Belated "Details" Project For Take It Further Challenge

Back in March, I posted about my plan for SharonB's March "Take It Further" Challenge. I am learning or trying a new skill or technique for each month's TIF challenge--that's my interpretation of "taking it further."

March's topic was "noticing the details. I started several things, but eventually, I settled on adding lace insert details to some underwear I'd planned to sew.

It's taken me a while to get them finished, but here are some of the details I attended to in replenishing my lingerie drawer. Sometimes details are quite simple--a pretty print matched with some plush picot-edged elastic looks sweet.

The stretch lace, spandex fabric, and picot-edged elastic look as though they were bought for each other, but lace and elastic both came from "grab-bag" mail order supply bargains, and the fabric is what's left of a ready-to-wear knit top that didn't fit well.

This blue lace seemed too sheer for a cut-away effect, so I left the white fabric behind to emphasize the delicate pattern.

White stretch lace on blue tee-shirt jersey calls more attention to these details.

OK, now I've got some clothes I needed and one very late project completed. It's on to the April, May, and June "Take It Further" challenges. I've got big ideas, and a little time to catch up. Thanks SharonB, for the inspiration!

Dyeing My Couch

Last weekend I made a new futon cover. It's hard to find fabric of any kind in these parts, so I ordered a length of cotton duck from Dharma Trading Company (along with a bunch of other cotton and silk fabrics for future projects). After I washed and preshrank the duck cloth (from the Dutch word doek, not the waterfowl,according to Wikipedia), I dyed it shades of green. You can see in this photograph the fabric (in the early morning mist) alongside the color inspiration.

I used what Paula Burch calls the low water immersion technique, with Procion dyes. Duck cloth is too coarsely woven to show the delicate color gradations this approach to dye application can produce on silk and fine cotton, but the pleat patterning did give pleasing results. Here's my step-by-step procedure.

1. Washed the 10-yard length of duck, and dried it on high heat for maximum shrinkage.
2. Cut fabric to length of couch. Luckily, the fabric was wide enough to allow me to use only two futon-lengths.
3. Weighed the cut yardage to determine how much dye to use. The Dharma Trading catalog has charts that tell how much of each Procion dye color to use per pound of fabric. The 4.25 pounds of duck cloth required 1 ounce of "Golden Yellow" dye and 2.125 ounces of a mixture of "Midnight Blue" and "Electric Blue." I didn't have enough of either dye to make the full amount needed.
4. Folded the fabric lengths in half, then accordion pleated them, coiled them, and placed each in the bottom of a plastic bucket. (I divided the dye and fixative solutions between the buckets.)
5. Poured just enough hot water on each piece of fabric to completely wet it.
6. Dissolved the yellow and blue dyes in separate containers. I know from experience that the yellow and blue Procion dyes migrate through fabric and "strike" at similar rates. Since I wanted different color intensities in different areas, I poured the yellow dye on the fabric, with just enough water to cover the fabric. I waited 30 minutes, then added the blue dyes the same way.
7. After 60 minutes, I added a solution of soda ash (washing soda) to each bucket. I used 1.5 cups of soda ash for 4.25 pounds of cotton (calculated from the Dharma Trading Company table). I used about a gallon of water to dissolve the soda ash, and I poured the fixing solution on slowly, down the side of the bucket.
8. After the fabric mixture stood overnight (about 14 hours total) I rinsed out the dye, washed the fabric again, and hung it on the clothesline to dry.
9. Ironed the fabric and sewed the two pieces together in a big pillow case. I pulled this over the mattress, and hand-sewed the open ends together. I used to put zippers in these futon covers because the ready-made ones had them, but zipping and unzipping was not much faster than stitching and unstitching, and it was a nuisance to put in those long, long zippers.

Fun With Sourdough Starter

I've tried making sourdough bread starter several times, following several different recipes, with limited success. A few weeks ago, I sent a self-addressed stamped envelope to the address given at www.carlsfriends.org. Not long after that, I got my envelope back, with a small plastic bag of dried 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter: The Wild Yeast Born When the West Was Young! It seems that the late Carl T. Griffith used to give some of his family's sourdough starter to anyone who asked, and a group of Carl's friends carry on this tradition.

The starter, although dried, was quick to revive and start growing, and I've used it in several recipes so far. The flavor's great, and the starter is hardy and quick-growing. Following are Carl Griffith's own sourdough biscuit recipe (my first try at biscuits without baking powder) and a nice, easy bread recipe from John Ross.

When you want to bake something, bring the starter up to room temperature, mix in 1 cup flour, 1 c warm water or skim milk and let sit overnight to ferment. The next morning, remove one cup to keep in a covered jar as a starter for use next time, feed it, then do your baking.

Sourdough BISCUITS
1 tb ActiveDryYeast
1 c Sourdough starter
1 1/4 c Water-Lukewarm
5 c Bread flour
1/3 c Sugar
Melted butter or Margarine
3/4 ts Salt

If you desire dissolve the yeast in warm water with a little sugar till bubbly. Sourdough is a yeast but rises faster with added commercial yeast. In a large mixing bowl add sugar, salt, sourdough starter, yeast and flour. Cover; set in warm spot and let rise until double. Punch down and turn out onto floured work surface. Roll out to 3/4 inch thickness. Cut with biscuit cutter. Dip both sides in butter or oil, and place on well-greased baking sheet. Let rise 15 min. Bake at 425 - 20 min. or until golden brown.

Sourdough Baking: The Basics by S. John Ross

• 2 Cups of sponge (proofed starter)
• 3 Cups of unbleached flour
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil or softened margarine
• 4 teaspoons of sugar
• 2 teaspoons of salt

...To the sponge, add the sugar, salt, and oil (the oil is optional - you can use softened butter instead, or no oil at all). Mix well, then knead in the flour a half-cup at a time. Knead in enough flour to make a good, flexible bread dough. You can do this with an electric mixer, a bread machine on dough cycle, or a food processor....treat it like ordinary white or French bread dough.

Let the dough rise in a warm place....Note that sourdough rises more slowly than yeast bread....Let the dough double in bulk, just like yeast-bread dough. When a finger poked into the top of the dough creates a pit that doesn't heal (spring back), you've got a risen dough.

Punch the dough down and knead it a little more. Make a loaf and place it on a baking sheet (lightly greased or sprinkled with cornmeal). Slit the top if you like, and cover the loaf with a paper towel and place it in a warm place to rise again, until doubled in bulk.

