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Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Becky Gilson!!!

Becky Gilson (Bearprairiechick, #6695) has received a certificate of achievement in Garden Gate for earning a Beginner Level Gaining Ground Merit Badge!

“I read worms eat garbage. I found a worm factory on craigslist and keep it in the kitchen. I also started a compost bin for the garden.

I started with worms I found in the yard, and they are thriving and multiplying in their new home. The compost is coming along nicely, and I plan to purchase bulk worms for it from our local supplier this spring.”

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  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    Looks like your garden is going to be a happy place for your plants come Spring! Let us know how it goes for you next year. I hope you have great results and healthy plants!

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Young Cultivator Merit Badge: Whistle While You Work, Intermediate Level

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 7,200 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—10,226 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane 

Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life

For this week’s Out There Kids/Whistle While You Work Intermediate Level Young Cultivator Merit Badge, Piper and I took our newly honed and finely tuned grass-whistling skillz to new heights.

Namely, the tippy-top of her tree, because, well, we had been threatened with bodily harm by all of our respective family members if we so much as blew another blade of grass within their hearing again.

Boy, talk about tough critics.

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  1. Lisa Von Saunder says:

    treehouses and singing and whistling with grass, it doesnt get any better than that!

    HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL MY FELLOW FARMGIRLS OUT THERE!!

  2. Karlyne says:

    Oh, I do love those lyrics!!!

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Young Cultivators Merit Badge: Food Allergy Awareness, Intermediate Level

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 7,200 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—10,226 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane 

Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life

For this week’s Farm Kitchen/Food Allergy Awareness Intermediate Level Merit Badge, I tackled my newfound knowledge of that lowly, insidious issue of food allergies, and wrestled it into the kitchen.

That’s right. What good is knowing things if you aren’t part of the solution, am I right? Of course I am.

I set about rewriting three family recipes with a food allergic person in mind. What if, for example, you have a loved one coming over for Thanksgiving dinner and they are gluten free? How will you serve that oh-so important and not to be neglected Turkey Day staple, the stuffing? Or, say your uncle has a craving for a slow-roasted ham, but can’t tolerate any form of sugar in the glaze? (And who doesn’t? Have a craving for slow-roasted ham, that is. I mean, come on. The day I don’t have a slow-roasted ham craving is the day you know to bury me six feet under.) I mean, it’s a pickle really.

Don’t get me started on pickle allergies. If there is such a thing then I declare, this is a world I cannot be a part of.

Anyway. I had no such uncle, nor any gluten-free friends at the moment, so I took a different approach: I pretended.

That’s me, Jane, the Great Pretender. I pretended I was allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, and dairy.

But, Janey, you’re saying, peanuts are a nut, you, you NUT! Nope, peanuts are a legume, thank you very much. You can be quite allergic to tree nuts and not to peanuts, and the other way ‘round.

Bowl_of_peanuts_-_stonesoup

photo by jules / stonesoup via Wikimedia Commons

Cue the melodious strains of a back-to-school special … the more you know …

You’d think, wouldn’t you, that it wouldn’t be that hard to avoid nuts (or legumes), especially if you’re doing your own cooking, but you’d be wrong. Or at least, wrongish. I reached for a bottle of Asian salad dressing as a marinade for my chicken (I was making lettuce wraps) and belatedly read the ingredients. Yep, you guessed it, peanut oil.

I was glad I hadn’t picked soy as one of my food allergy ingredients to avoid because then I really would have been up a creek without a paddle. I try to avoid soy anyway, but boy do they ever put it in everything (it’s nearly as everywhere as gluten is). My chicken lettuce wraps turned out okay, but they were missing the crunch of a few sprinkled nuts, I must say. I tossed some corn nuts in as a replacement (they were … weird).

Next, I whipped up a batch of my world-famous Everything But the Kitchen Sink Cookies, but with variations. I had to take out all the nuts once again (grr!) and not only that, but I had to remove the dairy as well.

Wait, is butter a dairy?

photo by Armmark via Wikimedia Commons

I don’t wanna do this anymore …

I substituted coconut oil and applesauce for the butter (if you’re going to tell me coconut is a nut, I’m going to have to slap you with a cookie), and replaced the nuts with some dried fruits and some extra oats for texture.

