That’s what James called them. Obviously my worry last week was overblown because by Monday evening the yellow onions had tiny little leaves just nudging up beneath the soil. By Tuesday they were standing up. By Wednesday the red onions began sprouting. And now I have a forest of onion sprouts. Huzzah!
Unlike the trolls in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books who get smarter when it’s cold, the cold just makes me tired. It was a long, cold week and the coming week is going to be even colder. So this is going to be short today.
Another successful loaf of sourdough bread! James needed to make sandwich bread for the week but had to work today, so I made an assist and baked a loaf of multigrain sourdough sandwich bread. I am hoping to find some rye berries at my co-op next weekend so I can then roughly grind them into flour and make pumpernickel for my next sourdough adventure. Wish me luck!
There was much outrage over DOGE and Presidential crap this last week. Two hit close to home. Someone I know works for a government agency that is being dismantled and is extremely stressed along with all of their co-workers. They have no idea from day to day whether they will be fired.
And, the university where I work was informed this last week that a $6.8 million grant they received in 2023 to provide scholarships for students who want to become special education or elementary school teachers, both of which are in short supply, has been cancelled. The reason given is DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) even though the grant has nothing to do with DEI and the scholarships are given pretty much to all the students pursuing the specified teacher education. However, because the grant application had a question that asked how the grant would increase DEI, it was cancelled. My university is appealing. Meanwhile, 165 students, who receive upwards of $10,000 each from the grant, are now in limbo.
There was still joy amidst the anger. I received a huge bag of pecans from my neighborhood Buy Nothing Group. They came from the person’s family’s trees down south and they have so many and were tired of shelling them, that they gave away this big bag. I’ve been working on shelling them this weekend and it’s slow going, but enjoyable work. I grew up with a pecan tree in my backyard in southern California and have fond memories of helping my dad shell the nuts. Because pecans are so expensive these days, I haven’t had any in years. It’s a case not realizing how amazing that tree was when I was a kid. Just like I thought the giant avocado tree in my grandparents’ backyard was yuck, and now I wish I had loved them when they were abundant and free.
Friday on Valentine’s Day one of my coworkers brought in donuts including a vegan one for me! So thoughtful. The donut was tasty but so sugary, and since I don’t eat much sugar, it took me close to an hour to eat the whole donut. Afterwards I was wired for a good long time before crashing hard mid afternoon. Good thing I got a lot done while on the sugar high.
That’s it for now. Take care friends. Be excellent to each other!
Ha, I get the pecan thing. Where I grew up in Michigan, people locked their doors so the neighbor couldn’t sneak a bag of zucchini into your kitchen. In Indiana, I have to pay about a dollar each for those damn things. I wish I had known what a greater filler vegetable they are when I lived in Michigan!
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LOL Melanie. Zucchini is super easy to grow so you could have your own and only spend a couple dollars on seeds and get a bunch of plants and squash for your trouble 🙂
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I tried but we only got one or two all year!
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Well that’s a big bummer! if it were me, I’d keep trying in different locations with different varieties hoping I’d finally hit the zucchini jackpot 😀
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I can appreciate that. Maybe I’ll un-yard a whole acre and do zucchini with my fingers crossed!
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A whole acre of zucchini? You’d definitely be sure to get at least a couple 😀
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Hurray for the sprouts! That is indeed a veritable forest and you will have wonderful, plentiful onions. I hear you about the cold. I swear I use up so much energy keeping warm that I have nothing to heat a brain cell with! And I am so sorry to hear about the latest administrative nonsense. I don’t know that I believe in fate, but I do believe that when you do the wrong thing, bad things happen, and I have everything crossed that those bad things land squarely in the laps of the people making these absurd and traumatising decisions.
I love pecans and they are expensive here and so a rare purchase. I’ve never shelled one, though. Honestly there are some days when I wonder if I’ve ever really lived, lol.