Place the pan with the loaf in your oven, and then turn your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake the bread for 30-45 minutes. Do not preheat the oven. The loaf is done when the crust is brown and the bottom sounds hollow when thumped with a wooden spoon. Turn the loaf out onto a cooling rack or a towel and let it cool for an hour before slicing.

Some more interesting sourdough resources:

• Sourdoughs International:is dedicated to promoting the resurgence of sourdough bread baking. This site sells Dr. Ed Wood's book, Classic Sourdoughs, and 14 different sourdough starter cultures. It also provides a link to Wood's fascinating research on ancient Mesopotamian breadmaking.
• Sourdough Home: An Exploration of Sourdough. Recipes, advice, and a bread blog--Mike's Bread Shoppe also offers books for sale and classes (in Texas).

Creepy Mansion Sales Decline At Snowshoe?

I confess to following the RSS feed for The Onion. It keeps me posted on important trends like this one: Realtors Blame Housing Market For Slump In Creepy-Mansion Sales.

....Overall sales of cursed and bedamned residences have fallen 45 percent in the past 14 months--more than twice that of non-evil houses. In response, many agents have begun offering incentives, such as waiving half their fee or including the price of an exorcism with the closing costs.

Perhaps most alarming to realtors is the inability to attract first-time buyers.

"Even if you do get that young family who's willing to share the two-car garage with the spectral figure hanging from its rafters, there's no guarantee they can get a mortgage," Morgan Stanley analyst Ben Hodges says. "A first-time buyer with no equity can't even get a severed foot in the door."

Though Congress is debating several bills that would offer tax breaks to wealthy urban couples with no children and an overall lack of humility who purchase creepy mansions in the countryside, industry specialists say the outlook remains dire....

Given Pocahontas County's extensive collection of haints, I wonder if this will influence the local vacation home market?

Short Sewing Project

The last week of school overlapped with the first heat wave of the summer, and me with no short pants in the closet. Fortunately, I had bought a Summer Shorts 4-pack "grab bag" from Wazoodle, a terrific Canadian Web retail fabric store which says of itself:

We specialize in better quality textiles and notions used for casual clothing, outerwear, sports wear. We also have a large inventory of athletic and technical knits, diaper making supplies, and camouflage products. We occasionally dabble in finer ladies wear and home decor.

The pink and navy blue shorts are poly-cotton blends from my "Four-Pack," while the light turquoise pair is made from a heavy-weight cotton twill I tie-dyed several years ago. I also made cotton duck print shorts (with fabric from the Wazoodle grab bag) as a "trial run" for my home-made pattern. I like to test drive a pattern in real life before I make multiple versions, which is why that pair is currently in the wash. The print is "little-girl cute," and although it amuses me, it will probably not be photographed or worn off the confines of our ridge on Droop Mountain.

The final length of "Four-Pack" fabrics (priced about $3 each) is a pale violet cotton twill. I am considering dying it a darker, more practical color when I get my fabric dyes out later this summer.

New, Improved Hole In the Ground

One sad disadvantage of my school engagement was that I missed many exciting developments here at home. I missed the delivery of the blocks, and the visit of this nifty little machine.

I also missed the concrete floor's pouring.

I got to see a little of the block-laying. I should be at home, camera in hand, for further interesting developments.

Box Elder Blossoms

The box elder tree is busy making its little winged seeds now, but about a month ago, this is what the pistilate flowers looked like. I'd never noticed their striking color before.

How We Spent Our Economic Stimulus Package

This is what we bought with our Economic Stimulus Package--a handsome pile of gravel. It probably wasn't what George Bush intended, but it didn't go for interest on a debt or gasoline, and we bought local gravel, not multinational corporate gravel.

If you look closely, you can see the gravel at the bottom of our Large Hole in the Ground as we pump out the rainwater.

We Purchase a Large Hole In the Ground

While the Job That Devoured My Brain continues, interesting things are happening here on our ridge. A couple of weeks ago, we purchased two holes in the ground--the larger a future basement, and the smaller to fit a septic tank.

While I was revisiting the horrors of middle school, others were having a pleasant day outdoors with large and interesting earth-moving machines.

We have a photo so that someday we may recall the days when our septic system was new.

Unlike most Droop Mountain ridges, ours is remarkably free of large rocks. There is, however, this thin layer of shale.

The Rural South--Epidemiological Reality

Recently, our local TV news has been reporting a new study indicating that life expectancies for rural Appalachian women have decreased in the last twenty years. They have accompanied this with the usual admonitions to eat healthful foods, exercise, and quit smoking. I was interested to read this newspaper story, Southwest Va.'s Mortality Mystery--More Than Diet Behind Women's Sharp Life Expectancy Drop by Theresa Vargas,Washington Post, April 26, 2008, and to follow its link to the original story, Eight Americas: Investigating Mortality Disparities across Races, Counties, and Race-Counties in the United States.

The Washington Post article features a discussion of the usual "lifestyle-related" mortality risks but also notes:

Residents will tell you little distinguishes the city of Radford and neighboring Pulaski County from elsewhere in rural America. That is what troubles health-care workers here most about a new study that found a sharp drop in life expectancy for women in the two communities.

According to the study, life expectancy for women dropped in nearly 1,000 counties but fell most in Radford and Pulaski. In 1983, life expectancy for women in the two jurisdictions was about 84 years. By 1999, it had dropped 5.8 years, to 78. No other jurisdiction in the nation had a decrease of more than 3.3 years.

This begins to get at what is surprising about the "Eight Americas" study. It looks at mortality data county by county over 20 years, for the entire United States, and identifies eight economic-geographic-racial clusterings. Since the article is in the open-source journal PLoS Medicine, you can look at a detailed data summary, the entire article, and all the figures and maps.

The eight Americas classification reveals that within the white population there is a wide variation in health experience that cannot be explained by differences in average income: low-income white rural populations in Minnesota, the Dakotas, Iowa, Montana, and Nebraska (America 2), with a life expectancy of 76.2 and 81.8 y for males and females, respectively, have a substantial advantage over the rest of white America, despite a large income disadvantage. Low-income whites in Appalachia and the Mississippi Valley (America 4), with an average income level similar to that of America 2, have a life expectancy equal to those of Mexico and Panama. The life expectancy gap between whites in America 2 and America 4 was 4.2 and 3.8 y in 2001 for males and females, respectively, comparable to the 6.4- and 4.6-y gaps between whites and blacks as a whole. The gap between whites in America 2 and America 4 has in fact increased since 1982, when it was 3.0 and 2.4 y for males and females respectively; between 1982 and 2001 life expectancy among females in America 4 declined from 78.2 y to 78.1 y.

