TROUTS
LATEST PHOTOS
August, 2010 Issue #111
OUR LOVELY
OFFICE
We love our office
with the big windows facing south and looking out onto our front yard.
ESCAPADE
Bob had a
conference to attend not far from the coast, so he booked us a room for three
nights at a nice hotel on the beach. We made good use of our time there,
swimming, taking long walks, bird watching and relaxing to the sound of the
waves. More at: Emerald Isle Beach Getaway
GOODBYES
AND HELLOS
Sarah and Holden
moved out of the neighborhood and McCayne moved in. McCayne, Arlo and Bob
pose for a snapshot in front of the Sustainability Booth at the Jack Johnson
Concert on August 21.
MATCHING
UNIFORMS
Tanner Watt was in
town, following the band and manning the Sustainability Booth with help from
McCayne and Moya. Lyle and Arlo fueled up the tour buses before stopping by the
booth. Moya lent Arlo a work shirt so they posed for a picture. Lyle
wrote about their experience here: Filling
Up Jack Johnson (Again)
EYE CANDY
We have more
flowers in our yard and gardens then ever before. The birds love them, the
bees love them and we love them. Check out some very pretty pictures on
this page: Sunflowers
HOME IS
WHERE THE PAMPAS GRASS IS
We love our new
home and it seems to love us. Spot is hiding out in the front yard these
days between two stands of pampas grass.
HIDE AND
SEEK
The garden is a
glorious place with all kinds of critters, good and bad. The preying
mantis on the left (can you find it?) is a beneficial insect because it preys on
bad bugs. And some of those bad bugs are very good at remaining
unseen. We cannot figure out what has been eating up the eggplant and
basil.
EVERYBODY
PLAYS A ROLE
The spiders hang
out and wait for something good to land in their webs while the plants vie for a
place in the garden. In this case, the Wire grass or Bermuda grass is
trying to get back into the flower garden we mulched last month.
PAY AS YOU
GROW
Water isn’t
free. Even though we are not paying for town water, it costs in kilowatts
to pump water from our well. Bob has engineered an automatic watering
system that keeps our garden happy when we are away.
LIMAS AND
OKRA
Bob even grows
food we don’t particularly like. He’s never liked lima beans and neither
of us has fond memories of childhood okra.
LEARNING
TO EAT IT
In Ghana, where
Bob spent his formative years, they never say, “Yuck, I don’t like
okra!” but rather, “I don’t know how to eat it.” We’ve
taken this lesson to heart as regards okra and am learning from others how to
eat it. This latest tactic comes from new neighbor, Maggie who suggested
we roast it. Camille sliced the okra into thin rounds, tossed it with
olive oil and garlic and popped it into the oven. It was delicious!
CATCHING
UP ON THE WEEDING
As we were moving
into our new home, we noticed that honeysuckle had taken over most of the fence
around our yard. Preoccupation with more important issues kept us from
tackling this project until this month. Check out more before and after
pictures at: Honeysuckle Vine Eradication – August 2010
WALK IN
THE WOODS
Camille took some
time out to walk down to Stinking Creek and back and ran into an interesting
fungus and a sprightly box turtle. She also saw a fox, sitting on the
trail scratching itself but was too far away to take a picture.
PARTING
SHOT
Spot always has
something to say and also likes to sniff the camera with his cute
nostrils. Bob took this picture for brother Jim who also enjoys letting
animals sniff his camera lens.
THIS MONTH’S QUOTES:
“There’s this notion that
the fewer people who have to work the land, the better, because we’re free to do
other thigs, but systems that enable one person to produce enough food for a
thousand people are destructive.” – Sandor
Katz
No matter what economists tell us
abut getting the credit industry moving again, papering over debt with more debt
will not pollinate our food crops when the last honeybee is dead. I suggest that
we put the economists out there in the fields, hand-pollinating crops like they
do in China. – Joe Bageant from Waltzing
at the Doomsday Ball
Environmentalism suddenly struck
me as the most obvious philosophy imaginable: Let us not ruin forever where we
live and work and breathe and eat. – Tom
Bissell
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