Early September

The sun is shining at least for a while today. We had the remnants of hurricane Gustav yesterday and the remnants of hurricane Hannah are supposed to be here tonight. The almanac has some interesting things to say about heating and cooling cycles as they relate to sunspot activity and they seem to think we are heading into another cooler period and winter will be cooler than normal.

We are having water problems. When you live in the country that’s one of the things you deal with – your water supply. We had a new pressure tank put on last fall but they didn’t change the pump- now it seems some little box thing on the pump is going- the pump stops working when it sits overnight and Steve has to go down there and give it a thump- then it turns on. I guess that means a repair bill soon. You never realize how important water is until you don’t have free use of it.

And I spent about two hours this morning trying to repair the kitchen floor after one of our lovely dogs tore a piece of the vinyl up right in the middle of the room. There had been a small tear there that had been repaired and glued down, some dog found that to be interesting and enlarged the tear and removed a small piece. You never know what dog you want to get rid of until you catch them eating your floor.

I was grumping about how awful and boring the presidential race was until the new GOP vice presidential candidate was announced. I really like Sarah Palin, 100 times better than O”Bama. Now those who are just enamored of making history can vote for her instead of a conceited, power hungry, half black guy. I too wonder how she is going to manage all the family things with the high powered job, but if she thinks she can do it, I say go for it. We would never ask a man the questions we ask her about family.

Some women can and do manage beautifully. She knows better than anyone else what she is capable of doing and it’s a once in a life time chance a woman would be a fool not to take. She is smart, feisty, conservative and experienced. I hope the two of them, McCain and Palin win. McCain has devoted his life to serving this country and this is probably the last chance he has to become president. He will run it at least as well as O’Bama, probably better.

O’Bama needs to go back to work and actually get some experience and decide what side he is on, take some stands even if they aren’t popular, show he knows how to lead etc. Maybe he can try later although personally I think a man who has written two memoirs at this stage of his life when he really hasn’t accomplished much is a bit too set on himself. I think he feels superior to most of us, a cut better than the average person and he wants to be president just to add to his memoirs. The presidency of the Untied States isn’t just another game to be won so you can boast about it.

Let’s move on- hey, these are my memoirs here. The hens are laying well now. So well I am giving away eggs. Eggs and tomatoes. My vines may look awful now but they are still ripening fruit and the tomatoes taste great. I don’t really have enough to can but I make a little sauce. I will really miss fresh tomatoes when I can no longer have them, store tomatoes taste totally different. Our corn is done but we are enjoying corn from other local growers. I just bought some Michigan apples and a watermelon too.

Gardening Granny’s advice here is not about politics. It’s to get out to your local farmers market if you don’t have a garden and see what real food tastes like. And take the time to make something from scratch just once anyway, whether it’s a pie, salsa or bread. Eat like you were dying!