Both white and black low-income rural Southern populations have a shorter life expectancy than their more affluent counterparts ("White Middle America" and "Black Middle America") in other areas of the US, but there is one white, rural, low-income population that has a longer life expectancy than "White Middle America." Low income, chemical exposure, and inconvenient access to health care are not the only reasons America 4 fares worse than America 2. To my mind, the study identifies rural white Southerners and rural black Southerners, as epidemiologically distinct groups, separate and unequal from their counterparts in other parts of the United States. Where Lillian Smith and W.J. Cash critiqued Southern cultural identity, this study identifies a biological definition for the region distinct from income and population density.

The traditional emphasis of the US health system has been on children and the elderly, as, for example, illustrated by the low levels of resources devoted to injury prevention and tobacco control compared with immunization. This emphasis may have partly contributed to substantially lower disparities in these age groups relative to young and middle-aged adults. On the other hand, the emphasis on children and the elderly has treated many of the diseases that are important contributors to young and middle-aged adult health disparities, and their risk factors, as either the responsibilities of individuals (alcohol, tobacco, obesity, and dietary determinants of blood pressure and cholesterol, like salt) or in the domain of clinical care (blood pressure and cholesterol)....It is when the public, community and professional groups, media, and politicians focus attention on what is being achieved, and why efforts are working in some places and not others, that the culture of accountability for health outcomes will be strengthened.

The study is an interesting data-mining exercise, intended to point the way to more intensive public health research. I grew up in a county included in "America 2," and now I live in a different rural area in "America 4." I had always thought, terrain aside, that southwestern Iowa was surprisingly similar to Pocahontas County. Now I'm wondering whether I shouldn't be trying to identify the differences.

In case you're interested, here's the abstract for the article:

Eight Americas: Investigating Mortality Disparities across Races, Counties, and Race-Counties in the United States Murray CJL, Kulkarni SC, Michaud C, Tomijima N, Bulzacchelli MT, et al. PLoS Medicine Vol. 3, No. 9, e260 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0030260

Background

The gap between the highest and lowest life expectancies for race-county combinations in the United States is over 35 y. We divided the race-county combinations of the US population into eight distinct groups, referred to as the "eight Americas," to explore the causes of the disparities that can inform specific public health intervention policies and programs.

Methods and Findings

The eight Americas were defined based on race, location of the county of residence, population density, race-specific county-level per capita income, and cumulative homicide rate. Data sources for population and mortality figures were the Bureau of the Census and the National Center for Health Statistics. We estimated life expectancy, the risk of mortality from specific diseases, health insurance, and health-care utilization for the eight Americas. The life expectancy gap between the 3.4 million high-risk urban black males and the 5.6 million Asian females was 20.7 y in 2001. Within the sexes, the life expectancy gap between the best-off and the worst-off groups was 15.4 y for males (Asians versus high-risk urban blacks) and 12.8 y for females (Asians versus low-income southern rural blacks). Mortality disparities among the eight Americas were largest for young (15-44 y) and middle-aged (45-59 y) adults, especially for men. The disparities were caused primarily by a number of chronic diseases and injuries with well-established risk factors. Between 1982 and 2001, the ordering of life expectancy among the eight Americas and the absolute difference between the advantaged and disadvantaged groups remained largely unchanged. Self-reported health plan coverage was lowest for western Native Americans and low-income southern rural blacks. Crude self-reported health-care utilization, however, was slightly higher for the more disadvantaged populations.

Conclusions

Disparities in mortality across the eight Americas, each consisting of millions or tens of millions of Americans, are enormous by all international standards. The observed disparities in life expectancy cannot be explained by race, income, or basic health-care access and utilization alone. Because policies aimed at reducing fundamental socioeconomic inequalities are currently practically absent in the US, health disparities will have to be at least partly addressed through public health strategies that reduce risk factors for chronic diseases and injuries.

Wooly Mullein

From African violets to wooly mullein, I've always been fascinated by fuzzy leaves. Whether you consider common mullein a noxious weed, a useful herb, or a handsome ornamental probably depends on how many plants you have in a given area. We have just a few, and so we find it charming and useful.

• Common Mullein (Verbascum thapsus L.) Fact Sheet from the Plant Conservation Alliance Alien Plant Working Group's "Least Wanted" list.

  Common mullein was first introduced into the U.S. in the mid-1700's, where it was used as a piscicide, or fish poison, in Virginia. It quickly spread throughout the U.S. and is well established throughout the eastern states. Records show that it was first described in Michigan in 1839 and on the Pacific coast in 1876, probably due to multiple introductions as a medicinal herb.

• "Great Mullein" entry from A Modern Herbal, first published in 1931, by Mrs. M. Grieve, contains Medicinal, Culinary, Cosmetic and Economic Properties, Cultivation and Folk-Lore of Herbs.
• USDA Plants Profile for Verbascum thapsus L.--common mullein

Sympathy For the Urban Trees

Earth Day spawned a host of articles on "environmental issues." I'm still sifting through my RSS feed results from that day, which is how I came upon The Greening of America--Ambitious Tree-Planting Programs Are Sprouting Up Nationwide by William Booth, Washington Post, Friday, April 25, 2008. It's not easy making those small changes:

Urban tree farming can be a time-consuming, expensive and exasperating experience -- like children, trees require years of maintenance. Businesses complain about the cost, neighbors about the sap. Their roots are murder on sidewalks; their limbs tangle with power lines.

"The city sidewalk can be one of the most hostile environments for a young tree," a cramped cell of garbage soil surrounded by smothering asphalt, says Gregory McPherson, a scientist with the federal Center for Urban Forest Research. "A virtual conflict zone," as one arborist put it, beset by disease, pollution, drought, insects -- not to mention drunk drivers and staple guns and trip-and-fall lawsuits. "It's a tough life," sighs Marcia Bansley, executive director of Trees Atlanta. It's hard out there for a poplar....

Nationwide, three dozen cities have lost a quarter of their tree canopy since 1972, according to the group American Forests, which discovered that America is missing 600 million trees, as our major metropolitan areas fade from green to gray. But here's the problem: The increased density of American cities means there is less room for trees to replace the missing. The same is true in the suburbs: All those new mini-mansions built to the edge of the property line don't have big yards.

When Los Angeles launched its "Million Trees LA" project, it was assumed there would be plenty of room, but as it turns out, "the space is actually quite tight," says McPherson, the scientist with the Forest Service who surveyed the city's bio-inventory with the help of aerial reconnaissance and computer algorithms. McPherson found just 1.3 million spots to "realistically" plant in Los Angeles, most in the yards of private homes....

