Blog for August 2008,

Family

This was a month I had been dreading. I turned fifty and I knew my Dad was going to die the same week. The birthday part was inconsequential, but when the phone rang at two a.m. I knew my dad had "passed" as they say in here in Maine. If dying were an Olympic sport, my Dad got all 10's. He never once complained about anything- pains, aches, or his round the clock nursing staff, who were remarkable people, always going above and beyond what was expected with their care for my father. 

He faded away like a New York City skyscraper at night- with the lights very gradually winking off, one by one. He had vascular dementia and the first episode occurred the day after we returned from our circumnavigation in 2003. He was only supposed to live for another two years beyond that- but 2005 came and went, and his heart kept ticking. He had many more episodes, some more severe than others. Yet, each time ending up in the hospital having difficulty breathing and very confused about where he was. He was convinced the hospitals were prison, and his apartment in the assisted living facility- a luxury ocean liner. It very nearly was. Foreside Harbor in Falmouth is probably one of the fanciest places you could stay- if you can afford it.  "Traveling" with him during these delirious departures was oftentimes a humorous, unique experience. The Foreside Harbor building he was convinced, was on a rail system, and moved up and down to the water. After each "stroke" he was half the man he had been before. After the last episode all that was left of the skyscraper called my Dad, was a very big building with a small blinking red light on top. It is ironic that his heart, deemed the weakest part of him by doctors and specialists ended up lasting the longest. I will miss him terribly.

Also this August Nathaniel left us for his annual pilgrimage to his mothers house in upstate New York –where he will be responsible for carrying around the vacuum cleaner and other important odd jobs. He will not return until after Christmas, which seems unfair- but none of us is willing to stick their neck out and go up against his mother. Eventually, you will be able to click HERE to see the incredible things he built here for us, when I get around to compiling a before and after Williams Farm montage.

I cleaned out his room after he was gone and was once again amazed at his lifestyle and inner psyche. He lives the life to which all Tibetan monks aspire.. Neat, clean and orderly, but with uncashed checks from us, from his mother, and from other relatives left to fade in the sun. I have never seen an individual with absolutely no interest in money. Nathaniel could walk by a pile of gold, or a stack of thousand dollar bills, and it would be the small spider building a cobweb next to the fortune that would make him stop and observe. Candy too- really delicious, scrumptious things unopened and uneaten. He is so unlike the rest of us in this world, it is nearly incomprehensible. Well, Phil, his father, is almost like that, where money is concerned.

Art

I was also rejected from the Sprague oil tank design in Portland. The winning designs look a little like some artwork my sisters and I painted on trash barrels we scattered around our hometown in Sherborn Massachusetts while growing up. In order to keep people from littering, we painted old oil drums and placed them on street corners. Our trash barrels were stolen within one month. My older, non-artistic sister, feeling quite smug at the time, had her barrel stolen first. I still like my oil tank design best. Maine is a state of realist painters and my design incorporates this art style, and uses a Penobscot Indian myth- that the hand of the great creator made the entire natural world.

Farm

Our garden was poor this year. I bought Pine Tree garden seeds instead of the usual Johnny's and they were in a word- awful. Poor germination, weak plants, nonflowering flowers and terrible quality produce. I have nothing good to say about their seed stock for 2008.

We also had a very dry summer. While everyone else was complaining about too much rain- the thunderstorm cells went to the north of us, or to the south; splitting right at Mount Washington leaving Georgetown right in the lee. We watered and watered, and still it was like a dustbowl. The only good thing was that for the months of May, June and July we didn’t have a single mosquito. (And we are the mosquito capitol of the world. Even the Amazon rain forest in the rainy season has nothing on our bloodsuckers and we aught to know.) Then this month I finally got a break from holding the hose, after we ended up with seven inches of rain. With those downpours came the mosquitoes.

I also hate this month because it involves so much work. Most people are wiping lotion on fashionable bronze tans this time of year, but I am putting ointment on sickly pale scalded skin. All those vegetables in the garden have to find their way into mason jars or into the freezer, and they don't do it themselves.

Home Canning

Being a person prone to laziness, I have finally perfected the home canning technique. I do not use a water bath canner for pickles anymore. It uses too much propane, weighs too much, takes too long, and is dangerous. My canner once sprouted a leak on the stove. Boiling water was pouring out in arch-like stream and in the process, put out the flame on the burner. Invisible propane gas started leaking out on the floor. I also have a stupid gas stove with an electric igniter. To turn the stove off- the knob cycles through the ignition. Turn. Click. BANG.

