddy's routine and interactions with us can make a difference in the kind of impacts it has in his, and our, lives. Encouraging him to drink more water by leaving water available in the bathroom, spending more time playing with and loving on him, and adding a litter box to his preferred spot in the house, our bedroom, are some steps we've already taken. We plan to purchase a pet fountain - Puddy likes drinking moving water, like a small stream from the bathroom faucet - as those have been shown to be helpful to cats with urinary problems.

Puddy needed fluids and rest, so he spent Tuesday night and most of Wednesday at the clinic. He was still woozy from the sedation when we picked him up and retreated to his cubby under the bed as soon as he got home.

He still isn't 100%, but he's doing better. We've caught him snuggled up under the covers of our bed a couple of times, which is a new thing, but if he feels safe and comfortable there, he's more than welcome. Jack is his familiar person, and most nights, Puddy sleeps on or near Jack's hip and lower back. Puddy knows I love him, and he loves me back, but he and Jack are tight like Carlton and Jack were tight. There's a special bond, and last night, Puddy returned to his regular places on Jack's side of the bed.

He will return to normal soon, but how much longer for us humans?

COVID19: COVID Thoughts for a Friday Night

Happy weekend, everybody. 

Hopefully anyone and everyone reading this is taking COVID seriously and staying home for all except essential stuff. Numbers of cases and infected people continue to rise here in Tennessee, and despite the thoughts and prayers of people last week in the Upper Cumberland, the virus has established a presence and is quickly making itself known in especially our nursing homes and churches. 

Macon County - that's Lafayette for anyone who needs a refresher on county seats - had a spike of more than 40 cases in one day after the high school held graduation in mid-June using a mostly normal process without masks or meaningful social distancing. I have a friend who teaches there, and while I haven't spoken to her directly, I have seen her posts on Facebook, so I know she's OK. 

Here in DeKalb, we maintained a daily new case number of less than five for weeks. Some days we didn't have any cases at all, and other days, we'd accumulate a handful - two or three. Lots of our friends and neighbors were of the opinion that we'd avoided danger and the virus wouldn't grow big numbers here, but this is a summer tourist community, and people visit from Davidson, Wilson, Rutherford, Williamson, and Sumner - all the biggies with the highest numbers of cases. Jack and I have watched the tags of the cars at the airbnb next door  and up and down the road to the marina since warm weather started and knew it would only be a matter of time before weekend folks brought the virus with them to the lake. 

I haven't seen a "heat map" of DeKalb County, so who knows where the concentrations of cases are here. We stay home, and the only Smithville'ing we've done has involved trips to the vet with the cats, picking up curbside at Tractor Supply, or rolling through the drive-thru at Walgreens. Masks on and up. Plenty of hand sanitizer available in the car.

We have seen a recall on two bottles of our hand sanitizer. They apparently contain methane, which I don't know if it's a recall to really worry about or one of those recalls where they want the cake back because it has too much butter in it or something innocuous. I should probably Google, but in the meantime, we're going to sanitize with whatever we have to keep our hands clean.

Friday's update to the COVID numbers show 1,955 new cases in the state, and twelve new cases for the county. Warren County has increased to 102, so they've broken double-digits. Warren lagged DeKalb by as many as a dozen cases for weeks and weeks, but they've exploded, which isn't surprising. When Jack and I do our weekly grocery pick-up, we're always surprised by how many people aren't wearing masks - people with canes, walkers, portable oxygen, and all kinds of gray hair. Scooter-dependent people riding along with no masks. Young - very young - couples with babies and small children in tow.

I worry about them all, but opposite worry, now, is a measure of anger with those who gin distrust with misinformation and frustration with those who, when presented with facts and clear guidelines, have chosen to treat the pandemic like a hoax or "no big deal" and go about business as usual.

COVID 19: BerryBerry Crumble Cake

Week before last, I found a recipe for berry crumb cake that sounded so good, I made one. 

Even though blueberries are in season and available locally, I used frozen ones. We always have plenty on-hand, and since Jack and I are isolating and avoiding all non-essential contact, we didn't risk the trip out to the u-pick place and have no idea whether or not our regular source of fresh blueberries even has them available this year. 

I cannot imagine this would've been any better with fresh berries. The baking time was a little longer than what the recipe said, and I assume it's because I used the frozen. 

The cake was not only delicious; it was also beautiful with gooey purple pools of blueberries peeking through the dome of buttery-golden streusel. We could hardly wait for it to cool enough to cut, and once we did - whoa!

Jack says it was maybe the best coffee cake he's ever had, and after we shared a chunk of it with Mom and Dad, they agreed that it was pretty darn good.

That first one - yes, first - disappeared quickly. A slice here and a bite or two there, and we were looking at an empty cake plate. 

