Posts from the ‘Front Porch Musings’ category

End of August: this ‘n that

My schedule has been a bit full and looks to stay that way for a bit.

And the end of summer, when my patience with hot days is nil … not just for me, but they are hard on Bear as well. We take two morning walks and then stay inside except for an afternoon Jeep ride (with the A/C going full blast). He LOVES to go and drive, stop and look at things, drive a bit and come home. It is more exercise than he would get lying in the shade, but we do that too!

It was forecast to hit 93 on my birthday, which it did, but morning was cool and I took my time enjoying some baking and puttering in the kitchen.

The house is cool.

Mornings are beautiful.

The light…

End of August.

Why Mel (and her husband) went to Ghana

Why Mel went to Ghana (Africa)

Everything I’d like to pass on is in the above link.

Mel, of Mel’s Kitchen Cafe wrote a beautiful post about her trip to Ghana on the continent of Africa. Mel is one of my favorite food bloggers and a person I’d be honored to call a friend. This post – the trip, the photos, the organization…

Please, at least take a look.

8/25 Update:

Now that I have a moment, I do have more to say.

I love that Mentors International is truly a mentoring program. It is the “Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” paradigm.

Mentors International funds low interest microloans (typically $125.00 U.S.) to people who participate in the business education, guidance and administration that is provided by local village staff. It is not a big “U.S. we know best” presence in each location. For anyone reading this who has not clicked through to either Mel’s post or Mentors International Main Page: the first location was in the Phillipines. Ghana is the most recent. They also have mentor/lending organizations in Guatemala, Peru, El Salvador and Honduras.

From their page: How we work

We reach the world’s impoverished across four continents.

Mentors International has established six partner organizations—one in each of the primary regions of the Philippines (Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao), and one each in Guatemala, Peru, El Salvador, Honduras, and Ghana.

Each organization has its own local board of directors and staff, but is a legal subsidiary of Mentors International and is supervised by the U.S. management team. Mentors provides start-up support, training, operational funding, and loan capital for its partner organizations.

We employ only humanitarian-minded individuals in our partner organizations.

Mentors International hires individuals who are native to the countries in which they work and who have demonstrated a desire to serve those in need. The employees are trained in a variety of business settings and have significant skills to pass on to their clients. A combination of these qualities, mixed with integrity and sincerity, set them apart in an otherwise challenging environment.

The Mentors International Main Page has links to the details of Mentors International, details on each organization and stories of those who changed their lives with a loan of $125 and community support. The site also explains their high rate of success and loan payback which enables them to loan the money again and again either helping new entrepreneurs or expansion funds for those that are ready: an example, a woman who set up a store to sell soft drinks to her village and paid the initial loan in 3 months versus the 6 month term…got a 2nd loan in order to buy a second hand refrigerator so she could sell cold drinks. This story and photos are in more detail on Mel’s post.

If you are inspired to donate, you can donate directly to any of the organizations. Donating through Mel’s post is a donation to the Ghana organization.

8/26 update Yesterday, Mel released an e-Cookbook for sale with the profits to go to Mentors International. Mel’s recipes are good, no-fail recipes with no hard to find ingredients. This particular cookbook is set up to help get a delicious dinner on the table – FAST! It is well organized with photos – some are step-by-step (Parmesan breadstick knots) and all contain a Notes graphic with hints, substitutions, etc. I have the PDF version which is easy to navigate, displays well on all my devices AND you can print a page or the entire cookbook if that is your preference. Mel’s Simple Weeknight Meals e-Cookbook

Bear defense: Follow up to “Please do not believe everything you read”

Daily Interlake Bear Article

Above is a link to the local daily newspaper’s online article noting the results and findings pertinent to the death of a cyclist originally called “Grizzly Bear Attack” in news stories. At the time of the incident, law enforcement noted that they were unsure if it was a Grizzly or a Black Bear. Additionally, there was a short article that noted that the cyclist was travelling at a high rate of speed on a path with limited visibility and collided with the bear.

The article in last week’s paper reports that DNA results confirm the bear was a male Grizzly and that that particular bear had been trapped, DNA taken, and the bear released in 2006 in a routine study and collecting of information. The bear has not been involved in any human encounters nor property damage, i.e. livestock.

The articles on the incident are pretty basic and conclude a “wrong place/wrong time” horrific accident. I wish there was a bit more information. The cyclist who died was a well liked Forest Service person, native to this area and by all reports an all around good person to fellow humans, animals and environment. Still, travelling at a high rate of speed on a path with limited visibility has its risks. Mr. Grizzly Bear was on the path and “oof” – probably 185-200 pounds of bike and man slammed into him. I find it a bit hard to fault the bear for responding. The report now calls this a “mauling” and that means that the bear did not devour, but subdued and then left.

Some missing information, which is possibly due to respect for the cyclist’s family is: what about injuries from the collision? Newton’s first law of physics says something along the line of “an object in motion tends to stay in motion”. When the cyclist collided with the bear, the bike probably sort of stopped against the bear, but I’m thinking the rider did not and depending on if the bear was “standing”, the cyclist likely flew in the direction of travel and my point is … the cyclist was possibly injured badly, but that has not been disclosed. I think it is important information partly because the plethora of original articles were fear-mongering bear attack articles. And now we have what to me, is a lukewarm dissemination of the bare minimum of information, still with the headline: “Bear Mauling”.

The bear might have mauled, but even the article notes:

State wildlife officials removed traps and cameras from the area after failing to capture any bears and determined the grizzly had simply responded to being struck by a mountain biker traveling at a high rate of speed.

“Sight visibility at the location of the collision is very limited and the collision was unavoidable,” a July 2 press release from the agency stated. “The bear reacted, which led to the attack.”

I have no wish to blame the cyclist. But it does appear that he took a risk and paid a horrific price. I am terribly sorry for the wife, family and friends of the cyclist. I am relieved that the bear left the area and has not done anything which would lead to being euthanized.

Summer on the downhill run…hopefully

The last week of July had some heat and we dealt with it accordingly!

Thankfully a nice cool front whooshed through on Saturday evening and the last day of July was warm, but pleasant and things cooled early enough to sleep without A/C or fans.

This week saw the first summer tomatoes – real tomatoes that smell and taste like tomatoes!

We had a bit of smoke from Idaho yesterday, but that has cleared this morning.

August starts significantly cooler and clearer than last year’s smokey 100F – it is 52F this morning with a high forecast of 84F.

We are headed to the peak of the interior west’s fire season, but not as scary dry as last year with the high country still looking quite green. I have high hopes for a much better August this year.

Onward!