Baggage

I'm cleaning my office. Not really because I want to, but because I have to. The carpet cleaners are coming and I need to get stuff off the floor and thrown away to make their job a little easier.

For someone who doesn't like clutter and is a self-professed non-pack rat, my office sure has become a cesspool of outdated information. (Funny, considering my communications profession. Or maybe not. You decide.)

In my defense, I hold on to paper because I figure the minute I throw it away, someone is going to call me about it and need something from it. So it stacks up. And up. And up.

I swear I have thrown away at least 30 pounds of paper today. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but I can see the top of my desk again. Stuff is organized in folders. I see sections of the floor that have been covered for a very long time with the "I'll get to it when I get time" stamp on it.

And today I got to it. And it got chucked. And you know what? I'm feeling positively giddy.

I think all that old paper was weighing me down. I feel remarkably freer since that piece of paper from 2004 was unceremoniously chucked with not a second thought.

The lesson? Well, for me it's to let stuff go; to get rid of the baggage.

Happy baggage-free living!

Dawn

Well, maybe there's a little summer left in me...

I watered last night. Sometimes watering is good for the soul, you know? My petunias, as they were being watered, gave off this wonderfully sweet smell that made me appreciate summer, even if it is dry and a little crusty, just a little longer.

So I thought I'd share the flowers, even though I can't share the smell.



Happy sniffin'!

Dawn

P.S. Overlook the weeds, please! : )

Oh golly, the fall bug has hit

You know how I was all about weeding and taking care of my flowers...well, golly it just seems like yesterday. Last night, I looked across the expanse of the back yard and thought, "Well, if I don't go back there, I won't see how ratty all this has gotten."

I shouldn't be surprised. It happens every year. But it's kinda gradual, so I don't realize my budding indifference has fully bloomed until I have conversations with myself, like the one I had in the first paragraph.

That's why I'm so completely convinced I am destined to live out my life in North Dakota. The seasons change and I look forward to every one of them.

Seriously.

And right now, it would seem my summer bug has gone into hibernation and my fall bug is coming out in full force.

I mean, I literally thought to myself last night, "I can hardly wait to start hacking all this stuff down!"

Or maybe I'm just impatient, eh?

Happy "falling!"

Dawn

Spiced ham by any other name....

You ever wonder how random, random events really are? I mean, first I buy Spam and Hormel chili, and then I read that the purchase of Spam and chili boosted Hormel's third-quarter sales by 49%.

I share my pizza burger recipe with Spam, Hormel Chili (no beans) and Velveeta cheese and think, "Well, I don't suspect I'll be writing about those things any time again soon."

And then, this morning, I'm doing promo work for our headline speaker, comedian Pat Hazell, at the North Dakota Farm Bureau Convention and checking out his promotional photos, and what do you suppose the dude is holding in his hands? Velveeta.

And Spam.

See for yourself...



(And by the way, if you want to take in Pat Hazell's comedy show at our state convention -- and I would HIGHLY suggest it -- go to our NDFB Convention & Expo page on the NDFB website. You can watch a trailer for his comedy routine and get ticket info there too!

You know I have always figured that everything truly does happen for a reason. But I can't for the life of me figure out if there is cosmic significance to the sudden onslaught of Spam-related stuff in my life.

So, naturally, I went to the Spam website for clues.

Good old Spam....spiced ham. But wait... Maybe not!.

And did you know that they have Blue Ribbon State Fair competitions for the best recipes that include Spam? Unfortunately, they don't have the competition at the North Dakota State Fair, but hey, maybe that's something for our state fair promoters to consider for next year?

And maybe, just maybe, I'm supposed to enter my pizza burger recipe and receive national recognition. (Or maybe I'm just delusional!)

Whatever the reason, Spam has brought yet another smile to my face today. Hey, maybe that's the reason!

In that case, may Spam make you smile today too!

Dawn

Coincidence?

So, I was reading one of those online e-mail newsletters about agriculture that I subscribe to this morning and a headline caught my eye: Spam, chili....boost Hormel in 3Q.

I purchased Spam and Hormel chili (the no-bean variety) in the third quarter! Coincidence? I think not! I think I am single-handedly responsible for the "49% jump in third-quarter earnings" for Hormel.

Okay, I'm kidding about that part, but I think it's pretty interesting that two of the items I haven't purchased in a very long time happen to be showing strong sales for the company AT PRECISELY THE TIME I happened to purchase them.

Maybe a more rational explanation is that, because of the economy, EVERYONE is making this pizza burger recipe:

1 can Spam
1 can Hormel chili, no beans
1 block (equal to the size of the Spam can) Velveeta cheese
half an onion

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut the Spam and Velveeta into strips. Chop the onions. Place all three alternately into a meat grinder and grind into a bowl. Add chili and stir.

Place on open-face buns and bake until the stuff starts to drip off the buns a little. (Or until it looks melted).

Okay, so I'm not a very good regurgitating recipes, but it's pretty much indicative of how I cook. I'm not precise. (Nor am I particularly good, but I'm still basking in my third-quarter sales glow so I won't go there.)

