A College Education

It is that time of the year again where I get the urge to state some truths about a college education. My husband and I have college educations, as of Friday our daughter will have a college education, and I would really like for our son to have a college education some day.  My husband has always and still works in the same field as his degree: Wildlife Biology. I do not know the statistics on this, but I would bet a surprisingly small percentage of people manage to keep their college major and their subsequent careers on the same track throughout their careers. I have done work that is traditionally associated with my degrees, but I have spent more years on work that has no apparent relation to my field of study. We shall see where our daughter’s career takes her. Meanwhile, we have been advising our son to go to college, if nothing else, to develop the muscles between his ears.

There are a lot of convictions people have about a college education that are not exactly true. Like “if you can just get a college degree, you will always have a good-paying job.” I saw on the news the other day that over forty percent of people who finished college within the past two years are underemployed—meaning that they are in a job that does not require a degree.  Only fifteen percent of these graduates thought they would be making less than $25,000 per year with a degree, but thirty percent of them are making that much or less. Of the underemployed graduates, most said they wish they had majored in something different and/or they would need a graduate degree in order to be competitive in the workplace.  A certain few undergraduate degrees are highly employable and highly paid, but most of them are not…..but it still costs the same to get the degree.

The hunting dentist, Zack, along
with his wife, Amanda,
and our new graduate, Shelby

Another is “do what you love and you will always find success.” I suppose that could be true as long as you are not speaking of financial success. Often the best idea is to get your degree in an area where you can be satisfied with your professional life and make enough money to support doing what you love in your off time. We have a friend who is a dentist, but what he loves is hunting. His plan is to be able to AFFORD to hunt by working on teeth.

Another idea is that you need to have a degree from a “major” university to be employable. I put that in quotes because most people seem to think the “major” thing is related to the notoriety of the football team or the size of the student body than by any academic measures of major-ness. It is more important for each student to find a college that is a good fit for their personality and that has a good reputation in their field of study. A college can be world-class in one area of study and quite Mickey Mouse in another.  No matter how large or how high-profile your college is, if you choose the wrong major or manage to keep a steady low-C average, you are going to have a hard time with your employment search.

One more—“get an education so you won’t have to work as hard as your parents did.” This one makes me laugh out loud! I will respond to that one with a quote attributed to Thomas Edison: “Success is ten percent inspiration and ninety percent perspiration.” The cold, hard truth is success is hard work, even for college graduates. Yes, having a degree could possibly enable you to work in air conditioning, but you will still have to work hard and put in a lot of hours if you want to have success.

I believe a college education is a good thing, but it certainly is not for everyone and it certainly is not a magic bullet that ensures a life on Easy Street. If anyone knows where I can get one of those kinds of magic bullets, please let me know! 

Staying in SoHo

I am writing this week's column sitting the dining/gathering table in a loft apartment in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City. My daughter and I are here for a few days as a final installment in her college education. She graduated last week, but I believe even a brief visit to New York is at least as educational as a semester of courses. After a day and a half here, I think she agrees. 

Scout, the King Charles Spaniel

We have a bedroom in the loft of a family, Albert, Michelle, and Philipine--Oh, and Scout, the King Charles spaniel.
There are other guests here, as well, from all over the world. Right now I am sitting across from a woman who grew up in Delaware, married a Dutch man, and has lived in Chile for the past twenty-two years. Albert grew up in Paris and Michelle is French Canadian. This diversity of backgrounds has led to some terrific discussions. We certainly do not agree on many topics, but that is just fine in this environment.

Michelle, playing piano beneath one of her husband's photos

Marianne, the woman who is married to the Dutch man, tells me that a lot of people do not like the Dutch because they tend to be very direct in speaking their minds. If they like you, they will say so. If they do not like you, they will say that, too. Although I am a born-and-bred Southern woman, I prefer the direct approach. I would much rather someone tell me that they do not like me than to smile and speak sweetly to me only to turn away and complain to someone else about me. I am wondering  if that is why so many people who visit New York come back to report the people are rude. I find it to be quite the opposite. 

