Migrant Mother Photos by Dorthea Lange

Anytime I start to get down about our house not being finished or by all the work I need to do in caring for my seven children, I just need to recall this photo of a migrant farm working mother taken by Dorthea Lange.

I found this photo while looking through Lange's photos available online. What a blessing to have these images at our fingertips. I was amazed to realize that Lange took one of her most famous photos (pictured below) in Nipomo, California, which is a town in the area where I grew up. It is especially meaningful as my family were migrant farm workers also.



Though there are many photos of Lange's that I love, I think this one of this mother nursing her baby is my favorite. Isn't is amazing?



To see more of Lange's photos, google her name or follow this link.

Chiggers

We moved to Missouri in the winter. It was a mild winter and we were pleased with it. Then spring came and I was in love with the countryside and couldn't be happier. Even early summer was wonderful as we didn't find the humidity all that daunting as we were warned we would. But then, around mid-July everything changed as the chiggers came out of dormancy. I learned then that the chiggers are what puts the Misery in Missouri.











Photo: Unscratched chigger bite. It is different than other bites because it can be blister like.

Never heard of a chigger? Well I can tell you about them. They are so small that you can't even see them. Whenever you go outside you'll like pick some up. They crawl on you, unbeknownst to you of course, and usually make their way to areas that the sun don't shine on. They generally like to burrow and lay their eggs in your skin under anything that is tight fitting like socks, underwear, your bra, or watch. But not always. They'll deposit their little babies just about anywhere they can on your body. And they itch like crazy for days until the little larvae hatch and exit your skin. LOVELY!

Chiggers and ticks have made it so I don't want to garden late summer. And that's one of the main reasons we moved to the country!

The frustrating thing about them is that even people who douse themselves with bug spray containing Deet claim that chiggers aren't always repelled. Since I prefer not to use such chemicals I've been trying to use Avon's Skin-So-Soft. It seems to be helping but maybe it's just been luck since my daughter lathered herself with some before going out to plant flowers and she ended up with many bites all over her tummy.

In order to try to combat the little buggers we've been trying to make it a habit to shower after returning from the outdoors. This does seem to help. Unfortunately, for my 1 year old son (after one of his outdoor excursions) I put him in the tub and washed his whole body except his face. I just didn't think of the chiggers biting him there and that's what ended up happening. Three new chigger bites on his cheek!

The worst off this summer has been our 14 year old son who is earning money by doing yard work. His feet have been assaulted by irritating chigger bites!

There are soo many bugs here in the countryside that frogs plant themselves on our windows at night in order to hunt. In my opinion the chiggers, which frogs and chickens don't help with, are the worst!

Dealing With A Mite Infestation

One of the downsides of country living is the multitudes of bugs. As if dealing with ticks, chiggers, a wide variety of spiders, gnats, flies, horse flies, mosquitos, flying cockroaches, Asian beetles, wasps, cicadas, stink bugs, and more isn't enough, we recently dealt with an infestation of mites in the girls' room.

Since we were remodeling our bedroom, and since we practice co-sleeping, the baby and I had been sleeping in the girls' room. Our eldest daughter sleeps on a queen size bed and the baby and I were sharing it with her. We also had all three girls clothes, as well as mine and the babies in that room.

For months there had been birds nesting in the wall by the window. I had informed my husband about it and he wasn't in a rush to try to get the birds out. Besides being annoying every morning we thought they were pretty harmless. Although I was concerned about their droppings accumulating and attracting bugs.

One night as my daughter and I were preparing to go to sleep, I thought I felt a bug crawlign on my face. I asked my daughter if I had a tick or something and she said she didn't see anything. So we went to sleep. I had a fitful sleep that night as it was blazing hot and I felt like I had bugs crawling on me. I thought it was my imagination!

