PRACTICAL PARSIMONY: I Saw No-See-Ums! More Strawberries, Stats

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

I Saw No-See-Ums! More Strawberries, Stats

This afternoon, about 6 pm, I was taking clothes from the line. The sun was setting and in my eyes. However, it seemed that dust was coming off my clothes as I removed them. I could see particles when I faced the sun, but not when I faced away from the sun. Were these no-see-ums? If they were they did not bite me. I shook and slapped the few clothes I had in my arms.

I grew up in Memphis and always ate strawberries from Alabama because Daddy would only buy strawberries from Alabama at the huge Farmer's Market that was busiest in the middle of the night! They were sweet and delicious. Mama froze many flats of strawberries. Since the Farmer's Market opened here, I have tried to eat local. I bought strawberries several times over the years, sometimes several times in strawberry season.

Last year, I gave up on local berries. They are nasty tasting. They are red on the outside and white and hard on the inside. Finally, it made more sense to buy strawberries from Walmart that were shipped from California. They are sweet, red all the way through. Plus, they are cheaper. I would pay $14 for a gallon of local berries and can get a gallon at WM for about $8. It is not the cost; it's the taste.

Since my four or more months' hiatus, I lost almost 100 followers. Page views were down to about 100 when I started back but rose to nearly 300 lately. Well, imagine my surprise when I had 1002 page views recorded today. What happened? The posts did not have a total of 1002 page views, so I am puzzled.

Your turn
Have you ever seen no-see-ums? Did I? If not what were the insects no bigger than dust? Are your local strawberries delicious? Can you imagine how I got 1002 page views when not that many views were of the last post?

4 comments:

Sonya AnnJune 21, 2016 at 9:14 AM
I'm on the IL/WI border and our fruits and veg aren't the greatest no matter where you go. They have a local farmers market on Thursdays maybe I'll pop over and see what they have.
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Anne in the kitchenJune 21, 2016 at 11:23 AM
I have gotten strawberries from a farm near Talladega and they were fantastic.
No see um's are real critters, they eat me alive but have not been too bad this year. I have hope it will be a ow mosquito year, but we have had so much rain lately I think it is probably false hope
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Okay, hoping the annoyances have gone away.

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The Cast

Fancy is my favorite hen. She is one of the three youngest hens I adopted. Because she is so gentle and friendly, she may be the one I rescued when she was being pecked to death after she could no longer stand. She got to live in the house in a box. Sometimes, I let her sit in my lap while she was convalescing. Now, she comes to sit in the swing with me, cuddling up to my body like a cat or dog. She died in February 2012.

Fancy follows me begging, complaining, needing me to do for her. She talks to me in various voices. She allows me to pick her up and carry her. When she became an adult, her head was a darker red and her body was light brown. Around her neck were tips of black feathers. It appeared she had a necklace of jet around her neck. When I showed this characteristic to a friend, he said, "Oh, you have fancy chickens and plain chickens."

Chessie has a broken toe. I broke it! She had a habit of jumping really high and almost sticking. A raccoon ate her in October 2009.

Thelma is the blonde. She is also the largest hen and the alpha hen. I suspect the gigantic eggs are from her. She often squats and presents herself to me. She is top hen, but I suspect she knows she had better be deferent to top feeder of the flock--me.

Louise is the auburn-feathered hen. She looks like the true Rhode Island Reds in pictures. She is almost as large as Thelma. Some days I suspect she is trying to be top chicken. When I got Pepper, I found out Louise is the Alpha hen.

Pepper came here from the same home as the first four. We were discussing putting red pepper on their food, wondering if it really would increase egg production. Pepper is the only name we agreed on. She is terrorized each day by Louise. Even after the worst was over, she was and is still filled with terror and very wary.

Linda is owned by four hens. They allow her to fetch for them. She loves them dearly, so she allows them to boss her around. Linda comes out in the rain to perform chores for them and make sure they have food and water. She begs scraps from all sorts of places to make sure they have fresh fruits and vegetables.

Parsimony is not a vegetable

Parsimony is extreme care in spending money. Stick around and learn about my random thoughts on accomplishing goals economically--dumpster diving aka safari, gleaning, do-it-yourself, sewing tips, recipes, and whatever is happening in my life.

Okay so maybe "parsimony" is not your thing. How about thrift, frugality or just plain saving money? I try not to go the tightwad route as that seems to imply others will suffer from my habits.

Some of my not-spending habits have very much been a part of my lifelong habits. Other habits are newly acquired and are an extension of my lifelong not-spending habits.

I am very imaginative when it comes to substituting or making instead of buying. I will tell you about making a heater for the chickens' water. Not one dime was spent since I had everything I needed right in my basement.

Practicality must rear its head alongside parsimony. For example, I will use the dryer in bad weather or because of allergies in the spring. But, I will not wash clothes in a tub as long as I have a washing machine or can find one.

You may hear more about my four Rhode Island Red hens than you care to hear. They lay delicious brown eggs.

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Tuesday, June 21, 2016

I Saw No-See-Ums! More Strawberries, Stats

4 comments: