The Friday Dog Blog

Another silly dog picture....This is what my dog does best - napping with her best friend, Bunny. It's.....Sleeping Schnauzer!!!!

Do you have a dog that would like to be featured on the Friday Dog Blog? Please e-mail the pic with any accompanying information to alltrailsleadhome@alltrailsleadhome.com.

Is Your Nest Empty?

Lots of people are experiencing Empty Nest Syndrome right now. This is why the last chick flies the coop, heading for college, first apartment, backpacking across Europe, getting married, whatever. Everyone is gone and the house is empty.

While there are a lot of jokes about Mom and Dad being thrilled to finally have Jr. out of the home, the truth is that this is usually not a happy event. In fact, it can lead to serious depression if a parent does not take steps to combat the boredom, loneliness, realization of mortality and downright sadness.


If a mom has made staying home and caring for children her life and career, she may be in a rougher situation than parents who have a 9 to 5 job to worry about and keep their thoughts occupied. Stay at home mothers have to take action immediately. But what action?


First of all, you have to decide what you will be when you grow up. What are your talents? Find them and capitalize on them. Learn a new skill. If you are reading this, you have a familiarity with the Internet, so you have a whole world at your feet.


Can you write? Look at opportunities for writers - there are lots of them. Start a blog - check out some books from your local library and learn how. If I'm doing it, it can't be difficult!

Write a book. Really. Read up on it, take some writing classes at your vo-tech. You have plenty of time, take what you need to get yourself ready.


Do you have artistic abilities. I'm so jealous of these people - I have always dreamed of being able to sit down and paint something beautiful. My artistic talents end at crooked stick figures, but lots of people are born with whatever that thing is (genetic?) that gives them these terrific abilities. If you have it, don't waste it! Again, get yourself to some classes and get going.


Visit the numerous craft fairs that spring up during the holiday season. Take a look at the tables - what interests you? Jewelry making? Wood working? Leather crafts? Jelly making? Dive into it, and be one of those table-holders at next year's craft fairs.

Plan a garden for next spring.


Learn to sew.


There are so many possibilities - and now that the kids are out of house, you have the time and space to explore them. Go for it, and banish those empty nest thoughts!


Did you conquer Empty Nest Syndrome? Please comment and let us know how you did it.

Do You Know EHow?

If you're already familiar with ehow.com, then you probably don't need to read on. If you aren't, you should check it out. This is a great site that is driven by readers who write short articles on how to do almost everything. Really. Need to know how to shave your legs? Find out here. How to wire a lamp? How to make a memory quilt? How to put up a tent? This site provides directions for just about everything you can think of.

Another nice feature is the paid writers program. If you can write, be sure and sign up for this. You can publish articles till the cows come home and won't get paid a cent until you sign up for the paid program. They charge something like a buck a year if you don't write enough to get paid $10.00 or more. Ehow only pays through Paypal, so you will need a free Paypal account, but doesn't everyone have one of those anyway?

If you don't write much, you shouldn't be intimidated. Ehow's template pretty much sets everything out for you. Their articles are in steps (they prefer 4-6), with an introductory paragraph and a closing paragraph, if you need them. Adding pictures is great, and will generally get you some money faster, but it's not required. You can also add some video if you're so inclined.

You can check your account to see if people are reading your articles, and readers can rate your articles with stars.

And the best part, given enough time, you can learn how to do everything!

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

Sometimes I don't discover great books for a year or so after they're published. Too busy with life and other things. This is the case with Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I always thought of her as a novelist. Not normally a fan of novels, I lean toward nonfiction, particularly history, and usually listen to my books with an Ipod Touch while driving. I'm a library rat, and my public library has a terrific selection of books to download for IPods, other mp3 players, ebook readers and computers.

When I ran across Kingsolver's book, I was immediately attracted to the library's description of their adventure in Appalachia. Best of all, this was definitely not a novel. I'll read anything about the Appalachian Mountains, which I dearly love, and I decided to download the book. Wow. Truly. It's just a pleasure to fire up the Ipod every morning and listen to this account of a family moving to a farm and embarking on a grand experiment to eat only what they raise or what is grown locally. Listening to Kingsolver's descriptions of their lucious black cherries, apples, lettuces, it just puts you in a good frame of mind. She even makes asparagus sound appetizing.

Now, would it make me feel as good if I were reading it, rather than listening to the author's soft, gentle descriptions of the family adventures? I assume so.