Finally, I thought there is no way I am imagining. So I went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror and saw nothing on my face even though I felt something crawling. I wiped my face and a minute later I felt it again. I was wondering if I was going nuts for a second. Then I thought to lean real close to the mirror and look closer. Sure enough there was the tiniest critter crawling across my forehead!

I freaked out and ran to investigate the bed. Sure enough the pillows, sheets and wall by the window was crawling with thousands of tiny mites! I immediately woke all three girls, grabbed the baby, and awoke the boys in the room across from them. I had everyone bathe and put on clean clothes. Fortunately, there were plenty of clean clothes in the laundry area for all of us to change into.

I went back up stairs to investigate some more and I saw that they were heavily concentrated on the window trim and only covering the wall by the window and the beds that butt up to that side, as well the desk, book case and toys. They weren't on the other walls though, nor in the hall or boys room. (Thank heavens!)

Then I got on the internet to try to figure out what they were. I was shocked to learn that birds nests located on roofs, in gutters, attics, etc. can cause mite infestations. When the birds leave the nest the mites do too in order to find a new host. Bird mites can bite humans but we did not get any bites at all so we aren't sure if they were bird mites. When my husband went outside the next day to investigate he found that the tree outside the girls room, which brushed against the wall and window, was full of birds and mites. So we aren't sure whether we had bird mites or tree mites.

Upon going to Home Depot to get a mite fogger my husband learned that many people were dealing the same issue as the small foggers were sold out and there was only large packs available. This was confirmed by one of the employees who said that all the moisture we've been having is causing infestations.

After fogging the room a laundry saga began. After a month and a half I FINALLY got all caught up with the laundry generated by our mite fiasco. It took me weeks of multiple (like 3,4,5!) loads of laundry every day to wash every blanket, pillow, piece of clothing from drawers and the closet as well as stuffed animals, and even back packs, in addition to our regular laundry!

Thank god the leaking washer held up even though the laundry room constantly had standing water!!

The one good thing that came out of it all was an opportunity to look at every piece of clothing and ask myself and my eldest daughter, "Do you love it?" We got rid of a lot of clothes!

It took me about as long to do the laundry as it did for my husband to complete most of the remodeling of our room! Happily the house is now back in order. Until he takes the drop kitchen ceiling apart and replaces it with drywall that is!

Making Pizza With Summer Squash

One of the neat things about living out in the country is that in addition to growing your own produce other people may generously bestow you with some of their own bounty from either their garden or the local produce auction.

The other day this happened to me. An acquaintance brought me cases of cucumbers, summer squash and some onions that she bought at auction. She said she got a really good deal on the price and the quantity was far too much for her.

Of course the children devoured the cucumbers. I gave away some bunches of onions and squash to friends. This left me with a couple of onion bunches and boxes of squash which I didn't know what to do with. With the heat and no room in the fridge for all of them many went bad. I gave these to our chickens and they loved them.

I had used a few squash in stir fries, but then I was out of ideas on how to prepare the squash. When I was down to having only enough to fill the produce compartment of my fridge I figured out a great way to use up a large quantity: On Pizza! (The next time I get a ton of squash I think I'll blanche it and freeze for pizza topping!)

I was recently given a recipe for pizza crust and I had been eager to try it. My husband asked me to make a vegetable pizza and I thought I'd try the squash as a topping. It turned out deliciously beyond our expectations. Both the pizza crust and the veggies really pleased us! So I'd like to share them with you.

Pizza Toppings:

I cut the onions and squash then sauteed them in butter until soft. I spiced them with black pepper, onion powder, garlic salt, salt, and Italian seasoning. I didn't measure but this is how I season my food. I sprinkle enough of each spice until the top layer is pretty well covered. Not heavily covered though! We like to use crushed pineapple for a final topping on our pizzas.

Cost: $7.00 for two 16 oz. blocks of cheese. $2 for Ragu Spaghetti sauce. $1.33 x 3= $3.99 for crushed pineapple. This was enough to make this recipe 3 times. I would estimate that for 3 pizzas it probably cost $3 in additional ingredients of flour, yeast, etc. and the electricity to make the pizzas. This equals $16 for all 3 pizzas. Compare that to a large Dominos Veggie pizza that costs $12.99 x3 = $38.97! Cha-ching!

