Good Places

In Black Mesa country

Editor Pilar Guzman says "Travel is more about changing your state of mind...the departure from routine, the act of discovery...than it is about taking a grand tour. It is precisely the ability to seek out the new (or the old, with fresh eyes) and to maintain a sense of wonder even in our hometowns...."

                                     Departure From Routine

                                     

Bob and I were able to escape the Oklahoma heat for a few days last week. With only one reservation made for that night’s stay in Trinidad, Colorado, we started early with a McDonald’s breakfast in Alva.  Once we got through all the oil field traffic in this area and well into the Panhandle, we began oohing and ahhing through the Black Mesa country. Real mountains in Oklahoma!

Wedding Cake Butte on Wedding Cake Ranch just into New Mexico

The pasture grasses were green, the cattle fat, the good road was mostly ours, and the mountains began to surround us.  We backed up lots of times for photos. Love this area!

 Acts of Discovery

We came upon this unique little stone jail in Branson, New Mexico. There are some interesting stories in ranch country!

Changing Our State of Mind

One of Bob's trip goals was to golf at Cougar Canyon resort outside of Trinidad.  He had seen photos of it on the internet and looked forward to playing there for the past 3 years.  But when we drove in that afternoon, we discovered it had gone into foreclosure and everything stood in a state of abandonment.  Lesson learned: Don’t trust websites…or at least check the dates on them! 

It reminded us of so many big ventures like this that failed in Colorado when we lived there in the 80’s. Thankfully, this was really the only disappointment of our trip and Bob enjoyed golf at the other Trinidad course that evening.

Taking a Grand Tour

We passed lots of interesting old churches on this trip and I decided to make a montage of the photos one of these days.

Next morning we took the Scenic Route 12 loop west of Trinidad up to LaVeta through the Spanish Peaks.  Another unspoiled, sparsely traveled and beautiful road past blue reservoirs, the still working Coalgate mine, fragrant pines and sparkling streams. Photo ops abound!


                                           

At LaVeta Bob joined a friendly Texas threesome for golf with good greens and grand views all around while I explored the little town and more of the old Spanish architecture. 

Grandote Golf Club at LaVeta, Colorado

                                           Maintaining a Sense of Wonder

We found a nice room at Fort Garland that evening and drove out to the Great Sand Dunes.  What a majestic place!  We were expecting some dunes out in the middle of a desert but these huge ever-changing dunes lie right at the foot of the mountains. 

On the deck of the visitor center a couple asked me to take their photo and we had an interesting discussion.  I commented on what I considered improbable about the literature inside that said the dunes were formed millions of years ago by sand coming down the little mountain streams.

 She said “No, I think God just did it.” To which I happily responded “Amen!”  Then he said “I liked what the Indians thought though; that some of their squaws carried all the sand here!” 

Traveling to Taos the next day we passed through several hamlets with interesting churches.  Some well maintained, some abandoned.  Perhaps a commentary on the spiritual lives of past and present residents as well?

                                                         Seeking Out the New

On the outskirts of Taos, we picked out a slab of stone for our new bath vanity and I found a hammered copper sink to go with it.  The Mexican owners and workers were so cheerful and friendly!  Sure enjoyed having a whole empty pick-up bed for BIGTIME shopping Southwest style…my favorite!

Jackalope bargains in Santa Fe

Which color?  Green or blue?  Okay, both!

Landscape ideas abound!

Seeing the Old With Fresh Eyes

We finished loading the truck near Pueblo at Musso's, our favorite farm market, with fresh Rocky Ford cantaloupes, melons, cherries, tomatoes, and onions. What a fine Italian immigrant bunch of farmers they are!

We didn't even buy a tenth of the veggie varieties they have!

Sunday morning we joined our Kansas brothers in Christ in their new activity building at Bible Christian in Garden City for worship and a great sermon. 

Later that day as we drove through the scenic Gyp Hills between Coldwater and Medicine Lodge nearing home, listening to Sirius Escape radio music, we both agreed with editor Guzman's analysis of travel.  There's a grand country to explore and enjoy within only hours of home.  

