Tag: christmas

Working From Home

The gift-giving season has come and gone. Some folks ended up with sweaters that were two sizes too large; some folks got sparkly baubles; and lots of people were the beneficiaries of gifts promising to simplify their lives – including their work lives. With millions of Americans working out of their homes, Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator Julia King thinks home-office life after the holidays is going to be smooth sailing! Or is it?

Transcript

The gift-giving season has come and gone. Some folks ended up with sweaters that were two
sizes too large; some folks got sparkly baubles; and lots of people were the beneficiaries of gifts
promising to simplify their lives – including their work lives. With millions of Americans
working out of their homes, Great Lakes Radio Consortium
commentator Julia King thinks home-office life after the holidays is going to be smooth sailing!
Or is it?


Testing, testing, one, two, three.


This is great. I’m standing in my living room right now because my generous, genius husband got
me recording equipment for Christmas. I’m his very favorite NPR commentator. I think.


So, I used to have to go to an actual studio for this kind of thing. (“Look at my picture,
Mommy!”) Not now, honey. I had to get in my car (and burn fossil fuel), drive miles away
(sometimes in snow or pouring rain) and then (VIOLIN PLAYS IN BACKGROUND) I’d hope
that the engineer would show up.


Hey, Sweetheart. Mommy’s working here. Can I get a little cooperation? Thanks.


Anyway, one of the studios had this weird hum. We never could figure out exactly what it was…
(MAN YELLS QUESTION IN BACKGROUND) I think I saw it in the upstairs bathroom.


I remember once I brought a big wool blanket into the studio and we hung it over some buzzing
generator but it…


(PHONE RINGS)


Hello. Oh, hi. What’ cha doing? Oh yeah. That’s too funny. Hey, can I call you back? I’m
actually recording right now. Uh huh. No. It’s serious, high-quality stuff. Stuart got it for me
for Christmas. Yeah. Isn’t that great? Okay, I’ll talk to you later. Bye.


So the wool blanket didn’t work. And the other studio was, well, let’s just say we had a
minor disagreement about my importance. You know how that is.


Generally speaking, the only downside to this whole commentary thing has been the recording
aspect. Now it’s like all my problems (DOG BARKS) are solved. Can somebody let the dog out?
Now I’m going to be working all the time. Wow. I recommend this set up to anybody who’s
considering working for radio.


This is fabulous. I wonder what great idea my husband will come up with next year for
Christmas. I hope he gets me a snow-cone maker.

Julia King lives, writes – and records from her living room – in Goshen, Indiana. She comes to
us by way of the Great Lakes Radio Consortium.

Homemade Gifts Gone Wrong

Holiday season is in full swing. For most gift seekers that means crowded parking lots, long lines and hours at a mall, but Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator, Julia King, decided to avoid some of the mass production and commercialization of Christmas this year. Instead, she’ll get back to the “Holiday Spirit” by trying her hand at something a bit closer to home:

Transcript

Holiday Season is in full swing. For most gift seekers that means crowded parking lots, long
lines and hours at a mall. But Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator, Julia King, decided
to avoid some of the mass production and commercialization of Christmas this year. Instead,
she’ll get back to the “Holiday Spirit” by trying her hand at something a bit closer to home:


Now, I don’t like to brag, but can I just say that I MADE my holiday gifts this year? Let me tell
you the story of my apple butter.


In the fall, when other people were walking through crunchy leaves and carving pumpkins and
going on hayrides, I was riding my environmentally friendly bike to the local farmer’s market
where I bought many pounds of chemical-free Indiana apples and put them in my backpack and
then rode home with hard, yellow delicious apples digging into my spine and under my shoulder
blades. I had to do this many times because my family kept eating the apples. Like snacks,
instead of future gifts. So, I had to make a lot of bike rides with a lot of apples sticking into my
back.


Oh well, holiday spirit.


But I finally stockpile all the apples and the cider – oh yeah, the cider: I had to drive to the
farmers’ market twice in the rain to get fresh, un-pasteurized cider. Okay, so then I have
everything I need and I boil the cider until it reduces by half – which takes a couple of hours, then
I peel the apples (which doesn’t take as long but gives me a cramp in my right hand and makes
me wonder if I’m developing arthritis because I could be, you know; I’m not getting any
younger). Then I dump the apples into the reduced cider and boil and then simmer and then stir
and then boil and then simmer and then add secret, exotic spices (okay, cinnamon), and then boil
and stir and simmer for about thirty-nine days, during which time I can’t leave the house because
the stove is on, and fire safety requires that I stay. Finally, when all the moisture is gone, it’s time
to put the apple butter into jars and “process” it, which is the worst part because if you do it
wrong you could kill people. And that’s always especially sad at the holidays.


So, you have to wash and boil the jars, but NOT the lids with the rubber — because if you do, you
could kill people. You have to keep everything warm, and then you have to pour the apple butter
into the clean jars while it’s still boiling and then wipe the rim with a clean towel so that it seals
right and you don’t kill people.


Then you have to boil it in the closed jars for about fifteen minutes and then when it comes out
it’s supposed to make a sound as it cools and that should mean it’s safe.


And when it’s all done, you look around the kitchen and see dirty pots and pans and globs of
brown stuff all over your stove and yards of apple peels and there, in the midst of this chaos, sit
three little four-ounce jars of apple butter.


And then you go to the store the next day and see that it only costs a dollar-fifty! And you curse
capitalism. And now on top of making your friends and family play Russian roulette with
botulism, they have to sit through the story of how you made their apple butter.


Oh well, holiday spirit.