They were pretty tasty, although I will probably have to rename them Everything But the Kitchen Sink and Not To Mention Nuts and Butter Cookies. Which makes it a little hard to file in my recipe box, but no matter.

The third recipe I revamped was a fruit smoothie. I thought it’d be easy, until I realized I couldn’t replace the cow’s milk with almond milk, because … nuts! And I couldn’t replace the almond milk with cow’s milk, because … dairy.

So I threw some strawberries in a blender and added some tequila and called it a day.

 

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    Cooking for those with allergies to the basics like wheat, dairy, eggs etc. makes baking a real challenge. Thankfully, these days there are good companies, like King Arthur flours and Bob’s Red Mill , that carry an entire line of baking mixes as well as healthy ingredients for everyday.

  2. Karlyne says:

    “So I threw some strawberries in the blender and added some tequila and called it a day.” First belly laugh of the day!

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Hear Ye!

Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Rebecca Alvarez!!!

Rebecca Alvarez (TinyChinaCows, #7224) has received a certificate of achievement in Outpost for earning a Beginner Level Speak for the Trees Merit Badge!

“I’ve had this National Geographic Field Guide to the Trees of North America on my bookshelf for a while, so when I read the requirements for the “Speak for the Trees” badge, I snatched the book from the shelf and headed outside. I live in an apartment complex, but we have many different trees that need identifying! I identified the three required for this badge, but I’m certainly going be taking more tree-finding walks while the weather is nice!

I had lots of fun identifying our trees! The first one outside my building has peeling bark that looks like it’s been painted in watercolors and tosses these fuzzy spheres at us every year. It’s an American Sycamore, native to the Eastern U.S. (I took a photo, included below.) Another nearby tree turned out to be a Crepe Myrtle. It showers the sidewalk with flowers every year and is native to Japan and China.

Finally, it turns out that we actually have two different species of oak trees pelting us with acorns lately. One is Live Oak, native to our area and festooned with Spanish Moss. The other seems to be a Laurel Oak, which, according to my book, is a hybrid and is frequently used in Florida landscapes. On my next walk, I’m going to try to identify some of the palm trees we have around here.”

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  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    Hi Rebecca from up here in Gainesville, Florida. We are lucky to have both a Live Oak and a Laurel Oak in our yard. Aren’t they they most gorgeous trees? They are like huge friends that live in your yard and keep you company. Our squirrels go nuts this time of year with so many acorns too. Keep up your learning adventures and let us know more about the Palms in your area. You have more varieties where you live than we do up here in the North.

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Young Cultivators Merit Badge: Big Kid Now, Beginner Level

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 7,200 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—10,226 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane 

Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life

For this week’s Each Other/Big Kid Now Beginner Level Young Cultivator Merit Badge, I wrangled Piper, Andy, and Nora to earn their badges together. Birds of a feather flock together like peas in a pod. Or something to that effect.

Anyway, this badge was all about daydreaming towards the future and answering the ever immortal and infamous question that the under-18 crowd gets asked twenty-eleven times in their short life spans:

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Buzz Aldrin walks on the moon, July 20, 1969, via Wikimedia Commons

Now, this seemingly innocuous query can cause panic, anxiety, and hives in young adults of the teenage variety (and some of the just-graduated college age group as well), but these particular whippersnappers found it intriguing.

Especially when I assured them that the sky was the limit (after all, who doesn’t want to be an astronaut?).

It really got their gray matter working overtime. Piper was coming up with career notions as fast as she could write them down with her trusty hot-pink quill pen, Nora firmly stuck to her #1 choice, but Andy was … well, surprisingly thoughtful.

I mean, you could have knocked me over with Pipe’s hot-pink quill pen. He was really stewing and brewing and weighing his options. It was like he was … was … thinking. Anyone who knows and loves a preteen boy knows this is rare indeed: like seeing a unicorn on your way to the market or something.

I say this in love.

But ‘tis true.

