Peppered With Assaults

A nation’s worst nightmare is to have its very foundation chipped away. The foundation stones upon which America was created have been slowly weakened to the point that they have lost their power and can barely be recognized today. Many of the laws that have protected Americans from the ever intrusive grasp of tyrannical politicians have been stripped of their strength. They’ve been systematically weakened or removed altogether. Too often Liberal courts and judges have twisted well-meaning laws into something unrecognizable.

States have given over their Constitutional rights and yielded too much of their responsibility to a centralized national government. Ideas that should be tried at the state level to fulfill the needs of each individual state are now being forced on us by lawmakers in Washington DC in a “one size fits all” policy that may not accomplish what it was intended. Small rural communities may chafe and wither under laws designed for larger states and cities.

If ideas aren’t given trial runs at the state level before the laws are enacted nationwide and if those ideas fail, what is our recourse? What would be necessary to undo the damage that has already occurred? Who will settle the confusion and chaos to remove the damage of this failure?

When our language, our borders, and our culture are removed, we will cease to be a country. When politicians advance an ever increasing budget; taxes continue to rise, inflation and bankruptcy will ensue. When traditional leadership is weakened or becomes shattered, America will end up on the ash heap. Our freedoms will become only a brief mention in history.

Immigrants came to our shores to escape tyranny and most with nothing more than clothes on their backs, hope, a dream, and strong work ethic. They converted those ideals into productive lives and citizenship. It seems that these ideals have fallen to the wayside with the help of Leftist leaning hacks. The politicians want Americans to give up all of their rights. They would strip freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom to bear arms by altering the privilege of “one vote for one citizen.” It seems that they prefer to have Americans be reduced to tax-paying servants who are left with primal instincts to survive. By increasing taxes, politicians increase their own power while increasing Americans’ dependence on the government that causes an increased misery for all Americans.

We need to wake up. Our country and our freedoms are under continual assault. It is necessary for us to stand firm. We must understand once we yield to the yoke of a tyrannical government, we may never have another chance to rid ourselves from those shackles.

 

 

Getting Things Back Together

It was another week where things have slowly come back together. My morning cardiac rehabilitation is still going well. I haven’t arrested on the tread mill and I am progressing on the other machines. The hardest thing for me to understand is, how can they expect you to exercise and labor while having to try to breathe through a mask when the last thing a cardiac patient needs is having a lack of oxygen. Just a few more sessions and I will graduate.

I’ve been slowly, and I do mean slowly, redoing and resetting the stones in a walkway I made over 20 years ago. Many have sunken down and become covered in moss and grass. The weeds in the flower garden along the path are being weeded at the same time. The old deck has been removed and replaced with several large palette-formed steps from my back door to the ground. What kicked me into action to do the walkway was that my kids spent a day doing some of the needed landscaping at my home as a belated Father’s Day gift.

Tuesday I spent most of the morning helping two friends prepare tomatoes to cook spaghetti sauce and allow it to cook down and prepare it to can. It’s great that we can join forces for a mutual benefit while saving food products. Tuesday evening our church had a missionary to Greenland visit. As I spoke with them, I could share the few words of Icelandic with them. They’d spent a year in Iceland before going to Greenland. I also shared I was the guy whose cell phone played “Popeye the Sailorman” during another visit.

Wednesday I spent four hours at the Chestnut Ridge Historical Society. It was a light action day for me. The Tuesday visit of the missionaries replaced Wednesday night prayer service.

Thursday was another slow day with just a bit of work on my firewood stacking and extending my rock walkway.

Friday, I found that my stupidity was the problem with my lawn tractor and managed to mow my lawn and my neighbor’s lawn. Friday evening, I helped unload and set up equipment for the Seed Line program. The Gospel booklets of John and Romans are already printed, needing assembled and stapled before being trimmed and boxed. I left a bit early to head home. I’d left my windows open. I was soaked by the time I reached my car and entered my home, only to be greeted by three indoor swimming pools and a wading pool. I placed fans to dry them out. By morning, things had dried. The Gospel assembly program continued Saturday morning, with 12,000 copies in Spanish were readied for shipment.

 

Danger Danger Zucchini Season

Yes folks, it’s that time of the year again. The season gardeners overestimate the harvest of these dark green vegetable elongated hand grenades. When the growing season is just right, a plethora of these verdant vegetables appear in great abundance. These leafy plants with the charmingly orange blossoms suddenly become infested with darkly hued green monsters. Zucchinis could have been the next plague God had planned for Egypt.

Fellow church-goers now become stealthy and will slip one of these bulbous green monsters into the back seats of your cars. If you leave the car doors unlocked, you become a potential victim of the phantom zucchini sharer. Don’t get me wrong, these gracious gardeners are thinking of you and how excited you will be when you find one of these delicious dainties on your back seat. Hopefully you will find it before it bakes in the sun for several days, but never mind, it’s all a good gesture from a friend.

Zucchini recipes trade hands almost as quickly as money does at a gambling parlor. Promises of “It’s easy to make” and “It really tastes great” accompany the transactions. The instruction of “You can freeze it for use later.” I may even have some grated zucchini in the back of my freezer from twenty years ago that my wife Cindy made.