Lawn Lunacy

Bob and I decided to farm around the homestead this morning since it was a bit cooler (only 87 degrees)!  Weed-eating is one of my least favorite horticultural chores and I'd procrastinated about a month too long. I had to re-drill the holes that hold the wire I repaired the plastic guard with, re-fill the string spool, and re-attach the extension cord several times!

After moving hoses and sprinklers, and for the second time this summer, farmer Bob began fertilizing the Bermuda grass with his four-wheeler and buckets of nitrogen from the local Co-op.

Both of us were soon sweating and visualizing icy Cokes inside the 68 degree house!


Are you noticing something wrong with this picture? 

We spend lots of money for rural water and fertilizer to enjoy green growing grass.  Then more on lawn equipment and we labor trimming, weeding, clipping, and killing bugs to keep our place neat and trimmed.  In last summer's drought, we nearly gave up, but have vowed to keep ahead of the browning this year no matter what.

We see the beautiful yards and patios on HGTV and in magazines where people seem to be out there grilling and entertaining all summer long.  Here in northwest Oklahoma, we seldom have the inclination to sit out on our porches or cook outdoors, especially after a day of working out in the heat.  


One of our friends used to call the horses grazing in the pasture by their driveway their sea horses.  He said they weren't riding horses anymore, they were just see horses!


I guess by the same token that we actually just have see yards and see porches and are beginning to examine this rationale a little more closely!

Free Fresh Fruit

In northwest Oklahoma a lot of our native grass pastures are full of wild sand plum bushes.  Picking these red orbs is an almost annual tradition for those of us who enjoy making & eating the wonderful jelly or jam.  Last year’s drought emptied most of our cupboards of this sweet delicacy, but this was a banner year for sand plums here.   Timely rains, no late freezes, and an early spring have produced a bumper crop.  

Our son Brian always loved fruit and as a child, he was quite willing to go strawberry, cherry, peach, or apple picking with me anytime because he got to liberally sample the fruit of his labor as he picked.  Gathering sand plums with me, however, was a different story. 

The word plum is a bit deceptive.  The fruits at their best are the size of a large marble, but often are just like pie cherries. They are rather hard, tart and require lots of sugar, so only the birds and deer enjoy them straight from the plum thicket.  Not a tasty venture for a grade school boy!

So usually gathering sand plums has been a solitary and sultry experience for me.  Alone, wearing a long sleeve shirt and armed with lots of mosquito spray, I try to go picking in the early morning hours. 

Hearing the bobwhite quail call nearby and startling the occasional deer or turkey in the quiet pastures, my imagination sees pioneer ancestors among the brambles, buckets in hand; disillusioned children leave their baskets behind to play tag or chase a squirrel.  I can visualize Chickasaw Indians, for whom the bush is sometimes named, watching from the nearby hillsides and I feel a part of some long standing gathering tradition. 

Some seasons, however, the picking is an excruciatingly hot and humid experience that no amount of imagining  alleviates. Pricked by the thorns, swatting bugs away, feeling the sweat trickle down your forehead, and longing for a cool breeze make the filling of a bucket seem interminable.

Not so this morning.  The plums are so big and plentiful this year, you can put your bucket at your feet and nearly fill it from a single loaded bush without moving on.  No dainty picking here and there, one plum at a time this year!  Handfuls thrown into the bucket made quick work of my early morning foray into the wild. 

Although the fruit is free and the picking easy, the real work has just begun.  Once home I sort the ripe from the near-ripe into big pans on the kitchen counter.  When I first began picking, I thought you could only use the fully ripe, but have since learned that even those plums with just a flush of pink will soon ripen to bright red.

In a couple days when most of the fruits are crimson and softened, I’ll bring up the jelly jars from the basement, get out the colander, wooden pestle and big blue enamel cooking pot.  If I'm busy farming, I sometimes just pour the prepared plum juice in containers and freeze it to can later at a more convenient time. 

Otherwise, gathering some new lids, I’ll be ready to can jelly now.  It takes lots of sugar and a little pectin, but soon I’ll be admiring the sparkling little jars cooling in neat rows nearby.

Besides putting the jelly and jam on toast or peanut butter sandwiches for the grandkids, I often use it to make sweet and sour sauce for Chinese food and even add some to cherry pies once in awhile.  

Spreading the sweet redness on a hot biscuit some cold morning this winter, I’ll fondly remember the Great Picking of 2012.  A few appreciative farming landlords and special friends will enjoy some in their Christmas baskets too. 

Some traditions are still worth the trouble. 

The Burlington Drug Store

The original Burlington drug store

On Facebook this week a friend mentioned some recollection of the old drug store in our hometown of Burlington, Oklahoma.  My mind was flooded with snapshot memories of that little spot.

We just called it the drug store, but it was once known as the  Burlington Confectionery. Several families owned the store at different times: Harley Crowl, Harmon Campbell, Dr. Charles Shapiro, Mac Mullinox, John Alder, Ralph Kisling, Don Andrews, Frank Schupbach, George Michel, Marcine Diel, Herman “Breezy” Jones and Bob and Helen Hofer.  I remember Breezy & Stella Jones best because they had 2 kids near our age and we were fascinated to find they all lived in a little apartment at the back of the store.

 When I was in the 4^th grade, we moved from Cherokee to Burlington and we were delighted to learn that on Fridays the grade school kids were allowed to go across the street to the drug store during lunch hour to buy a snack.  My sister and I got a nickel about every other week, so it was a real treat to hurry in and gaze into the big glass case of candy and gum to make our selection.

We also enjoyed watching the high school couples sharing a soda and sweet looks in the few booths available!

A beautiful, classic soda fountain complete with polished wood, lamps, a huge mirror, marble counter and stools filled the south side of the building. 

There were glass cases and shelves of sundry items across from it on the north wall.  I can still see and smell the blue bottles of Evening in Paris cologne on display there.

Most days there were two tables of men playing dominoes and swapping farm stories at classic round ice cream tables with wire back chairs toward the rear of the store.

In those days before ice machines, big blocks of clear ice were purchased at the Kiowa, Kansas ice plant and chipped by hand into the drinks.  Ice cream was hand dipped from the reservoirs built into the soda fountain. 

In the summer about every two weeks, free movies were shown at the park on the white washed side of the co-op station.  Families brought their lawn chairs or blankets to watch the old family favorites.  Afterward we would hurry down to the drug store before it closed to buy a cold, icy root beer.  For some reason you could buy a root beer for 5 cents, but a coke cost a dime, so my sister and I became big root beer fans for awhile.

The business has been gone for a long time but the old building is still there.  Now the school kids  walk right past it a couple blocks further to the C Store for their treats.  I doubt that their modern convenience store experiences will hold the same sweet nostalgic memories that the Burlington drug store does for us, but who knows what great changes there may be in the confectionery business of the future!

Cooking For a King

It's a good thing that I like to cook because it seems like my husband's favorite foods cannot be duplicated with some Sandra Lee easy fix shortcut method or a Sara Lee frozen product.

His favorite waffles come from his mom's recipe. She was a home ec teacher and a hard act to follow!  The waffle recipe involves melting butter, sifting dry ingredients, separating the eggs, beating the whites, and folding them in at the last. 

Our family likes their waffles soft and fluffy and no toaster waffle comes out that way! It's hard to believe, but our big stainless steel waffle maker wedding gift of 46 years still works fine.  And yes, I do actually use it about twice a month!

Bob's favorite desserts are vanilla homemade ice cream or coconut cream pie with meringue.  Both time consuming, but I must admit they're delicious. 

Here's my recipe for the pie in case the photo makes you hungry and you have a little time on your hands.