Pizza Crust:

1 1/2 c. warm H2O
1 1/2 pkg yeast or roughly 3 1/4 tsp.
1 1/2 T sugar

Let stand for 5 minutes in a lg. bowl.

Add:
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 3/4 c. white flour
1 c. wheat flour

Knead lightly.
Press into pizza pan. (I rolled the dough out onto a cookie sheet [since I don't have a pizza pan] using an empty salsa jar which is my favorite roller.)
Let raise 10-30 minutes depending on how thick you want the crust.
Then once it has risen add the sauce.

I used a jar of Ragu Spaghetti sauce, but here are ingredients for a sauce.

Sauce:
Tomato sauce, oregano, It. seasoning, Parmesean and garlic paste

Assembling the Pizza:

After the dough was done rising for 1/2 hour I spread the spaghetti sauce over the dough. Then I took the 2squash and 2 onions that I had sauteed and spread them over the top of the dough evenly. The veggies were covered with Mozarrella cheese and also some Colby Jack cheese. (The next night I made another pizza with only Mozarella cheese. After spreading the cheese I covered the whole pizza with crushed pineapple.) I like to sprinkle hot red peppers on my pizza, btw.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or until the cheese is very melted. As I said we were very pleased with the results. However next time I am going to try not spreading the sauce or toppings all the way to the edge in order to let the outer edge of the crust harden.

My husband and I are so excited to be able to make our own pizza. Just think of all the money we have wasted over the years buying pizzas! This pizza is fresh, healthy, wholesome, nutritious and filling!!

Enjoy! I would love to see photos of your final product from this recipe.

Take A Stand Against The Fat Reduction Ads On Yahoo!

I have had enough. For months now I have been frustrated by the new fad of ads depicting people's fat being reduced. You must have seen them by now. There is a photo of someone's flabby stomach, butt or thighs, obviously computer enhanced to the extreme. Then the fat starts to disappear and shows a trimmer, improved shape.

The whole concept is lame. First of all, do advertisers really think that the public wants to be subjected to this and that we will just sit by and allow ourselves to see such ugliness every time we get on the Internet. Second of all, are people clicking on the ads to find out how they can make their flabby skin just go away like magic. Are people really that gullible???

So I've been getting more and more irritated by these ridiculous ads, but now I am MAD. They've just gone too far. The other day I went to check my email and there was a huge, up close photo of some chicks butt and the ad said something about dimples. Excuse me? They want me to check out some woman's behind and see if she has dimples? Please! Spare me and my family and the whole public. We have NO desire to be bombarded by such tacky ads.

Can't we expect a modecum of decency on the Internet? Can't advertisers, or at least the companies that run the ads, have some decency and refrain from continuously running ads that rely on sexual innuendo, dancing women, fat bodies, or anti-aging gimmicks?

If you are equally disgusted by Yahoo! running smutty ads, please join this FaceBook group:
People Who Are Sick Of Seeing Fat Reduction Ads On Yahoo!

Michael Jackson: An Icon of Internalized Racism

.'

Tributes to Michael Jackson abound in the wake of his untimely death, at age 50. Friends of mine have expressed their sadness over it. My husband shared with me his own sadness, stemming from the fact that he recalls as a child watching Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 performing on television.

Indeed, it is very sad about his death and his "haunted" life as reporters have called it. The fact that he couldn't accept himself and was driven to alter his features soo much so that he'd be "Whitenized" is especially saddening to me.

Although he denied it, it is obvious that he had many plastic surgeries altering his broad, African features into narrower, more Caucasian ones. His story is a sad consequence of slavery, racism, prejudice, segregation, and Jim Crow. As I mentioned in a previous post about Shirley Temple and Racism, he is a product of internalized racism and conforming to a western standard of beauty.