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I’m already imagining all the onions this summer 😀 Pecans are very expensive here too so I’ve not had any for years and years, which makes these such a gift and I don’t mind having to do to the work of shelling them. They are a nut with a thin shell so it only gets a bit tedious and makes a mess. 🙂
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Hooray for the sprouts! You know, in the big scheme of things, perhaps people like Trump and Vance will turn out to be just like the soapy water. It feels terminal right now, even watching from thousands of miles away, so I can’t imagine what it’s like to be there and see the results of their ignorance and malice up close, but I cling to the idea that the best of America will rise up out of it like your delicate onion sprouts, at first a few tiny leaves and then a forest.
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Thanks for your encouraging words Andrew!
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Sigh. That is enraging about the students and their grant money. Such blithe, Willy-nilly cruelty. So much suffering for everyone, for what??
but, we must go on. So huzzah for plentiful onions, homemade sourdough. And vegan donuts!! Every joyful thing can be an act of resistance.
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I’ve been wondering lately what sort of horrid, twisted childhoods these people must have had for them to be the way they are. It doesn’t absolve them in any way for the cruelty they are inflicting on millions, but it does leave room for a miracle of healing no matter how slim the possibility. So that’s something.
But also, yes, I think right now joy is definitely an act of resistance!
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I’m not in the “must go on” mood this week, despite my new grandchild. I’ve been thinking about your chickens every time I read about bird flu.
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I think I wouldn’t be in the “must go on” mood either if I were in your shoes Jeanne. Big hugs to you! As for my chickens, they are doing ok. Back a couple years ago when the bird flu was just getting started, the U of MN extension services held a free webinar for backyard chicken keepers on how to keep our flocks safe. We practice good biosecurity as do most in my area since we’ve not fallen into any quarantine zone and in the whole Twin Cities area there have only been one or two flocks that had to be killed. I’m a bit more concerned now that cats are getting the bird flu because I have a number of people in my area who allow their cats to roam and they sometimes come into my backyard.
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Hahaha Ohhhh, I have had EXACTLY that experience with a vegan donut. My fingertips are tingly at the mere memory of it. It’s funny how your system adapts, over time, once you start eating less sugar…whereas, in the beginning, you think it will never happen. OUAT, I would have eaten three of those donuts with as many sugared coffees alongside. So far, the foods that have been linked with spreading the flu to cats are higher-priced raw brands, and, in my experience, most people who allow their housecats to roam aren’t spending a lot of cash on their cats’ edibles…but I am just as concerned as you are. We just have to do everything we can. The other night I read something else about the U where I think you work (or, is there more than one in the city you live in? quite possibly) which suggests that the targeting has escalated. Thinking of you and all those around you.
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I’ve ruined sugar by not eating much of it all Marcie! I was so excited a few years ago when a vegan bakery opened in my neighborhood. James and I went opening day and got cupcakes and ack! All we could taste was the sugar and it was horrible and we’ve never gone back.
I think you are reading about the University of Minnesota? If so, I work at a small private university (we have so many small colleges and universities in the Twin Cities it’s kind of ridiculous). The U of MN is getting it from both sides–they are the largest research University in the state and are losing grants left and right while also being investigated for alleged antisemitism due to pro-Palestine protests last year, and they are being criticized by everyone else for capitulating and complying in advance. I’m sure the administrators are feeling caught between a rock and a hard place.
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Yup, that was it: I didn’t want to name it in case that was your employer. I’m sure there are a lot of institutions which are facing this kind of “scrutiny” right now; it must be very distressing for so many people, not just us bystanders.
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Thanks Marcie! I’m sure it’s distressing for everyone in relationship with various institutions.
BTW, I keep meaning to tell you I read your review in Rain Taxi! I kept waiting for it to show up online and when it didn’t I got my hands on a print copy and there you were! So cool to see your name there and read your review!
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Awww, thanks for saying so. I thought it was going to be online, so I was just as surprised as you to see it in print. (I have another coming in the next issue, but I also don’t know where they’ve decided to place that one.) I added a few books to my TBR and am looking forward to reading it more regularly now.
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Oh, good to know! James gets it at his bookstore so I will make sure he brings me home a copy 🙂
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