Passing Along the Love of Nature
Last Wednesday we met my parents and our nieces & nephew down at the family cabin. It was a beautiful November day, perfect for a day out in nature! We had a grand day doing all the fun stuff that I did with my siblings and my cousins as a kid. We hiked around the woods, played in the creek, built forts in the pine forest and had a gun safety lesson. Mr Chiots worked on rebuilding his tree stand as well. Here’s a slideshow of our fun day. Use the arrow buttons on the side of the player, if you click on the small icon in the top left hand corner you can view the slide show in full screen (click the button again to exit full screen mode when you’re finished).
[flashgallery folder=”Fun at the Family Cabin”]
It’s nice to see that the kids are growing up having the same wonderful experiences that we did as kids. Hopefully they’ll have fond memories as I do of the “Briar Patch” as it’s called in our family!
Do you have a place that you remember fondly from your childhood?
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I Claim This Land for Chiot’s Run
Mr Chiots and I have been wanting to buy the lots on either side of us since we bought Chiot’s Run almost 10 years ago. Not being ones to get into debt, we weren’t about to borrow money to do it. We worked hard and paid off our house last year and have been saving with hopes to purchase a nice sized plot of land in a few years. As luck would have it, this spring the lot below us went up for sale for less than half of what it sold for 5 years ago. We purchased it and started clearing it to add more full-sun garden space; something severely lacking here!
We made a reasonable offer on the lot above us 2 years ago, but the owners refused wanting twice what we offered. Being patient people, we decided to wait. They put the lot up for sale with a realtor and waited for 2 years without an offer. Right before we went on vacation in July, they contacted us again wondering if we were still interested in the lot. Since we had just purchased the lot below us for a great price we said, “Well, not really, especially not at the price you’re asking.” We offered what we paid for the lot on the other side and they accepted. The funny thing is that we purchased this lot for 20% less than what we offered them 2 years ago. Because we were patient we got a great price on both lots and have been able to expand our property to 3/4 of an acre from the 1/4 that it was originally.
This lot is just like the one below, filled with trees both big and small. There are six gigantic tulip trees that are at least 80 ft tall on it. We plan on clearing out the trees to make room for lots of edible garden space and using a lot of the wood to heat our house and to boil down our maple sap. Hopefully we’ll be able to clear it out by spring and spend the next year or two growing cover crops to improve the soil. The lot below that we purchased this spring will become an orchard when we finish clearing it.
We’re still saving money to buy 100 acres someday. Originally we were thinking of staying here in rural Carroll county, but with the arrival natural gas drilling and fracking, we’re considering a move to New England, maybe Maine or Vermont. It may happen before our original goal of 10 years if the gas/oil company starts drilling wells nearby. We’ll be “getting out of dodge” before our property values tank and our water gets polluted by the fracking. This is very sad because we’re investing a lot in this little plot of land and we really do like our community. Until then we’ll garden as if we’re not leaving, you really can’t know for sure what will happen in the future.
How big is your garden space? Have you been able to expand it at all?
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The Journey
Last week we drove up the Cleveland to pick my dad up from the airport as he was returning from Colombia, South America. If you’ve been reading here for a while, you’ve probably picked up on the fact that I was born/raised in Colombia. My parents have been missionaries there for almost 40 years. Whenever my dad returns, he brings back treats from Colombia, things I can’t get here in Ohio. This time he brought us some buñelos, which are basically corn starch and baking powder mixed with a country cheese that’s made with soured milk and then deep fried. Nothing like some delicious starch and cheese, which pretty much is what all Colombian snacks are made of – they just use different kinds of starch and shape them differently.
Traditionally they’re eaten for breakfast or a snack with coffee or hot chocolate. I probably could make these, I know how to make the cheese they use and I can buy corn starch. The trick is in the frying, they have to be done just right or they are not nice spheres but weird bulbous masses. Perhaps one of these days I’ll try making them, but until then I’m happy that my dad brings us some each time he returns. We pop them in the oven for 10 minutes and they’re quite tasty!
On our way home from my parent’s house Mr Chiots and I were talking about how if he had never met me, he would have most likely never eaten a buñelo (if I had never met him I would have never eaten a brown sugar cinnamon pop tart with butter on top). It’s interesting to look back on your life and see the journey that you’ve taken, how different choices molded your life. How you ended up in your current house, in your current situation, with your current significant other, or lack there of.
Whenever I really think about it, I’m amazed at where I ended up in life. When I was little I always said I wanted to open a bakery, that was my second choice because I really just wanted to stay little. I would have never guessed that I’d be married to Mr Chiots, living in Malvern, OH, gardening like there’s no tomorrow, working at Ethel Gloves, blogging about my life, and taking photos of anything and everything I see.
Is there something in your life that you would have never experienced had you not met one specific person?
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The Beauty of Old Friendship
This past weekend I traveled down to Cincinnati, OH to meet up with some college girlfriends. We met in 1994 during the fall of our freshman year of college and became fast friends right away. Our years in college were spent together creating lots of fun memories while building a foundation for a friendship that would last the rest of our lives. In 1998 we parted and went our separate ways. This photo was taken on graduation day, marking the end of the first phase of our friendship.
Although our lives have taken us each down a different road to a different city, we get together at least once a year. We have cried tears of joy when celebrating marriages and births, and tears of joy and grief through divorce and the death of a husband.
Although we all have made other friends throughout the years of our lives, there’s just something comforting about a friendship with a long rich history. We relish these moments when we can spend time together, even though it is all too brief. I’m very grateful for these girlfriends that have been in my life for 17 years. A warm thanks goes out to my friends: Danielle, Shannon, Kelly, Katie, and Jen for all the wonderful memories we’ve made so far and the all the ones we’ll make in the future.
Do you have any friendships that have withstood the test of time?
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Quote of the Day: Jessica Prentice
Abundance is something we feel, not something that we have. Those of us who have gone traveling to a so-called poor country and encountered an amazing spirit of generosity and a true sense of abundance can attest to this. We find it surprising and charming and quite exotic. Without a sense of scarcity, there is no sense of abundance, because there is no perspective.
Jessica Prentice
(from: Full Moon Feast: Food and the Hunger for Connection)
I’m very thankful that I was brought up in a third world country and was able to see true scarcity. There aren’t a lot of people in this country that have seen anything like it. We’ve definitely lost our sense of what abundance really is, which is really sad since we’re some of the richest people in the world.
When I read about one in five New Yorkers being on food stamps and of officials estimate that $75 million to $135 million of New Yorks food stamp benefits are spent on sodas or sugary drinks I kind of feel sick (see this article). I think back on the poor people I’ve visited that would kill their last chicken to feed you a meal while going hungry themselves. I’m thankful I’ve had this experience and as a result I know what true abundance is and I strive to share some of the abundance I have with others.
Please consider doing without something during the month of November and donating the funds you save to a charity that helps the poor around the world. As we start thinking about Thanksgiving and planning our big feasts, please don’t forget to think about those around us and the world don’t have the abundance we do.
