I grew up on a farm.

There were cows and corn fields and all manner of farm implements.

We had a huge garden at our house, and every summer we weeded and picked and processed lots of different kinds of vegetables.  This was just normal life, the endless snapping of beans and shelling of peas.  I vowed I would never, ever, grow green beans when I was a grown-up.

Turns out, I have never felt compelled to have a garden of my own. The whole idea was intimidating because my memory of ‘having a garden’ was wrapped around this huge expanse of rows of plants that did. not. end.  Then I started making this salsa all the time and got annoyed at the price of fresh cilantro and a friend asked me why I didn’t just grow it myself?  After all I have a big yard and a few empty flowerbeds and everything is already irrigated.

Hmmm. Hard to argue with that.

So this summer, we planted food. What started as an effort to grow our own salsa expanded to include tomatoes, jalepeno peppers, banana peppers, cantaloupe, honeydew, lettuce, basil, parsley, cilantro, oregano, and mint. No green beans.

The least successful crop on the list was cilantro, of course, because turns out it’s finicky about temperature. But we have a HUGE crop of tomatoes and all the herbs are growing like crazy.

What amazes me more than anything is that all this food grows from little tiny seeds. I know, this is not a new concept. It seems like I’ve always known plants grow from seeds… it’s something every kid learns early in preschool or Sunday School with little seeds in paper cups. Farming was all around me, for goodness sake, and everything was about the seeds and the growing.

But seriously.  We planted 7 cantaloupe seeds and now we have 12 miles of vines and 3 actual cantaloupes.  That’s amazing!!  Isn’t that amazing? Like, who thought of that?

Somebody really smart.

So, I’ve learned stuff this time around and we’ll do it better next year (next year!). We’re eating lots of salsa and I have a plan to conquer the moody cilantro.

But don’t count on any green beans.

Friday afternoon:  the tent arrives. In the center of the pic, you can see a group of men huddled around a ginormous grill, where they are making fire, cooking meat.  This wedding involves the family who owns this company which in addition to making the giant grill, also made the smoker mentioned here.  

A few hours later, lighting has been added, along with tables & chairs.  The next evenings, guests arrive. It was a great night for an outdoor reception.

One of my favorite parts of the night… watching my friend Justin take pics of his sister & her new husband.  (The astute reader will notice why this post became important in the events of this night).   Here are some of Justin’s photos….amazing. View more here. 

Congratulations, Andy & Jess!

Here’s a look at how something like that becomes a reality.

Friday afternoon:  the tent arrives. In the center of the pic, you can see a group of men huddled around a ginormous grill, where they are making fire, cooking meat.  This wedding involves the family who owns this company which in addition to making the giant grill, also made the smoker mentioned here.  

A few hours later, lighting has been added, along with tables & chairs.  The next evenings, guests arrive. It was a great night for an outdoor reception.

One of my favorite parts of the night… watching my friend Justin take pics of his sister & her new husband.  (The astute reader will notice why this post became important in the events of this night).  

Here are some of Justin’s photos….amazing. View more here. 

Congratulations, Andy & Jess!

BEFORE

I don’t want to talk about how this happened.  

Something about a sower and seed and weeds and Jesus. 

Wait.  I can’t blame Jesus for this.

AFTER

Upon close inspection, you might see that not all the weeds are gone, and there is still quite a bit of work to do.  But this was a facelift that had to happen today, in the hours I had available, in order to prepare for an event yet to come. It is entirely possible that 87.6% of what I pulled out of this area was poison ivy, so who’s to say what tomorrow brings.  More later.  I’m tired. :)

BEFORE

I don’t want to talk about how this happened.  

Something about a sower and seed and weeds and Jesus. 

Wait.  I can’t blame Jesus for this.

AFTER

Upon close inspection, you might see that not all the weeds are gone, and there is still quite a bit of work to do.  But this was a facelift that had to happen today, in the hours I had available, in order to prepare for an event yet to come. It is entirely possible that 87.6% of what I pulled out of this area was poison ivy, so who’s to say what tomorrow brings. 

More later.  I’m tired. :)

When we built our house in 2001, there was this phrase tossed around:  the ‘Ten Year Flood’. Everything had to be built at an elevation to accommodate the ‘Ten Year Flood’, which I assumed to be the highest flood water level that could be imagined to happen.  

We live in a sandy area, relatively low, which often floods slightly when there is a lot of rain. The picture above is the end of our driveway. The past two days, we have had a lot of rain.  We can’t, as of yet, use this entrance to our house.  Our neighbors have experienced a perplexing leak in their basement.  Other neighbors’ driveway washed out.  While there is water standing around where there usually isn’t water, our own house has not been threatened. Even though we did, yes, build our house upon the sand. This is all from a weather system that has been perched over the plains for a few days… before hurricane Ike hit the gulf coast.   The last time a flood of this magnitude hit our area was October 1998. The Ten Year Flood.   That’s a little creepy.

This isn’t a great picture because I don’t own one of those cameras with a lens that has its own atmosphere. I have a point and shoot. Plus, as my son and I walked toward them, they swam away. But this is a picture of 8 white pelicans. Up close they look like this (I didn’t take these pictures…. no, really).

They are HUGE. Some of them even had that crazy beak think going on. Which I learned here means they are males who are, well, searching for that special someone. So there you go.

I’ve been thinking about a weekly blog feature. Perhaps I will do a Waterfowl Wednesdays thing. What do you think?

I know that in the larger world view, having or not having a dishwasher is incredibly trivial. And yet, I invite you to join in the rejoicing.

So what was your most recent good-yet-possibly-trivial news?

Me: weeeelllll….. not really that much. Mostly we called you because our house is covered with webs, and it’s getting a little nasty.

(Tony steps outside for a moment and returns with a dead spider on a piece of cardboard)
Tony: Have you ever seen a black widow?

Me: (ignoring pit forming in stomach) No, I haven’t.

Tony: I found this out by your sand box. See the red hourglass there? (points to clearly defined shape that is not just ‘reddish’, but somebody-painted-this-spider-with-red-nail-polish red)

Me: (pit begins churning) Yep, there it is. That was by our sandbox? (WHERE MY KIDS PLAY ALL THE TIME??!?!?!)

Tony: Yes, ma’am. These are the most venomous spiders we have around here. I’ve been doing this for 8 years, and I’ve only seen 4 of these before. This is the largest one by far.

Me: (ich blech)

Tony: You’ve got quite a lot of live movement around your place. I counted 5 brown recluse spiders moving around in your utility room. (pauses to write on invoice) So you’ll be wanting the monthly service, then?

Me: (gulp) Yes, yes I will.

Nice job, Tony.