Photos From Paradise

No rhyme or reason or particular order:

Still harvesting the garden:

Um, Brussels sprouts. OK, you roast them with cut up apples and sliced onions at 400 for 40 minutes. Add some veg stock with dijon mustard, cumin and corn starch and let it go another 10 minutes. you will love them. 

The once canal barn and soon to be farmer's market:

Good on you guys for working outside this time o' year. Probably better than July and August, though. This is the canal:

And this is a barge from a few months ago:

Greens Against Oil

In the latest Chronicle. Matt Funiello of the neo-Amish Green Party gave his, or someone's, opinion on the Keystone Pipeline.Mark Frost makes it sound like Funiello wrote it, but in any case, here tis:

The Green Party of the United States is calling for the defeat of proposed tar-sands pipelines when the U.S. Senate votes on the Keystone XL pipeline on Tuesday and opposes alternative plans, including "Energy East," that would route Canadian oil into the U.S. by pipeline or tanker.

I really hope that Mark Frost is going to continue to run his missives. It would've been fun to see him interacting with the Right-wing loons in Congress. God knows. But, seeing him in the local media will suffice as a consolation prize. 

From what I can gather, the Greens want the oil to stay in  the ground in Canada. I'd dearly love to know what they want us to do for energy between now and the time we're running our houses and cars on wind and solar power. Hate to sound like a Republican (Matt'll tell you that Dems and Reps are the same, of course). Actually, I'm greener than the average bear. I went for over 4 years without a vehicle, walking a lot and riding GGFT. That said, I know that Americans still need fuckin' oil.

Just FYI, Matt drives a Ford pickup that I would guess gets 12 MPG. That's if it's tuned up real well and running efficiently. I'm guessing it's not corn powered.

And in bonus Matt-news:

The Green Party might field a candidate, said Matt Funiciello, the Green Party congressional candidate who placed second in Queensbury in this year’s congressional race.

“It is one of the races that Peter Lavenia (of the state Green Party Committee) is talking about,” Funiciello said.

That's because John Strough, the supervisor of Queensbury, is a tool of the corporations and no different than the unnamed Republican who will be running against him.

Queensbury Republican Chairman Bill VanNess said the Republican Party will field a candidate.

It's going to be a fun 2 years.

Photos From Paradise

Tuesday was a beautiful day here in Andrew Cuomo's Northern Kingdom. Everything else (nearly) about the election pissed me off so much, I was actually glad he won. Nearly is because Carrie Woerner was a bright, shining light. Anyway, had to harvest my leaves that are finally dropping. When Baal gives you leaves, make compost.

 

And Tuesday was baking day, since I was home all day raking and piling leaves. BTW, I did not rake all those leaves on Tuesday. Anyway, since I haven't posted any bread porn in awhile:

That's a wild yeast sourdough, a levain if you will. And it's a good thing I got those leaves up on Tuesday because the weather is changeable here in Utopia.

Actually, that was on my camera. It's from last winter. A chilling reminder of what's ahead. The Kindle and my pantry are loaded, though.

A Belated Funeral Notice

I was out walking the other day and as is my wont, I was stopping to pick up a few returnables. I am, I should say, pretty wimpy about it. If I have to walk through mud or water, or if it's dirty or been there awhile the can or bottle is staying for someone else or the forces of nature to take care of. I'm only a cheap bastard to a point. Anyway, the most interesting person I've ever met came to mind. Don't know if Reader's Digest still runs that, but they do, Lawrence is mine. Been meaning to make a copy of his obit for some time now and had neglected it. Some people do grave rubbings, I collect obits of people I know. So, courtesy of the Glens Falls Post Star:


QUEENSBURY - Lawrence "June" Millington Jr., 65, of Queensbury, passed away on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011, at Albany Medical Center. He was born April 6, 1946 in Niskayuna, the son of the late Lawrence and Nancy Estella (Williams) Millington.

June, who was autistic, lived on his own, and was very proud of that fact. He loved spending hours listening to music, looking over maps, watching movies, sports, and doing word search puzzles. Some of his favorite games were Yahtzee, Scrabble and Dominoes, which he was able to play at the East Side Center on Maple Street since it was originally founded in 1985. He was well known for collecting bottles, which was one of his hobbies and just for the last 19 years alone, June collected approximately 3.8 million bottles off the streets of the Queensbury area, which would go around the world at least once.

One of June's favorite sayings was, "here is just a funny story to share with you." He was able to tell you what day of the week you were born on, when you told him your birthday and he never forgot a birthday or your name. Then he could proceed to tell you other famous people that were born on the same day as you, what record was released on the day, or actor played in a movie that was playing during that time period, or how many different songs your name was in and sung by what artist. His knowledge base in the entertainment genre alone was mind boggling. And he could bring up all that information faster than you could google it.

Survivors include his sister, Sally Wallace of Chestertown; his brother, Paul Millington and his wife, Irene, of Fort Ann; eight nephews and nieces; and seven grandnephew and nieces.

Funeral services will be 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011, at the Singleton-Healy Funeral Home, 407 Bay Road, Queensbury. Burial will follow in Jonesville Cemetery. Family and friends may call from 6 to 8 p.m., today (Monday, Nov. 21, 2011), at the funeral home.

A heartfelt thanks goes out to his two case workers, Lori and Belinda from the East Side Center. Also special thanks goes out to the excellent care from Diana and Karla at Albany Medical Center.

