July 22 Valley Life Column

July 22 Valley Life Column in AG Weekly

Battling Annoying Pests

If only the ants would go marching two by two, I might sing, “Hurrah, hurrah.” But this summer they’ve been marching by the hundreds to my shower, over my kitchen floor and across my counters. I’ve even found them in the dog food bowl, which is almost as disgusting as finding them in my dishwasher.

Since I have small pets and a yard full of birds, I try to avoid chemical controls. But I also want to keep my house ant-free so here’s what I did to get rid of my indoor ants.

The first thing I did was clear my kitchen of all open food. Then I emptied the dog food bowl and keep it that way until the dogs are ready to eat. Next, I wiped down the floor and the counters with a mixture of vinegar and soapy water to eliminate any ant trails. Then I turned on the dishwasher, set it to the hottest setting, poured in some soap and vinegar and let it run for an hour.

So far, that’s seemed to stop those little buggers. But just in case they return, here are some other non-toxic ways to control ants I found on the Internet. Now, if those ants return, I’ll be ready.

• Remove all open food and any moldy leaves near the foundation where ants like to nest.

• Sprinkle cinnamon, ground cayenne pepper, black pepper or chalk at doorways and anywhere you repeatedly see ants. If that doesn’t work, try peppermint or other dry mint leaves.

• Place bay leaves or whole cloves behind canisters on counters, or anywhere ants appear.

• Sprinkle diatomaceous earth (found at pet stores or lawn and garden centers) around foundations or anywhere ants appear. It will cut up ants quickly and is not dangerous to humans or pets unless breathed in quantity.

• Spray vinegar around doors and window frames, under appliances, and along other known ant trails, or locate nests and douse them with vinegar.

• Feed ants uncooked Cream of Wheat, Malt-o-Meal or cornmeal. They carry it back to their nests to eat. Supposedly, ants can’t digest the food and eventually die.

• Create a barrier of clear dishwashing liquid or insecticidal soap by dabbing it on surfaces ants appear.

• Mix sugar with an equal amount of borax. Ants will carry it back to their nests where they will eat it and die.

July 15 Valley Life Column

July 15 Valley Life column in AG Weekly

Salmon Falls Creek no place for novices

When friends John and MaryAnn asked my husband and me to navigate Salmon Falls Creek in a canoe, we said yes without hesitation. This was something we often talked about but never made time to do.

“Bring a lunch and plenty of water,” John said. “And don’t forget your hat. It’s going to be hot.”

I’m not a hat person, but I do have a big floppy hat I inherited from a lady who loved to fish. My husband on the other hand prides himself on his massive hat collection, ranging from golf to racing hats. You name it, he probably has it, but he’s particularly attached to a tan and gray camouflage-looking baseball cap that has “Pansy Driver” embroidered on the back in big purple letters. This is the hat he chose to wear the day we floated Salmon Falls Creek.

With a picnic lunch and a cooler of beer, we put in at the launch site a couple miles south of Jackpot, Nev. It was a nice sunny day with no wind, and we were eager to try our hand at canoeing.

“Most of the time,” John instructed, “all you will have to do is steer. The water will carry you along.” He didn’t tell us we would have to anticipate the turns, which proved to be swift and numerous.

The first five minutes of the ride were fun. The scenery was pretty, the area secluded. We sang "Row, row, row your boat," as we maneuvered downstream. Then the hydraulics picked up and we were tossed from bank to bank like ping-pong balls, tangling with the willows at every turn.

We had just set ourselves free without tipping and were patting ourselves on the back for a job well done, when bang, we were stuck in the bushes again. I paddled hard, trying to pull the canoe away from the bank.

“Stop!” my husband yelled. He was pinned under a bush, his face bleeding, his favorite hat dislodged and floating away with the current. Holding on to a willow, he was trying to reach his hat without tipping the canoe.

“Get my hat,” he yelled at John and MaryAnn who were ahead of us and doing what we should have been, keeping their canoe in the middle of the stream and out of the bushes.

As we watched his hat float away, I offered him my oversized fishing hat. A redhead and fair-skinned, he needed it more than I did. He refused and chose to suffer, but not in silence. Every new corner brought a mouthful of words that can be loosely translated as “Who said this was fun?”

When we finally pulled ashore, after bucking wind and slack water for two miles, we were exhausted. I was still laughing, trying to make light of the day. My husband went straight for the beer.

It’s been almost a month since we paddled that canoe. When recanting our tale to other canoeists, we’ve been told Salmon Falls Creek is not a stretch of water for beginners. “Try Silver Creek,” they advised. “That’s nice and easy.”

