Total extermination: a gardener’s tale

July 20, 2023

My computer dictionary defines varmint as “an objectionable or undesirable animal, usually predatory, as a coyote or bobcat.” Fuggedaboudit. Not all varmints have four legs. My current objectionable and undesirable varmint has six legs. And wings. I have an infestation of Japanese beetles. This unhappy gardener is on a beetle-killing rampage, trapping and eradicating these vile varmints. Last week, an entire regiment of them landed last week in a large container of flowers on our deck. Japanese beetles (Popillia japonica) are ugly, iridescent green beetles that feed on a wide ...

Many reasons for church disaffiliations

July 15, 2023

This is regarding the article about local churches that have disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church that was published in the Times Observer (June 17). I had hoped to have made this reply much sooner, but I have been spearheading the disaffiliation and reincorporation for Covenant Methodist Church and have not had much free time. Our church also has disaffiliated. It is true that the United Methodist Church wants to push this as being solely an issue of human sexuality. The problem is that many progressive bishops and pastors within the United Methodist Church have completely ...

Vacations of past are trip down memory lane

July 14, 2023

From the first car we had until the last, we went on vacation. My mother and my grandparents owned the car together. The first car I remember was a 40 something Buick. Then, we got a 1949 Plymouth. From that we bought our first new car a 1955 two-tone Plymouth. My grandmother’s brother worked for the local Dodge and Plymouth dealer so he helped us pick them out. Sometime in the ’50s we took a road trip to Yellowstone National Park. I am not sure how long we were gone, but it took quite a while to get there. I remember going to the Corn Palace on our way out there. Other than that, ...

We’ve come a long way baby … maybe not

July 13, 2023

For a while, I thought we HAD come a long way. Women have made substantial inroads in business, the professions, and job equality. We may eventually catch up salary-wise, but honestly, I don’t expect to live that long. However, following a few recent experiences, my response is a loud, annoyed “Fuggedaboudit.” America’s default setting is male. In the world of finance, credit, and ownership, it is men who business wants to talk with. I’ve found that yes, it’s OK for me to buy a Geek Squad membership, even a car, but the powers-that-be only want to deal with the guy. A ...

A reluctant tractor driver

July 7, 2023

A couple weeks ago when I wrote about life on the dairy farm, I left out the part about having to drive the tractor – I think I left it out conveniently. While I routinely drove the lawn mower, I never had to drive the tractor until one year that my father-in-law was incapacitated. He was taking dialysis treatments. He was not himself except about one day a week. By then the children were gone, living in different cities to attend college. My husband still had the cows and he had hay to take in. He did not ask me if I could run the tractor, he just sort of assumed that I ...

Love for travel can be unsettling

July 6, 2023

Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, a little girl who loved to travel got car sick. A lot. In fact, the little girl spent much of her youth sitting beside her mother, the driver, fending off bouts of the stomach whoopsies. Her mother acquired her first car when the little girl was nine and from then on, they spent much of their free time traveling the roads of New England. Together they drove to the ocean, the White Mountains, and the Mohawk Trail. And together they learned about new places, people, food, and fun. But the little girl still got green a lot. Decades later, she ...