Pedicure
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Every eight weeks, my horses get a pedicure. They seem to enjoy it, or at least they enjoy the change in routine and the attention. My farrier, Dick, is a calf-roper and he and his wife are co-owners/managers of a barn that is currently housing fifty head of horses. They have an indoor arena where they give riding lessons and host clinics. The chaw of tobacco in his mouth and his cowboy style hide the fact that he's the son of a kindergarten teacher and a county legislator. He's bright, loves a good joke and hasn't much use for Republicans. He's also very kind and gentle in all his dealings with horses.
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First Dick uses snippers to clip off most of the new hoof growth. It's like using a nail clipper on your toenails (but you need a bit more strength). If you click on the picture, it will enlarge somewhat.
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Next, he files the hard edge he just snipped to smooth it and make it uniformly even.
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After the hoof is clipped and filed, he measures to be sure it has the proper angle. When he's satisfied that the horse is correctly balanced, Dick uses a sharp farrier's knife to pare off excess sole and trim the frog (that's the V-shaped area in the above photo). He'll file around the hoof , rounding the edge slightly before applying some Thrush-X to help prevent any hoof rot that might be starting. In a dry summer, that usually isn't necessary unless he has found an injury.
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It was a special day at the barn because Becky stopped by to watch. For some reason, Heidi seemed more interested in her than Dick did, but then, this horse-work is serious business.
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What's Cooking, Wiz??
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It is the end of rhubarb season. We've eaten some as sauce (I never did get around to making a rhubarb pie), but there's something I really love to have in the pantry: rhubarb-carrot-orange marmalade. Made with organic fruit and carrots and organic sugar, it is simply yummy on toast, in sandwiches or spread between layers of angel-food cake.
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When I began gardening back in 1975, I also began learning to cook and preserve food. Canning isn't difficult. You just have to do it carefully, mindful of cleanliness and correct processing techniques and times. This is a water-bath canner; the device you see beside the jars is a jar lifter for removing the cans from the boiling water. I also have a pressure-canner which is used for low-acid (generally non-fruit) foods. In August I'll be canning some tomatoes and dehydrating many more, pickling some beets and green beans (yummy!); in September perhaps I'll make applesauce and watch the bees buzz at my windows, drawn by the smell. Corn, soybeans, kale, swiss chard and brussels sprouts will go in the freezer. Potatoes will be dug and stored in bags in the cellar, onions and garlic go in a dry, dark place next to the cellar stairs. All year long we will enjoy the fruits of these labors.
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My parents' and grandparents' generations were quick to adopt "modern" ways, and so these days not too many people preserve food. It's a shame, because you just can't buy some of the wonderful things you can make. In these jars you can see the orange bits of carrot, and the lighter bits of ground whole oranges, all of them swimming in a sweetened rhubarb sauce. As the book Putting Food By says, "This recipe is as good and honest as it is 'out of the way'."
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I dream of a garden replacing every lawn, of plates and cellars filled with organically grown food. Yes, it's a bit of work, but it's gratifying work and it makes so much sense. Imagine the healthy, great taste. Imagine the peaceful quiet of suburbia without the drone and pollution of lawnmowers. Imagine...
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Resources:

• Putting Food By, by Janet Greene, Beatrice Vaughn, and Ruth Hertzburg. ("To 'put by' is an old, deep-country way of saving to 'save something you don't use now, against the time when you'll need it...')


• The Ball Blue Book This is the most comprehensive how-to book on food preservation, featuring gourmet and special diet recipes, along with classic home canning and illustrated step-by-step instructions.

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"People. They're the worst."
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A Wizardly Rant

(Quote from Jerry Seinfeld)

Recently Robin asked her readers what each of us are doing to stop global warming/climate change. I was sobered and embarrassed by my meager list of attempts, depressed by the fact that I - one so vocally irate about the lunacy of the human race in this regard - was doing very little about it. Facing my complacency moved me to take some actions.

Effort #1 aimed at saving our planet: I bought some fluorescent light bulbs. No, not for all of the lights in our house, but I got some "daylight" and some white light bulbs to see if we could stand the neon glow. Surprise! The color of the light is great! The "daylight" bulbs are good in places like the woodshed and the basement, where there give strong, bright light; the 15 watt white bulbs are just fine in reading lamps, and unless you can actually see them, you would not know they're not strong incandescents. Okay, good move, and I will now replace all of our old bulbs with these more energy-efficient fluorescents, but eventually they will have to be recycled. They must not just be thrown in the trash.
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Effort #2 aimed at saving our planet: Double my commitment to using cloth grocery bags instead of the plastic ones dispensed ad infinitum by the grocery (and other) stores. Refuse their bags; use my own.
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Effort #3 aimed at saving our planet: muttering to husband about how we are driving too much and not efficiently. We need to plan our trips to town, cooperate to use ONE vehicle, etc. Or we need to move. This resulted in Husband riding his bike the 13 miles to the office. He's been doing that about once a week on the days I need to go to town for supplies, and then we load up the bike and drive home together. (It's generally downhill to town from our house).
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Effort #4 aimed at saving our planet: We bought a Prius! This is a nifty car and driving it has convinced us that it is a vast improvement over anything we've ever driven. It is both simple and complex, simple because it doesn't even have a key - you just push the "Power" button. Drive, Reverse, something called "B", and Park" are your options; chosen by the one-finger flip of a small lever. We are averaging over 50 mpg, and yesterday we drove 70 miles, and we did it using only slightly more than one gallon. Of course, we must drive less.


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Our efforts so far have convinced us that we can make some positive changes in the way we live, but of course we're still not doing enough. We need to find clean ways to generate our power and heat our water. The Prius has taught us the value of driving a bit slower. There is a screen that shows you what mileage you're getting at any moment and over time. You can often go 65 on our country roads, but when you do, you get poor gas mileage. Driving more slowly and mindfully of your gas usage gets you where you're going and cuts pollution by saving gas.

Since I'm self-righteously preaching in this post, I'll add this comment: People are dying in Iraq so that we can have oil. If you're going to roar around at fast speeds in a gas-guzzling automobile, please take the hypocritical "Support Our Troops" ribbon off it. If you really do support our troops, slow down and drive less so that they don't need to fight for you. And senators and congresspeople, please pass a law lowering the speed limit.

NASCAR, hydroplane racing, air shows and other entertainments that burn oil for entertainment suck. Try walking, biking, music, sports and other pleasures that don't pollute. Again, if we're wasting fuel, we have some blood on our hands.

Maybe you think climate change is "a natural thing" or that "yeah, there's some global warming going on, but it's not that bad," or maybe like the Republican Administration you say "it needs to be studied more" or "we can't hamper economic productivity with environmental restrictions" (instead of doing something about it). If so, imagine how inconvenient it will be to learn that there isn't enough food to feed your family because of crop failures caused by weather events. We're already seeing some of these events (droughts, unseasonable freezes, high-wind storms dumping hail); we will see more and more if we continue our ways. And that's just the beginning.

Yesterday my just-turned-five-years-old grandson overheard us talking about "losing eight years" of progress toward energy efficiency and turning the tide of global environmental destruction. He wanted to know what I meant by "we lost eight years." His question led to an explanation: We have a leader for our country who is called a president, and right now his name is Mr. Bush. Mr. Bush is a bad man. ("Why?) Mr. Bush is greedy. ("What does 'greedy' mean?") That means he wants things just for himself and for his friends, and he doesn't care about the rest of us. A good president would try to do what's best for everybody. (That seemed to answer his questions).

A beat of silent thought, then Grandson replied, "Well maybe Jesus will come down and show him that he should be good so he can go to heaven." (Pause...) (Giggle...) "Then maybe he'll be DEAD!" At that, we all laughed.
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As long as I'm ranting... GUNS... No, not relevant. I've ranted enough for one post. No, wait. Guns: Let's shoot the people who just don't "get it." People. They're the worst. Wizards. They're a close second.