Yes, in the heat of the moment, I couldn’t decide which to deal with: the boiling water that was squirting all over me, or the fact that our house was going to blow up. I chose the latter- a poor decision. If I had been using my brain, I would have first unplugged the stove so the igniter wouldn’t fire. But, I didn’t. The only good thing was that as the gas ignited on the just refinished wooden floor- the spray of boiling water managed to extinguish the explosion- somewhat. But what an impressive noise…

So, that is why I now use a pressure cooker for all my canning. I can do 18 pints at once; it takes ten minutes, instead of two hours, and uses a fraction of the energy. I called the cooperative extension agent to find out the times for canning pickles and she said 'Why would you want to use a pressure cooker? They are an acid food, you need to use a water bath canner'. I said "What if I don't want to?" She didn’t have an answer. The "Ball" home canning expert I spoke to at the 1-800 number at the back of my ball home canning book said that I could use a pressure cooker but I would still need to use the times for a water bath? What? The temperatures on a pressure cooker are much higher- therefore the times should be shorter. By how much I didn’t know. So, I experimented. The first year I used ten pounds of pressure and canned for ten minutes with everything turning to sterile mush. Yuck. The second year I made more modifications and they were better- but still soft.

Last year I did more revising. Everything tasted good and no one died from botulism.

So here are my recipes and revisions. Take note! These directions are for people living at sea level. You poor folks at higher elevations will need to do your own experimenting. Because I am lazy, I also do this when I have enough produce to fill eighteen pint jars. These recipes are for people like me. I pick vegetables when they are at the right size and store them in the fridge, unwashed, until I am ready to use them.

Dill pickles:

!/2 bushel pickling cucumbers. Wash well. Cut off ends and slice into spears.

Arrange in layers in a big stainless restaurant vat covering with ½ cup Kosher salt. Let them sit for an hour and a half, in the salt. (This is to prevent them from getting mushy by having the salt suck out all the water. )

Wash and check 18-pint jars for chips. Arrange in pressure cooker and process according to your pressure cookers directions, with ten pounds of pressure for ten minutes. Don’t open. Shut off heat when done. (I do not process the jars with the lids, because then the jars will seal and you have just voided the company's warranty. They specifically say not to use the lids twice!) Put 20 bands and lids in a heavy metal pot and heat up along with all your funnels, tongs and ladles. Bring to a boil and then keep them hot, but not boiling. 

Pickling Juice:

1 1/2 cups sugar, ½ cup canning salt, 2 quarts cider vinegar, 2 quarts water, 6 tablespoons pickling spices either buy them or make them: (To make:2T whole mustard seed, 2T whole allspice, 2t coriander seeds, ½ t cloves, 1 t ground ginger, 1 t dried hot pepper flakes, 1 bay leaf crumbled, 1 cinnamon stick crumbled)

Tie pickling spices in cheesecloth add to vinegar mixture and simmer 15 minutes. Put one bay leaf, 1 clove of garlic, a pinch (or however much you want!) of hot red pepper, ½ tsp mustard seed into hot sterile jars. Pack cucumbers on top leaving ¼ in headspace. Put one head of dill on top of cucumbers. Wipe jar rims with clean paper towel and screw on lids and bands tightly. Place jars in pressure cooker. Use 5 lb weight and process just until the 5 lb weight just begins to rattle. Carefully release steam using a well padded dishtowel. Open canner when pressure allows. Place jars on towel on counter to cool. They will seal if left undisturbed. Refrigerate any that haven’t sealed and consume like any opened food. I make Dilly beans, bread and butter pickles, sauerkraut all acid foods- the same way. Non-acid foods are still done according to the pressure canning book.

Last year (2007) we put up 34 pints bread and butter pickles, 16 pints dill pickles, 20 pints dilly beans, 25 pints salsa, 30 pints pizza sauce, 18 pints applesauce, 14 pints pickled peppers,14 pints pickled beets, 27 pints sauerkraut, and 63 quarts tomatoes. We killed sixteen 3 lb fryers and eight 10 lb roasters. We got 12 milk crates of apples and 0 pounds of honey. We filled one freezer with quart bags of green beans, winter squash, broccoli, cauliflower and mixed vegetables.

