The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads!

[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

Journey to the Cross-roads
The Two Towers Edition

Come on! Come in! -if you would like to have some seedcakes and a pint and relax a while. (If it is a special occasion, we still have a few bottles of the old wineyards left!)

Our first thread ( New Zealander builds Hobbit hole ) reached 4,100 posts, and we thought that was big. Our second thread (The New Hobbit Hole ) held us for over 48,000 posts, and we loved it dearly. We talked about moving to a new thread for the last 38,000 posts, but we are really slow to muster! Finally, the time has come. Tomorrow (at 12:01 am, to be precise!) The Two Towers comes out, and we start a new chapter.

[RosieCotton]

So, did the ones you ate taste lemony?

You aren't thinking of wood sorrel instead of clover, are you? Like this?

We just called those "hearts". They're VERY tart, and eating too many definitely causes...umm...gastrointestinal distress.

[HairOfTheDog]

That is a cool shot, and I don't know that I have seen it before either, it is not a common one.

[RosieCotton]

We never did outdoor survival, but Mom really encouraged us to learn as much about the plants in our area as possible...which were edible, what their names were, what the names meant, etc. I've forgotten half of it, but it was fascinating!

[Wneighbor]

Nope. Those are big flowers compared to these. Let me go outside. I just pulled a bunch out of my flower beds last week. If there is some more there I will take a photo.

[AnAmericanMother]

"Tell the boys to line up. We got fruit juice fer breakfast."

. . . there's another Bill Mauldin cartoon with the captain watching Willie and Joe fiddling with a home-made still. "Hell of a way to waste time," he says. "Does it work?"

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[HairOfTheDog]

So, did the ones you ate taste lemony?

We just called those "hearts". They're VERY tart, and eating too many definitely causes...umm...gastrointestinal distress.

What are you guys doin' out eatin' the lawn?

[RosieCotton]

They're pretty small...but not clover looking, you're right - except for the leaf clusters (though they're not round leaves - heart shaped).

I bet whatever chemical makes sorrel tart is found in that clover, too, though!

[RosieCotton]

What are you guys doin' out eatin' the lawn?

Hey, it's in every hobbit's best interest to know of as many readily available tasty items as possible! Plants included!

[Wneighbor]

I just saved that image so I can print it and mail it to Tom! At least he ought to get a kick out of that - even if he doesn't end up brewing.

[AnAmericanMother]

He sounds like an AWESOME chaplain - they aren't all that way.

Email me the Sky Pilot's address & I'll tend to it.

[Wneighbor]

I weeded well Rosie. There isn't any out there now. It's pretty much past our season for it anyway. But, on these, the flowers are just barely little pinpoints compared to leaf size. Maybe 1/10 the size of a leaf. And there are many many many leaves.

[RosieCotton]

I think it must be a kind we don't have. Doesn't sound familiar. Is it really really short? This looks like the kind of yellow clover we have here:

Apparently the proper name is "hop clover".

[RosieCotton]

But the purple and white varieties are WAYYYYY more common. All over the place!

[AnAmericanMother]

Lidberg's pretty well known (of course I'm a fan of Scandinavian folklore, so I've run across him quite a lot.) I'm surprised you haven't found a website. . . . I'll give a look around.

Scandinavian trolls ALWAYS have tails. The lady-trolls, also called Huldras, are extremely beautiful, but still have tails. They liked to attend human dances incognita and festivals and enjoy themselves. Once a young man was dancing with a beautiful young girl, and glanced down and saw that her tail was hanging out from beneath her dress. Instead of raising a fuss and exposing her before the crowd, he tactfully whispered in her ear, "You have lost your garter, lady." She rewarded him with good fortune all his days.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Kevin that's great. Best way for her to find out if she really does like horses. If she can handle the work that goes with them, then you should get her one:)

Becky

[Wneighbor]

We never did outdoor survival, but Mom really encouraged us to learn as much about the plants in our area as possible...which were edible, what their names were, what the names meant, etc. I've forgotten half of it, but it was fascinating!

I have always been facinated by plants, their names, their relationships to one another and their uses. Nobody in my family shared that fascination though so I really didn't start learning till I was out on my own.

When we did outdoor survival it was to kids starting in the 4th grade. Most of them only came one year. That year it wasn't even really survival, it was staying in a cabin, learning how to dress for the outdoors, how to use a compass, how to care for and handle a knife, how to tie a few basic knots, how to make a bedroll or use makeshift items for a shelter, how to build a fire and keep it going. Stuff like that.

These were mostly city kids. Probably only 1/4 to 1/3 made it back for the second year of training. They had to back pack a mile to a camp site. They had to include 2 gallons of water in the backpack as well as tent, sleeping bag and gear for 3 days. Since we're talking about young kids the food and cooking utensils were hauled in my us leaders earlier in the day but we still gave them a workout. There were other skills taught then. Mostly backpacking type skills. It was the 3rd year and afterward that the survival things actually came into instruction (other than the fact that you need basic camping and backpacking skills to survive anyway)

It was very enjoyable for me. My oldest daughter was actually one of the few females to make it through the whole 5 year program. MAN, she could hang in there and really show up those boys. I was proud of her! (can't tell can you) Then, after her years of training, she didn't quit coming. And when she was old enough, she joined us in the teaching arena!

Oh, and the thing I was going to say is, we had a guy in a nearby town that was our own local Euell Gibbons. He knew every plant, what you could eat, what parts you couldn't eat. Every name, common names and scientific names. All that stuff. I loved that guy. *sigh* he died of cancer a few years ago - and he didn't leave me his brain.

[Wneighbor]

What are you guys doin' out eatin' the lawn?

grazing.

[Wneighbor]

Nope, that's not it. This is very low growing. So low that it doesn't get high enough to get it with a lawn mower unless you have the mow height at shave-the-dirt level. The heart shaped leaves on that one photo looked a lot like them. But, it's low growing and very very leafy. I kind of thought when you described yours and I think I've never seen clover looking like that - then we must have different species here.

[AnAmericanMother]

Wow! What a great course!

My daughter's high school has a sort of Outward Bound course that's required for all freshmen. It's very like the BSA "COPE" course - low and high ropes, "leadership initiative training", winding up with a five day backpacking trip on the AT. It's a blast. She enjoyed it so much that she signed up to train as an instructor for the NEXT set of freshmen. She's also joined a BSA Venturing Crew - so much more outdoors fun than the Girl Scouts, it's not even funny! In her first year as a Venturer, they've already done a winter camp/skiing trip, the COPE course at Woodruff Scout Reservation, and we're going on a whitewater kayak trip and to Philmont this summer (is that cool or what?)

We've always done "heavy camping" as the kids have been too small for the backpacking stuff. Now that my youngest is 12, we are switching gears (and having to beg, borrow, steal or (last resort) buy a bunch of new stuff. Like a backpack stove, and a lightweight tent instead of our REI Dome Palace.)

[AnAmericanMother]

Bill Mauldin remains absolutely true to the ordinary dogface soldier's life. Nothing important has changed in that world, except for the shape of the helmets and the rifles. (It still cracks me up that the modern USArmy helmets look like the old Kraut pots . . . )

Here's a Mauldin website. I'll bet you'll find a lot of other funnies to send off.

"Now that you mention it, it DOES sound like th' patter of rain on a tin roof."

Bill Mauldin's Cartoons