House Plants

It seems like each year the number of house plants grows. Partly this is a result of starting new plants from existing plants. I have two main areas where my plants are located - by the south-facing window in the kitchen and the east-facing window in the kitchen.

By far, the south-facing window has the most plants. This is the sunniest and warmest place in our home.

The east-facing window has five plants. Some could benefit from being in stronger light, but so far they are doing fine here.

The largest plant in our home is the hibiscus tree. It was a quad-grafted one that my daughter, Olivia, got from an Amish-run greenhouse in southeastern Minnesota in 2018. After several seasons, we weren't seeing anymore of the pink and orange blooms - just the red and yellow ones - which are still beautiful. 

The hibiscus enjoys the warmth of the woodstove during the winter. In the summer and early-fall, it is an outside plant. Since it has been inside, it has sprouted two new plants near the base of the tree. I'm curious to see what color blooms they will produce.

Two of the most recent plants I purchased from Home Depot are on the dining room table (though not in these photos) on a Christmas table runner. The first is a fragrant Madagascar Jasmine which is a type of vine. It is blooming now and will do so again in the summer.

The other plant I recently purchased is a Kalanchoe. Its bright red flowers attracted my attention and I thought it looked nice with the jasmine. The Kalanchoe is a tropical, succulent plant native to Madagascar and tropical Africa.

Although this Philodendron Congo Rojo looks unassuming now, it produces showy flowers and interesting leaves. The name "rojo" comes from its new leaves which unfurl in a deep, shiny red. It's hard to see in my plant, but there are new red leaves forming under the green ones near the stems. As the leaves mature, they fade to the burgundy-green color they are below. (This is another Home Depot purchase a couple weeks ago.)

These two plants are Tradescantia Pallida "Purple Heart" Wandering Dude. The plant on the left was given to me by a friend who I met in my pottery class a few years ago. The cuttings (which grew into a plant) were from a plant that belonged to her mother. 

The plant on the right was created from cuttings from the plant on the left. I had the older plant outside during the summer and it grew so many vines. I cut it back and put the cuttings in soil. After watering it, I didn't do much with it. Within weeks, little green leaves were starting to sprout. These plants are fast growers, so I'm regularly trimming them. I want to see if by regularly trimming them I can create "denser" plants.

  

I also have two aloe vera plants. The one on the left needs to be divided. This one continues to create shoots. This could easily be six smaller plants. I've had this plant for many years.

The aloe vera on the right was given to my daughter, Sophia, in her sophomore year of college. She's a senior now. She didn't want to have it in her dorm room, so she asked me to take care of it. I still haven't transplanted it from the plastic container it came in.

Now for a couple of sad plants. These are rosemary plants that I left in the mudroom a bit too long into the late-fall/winter. I brought them from the backyard to the mudroom. Then, I neglected them by not watering them or transplanting them. I just cut them back and put them in new pots with potting soil. So, we'll see if they come back to life this winter.

In addition to the rosemary, I have a basil plant. My brother bought it for me before Thanksgiving. I've used the leaves to make lasagna. There's nothing like fresh basil.

This plant is another plant that Sophia wanted me to take care of. It is a type of agave that she got when she was at a leadership camp in Patagonia, Arizona, in 2018. The goal was to plant agave seedlings to promote agave restoration. 

One of the interesting things about agave plants is that the agave flowers are an essential food source for the Mexican long-tongued bat and the long-nosed bat. These bats make their way from Mexico to the United States where they give birth to their young before returning back to Mexico in the fall. 

This is a little Bromeliad plant that was at Home Depot in early-December. I've seen larger versions, but wanted to start out with a little one.  

I really like the flower on the Bromeliad plant. 

My daughter, Olivia, said that we should keep a tiny succulent that was on one of her graduation bouquets (from May 2022). She took it and placed it in one of the Christmas Cactus plants that were outside for the summer. By the end of the summer, it had grown quite tall. I propped it up with small twigs as it was growing. She tried to grow it at college, but she has a north-facing window so light is minimal. This one needs stronger light and is doing well in the south-facing window in my kitchen. 

Because Olivia likes plants, I found this Haworthia/Gasteria at Home Depot a couple of weeks ago that I'm going to give her for Christmas. I'm not sure of its specific type/species. The plant has such a curious texture to it with the raised white dots. 

