Owls in the Glen

Saturday I spent the day hiking at Glen Helen Nature Preserve, part of John Bryan State Park – aka my happy place. The glen is completely run and managed by students and faculty associated with Antioch College, which is known as Ohio’s Berkeley. They run an ecology institute at the glen that serves as a lab for both college students and area children, who participate in environmental camps there throughout the year.

One of their most important projects is the Raptor Rehabilitation Center. Injured birds of prey are brought to the center, where they are housed in giant flight cages while they are nursed back to health by the staff, eventually to be returned to the wild where they belong.

These photos were all taken there Saturday. It is very difficult to shoot owl photos through a one-inch gap between the bars of their flight cage! The owl being held was getting ready to be released, so it was a happy day. And I caught the teeniest, tiniest frog you’ve ever seen!

The future of the center, the ecology institute, and the glen itself are now up in the air as Antioch College was forced to close earlier this month due to financial problems. It has been a very frustrating and sad time for all of us who love the school and the area of Yellow Springs where it is located.

Antioch College was founded in 1852 by Horace Mann, and has long been a flagship of progressive minded education, being one of the first “white” schools to admit blacks, and the first college in the nation to pay a female professor equal to a man. As early as the 1940s it earned a reputation as a place of student activism, which nearly got it shut down in the McCarthy era, then continued to be a leader during the Civil Rights movement and Vietnam years, and continues to be a beacon of free speech and peaceful demonstration to this day.

There is a great New York Times article on the school’s closing here:

The College That Would Not Go Gently

As someone who spends as much time as possible in the town and the nature preserve surrounding it, I hold my breath for the future of this place that has given me so many wonderful memories. You can learn more about Glen Helen here:

Glen Helen

Vegetable Egg Rolls

Ingredients

1 package egg roll wrappers
1 egg, beaten
10 oz. package shredded cabbage
10 oz. package shredded carrot
Handful of mung bean sprouts

Last one out of Dayton, please turn out the light....

It was announced last week that the GM plant in Moraine is closing. That sucking sound you hear is thousands of people fleeing the sinking ship of a city that’s been all but dead for years, kept alive only by the GM feeding tube. I could write an entire anthropological study about what the plant has meant to this city, having employed thousands of people, including 3 and 4 generations of entire families, since the 1950s. There is a “GM culture” here very similar to that of the coal mining families in Appalachia. It’s actually hard to describe the cloud of death hanging over everyone here, because even those of us who have no connection to GM at all will be affected.

Everyone wants to blame this problem on NAFTA, and specifically, Bill Clinton. But the truth is, that has nothing to do with it. The Dayton plant manufactures SUVs and large trucks, which no one can afford to buy anymore. The entire industry is (finally) beginning to shift toward hybrids and more environmentally friendly vehicles, which GM has dragged their feet on getting involved with for years. I actually think the skyrocketing gas prices we are experiencing might be the best thing that could have happened to our planet.

So foreign car manufacturers that produce smaller, compact cars and hybrids are making a killing while American manufacturers (GM and Ford) are going under, and somehow that’s NAFTA’s fault. Unfortunately, the folks who work at these plants are generally not educated enough to understand what’s really going on. It reinforces their hatred of anything not American, and keeps them from moving forward into the future.

The other factor in the demise of Dayton’s plant is their own greedy union. When you pay people $30 an hour to sweep the floor, it’s kind of hard to make a profit. Greed is really what it boils down to. A sense of entitlement that says, I’m entitled to make $30 an hour to sweep the floor, and I’m entitled to drive a gas guzzling Hummer simply because I want to. And when this nice little life gets slapped in the face with reality, I’ll blame the foreigners.

Well, that's the gloomy news from Dayton today.

Feeling Stressed

Last week was the week from hell. Man. I had strep throat for the 2nd time in 2 months (I know, I should dump the guy). My weed eater broke. My computer got hit with a nasty virus. My bathroom has a mold problem that has now reached the point of having to call in a professional which is going to cost me a ton of money. Grrrr. These are just the highlights, btw.

The kicker was coming home last night to find my air conditioning not working. The problem is that the pipes in my basement have a leak and the freon oozes out and forms an icicle an inch thick around the pipe. This happened last year and a guy who wanted to do me a favor came over and fixed it for me. I called him yesterday and he said we would come to look at it, but he stood me up. Grrrr. So now I am waiting for someone else to come over today to hopefully fix it. In the meantime, I have every fan in my house running and I'm wearing as little as possible.

The AC went out in my car last week too, but thankfully all it needed was freon and Auto Zone put it in for me.

I need a break!!

A Recipe

People are always asking me for vegetarian recipes and I say I don’t have any because, really, I hardly ever use a recipe to cook. But I’ve started making a concerted effort to start writing down the steps and ingredients of things I make [in other words, the recipes], so I can pass them on to my daughter some day if nothing else. And besides, now I have a good camera to play with! Can you tell that I LOVE my new camera? LOL. So here is a dish I made last night. I call it Spinach Rotini. I know, very original, eh?

Oh, and one more thing...I keep forgetting to tell you all. My sister Anna and her family are gone on a 3 month missions trip. Can’t say where due to safety reasons, but it starts with a “C” and if you’ve followed her blog in the past you should know. So, keep them in your thoughts!




INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 pound Rotini pasta
• 1/2 pound fresh baby spinach, chopped
• 15 oz. can diced tomatos, drained
• Salt to taste


DIRECTIONS

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and spinach and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until pasta is al dente; drain and reserve.

2. Heat tomatos in sauce pan on medium heat.

4. Pour over cooked pasta.

5. Season with salt and toss

6. Eat!


I usually saute some garlic to add to the tomatos, but didn't have any last night. This is Noelle's favorite meatless dish.