Maebius Musings

Congrats to the kid, for earning his Bobcat badge in Cub Scouts!

He was so proud he rushed home to show mom the cool new patch he gets to sew on his uniform, and a plastic paw-print to start hanging beads from for extra elective award-thingies.

I’ll direct you Here for details on what the badge means.

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PS: Happy Blue Moon!!! *

Edited note: The photos apparently bork the website layout, so I’ve changed them to links. Click on the links to see the actual images. Sorry!!

Meet the newest members of the Everthorn Farm Family: Jake, and Spot!

The bull brothers were born three days apart, around Dec 23 & 26th, but I forget which one is older. They will hopefully be trained to ride (like a horse) and handle a yoke for some emergency garden-plowing if necessary (you know, in 2012 when the world blows up, hehe)

If the temperment and personality starts to get a bit “Bullish” then they will join their energies to our family as dinner, as ‘Norman’ did in the past.

Also, for your viewing pleasure, a few recent pictures. First, the rare and elusive Tree-monkey, who lives in our lilac bush and enjoys ice-cream and pop-tarts for breakfast.

Next, the vicious Hound of Everthorn, cousin to that one in Baskerville.

Finally, two more of the bull-brothers. Jake’s head,, and another with his half-brother Spot.

Enjoy!

*PS: Pre-Script BlueMoon greetings, rather than Post-script, because it’s one of those kinda days where things are all mixed-up at work!

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No deep musing today, as I am recovering from night-shift-day-shift-night-shift schedule this week at work, but I wanted to mention a cute inspiring comment I heard this morning.

I’ve been reading ‘Dies the Fire‘ recently and was briefly explaining “The Change” that happens at the start of the novel. This Change is a plot device essentially causing electricity and gunpowder to stop functioning, leading to a return to a bronze-age level of technology.

This morning, as I drove my son to school, he started excitedly telling me that some Changes use a different magic, and cars still work.

I was a bit confused, since he was “asleep” when my wife and I were talking, but he followed with this observation:

“The melting frost on the car window is going UP, and the sky’s all white instead of blue! I wonder what else can magic change?!”

His eyes were shining and a grin brightened his face. I had to simply look outside and smile, with a slight awe-tingle on my neck as well.

Aren’t kids amazing?

What can’t magic, and the hope that drives it, change?!!
So mote it be.

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UPDATE: The images are not showing on my work PC, but can be viewed from outside the network. Here are the links to the images directly, if they are not displaying for you.

Maebius Ghost Pumpkin

Kid Spooky Pumpkin

Kid Spooky Pumpkin (dark)

Kid by himself Pumpkin

This weekend (after church) we did a lot of work outside, raking, decorating with corn stalks all around the mailbox, porch, and house, and all the various “post-harvest” type of things.   Still have a few potatoes to dig up that will get done tonight probably, but the rest of the garden is gone, and frost has taken the majority of the weeds down to root.    And in further signs of the season, we carved our annual pumpkins for next weekend’s Halloween/Samhain celebration.

First, my rather spartan and simplistic “Boo to you!” ghost.  It turned out pretty good, but seems rather lacklustre for some reason, especially compared to the kid’s Awesome spooky-face!

Here is the Spooky Face. He drew on the pumpkin with a pen, then helped Mom use the sharp knife to carve out the face he drew. Turned out Awesome, if I do say so myself, and is seriously spooky!

Last but not least, we found the somewhat more kid-safe pumpkin saw and let him carve whatever he wanted, entirely without assistance (except for helping scoop out the innards). This also turned out pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.

The goblins should be properly frightened from our doorstep this year!

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I admit, with all the media spam about this new movie, I’d at least try to run alongside the bandwagon and hitch a ride on the rails for a post or two.

I so totally want to go see this movie the more I read about it.   This link was sent to me by a kindly lady at work to warn me that Sendak appears to be a rude SOB and it’s a scary movie potentially inappropriate for my son.    I read the interview, and am actually more willing to take him now.

In summary:

Ever since the media got word of the film, reporters have hounded Sendak, Eggers, and Jonze. One of the main questions reporters are asking is, Will this film based on one of the best children’s books of all-time be appropriate for children?

Reporter: “What do you say to parents who think the Wild Things film may be too scary?”

Sendak: “I would tell them to go to hell. That’s a question I will not tolerate.”

Reporter: “Because kids can handle it?”

Sendak: “If they can’t handle it, go home. Or wet your pants. Do whatever you like. But it’s not a question that can be answered.”

The main issue I see, is concerned parents being actually interested in the movie and wanting to apply their filters to anything inappropriate or not.   This is a good thing, and it is beyond MY ability to say if your particular filter deems one thing or another “bad”.