This is a type of Radiator Plant called Peperomia "Napoli Nights" and it was at Home Depot in early-December. I like the texture and coloring of the leaves. What I'm looking forward to seeing are the yellow flowers that are starting to come out. The plant sends up thin stems on which the yellow flowers grow. People say they resemble mouse tails. 

My oldest plant is a Christmas Cactus that my dad gave me when he was in the middle stages of Alzheimer's and he was forgetting that he watered the plant. He was overwatering it which was making it die. I was able to bring it back to life, thankfully. At that point, he was no longer capable of caring for the Christmas Cactus. He had this plant probably since the mid-1970s. If I use the date that we moved into our new home in 1974, then it is 48 years old. 

From that plant, I started two other plants - one for each of my daughters. They do not know the plants are for them. I want to give them one either when they move to their first home or when they get married - a gift - in essence - from my dad. Both are doing well in terms of blooming. The one on the left seems a bit more well-balanced in terms of height. The one on the right is the plant where the succulent (pictured above) was growing. So , there's a gap now where the succulent was until the fall. I need to do something for re-building this part of the plant. 

 

This is a Zamioculcas Zamiifolia or ZZ plant that I got at WalMart in October. I was looking for some different types of plants than I had and this one had much darker leaves than any of my plants. I don't believe this one has any flowers.

Another plant that I have is a jade plant. Jade plants are native to the KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa, and Mozambique. The plant, pictured below, started out small - probably no more than five inches tall. Sophia, Olivia, and I purchased it and several other plants to create a terrarium. Eventually, the plants outgrew the terrarium and each got its own planter. The jade plant did exceptionally well and has now grown into a small tree. It is 15 years old. 

Several years ago, my jade tree started blooming. I had never seen it bloom before, so it was fun to see all the pink and white star-shaped flowers. This is typical of jade plants - that they need to be mature for them to flower. 

I have another smaller jade plant that I started from parts that fell off the larger jade tree. To create new plants, all that I needed to do was stick a leaf or stem with leaves into the soil and water it. Jade will start growing into a plant. 

In October, I bought this Anthurium Andraeanum from WalMart - also called a flamingo lily or painter's palette. This plant is native to Ecuador and Columbia. It can grow up to 16" tall so it will get much larger than it is now. 

Several years ago, I got another type of Christmas Cactus from a local nursery - though it may be a Thanksgiving Cactus since its leaf shape is different from the other ones I have. It also has a red tint around all of the leaves. I'm not sure if that's okay or a sign that something is wrong with it. Yet...it looks healthy. So, I'm not sure.

In October, I got this bamboo plant from WalMart. I liked how the stems were formed into the shape. I'm hoping that it does well during the winter. I've never grown bamboo before.

This little plant that I recently got from WalMart is called a Codiaeum Variegatum "Petra Croton." It is an evergreen shrub native to the western Pacific Islands and southern Asia. I liked the various colors in the leaves. In the upcoming month, I want to transplant it into a pot.

The last houseplant I have is one I just got about a week ago from Home Depot. It's a Hoya Macrophylla and is also known as a wax plant because it has waxy leaves and flowers. The plants originate from New Guinea, New Zealand, and Australia.

This plant is a trailing vine and can grow five feet in length. The leaves grow between four to eight inches long and one and one-half to four inches wide. Blooms appear in the spring and summer and will have white or cream-color clusters of star-shaped flowers. The flowers release their scent at night when natural pollinators come out. 

All these plants are easy to take care of - it's just time-consuming in terms of watering. When the majority of the plants are outdoors during the summer, it is much easier since the rain is usually sufficient to take care of them. When I transition them back inside, I do a lot of pruning of each plant since they seem to grow quite a bit in the three months they are outdoors. 

In an ideal world, I would have plants in each room of the home. However, there isn't enough light in all of the rooms. I haven't gotten to the level of plant shelves and grow lights. However, maybe someday that could be a possibility. It would give me something fun to do with my time as I learn about different plants and how to grow them. 

Tao Te Ching (Book Notes)

 One of the books that was recommended for the photography class I took earlier this spring was Tao Te Ching by Stephen Mitchell. This is a new English version of the Tao Te Ching written by Lao-tzu.