Those who wish may make online condolences by visiting www.sbfuneralhome.com.

I think it was the first time I met him that he asked me when I was born and then proceeded to tell me that it was on a Tuesday. So, to him, I was then a green-eyed Tuesday's child. I wouldn't be surprised if he knew the exact number of cans and bottles he had picked up. Not mentioned in the obit is that he also could tell you the zip code of any town in NY and knew all the route numbers as well.

Hope you're in a good place Lawrence.

Renaissance Now

I saw this article in my local paper this morning about a proposed community garden project in Fort Edward which is the town I'm moving to. Thought I'd share it with anyone who happens to misclick a link and stumbles in here.

When members of the Village Baptist Church and others in the community started discussing a community garden, it was a simple idea, aimed at giving people a place to grow fresh fruits and vegetables and to supplement the Fort Edward Community Food Pantry.


The first dirt has yet to be turned, and the project is already becoming something larger than planned.

I wasn't aware that this was happening and am somewhat unfamiliar with the community, though it is a small town and hopefully that won't take long.

“This really fits in with what we are doing,” Ed Carpenter, a village trustee, said at a meeting of the Village Board earlier this month. “The planning is going well, and we are getting ready to move forward. The site is perfect for what we want to do in the village.”


Carpenter, one of seven members of the committee headed by the Rev. Dr. Sheldon Hurst, the church’s pastor, was referring to the village’s overall Renaissance Plan, which focuses on a series of specific zones within Fort Edward. It is designed to improve the community and bring more people downtown.

I'm looking forward to learning more about the Renaissance Plan and possibly getting involved in this in some way. Mostly put this post up in order to be a reminder to myself of its existence so I'll check up on it again in the future.

Coming Home For a Stay

I'm back once again from fighting for the forces of nihilism against all that is good and decent in the world. It's a dirty job and you get a lot of slime on you. Hoping to make this as permanent a vacation as the one I'm attempting to take from my former position of baker extraordinaire at Price Chopper supermarkets. Yes, now it can be told. Anyway, if I write much here, I'll attempt to focus on the local and justify my use of the Hometown label.

I'm presently attempting to move from being a renter to homeowner. In that effort, I went to my local bank where I maintain a checking account and told them I was interested in obtaining a mortgage. The loan officer finding that I had no real estate agent informed me that she knew several in the area and would have one of them give me a call. That seemed very helpful until I found that the agent she had call me was her husband. They all got the heave-ho, although my measly checking account is still with them. Conflict of interest much?

Moving on from there in my quest for financing I landed at Wells Fargo here in Glens Falls. I do have an IRA that is held by them so I thought it appropriate to approach them for the loan. Since I am presently unemployed I expected that they would laugh in my face at my request for funds. If only! They took my application seriously and also took $381 for an origination fee. I thought this was moving along nicely in my direction.

Then a week ago the agent in the GF branch requested copies of my 2012 tax returns which a week previously the Saratoga branch had told me would not be required. Along with the question of how often my former company pays out on my pension, this set off some warning bells. I took a lump sum on the pension so that was a one time good deal. Quite sure that answer didn't help.

Thankfully, I do have (hopefully) sufficient funds to enable me purchase the house I'm looking at outright which I should have done in the first place saving time and money. I have eschewed the rock and roll lifestyle for the cheapskate lifestyle for some time now. So, Wednesday this week I called the GF office to try and get some idea of the verdict on my application. Thinking the agent must have been busy on the previous day, I called and left another voicemail on Thursday morning. That afternoon I gave up on him and called the Saratoga branch. They informed me of the death of my mortgage request.

The moral of this story is that if you can possibly afford to pay cash, pay cash. If you need a mortgage avoid Wells Fargo. BTW, the paperwork went out today to move that IRA to a financial institution with more class.

Live cheap, live well!

UPDATE: Today is Saturday and day 4 of Wells giving me the silent treatment. Not that I expect them to call me on a weekend. But, my real estate agent called yesterday and I talked to her about going forward with financing the purchase on my own. Happened to mention the $381.98 I paid Wells. She reminded me that they  had given me a prequalification on the mortgage. Yes, that's right and then denied me it. So, Friday afternoon I called and requested my money back (to another, number 3, voicemail). I'm really having a ball with this. Anyway, $370 was for an appraisal. Not sure why they would appraise a house that they're not giving me a mortage for. And $11.98 was for a credit report. I want the money back for that, too. The credit report said I pay my bills and they still denied me the mortgage so apparently it's worthless and they can pay for it. I'm calling my legal team of Dewey, Cheatem and Howe on Monday.

I don't think prequalification means what they think it means (or it doesn't mean what I think it means).

Off to Local Fest 2012

In a bit of actual Hometown news today is local fest and I'll let Dave tell it since he's the professional writer.

The Shirt Factory in Glens Falls will be holding their inaugural LocalFest: Stuff Made Here event, on Saturday, September 8th.

The all-day festival is an exciting showcase of both the history and continued tradition of manufacturing in Glens Falls and the surrounding region. LocalFest will offer community members the chance to shop from local artisans, artists and locally owned businesses for a wide-range of unique products.

The Shirt Factory was once home to the McMullen-Leavens Company, one of the nation’s greatest shirt and dress manufacturers. Today the building provides a home to more than 70 artists and artisans, shops and creative and healing services.

Thanks Dave!

And that's how you copy and paste a post like a professor of polisci.