He was the King of Pop. In my mind he is more than a Pop icon, he is an icon representing our country's racist heritage. Born in 1958, he was born shortly after my own mother, and during a time when America was still segregated and shamelessly racist.

When my mother was a child she saw a sign (similar to the one pictured below) in a store that said No dogs, No shoes, No Mexicans. When I was a child my grandmother would often tell me that, "brown is beautiful" as a means of countering the sentiments of the times.


It is interesting that Michael Jackson has passed away during the same year that we have our first Black president in office. Although having a black president gives us hope about race relations in America, racism still thrives.

May we all remember MJ's contributions to music and may we all remember that everyone is a child of God. May we each work to recognize and crush racist stereotypes and propaganda and those that make their living disseminating such. May we all pledge to Heal Racism.

Definition of Internalized Racism from Real Definitions:
INTERNALIZED RACISM: (1) The poison of racism seeping into the psyches of people of color, until people of color believe about themselves what whites believe about them -- that they are inferior to whites; (2) The behavior of one person of color toward another that stems from this psychic poisoning. Often called "inter-racial hostility;" and (3) The acceptance by persons of color of Eurocentric values. (See Harris and Ordoira, op. cit. pp. 304-3 16.)

Similar articles:
* Black or White:The Deracination of Michael Jackson
*Micheal Jackson: Another Victim of Fame
* Michael (On the Resist Racism site)

For more information about Internalized Racism, please read the following:
*Internalized Racism and Oppression
*A Working Definition of Racism
*Dynamic Beauty: Cultural Influences and Changing Perceptions
*For Indian People, Education Has Been A Weapon Used Against Them For Several Generations

Information on How to Overcome Internalized Racism:
*Reasons For Hope
*Racial Reconciliation
*Healing From the Effects of Internalized Opression

*Sisters of the Yam: Black Women and Self-Recovery (South End Press Classics Series)

Book Review: Egg Gravy

The book Egg Gravy
is one three books from the Butter In The Well series, which chronicles a Scandanavian woman's homesteading days on the prairie. Egg Gravy is a record of the recipes some of the author's ancestors utilized in their everyday lives.

There are recipes in Egg Gravy that I do not plan to ever use, like Baked Coon, Baked Possum and Fried or Scrambled (Pig) Brains. But I have spent some time today transcribing several recipes that I am eager to try like Oatmeal Bread, Sunshine Cake, Pumpkin Cookies, Graham Bread and Mamma's Bread. These recipes, and many more, seem sure to please.

This book is not intended to be a precise cook book however (so I'll see if the recipes mentioned above actually turn out okay!) It is intended to "portray the everyday life of the women who homesteaded the prairie." Therefore, many of the recipes are missing basic instructions since the women didn't feel the need to write things down that were common knowledge. Which is why the recipe for Cinnamon Rolls does not even mention cinnamon! (What a bummer since I am searching for a spectacular Cinnamon Roll recipe!)

There are some other interesting recipes in this book, like How To Make Your Own Vinegar, Cake Flour, Household Cleansers and Kitchen Floor Paint. Also included are Laundry Hints, and Household Repair tips.

More than recipes and home remedies, this book begins each page with an entry from the diary of Kajsa Svensson Runeberg, whose life is the main character in the Butter In the Well series. Egg Gravy also includes historical photos.

I have read Butter in the Well and it is very interesting, too. If you read this series I'd be interested in your thoughts!

Doggy Poop

I figure I need to write more about the little things in life. About the new experiences that we've had since moving to the country that might seem mundane and insignificant at first, but I think others might find some of them interesting.

Take dog poop for instance. Since we always lived in the city our dogs never had much space for running around. We'd open the door and the dog would go out side and poop in the yard because we trained them to go outside. Or, as we've seen plenty of times, if the dog lives outside in the yard, it will poop all over their living area.