Makes a pile of pizza burgers. Although I'm not sure how many, exactly. Suffice it to say it's enough for two adults, a growing 12-year-old and a persnickety 7-year-old who won't even try it anyway, for at least two meals.

You're welcome, Hormel! : )

Dawn

An amazing video

I don't often just share a link to a video for a post, but I thought this was an amazing one. One of our members forwarded it to us with the subject line "Sheep farming can be fun."

All I can say is "Wow!"

Check it out and decide for yourself....

Extreme Sheep.

It's a 2:45 video.

Enjoy!

Dawn

What's that? Part deux

So, there was this field; about half-a-mile from the road we take every day to town. My husband asked me what was growing there, because of its unusual blue-green color. After all, he reasoned, I should know all about what's growing in fields since I work for a farm organization. But I did not excel at Plant Identification 101. In fact, I never even took that particular class.

But I had to admit, I was curious too. This funky blue-green field had me wondering.

Naturally, our only recourse was to drive to the field, camera in hand, so we could take some pictures of what we were sure would be something highly unusual.

I was amazed at how the unusual blue-green look of the distant field transformed into a sea of dainty white flowers with red stems as we got closer.

Dainty white flowers. Red stems. What's that?

Why, it's none other than Fagopyrum sagittatum.

That's buckwheat for those of us who didn't take Latin.

I have to admit, I didn't know what it was when I took the picture. (My formative years on the farm occurred long before buckwheat was invented. Okay, not really. We just didn't grow it where I grew up.)

A quick image "google" however, solved my lack of buckwheat knowledge. And once I had the ID, it was easy to get all kinds of info on it.

Here are a couple:

Good Fagopyrum photos at Michigan State University

Good Fagopyrum growing info at NDSU Extension.

Good Fagopyrum recipe at Prairie Fare.

Happy crop identification!

Dawn

What's that?

Take a look at this picture.

What does it look like to you?

If you answered, "Dawn's second failed white bread in the bread maker attempt from yet another recipe she got off the Internet" you get the prize.

White bread. People say the words "white bread" when they mean plain and easy and bland. Why am I having so much trouble with white bread, for cryin' out loud?

Last night's version rose too much and fell.

Section xx in picture #2 shows the overly porous outward section of a piece of my dubious attempt at white bread, part deux.

Section X shows the collapsed area. Note the steep drop-off and lack of pores.

The speckled black and white area at the bottom of the picture is the counter, the heart of the crater. Had to cut off a good one-third of the loaf to get crater-less toast this morning!

Diagnosis? The problem was either too much yeast or not enough salt.

Let's see: 2 tsp. of yeast. Check. 1 1/2 tsp. of salt...... Uh-oh!

A quick review of the recipe that I wrote down indicates that I forgot to actually LIST the salt. Curses.

But it still eats okay. Well, my son said "Yuck!" but I had a piece of the crater bread for breakfast AND lunch and feel like some for supper too! (Did I mention my penchant for bread?)

Tune in tomorrow for another episode of "What's that?"

Happy identifying!

Dawn

When bad bread is good

I made a loaf of bread in the bread maker last night. It was a pretty straightforward recipe for plain old white bread. (Needed something for breakfast toast, you know!)

I forgot to mention in my last post that I lost the book that came with my bread maker, so all my bread recipes have just come from Internet bread maker-recipe surfing. My cinammon bread experiment came from the Internet last weekend, and I was happy with how that turned out.

My latest experiment, however, was less successful. The recipe required that the yeast and water and something else (can't remember what that was right now) be combined and then sit for 10 minutes while the yeast bubbled. I may have jumped the gun by a minute to a minute and a half. But in my own defense, it was after 10 p.m., my back hurt and I needed to say good night to my son and by the time I got back downstairs, I couldn't remember if my watch said 10:10 or 10:11 p.m. when I started. But the yeast was bubbling, so I figured, "Close enough."

Now, I don't know about you, but I have never tried a recipe that required you to let your yeast bubble before you put in the dry ingredients. I'd always heard the mantra "Yeast last."

But I was throwing caution to the wind. (Ooooh, I'm so adventerous
!) So I plopped the other ingredients in the machine, turned it on and went to bed, expecting a fine loaf of bread this morning.

It was a loaf. But it wasn't fine. You know how rocks cleave? Well, when I tried to cut the bread this morning, I was reminded of that particular property of rocks. The bread wasn't as hard as a rock. In fact, it tasted pretty good. It was just incredibly dense, and didn't stay together in the predictable loaf shape when it was cut. I did manage to get four good pieces of toast out of the loaf, with leftover pieces that can be used to dip in that olive oil, balsamic vinegar and spices concoction that we have periodically with Italian food.

But even though I'm ready to try again, I'm really hoping for a few no-fail bread recipes, too! If you have a few, send them my way.

