okay, so here's the question

saturday i participated in the smithfield preparedness expo, given at the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints there, and open to (and intended for) the community. a lot of busy people spent their time planning, asking people to participate, and following up to make sure many areas of preparedness were covered. the participants gathered items for display, made handouts, and spent three hours during the expo answering questions in their areas of expertise. it was very nice and represented a lot of time and stress and taking time away from family and home. both the members and the community pretty much stayed away in droves (i talked to 4 or 5 people in the smithfield ward to were dutifully going from table to table), but that is another blog for another day.

it reminded me of a similar type of event that used to be held in a different stake (which shall remain nameless), in which members of the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints offered classes in "mormonism" to students from a closeby baptist seminary (which will also remain nameless). these students were studying comparative religion, and the event was set up at the request of the director of the seminary. the seminary students received 4-6 hours of classes on family home evening, the temple, the church's view of the Atonement, the book of mormon, etc. the students were even given lunch at church member's expense. having participated as a teacher in that venue, i know that members who taught spent hours and hours of preparation, trying to anticipate the questions they were going to be asked, and seeking the guidance of the Spirit in their preparation. the students were, almost without exception, disrespectful, arrogant, argumentative, and just rude. after five or six years the event was discontinued.

at the expo yesterday, a volunteer with the national guard (i think, or some emergency action group that wears uniforms) was a notorious anti-mormon (i mean notorious in clayton). in past years, he somehow managed to keep fnding out who was being taught by the missionaries and showing up at their houses with anti-mormon literature right before their appointments with the missionaries. when the missionaries arrived, of course, the people had been influenced by the negative literature or were confused by its content and sent the missionaries away. this happened so many times that the missionaries were actually pulled out of clayton and were gone for many years. they are back now, but this man's agenda obviously hasn't chanaged. this man was there at a building owned by the church, supposedly volunteering to help with the expo. what he actually did was to abuse our hospitality by giving anti-mormon literature to the young 19-year-old missionaries. did anyone raise a fuss? no. someone in charged asked him to not hand out any literature except the preparedness information.okay, so here's the question? what are we thinking? is being polite our greatest commandment? what do YOU think?

old hat, new hat

FIRST of all, i'd like to thank and also commend everyone for not commenting on my last blog (the 'before' picture). it was the right thing to do and your mothers would be proud of you. very polite.

SECOND, as another test, i decided to run a picture of the new hat for working outside i just bought. i have been looking at and dreaming of buying this hat for two years, so it is very important to me. and to you, too, of course, so please cast your vote:

IS IT:

too big, too small,
too flat, too tall,
too loose, too tight,
too heavy, too light,
too red, too dotty,
too blue, too spotty,
too fancy, too frilly,
too shiny, too silly,
too beady, too bumpy,
too wooly, too lumpy,
too kinky, too curly,
too wrinkly, too twirly,
too pointy, too straight....OR:
too much like a pith helment OR:
just right.
(apoligies to the behrenstains)

and i won't tell your mothers what you say.

mother and daughter update

i trimmed the daughters off of my most prolific mother, leaving her looking a little bereft (top picture) (i can't figure out how to disperse my pictures throughout the blog. mary, help!). i saw a single lady bug in there walking around and around in a circle, wringing her tiny little hands.

then i put them in the little rooting jar. you can see the tiny sweet roots in the bottom picture. by the way, if you look in the background and see the fuzzy looking white thing, i put it up to have a light colored background so you could see that the shorn mother still has some little daughters coming along. i laid it over the top of the my plant light, took the pictures, wandered off, and a half hour later started wondering what smelled like burning. now i can't clean my floor. darn.

and by the way, my daughter is having a daughter some time in the next ten days.

ladybugs: not just for breakfast

one of my many science projects is my sweet potato slip farm. a dear friend gave me a sweet potato "mother," and i have been pulling off, rooting, and potting the "daughters" to produce all of the sweet potato slips i want for my garden this year. please don't ask me what happens to the male segment of sweet potato society, i have no idea, and if my friend knows, she's not letting on.

the only problem with my sweet potato mothers was that they were covered with aphids. i had a sticky (literally) little chore every day of squishing the aphids so they wouldn't distract or hurt my mothers.

one day i found a ladybug charging about in another part of the house, and (now you can foresee the punch line of this story) i carried her in and put her on a sweet potato leaf. there are now five ladybugs living with the mothers, and it's been weeks since i saw an aphid.

go figure.

in case you're interested.....

sour dough starter: mix 1 C unbleached flour with 1 C warm water. every 24 hours throw away half of mixture and feed it with 1/2 C unbleached flour and 1/2 C warm water. after about four days it should have a pleasant sour or slightly beery smell. if not, carry on a couple more days. if so, put it in the frig. to use, take out and bring to room temp. add 1/2 C unbleached flour and 1/2 C water and mix well. it is ready to use in any of your sourdough recipes. be sure you leave some behind to keep feeding for next time.

yogurt: 3 C whole milk, 1 C half and half, 1 t. unflavored gelatin, 1/2 powdered milk, 3-4 T yogurt. you can adjust the fat content (not everyone wants high fat yogurt like i do) by using any kind of milk you don't feel guilty about, although i hear that full fat yogurt is in style this year. blend the powdered milk into the other milk. soften gelatin in 1/4 C cold water. take everything (EXCEPT THE YOGURT) and put it in a pan. heat just until it starts steaming. let cool off to lukewarm, then gently mix in yogurt. this yogurt will yog (YES, yog) nicely in a yogurt machine, or you can put it in a canning jar in a gas oven, the pilot light will keep it warm enough. i even tried it with a heating pad once (forget it, it didn't work). yogging it for 12 hours will make a very sharp flavored yogurt. 6 hours for a mild yogurt, and anywhere in between for whatever you want. i left it in for 17 hours once and it took the enamel off my teeth.

sweet potato slips. take a sweet potato from the grocery store, suspend it in a jar of water with toothpicks (yes, just like you did when you were a kid). when you get a 3-4 inch "slip," cut it off with a little piece of the sweet potato attached and set it in potting soil. collect as many as you want/can. then when not only the danger of frost is past but the soil has warmed up (may in north carolina) plant your slips. they like to grow on a ridge covered with black plastic in cooler regions, to keep their roots nice a warm.