Lisa Zahn

I just wanted to give you a "heads-up" on this blog with a firsthand account of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa flooding. Matt Mayer, aka Fat Guy on a Little Bike , has a great blog with some really good posts lately about the flooding in his town and state. It's remarkable. Today Matt is promising to post a way to donate to relief efforts, with his employer matching the money. I believe I will make a donation! Our prayers are with all those in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and elsewhere. This is such an incredible disaster.

I know homelessness has always been a problem in America. Numbers went up dramatically during the Reagan years, for sure, but didn't abate much during the Clinton Admin. and Rudy Guliani in NYC years, despite the different tactics to dealing with it. I've volunteered in homeless shelters both in Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. and from those experiences know that in the last couple decades most of our homeless have been mentally ill and/or chemically dependent, usually both, and way, way too many of them are un-cared for U.S. Veterans (a travesty!). Certainly the closing of state-run institutions for the MI/CD population contributed to rising numbers of homeless, even as the "police state" of most of our cities has made them invisible. But now we have a whole different beast, as they say. Now we have the "working poor" and the newly poor middle class (I wonder when we'll have a catchy name for them/us) who are losing their homes left and right. We have ...

The socks! I finished knitting him the socks! For Father's Day... I hope George had a great day today. He deserves it so much. Daily he impresses me with his " Number One Dad " ways, and I hope he knows how much I appreciate that aspect of him. Usually he is the one to bake the Sunday morning scones, but last night I said I'd do it. So this morning I forced myself up from my leisure, let him read the paper first for once, and made two batches of scones, one with just chocolate chips and one with fresh raspberries and chocolate chips. As George likes to tell everybody, almost all baked goods around here must have chocolate chips in them if he wants his wife and kids to eat them. And almost always he obliges. I suppose today I could've done something different just for him, but oh well I didn't even think about it...I must admit I didn't really love baking first thing on a Sunday morning, but sacrifices must be made sometimes for those we love. This afterno...

This is Week 6 (for me) of the Independence Days Challenge. Here's what we've been up to: I put a fence around the garden to keep the rabbits and cats out, and we put in stakes next to the new raspberry canes so we can string them up a bit. The pole beans finally sprouted yesterday. One strawberry in the patch is turning red and many more are trying to ripen. The potatoes are growing by leaps and bounds, even though it's been so cold here in Central Minnesota. Temps in the 70s by day and 50s by night, with lots of cool breezes and quite a bit of rain too. The tomatoes, peppers and beans don't love this, but the potatoes and peas are happy. Everyone is SO curious about our potatoes in tires, I can't tell you the questions we've had. Where are you getting the dirt? (best way is from compost with some peat mixed in, though we're also using some black dirt we had left over from taking down raised berms). Are they really growing in there? Where will the potato...