Treewise, "Washington is in pretty good shape," says Mark Buscaino, executive director of Casey Trees, a community group that helped plant 1,500 trees in the city last year. Canopy cover in Washington is a nice, leafy, green 35 percent, he says, and per capita the city spends more than New York or Los Angeles on its forest, which includes about 120,000 street trees....

But everybody likes trees, right? Apparently, no. According to the community tree planters toiling on the streets, businesses don't like trees (when foliage blocks signage). Bureaucrats don't like trees (because they're a hassle). And despite what they say now, politicians have not been tree huggers. The first item cut in any tight budget year is usually tree maintenance. "When you say, 'What's the cost of a tree?' it is more than buying a tree and putting it in the ground. It's also taking care of it," says Ray Tretheway, executive director of the Sacramento Tree Foundation, who explains it takes two or three years for a tree to establish a home....

Especially, when cities give away small, vulnerable six-inch seedlings in bags or tubes -- the kind of tree offered today, on Arbor Day, around the country. Many arborists now urge cities not to distribute free seedlings for fear the green swag just ends up in the trash. Los Angeles recently stopped the practice.

Planting street trees often requires both a city permit and the permission of neighbors, who give many reasons for not wanting a tree at the curb. They don't like dogs, who do like trees. Tree activists have heard people complain about sap, birds, squirrels, spiders, leaves and shade. Oh, and they don't want their views blocked.

Burry explains that neighborhoods with the fewest trees are the toughest places to plant. "These are often the harshest environments, communities on the bad side of environmental justice issues -- lots of renters, working class, two-job individuals. For us it is much more costly." Burry says it takes intense community outreach -- many meetings, much door knocking, to get neighbors to agree to plant and care for new trees. Then: "Sometimes there has been no organic life on the street in 20 years. The soil is extremely dry, nutrient-poor, compacted. We have to pour gallons and gallons of water and just let it sit, and still sometimes you dig and it's like concrete. This loud clang." Other challenges? "They don't have water hoses," Burry says....

Hairy Woodpecker

This woodpecker has been visiting our sunflower seed feeder for most of the winter. On this particular morning, he had an unfortunate encounter with a window. He did manage to fly away after a while. I hope woodpeckers are as hard-headed as they seem.

So Far They Haven't Frozen

Peaches are a hit-or-miss proposition on our ridge. Our two small trees are brittle, and the wind prunes them a little smaller each year. Generally, they bloom early and are cut back by the frost. So far, they haven't frozen, and, in the absence of honeybees, flies and solitary bees are visiting the blossoms. Could we have peaches?

Dandelions

On sunny April mornings, I get excited about dandelions. Look at those curly pistils and fuzzy anthers! Who could resist?

Buckeye Leaves

Maybe it comes of growing up on the prairie, where trees are scarce and short-lived. Maybe it's those big, palmately-compound leaves, like tropical trees, or maybe it's the showy flowers and strange fruits that pop open to reveal big brown seeds like deer eyes. The little buckeye trees that shoot up in every disturbed corner around here are favorites of mine.

Mountain Top Removal: WV and DC

The Washington Post featured an article on West Virginia's coalfields: Stripping Mountains to Power D.C.--In W.Va., Mining Companies Shear Off Peaks And Transform Landscape in Search for Coal by David A. Fahrenthold, Sunday, April 20, 2008.

...The links that bind the cathedral-ceiling suburbs of Washington to the blasted-out mines of West Virginia can be traced through federal energy records. The Washington Post analyzed almost four years of data, showing where the six coal-fired power plants across the D.C. region bought their supply.

The records make one thing clear: The plants have been buying a lot more coal. Total purchases were more than 40 percent higher in 2006 than in 2004. The increase came as the Washington region's demand for electricity grew 18 percent since 2001, driven by population growth and an increasingly wired culture. D.C. area plants do not send their electricity straight to local homes but feed it into the multi-state regional power grid.

Records also show that about 32 percent of the coal the plants bought came from one kind of mine in this corner of Appalachia -- a "surface" operation, where miners do not have to tunnel.

The region, where southern West Virginia meets western Virginia and eastern Kentucky, is home to the vast majority of mountaintop mines in the United States.....

In all, the federal government has said, these mines have affected, or could affect by 2012, about 816,000 acres. That is an area 20 times the size of the District, scattered in patches across Appalachia.

Officials at the Environmental Protection Agency said they have pushed the coal companies to make mines smaller as well as to rebuild and reseed more mountains. They said, however, that the coal inside the mountains -- known for producing less-harmful emissions -- is too valuable to stop the practices.

"You've got a decision that's got to be made, on a daily basis, about the energy needs of this country," said Greg Peck of the EPA's Office of Water....

The Post also has a graphic comparing high-wall mining and mountaintop removal and a "multimedia presentation."

Gauley Mountain, Coal, and Rhetoric

The rising demand for coal is heating up local rhetoric again. While it never stopped in the western part of West Virginia, things had been quieter here. Now people who look for good jobs in the mines are pitted against the tourist "industry" and people concerned about damage to the environment, their health, and their homes. In The Fight for Gauley Mountain Bob Kincaid claims the hot tongue of Mother Jones to chastise coal miners.

I live in Fayette County, West Virginia, the heart and soul of West Virginia's whitewater rafting tourism industry....They roar down gorges as old as the earth itself, past the ghost towns that are all that's left of the mine wars of a century ago; towns where...Mother Jones worked to organize the slaves of the coal industry...These are the Tombstones and Dodge Citys of Appalachia.

If asked, most folks would tell you that the days of the mine wars are a long gone piece of West Virginia's violent past. Most folks would be wrong. I saw with my own eyes last Saturday, April 5, that the past is never so far away that we can't see it come to life before our eyes. There's a war going on in West Virginia again.

I don't like the false dichotomies created by this sort of polarizing rhetoric. There really isn't a choice between jobs and income on the one hand and safe, healthy, environment on the other. If you can't strike a balance, everybody's in trouble. Do you suppose this industry/environment, Democrat/Republican, capitalists/workers split reflects some fundamental feature of the human mind?

(In case you're wondering about the Pocahontas County connection here, Louise McNeill named her book Gauley Mountain, although the inspiration for the poems, her family farm and family history, are located here.)

Daffodils

This year, our daffodils have not frozen, been blown away, or covered with snow. The blooms have lasted all week. It is not a host, but it will do for me.

