Chapter 87
Double digits. Wow. Derek and I managed to take the caballeros to the Brown Lantern for their 10th birthdays but the only thing we could come up with for a “big” gift was an entire tub of miscellaneous legos that I bartered for along with some books with designs for their MOCs. Yes, it was a group gift, but they didn’t care because they prefer working on things together anyway. For their individual gift I repeated what Mom and Dad did. They got a card explaining all the ways they are loved and a valuable part of the family. I admit that I helped Derek write one for Daniel, but he put it in his words. It was on the mushy side for the kids, but I know I still value mine and it is in my keepsake of all keepsakes box. Maybe next year I’ll give them a box to keep that kind of stuff in. Lastly, they all got new church clothes. We bought new jeans for the boys, and I sewed a shirt for each of them in their personal style, and for Nat I did a dress. All three of them are growing. Maybe not like weeds, but they are definitely catching up to above the 50th percentile on the growth chart. Their pediatricians have said they would catch up and they most definitely are.
All three also got gifts from Mr. David which I didn’t expect.
“But why? I mean …”
Derek explained, “Because he knows how I feel about you and the twins. I know we said we were going to keep things quiet and Dad agrees with that. He also agrees with us waiting until things settle down but that doesn’t mean waiting to be family.”
“And Lorena? Does she know?”
He shrugged and dug into the plate of pork chop and Corn-Rice Spoonbread.
I held back for him by the light of the solar lamp I had on the table so he could see to eat as he was very late getting off his shift because there had been a bad accident on I10.
“Lorena will either come around or not. Dad knows how she can be. She’s still just shook up about Felicia. Since she raised her more than Mom ever got the chance to, she looks in the mirror and wonders what she did wrong.”
“And you?”
He thought about it. “It was Felicia’s choice to go to NYC. It was an irresponsible choice. I’m sorry … for lots of things but even before she left for Vegas I had to get comfortable with the idea that at some point she was likely going to come to a bad end. She’d … gotten into drugs. Not heavy use but enough her boundaries were getting even flimsier than they already were. Couple other things apparently that broke Dad up to find out about that still managed to shock me as well despite me suspecting things. But she was an adult, older than you, and … that’s …” He stopped and I could see he wasn’t nearly as resigned as he tried to portray. “The fact she made it as far as Canada before being triaged … maybe … I don’t know. I hope she made her peace. I pray she did. But I … I can’t say for sure but won’t deny it is possible. That’s all I could tell Daniel. That, and because of how and what she died of, they won’t release the body, so we aren’t going to have a grave side service. We’re just going to quietly let her go, and at some point, we’ll get a memorial stone added to the family plot. How’s he seem?”
“Like it is a distant dream. He panics a bit on occasion if he doesn’t know where you are but that’s fading. The twins used to do it to Mitchell and me. And they had a hard time initially with the shared custody thing. We’ll just continue to make sure he understands he isn’t alone and won’t be abandoned.” I was careful not to say anything about how I thought of the way Felicia had treated Daniel … and the rest of her family … because you never have to take things back you never say. Daniel, and Derek either, don’t need me to say things they already know and are hurting about.
I almost didn’t get to go to the farmers’ market this month, but they managed to squeeze me in because I was a “small business” rather than a big corporation. I showed them I used the LLC for reporting and tax purposes with my EIN. When I did that, and proved I could speak their language, everything was fine again. I think they are trying to vet buyers even more than sellers at this point. Between the garden, the orchards and hoop house, and the farmers market I was able to bring in the following: Asian pears, broccoli, cabbage, cucumbers, greens, pumpkins, tomatoes, watermelons, tangerines, Myers lemons, satsuma oranges, navel oranges, Brandywine tomatoes (red, pink, yellow, orange), yellow pear tomatoes, Cherokee purple tomato, amaranth, chicory, acorn squash, bantam yellow corn, navy beans (dry), beets, Japanese hull less popcorn, spaghetti squash, black turtle beans (dry), great northern beans (dry), Jacob’s cattle bean (dry), pinto beans (dry), kale, tangelos, red grapefruit, avocados, coconuts, carambolas, guavas, mushrooms, bell peppers, peanuts, squash, sweet corn, garlic, onions, persimmons, golden raspberries, bananas, Natal plums, strawberry guavas, chestnuts, elderberries, figs, Jamaican cherries, kiwi fruit, muscadine grapes, pineapples, dragonfruit, pomegranates, and tree tomatoes
[1] (aka tamarillos). The Kentucky Wonder pole bean is something my mother always planted and I’m really glad the ones that I did have produced as well as they have. I’ve canned just quarts and quarts of them. Even more than I have of the Rattlesnake Pole Beans.
One of the funny things that I’ve harvested this month are the lemon cucumbers
[2]. The White Wonder cucumber
[3] plants also produced. I also got some from the Dragon Egg
[4] cucumber seeds I planted. That one was just a lark after finding a packet of the seeds at a foreclosure. Only about half of them germinated, but that could have been the package they were in and their age and not about my light green thumb.
The peppers of the month have been the Hungarian Yellow wax peppers, sweet banana peppers, cayenne peppers, all the colors of bell peppers (green, yellow, orange, red, and “chocolate”), and Serrano hot peppers. I got so many of them that I was able to take some to barter at the farmers market (after giving some to Mr. David) and in return I got some strawberries plants for after I built them their own round, tiered bed. For the life of me I can’t remember what those beds are called but I’m hoping the set up makes it easier for me to put netting over it once they make so I don’t have to fight the birds over everything.
