A Place Where Ideas Can Grow

Mike and his dad are finishing assembling my studio. It was the first thing on his list, even before the kitchen and bathroom renovation. It’s as important to Mike as it is to me that I have alone time. I don’t take it personally. I can be hard to live with when I'm writing.

He has thoughtfully planned it and located it, under a tree which I call the Whomping Willow, on the north side of the house so I won’t bake in the sun.

I love this idea from The Artful Blogger by Suerae Stein at Red Barn Artworks because I’m always looking for storage ideas that make sense to me. 

A pre-fab garden shed is all it is, but it's my studio, my alone place, and it's mine, mine, mine. 

Gardening Tips from the Ford Frugalistas

Not many of us garden in a dress and high heels anymore. The fashions of the Ford Rouge housewives may not have stood the test of time, but their gardening tips still come in handy. More household hints from Cutting Corners: a 1950s-era book of household hints by wives (my mom was one), mothers, and sisters of those who worked at the Ford Rouge Plant on the banks of the Rouge River.

A helpful hint for prospective gardeners is offered by Mrs. Lawrence Janish. Her husband works in the Tool and Die plant. She says a garden rake, with two large empty thread spools attached to the teeth of the rake, makes an excellent marker for the rows.


To prevent garden tools from rusting, store them in a box in which lime has been placed, suggests Mrs. Edward Gottlin. Mrs. Gottlin's husband works in the Rolling Mill.


To keep flower pots on window sills from falling, simply place a curtain rod across the window. Paint the rod the same color as the window sill. This hint comes from Mrs. Edward Dwyer, whose husband works in the Gear and Axle plant.


A good brace for a tall-growing plant is a small extension curtain rod, writes Mrs. Elmer Boehr of Garden City. The rod can be pulled out as the plant grows. Mrs. Boehr's husband works in the Iron Foundry.


That odd cream pitcher, sugar bowl or tea pot will make an attractive flower pot and will add color to your kitchen or even your bedroom. Mrs. Lawrence Tucker, St. Clair Shores, says she has a couple around her house and they're attractive. Her husband works in the Casting Machine plant.

With all of the canning and jelly-making hints elsewhere in the book, I was surprised to see no hints for vegetable gardens. But I believe vegetable gardens were the man's domain in the fifties. At least they were at our house.

Other hints -- starting seedlings in eggshells, preserving cut flowers by adding salt to the water, using a salt shaker to sprinkle fine flower seeds -- aren't new today. But in the 1950s they were, and the Ford Frugalistas shared them generously. All hints appear here (except for the addresses) as they did in the Rouge News.

You might also like 
The Ford Housewives: The First Frugalistas
A Labor Day Tale of Two Collars
The Cherished Right to "Wote"

Beans, beans, the tyrannical fruit

When the green beans on the vine are in danger of getting too tough and the temperature threatens to dip below freezing, you don't merely jump. You ask how high.

Beans, beans, the tyrannical fruit,

They force me to pick before I compute.

When the vines are bare, how good I'll feel,

With beans in the freezer for many a meal.

Beaning and blogging

Summertime Sundays have become my favorite mornings for preparing garden vegetables. On Sunday mornings Mike is hosting his country gospel music program on WKLK-AM. Wyatt usually sleeps late. That leaves me alone in the kitchen, free to play whatever music I wish without eye rolling from others. And my music of choice is usually The Deep End with Nick Michaels. It's a syndicated program of deep-cut classic rock, the B- and C- and D-sides, with a sprinkling of classics you never tire of. Only 41 affiliates nationwide carry The Deep End. Duluth is the only Minnesota affiliate and only one of 16 nationwide to air the extended four-hour program.

That means a busy morning. I tend to work in time to music. In Minneapolis I discovered Ice-T provided a good backdrop for punching yeast dough. Last year I rhythmically shredded zucchini with a thrift-store kitchen contraption that resembled a countertop wood chipper. This year it's beans, green and dragon tongue: trimming them, blanching them, freezing them. Today, I was chopping beans to ZZ Top's La Grange. I stopped before the Ahow-how-how-how led to ow-ow-ow. 

And during this dance of chopping, blanching, and freezing, that's when the blogging ideas flow. During the summer harvest, ideas often must wait their turn. Ripened beans on the vine are harsh taskmasters.

That's why it feels good to have several blog posts in the can, as good as it feels to have fresh vegetables in the freezer. Both are stores against less plentiful and productive days.