There were some parts that resonated with me. I've noted them below:

- In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don't try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present. (8) 

- Care about people's approval and you will be their prisoner. Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity. (9)

- We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move. We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want. We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner space that makes it livable. We work with being, but non-being is what we use. (11)

Horse and buggy in southeast Minnesota.

- When the Master governs, the people are hardly aware that he exists. Next best is a leader who is loved. Next, one who is feared. The worst is one who is despised. (17)

- Express yourself completely, then keep quiet. Be like the forces of nature: when it blows, there is only wind; when it rains, there is only rain; when the clouds pass, the sun shines through. (23)

- He who stands on tiptoe doesn't stand firm. He who rushes ahead doesn't go far. He who tries to shine dims his own light. He who defines himself can't know who he really is. He who has power over others can't empower himself. He who clings to his work will create nothing that endures. (24)

- Thus the Master travels all day without leaving home. However splendid the views, she stays serenely in herself. If you let yourself be blown to and fro, you lose touch with your root. (26) 

- A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving. A good artist lets his intuition lead him wherever it wants. (27)

My mom, sister, and me on vacation in the late 1960s.

- Weapons are the tools of violence; all decent men detest them. (31)

- Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich. If you stay in the center and embrace death with your whole heart, you will endure forever. (33)

- When there is no desire, all things are at peace. (37)

- In harmony with the Tao, the sky is clear and spacious, the earth is solid and full, all creatures flourish together, content wit hthe way they are, endlessly repeating themselves, endlessly renewed. When man interferes with the Tao, the sky becomes filthy, the earth becomes depleted, the equilibrium crumbles, creates become extinct. (39)

- Ordinary men hate solitude. But the Master makes use of it, embracing his aloneness, realizing he is one with the whole universe. (42)

- I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. Simple in actions and in thoughts, you return to the source of being. Patient with both friends and enemies, you accord with the way things are. Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world. (67)

Sophia putting one of many scarves out for someone who is cold to take.

- The best leader follows the will of the people. [This embodies] the virtue of non-competition. (68)

- Men are born soft and supple; dead, they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail. (76)

Living Without Electricity - Book Review, Notes, and Memories

I'm working on my list of books to read on Goodreads. This week I read Living Without Electricity by Stephen Scott and Kenneth Pellman. The book focuses on how the Amish live without electricity and also explains how they have created ways to light their homes, heat their homes, be entertained, communicate without a phone, and get around without a car.

The authors explain that the Amish value simplicity and self-denial over comfort, convenience, and leisure. So they try to discern the long-range effects of an innovation before deciding whether to adopt it.

Amish home in Southeastern Minnesota.

Olivia visited the business here when 

we were in the area camping in May 2018.

Some interesting facts from the book:
- While electrical power was available to many city dwellers in the early 1900s, the majority of rural North Americans had no access to current until the 1930s or 1940s.

No power lines leading to the house is 

one sign that an Amish family lives in it.

(Taken in May 2018.)

- Most Amish believe that the number of devices that can be operated by a battery or generator is limited, and that careful use of such items poses minimal risk to community values.
- An old-fashioned pitcher pump provides cistern water for washing in the kitchen. (As a side note: I remember visiting my Uncle Walt and Aunt Beulah's farm in Illinois and they had a water pump like this inside their home.)
- Windmill towers topped by large, flower-like fans...are often used to pump water into elevated storage tanks and to fill water reservoirs near or under the house which are tapped by hand "pitcher" pumps. (Side note: My uncle and aunt had a windmill and outdoor pump as well. I remember using it when we would visit them.)

Windmill that Olivia painted in 2016 

for a customer.

- Wood-burning water heaters [and] gas and kerosene water heaters [are used by the Amish]. (We have a gas water heater at our farm.)
- The Amish hang their laundry on clotheslines year-round. In some communities, very long wash lines attached to large pulleys extend from house to barn. In Lancaster County, the clothesline often runs into the wash house. This allows the person doing the laundry to hang up the wash inside and convey it out through a door. In wet weather, clothes are placed on wooden racks inside or hung on lines in the basement or another room. A drying rack often is positioned above the cookstove.

Clothes drying on lines at an Amish farm.

(Taken in May 2018.)

