A change of pace, stepping back from the day-to-day businesses, alone time, a time of rest, a time to refocus, a time to pray.
Whatever you may label it, we all need a time to rest and renew our bodies, minds and spirits. With the end of harvest, rest and renewal is often needed. You, your spouse and your family will all benefit.
Recently, I attended two conferences on consecutive weekends. In between I took the opportunity to visit friends. This was my renewal time.
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The first event was the Inscribe Christian Writers’ Fall Conference at the Providence Renewal Centre in Edmonton. It is a beautiful facility located on several acres of trees and gardens in an Edmonton residential neighbourhood. While strolling through the grounds, I discovered the big jackrabbits that also call the grounds home. I stayed at the centre for an extra day to enjoy the quiet and time of relaxation.
I went on to visit with my friends Karen and Keith. The time was filled with visiting, digging carrots, shopping and helping Karen select her wardrobe for an upcoming trip. We had a busy but great time together.
My trip then continued to Moose Jaw and the Temple Gardens Mineral Spa for the Association of Saskatchewan Home Economists (ASHE) and the Saskatchewan Home Economics Teachers Association (SHETA) conference. This was a time to renew and make friendships, gather information and update knowledge, and a time to relax in the hot mineral waters.
This trip was really a working holiday, but the change of pace and relaxation helped me feel refreshed.
How to get rid of spiders
A reader called to ask how to get rid of spiders. When she came back from the lake she discovered that she had brought home some biting black spiders that are now in her car and her house.
I went through my files and did an on-line search and it seems that anything that has a strong smell tends to deter spiders, such as camphor, eucalyptus, lavender, citronella or pennyroyal oils.
Apparently cats like to eat spiders, so investing in a cat or borrowing one for a week or two might be the easiest solution.
Another way to catch spiders is to buy sticky boards that may also be called mouse boards or glue traps, usually sold where you would buy mousetraps.
For the spiders in the car, place these boards under the seats. In your home, avoid traffic areas and places where pets may lay. Try placing the sticky boards along the inside walls of your home under furniture and in the attic, basement and garage.
You will also be able to determine the location of the greatest infestation by the number caught on each board.
To prevent spiders from entering your home, seal any place that has a draft. Use a smoking incense stick to check your basement for drafts, especially along the foundation and around windows and doors. Use caulking and weather stripping to seal these spots.
Vacuum up cobwebs. For corners that are hard to reach, put duct tape around the end of a broom handle, sticky side out, and use this to remove the spider webs. Empty the vacuum bag into a plastic bag and put it in the garbage because the vacuum does not kill the spiders; it just captures them.
Clean up areas such as piles of boxes, papers or books that might attract spiders, and vacuum and dust regularly to keep spiders under control. Use plastic containers for storage rather than cardboard boxes.
Wash all surfaces with a citrus smelling cleaner or polish with a citrus smelling furniture polish.
On the outside of your home, clean up dead plants around the foundation because these could also be attracting spiders.
Sources: Haley’s Hints, www.thriftyfun.com and www.stretcher.com.
The underrated pear
Pears are an underrated fruit, according to Wendy Barrett, a keynote speaker at the ASHE-SHETA conference.
Barrett, who has developed a program called Power Up with Pears, said this is partly because of their fragile skins. When ripe and packed into a lunch, they may become a bruised and mushy mess in the bottom of the lunch sack.
The Northwest Pear Bureau, Barrett’s sponsor, has developed a pear packer, a reusable pear shaped plastic container that protects a pear from lunch bag bruises. Look for these where fresh pears are sold or contact Cristie Mather at cmather@usapears.com.
Others don’t enjoy pears because they are either hard, starchy and underripe or mushy and overripe. This happens because pears ripen better off the tree and are picked green. They also ripen from the inside out.
Learning how to tell when a pear is ripe is the secret to enjoying them. The test is to “check the neck.” Hold a pear in the palm of your hand and press your thumb on the neck of the pear at the base of the stem. A ripe pear will be soft at the neck.
Barrett demonstrated how to use a pear slicer-corer, a tool that I would more commonly refer to as an apple slicer-corer. The slicer will glide through a ripe pear’s flesh and the pear will be sweet and juicy. An underripe pear will be difficult to slice and have a dry starchy taste.
To ripen pears, place them in a paper bag with a banana and seal up the bag. To slow down the ripening process, put pears in the refrigerator.
The tender edible skin of the pear is a delicious source of fiber, six grams in fact. The peel also contains valuable phytonutrients. A medium sized pear has 100 calories, 10 percent of the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin C and six percent of potassium.
The 21 net grams of carbohydrates in a pear are considered healthy carbs because they are slow to convert to sugar and slow to enter the bloodstream. They also contain no sodium, cholesterol or saturated fat.
The states of Washington and Oregon supply 85 percent of the pears sold in North America. We also have our Canadian Okanagan pears. The most commonly recognized pear variety is the yellow Bartlett.
There are also red Bartlett pears, as well as green and red Anjou, Bosc, Comice, Seckel and Forelle. In a taste test, our family perferred the firm, sweet and juicy Comice pear.
Pears make colourful and tasty additions to salads, blended drinks and baked goods.
Barrett suggested a basic pear crisp as an easy way to get children to eat pears.
For more information, visit www.usapears.org.