Michelle tells me they have hosted over 5,000 guests in their home since they started thirteen years ago. Their daughter is about to turn thirteen so she has shared her home and her parents with strangers her entire life. I have tried
to envision myself doing this, opening my home to travelers from all over the world, telling them "this is your home" (which Albert and Michelle have said repeatedly). We Southerners are very friendly, are we not? But does our Southern hospitality go to the level of these New Yorkers? I can honestly say that mine does not. 

The 9/11 Memorial was a very
heart-wrenching but beautiful place to visit.

Albert is a photographer and Michelle is an art dealer. She reports that having all of the different people in her home serves to constantly enrich her knowledge and inspiration. She says sometimes she meets a new guest and thinks she is not going to like them, but after only a few minutes of conversing and learning the person's story, her mind is changed. She likened individuals to pieces of art--each is unique and inspired and each has a story. Our individual tastes, experiences, and understanding dictate whether we find a painting or a piece of pottery interesting or beautiful, just as it does with new people we meet. 

Yes, we are walking the city, riding the subways and busses, and visiting the museums, but the best lessons of this trip have been in this home, at least for me. Today we are off to visit the Garment District and to pay our respects at the 9/11 Memorial. There are so many lessons to be learned between now and Wednesday afternoon! I will be posting photos and stories on the blog when I am safely back in Spring Creek.

A rainy view of Columbus Circle

Me and that sewing guy in the Garment District

This shop in Chelsea was nothing but vintage costume
 jewelry--my daughter was in heaven!

Shelby enjoying Bryant Park

An interesting work at the Museum of Art and Design

"The Hand of God" by Rodin--beautiful!

I love rounding a corner in a museum and seeing, live
and in person, a painting that I have seen in books my entire life.
 Better than celebrity sightings to me!

The new World Trade Center looks
 almost finished from this side

A Gardening Sob Story

My Three Rivers Yard

When we lived in South Texas, I had a great garden all around my house. The front yard was filled with all sorts of herbs, flowering plants, and native plants. We had more flowering plants on the sides of our house, and in the back yard I had a big vegetable garden. The only gardening problem I had in South Texas was the fact that bugs would eat up much of my summer vegetables. That was fine. I just did most of my vegetable gardening for the other nine months of the year!

Then we moved to the ranch here in San Saba County eight years ago and I have not been able to get my gardening mojo back. The drought we have been in for the past few years has not helped a bit. I have planted lots and lots of seeds, plants, shrubs, cacti, and trees over the past eight years and only a fraction of them have survived.

On the vegetable front, I have tried raised beds in several configurations. Sometimes the plants will come on strong in the beginning, then suddenly dry up and die. Sometimes a swarm of one kind of insect or another will come along and make a meal of my plants. Sometimes cows get ahold of whatever I have planted. I have had some luck with flowering plants, but nothing lasts for long. Sometimes the summer heat and drought will burn up everything, and other times we will get a ridiculously cold winter that will kill what was supposed to have been cold-hardy.

We have done some remodeling around our house over the years and have had fill dirt brought in twice. Apparently the fill we got is mostly clay. I have discovered that clay soil and drought-tolerant plants do not mix well. The rosemary I planted in the clay is doing fine, and finally one antique rose is going to pull through—oh, and the plants labeled “Spanish Broom” are doing very, very well in my clay-filled spots.

Finally my husband grew tired of looking at one of the crusted-over clay spots and decided he would turn it into a sort of desert garden. We spent most of the weekend putting down weed blocker and spreading large river stone gravel over the area. The plan is to dig large holes in the clay until we reach the sandy soil below, then fill it with a good soil mix for our plants. So far we have put in more prostrate rosemary, some blackfoot daisies, santolina, and a four-nerve daisy. I have an assortment of agaves with pups to contribute to the project, a huge cholla we are trying to figure out how to transplant, and we are on the search for a desert willow.