Dawn

Creature of habit and change

You know I like to think that I'm pretty open to new stuff. I don't mind change. In fact, I enjoy it. Change, at least technological changes, have allowed me to do things I never thought I'd be able to do, like edit and put together informational video pieces. I'm always interested in the latest web developments and how I can incorporate them into our communications efforts with others.

But by gosh, don't change the restaurant menu on me. I become completely flummoxed when the thing I usually order -- and I mean I very, very rarely, if ever stray from my usual order -- at a restaurant is no longer an option. I guess you could call me an unadventurous eater.

Case in point: Last night, we went out shopping for my son's birthday present, so rather than race home to cook something, we just went to a fast-food place. We hadn't been to this particular chain in a long time, so I was craving my "usual" meal. And when it wasn't on the menu? Well, I hemmed and hawed and realized that I had no idea what to get instead. It was taking me so long I finally just blurted out something that MAYBE I would like. I didn't. And I was bummed!

But it was then that I realized I am an unadventerous eater. So I'm guessing that makes me an unadventerous cook, too. I don't usually get out the cookbook and say, "Hey, let's try this."

I am a little more adventerous in the bread making department, as long as I can throw the ingredients in the bread machine and have a loaf several hours later. In fact, I just made some bread maker cinammon bread last weekend that I thought was pretty darn good. No one else really cared much for it, so I probably won't make it again, but at least I tried something new.

And now, I'm asking for your help. I want to get more culinarily (is that even a word?) adventerous. Please send me your favorite bread maker recipes so I can give 'em a try.

Hey, when you are an unadventerous eater and baker and cook, you have to take baby steps.

Happy breading!

Dawn

The great daylight fireball

I have always been fascinated by space. I must have seen Star Wars about 100 times. When I was a kid, I dreamed about flying in space and figured that I'd be an astronaut or an astronomer. (But my math skills and my inability to stand anything but slow motion movement put the kibosh on those dreams.)

So when I went to NDFB's North Dakota Values network today and read "This day in history" and it noted that, back in 1972, a big meteorite grazed the atmosphere above Canada, I was immediately intrigued. I had to learn more.

I did some "googling."

According to Wikipedia, it is known as the The Great Daylight 1972 Fireball (or US19720810), "...(A)n Earth-grazing meteoroid which passed within 57 kilometres (35.4 miles) of the surface of the Earth at 20:29 UTC on August 10, 1972. It entered the Earth's atmosphere in daylight over Utah, United States (14:30 local time) and passed northwards leaving the atmosphere over Alberta, Canada. It was seen by many people and recorded on film and by space borne sensors."

Pretty interesting. I was 10 years old at the time, but I don't recall anything about it. (Or maybe I've just forgotten.)

But man, the beauty of the web let me watch that big old daylight fireball, and I'm sharing that link with you too: The Tetons Meteor of 1972.

It's all pretty amazing to me, and just goes to show you that, no matter how much we think we are in control, things can change pretty quickly.

Food for thought on a sunny, warm Monday afternoon.

Dawn

Hard working, ornery and proud of it

I received a news release from the folks at State Data Center on the North Dakota State University campus the other day with the headline, "We're in better health than the rest of the nation."

According to the release, North Dakotans report fewer sick days per month (4.7 in Nodak, compared to 6 days nationwide) than the national average. We also live a little longer than the rest of the country. (77.6 years as opposed to 76.5 years nationwide.)

In fact, if you live in Burleigh County, North Dakota, the average life expectancy is 80 years.

Now, the release doesn't go into the whys of our longevity, but I have a theory and it is that we are ornery and we work hard. In other words, we'll work 'til we're dead on our feet. Even if we're sick, we work.

And we wear that banner proudly. We value the fact that we work like pack mules. I always heard that the rest of the country values it too. When you say you're from North Dakota, employers perk up, because our reputation proceeds us (or at least that's the story I've been told.)

It would seem our independent spirit, hard work and orneriness is doing us all a favor. And, as Thomas Jefferson said, "I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it."

Happy hard work and orneriness!

Dawn

2,000 miles and a mound of dirty clothes

They say that after you take a vacation you should take an extra vacation day just to get back up to speed and well-rested.

Not this cat. No. I stay up until dark-thirty washing clothes, get up at dark-thirty to exercise (which equates to about 3.5 hours of sleep) and hit the ground skidding sideways like an out of control van on an icy road when I got back to work yesterday.

I'm not complaining. Really, I'm not. We had a great vacation. Put on almost 2,000 miles, saw lots of cool things and even squeezed in a short visit with relatives.

I just was unprepared for how fast everything hit on Monday. And how much I had actually forgotten in one short week. But I guess that's a good thing. That's why you take vacations -- to get a change of scenery and hopefully a slightly different perspective on stuff.

And by the way, remember that big question I had about whether something in my wildflower patch was a weed or a wildflower? Well, I saw that "flower" growing in the Badlands. So at least now I know it's native to North Dakota and could actually be a wildflower. Or it could just still be a weed. But for some reason, it feels "legitimate" now. So whether it's a weed or a wildflower, it's staying put...

And growing like a weed! : )

That's MY new perspective.

Dawn