Q&A at G.C.--Take Two

You ask, I answer . . . again.

How did you learn how to can? 'Cause I know it wasn't from your formative years...

Everyone say hi to my sister! She does not know how to can, because, as she alluded to, this was not a part of our education growing up. I learned from the MiL and the Ball Blue Book. And also, by making some really stupid mistakes. (Fountains of chicken fat come to mind . . . )I sat in on a couple of tomato and jam canning sessions (read: sat on my ass and watched the MiL do all the work), where I absorbed the basics of getting jars ready and sealing them. Once you know how to do that, the rest of it is just recipes and timing. Which is what the Ball Blue Book provides. It's fun! It's rewarding! It's a lot of damn work! But the payoff comes when I go down into the Pit of Despair and see all those jars lined up and ready to feed us through the winter. And then, you know, actually open them and eat the stuff, because it's lame to do all the work only to have it all sit for like five years, gathering dust and spider webs.

I find myself worrying about whether the dogs have shelter out there in the pasture all night. Do they have a dog house, a tent, a little shed? Where do they go to sleep--surely not on the ground? Mary in MN (owner of one small dog who has two beds to choose from).

Oh, Mary in MN, what a kind-hearted person you must be. Unlike us. We're cold and hard and we make the dogs sleep out in that pasture with no shelter. I haven't heard any complaints yet. What you must realize is that the collies are as much outside dogs as inside dogs. They do come in the house (when they're not filthy or reeking of skunk), where they have a couch in the kitchen and a bed on the floor in the living room. But when they're outside, they don't give a damn about the weather. There IS a shed up in the pasture, it's just that the sheep hog it all (heehee--geddit? the sheep hog it? never mind). The dogs mostly sleep under the trees and brush next to the fence. We try not to leave them up there when we know it's going to rain, because the one thing they're not wild about is getting really wet. They also have a smaller pen by the house that has a very warm cave in it made of straw bales. Anyway, they spend most of the night barking at intruding squirrels--there's not a whole lot of sleeping going on up there.

question: were you this obsessed about gardening before you married A?

No. Prior to Blackrock, the only gardening I had done was under duress. We had a vegetable garden in Alaska when I was young, but I don't recall working in it voluntarily. It's my new hobby. I have what some might call an obsession with food (I think that's a little strong, personally), so growing my own is a logical extension of that. And then, of course, we moved into this house with a huge, already-established garden, and I have the time, so I garden. By the way, A. saw this and said, "Make sure you tell them that A. does not make you garden. In fact, A. kind of hates gardening." So let the record show that I garden of my own accord and not because of any pressure by A. Also, I think it's awesome he's referring to himself in the third person using his blog initial. My work here is done.

Okay, I think that's enough for now. To be continued . . .