For the past week, I’ve been dodging donations, but when it was already cooked and generously offered, how could I refuse. It was a Mexican taco flavored half zucchini with ground beef, cheese, and salsa. I was still a bit leery. Cindy, in the past, made a zucchini with similar ingredients. She splint the zucchini, scooped out the seeds, then baked it stuffed with bread crumbs, cheese, and tomato sauce. I’m not sure whatever else she used, but I became so deathly sick after eating it, I have had a natural aversion to zucchinis with tomato sauce.

Then there is one good story about zucchini. My family and Bill, Deborah Detar with their family vacationed on the beach in Ocean City, Maryland, sustained by zucchini bread and “salt water.” We had a truly wonderful time with ten people stuffed into a beachside hotel room. I still have such a wonderful memory that’s remains anchored to the ugly dark green zucchini.

 

Chestnut Ridges

The Monongahela rushes through the wooded glades.

Where smells of richness in your soil freshly turned by spades.

Your wide and verdant valleys climb into gentle hills.

Shared tales of “revenuers” hunting for “moonshine” stills.

A few of your farmers still walk behind horse and plow.

Land where tired miners trudge home with coal dust darkened brow.

The Youghiogheny flows north; small streams fill and renew.

Awesome bright morning light sparkles on blankets of dew.

You grow buckwheat for griddle cakes served in steaming stacks

Planted in fields that were cleared of trees by sweat and axe.

Ohiopyle has rapids with roaring waters white

And tours of Fallingwater and Kentuck; homes built by Wright.

The trees of the Chestnut Ridge turn from green to red and gold

There are festivals where steam belches from tractors old.

You’ve noted words your patriotic sons dared to speak.

Fighting for their liberty and to protect the weak.

Native trout swim your brooks, fed by icy mountain springs.

Scary sounds of your ruffed grouse explode with thunderous wings.

Soldiers built forts of Ligonier and Necessity

Marching in woods where Indian’s voice rang loud and free.

In history you rebelled at paying whiskey’s tax.

You’ve festivals where women spin thread from plants of flax.

The Amish and Quakers chose to make this land their own.

Hunters and trappers carried knives with handles of bone.

Your religious liberties drew folk from far and wide.

Boys became men in your wilds as their mettle was tried.

Conestoga wagons and carriages plied your trails.

Peddlers and freighters hauled supplies in bundles and bales.

Amusement rides at Idlewild and Kennywood Park

Or relaxing in Killarney’s millhouse, watching its fireplace flame and spark.

Some folk have used crossing rods, dousing to find water.

Jugs, crocks, and bowls were shaped by the hands of a potter.

Old barns become beautiful, awesome in moon’s soft glow

Grist mills and saw mills claimed the banks by your streams’ swift flow.

Views from Mt. Washington, stunning when Pittsburgh’s lights shine

At Amish farms, bright hued quilts hang to dry on a line.

Your mines delved deep seeking veins of coal and iron ore.

You have thick stands of chestnut, oak, elm, and sycamore.

Scattered inns provide respite along your roads and pikes.

Your blacksmiths shaped iron rods into horseshoes, nails and spikes

Bless Those Doing the Can-Can

It’s that time of year when gardens are producing and the reaping has begun. Those who freeze or can the abundant produce that is the reward for tilling, planting, and weeding are hurrying to preserve the different vegetables before the rot or spoil. It would be a shame to allow that hard work to go to waste. Old recipes are recalled for sauces, jams, jellies, relishes. Jars are washed and filled. Lids and rings are applied before the different products are given a cold water pack or pressure sealed, then stored in pantries and cupboards. Abundance may cause some gardeners to seek new recipes or share the harvest with family, friends, and neighbors. It’s a time that requires almost as much planning as did the planting of the garden. One blessing is that different vegetables and fruits ripen at different times. It would be nearly impossible to gather and process all of the food, if the times they ripened weren’t staggered.

I haven’t had a garden for several years. The last two times I made garden were a failure. I tried to weed, but two seasons, one right after another, were very rainy. When I attempted to keep up with weeding, the mud came up to my ankles. With only myself and Willow the cat to feed, I didn’t think it was worth the aggravation.

For the small amount of canning that I do, I would buy the vegetables and fruit from local vendors. The projects to freeze and can for myself were enough to keep me busy and to fulfill my needs. My favorite to can is salsa. Tomatoes, several kinds of peppers, onions, and salsa mix with some added ingredients, vinegar, and a bit of sugar would give me the flavor I enjoy.

This year I have been helping friends can. It’s enjoyable and most of their recipes are ones I enjoy or have given them. I am completely out of a pepper mix that is great on burgers or to dump on a roast and allow it to simmer. I got the recipe from a dear lady friend who has passed away. It was Marie Ohler who lived on the Springfield Pike, so I merely call it Marie’s pepper mix. The great part about the concoction is by adjusting the types of peppers, you also adjust the heat of the mix. The recipe requires 2 kegs ketchup, 2 cups sugar, one large diced onion, one diced garlic clove, 25 green bell peppers, one cup vegetable oil, and thirty hot peppers. Mix all, bring to boil, then place in jars. Cold pack for 15 to 20 minutes.