Happy Pride!

Needless to say there is no Marinette Pride Parade. However, there is a bike-a-thon that went by the house today and unknowingly commemorated the day for us.

So, in homage to our first non-urban Pride, here a vintage shot of Rhonda, Buddy, and I a couple of years ago as we marched with Multifaith Works. Those of you out and about at events in big cities, think of us as we at keepin' rural do our own lil' dance.

Insomnia

I guess being awake at 10:45 at night isn't *really* insomnia, but Rhonda conked out an hour ago, and I am left feeling wide awake while I should be sleeping. We have been working hard in preparation for Rhonda's departure: she heads to Lancaster tomorrow to help her dad build a shed. (For effect, and because I love exaggeration, I told a friend she was going home to build a barn. Lancaster, PA + barn raising invokes iconic images of Amish barn raising...) But really, its just a shed.

So, since she will be gone from the homestead for a week, we have been gardening, prepping our 3rd bedroom for painting, planning our radical lawn transformation (more on this in a future post), and generally working hard. I am theoretically exhausted, but sleep is elusive.

I'm sure I will be writing much more in the next week as Buddy and I sit and stare at each other in this big old farmhouse. In the meantime, I have some photos I have been meaning to post.





Buddy stares at me while I talk on the phone to Gaby.





Oyster mushrooms we are growing in our kitchen.







Inside the mushroom farm.

Tall grass against our garage.

I officially exist...according to Amazon

It has taken a while, but my "book" (a publication of my dissertation) is now posted on Amazon. If you promise to not buy it -- as it is ridiculously expensive and only, really, intended for libraries -- you can see the details here.

I chose the cover myself. See how the crooked lampshade implies inversion/perversion?! Ha!

Dispatches from the remote corners of my mind

Dear Abby/god/ or other knowing entity:

• Why do my students use such ridiculous email addresses (e.g. sexymamma69@...)? Do they not feel slightly embarrassed when sending serious inquiries from this address?
• Why does our "drought resistant" hanging plant require twice-daily watering? (Or else it droops and whithers.)
• Why are my dog's farts so damned stinky?
• Why are there so many bars in Wisconsin? And, simultaneously, why are there no helmet laws?
• When are "rat's tails" going to come back into fashion? When should I get one?
• Lawn. WHY? And, why is everyone so anti weeds? Half of our weeds have bloomed into lovely flowers!
  
• Why is rye bread always served with Fish Fry?
• Can cell phones really pop popcorn?
  
• Why were the breakfast sausages we bought at the IGA not in the freezer section when the box clearly read "keep frozen"? Will I know if our "all natural," nitrate free pork product is rancid?
• What should I do with my diploma? Are there options other than present pompously in office or store in box in closet?
• When is Rick Astley going on tour?
  

Keepers of the Lawn

We just had a lovely interaction with our neighbor, Betty, who came over to accept our offer of some rhubarb. She is probably nearing 80, and has lived in her house since she was eight years old. She is very friendly, and loves to chat, and spends most of her time indoors caring for her husband, Herbert.

We asked Betty if she had ever seen the flowers (pictured above) that are popping up all over. Her response was no. She had never seen these flowers, but then again, Glen (previous owner) had never let the grass get so long that anything would bloom! She didn't mean it unkindly, but I am sure that we are far less diligent keepers-of-the-lawn than our predecessors.

here are a few more pictures taken moments ago:

generosity

I have recently been the recipient of an amazing gift. Gaby, whose work and photography projects can be glimpsed here, had an older digital camera sitting in her closet. As Gaby is an amazing artist/photographer, her equipment is quality, and even her older camera is pretty fabulous. Perhaps in response to my earlier complaints about trying to document our rural lives with a point and shoot (found here), my dear friend oh-so-kindly sent me her old camera.

It has been a funny thing to be the recipient of such a nice gift. I feel as though I am deeply indebted, and I am worried that I might not live up to my ability to "make photographs", as G would say. So, we are embarking on a photography course. As luck would have it, the entire content of a digital photography class Gaby taught at Berkeley is online. I have only gotten so far as reading the syllabus and reading about the first practices, and the textbook she used in that class is on its ways from another UW library. So, very soon, my dear friends, you will be subject to an onslaught of photos. However, for the time being, there is a smattering of new stuff on my flikr page, and I will show a few of my favorite new pics so far.

Mary, Mary

Today we were gifted this 20 lb carp. Our neighbor's son, Dean, brought it as a contribution to the ever-expanding garden. This gift came after a conversation with Dean in which he reavealed that his (now-80+ dad) used to have the best tomatoes around. We asked what his secret was and Dean said "nothing." Then he thought for a moment and said "well, he did used to plant a carp underneath each of his tomato plants."

We have already planted our tomatoes for the summer, so there is no chance of putting this guy under any of our plants. However, they are in 4x4 square beds (four plants to a bed) so Rhonda bravely butchered the fish and I dug holes in four of our beds. Here's hoping.

No carp? I've heard that placenta also works!

Hillary & Barack, Or, Why a Feminist Supports a Male Candidate (and learned to love the bomb?)

I don't often wax political here. But this has been brewing for me for a couple of days. I was further encouraged by this excellent article by Judith Warner in today's New York Times.

I have supported Barack Obama since he first announced his candidacy. Rhonda and I both have. I remember, not too long ago, thinking that there was not much chance he would ever make it to the convention let alone to November. I still hoped. The last week has been highly emotional for me; it is a remarkable thing to see something you never, ever, thought possible. For me, it was never a choice between a black man and a woman as the token "firsts." My choice of presidential candidate was informed by a sincere belief in the policies, beliefs, and experience that this man embodies. It still is.

And yet, I have felt a lot of guilt, as a feminist, for not supporting Clinton's campaign. I have asked myself if it is my own, internalized sexism that has guided my decisions. I have wondered if I am equally influenced by some kind of liberal guilt that encourages a vote for the more- oppressed minority group (a dangerous paradigm that leads to comparing and weighing minority experiences).

What I have had the chance to realize is that I can still support and believe in Obama while recognizing the deeply embedded sexism that has been a part of the coverage of and response to Clinton's campaign. (For a really depressing glimpse of this coverage, take a look at this video montage .) There is a part of me that is genuinely sad at the fact that a woman is not going to win this race. And yet, I did not vote for her.

It is really dangerous to begin to believe that Hillary has been the subject of more bias and discrimination than Obama. I think that it is simply more acceptable, in our culture, to mock, critique, and objectify women out loud. Obama, too, has been subject to a complex set of racial critiques, (not the least important being a critique of him as a light-skinned, over-educated elitist). But to mock him publicly for being black (or for traits assumed to be part of being black) is not how these racist responses are happening. They are more subtle. But, my point here is not to claim the victimhood of both candidates. This is not a productive or worthwhile way of thinking about these things...

Instead, I have to continually remind myself of the ways in which sexism and racism are deeply interconnected. They work together, folks. So, for me, this means that I am unapologetically hopeful for Obama's chances in November. I am certain of my commitment and political choices. And, I am deeply aware of the many vectors of sexism and racism that are informing this campaign.

Foodie Chronicles

Just a quick post about some of the food we've been making lately. I cooked quite a bit for my parents, and they seemed very appreciative of the home cooking. My favorite dish to come out of their visit was a creative adaptation of the Pennsylvania standby, chicken pot pie. I made buttermilk biscuits with chives (from the Holman's garden), and I roasted carrots and brussel sprouts in olive oil. The third component was simply chicken cooked in a light sauce (celery, onion, herbs, chicken stock). I then topped the biscuit with veggies and chicken. Voila! Chicken pot pie a la Amy.

Today's dinner was one of those fun, inspired uses of leftovers. We have a boat load of fried Walleye left over from fish fry, and, inspired by our West Coast exposure to gourmet Mexican food, we decided to make fish tacos. We heated up the fish in the oven, shredded some cabbage, sliced an avocado, and made a garlicky-but-sweet aioli sauce. Layered on top of corn tortillas, the result was delicious. Yum! Dessert was a rhubarb pie with freshly picked rhubard.

Parents, Socks, and Gardening

The title is the definitive of what we have been doing over the last week or so.

My parents were here for a short visit. It was interesting to note the subtle differences caused by shift in location. Wisconsin is not too, too far from PA, and so the trip was less of a hassle, and less of a big commitment. I think, and you can correct me if I am wrong Mom and Dad, that this lesser distance and the fact that we are not longer in a big city -- and the fact that our setting is now rural, quieter, less "happening" -- made for a more relaxed visit all around. We spent more time just hanging out, playing games, eating (fish-fry, Schloegels, Micky-Lu's, etc.) and working around our house.

Mom tries out David's electric lawn mower.

Somewhere, Al Gore is smiling.

While my dad was tinkering away at a number of house projects, I took advantage of my mom's knitting expertise and support to push my way through finishing the second of my first pair of socks. Cindy refers to this hesitation as "Second Sock Syndrome", and I had it really bad. I had already picked out some yarn for a new pair of socks, and just looking at that fine merino wool dyed the colors of the ocean made me want to ditch Rhonda's socks really fast. However, with mom's input and, at times, horror, I trucked through and finished. The final products is pretty darn good considering they are my first. The most notable issue being that I didn't line up the yarn so that the socks match. But what the heck, matching socks are overrated, right? Here they are in all of their green, stripey, splendor.




And finally, there is the garden. We planted most of our plants a week ago, and we are weathering an adjustment period (it was 77 and humid the day we planted and the overnight low the following two nights was in the 30s). Nonetheless, the garden is looking good and starting to grow. All the plants are currently enjoying a good soaking in the form of an afternoon storm.


wee plants in the big boxes
a few days after planting



our re-purposed box spring

My parents have returned to Pennsylvania, the socks are completed, and the garden is on autopilot for a while. I officially declared today to be Pajama Day, a declaration that marks my commitment to being extraordinarily lazy and ushering in the summer season. I am excited to try out this thing called summer vacation. While I have plenty of academic and house projects on the horizon, the next couple of days or weeks will be spent enjoying the quiet, reading for fun, and taking long naps in the middle of the day.