Why I am a Cubmaster: Reason No. 235
Do you notice that days fly by the older you get? I remember getting out of school for the summer and I believe that June to the end of August seemed as long as September to Christmas.
Not anymore! Walking through my garden yesterday morning I was acutely aware of summer… in a good way. The air was not heavy and the sky was clear. It was perfect and the scent of sage, oregano, and thyme wafted up from the garden. That’s when I realized that in not too many weeks the first frost would be here. Not what you wanted to hear? Well try this on then, some our boys will be old enough to join the army, drive away from their high school graduation, or pack for college in as many days as it has been since they were born. Weren’t they born a few weeks ago?
They are going to make more and more decisions and the time remaining for us to help them make good ones is very short. By the time they turn 11 or 12 they will already be well on their way to independence. By the time they hit high school, whether we like it or not, they are going to be making choices and living with the consequences.
It is my deepest hope that in the time left to us our boys will internalize the twelve core values of Cub Scouts so well that it will be second nature to them to try their best and stick with the effort to achieve worthy goals, respect others, speak the truth and deal honestly even when it is hard, be compassionate even to those who do not deserve it, exercise faith and have a positive attitude rooted in the belief that good can rise above any circumstance, demonstrate good citizenship and an ability to find solutions when none is obvious, and finally, to have courage that they are adequate to prevail over any obstacle that confronts them because they have within themselves the confidence that comes from a strong heart and clean mind.
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Life in Light
Sun shines over my shoulder. Cascades of light and warmth spill across me and to the north I see long shadows of myself on the floor.
I cannot look into the light but I know of Light’s embrace. I cannot see God but I accept that God is near all the same.
Winter Blah
Let me be clear, I love snow. I love seeing flakes accumulate in ominous piles foreshadowing a frozen end of days. I like huge snow-ball sized globs of it falling on balsam and fir lending an air of Christmas to the early days of Lent. I love snow. What I do not love is the deepening chill of night when the air is wet and the wind bores a hole through to my gizzard; the premature sense that this chill is of the grave.
Brine the Bird – The Biggest Secret to Moist and Delicious Turkey
Sitting at lunch on Friday a colleague remarked, “We don’t like turkey, it’s just too dry.” This reminded me of the epic “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”, “Home for the Holidays”, and all the other movies that feature infamous turkey moments of one kind or another. It always strikes me as strange. My home is more reminiscent of what we fondly call the “Shoot Your Eye Out” move, aka “A Christmas Story”, in which the patriarch famously lusts after the family turkey until deprived by a pack of dogs. In our home it is the matriarch who lusts after the bird and I am the cook and guardian of the pending feast. To summarize, we love turkey. We love it year round and at Thanksgiving we celebrate the regal fowl by roasting it with elegant simplicity.
Here, in a nutshell, is how.
- Buy a fresh, never frozen turkey. The quality of your turkey may vary significantly by vendor, whether it is a Tom or a Hen (male or female), and size. I have not had the best luck with gigantic mutant turkeys over twenty pounds. Resist the temptation and, if necessary, buy two average birds. As for gender, Toms are usually tougher and have a slightly different taste. They are also usually cheaper.
- Brine your turkey. This consists of dissolving salt in water and soaking the bird for up to but never more than eight hours. Cooks Illustrated has a great pdf explaining the technique and mechanics of brining: http://www.cooksillustrated.com/images/document/howto/ND01_ISBriningbasics.pdf I will describe how I brine in a moment. Note: Remove neck and giblets from body and neck cavities of turkey; discard or refrigerate for another use.
- Organize the kitchen to roast the turkey. Obtain kitchen twine to truss the bird, locate or fabricate a covered roasting pan and an oven safe roasting thermometer.
- Assuming you have brined your turkey you will preheat your oven to 325.
- Place turkey, breast side up, on a flat roasting rack in a shallow pan. Truss the turkey (a great YouTube video is here:
- Brush turkey lightly with melted unsalted butter (NOT margarine).
- Roast turkey according to weight and remove cover for last 1/2 hour of cooking until meat thermometer reaches 180-185°F when inserted into the deepest part of the thigh.
- Let turkey stand 15 minutes before carving.
I brine by removing gibblets, rinsing the turkey and preparing 1 quart of brine per pound of turkey (enough to cover bird in my oversized pot). The brine is 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup Diamond brand kosher salt to 1 quart of COLD water. You can use warm water to make the brine but be sure to chill the water BEFORE brining the turkey. Keep the turkey COLD while brining (refrigerate).
Getting Started in Beekeeping
A friend asked, in a recent comment, for some tips on getting started.
The first thing to do is find out about local beekeepers. In the case of my friend in Savannah, the Coastal Empire Beekeepers Association looks like a good bet. I didn’t see a web site for them but there is a public email address listed at UGA
Many associations offer ‘bee school’. This is what we did through the Seacoast Beekeepers Association in New Hampshire. These programs can be excellent because they reflect local realities, season specific tips, and often provide a well structured approach for introducing the novitiate to the art and craft of beekeeping.
Beekeeping is not a cheap hobby but it need not be horribly expensive either. In general a beginner needs a good understanding of the vernacular that describes equipment, methods, and the bees themselves. Books abound and are helpful but may not be sufficient. Web sites are helpful too but, as one commentator said, getting advice from the internet is like asking a stranger to guard your wallet (or your purse).
This shot if from April when we started our colonies.
In our case we purchased supers, frames, wax foundation, a smoker, a bee hat, and feeders. Our plan was (and is) to start with two colonies placed in two hives. (See there, I am passing on some jargon already. A hive usually refers to the habitation while a colony refers to the organic ‘collective’ consisting of a queen, a gazillion workers, and a small number of drones.) To get things going we purchased two packages. (Jargon alert!) A package consists of a queen and a nice cantaloupe sized ball of workers shipped in a box that looks a LOT like my Dad’s old cricket cage.
From that point we followed the process suggested by our mentors at bee school and, with a lot of luck, our colonies should be ready to survive their first winter. Yep, that’s a fact. It takes all of their best effort to ensure that there is (1) enough comb (2) enough brood -future bees (3) enough food to make it from late October to late March. For my friend in Savannah this is not nearly as much of an issue but I am sure he will discover that even the lush gardens of his home and the traditionally mild winters are the bright side and some other threat looms periously over the future of his colonies if he decides to take up this practice.
One final (for now) note. Beekeeping has changed in HUGE ways in the few years since I first considered getting into it. Twenty years ago, a box and some frames would have been sufficient. Not anymore. If you decide to keep bees, do it right. There’s a lot you can do wrong and it won’t just harm your bees, it may well do harm to many others as well.
On a whim... 