Root Cellars And Other Changes

This photograph was taken from our kitchen doorway about 1950. You see one of the kids raised in this house in front of the family's "root cellar." The root cellar was made of chestnut boards, and has long since been torn down, made into furniture, and sold. You can see the old cellar was covered in the same brick-textured tar paper seen on our house under the vinyl siding. Notice the pasture across the driveway behind the root cellar. It's grown up now to sugar maples, descendants of the family's sugar bush.

The bare ground next to the road here shows the location of the old root cellar. Until recently we considered building a new cellar on the same location, but last year, we finally hauled away the concrete slab pieces.

Flash Plug-In Trouble--My Computer Is Too New

Imagine my surprise to discover that there is no flash plug-in available for my new Linux box. The 64-bit architecture has been around for years, and the amd64 port of Debian Linux installation was easy and amazingly fast. Everything worked without a hitch until I tried to view a favorite blog's video embedded from YouTube.

There is a solution--with Linux, there's always a solution. Sometimes it involves a painful learning experience:

• Debian Administration's article on "Debian amd64: iceweasel with i386 plugins, outside a chroot"

  If you weren't already convinced that closed source sucked before, then surely the experience of trying to browse the net with an amd64 machine will have won you over; I could ponder on how much Microsoft is paying Adobe not to release a 64-bit version of their flash plugin--but why Sun is categorically refusing to address our cry for a 64-bit java plugin for mozilla based browsers for this many years is beyond me....

  The approach that I chose in the end is as follows: I installed everything that has to be of i386 architecture in a 32-bit chroot (as in option 1), using apt-get (or aptitude or whatever you like) and used a small wrapper and environment variables to run the browser in the 64-bit environment with a linux32 personality (as in option 3).

  This turns out to a simple and painless procedure.

• The Gentoo Linux Wiki has HOWTO AMD64, which includes some information on Firefox plugins....

I confess that I have not yet attempted the 32-bit chroot solution. You see, I have the Mac Mini, and all that nasty proprietary software runs there without me learning anything. Perhaps when I'm not spending my days with cranky middle school children I'll feel more intellectually adventurous.

Upgrading In Linux Land

I mentioned a while ago that my eMac power supply burned out, and I ended up replacing that machine with a Mac Mini. While I am satisfied, even pleased with that little desktop box, there has been some disappointment, too.

I had been planning on upgrading my network of ancient Linux boxen this spring. I have a Pentium II that I bought new in 1998, and an Intel 1 GHz Celeron box I'd salvaged from Spare Parts Hell. The newest parts of that machine are probably from 2000. While these machines let me connect to the Internet and run Emacs happily enough, the processors are just too slow for photo management programs like F-Spot or for the bloatware that OpenOffice has become. My spreadsheets crashed all the time, and the Gimp was slow as molasses.

For months I had been keeping a wish list of what I wanted in a Linux box, and I was following the prices on several cheap PC's, waiting for a sale. I was very disappointed to spend the money earmarked for that project on a new Mac product when the old eMac had been doing exactly what I wanted. Of course, once the money was spent, the desired cheap PC went on sale for a deeper than expected discount.

I eventually went ahead, blew the budget, and bought a cheap PC with Windows Vista Home Edition, and a new monitor too. I thought I'd play with Vista a little bit before installing Linux, but that lasted less than 15 minutes. I'm not exaggerating. The first thing Vista did when I fired it up was freeze and crash. I tried it again, and it crashed faster. Was the machine underpowered for Vista, or is the Home Edition too crippled to use? I didn't have the desire to find out.

I installed the AMD64 port of Debian Etch (stable) right away. (It works for Intel dual core 64-bit processors too.) I was really pleased at how fast installation went, and all my hardware was accurately detected without intervention from me. (Much easier and faster than a Windows Installation!)

It didn't take much time to transfer my data and get the new machine running all the software I'm accustomed to using. According to the system monitor, the programs that used to peg my old processor hardly exercise these new processors at all. I feel guilty, as if I must edit movies to justify all this processing power. I haven't changed my computer activities yet, but the Gimp works much better, and I'm busy assessing the relative merits of photo management programs DigiKam and F-Spot.

Coalfield Health Hazards

Lincoln Walks At Midnight: A just-the-facts approach to politics and government in the Mountain State recently reported this interesting public health article: Coalfield Living: a Health Hazard? The blog points to several newspaper articles, as well as the original scholarly publication.

[Michael] Hendryx, associate director of the WVU Institute for Health Policy Research in the university's community medicine department, is co-author of four new articles examining coal's possible impacts on public health in Appalachia.

The studies found more lung cancer deaths, overall hospitalizations and overall deaths in coal-producing counties compared to other parts of the region and to the nation as a whole....

That study, being published in next month's issue of the American Journal of Public Health, used data from a 2001 phone survey of nearly 16,500 West Virginians. Hendryx and Washington State University researcher Melissa Ahern compared the results to coal production figures, U.S. Census data and Department of Health and Human Resources information.

As coal production in counties increases, they found, so does the incidence of chronic illness.

Residents in major coal counties had a 70 percent increased risk of kidney disease and a 64 percent increased risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease such as emphysema, the study found. Coal county residents were also 30 percent more likely to report high blood pressure.

Hendryx and Ahern tried to isolate coal's potential impacts by factoring out the influence of other possible causes, such as smoking, obesity and age.

"We've adjusted our data to include those factors, and still found disease rates higher in coal-mining communities," Hendryx said.

Fun With the Command Line

I just rediscovered some old Unix tools I remember from writing my master's thesis. They've been updated and made available in Linux: Improve your writing with the GNU style checkers By Michael Stutz on September 07, 2006.

The diction and style tools put a GNU face on an old Unix feature. These tools read text input, either from a file or the standard input. diction checks the input at the sentence level, and marks wordy and trite phrases, cliches, and the like, while style works on the overall document, giving a summary of the writing style with a number of readability tests.

So cool--command line diction and style checkers!

Tomato Review and Prospectus

My tomato seeds have sprouted, and have joined the broccoli and red cabbage seedlings on the windowsill. This year, I tried two varieties that have done well for me in the past, and two new ones.

Of all the tomatoes I grew last year, the only ones that did well for me were the Amish Paste from Seed Savers' Exchange. Here's their photograph and description:

Amish Paste Tomato. Heirloom discovered in Wisconsin. Produces 6-8 oz. red fruits that are oxheart to almost teardrop-shaped. Meaty fruits are juicy and have really outstanding flavor. Good for sauce or fresh eating. Indeterminate, 85 days from transplant.