A Good Year at the
Ranch (Pre-drought)

Meanwhile, closer to the house, after having no luck with trying to grow pretty flowers in the various pots (drought, heat, turkeys pulling things up by the roots, chickens eating everything) I am trying the Southern California way. As much as I did not enjoy the big picture of Los Angeles, I loved the landscaping and container gardening I saw there. I especially loved the containers planted in various shapes and colors of succulents. Recently, I found an assortment of succulents at Home Depot so I brought them home, planted them all, and stood back to see what the chickens would do. I can see that they have sampled some of them but they apparently find them to be unpalatable (YAY!).

If anyone knows of any kind of gardening demon exorcism I can do or has a suggestion on how to (safely) transplant that monster cholla, please let me know. Meanwhile, if you have beautiful roses or vegetables, you will likely see me lurking about, admiring your gardening mojo! I will put this on my blog (springcreekartsguild.blogspot.com) along with some photos of past glory and present failure for your entertainment!

Sunday Afternoon

Just below this is the newspaper column for this week's San Saba News and Star. As soon as I emailed the column off to the newspaper and posted it here, I went looking for the really-cool-because-it's-so-obviously-vintage Red Heart Yarn granny square afghan that we inherited a year and a half ago. I wanted to post a pic of it along with the column. But alas, I stood at the edge of the massive pile of…stuff…on my husband's side of the office and was too fearful to dive in. I think I'll go get a cup of coffee and muster my courage.

Meanwhile, I am determined to master free-motion quilting on my home machine. So much so that I have signed up for THREE Craftsy classes on the topic. And I took two classes on it at IQF Houston this past fall. Since I can't find the afghan, I'll post pics of my Houston class projects. One has been made into a wall-hanging and one into a cover for my Bible. Meanwhile, has anyone else taken Craftsy classes? I hope they work because my local quilt group is expecting me to teach them how to free motion quilt in two months!

From my class with Lois T. Smith

From my class with David Taylor

Those Who Show Up

Those Who Show Up

Last week I spent several hours sitting in a legislative committee room listing to public testimony regarding several proposed bills (AKA potential future laws). This may sound about as exciting as watching paint dry, but you would be surprised. I was at a meeting of the House Committee for Culture, Recreation, and Tourism who have several wildlife-related bills to consider. As sobering as my experience was on this one day with this one committee, it is downright frightening to realize this same thing is going on all around the capitol in regard to nearly every aspect of the daily lives of Texans.

You have probably heard some variation on the quote, ”the rules are made by those who show up.” Those who show up are the people who, for whatever reason, decide to prevail upon a legislator to carry a bill of proposed legislation through the channels. The reasons people have to do this may be for the greater good, or for their own personal good or gain, or simply to tweak the nose of someone else. Most of what I saw on Wednesday fell into the last two reasons. Another set of people who show up are the folks that show up to give their input during these public comment opportunities. There is no swearing-in for these testimonies so people are not legally bound to tell the truth or to refrain from speaking on an emotional versus a factual basis. Another group of people who show up are paid lobbyists who show up to give whatever information or misinformation is needed to get their client’s opinions and values applied in the legislators’ votes.

If you have been really paying attention so far, you may have noticed that the lawmaking process I observed has very little to do with what is practical, realistic, truthful, or oriented toward the majority of the people but has everything to do with what is emotional, idealistic, or oriented to individual and small-group interests.

Most of you know that I am a knitter. So what if I decided that I like only natural-fiber yarns? I like them so much that I hate synthetic yarns, like that Red Heart yarn that EVERYONE has at least one

A vintage 1970-ish Red Heart Afghan

afghan made from. So I draft a bill making the sale of synthetic-fiber yarns illegal in Texas. And then I find a legislator who is willing to present my bill to the appropriate committee. Next, I round up a bunch of my acquaintances to go testify before the legislative committees that synthetic yarns are so disturbing and dangerous to quality of life in Texas that they should be banned. And besides, banning synthetics would help support the growing alpaca-farming industry in Texas. If no one shows up to say we are a bunch of crazy people, that the choice between synthetic and natural fiber yarns should be strictly individual, that all those Red Heart Yarn afghans are keeping millions of Texans warm, and besides, it would drive over half of knitters and crocheters out of the craft to ban synthetics because only the wealthiest can afford to use all natural fibers—then guess what? The bill passes committee, gets voted into law by the legislature, and you now have to go to a neighboring state to buy Red Heart yarn! You go to Alco one day and there is no Red Heart yarn! How did this happen?