It wasn't until we had acreage that we learned that dogs DO NOT like pooping in their living area. They will hold it if they are chained until they are released and then they will go far away to the edges of their territory to do their thing. Of course with puppies this is not the case. They are clueless and will poop all over. But with grown dogs you will find that there is rarely any poop to clean up if they have acres to roam.

We don't like to chain up our dogs, but we've had to chain up some of them during the day so they don't chase cars. It is usually the case that there is no mess to clean up in their area because they will wait until they are off the chain to relieve themselves.

It makes me very sad for dogs who are always chained or live in small areas and their owners don't clean up after them. I think it must make them miserable to sit so close to their own mess.

We have three dogs and unless we have puppies we don't have to worry about stepping in doggy doo, (unless we are traipsing about the property I guess.) And this makes dog ownership much more enjoyable for me. By the way, cats on-the-other-hand will poop anywhere, even right by your front porch! (Which is a major reason why I can't stand cats. I'll have to go into the other reasons why I can't stand them in the future.)

These are examples of some of the things I've learned since being in the country. What tidbits have you learned?

Rattlesnakes In The Country: Good Watch Dogs Keep Them At Bay

Snakes are common out here in our area of the country. There are many non-poisonous snakes but their are dangerous ones, too. Timber rattlers to be exact.

When we bought the house we didn't realize that this was the case. Before we moved into our house, when we were working on it and some floor boards were torn up, my husband walked in on a 4+ ft. long rattler in the burn room. Shortly after this we began noticing snake skins in the trees, the well, and in the yard. The farmer who we asked to hay our field tried to warn us but we informed him that it was too late. We already knew about them.

My husband sealed the floor boards up quick. We flipped out a bit and wondered if we should pack our bags and get out of Dodge. But then my husband remembered that he had encountered a rattler by the outdoor spigot of a very posh home in Colorado and he'd heard of people in places like Arizona having to deal with snakes, too. We figured that snakes weren't a reason to move away so we began studying how to prevent snakes from coming on our property.

We learned that keeping the grass low and keeping mice to a minimum by containing garbage and having cats were vital. We also learned that chickens eat baby snakes. Doing all of these things has helped make it so that we don't see snake skins often anymore.

But the most important way that we have prevented this, I think, is by having good watch dogs as well as a horse that is contained by our pond and the grassy land by it. The horse is great at keeping grass that we wouldn't be able to mow low. I feel confident that the horse would alert us if a snake was in her area and the grass being low means that we will all be able to see where we are walking when we go to the pond. The dogs marking the property and also hunting all over it keeps the snakes away. But the best thing about the dogs is that they are willing to risk their lives to protect us from harm.

One of our dogs came home with two bites on his snout one day. My husband noticed the marks and announced that the dog had probably been bit by a rattler. We told the kids to beware as it was surely on the loose.

The next day the dog's snout and throat were all bloated and HUGE! He was drooling all over the place due to the swelling. We were worried about him, but more worried about he snake lurking about.

The vet said that by that point either the dog would make it or he wouldn't so we didn't take him in. By the next day the swelling reduced.

That night while the children and I were away my dh heard the 3 dogs baying across the street on the side of the house on the neighboring field. It was the rattler. He coaxed the snake onto the road and then proceeded to run it over.

The dogs continued to bark like crazy even after it was dead. But the mama dog knew best and wouldn't get near it. We could see why her grown son had gotten bit! He was dumb enough to go right up to it!

Thank God for good dogs that put their lives on the line to protect their masters and their property from harm!

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11304433@N00/484186958/

My Cousin Is A "Comedic Genius"/Chicken of The Sea Commercial Winner

Apparently my cousin, Benjamin Hernandez, is a comedic genius, as one youtube viewer describes him. Benny, as we called him when we were kids, entered his video in the Chicken of the Sea commercial contest and won! He is hilarious! I am so happy for him and pray this opens up lots of opportunities for him.