Here's what happened in our garden:

The disquieting distortions of these tomatoes, combined with the poor growing season, discouraged me from saving the seeds. (I did, however, can 40 quarts of salsas and sauces. They tasted fine.) I ordered a new packet of these tomatoes this year. The other heirloom varieties I tried, Hillbilly and Spitze, didn't seem worth another try. The Hillbilly is a "potato-leaf variety." The tater bugs confirmed for me that the leaves resemble potato plants chemically as well as visually, and there was significant leaf damage on some plants. The Hillbillies were fairly productive, but the flavor wasn't great. This was probably due to the weather, but I decided to try something different this year. The Spitzes grew lush, beautiful vines, but they didn't produce many tomatoes, and they were the only variety to blight last year. This is just not the right tomato for Droop Mountain.

I started a packet of Brandywine Tomatoes. I've had reasonably good luck with these in the past, but I didn't have any seed left after last year.

(Sudduth's Strain) Brandywine first appeared in the 1889 catalog of Johnson & Stokes of Philadelphia and by 1902 was also offered by four additional seed companies, but soon disappeared from all commercial catalogs. Our best selling tomato and one of the best tasting tomatoes available to gardeners today. The seed of this strain was obtained by tomato collector Ben Quisenberry of Big Tomato Gardens in 1980 from Dorris Sudduth Hill whose family grew them for 80 years. Large pink beefsteak fruits to 2 pounds. Incredibly rich, delightfully intense tomato flavor. Indeterminate, 90 days from transplant.

My experiments this year will be a short season variety, Bloody Butcher, and Cherokee Purple, a variety that just sounded interesting.

Bloody Butcher Very early and high yielding variety. Great full tomato flavor and exceptional dark red color. Fruits are borne in clusters and average 4 oz. Indeterminate, 65-70 days from transplant.

Cherokee Purple Introduced to other SSE members by North Carolina member Craig LeHoullier in 1991, seed obtained from J. D. Green. Unique dusty rose color. Flavor rivals Brandywine, extremely sweet. Productive plants produce large crops of 12 oz. fruits. Indeterminate, 80 days from transplant.

Cranky Environmentalists

I have mixed feelings when I read snide articles like Greed In the Name Of Green--To Worshipers of Consumption: Spending Won't Save the Earth by Monica Hesse, Washington Post, March 5, 2008. On the one hand, she is pointing out a real contradiction in pro-environmental advertising. It would be less wasteful of resources if we all bought less stuff, but the whole point of advertising, and of offering things for sale in general, is to sell more stuff. Hesse, like most critics of the "environmentally correct" movement, seems to say there's little point in becoming more mindful of waste, excess, and poor practices.

But, but, but--buying green feels so guilt-less, akin to the mentality that results in eating 14 of Whole Foods' two-bite cupcakes. Their first ingredient is cane sugar, but in a land of high-fructose panic, that's practically a health food, right? Have another.

"There's a certain thrill, that you get to go out and replace everything," says Leslie Garrett, author of "The Virtuous Consumer," a green shopping guide. "New bamboo T-shirts, new hemp curtains."

....Chip Giller, editor of enviro-blog Grist.org, has a less fatalistic view. He loves that Wal-Mart has developed an organic line. He applauds the efforts of the green consumer. "Two years ago, who would have thought we'd be in a place where terms like locavore and carbon footprint were household terms?" he says, viewing green consumption as a "gateway" to get more people involved in environmental issues. The important thing is for people to keep walking through the gate, toward the land of reduced air travel, energy-efficient homes and much less stuff: "We're not going to buy our way out of this."

This article was accompanied by an on-line discussion with one of the quoted authors:

Leslie Garrett...was online Wednesday, March 5, at 1 p..m. ET....Hello! Leslie Garrett here, author of The Virtuous Consumer: Your Essential Shopping Guide for a Better, Kinder, Healthier World (and one our kids will thank us for!). World's longest title, I know...Happy to answer questions!

Much of that discussion involves weighing which practices are more "virtuous," and how other people perceive one's behavior. This always makes me uncomfortable. "Paper or plastic?" is more effectively decided as a practical rather than a moral choice. (Around here, it's not a choice. Just try and find a brown paper bag to make school book covers in Pocahontas County!) Developing a new reason to look down on other people and feel self-satisfied seems counterproductive, too, but judging your neighbor based on carbon footprints and recycling efforts seems inevitable in these discussions.

This is the tone that deters me from following blogs and news websites about "green living," voluntary simplicity, and frugal practices. I'm interested in these topics, and would no doubt benefit from other people's insights, but the carping and cavilling eventually leads me to hit the "unsubscribe" button. Perhaps it's inevitable that giving up consumerist practices and possessions just makes us a bit cranky.

Instant Gardening Gratification

The broccoli seeds I planted Tuesday had already sprouted yesterday morning. I used to get very frustrated by the process of starting seeds indoors. Most of the houses I've lived in have been cold and drafty in winter, and I've been more likely to see mold growing on top of the soil than the desired seedlings.

All that changed when we got a big dehydrator for our shitake mushrooms. I set the dehydrator for 85 degrees (F) and within 48 hours the cabbage and broccoli germinate. The tomatoes generally take a day or two longer.

This morning I found a few tiny sprouts there too. I've moved the cole crops to a window sill. The tomatoes will probably benefit from another warm day in the dehydrator, but they'll have to come out of the dark by tomorrow, too. In previous years, I've kept the seedlings in the dehydrator with a grow-light, but the extra heat doesn't seem to speed their growth, just their germination.

Aren't the root hairs wonderful?

Remembering Cabbages Past

The warm weather and the school vacation have given me the chance I needed to start seeds for our garden. Last year, I ordered heirloom garden varieties from Seed Savers Exchange. I like to save my own garden seeds from year to year, and I looked forward to sampling some of the interesting vegetables I saw on their beautifully-illustrated Web site.

Unfortunately, a cold wet spring gave way to a hot, dry summer last year. It's a good thing we don't depend on what we grow as our sole food supply, or we would have starved out. I grew enough beans to save as seed, but the broccoli bolted, the cabbage was puny and so bitter we couldn't eat it, and the tomatoes did truly bizarre things.

Hope once again triumphs over experience, and this year, I ordered more Seed Savers' seeds. I started these handsome cole crops:

Calabrese Broccoli. Brought to America by Italian immigrants in the 1880s. Popular market variety. Tight heads can grow up to 8" in diameter. After the central head is harvested, side shoots follow. 58-90 days from transplant.

I grew this broccoli last year, and it was quite good, although most of the plants dried up and didn't make heads. Between the Tarnished Plant Bugs, cabbage butterflies, and Harlequin Bugs, there wasn't all that much left for us.

