Sunday Wrapup 3/28/2011

News on the Iwashige babies is more somber this week than last. We are no longer expecting twins, unless Shane and Dorcas have twins all by themselves--certainly not an expected outcome at this point.

A sonogram on Tuesday revealed that Joel and Hilda's baby had come and gone before anyone had a chance to meet him or her. One week earlier there had been a brief episode of troubling developments, which prompted them to schedule the sonogram--for reassurance, they hoped, since all seemed well again by the following weekend. But by Tuesday the baby had disappeared, although its lifeline and tiny little dwelling place were still clearly visible on the sonogram.

We are all readjusting to this new reality, but we are disappointed. Joel and Hilda are going on with life and went to Kansas City this weekend as planned, for a marriage enrichment seminar.

Shane and Dorcas heard their baby's heartbeat several days ago, which was a nice surprise, since it's often not possible to pick it up at this early stage, although a beating heart is visible on a sonogram.

Embracing both joy and grief at the same time is a challenge. Just before Joel was born, we faced a similar situation when our dear friends' baby was born prematurely and died almost immediately. I don't remember a lot of specifics about how we coped, but I have the sense that God provided, and we entered into their grief and they entered into our joy. The friendship survived. I may never know, however, what hidden pain they suffered.

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I'm reflecting on differences in how people feel about sharing information. Our cultural heritage probably predisposes us to more caution than is true in some cultures. We all understand, however, that, even within the same culture, a lot of variation exists, and a group's customs can change over time.

Some people keep all information close to the chest. They might be such good listeners that you don't realize till after a conversation is over that you really didn't hear much from them. You have to know them a long time before you figure out that they have opinions. Maybe this only happens to those of us who can hold forth a little too vigorously.

Other people spill their heads and hearts all over the place. You know the good, bad, and ugly almost as soon as they know it.

Probably most of us think we are good middle-of-the-roaders when it comes to sharing information--appropriately cautious, but not obsessively private. Just right.

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I admit to being a bit of an information junkie. Few things energize me as does the need to know. Usually I'm eager to share it with someone when I find out. Certainly, not because everyone else needs to know that I know it, but I can't imagine that other people don't want to know what I know. So many things in life are interesting and worthy of contemplation and wonder. That's right, isn't it? ISN'T IT?

I do not, however, particularly love to ferret out all the details of another person's life. Budding romances and developing babies and brewing scandals can all simmer quietly for a long time before they finally surface and I learn about them at the same time as everyone else. This is completely acceptable--unless, of course it involves my family. Then I don't want to learn it first on Facebook.

Here are a few of the "Attitudes About Sharing Information" categories I've identified on the fly--

1) Don't share it unless you can guarantee that it will turn out well.
2) Don't share it unless everyone and everything is portrayed in a good light.
3) Don't share it unless you can control the results.
4) Don't share it if someone might ask uncomfortable questions about it.
5) Share freely that you know something that you're divulging only later or only to a select few.
6) Dispensing information is a race, and being first is important.
7) Share information freely, but make the recipient(s) promise not to pass it on to anyone else.
8) View others with disdain if they share something they find interesting that you think is boring.
9) Don't share anything before it can be documented, footnoted, and archived.
10) Don't share anything that could ever be used against you.
11) Family matters are private. Most matters somehow can be construed to be family matters.
12) If it involves finances, it's private.

And now I will retire smugly to my information dispensing corner, where all is true, important, and perfectly balanced.

Meanwhile, I will do my best to rejoice with all who rejoice, and weep with all who weep. I will have to trust others to share freely enough with me that I will know when either or both are appropriate, and I will try to do the same.

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William Hershberger is having hip replacement surgery tomorrow. He has walked painfully for some time, and used a cane, of late. Since he has hemophilia, surgery involves some added risk. Medical advances make it a manageable process, however, according to William's daughter, Charity, who is about to graduate from a nursing program. I certainly will continue to pray that William comes through the surgery with prospects for pain-free mobility.

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School starts again tomorrow after a one-week spring break. Only five weeks or so remain in the school year.

Next week, on Sun. eve., the high school students give the first of several spring programs. This one will be at Center.

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A group of women from here hope to go to Boley, OK next Saturday for a one-day women's seminar/retreat. Dorcas Smucker is to be the speaker. I'm looking forward to meeting this "friend" for the first time--in my memory, at least. Our fathers were friends back when they were the only two Amish young men who had ever gone away to college and returned home to remain part of an Old Order Amish church group. Now they are both past 80 (Amos may be 90 or more.) and in Beachy churches. I've learned to "know" Dorcas through her books, her blog and through some email correspondence.