My hanging pots of cherry tomatoes that I was using to decorate the porch with have given me almost more than I can keep up with, so I shared them with Mrs. Padfield and Lorena. I also sent Lorena some radishes (after a hint from Mrs. Padfield) and I might just be getting the hang of dealing with the woman. It isn’t a matter of bribing her so much as proving that Derek and I can follow our dreams and do more than just scrape by while doing it.
Funny story, but Daniel went to visit his grandparents only to find his cousin – Derek’s older half-sister’s little girl – was having a whirling dervish day. Daniel insisted on making her some “ginger milk” and lecturing her on how poison some things can be for some people … like red dye … and low and behold Derek gets a call and his sister wants to know what else Daniel’s pediatrician recommended. I had a good laugh at that one.
“Don’t sell yourself short Mina. I’ve been passing some of the things you do around at the EMS station. We’ve got a file set up for suggestions to try when people lose access to some of their medications, or they’re trying to get off medications, or lower the amounts they need to take. Do you know we’ve lost people in this county because of infrastructure failure?”
“From what?”
“Infrastructure failure. Systems and structures are failing and can’t be replaced or rebuilt fast enough to keep them from causing harm. Bridges and roads are in crap condition causing accidents. Kids are getting cut off cold turkey from some of their psych meds and it is creating some emergency situations. Same for people on cholesterol and BP meds, and adult psych meds. I can’t mention names, but you’d be surprised at some of the people that are dependent on psych meds for some quality of life, and how they are handling having to cut back.”
“Or not,” I said. “Don’t forget, I saw Mr. Clemon’s son taking his clothes off at the corner of 90 and Main in broad daylight. I never would have guessed he was schizophrenic.”
“Yeah, Eddie was fine until we were in high school. He was there in 9th grade and just fine but by Christmas break of our 10th grade he was talking to people that weren’t there that were telling him to do things that no way looked normal.” He sighed. “We’ve put him on the emergency list for seeing the psychiatrist at the hospital in Lake City, but the waiting list is long and Eddie is harmless; some others aren’t when they are off their meds. They’ve reopened every building and wing at the Florida State Hospital and are even converting staff offices to residential holding areas. And it still won’t be enough. They are talking about moving populations around and using some of the minimum security prisons for mentally ill people that can’t be served in their community.”
“Will Mr. Clemon’s son wind up there?”
“Hopefully not. Like I said, he was always harmless even at his worst. More danger to himself than anything else. But that’s not always the case. And when it is more than just one member of the family exhibiting that kind of behavior, it can get dangerous when singly it wouldn’t. There’s a family in Colombia county that has four of their five kids on some strong psych meds. The oldest has already been taken out of the home for trying to set fire to his sister’s bed and he used to be his class valedictorian. The other three are about to be removed and would have been already had there been a facility to send them to. The one kid that isn’t on psych meds is so traumatized she needs counseling, and the parents are just not living in reality land and are trying to say it is the state’s fault their kids are the way they are.”
Derek sees a lot of stuff like that. I’m surprised he doesn’t need psych drugs himself considering some of the stories he’s told. On the other hand, he seems to be handling it a lot better than some of the draftees. Maybe it is his calling, but he’s also a good lawyer. Plus, he’s known in town and people trust him. I’m glad people are seeing his worth, I just hope he can find the sweet spot when he gets to decide his own time between the two.
Speaking of the sweet spot, tomorrow I start harvesting the cox orange pippin apples, Akansas Black apples, Enterprise red apples, and the King Dave red/green apples. I’m also going to see if the pecan trees are ready for the kids to make like monkeys and shake the nuts off so we can rake them up and then bag them so they can cure before I crack them to get to the nut meats inside.
In succession planting I’ve got a bunch of herbs that need to go from their pots into the fancy herb garden (it is a geometry project for the kids), Chinese cabbage that will come in handy for the stir-fries I plan on making to change up how we are eating rice, spinach to add to the greens, and kohlrabi because I have one of those spare packets of seeds I need to use while they’ll still germinate. I’m also trying another experiment in the open land that sits across from the house. I’m planting rye (2 bushels/acre), triticale (112 lbs/acre), and soft red wheat (2 bushels/acre). I did get the fifty pound back of whole wheat at the farmers market (oh my gosh did that cost) but with as much bread as I bake I need to find a cheaper source.
Being down to two days a week means the clients going to the law offices aren’t getting the treatment they were receiving when I was there more often. They are a lot less willing to overlook some of what I consider irregularities. I can’t push too fast however as I don’t want to get Mr. Barnes or Derek in trouble.
[1] How to Plant and Grow a Tree Tomato
[2] https://www.rareseeds.com/cucumber-lemon-cuke
[3] How to Grow White Wonder Cucumbers
[4] https://www.rareseeds.com/cucumber-dragon-s-egg
Corn-Rice Spoonbread Recipe
¼ c. stone-ground yellow cornmeal
1 t. salt
½ t. baking soda
2 T. butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
2 c. buttermilk
1 cup cooked leftover rice (plain white, brown, or other)
Preheat oven to 325F. Spray an 8” square pan or similar cast iron skillet with oil and set aside. (If using cast iron, hit skillet or other such pan in oven while mixing the remaining ingredients. Then carefully remove for filling.) Combine the cornmeal, salt, and baking soda. Combine the melted butter, eggs, and butter milk in a larger bowl by whisking, then gently stir the dry ingredients in. Be gentle, the ingredients didn’t do anything to you so you don’t need to beat them to death. After incorporating everything together so there are no dry lumps left, pour them into your baking container of choice. Bake until firmed, puffy, and browned to your personal liking. Something like 50 to 55 minutes depending on how hot your oven runs.