Year after year, I've bought cabbage plants at the local stores. Sometimes the cabbage turns out to be brussel sprouts, sometimes it's just some odd-ball variety I wasn't looking for. The last few years, I haven't even been able to find cabbage seed for the varieties that do well for us. That's why I have high hopes for these lovely plants:

Mammoth Red Rock Cabbage. Introduced in 1889. Solid round heads are 8" in diameter and weigh 7 pounds. Red throughout, vigorous and uniform, small to medium core, sure cropper, fine flavor. Excellent for cooking, salads and pickling. 98 days from transplant.

PowerPoint Tutorial/Exemplar

Dave of Via Negativa called my attention to a collection of blogging articles and presentations at One Mans Blog: Specialization Is For Insects. (Although Heinlein quotes are for blogger John Pozadzides, apostrophes are not.) I particularly enjoyed this Tutorial: Tips For PowerPoint Presentations, but there is plenty to read and/or watch on writing for the Web, usability, and other topics of interest.

Losing Local History

Last week, two century-old landmarks burned in Pocahontas County. The much-photographed Historic Marlinton depot burns shared front-page billing with Sunday fire chars Bethel United Methodist Church.

The Marlinton Depot housed the Pocahontas County Visitors' Bureau (not my favorite organization), but it was nicely-restored, and The Pocahontas Times sold depot photographs through its website. The church was still in year-round use.

Winter fires seem to be a common hazard in Pocahontas County. There's been at least one fatal house fire in Marlinton this year, and I know several people who have lost their homes to fire. We had a bit of wood-stove excitement earlier this week in our little house, built around the same time as the lamented depot and the Bethel Church.

The chimney hadn't been drawing well for several days, so when it finally stopped raining, we tried cleaning the flue and restoking the fire to see how it worked. Soon there was enough smoke leaking out of the flue to suggest a fire in the wall, which is how we came to take the chainsaw to the outside of the house, and also to carry the wood stove out to the porch. It sounds drastic, but this is a much smaller hole than the fire department would have made, and the cat did enjoy sitting next to the nice warm stove while reclining on the porch.

Here's a look at the original tarpaper exterior of the house. These tarpaper "bricks" were eventually covered over with vinyl siding. Tastes in faux surfaces change, I guess.

Modeling Carbon Dioxide Emission in North America

I found this amazing set of data anamations via Dvorak Uncensored. I wasn't profoundly surprised by the carbon dioxide production patterns, but the data presentation is fascinating. You can find a text presentation at 'Revolutionary' CO2 maps zoom in on greenhouse gas sources.

Researchers now have a better view of where carbon dioxide is being emitted thanks to Vulcan, a research project led by Kevin Gurney, an assistant professor at Purdue. This map shows where CO2 is being emitted in the continental United States in 10-kilometer grids and combines data from sources including factories, automobiles on highways and power plants. The map offers more than 100 times the detail of previous inventories of carbon dioxide. The image displays metric tons of carbon per year per grid in a logarithmic base-10 scale. (Purdue University image/Kevin Gurney)

To Help Provide

As space permits, The Pocahontas Times often prints photographs provided by proud parents. I couldn't resist reproducing this little girl's first deer photograph. She may have on a camo jacket, but I'll bet her tee-shirt is princess pink. She's younger than most of deer-hunting girls, but she's by no means unique.

My favorite part is how she described her hunting:

This doe was harvested on Douthards Creek, Minnehaha Springs, with a 30/30 rifle by eight-year-old Sabrina K. Gravely during the "Youth Hunt" Christmas Eve 2007....Sabrina told her family, "I just wanted to do my part to help provide."

Bored of Ed

I'm about to start another month as a substitute teacher in Pocahontas County, presumably because no one with a regular West Virginia teacher's licence is available. (I have a short-term substitute license.) When I first applied for it, and took the required two-day course, I asked "How long does a short-term assignment last?" Evidently "short-term" and "long-term" have no specific duration. I'm doing my best, but my teaching experience is all with adults (defined as people over 18, not necessarily mature people), and lately, I've been hoping for a phone call from the school board office telling me my services are no longer needed. I really expected that by now another better-prepared substitute (like a retired teacher) would have become available.

Faced with declining enrollments and pending RIF's, Pocahontas County is not able to bring in new teachers midyear. Here's an example of what our school system deals with each year: Board of Education holds personnel hearings, from the Pocahontas Times, Thursday March 20, 2008.

Unfortunately, a reduction in the number of employees has become an annual feature of the work of the Board of Education, due to expected losses of revenue for the coming school year. Equally unfortunate is the fact that personnel decisions have to be made by April 1 but not all information on the actual amount of money that will be available to the school system is known by that date.

For the 2007-08 school year the Board was forced to make a total of 20 cuts in personnel before the April 1 date, but was able to rescind many of them once the funding situation was fully clarified.

The proposed personnel reductions this year are 7.5 professional employee positions and three service employee positions....

Prior to each hearing, School Superintendent Patrick Law stated that the reason for his recommendations for staff reductions are based on the continuing decline in the enrollment in the county's schools. As the state school aid formula is based on enrollment, the loss of about 50 students this year will result in less state money coming to the county for 2008-09.

He also pointed out that the state Education Department has warned the county that it continues to spend more than its revenues, to the amount of about $380,000 in the last school year and will soon have a deficit budget if corrections are not made.

Devil In the Details--March TIF Challenge

Sharon B.'s "Take It Further Challenge" for March is "details in life". In garment construction, "detail" means matters of seam finishes, bound buttonholes, pockets, and embellishments. I would imagine that nearly everything Sharon and the many other embroidery bloggers do qualifies as "detail" by my definition.

My first project idea was to sit down and practice making bound buttonholes and welt pockets. I've made a few welt pockets, but didn't do a great job, and I always used to get my mom to make my bound buttonholes for me. I have done without them since she died twelve years ago. (I am even more embarrassed to admit this than to admit that I still don't know how to set up my Linux machine as a NFS server). However, the substitute teaching job (and the upper respiratory viruses I've caught there) got in the way this month, and I haven't had time or energy for that task.

I also want to learn how to make lace insets in garments, and it occurs to me that this could qualify as "detail work" too. Because I have a dozen pairs of "underbritches" cut out from my collection of knit fabric scraps, I have a perfect practice project set up and ready to go. Surely the making of unique embellished undergarments must count as attention to life's details!

I don't expect I'll have photos of finished projects before the end of the month, but I may make some progress this weekend, and there is a school vacation coming up in a few days.