- Wedding festivities last all day.
- Fellowship meals follow each bi-weekly church service.
- An important part of Amish life is informal visiting. Families often visit one another without advance notice, and it is common for unexpected guests to stay for a meal.

Olivia and I stopped at an Amish bakery business at someone's home.

There were many visitors there that day as evidenced by the buggies.

We could hear singing inside the home.

(Taken in May 2018.)

- Women and girls usually sew, quilt, knit, embroider, cross-stitch, or do other kinds of needlework.
- Checkers, chess, Parcheesi, and even Monopoly are among popular table games.
- Amish children act out farming practices or horse-and-buggy trips. Baler twine serves effectively as reins, and a wagon as a buggy.
- Though musical instruments are strongly discouraged among the Amish, some families enjoy singing together without accompaniment.
- Many Amish participate in circle letters, in which people of similar interests, occupations, or situations (such as widows, teachers, or harness-makes) correspond with one another. Typically, a person receives a packet containing letters from each person in the circle. The receiver takes out the portion he or she had written for the last round and adds a new letter, before sending the whole batch to the next round.
- One of the weekly newspapers in the U.S. is the Budget. The letters include reports on weather, visits, illnesses, accidents, church services, births, deaths, and marriages.
- Convenient transportation tends to make it easier to yield to temptation. With a car, you can go wherever you want, whenever you want .This is especially harmful to young people.

Following a horse and buggy at a safe distance.

(Taken in May 2018.)

- The Amish point out further that cars are often objects of pride and can become status symbols. The feature of style, speed, comfort, and convenience...are in direct opposition to the Amish values of nonconformity, simplicity, self-denial, and humility.

There was a section about different types of lighting systems including natural gas and pressure lanterns. It reminded me of learning how to use propane gas lights in a cabin. It was a bit unnerving at the beginning using them, but I became more comfortable once I used them more.

Another section of the book discussed cooking with propane gas and how some Amish are permitted to use bottled gas and can cook on gas ranges like those used by non-Amish people. This is no different than what I use right now. My parents had an electric stove upstairs and a natural gas stove in the basement in the laundry room. They would use that when they did canning and when we had company and needed a second oven or stove to make food.

Since moving to our farm in 1995, I've used propane and a gas stove. I like that there is immediate heat versus the gradual-heat-up of an electric stove.

I had to laugh about the refrigeration methods used and how they sound like what we do sometimes: "The most conservative Amish groups use only natural refrigeration for food items. In cold weather, setting perishables outside or in unheated parts of the house suffices." I can't even count the number of times we've done this same thing. We have an unheated mudroom that we have put things in as an extension of our refrigerator.

One of the things that was difficult for me to see was a picture of a horse hooked up to a device to pump water. The horse had a wooden circle it would walk on to generate the power for the water pump. They also use horses like this for powering a washing machine or turning a lathe. I thought it would be a sad life for a horse to have to walk around in a circle for a prolonged period of time.

These horses, thankfully, were not hooked up to devices to pump water.

This Amish farm had a variety of large horses and young foals

who were enjoying galloping in the pasture and

relaxing and watching people. 

(Taken in May 2018.)

There was a chapter about doing laundry. There was a picture of a wringer washer. My parents had the same exact wringer washer as is pictured in the book. The difference is that my parents plugged their washer into the wall to use it while the Amish would use a gasoline engine, compressed air, or a hydraulic pump. I remember getting my hand stuck in the wringer part when my mom stepped away from the washer momentarily. It really hurt. Thankfully, none of my bones broke when that happened.

The chapter also described hanging clothes inside in wet weather and outdoors in all other types of weather. I remember my parents doing laundry and hanging up clothes outside. My mom typically would do this. However, when my dad was on summer break from being a school social worker, he enjoyed hanging up clothes outdoors as well.

My mom asked me sometimes to help. The "rules" were that personal garments (underwear) were hung on the line under the deck out of neighbors' view; and the other clothes were hung on the lines that extended from the house to the trees (east to west). The wind from the north and west would blow the clothes and give them that fresh outdoor scent. The only thing I didn't like having line-dried were towels.

What I thought was insightful was the concern about using a machine that allows one person to do a job that used to require several people to do that job. The Amish aren't in favor of that because, although it does save time, it prevents a sense of community from developing.