The author seems to be thinking along those lines (but being particularly witty/snarky/pompous in his wording). He can not tell one person if this movie is inappropriate or not.  And if it is found to be “bad” to a particular person, it is not his fault.

The other subtext here is one of overprotective parenting.  I myself have steered my child away from some topics.  He isn’t going to be watching “Saving Private Ryan” this year, even if it would foster a discussion on war, or social injustice, or bravery.    Yet  think I’ve tried to be  open enough to let him try new things and offer to discuss his thoughts afterwards.

It’s a fine line, we parents try to tread, but I agree with the author’s (presumed) point here.  They made a movie about being a kid, not a movie For kids.  It’s not his job to then tell us parents if it’s appropriate or not.

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Forgive the somewhat cliche and lengthy title, but it sums up my mood today (monday).

This weekend, we took the long five hour+ journey to PA to help out a friend and get some things done that needed done. It involved shopping, and sawing, and such, but was not overly strenuous in terms of physical chores.  Still, there was much productivity and Things Got Done(tm).

The amazing thing about the whole weekend, was the transformation that overcame our family (or at least my wife and I) over the course of it.  Lately, things have been a bit grey and mundane.  We dealt with a death in the family, a relative’s unrelated auto accident, and one of those every project at work deadlines Today times that crop up.  The fact I had to miss my herb class made the weekend seem initially like just another Chore.
(no insult intended to those we visited, we still were going to come regardless. *grin*)

In reality, with such an unexpectedly relaxed atmosphere, and high productivity, it felt like this was a weekend quite well spent!  The trip down was made in record time, so much so that I am almost convinced that my joking comment about “taking the moon roads” (a ley-line shortcut) was partially correct.

The shopping resulted in new shoes that make walking comfortable, and thus firming the foundations of my family.   We ate tasty food that nourished our bodies as well as my heart (huevos rancheros = divinity on a plate!).   I played at the park and watched my usually shy son wander right up and get himself involved with both a pick-up Baseball game, and a Soccer match!

It was one of those weekends that just worked. Things went right, the sun shone unseasonably bright and warm, and a myriad of magical minutiae happened.

Even the ride home, usually long and arduous, was filled with the three of us howling at the moon when it peeked from the clouds, interspersed with an unusually chatty kid who put away his video game to play “alphabet games”.  I’m sure any bystanders seeing a family of 3 driving slowly with faces suddenly stretched upwards to the window in a long Awwrroooooo, would think we were nuts.   But we had fun, darn it.

The root beer?   A tasty treat from Trader Joes, to ease parched throats along the ride. Nothing less, but perchance more.  It was magic potion faerie root elixir if the kid is to be believed.

I couldn’t have asked for a better vacation!

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Imagine this setting:

A young boy is playing a video game, involving the usual slaughter of fantastic creatures and gaining more and more power.  The character portrayed assembles a collection of allies to help fight, including a tall dark-skinned desert-warrior with a staff, and a strange moon-creature with a machine gun.

In this game, the characters carry a supply of water, which slowly is reduced over the course of play, and can be refilled by stepping into clear puddles, or purchasing in-game bottles of water.

Consider the fact that when they first join the party, the Desert dweller has a moderate ‘water supply’ limit, and can hold a few quarts of water before any special items increase that maximum.   The moon creature can only hold a small bottle.  This means the moon creature must use some special items to increase this water-limit, or risk taking more damage (due to thirst) or carrying a lot of inventory bottles to refresh the small amount he holds.

The kid smiles as this last character joins the group, and excitedly turns to his parents to confide in a conspiratorial stage-whisper that “the Desert guy obviously had more water since in the desert you need to carry water a lot and there’s not much room in the moon suit, right? Right? Cool, huh!”

Multiple choice test for all you readers.  No right answers, but I’d like you to honestly consider and discuss WHY you may choose a particular result.  (and yes, it’s biased, but that is intentional)

What are your thoughts on the above situation?

A)  Why is a kid playing so many video games? Running around killing imaginary things is not good lessons to learn.  Go outside and play!

B) Why is a kid playing so many video games?  Yes, they are fun, but you could be doing crafts and other family oriented activities.

C) That’s nice, but now turn off that game, and lets hit the Library to research Desert peoples, and the scientific feasibility of actually living on the barren moon.

D) You know, the kid’s pretty bright, to have made such a connection at something like a simple Video Game.  Do you sit and play with him, or just let him do his own thing until he asks for help?

E) Nice observation! Lets talk about deserts and moons (see # C) tomorrow after school.

…

…

Your grade, according to the local community educational institution, is apparently the letter of the choice you made.    Need a re-test?   :/

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Unfortunately, my first day of college in over 10 years was canceled due to too few people registering for it.  How sad!   Still, I heard from the teacher that she may offer the course at her home or elsewhere for the remaining interested people and will re-schedule asap.