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People seem to marvel that our church needs eight ministers. Today, however, four of them preached (or at least met with Christians) elsewhere. Gary was somewhere in Asia with one or more of our six members who live there, Dwight was in OK, LaVerne was in Labette Co., and David was in IN where Susanna's parents' estate sale was conducted yesterday. Arlyn preached here, and Julian presided over the church service, while the on-sabbatical and partly or completely retired ministers listened from the audience. There always seems to be plenty for everyone to do.

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This week I ordered perennial food plants for the Trail West place. Grant and Clarissa plan to live there, and I'm excited about having someone there to take care of the plantings in exchange for some of the harvest. Even with careful shopping, this is not cheap, but I see it as a good investment. If all goes well, there should eventually be enough production for market sales.

I can't do things like this reflexively, as some people seem able to do. They check their favorite catalog and buy whatever is listed there. Or they find someone who has a patch and dig up their extra plants. Or they pop in at the garden center and pick up whatever is on display. I worry about bringing home diseases along with those free plants, or ending up with a variety that is poorly adapted to the demanding Kansas climate from the catalog. I trust the garden center only slightly more than the catalogs.

So I do the time-consuming research to find adapted varieties, and I part painfully with the necessary cash to buy disease-free plants. Now to make the necessary soil preparations to get all these roots and shoots into the ground promptly when they arrive. For fellow Kansans--here's what I bought (and why I bought it, in some cases):

Strawberries: (A long production time is important to me.)

Earliglow--early and with a wonderful flavor--small though, after the first flush of production
Redchief--disease resistant, recommended by K-State, and red throughout--mid-season
Jewel--widely recommended, disease resistant, mid-to-late season
Sparkle--cold hardy, late, and excellent flavor

I think both Earliglow and Sparkle have some Fairfax in their ancestry--a really sweet berry.

All of the bramble fruits listed below are recommended by Dr. Brenda Olcott-Reid, who lives in SE Kansas and apparently works with a university breeding program across the state line in MO. I've read and learned from her writings in the past, and found a website featuring her presentation when I did an internet search for heat-tolerant raspberries. I was pleased to discover that I had already picked out most of what she recommended.

Thornless Blackberry--Triple Crown (winter hardiness is one of the concerns here)

Raspberries--I found all these varieties at Pense Nursery in Mountainburg, AR for competitive prices. The red raspberry was not readily available elsewhere.

Black Raspberry--Jewel
Purple Raspberry--Royalty (This is a red-black cross, usually pruned like a black.)
Red Raspberry--Revielle (Polka was also recommended as a fall-bearer. Revielle is very early, and I think it has a better chance of bearing well before the August heat takes its toll.)

Rhubarb--Summer heat is hard on Rhubarb, and the K-State recommendations are not decisive--more like a list of what people plant. I'm trying a number of different varieties in hopes that some will survive and perhaps thrive.

Crimson Red--cheapest at Berlin Seeds
Victoria--the only green variety, but reportedly quite productive and sweet, fairly common
MacDonald--from Burpee
Canada Red--from Jung
Valentine--from Jung--although they may be out of it by now

Asparagus--Heat tolerant is important, and all-male varieties do not choke up the bed with reseeding over time as other varieties do.

Jersey Supreme--Early, all-male, and very tolerant of temperature extremes
Purple Passion--Reportedly sweeter and more tender than most. (I can't resist the purple color of the spears.)
Atlas--Very heat tolerant, productive. I'm going to dig up my patch here and transplant it, since I think it won't likely survive Shane's renovations of the house and yard when he moves here. This variety seems completely unavailable commercially this year, unless you want to buy at least a pound of seed. (One ounce contains 250 seeds.) Only a few years ago, this was recommended by the K-State vegetable specialist, and I ordered some from a grower in eastern Kansas. They don't list it this year, and I learned that the CA company that produced the seed has been sold to a New Jersey company that doesn't yet have their own Atlas asparagus seed supply. The CA company has some left, but will not sell in small quantities, and has no roots left.

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We had some snow again this evening, and Thursday will likely be the first spring-like day this week. I'm going to move the lettuce to the greenhouse tomorrow, however, and leave it out there. It needs lots of light and can stand the cold. We've been moving a lot of stuff in and out daily, but it's too cold outside right now for warm-season plants like peppers and tomatoes, and they're living inside under lights for the present.