Another Amish farm and greenhouse business 

that Olivia and I visited.

(Taken in May 2018.)

Near the end of the book was the statement, "The Old Order Amish are not against change, but try to carefully determine which changes might adversely affect their church and community." I think this thoughtful approach to life is with merit. What if each person carefully considered how the decisions they made would affect themselves, their families, community, and world? What a different world we would live in.

Outdoor Mom's Journal - February 2019

During our outdoor time this month we went...to see the migrating swans and geese in Monticello. There are literally thousands of waterfowl at an open area in the Mississippi River.

The sound is almost deafening with so many birds in one area. There is someone who feeds them each day in the morning; and Olivia and I were able to see the tail-end of the feeding which was fun.

At home, I went outside when I heard rustling near the fence under the pine trees on the east side of the backyard. I'm glad I did: it was a pheasant who was having trouble getting up and over the fence. There is so much snow and not enough clearance, so it is more challenging for them to get up in the air and clear the fence.

Check out the wing marks on the snow. I think they are so pretty!

 

The most inspiring thing we experienced was...watching from inside a snowstorm and then going outside to see the impact that wind and snow had on trees and bushes.

It kind of reminds me of a tornado or summer storm when leaves and twigs are scattered all around. The only difference is that in the winter, we see pine needles, twigs, and seed pods that fall off the trees.

I also enjoyed watching and photographing the birds on February 20th at the feeder by the bedroom window. There were lots of cardinals.

The black-capped chickadees loved eating the peanuts.

The cardinals kept coming to the feeder and eating the sunflower seeds.

Cooper loved watching the birds.

The birds would crack open the seeds and the snow would often go flying from their beaks.

On the 25th, it was fun to watch a group of pheasants that have been hanging around our driveway. I put out cracked corn for them and they scratch just like chickens. The female (on the left) was doing a lot of scratching and finding corn. Then the male (on the right) came up to see what was there. You can tell she's annoyed that he's wanting to eat what she uncovered.

The male then started kicking up snow and looking for corn.

The pheasants spent time in the driveway and walked along the pathways I shoveled for them in the front yard. I can tell the pathways make it so much easier for them to get around safely and find food.

On the 25th, I saw a white-crowned sparrow. I was surprised to see it at this time of the year.

On the 26th, there were some robins in the apple tree eating the crabapples. I can't imagine that they taste good, but the robins were choosing to eat them versus coming to the feeder and eat seeds.

Our outdoor time made us ask (or wonder about)...why some dogs do well in the winter weather and snow, and other dogs struggle. Cooper is one of our dogs who loves the winter. He'll stick his head into the snow and look for activity near the grass. He reminds me of a fox looking for a rabbit or mouse.

In the garden, we are planning/planting/harvesting...nothing. It's hard to think of planting when the farm looks like this:

And icicles are coming off the roof:

  

They are really bad this year and we are going to have to hire someone to melt them so we don't get damage inside our home.

That being said, I am thinking that this year I will need to plant more flowers and get the backyard sodded since it is all torn up. Since we are planning on having Sophia's graduation party here, there will be a lot of work to do to make it look presentable. 

I added nature journal pages about...what I observe each day, the types of birds that I am seeing, and goals that I want to accomplish. I'm adding color to each of the pages which makes them look better than just the single-color illustrations that are in the nature journal now.


I am reading...The Budget. It's an Amish-Mennonite newspaper and has reports from various communities throughout the country and world. It's interesting to read about how winter affects people, and how the weather this winter is significantly different than past years.

I am dreaming about…days when we aren't struggling to get through the snow. This year we have had a huge amount of snow and we literally are having difficulty finding a place to put it each time there is a new snowfall.

The pathways are narrow which makes it hard for the dogs to be able to run and explore when they go outside. The wind often is so strong that it blows the snow into the pathways, making for another outdoor time of shoveling to create paths.

This is the view from the barn to the house. Next year I really need to make sure that the snowblower is working. It would make creating this path so much easier. The shoveling is a real back-breaker on some days - especially when the wind blows and packs down the snow.

A photo I would like to share...this male pheasant was finding some unusual spots to perch one day. He picked the electric wire - something I had never seen a pheasant do! He also was hanging out in the apple tree. His coloring helped him blend into the branches on the tree.