Publishing

We have been busy driving to Rockland to speak on board the American Cruise line ships. We have honed our talk down to a quick fifty minutes and sometimes stay on board for an hour afterwards answering questions. Book sales have been brisk since I now close the show with a passage from the book. Stewart still steals the program. I have started organizing his papers to make his book about sailing around the world. It is going to be a doozy- with artwork from incredible artists around the globe as well as some of his own things. What a cat!

We have had a few inquiries from other people interested in having us publish a book. I had heard all the usual complaints from the big boy publishers about the junk that comes through their basement doors in the hopes of being singled out for publication. I didn’t believe any word of their disparagements- until now. I had an 87-year-old lady call me about a children's book she had written. She didn’t bother to put her hearing aid in, and couldn’t hear me on the phone. Members of her family were all suffering from jet lag and could not be bothered to help her. What was even worse, is that she said she didn’t know how to run spell check on the computer and had a lot of spelling errors in her manuscript, but said I should be able to take care of them. For Pete's sake people! Use a dictionary! If you can't be bothered to send in a polished piece that you are proud of- why should I take the time from my scalding vegetables to even look it over!!!!

Veterinary

On the pet front, a fellow vet in a town not far from here, discovered that a dog toy ingested by a puppy was radio dense on radiographs. This is significant because only things like very dense bone and metal objects are supposed to be radio dense - this toy was rubber. I took Oscar's toys to work and radio graphed them just out of curiosity. His most favorite ball is radio dense as well as some of his Kong squeaky footballs made like tennis balls. I called the Kong company and they assured me that their regular rubber toys are guaranteed safe. They will not vouch for the Air Kong toys made in China. The initial vet discovering this potential hazard, sent off samples of these dog toys to Cornell for analysis. They came back with high levels of lead and zinc. Both are toxic to dogs. I sent my radiographs to my alma mater Tufts, and was told not to worry about them. Some types of rubber can be radio dense they told me. So, whom do you believe? Have I taken Oscar's favorite toys away?

To answer that question you must look at the picture below. This is the inside of Oscar's toy box. He leaves his toys right in the walkway, and Phil and I joke about tripping over them, breaking our hip and going into the hospital where we die of pneumonia. When I pick one of his toys up, I chuck it into his toy basket, with Oscar usually getting very angry with me. He growls and rushes over to the wicker opening where he disappears for awhile.  All you can see is his tail sticking out the entrance wagging away. One day I finally decided to look in there to see what he was doing. This was what I found:

My first reaction was that Phil was playing tricks on me. He is not the type to do that. Then I thought the techs at work had conned my cleaning lady into having a little fun with Dr. Wood. They all swore this was not the case. My poor little dog is a type "A" personality, living with me- a type "Q". So, if people wonder why my dog is on amytriptaline, a drug for obsessive compulsives, I just need to show them this picture. If I take his toy away I can not imagine the repercussions.

What does this mean for the average Joe and his dog Fluffy? There are no governmental regulatory agencies ensuring the safety of dog toys. They do not fall under the jurisdiction of the FDA. The Maine Veterinary board is trying to change that. Do these toys have lead in them? Probably. Should we be worried? Maybe.

Beyond the Mooring:

We rented a Prius and drove out to Rochester NY to visit Phil's eldest son Ben, his girlfriend and her son. Also visiting that neck of the woods was Carol Miller- half of the John and Carol team sailing schooner Taio. (See Chapter 4 from the "World Voyagers" book). We met in Port Antonio Jamaica and hung out together for four days in 2001. It was long enough to forge a true friendship. Oh Jesus, I hate that word "forge." It's stuck in my head from the VP debate with Six-Gun-Sarah saying it every fifteen seconds..whoops, sorry to digress. Carol came back to the US to replenish the cruising kitty while John worked on Taio, anchored on the Rio Guadiana between Spain and Portugal. We only had a few minutes to catch up with her and I had to admit I missed (for maybe half a second) the fact that we no longer were living the cruising life. The best part of visiting new countries was the continuous stream of people we met along the way who knocked on our hull curious to see who was sailing around the world on a wooden boat.

Next month we will be going to Canada to pick up the fiftieth birthday present Phil bought me. It reduced this ordinarily frigid Bostonian sourpuss to a sniveling, blubbering, sentimental Hallmark card victim.

That’s it from this corner of the Ocean!

APW