So, instead of classroom learning, I will recount some soup we made earlier in the week while I was home to help cook.   It was the kid’s “Amazing Soup” and I am proud to reveal the ’secret recipe’ below.

The nice thing about this was the hands-on approach the kid took with this meal.  I gave him free range to make whatever he wanted, and offered myself as ’sous chef’ in charge of such things as sharp knives and hot stove-pans.   Whatever ingredients were added, were chosen by him.  (I made one suggestion to add some mushrooms, at the end just for my own selfish delight, and to allow him to use the Magic Bullet to powder-ize them himself)

We do this kid-cooking from time to time and while we ALWAYs make what he suggests, there have been times we secretly made a small pot of Mac&Cheese or Paste&Sauce as backup for when we know it is going to taste nasty.  I’ll have to post his “awesomeberry pie” recipe (which is actually more a  fruit crumble).

All ingredients, with the exception of the mushrooms, and the bouillon, is from our garden, or roadside veggie cart near our house.  Details of some ingredients after the recipe.

*** Maebius Jr’s Amazing soup ***

• 1 pan of water (approx 1 quart)
• 1 ear of hybrid sweet/’indian’ corn.
• 2-3 green beans, broken into 1/2 inch bits.
• 1 heaping Tbl of beef bouillon (more or less to taste)
• 1 dash of “spice mix”.
• 1 carrot, sliced thin.
• 3/4 yellow onion, “Whopper Chopper‘d” finely.
• 1/2 small Aubergine cut into ‘chunks’.
• 1 big leaf Bok Choy, ’shredded’
• 1-2 small dried portabella caps, powdered in food processor.
• (optional: handful of pasta, as Rotelle or mini Farfalle)

Add all ingredients except Bok Choy to the pan and bring it to a boil until carrots are soft and onions are starting to dissolve.

Toss in the chopped/shredded leaves (alternately,  Lambs Quarters or Spinach) and continue boiling for another 10-15 minutes until suitably wilted.

At this point the soup should be slightly thickened.  If not, boil it a bit more with the lid off, or add pasta and simmer until done.

Serve in bowls with a clover flower garnish, and a side of bread or crackers & cheese.

The corn, we planted sweet corn along with a row of decorative ‘Variegated maize‘, and they have cross-pollinated, resulting in the sweet corn being sweet, but rather tough and having a few purplish/red kernels on each ear.

The Spice Mix is my own creation, which consists of a rotating jar of fairly random spices and dried herbs.  This collection of flavorings is generally ground together in a mortar & pestle, then put in a small jar.  When the jar starts looking half-full, I restock it with what I find around the counter at the time, so it changes and is complex by this point.  Mostly garlic powder, dried chile powder, black pepper, crumbled Dulce, sea salt, celery seed, ginger, nettle leaves, and dashes of other stuff-I-find-in-the-kitchen (basil, paprika, dill, etc).

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Another autumn season rolls around.  The air gets that wonderfully distinctive chill at night, and the leaves subtly lose their vibrant green and begin fading into (but not quite showing) a palette of colours. The garden starts to clear out as you harvest the goodies from this past season….

And….

(if the embed below doesn’t work, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAra6_WxRkU)

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Another wall-of-text about recent events more than Spiritual Musings.  Consider yourself warned!

Recently, I took a week off work, and we camped out in my in-law’s trailer near home, and the wonderfully scenic Adirondack Gateway Campground.  Also, this tuesday, we decided to beat the recent 90+ degree heat and go cave-exploring (Howe Caverns and the awesome Secret Caverns) near Albany.

Camping-wise, Other than a bit of uncomfortable sleeping arrangements (I got the floor), it was a lovely relaxing time.   Particularly mid-week it was quiet with only 3-4 other people in the nearby campsites, and thus the pool and trails were empty for us to enjoy whenever we felt like it.

The hiking was my favorite part, with a looping self-contained series of trails mowed into the sandy landscape, and including three (two easily accessible) small ponds.  The kid brought his fishing rod and enjoyed a few hours of hook-less casting and reeling in invisible Pokemon.  There was a small shed-barn converted to game-room with an old skii-ball, pong-pong, 2 billiard tables, and similarly free entertaining resources.

The part that I enjoyed most was wildcrafting some snacks along our hikes.  The long blackberries were just coming into ripeness, and I discovered two patches of low-bush blueberries which made delicious pancake-additions one of the mornings we were there.

Another really nice musing I had was how our closest neighbors, being obvious fans of Nascar, Huge trucks, and vague incomprehension regarding wildcrafting (Ya can eat those weeds? Ya sure it’s not poison? Won’t they make ya sick?!), we still were able to laugh at all our kids’ joyful antics, swim in the pool together, and connect with the commonalities we DID share.    It was something I wish the rest of the world could do more regularly. (Granted, I admit I first saw the enormous Hummer truck and Loud Country music with a bit of pre-judging myself, but got over that quickly.)