Bigfoot Opens Season on BFRO

I wrote about a local visit from the Bigfoot Research Organization (BFRO) in 2006. The Bigfoot watchers were quite excited about what they considered to be a close encounter with the wily beast right here in the south end of Pocahontas County, near a much-used campground and trail. It seems they're coming back for another look: Search for Sasquatch returns to Greenbrier Valley by Drew Tanner, Pocahontas Times, Thursday March 20, 2008.

Next month, teams of people will be combing parts of the Greenbrier Valley for signs of a large, hairy ape.

It's not an escaped circus animal, and it has nothing to do with the lion that was spotted on Cold Knob last November. Members of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization are searching for what they believe to be a rare species that ranges across the continent.

The organization last visited Pocahontas County in October 2006, when 13 members had what was described as a "Class A" sighting, not far from Watoga State Park. According to BFRO founder Matt Moneymaker, two or three of the creatures tossed rocks at the people in attempt to drive the team off their turf.

"They were very aggressive," said Moneymaker. "We like that. It's better for us to confirm they're there, rather than these things running away, which is usually what they do."

Now, for me, Burl Hammons' account of Jesse, Pete, and Paris Hammons' (pictured above) Cherry River sighting of the Yayho is completely credible. These men were born and raised in the woods in the mid-1800's, and lived by hunting. If they didn't know what some large animal was, it must have been a rare creature indeed. The area where a large primate pummelled BFRO "researchers" with rocks, in contrast, is well-traveled by tourists, hunters, and local outdoors-men and -women. If my panther-spotting, ginseng-gathering neighbors haven't spotted Bigfoot, or some sign of him, I just don't believe he's there.

You can read an excerpt from Burl Hammons' Yayho story here.

Teaching Myself New Linux Tricks: NFS

Between my surprise middle school teaching job, catching and hosting four different upper respiratory viruses, and having my elderly eMac melt down, my blogging has been sorely neglected, and the home computer activities I've engaged in have not been of the most enjoyable sort.

I usually try to convince myself that reconfiguring my computers is an exciting learning opportunity, but I'm quite resistant to this project: setting up a Network File System on my new Linux machine and the Mac mini. I tried to teach myself this new trick several years ago, and finally just settled for using the old eMac as a file transfer protocol (ftp) server. Whenever I wanted to transfer files from one machine to the other, I just ftp'd from the command line, the way I learned during the Carter administration.

For some reason, the Mac mini is slow as molasses in January at connecting to the Linux box via ftp. It's just not a satisfactory system anymore, and, besides, I feel ashamed to be running a Unix network without knowing how to set up NFS. That's why I'm slowly rereading portions of Running Linux, and perusing Web resources such as these:

• Building a heterogeneous home network for Linux and Mac OS X by Kris Shaffer on June 08, 2006
• Linux NFS-HOWTO
• Network File System (NFS) Configuration in Debian
• GNU/Linux Desktop Survival Guide a Debian Linux guidebook by Graham Williams, includes the section NFS: Network File System
• Linux Home Networking, Chapter 3: Quick How-To. I wouldn't call it a quick how-to--it's quite detailed, and well written, though.
• Setting Up An NFS Server And Client On Debian Etch

I still haven't got it working. It may have to wait until Spring break, when I can fret over it for several consecutive days.

Cute Computer Shopping: Mini

Recently, my eMac's power supply gave up the ghost. Since then, my non-middle school hours have been dominated by the search for a way to replace that key member of my elderly home computer network. Instead of interesting lists of links, I've been compiling collections of online retailers, comparative prices for computer components, and product reviews.

I decided I'd like to keep a proprietary operating system in the house, for those peripherals that don't have Linux drivers, so I finally bought a low-end Mac Mini. For those who are interested Mac Rumors, my buying a piece of hardware of any sort is a sign that it is about to be discontinued, as surely as the Four Horsemen foretell the Apocalypse.

I wasted quite a bit of time trying to determine whether the Mac Mini would work with the monitors I have on hand. Many people reported problems with older non-Apple monitors. Here's my own data point: I plugged my 10-year old Gateway CRT monitor into the Mini, using the VGA/DVI adapter, and it worked like a charm--I was amazed at how good the old CRT looked.

Here's my Product Review: The Mac Mini does what I need it to do, and was easy to set up. I look forward to playing with it's cute Mac features someday when I have a little more time. It is white and tiny, as advertised. However, I was surprised to find, in the little Mac Mini box (which reminds me of Barbie's Wardrobe carrying cases from the 1960's), an external power supply, also white and shiny, but similar in size and weight to a brick. If you buy the Mac Mini for its appearance, and for its small "form factor," this will throw a monkey wrench in your desktop real estate plans. No pictures of the Mini set up and running include a view of the power supply.

Consolation Sewing Projects

Today I packed up most of my sewing projects and put them away. Until this substitute teaching job ends, my sewing, knitting, and dying time will consist of short, compact projects. To ease the disappointment a bit, I sewed up these four tee shirts.

I had cut them out in November, along with a dozen small lingerie projects as part of the Scrap Fabric Compaction Project. I thought I might want to wear these before the weather turns warm.

"Holler People," But Not In West Virginia

Oh, this is disappointing news for those of us seeking tourist-terrifying video material: "Shelter" movie's casting director fired, (AP), February 27, 2008.

A casting director for the horror thriller "Shelter" has been fired after West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin's office objected to what it termed an insensitive casting call for extras with unusual features.

Donna Belajac Casting's Web site initially advertised the scene as being set in a "West Virginia 'holler,''' but producers Emilio Diez Barroso and Darlene Caamano Loquet said the movie is not set in West Virginia and the state will not even be mentioned.

"On behalf of the entire SHELTER production we regret and are deeply sorry for the very insensitive casting call sent out without our knowledge by our casting director Donna Belajac who has been dismissed from this project as a result,'' Barroso and Loquet said in a statement issued Tuesday night.

Manchin spokeswoman Lara Ramsburg said the West Virginia Film Office contacted the producers Tuesday night on behalf of the governor.

"They weren't aware of all that had transpired," Ramsburg said today. "They quickly became aware."

Casting agency director Donna Belajac did not respond to calls seeking comment Tuesday and today.

Never mind. Movies like "The Hills Have Eyes" and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre XCII" continue to frighten potential visitors to rural retreats all over the US. Many people still believe "Deliverance" is set in West Virginia. Even if "Shelter" expunges references to the Mountain State, it should still be a good selection for the Snowshoe Resort video library.

And remember, there are bib-overall-wearing old women wandering the ridges of Pocahontas County, muttering T.S. Eliot verses, photographing bugs on clotheslines and getting into who knows what-all. Be afraid....