I know how—the rule was made by the people who showed up! And where were the rest of us? Likely going about our business working, going to school, taking care of our families, and trusting that our elected officials know what is important to us. The truth is, they do not know if we fail to tell them. It would be nice if we could all go participate at the capitol, but if you don’t have the time to do that, at least look over the pending legislation and give your representatives and senators a call or an email to let them know where you stand. Go to this address: http://www.capitol.state.tx.us. From there you can find all the info you need on all the current bills and how to reach your representatives. I have moved my blog to http://springcreekartsguild.blogspot.com--I will post links there to help you SHOW UP AND MAKE THE RULES!

You know what they say about good intentions...

A couple of years ago, I decided to create an eponymous blog to support the column I write for my local newspaper, The San Saba News and Star. Although I had positive experience with Blogger, for some strange reason I decided to try a different blogging platform--BAD IDEA. It was so unwieldy that I ended up with very few posts before I gave up.

Since then, I have had a lot of people outside the local area become interested in the column so I wanted to have a place they could easily access it. And there is still the original reason I wanted to have the blog--to post the pictures that the newspaper can't print, and to give additional information, such as links to websites I mention in the column.

My intentions right this second are to post this week's column tomorrow, concurrent with newspaper day in San Saba. Then I intend to post several of the past columns with any associated pictures. After that, I intend to keep current on posting the bi-weekly columns, select a few more archived columns to post, AND to post other entries during the weeks between columns. We shall see. My intentions often do not come to fruition as planned. But…we are headed into the "slow" season of my family's business, which usually means I have fewer interruptions and crises.

In the meantime, I want to share a few pictures I have taken over the last couple of days:

These were the eggs I gathered from my henhouse yesterday. I love the colors of eggs and sometimes take photos so I can refer back to those colors. The light blue of that whopper egg in the middle is the color of my kitchen walls. The other reason  I took this photo was to show the relative size of that whopper egg. We have been getting those regularly in the past few weeks. My son thinks it's our hen Cinni who is responsible for those. Poor Cinni! She isn't just a whole lot bigger than this egg! We cracked it this morning and it was a double-yolker. I keep waiting to get an egg-in-an-egg like this guy.

I like to hang clothes on the clothesline for a few reasons: I'm a tightwad; I like the way they smell when they are line-dried; because I can (no deed restrictions on the ranch); it's environmentally-friendly; it's mostly easier on the clothes; and because it's what my farm/ranch ancestor women did. I also like being outside with all the sights and sounds of nature rather than standing in the house in front of the washer/dryer combo. I had been needing a new clothespin bag since my old one, made from an old pair of my son's jeans, needed to be retired. I was having a hard time convincing myself to buy one when I know how to sew. I found several ideas on the internet and was planning to do one from the Martha Stewart website, when I was cleaning out my bathroom cabinet and found this little tote bag that had come with some Biolage shampoo. I was about to throw it away when I realized it was the perfect size for my clothespin bag. I took the handles off, used a CD to draw the circle on the front, cut out the circle, folded the cutout part in half and sewed it in the bottom half of the opening, then zig-zagged and trimmed the opening with some rick rack I already had. After that, I sewn the top opening shut, leaving an opening for this pants hanger I had. My son squished the top of the hanger to close it up and make it fit the clothesline a bit better, et voila! A pretty, double-recycled clothespin bag that cost me exactly NOTHING!

Finally, I love this time of year! Even in the absence of wildflowers in this droughty year, the colors of the budding leaves are beautiful. Here is a photo of the blackjack oak in my back yard.