Additionally, it was nice just sitting back and relaxing with no work or stress on our mind beyond “are we getting hungry yet?”.  Evenings were fillled with the obligatory campfire and marshmallow roasting.  The kid even got a real thrill out of being ‘old enough to help’ build and actually light the campfire (thanks to a fuse of newspaper strips lightly sprinkled with BBQ lighter fluid).  Oh no, I’m starting the pyro habit too early, aren’t I?  

* * *

As far as the caverns go, it was interesting to see the difference between the two adjacent cave systems, both in terms of actual geological make-up and in marketing and presentation.

Howe Caverns we went to first, being our main goal for the day.   It has the usual large rooms, pretty formations, and strategic lighting commonly seen in commercial cave systems.  I enjoyed the little boat ride into the deepest section of the cave, which gave our feet a rest and allowed you to simply sit back and watch the rocks.

The drawback to this cave is that it is really REALLY commercialized.  They are quite efficient at getting tour-groups of approx 15-20 people moving through the stops along the tour every 10 minutes.   The entire tour area is paved with smooth brick walkways with secure handrails and other tour groups moving past yours every few minutes (the tour is essentially one way in, one way out, so groups are constantly shuffling past each other in between the wider “scenic stop” points.   You also were reminded often and regularly that in the narrower sections, you can NOT touch anything besides the handrails, as you will kill the cave rock system, no coins in the water, and no touching the water as the oils in your hands will ruin the cave forever.  However, this warning didn’t stop our guide, plus three others from excitedly taking a break from our tour to go climb over the railings and fish out a salamander in one of the closer pools of water so it could be brought back “to the surface where it should live”.   Uh-huh…  *shrug*

(I also understand very well the concept of a living cave, and that the oils and dirt in our hands Does affect the formation of calcite and flowstone can be ‘killed’ by inappropriate contact.  I just thought it sadly funny how the necessary warning to at least minimize such exposure among such a huge touring population was discarded rather thoughtlessly by the staff people, even if they were allowed to do such things. It seemed slightly hypocritical, and could have at least been done in-between groups by a lone staff member without such attention-drawing antics.)

The second cavern system we visited, mainly due to the quirky Billboards, was Secret Caverns.  This was a much smaller, quirky place with plenty of tongue-in-cheek humor on the signs, and from the guides.  We bought our tickets (cheaper than Howe’s and the kid was free!) and waityed with about 4 other people outside for a few moments.  The guy behind the counter selling tickets came out to say that the tour would start soon, after he unlocked the cage our guide was kept in, then proceeded to go back inside and immediately come out a small rusty backdoor, extending his hand “Hi, I’m Zarlak, your tourguide, but you can call me Steve”.  I loved the place already!

You went down a winding flight of rocky formations, (known as “concrete steps”) and the actual cavern itself was more a giant crack in the rocks, with a few chimneys and smaller grottos with the usual formations. It definitely was not as glamorous and ‘pretty’ as Howe Caverns, but the fact that the walkway was rough concrete mixed from the actual rocks of the cave opening, and was on the physical floor of the cave gave it a much more intimate immersive feel.   We were heartily welcomed to touch the walls (you couldn’t really help it in many places) and our guide kept a flow of funny puns, and historical anecdotes flowing as we explored the system.  The fewer notable formations were neat since they were considerably more up-close and personal, if smaller and less dramatic than the larger Howe’s attractions, and the final 100ft waterfall was actually much more impressive than the boat ride elsewhere.

One thing I can say, is to not wear any Italian leather or Prada in Secret Caverns.  It’s not as sterile, and the floor in one part had a decent puddle we tip-toed through where a steadily dripping formation above us had started growing a few years ago.   Yet, this made it more real and visceral to me, making it my favorite of the two cave systems.   It also helped that in Secret Caverns, and its lone-tour-at-a-time made the groups more personal, and allowed us to really appreciate the “moments of darkness” when all the lights were turned off deep within the cave (Steve started cackling quietly when he first turned them out, then laughed nervously when they came on again: “Did you all hear that?!”).

Plus, the nearby woods and pond around Secret Cave were the perfect places for a few Fae to live, with such quirky fun-loving energy and respect for the land that was hinted at by the owners and more felt than spoken.  I’m sure of it.

The kid says he enjoyed Howe Caverns more for the bigger scenery and the boat ride, but had gotten really cold by the end of that tour.  He did really like being able to splash around and touch the walls of Secret Cavern though, so it was a Draw for his favorite.

If you get to that area of upstate, NY anytime soon, I recommend visiting at least one of these attractions, depending on your level of quirky acceptance.  It’s a great place to see under the earth, and appreciate how Big and Old it all is.

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