Then he *gasp* wanted to go the library to research his Top Ten Career Paths. I couldn’t say no to that request. (Though I was still filled with apprehension after our last trip there. Would there be a photo of me with a red line crossed through? Would I be banned for shouting, spilling my coffee, and losing half the children I had arrived with? It’s not easy being Auntie, I tell you.)

photo by Wpcpey via Wikimedia Commons

We set off like a herd of turtles and made our way to the Non-Fiction Kid’s Section—where none of us had actually been before. It was a whole new world there, chickadees! I always thought Non-Fiction was a bit on the borrrrrring side myself, but once again, I have changed my wicked ways.

I settled down with a biography of Julia Child while the three ankle-biters perused. Each of us had brought our own reusable shopping bag, both for ease of transport and also to cut down on the squabbling. Well, actually Nora brought a suitcase on wheels, but the librarian didn’t even bat an eye. Sometimes I think librarians have seen things that would make a lesser gal squirm in shock. They’re like the unsung heroes and ninjas of the literature world. Also, if the zombie apocalypse happens, I’m heading to the library, post haste.

The book about Julia was making me super hungry. I was having a hard time focusing on our assignment, but luckily the kids were doing well. The Non-Fiction section was pretty picked over by the time we were done with it and I kinda hoped there weren’t any other Young Cultivators eager to earn this specific badge today (or in the next two weeks, since that’s how long we had our books for).

On our way home, we had to drive-through for tacos because … well, Julia.

Want to see what the trio of intrepid daydreamers checked out?

Stay tuned!

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  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    I have many fond memories of taking my kids to the library on a regular basis when they were young. there is something so peaceful in the reading areas where all sorts of people are working on homework, reading for pleasure, and collaborating about a topic. Today, Starbucks has become that place for millions of people and I have to admit, I end up there when I just want to read or knit and have my thoughts to myself. Never mind tacos, Starbucks has seasonal lattes!

  2. Marilyn Berger says:

    During snack time in Kindergarten class a few weeks ago where I volunteer (retired teacher), I asked the children, “Have you thought about what you want to be when you’re out of high school?” The only girl at the table quickly responded, “Oh, I want to be a Yodeler and a singer until I’m 24 years old, and then I’ll get married and have children.” The boys were unanimous with their decision, “I want to be a policeman” “I want to arrest bad people” ” I want to be a policeman and help people”. Wow! I was amazed that they were already thinking about their adult lives!

  3. Krista says:

    I remember when I was younger for years and years I was going to be a figure skater when I grew up! Obviously that never happened. I have only been ice skating twice in my life! It’s so great seeing how children can be whatever they want with no limitations. The best part about it is that children change their minds as they grow and don’t show disappointment when they become something else in real life. I’m excited to see what my children decide they want to be when they grow up!

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Hear Ye!

Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Brenda White!!!

Brenda White (#6769) has received a certificate of achievement in Each Other for earning a Beginner Level Languages/Culture Merit Badge!

“My daughter who is now 29, was diagnosed at 20 months with a severe to profound hearing loss. She started wearing hearing aids at 2 years of age. I have learned a lot about deaf culture and sign language. My daughter was raised in a educational setting called total communication. She reads lips (which isn’t taught but is something she just can do), signs, and speaks. My family started learning sign language when our daughter was about 2 1/2 years old.

My education has turned out well! She now lives in Washington D.C. and is a chef. We Facetime often using sign and speaking. I communicate well with her deaf friends and have been accepted into their community.”

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    I am so delighted to hear of the success of your daughter! How fantastic that we now have FaceTime technology so that you two can regularly communicate in real time.

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Young Cultivator Merit Badge: Whistle While You Work, Beginner Level

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 7,130 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—10,150 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane 

Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life

For this week’s Out There Kids/Whistle While You Work Beginner Level Young Cultivator Merit Badge, I took little Piper by the hand and off we went to frolic merrily in the field behind my house.

When was the last time you frolicked, my peeps? A day, a week, a year, or ten years? I heartily recommend a little frolicking at least once a month. It’s good for the soul, the legs, and you can soak up some Vitamin D. It’s a win-win, that frolicking.