If you are fishing at Salmon Dam or canoeing Salmon Falls Creek and reel in a camouflage-looking hat with “Pansy Driver” embroidered on the back in big purple letters, give me a call. Maybe, if my husband gets back his hat, I’ll be able to get him in into a canoe again.

July 8 Valley Life Column

July 8 Valley Life Column in AG Weekly
Consider herbs for gift-giving

It might seem too early to be thinking about Christmas, but that’s exactly what I’m doing as I work in my herb garden. The lavender is just starting to bloom, the oregano is almost 3 feet tall and the dill fills the air with the smell of pickles.

Busy harvesting my herbs before they go to seed, I know many of the herbs in my garden will make perfect Christmas gifts — lavender wands to tuck under pillows or in with lingerie, herbed butters to spread on warm cornbread, or garlic salt for pasta and popcorn. Who wouldn’t welcome an array of dried organic herbs including oregano, rosemary, basil, sage and fennel tucked in a basket with recipes on how to use them?

My noncaffeine drinking friends enjoy baskets filled with herb teas. Using recipes from some of my herb books, I put together batches of “Crazy Tea,” a blend of catnip, chamomile and strawberry leaves guaranteed to “calm a hysterical nature,” or “Immortality tea,” a combination of lemon balm, rosemary and sage. The sage is supposed to make you wise, and the rosemary is said to strengthen the memory.

Herb teas are easy to make. I like to tie clean herbs with ribbons and allow them to dry naturally as a bunch, then the dried leaves can be stripped and used as needed. Or, I dry the leaves and put them into small packages or decorative canisters. Either way, they make excellent gifts.

Alfalfa, angelica, anise seeds, bergamot, borage, German chamomile, dill, elderflowers, fennel, horehound, lemon balm, lemon geranium, lovage, marigold petals, mints, rosemary, sages, thymes and sweet woodruff can all be used to make teas; the blends are as wild as your imagination.

Another popular gift is herbed vinegar. With no fat and few calories, herbed vinegar makes an excellent salad dressing. Stored in decorative gift bottles, it looks great in the kitchen and makes an attractive gift. A favorite of mine is basil and garlic in white-wine vinegar. I use it in pasta salads, which allows me to reduce the amount of mayonnaise and provides a zesty flavor.

As a general rule, use 1 cup fresh herbs or ½ cup dried herbs to flavor 1 quart of vinegar. Pack 1 to 2 cups of fresh clean basil leaves and up to 3 cloves of garlic into a sterile quart jar, bruising the herbs in the process. Fill the jar with vinegar that has been warmed but not boiled. Use white-wine or cider vinegar for best flavor with a 5 percent acidity level. Cover and let sit for two weeks, then pour into decorative bottles, top with a cork and label.

It may be July, but that doesn’t keep me from singing, “Christmas is coming,” as I tend my herbs. I know from experience that Christmas will be here before I know it.

July 1 Valley Life column

July 1 Valley Life column in AG Weekly
Grandpa gets ‘fireworkinated’ for grandkids

I can’t believe it’s already July, not that I’m complaining. Actually, I’ve been looking forward to July because that means school is finally out in Vancouver, Wash., and soon my three grandsons, Dmitri, Dante and Kennedy, will arrive for their annual summer visit.

Last year, while the boys were here, we celebrated Kennedy’s second birthday with a trip to McDonald’s, a pirate birthday party, and later a display of fireworks orchestrated by the boys’ father and grandfather. While the boys and I sat on the steps and watched the fireworks, we clapped our hands and cheered at the skyrockets and roman candles. We stomped our feet and hooted at the duds. When the men ran out of fireworks, Papa Paul lit a handful of sparklers and ran around the yard, drawing circles and writing his name in the darkness.

“Boooooo,” I encouraged the boys, who were having so much fun hooting and hollering they followed my lead.

Later, as I helped the boys get ready for bed, I asked them if they had had a fun day. “Uh-huh,” Dante nodded, his eyelids heavy with sleep. Kennedy was still wound tight from his sugar high, running around the house in circles like only a 2-year-old can.

“Yeah,” Dmitri said.

“What part did you like best?” I asked.

“When Papa was fireworkinated.”

“Fireworkinated?” I repeated, wondering if I had heard him correctly.

“Yeah,” Dmitri said. “That was cool.”

“Cool,” Kennedy repeated as I tried to settle him into bed with goodnight kisses.

As I turned out the lights and crawled into my own bed, I couldn’t help but smile. Hanging out with the grandkids, learning a new word -- “fireworkinated” -- and seeing fireworks again through a child’s eye, now, that’s what I call cool.