If you're looking for a good book, try this one out. Here is its website: http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/ You can pick a softcover up on Amazon.com for $10-12.00, or check it out at your local library. I think you'll like it.


Here's a partial review from Publishers Weekly:
Reviewed by Nina Planck.

Novelist Kingsolver recounts a year spent eating home-grown food and, if not that, local. Accomplished gardeners, the Kingsolver clan grow a large garden in southern Appalachia and spend summers "putting food by," as the classic kitchen title goes. They make pickles, chutney and mozzarella; they jar tomatoes, braid garlic and stuff turkey sausage.

Nine-year-old Lily runs a heritage poultry business, selling eggs and meat. What they don't raise (lamb, beef, apples) comes from local farms. Come winter, they feast on root crops and canned goods, menus slouching toward asparagus. Along the way, the Kingsolver family, having given up industrial meat years before, abandons its vegetarian ways and discovers the pleasures of conscientious carnivory.

Kingsolver takes the genre to a new literary level; a well-paced narrative and the apparent ease of the beautiful prose makes the pages fly. Her tale is both classy and disarming, substantive and entertaining, earnest and funny.

(Kingsolver)makes short, neat work of complex topics: what's risky about the vegan diet, why animals belong on ecologically sound farms, why bitterness in lettuce is good. Kingsolver's clue to help greenhorns remember what's in season is the best I've seen. You trace the harvest by botanical development, from buds to fruits to roots. Kingsolver is not the first to note our national "eating disorder" and the injuries industrial agriculture wreaks, yet this practical vision of how we might eat instead is as fresh as just-picked sweet corn.

The narrative is peppered with useful sidebars on industrial agriculture and ecology (by husband Steven Hopp) and recipes (by daughter Camille), as if to show that local food—in the growing, buying, cooking, eating and the telling—demands teamwork.

Nina Planck is the author of Real Food: What to Eat and Why (Bloomsbury USA, 2006). Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

The Friday Dog Blog

Fridays are Dog Blog days - When I post on a Friday, it will just be a silly picture of a dog - This one happens to be mine. It's.....Super Schnauzer!

Town Hall Meetings - Why Can't We Be Civil To Each Other?

What is happening to us? Can we not sit and listen to another person's viewpoints without feeling the need to shout that person down? Do people not feel ashamed of their behavior anymore?

I've just finished reading a story in The Daily Oklahoman about a town hall meeting in my own little city, along with the obligatory picture of red-faced people screaming and waving signs urging rebellion against Nazis. What???

Politeness has gone the way of 8 track tapes and rotary phones, evidently, at least for some. One distressed young mother was interviewed by the Oklahoman. She had driven an hour or so with her children, hoping to teach them the importance of getting involved and listening to different views, only to have them witness a sideshow of angry, screaming adults with little or no self-control. "I was appalled by the way people were conducting themselves in there", she said, "It just breaks my heart to see how people are treating each other in there." Good for you, young mother! More people need to call these bullies out.

Maybe talk radio has emboldened those of us with anger issues and has made it seemingly ok to intimidate and bully other human beings. Some will say that the state of the economy has driven people to clench their fists and want to fight anyone with an opposing view, but I don't think I buy it. We've faced adversity before (ever hear of the problems stared down by the Greatest Generation - The Great Depression, World War II?), and we persevered without turning on each other. And does the Depression and a terrible world war even remotely compare to a proposal for health care?

We have plenty to get ruffled about, and that will never change. But for now, I'm on the side of the appalled young mother. It breaks my heart to see how people are treating each other.

Is Happiness Genetic or a Learned Behavior?

There are some that put forth the idea that we are born happy or sad, and without some recognition and steps to change ourselves, this will be our lot in life. That could be. I consider myself content and happy almost all of the time, and even my baby pictures show me laughing or smiling in nearly every snapshot. I don't remember an extended period of sadness or depression in any part of my history.

But is this genetic, or the result of an outrageously idealic and happy childhood? I think I will lay my positive outlook at the feet of my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and almost everyone else I came into contact with. Growing up in terrific circumstances with great people has to count for something, right? Maybe it counts for everything.

What about you? Did you grow up in challenging circumstances, yet kept your sunny outlook on life? Did you have a wonderful childhood, only to walk around with a cloud over your head and a scowl on your face? Can you shed some light on this question?