I thought about it and thought about it some more, and considering how quickly and easily it came together, I decided to do another one and use both blueberries and strawberries. I can't imagine a combination of berries that wouldn't work in this crumb cake. 

Monday night, Jack threw what little bit of buttermilk custard ice cream batter we had left over from the weekend into our little freezer, and we had a couple of scoops to go with our delicious crumb cake. 

Here's the recipe:

Berry Crumb Cake

Struesel Topping

40 g all purpose flour (5 T)

150 g sugar (½ cup)

1 t cinnamon or pie mix (like Penzeys Pie Spice)

55 g butter (½ stick) cut into slices and warmed to around 60 degrees F

Cake

240 g all purpose flour (1 cup)

2 t baking powder

½ t salt 

55 g butter (½ stick) cut into slices and warmed to around 60 degrees F

150 g sugar (¾ cup)

Zest of 1 lemon

455 g blueberries or mixed berries (2 ½ cups or so - I use 3 or 4 handfuls)

½ cup milk or buttermilk

Heat oven to 375 with rack in the center of the oven. Butter a 9” round (2” deep) cake pan and dust with flour. Line the bottom with a circle of parchment.

Make the topping by mixing the dry streusel ingredients together with a whisk then cutting in the butter until the mixture is crumbly. Set aside.

Prepare the cake by creaming together the butter, sugar, and zest with a mixer on medium to high speed until light and creamy. Add one beaten egg. Sometimes I add a splash of vanilla and sometimes I don’t. Mix until everything is nice and fluffy - 2 or 3 more minutes. 

Beat in ⅓ dry ingredients followed by half the milk. Add another third and beat then add the rest of the milk - mix mix - add the rest of the dry and beat some more. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix until you have a thick batter with everything well-incorporated.

Fold fruit into batter gently until it’s evenly distributed. This batter is going to be stiffer than a lot of cake batters, so don’t worry that it’s so dense and heavy-seeming. Move it into your cake pan without sliding the parchment lining around too much then flatten the top. I generally use a big, firm spatula with a long handle and a butter knife or spoon to get the batter moved into the pan and flattened on top. 

Sprinkle evenly with streusel topping. 

Bake for 40 minutes before checking for doneness with a toothpick, which will come out clean when the cake is done. If frozen berries are used, the cake will take up to 10 minutes longer to bake.

COVID19: A Conversation the Beagle Heard

Pam: This one time I was talking to Cynthia and bitching about whatever music it was you'd picked out for us to listen to, and I described it as "college-educated, white-lady singer/songwriters who have upper-middle-class people problems."

Jack: (thinking about it) Yeah, I guess so... (chuckle)

Pam: Carly Simon, Carole King -

Jack: (interrupting) Joni Mitchell - 

Pam: (nodding excitedly) Yes!

Jack: Natalie Merchant, Tori Amos, Enya - (thinking)

Pam: Mmm hmmm.

Jack: Lisa Loeb and Shawn Colvin, Joan Baez, Judy Collins - 

Pam: It sounds like you remember the day I'm talking about.

COVID19: WalMart Day

I can't say enough nice things about WalMart pickup. A lot of people make a hobby out of hating WalMart, but it's gotten us through the worst of times (so far) during the COVID19 pandemic, and the employee associates are consistently polite and professional. Maybe not every store gives the same experience we're getting from the one in McMinnville, but that seems unlikely since most of the people we know who shop WalMart pickup have shared similar positive stories on social media.

In the weeks we've been going, Jack and I have come to recognize some of the young men - mostly young men - who bring out our groceries and other stuff. Alex, Dillon, and Tony have been great. There's also a girl who quickly and efficiently put our stuff in the trunk one morning in a driving rain about six weeks ago. I wish I knew her name to mention it on the surveys they send after every pickup. The kids whose names get mentioned get a $10 gift card at the end of the week. Alex is the one who told us about that, and since then, I always mention the names of the staffers who helped us.

During the early weeks of the pandemic, we were all trying to get good with the new normal, and now we all seem to be reaching our stride. Knock on wood, we haven't forgotten anything critical in weeks, and we do our pickup on different days than Mom, so if one or the other of us forgets something, the other can add it to their next order. WalMart is also doing a better job - they've had pretty much everything we've ordered for several weeks now, and it's been great.

Our latest "uh oh" wasn't something we forgot to order - it was a loaf of bread we forgot on our porch. The next day, it had a hole in the twist-tie end of the bag, and a critter had helped itself to several bites of bread. We went down past the bite marks and salvaged what bread was obviously untouched by wildlife, but Mom saved the day by getting us a new bag a couple of days later.

Since then, we've been a lot more careful with what we leave on the porch and how long we leave it. It's good advice for all time.