Woman in a Meadow by Grace Hudson via Wikimedia Commons

Anyway, where was I? Right: in a field with an exuberant small fry. We weren’t here just for the pasture time, no, we were here for something serious. Something badge earning. Something I call Grass Whistling.

Never heard of it? Well, I’m hardly surprised, you anti-frolicker, you.

The glorious squawk of a grass whistle is one of the most giggle-icious sounds you’ll ever hear in the great outdoors, and anyone who can pick a blade of grass can. do. it.

grass-whist-3a

Here’s how:

  1. Pick a thick piece of grass that’s about 6-8” long.
  2. Pinch the grass with the thumb and index finger of the left hand.
  3. Keeping the grass smooth and tight, press the right thumb against the left.
  4. There will be a little hole between your thumbs that is divided by the grass blade.
  5. Press your lips against the hole, blow good and hard, and get ready for giggles. You’ll be amazed how loud you can honk!

I know, I had you at ‘giggle-icious,’ am I right?

We got to honking so loudly, a flock of geese stopped by and invited us to Canada. Of course we had to decline; we were having too much fun.

canadian_geese_lale

photo by Laslovarga via Wikimedia Commons

It took some practice, of course, and Piper got the hang of it before I did, naturally, but we became so good we thought about starting our own two-person band. We already had Emmaline, the Bovine Princess, thoughtfully staring at us as she chewed her cud, so we were pretty sure we could drum up a respectable audience (even if half of them were barnyard animals and honking fowl).

Not only is grass whistling good for keeping you young at heart and on tune, but it’s a handy-dandy trick to know at boring parties, or when you’re waiting for your little brother to end his soccer match, or just when Mom tells you to go outside and play and your bike tire is flat. It’ll gain you friends and influence people. Okay, maybe that last one was a bit of an exaggeration, but still. It’s a life skill, chickadees.

Quite frankly, it’s right up there with frolicking.

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  1. Lisa Von Saunder says:

    In the south where I grew up , we called these ” GRASS HARPS’ . Change the size of the blades of grass and you get a different tone. One of my favorite outdoor gsmes to pass along to the ones who never heard of it-a always brings a smile.
    Along with daisy chains and hollyhock dolls, and mudpie teaparties, a happy childhood memory

  2. Winnie Nielsen says:

    I think learning how to whistle with a blade of grass was a rite of passage when I was growing up. We practiced and practiced until we had it down pat. However, I never mastered the whistle blow with your fingers on the lips. How does that work??? I sure tried for years to make it happen.

  3. Krista says:

    I remember grass whistling in elementary! When we went out for recess we would always run up the grass hill, sit down, pick our blade of grass, and blow the grass whistle. It was so much fun seeing who could whistle louder or longer. I haven’t done this since elementary. I think it’s time to try it out again and see if I still have the talent!

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Hear Ye!

Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Cyrie Wilson

Cyrie Wilson (Pixiedustdevil, #6941) has received a certificate of achievement in Stitching & Crafting for earning an Expert Level Tatting Merit Badge!

“First I made a bunch of snowflakes from 2 different patterns.

A friend of mine commented on my tatting; she knew how to tat with a shuttle, but not a needle. She made the suggestion that I teach a basic tatting class.

To make a long story short, an announcement was made that I would be teaching needle tatting. Ten people signed up. I made copies of the instructions and wrote an easy pattern for them to learn.

In the end, 6 people showed up (those who couldn’t made appointments), and the class lasted 4 hours!

It was difficult to teach a class, but luckily, my friend was in it, picked the instructions up quickly, and helped me walk around and help people who were lost. I didn’t have time to take pictures.

They requested that I teach 2 more classes on how to tat a snowflake and starch the snowflakes. I haven’t set a date yet.”

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  1. Cindi says:

    Congratulations on a badge well deserved! The patience and dexterity needed for this beautiful craft seems lost to time as much as the craft itself. Bravo for keeping it alive. We can learn much from these time treasured arts ~ and probably support the reading glasses industry for some time 🙂

  2. Winnie Nielsen says:

    Gorgeous, Cyrie, absolutely gorgeous!! They will make special gifts as well as fantastic Christmas tree decorations.

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