Never Fail Coconut Cream Pie

1 cooked pie crust

3 T cornstarch

1 T flour

2/3 C white sugar

2 C milk

1/4 t salt

Mix these together in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil.  While stirring, boil 1 minute.  Remove and quickly pour 1/2 of the hot mixture into 4 beaten egg yolks.

Then stir in 1 1/2 T butter and 2 t vanilla extract

Mix well and bring back to a boil for 1 minute until the custard is very thick.

Remove from heat and add 1 cup coconut and pour into baked pie shell.  Then pile on meringue.

Meringue

Beat 4 room temperature egg whites until just frothy in electric mixer and leave it setting.  Then mix these together in a saucepan.

9 T sugar

1 1/2 T cornstarch

3/4 C water

Bring this mixture to a boil until it has thickened.  Turn mixer back on and gradually add the hot mixture to the frothy egg whites.  Add 1 t vanilla or coconut flavor. Beat about 4 minutes, scraping sides of pan often. 

Then pile meringue onto the pie sealing the edge well and sprinkle about 2 T coconut on top.

Bake at 375 degrees just until coconut is browned.  Remove and cool in a draft free spot.

Hope you enjoy this too!

Puzzling

At Christmas time our family often does a puzzle together.  At least the feminine side do. At game half-times the guys might come around and fit in a piece here and there but they lose interest quickly.

It is a fun holiday activity that lends itself to easy conversation and relaxation, but there is one problem...I enjoy doing it so much that I keep on puzzling into January all by myself!  On long wintry evenings I can half watch a ball game with Bob or carry on a good conversation while I puzzle on the dining room table. 

I buy most of my puzzles at the Kiowa General Thrift Store for 25 or 50 cents, and occasionally I find some good buys on Ebay, so it's cheap recreation. 

Clair's Cove by Holodook

I guess I like to keep my hands busy and puzzling is usually a satisfying and easy activity. But there are some fiendish puzzlemakers out there who use the same design elements like this gray brickwork above in several different places on the picture.  In the Traditional Belgium Sweet Shop puzzle the frustating creator even did 4 of the exact same building with slightly different puzzle cuts!  I'm not overly fond either of some puzzles where all the pieces are basically the same size and cut.

My all time favorite (below) had various size pieces and a few were even cut into animal shapes.  I especially enjoyed this one because some of my ancestors came from Lancaster County, PA in this very era.

Evergreens of Lancaster County by Jane Wooster Scott

As you can see I love the nostalgic scenic and architectural landscapes and I find myself "living in the picture".  I imagine what it would be like to really live in these beautiful spots as I find and fit the little pieces together.

Twins of Good Heart by Anthony Kleen

Realistically though, I doubt that I would actually trade electricity, running water, central heat and air, cars and pick-ups, computers, cell phones, refrigerators and all my other modern conveniences for a rustic life no matter how gorgeous the scenery.  So I guess I'll just be content to puzzle the beauty instead!

JUST DON'T TELL ME

Have you ever noticed that when someone tells you a pet peeve or something that they dislike, even if it never bothered you before, you start feeling the same way?

Once Mom mentioned that potholders always had a uniquely bad smell, even after you washed them.  I started sniffing mine and sure enough there was a funky odor I’d never noticed before and now I can’t stand it either!

Back in the days when I sewed most of my own clothes, a seamstress friend told me that she liked all of the sewing process except the cutting out of the pattern.  And sure enough after that, I started disliking that step too.

My husband likes button-down collared shirts.  Sometimes he just throws them in the laundry and I grumble when I have to unbutton all those little buttons before putting them in the washer.  I know, I should just be happy that he’s basically a clean, neat guy and puts his dirty clothes in the hamper and not on the floor,  but I’m the improver type, so I asked him to try to remember to unbutton them.  Guess what?  Now he doesn’t like to do it either!

I’ve decided that sharing pet peeves is not really a beneficial activity.  I probably shouldn’t even be writing this.  So if you're out there smelling your potholders, please forgive me!

 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, or admirable...if anything is excellent or praiseworthy...think about such things.

                                                                         Philippians 4:8