Garden work and sharing

Hello, The other night Leroy and I went to the community garden to pick beans, cucumbers, and to water. Leroy started watering while I picked beans. Two women that I had seen before came by. They had refused the invitation to take things from the garden. This time I greeted them and then said, “I am picking beans and there are more than I can use. Do you like green beans?” “Yes, we could use some.” One of them said. She then started to pick into the bag I gave her. “We have many cucumbers, again I cannot use them all.” I got a bag and the second woman started to find cucumbers. Encouraged by this, I asked about the kale. When they said yes, I got out my paring knife. I also helped look for cucumbers and just laid them on the ground. I found another bag for the kale and Swiss chard. They ended up taking all b two of the cucumbers. Such a good feeling went through me. They had walked about as far as we had so it would be a load to carry home. The one woman told me she was from Columbia and came here 22 years ago. The other woman was from Honduras. Her English was quite limited and she was quite a lot younger. It was such a good feeling to share with them since they were so appreciative. I told them they could come back on their own any time. They sounded like they will do that. I hope that is true. Paula

Picking Kale

Hello, The community garden has so much kale. It is difficult to tell if anyone else is picking. All but four plants are volunteer. There is an organization called Feed Iowa First that will take fresh produce. With an address in hand and mostly in my head, I headed to a drop off/pick up place in the next neighborhood. While there I learned where the refrigerator is located behind a church. The pastor told me that we were really supposed to turn in produce at another place where they sort and wash it. He left after telling me that. I even went so far as to put three cucumbers in the frig when I noticed the address for drop off on the door of the frig. It is not good when people drop off the unwanted. It becomes a burden on the museum or library. “Okay, I will take it there,” I thought. Luckily the gps lady talked to me because I had no idea where I was going. After many turns both left and right, it was right in front of me and I knew where I was. I could get home from here. There was a drop off shed, where directions stated that items should be put in a tub and the form listing name, email, produce, organic or not, and tub number. No tub numbers were visible to me, so I just unloaded my piles of curly leaf, flat leaf, and Red Russian Kale. There were also three cucumbers, and some giant Swiss Chard to share. Before I left, I saw a young woman in a building across the way. I learned that she was working for this group. She answered all my questions. I am now much more comfortable bringing more produce. The idea of promoting feed Iowa first bothers me some, but I do feel that produce especially should be shared with all. Many people I know do not want to help people in other countries and that does not seem right to me. Maybe if all of Iowa people were fed and comfortable there would be more of a feeling of sharing with people from any place on earth. Paula

No Subs

Hello, Leroy and I will be gone at the end of September. We are assigned to work at the Saturday night meal at our church. Apparently a good many people will be gone at that time. We have contacted seven couples about either subbing for us or switching with us. It gets to be a long process because often people do not answer so we have to wait for a call back. Just today Leroy let me know that someone called back so we are covered. We will work for them two weeks ahead of that time. We are going to help with a meal tonight at church. Apparently, it has been hard to find someone for that job because I was just asked yesterday. It is always good to have wonderful ideas, but getting it all to come together can be an issue. I started reading the next book for our book club. I believe it fits in the thriller category. I will not be reading it in the evenings because I do not sleep well after that. The title is the overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf. I feel hooked right away, so that is good. August 17, 2023 We do have subs. We will trade days with them. That will be okay, but we have to work the Saturday before we leave. Hope we do not feel too busy. Glad we could help last night. It was necessary. Paula

Community Garden

Hello, With the recent rains the garden has flourished, both the edible and the inedible. Last night Leroy and I went to pull some weeds. It was quite satisfying because they pulled so easily except for one lamb’s quarter that was enormous. Its roots extended farther than our small spade could manage. Leroy thought it would require a large shovel. We filled and dumped several buckets, clearing a nice amount of territory. Another neighbor came and helped. She commented, “I like to weed. And I was free tonight.” It was a great help for us. We always are more energetic when there are other helpers. Plus, some drops of rain started to fall. She thought it looked like a bigger storm coming so offered us a ride home. We gathered equipment, emptied buckets and got in her car. It was raining more by the time we got home. But not so much that it was still easy to get to the garage and unload things as well as get in the back porch. Probably about that time the rain was pouring down, backed with quite a bit of wind. What a gift to be home. I think we would have been about half way home when the strong stuff came if we had not had the ride. I went back today and pulled more weeds as well as picked large cucumbers. There were probably more hidden in the leaves, but I was getting tired. Also, I did not want to carry more weight home. I will go tomorrow and pick kale and take it to a place where produce is shared. I can look at that time for more cucumbers. I also did not look at the green beans because I did not want to deal with them. Paula

Surprises August 14, 2023 Hello, The weather is lovely today. We even had a half inch of rain last night. It is so great to get that. Leroy and I took a short walk this morning to finish delivering the neighborhood newsletters. On the way home a man signaled to us by waving and walking towards us. We did not stop, in part, because we did not know him, but then he called out so we stopped. He came up and asked, “Would you like some surprise lilies? My yard is full of them. They smell so nice. Now so few flowers have a nice smell. I will not be home for a while. When I get back, they will all be gone. You are certainly welcome to come pick some.” “I would like some, but I do not have a knife to cut them.” I reponded. “Oh, you can just break them off.” He replied. “Come on.” He walked to his yard, we followed, watching in awe as he gripped a handful of lilies and snaped them off. But he was just eager to give some to us so he broke off another bundle before handing them to me. “These are beautiful. Thank you so much.” I smiled. “Enjoy!” he said as he turned back to his car. We came home the richer and wondered about his trust of us to tell us that he would be gone.

Paula

No Umbrellas

Hello, Leaving the house for church, we had a discussion about taking umbrellas. Rain was predicted, but only a chance and it seemed it would be done when we wanted to walk home. After the meeting at church, we walked out to a bit of rain reminding us that weather predictions are just predictions and not control of the wind currents. If it were less than a mile home we might have just headed out. Instead, we went back in church to accost someone for a ride. We did ask one person who lives farther in our direction. Her husband was not ready. While we were visiting, someone else came up and asked if we wanted a ride. They also go in our direction. Because they were ready to leave, we switched. It is great to get a ride when we need it, but I am sorry we did not bring our umbrellas as it was a nice walking rain. Those umbrellas just seemed heavy. Last night we went to a city park that has many flowers. It was great to walk around there. We saw a woman and her daughter turning cartwheels and taking pictures while in the air. We did not attempt those types of pictures or maneuvers. Just sedate stop and looking pictures.

Paula

Fixing Things

Hello, We have a crosscut paper shredder. Leroy moaned, “It is not working. Jammed.” He did some more mumbling and fussing around. I finally asked if he wanted me to look at it. I did find two places that I could see paper. With a tweezers I could carefully pull out some of it. He had also tried that method. I suggested, “The vacuum repair place told me they work on many small appliances.” Leroy decided to look on line to see what he could learn. He downloaded the manual to find that he should try putting poster board through it. We actually had some poster board and it worked. Leroy has some shoe inserts that he wears all the time. They have gotten quite old and are splitting apart. He got some shoe glue, put off doing anything, but finally pulled it out and went to work on one of them. It was a success. How long it will last, he does not know but for now it is good. Amazing what is available when one looks. I guess we used to ask around before we had the internet. Is that gain or a loss? Paula