I had hoped to avoid having to plant lettuce indoors this spring since I planted it outside under plant protectors--re-purposed deli tray covers--round, clear, and several inches tall. This was all very well, except that they needed a little more moisture than they got, and then all but two of them blew away last week when we had fierce winds, first from the south, then from the north. I wouldn't know whether to look for them in OK or NE. "I think you'll have to start lettuce inside," Hiromi told me, after noting the absence of plant protectors when he fed the sheep in their nearby pen. So, several days ago, I did, and now it's coming up.

The garden has been tilled, but there are manure chunks that need "melting," as Hiromi puts it.

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Some of my favorite zinnia varieties have become obscenely expensive--40 cents a seed. I sold some plants last year, but am not sure that anyone would be willing to pay what I'd have to charge if I sell them again this year. They are described as being decorticated (I think that's how you spell it.), whatever that means. I'm guessing it describes a way of processing the seed that makes it more uniform and easily machine seeded. The "normal" seeds do look strange--like smashed and slivered and curled short, chopped-up twigs.

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The Spanish class from the high school is planning to go to Waslala, Nicaragua on their class trip.

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Hiromi has almost finished his gas kiln, and fired it for the first time last week. Joe Yoder did some of the welding for him, and a sheet metal shop in Hutch shaped the structure according to Hiromi's specifications. Hiromi lined it with fire bricks and insulation, and mounted it on a small trailer so he can demonstrate firing raku pottery elsewhere.

Joel Garret, a potter friend, who is a public high school art teacher in Nickerson, is organizing a Saturday art workshop in McPherson and asked Hiromi if he would do a raku demonstration. That was the motivation Hiromi needed to finish this project. He bought many of the supplies seven years ago.

I have a very practical mental list of pottery I'd like Hiromi to make. He has only one item on his list: tea bowls for the Japanese tea ceremony. I might have to dust off my clay "throwing" skills and make whatever I want. I haven't done it since the first year we were married, and now I could practice on the wheel in our basement and get it fired either in the electric or gas kiln in the shed.

Hiromi hopes to perfect a glazing/firing technique that ends up with some natural red clay color showing through a black glaze. This requires reduction firing, which, as I understand it, utilizes burning in an oxygen-starved environment. This process draws iron out of the clay, and leaves its color on the surface of the glaze.

The practice glaze he tried last week was an underwhelming success. It turned out a very flat and monotonous dark gray--slightly lumpy in spots, which made us both laugh. It wasn't done very painstakingly, since he was mostly testing the burner in the kiln, and he will surely do more research and experimentation before he shows off his skills to those high school kids who gather in McPherson.

I suggested pottery making as a hobby to Hiromi a number of years ago. I thought it would let him make use of his bent toward both science and art, and his appreciation of tradition and innovation. His ability to keep meticulous records is helpful too in learning from his experimentation.

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Hiromi had a fairly memorable negative experience with a customer who came through his checkout lane last week--during the few minutes Hiromi worked past his quitting time. The manager asked him to do so, since it was very busy at the time.

The woman had multiple coupons. This is not usually a problem, but one of them did not "take" when he processed it. (I think it was for two items and she had only bought one.) The customer was talking on the phone during checkout, but she occasionally flung comments and instructions in Hiromi's direction also. She informed Hiromi that she was told that the person at checkout should do _____________ to redeem the coupon. Hiromi was still trying to understand what she was saying when he overheard her tell the phone friend that "this guy doesn't know what he's doing." She interrupted her phone conversation long enough to inform him that she is ____________'s wife (a local attorney), and he should call customer service and the manager. He did, and they both waited a long time before those people arrived. Hiromi could very easily have taken care of the situation by himself by then. Meanwhile, Hiromi's relief checker arrived, and Hiromi gladly escaped.

That was an offensive customer on many levels. Hiromi knows her attorney husband and thinks well of him. He thinks he probably has the good sense never to go shopping with his wife, and he fervently pities him, in general. Grant surmises that everyone in the store who has ever taken care of that customer takes one look when she arrives, and moans to themselves, "Oh no. Not that woman again."

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Hiromi had a good job evaluation last week. After one year of work, he will be eligible for a raise. Woohoo.

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An RN we know came through Hiromi's checkout lane recently. When he asked if she's working at the hospital, she said she was working at the Newton Wal-Mart, hoping to be transferred to the Hutchinson store.

The hospital in Hutchinson has recently laid off 49 workers, so finding a job there might not be easy. But driving to Newton for Wal-Mart wages seems like a pretty desperate move for someone who at another time could have earned RN wages in the same town where she lives.

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I hear that the University of Kansas lost a big basketball game today. I won't lose any sleep over it.