Julia King lives and writes in Goshen, Indiana. She comes to us by way of the Great Lakes Radio
Consortium.

Repelling Christmas Tree Thieves

  • Landscape Manager Jeff Culbertson sprays a Scots pine with thief repellant containing fox urine. The smell isn't too noticeable outdoors... but when a thief drags a conifer indoors, the repellant heats up and makes for a memorable Christmas. Photo by Nanci Ann McIntosh, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Evergreen trees grace forests, campuses, and lawns around the region. Much to the dismay of landscapers and gardeners, some of those trees disappear this time of year, stolen by someone who may not quite get the idea of Christmas cheer. But some universities have found a way to fight tree rustlers. It involves a foul-smelling concoction that makes thieves regret taking a tree. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams has the recipe for this nasty, yet effective repellant:

Transcript

Evergreen trees grace forests, campuses, and lawns around the region. And much to the dismay of landscapers and gardeners, some of those trees disappear this time of year, stolen by someone who may not quite get the idea of Christmas cheer. But some universities have found a way to fight tree-rustlers. It involves a foul-smelling concoction that makes thieves regret taking a tree. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams has the recipe for this nasty, yet effective repellant:


About fifteen years ago, landscape managers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln had a big problem. Tree thieves were cutting down the best conifers on campus. And the landscapers were getting calls from local residents, whose trees were also disappearing. Dennis Adams is a forester at the University of Nebraska.


“It’d be, you know, trees that have good Christmas tree form, so blue spruce, concolor fir, some of the pines – white pine, scotch pine.”


Some thieves were easy to track. Jeff Culbertson is a landscape manager at the university. He says students were stealing trees during Thanksgiving break… and they weren’t always perfect criminals…


“We’ve had instances where the students, I guess didn’t do a good job or didn’t think anybody cared, but you could find the dragged marks of the tree through the snow to their fraternity or dormitory or something like that so in those cases I think it was pretty easy for them to figure out where the tree went.”


Campus trees are worth hundreds of dollars, so the university was eager to find a solution. Dennis Adams discovered a solution… literally. He found the recipe in an old magazine… 1 part glycerine, 10 parts water, and 2 parts… fox urine.


Jeff Culbertson says the fox urine makes Christmas tree thieves think twice…


“It doesn’t really smell like skunk. Maybe like an extremely strong cat urine sort of smell. Or dog, something that’s very concentrated. But you know normally you’re not going to smell that. So it’s pretty pungent.”


Culbertson says since the University of Nebraska began spraying conifers in the 80s, they haven’t lost many trees. He sprays 50 to 100 Christmas-tree size evergreens each year. He used to wear a plastic spray suit, but now he just keeps the wind at his back.


“When I do the fox urine, I don’t have many volunteers that want to help me with that. So I take on upon myself to do it. They mostly stand away from me, and they probably don’t talk to me too much that day either.”


Culbertson says there is one problem with this technique… when it’s cold out, you don’t notice the smell. So he started adding a dye… he sprays blue or red stripes on the trees where he sprays the fox urine. He says it makes the trees that much less attractive, and serves as a warning. And each year, the university lets the local papers know they’re spraying fox urine again.


But if a thief still chops down a tree and drags it into his house … Culbertson says he won’t likely do it again.


“It would be a smell that you’d have a hard time getting rid of.”


Culbertson recommends the method to anyone with a lot of trees to protect. He says the repellant is pretty affordable, and normally wears off after the Christmas season. Most of the supplies, sometimes even fox urine, can be bought at a garden store.


“I use a small, 3 gallon bottle sprayer, typical sort of garden sprayer people would purchase at the hardware store, garden center… And I try to use hot water. The glycerin is very syrupy kind of like corn syrup. So it helps to loosen it up, heat it up and make it less thick. I mix it up, take it out, and just spray the trees by hand.”


Both Jeff Culbertson and Dennis Adams think thieves are just looking for a cheap tree. But Adams still finds the thefts a little unbelievable.


“I think people have to be pretty desperate to steal a tree for Christmas. That seems like it’s kind of in the anti-Christmas spirit to steal.” (Laughs)


Other campus managers, meanwhile…have cooked up their own people repellant. The University of Idaho adds a few ounces of skunk scent. It makes their mix even more memorable.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Rebecca Williams.

Finding a Healthier Holiday Turkey

A turkey dinner with all the fixin’s is as much a part of the
holidays as Santa Claus and Christmas carols. Most people buy their
turkey in the frozen food section of the local supermarket. But a
growing
number are looking for a healthier alternative. They’re getting their
birds
right from the farm. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly
reports:

Commentary – The Spirit of Giving

The Christmas season is the busiest time of the year for retailers.
Caught up in the frenzy of holiday buying, Great Lakes Radio
Consortium commentator Suzanne Elston wonders if she’s lost the
spirit of giving:

Keeping the Holidays Simple

The holiday season is a time of giving. It’s also a time of rushing,
shopping, and waste. But the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester
Graham reports that some people are trying to keep the holidays more
simple:

Soul of a Luddite

When the season of giving and getting is over, households across the
country are left to sort through the empty boxes and wonder how they
ever got along without their new toys. But Great Lakes Radio Consortium
commentator, Julia King, worries what all those new toys really mean-for
our daily lives, for our fellow humans and for the planet:

Counting Birds Becoming Christmas Tradition

Christmas is a time for tradition. For tens of thousands of bird lovers,
the highlight of the season is the National Audubon Society’s annual
Christmas Bird Count. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly
reports on how this century-old tradition has changed many people’s
perspective on birds – and Christmas: